Earth Spike Technique

He Xi's eyes lit up!

He firmly committed to memory the incantation, guiding method, and practice insights for the Earth Spike Technique from the notebook.

Though the notebook was full of complaints, the descriptions of the spell itself were fairly clear.

Closing the notebook, he brought Bruce to an empty lot on the western outskirts of a nearby town.

Raising his hand, he mimicked the complex gestures described in the notebook, chanting the awkward incantation aloud.

Bruce lay to the side, his dog face full of confusion.

"Pfft!"

A faint, muffled sound.

A small mound of earth less than an inch high formed in front of He Xi's feet.

He Xi: "..."

Bruce: "..."

"Ahem," He Xi cleared his throat, consoling himself, "At least it proves the incantation and gestures work? The gathering succeeded, it's just the 'piercing' force... needs improvement."

He focused again, straining harder to imagine a sharp cone...

"Pfft!"

Another small mound.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

After several consecutive attempts, a row of crooked little mounds appeared before He Xi.

For a first attempt to get the spell to take initial shape, this starting point far exceeded ordinary apprentices.

But Bruce knew nothing of such nuances. He let out a long yawn, lazily sweeping his tail across the ground.

"He Xi, are you planning to plant potatoes behind this row of mounds?"

He Xi shot him an annoyed glare: "Shut up, Bruce! What do you know about spells?"

He took a deep breath, ready to try again, when a wave of dizziness suddenly struck, nearly sending him to the ground!

Four consecutive releases had drained his already shallow mana reserves.

Though the spell hadn't achieved its intended effect, the mana consumption hadn't been discounted at all.

Bruce: "He Xi!?"

He Xi waved his hand, signaling he was fine.

Fortunately, with [Earth Affinity], as long as his feet stood on the ground, he could feel his mana recovering bit by bit.

Half an hour later, the dizziness had indeed faded considerably.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

Release—rest—release—rest.

Over the next few days, He Xi's life became a monotonous cycle: eat, sleep, practice Earth Spike Technique.

Outside the town, little mounds sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain, forming crooked rows.

Then they were trampled flat by the man and his dog.

On the third night, under hazy moonlight.

He Xi had practiced countless times, his stamina and mana both nearing their limits.

Just as he felt he could barely hold on—

In his mind, the cold light cluster suddenly sent a notification:

[Skill acquired: Earth Spike Technique Lv.1 (1/10)]

[Wisdom +1]

Almost simultaneously!

"Shiiing—!"

A sharp stone spike half a meter tall burst abruptly from the ground in front of him.

"It worked!"

"Lv.1? That means it can be improved?"

[Earth Spike Technique]!

He Xi immediately cast the spell again in quick succession.

"No change?"

"I need to figure out how spell levels increase."

Overcoming both mental and physical exhaustion, he took a short rest, gulped down some water, then stood firm again, ready to consolidate his practice.

But his best companion—Bruce—began whispering "devil's temptations" in his ear.

"Use a bit more magic, He Xi. See where your limit is! Act like a real mage! Stop messing around with useless tricks."

He Xi admitted he was swayed.

On one hand, he genuinely wanted to know what his full-powered strike would look like under the boost of the [Earth Affinity] trait.

On the other hand, he wanted to try if this could raise the level of [Earth Spike Technique].

That's how it was with an unorthodox path—no choice, he had to figure everything out on his own.

Luckily, after a few days of practice, his magic capacity seemed to have increased a bit.

"Alright, Bruce," He Xi took a deep breath, his gaze sharpening, "stand farther back, don't get caught in the crossfire."

Crossfire?

Bruce shot He Xi a sidelong glance.

With that half-foot-tall little dirt spike he'd spent days perfecting?

He didn't take it seriously at all.

He Xi focused all his concentration; his spellcasting was already much faster than at the start.

This time, he didn't carefully control his magic output but poured out every bit of magic within him.

