First Battle

Although their caravan was passing through the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, they still encountered magical beasts every few days, but fortunately, the guard team was always able to handle them.

Watching one magical beast after another being killed, and thinking of his system, Garen couldn't help but feel eager to try, knowing these were all massive amounts of experience points.

For some reason, every time he saw the guard team fighting, Garen didn't feel afraid at all; instead, his blood boiled, and he wished he could take the place of the others and join the fray himself, even though he was currently just a third-rank mage with zero combat experience.

Even with his super-grade magic affinity, he only gained 2 experience points per day from meditation and refining magic power. Seeing that he needed 2000 experience points to reach the fourth rank—which would take over two years of slow cultivation—Garen began to hatch a plan to kill magical beasts for experience.

Since he had so many guards, with them holding the line against high-level magical beasts, it would be a disservice to himself not to take the opportunity to pick off some low-level ones.

If he didn't seize an opportunity like this, he might have to wait until he was a sixth or seventh-rank mage to come to the Magical Beast Mountain Range for experience.

He was well aware of the dangers of the Magical Beast Mountain Range; he knew that when the protagonist Linley came here as a fifth-rank mage, if not for the experience of Doehring Cowart and the help of Bebe, he might have died several times over.

That evening, after finishing dinner and while everyone was preparing to rest, Garen walked up to Luke.

"Uncle Luke, I want to fight alongside you all."

"??? Garen, fighting magical beasts is very dangerous. You are still young; when you grow up, there will be plenty of such opportunities."

Upon hearing Garen's words, Luke was taken aback at first. He assumed Garen was just being childish, having seen them defeat magical beasts so easily, and he made up an excuse to brush him off.

"Uncle, I am already a third-rank mage. I want to train my combat skills."

As he spoke, Garen walked to the side.

"Fireball Technique."

Five fireballs, each half a meter in diameter, appeared a few meters in front of Garen. The flames crackled, and the surrounding temperature rose by several degrees instantly.

Garen swung his arm forward, and the five fireballs flew toward a small hill not far away.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom."

Earth and stone flew as they blasted five half-meter-deep craters into the ground.

Everyone was startled at first, and then they all turned to look in this direction.

"Hiss."

"With this kind of power, you reached the third rank so quickly?"

Luke wore an expression of utter disbelief.

Garen's magic affinity was super-grade, and during his mental strength test, he had only resisted slightly; his actual mental strength was far more than 40 times that of an average person. Reaching the third-rank mage realm in a year and a half was entirely expected.

However, the members of the guard team were all warriors. They only knew that mage ranks were hard to climb, and since normal warriors leveled up faster than mages, they had never encountered a genius mage like Garen, so they were all filled with disbelief.

"Cough, cough. I just reached the third rank a while ago, so I wanted to find some magical beasts to practice with."

Garen didn't want to be so high-profile; he hadn't expected everyone's reaction to be so intense.

"I didn't expect our little Garen to already be a mage. Luke, next time there are low-level magical beasts, let him experience combat too. We're here to back him up, aren't we?"

A large man with a full beard walked over; it was the captain, Lucas.

"Haha, good! Truly, a tiger father has no dog for a son. If your parents knew you were already a third-rank mage before even reaching the Ernst Institute, they would surely be proud of you. Next time there are low-level magical beasts, I'll let you handle them—just don't cry if you can't beat them!"

Hearing that both captains had agreed to let him fight, Garen's face flushed with excitement.

"Thank you, Uncle Luke, thank you, Uncle Lucas. I won't let you down."

Full of anticipation, Garen spent the next few days waiting.

"What's going on? How come we haven't run into a single magical beast these past few days?"

Garen was holding a short blade and wearing leather armor (produced by the system) when, feeling frustrated, he looked up and suddenly saw two Wind Wolves over a meter tall not far away.

Although the members of the guard team saw them too, they didn't pay much attention. As long as the magical beasts didn't attack proactively, they generally wouldn't chase them; after all, their primary mission was to escort the goods, not to hunt magical beasts.

"Awoo!"

Suddenly, one of the Wind Wolves let out a howl.

"Everyone, be on alert! There might be a pack of Wind Wolves nearby."

The guard team quickly gathered the carriages together, drew their greatswords, and looked toward the forest with vigilance.

"Luke, wait and see the size of the Wind Wolf pack. If it's a large-scale pack, take some of the men and the carriages and run first, and take little Garen with you. I'll stay behind to cover the retreat."

Ever since they learned Garen was a third-rank mage, the entire guard team had been taking better care of him; after all, who wouldn't want to befriend a genius mage?

One had to know that on this continent, the status and standing of a mage were far higher than those of a warrior of the same rank.

"Understood, Captain."

Luke's expression was grave.

A large-scale pack of Wind Wolves could number in the thousands, with a pack leader that might be a seventh-rank magical beast. Most adult Wind Wolves were fourth or fifth-rank, and they were fast, could use Wind Blades, and understood coordination—they were the type of magical beast that guard teams hated encountering most.

Within moments, nearly a hundred Wind Wolves ran out of the forest.

"Phew, that's a relief. Judging by their size, it should be one sixth-rank wolf leader, seventy or eighty fourth or fifth-rank Wind Wolves, and a dozen or so third-rank growing pups," Luke said.

"Don't be careless. Everyone, form a circle and give it your all to kill as many as possible first. They are very smart; once they see our strength, they should retreat," Lucas shouted to the members of the guard team.

"Understood."

The team members all wore solemn expressions, standing at the ready; they did not possess the strength of the two captains and faced the constant threat of injury or death.

"Awoo!"

Following a roar from the largest Wind Wolf King at the back of the pack.

The battle began, and a hundred Wind Wolves swarmed forward, surrounding them from all sides.

While still over twenty meters away, streaks of wind blades flew from the maws of the Wind Wolves.

The warriors of the guard team had various colors of battle aura shimmering on their bodies, using their greatswords to deflect the wind blades.

Lucas and Luke rushed out from the crowd, rapidly closing the distance to the wolf pack.

"Die!"

Lucas was a level seven warrior who cultivated wind-attribute battle aura; his speed was incredibly fast, and his footwork was agile, allowing him to dodge wave after wave of wind blades. In just a few seconds, he charged into the pack, hacking left and right, instantly killing several wolves.

The nearby Wind Wolves scrambled to run away.

Luke was an earth-attribute warrior with astonishing defensive power. Several wind blades struck his battle aura shield, causing it to ripple only slightly, and by then he had already charged into the pack. With his greatsword swinging at full force, anything he touched died, and anything he grazed was injured.

The battle instantly reached a fever pitch.

Garen stood behind the crowd, and after observing the situation for a moment, he climbed onto a carriage, aiming his gaze at a dozen or so smaller Wind Wolves.

"Fireball Technique."

After releasing a fireball half a meter in diameter, Garen used his mental power to exert constant pressure, compressing it to less than twenty centimeters. Locking onto a Wind Wolf, he hurled it out.

The guard team consisted entirely of melee fighters, and the Wind Wolves likely never expected a camper to suddenly launch a fireball.

"Boom!"

With a mournful howl, a Wind Wolf was struck by the fireball, sent flying several meters, and collapsed to the ground. After its legs twitched a few times, it kicked the bucket.

If one were to ask why he compressed the fireball, it was because any modern person who had read as many novels as he had would know a few combat tricks, and the power of this was absolutely fierce.

Ding, killed a level three Wind Wolf, gained 24 experience points.

Completed side quest, gained 100 experience points.

Hearing the notification sound in his mind, Garen became instantly excited, wishing he could wipe out all these Wind Wolves.

(End of chapter)

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