The days passed, one by one.
The people from the Withered Council seed to have vanished, and there was no news from Robert either.
Ian focused, spending his days on Body Refinent, ditation, and practicing his Witchcraft.
He carved out nearly half his ti to imrse himself in the High Tower’s Central Library.
Leveraging his core access privileges in the Magic Potion Departnt, he was able to consult a vast amount of High Tier materials.
It was all advanced knowledge concerning Energy Compression, Gravity Fields, Spatial Interference, and Rune Structure Stability.
Most of this material was obscure and difficult to understand, filled with complex formulas and abstract model deductions.
Ian devoured them one book at a ti, filling three thick notebooks with his notes.
He needed to improve Collapsar Starburst.
The current model was too crude. Its Energy Compression was inefficient, its blast radius was uncontrollable, and its casting wind-up was too long.
Against an experienced Level One Peak opponent, such flaws were fatal.
He sketched a new model structure on paper.
The core idea was to draw from fragnted records of "Gravity Traps" found in certain Abyssal Runes.
He would combine this with the cutting-edge research on "Energy Field Collapse" from the Order Side Wizards, embedding an extrely minuscule and unstable Gravity Field generator within the Witchcraft Model.
This Gravity Field wouldn’t be sustained. It would only activate the instant the Witchcraft was released, lasting for less than a tenth of a second.
But in that tenth of a second, it would violently pull, collapse, and compress the Magic Power already condensed by the Witchcraft Model, along with the free-floating Energy in the imdiate vicinity, until it reached a critical point... and then detonate.
The difficulty lay in the balance.
If the Gravity was too weak, the effect would be negligible.
If the Gravity was too strong, the model might blow up in his face before it was even cast.
Or it could directly trigger a small-scale spatial disturbance, with unknown consequences.
The nested Rune structure had to be incredibly precise with an extrely low margin for error, and it demanded an almost inhuman level of control over the flow of Energy.
Ian ran tens of thousands of calculations on scratch paper, scrapping more than a dozen different plans.
During this ti, the model’s structure proved unstable twice during simulations in the Laboratory, nearly causing small-scale explosions.
Fortunately, his quick reflexes allowed him to endure it with a Crystal Energy Barrier.
But the Laboratory’s Protective Array was triggered twice, attracting the questioning of the Wizard on duty.
"Just doing so Energy Structure tests. Had a small accident," Ian explained, his expression unchanged.
The Wizard on duty glanced at the scorched-black lab bench and the new cracks on the wall, then back at Ian’s calm face.
His mouth twitched. He didn’t say anything more, only reminding Ian to be careful.
Ian nodded, closed the door, and continued.
Failure, adjustnt. Failure, adjustnt...
The days ticked by.
News ca from Kenna: the Purple Iris Flower Comrce Association hadn’t shown up again, the Nightingale Bar was operating as usual, and Red Sparrow was acting as if nothing had happened.
In the underground Black Market, talk of Ian Marcus had also died down, as if the attack that night had been nothing but a hallucination.
But Ian knew that wasn’t the case.
The Withered Council’s people hadn’t left; they had just hidden themselves better.
They were like vipers lurking in the shadows, patiently waiting for the mont their prey let its guard down.
He couldn’t relax. Fortunately, his Body Refining Technique was progressing rapidly.
With a continuous supply of Tier One Blood Essence, the Skill Level of his Furnace Body Tempering Skill shot up like a rocket.
Four hundred... five hundred... six hundred...
The mont his Skill Level broke through eight hundred and reached the "Skilled" level, a deep rumble echoed from within Ian’s body.
It wasn’t a sound his ears could hear; it ca from the depths of his own being.
It was like a shackle had been broken, or a heavy gate had been thrown wide open.
The Jade-like Radiance on the surface of his skin receded completely, no longer visible.
But the resilience of his skin had reached an astonishing level.
Ian drew the Witchcraft Tool dagger he carried and swiped it forcefully across his arm. It only left a faint white mark, not even breaking the skin.
He applied more force. The blade scraped against his skin with a cringe-inducing SCREEE sound.
Still, it could only cut the epidermis, unable to penetrate the muscle beneath.
His Power had also skyrocketed. Without using any Witchcraft, he smashed his fist into the Fine Iron Stake used for testing.
BOOM!
With a heavy thud, the half-man-tall, solid Fine Iron Stake was dented inward, leaving a clear fist print.
It was over three inches deep, the tal at the edges twisted and deford.
When the recoil hit, Ian’s arm only trembled slightly. He was completely unhard.
"This should be enough," he murmured to himself, looking at his fist.
His physical strength was now on par with a Tier One Body Refining Wizard, and possibly even stronger in so respects.
After all, his Body Refining Technique was a secret art from the Deep Red Royal Court.
It was also fused with the purified bloodline essence of Extraordinary Creatures, making his foundation far more solid than that of an ordinary Body Refining Wizard.
Next up was improving his Witchcraft.
After countless failures and adjustnts, the new model for Collapsar Starburst had finally reached the final verification stage.
In the center of the Alchemy Room, Ian stood with a solemn expression.
He closed his eyes, and his mind sank into his sea of consciousness.
Within his consciousness, an extrely complex and precise three-dinsional structure, ford by hundreds of nested, minuscule Runes, slowly erged.
It resembled a multifaceted gray Crystal, or perhaps a miniature, unstable model of a Star System.
At its core was a point of absolute darkness—the simulated micro-Gravity Field node.
Ian began to inject his Spiritual Power.
HMMMM...
