"Less than 60% mana left. I can still use Shadow Jump sixty times. Six thousand meters should be enough to escape that Blazing Yu Beast's territory."
Leo felt helpless. He had merely taken a curious glance at the Blazing Yu Beast gazing up at the sky on a mountaintop while passing through. He had not so much as taken a hair from it. After all, this was his first time seeing a fierce beast that could spit huge fireballs. A little curiosity was perfectly normal.
Yet the Blazing Yu Beast had begun spewing huge fireballs at Leo without a word, chasing him with rapid fire.
A relentless bombardment-this was an artillery emplacement, and one built on a mountaintop with every advantage of timing and terrain!
Huge fireballs kept hurtling toward him, and Leo could feel the energy within them from far away.
Every fireball absolutely exceeded 300 attack power, higher even than his attacks with triple gravity released. Such attack power meant this Blazing Yu Beast was already an adult. He had most likely disturbed it during mating season. No wonder it was so irritable.
A single hit would burn him to ash in one second.
Fortunately, Benji had screamed frantically inside Leo's mind at the critical moment, allowing him to escape temporarily with Shadow Jump.
Leo knew he had come under attack because he had inadvertently entered the territory of a Blazing Yu Beast in mating season.
Leo's aura was not weak, either. The Blazing Yu Beast had clearly taken him for an enemy trying to seize its territory. There was no way it would not strike first.
Leo could only chalk it up to bad luck.
This was his second day since leaving the Purple Flame Wizard Academy. After two days of running flat out, Leo had not seen a single person. What he had seen most were all kinds of fierce beasts.
Many had savage auras that left Leo feeling suffocated even from far away. Those were definitely beasts of level one or above. Leo changed his route immediately, not daring to invite trouble. A sneeze from a beast of level one or above could severely injure him.
So the seemingly six-thousand-li journey might actually end up twice as long.
Fortunately, Leo was no longer who he had once been. His strength was decent, and at the very least, he could run incredibly fast, about as fast as a high-speed train on Earth.
In theory, provided nothing unexpected happened along the way, he could arrive in a day without sleep or rest.
In reality, nearly two days had passed, and he had only covered one-sixth of the distance.
"Just run. With your shadow talent, you might not be able to win, but you can definitely escape," Benji said helplessly.
Although the Blazing Yu Beast's attack power was higher than Leo's, Leo would definitely have the advantage in an actual fight. But there was no need to waste time here.
Leo said nothing. Carefully sensing the changes in the surrounding auras, he ran toward the weakest one.
He focused entirely on circulating the mana within him, pushing his entire body to its limits. Leo could feel his cells working frantically, constantly delivering strength to every part of his body.
"Over these two days, my body has grown 0.1% stronger, my metabolism has increased by 1.2%, and my toxin capacity has increased by 0.5%. My proficiency with my shadow abilities has improved, too. Teacher Gru, is this why you made me travel alone?"
Leo shook his head. This training method was far too crude.
His years of training at the Purple Flame Wizard Academy had all been spent laying his foundations. Now that those foundations were barely complete, Gru had impatiently thrown him out. It was easy to see that he wanted to change his training method.
How could a Body Refinement Wizard grow without experiencing brutal combat?
How could a Body Refinement Wizard break through without experiencing the instant between life and death?
How could a Body Refinement Wizard face adversity alone without an indomitable will?
Leo understood all of that. What left him speechless was how crude Gru's methods were. He could have simply said so. It was not as though Leo would refuse.
After one continuous Shadow Jump after another, the rapid-fire fireballs finally disappeared when his mana fell to just 20%.
"Phew, finally out."
Leo exhaled deeply, rapidly absorbing the energy in the air to restore his mana.
This escape, which pushed his mana, shadow talent, and physical strength to their limits, was absolutely hair-raising. A moment too slow, and he would have died without even a body left to bury.
This instant between life and death was precisely what Body Refinement Wizards advocated, claiming it had tremendous benefits for developing one's potential.
But before Leo's mana could even begin recovering, a heart-pounding sense of dread made his hair stand on end. Countless strands of killing intent enveloped his whole body, leaving him feeling as though he had plunged into an ice cellar.
Danger!!!
Bzzzz!
A roar like a bomber's engines erupted. Leo's scalp prickled as a dark cloud suddenly rose from the previously silent forest and lunged toward him.
A closer look revealed creatures half a meter long, resembling enlarged bees, packed so densely that they blotted out the sky like a dark cloud.
Judging by their hideous mouthparts, they were definitely not herbivores.
"Fuck, this luck really takes the cake."
Leo and Benji were both speechless. When fleeing the Blazing Yu Beast's territory, they had chosen this direction precisely because the aura here was the weakest.
They had thought there would be no powerful beasts here. Indeed, there were none, but there were creatures that lived in swarms. This place was so quiet because every animal had been eaten.
This was even more terrifying than encountering a fierce beast like the Blazing Yu Beast!
Shadow Jump had a maximum range of a hundred meters. It worked fine against other fierce beasts, but against swarming creatures like these that filled the sky, he could easily jump straight into their mouths.
They countered him a little too well!
