Chapter 52: Friendship Through Fighting 2

“You won. I lost,” Kobi said as he walked up to Kent, clearly still a little annoyed. “But if you could cast spells instantly, why didn’t you say so earlier? You made me embarrass myself in front of everyone.”

Kent gave him a helpless smile.

“If I had told you beforehand, would you have believed me?”

Kobi scratched his head and tilted it to one side.

“Well... I guess you’ve got a point.”

Then he looked up at Kent.

“What’s your name?”

At the same time, he spread his arms wide, obviously expecting a hug.

“Kent. Level-One fire mage. Nice to meet you.”

Kent had no choice but to bend down and embrace him.

There was really nothing he could do about it. Dwarves seemed to love hugging people. Whenever they wanted to show affection or friendship, a hug appeared to be their preferred method.

The only problem was the difference in height.

Kent was beginning to suspect that if this happened too often, his waist was going to suffer for it.

Kobi pulled a wineskin from his belt, uncorked it, and took a large drink before casually handing it to Kent.

“I’m Kobi. Level-One Warrior. My battle aura is earth-aligned.”

Then he sighed heavily.

“Hey, Kent, how about we go hunting together sometime? I love adventures more than anything. But my father keeps trying to make me learn forging.”

Kobi rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Oh, gods. I couldn’t care less about spending all day staring at lumps of metal.”

Kent took a drink from the wineskin.

By now, the crowd around them had already dispersed, leaving only Kent and Kobi walking together.

“Give me a few days,” Kent said. “I’m close to a breakthrough. Once I advance, we can go hunting together.”

“A breakthrough?”

Kobi stared up at him in surprise.

“So that’s why you came near the volcano? You’re here to absorb fire-element magical energy?”

Kent nodded and handed the wineskin back.

The drink was actually rather good. In Kent’s opinion, it tasted almost like iced black tea.

“Exactly. And after that, I need to visit Grandpa Keta. Once I’ve done those things, I’ll have time to go hunting with you.”

“Grandpa Keta?”

Kobi’s eyes widened.

“Oh, gods. Don’t the Ancient Trees of War only like elves?”

Kobi knew very well what kind of existence Keta was.

Even the City Lord could not really order him around.

In terms of raw combat strength, Keta could probably be considered the strongest being in all of Muan City.

And Ancient Trees of War rarely paid any attention to races other than elves.

Being personally invited by one was almost unheard of.

“Yeah, him,” Kent replied. “I don’t really know why either.”

Then he glanced at Kobi.

“But you really don’t like forging? Aren’t dwarves supposed to love that sort of thing?”

Kobi shook his head vigorously.

“I just don’t like spending every day dealing with ore. I like hunting.”

His expression suddenly brightened.

“Come on. I know a place where the magical elements are especially dense. I guarantee you’ll like it.”

Kent followed Kobi across the stone bridge.

Instead of heading toward the fortress where Dex and the other dwarven smiths worked, Kobi led him along one of the narrow streams of lava flowing in the direction of the volcano.

The volcano did not look particularly far away from where they stood.

But Kent estimated that it was still at least several dozen kilometers distant.

Nature truly was astonishing.

The moment Kent stepped onto the rocky path beside the lava stream, he could immediately feel the difference.

The surrounding fire-element magical energy was overwhelming.

He closed his eyes slightly and released his spiritual power.

In an instant, the world before his senses seemed to turn completely crimson.

Fire-element energy was everywhere.

Countless particles of it filled the surroundings, dense and extraordinarily active, surging through the air like an invisible sea of flame.

What puzzled Kent, however, was that Kobi did not stop.

Instead of heading directly toward the volcano, he continued forward along a winding route before turning toward a cave in the rocky cliffs to the side.

“We’re here.”

Kobi finally stopped in front of a stone wall.

“This place is safe, and the caves around here are full of flowerless fruit as well.”

Then he pointed toward another direction.

“But whatever you do, don’t go over there. There’s a colony of fire lizards not far away.

“Most of them are only Level One, but there are a lot of them. And there’s also a Level-Two fire lizard leader among them.

“Fortunately, they’re not interested in flowerless fruit. Otherwise, those plants would have been wiped out long ago.”

The stone wall before them was covered with caves of irregular sizes and shapes.

Kent could not tell whether they had formed naturally or had been excavated by hand.

Kobi finished explaining and turned around.

Then he paused.

Kent was no longer beside him.

“Kent?”

Kobi quickly retraced his steps.

The moment he got closer, his expression changed.

The magical elements around Kent were fluctuating violently.

Very violently.

Kent was completely immersed in the changes taking place inside his own mind.

From the moment he had stepped into this region crisscrossed by streams of lava, he had sensed faint fluctuations within his consciousness.

Then, when he spread out his spiritual power to examine the fire-element energy around him, everything suddenly changed.

The surrounding magical elements began pouring into his mind.

Within his consciousness, a fiery-red vortex gradually took shape.

At its very center was the tiny silver-white point of light, while the surrounding fire-element energy formed a funnel around it, continuously drawing in more and more elemental power from the outside world.

