“Yutsuki, come here. There is something I want to show you.” Marty said from his room door.

“Okay, Onii-sama,” Yutsuki replied happily.

“Can I come too?” Erica asked.

“You and Gifford might as well come,” Marty replied with a shrug as he backed into his room.

After they had entered his room, they surrounded a small table. On the table was a small plank of wood with three magic circles in an L shape engraved on it. Each one of these three engravings had a small item on it.

“Did you come up with a new spell?” Erica asked curiously.

Marty nodded. “I did, and I’m going to show it to you.”

Marty’s hand approached the top engraving, and his Mana poured out from his hand. The magic circle became blue before it changed to a shade of purple. Then, the small item on top of the magic circle disappeared only to reappear a foot away instantly.

The three onlookers gasped in surprise.

“Teleportation?” Erica asked.

“More accurately, it is space magic. It’s a one-way transmission to a specific point. Naturally, it doesn’t come without its flaws. A magic circle of this size can only transmit up to 5 miles meaning that if the circle is further than 5 miles, then it won’t work. Anything larger than the magic circle itself is incapable of being transported, causing the spell to fail. To transmit a person, it would have to be significantly larger. I have tried it with a couple of rats and have not seen any adverse effects of transmitting living creatures.”

“You invented an entirely new type of magic? That’s amazing.” Erica said with admiration.

“This one isn’t that impressive,” Marty said with a shrug which caused Erica and Gifford’s eyebrows to twitch. Given their training for the last month, they knew how difficult using magic was. Even though they focused on Ki, the strongest warriors would know how to use mana engravings. However, this was limited to a vast minority as utilizing engravings required concentration and precision, two things that you wouldn’t have on the battlefield. After a month of practice, they had only just begun to use engravings. This speed was terrifying compared to the average person. However, Marty had only been here a month and created new magic. This made them shocked, but Marty’s following words made them scared. “I made this after three days of study.”

Erica and Gifford gave Marty a dull look. Yutsuki’s, on the other hand, didn’t change too much. To her, there was not much Marty could do that would surprise her as she understood that he was a genius.

Marty then began to stimulate the bottom left magic circle. As he did so, the same thing happened as before. The magic circle became blue before turning a shade of purple. However, the item didn’t disappear. Instead, the magic circle to its right suddenly started filling with the purple light. There was a slight flash before the magic circles died down with an object remained on each of them. However, it was quite clear that these two objects switched places.

“Seeing as you only need two one-way transmissions to make a two-way transmission, I decided to make a spell that swaps the two locations. This took me a little over a week to figure out how to do. The first magic circle establishes the connection to the second one and transmits Mana. Once the second circle is filled, both magic circles work in conjunction to instantly swap locations. However, it can’t be considered more valuable than the single transmission as it uses twice as much Mana and is far more complex, making it more impractical.” Marty said lightly

Yutsuki and the others looked at the magical circle. Though they didn’t have an in-depth study of magic, they could see that the formula was extremely complex. The space swap magic circle was extremely complicated.

“Yutsuki, I have a gift for you,” Marty said with a smile.

“Really?” Yutsuki asked enthusiastically with a beautiful smile that caused Marty to stare for a moment.

“Naturally,” Marty replied as a bow armguard appeared in his hands. “Put it on.”

Yutsuki quickly put it on and found it was a perfect fit. As she looked over at it, she was surprised to find magic circles on it. “Onii-sama, what are these magic circles for?”

Marty smiled at Yutsuki. “Try it and find out.”

Yutsuki nodded as she activated the magic circle. Given that she had only just learned how to do so, it was noticeably slower than Marty. After she had finished, there was a small flash as a bow suddenly appeared. Out of surprise, Yutsuki almost dropped it, but she managed to keep it from falling. She looked over the bow with shock. It was the same type as the other bows she was using, but it was excellently manufactured to the point where she wasn’t sure it was locally made.

