Chapter 458: You Look Really Good Right Now!
Seeing that Noah refused to answer, Lucy had no choice but to drop the subject. Anyway, Noah had said she would find out soon enough.
With Lucy no longer prying, Noah smiled as he continued registering quest information for the guild members flocking to the counter, all while keeping an eye on the general atmosphere in the hall.
Before long, he spotted Meredy and her group chatting at a nearby table.
"Can you control your precognition now?" Wendy asked curiously, looking at Carla who was sitting on the table.
"Mhm. After confirming I had the ability to foresee the future, I practiced it privately a few times and can now control it to a slight degree," Carla declared proudly, her tail swaying back and forth behind her.
"What will I look like when I grow up?" Meredy asked eagerly.
"I can't see that far into the future... Let me take a look," Carla scanned the room and spotted Macao sitting alone on a chair, reading a newspaper. She pointed a paw at him. "For example, Macao is over there, right? In a few moments, Wakaba will walk over and start talking to him about the young people in the guild."
Hearing Carla's prediction, Meredy and the others stared nervously at Macao.
"Yo, Macao," Wakaba greeted as he walked up.
"Oh," Macao replied, lowering his newspaper.
"Amazing! He really came, Carla!" Wendy exclaimed in a pleasant whisper.
"Shh, it's just starting," Meredy quickly shushed her, and Wendy immediately covered her mouth.
"It's that time of year again," Wakaba sighed nostalgically.
"Really brings back memories," Macao agreed with the same wistful tone.
"When we were young..." Wakaba started.
"...we were full of fighting spirit too," Macao finished seamlessly, completely in sync.
"The young folks nowadays are really amazing, though. For example, those butts..." Wakaba said, giving his own rear a suggestive wiggle.
Bam!
Macao slammed his hand on the table. "You prefer butts?!"
"Eh? Don't tell me you're a boobs guy?" Wakaba's tone completely shifted.
"I have a kid now! I can't just keep staring at young girls' butts!" Macao shot back.
"What about legs?" Wakaba asked, giving him a side-eye.
"Th-That's... Of course I want to hug them tightly! Or rather, I want them to step on me as hard as they can!" Macao hesitated for a second before blurting out his true desires.
"Wahahahaha!" Wakaba and Macao exchanged a look, confirming they were entirely on the same page, and burst into hearty laughter.
"S-So amazing..." Wendy forced a strained smile, looking back at Carla.
"That really is amazing! You got it completely right! Even though the actual conversation was terrible..." Meredy dropped her embarrassed expression and cheered for Carla.
"Mhm, Carla is amazing!" Yukino nodded earnestly.
"But predicting this kind of conversation is completely useless," Carla blushed slightly.
"But it's still amazing, Carla!" Wendy offered a bright, genuine smile.
"Mhm, mhm!" Meredy and Yukino nodded vigorously.
"And I still can't fully control it..." Carla admitted, feeling a bit bashful at their praise.
"If you can't control it, just take your time and train," Sorano said, walking over and gently patting Yukino on the head. "Precognition is an incredibly powerful ability, whether you're seeing the immediate future or years ahead. You just predicted the future a dozen seconds in advance, right? That alone is incredible! If you can foresee the next dozen seconds in a battle, you can effortlessly heavily injure or defeat an opponent. Even if you can't defeat them outright, it gives you far more options and guarantees you the upper hand. And if you foresee the distant future, you can make preparations to prevent tragedies from happening."
Hearing Sorano's words, Carla's expression brightened significantly. Her confidence in her ability was fully restored. Meredy and the others continued cheering her on.
Seeing that Sorano had stepped in to guide Carla, Noah shifted his attention elsewhere.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A sudden clash of weapons rang out. Noah looked over and saw Erza sparring with a human-sized Panther Lily, both wielding swords.
The two barely moved their feet, but the blades in their hands moved as a blur, exchanging rapid strikes in a fierce offensive and defensive drill.
After a brief exchange, their swords collided heavily in the air, and both used the recoil to jump back.
Erza sheathed her sword. "Let's stop here."
"Phew!" Lily exhaled deeply. With a puff of smoke, he reverted back to his tiny, mascot-sized form.
"The time I can maintain my original body is really too short," Lily sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"But it's already highly impressive. Excellent swordsmanship!" Erza praised him.
"No, no, I should be saying 'as expected of Erza,'" Lily quickly replied humbly.
"How about it, Erza?! That's my partner's strength right there!" Gajeel ran over from the sidelines, looking incredibly excited.
"So this is the strength of a so-called S-Class mage in this guild?" Lily murmured in awe.
"How long can you maintain your original form right now?"
Having finished his immediate work, Noah asked Mirajane to take over the counter and walked over to Lily, checking up on his patient.
"Right now, if I just transform without fighting, I can hold it for about 20 minutes. If I engage in combat, the time shortens. If I get injured, the duration drops even faster—the heavier the injury, the less time I have. Once I revert to this small form, it takes me about an hour to gather enough energy to transform again. If I drink your potion, it takes about half an hour," Lily explained, summarizing the results of the tests he and Gajeel had run.
"I see. Let me run a checkup."
Noah nodded and sat down cross-legged on the floor. With a wave of his hand, several glowing magic circles materialized and began orbiting Lily. At the same time, a tiny magic circle appeared in front of Noah's right eye, and his Archive holographic screens booted up beside him.
The spinning magic circles scanned Lily's physical data and seamlessly fed it into Archive.
"Hmm..." Noah sorted the incoming data, ran several calculations, and began pondering the results.
"How is Lily's condition?!" Gajeel asked nervously, seeing Noah's serious expression.
