"However, that has an obvious problem, doesn't it?" Luke said, looking into the girl's eyes.
Megan then sighed and confirmed with her head.
"We will have to assess how your curse behaves on your mana." Megan said.
The moment she said that, Luke looked down with a slightly confused face. On the spot, the half-fox realized that would be a problem.
"What does that mean?" Meredith asked.
Megan then looked into the half-fox's eyes, and with a serious countenance she explained.
"We're going to have to repeat what happened today to understand how to help Luke."
Meredith's eyes widened with surprise; she couldn't bear to see Luke in that same situation. At the same moment, she turned to the half-wolf, waiting to hear his opinion.
Luke looked into Meredith's eyes, and giving a smile, he stroked the half-wolf's head.
Slowly the girl's astonished face calmed down, until she just continued to sit near Luke, waiting to hear his explanation.
"If we perform this experiment right, with Zhanid's support, I think it's difficult for you to have any problems..." Megan said.
In the end, the explanation made sense. If Zhanid was able to manually control the effects of the curse by reorganizing Luke's mana. It was possible to significantly reduce the damage when they had to do this experiment.
Megan was focused on one hypothesis. If she and Alice were to use a device to measure how Luke's mana pools normally, and then check how it looks after the curse intensifies, it would be possible to get a sense of how both cases work. Thus, Alice would be able to create an artifact that would do the job that Zhanid was performing.
However, in order to automate this process, it would be necessary to have a good sense of how these anomalies in Luke's mana work. Megan figured it would be necessary to perform this experiment at least five times. Then she would have enough information to start developing this artifact.
Within the academy there was already equipment capable of recognizing the flow of a person's mana. However, because of Luke's amount of magic and because it was a series of different variations of mana, it would be necessary to build or improve this type of equipment.
There were crystals that were able to recognize the amount of magic a user had. Other artifacts could recognize a person's mana, how it flowed internally, acting as if they were a compass. But nothing was able to measure precisely how a person's mana behaved inside their body.
In the end, there was a reason they called Megan the Living Library. In her mind, several possibilities were flashing by with extreme speed. She would go the next day to talk to her sister about the first part of the project.
Adrian and Zhanid would be needed as well, however, there was one thing that was missing. Alice was undoubtedly an ingenious builder, she had a very good sense of how to use magic circles. However, to accomplish this project, a blacksmith would probably be needed.
Normally Alice would just request the parts for the academy's forge, but in the case of this project, it would be ideal to keep it a secret. There was no reason to announce the creation of such an artifact to the academy, although perhaps the new machine would be useful to the research center. Considering this, the girl soon spoke again.
"I believe we will need a blacksmith; I can look for some tomorrow... Although I don't know many members of the forge at the academy." Megan said.
At that very moment, Luke remembered Orion's proposal. Probably the Zhao mage knew skilled blacksmiths from the academy, so it wouldn't be a problem to take advantage of Orion's invitation to look for help.
The Half-wolf also remembered the little blue-haired boy, although he was still a bit disbelieving if that child would be able to forge anything of real quality.
"Leave that task to me. I've been wanting to get to know the forge at the academy." Luke said.
Both Megan and Meredith looked worriedly at the half-wolf, both denied the idea, but he remained firm in his decision.
"I am already feeling much better, I just need a little more rest! Meredith, keep learning as much as you can in the academy classes. Megan, you are always so busy, use your free time to help Alice with this project. Leave the part about finding a blacksmith to me." Luke concluded.
The Half-wolf was quite interested in Orion's invitation, if he won a greatsword from the academy, moving from one corner to another would never be a problem again. In Luke's head, he was already thinking about the possibilities of how he could use this on the battlefield. It would only be necessary to remove the greatsword from his inventory and he would be ready to fly.
It would also be interesting to see little Ezra's abilities, as much as Luke was disbelieving the boy's potential. Not visiting the forge and ignoring the conversation he had with the little blacksmith would be extremely rude. The blue haired boy seemed extremely excited when he set out to forge, so there was no reason not to check out his abilities.
Now both Luke and Megan were determined with their next steps. The half-wolf although still tired, was already wondering what the next spells he would try to learn would be. His goal was still to use the time at the academy to develop himself in as many elements as possible.
He already had a very good understanding of wind magic, now he had just finished understanding how to use fire magic, manipulating his own mana to create small spheres of energy that emitted a gigantic amount of heat. Although it would still be necessary to review a few more spells of that element.
The next element Luke was interested in learning about was how to manipulate water and ice. Megan had already given an introduction to it, but mastering this type of spell was also in Luke's interests. The half-wolf was burning with determination to continue his studies.
Megan was determined to find a solution to support Luke. She hated that feeling of feeling unable to help. The next chance she had to meet with Zhanid, she made up her mind that she would take the opportunity to question about everything the old mage had done to stabilize the half-wolf's mana. The girl was also determined to start the project with her sister the next day.
She would already start searching and gathering the necessary equipment to continue this research. How to obtain the magical artifacts that check the user's mana, after all, perhaps it would be possible to simply upgrade the already existing artifacts to a better mana reading.
Both of them had eyes burning with determination. However, Meredith was heartbroken about a piece of news that she no longer knew how to break to Luke. Even more so in the situation he was in.
She knew the half-wolf; she knew that if she told him. Luke would try to take action. He would run after a way to stop what was happening at the academy.
Meredith was attending classes at the academy, she had entered the island as a researcher, but after talking with Luke and Zhanid, they both preferred that she attend classes at the academy to learn more about how magic works. This would be a way for her to finally become a little stronger.
She was excited by the practical classes; she understood some basic spells. Learning how to conjure spells and even discovered the history of the academy. She had always been interested in study, since she was a little girl learning was something that made her heart race with excitement.
She paid close attention to each of the academy's classes. One of the subjects she began to take was magical botany.
Some plants react with the use of magic, directly. They are able to change shape, grow larger than normal, or even change color completely.
Some specific flowers and mushrooms are able to accumulate the mana of a region, other plants are able to steal the mana of those who touch their leaves. In general, some plants have adapted to the use and contact with the mana of the world. The magical botany took advantage of these plants to develop their studies.
In Luke's own laboratory, there was an area of botany. Where they were used as guinea pigs for experiments. Botany is one of the most important non-combat disciplines in the academy.
In Meredith's room there were no more half-beasts. On the very third day of class, with her keen hearing, she observed a strange speech by Professor Max Willford. He seemed to be talking to himself, however, when she could get closer and hear better, she realized that it was a conversation.
A strange female voice was talking to him, the two of them were commenting on some experiments that Willford was performing together with Professor Hoshigaki.
Strangely, there was no sign that the woman Mr. Max was talking to was present there. It was impossible to hear her breathing. Soon Meredith discovered what the conversation was about.
Willford was taking advantage of plant research to develop a method to create chimeras.
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