18 Chapter 18

Yuuki Kagurazaga.

"Haah, another interesting one finished," Yuuki said as he laid lazily on the sofa in his office. He had been lounging like this for the past week, delegating all his work to his secretary, Kagali, who found Yuuki's actions weird.

He closed the book he had been reading, ready to put it down on the ground near him.

Turning his gaze to the table, he realized, "Ah, I've finished all of them already?" Yuuki tilted his head to the side before noticing a book left on the table.

For some reason, the book emitted an ominous aura. Unlike the rest of the sacred texts that had covers, this one had a black cover, and it also looked bigger than the rest.

Stretching his hand towards the table, Yuuki reached for the book, reading the words on the cover.

[Forbidden Sacred Text (Prototype).]

"..." Yuuki took a moment to think about it. But then, upon reading the title of this particular book, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Hahaha. What an interesting choice of wording," he muttered to himself, his left hand covering his mouth.

"Prototype, huh? Then it's not completed?" he muttered again with a smile. With a casual shrug, he flipped the page open.

[Warning.]

[The following contains explicit content. Viewer discretion advised.]

Written on the first page was a warning, boldly written in red letters. Seeing this only made Yuuki more curious.

Among the sacred texts Igarashi had given him were mostly shounen with more than six volumes' worth of content for each sacred text.

"Hmm?" Yuuki pondered again whether he should proceed or not, but then curiosity got the better of him.

[You probably ignored the warning on the first page.]

[However—]

[The following contains explicit content. Viewer discretion advised.]

[Turn back while you can.]

"..." Yuuki didn't say anything as he just straight up ignored it, flipping to the third page.

After all, what was the worst Igarashi could concoct?

Since the book was a prototype, it might contain something interesting after all. Plus, with the two pages of warnings... something interesting was bound to happen.

That's what the grandmaster thought to himself as he flipped to the next page.

Unlike the other two pages, the third page featured an image: the small letter "n" with red bat wings on either side of it, set against a black background. Underneath that logo were the words:

[Abandon hope, all ye who opens this book.]

Chills ran down the grandmaster's back for some reason. He couldn't tell nor understand where this feeling was coming from. However, he had an inkling that there was no going back.

"What am I thinking?" Yuuki muttered to himself. For some reason, those thoughts just popped into his head, which was strange to say the least. "It's not an effect of a skill too..."

His voice trailed off as he looked around his office before returning his gaze to the book, analyzing it. "Doesn't look like any spells have been cast on the book too."

"Interesting." After rethinking his decision, Yuuki shrugged his shoulders. "Well, there's only one thing left to do." He was already pretty interested in this "forbidden sacred text" too.

With a playful smile on his face, Yuuki flipped to the next page and read the title.

[Act one:]

[Metamorphosis.]

—With Igarashi.

After several days of preparations, there was barely anything to do, as Igarashi no longer needed to go to work. He was busy preparing to open his own business.

His papers had been approved by the church, along with the content of said business. All he needed was a letter of response from the grandmaster to send him supplies.

The layout or blueprint of the café was pretty much in his head, thanks to his library and memories from his previous world. With those, he was able to project the blueprint of his café.

Seeing as there wasn't anything for him to do, he began continuing his study of magic, especially one new spell of his. Acquiring the extra skill "[All of Creation]" only made his work easier.

"That said... my magic power is absurdly low," Igarashi complained in a low mutter, resting his back against the couch in his small makeshift living room.

However, Igarashi planned on using magic stones from monsters as a catalyst for now. Though he didn't have much faith in it, he didn't even know if it would work or not.

Shizu also proposed another alternative to him, which was to receive the blessings of spirits. However, he kept that behind him for the time being; it was for when everything was settled.

Igarashi compared using his [flame manipulation] extra skill with casting a newly created ice magic spell. There was a noticeable difference in the consumption of magic power between the two.

When using his extra skill, depending on the output, it could last for several minutes before he was drained. However, he hadn't yet gotten used to the magic power consumption when casting a spell.

"And now... imagery as well as knowledge of the principle of how it works is required," Igarashi muttered to himself as he sat up, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. "Chants are cheesy."

Unlike normal spells, Igarashi had come up with his own way of casting magic. The magic formula and sequence casting were stored as information in an archive where he could recall them at any time.

As long as he had enough magic power to cast and support said spells, Igarashi could cast a number of spells at the same time without pause or stop.

"Ugh... I don't really want to do this, but..." Igarashi swallowed, as if he had eaten something bitter. "... Haah..." He shook his head before inhaling a large amount of air, then exhaling. "Write."

"Ender of things, wolf of ice, lend me your breath. Freeze them to a silence deeper than death."

Glyph-like writings appeared in the air with each line he spoke, and as the chants finished, the glyphs turned into a blue magic circle.

After materializing for a few seconds, the blue magic circle caused the temperature around him to drop slightly, before fading away, with the room returning to its normal temperature as Igarashi opened his eyes.

"..." After a few seconds of silence, "Ugh... This is cringe." Igarashi laid his head on the couch, wanting to bury his head deep within.

However, it was a success. Although he initially intended to cast an icicle lance or arrow, he thought against it as it had essentially become an air conditioning spell.

Plus, he also did it this way to understand something.

"I see. It's that simple, huh? For this world, it is just as simple as trying to take away heat," Igarashi said, sitting back up and tapping his head in understanding. "While to my understanding, it's about reducing temperature."

"But then there are differences and similarities—"

"—Taking away heat from an object is just transferring the thermal energy away from it, causing the temperature to decrease."

"But reducing the temperature is about reducing the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a substance." As if becoming enlightened, Igarashi muttered in realization before shaking his head.

"Ahh, I guess I'm the only one that bothers about this nonsense," Igarashi shrugged before standing up from his couch.