Back in the eighth prince's manor, Wizard Leo could no longer wait for his spiritual retreat. He would use the Tear of God to eliminate his own defects, so it would take some time before he could come out again.

Merlin had recently used the Matrix to derive many new spells, so there were many details that he had to scrutinize too. Hence, he bid farewell to the eighth prince and returned to the quiet courtyard.

"Since the Matrix can derive Fourth-level Fire-type spells, can it derive Fifth-level or Sixth-level spells too?"

Merlin was already quite impatient. He wondered what could be so unique about the Fifth-level and Sixth-level spells derived from the Matrix.

Thus, Merlin immediately activated the Matrix and commanded it, "Matrix, based on the database, derive a new Fire-type Fifth-level spell!"

"Beep, task established. Starting to derive Fire-type Fifth-level spells, please wait..."

The emotionless mechanical female voice made Merlin feel very affable. However, just when he was waiting silently as usual, there was a skyrocketing change in his Awareness.

"Boom!"

In Merlin's Awareness, the Flame Maxim tumbled violently. The Flame Maxim, which was originally the size of a palm, was rapidly shrinking. Initially, it was also possible to activate the Ship of Nikola several times using the Flame Maxim, but now, the Flame Maxim had disappeared inexplicably, which instantly evoked fear in Merlin.

"What happened? How can the Flame Maxim disappear all of a sudden?"

The Flame Maxim had completely vanished without any apparent reason. Even Merlin did not know why. Even if he found out now, he could do nothing about it. All he could do was to watch the Flame Maxim continue to diminish and disappear.

"Beep, if the Matrix continues deriving Fire-type Fifth-level spells, mysterious energy will be absorbed. Do you wish to continue?"

"Eh, mysterious energy?"

It was the first time that Merlin heard that the Matrix needed to absorb energy. The Matrix was merely a calculator, though it might have undergone some unusual changes after it had followed Merlin to this strange world. It had acquired the ability to bind Mind Power, and now, it could even absorb mysterious energy.

There was a vast difference between deriving a Fifth-level Fire-type spell and re-analyzing an existing Fifth-level spell. It involved an enormous amount of calculations, so even if it consumed some energy, Merlin could understand.

However, when Merlin carefully checked the energy used by the Matrix, the look on his face changed instantaneously. He hastily ordered the Matrix, "Stop deriving the Fire-type Fifth-level spell immediately!"

"Abort task?"

"Abort!"

Merlin replied with no hesitation.

"Beep, task aborted!"

The sound of the Matrix seemed to be reverberating in his mind. Merlin only recovered his senses after a long moment. His expression became extremely concerned.

Merlin found that the mysterious energy absorbed by the Matrix was actually the Flame Maxim!

The Flame Maxim was a power that could only be wielded by Great Legends as it was above any other power. Only by comprehending the Essence of the Elements and seeing through their nature could a person condense a Maxim.

If those Great Wizards were outstanding in a certain field and wanted to improve further, they must fully understand elements and condense Maxims. Only then would they become Legendary Spell Casters!

The Flame Maxim in Merlin's Awareness was left by the Great Legend Nikola on the Ship of Nikola. It was not condensed by Merlin and had always been in his Awareness. Besides being able to suppress Fire-type Spell Models and help Merlin resolve the threat of some powerful Fire-type spells, it really had no other role.

Merlin was incapable of mobilizing the power of Flame Maxim. Only when combined with the Ship of Nikola could it command unparalleled power!

Nonetheless, Merlin never thought that the Matrix could absorb the power of Flame Maxim. Besides, it began absorbing when he was deriving Fourth-level Fire-type spells instead of Fifth-level spells.

Merlin did not notice it because the power absorbed from the Flame Maxim when deriving Fourth-level spells was not too obvious. However, a huge amount of Flame Maxim was required to derive Fifth-level spells. This was the factor that triggered the change of the Flame Maxim in his Awareness, which led Merlin to the discovery that the Matrix was able to absorb the Flame Maxim.

Merlin also did not know the reason behind this change to the Matrix either because now, both the Matrix and the Flame Maxim had become somewhat unfamiliar to him.

If it was the previous Matrix, it would not absorb any energy at all, and it was even more unlikely for it to absorb the Flame Maxim. Perhaps warping into this world with Merlin had caused some major changes in the Matrix.

The Flame Maxim was extremely important to Merlin. Even if he could not use it now, just by having it in his Awareness, it had helped Merlin nullify many powerful Fire-type spell attacks thrown at him.

Moreover, Merlin's Fiery Collapse relied on the Flame Maxim to be integrated into the spell. Seeing that Merlin had already derived a new Fire-type Fourth-level spell, Fiery Collapse could also be evolved into the second stage. If there was a problem at the time and he was without the suppression of the Flame Maxim, it could end up being life threatening.

Therefore, he could not by any chance completely exhaust the Flame Maxim now. Hence, without any hesitation, Merlin stopped the Matrix from absorbing the Flame Maxim to derive Fifth-level spells.

