Promotion

The image of the Giant-winged Bat using its ability flashed through Vales's mind again. He tried his utmost to grasp that sense of harmonious resonance between wind and bone.

"Not a brute-force push."

"It's intertwining... fusion."

Vales drew another arrow and guided his battle qi to his fingertips once more.

Intertwining... fusion...

The battle qi began at the arrow's tail, cautiously spreading from his fingertips until it gradually enveloped the entire shaft.

This was an immensely taxing process. The slightest mistake would render all his previous efforts futile.

Vales took a deep breath and did his best to remain calm. Even when sweat ran into his eyes, he did not move.

At last, the battle qi and the arrow achieved a delicate balance.

The arrow let out a low hum, trembling as though it possessed a will of its own and could no longer contain itself.

He drew the bowstring again!

Vales inhaled deeply and released the string.

Boom!

This time, it was no ordinary whistle through the air, but a high-pitched roar that echoed through the entire forest!

Crackling arcs of electricity danced through the air. The whole arrow was wrapped in a faint blue glow as it swept forward!

Bang!!!

The instant the arrow struck, its terrifying kinetic force blasted a bowl-sized hole through the tree trunk, piercing it clean through!

Charred marks, torn by lightning, remained around the edge of the hole. The sight was utterly brutal.

"Heh..."

A faint smile appeared on Vales's taut face. He wiped the sweat from his brow and lifted his chin slightly.

Years of accumulated effort, combined with that sudden flash of inspiration, had finally borne fruit.

From this moment onward, Vales had officially stepped across the threshold into the ranks of intermediate rangers!

He was delighted, but also somewhat surprised.

Vales had not expected his battle qi to carry lightning properties. He had thought it would be something like Wind Blade.

Still, this was pretty good too.

Vales rose, ready to return to Blackstone Town, but then his ears twitched as he caught a faint sound.

Bang... bang...!

Did something seem to be exploding?

Vales looked in the direction of the noise, his heart full of questions. After a brief moment of thought, he decided to take a look.

Passing through the last row of dense shrubs, he saw a winding river before him. Several massive black rocks were scattered along its banks.

The person making those noises stood beside the rocks, and the sight of him surprised Vales.

It was Zeliel.

At that moment, Zeliel held his white ash staff level as he channeled magic, faint glimmers of light streaking around his body.

Threads of light gathered at the tip of the staff, growing increasingly condensed and pure. A diamond-shaped energy missile had already taken form, and the terrifying power contained within made one's heart tremble.

Vales's eyes widened slightly.

Finally, when the missile had compressed to its limit, blue light flashed!

It exploded forward like a cannonball leaving its barrel, striking one of the black rocks by the riverbank head-on!

Bang!!!

A deafening explosion rang out.

In an instant, surging magic power dispersed, blasting a fist-sized crater into the rough surface of the black rock.

Fragments of stone splashed into the river, sending sprays of water into the air.

"That was exhausting..."

Zeliel panted heavily and dropped to the ground.

What he had just cast was the Arcane Missile he had witnessed at the training grounds before.

After half a month, he had finally finished analyzing Arcane Missile.

Both were third-level, single-layer spell-structure magic, but Arcane Missile was more powerful than Flame Dragon.

At the very least, in terms of single-target destructive power, Arcane Missile surpassed Flame Dragon. Its only weakness was probably its area of effect.

But just as Bev had said before, arcane magic consumed far more mana than elemental magic. With Zeliel's current mana pool, he could only cast Arcane Missile three times at most.

Moreover, Arcane Missile took even longer to channel than Flame Dragon, requiring nearly nine seconds to cast.

In addition, he had finished analyzing the Ice Spike Lant had used before.

Ice Spike had stronger piercing power than Wind Blade, and after striking a target, it produced a small Ice Burst similar to an explosion. It was another decent offensive spell.

There was also good news these past few days.

With his Intelligence attribute raised and his analysis speed accelerated, he had reconstructed the spell structure of Mistflow Veil as well.

But there was bad news too.

Zeliel could not use it.

[Mistflow Veil]

Magic School: Arcane

Structure Type: Single-layer Spell Structure

Magic Level: Level 4

Effect Description:

The caster mobilizes their own magic power to weave a cushioning force field around their body.

This force field guides, deflects, and dissipates the physical kinetic energy of anything entering its range at high speed.

From the outside, the force field appears as a hazy halo. When a physical attack comes into contact with it, it is as though it has fallen into a swamp. The enemy's force is instantly dispersed, making effective damage difficult to inflict.

However, this magic only affects physical kinetic energy and offers no defense whatsoever against attacks made purely of energy. Such attacks will also disrupt the cushioning force field, causing the spell to fail.

A fourth-level, single-layer spell-structure spell had extremely complex rune circuits.

No matter how diligently Zeliel tried, he could not complete even one full sequence with his magic power.

This was the limit of his magical control.

If one's Intelligence attribute did not meet the requirement, then even knowing the spell structure of high-level magic would not allow one to cast it.

Zeliel pondered it to himself.

Perhaps once he officially advanced to a junior mage, he would be able to cast fourth-level magic smoothly.

The scene of fighting the Mist Demon that day remained vivid in Zeliel's mind. Just thinking about that special ability capable of blocking physical attacks thrilled him.

These days, Zeliel had also been trying to optimize his spell structures, but there was still no progress. Even after gaining another four points of Intelligence, that invisible shackle remained.

"What kind of magic was that just now?"

Vales's voice rang out abruptly, startling Zeliel.

He turned around. "Oh, it's you... You're here too?"

"Sharpening my skills, just like you." Vales simply walked over and sat down beside Zeliel.

Zeliel studied Vales carefully.

He noticed that, compared to before, Vales seemed to have undergone some indescribable change.

Had he become stronger?

"It was a relatively aggressive kind of magic. Unlike Fireball or Wind Blade, which attack through elements, that missile was made of pure magic power, so it was stronger."

Zeliel gave a brief explanation, then asked in return.

"It looks like... you've broken through?"

Vales had mentioned this before during their gathering.

It seemed he had been inspired by the Giant-winged Bat's method of attack?

"Yes. I've mastered a way to combine battle qi with arrows. I suppose I'm an intermediate ranger now." Vales nodded.

"Congratulations." Zeliel smiled.