The Water Arrow Technique and Water Shield Technique are the only two magics Duke can rely on now. The level of these two spells is very important.
If it were on land, the remaining one month would definitely not be enough to grind these two skills to full level.
He is only a Level 3 Wizard Apprentice now, and the Magic Power in his body is too little.
Even if he uses up all his Magic Power every day, it’s impossible to grind these two skills to full level before the assessment.
However, if he’s in the water, the Magic Power consumed when Duke casts spells will be reduced a lot, giving him hope of grinding to full level before the assessment.
After entering the sea, Duke released Water Arrow Technique and Water Shield Technique while searching for Deep Sea Magical Beasts that could be hunted.
During this period, he also purchased a piece of information that recorded some common types of Deep Sea Magical Beasts and provided a simple description of their strengths.
Duke firmly remembered this information in his mind. In fact, he had already seen many Deep Sea Magical Beasts before, just that he didn’t know their names and strengths until now.
For example, the spider that weaves a web underwater is actually a beast called the Deep Sea Earth Spider, with considerable strength.
Generally, it takes a Level 2 Wizard Apprentice to take down such a beast with relative ease.
The Deep Sea Earth Spider is entirely composed of treasures; its compound eyes and spider legs are excellent Magic Potion Materials, appearing in many magic potion recipes.
Especially the threads of the Deep Sea Earth Spider, which are excellent Alchemy Materials.
Its threads have high flexibility, are very durable, and can carry Magic Power, with good compatibility with Magic Power.
A complete Deep Sea Earth Spider can at least be sold for fifteen Level 1 Magic Stones, which is a full one thousand five hundred sublevel magic stones.
Deep Sea Earth Spiders are generally located on the seafloor, making them troublesome to capture and being solitary creatures, they are sparsely distributed and not easy to find.
Duke’s encounter with one was actually quite lucky.
However, he didn’t let the thought of fifteen Level 1 Magic Stones cloud his judgment, maintaining a very realistic view of himself.
Duke assessed his own strength and felt that if he fought the Deep Sea Earth Spider, at best, it would be a fifty-fifty outcome.
Even if he could take down this beast, he would likely get injured, and it’s not necessary to take such a risk.
It’s not stable enough to hunt that spider now. He plans to wait until he has advanced to a Level 2 Wizard Apprentice before trying.
Duke marked the location of the Earth Spider on his self-drawn map, along with the locations of other encountered Deep Sea Magical Beasts.
The waters near Academy Island are relatively stable environments, so the activity range of these beasts generally doesn’t change much.
Duke secretly observed several times, and the Deep Sea Earth Spider was always quietly pretending to be a rock on the seafloor, never leaving.
The map he drew is becoming more detailed and is already much more comprehensive than those purchased from merchants.
Duke is not planning to sell this information. To him, these are riches to be utilized in the future, just waiting there for now.
He is currently only capturing and slaughtering some of the weaker Deep Sea Magical Beasts in exchange for magic stones.
Once he accumulates enough magic stones, he plans to buy one or two Demonized Items.
...
Twenty days later.
Duke was floating in the seawater; the Skill Tree in his mind had changed. The branches representing Water Arrow Technique and Water Shield Technique were now bearing two fully ripened fruits.
"Too bad they didn’t fall." Duke had figured out the rules of the Skill Tree: if the fruit remains on the tree after the skill reaches full level, at most, you get one trait.
Only when the fruit ripens and falls from the Skill Tree can you gain a talent ability.
It was evident that talent abilities are exceedingly rare; currently, he only has one talent of High-Level Water Element Affinity.
[Water Arrow Technique level increased, Spiritual Power +0.3, free attribute points +1]
[Water Shield Technique level increased, Spiritual Power +0.3, free attribute points +1]
[Water Arrow Technique: LV5 (Trait: Corrosion)]
[Water Shield Technique: LV5 (Trait: Energy Absorption)]
[Corrosion: When using Water Arrow Technique, it will carry a corrosive effect]
[Energy Absorption: When using Water Shield Technique, Water Shield can absorb a certain amount of energy attack]
Duke grinded both Water Arrow Technique and Water Shield Technique to full level, obtaining a trait for each.
He first tried the Water Arrow Technique. Now the Water Arrow Technique was no longer purely blue but had elements of black and green.
Black and green blended together to form a dark green arrow.
With a thought, he controlled this Water Arrow to hit a stone on the seafloor in the distance.
The stone exploded, shattering into countless fragments, while some stones had dark green liquid clinging to them, smoking and sizzling.
Duke floated over to check it out; the Water Arrow now inherently carried a strong corrosive nature.
After the Water Arrow hit the stone and exploded, this liquid also adhered to the stone, continuously corroding it.
Soon, some small stones were eroded significantly, leaving many small holes on the stone fragments, like tofu dregs.
The corrosive trait directly boosted the destructive power of the Water Arrow Technique by a level. If it could corrode stones like this, the result on flesh would be imaginable.
Duke could imagine if someone accidentally got hit by his Water Arrow Technique, even if just grazed, the opponent would be in trouble.
Once stained with this stuff, flesh would surely be eroded into a big pit, and such pain isn’t something that everyone can endure.
Duke then tried the Water Shield Technique, which now had the trait of Energy Absorption, able to absorb part of the energy.
He tried hitting his own Water Shield Technique with Water Arrow Technique.
Originally, the strength of Water Arrow Technique and Water Shield Technique should be similar; a Water Shield could at most block two Water Arrows before dissipating.
But now, with the Energy Absorption trait, the effect of Water Arrow Technique was greatly reduced; even the corrosive energy would be partially absorbed by the Water Shield.
Now a Water Shield can block about three Water Arrows.
After testing the effects of the two spells, Duke had a greater understanding in his heart.
In fact, his greatest gain wasn’t these two traits.
Instead, it’s the large influx of knowledge that accompanied the upgrade of these two spells into his mind.
This knowledge includes a lot about Water Arrow Technique and Water Shield Technique’s improvement and optimization, very comprehensive, starting from the basic Water Arrow Technique, covering things like Magic Power guidance route in spells, Magic Model optimization, etc.
At this point, Duke had a deeper understanding of the Skill Tree’s incredible nature. The experiences and knowledge others need years of study and experimentation to acquire, he just needed to repeat simple actions and grind the skills to upgrade to obtain.
Most of the knowledge is still interrelated; different academic fields complement each other.