My Magic Has No Upper Limit
Chapter 102 - 101: The Fastest Silver Level Adventurer
"Whew... they’re finally all gone."
Gray leaned on his Longsword, watching the fleeing snake swarm as he let out a sigh of relief.
"Should we chase them?" Gak asked, flinging the blood from his Broad Axe, still looking for a fight.
"There’s no need."
Marcus shook his head.
"Our main objective is complete. Besides, who knows how many more are hiding in this swamp. We can’t kill them all, and it would be bad if we walked into an ambush."
Zelir agreed.
The snake swarm had scattered. Without the Black-Scaled Python as their breeding core, they wouldn’t pose a large-scale threat to the nearby villages for some time.
The mission was, for all intents and purposes, a success.
After the battle died down, Zelir let out a deep sigh, an unavoidable wave of weakness washing over him.
In the process of wiping out the snake swarm just now, he had unleashed several Arcane Missiles and spent a great deal of Magic Power maintaining the form of the Water of Cutting.
Even though his Spirit had increased by 20 points after his promotion to Junior Mage, it still felt like it wasn’t quite enough for battles that required frequent spellcasting.
Furthermore, the high-intensity use of Water of Cutting had clearly been too much for his White Wax Wood wand.
A closer look revealed a few small cracks on its surface.
’Looks like it’s about to kick the bucket.’
Level 9 (237/300) -> Level 10 (70/325). Level up!
To break through to Junior Mage as quickly as possible, he had allocated all his attribute points to Intelligence. Now, it was time to close that imbalanced gap.
Zelir allocated all four attribute points to Spirit.
Power: 88 -> 89
Agility: 84 -> 85
Constitution: 91 -> 92
Spirit: 91 -> 95
Intelligence: 114
Perception: 32
Charm: 54
Lucky: 51
Talent Skills:
Technique Celestial Calculation
Magic Contract
Sure enough, after increasing Spirit, his Power, Agility, and Constitution all rose by one point each due to the 25% bonus from his total Spirit.
He also gained two more attribute points in his assignable attributes section, though they were restricted to Power, Agility, and Constitution.
After some thought, Zelir assigned them to Agility.
He hadn’t decided how to go about training for close combat yet, but since Agility was his lowest stat, he figured he should shore it up first.
’Physical coordination is not something to be ignored.’
Agility: 85 -> 87
Within his sea of consciousness, the Magic Power emanating from the Spring Seed felt warmer and circulated slightly faster. This Magic Power was then converted by the Magic Contract and seeped back into his body.
Zelir didn’t notice much of an improvement in his Power or Constitution, as they had only increased by a single point. However, the three-point boost to his Agility was a different story.
Zelir faintly felt his muscles become a little firmer, and his control over his body’s movements grew more effortless.
’So this is what Agility does.’
Looking at his increasingly solid stat panel, Zelir felt very satisfied.
’Now this is what a Mage should look like.’
The entire pool was dyed a dark red. Dozens of snake carcasses were tangled and piled together, with fragments of flesh floating on the surface. The thick, foul stench of blood and viscera assaulted their nostrils.
"Was this thing really that tough?"
Gray wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking in amazement at the corpse of the Black-Scaled Python, which had been chopped into several pieces on the ground.
"Felt a lot tougher than an Earth Lizard Beast."
"I heard that when the Adventurer’s Association was rating the Black-Scaled Python, they debated for a long time because its pure melee capabilities exceeded the scope of the [Difficulty] category,"
Marcus said.
"But in the end, they decided it lacked effective ranged attacks, so it was assigned to the [Difficulty] rating."
"If it had one more skill, like spitting venom over a large area, it would probably be a solid [Challenge] rating."
"That’s insane..." Valles said, his heart still pounding.
It was rare to see a Demon that could take several of his Thunder Arrows head-on.
"Alright, let’s start collecting the spoils. This pile of rotten meat still has some valuables on it," Gray said, rolling up his sleeves.
Gak took on the heavy task of hauling the corpses. He dragged the useful parts of the Water Pythons to the shore and began to butcher them.
Ordinary Water Pythons weren’t Demons, so they didn’t have Demon Cores.
But their Snake Gallbladders were still valuable. They could be used to make Antitoxic Potions or as ingredients in certain Magic Potions.
Gray cut into a snake corpse’s abdominal cavity with a sharp dagger. After some fiddling, he precisely extracted a fist-sized, dark green, oval-shaped sac.
After casually rinsing the blood and slime off its surface in a nearby puddle, Gray held it up to the sunlight to inspect it.
In the dim light, the Snake Gallbladder had the deep luster of black jade.
Zelir watched this with curiosity from the side, a flicker of interest to try it himself igniting within him.
He also jabbed a dagger into an abdominal cavity.
However, Zelir didn’t control his strength properly and accidentally punctured the Snake Gallbladder. A bitter, foul smell immediately filled the air.
