Gigantic Dark Bear!A Tier-4 Magical Beast!

As the massive black bear, nearly eight meters in length, slowly approached, Karien instinctively considered teleporting back home. This was a reflex born from fear of danger. Every time he entered the Misty Forest, he was always prepared to teleport back at a moment's notice.

However, thinking about how Horus was still standing next to him, and seeing that the Giant Dark Bear was still quite a distance away, Karien decided not to teleport just yet. After all, if he ran at the first sight of a Tier-4 magical beast, everything he had done in front of Horus would be for nothing.

So, he could afford to wait a little longer and see how things developed.

When Horus saw the Giant Dark Bear, his expression immediately became serious. Earlier, he had been distracted by the letter and was a little too emotional to notice the danger closing in. By the time he realized, the bear had already spotted them.

Even in his prime, Horus knew that facing off against such a beast would be nearly impossible. Normally, when encountering a magical beast of this level, he would run away immediately. But with Mr. Sixteen, the Saint Mage, by his side, Horus felt less afraid.

As this thought crossed his mind, Horus suddenly froze, his face becoming tense. He began to reflect inwardly:

No, Horus, no. You want to be Mr. Sixteen’s disciple, don’t you? You said you'd do anything for him, didn’t you?Then why are you hesitating just because of a Tier-4 magical beast?Why are you thinking of having Mr. Sixteen protect you?With this kind of mindset, how can you ever get stronger? How can you take back what’s rightfully yours?

After this inner self-rebuke, Horus gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and pulled out a small flag, determined to fight the Giant Dark Bear with everything he had to prove his resolve to Mr. Sixteen.

Horus stepped forward, ready to launch his attack.

Karien watched him walk forward, frozen for a moment before grabbing his shoulder and asking,"What are you doing?"

Horus turned his head, a look of determination on his face, and said,“Master, I will prove my resolve!”

This left Karien completely stunned.What the hell? I haven’t even agreed to anything, and now I’m suddenly his "master"?And what's this about proving resolve?

His mind raced for a moment before he replied,“Your current condition makes it too dangerous to fight the Giant Dark Bear head-on. Fortunately, I have a new magic tool I need to test. You stay back and watch for now.“If the test fails, then you can do whatever you want to prove your resolve.”

A new magic tool?Testing its power?

Horus paused for a moment before it dawned on him. “Oh!” he exclaimed.

He had been wondering why Mr. Sixteen had established a domain here in the Misty Forest. It turned out Mr. Sixteen was an artifact master, and had come here to test his magical tools using the magical beasts in the forest.

As expected of Mr. Sixteen—he was using magical beasts for experiments.

Just as Horus had his "moment of realization," Karien tossed a small stone forward and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, a 1.5-meter-high steel cannon appeared before him, its 150mm barrel directly aimed at the Giant Dark Bear in the distance.

This steel cannon had been the first product created by over a dozen blacksmiths from Black Iron Territory over the past few days. Although it still had many flaws, Karien had already tested it in Black Iron Territory, and its power was impressive.

Originally, Karien had planned to wait until they made a few more cannons to place around the cave system, but the appearance of the Giant Dark Bear gave him the perfect opportunity to test its power.

If the bear had rushed toward them immediately, Karien would have teleported away without a second thought. But now, the Giant Dark Bear was slowly approaching, its heavy steps resonating with the occasional growl of warning.

It seemed to sense the magical elements emanating from Horus, figuring that taking down the human quickly might be difficult. Therefore, it approached cautiously, preparing to strike.

Karien, on the other hand, was completely ignored by the bear, as he had no magical elements surrounding him at the moment.

The bear was still about sixty to seventy meters away, giving Karien a chance to use his magic tool.

He snapped his fingers again, and a cannonball, larger than a fist, appeared in his hand.

The cannonball had been teleported using beads, and as for why he snapped his fingers... well, don’t ask. It’s for the ritualistic effect!

After loading the fist-sized cannonball, which was engraved with multiple "Explosion" magic arrays, into the cannon’s barrel, Karien used his mental energy to activate the magic array within the cannon.

