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Volume 8 Chapter 2 Part 1

Translator: Kell

“Ether Hack—Fire Bomb!”

First, I unleashed a Fire Bomb that had its property modified by Ether Hack. A simple power boost.

In exchange for the boost, mana efficiency becomes worse, and there’s even a cooldown now, which a normal Fire Bomb doesn’t have. It may as well be a different kind of magic. In the face of the clearly unusual fireball, the enemy chanted a spell.

“Ether Wall.”

A glowing white wall appeared between me and the enemy. My Fire Bomb hit the wall and exploded, but it didn’t budge even an inch.

I see. A combination of Ether Cannon and Ether Wall. Smart.

Ether Wall. As the name suggests, it’s a magic spell that deploys a wall to protect you. It is rare among the Skills gained by Awakening in that it specializes solely in defense.

Since it requires a valuable resource to awaken, yet is only used for defense, it has something that other defensive spells don’t have. It has instant cast-time, it’s several times stronger than the best defensive spell there is (which takes almost a minute to cast), and it blocks all magic that inflicts status effects, making it one of the best defensive Skills out there… This spell only blocks the enemy’s offensive magic. The barrier itself is dozens of meters long, so there is no need to move it even if the enemy moves. Out of all the defensive spells, only Ether Wall has all these properties.

Ether Wall blocks enemy attacks while allowing your own magic and that of your allies to pass through as if there was nothing there. The synergy between this spell and Ether Cannon is way too good. If the enemy tries to counterattack, you can block all of their attacks and continue to fire your magic from a safe distance. If they can’t close the distance, you’re basically invincible.

But considering the distance between us, they cast it awfully. Among the three enemies, one of them—I don’t know what his abilities are; he didn’t cast either Ether Cannon or Ether Wall—had taken up a position some distance away. Maybe it had something to do with the Awakened Skills. He was about ten meters off from the center of the barrier, and even further away from the barrier itself, by several meters.

“Steam Explosion.”

I cast Steam Explosion, aiming for the edge of the barrier, not straight at the enemy. A booming explosion rocked the place, and the shock wave that was produced wrapped around from the other side of the barrier. The enemy was caught in the blast and blown away before they even had time to cry out.

You don’t have to land a direct hit with an explosion-type spell. You can make use of the blastwave instead. It’s difficult to make it go around right behind the barrier, but if they’re several meters away from it, it’s not so difficult to land the blast.

My current strategy worked because Steam Explosion is not really known in this world. Since knowledge of high-powered explosion spells is not common, there’s not much tactics to counter them.

Now there were only two enemies left. Since I already know what Skills they have, I just have to figure out how to beat them. I already have a plan, though.

“Steam Explosion.”

Dual Cast.

For now, I used Dual Cast and recast Steam Explosion. This is more like to keep the enemy in check, nothing much. A second Steam Explosion won’t break the Ether Wall, and it won’t affect the enemy beyond getting hit by a temporary gust of wind, but it’s better than nothing.

Normally, chanting is not necessary when a Sage casts a spell, but I recited the second Steam Explosion out loud.

It’s usually better to chant regularly, so you can catch the opponent off-guard by casting a spell without incantation. A basic rule of warfare is to keep all the cards you can play.

While the smoke from the blast was blocking their vision, I cast my next magic.

“Search Jamming.”

Mana Invisibility.

As the name suggests, this spell is designed to counter detection magic. But it can’t really completely erase my presence.

It’s a spell to reduce the accuracy of detection by creating an abnormal reflection of mana, making it impossible to determine my exact location. It’s not as powerful as Sight Distortion or Shadow Fog, but unlike those spells, this does not affect the enemy directly, so it cannot be dispelled by spells that clear status effects. It’s not enough to completely conceal my position, but if I combine this with Mana Invisibility, I can essentially prevent them from comboing detection magic plus Ether Cannon.

Ether Hack, unlike Ether Cannon and Ether Wall, does not give me any new offensive magic. I do think this magic is the strongest of all the Skills that can be gained through Awakening, but it’s definitely more difficult to use than Awakened Skills that focus solely on attack or defense. When it’s a two-on-one battle and an Ether Wall is cast, it’s difficult to fight without first neutralizing the enemy’s offensive spell.

“Sand Tornado.”

Next, I cast Sand Tornado, a weaker version of SandStorm. This spell is not strong offensively, but it still hinders the enemy’s vision just the same by creating a storm containing a large amount of sand. Unlike barriers, it can’t be destroyed by offensive magic, so it’s the best spell for blinding the enemy.

The distance between me and the enemy is less than fifty meters, but because of Search Jamming and Sand Tornado, they can no longer determine my exact location. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m still in the same predicament; with the Ether Wall, they can just keep on attacking me while I can’t do anything to them.

“Fire Bomb. Fire Bomb. Fire Bomb.”

The enemy unleashed attack magic one after another to shoot me. The reason why they’re not using Ether Cannon is probably so that they can shoot me as soon as they know my exact location. The best spell to use randomly is one that consumes less mana and be cast repeatedly.

Magic Veil.

I used a defensive spell to counter it, got down on the ground, and waited for the enemy to attack. At this distance, it’s basically impossible to evade, so it’s better to reduce the area that my body occupies to make it harder to hit me. Fortunately, Magic Veil is able to withstand one shot of anything other than Ether Cannon.

A Fire Bomb landed near me. Although it didn’t hit me directly, its effects—the shock wave and heat—still affected me.

Magic Veil blocked any direct damage. In exchange for versatility, though, Magic Veil is extremely mana inefficient. Although it negated the damage, it consumed a lot of mana.

If the same magic were to hit me directly, I wouldn’t die, but I would probably lose all the mana I need to fight back, which would lead to defeat sooner or later. In any case, the current shock wave actually works in my favor.

Can you still hit me?