Chapter 46
The Blockade.
Early in the afternoon, Keith took up position in the sky, hovering with his hands in his pockets. Floating behind his back was a cyan halo ten feet in diameter, with lines pointing outward at several locations.
Down below, someone pointed at Keith and asked his friend, “Hey, what skill is that?”
“I don’t know,” the friend thought long and hard. “It seems to be some type of augmentation skill.”
“Huh.”
Keith wore a smug expression upon hearing the discussions. They didn’t know the halo was an array he fixed up this morning. It had no special effects other than looking mysterious. Best of all, it barely consumed any mana to maintain.
Minutes later, when the people below lost interest, Keith intentionally walked around a few times. With every step he took, a ripple spread through the air, like a subtle wave atop the ocean. The sight immediately caught more attention.
“Hey, what skill is he using now?” A person asked his friend again.
The friend rubbed his chin, at a loss. “Looks like something of the water element.”
As time passed while everyone waited for the monster horde to arrive, Keith would occasionally display some visual effects. He used the reactions of the audience below as a gauge to determine which ones were better.
However, during the following hour, the people below gradually understood Keith wasn’t using any skills, and they started giving him strange glances.
“Hey, why does he keep doing that?” A person asked his friend for the umpteenth time.
“Ssh!” The friend lowered his voice. “Don’t look. It’s probably some kind of fetish.”
“Oh!” The person shivered.
Soon, Keith noticed that no matter what he did, nobody looked his way.
Man, either they’re too picky or I’m not creative, Keith thought, figuring that he wasn’t being flashy enough.
That wasn’t good.
After a hard battle against today’s monster horde, Keith went back to his private quarters and started tinkering with his visual arrays. They needed to be bigger, more colorful, and most importantly, impactful.
The next day, Keith woke up early and flew to his usual position above the Blockade.
He waited until the audience reached sufficient numbers before using Quickdraw to summon his latest creation.
A sun!
Blazing radiantly behind Keith’s back, it blinded the eyes of whoever looked at it.
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At that moment, a roar came from afar, “Walker!!”
“Huh?” Keith spun around to see Colonel Hadjar flying over with a furious face.
Hadjar squinted hard and barely saw Keith’s figure beneath the sun. Snorting, he berated, “What are you thinking?! No matter how powerful, can’t you tell that skill will distract people during the battle? Turn it off!”
Keith pouted. “It’s an array, not a skill.”
Hadjar’s eyes widened. “What now?”
“Yeah, it’s just for visuals,” Keith nodded.
Hadjar stared at Keith in a stupor for several seconds before yelling, “Turn! It! Off!”
Though Keith felt aggrieved, he did as commanded.
Looks like I went overboard. This one has too much impact, Keith thought as Hadjar flew away. It was better to create the visual arrays in moderation.
Eventually, the monster horde arrived, and Keith fought a tough battle.
Thankfully, the Mythril Automatons greatly increased his survivability, allowing him to take much more damage than without them. Though they consumed a lot of mana to summon, it was worth it.
After the fight, Keith went back to work on his visual arrays, slowly perfecting his craft.
A week passed just like that.
During that time, Keith leveled up to level 712. His rank in the Blockade Event also rose consistently and he was now ranked 56.
Regarding the Exchange Shop, after some discussion amongst the military’s leadership, they implemented a new rule: a person couldn’t purchase more than five divine grade skill gems.
Keith, being picky, had only exchanged for a single skill since then.
Counterspell.
(Divine, Spell) Counterspell
Description: Nullify a targeted spell within sight. Mana cost and cooldown improves with skill level.
On the ninth day since Keith became a guardian, he strode through the air, coming to his usual position above the Blockade. A fantastical misty cloak wrapped around his body, shimmering like the stars in the sky. In addition to the halo floating behind his back was a simple crown atop his head, pulsing with cyan light. All three things came from his visual arrays.
Keith rested with his eyes closed while waiting for the monster horde.
Something he learned recently was that if he focused his mind on recovering mana by imagining it flowing into him, he saw tangible improvements to his mana regeneration. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it gave him a hint about how mana behaved.
Less than an hour later, the monster horde appeared, and Keith locked onto his target –a giant spider the size of a house with deadly sharp legs called a Crypt Fiend.
Keith summoned three Mythril Automatons to guard his sides before rushing forward. Arriving within melee distance, he dodged the Crypt Fiend’s legs and cast Arsenal of the Desert.
Unlike in the past, Keith no longer fought at a distance, instead sticking to his target as closely as possible. That way, his opponent would have drastically less time to react to his spells.
When Keith first tried this combat style a few days ago, he received much more damage than usual, and if he didn’t have the Mythril Automatons to share 60% of the damage he took, he wouldn’t have tried it at all.
Fortunately, the more he attempted close combat, the better he got at it.
With the increase in combat experience, Keith was able to find openings left by his opponent that he wouldn’t have noticed before.
Or better yet, create them.
Just like now.
As Keith fought with the Crpyt Fiend, he observed that when it attacked with its front legs, it supported its weight with its four hind ones. Taking advantage of that, Keith baited the Crpyt Fiend into attacking, and just as it raised its front legs, he used Cold Snap to freeze the ground beneath it, making it slip.
The sudden change caused the Crypt Fiend’s attack to miss and leave it vulnerable.
Flying forward, Keith grabbed a nearby longsword from Arsenal of the Desert and slashed across the Crypt Fiend’s eyes, blinding it.
It died shortly after that.
From start to finish, Keith was in total control.
Compared to before, the time it took for Keith to slay high-level monsters fell drastically. There was no doubt that the constant fighting at the Blockade was utterly transforming Keith, unearthing the talent passed down by his parents, who were both geniuses in melee combat.
Previously, he usually fought at a distance.
But now, he was combining his passion as a mage with his innate talent to form something rarely seen – a close-combat mage.