Kent’s entire attention was focused on what was happening inside his mind.

At the same time, another torrent of elemental energy surged upward from the soles of his feet.

It flowed through his body, traveled straight up along his spine, and rushed into his mind.

Kent felt warmth spread through every part of his body.

It was an indescribably pleasant sensation, so comfortable that he felt almost weightless, as though he were floating.

Before long, his entire consciousness sank into that wonderful feeling.

“Boom!”

Kent suddenly felt a faint tremor inside his mind.

Then everything stopped.

The fire-element energy surrounding him no longer poured inward.

The torrent of energy entering through the soles of his feet also disappeared.

Kent immediately focused inward.

The silver-white point of light in his mind had expanded until it was roughly the size of a soybean.

He cautiously released his spiritual power.

His expression immediately changed.

Previously, his spiritual perception could only cover a radius of around thirty meters.

Now, it extended nearly eighty meters.

This was one of the reasons spiritual power was so important to a mage.

Even the most basic offensive spells generally required a mage to guide them within at least thirty meters. Without sufficiently powerful spiritual perception, even possessing strong magic would be of little use.

As a mage advanced, that range would continue to grow.

By Level Nine, a powerful mage’s spiritual perception could extend as far as two kilometers.

Kent slowly opened his eyes.

He had broken through.

He was now capable of casting Level-Two magic.

“Fireball!”

Naturally, the first thing Kent wanted to test was his fire magic.

At Level One, the spell had been *Lesser Fireball*.

At Level Two, it became a true *Fireball*.

The greatest differences lay in its size and temperature.

The fireball that appeared before Kent now was nearly five times larger than the small fireballs he had previously used.

Even its color had changed.

Instead of ordinary red flames, the sphere burned with a brilliant orange-red glow.

Kent raised his hand.

The fireball shot forward.

“Boom!”

It slammed into the hard stone wall.

Fragments of rock exploded outward, scattering across the ground.

Kent’s eyes lit up.

The rock formations of the Underdark were exceptionally hard, so the fact that a single Fireball could blast away so much stone left him extremely satisfied with its power.

Now that he had advanced, his next goal was obvious.

He wanted to practice every useful spell he already knew until he could cast them instantly.

For fire, there was Fireball.

For water, Water Arrow.

For earth, Earth Shield.

For metal, Metal Shield.

For wood, Thorn Entanglement.

And for light, Light Healing.

As for the other spells belonging to those elemental systems, Kent simply did not know them yet.

Nor was he particularly worried about that.

He had already decided that rather than trying to learn every spell he encountered, he would focus on mastering a small number of low-level spells to the absolute limit.

There were precedents for this approach within the Mage Guild.

Kent had once heard of a Level-Seven wind mage who knew only two spells well enough to truly rely on them:

Wind Blade and Flight.

Yet that mage had developed those two spells to an astonishing level.

He could instantly release Wind Blades from almost any part of his body.

Within a range of fifteen hundred meters, he could attack virtually any target he chose.

Even more terrifyingly, his Wind Blades could turn in midair, change direction, and circle back under the control of his spiritual power.

Enemies found them almost impossible to evade.

After being compressed, the power of those Wind Blades could even rival a Level-Eight spell.

That was why most experienced mages did not try to specialize equally in everything.

They might learn many spells, but in actual combat, they usually chose only a handful to refine again and again.

That Level-Seven wind mage was said to be capable of controlling dozens of compressed Wind Blades at once.

Within fifteen hundred meters, the blades could circle, turn, and change direction freely.

As long as an enemy remained within that range, the Wind Blades could descend on them from every direction at once.

That example was one of the main reasons Kent had chosen his own group of spells to specialize in.

Thorn Entanglement was already a Level-Two wood spell. The only additional requirement was carrying the seeds of a particular thorny plant.

**Water Arrow** was the corresponding Level-Two water spell.

With those spells combined, Kent would have Fireball and Water Arrow for direct attacks.

Thorn Entanglement could restrict an enemy’s movement.

Earth Shield and Metal Shield could provide defense.

And Light Healing would give him a means of treating injuries.

Attack, restraint, defense, and healing.

He had everything.

The more Kent thought about it, the more pleased he became.

If he could master all of those spells to the point of instant casting...

Wouldn’t that make him absurdly powerful?

Imagining some future enemy being helplessly toyed with by his spells, Kent could not help letting out a wicked little chuckle.

“Heh heh...”

“Kent! We have to go!”

Kobi’s anxious voice suddenly snapped him back to reality.

“The fire lizards are coming!”

Kent turned around.

Kobi had already heard their cries in the distance.

And the sounds were getting closer.

“Those things are extremely sensitive to fluctuations in fire-element magic,” Kobi said urgently. “And the worst part is—they’re immune to fire magic!”

His expression changed as another series of distant cries echoed through the caves.

“Come on! Move!”

Without waiting for Kent to respond, Kobi grabbed him and began dragging him back the way they had come.