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. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novęlfire.net
-Developed a new magic spell: +1 Potential Points
-New Spell: Nature's Aid
The Earth wall was going down, so William raised a fire wall in its place. The wall covered a much smaller area compared to when William was chased, so the Flames were much more powerful. The timing was perfect, as the Wind Wolf had just broken down the Earth barrier to run through the Flame Wall.
Its face entered first, and it howled in pain. The Wind Wolf was blinded by the fire and thrashed out in every direction to ward off any attackers. William threw a second fireball to cause some more damage, then let Torc finish off the creature.
Even though William didn't get the final hit on these creatures, just doing some damage seemed to be enough to consider it an assist. Both Wind Wolves gave 2 Potential Points, meaning William now had enough to upgrade his talents.
Torc spoke up, "Good work team. I didn't expect you to actually be useful, William, but you surprised me. Hahaha, you're quite strong for a non-Cultivator!"
Torc's companion with the Fire Element, Ray, looked over. "How is your Fire Element so strong? I am Qi Refinement 8, but your fire still beats mine." there was a change in his eyes, but William didn't know what it meant.
"My Fire Affinity is E Rank, so of course it will be stronger than yours." he replied. It was better to downplay his talents in case one of the Adventurers wanted to fight.
Ray was jealous. A non-Cultivator with greater strength than any Qi Refinement Realm Cultivators..what would happen if William started Cultivating? Something seemed off about how Will responded though. The boy must be hiding something. Maybe there's a secret artifact that's improving his strength.
Ray quickly made a decision. "Well since those two Wind Wolves were killed, we've completed the Quest. There's still a lot of time, it'd be a waste not to continue."
William noticed the change in Ray's attitude. "Sure, but how are we going to get these bodies back? We also need some rest to recover our Mana." he was looking for ways to prevent the group from staying too long. It was already quite dangerous in the Livingwood Forest since the Life Veins were absorbed.
"This might solve your first concern," Torc pulled the Wind Wolves' bodies into a Space Ring. "We can camp out for around an hour before moving further if you'd like. I think the Inner Ring is relatively safe today, maybe we will find some Life Ore." he opened his ring a second time to pull out a large camping tent enough to hold four people.
William saw the gesture, but shook his head. "I can use my own methods, I'll keep watch while we recover." he used Flame Blade to quickly scale a tree.
Torc was surprised with William's spell, "You seem to be full of surprises young lad. Alright, let us know if you see anything."
William used his Flame Blade to climb much higher than before. He wanted to increase the distance between the group as much as possible to prevent anyone from seeing what he was about to do.
Near the top of the tree, William opened his System panel.
System, upgrade my Fire Affinity.
--Upgrading Fire Talent--
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.
Fire Magic: (B --> A)
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