Path Forward

Edward walked around Undine as he observed her closely, his eyes shining with golden lights.

"Wh-what are you doing?" asked Undine, who did not receive an answer as Edward seemed fascinated.

"I have heard of your reputation. I am a spirit, so it is impossible between us."

"Love and lust have no boundary between race or species," replied Edward as his eyes turned purple, and he continued to observe her.

"Nonsense," replied Undie as she blushed. "Even if what you said is true, my body is made of elements; it is physically impossible."

She immediately became ashamed after saying this before secretly looking at Lolopechka. And after seeing her confusion about her words, she felt relieved. Her Lolopechka was still the pure, innocent, and lovely girl she raised.

"Believe me when I said I have many ways to make the impossible possible," replied Edward. Although he said this, he was not observing her because she was beautiful. It's because he made a remarkable discovery.

Element Spirits in this universe technically do not have a physical form as their bodies are made of whatever element they represent. However, they still have a tremendous among of mana–even more than elves and humans.

So, where do they store their magic power?: Their Soul Dimension.

Edward already planned the next step in the Arcane Magic System. It is to absorb pure mana in the magic core and the Soul Dimensions to decrease the time it took him and everyone else to reach Tier 8 Solar System level.

Additionally, a new magic system can be created where Arcanists can store their mana inside their Soul Dimension instead of their magic core. For many people, this is a better path.

Arcanists need to engrave Extension Charm on their magic core to expand the internal dimension so that it can contain more mana. In essence, all Arcanists' magical core is a small pocket dimension.

However, not all of them are talented in this area, nor could they use the Extension Curse to the point of doing micro engravings on the core. So, these people's magical path is limited, and they have little to no future.

However, with the Soul Dimension, this issue can be solved. As the Arcanist's Soul strengthens, their dimension can also expand with them. This fact removed the need for the Extension Charm.

Moreover, this new system would deal with Edward's issue with magic cores. If an arcanist's heart is destroyed, their core will follow afterward. Of course, according to studies, the process is not instantaneous, usually taking between 6 hours to 3 days depending on the person and their Tier.

The magic core will stabilize if the heart regenerates in this period. Additionally, a new core can be recreated, but Arcanists have to start all over from Tier 0.

Of course, returning to the previous Tier is quicker and takes less time. And with the right resources, they can further shorten the time.

One of the reasons Edward came to this world was because of Devil Heart; he wanted all Arcanists to have a nearly indestructible heart to protect their magic core.

Now, with the knowledge of [Soul Dimension Mana Storage] that he will learn from Undine, he will further perfect his arcane magical system.

"I need to study how you store mana inside your soul," said Edward, making Undine confused. At first, she wanted to refuse. However, after Edward's glib tongue, she finally agreed.

Three days later, Edward walked to the throne room with a bunch of notes in his hand.

"What was that weird moaning sound I heard?" asked Lolopechka.

"The study session got painful in the middle."

"Is Undine alright?"

"She'll be fine in a few hours."

"Should I go check on her?"

"She's sleeping now, so wait until she wakes up," replied Edward with no shame for lying to this gullible little girl. Then, his Grimoire floated in front of him before flipping to a new page.

Numerous words appeared in the book that looked like an ancient language. And after the words appeared on the page, a small purple elf appeared in the room.

She looked around in confusion before recognizing Edward. Without hesitation, she rushed to hug his face while crying aloud.

"Wuwuwuw, master, it's good to see you finally. I feel so aggrieved. Wuwuwu."

"There, there. I know how you feel. Don't worry, we will get our revenge one day."

After crying for a few seconds, Morgana regained her bearings. She connected to Edward and shared memories about this world regarding all kinds of information.

"What an interesting universe," she said.

"Indeed," replied Edward. "But this is not the time for this. Do you know where the World Gate is?"

She immediately connected to her branch server in the Gate. "It seems to be outside the Crystal Wall, still in the void."

"If that's the case, it is not in the best shape right now," muttered Edward. The Gate is a way weaker version of the Floating City. It is made of magicium, the hardest and most mana conductive metal of the Empire.

And the only metal capable of barely resisting void energy. Nevertheless, it can only slightly resist. So, after spending more than 40 years outside, Edward could see that this thing was falling apart by now.

"Can you connect to the main control system?"

"No, this universe seemed very strict and closed off."

"In that case, we need to bring it inside before it is completely destroyed."

Edward could foresee rebuilding the Gate from scratch would be a nightmare–especially since this is considered a low-level universe with many restrictions. So, he wanted to salvage the old one and repair it.

So, the two began to discuss how to achieve this task and plan on what to do in case the Gate is destroyed. Meanwhile, Lolopechka looked at Morgana in shock.

She did not understand what they were saying since they spoke in an unknown language. She could, however, recognize a Spirit when she saw one.

'I have never heard that he had a Spirit?' After thinking about all the information she knew about Edward, she did not find anything relevant–especially since she could not recognize what type of spirit the purple elf was. In the end, she decided not to focus on this small detail.

The Clover Kingdom's 27th Wizard King is referred to as the God of Magic by many individuals throughout the four kingdoms because of many attributes he can use at an extremely high level.

So, it is not weird if he contracted a spirit.

After talking with Morgana for a few minutes and planning many things, Edward had a joyous smile. After studying Undine, he used the loophole that she was a 'Spirit' to remove the restrictions on her.

And now, he has access to all her calculating abilities, making him greatly reassured in all his future plans.

Edward then looked at Lolopechka. "According to our agreement, I will protect your kingdom from the Dark Triads. First, I need a map."

"For what purpose?"

"I never fight head-on when I can use strategy. So, I will place some magic traps in their paths to ensure success in the upcoming battle."

Maps were strategic information in this era, so she did not want to hand them over to another person–especially the military leader of a foreign nation, even if that nation had an alliance with her.

However, after thinking about the situation rationally, she realized that hiding a map was pointless. The main in front of him could probably use some spells to create the map himself.

He is probably only asking out of politeness. So, Lolopechke handed it over to him, and Edward proceeded to take action. He calculated paths that the Dark Triad could use to infiltrate the Heart Kingdom and placed magical traps all over.

Regarding Trap Magic, Edward learned extensively from Zora Ideale and his father, Zara. And he was interested in this type of magic because it is the only form of magic that anyone can use, and it relied on magic circles or rune arrays to set up.

He wanted to study the runes in this universe to recreate the Arcane Rune Magic System. Unfortunately, the clover's kingdom's knowledge about runes is not enough for him.

Luckily, the Heart Kingdom has the Mana Method, which allows mages to use the ambient mana in nature to set up magic circles. And unlike Ideale's father and son's Trap Magic, the mana method can be used for various purposes.

So, Edward was confident he could recreate the Arcane Rune Spells to be usable in this universe.

Once he finished setting up the traps, he used Gueldre Poizot's Permeation Magic, which turned the traps invisible and undetectable. Then, he waited for the Dark Triad's arrival.