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about. He's perfectly fine. I'm just calculating how to best adjust his next batch of potions," Noah clarified, realizing Gajeel had misunderstood his silence.
"Phew..." Gajeel let out a massive sigh of relief, glad that Lily's body wasn't failing him.
"Alright, I've got it. This formula should work." Noah typed rapidly on his holographic keyboard, finalizing the new potion regimen.
"Okay, I've reformulated the potion based on Lily's current physical data. Go gather these herbs and bring them to me so I can brew them." Noah pulled a piece of paper from his coat, jotted down the ingredients, and handed it to Gajeel.
Gajeel eagerly took the list, glanced at it, and carefully tucked it into his pocket.
"If you take this new potion and keep up with your training, your transformation time should exceed 30 minutes within a week. Even in heavy combat, you should be able to last 20 minutes, which is enough to participate in most fights. I've also included ingredients for a secondary potion that will shorten your cooldown time. Once I brew it, you'll be able to recover your combat form much faster," Noah explained to Lily.
"Thank you so much!" Lily said, his eyes filled with gratitude. He knew that if he were left to his own devices, there was no way he could have extended his transformation limit this quickly. Thirty minutes was more than enough time to handle most situations.
"Don't mention it. We're guildmates, after all." Noah waved it off casually before gesturing to the weapon in Lily's hand. "That sword you're holding is..."
"Erza lent it to me. I don't have my own sword yet, so I usually just use my fists when sparring with Gajeel. Carrying a standard sword around is really inconvenient given how my body size constantly changes," Lily explained, lifting the borrowed blade.
"Lily mentioned he wanted to test his swordsmanship against me," Erza chimed in.
"Changing sizes? You should look into magic items. The market for magic tools in Earth Land is incredibly diverse. Not every mage relies purely on their own internal magic to cast spells; many use Holder Magic items. For example, Card Magic relies entirely on magic cards, and Erza's armors all possess unique innate abilities," Noah said, pulling out a stack of Magic Cards to demonstrate before pointing at Erza.
"He's right. My armors have their own built-in properties. As long as I supply them with magic power, they unleash their respective abilities," Erza agreed.
"I see... Is there a place that sells swords capable of changing size?" Lily's eyes lit up immediately.
He was an excellent swordsman, but he needed a blade to actually utilize those skills. Because his body constantly fluctuated in size, carrying a normal sword was incredibly impractical, forcing him to rely on hand-to-hand combat. If he could find a sword that could shrink and grow with him, he could fight at maximum capacity during his transformations.
"You should ask Erza to recommend a few magic item shops. She is far more familiar with the weapon market than I am," Noah suggested.
"I can absolutely do that! I know a fantastic shop where I usually buy my magic equipment. They have excellent stock," Erza offered eagerly.
"Thank you!" Lily bowed to both of them.
"Just make sure you bring enough Jewel. The shop Erza recommends might have great quality, but it definitely won't be cheap. A sword capable of physically altering its size is already a rare and expensive enchantment. Be mentally prepared for the price tag," Noah warned Gajeel and Lily.
"No problem! As long as it suits Lily, I'll pay whatever it costs! I've got a decent amount of savings built up," Gajeel waved his hand dismissively, not hesitating for a second.
"Perfect! I actually wanted to see if they had any new armors in stock anyway. Let's go right now!" Erza declared excitedly.
She effortlessly scooped up the tiny Lily with one arm, grabbed her borrowed sword with the other, and enthusiastically marched toward the guild doors. Gajeel hurriedly jogged after them.
With Lily's medical checkup resolved, Noah stood up and glanced around the guild hall. He spotted Laxus sitting alone at a table and walked over, taking the seat opposite him.
After ordering a glass of milk, Noah rested his chin on his hand. "Where's your Thunder Legion? Don't they usually follow you everywhere? Why aren't they here?"
Laxus gave him a deadpan look. "Did you forget? They are qualified to participate in the S-Class exams too."
"Oh right, I completely forgot about that." Noah couldn't help but slap his forehead. Spending the last several days hyper-focused on designing and installing a massive island-wide barrier had clearly fried his short-term memory a bit.
"I remember Bickslow has taken the exam twice, and Freed took it once, but they both failed. Did you give them any extra training this year?" Noah asked.
"I looked into their past performances. They honestly just had really bad luck with the trial matchups. I've obviously been giving them specialized training lately. Their chances of passing this time are extremely high," Laxus smiled confidently.
"Wow, you sound pretty confident," Noah raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Of course. Who do you think I am? I'm Laxus!" Laxus smirked, oozing self-assurance.
Seeing Laxus act like this, Noah couldn't help but laugh warmly.
When they were younger, Laxus had been nothing like this. He had lacked true confidence. Because his grandfather was Makarov—a Wizard Saint—no matter what Laxus achieved or where he went, people always whispered that his success was solely due to his grandfather's influence. That constant shadow had placed an immense psychological burden on him, twisting his mindset and making him highly unstable.
It was only because Noah had regularly dragged him out on jobs, sparred with him, and ruthlessly beaten him down to show him that he wasn't actually that strong yet, that Laxus had been grounded in reality and prevented from walking down a dark path.
Seeing him so genuinely confident and supportive of his team now filled Noah's heart with joy. It was a great sight.
"You look really good right now! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Bickslow and Freed's performance," Noah smiled.
"Haha... Just sit back and watch them work," Laxus laughed. He clearly understood the deeper meaning behind Noah's words. Looking back at how immature and easily swayed by rumors he used to be—almost driving himself into a paranoid corner—he felt a bit embarrassed.
However, when Noah mentioned Bickslow and Freed, his face immediately lit up with pride. He had absolute faith in his team.
~~~
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