Soon, as night fell, long after Kevin had left, a massive figure appeared beside the corpse of the Raging Bear Beast's cub. Gazing at the body on the ground, it let out a roar that shook the heavens and earth. Its crimson eyes scanned the surroundings before locking onto the direction Kevin had departed.
Inside the cave, Kevin, who was roasting bear paws, suddenly shivered.
"Hiss... I feel a chill down my spine, like something bad is about to happen," he muttered.
"By the way, you said that Raging Bear Beast was a cub, right? If I killed it, will its mother come after me?" Kevin suddenly remembered something and asked.
"Possibly," Bella replied.
Kevin gasped and said, "If its mother comes knocking, I'm afraid I'm done for..."
An adult Raging Bear Beast possesses at least seventh-tier combat strength, and encountering one now would be a death sentence for Kevin!
"Rest assured, with Catherine's magical fluctuations around, even if an adult Raging Bear Beast detects you, it wouldn't dare to approach," Bella said.
Kevin breathed a sigh of relief, nodding, "Then there's no problem... Wow, these bear paws smell so good!"
"Add some honey..."
...
After training all night, Kevin opened his eyes.
"Your magical fluctuations have already jumped from a newcomer of the third tier to the early stage of the third tier. It's estimated that you could break through to the fourth tier in another three days," Bella said.
Kevin nodded, "The third tier to the fourth tier should be a bottleneck, right?"
"Yes, below the fourth tier are considered low-level mages. Reaching the fourth, fifth, and sixth tiers makes one a mid-level mage. The seventh tier is a senior mage, the eighth tier is a grand mage, the ninth tier is a mage master, and the tenth tier is a grand mage master. After the tenth tier, one becomes a Saint-level mage, also known as a Saint Mage."
"Each tier in the first ten tiers is divided into newcomer, early, mid, late, and peak stages. Within the same tier, each minor stage represents a class of combat strength," Bella explained, but then she shrugged slightly.
"But for you, the division into minor stages in the early stages isn't that important. With your ability to cast spells without cooldown, you can easily be invincible within your tier and even fight across tiers."
"That's for sure!" Kevin confidently said, then after dealing with breakfast, he sealed the cave and prepared to enter the forest to fight monsters and level up.
In Kevin's view, what he needs most right now is to improve his combat skills, such as the casting of magic, the transition between spells, and the pure use of mana.
In this world, mana has many uses. For example, mana can be directly converted into various elemental powers: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, light, dark, ice, wind, and thunder. However, due to different personal attributes, the efficiency of converting mana into elemental mana varies.
For instance, if a person has a fire attribute constitution, their efficiency in converting mana into fire attribute mana is higher compared to others, allowing one point of pure mana to be converted into two points of fire attribute mana.
But if they were to convert it into water attribute mana, which is contrary to their constitution, it might be one point of pure mana converted into half a point of water attribute mana.
Moreover, with continuous practice and conversion, the difference in conversion efficiency will also become increasingly significant.
These differences may not be apparent in the early stages, but the further one progresses, the more significant the differences become, which is one of the reasons why mages need to confirm their development direction after the third tier.
If a mage with a fire attribute constitution insists on cultivating the conversion of water attribute mana, their achievements will definitely be lower than those of their peers, with extremely low efficiency.
However... Kevin doesn't have this worry.
He has a full attribute fit!
So when he converts any attribute of mana, the conversion rate is the highest!
Isn't that delightful?
So Kevin walked along, continuously converting the mana in his hand into various attributes to practice mana conversion and improve conversion efficiency.
He walked on the forest path, one hand gently stroking Gurgle on his shoulder, the other holding a mana orb that kept changing into various colors, red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white... a riot of colors, very beautiful to look at.
But after practicing for a while, he felt a bit dizzy.
He learned from Bella that converting mana consumes mental energy, and he had expended a lot of mental energy along the way, which was why he felt a bit dizzy and sleepy.
He had to stop practicing.
Unlike mana, mental energy cannot be restored through cultivation but must be naturally recovered or replenished with corresponding potions and magic arrays.
However, for Kevin, there was another option—fighting monsters.
He planned to kill a few magical beasts to improve and replenish his mental energy.
But after walking for a long time without encountering any magical beasts, even though he had walked seven or eight miles.
And the surrounding forest was quiet, not a single chirp or bird call, very silent.
So silent that Kevin felt a bit creepy.
"Usually, by this time, I can hear some sounds, but today it's so quiet..." Kevin swallowed his saliva, "In movies, this is usually when something happens."
The more he thought about it, the more ominous his premonition became.
So he made a decisive turn and left.
"Huh?" Bella looked at him in confusion, "Aren't we supposed to fight monsters and level up?"
"That also has to ensure safety. The further I go, the more something feels wrong. Although I haven't developed any danger intuition yet, I trust my judgment. There should be danger ahead, so I'd better leave first!"
Bella was a bit speechless, "You're too timid, aren't you?"
Kevin glanced at her, "Hey, what do you mean I'm timid? This is called being cautious!"
"I'm not a mindless protagonist who just rushes in. I haven't developed yet, so if I want to take risks, it'll be later..."
"Roar!!!"
Before he could finish speaking, a roar suddenly came from the forest behind, carrying a vicious tone.
Kevin shuddered all over and without thinking, he took off running.
As he ran, he said, "See, I told you, there's definitely danger!"
"Listening to this roar, it also sounds a bit like a bear's call. I guess it's the mother of that bear cub."
"This is still a cunning bear, even knows how to ambush in the bushes!"
"Because of Catherine's mana fluctuations, it didn't dare to get close. If I hadn't been farther away, I would probably have been caught by it!"
Bella opened her mouth, but in the end, she just nodded, "You're right..."
She even had a bit of admiration for Kevin's foresight.
While running, Kevin also looked back from time to time, and his scalp immediately went numb.