Elliot chattered on and on: "You have to understand, every single potion I make needs a mountain of precious materials. That one just now used magic lotus, death nettle, winterthorn..."
Adam was a polite person—he really did rarely cut people off. Only once Elliot had finished did he ask again, "Oh. So do you know where James is?"
Elliot was most displeased. "James? No idea. He's probably already gone. You, on the other hand—what are you doing?" Only now did Elliot actually look Adam over. "You—huh?"
Elliot circled around Adam, astonished. "No elemental fluctuations? What kind of magic is this?" Every apprentice had an instinctive interest in new magic, and that interest made him forget his potions in an instant.
Seeing he would get nothing useful out of Elliot, Adam answered perfunctorily, "Spirit-element magic." Then he flew off in another direction. He had to find James—if he let James leave like this, he would regret it deeply.
"Spirit-element magic? What's that? Why have I never heard of it?" Elliot doggedly followed after Adam, pressing him with questions.
James had already reached the edge of the academy, about to step into the Tower's domain. He heard the noise too, but he was too far away to make it out clearly—except the sound kept growing, and he caught the name Adam. He could not help stopping.
"Adam? What's happened?"
The thought had barely formed before a bitter smile replaced it. A genius of Adam's caliber was bound to draw notice sooner or later. I'm leaving anyway—whatever happens in the academy has nothing to do with me. He shook his head and walked on. He had to reach the port city through the teleportation formation, then take a ship off the Mage Continent.
From high up, one sees far. Adam, high in the sky, quickly spotted James's figure, ignored the pestering Elliot, and dove for the ground, coming to a steady hover beside James.
James smiled at him, then nodded to Elliot in greeting and said with a laugh, "Adam, I never expected you'd come to see me off. This magic is quite something—did you create it yourself?"
Adam shook his head. He traced nineteen runes in the air outside his body, and at a slow pace assembled them one by one before James's eyes.
At first James did not understand what he meant, but a moment later his whole body began to tremble, his eyes went red, and cloudy tears fell from them unchecked. "This—this is..."
Adam held the assembled sphere in his hand and said to James, "The meditation method. It's done."
James stretched out both hands, trembling, wanting to touch the sphere. Of course that was impossible—but it was enough. He stood where he was and bawled, mumbling something unintelligible.
Adam could not quite grasp what James was feeling at that moment. He frowned, at a loss.
Elliot patted Adam's shoulder with feeling. "James needs to let it out. He was on his way to use the teleportation formation and leave—just when he was at his most desperate, you brought him new hope."
Elliot paused, looking at Adam with a complicated expression. "I really never expected you to succeed. And this, with him..."
Elliot had originally meant to say that this meditation method's success probably had little to do with James. Adam understood, but it could not be put that way. The final construction and verification of the Psychokinesis Meditation Method had indeed been completed by him alone, but the vast amount of material James had provided early on had played an enormous role—it ruled out a great many wrong answers and saved Adam a great deal of time.
Elliot stepped back two paces, gave Adam a look that said I'll come find you later, and left. He knew he did not belong here right now.
A long while later, James finally calmed down. When he raised his head, his appearance had even returned to that of a middle-aged man. He walked up to Adam and bowed deeply, saying gravely, "Thank you, Adam. You saved my faith."
Adam did not think this was any great matter. He said to James, "In that case, your laboratory doesn't have to be disbanded, does it?" Adam genuinely felt that life in the laboratory suited him well. At this stage of accumulating knowledge, a quiet laboratory that also brought him income was the best place for him. Information from the outside world could give him no sense of novelty; settling down peacefully as a shut-in to study knowledge was simply the most comfortable thing there was.
James laughed. "That's right, no need to disband it. All of this is thanks to you. We need to go to the Review Department and the Academic Department now, to apply for re-establishing the laboratory and to verify the value of the meditation method."
Adam did not understand. James had always done this sort of thing alone—why was he being dragged along now? "I have to come too?"
James nodded solemnly. "Of course. Only you know the exact construction of the new meditation method, and in the new laboratory, you will be the director. I will be your assistant."
James was already deeply grateful just to be able to stay at the Mage Academy. His intellect was not enough to carry a laboratory, but Adam's was more than enough—and he wanted to use the last of his life to gamble everything on the path of the Mage, even knowing the hope was terribly slim.
