Chapter 9
Class began before I knew it.
This was a disaster I'd brought on myself, so I couldn't blame anyone.
└OuchCold: Still, the timing worked out well.
└OuchCold: I can't teach you illegal magic, after all.
└AngryArtist: Why can't a fire mage use crowd control?
└Water Spirit: Like what?
└AngryArtist: Put a fire field under their feet and make them tap-dance, going hot, hot!
└OuchCold: What kind of nonsense is that lol
└FireMage: Just turn them to ash. That's a permanent stun.
The lecture started with the Great Wizards trading jokes.
Do they enjoy teaching me that much?
└Ice Bat: Today's magic lesson is crowd control.
└Ice Bat: It's going to be much harder than anything you've learned so far.
└Hikki: I guess so?
└Ice Bat: At your level.
└Hikki: Wait....
Tsk.
I mean, I can't argue.
I've only been a beginner for a week, after all.
└Ice Bat: You might find it hard to go from just using Fireball to learning an advanced technique all of a sudden.
└Ice Bat: But it can't be helped, right?
└Ice Bat: First, do you know what kinds of crowd control spells there are?
└Hikki: Um... Stun, bind, slow, blind. Uh... Airborne?
I rattled off a list of abilities I'd used in games.
It was practically cheating, but...
Ice Bat seemed to like it.
└Ice Bat: You have the general idea.
└Ice Bat: Each element specializes in a different kind of crowd control.
└Ice Bat: For us, it's slowing or freezing; lightning does stun, and wood does binding.
└Ice Bat: Freezing them solid would be the most reliable, but it's a little too soon for you to learn that.
For that reason,
Ice Bat taught me how to use a slowing spell.
└Ice Bat: Do you understand how to control mana?
└Hikki: Uhhh…….
It was a different way of handling mana from Ice Ball.
A more complicated method was involved.
The time it took to cool the mana, how to adjust its temperature, and the path it took through my organs—
Everything had to be more precise.
No wonder they called it advanced magic.
It felt like going from addition straight to factoring.
Complicated.
My head hurts.
└Hikki: Bwooo…
└Ice Bat: What are you saying?
└Ice Bat: Next, you have to designate a target.
└Ice Bat: Will you target a single enemy, or designate a wide area?
└Ice Bat: It's one or the other, but you use it depending on the situation. Easy, right?
Focus mana on one target,
and you can inflict a stronger slowing effect.
Or, at the cost of weakening the effect,
you can apply AoE CC to multiple targets.
Thanks to my years of gaming experience, I understood it easily.
An AoE stun with a long duration would be way too OP. Mm-hmm.
└Ice Bat: Single-target spells are easy. You just need to make a few tweaks to Ice Ball.
└Ice Bat: The problem is area-of-effect spells.
└Ice Bat: You have to send mana flowing into the ground.
└Ice Bat: It won't feel familiar.
└HorsesAreForRiding: Learn it well. It's a commonly used method.
└AngryArtist: This is the foundation of ground-targeted magic. Make sure you learn it.
The teachers around me chimed in one by one.
It must be that important.
I tried my best to pay attention in class.
I mean, I did try.
└Ice Bat: Well, at least you're getting to the point where you're not painful to watch.
└Hikki: Heeheehee
└Ice Bat: Why are you laughing? I said you're not painful to watch, not that you're good.
Thanks to that, I finally managed to use crowd control magic at a barely passable level.
It took me sinking my entire weekend into it.
And just like that, my days off flew by.
It was time to climb Floor 6.
My feeble plea to practice a little more didn't work this time either.
“Honestly. Do you want me to live or die?”
They say all wizards are weird, and it's true.
“Right, Moo-sang?”
Wung-wung-
“You're the only one who understands me, huh?”
Wung-wuuung-
Yeah, yeah. I'll do my best, too.
All right, let's go!
[Entering Tower Floor 6.]
