Chapter 59: Crisis (2)
‘Angele Rio: Strength 2.9. Agility 4.1. Stamina 3.7. Mentality 3.3. Mana 3.0 (Mana is contingent on Mentality). Status: Healthy,’ Zero reported.
Mana was a new attribute, which Angele had found before coining it with the term after reaching stage 2. This was the unit Angele had set for measuring energy particles — the particles stored on the chip and inside his body after reaching the new stage. He could store 3 degrees of energy in his body and more than 17 degrees on the chip. Angele had absorbed about 17 degrees of energy from Nancy’s enchanted item, but he had yet to discover the maximum amount of energy he could store on the chip.
‘3 Mentality and 3 Mana must mean I can cast three basic spells,’ Angele thought while the chip kept reporting.
‘Listing the data of Stun Spell:
Stun Spell (Basic) – Spell Level: 0
Cost: 1 Mentality and 1 Mana
Effect: Stun the target for a duration of 1 to 3 seconds
Effective Distance: Within 1.5 meters
You need to cast it within 5 seconds. Otherwise, it will fail.
Weak Point: If the target has high Stamina, the effect of the spell will be greatly reduced.’ Zero reported.
Level 0 spells had a basic-level spell model and could be learned by wizard apprentices. Wizards place different spells into different levels based on their cost, damage, and area-of-effect. There were several different levels upon which level 9 was the highest.
‘I didn’t expect for the process to be so fast. Now, I just need to practice more after the chip finished sending me the data. I can easily learn the whole because of the chip. If I didn’t have it, I might have thought of going to spell laboratories to experiment only to fail no small number of times and waste a lot of mana and mentality. Sleeping is the only way to recover those. Most likely, I can only experiment in the laboratory for 2 or 3 times. No matter how smart a wizard apprentice is, he’ll need at least 25 days just to learn a Level 0 Spell. I heard the record was set by Garman, Jr. of the Faculty of Enchantment.’ Angele thought. The result was something he was already satisfied with.
Angele didn’t expect for the chip to show such a marvelous performance. He had been planning on going with it in a careful manner, even wanting to make sure he could use the spell before returning to the school. He never knew that he’d be successful on the first attempt.
‘Improve the spell structure?’ Zero asked. Angele became surprised upon hearing this, not believing it was possible to do so.
‘Improve the spell structure?’ Zero asked again. Angele finally realized the capabilities of the chip, causing him no small amount of excitement to fill him at this moment.
‘What’s the requirement for it?’ Angele asked.
‘It will cost you 14 Mentality, 14 Mana, 18 days 13 hours and 42 minutes. Currently, the requirement hasn’t been met,’ Zero answered.
‘Why did you even ask then?’ Angele felt a bit speechless.
‘Will the 14 Mentality be consumed at once?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Zero answered. Angele instantly abandoned this idea because he needed to increase his Mentality to over 14, something which was impossible for him right now. He needed to become a wizard first before he could improve the spell.
After simulating the Stun Spell, Angele felt very tired. No one brought tents, so he had to sleep by the campfire. Angele calmed down for a bit before he began meditating by the campfire.
The next morning.
The five caught a few rabbits and squirrels in the forest. They finally caught some meat, but they didn’t bring any salt, making it harder for them to eat. Normally, they would have decent food in the school. At this time, however, they had no choice but to bear with the tasteless food. After breakfast, they began traveling back to their again. The Ramsoda College was located in the middle of nowhere with only one small town nearby. After all, people wouldn’t think of living near a school specializing in necromancy. On their way back, Angele’s group of five didn’t encounter any trouble. When they became hungry, they would hunt wild animals. As for quenching their thirst, their water supply was obtained from the rivers they passed by.
Angele continued studying the information regarding fundamental knowledge on everything stored on his chip. He also learned the necessary information for the construction of his other spell model, the Hand of Exhaustion. He purchased the required course ahead of time and even stored everything on the chip. Angele had no time to read through the courses before, but now, he had some spare time to do so while on the road. He was planning on simulating the second spell model upon returning to the school.
