Between Ice and Fire

Cedric brought up his system status and gave it a quick look.

[Host: Cedric Gray]

[Hunting Level: 21]

[Enhancement Points: 1300]

[General Enhancements: Physique Enhancement E, Neural Reflex Enhancement E, Basic Magic Mastery E-]

[Special Enhancements: Fire-Dragon Breath E, Matter Traversal E, Aura Concealment E]

[Exclusive Skills: Eye of Discernment, God's Hand, Demon's Stomach]

As for [Fire-Dragon Breath], it had not come from any one Fire-Dragon. It was an ability formed by fusing two kinds of dragon breath with different properties.

Cedric suspected that if he kept eating the livers of other Fire-Dragons, he might be able to blend in the traits of more dragon flames and eventually create a composite breath that drew on all of them.

He studied the panel for a moment, then flicked his hand.

Flame leaped from his fingertip, swelled into a fireball, and flew into the distance.

The Doxy was still darting wildly through the air, oblivious to the danger. The fireball skimmed past its body and slammed into the wall behind it.

Boom!

A huge hole blasted through the street-facing wall. The force of it was frightening.

"Caw, caw!"

Xuanling let out a strange cry nearby. He looked for all the world as if he were enjoying Cedric's misfortune.

Cedric's mouth twitched. Before the commotion drew more attention, he raised his wand and cast a Mending Charm at the damage.

The gap in the wall began to close on its own. Broken stone and bricks flew backward into place, and in moments the wall looked as it had before.

The Doxy still had no idea what had happened and continued flying around nearby.

Cedric sighed and waved his wand again.

With a Transfiguration Spell, a flyswatter appeared in his hand. The next second, he smacked the Doxy hard, flattening it into a thin sheet, then tossed it into the trash.

In the end, he simply needed more practice.

With the two dragon flames mixed together, the power had become even harder to handle. It would probably take him quite a while to gain precise control over the ability.

Still, there was no faulting its power.

Cedric had used nowhere near his full strength just now. Otherwise, what came from his hand would not have been a fireball, but a column of flame large enough to engulf the entire wall.

Of course, unleashing it at full strength came at a cost.

An attack like that burned through magic far too quickly. He could not sustain it for long.

A large part of the reason his hunting level had reached 21 was that [Fire-Dragon Breath] had forced his ceiling higher.

It was only E rank for now, and raising it from E to D- would cost 500 Enhancement Points.

There's no point upgrading it now. Even if it gets stronger, I can't control it at my current level of skill. I'll leave it alone until I've practiced enough to use it properly.

Cedric decided to leave it for now and checked the other entries.

Raising [Physique Enhancement] and [Neural Reflex Enhancement] from E to D- would cost 100 Enhancement Points each.

There was nothing to deliberate over with those two abilities.

He upgraded them immediately.

This time, the shock to his body was far stronger than before. Veins bulged beneath his skin, one after another, as though they might burst through his flesh. Fortunately, Cedric had braced himself. He gritted his teeth and endured it without collapsing from the pain.

When the enhancement ended, he could clearly feel that his physical capabilities had at least doubled.

The improvement had not merely strengthened his muscles or made his build sturdier. It had raised his body's potential at a fundamental level.

It was like a game character breaking through to a new stage and gaining better stat growth from then on.

Raising either enhancement from D- to D would cost another 1,000 points.

Sure enough, the higher the rank, the more outrageous the cost. Another zero had been added.

Still, a thousand points was not beyond what Cedric could accept. He glanced at the price and gave it no more thought.

After upgrading both physical enhancements, his hunting level rose from 21 to 25.

On the surface, the increase did not look especially dramatic. Even at level 25, though, he still relied mainly on the tremendous power of his dragon breath. His body alone could not yet compare with it.

He had 1,100 Enhancement Points left.

Cedric turned his attention to [Basic Magic Mastery].

He hardly needed to think about the importance of a general enhancement to his magic. It would give him better control over his own magical power and directly improve his talent for magic.

However he looked at it, the enhancement was worth the cost.

Of course, it was also far more expensive than the physique and reflex enhancements.

It had cost just 5 points to unlock, but each upgrade now cost 50 points—exactly five times as much as either of the other two.

The greater the benefit, the greater the investment.

Cedric hesitated no longer. With two successive upgrades, he pushed [Basic Magic Mastery] straight to D-.

The next moment, a cold sensation surged into his mind.

"Ugh!"

He grunted and nearly toppled off the bed.

It felt as if someone had frozen his entire brain. The cold hardened into solid ice and lingered for a full five minutes.

Only then did the chill in his head begin to fade.

Cedric had just breathed a sigh of relief when the inside of his head suddenly started burning.

"Damn it, first ice, then fire?"

He clutched his head. He was in so much pain he barely had the strength to curse.

The fact that it hurt this badly clearly had something to do with upgrading two levels in one go.

He had learned his lesson.

I'm never upgrading like that again.

The heat in his head faded much faster than the cold had. It struck fiercely and vanished just as abruptly, giving him no time to recover.

By the time Cedric managed to push himself upright on the bed, his hunting level had reached 31.

That was roughly the level of an ordinary adult wizard upon graduation.

He still had 550 Enhancement Points left.

He looked at the two special abilities he had gained from the Niffler. After a little thought, he decided to upgrade them both.

Upgrading special abilities was nowhere near as torturous as enhancing his body.

There was no pain or unbearable ordeal, and the changes became apparent almost at once.

He could not yet see any obvious difference in [Aura Concealment D-].

But the change in [Matter Traversal D-] was immediately clear.

At E rank, Cedric had only been able to pass part of his body through an object, such as reaching into a chest to take something out. Now that he had upgraded it, the ability could finally cover his entire body.