"Ugh, so gross!"
After the dark green bile flowed onto his hand, Zelir instinctively started flinging it around.
"You got it on my face," Gray said, turning his head to look at Zelir.
"Oh, oh, sorry..."
Meanwhile, Marcus began carving the useful parts from the Black-Scaled Python.
The Black-Scaled Python had a Demon Core and a Snake Gallbladder, but its scales were also very valuable.
Although most of the Black-Scaled Python’s scales would quickly rot and fall off after death, a small patch of connected Reversed Scales on the back of its neck could be collected.
They were excellent materials for making high-grade Scale Armor or Lining. The battle had just demonstrated their extremely high Defense Power, making them almost as valuable as the Demon Core.
After bustling about for a while, the last Snake Gallbladder was removed, cleaned, and tossed into a bag.
Having collected all the loot, the squad members dragged their weary bodies back onto the road to Black Stone Town.
By now, even the soldiers guarding the checkpoint recognized the Marcus Squad.
Normally, with so many people entering and leaving Black Stone Town each day—farmers, merchants, hunters, all sorts of people coming and going—it was hard for the guards to form a special impression of anyone.
But the Marcus Squad was an exception because their activity rate was just too high.
Over the past month or so, the guards would see Marcus gathering his team at the checkpoint every few days.
They’d set off with great vigor in the morning and return travel-worn in the evening, carrying a backpack full of Demon loot. It was hard not to be impressed.
Inside the Adventurer’s Association, Marcus went forward to turn in the quest.
This time, they had killed a total of thirteen Water Pythons and one Black-Scaled Python.
The rewards were calculated according to the quest commission.
Thirteen Water Pythons, Ten Silver Coins each, for a total of one Gold Coin and thirty Silver Coins.
Twelve Water Python Snake Gallbladders, Five Silver Coins each, for a total of sixty Silver Coins.
One Black-Scaled Python, a bounty of twelve Gold Coins.
Black-Scaled Python Snake Gallbladder, buyback price of three Gold Coins.
Black-Scaled Python scales, buyback price of eight Gold Coins.
Black-Scaled Python Demon Core, buyback price of eight Gold Coins.
In total, the squad received thirty-two Gold Coins and ninety Silver Coins.
Marcus distributed the earnings according to a 4/2/2/1/1 ratio. Zelir received the largest share, a hefty sum of thirteen Gold Coins and sixteen Silver Coins.
"Why do I feel more and more like we’re Zelir’s Guard Team..." Gray sighed.
"Well, it does kinda feel like that, huh," Zelir replied without modesty.
After accepting his payment, his personal savings reached ninety-five Gold Coins!
Although the distribution ratio seemed exaggerated, with Zelir taking almost half by himself...
...there was nothing to be done about it. His contribution was simply too great.
Without Zelir’s Water of Cutting taking the lead as the main offensive, they had no idea how much more effort they would have needed to kill the Black-Scaled Python.
The rest of the squad had no objections; after all, they had all witnessed Zelir’s impact firsthand.
Zelir pocketed his share of the reward, the heavy coin pouch filling him with joy.
Besides, today was the last day of the Harvest Moon.
This meant that tomorrow, Zelir could go to the Mage’s Guild to collect his subsidy!
A huge subsidy of a full twenty Gold Coins! Zelir honestly felt like he would die for the Mage’s Guild.
At that point, his savings would jump straight to one hundred and fifteen Gold Coins. He could finally go to the Magic Wand Shop to pick out a finished Magic Wand and stop using the lowest-grade White Wax Wood.
Just thinking about it made Zelir incredibly excited. His thoughts began to drift as he fantasized about his bright future.
’What kind of Magic Wand should I pick then...’
"What are you grinning foolishly about?"
Valles’s voice pulled Zelir back to reality. "People are staring."
Eira, from behind the counter, was staring at Zelir with curiosity.
Zelir, slightly embarrassed, composed his expression.
Eira quickly lowered her head and pretended to sort through documents, but the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curve upward.
’Why would Mr. Zelir suddenly make a face like that...’
’It’s such a contrast to how he normally is. So cute.’
Gray watched Eira’s lovestruck expression and sighed silently.
’Am I even going to be surpassed by Zelir in the looks department?’
"Oh, right, there’s one more thing to tell you, Mr. Zelir!"
Eira flipped through the record file in her hands.
"After completing this Black-Scaled Python extermination quest, your cumulative number of Junior-rank missions has reached ten! So..."
She flashed a brilliant smile.
"Congratulations! From this moment on, you are officially promoted to a Silver Level Adventurer! The youngest Silver Level Adventurer in the history of Black Stone Town!"
"Not bad."
Zelir wasn’t surprised by this. After all, he had already completed eight commissions before.
Adding the goblin extermination quest he completed alone and this Black-Scaled Python quest, it came out to exactly ten.