Chapter Ninety-Eight: Andy’s Flame Sniper

“Search for the Charles family’s breathing technique and the family’s Eagle Eye secret art!”

After returning to the dormitory, Andy’s first task was to use the Hestery Magic Mirror to study the Eagle Eye secret art. The moment the mirror devoured the magic stone and revealed the contents of the breathing technique and the secret art, Andy eagerly immersed himself in reading them.

As he practiced the breathing technique, Andy discovered that the Charles family’s method suited him far better than the Bar family’s. It seemed to follow the same lineage as the ancestral breathing technique his original body had once learned. What was more, Andy made short work of mastering the Eagle Eye secret art. The instant he learned it, he felt a hidden thrill rise from the depths of this body’s bloodline. He did not even need practice to sense that he had already grasped the art to a remarkably deep degree.

It seemed the words in the letter he had received from his original self’s uncle, Daniel, before leaving Dallas City were very likely true. This body was highly likely to bear the blood of the Charles family, one of the four great families of the royal capital.

Still, Andy had no intention of engaging in the tiresome business of returning to some ancestral clan. He was living freely and comfortably now; why should he go and seek out a host of cold, unfamiliar relatives he had never even met? In any case, he was not truly Andy Charles.

But Andy still kept the matter in mind. If joining the Charles family could bring him benefits unavailable to outsiders, he would not mind pretending to be one of them when the time came.

He next went to the wizardry practice room to test the actual effect of the Eagle Eye secret art. Once he activated Eagle Eye, the whole world seemed to grow far more vivid in his sight. His long-distance vision, in particular, became astonishingly sharp; even the tiniest patterns carved into ornaments a thousand meters away were rendered with perfect clarity. He was certain that if a mosquito flew past at that distance, he could at least tell whether it was male or female.

Andy then activated the maximum range extension of his wizardry and cast a Fire Arrow at a target more than a thousand meters away. Almost instinctively, he adjusted the angle of his release, and the fire arrow streaked through the air to strike the bull's-eye. The practice room’s recorder showed an attack energy of 110 degrees.

And he had not even activated Wizardry Empowerment or the Focused Casting aptitude. From the state of the fire arrow after release, it was obvious that this was not a critical strike either. Comparing this with his usual casting power of just over 60 degrees, Andy judged that the Eagle Eye secret art had increased the attack power of his Fire Arrow by roughly eighty percent.

He silently did the math. With Wizardry Empowerment active, his 60-degree Fire Arrow could rise to 90 degrees. With Focused Casting ensuring a critical strike, it would reach 180 degrees. Add the twenty-five percent critical damage boost from his Infinite Firepower talent, and the Fire Arrow would reach 225 degrees. Then, with the long-range attack bonus from Eagle Eye, the final attack energy would become a terrifying 405 degrees.

A Bronze Wizard’s defensive field generally offered only about 100 degrees of protection. An elite Bronze Wizard might manage to push it into the 200-degree range at most. Even after learning the relevant aptitude for strengthening a defensive field, they could scarcely raise it beyond the level needed to withstand 300 degrees of attack. And that was already on par with the most basic defensive field of a Silver Wizard.

So if Andy unleashed this Fire Arrow with all his enhancements active, it might even be enough to break through a Silver Wizard’s defensive field.

The key was that he could do it with deadly precision from extreme range. At distances of several thousand meters, not even a Silver Wizard’s spiritual sense could perceive that far. With Eagle Eye in hand, Andy finally began to understand why Oliver had said that the noble wizard lords were so wary of the Charles family’s sharpshooters. In a certain sense, they were indeed the bane of wizards. Of course, it would be too much to say they could overwhelm wizards of the same level outright. The crucial issue was who held the initiative, and who struck first.

If the Charles family’s sharpshooters were a bane, then Andy, now combining his various wizardry aptitudes, soul talent, and Eagle Eye secret art, was undoubtedly the grim reaper. Although he was still only an advanced wizard apprentice and had not yet gained the increase in lifespan or the wizard’s defensive field, in terms of offensive power alone he already ranked among the very best at Grimm Academy.

Not to mention his Infinite Firepower talent. If he went all out, even Andy felt afraid of himself.

Four hundred and five degrees was only the theoretical result, but once he saw that horrifying number, he could not help wanting to fire one off and test it. Very quickly, he activated Wizardry Empowerment, maximum-range wizardry extension, Focused Casting, and Eagle Eye all at once, then launched a Fire Arrow.

A streak of orange-red light struck the bull’s-eye thousands of meters away, while the recorder’s numbers began to leap wildly upward: 100, 200, 300, 400...

But Andy had no time to keep watching. He suddenly felt an unusual change within his spiritual world. Hastily, he sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state. The academy’s practice rooms were expensive, but once a student rented one, no one would disturb them until they left after finishing their experiments. So Andy could meditate there in peace.

After he had simultaneously activated Wizardry Empowerment, the extreme-range extension, Focused Casting, and Eagle Eye before releasing Fire Arrow, the rune models in his spiritual space that represented those abilities began to tremble faintly.

Fire Arrow itself was a complete first-tier wizardry model. The wizardry aptitudes, however, were rune bands that had coiled like vines around the core of Andy’s spiritual power. Eagle Eye and the body-hardening secret art were different still; they were not made of runes, but rather projections of the power seed in Andy’s heart, manifested as marks of force within his spiritual space.

Now, part of the phantom forms from the rune model, the rune bands, and the power mark of Eagle Eye all began to peel away and gather toward the center. As soon as Andy entered meditation, he instinctively guided their convergence.

In the end, these phantom forms condensed not far from the Fire Ball spell model into a new wizardry model. It resembled Fire Arrow somewhat, but was far more complex. As Andy sensed it, the information he received identified it as an unnamed second-tier spell.

Unnamed second-tier spell: consumes all of the caster’s magical power to fire an extremely precise flame arrow at a target. Range: three thousand meters. The spell always critically strikes. Attack energy: 450 degrees, master level. This spell no longer stacks with the effects of Wizardry Empowerment, range extension, or the Eagle Eye secret art.

Andy checked the spell’s information and understood that he had finally developed his first independently created spell since arriving in this other world. Delighted, he named it Andy’s Flame Sniper.

He discovered that after forming the new spell, its attack energy was more than forty degrees higher than when he combined the abilities manually. That made Andy even happier.

It was just a little regrettable that this spell had inherited Fire Arrow’s mastery level from the start and was already at master level. Otherwise, if it were only at an initial level while already possessing 450 degrees of attack power, who knew how much its energy would rise by the time he trained it all the way to grandmaster level? It might truly break through the heavens.

Thinking that he had mastered a new skill, Andy could not help wanting to test the new move in earnest. Then he remembered he had already been away from the Discipline Office for two days, and in one more day he would be able to use the magic mirror to find out who had been plotting against him from behind the scenes.

Andy stroked the magic mirror and fell silent.

I am ready. I wonder whether you are.