Savage Mage

Lanlos found a sheltered clearing, sat cross-legged, and slowly stretched, looking quite leisurely.

In truth, however, he was rather tense.

His mana stirred the evening breeze, agitating the surrounding air. Rising currents lifted Arcane Shard after Arcane Shard into the air, where they hung like brilliant stars beneath the night sky, blooming with a faint yet incomparably gorgeous purple radiance.

The improvement of arcane power is inextricably linked to the improvement of physical ability. Of course, this physical ability refers not to strength, but to one's affinity for mana. The higher the affinity, the higher the efficiency of mana output and input; for higher-tier magic, beyond the consumption itself, the greatest hurdle to overcome is the output power required when constructing spell arrays.

No matter how perfectly a spell array model is constructed, if the total mana output within a relative timeframe fails to meet the requirements, it is impossible to activate the spell. Some spell nodes even require a certain intensity of mana output just to be maintained.

Therefore, what Lanlos needed to do now was to increase this body's mana affinity using a shortcut.

A mage's ability can be improved by taking shortcuts, which is why so many vicious incidents occur due to the temptation of power.

However, Lanlos was not using those self-destructive methods that harmed others without benefiting himself.

As previously mentioned, the absorption of natural mana is basically equal to the demands of life activities. Most spellcasters meditate for a fixed period every day to create a difference in absorbed mana, allowing the excess to slowly nourish themselves and improve their mana affinity.

Lanlos was now simply widening this gap; relatively speaking, the time required to improve his mana affinity would decrease.

As Lanlos shifted his intent, the dozens of "stars" around him fluttered in the air, quietly floating in a circle with him at the center. Surrounded by a starry sky, the gorgeous flowing light reflected in his eyes, leaving him dazed and mesmerized.

This feeling was like overlooking the lights of a brilliant city from the night sky; the pride of being human filled his chest. The splendor and mystery of magic have always been things countless spellcasters take pride in and obsess over.

Taking a deep breath to calm his mood, Lanlos slowly closed his eyes. The Energy Gathering Array he had long since inscribed beneath him began to glow, and the dozens of Arcane Shard units hummed in unison. The relative stability of the arcane was broken in the resonance, and strands of light, shifting from purple to blue, followed the guidance of the Energy Gathering Array and slowly surged into Lanlos's body.

It was like drinking a big pot of hot soup in the freezing cold.

The comfort that coursed through his limbs and bones almost made Lanlos cry out. Every bone, every inch of blood flow, and every cell cheered under the supply of mana. They urged him on, an instinctive demand for more...

The wind direction in the surroundings suddenly changed.

The mana seemed to have caught the scent of bait and surged toward Lanlos's position like a madman.

Taking shortcuts is often accompanied by risks. These risks are not just a lack of willpower or external interference, but also the threat from the mana itself.

The mana from the Arcane Shard units gathered in his body, but that did not mean his body could accept everything that entered. The improvement of mana affinity is a continuous process of change; therefore, as the supplementation time passed, the mana piling up in his body waiting to be absorbed would increase, reaching a peak when all the Arcane Shard units were drained.

These accumulated mana levels would cause a false high in his body's affinity, inducing a large amount of natural mana to force its way in.

If one considers their own mana affinity as a stomach, the mana piled up in the flesh and blood is equivalent to adding a fake stomach. Natural mana does not distinguish between real and fake; it only follows its own rules, stuffing both stomachs to capacity all at once. The problem is that the capacity of the two stomachs cannot be shared by the fake one, and everything is squeezed into your own stomach.

Undoubtedly, this forced infusion would place a huge burden on the body, or even cause injury.

Moreover, because the Western Temple was nearby, the higher concentration of mana caused this natural mana, which had broken through his own constraints, to be quite turbulent.

As this brutal mana touched his skin, fine blue streams of light spread outward from his eyes like a spiderweb. The skin is the body's first line of defense against the outside world, and the skin on the face, especially around the eyes, is even more delicate. The "active affinity" impact of the natural mana from the outside in caused some of the fragile skin to show signs of crystallization.

Mana is a form of energy, but it can also be converted into matter. Creation and Conjure Food are the most representative examples, but at the same time, they possess this nature themselves. When a large amount of mana is piled together and confined in a small space, the movement of the mana flow gradually stabilizes, forming pure mana crystals similar to minerals.

At the same time, when this space becomes a biological entity, the mana accumulated in the body is too vast, which will erode and replace the original biological structure, leading to the crystallization and death of the organism.

Although this erosion strictly begins at the cellular structure, it soon develops throughout the entire biological individual.

