Chapter 52

Over 6500 words!

Regarding the earth and wood generating each other in the middle of the last chapter, you don't need to worry about it. Although most search results show water generating wood, I believe everything has two sides. Indeed, wood cannot live without water, but if water floods the plants, the plants will surely die. The relationship between the five elements in nature is not as simple as it seems. For example, earth generates metal, but modern technology can also extract minerals from water. Plants grow in the earth, which is earth, so I believe earth can strengthen wood. Of course, this is just my opinion, and I hope you won't take it too seriously.

"What? Are you sure you're asking me?" Luo Li opened her eyes wide and looked at Cook, uncertainly asking.

"Sir, I don't understand. Does a mage's mana really fill up immediately after advancing?" Cook had to ask again.

"Slap! Are you crazy?" Luo Li tapped Cook's forehead with her fair finger, then asked.

Cook rubbed his forehead, feeling the warmth from Luo Li's finger, and looked at her with innocent eyes, saying, "Sir, I'm here to seek your guidance, aren't I?"

"Hmph, with your talent, it will be a long time before you advance, probably another year or so. But since you asked, I'll tell you what mages need to pay attention to when advancing.

First, your mental power will surge in a short time, and you might feel a slight headache, but don't worry, it's a good sign. Second, your mana will increase with each advancement, and the elements that make up your mana will become purer. Therefore, the space for storing mana will also increase due to the increased mental power. After advancing, the stored mana will drop below a warning level. The space is larger, and some mana will be consumed by mental power during advancement, so you need to meditate to restore your mana to its optimal level. The best sign is when you feel a slight headache, which is the best.

As for what you said about mana being full after advancing, I don't know what you're thinking. Your mana is limited, and even though the space increases after advancing, mana doesn't appear out of nowhere, right?" Luo Li explained carefully, looking at Cook's expression.

"Uh! Thank you, Sir, but could you teach me another wood magic spell? I've memorized the natural healing spell perfectly." Cook hesitated, suppressing his doubts and requested.

"Sigh! You're lucky to have met me. You don't know that I spent five years learning the small flame spell when I was learning magic spells. I don't know much about wood magic, only a few basic ones. There's also a thorn spell that magic apprentices can cast, but it requires thorn seeds. This spell is an auxiliary attack spell that uses mana to grow thorn seeds to entangle enemies. You can control the thorn with your mental power for a short time, and the duration and number of thorns increase with the mage's level. Listen carefully." Luo Li sighed, remembering how much she wanted to learn more magic spells when she was a magic apprentice, but she never achieved her wish.

"Sir, it's quite simple, but I feel this thorn spell can not only grow thorn seeds but also other seeds." Cook practiced a few times with Luo Li and finally learned the spell, but since Luo Li wasn't a wood mage, she could only recite the spell without demonstrating it.

Luo Li, hearing Cook's question, praised him, "Cook, you're smart. This spell actually originated from alchemists who needed to grow magical herbs, so they developed this method. This spell can grow any plant, but there's a drawback: the plants grown by mana are not naturally grown, so their effects are not as good as those grown naturally."

"Oh, I see!" Cook touched his nose, wanting to ask for another magic spell from Luo Li, but he knew that asking again would make Luo Li suspicious.

"Alright, rest for a while. It's still dark outside." Luo Li, seeing Cook deep in thought, instructed.

Cook returned to his room but didn't rest. He had a crazy idea: to steal the dragon egg. This was a technical task, and Cook wanted to plan it carefully, but he didn't think the dragon egg would wait for him. First, he didn't know if the dragon had moved, and second, the egg might hatch in the next few days, which, although unlikely, was still possible.

"Damn!" Cook swung his fist, thinking this was a chance given by heaven. If he didn't seize it, he would regret it later because knowing about it was his destiny.

"Big Mouth, go check if the egg is still there, be careful." Cook whispered.

"But what if the big guy is there?" Big Mouth asked, a bit scared, though not too much. Cook didn't understand what kind of bird Big Mouth was, as Luo Li said dragons could exert a mental pressure on their surroundings, similar to how people would move aside for a bicycle but avoid a large truck honking in the distance.

"Go and check secretly. Don't tell me you're scared!" Cook challenged.

"Who's scared, but what's the reward?" Big Mouth, who had learned a lot of bad habits from Xiao Huai, always asked for a reward. His intelligence had improved significantly with Cook and Xiao Huai, far surpassing Da Hui, who could only say simple words, and Xiao Hui, who hadn't even opened his eyes yet.

"Two gold coins!" Cook said, gritting his teeth.

"Wow! Not one gold coin?" Big Mouth's mouth dropped open, clearly stunned by the two gold coins.

"Yes! Two!" Cook confirmed.

"Alright, two gold coins. Now I have three more gold coins than Xiao Huai, and one more two-gold coin." Big Mouth boasted and flew away.

"Idiot! You have one more three-gold coin and one more two-gold coin, which is just one three-gold coin, isn't it?" Xiao Huai shouted at Big Mouth's back, clearly annoyed.

"Uh!" Cook, hearing this, was speechless.