Adam was a little surprised; he had not expected James to say that. Still, it was a good thing—to have a laboratory firmly in his own hands was plainly an appealing prospect. It meant that at some point in the future, if he found a project that interested him more, he could take the lead on the research himself.
The two of them entered the Elemental Tower once again. It was still enough to make the mind reel and the eyes swim. Here genius and senior apprentice were all the same; apart from the Mages themselves, no other status counted for anything. They had to advance cautiously, trembling inside, for fear of provoking some full-fledged Mage.
The Review Department, the Academic Department—offices whose names sounded quite modern—were all on the first floor of the Tower. This was also the only area where apprentices without a mentor could enter and move about.
Adam had not expected to see a familiar face in the Academic Department: Mage Jerome, one of the four guides.
James stepped forward respectfully. "Good day, honored Mage Jerome."
Three months had passed, and Mage Jerome had forgotten Adam—even though Adam's performance back then had surprised him a little. He said only to James, "You again? I hope you won't waste my time again."
Somewhat embarrassed, James said, "No. The one submitting the results is the apprentice Adam. He has created a workable meditation method, and this meditation method..." James wanted to introduce it further, but found that he understood it not at all.
Adam stepped forward. "Good day, honored Mage Jerome, sir."
Jerome fixed his eyes on Adam and found him somewhat familiar. After thinking back, he asked uncertainly, "You're that little fellow from the ship?"
When Adam nodded in acknowledgment, Mage Jerome grew even more displeased. He did not believe a rookie who had been an apprentice for only three months could have produced any results. His voice took on a sinister edge. "Perhaps the academy's environment has made you forget what happens when you anger a Mage. I hope you are not amusing yourselves at my expense, or you will pay for it. Let me think—Lockhart's bloodline laboratory happens to be short a few test subjects!"
The bloodline laboratory was one of the research directions of the body-refining Mages. James clearly knew how horrifying the place was, and under the Mage's pressure he could only stammer, unable to speak. Adam knew this was no time for idle chatter either—idle chatter would only anger a Mage further—so he directly constructed the nineteen runes in front of himself, one by one, and then rapidly assembled them together.
This time he did it very carefully, displaying every property of the meditation method one by one.
First, the total amount of spiritual power this method trained was greater, far exceeding one unit, and Jerome's expression eased somewhat. Then its stability: after the rune group connected with the ether, mana formed and was poured into the sphere at a fast yet gentle rate, settling steadily inside it.
Stability: passing.
Seeing this, Jerome was no longer angry. Finally, self-consistency: a meditation method is a system, and the interior of a system must not collapse in on itself. Adam, holding nothing back, released his spirit and constructed several spheres in succession, then took them into his spirit, where the spherical "plates" fitted together perfectly.
Self-consistency: passing.
Jerome nodded and said, "Mm, not bad. You've spared yourselves the fate of becoming test subjects. Organize it and submit it, and the Tower will reward you." He said nothing about the value of the meditation method itself, because in his long life he had seen plenty of such "clever ideas." Apprentices would occasionally throw off a spark of brilliance, but most were not broadly applicable and suited only their creators; to anyone else, they were worth at most a little study.
But Adam did not stop; he went on to display the method's core, most crucial feature. His spiritual power shot outward. There was nothing in the Academic Department to test it on, so he wrapped it around the air and compressed it layer upon layer; in an instant a highly compressed wind bullet took shape in his hand. Judged by the power index, it already exceeded one.
An apprentice's eyes could not follow what had happened in that one second, but nothing could hide from a Mage's eyes. Mage Jerome had witnessed it himself, and finally his interest stirred. "Is this the materialization of spiritual power?"
"Yes, honored Mage Jerome. I call it psychokinesis."
Mage Jerome pointed at the wind bullet and said to Adam, "Come on. Hit me."
Adam did not hesitate; an attack of that level could hardly injure a Mage. His spiritual power became a launching mechanism and fired the wind bullet at Mage Jerome.
Mage Jerome extended one hand, and the wind bullet dissolved in his palm. He sensed it carefully: no mana, no elemental fluctuations at all.
He clapped his hands and praised him. "Adam? You're good. Very good. I believe this is not its limit. Continue—I'm very interested."