"Run back!" Benji shouted anxiously.
"No. Not enough mana. I'd die either way."
Behind him was the enraged Blazing Yu Beast, which wanted nothing more than to tear him apart. The auras coming from the other directions were no weaker than its own.
Danger!!!
Watching the unknown swarm of wild beasts rushing toward him, Leo searched every memory in his mind but could find no relevant information.
But judging by his perception, their individual auras were weak. They survived entirely through their numbers, and Leo guessed their attack power would not exceed thirty.
Benji wanted to say more, but it was too late. Against all expectations, Leo charged straight toward the dark-cloud-like swarm of wild beasts.
"Do you have a death wish? These swarming carnivorous beasts will devour you in an instant!" Benji shouted angrily at Leo's recklessness.
"Don't worry. I've got this. This is a good chance to show you the weapons from my original world."
Leo was fast, but the dark-cloud-like swarm of wild beasts approaching him was even faster. The two sides were about to collide head-on within a breath.
Leo could clearly see the fine hairs on these swarming wild beasts he could not name, as well as the barbs on their arms glinting coldly.
Just as it seemed they would devour Leo in an instant, the shadow beneath his feet roiled and twisted. At that critical moment, black, tentacle-like shadows flew out carrying barrels and belts, surrounding Leo.
Benji recognized these barrels. They were weapons from Earth, Leo's original world. He had seen them in Leo's memories. They were called Gatlings.
However, these weapons were very weak. Benji had only glanced at them in Leo's memories and had paid them no particular attention.
These were the weapons Leo had purchased on his first visit to the Green Cottage. At the time, Benji had even mocked him inside his mind. These weapons were so weak that they could not even hurt a somewhat stronger wizard apprentice. He had no idea why Leo had put so many Gatlings in his Shadow Space.
These weapons were so weak that even the Green Cottage had not charged for them, collecting only a transportation fee and giving all the weapons to Leo for free.
Back then, the Gatlings and ammunition had filled an entire room. Leo had kept them in his Shadow Space ever since.
Now, ten Gatlings were densely arrayed around Leo, their thick muzzles all aimed at the swarming wild beasts right before him.
The next second,
Brrrrt!
A piercing mechanical whir rang out as the gunpowder weapons began unleashing their fury.
Shell casings flew everywhere. Ten tongues of flame lashed into the swarm, tearing the hideous wild beasts apart in an instant.
Only when he saw the bodies falling like rain did Leo secretly breathe a sigh of relief. These wild beasts really were weak, surviving entirely through their numbers.
By the wizard world's method of calculation, a Gatling's attack power would definitely not exceed 35. As long as his estimate was correct, Gatlings were the perfect weapons against these swarming wild beasts.
As long as he could kill his way through them, he could survive.
Most importantly, operating the Gatlings with his shadows consumed very, very little mana. This gave Leo, who already had little mana left, a chance to catch his breath.
The concentrated firepower of ten Gatlings was terrifying, practically forming an impregnable wall around Leo. Not a single beast could come within three meters of him.
A thousand rounds per minute meant ten Gatlings fired ten thousand rounds per minute-166 bullets every second.
The density of the bullets would probably put a torrential downpour to shame.
On Earth, Leo had been a law-abiding citizen. Forget a weapon of mass slaughter like a Gatling—he had never even seen a small handgun.
Only now did he understand how terrifying Gatlings were.
The bullets formed a terrifying barrage, instantly tearing an opening in the dark cloud. Severed limbs and mangled bodies flew, and scarlet blood sprayed.
Listening to the crisp clatter of shell casings hitting the ground, Leo felt his blood boiling. His body felt an uncontrollable urge to destroy beautiful lives with his own hands.
With ten interlacing tongues of flame in place, Leo plunged into the dark cloud without hesitation.
From a distance, all that could be seen was the churning dark cloud, accompanied by the terrifying, irrepressible brrrrt of rotating barrels.
The churning dark cloud contracted, squeezing madly toward the center like dough being kneaded.
Countless fragile swarming beasts let out furious screeches, taking their population as their supreme cause and vowing to kill the enemy before them at the cost of their lives.
The dark cloud moved. Everywhere it passed, it left a ground strewn with mangled remains and blood flowing in streams, showing that they had not killed their enemy.
The road paved with corpses stretched over a thousand meters. Tens of thousands of beasts had been killed, and the dense, terrifying dark cloud had shrunk considerably, yet the remaining beasts continued attacking madly.
Leo panted. His speed had already dropped, and he could only maintain 30% of his full speed. These swarming creatures, which seemed to have no individual minds, were far too terrifying. They paid absolutely no heed to their own survival, all attacking madly.
Any other creatures would surely have fled long ago in the face of so much death.
But these swarming creatures seemed unwilling to give up unless every last one of them died.
Based on his earlier observations, he had originally thought he would need only a minute to kill his way through the swarm. Yet five minutes had now passed, and there was still no sign of breaking through.
There was no retreat now. Leo held two short blades as the ten Gatlings around him roared without pause. He did not know how many wild beasts he had killed. All he knew was that the Gatlings' barrels were already glowing red.