[: Daniel’s POV :]
It had been quite so ti since we wandered through the forest, and so far, our hunt had been surprisingly rewarding.
Leaves rustled overhead, sunlight flickering through the branches like dancing shards of gold.
But the peaceful mont didn’t last long.
Right in front of us stood six monsters.
[: Fire Ape* :]
– Rank F –
They were exactly as the na suggested with massive apes with bodies as thick as tree trunks and towering nearly three ters tall.
Their skin resembled charred stone, rough and cracked, while fiery flas wrapped around their limbs like burning ropes.
Each breath they exhaled ca out as steam and sparks, as though their very lungs were furnaces.
"Let deal with it!"
Fendrick shouted with a grin, already preparing to use his fist.
"Wait for !" Silvia rushed forward too, but I stepped in front of both of them, raising my hands to stop them.
"Why don’t you two sit this one out? I was hoping to let loose a little."
I cracked my knuckles, the sound echoing softly through the forest.
Fendrick snorted.
"Leave this to you? I’m afraid you might burn down the entire forest!"
"Well," I shrugged, "even if I burnt it down, I could just restore it later. So don’t worry too much."
Silvia sighed helplessly.
"Why do you say things like that so casually?"
"Because it’s true?"
I shrugged again before stepping forward toward the Fire Apes.
"Sigh...I seriously hope he won’t destroy the entire forest again,"
Fendrick muttered as he and Silvia stayed behind.
I wasn’t planning to use any of my usual skills.
This ti, no Void skills, no destructive authority, nothing overly dramatic. What I wanted to try was sothing the Academy emphasized.
And that is proper Magic Theory application.
This wouldn’t take long.
One of the Fire Apes tilted its head when I approached, its burning eyes narrowing.
"Gek!?" it barked in confusion.
Their flas flickered.
They weren’t afraid... yet.
Mostly confused as to why a lone human stood boldly in front of their pack.
"Let’s see..." I murmured as I stopped a few ters away.
"Sothing like this should work, right?"
I raised my hand, gathering mana quietly.
Magic, in its essence, was simply compressed mana shaped into form through imagination, elental affinity, and theory.
Beneath the Laws, but connected to them.
Mika said once the planet evolved further, Laws could be mastered, but for now, magic was a perfectly good playground.
Facing six Fire Apes, a simple spell would do.
"Better take notes, you teo!**" I said jokingly.
"I’m already taking ntal notes..." Silvia whispered, her gaze fixed on .
The Fire Apes shifted uneasily now.
They could feel the mana swirling, thicker and denser than anything of their rank should ever face.
"Grrraaah...?" one growled, taking a step back.
Another slamd its fists on the ground, flas bursting outward in warning.
But they were already too late.
I snapped my fingers.
[: 1st Tier Spell (Low) – Surge of Black Fla :]
A black magic circle blood beneath the Fire Apes, thin lines weaving like ink spreading across water.
The apes paused, looking down in confusion.
Then the flas erupted.
*WHOOOOSH!*
Black fire burst upward, swallowing all six apes at once.
Their bodies were engulfed instantly, burning, writhing, and struggling, but their screams were muffled, swallowed by the oppressive darkness of the spell.
The Fire Apes panicked.
"GEEKK!! GRAAA!"
Their arms thrashed wildly.
One tried to leap out, but the black flas clung to its legs like sticky tar.
Another punched the ground desperately, cracking the earth, but even then the flas continued to eat away at its body.
Their fiery fur combusted into bursts of embers.
Their roars turned into strained whimpers.
Silvia covered her mouth.
"They... they can’t even scream properly."
"Well, Daniel’s flas, even if low tier, aren’t normal flas,"
Fendrick said, nodding with forced seriousness.
"I can feel the heat from here... ow."
The Fire Apes continued flailing, but the flas only grew stronger, as though feeding on their panic.
One ape slapped the ground repeatedly, trying to roll the fire off its body, but the black flas only crawled faster, swirling around its arms and chest like serpents.
Another tried to run, taking a single staggering step before collapsing as its legs lted away under the heat.
"Geh... gehhh...!"
"Grra...!"
Their voices weakened, fading into crackles.
The sll of burning mana and scorched earth filled the air.
The circle dimd and the flas gradually receded, leaving behind nothing but blackened ground and faint drifting embers.
The apes were gone, there were no ashes, no corpses, nothing left.
Just silence.
I exhaled gently. "Hmm. It worked better than expected."
Silvia blinked. "Daniel... that was a low-tier spell?"
"Technically, yes," I said.
Fendrick threw his hands into the air.
"Then what the hell do your high-tier spells look like!?"
"No, wait, actually don’t answer that. I want to sleep tonight."
I laughed softly.
"Don’t worry. I won’t use them here."
Both of them sighed with relief, though I wasn’t entirely sure why they trusted that promise.
The forest around us slowly returned to peaceful quiet.
A breeze swept through the burnt clearing, brushing against the still-glowing ground.
"Alright," I said, turning back to them.
"Shall we continue?"
Silvia nodded slowly, still shaken.
Fendrick pointed at the scorched earth.
"Next ti, warn us so we can stand farther away!"
I smirked. "Where’s the fun in that?"
I let out a small laugh.
The forest breeze rustled the leaves overhead, carrying with it the sll of burnt soil.
Everything should’ve gone back to normal.
But then...a faint rumble echoed beneath our feet.
Silvia flinched.
