The third layer of my advancement formation was almost complete. It seemed pitifully easy compared to how much I had struggled previously; the improvement to my ability to grow and study was truly amazing.

Half a year ago when I first received the formation, it had been so complex that I barely felt capable of even starting it. Now, I looked at it like it was no more complex than a cube. Everything simply clicked into place.

There were four more days in the week, the end of which would mark my first battles in the summoner division. I wasn’t particularly concerned about how those would go. Like the Puppet Master said, I was the anomaly here. Every other summoner was painfully weak and would fall easily before me.

But I still wanted to be efficient with my time. I was confident that by the end of the week, I would be an Authority 5, but it would still take a bit of time to stabilize myself and find more weapons.

I would be using the week of division battles to adapt to my body more and gather an arsenal. The weaponry I had briefly glimpsed previously would be crucial in the upcoming battles against knights and warlocks.

I didn’t think it would be particularly difficult to find those weapons — there was usually a batch waiting for me with every new dimension. I would need some practice with them though, time to familiarize myself with their operation and usage; imparted knowledge would only take me so far.

I buckled down and focused on comprehending the rest of the advancement formation first. It was easy to pick up the little details with my improved Psyka capabilities, but the sheer volume of information I had to process was what held me back this time. I was tracing out the formation in the air with my Aura and Psyka repeatedly, fine tuning it until it was perfect. Once I finished a section, I would move onto the next, integrating completed chunks with the ever-growing sphere of my formation.

Despite my incredibly thorough processes, it took me six hours to crunch through the formation.

Well past midnight, inside of my room, I sat on a chair near the bed. Umara had curled herself up onto the sheets, reading her own book, her gaze occasionally drawn to me as I worked.

I lounged back into the chair, having propped my feet up on a table, continuing to fine-tune a few more connections in the formation.

After I reached a satisfactory point, I stood up and wiped out all the vague chunks of formation in front of me.

Then, I formed the first layer.

Then the second, which sat on top of the first and interconnected with it via 144 runic lines.

Then the third came, sitting on top of the second and linked in 312 separate places.

Like that, the entire advancement formation was assembled, flashing once I finished drawing the last thread of Aura.

The bed creaked under Umara as she sat back up.

“You completed it?”

“Mm. This is it.”

“...It’s unbelievably complex. I can’t imagine what they’ll look like later.”

“I can’t either. But I just have to work on it bit by bit. I at least know it’s possible to get better and do it.”

“So what now?”

“Now…”

I looked at the formation, the visualization entirely unnecessary as it was present within my mind.

“All I need to do is cultivate this. I’ll sleep on it, and depending on how that goes, tomorrow I should be able to reach the threshold. Then I’ll be going to Maxwell for the advancement.”

“Alright.”

She nodded as I crawled onto the bed, inviting me over and settling with me under the sheets.

My mind was a bit drowsy, but not completely drained. It went to show how much more power I was infused with during the operation.

After that, I went to sleep with her, my night filled with vivid imaginations.

……

The next day passed by in a blur. I didn’t bother going to the Magisterium with Umara, simply training during the day before heading to Maxwell’s study at nightfall.

My dream last night was valuable, like they always were. And although I had finished the formation, that dream had further solidified my understanding.

Not only that, but the Fifth Star within my mind was almost spilling over its threshold. There was already enough Psyka within my body, so now, I just had to cultivate a bit, reach the threshold, and trigger the advancement.

And it would be happening tonight.

I arrived at Maxwell’s study, and it seemed he was already prepared for me. He even had that tempering chair ready and everything.

“You’re ready?”

“Yeah. I’m pumped.”

“Sit in the chair.”

He waved, explaining as I took a seat.

“Although you can only ever temper yourself when you develop another Spark, your mind still opens itself when a new dimension is opened. Thus, every advancement can have what could be considered a mini-tempering. Since your body was recently infused with power that pushed you to your limits, I want to harness some of that and temper you a bit more. Of course, you need to trigger the advancement first. So start doing that. I’ll wait.”

“Cool.”

I nodded and got comfortable. Triggering the advancement was as simple as gathering enough power, a far cry from the processing and visualization I had to perform over the last few days.

