Yanan Calendar, fifteenth of May, early morning.
Colin, as usual, went to the True Knowledge Society's laboratory.
Today, the sky was gloomy—heavy gray-black lead clouds obscured all sunlight, and the slight chill of spring turned into a fine drizzle, which felt somewhat bleak.
Just a few steps out of the door, he didn't see a single public carriage; the hurried steps of wizards were visible everywhere on the streets.
Most of the wizards didn't carry umbrellas, or rather, they used protective witchcraft against the rain.
Boom!
Suddenly, a dull sound came from not far away.
A burst of loud noises and shouting faintly reached him.
Colin paused in his steps, vaguely hearing words like "Law Enforcement Team," "violation of management regulations."
He shook his head, took a few fast steps forward, and stopped a public carriage that just came by.
"Giddy up!"
The carriage sped away and soon arrived at the True Knowledge Society.
Colin stepped down from the carriage and looked toward a residence not far away, where in the gloomy sky, wizards from the Law Enforcement Team were suspended in midair.
Apart from the sounds he heard before stopping the carriage and now seeing the Law Enforcement Team, on his way here in the carriage, Colin had also seen two similar scenes.
This was the Law Enforcement Team conducting searches according to the decree issued on the twelfth—targeting Wandering Wizards.
The wizards in the Law Enforcement Team used specially made Witch Tools that could detect Magic Power fluctuations and Ability Levels—after all, even if wizards concealed their aura perfectly during research, unless they used Magic Stones for power throughout, it was inevitable that they would need to consume Magic Power.
And as long as there was a consumption of Magic Power, it would be detected.
Even though a small number of wizards could avoid such detection by using Magic Stones throughout, it didn't matter much, firstly because only a few wizards had the conditions to do so, and secondly, as per Colin's observation, the Law Enforcement Team wasn't enforcing this regulation too strictly; what they needed seemed to be more about overall control.
In fact, such search operations had started yesterday. If a Wandering Wizard was found not to have reported, or to have reported false information, they would be sternly warned by the Law Enforcement Team.
Although there was no substantial punishment, Colin felt that such search operations were somewhat unreasonable.
After all, the decree had just been issued two days ago; logically, there should be at least a week's time to report.
Considering the peculiarities of wizards, it was normal for them to not go out or see anyone for a week sometimes, due to studying or learning new witchcraft.
Unfortunately, no one would consider the opinions of Wandering Wizards.
Converging his thoughts, Colin quickly walked into True Knowledge Castle and went to the laboratory to continue his research for the day.
After Limit Breaking his Frost Talent, the enhancement he received was tremendous, even transforming in nature.
This transformation was not only evident in the far stronger Frost attacks that Colin could now casually execute, which were almost at the Middle Ability Level of First Rank witchcraft, but also in his finer control over Frost powers.
It was somewhat like learning art in a previous life, where some people just use colors more accurately and beautifully.
Since the Limit Breaking of his Frost Talent, Colin suddenly felt an enlightenment in his witchcraft research.
The originally unstable Ice Elements suddenly became stable, and some barriers that interfered with the formation of Combined Witchcraft were naturally resolved without him deliberately overcoming them.
But in reality, nothing else had changed.
It could only be said that some things indeed didn't benefit from mere effort, which was true for many aspects of life; talent might be more important.
All in all, he had now overcome the most critical issue in combining the Black Mist Net with Summoning Ice Elements—the combination of Silent Shadow and Ice Elements.
Next, he just needed to methodically perfect the remaining parts to successfully create a new witchcraft that initially combined the two!
And now it was already the fifteenth of May, and actually, most of the remaining parts had already been resolved. Colin estimated that, barring any accidents, by this evening, he might just successfully construct a preliminary version!
In this way, time flew by in focus, the rain gradually stopped, and the clouds slowly dispersed, but what was revealed was an already pitch-black night sky.
Inside the True Knowledge Society's laboratory.
Colin let out a deep exhale, straightening up from the laboratory table.
He twisted his neck, then slowly closed his eyes, carefully reconstructing in his mind the new Magic Model he had just designed.
"It seems… it's complete?"
Moments later, Colin opened his eyes, still feeling a bit surreal.
This time, the model seemed to have no flaws, and the simulation ran without any bugs…
After thinking it over, he prompted with his mind and summoned the Golden Paper.
Pale golden particles slowly gathered in front of him.
On the Golden Paper, the black characters of Black Mist Net and Summoning Ice Elements were already blurring together, seeing this.
Finally, Colin truly felt a genuine sensation, a surge of uncontrollable joy bursting in his heart!
Indeed, it was often like this.
When you crossed a hill, reaching a destination, at the moment of completion, there wasn't an overwhelming passion but rather a tranquility that everything was falling into place. Often, looking back later, when those trickling streams merged into a tumultuous rush in the heart, a deeper feeling emerged.
Joy that could not be concealed climbed onto Colin's face, and he continued with another prompt in his mind.
The blurred characters on the Golden Paper, formed from the combination of Black Mist Net and Summoning Ice Elements, gradually became clear, finally setting into— Elemental Net!