"W-What was that?"
Fendrick looked around. "Don’t tell that’s your spell’s aftershock—"
"No," I muttered. "This is sothing else."
The rumble grew louder... followed by multiple guttural growls.
Silvia’s eyes widened. "Do you hear that?"
"Yes I do"
There were dozens of roars and the trees shaking.
Within seconds, the forest ca alive with movent, fast, aggressive, and closing in.
Then the first monster burst into the clearing, a Horned Boar with molten tusks, Rank C.
But it didn’t attack imdiately.
It simply stared at us with bloodshot eyes... trembling... almost foaming at the mouth.
Fendrick’s face drained of color.
"Wh-Why does it look like it’s gone insane?"
Another monster crashed through the brush.
A Stoneback Lizard, Rank D.
Then a Gale Wolf, Rank B.
Then another.
And another.
And then...
The forest floor erupted with the presence of more than three hundred monsters, all squeezing into the surrounding trees, their combined pressure causing the air to tremble.
Silvia’s voice trembled.
"D-Daniel... t-that’s... t-that’s a whole horde..."
Fendrick stumbled backward.
"Why are there so many!? Why are they all acting like that!?"
Their eyes were the sa, wild, unfocused, twitching.
Their bodies tensed as if controlled by sothing unseen.
It’s either they were controlled... or corrupted.
Silvia gripped my sleeve desperately.
"Daniel, we need to run, now!"
"Yeah!" Fendrick yelled.
"We’re not supposed to fight this many! Even B-Rank monsters! There’s three hundred of them!"
The monsters moved unnaturally, jerking, twisting, snarling, drawn toward the scent of battle, or perhaps... the death of the Fire Apes.
Sothing was wrong with this entire region.
"Daniel, PLEASE!" Silvia begged. "Let’s retreat—!"
But I didn’t move.
Instead, I stepped forward.
"Daniel!?" Fendrick shouted. "Have you lost it!?"
"No," I said calmly.
"But sothing here is forcing them. And we don’t have ti to run."
"Besides, you’re asking to run? Nah, running is just not my thing"
Mana surged around , denser than before, swirling in a spiraling vortex.
Leaves lifted from the ground, floating weightlessly in the turbulent air.
Silvia froze. "D-Daniel, what are you doing...?"
"I’m manifesting sothing"
Drawing the image in my mind.
Pure Light, condensed mana, began forming in my palm, not as fla or shadow, but as sothing sharper.
I was trying to make a spear.
The glow intensified until the forest lit up with dazzling radiance, brighter than any torch. Trees cast long shadows.
Monsters staggered, blinded, roaring in agitation.
Fendrick shielded his eyes.
"T-That’s... that’s not a normal spell, right!?"
Silvia whispered, voice trembling with awe and fear, "That’s... seventh tier mana density... H-How!? I’ve seen sothing like that before!"
The spell took shape, the mana solidifying into a long, radiant spear, its edge humming with lethal precision.
[: 7th Tier Spell – Luminous Shatterlance :]
A spear of pure light.
Sharp enough to pierce through mountains.
Bright enough to burn away corruption.
I held it firmly, the radiance swirling around my arm like flowing ribbons.
"Daniel... that’s a SEVENTH TIER SPELL!" Fendrick shouted.
"HOW THE HELL YOU COULD-
"I can," I said simply.
The monsters charged.
All 300 of them.
Trees crashed, earth shook, and the forest seed ready to collapse under their stampede.
Their roars rged into a deafening storm of violence.
Silvia scread, "DANIEL—!!!"
I lifted my arm...
And threw the spear.
The world slowed.
The Luminous Shatterlance streaked through the air like a cot, splitting the shadows of the forest.
The instant it touched the first monster...The spear changed.
*CRACK.*
The spear shattered into hundreds of light fragnts.
*SHHHHHHHFFFFF—BOOM!!!*
They multiplied, again and again.
In a blink, one spear beca more than 300 radiant spears, each locking onto a monster with precision bordering on divine.
"W-What... the... hell..." Fendrick whispered.
The spears screeched through the air like whistling teors.
*PIERCE*
*PIERCE*
*PIERCE*
One by one, monsters were impaled through their skulls, hearts, cores, throats.
Each strike was silent... efficient... absolute.
A Gale Wolf leaped midair, jaws wide and then, a spear punched through its chest.
A Horned Boar charged and another spear pierced through its forehead, dropping it instantly.
A Stoneback Lizard hissed and a spear broke through its armored back effortlessly.
More than three hundred monsters fell like dominoes in a perfectly orchestrated sequence of death.
Silvia stared, frozen.
Fendrick’s mouth hung open.
Light gradually dissipated... leaving behind silence.
A clearing now filled with unmoving bodies.
No survivors.
No groans.
Just stillness.
I lowered my arm slowly.
Not one spear had missed.
Silvia finally breathed out a trembling whisper.
"T-That... that wasn’t magic. That was a massacre."
Fendrick collapsed to his knees. "Y-You’re seriously... insane... Daniel... Seventh Tier... Seventh—!?"
I didn’t answer.
My gaze narrowed as I turned toward the deeper forest.
Sothing pulsed there... sothing foul.
A strange pressure.
A ripple of mana.
The monsters didn’t attack because they wanted to.
They were driven...maybe forcefully.
"We..." I muttered, eyes darkening with unease, "...have to move."
Silvia and Fendrick looked up at .
"Sothing’s not right."
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