Then, with a deafening BOOM, the cannonball shot forward at incredible speed, hitting the Giant Dark Bear squarely in the abdomen.

At a distance of fifty meters and with a body length of over eight meters, if Karien had missed this shot, he would truly be blind.

At such close range, the cannon’s power alone could destroy a city wall, let alone the beast's body.

But every magical beast has its own racial talents, and this particular beast had a natural earth-element ability called "Beast Armor," which could summon a large amount of earth-element to cover its body and grant it enhanced defense.

So when the cannonball hit the Giant Dark Bear, the immense inertia only caused the bear to stagger backward for several meters, with minimal damage—just some cracks in its "Beast Armor."

Before the bear could even react, the cannonball that had struck it suddenly exploded like a volcano, releasing a violent burst of flame mixed with sharp iron shards, completely shattering the "Beast Armor" and sending fiery debris spraying out from the bear’s abdomen.

Karien wasn’t satisfied with just one shot. Swiftly, he teleported another cannonball into his hand and fired again.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three shots in rapid succession, all hitting their mark.

When the smoke finally cleared, Horus was shocked to see the massive body of the Giant Dark Bear split in half, with charred blood and shattered organs hanging from the surrounding tree trunks.

A Tier-4 magical beast, just like that, was obliterated.

Horus turned to look at the steel cannon, a chill running down his spine.If that thing had hit him, there’s no way he would have survived even a single shot.

At that moment, Karien’s expression was also one of surprise. The power of the cannon had exceeded his expectations. Even with the Giant Dark Bear’s racial defense, it couldn’t withstand three shots.

Of course, this power didn’t come for free. Each cannonball contained 10 kilograms of Lanite, engraved with intricate "Explosion" magic arrays.

Three cannonballs meant 30 kilograms of Lanite.At a price of 100 gold coins per kilogram, that was 3000 gold coins, or thirty Elemental Coins.

This wasn’t just artillery.It was burning money!

10 kilograms of Lanite, in the hands of an ordinary mage, could be used to craft a decent magical artifact.But in Karien's hands, it was barely enough to make a sound.

Fortunately, Karien was quite satisfied with the test results. If he kept improving the design, this magic tool might even be able to deal with Tier-5 magical beasts in the future.

As Karien pondered this, Horus, standing beside him, noticed something odd about the cannon.

“Mr. Sixteen, the magic arrays on the surface of this magic tool are flickering. Is that normal?”

Hearing Horus’ reminder, Karien looked down, and his expression changed dramatically.

"Step back!"

He shouted urgently, then teleported thirty meters away.

Horus, hearing Mr. Sixteen’s warning, quickly turned and leapt away.

Two seconds later, all the "Explosion" magic arrays inside the steel cannon collapsed and detonated one after another.

Even with "Reinforcement" magic arrays, the cannon exploded into pieces, breaking apart completely.

Karien stared at the shattered cannon for several seconds, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. He had a rough idea of why the cannon had exploded.

To increase the cannon's power, Karien had added large amounts of Lanite to both the cannon structure and the shells, engraving numerous magic arrays onto them.

Although Karien had carefully adjusted the arrays’ order and proportions, after continuous activation, the interference between the arrays had become too severe.

It was fine when the cannon was first activated, but trying to stop it was not that simple.

This meant that the problem wasn't with the craftsmanship of the cannon, but with the design of the magic arrays themselves.

Normally, when crafting magical tools, few mages would go as far as Karien, engraving so many magic arrays on the tool. Most artifact makers and engravers would focus on enhancing the material quality and array level to increase the tool's power, rather than overloading it with numerous arrays.

However, Karien wasn’t a mage; even with the help of various tools, he could only engrave second-tier magic arrays. Anything beyond that, no matter how strong his theoretical knowledge was, he couldn’t pull off.

“Could it be... that this approach just doesn’t work?”

A hint of panic arose in Karien’s heart. He had thought that through accumulation, he could trigger a qualitative change. As long as he found the right pattern, he could keep adding magic arrays.

But the reality was, the more arrays he added, the bulkier the tool became, and the more chaotic it was to activate, which made accidents more likely.