"Hiss..." Lanlos, brow furrowed, suddenly gasped. This body's resistance was weaker than he had estimated, and the speed of the mana erosion was significantly faster than he had anticipated.

Resisting this erosion relies on the body's affinity for mana—or more accurately, its control ability, also known as magic resistance. Whether it was because he had "died" once before or because he had been reshaped by Fel, this body's magic resistance was far lower than he had imagined.

There was no choice; he had to initiate Plan B early.

Lanlos opened his eyes abruptly. He extended his finger, and a familiar spell array constructed rapidly upon it. Unlike before, several of the spell nodes were noticeably thicker and brighter.

Soon, the array was complete. Accompanied by a burst of gorgeous light, the scorching air gathered into a Fireball the size of a porcelain bowl.

Compared to before, the volume of this Fireball was clearly a circle larger. Golden flames flickered in the center of the Fireball, and the intense aura of destruction made one feel instinctively terrified.

Empower, Fireball.

Spell Empowering is the simplest metamagic technique. It requires no understanding of theoretical difficulties; one only needs to pour multiple times the mana value into specific spell nodes and ensure the spell array does not collapse.

Lanlos was currently lacking in everything except mana.

Whoosh!

The Fireball left a brilliant trail in the air, appearing to strike the nearby tree trunk gently, but it was followed by a loud bang. The bowl-thick branch was blown clean off and crashed heavily to the ground. The shattered root was still spitting tongues of flame, and large sections had turned to charcoal.

Not enough.

His spirit "looked" at the mana in his body, which showed no obvious signs of depletion. Lanlos hardened his heart, not even hesitating to discharge most of the mana being channeled into his body from the Arcane Shard units.

Bang, bang...

In the forest under the night sky, low and short explosions rang out one after another, leaving the nearby animals with no peace.

After an unknown amount of time, the commotion finally settled.

The bright moon hung in the sky, and soft moonlight drifted down, quietly passing through the gaps in the trees, sneaking onto the gray-haired elf's face, and finally poking his eyelashes with stealthy steps.

Facing this gentle teasing, the elf did not react at all. As time passed, the moonlight became more and more unbridled, until it illuminated half of his face.

Unlike the soft features of an average elf, this face seemed to have been tempered and polished, with sharper angles and a leaner look. His slightly pursed lips were pale, and the soft moonlight could not smooth away the sorrow between his brows, making one feel an involuntary ache. Yet, his breathing was steady and powerful, like a fire stoked by bellows, burning fiercely, using that scorching heat and dazzling light to make the dark abyss boil and tear apart.

Unfortunately, Vereesa, who was approaching him step by step from behind, did not notice this contrast.

Under the magical concealment of her cloak, the elven girl was almost completely transparent at this moment, with only vague outlines visible when she moved.

Her knee-high boots stepped lightly among the dead leaves without making even the slightest sound. The girl poked her head out from under the shadow of the tree closest to the clearing where her target was, her gaze occasionally glancing at the mess not far away; she still felt a lingering fear.

In fact, she had been tracking Lanlos the whole time, originally intending to give him a piece of her mind while he was asleep. But who could have guessed that this kid wouldn't sleep in the middle of the night, instead firing Fireball spells at his own position like a machine gun...

By the Sunwell, if she hadn't dodged that in the nick of time, she would surely be dead, wouldn't she? Surely!

Although Vereesa had narrowly escaped danger, she was completely stunned. Thinking the opponent had discovered her position once again, she stayed far away from the area bombarded by fireballs, hiding in the shadows of the trees and not daring to move a muscle. She didn't bother to count exactly how many Empower fireballs this guy had thrown, but the devastated woodland ahead stood as a testament to the terror and brutality of this mage.

She had originally been thinking of retreating, but when the guy finally stopped after continuing until the second half of the night, her thoughts stirred once more.

Even though they were 1st-circle spells, such prolonged casting would be impossible for even a legitimate magus to endure. Furthermore, two hours had passed since he finished, and the guy was still sitting cross-legged in the same spot, motionless.

Despite the trepidation in her heart, this was undoubtedly an opportunity.

Capturing him would mean a job well done; then, she would break that wicked hand of his, proclaim his filthy crimes to the world, and let him rot in a dungeon for eternity with that dirty soul of his...

The sense of justice from "punishing the wicked and eliminating evil" made Vereesa take a deep breath to steel herself. Suppressing the instinctive fear in her heart, she took a step and walked out of the tree shadows.

The moment her foot landed, a barely perceptible magical aura suddenly flashed beneath her feet. A sense of crisis flooded her entire body, and Vereesa instinctively retreated, but she only heard the sound of the pile of dead leaves beneath her being tossed into the air as she instantly felt herself being lifted off the ground.

"Ah--!"