The structure lit up, and the Runes began to glow one by one with a grayish-white light.
Energy surged along the preset circuits, converging and compressing...
Upon reaching a critical point, Ian split off an infinitesimally small thread of his spirit and triggered the most dangerous part: the Gravity Field node at the core.
CLICK.
A sound like interlocking gears rang out in his consciousness.
The instant the node activated, an invisible, terrifying Suction manifested from thin air!
The Magic Power within the model, already compressed to its limit, and the free-floating Energy forcibly pulled from a fifty-ter radius around Ian... all began to madly collapse toward that point of darkness at the core under the effect of this sudden Gravity!
Compression! Further compression!
Its volu shrank drastically as its density skyrocketed!
Ian felt his spirit being squeezed by an invisible hand, and the Gravity Field’s influence caused a slight lag in his thoughts.
But he was prepared for this and maintained a stable output of Spiritual Power.
In a tenth of a second, the Gravity Field node would collapse under its own unbearable load.
And in the instant just before it collapsed...
Using the new model’s precise control, Ian brought the hyper-compressed Energy Ball to its theoretical most unstable state.
The collapse... had reached its limit.
’So, what cos next...?’
Ian opened his eyes, extending his right hand flat, palm up.
A marble-sized, unremarkable gray orb materialized an inch above his palm.
The orb’s surface emitted no light. It was a dull gray, appearing completely ordinary.
But the mont it appeared, the light in the Alchemy Room seed to warp.
The air grew viscous, and the papers on the desk lifted slightly, drifting toward the orb as if stirred by an unseen wind.
The orb itself rotated slowly and silently, each turn creating the illusion that space itself was slightly collapsing along with it.
Ian watched it, his gaze focused.
There was no explosion.
’Because it wasn’t ti for it to explode yet.’
The key to the new model’s success, aside from its terrifying compression efficiency, was its "controllability."
He could temporarily maintain this extrely unstable state after the Energy Ball had collapsed to its limit.
Until... he decided to release it.
This ant he could use it like a "grenade."
Create it first, hold onto it, and wait for an opportunity to throw it.
He could also preset trigger conditions, such as on-impact or ntal activation.
As for duration, he could currently maintain it for fifteen seconds at most.
Any longer, and the violent Energy within the ball would break free of his spiritual restraint and detonate on its own.
But fifteen seconds was more than enough.
Ian went to the Witchcraft Practice Room. With a single thought, he released his ntal hold.
The gray orb instantly vanished and reappeared fifty ters away.
There was no explosion. Instead... there was Annihilation.
At its location, the air abruptly caved inward.
It ford a fist-sized, visible, montary vacuum collapse.
Imdiately after, an unimaginable amount of violent Energy erupted from that "point"!
There were no flas, no deafening boom.
There was only a suddenly expanding, distorted mass of grayish-white energy that instantly filled a twenty-ter-diater area.
Inside the energy mass, light was completely warped, and the scene blurred.
The air was thoroughly ionized, crackling with electricity and emitting the low hum of space being torn asunder.
Every object within range—the Stone Slabs of the floor, the Rune patterns, the Witchcraft Fine Gold Target, even the dust in the air...
...was silently reduced to the finest dust the mont it touched the energy mass, without even producing smoke.
A second later, the energy mass dissipated.
In the center of the practice room, a hemispherical crater appeared. It was ten ters in diater with edges as smooth as a mirror, and it was over three ters deep.
The inner wall of the crater had a vitrified sheen from the intense heat and was still emitting wisps of smoke.
The air was filled with a peculiar odor, a foul mix of ozone and so kind of burnt tal.
Ian stood his ground, surveying the destruction he had caused, and slowly exhaled.
On his status panel, the Skill Level for Collapsar Starburst flooded upward like a bursting dam.
[Collapsar Starburst Skill Level 50]
[Collapsar Starburst Skill Level 50]
[Collapsar Starburst Skill Level 100]
[Collapsar Starburst Skill Level 200]
...
Finally, the numbers stopped.
[Collapsar Starburst: Mastered (0/3200)]
His crazy, revolutionary model improvent—which incorporated so knowledge and concepts from his past life—was a success.
It had allowed this Tier One Witchcraft to leap directly from "Beginner" past "Skilled" and all the way to the "Mastered" level!
Moreover, because of the complete overhaul of the model and the massive leap in Skill Level...
...its actual power had already surpassed Frost Ash Beam, becoming his strongest offensive tool.
It probably rivaled, or even surpassed, the power of a Tier One Peak Witchcraft.
"I’ll call it... ’Gravity Collapse Ball’."
Ian murmured the na.
A small, unremarkable gray orb that contained enough destructive power to make any Wizard of the sa tier tremble in fear.
’Now, my preparations are nearly complete.’
For offense, he had the instant-cast Frost Ash Beam and the near-instant (less than a second to form the ball) Gravity Collapse Ball.
For concealnt and reconnaissance, he had the Invisibility Technique with the Mimicry effect from being Limit-Broken, supported by the Eye of Vigilance with its Concealnt and True Sight effects from its second-stage Limit-Breaking.
For defense, he had the instant-cast Crystal Energy Barrier and his Floating Crystal Guards.
And then there was his own powerful body, comparable to that of a Tier One Body Refining Wizard.
For spiritual protection, he had the Spirit Devourer effect as a safety net.
He also had Gaga, his Tier One Extraordinary Summoned Demon, and the various Potions he had been Refining and accumulating.
Everything was ready.
All that was missing was bait of sufficient weight...
...to lure those two hidden vipers out of the shadows.
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