Cultivating the advancement formation drew power into my mind and flooded it through the paths and channels of the advancement formation. Now that I knew all of the formation, and since I had already cultivated many of the steps early, I was primed for advancement.

It didn’t even take an hour for the circulation to reach a peak. The stars within my mind that represented chunks of knowledge were all spinning in a whirlpool of space. It was an ocean and it spun around my Spark, increasing the speed of my mind accordingly

It wasn’t blazing fast, but I already knew what speed it was trying to reach. Advancing would bring it up to that significantly faster than my current level.

So I continued to circulate the formation. There was so much power inside of me that it felt almost trivial.

And thus, after only three hours, I reached the threshold.

I felt the Psyka within my mind reaching a tipping point. I had the option to stop here if I wanted to wait for a more opportune moment, but this was exactly the moment. I stood on the edge of the precipice, and I stepped forward.

I felt the tempering device activate at the same time, Maxwell’s probing Aura feeling the exact moment my Star overflowed with power. Right as the Psyka gathered in front of the Fifth Star, I felt a power bear down on my body, forcing even more Psyka into me.

I muttered as the barrier started to break down.

“Yeah, don’t stop.”

“Hm?”

“Keep going. I’m almost there.”

“Please be quiet.”

Maxwell scoffed, making me laugh as the barrier shattered.

Just then, the whirlpool of my mind exploded in speed, a central current around my Spark creating a ring that looked like a blazing river. I could feel my speed of thought increase by what seemed like magnitudes.

Even better, the increased speed-of-thought made it that much easier to process the information I received from the newly opened dimension.

I felt the power of the spirits inside, of a whole other level than the ones from before, of much greater variety in weapons, armor, and tools.

I outright ignored the feelings created by the tempering and the advancement of my mind. After what I went through during the Crown operation, this was nothing. I just concentrated on finding some new weapons.

I projected a drone into the new dimension, finding some weapons that made me break out into a large smile.

Cartridge technology didn’t change much after WW1, so most if not all rifles from America utilized the .30-06 caliber. Even into modern times, it was still a reliable and often-used bullet.

However, all cartridges had to be delivered, and the technology to do that changed drastically as countries around the world prepared for war and utilized the knowledge of experience given to them by WW1.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Thus, the world was finally introduced to the first iterations of automatic infantry rifles, more commonly called the assault rifle.

The first successful fielded assault rifle was developed by Germany and was called the STG 44. It was one of the weapons I found within the dimension and was chambered in 7.92x33mm, a bullet that fell between small and large caliber developed specifically for the assault rifle. The introduction of the intermediate cartridge rifle.

Automatic rifles weren’t new at this time, but nothing quite like the assault rifle had ever made its mark until Germany fielded their own. It was only later after the war when the rest of the western and European countries saw how effective it was that they created their own and made them standard issue. Even the term assault rifle came directly from the STG 44; Sturmgewehr, translated into English, was the weapon category’s namesake.

The rifle that I found within the dimension was the most basic variant without anything more than iron sights, and thus didn’t really come with memories. I could only sense a basic level of information carried by the spirit which detailed the gun itself and its operation. I’d have to delve deeper for the variants to get special memories.

Which was kind of unfortunate. I wanted to see if I could get memories from a German soldier. Those kinds of perspectives would be enlightening.

Another thing I noted was that I was no longer seeing weapons that were strictly made and fielded by America. I had already seen a German flamethrower and the partially European Lewis Gun, so it was apparent that I would have access to a much larger variety; this excited me to no end.

There was nothing quite like German engineering during WW2, after all.

Besides the assault rifle, I found some other weapons like submachine guns, namely the MP 40, which was also German. But I also found a cult classic.

The Tommy Gun!

Once I had my bearings, that was the first weapon I summoned. Within the chair, the Tommy Gun appeared in my hands.

Unfortunately, this variant was one of the early models and thus didn’t have the classic drum magazine. Granted, those were extremely prone to jamming, but I figured that these spirits would theoretically operate perfectly so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. It would make the weapon even more effective, and most importantly, fun.

Remember kids. The first rule of gun safety is to have fun.

