SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

He hadn’t eaten a proper meal in hours. Ever since the apocalypse started, he had rushed from one crisis to another without giving himself even a moment to slow down. Fighting monsters, rescuing survivors, worrying about his family, and preparing for the next battle had occupied every second of his attention.

Even back in Hell Difficulty, the others would have eaten by now. Before leaving, Alex had prepared a fire along with meat from the Titan Reef Crab Leader so they could cook while he was away.

Ironically, everyone else probably had a proper meal except the person who had prepared it.

Thinking about Hell Difficulty made him glance at the cracked clock on the wall. He could have sworn he had spent seven or eight hours there, yet according to the time on Earth, only around four hours had passed.

Maybe time simply felt slower when every moment was a fight for survival.

Either way, surviving on Energy Bars wasn’t something he could keep doing. They restored stamina well enough, but they couldn’t replace proper food, nor could they give his mind the chance to truly relax. Alex understood that staying under constant mental strain would eventually dull his judgment, and a careless, naive mistake in combat was something he refused to allow himself to make.

He had survived many battles by staying calm and thinking ahead, and he had no intention of throwing that away because of overconfidence. Every fight had taught him something new, but the most important lesson remained the same. One careless decision was often all it took to lose.

"Can you make something for me too?" Alex asked while Ophelia continued preparing the food. He already knew she was cooking enough for everyone, so he would naturally get a portion anyway. Still, it was polite to ask.

"Of course. That’s the least I can do, given how much you’re doing for everyone," Ophelia replied with a smile.

Alex nodded. It was the first time he had seen her smile properly since they had met, without worry or hesitation lingering behind it. For just a moment, she looked like someone who could finally relax.

While Ophelia continued cooking and he practiced controlling his mana while showing magic to Charlotta, Alex decided to check something that had been waiting for his attention. He opened his evolution screen and focused on the notification.

[Fire Bullet Spell can now be evolved. Choose an Evolution: Advanced Fire Bullet, Fire Burst, Fire Grenade, Flare, Fire Snipe, Fire Missile.]

Alex read through the list carefully. The names themselves were simple, but he knew not to judge a spell by its name alone. His basic ’Fire Bullet’ had already proven powerful enough to kill monsters far stronger than its name suggested, so these evolved versions were likely much more dangerous.

He started with Advanced Fire Bullet. It looked like the direct upgrade to his current spell, improving what he already had without changing how it worked. There was nothing flashy about it, but reliable improvements were often the safest choice.

Next came Fire Burst. From the name, Alex guessed it created an explosion of flames around the point of impact or perhaps around himself, making it more suited for close combat than long-range fighting.

He suspected the Talent offered this evolution because of the mistake he had made while first-time trying to create a Fire Bullet, when he had mishandled the fire element mana badly enough that the spell almost burst in his own face.

Fire Grenade immediately caught his attention for a different reason. He already knew that compressing more fire element mana produced hotter flames, but he was nearing the limits of what his current method allowed.

If this spell was a higher-ranked version of that concept, it would likely teach him a much better way to compress fire mana.

That possibility made it tempting. Body Reinforcement and Advanced Body Reinforcement had wildly different effects even when both consumed the same amount of mana. The difference came from their rank. Advanced Body Reinforcement was a higher-ranked spell, allowing it to use the same amount of mana far more efficiently.

That was why Fire Grenade interested Alex so much. While he already knew how to compress fire element mana, a higher-ranked spell would almost certainly teach him a far more efficient compression method, allowing him to produce hotter and more destructive flames with the same amount of mana.

He also had a good idea why the Talent gave this option. During the Titan Reef Crab dungeon, he had thrown his wand to save Yulia, creating a massive explosion that wiped out a large number of the monsters. The evolution probably came from that experience.

Flare seemed much simpler. It could be used to signal allies by revealing his location or blind enemies with an intense flash of light. That would make it useful both here and in Hell Difficulty, where gathering separated teammates could make a significant difference.

What interested Alex even more was the knowledge behind it. He knew how to make flames hotter, but he had no idea how to make them brighter.

If this spell taught him that principle, he could eventually use it for torches, flashbang-like attacks, and perhaps entirely new spells that he did not know yet.

It would not increase his combat strength immediately, but knowledge had value beyond a single spell. Every new principle he learned gave him more ways to improve the techniques he already possessed. That made Flare surprisingly difficult to ignore.

Fire Snipe was much easier to understand. It was almost certainly a long-range precision spell designed to travel farther, faster, and with greater penetration than Fire Bullet.

Alex guessed he had unlocked it because he had killed the first Wild Orc with a ’piercing’ Fire Bullet while hiding instead of letting the spell explode like it did normally.

The spell covered one of his biggest weaknesses. If he had possessed it during his fight with the Jade Scythe Mantis, he likely could have killed it before it ever reached him. He had enjoyed that battle and learned a great deal from it, but the truth remained that he had been forced into close combat because his ranged attack had not been strong enough.

Alex did not dislike fighting up close. What he disliked was having no choice. He would rather enter close combat because he wanted to, like he had against the second Wild Orc, instead of being forced into it after failing to finish the fight at range.

Against fast monsters with sharp senses, Fire Snipe would be invaluable. It might even be powerful enough to kill the leader of the Wild Orcs before the monster realized what had happened. Alex would not mind returning the favor by defeating that bastard with a spell similar to the one it had used against him.

Finally, he looked at Fire Missile. From the name, he guessed it was another high-speed projectile, one that emphasized overwhelming power and speed, though it was probably more difficult to control.

Considering how he dealt with the leader Wild Orc’s spear, it made sense that the Talent had offered it as an evolution.

..

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