Free Web NovelChapter 29: The Lesson of the Female Dragon
Here’s the direct continuation with the Tower of Mages, Vespera’s lesson on magic circles, and the beginning of the final surprise.
So Adam headed towards the Tower of Mages.
The closer he got, the more imposing the building seemed.
The tower dominated an entire section of Valoria, tall, dark, and elegant, with stone rings floating around some of the floors as if quietly defying the laws of the world.
Runes glowed here and there on the exterior walls.
Some pulsed slowly.
Others flickered on and off before reigniting a few seconds later.
Adam looked up.
"This is definitely the kind of place where something can explode without warning..."
He had barely finished speaking when a violent explosion rang out.
BOOM!
A bluish blast erupted from an intermediate floor of the tower.
Violet smoke billowed from several enchanted windows before being absorbed by a translucent barrier.
Adam stopped dead in his tracks.
"..."
For a second, he expected to see panic spread through the street.
But the passersby only glanced up.
Some barely paused.
Then they continued on their way as if nothing important had happened.
Adam even heard a woman sigh nearby.
"Here we go again."
An old man shook his head.
"I’m betting on the summoning lab."
"No," replied a merchant, tidying her fabrics. "The smoke is violet. It must be the unstable mana alchemists."
A young apprentice mage passing by added:
"Impossible. The alchemists exploded yesterday." "Today, this must be the Department of Illusions."
Adam stood motionless.
"Isn’t anyone going to check?"
The shopkeeper gave him an amused look.
"If there were real danger, the tower would have changed color."
Adam looked at the tower again.
"It changes color when there’s real danger?"
"Of course."
She said it as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Adam remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he resumed walking.
"I’m really going to die today."
When he reached the entrance of the Tower of Mages, the interior seemed even stranger than before.
Staircases moved slowly.
Books floated in the air.
Mages walked through the hall, discussing incomprehensible topics.
A sphere of fire chased a panicked apprentice while another mage calmly took notes.
At the counter, a receptionist looked up at him.
She seemed to be expecting him.
"Adam?"
"Yes."
"Mistress Vespera is waiting for you on the top floor."
Adam instinctively looked up.
"The top floor..."
The receptionist smiled politely.
"Don’t worry. The space elevator is relatively stable today."
Adam stared at her.
"Relatively?"
She didn’t answer.
Which wasn’t reassuring.
A few moments later, Adam was led into a runic circle etched into the floor.
The receptionist activated the device.
The space around him warped.
His stomach seemed to remain on the ground floor while the rest of his body rose to the top of the tower.
Then, in a fraction of a second, he found himself before a large black door adorned with red runes.
The receptionist bowed slightly.
"Mistress Vespera is inside."
Then she vanished as quickly as she had come.
Adam took a deep breath.
"Very well. Last test of the day."
He knocked.
"Come in."
Vespera’s voice echoed from behind the door.
Adam entered.
The black dragon’s office was as impressive as its owner.
Piles of documents floated around her.
Several quills wrote by themselves.
Magical cards unfurled and then folded back into place in mid-air.
At the center of this perfectly controlled chaos, Vespera sat behind a large, dark desk, signing several documents at an alarming speed.
She looked up at him.
A smile appeared on her lips.
"You survived Selene, Elaria, and Shiora."
Adam closed the door behind him.
"You knew about my entire schedule?"
"Of course."
"I don’t know why I still ask these kinds of questions."
Vespera put down her pen.
"So? How was your day?"
Adam thought for a second.
"Selene symbolically killed me seventeen times in one minute. Elaria confirmed that I’m abnormal. Shiora canceled an important meeting to discuss the banking crisis with me. And there was an explosion in your tower while the residents were betting on which department was responsible."
Vespera stared at him.
Then she smiled.
"A productive day."
Adam remained silent.
"Is that really your definition of productive?"
"Yes."
She stood up.
"Now, over to us."
Behind her desk, a door Adam hadn’t noticed opened silently.
It led to an immense room.
Far too large to physically fit in the tower.
