Meeting II

[Fire Weapon Art, Fourth Style: Heat Glaze]

Wungggg!!!!

Zen watched as the blade of his twin swords light up due to extreme heat.

"Woah! This is amazing!!"

He jumped in joy as he successfully casted the fourth style of the [Fire Weapon Art].

This meant that he had successfully broken through Adept Proficiency!

Currently, he had taken a break from replicating his teacher's magic and proceeded to train his [Fire Weapon Art] skill.

"Heh, I wonder how Teacher's expression will look like once he witnesses this."

Crack—

Hearing the strange sound, the smile on Zen's face faltered as he hurriedly turned off the skill.

"Oh no…"

He whispered softly as he looked at the cracks that formed in his twin swords.

"These are just training weapons, right? I hope Teacher won't be angry…" Zen whispered to himself, seemingly trying to convince himself.

"Oh well, practicing the [Fire Weapon Art] skill is really exhausting. So let me just…"

Putting the broken twin swords back at the weapon rack, Zen hurriedly made it so that only the handles of the twin swords were showing.

"Okay, this is good. Now, I just need to replicate Teacher's magic and all the rewards will be mine! Hehehe…"

Wunnggggg—

At this moment, mana started to gather in his finger as a translucent blue ball formed on it.

"Thankfully, the magic in this world doesn't require overly detailed formulas and knowledge of theories…"

It was the reason why Zen could progress quickly when it comes to magic.

Unlike the magic systems in some of the novels and shows that he knew, the magic system of the Free world was not unlike those that placed emphasis on imagination.

Of course, the various buffs that he had on him should also be taken to account along with his natural superior intellect.

'Imagine a cube that's on a separate dimension than the world. Time doesn't exist within the cube, so anything that is in it will also be stopped…'

Wang!

"Arghhhh! There it is again!"

Zen was frustrated as he seemed to not be able to complete one of the last steps required to replicate Arthur's magic.

"Calm down… Calm down…"

He breathed rhythmically, a meditative practice he adapted from when he was bedridden.

"Let's brainstorm first. First of all, when Teacher casted that magic on my magic, the process of my magic's activation paused."

"There's also the fact that my magic, Atomic Rend, is really just a creation of a blade that is small and sharp enough to cut an atom."

"This meant that the cube didn't stop my magic's activation since it was already done when I swiped my finger."

"The only thing it stopped was the chain reaction of atoms splitting and colliding against other atoms…"

"...and one of the things that can stop the vibration of molecules, thereby having the effect of stopping time is…"

Zen racked his brain to the point that a vein was already visible on his temple.

"Wait!"

At this moment, he seemed to have realized something.

"Why do I keep imagining that time has stopped within the cube?"

He facepalmed hard enough to leave red marks all over his face, "This is a world where magic is the process of making the impossible possible!"

"...that's right, if the stopping of time in the cube results in the magic's collapse, then I can just imagine that time doesn't exist in it!"

"I once read an article that said: since any kind of motion is a measurement of time, the Universe would have to come to a standstill."

"Then through this…"

Thinking this, a smile appeared on Zen's face as he raised his index finger once again.

This time, he visualized the cube with the most details he could create within his imagination. A cube that was from a separate dimension.

A dimension where time doesn't exist.

"Contain!"

Wunggggggggg~

The translucent sphere of mana on his index finger suddenly transformed into a cube.

A cube that seemed to contain the void.

It has the same characteristics as the one that Arthur casted: a translucent blue cube.

"Oh my gosh… Oh my…"

Zen smiled from ear to ear as he danced happily from his accomplishment.

However, something happened at that moment.

"This is my apprenti…ice"

Zen stopped what he was doing as soon as he saw his teacher suddenly appearing in front of him while holding a woman's hand.

"Pffft!" Adara burst out laughing as she looked at Zen who still had a handprint on his face.

She pointed at Zen while wiping the tears on her eyes, "T-That's your apprentice…? Hahaha! He seems fun, I already like him!!" 

Seeing the laughing woman and Arthur facepalming, Zen hurriedly bowed.

"W-Welcome back, Teacher. I didn't know that you would be back so soon…"

He smiled awkwardly as he looked at the two who just appeared out of thin air, 'What the hell….!!!!!!'

Zen could feel embarrassment eating up his innocent heart.

'What if I just log out now…?'

However, he soon ditched the idea. He couldn't just give up after going so far.

'I have to claim my rewards first!!!'

"Hey!"

At this moment, Zen raised his head and saw the woman's face in front of him.

"What's your name? Arthur here told me that you are his apprentice. Do you know how high his standards is since a few hundred years ag-"

"Ehem." 

Arthur's cough sounded behind her, sending shivers down her spine.

"-since back then!?"

Adara promptly made necessary changes in her question.

"Anyway, I'm very, very, very curious as to how talented you are!" She exclaimed with interest sparkling in her eyes.

Zen felt weirded out by the woman, "Umm Teacher, who is she…"

"My colleague. One of the officials of the Temple of Fire."

"I'm Adara! You can just call me Aunt Ada, hehe! It's a pleasure to meet you…"

Zen suddenly bowed respectfully, "Greetings, Ms. Adara!"

"Ehhhh? No need to be so suck up with formalities~"

Seeing the contradicting characteristic she was showing towards his student, Arthur felt speechless.

After all, she was the one earlier that insisted on following traditions.

Sighing, Arthur shook his head and looked at how the two's conversations were going.

"Wha-"

However, he was dumbfounded when he saw a large fireball being casted by Adara.

'I just blinked! They were just talking normally a second ago, how did the situation escalate to this point?'

For some reason, Arthur felt like he would have a lot of headaches from now on.

He almost considered saving Adara a mistake.

"If you're really so talented, then something like this is a piece of cake, right!?" Adara smiled toothily.

Zen also smiled in response, "Of course, Aunt Ada! Give it your all!"

"Huhp!!!"

Adara casted the giant fireball towards Zen with a smile on her face, "Hehe, surely you can defend against tha- Ow!"

Feeling the knock at the back of her head, Adara looked at Arthur with teary eyes.

"Why did you do that!?"

"You know that he's only level one, right?"

"Wha-" Adara's eyes became filled with fear as she hurriedly looked at Zen.

However, both her and Arthur were flabbergasted as they saw the large fireball encased in a blue translucent cube.