After all, Merlin was not sure how much power would be consumed from the Flame Maxim for the derivation of Fifth-level spells. If the entire Flame Maxim was drained, the derivation would not succeed either. Then, would that not be a complete waste of effort?1

"It turns out that spells derived from processing the data integrated into the Matrix require power consumption of the Flame Maxim. Fifth-level spells already require immense power, then what about Sixth-level spells or even Seventh-level spells which I don't have any reference to?"

Merlin did not dare to imagine anymore. Initially, he thought that as long as he collected all kinds of spells and populated the database, he could use the Matrix to derive new spells, but now it seemed that things were not that simple.

Perhaps some changes had happened to the Matrix as it crossed over to this world, so it was able to derive brand-new spells, but at the cost of absorbing power from the Flame Maxim. In short, the Matrix was no longer the super-quantum calculator that Merlin was familiar with in his past life.

If it were not for Merlin, and even if other people had populated the database, they would not be able to derive new spells either. Merlin had also gone through many trials and tribulations to obtain this one and only Flame Maxim from the Ship of Nikola.

If the power of this Flame Maxim was exhausted, it would then be near impossible to derive new spells in the future. Thus, besides continuing to collect spells, he needed to search for other Maxims.

Nevertheless, how precious was the power of a Maxim? Even Great Wizards would eagerly scramble for it.1 Even in the most brilliant era of Spell Casters, there were scarcely Spell Casters who could condense Maxims. Therefore, it was even rarer for someone to leave a Maxim behind.

"Swoosh."

Suddenly, Merlin took out a thick book from his ring. Upon closer inspection, it was actually the first volume of the Neverending Book that Merlin had gotten back then.

There were three volumes of the Neverending Book. The first and second volumes contained a number of spells from First- to Third-level and Fourth- to Sixth-level respectively. Meanwhile, the third volume of the Neverending Book contained some cultivation methods for Pandora Demon Abilities.

Merlin had the first volume of the Neverending Book, so he unearthed the secrets of the Neverending Book. As long as he could collect all three volumes of the Neverending Book, he could obtain a Maxim sealed by the Wizard who left the Neverending Book behind.

That was to say that currently, Merlin was attempting to get hold of the whereabouts of a Maxim. If there was a chance to get this Maxim in the future, he could once again derive some brand-new spells by depending on the Matrix.

"Phew..."

At the thought of that, Merlin slowly sighed in relief. Obtaining the power of a Maxim might be incredibly difficult, but compared to a helpless situation where there was no clue at all, he at least had an idea how to.

"Wizard Merlin!"

Right at this moment, a familiar voice came from outside the door. Merlin's heart moved and he immediately opened the door. He recognized the voice of his visitor – it was the eighth prince.

"Your Royal Highness, the eighth prince!"

Merlin pushed open the door and saw that it was precisely the eighth prince who was standing outside.

The eighth prince wore a luxurious costume. Perhaps it was because he got rid of his fierce competitor, the fourth prince, so he now looked more majestic. He had a faint shadow of Bhutto XVI whom Merlin first saw back then.

"Wizard Merlin, I've now collected almost all the potion materials that I've promised you. I've sent people to check all the shops in the entire Imperial City, and this is what I've received. I've even run a search in the royal family's vault, and have finally found these potions materials."

Subsequently, the eighth prince handed over a ring in his hand.

"Sorry for the trouble, Your Highness!"

Merlin did not refuse the offer either, and he immediately took the ring from the eighth prince's palm. This was one of the terms that the eighth prince had promised Merlin, which was to try his best to gather Mokra Potion materials.

Merlin had previously exchanged a hundred portions of the potion materials from the Resource Tower of the Dark Magic Region. That amount was already quite huge, but when he saw the potion materials in the ring given by the eighth prince this time, he could not help but inhale sharply. He was utterly shocked.

The ring was filled with Mokra Potion materials. It was fair to say that it was an overwhelming amount. Merlin counted roughly and estimated that there was at least a thousand Mokra Potion materials.

"There's surprisingly this many potion materials. I may not get to enter the Spell Library again but getting so many Mokra Potion materials alone meant that even if I have to pay a bigger price, it's still worth it!"

Merlin could not contain his excitement. He had also slightly underestimated the prosperity of the Imperial City and the eighth prince's capability. As the capital of the Kingdom of Blackmoon, almost all the major chambers of commerce would set up branches here, so it would naturally not be short of all kinds of potion materials.

With the eighth prince's influence, all the major shops were searched and reaped of the materials. Hence, the number of potion materials obtained in the end was naturally very impressive.

"Haha, I'm happy as long as Wizard Merlin is content!"

The eighth prince burst out in laughter. Thereafter, he got up and left Merlin's courtyard with his guards.t

Literal translation of the idiom used here is "drawing water with a sieve".The literal translation of the idiom used here is "rush over like flocks of ducks".