Chapter 170

Delgado had been holding his teacup for so long that the drink inside had already gone cold.

He didn’t seem to have noticed.

His attention remained fixed on the holographic display, where Max continued working on the formation.

At first, the colonel had watched out of curiosity.

Then came surprise.

After that, he had stopped pretending he was merely observing a young man attempting a difficult task.

He was studying Max.

Every movement of the boy’s hand, every rune he formed, every connection he established between the layers was being carefully followed by Delgado’s eyes.

And the more he watched, the less he understood what he was seeing.

Max wasn’t simply copying the formation.

That much had become obvious nearly an hour ago.

He was making adjustments as he went.

Not changes to the original design—Delgado would have noticed if the boy had altered the structure—but tiny corrections to the mana flow as each section was connected.

Whenever two runes were linked, Max would pause for a moment, narrow his eyes, and slightly adjust the amount of mana flowing through one of them.

Sometimes the change was so small that even Delgado could barely detect it.

Yet the formation responded.

The faint green glow passing through the runes would stabilize, and the next connection would form without disturbing the previous ones.

Delgado slowly lowered his teacup.

His fingers remained wrapped around it, but his hand had stopped moving.

"That’s..."

The word escaped him before he could finish the thought.

Zerena glanced at him.

"What is it?"

Delgado didn’t answer immediately.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he watched Max connect another series of runes.

The boy wasn’t rushing.

That was what bothered him most.

A person attempting to recreate a formation of this complexity should have been terrified of making a mistake. They should have been constantly checking their work, hesitating before every connection, and relying heavily on the original diagrams.

Max was doing none of that.

He studied the next section, understood it, and built it.

Then he moved on.

His expression occasionally tightened in concentration, but there was no panic in his movements.

No desperate guessing.

No repeated attempts.

Just a steady, almost irritatingly natural progression.

Delgado’s thumb slowly rubbed against the side of his teacup.

"He’s not memorizing the formation," he muttered.

Zerena looked at him again.

"What?"

"He’s understanding it."

The colonel’s gaze shifted briefly toward her before returning to the display.

"Anyone with enough time can memorize a rune sequence. Given a diagram and sufficient practice, even an average mage can reproduce something beyond their level."

His fingers tightened slightly around the cup.

"But this isn’t memorization."

On the display, another section of the formation lit up.

A series of runes connected in rapid succession, their green light flowing through the structure like liquid fire.

Delgado’s lips parted slightly.

He had seen master craftsmen construct arrays before.

He had watched experienced mages spend days preparing a single complex spell.

He had personally taken part in the construction of large-scale magical formations during his years in the army.

Those experiences had taught him one thing above all else.

Complexity was not the true enemy.

Instability was.

A formation could contain ten thousand runes and still be relatively simple if every part followed a predictable structure.

But when multiple layers interacted with one another, when mana had to be gathered, redirected, compressed, balanced, and distributed across different sections, the slightest error could create a chain reaction.

One poorly connected rune could disrupt an entire layer. One unstable mana channel could damage every formation connected to it. And if the structure was powerful enough, the backlash could kill everyone nearby.

That was why large formations were usually constructed by teams.

One group handled the foundation.

Another managed the mana channels. Others checked the connections, corrected inconsistencies, and monitored the stability of the completed sections. Even then, mistakes were common.

Yet Max was doing all of it alone.

By the time four hours had passed, the formation had begun to reveal its true shape. The countless rune layers no longer looked like disconnected magical diagrams floating in space. They had become parts of a single structure. A massive cylindrical formation was gradually taking shape within the holographic display.

The central channel ran from the bottom to the top, surrounded by countless interconnected layers. Runes were arranged along its outer surface, while smaller formations branched inward and connected to the central structure.

The empty spaces Max had noticed earlier were no longer random gaps.

They were deliberate chambers.

Mana channels.

Stabilization points.

Areas designed to hold and redirect energy before sending it toward the central core. The more of the formation Max completed, the more clearly its purpose began to emerge. And with every new discovery, his frustration slowly faded.

For the first hour, he had been annoyed.

For the second, he had been irritated.

By the third, he had started questioning the sanity of whoever designed the damn thing. Now, however, he found himself staring at the formation with something much closer to admiration.

As Max continued connecting the remaining runes, the purpose of the formation gradually became clearer.

He had initially assumed the entire structure was designe

d to fire one concentrated mana projectile.

That assumption had been wrong.

The empty compartments weren’t wasted space. Each one was a separate mana chamber, designed to store and direct energy toward different parts of the formation.

Some were connected to the outer layers, while others led toward the central spherical chamber.

Once Max understood how those channels were arranged, the rest of the design became much easier to interpret.

"Ah... so that’s how it works."

He connected another rune and watched the mana flow through the structure.

The outer sections could apparently be used to fire multiple mana projectiles, either simultaneously or in rapid succession. Depending on how the formation was configured, the shots could come from different directions, making it useful against groups of enemies.

That explained why the formation had so many separate compartments.

It wasn’t meant to fire just one type of attack.

It could produce different kinds of mana ammunition depending on which chambers were activated and how the energy was routed.

But even that didn’t explain all the extra complexity.

The formation also contained an automated targeting system for each chamber, allowing the mana bullets to be directed toward selected targets without requiring someone to manually aim every shot.

And a few of the chambers were even more impressive.

The projectiles they produced could apparently pursue their targets after being fired.

Even if the target managed to dodge the initial shot, the mana bullet would change its trajectory and continue following them.

"That’s actually brilliant..."

Max studied the relevant runes with growing interest.

Those chambers weren’t merely gathering mana or firing it toward a designated location.

They were doing something far more complicated.

The formation was writing additional runes directly onto the constructed mana projectile, turning the bullet itself into a small, independent mana array.

That secondary array handled the tracking function. In other words, the weapon wasn’t simply firing a projectile at someone. It was creating a projectile with its own magical instructions.

Max couldn’t help but admire the idea.

With nearly two hours still remaining before the deadline Colonel Delgado had set, Max finally completed the formation.

He didn’t announce it.

There was no dramatic declaration, no exhausted collapse, or even a proud grin.

Max simply stepped back and looked at what he had created.

The massive formation floated in the middle of the room, occupying almost its entire space. Countless layers of interconnected runes rotated at different speeds, forming a gigantic cylindrical structure around the central spherical chamber.

Mana flowed through every section in steady streams.

The countless magical inscriptions glowed with a deep green light, bathing the room in an eerie radiance. The glow reflected off the walls, the floor, and even Max’s face as he stood silently before his creation.

For several seconds, he didn’t move.

He was too busy staring.

Even though he had understood the formation while constructing it, seeing the entire thing assembled was different.

It was enormous.

Complicated.

And, most importantly, it actually worked.

Max slowly walked around it, examining the rotating layers and the stable flow of mana passing through each chamber.

"Damn..."

That was all he said.

Behind the observation barrier, Colonel Delgado remained silent as well.

His gaze moved across the completed formation, taking in its size, structure, and the flawless connection between its countless components.

He had expected Max to make progress.

He hadn’t expected him to finish.

And certainly not this quickly.

Max continued studying the floating weapon platform, his expression filled with more amazement than pride.

He had originally thought he was merely copying a complicated formation.

But now that it was complete, he couldn’t help feeling that he had just built something far more ridiculous than a potion maker probably should.

The sight made Colonel Delgado break into a wide smile, much like Zerena had when she first discovered Max’s talent.

It was the expression of someone who had just stumbled upon an entire mine of mana crystals.