Another Tracking Magic

Eighth Day of Adventure.

Miss Serie was ignoring Rhode.

The reason was simple—she had been deeply wounded by his success.

At that moment, Rhode spotted a Grayhorn Rabbit in the forest ahead. It was hiding behind a tree with only its gray tail exposed, making it difficult to catch without a wide-area attack spell.

But Rhode had a way.

He estimated the rabbit's position, cast a spell, and released a small Light Arrow. The projectile curved midair and struck the Grayhorn Rabbit directly.

Yes, Rhode had already learned Miss Serie's tracking magic.

However, instead of her high-difficulty method of attaching magic power to the attack itself, Rhode had taken a clever shortcut: he pre-marked the target's position and made the spell alter its own flight path, achieving a similar tracking effect.

This approach required little practice to pull off, saving him considerable effort.

The price? Our Miss Serie was not pleased.

Serie stood with her arms crossed, leaning against a tree, her long golden hair casually draped around her waist. After watching Rhode's series of moves, her delicate face was taut.

She turned her head away, deliberately avoiding looking at him. "That's just cutting corners. This isn't real tracking magic at all."

Rhode grabbed the Grayhorn Rabbit by the ears, briefly processed it, and stowed it in his backpack. He gave a helpless smile. "But it's really practical."

Just thinking about how to attach magic power to an attack made his head ache. This shortcut was far easier.

Who knew what the goddess had been thinking, sending a science student like him to this fantasy world and giving him a talent for Creation Magic, making him constantly want to use scientific theory to invent spells.

"Real tracking magic requires attaching magic power to the attack and locking onto the enemy's aura to determine direction. The key point is that even if the enemy dodges, it can launch a second strike. As long as the magic power within the spell hasn't run out, it can keep attacking the target." Serie finally turned her head, her golden eyes full of defiance. "What you did is just—"

This was the longest speech Serie had made in days of adventuring, showing she was genuinely agitated.

"Guided Magic?" Rhode ventured.

"What nonsense is that!?" The expression on Serie's face became wonderfully complicated, even a little adorable.

"Anyway, that's not real tracking magic!"

Serie had wanted this man to bring her more surprises, but only on the condition that those surprises didn't wound her pride!

Why had she spent years learning tracking magic, only for this man to master it so quickly? Even if he had taken a shortcut, he had still achieved the same effect.

So our Miss Serie was desperately making excuses, absolutely refusing to admit this was tracking magic!

Watching his tight-faced Little Ancestor, Rhode suddenly found Serie even cuter than usual.

If he weren't afraid she'd beat him to death, he'd really want to pat her head and pinch her round cheeks.

"Alright, alright, this really isn't true tracking magic." It was just a label, after all, and Rhode didn't intend to argue with Serie over it. "If our great Miss Serie doesn't mind, could you teach me again? This time I'll seriously learn the real, authentic tracking magic!"

In truth, Rhode had also realized that this tracking magic was probably one of the Elf race's most core secrets.

Because in a sense, it was practically cheating.

Imagine fighting a mage: you dodge their first wave of attacks and are about to charge in, only to find their spell has curved around and is coming at you again.

At that moment, you'd probably be cursing your luck.

If you were prepared, it might be manageable. If not, at the very least you'd be severely injured.

He just didn't understand why this kind of magic hadn't been passed down to later generations.

Was the learning difficulty too high for most people to master? Or had later magic simply become so powerful that tracking magic seemed obsolete?

Rhode thought the latter was unlikely. Something must have happened.

On the other side, Serie naturally didn't know what Rhode was thinking. But when she heard him admit this wasn't tracking magic and ask her to teach him again, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but lift slightly.

"Well then, since you're being so sincere—"

She raised her hand, a wisp of magic power gathering at her fingertip. "Watch closely. This is the orthodox method."

Before she finished speaking, a violent explosion suddenly rang out in the distance.

Both of them turned at once. In the distant sky, black-purple storm clouds had gathered.

"That's—" Serie's expression instantly turned serious. "The aura of Monsters."

Rhode immediately cast a Great Detection Technique. A magic circle formed in his hand, just barely reaching the limit of its range toward the direction of the explosion.

Looking at the dense dots on the magic circle, his face turned grim. "A lot of them."

It was still only a basic version of the Great Detection Technique, unable to distinguish friend from foe or gauge the enemy's strength—only an approximate count.

"What do you think? Run or go check it out?"

If he were alone, he would have fled the moment the explosion sounded. But since Serie was with him, he chose to respect her opinion.

Serie glanced at Rhode, a hint of excitement in her expression. "Let's go. At least it won't be boring."

In truth, she had also cast a detection spell and hadn't sensed any particularly strong Monsters, so she planned to join the fray.

"Alright." Rhode nodded, and the two of them set off together toward the source of the sound.

After crossing through the dense forest, a village appeared before them. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood.

"Is this Dwarf territory? Looks like it's been attacked by Monsters."

Serie watched the dwarves clashing with the monsters and spoke slowly.

Rhode looked up and saw a large hole blasted in the village wall, with dozens of wolf-like monsters locked in battle with the dwarves.

"High-ranking Wolf Demons." Serie narrowed her eyes. "They're the superior variant of the ordinary Demon Wolves we killed before. They fight in packs, their combat power surges under a full moon, and they lose even more of their reason."

Rhode studied them closely. These so-called Wolf Demons looked exactly like the werewolves of later eras, only bloodier in appearance.

But there were so many of them. Though the dwarves fought fiercely, they were already showing signs of being overwhelmed.

After all, this village was small—you could see from one end to the other at a glance. Probably only twenty or thirty dwarves here had any fighting strength, nowhere near enough to handle this many werewolves.