If he continued down the path of stacking arrays, Karien feared he might reach a dead end.

His brows furrowed even further as he fell deep into thought.

Standing off to the side, Horus glanced at the broken cannon and then at Mr. Sixteen, whose face was dark with frustration. He decided to remain silent.

It seemed the artifact test had failed, and Mr. Sixteen was in a bad mood. Horus figured it was best to wait before bringing up his request to become a disciple.

After several minutes of contemplation, Karien made up his mind to return to the laboratory and research the problem further.

He turned to Horus and said,“The noise from the explosion might attract other magical beasts. You should stop clearing the weeds for now and find somewhere to hide.”

Horus nodded and replied,“Don’t worry, Mr. Sixteen. I have a way to conceal my presence, and the beasts won’t detect me.”

Karien nodded in return, saying,“Then be careful. I need to go back and check on the situation with the experiment.”

After that, Karien snapped his fingers and vanished.

The reason for his hasty departure, apart from wanting to continue his research, was that unlike Horus, he couldn’t conceal his presence. It was safer for him to leave quickly.

Horus stood still, staring at the spot where Mr. Sixteen had disappeared, taking several seconds before inhaling deeply and picking up the nearly full sack.

But just as he lifted it, the sack suddenly disappeared, replaced by a piece of paper.

“Regarding your request to become a disciple, I will consider it carefully. For now, stay hidden in the Misty Forest for a while.”

Holding the note in his hand, Horus clenched his fist and murmured to himself,“I will become as strong as Mr. Sixteen, and then I’ll return to the Golden Knife Territory to take back everything that’s mine!”

Back at Red Leaf Academy, Karien immediately dove into his laboratory, intent on researching the interference between the stacked magic arrays and figuring out how to resolve it.

If this issue wasn’t solved, none of Karien’s future plans would be possible.

Previously, he had purchased a large quantity of elemental stones and Lanite from the capital for his research.

Now, Karien pulled out one chunk of elemental stone and one piece of Lanite after another, engraving magic arrays and making adjustments.

He buried himself in the research all day, even working through the night.

Having engraved hundreds of arrays, the amount of Elemental Coins, Elemental Stones, and Lanite he had spent amounted to at least 5000 gold coins.

But despite all this, Karien still couldn’t solve the issue of interference between the arrays.

After all, Karien used his mental energy to trigger the incense coil structure as a switch, which then activated all the magic arrays.

As soon as more than ten arrays were engraved at the same spot, the activation range and sequence became unstable, and over time, all the arrays would collapse one by one.

No matter how he rearranged or adjusted the arrays, it was useless.

“How could this happen...”

It made sense in hindsight. If simply stacking magic arrays could continually increase power, other low-tier mages would have already done so.

But in reality, Karien had never heard of anyone using low-tier arrays to create the power of high-tier magic tools. Even his own firearms and cannons were just the result of using money to improve their effectiveness.

“Could this path really be a dead end?”

Karien, with his hair in disarray and bloodshot eyes, stared at the elemental stone on the desk, muttering to himself,“Relying solely on mental energy, it’s impossible to connect all the arrays effectively. I need a more efficient method.

“But magic arrays are all circular, and to maintain stability, the edges must be closed.“That makes it hard to connect them...”

Just as he was mumbling this, a thought suddenly struck him.Magic arrays... why do they have to be circular?

As soon as this thought emerged, more and more strange ideas flooded into Karien's mind, and he immediately began experimenting.

He tried square arrays, pentagonal ones, and even other bizarre shapes.

Through this chaotic testing, Karien didn’t manage to create an effective new array.

However, he stumbled upon an interesting detail.

When he added dark elements to the light-elemental patterns, the light elements stopped working. But when the dark elements were removed, the light patterns lit up again.

This process felt a lot like switching a light on and off.

If he followed this detail and introduced binary logic...

Light elements as 1, dark elements as 0...

Could this mean that Karien could use the combination of light and dark elements to perform binary logic transport?

Looking at the light and dark elemental patterns on the elemental stone, Karien’s eyes grew brighter, and suddenly, everything clicked into place!