May stood in the doorway, witnessing the lightshow put on by Jacob's enchantment. While she didn't actually know much about magic, it was still amazing to see it in action.
And, looking directly at the void gauntlet, she could see the faint but unmistakable shimmer of holy fire.
He managed to create a weapon for that dungeon on the first try, she thought to herself; it seems he is getting better at making new things. Perhaps they will be able to clear a D-rank dungeon without needing guild assistance after all. But his magic—I don't recall ever seeing anyone that talented outside the academies.
Jacob turned toward the doorway, the lingering satisfaction on his face shifting into a mild, smug surprise as he noticed his mother standing there. He hadn't heard her approach over the hum of his mana as it settled into the gauntlet fully, but a wide smile quickly spread across his face, happy to share the moment of accomplishment with her.
He didn't even know for certain if the enchantment was fully functional yet. Honestly, he was just excited that the complex combination of runes and cores had not exploded in his face during the fusion process.
Reaching out, he picked up the modified Void Gauntlet and slid his hand inside. As soon as his fingers settled into place, the cold metal shifted and contracted, forming perfectly to his hand as if it had been forged specifically for him thanks to one of the secondary enchantments he imbued it with.
Taking a deep breath, he channeled a pulse of mana into the metal to activate the primary enchantment.
Without the need for a buildup or charge of energy, a radiant golden glow bloomed from the runic arrays.
The light looked and felt completely different from his standard spells.
It carried a strange warmth, and as the radiance washed over him, Jacob could feel a subtle but noticeable surge of strength coursing through his muscles.
He looked up at his mother, his own eyes reflecting the powerful golden illumination pouring from his palm. His gaze held a silent, hopeful question.
May met his eyes and offered a firm nod, her warm smile confirming what he already felt. He had succeeded.
A laugh of relief and fatigue escaped Jacob. He quickly deactivated the runes, pulled the heavy gauntlet off, and set it carefully on his desk.
Closing the distance between them, he ran over and wrapped his arms around May in a tight, triumphant hug.
She returned the embrace with equal warmth, patting his back proudly before stepping away.
"Go on, now," she said, her tone full of fond encouragement. "Go find your friends and let them know."
Jacob burst out the back door after picking up the gauntlet and sprinted toward the training field, eager to share his success. He slowed to a halt at the edge of the dirt ring, taking in the chaotic scene before him. Oren, Thomas, and Mira were currently getting absolutely thrashed by the lieutenant.
Despite the dirt smudged across their faces and the sweat soaking their clothes, the three of them wore expressions of grim determination.
They were coordinating their strikes and attacking with everything they had, looking as if they were really trying to land a lethal blow on the seasoned soldier.
Durand's training methodology apparently involved letting them try their best to kill him, only to ruthlessly counter by bashing them away with the flat of his broadsword or the heavy back of his armored gauntlet.
Jacob watched as Thomas lunged forward with a fierce shout, only for Durand to casually deflect the strike and knock the boy off his feet with a swift backhand.
Jacob was not the least bit worried for the lieutenant's safety. In fact, Durand was the only one on the field with an actual smile on his face.
The veteran soldier let out a booming laugh as he effortlessly sidestepped a combined sword and dagger strike from Mira and Oren.
Moving with terrifying speed, Durand grabbed the two of them by their collars and tossed them across the compact dirt of the training field like sacks of wheat.
Seeing Jacob approach with a cheerful and undeniable energy, Durand lowered his weapon and raised a hand, signaling a halt to the grueling session.
"Take a break," the lieutenant ordered, his breathing completly even compared to the ragged gasping of his students. "Catch your breath. It looks like our young mage friend has something important to share."
Oren, Thomas, and Mira collapsed into the dirt, gratefully sucking in air as they watched Jacob jog up to the group.
Arthur, having noticed the sudden pause in the chaos, walked over from the edge of the yard to see what had his son so riled up.
Jacob didn't waste any time.