“This bow is all yours. Once you activate the magic circle on your arm guard, so long as this bow is within 5 miles of you, it will connect with the magic circle on the bow. In its essence, this magic is summoning magic.”

Erica and Gifford couldn’t help but gawk. As they were summoned, they naturally knew that summoning magic was forgotten; only the engraving remained. Even with the engraving, the various magicians of the kingdom hadn’t been able to decipher any of it, yet Marty had been here just a month and created his summoning magic.

“Do the other one,” Marty said with a smile.

Yutsuki nodded with a smile as she enthusiastically began to activate the second circle. After another flash, a small quiver appeared in her arms. This quiver was unique not only for its size, but it also had three spaces. Yutsuki looked over it curiously.

“Look on the inside,” Marty said with a smile.

“There’s another magic circle!” Yutsuki exclaimed in surprise before she immediately tried it. With a flash, the three separate areas in the quiver had an arrow each.

“You need to be careful; the tip is extremely sharp,” Marty said as she drew out one of the arrows.

Yutsuki looked over the arrow and found it was extremely uncommon. The arrow was flawless, which indicated that it was cast in this form. On top of this, the shaft was skinny. However, the arrow itself seemed slightly heavier than a regular arrow.

“What you have is a pure adamantine arrow. It’s the strongest metal that I’m aware of. As you can see on the arrowhead, each side has a magic circle. One is to turn it into a fire arrow while the other one changes the wind surrounding the arrow, allowing it to go farther and penetrate further. The reason why I used Adamantine is so that these arrows will never break. Since they are made a pure metal, they are also challenging to use as they act differently than a normal arrow. However, with your ability, this should not be a problem.”  

Yutsuki’s ability, which Marty had suspected at this point was an ESPER ability, was to know exactly where to shoot to hit the target. If the target was too far, couldn’t be seen, or had another impairment, she would instinctively know she couldn’t hit the target. Based on his previous testing with her, he also found that her ability took the equipment into account, even if Yutsuki may not have been aware of the difference. This surprised Marty as it seemed to add a sort of mysticism to her ability. It meant that she could use some unique projectiles, like a complete metal arrow.

“Do you like it?” Marty asked.

“I love it. Thanks, Onii-sama.” She replied as she spontaneously hugged him. After a couple of seconds, she let go slightly embarrassed.

Giffard and Erica gave Yutsuki an envious look before they looked at Marty. Marty rolled his eyes before three bracelets appeared in his hands. He threw two to Erica and one to Gifford. Gifford and Erica were surprised, but immediately became excited when they saw the magic circle on the underside of the bracelet. They very quickly wore them before they activate the magic circle.

Shortly after that, Gifford had a sword in his hand while Erica had a dagger each of hers.

“Nice, thank you.” They both said with a laugh.

“Slight effort, though I should remind you it has two weaknesses. The first weakness is that it won’t work further than 5 miles. As for the second weakness,” Marty said before he extended his hands out. Two magic circles appeared above each of his hands. After a slight flash, Gifford sword in one of Erica’s daggers disappeared only to reappear and Marty’s hands. “If an enemy mage finds your magic engravings, then they can steal your weapons from you like this. Because of this, you need to make sure that no one else sees your engravings and it might not be a bad idea to have a backup weapon on you.” Marty replied as he handed them back the weapons. Erica and Gifford retrieved weapons with a dull look.

“You’re a monster,” Erica said.

“What?” Marty replied, confused by her remarks.

“You just dual cast! As far as I know, only the Devil Empress can do that and only the same spell. Even though you used the same type, you simultaneously cast two different spells. As far as I know, that has never been done before.”

“Oh, is that all.”

Erica and Gifford’s eyebrows twitched. However, they couldn’t possibly know that, so long as Marty used Ki as a medium, he could simultaneously cast four spells; all of them different. After several attempts, he had already created a Magical Circle Ki Manifestation. So long as he thought of a magical circle that he previously created as a Ki Manifestation, it would appear almost instantly. Then, he would only have to fill it with Mana. In a sense, it was the same as engraving except the engraving with Ki could change in size at will. In essence, it was a fusion of the two allowing for an entirely different level of casting.

