Chapter 294 -: 293 Changes.[1]
Jasmine nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah... I have."
Although she tried to maintain her usual calm expression, a faint trace of pride still found its way into her voice. It was subtle, but impossible to hide completely.
Granted, she had every reason to feel that way. These past eight months had not been easy.
She had no idea how many spells Kavin had managed to create or improve during his own seclusion, but as for herself, she had completed only a single spell.
That spell had been finished just yesterday.
The journey to create it had been anything but straightforward. During the first three months, she had accomplished almost nothing.
It wasn’t because of a lack of knowledge, quite the opposite. Her inheritance contained countless extraordinary spells, each more profound than the last, making the decision even more difficult.
Every time she found a spell worthy of becoming the foundation for a new creation, she would eventually discover the same problem.
Most of the truly exceptional spells demanded the strength of at least a fourth Heavenly Trial Void Core spell caster before they could even be understood properly, let alone replicated.
Attempting to force them at her current level would have been pointless.
Passing the Heavenly Trials simply to gain access to them wasn’t an option either, not with the Grand Tournament approaching.
Left with no suitable choice, she abandoned the idea of modifying a complete spell altogether.
Instead, she spent the next several months dismantling countless spell formulas into their most basic principles, carefully studying the laws, theorems, and structures hidden beneath them.
Piece by piece, she selected only the concepts she needed before weaving them together into an entirely new spell formula of her own.
The final four months had been spent doing nothing except refining that formula over and over again, correcting the smallest imperfections until she could no longer improve it.
The process had pushed her mind to its limits more than once, but the end result made every moment worthwhile.
She was now genuinely confident that she could defeat her opponent.
"Is it related to your Domain Manifestation?"
Kavin’s voice interrupted her thoughts. It was a question he had clearly been curious about from the beginning.
Before entering seclusion, he had suggested that she attempt to manifest the outline of her Domain despite neither of them having passed even the First Heavenly Trial.
Under normal circumstances, such a thing bordered on impossible, but if there was anyone capable of accomplishing a miracle through talent alone, he believed it would be Jasmine.
He himself had attempted the same during his own training, only to fail completely.
"No."
Jasmine gently shook her head before turning toward the stone staircase leading out of the underground chamber.
Kavin quietly fell into step behind her.
"I couldn’t grasp anything related to my Domain," she replied.
"And even if I had managed to manifest a fragment of it, it would’ve been too weak to matter without passing the First Heavenly Trial. Most capable opponents would’ve been able to counter it without much difficulty. So instead... I focused everything on creating a single new spell."
Kavin’s eyes immediately brightened.
"A new spell?"
"Mm."
Jasmine gave a small nod as they slowly climbed the stairs.
Just before stepping through the exit, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder. Kavin instinctively paused as well.
"It’s a spell specifically designed to counter the abilities of the first-ranked spell caster."
For a brief second, silence hung between them.
"So... we’ll need to change our strategy."
"Oh?"
Kavin’s mouth formed a small circle before an amused smile spread across his face.
"Will do then. I was originally planning to fight him myself, but if your spell can counter him directly, then there’s no reason not to let you handle it. I’ll rethink everything and come up with a strategy centered around you instead."
He folded his arms thoughtfully before glancing toward the bright light waiting beyond the staircase.
"And we don’t have much time either. We’ve been completely cut off from the outside world for eight months, but judging by the date, registration for the Grand Tournament can’t be far away. If we want to secure our places..."
He smiled. "...then we’ll have to challenge them within the next week."
"Mm."
Jasmine nodded in agreement.
As the two continued walking through the quiet corridors, she calmly began explaining the mechanics behind the spell she had created.
She spoke from the very beginning, detailing the principles she had borrowed, the structure of the spell formula, and the reason it was capable of directly interfering with the first-ranked spell caster’s greatest strengths.
The more she explained, the brighter Kavin’s eyes became. His expression shifted from curiosity to surprise, then from surprise to genuine excitement.
By the time she had finished explaining the spell’s core function, the look on his face made it abundantly clear that what she had created was far from ordinary.
If everything worked as intended, it had the potential to become a decisive weapon capable of changing the outcome of the entire tournament.
"Damn..."
Kavin couldn’t help letting out a laugh.
"I thought I’d come up with something incredible during these eight months..."
He rubbed the back of his head before looking at her with an almost helpless expression.
"But yours is basically a cheat code."
His excitement, however, quickly settled into cautious curiosity.
"There has to be a flaw, right?"
He waited quietly for her answer. Every powerful spell came with a price. The greater the strength it offered, the harsher the limitation hidden beneath it.
Considering how overwhelming Jasmine’s spell sounded, he could only imagine what kind of drawback accompanied it.
Jasmine gave a small nod, her expression remaining perfectly calm despite what she was about to say.
"I can only fight for five minutes after activating it."
She spoke as though stating a simple fact.
"Once those five minutes are over, my core will be completely drained. I’ll lose consciousness shortly afterward. If I fail to defeat my opponent before that happens..."
She looked ahead once more.
"...then I’ve already lost."