[Floor 6 Objective: Defeat 1 Dire Wolf.]
[Hell difficulty adjustment.]
[The Dire Wolf becomes even more agile.]
I landed on Floor 6 as the status window messages appeared.
A cool breeze greeted me.
Ah! This breeze feels so nice!
“Right, Moo-sang?”
Wung-wung-
The forest had been so packed with trees that it felt stuffy, but
it was refreshing to be out in the open.
I could almost forget this was a battlefield.
Sometimes, maybe I should leave the house and go for a little walk—
“Urk!”
No... maybe going outside wasn't a good idea.
I'll settle for getting some fresh air in the Tower.
“Let's start recording.”
After moving the status window near my forehead,
I started filming.
─└Ice Bat: This time, try recording the fight, too.
─└Ice Bat: I want to watch it and give you some feedback.
I wasn't thrilled about Ice Bat's request.
Wouldn't my private fight scene be revealed to the whole world?
It was a little embarrassing.
‘Still, I have to if I want to improve faster….’
Better to be embarrassed than dead.
“Let's go, Moo-sang.”
Once I was all set, I set off.
Following the route I'd seen in the guide,
I soon reached the familiar spot.
It was the place I'd seen from the viewpoint of Nico, the mage Hunter who'd picked the wrong skill.
There really is a wolf.
A wolf was visible in the distance, below a gentle hill.
Haaaawn-
It lay in the grass, yawning heartily.
Looking at it like this, it's kind of cute?
Could I keep it?
There were tamers in the gallery, too.
If I learned taming magic, could I tame a monster?
I imagined raising it at my house.
─ CRUNCH
The bed gets destroyed,
─ Awoooooo-
it howls all night,
─ Young man! Come out here! What are you raising in there?!
and the landlord comes over….
“Eek…!”
Sorry, wolf. I don't think I can raise you.
So you'll have to die.
“No, that's not what I meant.”
It makes me sad, too, that the opposite of “can't raise” is “kill.”
But I can't help it.
“Moo-sang, ready?”
Wung!
Yeah!
Sssssss-
I circulated mana through my body.
The battle plan was simple.
Bind the wolf,
then beat it up.
What I needed to bind the wolf was crowd control.
Specifically, a single-target spell.
I'd need to focus my power to ensnare such a powerful wolf.
After drawing mana up using the new method,
I sent it through my arm and out through the staff.
Srrr-
Instead of an Ice Ball, a translucent thread of mana wafted out.
This thin thread held a chill that seemed capable of freezing all things.
If I could just lodge it in the wolf, its movements would slow dramatically.
Srrrrrr-
I sharpened the tip like a needle,
then stretched the thread as thin as possible.
So it could reach all the way over there.
A strand of mana like hand-pulled noodles stretched thin.
It took ages to stretch out, just like pulling noodles by hand.
‘Will this get faster with time, too?’
I had to hope so.
When it had reached a sufficient distance,
“Go!”
Pew-!
I sent the thread and needle flying at the wolf!
“Did it work?!”
But—
Pabat-
just as the needle tip was about to reach it,
the wolf spun around, evading the mana.
“It's way faster than it looked in the video…!”
Was it because of the increased agility?
The Dire Wolf moved too fast for my eyes to follow.
“Awoooooo─”
The wolf's hair-raising howl.
Then it turned toward me.
My surprise attack had failed. It had even spotted my position.
Padding-
The wolf looked ready to charge at any moment.
“Huuuu…. Moo-sang, Plan A failed.”
But I have a Plan B.
Swoooooong─
Mana flowed from my solar plexus to my kidneys, through my arm and staff, then back down to my feet.
This time, I poured mana out roughly.
Enough that I could almost hear it gushing out—
enough to make me dizzy.
“Moo-sang, help me.”
Wung….
You're trying your best?
It might be stupid to expect anything from a useless thing with Mana Support +0,
but it understood how I felt, so that was good enough.
