The Bottom-Tier Adventurer in a League of Their Own [Seeking Follow-ups!]

"Magic Missile proficiency +1"

Level 1 Spell: Magic Missile Lv1 (4/10)

"So tired."

Successfully cast a spell.

This time was better than completely depleting his Mana last time; at least he wasn't immobilized. However, it still left him mentally exhausted.

If the fatigue from failing multiple spells was 1, then the fatigue from successfully casting a spell that significantly consumed Mana was 5.

He lay down to rest.

It took him about half an hour before the muddled, exhausted feeling in his mind subsided.

His Intelligence attribute of 7 was still proving useful.

His mental recovery speed was beyond that of ordinary people. Ordinary individuals might need to sleep to fully recover from such symptoms, but he only needed a short nap.

Moreover, his Mana was also growing steadily each day. Although not very fast, it was stable.

Growing a little each day was very reassuring.

Unfortunately, even though his Mana was still increasing, it was still too little for a Level 1 Magic Missile at this stage.

He had only awakened his Mana a short time ago, barely a week in total. He needed more time to fully integrate the advantages his mental attributes provided.

"Is there any way to reduce the Mana consumption of Magic Missile?"

Since he couldn't quickly increase his income, Gauss could only focus on reducing his expenses.

In fact, he felt that the full power of the current Magic Missile was overkill for him; a lot of Mana was being wasted.

Take Goblins as an example. Forget killing ordinary Goblins; even that large Goblin could be defeated with excess power from Magic Missile.

Gauss suspected that 30-50% of Magic Missile's power would be more than enough to kill that large Goblin.

For an ordinary Goblin, perhaps 10% would be sufficient for a kill.

Of course, this was just his intuition; he wasn't sure of the actual figures.

Should he try to see if it was possible?

Even if he couldn't limit the Mana output "power" to 10%, even 80% or 90% would be good. At least it would alleviate the fatigue and emptiness after consuming a large amount of Mana in a short period, allowing him to proceed with the next round of practice more quickly.

Otherwise, the current practice cycle was too long.

He rested for a while longer.

Once the Mana in his body had slowly recovered, Gauss began to act.

He continued to close his eyes and focus.

Since he had just succeeded recently, he found the feeling of casting the spell smoothly this time.

However, he didn't rush to follow that intuition and complete the entire casting process. Instead, as soon as the Mana began to flow, he actively interrupted the process.

It sounded easy, but interrupting the process was far more complex than it sounded.

Once casting began, the spell's energy flow seemed to move with a certain inertia. To interrupt this process required strong control.

Fortunately, his mental attributes came through again, and he succeeded in interrupting it on his first try.

Next, he needed to refine this control.

To put it crudely, a spell was like a pre-designed program. Normal casting only required finding the correct casting sensation, which was like inputting the correct command, to make this program automatically run.

The difficult part of magic was the process of constructing this spell "program" in one's consciousness, following the books and teachings left by predecessors, according to their "tutorials."

However, this also presented a problem: if one relied solely on this magic "black box," the Mage would be unable to exert fine control over the spell itself.

"I want to intercept a portion of the Mana at the moment I prepare to cast."

Gauss had a feeling.

Just as he could interrupt the flow of Mana, he could naturally intercept it.

The difficulty lay in how much to intercept, the right timing, and doing so without interfering with the normal spell operation.

Continue!

After that, Gauss continued the process of repeated failures, attempts, rest, Mana recovery, and further practice.

As the sun began to set, its lingering rays bathing the lawn, he had barely managed to limit Magic Missile's "output power" to around 95%.

For now, he could only intercept 5% of the Mana.

If he intercepted even a little more, the Mana would no longer flow smoothly.

Although 5% seemed small, it was actually a huge improvement. He had started with only 1%, and through continuous attempts, he had slowly reached this point, which indicated he was on the right path.

His idea was feasible, and now he just needed to continue working in this direction.

He touched his empty stomach, packed his belongings, and turned towards the town.

Five sunrises and sunsets passed in the blink of an eye.

Gauss went out early and returned late every day.

Patiently, he quietly practiced magic.

His proficiency with Magic Missile also steadily improved with his diligent training.

Magic Missile Lv. 2 (1/20).

Besides the Magic Missile proficiency upgrade, the Mana within him also saw significant growth.

If he were to use the Mana consumed by a full-power Magic Missile from his initial state as one standard unit of measurement, his previous Mana reserves were roughly on the order of one standard unit.

Now, his Mana reserves had quietly reached 1.5 standard units, a full 50% increase.

Of course, this was just a descriptive term, a rough unit of measurement he devised himself. It was based purely on his personal feeling and might not be entirely precise, with some slight deviations, but generally speaking, it wasn't a major issue.

As for the power-limiting training for Magic Missile, he could currently only output Magic Missiles at 60% power, which he also called 0.6 standard unit Mana Missiles.

With his Mana reserves, he could probably unleash two 0.6 standard unit Mana Missiles, leaving him with 0.3 standard units of Mana.

The further along one progressed, the more difficult it became to limit the power.

This was because releasing a Magic Missile inherently required a certain level of Mana.

To use knowledge from Gauss's past life as an analogy, it was like a gasoline-powered car. No matter how much engineers optimized its engine design to reduce fuel consumption, it would always require a certain amount of fuel, and the further the optimization, the more difficult it became.

"Let's put the practice on hold for now."

Finishing his seclusion-like short training, Gauss let out a sigh of relief.

These five days of training had passed quickly, but they had also been grueling.

Every day involved constantly consuming Mana, exhausting his spirit, recovering, and then consuming it again – it was a repeated torment for his mind.

He had promised himself he would rest for a while after finishing the commission in Birch Village.

But in the end, he had only made himself more tired.

Gauss couldn't help but smile wryly.

Fortunately, the training at this stage had been fruitful, and the hardship hadn't been in vain.

Although Gauss complained verbally, he knew very well that this exhaustion was worth it. In future crises, every drop of sweat shed now would transform into a source of strength.

Now, through training, he had initially gained a certain killing power against formidable enemies.

A 0.6 standard unit Magic Missile was enough to easily kill the large Goblin from before, and he could use this attack twice.

If he were to return to that night now, he would definitely not be in such a sorry state.

With a certain degree of self-preservation ability, Gauss felt significantly less pressure.

In fact, ever since he transmigrated to this world, he had been constantly driven forward by a subtle sense of urgency.

It was precisely this feeling of instability that made him desperately want to master various magics and swords to arm and protect himself.

Currently, his trump card, Magic Missile, was enough to provide him with a certain level of security.

Relying on the powerful destructive force of Magic Missile, in terms of offensive capability alone, he should be in a league of his own among Adventurers at the lower tier who had not yet advanced their professions.

Assessing his combat strength, Gauss, who had been practicing magic steadily for a few days, felt a bit restless.

Why not find a few Goblins to spar with? Test the results of his practice?

Thanks to "New Fatty Ah Feng" for the reward, thank you for your support!