"But first, I need to figure out why my mana is always full. I'll use this time to practice magic." Cook decided to study why his mana was always full, as finding out would definitely help his plan.

"Natural Healing!" The spell for magic apprentices was short, taking only two seconds. Cook cast it on himself, but unfortunately, it didn't work, and his mana and mental power were consumed.

"Natural Healing!"

"Natural Healing!"

"Natural Healing!"

"Damn! Natural Healing! Ha, finally succeeded once, with a success rate of one in five. Damn, I need to keep trying." Cook kept casting and finally succeeded once, laughing softly.

"Natural Healing!" With the first success, Cook caught the feeling and succeeded again. He cast Natural Healing twenty times, and his mana dropped below the warning level. Cook didn't dare to continue, as he needed to study why his mana was always full.

"But where's the clue? I was meditating, and then my mental power surged..." Cook tried hard to recall the situation.

"Forget it, let's just experiment." Cook thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he decided to experiment.

Cook started meditating, forming the mental net to its original size and began to absorb wood elements with the help of the Magic Eye. He slowly followed the previous situation, muttering, "This is it, this is it, then the mental power surges, huh!"

When Cook poured the remaining mental power in, something strange happened. The net became tightly sealed, like a container. The key was that the container not only contained wood elements but also elements of other types.

"Swallow!" Cook stopped meditating, swallowing hard, his face full of shock and horror.

"Damn! Lucky I experimented once, or I wouldn't have known the mental net had such a flaw." Cook muttered.

"Right, earth elements. I remember now. When the mental power surged, the two elements reacted, and I was knocked out." Cook remembered this because the earth element was impacted by the mental power, which is an extension of the soul, so it was normal for him to remember.

"One is enough, one, damn, this one is hard to catch?" Cook, knowing the reason, immediately started acting, but tragically, catching one earth element was extremely difficult. If the net was tightly woven, it would catch more than one earth element. If it was loose, it wouldn't catch any.

"Damn, damn!" Cook's mental power was almost exhausted, and he had spent two hours without catching a single earth element.

"Damn, my method is wrong. I shouldn't use the net; I should directly use mental power to trap one earth element." Cook realized how foolish it was to use the net to catch one earth element, like using a fishing net to catch a small turtle in a small pond.

"It's you!" Cook used the Magic Eye to lock onto an earth element and surrounded it with mental power. This was possible because of the Magic Eye; otherwise, he couldn't sense the earth element with mental power alone.

"Mental Power Impact!" Cook pulled the unfortunate earth element into his third eye and struck it with mental power.

"Boom!" Despite being prepared, Cook was still dazed by the massive shock, almost fainting.

"Damn! It's like being hit by someone." After a while, Cook felt better, but his head still felt swollen, and his mana was full again.

"Sir, Sir, I discovered a new way to meditate." When his head stopped hurting, Cook quickly found Luo Li. The mental net had a significant flaw, and although the probability was low, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Hehe, I knew the mental net had a significant flaw. It's not too late for you to realize it!" Luo Li looked at Cook and praised him.

"What?" Cook was confused and surprised.

"You need to understand that mental power, although it grabs elements, actually adsorbs them. Before, we aimed at the target with mental power, and your mental net increased the contact area, so it adsorbed more elements. But have you thought about whether the net's contact area is wider than a large net? I only used the mental net once and improved it to a round large net." Luo Li drew a circle in the air with her finger, like a fan.

"Sir, wise, wise!" Cook, realizing Luo Li had already changed, decided not to mention his improvement, which was the same method. Even if mental power surged, the round large net wouldn't pull other elements into the third eye. As for using other elements to react with the elements in his body, Cook couldn't teach Luo Li because she didn't have a Magic Eye to identify the positions of other elements. It wasn't that Cook didn't want to say, but it wouldn't help.

"What was the magic fluctuation I sensed from you? Were you casting a spell?" Luo Li asked curiously.

"Just advanced." Cook said, a bit embarrassed.

"Impossible!" Luo Li stood up, exclaiming.

"It's true. I cast Natural Healing nearly twenty times and realized the mental net doesn't adsorb elements as quickly as the large net, so I came to report to you, Sir." Cook's words were half-true, half-false. Only he knew the truth.

"Try it." Luo Li's exclamation attracted Micky, Constance, and Mike. When they heard Cook could cast spells, not only Luo Li but also Constance didn't believe it. After all, becoming a mage was notoriously difficult, and the profession was known as a noble one.

"Natural Healing!" Cook had no choice but to recite the spell and cast Natural Healing. A green light ball flew out of his hand and entered Micky's body.

"This... this...!"

"Heaven!"

"Freak!"

Three exclamations rang out. Luo Li stuttered, Micky exclaimed "Heaven!", and Constance called Cook a freak. Mike's mouth dropped open, pointing at Cook, clearly too shocked to speak.

"Who tested you? I don't believe you have three times the normal mental power." Luo Li finally said.

"This is in this environment. In a different environment..." Constance was speechless. From the time Cook started learning magic to now, it was less than twenty days, and he had successfully cast a spell. Others took years.