A wide pool, a spring of mana, formed beneath my feet.
Srrr-
I moved it all at once
and placed it in the path between the wolf and me.
Now that mana spring would turn into a huge sheet of magical ice.
The moment it stepped onto it,
its body would slow while its legs slid endlessly.
In other words, it wouldn't be able to control its body properly.
“Grrrrr─!”
Pabat!
The wolf started running.
Come on, then…!
“Icy Road.”
Crick-crack-!
The mana spring froze over in an instant.
To the wolf, it must have looked like an ice rink had suddenly appeared on the prairie.
“Yip?”
It was confused.
It hurried to stop running, but—
Wobble-!
it had already stepped onto the ice.
The wolf's four legs slipped wildly.
‘Got it!’
Its speed dropped sharply.
At this distance and speed, I could hit it with an Ice Ball—
“Huh?”
Brrr-ba-ba-bat-
The Dire Wolf regained its balance and started speeding up again.
‘What?! Is it insane?’
Its athleticism was unbelievable.
The wolf escaped the ice.
The distance that had been ideal for throwing an Ice Ball
became the perfect distance for it to attack me.
‘What do I do?’
Wuuuuung-
Moo-sang, I know I'm in trouble, too…!
No, stay calm.
I have to stay calm!
First, I should make another mana spring.
And think at the same time.
Hmm.
It's freaking fast, and has great balance.
It'll dodge most spells.
Should I make a ton of magic balls and create a barrage?
I've never tried that before.
If I missed even once, I'd be done for.
I only had one chance.
I had to create a situation where I was guaranteed to succeed.
The one thing I knew for sure was that I had to stop the wolf's feet. But how? Even if I knocked all four legs out from under it, it regained its balance right away.
It was athletic enough to move all four legs freely even on ice.
Hmm? Balance? Four legs?
-That line of thought came together in a split second.
Maybe the urgency had gotten my mind racing?
Either way, I thought I'd found the answer.
Srrrrrr-
The small mana spring I'd been making again
I released it just as it was.
“Grrr-”
The Dire Wolf had come within close range.
I laid ice in front of it.
This time, it was much smaller.
Just big enough to catch half its body.
Slip-
The wolf stepped onto the ice.
Its two right legs buckled again.
It tried to regain its balance as if it were used to this,
“Yip?!”
but its left-side legs, which weren't on the ice, threw it off balance.
KABOOM-!
Its acceleration and braking turned chaotic, and its body pitched forward.
“Now!”
I didn't miss my chance and fired an Ice Ball.
[Floor 6 cleared.]
I didn't make the same mistake twice.
“Good work.”
I gently stroked the staff.
Wuuung, wuuung-
It vibrated happily.
Holding Moo-sang close, I checked the results of my run.
[2480 points]
[Korean Hunter Ranking: 1st!]
[Global Hunter Ranking: 2nd!]
Huh, second place?
Well,
compared to ABC's run, mine had been clumsy and crude.
It couldn't be helped.
As I was thinking that and reading the notification messages,
another notification arrived.
[Hell Difficulty Bonus]
[A 1.5x multiplier has been applied to your score.]
[3720 points]
[Global Hunter Ranking: 1st!]
There was a Hell difficulty bonus?
[First SSS-rank clear of Floor 6!]
[1 additional Piece of Growth has been awarded.]
[Hell Difficulty Clear Bonus]
[1 additional Piece of Growth has been awarded.]
Oh….
The usual stage clear reward,
followed by the SSS-rank reward,
and now the Hell difficulty clear reward, too.
Three Pieces of Growth from one floor.
I'd now be growing three times faster than everyone else.
“That's insane…. Right, Moo-sang?”
Wung-
“If you grow stronger too, Moo-sang, I'll get even stronger.”
Wuuung?
Don't rush it?
You'll get stronger when the time is right?
Honestly, you're quite the smooth talker.