Maxwell watched me from the side.

“Is that one of your new spirits?”

“Yeah. This thing is a hell of a gun. I’ll finally be able to complete the gangster look.”

“...What?”

“Nevermind.”

“Hm. Come over here. Let me give you the next formation.”

Maxwell waved as I stood from the seat, the Tommy Gun going back into the dimension as he pulled out an odd crystal object.

“The advancement formation to Authority 6 consists of 3 clusters, each cluster containing 4 formations that interconnect. Each cluster must also connect in a certain order and via specific connections from specific formations. The connections in total exceed 5 thousand, so you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

“...Fuckin’ hell. What is that thing anyway?”

“It’s your advancement formation.”

He held up the crystal ball. After focusing on it with my super vision, I was able to see tons of tiny runic lines and symbols within.

“At a certain point, these things become too complex to simply write on paper. I could fill a booklet with the diagrams necessary to outline the formations, let alone the connections between them. So we summoners utilize these special White Crystal Orbs to contain the information, making it easier to handle. There are projecting devices you can put these Orbs onto which will create an image out of the data. Or you can just stream your Psyka into it and directly handle the information with your mind. It’s your choice. Here.”

He placed a device below the Orb, a cradle that supported the crystal ball and shone a light through it.

Then, in the air appeared what was basically a hologram. It showed me the three clusters as well as each formation within those clusters. It also showed the connections between each cluster and formation.

You could zoom in on specific parts, and it seemed there were diagrams and explanations for each formation and connection to assist in comprehension. Regardless though, there was so much complexity and information that my shoulders ended up dropping in defeat.

“I’m never gonna advance again.”

“This path is much more difficult than the standard, yes. But you’re already more powerful than Authority 8 summoners. Either way, you’re already on this path and can’t turn back, so I suggest you prepare yourself for much worse in the future. Depending on how long it may take you to complete the first formation within the first cluster, I’m estimating at least a year for you to complete this. Perhaps exactly a year, depending on how smart you really are.”

“I mean, I’m not stupid. But this is insane. I mean, how small does this shit get?”

I squinted, my vision zooming in on one of the formations, specifically a dense chunk of lines and runic symbols.

This was the kind of stuff you’d see on a circuit diagram, and not for a simple one either. I’ve seen many before, and this was as complex as the schematic for a CPU.

Sure, there were only 12 formations as compared to the previous 3, but each one was also several times denser. It seriously seemed impossible for me to ever comprehend this.

Maxwell spoke in what seemed like comfort.

“The future will be worse than this, but your next advancement formation actually won’t be that bad, maybe a tiny bit worse than this one. They’re generally equal in complexity. That’s because this needs to lay the foundation for the next one. You’ll start discovering exactly what these advancements are doing to your mind and why as you comprehend this formation. I’m going to be giving you all my notes on these as well, not just so you can perhaps correct any possible errors, but also so you can begin to understand the direction yourself. This will be crucial for your future.”

“Mm. Thanks, I guess. At least now though I get to be a wizard with a crystal ball.”

I took the Orb and projection device, stashing it away. It was at least a lot more convenient than giant sheets of paper.

With that, business was finished.

“Contact me if you find any issues with the formation. Also, you’re getting to the point where Marriage is becoming a viable option. I suggest you consult me before doing so.”

“I mean, Umara and I are doing pretty good, but I think a bit more time would be nice.”

“I meant regarding your summons, you brat. Go on now.”

I laughed as he waved me out. However, I had one more concern.

“Hang on. I have an inquiry.”

“What is it?”

“President Carrion is forcing me to participate in the tournament. I discussed it with the Puppet Master and he says that I should give it an honest try. What do you think?”

“...That’s a difficult situation.”

He frowned.

“John, those nobles are getting to the point where you’re more of an eye sore than they’re willing to put up with. They should begin to make attempts on your life, especially now that you’re going to be leaving the Magisterium soon. They want Umara, and they want you gone. So, an event like the tournament where accidents can happen would be a good place to kill you.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“And you won’t be able to kill them in defense. If a noble were to kill another student, even if they were another noble, nothing much would happen. There might be bad blood, perhaps some compensation and short jail time, but it would end there. You, on the other hand, would be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible by law and put away for only god knows how long. You could kiss your future goodbye, because you’d also probably be killed in jail.