Marty gave the three of them a quick look over. “Tomorrow morning, we are going to go hunting.”

“Hunting, why?” Yutsuki asked.

“Did you forget that we are being trained to fight in a war? Do you expect to fight a war that doesn’t involve killing people?” Marty asked back.  

Giffard’s eyes went wide while the two girls suddenly became pale at the thought. They had somewhat separated themselves from the reality of their situation.  

“I don’t know about you guys, but the most I’ve killed are spiders much less an animal or human... Unless you count a dragon, I almost forgot about that.”

“How can you forget about that?” Gifford asked as he rolled his eyes. “I think it’s a good idea. While it isn’t the same, it may help lessen the impact if it ever does happen.”

“I intend to try to prevent it from happening, but I can’t be sure we won’t get in a situation where it may become necessary. While I don’t want to kill, that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of killing.”

“If that’s what Onii-sama wants,” Yutsuki replied with a timid nod. Erica also nodded to expressed her approval.

“Good. It’s about time to go to the training field so we should head there now.” Marty said.

The other three nodded and headed to the training field.

...

The results of everyone’s training had shocked many people. Erica and Gifford both reached a surprising Ki Rank 8, almost becoming Ki Rank 9 while Yutsuki had already become Ki Rank 10. This was because Marty had been using his own Ki to quicken Yutsuki’s training speed, coupled with her diligence. The trainers claimed them all of them as geniuses, with one exception. Marty’s trainer would often berate Marty, who would ignore him and continued to read. It was also becoming apparent that not just his trainer was becoming discontent with him. However, Marty didn’t care.

After a while, they arrived at the training ground. They didn’t bring their new weapons because they didn’t want to show them off as they would probably be seized. Naturally, they wore the items that had the magic circles so they could summon them at a moment’s notice.

 At first, the training went on his usual. However, seeing the sneer on Marty’s trainer’s face, it seemed as though it would soon cloud over. Moreover, there was a large group of people following him. It appeared as though he wanted what was going to happen to be well known. “Marty, I bring an order from his Majesty the King.” The mage said with a sneer. “Due to the impracticality of putting resources to train a mage who will not be ready by the time he is required, his Majesty has decided to cut off all funding towards your education. Seeing as you have everything you own on you, please immediately leave.”

“You dare!” Yutsuki said, very angry or how they were bullying Marty.

“It’s all right, Yutsuki,” Marty said with a smile before his eyes turned cold as he looked at the mage. “Do you have the order?”

“I do.” The mage said with a sneer as he handed Marty the paper.

Marty gave the paper a quick read over before he confirmed the original orders. “He is cutting off all my funding, which is fine because now I’m a separate party. But it doesn’t state anywhere I have to leave.”

“Naturally, you have to leave. You don’t have any business being here.”

“If I do have business being here? For example, being the guest of an important person.”

The mage gave Marty a look of disdain. “What waste could have a liking for you?”

“Waste? You should be very careful about who you call a waste. Not only will you end up embarrassing yourself, but you could end up being evicted from the premises yourself.”

“The only person who is going to be evicted is you.” 

Marty gave him a calm smile. “Depending on you? A waste like you evict me.”

Anger appeared in the mage’s eyes. “I’ll show you how this waste will evict you.” He snarled in rage as he quickly backed up. Mages would always attack from a range as it took a little time to cast a spell.

Marty turned back to reading his book, but he kept the mage in his line of sight as he prepared his card in hand.

The mage sneered as he prepared his magic spell. It was the one he created, a lightning spell. However, it wasn’t the first of its type but an improved version of an already existing spell. It was the minimum requirement to become considered as a mage.  

