When the maid arrived at Merlin’s lab, she found herself standing in front of a massive, locked golden door shimmering with magic. She gulped, reached forward, and knocked.

"Lady Merlin, I’ve got a message from Lady Isdis. I request entry." She called and waited several minutes before Merlin replied. "Sorry, but wait for a few more minutes until I clear all of the magic inside. Unless you fancy turning into a frog."

The maid stood in silence and waited until the door opened on its own, and she was called inside. As expected, the lab itself was a chaotic mess of papers, strange jars, and endless mountains of books, scrolls, and strange magical trinkets.

In the middle of that mess, Merlin sat on the ground in her underwear, looking at a massive magic circle drawn on the cold and hard floor. The maid carefully walked inside and made sure she didn’t touch anything.

"Stop! Don’t move." Merlin suddenly lifted her hand, and the maid froze mid-step with one foot still not touching the ground. "The magic is leaking again. I’ll keep you safe unless you move, so endure that for a few seconds."

Merlin stood, lifted her arms, and her eyes flashed with green flames as sparks of black magic rushed out of her fingers, followed by a haze of dark-green mist that surrounded her entire body. The entire lab flashed with magic, the mess became worse as everything tumbled down, and all of the books and scrolls flew everywhere.

With a pained growl, Merlin clapped her hand and made all of the dark magic vanish. "Now, that hurt." She then threw a glance at the maid, "Good, you’re still breathing, and very much look human."

"Can I move now?" The maid asked with a worried face, and Merlin nodded, "It is safe now. I erased all of that magic. It was a spell that takes the amphibious nature of frogs and stitches it to humans, so they can breathe directly through their skin underwater."

Merlin crossed her legs and pointed at the maid. "Give me that scroll, I’ll read it. In the meantime, you strip down. I’ll check your body to see if you turned into anything strange." She smiled. "If the spell affected you, then you’ll slowly suffocate as your skin dries through the day."

The maid sighed, handed the scroll to Merlin, and started taking her clothes off. "What about you? Lady Merlin. Won’t that spell affect you?"

Merlin, who was reading the scroll, smiled. "It did affect me. I’ll cure myself later, but for you who has to go back to work, I’ll have to cure you now."

"Hoo, so they want magic stones, and also hope to create a wizard tower. I’m in, but for starters, I’ll make magic stones a drop in my labyrinth so adventurers could farm them." She threw the scroll into the pile behind her and threw a smug glance at the naked maid.

"You got a beautiful body. Great shape, decent musculature, and just the right amount of fat in the right places." Merlin pointed at her, and the maid sighed.

"Looking at you, that makes me average." The maid stretched her arms and legs. "So, did the spell affect me?"

"Yes, it did. It seems that everyone who was inside the room, you and I, was affected." Merlin flicked her fingers and created a string of purple magic that flew forward and sank into the maid’s skin.

"I lifted the spell; you can now put your clothes back on." Merlin turned around, picked a piece of chalk, and started modifying the magic circle on the ground as the maid put on her clothes.

"By the way, Lady Merlin. I wanted to ask you..." The maid stared at Merlin’s underwear and pale skin. "Why...do you dress like that in the lab?"

Merlin looked at her and smiled. "It’s a problem only powerful wizards face. Mana leaves the body through skin, so the more it is exposed, the easier it is to cast complex spells."

She stopped drawing and turned back toward the maid. "A complex spell doesn’t mean a powerful one. A weak spell can be complex in its early stages of development before it is optimized, and that is the stage I’m on with this new spell."

She wiggled her fingers. "Even though I have all of my nails enchanted and even used an array, I still need every bit of control I can muster for testing. When this spell is finished, it should be a second-level spell at max."

The maid looked at her hands. "So... an apprentice wizard won’t need to strip down?"

"Of course not, an apprentice is studying already optimized spells, not creating new ones. If they can’t cast a spell, it is because they lack education, not magical power and control." Merlin smiled, "Of course, there are spells that work better if you’re naked, like charm spells or invisibility."

The maid tilted her head. "I understand charm spells, but why invisibility?"

Merlin giggled, "Since you won’t need to make your clothes invisible as well." She then stood and sized the maid up. "Are you perhaps wanting to learn magic?"

The maid remained silent for a few seconds, but then replied with a stern face. "Lexi, a maid like me, had managed to become a mistress thanks to her magical knowledge and skill. I can cast some basic spells, so I have a little bit of talent, and I wanted to try my luck in that path."

Merlin smiled. "So, it’s all because you want to ride Arad. Good, I’ll teach you when I can. Come to my room in the evening, or here to the lab in the day if you don’t have work."

The maid nodded with a large smile and left, leaving Merlin alone to keep working on her spell. From that day onward, she can start her training directly under Merlin in the hope of increasing her magical skills and power.

As the maid returned to Isdis, she found her already once again busy with work alongside Arad. Managing the entire empire was no easy feat, but it was a boring one. A lot, and a lot of paperwork and documents to be read, signed, or rejected.

"I delivered the letter. Lady Merlin said that she’ll get it done later, but for now, she’ll make the magic stones a possible drop in Alina’s labyrinth for adventurers to farm." As she bowed, Isdis immediately pointed toward another scroll. "As I expected. Take this to Nina in the guild. And, good work."

The maid nodded, grabbed the scroll, and left immediately.