Chapter 171: A New Spell Matrix

Lucius dismissed Neta and quickly got to eating the food. Once he was done, he got back to his practice.

He needed to make the new spell imprint in an empty mind space, as he was worried that the other spell matrices may interfere with its creation. Only after this one was created would Lucius try to make the other ones.

After all, this was the more complex one. Lucius also didn't know if the number of different spell matrices that he could have, had increased or not. Though he hoped that it had.

Inside his mind space, hell energy floated around him as it weaved into pattern after pattern. Some of these patterns became corporeal, while some of them faded away. It was a little bit like carving into stone.

The first few scratches on a stone might not have any effect, but once it was done a sufficient number of times, the stone would inadvertently become scratched. And if it was done with the right skill, it could be carved in one go.

This was what Lucius needed to get a grasp on. If this was his past life, he could have done it in less than five tries, but here, not only was his body different, but his soul had also changed from before.

Then there was the additional new type of energy called Aether that could either make or break the spell matrix by its mere absence or presence. With all these extra parameters, Lucius had to go through multiple trials and errors before he was even able to make ten percent of the spell matrix.

But just this ended up taking the entire day for him and he was yet to have a complete spell matrix creation, not to mention the inevitable collapse that would happen after he finished it.

~huu~

Lucius opened his eyes and took a deep breath. The exhaustion was visible on his face and it was obvious that it had drained him mentally. 

"I'll need to take it slow. Can't risk making a mistake in haste and injuring myself due to the backlash…" Lucius said to himself before eating the dinner that had been brought by the servants a few minutes ago.

They had placed it outside of the bedroom on a table since Lucius's door was locked. Since they were ordered not to disturb Lucius, this was the most that they could do. Besides, it was not like they couldn't reheat the food if Lucius asked later.

Quickly eating the food, Lucius laid down on the bed to rest for the night.

'Tomorrow I'll do it for sure!' Lucius thought with determination.

The next day, he told the servant that he will be resting today as well and to not disturb him. The servants heeded his words and informed Kiana and Lita. The two were pleased instead of getting worried as Lucius was finally resting.

To them, he had been working far too much and needed to relax himself so as to not get hurt again. John was in agreement as well and gave off time for the swordsmanship training. This allowed him to work at the brewery more, as well.

So far, they hadn't had any security issues, but that could not be said for the future. They were still in the early phases of production and didn't want to make any mistake now, letting it be as smooth flowing as possible.

Lucius ate his breakfast and attempted to form the new spell matrix from the morning to the evening. By afternoon, Lucius was able to complete the spell matrix up to the fifty percent mark and finally, by evening, he reached the ninety percent mark.

Pausing to eat dinner, he went back to the process and finally finished the first spell matrix by midnight!

~shua~

The moment it was complete, hell energy swirled around it, pouring into the spell matrix and stabilizing it. The pattern of Nexus within Lucius's soul also lit up and sent out Aether to resist the formation of the spell matrix.

~Sizzle~

~Sizzle~

~Crackle~

The two energies fought each other, much to Lucius's displeasure. He was sure that the spell matrix will collapse now, but surprisingly it did not. The more he watched, the more surprised he got. 

The hell energy collided with Aether letting out interring sparks. It was as if someone was grinding metal on a sharpening mill. But what Lucius didn't notice were a few black dots that were appearing on his body.

They were sparse and far away from each other, but they did appear. The more the hell energy and Aether collided, the more their numbers increased. But the balance started to shift in the favor of hell energy as time passed.

Eventually, an hour passed before the Hell energy finally managed to win. But it did so at the exhaustion of all Aether that Lucius had in his body. On one side Lucius was feeling happy due to the stabilization of the spell matrix and on the other side, his body felt like it had been put through a wringer.

But seeing the completed spell matrix made Lucius smile in pride.

"It is done… IT IS DONE!" Lucius said out loud.

~thud~

Suddenly, something falling could be heard outside the bedroom.

~knock~knock~knock~

"Is everything alright, Young Lord Asher? Do you need some help?" The voice of Neta came from outside.

Upon hearing the servant's voice, a smile appeared on Lucius's face as an idea popped up in his mind. He stood up from the bed, despite the exhaustion and opened the door of the bedroom.

"Please come to Neta." Lucius asked.

Neta obeyed his lord's words and came in. But as a surprise to him, Lucius quickly locked the door behind him.

"Is… everything fine, my lord?" Neta asked apprehensively.

"Oh, everything is fine… very fine," Lucius said with a nod. 

"Tell me Neta… do you want to be stronger?" Lucius questioned.

"Stronger?" Neta repeated in confusion.

"Yes, Stronger! Stronger than any other servant! Or perhaps even the strongest in this kingdom!"