To become a Grandmage, one has to create some different new spells. The final, Archmage, required a mage to create an entirely new type of magic. However, there hadn’t been an Archmage in years, and even Grandmages had become scarce. This was the primary reason why this mage was so rampant. On top of this, while he worked for the King, he wasn’t technically a subordinate. The Mage Association was a multi-kingdom group that was recognized as having the same authority as the kingdom itself. A mage had the same ranking as a count while a Grandmage had the same as the Duke. The Archmage had the same rank is a King, and he had the authority to control the Mage Association.

Mana appeared in front of the mage’s hand as the magic circle form changing from blue to yellow. Marty looked out of the corner of his eye and instantly saw the spell. Very slowly, he raised his hand. The group of people that came with the mage couldn’t help but gawk in surprise as it seemed as though Marty was attempting to block the spell barehanded. However, none of them could have guessed what he was doing as a magic circle suddenly appeared, and Marty’s hand. The next second, lightning launched from the mage’s spell and shot into Marty spell circle. However, it suddenly disappeared. Everyone was shocked as they stared at Marty in disbelief. As they looked, Marty’s magic circle suddenly changed. It became larger, and the symbols rearranged. The mage gawked in dismay before he thought of something.

“Counterspell? How is this possible? It’s only a theory!”

“Theory? Now it’s a fact.” Marty said with a sneer as an exact version of the mage’s magic circle formed. A massive bolt of lightning shot from the spell and landed at the mage’s feet, causing a small explosion. With a shriek, the mage was blown backward several feet. His hair was standing up on end, and he looked somewhat tattered as he stared and pointed at Marty in shock. “How is this possible? You’ve only been practicing for a month! I confirmed that you didn’t have any control of your Mana, how could you possibly cast any spells, much less counterspell?!”

“Isn’t it obvious,” Marty said with a chuckle as he closed his book, stood up, and brought his hands up to the mage. “Because I’m not a waste of a mage like you.” Suddenly, both of his hands presented two different magic circles each. Everyone looked on in utter shock at the action which defies common sense. Then a blade of wind, a bolt of lightning, a fireball, and a jet of water suddenly impact the ground in front of the mage who tumbled again before he passed out.

“He’s not even a good of the mage. Where does he get off being so rampant?” Marty said as he sat back down.

The audience, who heard this remark, gave Marty a strange look. Nearly all of them were thinking: [It’s not that he’s weak, it’s that you’re a monster.]

“Excuse me, Marty, do you have a minute?” An older man politely asked as he approached Marty.

“Do you have a matter?” Marty asked as he gave the older man a look. His robes indicated that he was also a mage.

“Did you just use the counterspell?”

“Naturally,” Marty affirmed.

The older man took in a breath of cold air. The theory of a counterspell was relatively new. Because it was deemed worthless and scoffed at, it had yet to be tested, if ever. Even the same spells can have slight deviations in how the formula was created or cast. To counterspell, the mage had to create a mirrored copy of the spell which would be unless it countered a spell. Engravings were impractical as no one would learn a magic spell that was a dud and only useful against one person. However, this wasn’t the case for Marty. To counterspell, one would have to reverse the path of magic. Magic casting used a magic circle as a medium to transform Mana into ‘something else.’ The counterspell took the ‘something else’ and turned it back into Mana. In other words, in mere seconds, Marty had looked at the mage’s spell, reversed it in his mind, and created it. Then, he took the Mana from the mage’s spell and incorporated into his new magic circle that he made from the old one. The last fact alone was enough to bring a shock to any of the mages.

“Really.” The older man said with a sigh. “Being able to use counterspell in combat and simultaneously casting four different spells. Unprecedented. Tell me; you wouldn’t have happened to have created a new type of spell, would you?”

“I have,” Marty replied. A magic circle appeared with his hand, and he shot to the ground at the older man’s feet. The older man was a little wary, but he suddenly realized his body felt lighter.

