'Oddly enough, it looks like the guards are quite relaxed these days.'

Nero noted as he looked at the guards stationed as they immediately let them in without even asking them, unlike the first time he went inside multiple dungeons with Velraeth and Frila.

This time, the A-rank dungeon entrance looked like someone had stabbed reality in the gut and left it bleeding.

Crimson Depths… a A-tier dungeon that has yet another rumored corrupted SR-monster at the bottom of the floor.

*Shhhhsss…*

Crimson mist leaked out in thick ribbons that smelled like copper and burnt ozone.

Bad news for most people.

Perfect for testing experimental magic.

Nero cracked his knuckles, grinning at the wound in space like it owed him money.

Luna stood to his left, pink hair catching the weird light bleeding from the dungeon's mouth.

Her heterochromic eyes gleamed with the kind of academic hunger that suggested she'd already calculated 17 ways this could go catastrophically wrong and found all of them fascinating.

Aurelia flanked his right, white wings folded but radiating the casual threat of a nuclear warhead on standby.

"No swords today."

Nero's announcement made Aurelia's eyebrow climb toward her hairline with practiced skepticism.

He patted Dawnbreaker's hilt apologetically.

"Just magic today, bud. Teacher Luna's been teaching me some theories about elemental fusion that sound absolutely insane on paper, and I want to see if they work on something that fights back."

"You've studied and practiced quite some magic for a few days," Luna pointed out, though her tone carried more curiosity than actual criticism. "Most mages spend years mastering single-element control before attempting fusion techniques."

"Yeah, well."

Nero's grin showed entirely too many teeth.

"I'm a fast learner. And you're a ridiculously good teacher… even if you threaten to turn me into a frog every other lesson."

Luna's cheeks colored slightly.

"That was one time! And you deserved it for calling my theoretical framework 'cute!'"

"It was cute," Nero insisted, already walking toward the dungeon entrance before she could summon something to throw at him. "All those little diagrams and annotations in the margins? Adorable."

"... I will end you," Luna hissed, following anyway because the alternative was missing whatever insane magical experiment he was about to perform.

Aurelia's faint smile at the side suggested she found the entire ruckus entertaining.

And then, the dungeon swallowed them whole.

***

The first chamber reeked of corrupted mana and unwashed dog.

*Grrrrrrr...*

Shadows peeled off the walls like living paint, coalescing into shapes that made wolves look polite by comparison.

Obsidian scales.

Eyes burning with hunger that transcended simple animal instinct.

Claws that sparked against stone and left glowing scratches.

7 of them.

Each one B-rank threat level minimum, judging by the way reality bent slightly around their corrupted forms.

"Hell dogs," Luna observed clinically, already analyzing their mana signatures with the detached interest of someone dissecting particularly interesting specimens. "Dragon-corrupted. Notice the elemental instability in their cores?"

Nero's eyes narrowed, seeing patterns that shouldn't be visible without specialized tools.

His Omni-Mimesis ability processed information faster than conscious thought, breaking down their composition into actionable data.

"Temperature vulnerabilities around the neck. Mana circulation is weak near the hindquarters. Corrupted fire affinity makes them resistant to direct heat but vulnerable to sudden thermal shifts."

The hell-like wolves charged.

*CRASH!*

Stone cracked under their weight as they closed the distance with B-rank speed that would overwhelm most mages before they could finish casting.

"Multiple Cast: Charged Ice Drills."

Nero's voice carried none of the usual hesitation that plagued novice spellcasters.

His hands moved through precise geometric patterns that Luna had only demonstrated twice during their training sessions.

It looks a bit crude but…

*Whoooosh...*

It's definitely the same magic she once demonstrated as an example.

The air itself crystallized.

But not into simple ice shards or frozen projectiles.

Instead, invisible zones of extreme temperature differential formed in a three-dimensional matrix around the charging wolves, creating pockets where air temperature dropped to near absolute zero while adjacent spaces superheated into plasma states.

The result wasn't an attack.

It was applied physics deciding to get violent.

*CRACK! SIZZLE! CRACK!*

The wolves' charge faltered as their own momentum carried them through thermal gradients that human bodies weren't designed to survive.

Ice formed on their scales.

Plasma burned through corrupted flesh.

The violent interaction between opposing thermal states created a blender effect that turned their advance into involuntary disassembly.

*Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.*

7 corrupted wolves hit the ground in pieces.