"Sir gave me a wood magic core." Cook quickly explained, knowing that being questioned further would be problematic.

"Still a freak!" Constance looked at Cook and declared.

Hearing this, Cook glared at Constance, muttering, "If I were a freak, you would have suffered a lot."

"It's morning, I need to go hunting. Let's try to return early. I think Sir Melif and the others are worried. I'll bring a rabbit skin sleeping bag in case there's no prey nearby. I might have to go far, but don't worry. I'll leave Xiao Huai and Kaka here and have Big Mouth report back regularly." Cook, feeling the pressure from everyone staring at him, grabbed a sleeping bag and ran out, along with his hunting gear.

"Your family has found a treasure. He can cast spells in less than twenty days. I bet he doesn't even know the spells yet," Constance asked Luo Li, sitting on a rabbit skin blanket.

"Who knew this guy had such good talent? My father didn't plan to have this servant, but because Micky has excellent talent and Cook is familiar with her, my father agreed. Who knew this guy would be so talented?" Luo Li shrugged.

"Uh!" Constance was speechless; it was sheer luck.

"But now I can go on more adventures. A wood healer, just thinking about it is exciting." Luo Li said excitedly.

"Teacher, Cook said he cast over twenty spells, which is much higher than the average for magic apprentices, right?" Micky asked weakly.

"Hehe, his mana is purer, and he uses your meditation method. The average for other magic apprentices is around eight, but with higher purity and mental power, saving mana is normal." Luo Li explained, having found that her mana purity increased after compressing the elements, allowing her to cast more spells than other mages of the same level.

"Oh!" Micky's face darkened, though she told herself Cook's success was good for her, she still felt uncomfortable.

"Micky, don't envy others. Your talent is definitely better than Cook's. You're already a magic apprentice, but this environment is terrible for us. Even I find it hard to cast spells, let alone you. And Cook used a magic core, while my bag was lost. Otherwise, you would have been able to use magic long ago." Luo Li, sensing Micky's thoughts, explained.

"Micky is already a magic apprentice, does that mean she awakened naturally?" Constance, a five-star general, immediately exclaimed upon hearing this.

"Um!" Luo Li nodded proudly.

Constance was speechless. Natural awakening was rare, especially for mages. Those who did were powerful, and she didn't expect two such individuals in this group. Luo Li, a twenty-year-old mage, was also considered a freak.

Actually, Constance was also considered a freak by others. If they knew Mike wasn't a wind mage but a mentalist, they would be even more shocked. This was a group of freaks.

"Big Mouth, how's it going?" Cook asked Big Mouth as soon as he left the cave.

"The big guy isn't there. He hasn't returned since yesterday, and the egg is still there." Big Mouth told Cook.

"Good, Big Mouth, fly higher and see which way is easier to go. We need to get there quickly!" Cook decided, taking out the magic core Luo Li gave him and tying it tightly to his navel. This was his confidence.

Cook estimated the height to be about 6000 meters. If he used full combat qi, it would take only an hour, but considering it was a snowy mountain and uphill, he decided to take three hours. He chose a route and used combat qi accordingly. He only took a sleeping bag, leaving other supplies in a hidden place. He was fully wrapped in rabbit skin, making him hard to see from above in the snow.

"The damn griffin riders and the Crescent Moon Knights have chased us for nearly a thousand kilometers. Fortunately, I split the forces and sent Sir Melif and his wife away through another route after the heist." The leader of the Black Riders, in the forest, looked at the nearby griffin riders and the distant horns, angrily hitting a tree.

"Leader, the Crescent Moon Knights have nearly a thousand men. We only have a hundred, with a squad left behind and two squads split off, leaving us with about half the men. Even so, we're not afraid of them, but those damn griffins are level five monsters, while our magic wolves are only level four. The magic wolves have no desire to fight, and this mountainous area takes a day for them to travel, while the griffin riders only need a few minutes. We can't shake them off." The deputy leader was also speechless. They never expected Sir Melif to have two level five wind swordsmen and two level five wind wolves. If not for the night attack with magic wolves, they wouldn't have captured Sir Melif and his wife in time. The two wind swordsmen, despite the loss of eleven Black Riders, were heavily injured. The Black Riders were mostly level four, and the wind swordsmen were too agile and fast.

"Let's go. We don't believe we can't get out. During the day, we'll keep our speed moderate to conserve energy. At night, we'll use the griffin riders' inability to come out and break out of their reconnaissance range." The leader of the Black Riders thought for a moment and said.

"That's impossible. The griffin riders' reconnaissance range in these mountains..." The deputy leader looked at the surroundings and said weakly.

"Idiot, where are we?" The leader of the Black Riders asked angrily.

"Angus Mountains...! Ah! Leader, you're not planning to go up, are you?" The deputy leader exclaimed, pointing upwards.

"Hehe, who said we're going up? We're just taking a detour. Once we shake off the griffin riders, the Crescent Moon Knights won't be able to catch us." The leader of the Black Riders drew an arc in the air.

"Leader, wise!" The deputy leader, thinking it made sense, flattered.

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