"This boss is way too hard to find! I've been searching all morning and haven't even caught a glimpse of it!" Lin Yu finally complained after logging out of the game and replacing the nutrient solution.
Over the course of the morning, Lin Yu had dealt with more than forty magical beasts and obtained more than forty magic cores. Yet, never mind a boss, he hadn't even seen an elite monster.
"Are there really bosses in this game?" Lin Yu was starting to question his life. He really hadn't expected a boss to be this hard to find.
"I need to think of something. Wandering around aimlessly like this isn't going to work." He raised a hand to press his temple and began thinking of a way to find a boss.
After thinking for a while, an idea came to Lin Yu.
"I've got it! I can set up a Life Sense ritual, then amplify it with a Double Magic Enhancement ritual. That should help me find a boss faster. That's what I'll do. The magic cores I got from grinding magical beasts are just right for the ritual materials."
Having decided what to do next, Lin Yu began his preparations.
There were many kinds of materials that could be used to trace a ritual array: the blood of magical beasts, blood, or metals such as Adamantine, Mithril, and bronze.
Of those three metals, Adamantine conducted magic best and was the most stable, Mithril came second, and bronze was the least effective.
The only materials Lin Yu could use at the moment were Mithril and bronze, so Mithril was his only choice for tracing the array.
Lin Yu took out ten silver coins and held them in his palm, then immediately used Alchemy. The coins turned into a flowing silver liquid, and as they were refined by the Refining Technique, the silvery-white liquid began to radiate a silver glow.
He guided the refined Mithril liquid onto the ground, manipulating it until an array inscribed with all kinds of magic runes appeared on the earth.
Next came the ritual materials. An ordinary spell like Life Sense didn't have particularly strict requirements for them, and the magic cores Lin Yu had collected that morning were just right for the job.
Lin Yu reached into his cloth bag, pulled out twenty-five magic cores, and placed them around the array. Once everything was ready, he pressed both hands against it and began channeling mana into it. A large amount of mana poured into the array beneath him, and after he had injected 400 mana points, it finally filled every corner.
Ritual casting · Double Magic Enhancement · Life Sense
As the spell took effect, the auras of every living thing within a two-kilometer radius appeared in Lin Yu's senses.
Beast, beast, magical beast, beast...
As he sensed all the life auras within two kilometers, Lin Yu soon locked onto one that was exceptionally powerful.
After determining which direction the life aura was coming from, Lin Yu flew rapidly toward it.
From a distance, Lin Yu saw exactly what was giving off that powerful life aura.
It was a magical beast that looked like a tiger, a full four meters long, covered in golden fur, and equipped with a pair of enormous feathered wings.
Looking at the giant tiger in the distance, Lin Yu frantically searched through his knowledge of monsters, trying to figure out what kind of magical beast it was.
Soon, Lin Yu found a possible match among the magical beasts: a Crimson Flame Tiger. The only problem was that Crimson Flame Tigers had no wings, while the tiger-shaped magical beast in the distance had a huge pair.
The Crimson Flame Tiger was a medium-danger magical beast, corresponding to the range between apprentice and formal ranks. It had a natural affinity for the fire element and could spew great quantities of flames, fireballs, and the like from the magical organ in its mouth. Its body was extraordinarily powerful, placing it among the strongest medium-danger magical beasts. Its weakness was the magical organ in its mouth. Destroying that organ would severely injure the Crimson Flame Tiger and greatly reduce its strength.
Watching the Crimson Flame Tiger fly away from him, nearly disappearing from sight, Lin Yu quickly flew in its direction.
As he flew, Lin Yu traced arrays in his mental sea, preparing the spells he was about to cast.
800 meters... 500 meters... 200 meters.
When he closed to 180 meters, the flying Crimson Flame Tiger was fully within the range of Lin Yu's magic.
Without any hesitation, Lin Yu cast the spell he had prepared.
Double Magic Enhancement · Wind Blade Spell
He cast the Wind Blade Spell enhanced by Double Magic Enhancement twice in succession, sending two invisible wind blades speeding toward the Crimson Flame Tiger.
As he cast the spells, Lin Yu controlled his body and flew toward the Crimson Flame Tiger.
When the wind blades came within a few dozen meters of the Crimson Flame Tiger, it finally sensed the approaching danger.
By then, however, it was too late. The Crimson Flame Tiger had only just begun to dodge when the invisible wind blades sliced through its enormous wings, severing them both at the roots.
"Roar!" Hearing the Crimson Flame Tiger's pained roar as its wings were severed, Lin Yu, now within fifty meters of it, cast the Ice Cone he had prepared without hesitation.
Three translucent ice cones formed beside Lin Yu and flew toward the Crimson Flame Tiger as it fell from the sky with its wings severed.
The three ice cones crossed the fifty-meter distance and struck the Crimson Flame Tiger with precision, making it fall even faster.
Thud. The Crimson Flame Tiger's massive body slammed heavily into the ground with a dull impact.
Seeing the Crimson Flame Tiger struggling to get up, Lin Yu cast the spell he had prepared without any hesitation.
He aimed a Water Arrow at the Crimson Flame Tiger's body. It struck the struggling beast and burst into an enormous splash, soaking it from head to tail.
Next came Lightning Strike. A bolt of lightning erupted from Lin Yu's palm and struck the Crimson Flame Tiger ten meters away.
In an instant, the fur all over the Crimson Flame Tiger's body turned charred black.
Still hearing no kill notification, Lin Yu raised his hand and followed up with several more Lightning Strikes.
[Elite · Crimson Flame Tiger (mutated) lv10 killed. 0 experience gained (experience full; cannot gain experience).]
Hearing the kill notification, Lin Yu dispersed the spell he had prepared in his hand.
"So it was an elite monster? I thought it was a boss!" Looking at the Crimson Flame Tiger on the ground, Lin Yu felt a little troubled. So the Crimson Flame Tiger wasn't a boss! He had thought such a powerful life aura would belong to one!
"Sigh, looks like I'll have to keep searching. Remember, a life aura this strong belongs to an elite monster." Looking at the electrocuted Crimson Flame Tiger's corpse before him and smelling the roasted meat in the air, Lin Yu was somewhat troubled over what to do with it.
As a special individual among medium-danger magical beasts, the Crimson Flame Tiger had skin, bones, blood, organs, and other parts that made good Alchemy and ritual materials. To be honest, Lin Yu really didn't want to give them up.