Angela

Matthew slid his fingertips across the central crystal in the sorcery training ground, selecting a water elemental shield to cast on the puppet.

"Splash—", a stream of clear water appeared, instantly transforming into a transparent shield that enveloped the puppet completely.

The water rippled slowly across the surface of the shield, emanating a cool sensation that dispelled the residual heat of the explosion. Matthew felt that the temperature in the room had dropped considerably.

He raised his hand, and the [Firebird Spell Scroll] floated into the air. After its first activation, the scroll was now somewhat damaged, and the runes on it had become charred, caused by the high-load operation of magic power flowing through the spell circuit.

The Firebird Scroll can be cast twice. When it is cast a third time, the runes on the scroll will be unable to withstand the overload of magic and will burn up.

Without much thought, Matthew channeled his magic and poured it all into the [Firebird Scroll] once more.

"Bang!!!" A raging firebird spread its fiery wings, flashed past, and slammed into the puppet, instantly annihilating it with fierce flames.

The moment the firebird exploded, countless dust particles rose, and a tremendous impact swept over, making Matthew's wizard robes flutter loudly. "Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!" The moisture on the shield quickly boiled and then evaporated, white smoke filling the entire wizarding training ground.

Matthew casually waved his hand, using magic to manipulate the flowing air into a gust of wind that scattered the white smoke.

He stared intently at the thermometer display in front of him and found that the value was 200!

"The [Firebird Scroll] dealt 200 degrees of damage to the golem that had been given a water elemental shield!"

Matthew couldn't help but look surprised.

"That means the Water Elemental Shield can only block 150 degrees of damage from the [Firebird Scroll]."

Keep in mind that the Water Elemental Shield can withstand 200 degrees of damage from [Burning Hand].

"The scroll I created is not only far more powerful than a regular [Firebird Scroll], but its elemental weakness is also greatly reduced!"

This reminded him of a saying from his past life: "Firepower is the only truth!"

"If Mold were to be hit by that Firebird spell, with his 28 points of constitution, he would be severely injured if not killed."

Of course, this is on the premise that no defensive magic has been cast on him.

Although the power of the Firebird Scroll far exceeded Matthew's expectations, he did not let his guard down against Mold.

After all, the other party is only a mid-level apprentice, and should have many ways to protect himself.

The past month has been uneventful; Molde has not attacked Matthew again, but this may be the calm before the storm.

Therefore, Matthew needs even stronger offensive methods.

"That's not enough, it needs to be even stronger!"

His next goal remains to improve the Burning Hand.

"But how can we improve it?"

He tried to optimize the spell model of [Burning Hand], but he found that there was no room for improvement in this basic sorcery.

This is the final version that has been optimized by a large number of wizards. Matthew's current knowledge and computing power are simply insufficient to make any deeper changes.

Matthew raised his chin, lost in thought. "Making changes to the existing structure is unlikely. It seems we need to find a new direction."

Just then, a mechanical notification sound came to his ear, interrupting his thoughts.

"My dear apprentice..."

Matthew turned around and found that the speaker was an alchemical creature.

This is the butler puppet of the wizard training ground, similar in function to Alpha in the canteen of the Winterworld School, and can only perform some simple tasks.

"Your free access to the Wizardry Training Grounds this month has expired."

"Can I borrow one magic stone fragment for ten days? Is there a fee?"

Matthew did not choose to renew his subscription. Now that he has finished testing the [Firebird Scroll], his proficiency with [Burning Hand] has reached the point of instant casting, so he has not yet used it in the training ground.

Matthew walked out of the witchcraft training ground.

"Time flies. I need to make more Firebird Scrolls when I get back."

"There aren't many apprentices in the school who make sorcery scrolls, and their scarcity has led to a premium price. In addition, the scrolls I make are of better quality, so the profit might be higher than that of healing potions. Perhaps I can sell some."

With another way to earn magic stones, Matthew's mood lightened considerably.

He walked along the winding path, taking small, quick steps toward the teaching building.

Today we have a general course on spiritual studies.

Although the course description states that it will not be taught by a formal wizard, in the spirit of not taking free knowledge for granted...

These public courses still attract a large number of apprentices who audit them, so he quickened his pace.

……

ten minutes later……

Matthew went to the third floor of the teaching building.

Because he arrived early, there weren't many apprentices in the classroom at the moment, so he was able to sit in the first row without any problems.

Matthew couldn't help but chuckle as he recalled how, when he was in college on Earth, people would always put their things on the seats in advance to reserve them.

"Luckily, this isn't a custom here."

He didn't want to waste any time, so with some time before class, he pondered again how to improve the [Burning Hand].

And so, as time passed, other apprentices entered the classroom one after another.

Some apprentices who arrived a little later saw that the first row was already full and could only resentfully search for seats in the back rows.

The classroom was silent. The students here were all novice apprentices, and like Matthew, they were unwilling to waste any time.

Some people took out notebooks and wrote something, some were deep in thought, and some even took out a monster skull and started carving runes on it.

"Tap tap tap!!!" At this moment, a steady footstep broke the silence in the classroom.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up.

Matthew then pulled himself out of his thoughts and turned his gaze to the classroom door, observing the figure entering.

But just as he recognized the figure entering, he froze, then felt a pang of unease as unpleasant memories resurfaced. Because Matthew knew this person.

The woman who entered had long, flowing black hair that revealed a beautiful face with dark eyes and a high nose bridge, but her expression was somewhat indifferent.

Although she was wrapped in a large black robe, her voluptuous figure was still undeniable.

The robe was a short-sleeved wizard's robe, the sleeves only reaching the woman's upper arms, her hands were exposed, but the skin on her hands could not be seen.

Because her hands were covered in bandages.

Behind the woman followed an unidentified, jet-black python.

The python was enormous, like a thick, large tree.

The snake's tongue hissed and flicked in and out. Its five-meter-long body was covered in jet-black scales. It crawled slowly across the ground, making a metallic scraping sound.

The person who arrived was Angela, the woman who used Matthew's body for experimental research in the Winter Realm.