Chapter 66: Dusty Gun!

[Emerald City Boundary, Smith Shelter]

"How strong is that magic of yours? Can everyone learn it as soon as possible?"

"Right now, that might be our only hope," asked Christian.

Just as the monster in question was experiencing euphoria as it made plans to wipe out their base, Ethan and the others were also making plans to take it out.

It seemed like in this battle to come, only one side could emerge victorious, with the other side losing their life.

"My magic... as you know, right now I’m a 2nd-Circle Mage."

"Different from the first level, at the second level, there’s a qualitative leap in power."

"This time, not just in attributes, but in the mana itself," said Ethan, raising his right hand.

Swoosh!

In an instant, an ice katana appeared, followed by a long blade completely made of pure mana.

"At the second level, I can now release the mana from my body, using it as a weapon or coating it over other weapons, increasing their strength."

"I can use it to manipulate the elements in the air and achieve control of elements, provided I know their formula."

"If you ask me how strong... I could easily beat five of my former selves based on skill alone, not even comparing attributes."

"However, even then, I’m not sure if it’s enough," he said.

Yes, Ethan had no way of knowing this monster was a transmigrator.

Rather, hearing that it commanded other monsters, he thought it was a Lord-level beast, making him think that his current self was too weak—

unaware that the current him was far superior to it in every way.

Now, out of paranoia, Ethan could only focus on strengthening himself and the shelter as soon as possible.

"Wait, there’s so much difference at the second level?"

"Also, how much difference is there when you coat a weapon with mana?"

"If all our soldiers break through to the second level and we coat the bullets with mana, would we be able to pierce that monster?"

His eyes shining brightly, Christian caught onto a key fact.

If his thoughts were correct, then perhaps launching an attack first wouldn’t be a bad idea—perhaps an elite squad to do it.

Even Adrian and Marcus, upon hearing Christian’s words, turned to Ethan, their faces filled with excitement.

Perhaps this was their chance!

Unfortunately, in front of all their excited faces, Ethan just shook his head.

"Sadly, that’s not possible. Upon my discovery, the breakthrough of circles is completely reliant on principles."

"You must understand a certain principle of mana, and then merge it into your existing mana as well as the mana in the atmosphere as you draw it in and form the second circle."

"The principle I understood was Density, which made my breakthrough so special."

"There’s no guarantee that everyone can understand it too." Shaking his head, Ethan had also thought of that, but unfortunately, it was too unrealistic.

Even he only understood the principle of Density as a result of his 10,000× feedback and Max-Level Comprehension.

For anyone else, at least right now, it was almost impossible.

"Silence..."

"..."

Listening to Ethan’s words, no one said anything, as they were all out of ideas.

Before the apocalypse started, they had specifically gone to the outskirts of the city to take time to develop.

However, not only could they not develop in peace, but they were about to be wiped out.

"Wait a minute, Young Master. Can’t you do as you did with us when you helped us form circles?"

"I don’t think I understood this principle you talk about, but with your help, the Young Miss, I, and Lord Christian all got circles."

"In that case, couldn’t you do the same thing for a few soldiers?"

Speaking up, Alfred, who had been silent all this while, voiced his thoughts.

Even though he was just a butler, and even though no one explicitly permitted him to talk, no one said a thing, partly because Alfred was like family to the Smiths, and secondly because they needed all the ideas they could get.

"Alfred, I understand what you’re saying. In theory, I can do that."

"But..."

Sighing slightly, Ethan began to explain another thing he found out when breaking through to the second circle.

"You see, I found out that if I manually help someone break through to form their circles..."

"Their chances of understanding a principle on their own later are greatly reduced."

"It’s just like building a house on loose soil; their foundation was already unstable from the get-go."

"Perhaps only people with innate abilities, Awakeners of sorts, can be partially unaffected, but even they would have much harder breakthroughs."

Saying this, he paused.

"If I help all the soldiers personally break through..."

"Then their growth and potential will be forever tied to me."

"They won’t be able to progress without me, and their principles, skills, and strength will all be limited. They won’t ever have the chance to truly grow on their own," said Ethan.

In fact, he had considered doing this before, but once he realized the potential of getting feedback from all kinds of unique principles by letting others comprehend their own paths, why would he go ahead and stunt them?

Who knew, perhaps someone could even understand some sort of heaven-defying principle!

It was with this thought in mind that Ethan didn’t want to personally construct circles for everyone unless he absolutely had to.

And Christian, listening to his grandson say this, finally understood.

If he let Ethan do this, then although they might survive now, the future potential of the Smith family base would be cut in half.

Such a situation was akin to cutting off one’s arm to feed one’s stomach.

"Alright, I understand your thoughts. Then let’s do this," Christian said, his voice firming up.

"A few retired military veterans like me are also on the base."

"Most of us old men don’t have anything more to lose in life, nor did we awaken special abilities."

"We should be about fifty in number. Help us break through to the first circle as you did before, and we’ll launch an ambush to wipe out that monster and all its subordinates."

"Not only that, but since you said monster cores can be used to upgrade abilities..."

"With those hundred corpses, we should be able to increase the strength of the base by a significant margin."

Casually talking about entering the fight again at seventy years old, Christian’s eyes shone with fierce determination.

If there were no other options, then for the future and for his grandsons, he would once again pick up his dusty gun!