Magic Modification

A month passed in a flash.

For most of the month, Garen had been modifying magic. He spent only a little time getting used to the Purple Dragon Bow, a name he had come up with himself.

To make his magic more powerful and versatile, he had modified it based on the anime and novels he had seen in his previous life.

He started with some simple combinations.

The Level 5 wind magic Roar of the Wind was originally a javelin-shaped construct made of wind elements, formed with mental power and launched at enemies.

Garen bound the Level 5 Fire-style magic Explosive Fireball to the tip of Roar of the Wind.

This simple combination not only retained Roar of the Wind's speed and piercing power, but also added Explosive Fireball's explosive properties. He named it Explosive Overlord Spear.

If anyone dared act arrogant in front of him from now on, he would shout, "You've already sealed your fate."

Then he'd reward them with an Explosive Overlord Spear.

The power of these two spells combined was definitely greater than the sum of their parts.

He also found that hurling it with the strength of a Level 6 Warrior made it more powerful than casting it with mental power—and saved him mental energy, too.

It gave a Level 5 spell power close to that of a Level 6 spell.

Next was his specialty. He repeatedly compressed Explosive Fireball, then wrapped it in the wind spell Wind Tornado and kneaded it between his hands. He named it Spiral Burst.

For ranged attacks, he could simply fling it. After the Explosive Fireball detonated, the Wind Tornado around it would break into countless tiny blades of wind and spray in every direction. It was a superb spell for hitting multiple targets.

In close combat, he could shape the Wind Tornado into a cone as he approached an enemy, piercing their armor or a mage's magic shield before detonating the Explosive Fireball to grievously wound or kill them.

The more Garen experimented, the more he realized how perfectly wind and fire magic complemented each other. He came to understand just what it meant for wind to fan the flames and fire to lend wind its force.

Finally, he put the Purple Dragon Bow to use. With a wind magic crystal core fitted into it, all he had to do was compress Roar of the Wind. The javelin-sized spell became an arrow, which he then fired from the bow. It flew twice as fast as an ordinary Roar of the Wind, hit twice as hard, and had excellent piercing power.

He named it Gale Arrow.

With a fire magic crystal core fitted into the bow, he compressed fire energy into an arrow. Once fired, it unleashed a much more powerful explosion.

He named it Explosive Arrow.

Finally, he combined the two arrows. With the Purple Dragon Bow's enhancement, their power approached that of Level 7 Magic. He named the attack Gale Explosive Arrow. When the arrow flew, a wind dragon followed.

"Hasagi, Sorye Ge Ton."

As long as he recited this spell incantation, an ethereal swordsman would somehow be transported from another world, racing after the arrow and unleashing wave after wave of sword energy.

Unfortunately, with Garen's current mental strength, using either Spiral Burst or Gale Explosive Arrow even once would drain him completely, leaving him unable to cast any more magic.

Fortunately, he still had thirty high-quality Alloy Arrows, so he was well-equipped for ranged combat.

Garen planned to avoid transforming as much as possible during his trip to the Magical Beast Mountain Range. Killing monsters while transformed didn't grant him experience, so doing so would be a terrible loss.

The outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

He had only just left the nearest town when the System Map showed more than ten red dots in some nearby bushes.

"Must be bandits. We're still some distance from the Magical Beast Mountain Range, so they can't be magical beasts. Too bad for you—you ran into me."

Garen crouched low and slowly crept closer.

Sure enough, more than ten bandits were crouched in the bushes, watching the direction of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

They were probably waiting to ambush adventurers returning from their training in the range.

Seeing the bandits' unfriendly faces reminded Garen of the Guard Team members who had died, and of Uncle Luke. His killing intent surged.

The Tiger-Striped Warrior bloodline already craved slaughter. After his Bloodline Atavism, he usually had to keep it in check. But now that he'd run into these bandits, he no longer had to restrain himself.

He nocked an Alloy Arrow, imbued it with Precision and Extreme Speed, and aimed at the bandit leader crouched at the front.

"Thwip!"

Without a battle aura barrier, even a Level 7 Warrior would die from a shot to the head.

The bandit leader reacted when the arrow was less than a meter away, but it was too late. He died without even understanding what had happened.

Ding. You killed a Level 6 bandit leader. Gained 252 experience.

After the bandit leader died, a glowing orb floated out of his corpse.

"Nice, loot!"

The other bandits saw their Level 6 leader get shot in the head and immediately panicked, looking around and activating their battle aura barriers.

They thought another bandit gang had ambushed them.

After all, bandits didn't care whether their victims were fellow bandits when it came to killing and robbing.

Unfortunately, Garen was very small, making him a difficult target. They searched for a long time without spotting him.

"Thwip!"

Another bandit fell.

Ding. You killed a Level 4 bandit. No experience gained for killing a lower-level enemy.

Even with his battle aura barrier activated, the Level 4 Warrior couldn't withstand the Alloy Arrow Garen had fired.

Enhanced with Extreme Speed and Precision by the Purple Dragon Bow, even an ordinary Alloy Arrow had the power of Level 5 Magic.

This time, the bandits finally spotted the direction the arrows were coming from. Some drew their bows to shoot back, while others drew their swords and charged in for close combat.

Garen didn't even bother dodging their arrows. They only had a rough idea of where he was and hadn't actually spotted him, so their wild shots flew everywhere.

"Bang!"

Another arrow struck a Level 5 Warrior with his battle aura barrier activated, breaking through it. The arrow lost its momentum and fell to the ground.

Before the bandit could celebrate, another arrow came.

"Thwip!"

No experience gained.

After shooting, Garen immediately backed away.

The bandits had all stood up to chase him. They were sitting ducks. As long as he kept his distance, he could wipe out this batch of low-level enemies without taking a scratch.

To save time, Garen switched from ordinary Alloy Arrows to Gale Arrows. Even with their battle aura barriers up, the bandits still went down one by one.

When the enemy retreated, he advanced; when they advanced, he retreated.

After seven or eight bandits had been killed, the ones chasing him broke down. They couldn't catch him, but they couldn't escape, either.

After a quick discussion, they all crouched down and fled in different directions.

Seeing the red dots scatter across the Map Function, Garen transformed into a Tiger-Striped Warrior. He wouldn't get any experience for killing them either way, so he might as well transform and crush them with overwhelming force.

He picked a red dot and chased after it.

After reaching Level 6 Warrior, the Map Function could display everything within a radius of more than five hundred meters. It was far more powerful than the wind magic Wind of Perception.

Whether human or magical beast, any enemy unit recognized by the system would show up, no matter how it concealed its presence. Even if it hid dozens of meters underground, it would still appear.

It was a one-sided slaughter. The remaining bandits hadn't gotten far before Garen hunted them down one by one.

After sensing no more red dots nearby, Garen returned to human form and searched the bandits' corpses.

He walked up to the bandit leader's body.

Ding. Obtained a Primary Enhancement Stone.

Not bad. As long as something dropped, he was happy.

In the end, he found more than forty Level 4 magic crystal cores, over twenty Level 5 cores, two Level 6 cores, and more than four hundred gold coins on the bandits.

"What a bunch of broke losers."

(The End)