In the desert, three days' travel from Chaos City.
There was an oasis covering several thousand square meters.
An Kai's secret base lay within it.
He made his way into the oasis with practiced ease. Beside a lake roughly twenty meters across, he found a cave entrance in a small hillside, blocked by a boulder twice a person's height.
This time, he did not use the tools he had hidden beforehand. Instead, he pushed the boulder aside with brute force.
Once inside, he picked up a torch by the entrance and lit it with Fireball.
The cave covered roughly fifty square meters.
Dried beast meat hung over half of that space.
At the deepest part of the cave, a connection to the lake formed a small pool.
After settling in, An Kai first maxed out Fireball.
[Skill points -7] [Fireball Lv2 "20/20"]
After allocating the points, An Kai did not rush into secluded Meditation.
He took the books he had obtained from the Mage Association out of his storage ring.
After sorting through them, he selected several books containing information about mages. Then he picked out "The Fifth Princess of the Bukelin Duchy..." and set it aside as a backup.
Whenever the specialized books tired him out, he could read "The Fifth Princess..." to relax...
The first page of First-Tier Spell Analysis covered Fireball.
According to the book, someone had once cultivated Fireball to the third stage of the fifth tier, equivalent to a Lv43 Fireball.
That was the highest level of mastery over Fireball ever recorded.
According to that mage, when he raised Fireball to the third stage of the fifth tier, he already felt strained and had a faint sense that it was slipping beyond his control.
If he continued cultivating it, Fireball would very likely explode inside his body, making it unusable...
That had also put an end to his ambition of cultivating Fireball to the level of a forbidden spell.
According to the book, forbidden spells started at the eighth tier.
Once unleashed, such spells could easily destroy cities and annihilate nations!
After reading that passage, An Kai began imagining the moment he would raise Fireball to the level of a forbidden spell!
He was different from those traditional mages.
With his game panel, all he had to do was tap a few times to allocate points, provided his body could withstand it...
After he allocated the points, the spell's applications and effects would all be poured into his mind.
That was also why An Kai could cast spells instantly. His mind held the most convenient casting method best suited to him.
Unlike other mages, he did not need to recite incantations or anything else...
In other words, according to the book, mages who recited incantations had to pray to the God of Magic when casting.
An Kai, however, bypassed the legendary God of Magic, directly mobilizing magical elements and instantly condensing them into spells.
"Twilight of the Gods, ten thousand years from now... I wonder if the God of Magic will start that war, just like the description in my previous life said..."
Holding the book, An Kai read a few more passages. After sorting out the differences between himself and those mages, he could not help muttering to himself...
He had not arrived in this world with only a game panel. He also had a game storyline section.
Unfortunately, even after two years, that section remained inaccessible.
When he arrived, the game's overarching storyline had been "Godslaying!"
The various classes had united to overthrow the God of Magic, the deity who had instigated the war.
At that thought, An Kai summoned his storyline section again, unwilling to give up...
[Countdown: 10,001 years...]
There was still only a single line of text. The only difference was that the countdown had decreased by one year...
"Sigh..."
With a helpless sigh, An Kai continued leafing through the other books...
Five days later.
An Kai had read most of the books. He had also learned a new spell-the only other spell he could learn...
[Lv0 Freezing Spell "0/1"]
It was a minor spell mages used to cool themselves in hot weather and chill items...
The highest recorded level anyone had cultivated this spell to was only Lv9.
Even that had been achieved by a bored mage with plenty of time on his hands.
Unlike Fireball, Freezing Spell was only a minor support spell.
Fireball, on the other hand, was an offensive spell that dealt damage.
An Kai did not rush to allocate points to it.
He still had forty-eight skill points.
He had saved those points for when his attributes once again reached the threshold for raising his Meditation level.
Whether a spell was offensive or supportive, none mattered more than Meditation.
It provided attribute points. Even if An Kai were not a mage, his balanced attributes would give him the means to protect himself in this dog-eat-dog land!
Sitting inside the cave, An Kai finished reading "The Fifth Princess..." and contentedly took out the [Meditation Staff], ready for that day's cultivation...
The [Meditation Staff] felt cool to the touch. Holding it, An Kai suddenly felt his perception of the surrounding Spell Elements sharpen.
Before, he had only been able to vaguely sense a mass of Spell Elements. Now, he could clearly distinguish what that mass contained...
For example, the most abundant elements surrounding him were fire elements...
Four days later.
An Kai opened his eyes and smiled!
The [Meditation Staff] was far more effective than he had expected!
Previously, he had needed five days of Meditation to gain one attribute point. Now, he could do it in four!
[Endurance +1] [Endurance: 15]
One hundred days later.
[Attribute points +1]
An Kai stood up. He had spent a hundred days on this, and he hoped his idea would work.
After a hundred days of cultivation, all four of An Kai's attributes had reached twenty points!
Filled with anticipation, he added his newly acquired attribute point to [Intelligence]!
Instantly, a cool sensation washed through his mind, exactly like when his Intelligence had first reached eleven points!
An Kai tried adding a point to [Meditation]...
[Meditation proficiency +1] [Meditation upgraded to Lv3] [Meditation Lv3 "21/30"]
He exhaled...
"It worked!"
An Kai's quiet, delighted cry rang through the fifty-square-meter cave.
The next moment, he chose to max it out without hesitation!
[Meditation proficiency +9] [Meditation Lv3 "30/30"]
After testing it, he estimated that his current Meditation level, combined with the [Meditation Staff] in his hand, would let him gain one attribute point every three days!
He still had thirty-eight skill points.
An Kai chose to max out his Fireball as well...
[Fireball proficiency +10] [Fireball upgraded to Lv3] [Fireball Lv3 "30/30"]
That left him with twenty-eight skill points.
An Kai looked at Freezing Spell. After considerable hesitation, he decided not to add any points to it.
After all, Freezing Spell was a support spell...
He would reconsider after leaving seclusion.
Two hundred days later.
By then, An Kai had spent nearly a year in seclusion.
During that time, all four of his attributes had risen to thirty points!
Had he not spent so much time idling, and had his tolerance for seclusion not reached its limit, he might have gained even more attribute points.
Today, he intended to add his newly acquired attribute point to Intelligence again!
[Intelligence +1]
The familiar cool sensation appeared in his mind!
Once again, he sensed that he could raise his Meditation level!
Without delay, An Kai maxed out the proficiency of both [Meditation] and [Fireball]!
[Meditation Lv4 "40/40"] [Fireball Lv4 "40/40"]
Today, An Kai did not intend to remain in seclusion.
He was ready to come out.
Three hundred days in seclusion had pushed his tolerance to its limit...
Compared with the first hundred days, the quality of his cultivation during the following two hundred days had plummeted!
That was why it had taken him two hundred days to raise his attributes to thirty-one points.
There was another reason, too: his food was almost gone...
At most, it would last another week or so.
Before you continue