Kai quickly moved through the mud, trying his best not to get all of his robe covered in it.
From the distance, Kai heard the screech of a dying creature, and slowed down to avoid alerting the huntress. After all, she was more aware of her surroundings as compared to himself.
Kai continued walking, however a few steps later, he noticed the footsteps congregating around a small indent in the ground where some blood had been spilt. However, there was nothing else.
The footsteps stopped right here, the blood had not trail, and all around him was nothing but mud, so it was impossible for Victoria to escape from this location.
'Unless…' A dangerous thought appeared in his mind as Kai turned around and trace back Victoria's steps until it was close enough to a tree. Inspecting the tree, he noticed there were slight traces of mud as well as blood.
'Damn it!' Kai cursed as he decided to investigate the nearby area, only to end up with nothing and had to return to the village since the sun would soon rise.
Unfortunately for him, when he returned, the rope bride was gone, so Kai could do nothing but flutily attempt to climb up the wooden walls.
'How much better it would be to have spells right about now…' Kai began to imagine all the cool things he could do while wielding spells.
For now, all he could do was settle down outside the gates and take a break. He crouched onto the ground and began stretching his taught muscles. A full day of controlling his body such that he was not spotted by others in wet muddy conditions had stressed out his muscles considerably, especially his legs and core.
"Eeeeugh~" Kai let out an odd yet satisfied sound as he bent forward, releasing his hamstrings and back muscles in the process.
After a few minutes of stretching, Kai turned around and left the village. He decided that he would wait until the time was right to enter the village once more. Instead of waiting inside, it made more sense to wait for someone to try to leave or enter the village and follow them.
He already had his suspicions about Victoria; however, she could have just been hunting. After all, she might have needed the cover of night to hunt her prey.
Therefore, Kai just found a nearby tree which was tall enough to overlook the walls of the village and settled down on top of it. He had a lot of time to spare, so instead of doing anything, Kai asked the system to begin running simulations on how he would be able to successfully learn the spells he wanted to.
Of course, he knew how long it could possibly take, and he would likely need the system at any point in time. Therefore, he decided to put 10% of the system's computing power towards this task, while another 5% went to collecting excess mana for the system to use whenever needed.
*Beep*
[Establishing task]
[Time until completion: 57 days, 23 hrs, 59 minutes, 59 seconds]
Kai looked at this time and sighed. He had already decided the path he would be walking in the future. It would not be the path of a regular mage. He could easily do that, however, he learned something rather important.
The main aspect which slowed magi down was not the learning of the spell, nor the collection of enough spiritual energy to form the spell, nor was it the time taken to locate and purchase your spell. No! It was the calculation involved in adjusting the spell to yourself and your Spiritual Energy. These calculations would take progressively longer and longer time periods for each rank of spells and was the main limiting factor for magi whose lifespan were limited.
Many who were not able to complete their calculations fast enough chose to inscribe the spells as they were, which did allow them to reach the next rank, however, it was the weakest of the next rank. Furthermore, such people were unable to rise to another rank in the future, and would simply die of old age if nothing else.
However, contrary to such people, Kai had the system to do the calculations for him, which was… a lot faster than his own personal speed of calculating.
Kai did not face the issue of calculations, and instead faced the issue of Spiritual Energy, and finding his required spells. The former would soon be solved for the immediate future, and the latter was already solved till Rank 1.
Therefore, Kai decided not to follow the crowd and become a mediocre mage. Instead, he would become a powerful mage who had 7 elements. This not only meant that he would be able to use all 7 elements but also that while a normal Apprentice Rank would be able to cast 1 spell, he would be able to cast 7! And this advantage would only grow with the ranks, and a Rank 1 mage would be able to cast 1 Rank 0 and 1 Rank 1 spell, while he would be able to cast 7 Rank 0 and 7 Rank 1 spells; a total of 14 spells!
This was the path he had chosen as it would maximise his advantages.
Night soon came, but this time nobody exited or entered the village, leaving Kai both disappointed and bored.
The following day, Kai got off the branch and stretched out a little before beginning his daily exercise. He needed to continue these to maintain his body's current strength, which was all he had as of now. Only once he began learning spells would he actually have the powers of a mage and be able to protect himself with that.
For now, however, Kai could only depend on his body and sword.