Savage Mage

Finding a sheltered clearing, Lanlos sat cross-legged and stretched lazily, looking perfectly at ease.

But in truth, he was a little nervous.

Magic stirred the evening breeze and churned the air around him. Rising currents lifted dozens of Arcane Shards into the sky, like brilliant stars beneath the night sky, gleaming with faint yet dazzling violet light.

The growth of Arcane power was inseparable from the improvement of one's physical abilities. Of course, physical ability didn't mean strength or weakness, but rather one's affinity with magic. The higher one's affinity, the more efficiently one could channel magic in and out. And with higher-tier spells, aside from their cost, the greatest obstacle was the output power required when constructing a spell array.

No matter how perfectly an array model was constructed, the spell could not be activated if the total magic output within the allotted time fell short of the requirement. Some spell nodes even needed a certain level of magical output just to remain stable.

So what Lanlos had to do now was quickly improve this body's magical affinity.

There were shortcuts to improving a mage's abilities. That was why so many terrible incidents occurred, driven by the lure of power.

But Lanlos wasn't using one of those methods that harmed others without benefiting himself.

As mentioned before, the amount of natural magic absorbed was roughly equal to what the body needed to sustain its life functions. Most spellcasters meditated for a set period each day, creating a surplus of absorbed magic. That excess slowly nourished them and improved their magical affinity.

What Lanlos was doing now was increasing that surplus, thereby reducing the time needed to improve his magical affinity.

With a slight shift of Lanlos's will, dozens of "stars" whirled through the air, then hovered quietly around him. Surrounded by a starry sky, he gazed at the dazzling streams of light reflected in his eyes, momentarily entranced.

It felt like looking down at the brilliant lights of a city at night, his chest swelling with human pride. The splendor and mystery of magic had always been a source of pride for countless spellcasters, something they were obsessed with.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Lanlos slowly closed his eyes. The Energy Gathering Array inscribed beneath him glowed faintly, and dozens of Arcane Shards hummed in unison. Their resonance disrupted the relative stability of the Arcane energy. Guided by the Energy Gathering Array, streams of light shifting from violet to blue slowly flowed into Lanlos's body.

It was like holding a steaming pot of soup and drinking your fill in the dead of winter.

The bliss coursing through his limbs nearly made Lanlos cry out. Every bone, every drop of blood, every cell rejoiced under the nourishment of magic, urging him—demanding, instinctively—more...

The wind around him suddenly changed direction.

As if it had caught the scent of bait, magic rushed toward Lanlos's position in a frenzy.

Taking shortcuts often came with risks. Those risks included not only a wavering will and outside interference, but also the threat posed by magic itself.

The magic from the Arcane Shards gathered inside his body, but that didn't mean his body could absorb everything that flowed in. Improving magical affinity was a gradual process. As the replenishment continued, more and more magic would accumulate inside him, waiting to be absorbed, eventually peaking when all the Arcane Shards had been drained.

That accumulated magic would make his affinity seem artificially high, enticing vast quantities of natural magic to flood into him.

If his magical affinity was like a stomach, then the magic piled up in his flesh and blood was like adding a fake one. Natural magic couldn't tell the difference. It would simply follow its own rules and cram the capacity of both stomachs into him all at once. The problem was that the capacity of the two stomachs couldn't be divided between the fake stomach and the real one. It would all be crammed into his own.

There was no doubt that this forced influx would place a tremendous burden on his body, and could even injure him.

Moreover, the Western Temple was nearby, and the higher concentration of magic made the natural magic forcing its way past his limits especially violent.

As this unruly magic touched his skin, fine blue streams of light spread outward from his eyes like a web. The skin was the body's first line of defense against the outside world, and the skin on the face, especially around the eyes, was more delicate. The natural magic's "active attunement," surging from outside in, had already begun to crystallize some of his more fragile skin.

Magic was a form of energy, but it could also be converted into matter. Creation spells and Conjure Food were the best-known examples, but they also possessed this property in their own right. When large amounts of magic accumulated together in a confined space, the flow of magic gradually stabilized, forming pure mana crystals much like minerals.

Likewise, when that space was a living being, an excessive amount of accumulated magic would erode and replace its original biological structure, causing the creature to crystallize and die.

Though, strictly speaking, this erosion began at the cellular level, it would soon spread throughout the entire organism.

