Alex slammed into the tunnel wall, his concentration shattered, and the unfinished Fire Bullet disappeared before it could stabilize.
The monster immediately charged after him. It no longer tried to capture him carefully and instead rushed forward as fast as it could, clearly intending to kill him before he had another chance to cast that spell. Alex finally understood the problem.
Trying to maintain so many spells while fighting at close range demanded more concentration than his brain could handle. It left him unable to control his body and fight.
An idea appeared in his mind.
Just like the compressed mana sent to his brain, he flooded his spine with highly compressed mana.
A tingling sensation spread through his spine, as if lightning was running in it. The sensation was comfortable, and addicting. His motor controls, and reflexes became better.
Boosting the spine with highly compress mana reduced the mana available for reinforcing the rest of his body, but if his spinal cord handled more of his reflexes, his brain wouldn’t have to control every movement consciously.
Alex immediately opened his Status and made his decision.
[Mana: 13 → 15]
He spent two of his four free stat points on Mana. A strange sensation spread through his heart, as though it had become a water balloon filled just a little beyond its normal capacity. Ignoring the discomfort, he flooded his body with the additional mana.
Now, his body was properly reinforced.
The Titan Reef Crab’s pincer was already closing in on his neck. His reinforced spinal cord reacted before his thoughts could catch up, causing his body to roll away instinctively.
Alex jumped back to his feet, tightened his grip on the wand, and immediately began creating another Fire Bullet as the monster rushed toward him.
He sidestepped the next pincer while focusing almost entirely on the spell. His body continued dodging through instinctive reflexes, allowing him to devote far more concentration to shaping the Fire Bullet.
Since the monster was already close, he deliberately made the shell thinner than before so it would explode immediately after impact instead of wasting time containing the flames.
Alex made a few final adjustments before releasing the spell.
The Fire Bullet shot forward. The Titan Reef Crab raised its pincers, but the spell was faster. It struck the armor beneath the monster’s eyes, and a violent explosion erupted across its face.
Flames engulfed its eyes, the force lifted its enormous body slightly off the ground, and the armor around the impact point became blackened and cracked, but the monster survived.
The Titan Reef Crab swung its pincers wildly as it struggled to recover. Alex didn’t give it the chance.
He dashed forward, blocked one pincer by compressing mana beneath the skin of his arm, and ignored the sharp pain that shot through it.
Using the opening, he drove his sword into the cracked section beneath the monster’s eyes with all his strength. The blade pierced through the weakened shell, entered its head, and destroyed its brain.
The monster collapsed into the mud, and Alex waited several seconds before confirming it was truly dead.
The moment he cancelled his spells, exhaustion hit him all at once. He suddenly realized he had stopped breathing during the final exchange because his mind had unconsciously decided that breathing wasted precious time in such a short battle.
His clothes were soaked with sweat, every muscle in his body ached, yet a faint smile still appeared on his face.
Several notifications appeared before his eyes.
[Level 11 Titan Reef Crab killed.]
[Fire Bullet Spell has leveled up. Level 1 → Level 2.]
[Battle Instinct Spell has leveled up. Level 5 → Level 6.]
The result gave Alex a sense of achievement. This battle shouldn’t have given him so many Spell levels because, unlike the previous one, it hadn’t pushed him to the brink of death.
The difference was that he had deliberately forced himself to improve instead of waiting for the enemy to do it.
With a faint smile, Alex activated Body Reinforcement Spell again. As expected, another notification appeared before his eyes.
[Advanced Body Reinforcement Spell detected.]
[Would you like to learn Advanced Body Reinforcement Spell?]
[Yes/No.]
’Yes.’
The spell changed the instant he accepted it. It felt as though someone was guiding his mana through his body, showing him a far more efficient way to reinforce himself.
Alex quickly realized what he had been doing wrong. Although he had always compressed mana before using it to strengthen his body, the compression had never been perfectly uniform.
The spell’s true potential only appeared when the mana remained evenly compressed throughout his body.
He clenched his fists and immediately felt the difference. The increase in strength wasn’t overwhelming, but the flow of mana felt smoother and more stable than before. It was a subtle improvement, yet Alex knew it would make a noticeable difference in prolonged battles.
A loud boom suddenly echoed through the tunnel, drawing his attention away. Turning around, he saw the giant Titan Reef Crab collapsing onto the muddy ground.
The fight should have taken much longer because the monster had no exposed joints or weak points, and Alex couldn’t see any cracks in its shell either.
That meant the others hadn’t broken through its armor. His eyes landed on Yulia’s swollen fists, and he immediately understood what had happened.
She had successfully learned the Piercing Punch Technique and used it to transmit the impact through the shell, shaking the monster’s brain to death instead of trying to crack its armor.
...
Frank stared at Alex in stunned silence. Alex hadn’t increased his Species Level at all, while both Frank and Yulia had already reached Species Level 6.
On top of that, for normal levels, Yulia was Level 6 and Frank himself had reached Level 5, giving both of them considerably more stat points than Alex.
Even so, Alex had been faster than either of them. His attacks hit harder, and he had even blocked strikes with his own body that made Frank’s shield tremble from the impact.
Watching that fight made Frank question everything he thought he knew.
’Is the Mage Class really this strong?’ he wondered, unable to hide his amazement.
It wouldn’t be until much later that Frank learned the truth. Mage was actually one of the weakest Classes during the early stages, only becoming terrifying at higher levels.
Alex was simply an anomaly.
..
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