Chapter 2

However, very soon, Lin Yun put these matters behind him and shifted his attention to the strength of this body, which was what he truly cared about.

The twenty-odd years of survival in the post-apocalyptic world had made Lin Yun almost fanatically superstitious about magical power. Without it, Lin Yun might not have been able to survive for even an hour in that era, with fierce sand beasts, omnipresent high temperatures, and deadly void storms, any of which could easily cause his death.

What kept Lin Yun alive in that era was not a superior family background or a promising future, but the genuine magical power he truly mastered.

Lin Yun did not care about the predicament of this body, nor did he care about the debts owed. In the end, it was still the strength of a 9th-level magic apprentice that was not enough. If Mafa Merlin were a great mage, who would dare to come to him with a contract worth 8,000 gold coins? Not to mention 8,000 gold coins, even 80,000 gold coins wouldn't matter; if you were willing to pay, there would have to be someone brave enough to accept it...

After a thorough examination, Lin Yun found that this young man named Mafa Merlin was actually quite good. Although the identity of a 9th-level magic apprentice was not worth mentioning, his foundation was quite solid. Probably due to his diligence, his mana accumulation had long reached the critical point of forming a magic vortex. The reason he had not yet advanced to a mage was merely because his control over his own mana was not sufficient enough.

This made things much simpler...

During the twenty-odd years in the post-apocalyptic world, Lin Yun was constantly thinking about how to extract more mana and how to use every bit of mana in the most critical places. Over the years, Lin Yun's control over mana had reached an almost unimaginable height.

In fact, not just Lin Yun, but in that era of mana scarcity, every mage was like this. They could withstand the lethal radiation of void storms and survive for days and nights in scorching deserts, all for the sake of extracting a tiny bit of pitiful mana from the void.

Lin Yun, who grew up in such an environment, had a mana control ability far surpassing that of the mages of this era. What Mafa Merlin could not do was nothing to Lin Yun.

Lin Yun spent about ten minutes to familiarize himself with this new body.

After ten minutes, Lin Yun was confident that his understanding of this body was no less than that of Mafa Merlin himself. He then began to mobilize the mana. The mana, which was already accumulated in large amounts, flowed like water under Lin Yun's powerful control...

At first, this flow was gentle and soothing, like a trickling stream. But as Lin Yun continued to mobilize, the mana began to boil and surge restlessly, eventually turning into a surging river, roaring and churning, constantly impacting this new body.

For ordinary magic apprentices, this was the most dangerous moment. If the surging mana lost control, it would instantly consume the magic apprentice. At best, the mana would disperse, and they would have to start accumulating again; at worst, they would lose the hope of forming a magic vortex for life.

This was also why there were many magic apprentices, but very few who truly became mages. Like Mafa Merlin, who had been stuck at the 9th-level magic apprentice stage for three years, he never dared to take that risky step.

But Lin Yun had no such problem...

Lin Yun's control ability was too strong. He didn't need to do anything deliberately; he just pushed the mana to its limit, letting it surge like a flood, and his body would naturally control everything. The surging mana, though seemingly violent, always followed the trajectory set by Lin Yun.

In just a blink, a magic vortex formed within Lin Yun.

Once a magic apprentice reached this stage, they basically had the qualifications to wear that black robe. As long as they spent a little more time to stabilize the magic vortex, they could be considered to have achieved perfection and smoothly joined the ranks of mages.

But Lin Yun had no intention of stopping. It was as if he didn't even know the magic vortex had formed. The mana, which was already near its limit, was forcibly increased again. The newly formed magic vortex, which was already extremely fragile, instantly burst like a bubble under the nearly overloaded mana impact...

Lin Yun was not at all anxious. He just continued to mobilize the mana, forming the magic vortex in that brutal way, and then letting it burst under the overloaded mana impact...

This cycle, which would make any mage gape in astonishment, continued for more than ten times. The fragile magic vortex finally stabilized.

When Lin Yun could no longer make it burst with mana, he satisfiedly sent a stream of mana into the vortex. The originally quiet magic vortex began to slowly rotate, endlessly and ceaselessly. As Lin Yun raised his hand, countless magic runes surged from his hand, and a powerful magic fluctuation instantly filled the room, even making the air seem to hum with a "buzzing" sound...

Even the most picky mage would have to admit that this was a nearly perfect magic vortex, with astonishing endurance and terrifying explosive power, comparable to that of a top-tier mage. More incredibly, the formation time of this magic vortex was just a few minutes...

In this era, only Lin Yun could achieve this.

Because it would take many years before the mana control abilities of many mages reached a new height, and they would then try to form magic vortices using this method. They would discover that this seemingly brutal method not only allowed the magic vortex to form quickly but also possessed endurance and explosive power that were previously unattainable. After more than a hundred years of refinement, they would achieve Lin Yun's current near-cheating performance.

Waving away the flying magic runes, Lin Yun was about to further refine the magic vortex when he suddenly heard a voice from outside...

"This is clearly written in black and white. My dear cousin took 8,000 gold coins from me before he set sail. Now that he has ruined his business, you must give me an explanation for these 8,000 gold coins. Of course, I, Farrio, am not unreasonable. I know you don't have much money now. How about this, this house is the only thing of value you have left. I'll take a loss and give you 10,000 gold coins for it. This way, you can pay off my debt and still have 2,000 gold coins left..."

The distant voice was hoarse and broken, sounding like a droning drake. Lin Yun, who was thinking about how to improve the magic vortex, was bombarded by this noise, and his mood was naturally not good...

"Just a debt collector, do you have to be so excited..." Lin Yun gritted his teeth and cursed, already considering whether to go out and twist the drake's neck.

But before Lin Yun could make up his mind, the drake came in on its own. The door was pushed open with a "bang," and a fat man weighing about 300 pounds stumbled in, followed by an old man in his sixties. The two were pulling and tugging, seemingly arguing about something.

"Let go, I told you to let go, you old man, Pavio. Don't think that just because I'm polite to you, you can act recklessly. You need to understand, you're just a butler, and you don't have the authority to make decisions here!"

"Farrio, you know very well what those 8,000 gold coins are. They were a gift from the master. Did you ever contribute a single copper coin? Now that the master is gone, you want to seize his property. Do you have any shame?" The old man clung to Farrio's sleeve, his face flushed red with anger, and his fingers almost poking Farrio's face: "I tell you, Farrio, unless I, old Pavio, am dead, you won't get this house!"

"Old man, are you threatening me?" The fat man, reminded of past events, became furious: "I tell you, you better understand your place. If you act recklessly in front of me, I'll..."

"Careful, what will you do?" Lin Yun, who was watching from the side, asked curiously.

"Careful, I..." The threat was only half-spoken when Farrio suddenly paused, realizing that the response did not come from the old butler but from his nephew, who was supposedly on the path to becoming a mage.

Farrio had always been dismissive of such claims. Could that kid really become a mage? Hadn't he spent a fortune from the family in recent years? Did he show any signs of becoming a mage?

Now, it was even more unlikely. After his father, Rog Merlin, died, what had he done besides begging for an extension to pay the debt? If he had the ability to become a mage, would he need to beg so humbly?