Charlie had prepared for a tough battle, but the opponent surrendered at the start, leaving him a bit listless.
If he had known this would happen, why bother letting his team members be so arrogant and overbearing, ending up with egg on their faces, at least this didn't happen in Twilight Town, otherwise, the faces of these two teams would have been badly tarnished, of course, if it had gone that way, they might have stubbornly clung on with Charlie until one side was dead or alive.
The reality also has some impact on Charlie, at least he can't go back to his original team, even though he doesn't have to worry about retaliation from the two teams, his original teammates may also develop some resentment towards him.
It's a good opportunity to hunt alone, try the magical beasts in the Twilight Forest, and also assess Charlie's current true strength.
Charlie still remembers that before coming to Twilight Town, he asked Master Nal how he could make greater progress in the analysis of advanced magic. He is a bit perplexed now.
Master Nal asked him a question in return, "Charlie, do you know where your shortcomings lie? This is important, it determines your future heights. Think carefully about this problem, if you can't figure it out, try it out in practice, only by understanding what you are most lacking can you know what you should do?"
This remark awakened Charlie, he indeed encountered problems in the analysis of advanced spell models, the analysis progress was very slow, even with the chip's assistance, it was still very slow, it seems the calculation methods on Earth were of no help in understanding spell models.
However, this problem does not seem to bother Qingtong, she advances steadily at the pace of about one spell model per ten days, perhaps now she is not Charlie's opponent because her means are not as abundant as Charlie's, but this is just a matter of time, once Qingtong masters the fifth-tier frost spells, the battle between them will be a foregone conclusion, no matter how many means Charlie has, he cannot make up for the difference in spell tier.
Qingtong does not have outstanding computational ability, nor has she learned any amazing methods, her advantage is her water elemental affinity, affinity is a very mysterious thing, it can make the magical elements "emotionalize", making them like you, and the comprehension of spell models just becomes a matter of course.
Although this is unscientific, it is indeed the reality that Charlie is facing.
Qingtong's water elemental affinity is about to break through 100, while Charlie's average is not more than 10, except for shadow elements, due to the large amount of ghost mushrooms, Charlie's shadow affinity has reached 15, and his shadow resistance is as high as 31, this is a rare bright spot in Charlie's mediocre talents.
As a result, in the comprehension of light magic spells, Charlie's progress is very slow, from the time he started trying to analyze spell models, until now he has only mastered one fourth-tier light magic 'Holy Light Barrier', and the learning of the 'Holy Flame' rune has also cost him a lot of effort.
In the shadow aspect, Charlie's progress is fast, the most obvious phenomenon being that the 'Shadow Arrow' scroll magic he invented exceeds the killing power of fourth-tier magic, and through reverse engineering of the rune principles, Charlie has mastered this spell, which is currently the highest level spell he possesses, comparable to a fifth-tier spell.
Unfortunately, in Twilight Town, shadow element spells have a greatly reduced effect on the local creatures, not as practical as a fireball.
Thinking about this, Charlie roughly guesses the intent behind Master Nal's words.
Charlie seems to know many things: various schools of magic, herbs, alchemy, cooking, scrolls, enchantments, rune engraving, and he also shows outstanding potential in the combat specialist aspect, his strength, agility and physique are all not low, and his archery skills are superb, these things can bring him a certain amount of combat power, which is Charlie's advantage.
But when it comes to the deeper realms, his scattered shortcomings begin to emerge, they are like little ornaments, no matter how many ornaments, they can't match someone else's mastery in a single field.
Summarizing the above considerations, Charlie roughly understands his own shortcomings, on the one hand, his talent is too poor, requiring compensation through hard work; on the other hand, his studies are too scattered, needing to make some choices and temporarily abandon some factors that are not of much help, such as: herbs, alchemy, and the activation of his hidden bloodline.
While thinking, Charlie was advancing in the dense forest, unconsciously reaching the edge of the collective hunt.
It is said that further ahead is the boundary between the dense forest and the Spore Forest, the Spore Forest is home to giant mushrooms, and during the rainy season, the mushroom forest will produce a large amount of spores, light as cotton, dispersing with the wind, falling to the ground with the rain, most of the spores dying, forming a layer of humus on the ground, becoming excellent soil for the fortunate spores.
After a rain, the entire Spore Forest is dotted with mushrooms of all colors, some of them rare treasures, attracting a large number of magical beasts to forage, so the boundary between the dense forest and the Spore Forest is the most dangerous area of Twilight Town, but also a place full of opportunities, if you're lucky, you can receive the blessings of the gods and become rich overnight; if you're unlucky, you will face the Grim Reaper and lose everything.
In the taverns of Twilight Town, many of the amazing anecdotes being hotly discussed have occurred in this area.
Charlie was wondering whether he would encounter a god or a devil, when his gaze inadvertently swept over a gnarled, withered old tree, in the gloomy environment, that spot seemed particularly dim, easy to overlook.
However, the chip instantly detected the inconsistency in the contrast of light and dark tones, and after focusing, Charlie finally found the source of the anomaly.
Charlie's body couldn't help but stiffen slightly, the hairs on the back of his neck gradually standing up, his breathing barely perceptible, at the point where his gaze fell, the originally dim and dark spot now revealed two faintly glowing reddish spots, flickering like embers in the wind, growing brighter and brighter.
It was a sleek, graceful panther, its entire body pure black, the fur smooth and glossy like satin, constantly emanating a faint black mist.
'Shadow Panther', a fourth-tier magical beast, equivalent to the strength of a peak-level Astral Mage, generally the nightmare of magic apprentices, only a team composed of an Astral Mage and a combat specialist of the same level would have the strength to hunt it down.
And now, it was crouching in front of Charlie, a pair of red eyes coldly staring at Charlie, icy and desolate, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.
So, was it showing friendliness towards Charlie?! Obviously not!
Charlie's full attention was focused on it, he slowly, with one hand adjusting the position of the bow and arrow, the other reaching back to draw an arrow, this was a probe.
When the 'Holy Flame' rune was exposed to the air, triggering an extremely subtle holy magic wave behind Charlie, the shadow panther's hind legs twitched slightly.
Charlie drew the bow and fired in a lightning-fast motion, the Holy Flame long arrow whistling through the air, in the life-and-death moment, this rapid arrow drawing displayed Charlie at his best state.
But his opponent was the shadow panther, a blur, and the panther shifted sideways a few meters, then suddenly pushed off the ground with its crouching body, pouncing straight at Charlie.
In an instant, Charlie's fingertips shot out two 'Lightning Balls', a third-tier nature spell, Charlie still used the activation skill of the Rushing Torrent Ring.
At the same time, Charlie drew his sword, bringing it down towards the shadow panther's head, the Titan's Might spell completed in an instant, the blade edge even faster than before.
In the Twilight Town rare specimen catalog, the characteristics of the shadow panther were introduced, it is a creature affine with shadow, this type of creature has innate resistance to all kinds of magic, only physical damage unable to be reduced.
Charlie didn't expect these two lightning arrows to inflict much damage, as long as they served as a hindrance, his killing move was held back.
The blade edge cut into the shadow panther's skull, breaking through a layer of skin, but was blocked by the sturdy skull bone, a tough elasticity transmitted to his hand, the knight's sword feeling like it had struck a rubber pad, without any force.
At the same time, the shadow panther's sharp claws reached out, the keen talons easily tearing open Charlie's clothes, leaving several long gashes on his chest.
Instantly, a cold and numbing sensation swept through his entire body, Charlie couldn't help but shiver, his chest suddenly losing all sensation.