Rapid Progress

"Ghh—"

Lu Cang's mouth twitched.

Kumiloni gazed reproachfully at Iz. "Iz, why were you so rough with Lu Cang? I don't remember you having a habit of abusing children."

Exactly! That's right!

Kumiloni, give this child abuser a good scolding for me.

He'd said things like, "A real battle isn't just you attacking your enemy. Your enemy will fight back, too."

Then he went and attacked me without honor or regard for seniority.

What kind of master did that?

Lu Cang lay across Kumiloni's lap as she healed his injuries.

But this time, the healing wasn't nearly as fast as when she'd treated Izpalut's mortal chest wound.

As he slowly recovered, Lu Cang still felt a dull ache all over his body.

Yet he could faintly sense that as the pain faded, his vitality and constitution seemed to be improving, too.

Iz scratched his head. "Well..."

"Potential has to be drawn out. I had to let him experience what a real battle feels like."

"Otherwise, if he thinks enemies won't fight back, he might end up in trouble."

Kumiloni continued soothing Lu Cang's wounds. "But no mage's first sparring partner is Izpalut."

"And this was his first real battle, too."

"Iz, no matter how you look at it, you went a bit too far this time."

That's right. Exactly.

Give him a good dressing-down, Kumiloni.

Lu Cang lay across Kumiloni's lap, glaring sideways at Izpalut with utter disdain.

This battle had left Lu Cang feeling utterly defeated.

Truthfully, he'd been looking forward to defeating Izpalut.

After all, who didn't have a few little dreams after transmigrating to another world?

Like becoming the world's strongest mage, crushing everyone at the same level, and dominating every enemy beneath the heavens, and so on.

Even if he couldn't become the strongest mage or dominate every enemy beneath the heavens just yet, he should at least be able to try crushing everyone at his level.

And judging by the results of his Promotion Ritual and the descriptions of mages in the book of general knowledge,

he should count as an absolute magical prodigy, one of the greatest talents in history.

On top of that, upon reaching level two, he'd gained "God-Tier Multi-Casting" as a bonus.

So when Iz had suggested a fight between people at the same level, Lu Cang had naturally thought about beating Iz to a pulp first.

Starting by defeating Izpalut, he'd crush everyone beneath the heavens!

But he hadn't expected...

That he'd be the one beaten to a pulp.

Iz, you really know how to crush a kid's confidence.

Iz shrugged and spread his hands. "Well, you can't blame me for everything."

"Little Lu Cang really did bring out my competitive spirit."

Kumiloni raised an eyebrow, her tone teasing and mocking. "Oh? The famous Izpalut got competitive with a child?"

Iz shook his head. "That's not it, Kumiloni."

Iz answered seriously, "At that moment, I really felt that if I didn't take him seriously, I'd lose."

"Besides, I think Lu Cang is an opponent worth taking seriously."

Kumiloni froze at that and stared closely at Izpalut.

Then she stopped criticizing him and focused on healing Lu Cang.

There was no denying that Kumiloni's healing was remarkably effective.

Lu Cang had been covered in wounds, his skin torn open, but after the treatment, not even a scar remained.

Even the faint phantom pains he'd expected to linger were completely gone.

Had she healed not only his wounds, but also the scars on his heart?

Kumiloni really was an excellent healer. No wonder she was a level-five Life Recreator.

Lu Cang couldn't help marveling to himself.

After returning to his room, Lu Cang couldn't help thinking about what Iz had said that afternoon.

"I need to think for myself?"

He currently knew fourteen spells.

Fifteen, if he counted Magic Enhancement Technique.

"Come to think of it, I've learned so many spells, but I don't know anything about magical theory."

With that thought, Lu Cang reached over to the bedside table and took out the Ice Cone Technique book. He'd read through its incantations once, then left it to gather dust.

He opened to the first page.

And began reading from the start.

Now that he'd practiced magic until it had Transcended, looking back on the book gave him a whole new perspective.

History and origins... weren't so boring after all.

When morning came, his routine was the same as ever.

He went to the library to read.

He'd already borrowed the book of general knowledge and kept it with him wherever he went.

But there were things beyond general knowledge that he needed to compare and cross-reference.