He quickly explained his success in the house, detailing the intricate fusion of the fire core and the light runes within the void gauntlet, and how it now produced actual holy fire.
Durand listened intently, nodding as Jacob laid out the mechanics of the new artifact. But his eyes knit in concern for a moment before he spoke up.
"If what you say is true," Durand rumbled, crossing his arms over his armored chest, "and that gauntlet can reliably produce holy fire to diminish the boss's power, then taking it on could be a good challenge."
He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Assuming, of course, you all still feel up to it by the time you clear the third floor. I personally have my reservations, as your parents and I have previously stated; clearing the third floor should be the goal before delving further for at least another day. However, if the lot of you thinks you're ready, then it's your call."
The exhausted teens on the ground exchanged hopeful glances, however, Durand wasn't finished.
"But!" The veteran soldier continued, his voice dropping into a dangerous, commanding register as he locked eyes with the young mage. "Before I allow my charge to walk into a potentially life-threatening situation against a boss, I want to see exactly how well you can handle yourself against an opponent who is definitely out of your league."
A sudden hush fell over the training yard. All eyes shifted between the towering soldier and the young mage.
Instead of backing down, a confident grin spread across Jacob's face.
Durand answered the smile by slowly drawing his broadsword, the steel producing a ring that cut through the quiet air.
Seeing the immediate shift in tension, the kids remained seated in the dirt, shifting their weight to get a better view of the impending clash.
Arthur, however, took one look at the lieutenant's readied stance and wisely retreated a very reasonable distance toward the porch as the fighting began.
It seemed he knew this fight was bound to get messy, and he would rather not get caught up in such an altercation quite yet.
Durand closed the distance faster than Jacob could even comprehend. Acting on pure instinct, Jacob cast a kinetic dampening field around himself, hoping to blunt the assault.
It didn't matter.
Durand's blade sliced clean through the magical barrier with minimal resistance, the flat of the heavy steel slamming brutally into the enchanted armor Jacob still wore from the dungeon.
The runic enchantments flared brightly as the sheer force launched Jacob backward, but Durand didn't relent, immediately sprinting after the airborne boy.
The brief distance finally gave Jacob the room he needed to cast.
Instead of trying to pull the massive man down with brute force, he sent his mana low, grabbing Durand's ankles and violently yanking them toward each other.
That slight, clever deviation from a standard binding spell threw off the militiaman's balance, causing him to trip and fall into a forward roll.
Jacob seized the moment, activating his flight spell to launch himself higher into the air and gain some precious altitude.
Durand popped up from his roll seamlessly and launched into a powerful vertical lunge.
However, Jacob was safely above his previous position.
The lieutenant's eyes tracked the boy, but he was unable to adjust the trajectory of his strike mid-air.
Capitalizing on the miss, Jacob hit the man with a massive blast of concentrated wind.
The concussive force actually caused the heavy soldier to slide back a couple of feet as the dirt gave way beneath his boots.
Before Durand could adjust his footing, Jacob reached out with his mana and asked the earth beneath the militiaman to pull him under.
The solid ground gave way, swallowing Durand down to his knees before Jacob solidified it once more.
Jacob barely had time to register the success before the man simply exploded upward, shattering the solid ground holding him and leaping directly at the hovering mage.
Panic spiked in Jacob's chest.
He hastily conjured a volatile explosion of air and fire to blast the man away, but the militiaman's sword blurred, literally cutting through the expanding magic.
A heavy, calloused hand grabbed Jacob right out of the air, dragging him down as they wrestled toward the dirt.
Just before his shoulders hit the ground to be pinned, Jacob frantically spun up a third enhancement spell.
The earth ruptured, sending a burst of molten lava surging straight toward Durand's chest.
With a surprised grunt, the soldier was forced to release his grip on Jacob to defend himself. This gave Jacob a moment of reprieve, and he shot away the moment he was free, his mind racing as he prepared another complex spell.