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More than ten days later...
On the surface area of the Ramsoda College.
The heat from the sunlight caused the ground to become burnt. The entirety of the abandoned city seemed golden under the sunlight. The wind was blowing the dust into the air. On the bridge, a group of wizard apprentices was walking. The one who led the group raised his head up to look at the city.
“Finally. We must report the situation immediately,” he spoke in an excited tone. A black crow landed on the handrail and looked at the wizard apprentices. The crow didn’t speak and only flew away. The wizard apprentice at the front was trying to say something, only to be hindered by the one behind him.
“Don’t, Master Moroco won’t care. He promised the president he would guard the entrance, but he never was one of us,” the other wizard apprentice said.
“Fine.” The leading wizard apprentice nodded.
Angele was at the back of their group with his face covered with dust and leaves. He followed the other wizard apprentices and reached the tunnels of the school. Angele and the other two male wizard apprentices walked to the door first, along with Griffia and the other girl following from behind.
“I’ll inform Master Luas. He knows the assistant dean of the resource department. With him, he’ll be able to quickly pass the information to the other masters. I hope Khedira made it out,” Griffia said with a low voice.
“Inform your masters about what happened in the valley. They’ll share the information to other wizards,” she continued.
Angele and the others nodded in response. When he was heading to Master Liliana’s study, he met a wizard apprentice named Yale, whom by a strange coincidence, was similarly a student of Master Liliana. There were many forked paths between the tunnels. Sometimes, there would even be a room with benches inside between the tunnels. People often used this for rest, and the room was usually connected to more than two tunnels. Angele and Yale entered one of those rooms, and they saw someone else coming from the other side.
It was a white-robed man whose face was devoid of expression. A silver shoulder guard was on his left and also wore a large, white cape that covered his back.
“It’s Master Ur!” Yale happily said.
“Yale, it’s you. I thought you’re still on Khedira’s mission?” Ur asked.
“This is what happened...” Yale walked toward Ur quickly and then told him everything. Angele stood by the side and listened. Master Ur Caesar was one of the top wizards in the school and was titled ‘The Ice Mind Reader’. As Yale reported the situation, Ur’s expression changed, clearly understanding the severity of the situation.
“The lady you encountered wore a silver headband and had a Green Spirit on her shoulder?” Ur asked in a grim tone.
“Yes, the Green Spirit killed 5 of us in a second! I would never forget!” Yale answered.
“It’s the Northland Alliance,” Ur said nervously.
“You two, report the situation to President Kyler now. He should be around the trading hall. I’ll check if Khedira’s sign is still intact. If the sign disappears, I’m afraid...” Ur spoke in a worried tone.
“Yes, Master Ur.” Yale and Angele bowed before they walked toward the door. Ur looked at the two with a thoughtful expression. His eyes began gleaming, and he suddenly raised his right hand. There was a barely visible ball twisting in his palm.
“Damn! How dare you disrespect me!” Ur’s yells echoed.
“You...” Ur yelled before reaching out to Angele. His hand became strangely huge, completely blocking the light inside the room. Both Angele and Yale became horrified because of that scene. What made it worse was that they had no idea why Ur was trying to hurt them. The words Ur had spoken were too unreasonable, but they had done nothing disrespectful against him.
“Ur, they’re my students!” A high-pitched female voice came from behind, and an old woman suddenly appeared from their shadows. Two forces clashed against each other — darkness against frost. Many shadow-formed claws were flying toward Ur in the air, but the white, cold air around Ur froze the claws before breaking them into pieces.
“Liliana...” Ur had an apathetic look on his face. He looked at the horrible-looking old woman in fear as though he had no wish of fighting her.
“Huh!” He lowered his hand, opened the wooden door, and left.