So for his morning reading, Lu Cang still preferred going to the library to look up useful material.

After lunch,

it was time to study magic with Izpalut.

Training with Iz really did bring rapid progress.

In just one day, Lu Cang had trained all six of the new second-tier spells he'd learned to Transcendence.

"Heavy Wall," "Poison Vine Strike," "Wind Blast," "Sunken Shadow Swamp," "Hardened Barrier," and "Rising Wave Technique."

They had respectively evolved into stone wall durability, vine poison, wind-burst force, shadow swamp viscosity, barrier strength, and water column range.

This time, when Lu Cang fought Iz again,

he didn't struggle nearly as much as he had the day before.

Perhaps Iz had held back and controlled his strength. Either way, Lu Cang gained a great deal from their battles.

"Mage Mastery—Transcendent" gave Lu Cang extra experience every time he cast Transcendent Magic.

And the triple casting from "Multiple Casting" meant he could gain triple the experience.

On top of that, training with Iz gave him five times the experience, and the flashes of inspiration that came during actual combat increased his proficiency even further.

As a result, every spell Lu Cang cast earned him hundreds of thousands, even over a million experience points.

A single cast was equivalent to a million casts of ordinary people's painstaking practice.

At the same time, as he fought Iz,

Lu Cang became much more adept at using his spells.

He gradually came up with all sorts of techniques he'd never thought of before.

For example, he could create a stone wall behind [Hardened Barrier]. It would block the enemy's first attack, while the stone wall provided a second layer of protection.

After the enemy smashed through the stone wall, there would be another Hardened Barrier behind it.

Like layers in a sandwich cookie, they covered one another.

With three layers absorbing the force, they could neutralize most attacks.

"Silent Wind Swarm" could also be combined with "Wind Blast."

He could use Wind Blast to slam the Silent Wind Swarm into an enemy, dealing lethal damage in an instant.

Or he could use Wind Blast to whip up a gust of wind, concealing the Silent Wind Swarm.

There was also the combination of Sunken Shadow Swamp and spell arrows, and of stone walls and rushing pillars...

Besides being powerful, Transcendent Magic had another advantage.

It was... new.

These were almost entirely new spells. Other than Lu Cang and Izpalut, no one else had mastered them.

No one knew about them, making them extremely difficult to defend against.

But what Lu Cang couldn't understand was... why could Iz use Transcendent Magic, too?

Did he have Proficiency Evolution as well?

One day, two days, three days...

Ten days had passed in the blink of an eye since Lu Cang arrived in this world.

He'd completed his class advancement on the fifth day.

From then on, his routine was the same every day: cramming on the world's history and general knowledge in the morning, then training with Iz in the afternoon.

Every so often, Chicheng would come by and ask, "Want to go hunt Frost Wyverns? Want to go hunt Destroyer Wyverns? Want to go hunt Flame Wyverns?"

But Iz seemed to take his own responsibilities very seriously, too.

Every time Chicheng asked, he turned him down.

Wait...

Wasn't he your teammate?

The least you could do was go with him once. I wouldn't mind missing a day of training.

That was what Lu Cang thought.

But truthfully, he wanted to keep training, too.

Every day, he could feel his strength growing by leaps and bounds. The thrill of making progress was impossible to resist.

And "Void Magic" had successfully undergone its transformation, too.

With Iz's guidance, "Void Magic" had broken through to "Void Realm," which Iz rated as the strongest Magic Enhancement Technique for second-tier mages.

The only mages who knew "Void Realm" were Iz and Lu Cang.

Those who had learned "Magic Tide" studied a weaker version of "Void Realm" after reaching the second tier, called "Magic Blank."

Learning magic from Iz really was an incredible experience.

If nothing unexpected happened, Lu Cang felt he could keep learning from Iz forever.

The day after he learned "Void Realm,"

Lu Cang went downstairs as usual, planning to have breakfast before heading to the library. He was still wondering what new things he might learn from Iz that day.

But when he reached the hall, he saw Iz and the others waiting for him.

That's right, waiting.

Lu Cang could tell.

Sigh, I'd like to post more, too, but unfortunately, there are rules during the free-reading period.