Chapter 156 - 155: Insufficient Firepower Phobia
"Yeah."
"What exactly were you doing? Was it dangerous? You didn’t get hurt, did you?" Aurora asked, both curious and worried.
"Even if I did, there’s nothing to worry about. A Mage can just heal it."
Zelir explained, "It was basically a few guild instructors taking the younger students out to hunt Demons and gain experience."
"Oh... That sounds pretty tiring. Do Mages do that kind of thing?"
Aurora mused, "I thought you all just stayed in the library reading books."
"That’s exactly why we have to do it. Mages can’t just spend their whole lives cooped up in a library," Zelir said.
"I guess that’s true... What do you want for dinner tonight?" Aurora asked with a grin.
"What do you think?" Zelir smiled.
"Hehe, just you wait! Food’s coming right up!"
Aurora understood perfectly.
’Tonight’s beef shank has to be the best cut!’
A moment later, a familiar aroma heralded the arrival of a steaming beef shank in red wine sauce.
Zelir picked up his knife and fork, cutting off a large, tender, and juicy piece of beef and putting it in his mouth.
The rich sauce, the fragrance of the spices, and the texture of the beef itself exploded on his taste buds.
Zelir squinted in satisfaction and shook his head wistfully.
For the past few days in the wild, he’d had roasted meat for every meal. It seemed nice, but the preparation was ultimately crude, and it became greasy after a while.
Now, having an exquisite meal prepared by a professional chef, the contrast made him feel like he’d ascended several tiers of culinary heaven.
Catalyzed by both the fatigue from his journey and the wonderful meal, Zelir dragged his feet upstairs.
He couldn’t even be bothered to think about anything else. After taking off his coat and gear, he flopped face-first onto the bed.
An irresistible wave of exhaustion washed over him from deep within, swallowing him whole.
It wasn’t long before Zelir drifted off to sleep.
...
「The next day.」
He opened his eyes.
"Ugh... Ahh!"
Letting out a strange, uninhibited cry as he stretched, Zelir slowly sat up in bed.
Beneath him was a soft bed, crisp birdsong drifted in from outside the window, and sunlight spilled into the room.
’This feels so pleasant.’
With a flicker in his eyes, his data panel appeared. Zelir began to review his gains from the Monster Hunting trip.
Before he left, he was Level 10 (156/325). Now he was Level 16 (233/475)—a huge increase.
Especially his Spirit Attribute.
In addition, many of the analysis tasks he had queued up were now complete.
Thorn Technique, Flame Control Skill, Calm Mind Skill, Aromatherapy, Vitality Granting, Dispel Skill, Swift Blessing, Gift of Barbaric Strength, Indestructible Body, Spring Resonance, Aurora Energy Beam, and Fractal Fire.
Of these, Thorn Technique, Calm Mind Skill, and Aromatherapy were Level Two Magic.
Flame Control Skill and Vitality Granting were Level Three Magic.
Dispel Skill, Swift Blessing, Gift of Barbaric Strength, Indestructible Body, Spring Resonance, Aurora Energy Beam, and Fractal Fire were all Level Four Magic.
Still being analyzed were Whispering Barrier, Purification Aura, Praise of Life, Magic Harmony, Magma Pillar, Gravity Singularity, Blazing Flame Shield, Ring of Resistance, Flame Thunder Spear, and Star Punishment.
The variety of Magic was dazzling. Zelir felt he might forget some of them, let alone have a chance to use them all.
He was certain that Whispering Barrier and Flame Thunder Spear were both Multi-layered Spell Structure Magic.
Furthermore, Flame Thunder Spear was most likely a Level Four Multi-layered Spell Structure Magic.
As for Star Punishment... its analysis was abnormally slow. Five days had passed, and the progress bar hadn’t even reached ten percent.
Zelir figured this must be the Level Seven Arcane Magic that Instructor Manlin had mentioned, the one that Instructor Marvin could cast.
’Condense your own Magic Power into a ball of light, then continuously bombard the opponent. As long as you have enough Magic Power, you can keep casting it, and its power is absolutely astounding!’
’As expected of the most destructive Arcane Magic.’
’The slow analysis doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t be able to use it even if it were finished, so I’ll just let it sit for now.’
The payment for the Monster Hunting hadn’t been distributed yet, so after breakfast, Zelir decided to practice his newly learned Magic first.
He went down to the riverbank.
Of the two offensive Level Four Magic spells that had finished analyzing, Zelir was most looking forward to Aurora Energy Beam.
As the Level of the Demons he faced gradually increased, Arcane Missile was no longer enough to meet Zelir’s needs.
Forget about Challenge Level Demons; sometimes Arcane Missile even struggled to break the defense of tough, thick-skinned Difficult Level Demons, like the Giant Rock Golem.
Then there was the Black-Scaled Python he’d encountered before.
And Water of Cutting was a Skill that had to be used at close range. If he ran into a monster that could use magic attacks, like the One-Eyed Giant, he wouldn’t even have a chance to use it unless he beat the opponent into submission first.
Aurora Energy Beam perfectly compensated for his lack of firepower.
Long range, high damage, strong penetration. Perfect.
’The Spell Structure of Aurora Energy Beam...’
Zelir reviewed it in his mind.
Compared to Arcane Missile, Aurora Energy Beam had more energy-charging circuits and even special runes for energy compression and direction.
With the structure clear in his mind, it was time for practice.
He circulated his Magic Power and began to outline the spell...
Zelir raised Night Peace, aiming it at a new boulder he had found by the river.
As Zelir infused his Magic Power into the Glazed Glass shaft of Night Peace, several silver lines within it instantly lit up.
A brilliant Arcane Magic light flowed rapidly within it, then surged toward the tip of the staff, converging into a single point of light.
The point of light grew larger and larger, finally becoming a fist-sized ball of energy.
Charging complete. Fire!
The point of light at the staff’s tip was suddenly stretched out, like dough being pulled apart, and rapidly extended into a blue beam.
The speed of the Aurora Energy Beam was extremely fast, even quicker than an Arcane Missile.
It left almost no trail in the air, vanishing in a flash.
A direct hit!
WHOOSH!
The Aurora Energy Beam instantly blasted a bowl-sized hole in the surface of the hard boulder.
Moreover, the energy of this Aurora Energy Beam was extremely focused. All its destructive power was concentrated in that single beam, with almost no excess energy dissipating into the surroundings.
The resulting effect was like an armor-piercing Arrow, boring a hole in the target and piercing straight through from front to back!
Through the hole, Zelir could even see the patch of reeds swaying in the wind behind the boulder.
"Ooh..."
Zelir was very satisfied with the destructive power of the Aurora Energy Beam.
’Not bad.’
’With this kind of fortress-breaching power, if I run into a Giant Rock Golem again, I won’t have to waste time aiming for its legs. I’ll just blast it right in the chest with an Aurora Energy Beam. That’ll punch right through.’
Additionally, during his practice, Zelir discovered another way to cast Aurora Energy Beam.
In the final stage of the Spell Structure, instead of concentrating the energy-compression runes to their absolute limit,
he could have them output the energy in a slightly more dispersed form.