An Kai stepped out from behind the boulder.
He had cast six Fireballs in succession without getting out of breath or even flushing.
It was all thanks to his balanced attributes, which allowed him to do things other mages could not!
Among the white fragments of the creature's body scattered across the ground lay a white crystal the size of a fingernail.
An Kai walked over, picked up the crystal, and silently said, Exchange!
[Skill points +1.]
A system notification appeared, and a faint smile crossed An Kai's face.
The white crystal was a Thorn Bug Core. Like magic stones, it could be exchanged for skill points.
However, not every Thorn Bug had a core. Only those with an aptitude for magic could produce one.
An Kai spent the skill point.
[Fireball proficiency +1.] [Fireball Lv2 "13/20"]
"Not bad..."
Standing where he was, An Kai let out a gentle breath.
He opened his status panel...
[Level Lv1: 10/10 "Locked"] [Intelligence: 15 (Initially 1)] [Endurance: 14 (Initially 1)] [Stamina: 15 (Initially 1)] [Strength: 14 (Initially 1)] [Talents: Immortality "∞", Mage's Body "lv1"] [Spells: Meditation Lv2 "20/20", Fireball Lv2 "13/20"] [Identity: Nobody.]
Over the past year, An Kai had divided his time in secluded training roughly down the middle.
Half his time went to training, and half to resting...
If he trained nonstop, An Kai felt he would go mad...
Even so, all four of his attributes had broken past 10.
It was when his intelligence first reached 11 that An Kai suddenly discovered he could keep leveling up his skills!
At the time, he had raised Meditation straight to Lv2 with full experience in one go.
The time it took him to gain attribute points had also shortened from seven days to five.
He had put his remaining skill points into Fireball.
The fundamental reason he could kill a Lv4 Thorn Bug despite only having Lv2 Fireball was his physique.
Developing his attributes evenly gave him greater staying power than mages with equivalent attributes, while his spells were just as powerful.
An Kai did not know how many attribute points other mages gained per level, but he was quite satisfied with his current situation.
Gaining one level a year was not unacceptable.
After all, his lifespan was infinite, unlike other people, who lived anywhere from a hundred to two hundred years.
He had enough time to keep meditating and adding attribute points...
Winning this battle against a higher-level opponent filled An Kai with hope for the future.
So what if he could not raise his level?
One day, he would raise his attributes to heights others dared not imagine and bring his skills to their true maximum levels!
When that day came, he would fear no threat and enjoy his immortal life in peace...
Standing amid the Thorn Bug's remains, An Kai felt his heart surge...
He kept wishing he could fast-forward ten thousand years...
Unfortunately, this was not a game. He could only keep his feet on the ground and move forward one step at a time...
Keeping to the shadows across the rocky desert, An Kai carefully returned to his cave.
Only one last piece of dried beast meat remained inside...
Hunting in this rocky desert was rather difficult.
Finding a beast with edible meat was harder still.
But An Kai was not worried. He was preparing to move.
He had another secret cache in the desert, stocked with enough supplies to last him about two years.
The next day.
An Kai left the rocky desert and set off for his new hideout. His other secret cache lay to the south, and reaching it required passing through Nameless Town.
He could take the opportunity to return to Nameless Town and see whether anything had changed.
On his way out, An Kai had walked from night into day before reaching the rocky desert.
He had also rested five times along the way.
This time, returning to Nameless Town took him only about five hours.
He made it in one go, without resting!
With endurance like that, even a warrior who saw him would probably wonder whether An Kai was actually one of their own.
After a year, he returned to Nameless Town.
The town remained, but its people were gone.
At the town entrance, three unlucky souls, now reduced to skeletons, hung from the crooked tree beneath which Hanks had liked to lie.
At a glance, the town was utterly silent, with no sign of anyone living there.
Without residents to sweep them, the town's streets were covered in dust and windblown sand.
An Kai grew alert as he approached the entrance.
There were no footprints in the street.
That further confirmed his suspicions.
Scattered bones and strips of torn cloth lay along both sides of the street.
Some remains were nailed to the walls of houses, while others slumped in their corners.
All of it told An Kai that a war had broken out in Nameless Town after he left!
From the looks of things, Nameless Town had lost.
That made sense. Who knew how many people had left the town after that night?
Even the old president, Nameless Town's strongest fighter, had left.
These bodies had already become skeletons, and An Kai could not tell who they were.
Pressing his palms together, he murmured, "Amitabha, Heavenly Lord of Infinite Blessings, may the Lord bless you..."
He did not know what these people had believed in. If he recited them all, surely he would get at least one right...
"I wonder what's happened to the Mage Association..."
Muttering to himself, An Kai headed toward the Mage Association. He walked close to the houses lining the street, thoughtfully kicking aside any skeletons blocking his path...
When rallying everyone, the old president had said the Mage Association would be temporarily closed, but some of the documents inside would not be taken away.
Those included materials analyzing spells and the like.
An Kai needed those things.
Of course, it would be even better if any magic stones remained, though he knew that was impossible...
After walking along the walls of the town's houses for about ten minutes, An Kai reached the three-story Mage Association building.
Its once-valuable pair of doors had vanished...
The entire Mage Association stood open to the outside. Looking in, he could see one or two scattered sets of human remains...
The sight made An Kai's heart sink...
Don't tell me even the documents are gone...
Unwilling to give up, he entered the Mage Association.
The smell of decay hit him head-on. Compared with the pleasant fragrance of a year ago, it was a world apart.
There was no need to examine the first floor closely. Even the doors were gone, so what valuables could possibly remain...
The room where Widow Wang had distributed benefits was in an even sorrier state. Forget the door-even the walls had been smashed into rubble strewn across the floor...
With a sigh, An Kai climbed the stairs to the second floor, their steps covered in ash and windblown sand...
The second floor was much like the first.
Everywhere he looked, he saw devastation.
The room where the old president had promoted apprentice mages to full mages had received the same treatment as Widow Wang's benefits distribution room...
It was smashed to pieces, with rubble everywhere.
The other areas were no different, and the smell of decay filled the air.
After a quick look around, An Kai continued up the stairs. Near the entrance to the third floor, he found three skeletons piled together.
It looked as though some kind of fight had taken place there.
An Kai did not hesitate when dealing with intruders like these. A fireball appeared in his hand, and he instantly hurled it out, blasting the three skeletons into black-and-white bone dust scattered across the floor...
Stepping over the bone dust, An Kai entered the third floor.
This was where the old president had his office and living quarters.
A year ago, An Kai had not been qualified to enter this place.
There was only one room on the entire third floor.
A layer of magical fluctuations still covered its surface, presumably a contingency the old president had left behind.
Apart from that, there were no other rooms in the hall, though there were another two or three skeletons...
At this sight, a smile finally appeared on An Kai's face...
He first retreated to the stairs. Then two head-sized fireballs appeared in his hands!
Without hesitation, he blasted them straight into the defense the old president had left behind...
Boom! Boom!!
"Thank you for the gift, old president!"
Before you continue