"Iris, you can start chanting now. Once you finish, hold the mana and wait for my command."
"Okay."
Iris began chanting.
As Leon spoke, he cast a spell.
As mana gathered in his palm, a huge, convex, transparent ice crystal—eight meters wide—appeared in the air a dozen meters away.
It was an enlarged convex lens, created at the cost of 4 mana.
Leon's "secret weapon" was simply a piece of knowledge even elementary school kids knew in his previous life: a magnifying glass can focus light to ignite objects.
That convex lens had been created by combining Water Ball, Water Purification, and Freeze.
Water Ball cost 1 mana. Water Purification cost 1. Freeze cost 2.
Water Ball formed a sphere and shaped it into a convex-lens form.
Water Purification removed dust and air impurities inside, preventing bubbles from forming during freezing and reducing transparency.
The extra mana in Freeze was mainly to ensure rapid, uniform freezing.
If the inside and outside froze at different rates, ice streaks would form and ruin the lens's clarity.
In short: if the lens wasn't transparent enough, the moment Iris's high-heat light hit it, it would melt before refraction could happen.
So transparency was the top priority.
Also, Leon had already used spare time over the past few days to calculate the lens's thickness, angle, and distance. The current position and angle were the result of seven days of careful calculation.
If there were still small errors on the spot, he could fine-tune the ice lens's angle and thickness with magic.
"Iris—aim your compressed light ring at my transparent ice crystal. Now!"
Iris didn't understand Leon's intention, but she followed orders immediately—swinging her staff and releasing Light Radiance.
The moment the high-heat ring struck the ice crystal, something astonishing happened.
A highly concentrated beam of light suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the lens and landed on the castle wall over a hundred meters away. The wall instantly glowed red-hot and melted into liquid.
Szzzt—!!
White steam rose.
Leon frowned slightly—so the angle was still off. It hadn't hit the target directly. He immediately adjusted the convex lens's angle in the air.
"Iris—hold your position. Don't move."
As the lens tilted, the high-heat beam snapped onto the man-eating flower's main body.
But because the flower had already noticed Iris's wind-up, its vines had been raised in advance to shield the core—so the beam struck vines first.
Szzzt—!!
In a single instant, the vines were pierced clean through.
This concentrated heat was more than ten times fiercer than the previous light ring.
Even though the beam's coverage had shrunk to only about the size of a fist, the destructive power was terrifying.
The light didn't stop. It continued into the body behind the vines—especially the thick club-like stamen, which ignited instantly, bursting into flame.
The man-eating flower screamed. Its body convulsed violently. Countless tiny mouths opened across the bloom as it sprayed fine spores into the distance.
But the lingering heat from the prior blast was still in the air. Many spores—no bigger than fingernails—caught fire the moment they flew out and vanished midair.
And as Leon continued fine-tuning the lens angle, the beam kept burning and carving through other parts of the flower.
Anything in the way melted.
After repeated exposure, the plant was finally ignited completely.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
A towering flame rose.
Amid frenzied shrieks and screams, the flower's body was gradually burned hollow, collapsing into large charred chunks that scattered everywhere.
The sight left Iris stunned.
Compressing Light Radiance down to a fist-sized beam… produced a result this absurd?
That transparent ice crystal had "compressed" her light—something that normally took her tremendous effort—so easily?
And in under ten seconds, it killed a fourth-tier monster?
Sure, that was partly because they'd weakened it for seven days and had just dealt it a huge blow.
But still… the final strike felt almost too easy.
In that moment, Leon's mysterious aura in Iris's eyes grew even deeper.
Crack-pop.
The ice crystal finally couldn't withstand the heat, melted completely, and fell to the ground.
"Iris, you can stop maintaining Light Radiance now."
Hearing that, Iris slowly stopped feeding mana into it.
Unlike the previous time—when she had to sustain it for over twenty seconds—this attack lasted only about ten, so she still had plenty of room to spare.
"Leon… was that some special magic just now? How could you compress my Light Radiance out of thin air?"
"Simply put," Leon said, "when light passes through different mediums, it refracts differently. My spell uses a convex shape to focus your light into a single point."
This time Iris vaguely understood.
Unlike Leon's earlier explanations, this involved her own field. She had seen similar phenomena before.
"So… light refracts through different materials, and by controlling the shape of the medium, you can control how the light converges?"
She felt an "aha" moment.
Even her previous struggles with spell imagery suddenly gained new clarity.
"Nice expression," Leon said, smiling. "Looks like you truly get it this time. And judging by your face, you also have a better idea now of how to keep compressing Light Radiance?"
"I have to admit," Iris said, her gemstone-yellow eyes sparkling, "you really are talented. I got a lot of inspiration."
In that moment she felt that Leon was someone who became more comfortable the longer you stayed with him.
So… should she still doubt him? Still keep her guard up?
She hesitated.
[Iris Affection +2%. Current Affection: 76%]
Talented?
Leon smiled modestly. Stand on a giant's shoulders and you'll look talented too.
Next, it was time to harvest loot.
He pulled Iris—who was still lost in building new spell imagery in her mind—toward the castle, eating meat to replenish as they walked.
Even now, Leon stayed cautious—three steps forward, ten steps of observation—just in case the plant had a final trick.
They reached the castle without incident and looked at the charred remains scattered across the ground.
All around, blackened vine chunks lay everywhere—leftovers from the week-long battle.
After a moment of observation, Leon leapt onto the outer wall of the castle, and Iris hurried to follow.
Soon, the two stood at the castle's highest point, surveying the remains.
Even if it was a "weak monster," it had still been fourth-tier—there should be plenty of valuable parts left.
Leon searched for a while and, from the largest chunk, found a root-stalk segment faintly glowing red.
"This… feels familiar."
Staring at it, Leon had the sense he'd seen it before, but couldn't recall what it was.
Iris crouched and looked carefully—then suddenly slapped her forehead.
"I know what it is!"
~~~
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