“For the last couple of days, I successfully made this. It’s a continuous spell meaning that it takes a lot of Mana, but the result is reducing gravity by half.”

The older man couldn’t help but take another cold breath of air. If he knew that Marty had created a spell that not only can reduce it by half, but completely decreased or increased gravity, he definitely would’ve been startled.

“Good, good.” The older man said with a slight shiver. “We finally have an Archmage.”

“Sorry?”

“Archmage Marty, I humbly ask you to please come to our local headquarters. So long as you show them this, an official became the first Archmage in the Mage Association in many years.”

“How long will it take.”

“Not long; not long at all.” The old mage said with a smile.

“Very good,” Marty said with a smile as he got up and walked over to the mage who was coming to.

“You.” The mage said with a slight shiver in fear and anger as he pointed toward Marty.

“Hey, Mr. waste mage, do you see this,” Marty said as he brought up the crown prince’s token. “This is the crown prince’s token. He is the so-called waste that took a liking to me. But don’t worry, I’ll have status very soon.”

The mage couldn’t help but slightly go white. Given his rank, indirectly insulting the crown prince was a decent crime. Moreover, he did so in front of numerous eyewitnesses that he had brought himself.

Soon, shocking news swept at the capital city. The fourth hero, who was considered to be powerless, had become the first Archmage in years. Moreover, he had done so smoothly. Two of the Grandmages who weren’t happy with their sudden loss of power from his appearance simultaneously attacked him. However, he simultaneously counterspelled both of them and sent their magic back at them. The entire mage Association was shocked when this was heard. However, most were delighted with the addition of such an intrepid Archmage. Moreover, his new gravity magic was personally contributed, making many in the mage Association extremely happy with their new Archmage.

When the King heard this news, his face was black with regret. He could never have imagined that Marty had become an Archmage in only a month. It didn’t just defy common sense; it turned it completely upside down. Moreover, Marty’s status was now no less than his own. Insulting Marty could cause him to cut off all support from the Mage Association immediately. 

The King got angry. The only reason why he cut Marty’s support in the first place was to flatter the mage. However, not only had the mage angered an extremely powerful Archmage, but he had insulted the crown prince. With a justifiable reason, the King locked the mage in the dungeon where he remained for quite some time.

...

Late at night in the devil capital palace, Lucibelle sat down behind her desk, illuminated by candles, with a worried look on her face. Out of nowhere, a black-clothed masked individual suddenly appeared.

“You came,” Lucibelle said with a slight smile. “Did you bring it?”

“Naturally,” Marty replied with a smile as he showed a big bottle of wine.

“I hope it’s as good as what you brought last week.”

“Of course,” Marty replied. Winemaking technology in this world was inferior compared to modern winemaking technology.

After pouring the wine, Lucibelle gave it a rather big taste as the concerned look once again appeared on her face.

Marty noticed her expression. Having come nearly every night, they had become quite close. “Something wrong?” He asked.

“Yes,” Lucibelle said with a sigh. “They’re going to make their move tomorrow.”

“It seems you have a mole in their midst.”

“Several,” Lucibelle replied with a smile. “Can you help?”

“Naturally. I said I would, so I will.”

“Good,” Lucibelle replied with a relaxed expression.

“Do you want me to appear at the meeting or the fight?”

“Which do you think?”

Marty gave a couple of seconds of thought. “I think if I suddenly appear during the meeting when you decide the champion. It will give me some mysticism to help intimidate the counselors. Although I’ll lose the element of surprise, I’ll make all of them worry as they didn’t have any information on me before. After all, if I appear, could there be others? It will make them have to reevaluate your strength, making them more likely to follow you, especially if I win.”

“Sounds good,” Lucibelle said with a smile.

“Excellent, but we should go to where the meeting place so I can plan.”

“Okay, I’ll show you the way,” Lucibelle said with a smile where she went and exited the room.