"Hiss..." Lanlos suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, his brows knitted tight. This body's resistance was weaker than he'd estimated, and the magical erosion was happening far faster than he'd expected.

The key to resisting this erosion was the body's affinity with magic—or, more precisely, its ability to control it, also known as magic resistance. He didn't know whether it was because this body had once "died" or because Fel had reshaped it, but its magic resistance was far lower than he'd expected.

There was no choice. He'd have to activate Plan B early.

Lanlos snapped his eyes open and thrust out a finger. A familiar spell array quickly took shape on it, but unlike before, several of its spell nodes were visibly thicker and brighter.

The array was soon complete. With a dazzling flash of light, a rush of scorching air gathered into a fireball the size of a bowl.

Compared to before, this fireball was clearly much larger. Golden flames flickered at its core, and its intense aura of destruction inspired instinctive fear.

Empowered Fireball.

Empower Spell was the simplest metamagic technique. It required no understanding of difficult theories. One only had to pour several times the usual amount of magic into specific spell nodes and ensure the spell array didn't collapse.

Right now, Lanlos lacked everything except mana.

Whoosh!

The fireball left a brilliant trail in the air, then seemed to gently strike a tree trunk in the distance. The next instant, a loud boom rang out. A branch as thick as a bowl was blasted clean off and crashed to the ground. Flames still licked at the shattered end, and much of it had been charred black.

It still wasn't enough.

Sensing that the magic inside him had barely diminished, Lanlos steeled himself and released most of the magic the Arcane Shards had poured into his body.

Bang, bang...

Under the night sky, muffled, staccato explosions rang out across the woodland, disturbing the animals resting nearby.

After who knew how long, the commotion finally died down.

The full moon hung overhead, its gentle light drifting down. It slipped through the gaps in the trees, crept onto the gray-haired elf's face, and at last tiptoed over to poke his eyelashes.

The elf didn't react to the gentle teasing at all. As time passed, the moonlight grew more and more brazen, until it illuminated half his face.

Unlike the soft features typical of elves, his face looked as though it had been tempered and honed, with sharper angles and a leaner shape. His faintly pursed lips were pale, and even the gentle moonlight couldn't smooth the sorrow between his brows. He was impossible not to pity. Yet his breathing was steady and powerful, like a blaze stoked by a bellows, roaring with heat and brilliant light as it made the pitch-black abyss boil and split apart.

Unfortunately, Vereesa, approaching him step by step from behind, didn't notice the contrast.

Concealed by the magic of her cloak, the elven girl was almost completely invisible. Only when she moved could one make out a vague outline.

Her knee-high boots landed lightly among the dead leaves without making the slightest sound. Peeking out from the tree shadows nearest to the clearing, she kept glancing at the wreckage in the distance, still shaken by it.

In fact, she'd been following Lanlos all along, originally intending to teach him a lesson once he fell asleep. But who could have guessed the brat would stay up half the night, firing Fireballs at her position like a rapid-fire cannon...

By the Sunwell, if she hadn't dodged right away, she'd have been killed, wouldn't she? She definitely would have!

Though she'd escaped danger by the skin of her teeth, Vereesa was completely stunned. She'd thought he'd spotted her again, so she'd retreated far from the area being bombarded by fireballs and hidden in the trees, not daring to move. She hadn't counted how many Empowered Fireballs the fellow had thrown, but the wrecked woodland ahead spoke to the mage's terrifying, savage nature.

At first, she'd been ready to give up. But once the fellow finally stopped after continuing well into the night, her resolve returned.

Though it was a first-circle spell, even a proper Magister couldn't have endured the cost of casting continuously for so long. And it had already been two hours since he stopped, yet he was still sitting where he'd been, motionless.

Though her heart was uneasy, this was undoubtedly an opportunity.

Once she caught him, her task would be complete. Then she'd break the hand he'd used for his misdeeds, expose his vile crimes to the world, and make sure he spent the rest of his life rotting in prison with his filthy soul...

Her righteous desire to "punish evil and uphold justice" made Vereesa take a deep breath and brace herself. She suppressed her instinctive fear and stepped out of the shadows.

The instant her foot touched the ground, a faint magical glimmer flashed beneath it. A sense of danger flooded her, and Vereesa instinctively stepped back—but all she heard was the sound of dead leaves being flung into the air. In an instant, she felt herself separate from the ground.

"Yah—!"