Noah asked for an update on the collection of the Zodiac keys. Jude told him that they had located the owner of one key and had secured their agreement to help in the year X777. The search for the other keys was ongoing. Noah said he would continue to help look, and then he said his goodbyes to the Heartfilia family and returned to Magnolia.

He continued his studies and trained with everyone. After some time, Ur went out on another request, and Ultear and the others rejoined the group training. By this point, everyone was getting used to dodging and blocking attacks from two opponents. Lyon, however, wanted to try advancing to three. As a result, he was beaten black and blue that day and ended up in last place.

Gray immediately started laughing at him. "Hahaha, Lyon, how are you so lame? You can't even handle that? I definitely wouldn't have that problem."

Unable to stand the mockery, Lyon quietly crept closer and punched him. Gray saw stars. When he recovered, the two of them started brawling on the spot.

After they had both run out of energy, Lyon said to Gray, "Since you're so tough, why don't you try fighting three tomorrow?"

"You're on! Who's afraid of you?" Spurred on by Lyon's challenge, Gray immediately agreed.

The next day, Lyon didn't attempt to fight three phantoms, but Gray did. At the end of the session, he was also bruised and battered. This time, it was Lyon's turn to laugh. "Hahaha, and you were talking so big! Why do you look so pathetic now? Hahaha!"

Gray couldn't stand it either. He was about to sneak up on Lyon, but Lyon jumped away. "Trying to sneak attack me? I was ready for you."

"If a sneak attack won't work, I'll just fight you head-on!" Gray charged forward, and the two of them started fighting again.

After that, both of them wisely went back to their current training, not daring to try and face three opponents again.

Some time later, Cana returned with Gildarts and also joined their training sessions. The two or three years she had spent doing missions with Gildarts had been excellent training. Gildarts, of course, held nothing back with Cana, teaching her his insights and experience, creating a training plan for her, and helping her train. As a result, her strength had improved very quickly. Although this was her first time trying this training method, she quickly adapted to fighting two opponents. However, she also failed when she tried to face three; her current strength was still not quite enough.

Seeing how strong Cana was, everyone else felt a new surge of motivation. No one wanted to lose to anyone else. Everyone began to work even harder, and the competition became fierce. Those behind wanted to catch up, and those in front didn't want to be overtaken. The training intensity increased significantly, and Noah had to treat their injuries every day. The highly competitive Gray and Lyon were injured the most, followed by Erza and Kagura.

Noah had no choice but to mass-produce healing potions so they could recover overnight and continue training the next day.

However, a message soon came from his Thought Projection with Roubaul: there had been a new breakthrough in their magic research. Noah warned them not to train so intensely while he was gone, or they could risk permanent injury. Then he said his goodbyes and left for Roubaul's village.

When he arrived, he found Roubaul and asked, "Is it true? There's been a breakthrough with the Thought Projection?"

Noah had previously learned that Roubaul's current state was very similar to a Thought Projection, so he had asked him to research it, hoping to improve his own spell. He was naturally delighted that there had been a breakthrough.

"Mhm. After studying my own current state, I've made some improvements to the Thought Projection magic. It should meet your needs. I'll teach it to you now."

Roubaul taught the improved spell to Noah. It took him a little while to learn it. He then retracted his old projection and sent out a new one. After checking it, he found that the new Thought Projection's performance had been greatly enhanced in every aspect. It required less magic to maintain, was more stable, had stronger real-time communication capabilities, and a higher magic storage capacity. He could also now create two projections instead of just one, and doing so didn't significantly weaken his main body's magic limit; he just needed to let them rest and recover magic between them.

Most importantly, they could now exist for a very long time without losing connection to his main body. This was a huge help to Noah, because he needed to send a Thought Projection to a very special place.

Noah checked on the progress of documenting the Nirvit knowledge and found that although they had recorded a lot, it was still very little for an entire nation. This project would take a long time to complete. He created a new Thought Projection to help Roubaul with the work, then said his goodbyes and went directly to the Heartfilia estate.

As it happened, Jude was home spending time with Layla and Lucy. They both smiled happily when they saw Noah arrive, and Lucy called out with a huge grin, "Big Brother Noah!"

Layla then pulled Noah by the hand and looked him over from left to right. "You haven't come to see me in so long! Have you forgotten about your big sister? Look, have you gotten thinner recently? You're not eating well, are you? Do you want me to have someone cook for you?"

Noah first checked on Layla and Jude's health and found that Layla had made a full recovery. He said, at a loss for whether to laugh or cry, "Sister Layla, I think I was just here not too long ago. It hasn't been that long. Your body has completely recovered. As long as you keep up with your training, you probably won't have the same symptoms again. If you have any problems, just come and find me. And I've been eating and training as usual; how could I have gotten thinner? You don't need to send someone to cook for me."

"The last time you were here was over a month ago! Of course that's a long time!" Layla said with a dissatisfied tone. Lucy nodded beside her.

Noah looked at Jude, completely baffled. Jude just nodded helplessly. "Layla has been complaining at home about why you haven't come to see her, and Lucy has also been missing her big brother, always wanting to share the books she's recently read with you."

"Then I'll try to come more often in the future. By the way, I actually came this time because I have a favor to ask of you, Sister Layla," Noah said, scratching his cheek with his index finger, a little embarrassed.

"If you need something, just say it. There's no need to be so formal between us," Layla said, a little curious. It had always been Noah helping their family. For him to be asking her for a favor for the first time, she was very curious what it could be.

~~~

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