Influenced by [Earth Affinity], the earth elements in the surrounding ground surged toward him as if summoned.

Condense, pierce.

"Boom—"

With a thunderous roar, the ground beneath his feet shook violently.

Bruce yelped "Awoo!" and jumped straight into the air.

Before He Xi, a massive, thick stone pillar burst through the earth.

Under the moonlight, the pillar's surface was covered in jagged edges, standing over ten meters tall like a small stone tower.

He Xi's vision went dark, the world spinning.

The emptiness of having his magic completely drained brought a wave of dizziness.

His body swayed, and he nearly collapsed on the spot.

"Damn it, still no change!"

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Beside him, Bruce was so scared he reverted to his native tongue.

He Xi, fighting through the dizziness and nausea, clamped his hand over Bruce's yapping dog mouth.

"Shut up! You stupid dog! Want to bring the guards running?! Run!"

But the "boom" had already exploded over the silent Plint town.

"Bang!"

"Crash!"

The sounds of windows being thrown open came one after another.

"What's going on?!"

"An earthquake?!"

"The Gods Above! What is that?!"

Lamplights lit up like dominoes, quickly spreading into a chain.

Noisy voices and footsteps came from all directions, converging toward the source of the sound—the town's western outskirts.

"Damn it!" He Xi cursed under his breath, forgetting to scold Bruce, dragging his weak legs and pulling the still-shocked dog, diving into the nearby bushes to quickly flee the "crime scene."

"Your fault, He Xi!" Bruce, running alongside him, still tried to shift the blame, "You shouldn't have made such a big commotion!"

He Xi was so furious at this guy he wanted to immediately revoke the [Nortonholt Common Tongue] he'd granted him.

"Shut up! You stupid dog!" He Xi growled in a low voice, "It was your bad idea! You're just jealous I learned magic!"

"Jealous? Me?" Bruce stuck his neck out, "I'm not jealous, it's your vanity acting up. You humans are all the same—just learn something and you want to show off!"

"No dinner for you!"

"Sorry, He Xi... I admit... I was jealous, I shouldn't have tempted you, but where do we hide now?"

"Hide? Why hide? A big stone pillar appeared near where we live—such a rare thing, shouldn't we go take a look?"

One man and one dog sneaked furtively around the outskirts of the town in a wide loop, re-entering from the completely opposite direction, then blended in with the townsfolk who had rushed over at the commotion, following the crowd with "curious" expressions back to the scene of the incident.

Around the stone pillar, the place was now buzzing with voices.

"My god in heaven! What the hell is this thing?"

"It's a miracle! This must be a miracle sent down by Mother Earth!"

"Miracle my ass! Feel this dirt—it's still warm! I say a volcano's about to erupt from underground!"

"Volcano? Don't talk nonsense and scare people! Could it be... could some Demonic Beast be about to crawl out from below?"

"It doesn't look like something crawled out; it looks like something was pushed up from underneath. Look at the dirt all around—it's been turned over."

"Pushed up? What could have that much strength? A giant?"

"I reckon maybe there's some ancient ruin buried under our town! This pillar is the entrance to the ruins!"

"Ruins? Treasure?!" The crowd instantly stirred, and many eyes began to gleam.

"Stop all this wild guessing!" An old man pushed through the crowd to the stone pillar, frowning as he examined it closely. "This thing... looks like some kind of spell..."

"Spell? Our town has a mage?" The crowd fell silent for a moment, then erupted into even louder chatter.

"Give it a rest! Where would a broken-down town like ours get a Lord mage? I say it's treasure!"

"What treasure? Old John already said it's a spell!"

"That old man's ancient—you believe what he says?"

"He traveled around when he was young, so he definitely knows more than you."

"Bullshit, I bet he wants to keep the treasure for himself!"

He Xi and Bruce listened to these increasingly outlandish guesses, didn't linger any longer, showed their faces just enough, and headed back.