“It would be a great achievement to become the first summoner to ever become the Grand Champion, but you lie in a precarious situation. You need to balance the risk and reward. The safest avenue would be to simply forfeit during the division battles. The most dangerous would be to shoot for the top. It’s up to you, but know that one mistake can be the end of you, especially with how lethal you are.”

“Mm.”

I nodded. I understood more than he did how I would be riding a fine line during those battles. One misplaced shot could kill a warlock, and then I’d be screwed.

Thinking of that, I chuckled.

“Heh, it’s a good thing I got that Crown. It’ll maximize my margin of error.”

“Yes, I suppose that makes it perfectly timed. You’re lucky, so use that. Make your decision, and understand the consequences. If it were up to me, I simply wouldn’t participate. Well, at least now I wouldn’t. Back then, I suppose I was quite reckless like you are.”

“I’m not reckless. I’m just spontaneous.”

“Call it whatever you want, just don’t get killed for it. That’s all I have to say.”

“Sure. Thanks. I’ll at least be careful.”

I waved with that, leaving the study and heading back to the Hotel.

…

When I arrived at my room, I smelled a nice aroma mixed with a healthy dose of smoke.

My brows raised as I turned the corner, looking into the kitchen where Umara was handling a pan with tall flames lashing out of it.

She looked back at me, flustered.

“I-I’m sorry! I don’t know what happened! The fire just got worse when I put water on it!”

“That’s called a grease fire, dear. Did you turn the heat off?”

“Yes…”

“Alright, let me see.”

I walked over and saw that she was attempting to fry something. Whatever it was planned to be, it wasn’t anymore, so I took the pan and grabbed a cap.

Once I quickly clamped down the cap, the flame was smothered and gradually went out.

She looked over, brows raised.

“Huh, that was easy.”

“I’ve taught you this before. What does a flame need to grow?”

“Uh… fuel, heat, and…”

“Oxygen.”

“Yes, that.”

“If a fire doesn’t have one of these things, then it goes out. What I just did was block the flow of air to the fire, smothering it and making it go out. You could do the same with a blanket or a towel.”

I uncapped the pan as I said that, letting all the smoke flow out. It was intensely pungent with my new sense of smell.

Umara nodded.

“I see. So a fire can be put out simply by cutting off oxygen.”

“Most of the time it can, but not always. This one could, and you also could’ve put it out yourself simply by making a vacuum around the pan. That would get rid of all the air and the fire would’ve simply disappeared. Because a flame is what?”

“It’s just a gas undergoing combustion. So wait, can vacuums combat all flames then?”

“Theoretically, most flames that you normally encounter, yes.”

“Hmm…”

She went silent in thought as I started cleaning up.

Once I had cleared most of the filth from the splattering grease, she looked back over.

“Congratulations by the way!”

“Haha, thank you. I’m finally closer to your guys’ level.”

“How big was the advancement?”

“My mind is about… 5 times as fast compared to before? It’s difficult to put a number on it. As for my Psyka capacity, I’m not entirely sure since I’m running low after breaking through to the new dimension. But I’ll know tomorrow.”

“That’s great. Any new weapons?”

“Loads. This tournament is going to be fun.”

I smiled and grabbed any salvageable food that was left. Thankfully this fire had only started after she was almost done with dinner.

Umara sighed while helping set the table.

“I still can’t believe you were forced into the tournament. Then again, you seem like you’re going to have some fun with it.”

“Oh but I am. I got some exotic weapons that my enemies will particularly enjoy.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“You’ll see. I want it to be a surprise.”

I chuckled a bit as we sat down to eat.

Combined with the crystal ball, I would have weapons that would really make me seem like a wizard. Maybe people would start questioning if I was actually a warlock.

For now though, I decided that I wouldn’t bother trying to start the next formation. It was time to focus on other things that would actually help me, like training and searching for more weapons.

Which is what was on my mind when it came time to go to sleep. Well, that and how Umara and I smothered each other with our tongues for about an hour before going to sleep.