Facing Ronan's "charge", the Wizard was calm and even chuckled, seemingly at a loss for words regarding Ronan's approach.
Ronan also realized halfway through his charge that a typical Wizard's combat style should involve maintaining distance to allow enough space for casting spells and throwing them at each other, unlike his head-on rush which was rather rare.
He was a complete novice, but he couldn't afford to think about that now.
[Charging Weapon] was effective in close combat; if he didn't get close enough, he would just be a target.
"Take advantage of the moment he's chanting to strike!"
Ronan's plan was clear, but the next second he almost freaked out.
He saw the Wizard casually raise his hand, and a ring on his left ring finger flashed, followed by a transparent light screen rising quickly, encasing him entirely.
"Damn!"
Ronan couldn't help but blurt out a curse.
"Protection Magic Tool?!"
No wonder he wasn't afraid of getting caught off guard; he was prepared all along.
A Protection Magic Tool, even at its worst, must be at least an Intermediate Zero Rank because even the most basic [Protection] rune is of Intermediate Zero Rank.
Could he, a mere Level 3 Wizard Apprentice, break the defense of an Intermediate Zero Rank Magic Tool?
Ronan didn't know, but since he was already halfway through, he had no choice but to brace himself and continue.
"Whoa!"
As he approached within about five meters of the Wizard, Ronan raised his right hand, uttering a short syllable from his mouth.
Instantly, the dormant spiritual power in his mind boiled like sudden raging water, vibrating rapidly at a specific frequency.
Expert Level...
[Energy Missile]!
As Ronan chanted and raised his hand, the Wizard inside the protective light shield smirked mockingly.
Just when a short syllable fell, a large quantity of energy particles surged, the air twisted, and a deep blue light ball about the size of two fists spun into existence in the void...
That moment stunned the Wizard.
"Uh.. this.. so fast?!"
The deep blue light ball, dragging a terrifying howling tearing noise, reached him in a flash, and the Wizard's expression drastically changed as he hastily raised his hand...
"Boom!"
A terrifying blast of air erupted, and the wave of dispersing energy particles made even Ronan involuntarily step back.
"What kind of spell is this?!"
Amid the turbulent air wave, a sharp and distorting voice emerged.
Looking up, Ronan saw the Grey Robe-clad Wizard staring at him in disbelief.
In front of him, a transparent white protective shield already showed large, visible, clear cracks.
Ronan was shocked himself.
The next second turned into immense elation and ecstasy.
"The power of Expert Level [Energy Missile] is so strong? It shattered Intermediate Zero Rank Magic Tools with a single hit?!"
Ronan took a leap forward, chanted again, and fired another [Energy Missile].
The Expert Level's Proficiency level displayed its prowess once more.
Ronan's spiritual power quivered like transparent strings, short auxiliary spell syllables uttered, gathering a large amount of energy particles...
The entire casting process was as smooth and natural as flowing water.
As Ronan raised his hand for the second time, the Wizard, recovering from his shock, attempted to chant and cast a spell immediately.
But before he could finish chanting half of the spell, the second deep blue light ball had already whistled towards him.
"Boom!—Crack!"
Accompanied by the sound of something shattering, the light ball burst open, and the dispersed energy particles, like a mottled turbid flow, rushed past.
When the noise settled, Ronan carefully took two steps forward, only to realize that the Wizard was left with just over half of his body stuck in the ground, the part above his chest and abdomen had already been blasted to pieces by the Energy Missile.
Ronan's first reaction was to relax.
Then came surprise and joy... Had he actually won? And it seemed quite easily?
Finally came the waves of nausea surging up from his stomach.
During regular magic practice, he had killed many wild animals like wolves and deer, which were often blown to pieces.
But those were just animals, having the corpse of a person missing half of its body right in front of him, especially one that he had killed himself, caused him a strong discomfort both physically and psychologically, like the emptiness, numbness, and disgust of the day after a hangover...
It took him a quite long time to calm his emotions slightly. Ronan then began to review the battle.
First was the surprise at the power of the Expert-Level Energy Missile.
Upon reaching expert proficiency, Ronan knew the Energy Missile was much powerful, already beyond the typical Low Zero Rank Level Magic.
But he hadn't expected it to be so strong that it could blast through a Protection Magic Tool of an Intermediate Magic Tool with just two shots.
"Typical Intermediate Zero Rank Magic might not even have this effect."
"This is still just expert level, what if it's trained to above expert level..."
Ronan's heart thudded excitedly, feeling like he had stumbled upon some treasure.
He instantly made up his mind to vigorously train the Energy Missile when he got back, to see what this ordinary Low Zero Rank Level Magic would transform into when leveled up.
Standing there excitedly for a while, Ronan calmed himself down and prepared to leave, but he took a few steps and turned back.
"Searching the body... almost forgot to search the body..."
Ronan approached the Wizard's corpse with a mix of complex emotions.
Turning his head to one side, he tried hard not to look at the upper body of the corpse.
He carefully removed two rings from the corpse's hand, then swiftly stepped back a few paces and examined them in his hands.
Both rings emitted fluctuations of Magic Energy.
One was black, with a plain Turquoise Stone set in the middle.
The other ring was entirely red and looked much prettier than the first.
Ronan infused his spiritual power into the black Turquoise Stone ring and quickly found traces of Enchantment runes inside.
This ring had a total of two runes, both were Intermediate Protection runes.
Ronan felt a surge of joy.
A Protection Magic Tool with Double Intermediate Runes, even among Intermediate Magic Tools, is considered of good quality, much more expensive than most other Intermediate Magic Tools that pair one Intermediate Rune with one or two Low-level Runes.
These were two Protection runes, which could be considered quite superior.
Looking back, Ronan realized he needed to reassess the power of the Expert-Level Energy Missile.
Protection from Double Runes is much stronger than from a single rune, to crush it with just two shots, this power... felt almost on par with an Advanced Zero Rank Spell.
"Mainly because casting is fast, consecutive shots within a short time span, leaving no time for buffering at all..."
Ronan sighed twice, then looked at the other Magic Tool ring.
The remaining red ring looked attractive, but it turned out to be just a Low Zero Rank Magic Tool.
The ring was enchanted with a Fireball Technique rune, and two other runes Ronan did not recognize, both low-level.
Ronan guessed that the Wizard had cast three Fireball Techniques chasing him before, and the third Fireball Technique immediately following the second was likely released with the help of this Fireball Ring.
He figured the Wizard wanted to catch him off guard and take him down swiftly, only he hadn't anticipated Ronan's quick reflexes and agility, allowing him to dodge away.
So he simply stopped to drink a potion to replenish his energy.