Emergency Conscription Order

Ten silver coins were no small sum for Su Ran, who had just received twenty-five.

But considering the intense, sustained practice he had planned, the monthly pass was clearly a much better deal.

"I'll take a monthly pass for the basic range." Without hesitation, Su Ran counted out ten gleaming silver coins and placed them on the counter.

"Certainly. Please register some basic information here: your class and level range. You don't need to use your real name. Please also provide a temporary authorization code for your personal terminal, so we can log your entries and exits and prevent impersonation."

The receptionist operated the system with practiced ease.

The formalities were soon complete. Su Ran received a metal card bearing a simple runic mark, with its validity period and permitted area printed on it.

Following the signs, he came to the spell-training area. Rows of closed metal doors lined both sides of a quiet corridor.

Faintly glowing runes on the doors indicated whether the rooms were occupied or vacant. He found an empty one and swiped his card to enter.

The room was small, about twenty square meters. The four walls, ceiling, and floor were covered in thick, soft, dark gray material engraved with energy-absorbing and stabilizing runes, ensuring that spell energy would neither leak out nor cause damage.

At the far end of the room stood three standard energy targets, positioned at different distances: five, ten, and fifteen meters.

The targets were made of a special crystal that could absorb energy impacts and display their intensity. Depending on the strength of the attack, they glowed in different colors, from faint white to the deep red that represented high intensity.

A simple control panel stood in the corner. It could adjust the targets' settings, keeping them stationary or making them move along a preset simple path, and reset them.

It could also display brief training statistics, such as hit rate, average energy intensity, and maximum intensity.

The setup was simple, but it had everything he needed.

Su Ran closed the door and activated the room's soundproofing and privacy barriers. All outside noise was cut off in an instant, leaving only the sound of his own steady breathing.

He walked to the center of the room and faced the nearest target, five meters away.

He didn't immediately begin bombarding it. Instead, he closed his eyes, focused his mind, and activated [Meditation Lv.1] to quickly enter a state of concentration.

The [Mind-Calming Jade Pendant] around his neck helped, and his mental power quickly grew active and stable.

Then he began recalling the details of the spell model for [Energy Missile Lv.1].

The path along which mental power was guided, the convergence point of arcane energy, the model's stable structure, the shaping and acceleration of the missile...

Every step appeared clearly in his mind. As he made minute adjustments with his thoughts, he tried to optimize them for greater efficiency.

"Begin."

Su Ran opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the bull's-eye five meters away. He raised his right hand and pointed his index finger forward.

His will stirred, and mana surged.

Humm...

A pale purple energy missile the size of a fist swiftly formed before his fingertip. It rotated slightly, then shot out with a whoosh!

Smack!

The missile struck the bull's-eye. The crystal target lit up with a faint white glow, indicating that its energy intensity met the basic standard.

But Su Ran frowned.

The casting time had been about 1.2 seconds, slower than when he exerted himself fully. The missile's flight path had also fluctuated ever so slightly; it wasn't stable enough.

This was the result of deliberately slowing down to seek structural stability and precise control, but there was clearly still plenty of room for improvement.

"Not enough. Again."

He cleared his mind of stray thoughts and began constructing the spell again.

One missile, two, three...

He no longer sought rapid, consecutive fire. Instead, he focused on the entire process of each cast: the efficiency with which he mobilized his mental power and the stability of his mana output.

The precision of the model's construction and the maintenance of the missile's trajectory after it left his hand.

The room filled with repeated sounds of "whoosh... smack!" The glow on the crystal target shifted between white and a faint yellow, the latter indicating a slight increase in intensity.

His casting speed slowly improved.

The missiles grew steadily more stable.

His hit rate had been one hundred percent at first, with a stationary target at close range. Later, he tried switching target distances and activating the simplest mode, in which the target moved from side to side.

His hit rate began to fluctuate, but he adjusted immediately, focusing on anticipating the target's movements and aiming.

When his mana ran low, he meditated on the spot to recover. When his mental power grew fatigued, he took a short break and stretched his body.

When he got hungry, he took a few bites of the dry rations he had brought with him.

He put all other matters out of his mind and immersed himself in the repeated cycle of construction, release, impact, analysis, and adjustment.

On the data panel, [Energy Missile]'s experience bar was accumulating slowly but steadily, out of sight.

He didn't know how many times he needed to practice before the skill leveled up, but he knew that every precise hit, every minute adjustment to the structure,

and every instance of fine control over his mana consumption was adding another brick to the wall he was building toward that goal.

Time flew by as he practiced with complete focus.

It wasn't until the training room's preset usage-time reminder lit up on the control panel, merely as a notification, that Su Ran suddenly realized he had been there for more than six hours.

He stopped and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead. Though tired, his eyes were bright.

He walked over to the control panel and brought up the basic statistics:

Total casts: 67

Average hit rate, including moving targets: 89.7%

Average casting time: 0.9 seconds, from the start of construction to the missile leaving his hand

Highest single-cast energy intensity rating: pale yellow, moderately low

The improvement was obvious.

More importantly, his understanding and control of the [Energy Missile] spell had deepened considerably.

It no longer felt like using a tool according to an instruction manual. Instead, he was beginning to understand how the tool worked and trying to fine-tune it himself.

Su Ran closed the data display and let out a long breath.

His monthly pass had only just begun. He had plenty of time.

By the time he left the training room, the lights outside were dazzling. Su Ran walked back to his rented room, physically exhausted but feeling a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

His strength was improving, little by little, and he could see it.

Back in the cramped room, he didn't rest immediately. He first checked his personal terminal. There were no new important messages.

Seeing no new messages, Su Ran went to sleep with peace of mind.

Early the next morning, Su Ran was about to contact Shield Guard to arrange a time to enter [Crouching Tiger Slope (Easy)] again.

He reckoned that even if the experience gains were low, it was worth running it a few more times for the [Tiger Bone Wine] that could theoretically exist there and permanently increase strength and constitution.

During the early windfall period of a resource-type dungeon, he had to make the most of it while he could.

However, as soon as he opened his personal terminal, a message from Shield Guard popped up first, its tone plainly apologetic and a little urgent:

"Mage Su Ran, sorry! Something urgent came up! I heard otherworldly creatures have made their way into Linhai Town, where Spearman and I are from. Things don't sound good!

"The town has issued an emergency conscription order. We have to rush back and help! I'm afraid we can't go to [Crouching Tiger Slope]. We're really sorry!"

Linhai Town? Su Ran thought back. It was a small settlement on the eastern coast,

near the edge of the Misty Sea, a major dungeon area. From time to time, weak otherworldly creatures did break through the defenses and wander into human settlements.

For Shield Guard and the others, who had family and friends there, going back to help was only natural.