Clean cuts.

No wasted energy.

Just a casual precision that looked more like magical engineering than traditional combat casting.

The entire exchange lasted maybe 4 seconds.

It's definitely monstrous to the point that it felt off-putting.

… At least, that's how the genius mage would take it at the back.

"..."

Luna's sharp intake of breath said more than any words could convey.

Aurelia's wings shifted slightly, pride evident in the subtle movement.

Nero lowered his hands, not even breathing hard.

"Thermal differential combat casting," he explained casually, as if he hadn't just demonstrated mastery of theoretical concepts most archmages spent decades perfecting.

"You mentioned during yesterday's lesson that opposing elemental states create cascading reactions if positioned correctly."

He gestured at the dissipating wolf corpses.

"Just applied the principle with better spatial awareness and tighter mana control."

Luna stared.

Actually stared, like, if he's really a human being and not a once-in-a-lifetime genius elf who's blessed by mana like her…

"... That technique," she said slowly, her usual composed deflection completely absent, "requires understanding of molecular thermodynamics, spatial geometry, elemental interaction matrices, and real-time calculation of optimal positioning parameters."

She walked forward, silver hair swaying as she examined the spell residue with hands that trembled slightly from excitement rather than fear.

"I only explained the basic theory 2 days ago as a hypothetical framework for advanced fusion techniques! You shouldn't be able to execute it in combat for months, if not years!"

Her voice rose despite obvious attempts at maintaining scholarly detachment.

"And you didn't just cast it once! You maintained seven simultaneous thermal matrices with different gradient parameters customized to each target's specific corruption signature!"

Luna turned back to him, composure cracking like ice under pressure.

"Do you have any idea how impossible that should be?!"

Nero scratched his cheek, genuinely unsure how to respond to academic fury that looked suspiciously like barely-restrained excitement.

"Uh... lucky?"

"You..! If you say that word one more time," Luna hissed, pointing one finger with the kind of intensity usually reserved for declaring holy war, "I'm going to turn you into a frog! A small frog! With no opposable thumbs and an embarrassing mating call!"

Despite the threat, Nero could only find her cute as he himself could only explain it as such.

'I mean, that's how I understand it, yeah?'

How are you supposed to explain that he just 'understood' it under the pretext that he's getting a huge enlightenment aid from a broken skill set from his system?

***

The trio soon afterwards descended through the dungeon's levels.

With Nero clearing corrupted monsters with efficiency that made traditional adventuring look clumsy by comparison.

It was supposed to be a magic training for him but…

'At this point, he doesn't need one at all anymore.'

Luna could only have one of her eyes twitch as she looked at the intricacies behind his "casual" casting.

Sure, for her it looks crude and really unrefined… but the fact that he reached this level in a matter of mere days is something that surpasses even her during her beginner era.

And the fact that this guy in front of her dared to say that it's all "luck" and bullcrap…

'The audacity of this guy…!'

*Whoosh!*

Nero didn't just cast spells.

He wove them.

Layered elemental matrices that interacted in ways Luna recognized from her most advanced theoretical research.

Compressed fire into superheated plasma lances that punched through A-rank armor like tissue paper.

Manipulated water molecules to create localized pressure bombs that imploded corrupted organs from inside.

Restructured earth into geometric formations that trapped monsters in mathematical prisons they couldn't escape without violating the laws of physics.

Each technique demonstrated understanding that should require years of study compressed into days of instruction.

And Luna couldn't stop analyzing.

Taking notes.

Watching his mana circulation patterns with the kind of focus that made Aurelia quietly position herself to prevent any accidental collisions.

"Haahhmmm Your mana pathways are completely abnormal," Luna finally admitted on the third floor, unable to contain her observations any longer.

"I conducted full physiological scans during your physical examinations last week."

She pulled a small crystal from her pocket, activating stored data that projected three-dimensional anatomical diagrams into the air.

*Whoosh...*

Nero's internal mana structure materialized in glowing detail.

And it looked wrong.

Beautiful, but definitely not normal.

Instead of the typical circular flow patterns most humans exhibited, his mana moved through geometric configurations that resembled sacred geometry more than biological systems.

Interlocking spirals.

Perfect mathematical ratios.

Pathways that branched and reconnected in patterns that shouldn't exist without deliberate construction.

"Normal mages have approximately 37 major mana channels," Luna explained, her academic voice barely masking genuine bewilderment.

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