Adam stopped at the entrance.
"Space magic?"
"Very advanced," Vespera replied.
The magical research room stretched like an underground cathedral.
The walls were covered in runes.
Some glowed briefly, as if breathing.
Magic circles were etched into the floor.
Crystals floated above experimental tables.
Enchanted mannequins waited silently near a reinforced wall.
Adam immediately sensed that the amount of mana in this room was different.
Denser.
More stable.
More controlled.
Vespera looked at him.
"Before we talk about magic, show me your control over mana."
Adam nodded.
He closed his eyes.
Using Mana Body, he channeled his energy through his arm, then into his hand.
A green glow appeared around his fingers.
The flow was steady.
Much more steady than before.
Vespera watched him closely.
"Not bad."
Adam opened one eye.
"With you, what does ’not bad’ mean?"
"That you’re not completely hopeless."
"I should have known." "
She approached and placed two fingers on his wrist.
Her mana briefly touched his.
Adam immediately felt the difference.
His mana was like a well-guided stream.
Vespera’s was like an ocean held back behind a gate.
The dragoness frowned slightly.
"Your control is good for a beginner. Mana Body helps you a lot. You waste little energy, and your internal flow is clean."
Adam was about to smile.
Then Vespera added:
"But it’s still not enough."
He sighed.
"Of course."
"You control your mana like someone who avoids waste. That’s good. But you’re not compressing it properly yet, you’re not changing its density quickly enough, and your external emission lacks finesse."
She raised a hand.
A small sphere of black mana appeared above his palm.
It split into ten threads.
Then into a hundred.
Then each thread formed a miniature rune before dissipating.
Adam remained frozen.
"Okay. I understand better what you mean by finesse."
Vespera smiled.
"Start by forming a thread."
For the first half hour, she had him do nothing but that.
Create a thread of mana.
Maintain it.
Make it thinner.
Move it.
Bend it.
Pass it through a metal ring without touching the edges.
At first, Adam failed several times.
His thread trembled.
Broken.
Became too thick.
But Mana Body gradually corrected its flow.
Boundary showed him its limits.
Eyes of the World allowed him to observe the ring’s reactions and the differences between his mana and Vespera’s.
Little by little, the thread became more stable.
Vespera finally nodded.
"Better." "
Adam exhaled.
"I feel like I’m learning to write with an invisible hand."
"That’s a good comparison."
She conjured a simple magic circle in the air.
"Now, let’s get to the basics of magic."
Adam sat up.
Vespera pointed to the circle.
"Magic isn’t chanting. It isn’t gestures either. At its core, magic is a magic circle."
The runes in the circle glowed.
"If you can create a circle, understand it, and circulate your mana correctly within it, then you can cast the spell."
Adam watched intently.
"So chanting isn’t essential?"
"No."
Vespera conjured several lines of glowing text around the circle.
"Chanting is an aid. A mental framework." It guides the mage who isn’t able to directly construct the circle in their mind or manipulate mana with precision.
Adam understood immediately.
"Like a simplified interface."
"A what?"
"In my old world, certain tools allowed complex things to function without understanding their entire internal structure."
Vespera smiled.
"So yes. The chant works a bit like that."
She erased part of the circle.
The spell dissipated.
Then she recreated it instantly, without a word.
"Gifted mages can cast without a chant. Experienced mages can shorten the chant. Masters can create the circle directly."
Adam looked at the runes.
"And advanced magic?"
Vespera conjured three small circles.
Fire.
Wind.
Compression.
Then she merged them.
A small, flaming spear formed.
"Advanced magic is often composed of elements. Several low-level spells, combined precisely, can create a more complex effect."
The spear vanished.
"But the more complex the spell, the harder the circle becomes to construct. The greater the risk of instability. And the higher the mana cost."
Adam thought for a moment.
"So magic circles are truly the foundation of all magic."
"Exactly."
She raised a finger.
"The more familiar you are with a spell, the faster your mind can create its circle. That’s why a mage repeats the same spells over and over. Eventually, the circle becomes almost instinctive."
