Chapter 14: Encountering Danger

Little William, keep up the good work, don't be lazy!

Not far away, Xierna and the listless Finley sat in the shade of a big tree, sipping tea and eating pastries, while Xierna from time to time cheered on William, who was practicing the low-level magic Fireball.

No matter how you look at it, it's you, the master, who's being lazy!

William complained inwardly, his magic power surged, he quickly constructed a magic rune and cast Fireball forward, but the magic rune collapsed the moment it was cast, and the Fireball could not form in his palm at all.

After practicing more than a dozen times, William's magic power was finally exhausted; he walked over, panting, to sit down heavily beside Xierna and Finley.

Would you like some snacks to replenish your strength? Xierna offered the pastry and asked.

Thank you. William took the pastry, eating as he said, "This Fireball magic is really hard."

Xierna said, "After all, William, you're worst at emission-type magic."

William said, "I say, you wouldn't be teaching me emission-type magic on behalf of the Integrity Sect, would you?"

Xierna laughed, "How could that be!"

After a while, William asked, "Xierna... sis, can you tell me any tips for emission-type magic?"

Xierna beamed, "Well, when you extend your hand to release a Fireball, don't always think about shooting the magic power out all at once; instead, imagine the magic power gathering in your palm, wait until the magic power in your palm is so much you can't hold it any longer, then toss it out like throwing a stone with a 'pop'!"

"'Pop'..." William was somewhat speechless, what kind of metaphor is this.

The usually quiet Finley weakly nodded and said, "That's right."

"......"

William really wanted to ask how Xierna and Finley communicated, wondering if his language study was off? He said, "By the way, Uncle Finley, why are you here today?"

"Ah..." Finley sighed, and then had nothing more to say.

Fortunately, Xierna explained, "Finley's profession is archer, which has little overlap with your swordsman abilities; what he can teach you belongs to scouting abilities, taking up little time, plus I'm teaching you pure emission-type magic Fireball today, so the two of us teaching you together for half a day is enough."

"I see." William thought of the time and direction of the goblin attack half a year later, which he didn't know, and continued asking:

"If many enemies will attack Bigen Village, but the timing and location of their attack are uncertain, is there any way to scout?"

Finley thought a bit, weakly said, "Probably... traps..."

This time, before William could ask a question, Xierna explained, "Finley probably means setting up traps in advance in all directions around the village, so when enemies appear we can detect them beforehand, right?"

Finley nodded.

Xierna understood Finley's dislike of speaking and continued to explain for him, "Traps are a type of trigger magic, divided into scouting traps and attack traps; if many enemies attack, by laying large numbers of these two kinds of traps in advance, not only can we detect them immediately when they attack, but we can also inflict heavy damage, forcing the enemies to slow down to deal with the traps, thereby gaining a lot of time for defense."

William's eyes lit up; traps are absolutely the skill he most needs to master now, so he asked, "Please teach me how to make traps!"

"Materials... magic beasts..." Finley said weakly.

Xierna helped explain, "Finley says each trap's crafting method requires different materials, some of which include parts from magic beasts' bodies; William, which traps do you want to learn?"

Truly worthy of teammates!

William was impressed that Xierna could understand Finley's meaning.

Then he listed the types of traps he wanted to learn one by one, and Finley, through Xierna, answered each one for William.

Since complex traps were still beyond William's reach for now, Finley first taught him one low-level scouting trap and one low-level damage trap each, and the materials needed for these two traps are relatively common in the outskirts of the Magic Forest.

Thus, William fully formulated his training plan for the next six months.

Each morning he does half a day of martial arts and magic practice; in the afternoon he goes to the outskirts of the Magic Forest to hunt slimes and collect trap materials incidentally.

The reason for hunting slimes is twofold: first, he needs magic beasts' crystal cores as magic power storage devices for traps; second, slimes are level 1 to 10, which for William now provides combat training without too much risk.

"You mean that kid William has recently been hunting slimes on the outskirts of the Magic Forest?" Bulande asked.

The few boys nearby nodded and replied, "Yeah, we've seen William hunting slimes by himself more than once, and sometimes we see members of the White Eagle Squad accompanying him; I heard my dad say the White Shadow Squad are all silver-rank adventurers!"

"That's right, and I've heard that William alone can hunt dozens of slimes in a day." Another boy said.

Upon hearing this, Bulande clenched his fists, gritted his teeth inwardly and said, "Damn, this guy William already dares to go hunt magic beasts in the Magic Forest by himself—how far behind will I fall? No way, I'm going to the Magic Forest to hunt slimes too!"

After saying that, Bulande put down his practice wooden sword, strapped on the iron sword his father Old Bulande had just commissioned from the best blacksmith in town, and told the boys, "Come on, let's all go home, grab our iron swords, and we'll go hunt slimes in the Magic Forest!"

"Big brother Bulande, are we really going? That's the Magic Forest—who knows what powerful magic beasts we might encounter." The boys looked uneasy and hesitated, saying.

"Are you scared?" Bulande asked.

The boys said nothing, which counted as assent.

Bulande snapped, "That kid William isn't afraid at all—do you think you're not as good as him? And with me here, if we run into a powerful magic beast, you just run first."

"Whoosh!"

A sword light flashed, and William sliced a slime in half with Sword Strike; since the slime's body is liquid, after death it turned into a puddle of water that seeped into the soil, leaving only a faintly glowing level-1 magic core.

A month had passed since he began studying martial arts and magic; not to mention the pure emission-type magic Fireball, he hadn't even managed to learn the half-emission-type martial art Sword Strike Slash.

On the contrary, Geilan, who was teaching William intermediate martial arts, was the least anxious, constantly advising William to take it slow.

William sighed, picked up the magic core, and placed it into the cloth bag hanging at his waist.

"Help! Come save me!"

Suddenly, he heard cries for help from not far away; the voice sounded somewhat familiar, like the shouts of the boys who usually hang around Bulande.

William didn't think twice, sprinting toward the sound; sure enough, not long after running he saw several boys from the same village, stepped forward to block them and asked, "What's happening? Why are you calling for help?"

Upon seeing William, the boys, despite their usual poor relationship with him, hurriedly cried, "It's Big Brother Bulande; he stayed to save us and got trapped by a magic beast, wuu..."

Upon hearing that Bulande was trapped by a magic beast, William immediately said, "Tell me the direction; I'll go rescue Bulande first, you hurry back to the village to get my dad or other members of the White Shadow Squad to help!"

"Over there!" The boys, now heeding William's words, pointed in the direction and said.

"【Strengthening】."

William didn't waste words, immediately sprinting faster toward the direction the kids pointed.