About a week had passed since coming back from the Magic Academy of the Feis Royal Family.
Lis had also been leading a fulfilling life during this time, continuing his weapon practice with Welf and the others during the day, while also picking up some useful Martial Arts. At night, he would return and immerse himself in the laboratory, often staying up late into the night.
Lis's hard work had not gone without reward, as his pace of weapon training became faster and faster. He was close to raising all the weapons in his plan to an intermediate proficiency level, and he had learned a bunch of related Martial Arts as well.
New arcane spells had also made considerable progress. Lis had improved two more arcane spells, which were an improved version of the One-Circle Magic "Oily Technique" called "Fueling Technique," and an improved Three-Ring version based on the Second Circle Magic "Weakening Ray," called "Ageing Ray."
One-Circle Arcane "Fueling Technique" took Oily Technique as its foundation, but Lis deliberately adjusted it to enhance the viscosity and flammability of the oil produced. When combined with his most familiar Fire Magic spells, and especially with his Three-Ring Arcane "Blue Ball Skill," the terrifying blue flames mixed with sticky, flammable oil were simply a nightmare for melee Professionals.
As for the Three-Ring Arcane "Ageing Ray," it was an unintended product from one of Lis's experimental Magic Model adjustments.
Originally, Lis intended to tweak the "Weakening Ray" to enhance its effects on depleting resilience and elemental resistance, but he discovered that the resultant arcane "Ageing Ray" could reduce an enemy's physical strength upon impact.
After a few tests, Lis found that this effect could weaken an enemy's agility, strength, and resilience by about 30%, although this reduction might be lessened by certain resistances, such as when applied to Welf, which weakened him by about 5%. Nevertheless, for Lis at present, it was already a very powerful restraining tactic.
Since the effect appeared as if the enemy had suddenly aged by several years, Lis directly named it "Ageing Ray."
Although the effect was only temporary, it scared the guard Bill, who served as a test subject, enough to think that Lis had gained the power to deprive him of his life. Begging for mercy, he repeatedly kowtowed, which was somewhat amusing and frustrating for Lis.
Even though two more arcane spells had been successfully improved, Lis didn't stop pushing forward. After all, the largest ace up a Mage's sleeve is an insatiable spellbook, ready to offer effective countermeasures for any situation.
He had a long way to go!
Seeing that the arcane subsystem seemed to have transformed into a talent aiding his Magic Model adjustments without the need to spend Experience Points to luck out as in his past life, he was even more inclined to make the most of his time.
As time trickled away, Lis's weapon training plan approached its end.
With Lis's ten arrows hitting the 50-meter target one after another, the system's notification sound arrived as expected.
[...99%....100%!]
[Your bow and arrow weapon proficiency has advanced to intermediate]
["Intermediate Bow Control": You have mastered the basic techniques of using a bow, and your power when using bow and arrow has increased significantly]
Lis put down the longbow in his hands and sighed. Finally, his efforts during this period had not been in vain!
Now he lacked only the proficiency of the last intermediate weapon to gain "All Martial Arts Mastery"!
Moreover, through the battles over this period, Lis had fully integrated the combat experience and tactics from his past game memories with his own skills, making everything perfectly smooth and natural.
It was a true accomplishment of skill!
Lis felt confident that he could now steadily defeat an unrelenting Dison.
"Young master, hard work pays off!" Seeing Lis put down his bow and arrow, Bill immediately rushed over from the side, handing Lis a towel he had prepared in advance with a sycophantic compliment,
"To think that after only two days of practice, he could hit the target ten times in a row from such a distance, Young Master Lis truly is a peerless genius! I see the next legendary warrior of the Kingdom is none other than you, young master!"
Lis took the warm towel and gave the guy a sidelong glance.
What was that, being so bold to flatter? The flattery was so over the top that he didn't believe a word of it; instead, it made him feel so awkward he wanted to throttle the fellow.
"The young master is indeed a genius," Welf also came over, nodding sincerely as he spoke.
Over this period of practice, Welf had been amazed not only by Lis's astonishing learning speed but also because, in between trainings, he had sparred with Lis a few times. Although he had always held back his power, Lis's spell power, far surpassing that of mages of the same level, and his seasoned and unique combat awareness always made Welf feel as if he were facing a top mercenary battle-hardened by countless fights.
Logically speaking, Young Master Lis shouldn't have had much real combat experience, having always been immersed in the Magic Academy and laboratories studying spells. But those mature and stable combat skills and the unflustered combat awareness in the face of danger could not be honed without hundreds of battles, and not just simple sparring sessions but real, life-threatening fights.
Welf couldn't figure out why Lis was so adept at real combat, and he could only attribute it to the young master's exceptional talent.
Lis handed the bow and arrows to Welf, wiping his sweat as he said, "Let's call it quits with the training for now; I'm taking a few days off, I have other matters to attend to."
"Yes, young master," Welf replied, casually tossing the bow and arrows he received from Lis to a man named Bill nearby and asked, "So, are we heading back to the mansion now?"
Lis glanced at the sky, judging that it was only around three in the afternoon and after a moment of thought he said:
"You go back first, I have somewhere else I need to be."
"Don't you need me to come with you?" Welf was taken aback, since he had been Lis's guard on every outing these past few days.
"No need, you go back too. Tell Joyce there's no need to prepare dinner for me."
Lis wasn't worried about his own safety. Although he had been probed a few days ago, he had Welf deliberately observe on several recent outings and they noticed no one was tracking them.
Given that their enemies wouldn't deploy advanced professionals at the time, anyone tracking him wouldn't be able to hide their tracks from Welf, who was an advanced warrior.
This meant that there were unlikely to be any attacks against him any time soon, allowing him to calmly plan some matters.
Following the experience on Langai Street, before every outdoor training session Lis now purposely changed into ordinary clothes, looking like a regular, handsome civilian—a bit of concealment meant no garnering undue attention.
Being a mage, as long as he wasn't in mage equipment, nothing about Lis's appearance was particularly telling. But Welf was different; his muscular physique and the oppressive air that couldn't be concealed by a warrior made him as conspicuous as a sore thumb, even in a crowd.
If Lis wanted to do something incognito and people recognized Welf the moment they left the house, what would be the point of hiding?
As for the other guards, having them along or not didn't make much difference. It would be more comfortable for him to go on his own.
After placing some weapons into his storage ring, Lis pushed open the gate and walked out.
His warehouse was located in a small alley on Belle Street, surrounded by ordinary residences and relatively quiet.
Lis checked his bearings; his base in his previous life was in Bright City, with which he was very familiar, so he headed towards his destination.
Objective: The Mercenary Guild!