Practice More if You're Bad

Giant-eyed Stinky Rat—Jiang Yuan knew it all too well. To him, it was just a troublesome rat.

Thanks to his rock-solid calm, the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat hadn't even grazed him, only letting out bursts of screeches.

In short: impotent rage.

Even the scarlet beams it fired couldn't threaten Jiang Yuan.

Instead, in the gaps of dodging, Jiang Yuan used ice spears to carve deep wounds into the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's body.

"Jiang Yuan, I'm coming to help!"

"Beast, taste Mo Fan's Great Thunder Seal!"

A thunderbolt howled in. Mo Fan, seeing Jiang Yuan handle the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat with ease, figured he could pull it off too. After finally managing to connect his Star Track, he flung his magic and charged in.

Mo Fan had zero real combat experience—he was just extra meat for the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat.

But Jiang Yuan couldn't stop him in time. Mo Fan had already slammed the Thunder Seal hard onto the rat's back.

Lightning burst everywhere, and the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat blasted backward with a boom.

"How was that, Jiang Yuan?" Mo Fan came up to Jiang Yuan, striking a pose he thought was cool. "Wasn't that move of mine awesome?"

"We'll talk about how awesome you are later. The Giant-eyed Stinky Rat isn't dead yet."

Jiang Yuan told Mo Fan to turn around.

Mo Fan spun around. That Giant-eyed Stinky Rat was slowly getting back up. After a brief pause, it lunged at Mo Fan again, faster than before and with even fiercer momentum.

"Damn, it's still going after that?"

Mo Fan was a little freaked out.

"Hey, I've got a good idea," Jiang Yuan spoke up.

"What good idea?"

Jiang Yuan shoved Mo Fan forward. "You go distract it. I'll deliver the killing blow."

"I go distract it? You sure about this, buddy?" Mo Fan's eyes went wide.

"No time. Go, Mo Fan!" Jiang Yuan pushed him again, then put distance between himself and Mo Fan.

"Jiang Yuan, you dog! If I lose an arm or a leg, I'm holding you responsible!" Mo Fan cursed loudly as he sprinted.

Jiang Yuan tuned it out, acting like he heard nothing.

He focused on waiting for the perfect chance to kill the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat in one shot.

The moment came when the rat leaped.

"Triple Ice Spear!" Jiang Yuan muttered low.

With his shout, water element energy gathered rapidly around him. Three streams of water, like agile serpents, twisted and converged in the air, instantly freezing into a gleaming ice spear.

Cold light like iron, slicing through the air!

The crystal-clear ice spear carved a perfect arc through the sky, piercing straight through the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's back!

The immense force pinned it to the wall. The rat struggled a few times, then went still. Blood mixed with ice crystals gushed from the wound, pooling on the ground into a stinking puddle.

"Jiang Yuan, I fucking thought I was about to die." Mo Fan collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, his trembling finger pointing at Jiang Yuan. "Next time, you're the bait, or I'm done with you!"

Jiang Yuan gave an embarrassed smile, pulled Mo Fan up, and comforted him, "You just saw what the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat's like. I don't need to tell you how strong it is, right?"

"Regular students would be minced meat in front of it, wouldn't they?"

"So what? I almost kicked the bucket just now!" Mo Fan's emotions were still running high.

"Here's the thing," Jiang Yuan said, pulling out his phone to contact Xu Dahang. "We can have the captain send a commendation banner to our school, saying you faced the demon beast bravely, fought to the death to kill it, and protected the workers' lives."

"Then everyone will know how awesome you are. Won't Mu Bai and Xu Zhaoting have to see you in a new light? Won't the school have a bunch of fangirls for you?"

The more Mo Fan listened, the brighter his eyes got. His focus landed on the last sentence: "That'll work?"

Fighting a demon beast, facing death without flinching, and killing it.

Plus a school-wide commendation.

Then a bunch of fangirls shouting "Mo Fan, you handsome hunk!"

Just thinking about it got Mo Fan excited. He instantly forgot what just happened and urged Jiang Yuan to explain the situation to Xu Dahang.

By then, Jiang Yuan had already answered the call. He said to Xu Dahang, "Captain, the situation at the factory is clear. It was the Giant-eyed Stinky Rat causing trouble. Fan Mo and I have dealt with it. Yeah, just one."

"Captain, I've got something to discuss with you. Since you're busy, I'll write the commendation myself."

"..."

"OK, the commendation's settled!" Jiang Yuan hung up and gave Mo Fan a confident nod.

"You're the best bro. Make sure to hype up my heroic brilliance in the commendation." Mo Fan's face lit up with a bright grin, completely dropping the murderous vibe he had toward Jiang Yuan earlier.

"Oh, right, what's up with that ice magic of yours? Did you awaken a second magic element?" Mo Fan suddenly remembered and asked.

"That's not ice magic," Jiang Yuan shook his head and explained. "It's my Innate Talent. I can control the temperature of Water element magic. It's not proper ice magic."

"No wonder!"

Mo Fan suddenly understood: "So that's why I said the Ice element magic you used earlier was completely different from Mu Bai's—his was Ice Vine, but yours was Ice Spear."

"Tsk, your Water element can both defend and attack—doesn't that make you invincible?"

All he'd need was healing magic to become an all-rounder.

Mo Fan immediately thought of how in games, Water element mages also had healing spells.

But in this world, Water element had no healing magic.

"Honestly, I still prefer your Lightning and Fire elements—one destruction spell in each hand," Jiang Yuan said truthfully.

Not to mention those rare Dimensional magics that were hard to awaken.

Needless to say, the value of destruction magic in the early stages was sky-high.

"Destruction magic might be strong and flashy, but why was I running for my life from that demon while you handled it so easily?"

Mo Fan began to seriously doubt his own strength.

Jiang Yuan patted him on the shoulder: "No need to doubt—it's just because you're too weak."

"I—" Mo Fan tried to retort, but Jiang Yuan stopped him and said earnestly, "There are ten lotuses in the pond. I only pick one, but you pick nine. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because if you're bad, just practice more!"

"Damn it! Jiang Yuan, you're way too arrogant. No way, I'm challenging you to a duel—let's see who really needs to practice more!"

"Forget it. I'm going to find the captain and collect the reward for this mission."

"Reward? How much?"

"Seventy to eighty thousand."

"Let's go, let's go—let's find the captain!"

The reward for this mission totaled eighty-seven thousand.

Since Jiang Yuan and Mo Fan had completed the task together, Xu Dahang didn't take a single cent and split it all between the two of them.

Each got forty-three thousand five hundred.

After getting the money, Mo Fan started yapping again about who was the weakest and shamelessly challenged Jiang Yuan to a duel using both of his elements.

The result was a complete defeat.

Jiang Yuan's speed at connecting Star Particles was several times faster than Mo Fan's. Before Mo Fan could even cast a spell, an Ice Spear was already pressed against his throat.

It was safe to say the two were on completely different levels.

After that, Jiang Yuan went back to his monotonous routine of studying, meditating, and taking on missions.