Chapter 24: Torc Adventurer Group, System Upgrade!

Chapter 24: Torc Adventurer Group, System Upgrade!

The battle continued. Torc noticed William's gaze and switched to the offensive. He slashed apart a small rock with the first shortsword, then followed up by piercing a fireball with the second. He ran forward at a speed beyond humanly possible and cut off the head of the first Cultivator.

With only one opponent left, it wasn't even ten seconds before the battle was over. The two dead Cultivators' bodies were pulled back together by a complex array and healed completely.

This appalled William, but he knew there was still much to learn about the world. Arrays could do everything if you were good enough in this world, or so it seems. Maybe I should learn Arrays..

Torc approached William with a goofy smile. "How'd I do? Think you can keep up with us on the hunt?"

William had never watched someone fight with shortswords before, but he didn't want to admit his inexperience. "It was a good fight. Your companions seem to have the Earth and Fire Element?"

"Holt uses the Lightning Element as well." Torc pointed to the Adventurer whose head was previously cut off. Holt was now standing just inside the Array, becoming accustomed to his recovered body.

"Dual Elements, very nice." William complimented the group for their spar, "I'm here a few days early. Are you all prepared to fight a Wind Wolf today?"

"Today? What's the rush now? Our previous agreement was another two days from now."

"I completed my preparations early, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for us. Of course, if this doesn't work for you we can always stick to the previous plan."

"I think we're ready now."

"Alright then, let's go." William exited the Guild Hall with the trio and they returned to the Livingwood Forest.

Besides the central parts of the forest, William now knew the area like the back of his hand. With his guidance, the group was able to easily locate a region with Wind Wolves.

Unfortunately, there were no longer individual Wind Wolves in the Livingwood Forest. They settled on a group of two Wind Wolves. William threw a regular fireball to lure one over, then Torc did his best to severely injure it before the second one noticed.

The plan worked perfectly. The first Wind Wolf sustained heavy injuries from Torc's shortswords. The second was alarmed and rushed at the Cultivators, but was stopped by a wall of Earth. It roared with fury as it quickly shredded through the wall.

The second Wind Wolf was even more enraged when it found that its companion was already dead. It ran at Torc without abandon and slashed at his shoulder with its sharp claws.

Torc was heavily injured, but managed to respond with a few slashes on the Wind Wolf. Another Earth wall was raised between Torc and the Wind Wolf, while William used the Life Element to heal Torc. Instead of using his own Mana this time, William tried using some of the Forest's energy. He was successful in greatly reducing his mana expenditure, but it took a few seconds longer to heal Torc.

The heat from before returned, in even greater intensity than before. William used Nature's Aid to heal himself continuously while enduring the pain of the upgrade. His skin cracked and healed in a cycle, and William's lips became chapped.

His feet started heating up more than the rest of his body, and William had to contribute a lot of his own Mana to keep up with the fire damage to prevent his feet from spontaneously combusting. William jumped from branch to branch, trying to prevent his tree from catching fire or melting.

The trees near William were in a sorry state. William drew the vitality from all the trees in a 50 meters radius to survive, which turned this region of the forest into a vitality wasteland. Even if the Adventurers weren't paying attention to William and didn't have the Life Element, the change in a short amount of time was obvious.

Without the assistance of the Life Element, William would have definitely died on this upgrade, which continued for an hour. He expected this upgrade to take longer, but was pleasantly surprised to find he wouldn't need to make an excuse to Torc later.

———

TALENT UPGRADED

Fire Magic: (B --> A)

Next rank up: 1000PP

POTENTIAL POINTS: 0

SYSTEM RANK: F (Upgrade Available!)

--DETECTED SYSTEM UPGRADE--

--UPGRADING. PLEASE WAIT--

...

...

--UPGRADE SUCCESSFUL--

SYSTEM RANK: (F --> F+)

-223 Extra Potential Points added to progression towards the next System Rankup

Next rank up: 777PP