Chapter One Hundred: The Desire to Kill

After Andy developed the sorcery "Andy's Flame Sniper," he began to ponder: since Fire Arrow, combined with certain secret techniques and specialties, could fuse into new sorceries, could the much more powerful Fireball, with its greater potential, also be merged to create even more formidable sorceries?

Thus, Andy returned to the sorcery practice room to experiment. He discovered that Fireball seemed to have a natural limitation in range—even when Andy pushed his magic to its limits and activated the specialty that extended spell distance, Fireball's range couldn't exceed five hundred meters. Moreover, Fireball didn't synergize well with his Eagle Eye secret technique; Eagle Eye only improved the precision of the fireball's landing point, but its boost to the spell's power was negligible.

However, the specialties for focused casting and sorcery enhancement still bolstered Fireball, with the enhancement specialty increasing its power by ten percent more than Fire Arrow, raising Fireball's potency by a full sixty percent.

With this, Andy's hopes for forging a new sorcery were dashed. At its peak, his expert-level Fireball had a guaranteed critical hit at 140 degrees, plus a twenty-five percent bonus from his Infinite Firepower talent and a sixty percent boost from sorcery enhancement, resulting in a total energy level of 280 degrees—still far less than his new sorcery's 450-degree power.

Andy felt a pang of regret, though he wasn't too disappointed. After all, sniper rifles and rocket launchers served different purposes. He believed that, given time, he could develop a new sorcery based on Fireball as well—where there's one, there'll be two. For now, he simply lacked the right inspiration and accumulated knowledge.

He began to focus wholeheartedly on practicing his "Flame Sniper" sorcery, determined to reach the master level before Katherine emerged from her training. He wanted to show this prodigiously gifted kitten that he, too, could invent new sorceries—and his was ferociously powerful. Andy could hardly contain his anticipation at the thought of her being so shocked that the fish snack in her mouth would drop to the floor.

Unfortunately, he practiced until evening and still felt no progress. Between master and grandmaster levels, Andy sensed a bottleneck; he suspected that without the right opportunity, he could practice for a lifetime and never reach grandmaster level.

This brought to mind the circumstances under which he first mastered "Fire Arrow" at the grandmaster level. He had been in the midst of battle, concealing the fact that he had no mana consumption, and accidentally drank the viscount Colin's cherished aphrodisiac wine, the "Blue Enchantress." The result was a mysterious surge that enabled him to achieve grandmaster-level "Ignition," greatly enhancing his affinity for fire elements.

Afterward, Andy learned through inquiries that "Blue Enchantress" was a nobles' aphrodisiac, not the fruit wine he'd supposed. Now, facing another bottleneck with "Fire Arrow," Andy couldn't help but wonder if he should try that trick again...

In the end, Andy decided to keep practicing for now, but if he still couldn't break through, he'd ask Oliver where to buy some of that wine. He figured a small dose could be manageable.

As he considered his options, Andy walked toward his dormitory, but soon sensed something amiss.

Where had his dormitory gone? By his calculations, he should have arrived long ago, yet he was still on the path back. Andy began to pay closer attention to his surroundings, and the farther he went, the stranger it felt. At last, he realized the problem: the same crooked tree had appeared three times during his walk.

"Labyrinth Spell!"

Andy recognized the sorcery—his residual memories contained knowledge of it from his mentor, Stein, who had demonstrated it to the apprentices to show them the wonders of sorcery.

He hadn't expected someone to cast Labyrinth Spell on him on the way back to his dormitory—such audacity! This was Grim Academy, where all sorcery above level two was monitored for energy fluctuations.

Andy instinctively thought of those troublemakers who'd hassled him days ago. Had they managed to grease the wheels of the academy's bureaucracy and were now poised to strike him hard? It seemed his enemies were more formidable than he'd guessed; tonight, there would be no easy resolution.

He began to discreetly prepare his new "Flame Sniper" sorcery. While it worked best at extreme range, it remained his most powerful attack, and with advance preparation, he hoped to surprise his foes.

When the moment came, he would have to fight his way out, just as he had in Dallas City. He was eager to see if those who sought trouble with him had as sharp a bite as they claimed.

"Hey!" Suddenly, a figure appeared ahead. Andy's sorcery was fully charged and instinctively fired...

My god! It was Katherine—in human form!

The orange-red flame arrow pierced Katherine's protective field, and just as it was about to touch her skin, it halted abruptly.

The flame arrow made a sudden ninety-degree turn and shot skyward. After reaching the heavens, a series of shrill whistles echoed down.

Andy, fully absorbed in controlling his Flame Sniper, didn't notice that as the arrow neared Katherine's face, she had parted her lips slightly.

Inside her mouth, there were no teeth or tongue—only a darkness so profound it resembled a black hole, capable of swallowing everything.

Seeing Andy shift the spell's trajectory, Katherine closed her mouth and smiled, revealing neat, white teeth. She waved her hand to dispel the Labyrinth Spell and said, "As expected, different meditation methods affect one's temperament. So that's why fire mages are so impulsive." She wrinkled her delicate nose at Andy.

Only now did Andy realize he had entered his own villa. But the roof had a gaping hole from his sorcery, and chilly wind was whistling through. Yet his attention was captured by something else—after that intense sequence, his "Flame Sniper" had reached grandmaster-level control. So had his "Fire Arrow."

Overjoyed, Andy rushed toward Katherine, arms outstretched, exclaiming passionately, "Katherine, are you the angel sent from heaven to save me?"

Katherine stood there, stunned, torn between transforming into a cat or letting him hug her for a moment. In the end, seeing Andy's jubilant expression, she couldn't bear to spoil his mood—after all, she hadn't seen him in ages while secluded. She decided to let him embrace her.

Katherine's lashes trembled as she struggled to resist the urge to turn into a cat, remaining motionless. Andy noticed this and secretly rejoiced. He gently, carefully, as if cradling a fragile porcelain doll, wrapped her in his arms...

Bang! The villa door was suddenly kicked open with force. At the sound, Katherine instinctively transformed into her feline shape. Andy's arms closed around nothing. Furious, he turned toward the door—and saw a round face.

It was Duke from the Outer Courtyard's Disciplinary Office, accompanied by several assistants. He strode in, demanding, "What's going on here? We detected intense sorcery fluctuations!"

Looking up at the hole in his villa's roof, Andy realized his Flame Sniper had damaged the outside wards as well. Katherine's Labyrinth Spell had evaded the courtyard's monitoring thanks to the wards, but his dramatic Flame Sniper had certainly triggered the sensors.

And now, with the wards destroyed, neither he nor Katherine had noticed the officials' approach.

Though he now understood the sequence of events, Andy's anger remained—he was so furious, he felt like killing someone!