Chapter 171

Zerena couldn’t contain her excitement as Max finally finished the enormous array—or spell, as Colonel Delgado had called it.

She wore a wide smile, clearly thrilled by what she was seeing.

Delgado, meanwhile, was completely speechless.

Max looked over at them and casually announced,

"I’m done."

Delgado finally tore his eyes away from the holographic display and walked out of the surveillance room. Before leaving, however, he made sure to delete the footage of Max constructing the formation.

Zerena followed him back into the room where Max was waiting. The moment they stepped inside, both of them widened their eyes. A strange sense of refreshment washed over them almost immediately. Delgado looked around in confusion. The completed formation didn’t appear dangerous at all, and Max had clearly constructed it perfectly.

Perhaps it had something to do with the unique properties of Max’s mana.

From what Delgado had observed, he suspected it possessed some kind of healing attribute.

The refreshing sensation wasn’t particularly strange for a potion maker.

The strange part was the formation itself.

Just from the feeling it gave off, Delgado could tell it wasn’t quite the same formation he’d originally shown Max.

Somehow, the boy had changed it without destabilizing the entire construct.

"Congratulations, Mr. Falkner. You’ve proven that you’re more than deserving of the army’s support, and I’ll be more than happy to personally make sure you receive it."

Even as he spoke, Delgado’s eyes remained fixed on the formation.

He was far more intrigued by the changes Max had made than he was willing to admit.

More importantly, he couldn’t understand why those changes hadn’t caused the entire formation to become unstable.

"But before anything else, can you tell me what changes you made to the spell?"

Delgado asked, still staring at the enormous formation.

He tried to figure it out himself, carefully examining the altered sections.

Unfortunately, his knowledge of runes wasn’t proving particularly useful here. As a warrior-mage, he understood the practical application of rune constructs, but deciphering the subtle changes Max had made was an entirely different matter.

Max nodded as he continued studying the still-glowing, perfectly stable construct.

"Well, I’m guessing this is some kind of all-purpose gun or cannon. A machine gun that can fire multiple mana bullets at once, a cannon capable of launching massive mana projectiles from the center, and even bullets that can track their targets like heat-seeking missiles."

He glanced toward Delgado with a confident smile.

"I’m right, aren’t I?"

The colonel nodded, while Zerena wisely chose to remain silent. This was already far beyond her depth.

Max continued explaining as he gestured toward the glowing formation.

"But since I was constructing it with mana that has a healing attribute, it would have worked just fine. The problem was that the projectiles wouldn’t have been very effective against enemies."

He shrugged.

"So I changed it a little."

"The bullets it fires now will heal whoever they hit instead of hurting them. And the big ones would basically function like massive healing spells."

Max glanced at the formation again.

"Not exactly the best use for a spell originally designed for destruction, but I only had to modify some of the runes that were gathering ordinary mana and change them to gather healing mana instead. Then I made a few other adjustments here and there."

Delgado looked shocked once again.

He hadn’t expected Max to make such a drastic change to the spell’s original purpose.

Still, considering the boy had constructed the entire formation in such a short amount of time despite being only a one-ring mage, perhaps it shouldn’t have been that surprising.

If Max could understand a spell of this complexity so quickly, then modifying its purpose without altering much of its underlying structure was probably within his abilities.

At this point, Delgado was beginning to wonder just how far the boy’s understanding of runes actually went.

Delgado nodded with a wide smile.

"Now, aren’t you excited to see whether it actually works? Because, honestly, I am." As he spoke, he pulled out a mana crystal no larger than his fingertip and handed it to Max.

Zerena’s eyes widened the moment she saw it.

Max accepted it with a wide smile while Zerena watched closely.

He walked over to the formation and placed the crystal into the empty space at one end of the spherical structure.

The moment he released it, the crystal began floating in place.

Then it started to disintegrate.

At the same time, the entire formation began glowing even brighter.

A strange sensation immediately washed over Zerena.

She could feel her body becoming lighter, fresher—almost as if years were being peeled away from her with every passing second.

It was an incredibly strange sensation.

Even Colonel Delgado felt it.

He quickly turned toward the control panel and pressed several buttons.

The wall in front of them suddenly split open from the center, sliding apart like the door of some futuristic spacecraft.

Beyond it was a vast stretch of farmland.

The fields were filled with what appeared to be magical herbs, and Max immediately recognized several of them.

"From what I know, healing mana can accelerate the growth of magical herbs. Can you target those herbs?"

The colonel’s question carried a hint of curiosity.

Max nodded confidently.

The completed construct suddenly lifted from the ground, floating in the middle of the room.Max raised a hand and began controlling it with his mana. The already-charged formation slowly moved into position, hovering above the fields outside.

The personnel tending to the magical herbs immediately noticed it.

Several of them froze.

A few looked alarmed, and some instinctively prepared defensive shields when they saw the enormous glowing construct moving above them.

However, they didn’t actually run.

An order had already been issued by Colonel Delgado, and they had been instructed to remain where they were and continue observing.

Then the formation began to spin.

At first, the rotation was slow.

Then it accelerated.

The various layers moved in perfect synchronization as the entire construct began glowing with a brilliant green light.

Suddenly—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Dozens of small green projectiles shot from the formation at once.