He merged water magic with the elusive lightning magic he had struggled to master.
By using the water as a conductive bridge, he could amplify and carry the weak sparks he could normally only project about a meter from his body.
He unleashed an unassuming gout of water that thoroughly doused the recovering lieutenant, followed instantly by a sharp crack of electricity that surged through the liquid.
Durand stiffened as the current coursed over his soaked armor, which began to steam violently.
As Durand was momentarily shocked, Jacob realized that he had just electrolyzed water and snapped his fingers, causing a tiny spark to immediately appear before Durand's eyes.
In less than a moment, Durand was able to wonder what the spark was for before all of what he assumed was steam exploded violently around him.
For a fraction of a second, Jacob thought he had won. Then, a dangerous gleam Jacob was unable to see appeared in the lieutenant's eye, hidden behind the flash of flames.
Before Jacob could even blink, the world spun, and he suddenly found himself face down in the dirt with one arm pinned firmly behind his back.
"I didn't think you would be able to actually make me use a system skill," Durand said, his breathing only slightly elevated as he released his hold and offered a hand to help the boy to his feet.
The man was free from any sort of soot or injury, as if the electrocution and explosion had no effect on him.
Jacob wiped the dirt from his face, the sound of loud cheering pulling his attention toward the edge of the field.
His friends were celebrating the spectacular showing, and Arthur was standing nearby with a wide, proud smile on his face.
But as Jacob's gaze drifted past his father toward the house, his own smile faltered. May was standing on the porch, glaring at the two of them with fury in her eyes.
Following her line of sight, Jacob finally looked around, his stomach dropping as he truly took in the smoldering, cratered, and waterlogged destruction their brief fight had inflicted on her yard.
Despite his fatigue and low mana levels, Jacob quickly started manipulating the smoldering earth to retreat back deep into the ground while letting the good dirt fill the holes he and Durand had created.
Seeing the young mage act weirdly, the lieutenant looked at the porch as well to see a less furious, but still indignant May watching Jacob put the yard back together.
He did the smart thing and started helping shift the soil and dirt patches back to how they should be for Jacob to stamp and compact them back into training-appropriate footholds.
Jacob's friends quickly picked up on the problem and started helping while Arthur walked up to the porch to comfort May.
"I know they're going to make a mess from time to time, sweetheart," May said to Arthur as he began to hug her, "I just wanted to make sure they didn't leave it that way before they ran off to their dungeons or tinkering projects."
Grinning widely, Arthur wrapped May into his arms as they looked at Jacob and his friends working with the lieutenant to put the training field back together.
With a heavy huff, Jacob dropped down onto the freshly packed earth he had just repaired.
Closing his eyes, he focused inward and activated his mana replenishment skill. Almost immediately, a warm and refreshing sensation washed over his exhausted core, accompanied by the familiar chiming prompt of the system in his mind.
System Notice: Mana Flux 2 --> 3
His mana replenishment skill had just advanced from level two to level three.
As Jacob caught his breath, Arthur left the porch as May went back inside, and the rest of his friends finally closed the distance with dirt and dust on their hands and feet, gathering around the seated mage and the slightly winded lieutenant.
It seemed the work on the yard had taken more energy out of him than all the training he did with the kids.
Durand sheathed his broadsword and turned to address the small crowd, wiping a bit of dust off his cheek with the back of his armored hand.
He looked down at Jacob with an expression of respect on his rugged face. "I'm deeply impressed," he admitted, his voice carrying over the quiet field. "Your reactions are incredibly sharp, Jacob. Your ability to weave and manipulate magic mid-combat is something I rarely see in mages twice your age. And silent casting all of them to boot. I would think you were academy-trained if I didn't know better."
The lieutenant then shifted his gaze to Oren, clapping a heavy hand on his apprentice's shoulder. "After seeing that display," Durand said with a confident nod, "and knowing what you all are capable of when you coordinate, I think with some solid teamwork, you will be more than fine taking on that boss."