Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

After Isaac left, Ethan and the others gave their report to Hannah and the people in the diplomacy department. Once again, to make sure that no one would eavesdrop on them, Emily cast a barrier around the tent. Fortunately, they weren't the only ones doing that, since the army was making a lot of noise, many tents had those.

"What do you think, Hannah?" Ethan asked.

"I have heard of Isaac, and I think you can trust him given mister Carter's words. As for the others things you told me, I did some research, but I didn't find anything odd about the dungeons. That appeared months ago. As for those five dungeons, we are having a hard time collecting intel. We don't have my trustworthy contact in those locations, so sending people to keep an eye on things has been difficult."

"Is that so…" Ethan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"However, I don't think that your guess is absurd. We know little based on the things that are happening in Paraguay, but I think the flow of monsters leaving the dungeons there is also quite insane. Given that the monsters are essentially made of stones and are being decimated by the army, we can say that many resources are being used and few are being obtained."

While that was bad in itself, Ethan couldn't believe that the goal was wearing down the resources of just five countries. Then again, Ethan had never been good at that kind of thing, thinking about the enemies' goals and whatnot. However, he couldn't exactly go back to his old days, he was fighting for his home now, and he lost his powers. So, Ethan couldn't stay on the offensive all the time.

"Anyway, stay alert. I will contact you guys in case I discover something new."

"Yes, please," Ethan said.

In the end, it looked like Ethan and the others would have to wait before reaching any conclusion about the whole situation. At that moment of the night, most tents had grown silent since everyone was exhausted. However, aside from Carter, everyone in that tent still was wide awake. All thanks to the experience they had in other worlds of sleeping only once or twice a week.

"Since we don't have anything better to do, I am going to teach you two something," Emily suddenly said while trying to look as collected as possible. "I also would feel troubled after all this if I don't repay the debt somehow."

"See?" Ian asked. "You are exactly like a generic tsundere."

"Just… shut up, Ian," Emily sighed. "Although you two aren't nearly at my level in terms of magical skills, you guys probably can learn this."

After stroking her own ego, Emily cast two spells at the same time. Fireball on her left hand and Ice Arrow on her right hand. Dual Casting Or Multi Cast… a technique that only certain mages can use since it is pretty difficult for someone to cast two spells at the same time when their structures and process of creation are completely different from each other.

"Although casting two different spells like this is difficult, you still can, with relative ease, cast several projectiles of the same spell at the same time," Emily said and then made several Ice Arrows appear around her. "This will increase your attacking speed, and once the people realize that you are spending mana faster, they will use more potions on you."

"I would rather use a magical machine gun," Ian said. "But I guess learning that won't hurt."

"What the hell is a magical machine gun?" Ethan frowned.

"A magic item that Father made," Ian said. "We have some prototypes if you want to see them. However, there are some problems with its use. For example, to someone like you who can level up skills by using them, you wouldn't be able to use that. The magical machine gun was created to fire a single spell automatically the very moment the user transfers enough mana to it."

Although it had some limitations, it seemed like a pretty interesting weapon. If Ivan manages to modify it and use magic stones as fuel, then perhaps even ordinary people could fire dozens of times the same spell. However, that was also dangerous since the power of those spells was way above bullets and probably could lead to a new wild west age.

"Don't worry, my father isn't interested in commercializing that kind of stuff," Ian explained. "He is just that into creating new things. Also, the magical machine guns can only fire a single type of projectile and one ordinary person can't use magic stones to power them."

As expected, they quickly learned a way to improve the weapon, but it would take a while. Regardless, Emily seemed a bit mad since they were out of the topic and Ivan was practically researching a way to make people like her useless.

"Anyway… to learn this, all you had to do is to focus and create the magic projectiles using your mind," Emily explained. "Just like the time you used the spell for the first time."

The theory was simple, but at the same time, it was counterproductive for someone like Ethan, who had a system that granted him the chance to use any skill as long as he succeeded in using that skill at least once. Truth be told, Ethan wasn't expecting to learn any skill like Dual Casting or Multi-Casting since he didn't learn anything even a little bit similar while he was on Hedo. Then again, he followed the path of an absolute warrior back then. Maybe, things will be different based on his new experiences.

Ethan and Ian began to practice, and as expected, it was hard to create two magic projectiles at the same time because the caster had to divide their focus. If they focus too much on one projectile, the other will obtain an appropriate form much slower. However, if the caster focuses on several at the same time, the spell might fail due to the lack of mana being sent toward them.

Weirdly enough, it looked like Ian was trying for real to learn the technique instead of just holding back to match Ethan's pace. However, Ethan didn't have a pace because he couldn't even create two blocks of ice at the same time, not even with Rivru's memories.

"… Maybe I can adapt this a little bit."

Ethan closed his eyes and then started to imagine a situation where he didn't have a weapon to use and where his limbs were sealed. He couldn't quite reach the same level of concentration that he could when he fights seriously, but he could at least reach half of that level. Without much of choice, Ethan had to learn how to create two ice arrows at the same time since two shadows were approaching him.

In his head, Ethan failed many times, but his focus was never interrupted. The same scene just repeated itself many times until he managed to attack the two shadows with something. At first, he succeeded in creating two Water Balls, but they were slow and couldn't do any damage. Besides, Ethan didn't want to learn that. After a while, the Water Balls became Water Arrows. After many tries, Ethan managed to freeze the arrows at the same time he gave them such a form.

When Ethan opened his eyes, he saw Ian's smug smile while he was making two ice arrows fly around him. However, that didn't make him angry. Ethan just blinked once, and then he raised his two hands. A few seconds later, the two ice arrows appeared floating around him.

Congratulations! You learned the skill Multi-Cast!

Effects: It grants you the chance to cast several more projectiles of the same spell. Number of bonus projectiles: 01

Lv 01 – 0/100