"Very well, forty-nine to go," Lucien looked at Carly beside him and offered a word of encouragement.
"Mhm." Carly was now full of determination, her face alight with barely contained excitement.
As Carly began searching for a new target ahead, Lucien opened his system panel to check the rewards from this teaching session.
First, he clicked on the icon for Blazing Technique·Arrow. Soon, from this icon representing the knowledge of Blazing Technique·Arrow, three pathways extended, each connecting to a brand-new icon.
"Multiple Arrows, increased arrow speed, and improved accuracy?" Lucien pondered the three options. After watching Carly successfully hunt another blood crow, he thought for a moment and then chose the Multiple Arrows option.
After all, having an additional arrow meant, to a certain extent, doubling the power of the current bow and arrow attack, which provided greater benefit over the latter two options.
Boom—
A flood of knowledge poured into Lucien's mind. This time, it was not only about Magic Runes but also about the techniques for casting arrows... This wealth of knowledge merged and interwove, eventually forming a complete archery technique in Lucien's mind—Multiple Blazing Arrows.
This archery-based witchcraft allows the caster to fire at least two and at most five enchanted arrows at once; however, for each additional enchanted arrow, the spiritual power consumption required by the caster doubles.
But, in turn, each additional enchanted arrow effectively raises the immediate explosive power of the spell a notch. High consumption of spiritual power in exchange for high spell power; there was a cost for every gain.
"Mhm, after this mission is over, I can teach Carly something new." A slight smile appeared on Lucien's face as he then turned his attention to another icon that awaited his choice of upgrade knowledge.
Blazing Technique·Modified.
There were three directions for upgrading the Blazing Technique·Modified: increasing the power of the flames, enhancing the adhesive effect of the fire, and improving accuracy.
This last point surprised Lucien; in his view, the greatest shortcoming of the Blazing Technique was its single method of attack, which was easy to dodge. So, what could this accuracy improvement be?
With that thought, Lucien made his decision.
The next moment, more knowledge surged forth, this time purely magical models. The influx of vast knowledge made Lucien involuntarily close his eyes. When he opened them again, a series of special syllables came from his mouth.
"Zebra..."
With Lucien's deep voice, a giant rock some twenty meters in front of him suddenly erupted in blue flames.
Hiss— The blue flame consumed the rock, causing it to emit faint cracking sounds.
"Instructor?" Carly, who had just completed a hunt, heard the commotion on Lucien's side. She turned her head and saw the rock suddenly erupting in blue flames.
"Just had an idea, couldn't resist trying it out right away," Lucien explained with a smile, simultaneously withdrawing the spiritual power sustaining the spell's effect.
Immediately, the blue flames slowly extinguished on the surface of the giant rock, but the surface now bore the faint red scar of having been scorched.
"Positioning through sound, remote casting." Lucien was quite satisfied with the outcome as he looked at the giant rock.
The upgraded Blazing Technique was stealthy by design, and with sound wave positioning, it could directly make the spell's effects manifest upon an opponent.
If he brought along material that could produce ultrasonic or infrasonic waves, sounds beyond the range of human hearing, the stealth aspects of the spell could be enhanced even further. The technique could virtually fall upon an unsuspecting opponent in an instant.
"Definitely a great skill for sneak attacks! Although the attack power isn't especially high, it excels in the element of surprise, and a direct hit means getting up close. If the opponent lacks the ability to counter in time, this move could threaten the life of a Third-level Wizard Apprentice when used as a sneak attack!"
"I'll call you... Torch Fire Technique." Lucien, associating the sight of countless blue flames converging into a massive torchlike stone, named this new witchcraft, an offshoot of the Blazing Technique, with a new name.
What surprised Lucien was that Torch Fire Technique and Multiple Blazing Arrows were actually considered the same witchcraft, thus sharing a single teaching progress bar.
This meant that as long as he could get Carly to fully grasp one of the witchcrafts, he would unlock subsequent knowledge or bond rewards.
For Lucien, this was undoubtedly great news.
"From this perspective, the system probably encourages me to develop students individually and then derive branches of witchcraft," Lucien realized and looked over at Carly, deciding not to wait until returning to the school to start but to get to work right away.
"Carly."
"Wizard Mentor Lucien?" Carly put away her bow and arrows, turned her head, and looked at Lucien.
"I feel that your archery-related witchcraft could be further modified and enhanced," Lucien said with a smile as he took the bow and arrows from Carly's hands and then drew two arrows from her quiver on her back.
Gently pulling the bowstring.
Both arrowheads began to pulsate with Magic Essence, eventually forming two arrows imbued with Blazing Technique.
Lucien released his hand, and the arrows flew toward the giant rock, perfectly bypassing it. After landing, they both caused small explosions simultaneously.
Carly: (°ロ°)!
Lucien handed the bow back to Carly with a light smile.
Carly was still somewhat bemused. She remembered that Wizard Mentor Lucien had never asked her about the modified model of witchcraft, yet now, not only had Lucien perfectly replicated it, but he had also upgraded it based on her own work?
Carly, a bit skeptical herself, also took out two arrows.
Pulling the bow, she started constructing the witchcraft model.
One arrow was successfully enchanted, but the other showed no change whatsoever.
Carly hesitated a moment, wanting to multitask, but as soon as she tried to start, she felt the already enchanted arrow beginning to lose control and risk exploding. She had no choice but to give up and released the bowstring, shooting the two arrows out.
"Figure it out on your own for now. After we get back to the academy, I'll explain it to you," Lucien patted Carly's shoulder.
Carly looked up slightly at Lucien, her eyes flashing with admiration.
She felt that she was beginning to understand the thoughtful intentions of Wizard Mentor Lucien.
Perhaps for Wizard Mentor Lucien, refining the Blazing Arrows witchcraft was not difficult at all, but what the mentor was doing was silently spending more time, step by step guiding her to research, contemplate, and ultimately succeed in developing and mastering.
"Wizard Mentor Lucien..." Carly gently hugged Lucien's waist, but due to her height, the gesture looked more like she was hugging Lucien's thigh.