Fire Dragon

The giant slime’s bulky body began to contract. It was charging up again. With a sudden leap, it shot into the air and crashed straight down toward Marcus! Marcus lunged forward, barely dodging the giant slime’s attack. The repeated dashes in such a short time had left his stamina running low. His movements were no longer as nimble as before, and the aftershock of that crushing slam left him dizzy. He staggered back several steps before steadying himself, but by then the giant slime was already gathering acid again! “Get down!” Zelier’s roar reached Marcus’s ears, and without thinking, he obeyed. Zelier stepped forward, and the tip of his ash wood wand base suddenly flared with dazzling firelight! Fire Dragon, fully charged! “Bang!!!” A thick fireball shot past Marcus’s head and slammed head-on into the giant slime! Hit! The instant the flame touched the giant slime’s gelatinous body, it began to boil violently. Then, like a melting candle, it started dripping away. It dealt excellent damage. But it still wasn’t enough. The core remained protected. They had to burn away every last bit of its outer body! Zelier knitted his brows and kept channeling magic power to maintain Fire Dragon. Red light illuminated the entire cave, even overpowering the glow of Light. Zelier could feel his internal magic power reserves plummeting. Hold on! “Gyaaaah!!!” The giant slime actually let out a coarse screech like a roar. The gray-green gel began to writhe and convulse wildly. Fire Dragon’s scorching heat continued without pause. The giant slime tried to leap away from the flames by building up force, but its body was melting far faster than it had imagined. The raging flames were also laced with bursts of magic power, and the two combined were immensely destructive! After several struggles, its hope of escape was finally shattered. Under Fire Dragon’s scorching, more than half of the giant slime’s body melted away, and its greatest weakness—the magic core—was exposed. The bare magic core could not withstand such ferocious scorching at all. Finally, with a “pop,” the giant slime’s life was completely extinguished. A pure, round magic core dropped to the ground. The giant slime’s remaining body rapidly shrank, eventually becoming a dry, withered lump of gel. [The party has jointly killed the giant slime and gained a large amount of experience points.] Level up! Lv.3 → Lv.4 Only after seeing the kill notification on the status panel did Zelier dare to cut off his magic power output. The enormous fireball slowly died out. He panted heavily, steadying his inner condition. “Hah... hah...” That single seven-second Fire Dragon had nearly drained his mana bar dry. In the status panel, killing the giant slime had granted a total of 90 experience points. Zelier had now reached Lv.4 (27/175), gaining four allocatable attribute points. After a brief thought, he assigned them to Intelligence. His Intelligence attribute rose from 70 to 74, and due to a strongly correlated mechanism, his Charm attribute rose once again, becoming 47. Zelier’s current attribute panel was: Strength: 65 Agility: 61 Constitution: 68 Spirit: 71 Intelligence: 70 → 74 Perception: 30 Charm: 46 → 47 Luck: 41 Talent Skill: Formula Deduction. Prioritizing Intelligence went without saying: it improved magic power control, increased the analysis speed of Formula Deduction, and even incidentally boosted Charm. Moreover, to unlock the next talent skill, he had to reach low-rank mage. The area where Zelier fell furthest short of a low-rank mage was casting speed. Even now, with the ash wood wand base in hand, Zelier could not achieve a casting speed within three seconds. Improving Intelligence, increasing magic power control, and slowly optimizing the redundant parts of the spell structure—these were Zelier’s top priorities. Spirit was sufficient for now; his damage output wasn’t really lacking either. As for Strength, Agility, and Constitution... those were even less of a consideration. Then there was Perception. For now, there was no particular need to raise it, and each increase cost two points, which was a bit extravagant and wasteful. Still, it was worth noting that Zelier could clearly see Vallis’s Perception was much higher than an ordinary person’s. Almost every time, Vallis was the first to grasp the battle situation. Finally, there was Luck... This attribute was too mystical; its effects were truly impossible to quantify. Zelier thought back, and indeed he had run into quite a few strokes of luck. For example, the Mist Demon they had encountered was a juvenile. If it had been an adult, the party would have been wiped out on the spot, with no chance of turning things around. Next, relying on his 30 Perception, he had actually been able to sense the Mist Demon’s magical connection within the thick fog and sketch out Fireball in advance. Otherwise, even if the other members could buy him time to cast, the losses would inevitably have been severe. Gray might even have died, and Marcus could have been seriously injured. Then there was meeting the good-natured Bev, Marvin showing leniency, and the magic in the Sparring Arena that suited him relatively well. These could all be considered manifestations of luck. But how much of it happened because of his 41 Luck, and how much would have happened anyway as events unfolded? Zelier did not know. Besides, the cost of raising Luck was far too high; it required four times the cost of a basic attribute. He would consider it later... After Fire Dragon was dispelled, Marcus finally dared to get up from the ground, looking dumbfounded. “That’s insane...” Was this the destructive power of a mage? After witnessing a giant slime of that size being roasted to death by Zelier, Marcus felt even more awe toward the profession. Vallis also clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Unbelievable...” To achieve this kind of destructive power, he would at least have to advance to mid-rank ranger and combine battle aura with archery. Zelier was merely a newcomer who had only completed two commissions, yet he had already surpassed Vallis? The two pushed aside their thoughts and began collecting the spoils. Compared with the Mist Demon magic core, the slime magic core contained much less energy, and its market price was correspondingly much lower. Even so, it was a decent sum. There was also the lump of gel left over from the scorching. Zelier picked it up and weighed it. It was lighter than he had imagined. He tried punching it. “Pat.” It left only a faint fist mark, which quickly restored itself. It really was good material for making cushioning linings for armor. “This time, shall we also split it in a four-three-three ratio?” Marcus asked for Zelier’s opinion. “Fine,” Zelier agreed at once. After putting away the two items, the party continued exploring a little deeper. There were no more anomalies inside, and no more polluted water was seen on the ground. The slime colony in this abandoned cave had all been cleared out. The commission was successfully completed.