Adam immediately thought of the Cure spell.
He had used it several times.
Each casting was easier than the last.
Vespera continued:
"It’s also possible to intentionally modify a circle." By changing certain runes, angles, or flows, you can alter the effect.
She conjured a circle of fire.
A flame appeared.
Then she modified a rune.
The flame became thinner.
She modified another part.
The flame lengthened like a blade.
Then she changed yet another detail.
The flame became a shower of sparks.
Adam felt his eyes light up.
"So a spell can be modified like a program."
Vespera stared at him with interest.
"That’s the kind of remark I was hoping for from you."
She handed him a crystal plate.
"Try it. Create a Circle of Healing. Slowly."
Adam concentrated.
He already knew the spell.
But this time, he couldn’t just cast it.
He had to understand the circle.
One rune after another.
One flow after another.
Eyes of the World helped him perceive the structure.
Mana Body stabilized the emission.
Boundary signaled errors.
The first circle trembled.
The second formed more clearly.
The third held for several seconds.
A soft green light appeared above his hand.
Vespera watched him in silence.
"You learn quickly."
Adam smiled slightly.
"That’s almost a compliment."
"It is. Don’t get used to it."
For the rest of the session, Vespera had him create several simple circles.
Healing.
Light.
Minor Reinforcement.
Weak Barrier.
Minimal Flame.
Water Jet.
Each spell revealed a different logic.
Life magic was fluid and gentle.
Fire magic was unstable and aggressive.
Water magic naturally followed the flow.
Barrier magic required a firm and balanced structure.
Adam didn’t master any of these spells perfectly.
But he understood the basics.
And for Vespera, that was clearly enough for a first day.
Two hours passed without him noticing.
Finally, the dragon snapped her fingers.
All the circles vanished.
"That’s it for today."
Adam lowered his hand, surprised by the sudden wave of mental fatigue that had washed over him.
"Already?"
"Already."
He looked around.
"I feel like we’ve only just begun."
"That’s a good sign."
A notification appeared in front of him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Learning Complete
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mana Control: Progression Increased
Understanding Magic Circles: Basics Acquired
Spells Observed:
*Heal
*Light
*Minor Reinforcement
*Weak Barrier
*Minimal Flame
*Water Jet
Mana Body Lv. 1: Improved Synchronization
Eyes of the World Lv. 1: Enhanced Magic Analysis
Lv.1 Limit Delimiter: Improved Boundary Detection
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adam read the notification with satisfaction.
Vespera looked at him.
"Did your power react?"
"It says I’ve acquired the basics."
"Good. So tomorrow we’ll start the real stuff."
Adam turned slowly toward her.
"The real stuff?"
"Yes."
"Because that wasn’t the real stuff?"
Vespera smiled.
"No. That was the alphabet."
Adam remained silent.
Then he murmured,
"I’m really going to end up locked in this tower."
"Probably."
The worst part was that she hadn’t said it jokingly.
Adam gathered his things and left the research room with her.
When they returned to the office, the documents were still floating around the table.
But Vespera didn’t go back to her seat.
Instead, she picked up a long black coat that was draped over the back of her chair.
Adam watched her.
"Are you going out?"
"Yes."
"Now?"
"Yes."
She draped the coat over her shoulders and headed for the door.
Adam watched her, surprised.
"Are you going somewhere?"
Vespera turned her head toward him.
Her smile was calm.
Her red eyes shone with a light that was hard to read.
"I’m coming home with you."
Adam remained motionless.
"With me?"
"Yes."
He blinked.
"To the mansion?"
"Of course."
Adam remained silent for a few seconds.
Then, slowly, he looked up at the ceiling.
"I have a feeling I’m going to get into trouble again."
Vespera opened the door.
"You learn quickly."
And without giving him time to ask any more questions, she left the office.
Adam sighed.
Then he followed her.
Behind them, the runes in the research room glowed one last time.
As if the tower itself had just smiled.
