“You did WHAT?!” Cadmus shouted as Lunaris told him what they had done on their so-caled mission, which James had taken in a way different direction.

“Hey, all’s well that ends well, right?” James chuckled awkwardly. “Sure, it was risky, but the rewards are more than worth it, don’t you think?”

“Well ... yes.” Cadmus replied in a conflicted tone. On one hand, what they had done was spectacularly stupid. But on the other hand, James became dozens of times stronger in such a short period of time. Something that was unheard of for someone who was already that strong. So he definitely couldn’t chastise him, but fully expressing his joy didn’t feel right either. How could he encourage such insane recklessness and disregard for the very concept of safety and logic?

What made it even harder for Cadmus to express his emotions was the fact that they were all running towards the pocket dimension device.

By the time they arrived, they were all out of breath. Except for Helios, whose body could handle sprinting like this even in its sleep. And of course, James, who didn’t even bother using his legs, and had been floating besides them using a downright stupid amount of mana, since he wasn’t using any particular skill, just pushing himself with mana like the world’s most wasteful mage to ever exist.

“Here it is!” Cadmus pointed at a tiny cube in the middle of the room, with a bright smile showing he was really proud of it.

“Here what is?” James asked. “That’s it? That’s the pocket dimension thingy?” He looked incredulously at the tiny cube that could fit in the palm of his hand.

“Thingy?!” Cadmus laughed. “That thingy is the result of millions of manhours of work! Thousands of mages put their blood and sweat into it! Nevermind the amount of resources that it took to create. This is no thingy, this is a priceless artifact! Kings would offer all their daughters for a chance to possess one of these!”

“Cool.” James nodded as he looked at the tiny cube. “So, how does it work?”

His friends were a lot more impressed though. The seven gathered around the cube and were examining it with amazed expressions.

“Well, normally it would take months of fueling by hundreds of powerful mages, then a long process of refining all that mana. But since you are ... special, you can probably finish this within hours.” Cadmus coughed as he realized the ridiculousness of the situation. It would take the mana of hundreds of mages as strong as him to fuel this thing, and it would leave them drained and weak for several days. But this young man had more than enough mana to fuel it all by himself!

“So how does it work, do I just pump mana and that’s it?” James asked as he extended his hand towards the cube.

As soon as he touched it, the entire room was filled with a blinding blue light.

But a few seconds later, the light completely vanished.

“That was weird.” James said. “Ok, so how does it work?”

They were all looking at Cadmus, who was completely stunned. It was as if that blue light had completely paralyzed him.

“Dad?” Helios asked. “Hey dad, can you hear me?” Helios shook him, but Cadmus was completely out of it.

“Lunaris, try to heal him.” James said, and she immediately went to work. But Cadmus still wouldn’t move or say anything.

“Ok, Lunaris, keep healing him. This is gonna hurt.” James smiled awkwardly as he conjured a small bolt of lightning and sent it towards Cadmus.

“Ow!” Cadmus screamed, but Lunaris immediately healed any damage.

“I’m sorry for that, but you looked really out of it for some reason.” James bowed his head in apology.

“F-for some reason?” Cadmus turned white yet again. “Do you know what you just did?”

“Oh my God, did I break it or something?” James turned pale too. “I always break things on accident, I’m so sorry!”

Cadmus stared at him for a long time before he could bring himself to talk.

“No, you didn’t break it. You ... you filled it!” Cadmus was doubting his own words as he said them. He rushed towards the cube to inspect it, but it was true! James had indeed filled it already!

“I can’t believe this. This makes no sense!” Cadmus shouted. “I understand that your whole build focuses on mana, so I get that you have much more than thousands of mages put together. But this makes no sense! Even a thousand mages would’ve had to strain for days to fill it! You did it in seconds, without even realizing it! You should be gasping on the floor for air from exhaustion, and yet you barely even realized that you spent any mana!”

“See, I told you that my reactions weren’t abnormal.” Denmac looked downright smug. “If the great archmage is reacting like this, then someone like me is entitled to react in shock at the crazy things you do!”

Emilia and the dwarves were too stunned to be smug though. They joined Cadmus in his shock and awe at James’s deeds.

Only Lunaris and Helios found it funny, although they were too worried about Cadmus to keep laughing for too long.

“Dad, are you ok?” Helios asked. “Just relax and take a deep breath, this is a daily occurrence for us.” He smiled.

Cadmus looked at his own son like he had seen a ghost. “I-I need a smoke.”

“All right, I’ll let you smoke this one time. But this is an exception, I don’t want you making a habit of it!” Helios sighed and helped his father light up a cigar.

With trembling fingers, Cadmus took a puff, but the smoke didn’t calm him down one bit. By the time he was done with the cigar, he seemed even more nervous, as his mind fully processed what he had just seen.