Marty didn’t follow her. Instead, Cali in dust form went. Lucibelle wasn’t too surprised as she believed it was some strange magic and had seen it before. After she had arrived in the Council room alone, Marty appeared before her.

“Can you teach me to do that?” She asked with an apparent envious expression.

Marty thought it over. “While I can’t give you this exact method, I can give you a similar one as you shared your unique magic with me.”

“Good.” She said with a smile. “What do you think?”

Marty looked around the vast room. Unlike the other rooms, there weren’t multiple floors. Instead, there were wood braces that extended across up the tower. On the lowest brace was a chandelier suspended relatively low. “When will the meeting be?”

“In the evening.”

“So the lighting will be at this level?”

“Should be.”

“Then, I have a place where I can wait.” Two giant Dragon wings made of Ki sprouted behind Marty’s back as he shot up to the first beams. Lucibelle looked at him in shock. Naturally, it wasn’t in shock about Marty having wings. Lucibelle couldn’t determine whether Marty was human or devil. The fact that he suddenly sprouted wings wasn’t too much of a shock to her as she had wings of her own. She always wore a dress with an open back to expose her wings and use them at a moment’s notice. These wings were between her shoulder blades and extremely tiny. By utilizing Mana, they would expand to the size required for flight. What shocked her was that these wings were made entirely out of Ki. Such a method was something she had never seen before.

Marty lay down on the beam as Cali surrounded him with dust.

“How is this?” Marty asked.

“Very good. If I didn’t know you were there, I don’t think I give it a second glance.”

“Good,” Marty said before the door opened.

“Elder sister, there you are,” Angelique said as she entered the room. “You weren’t in your room; the guard said you came here. Don’t you think we should plan on how to deal with Marcus?”

“I have that under control,” Lucibelle said with a smile.

“What you mean you have it under control? He will beat you if he doesn’t outright kill you,” Angelique said half angrily half worried. 

“I won’t be the one to fight.”

“You won’t? Then who?”

“Me,” Marty said from his perch.

Both Lucibelle and Angelique was shocked. Angelique was shocked because she hadn’t noticed him at all. Even though he wasn’t in a conspicuous place, it should have come to her notice. Lucibelle was shocked because he showed himself before Angelique. She always got the feeling that he didn’t want to be known by anyone, though she guessed it was because his existence would be known soon, which was why he revealed himself to Angelique now.

Angelique gave him a vigilant stare. “Who are you and what qualifications do you have to fight on my sister’s behalf?”

“Who am I? You can call me Sir Black. As for my qualifications.” Marty said with a smile before he suddenly disappeared.

Angelique was shocked at his sudden disappearance before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Is this good enough?” Marty asked.

“You!” she exclaimed out of shock upon suddenly being encroached. Out of anger, shock, and instinct, she slapped away Marty’s hand, backed up, and quickly cast a magic spell. The magic spell she cast was the unique magic spell that the Devils had, which Lucibelle had shown Marty, an explosion spell. A red flash shot towards Marty who had already raised his hand. The counterspell had already been prepared, and Marty successfully intercepted the spell. Angelique and Lucibelle both gawked in surprise as they had never seen such a method before.

“If that isn’t good enough, then how about this,” Marty said with a smile as the spell quickly changed before it shot below Angelique’s feet. Out of shock, Angelique didn’t dodge and, by the time she began to move, she suddenly realized that her feet were no longer touching the ground.

“What… What is this?” she asked in fear as she started to float a couple of feet off the ground flailing strangely, having lost the ability to keep her balance.

Lucibelle couldn’t help but laugh at the performance. “Sir Black, you have to teach me this spell.” 

“Let me down!” Angelique exclaimed.

“Very well,” Marty said with a laugh as he stopped the magic.

Angelique stumbled as she fell, but managed to keep her balance. She gave Marty a slight glare. “If you end up harming my sister, I won’t forgive you.”

Marty gave her a serious look. “I’ll keep you to it.”

End of Day -65