The fireball flew and I felt its impact on my mana reserves. This spell consumed far more mana than its predecessor.

Its destructive capabilities were far beyond its previous version as well. The boar below me got engulfed in flames after the fireball shattered on its hide. It burned for a good minute or so, all while the boar ran around frantically as it was burned alive.

I couldn’t believe the power that I held. I’d killed this boar with a single spell.

What was even more unbelievable, I could still upgrade the spell one more time, which was exactly what I was going to do right now. I’d received a large number of evolution points from that creature.

I checked how many points I had available.

That many points would be enough to upgrade both my fireball and my mana reserves to their current maximum level. I used 55 out of 62 remaining points to increase my mana regeneration by two levels.

After a few minutes of carefully going through the enhancements one by one. I could feel the effects of “Strong Mana Regeneration” kick in immediately.

It would seem I got my answers as to whether higher-tier skills would require more mana to cast. They did, which I should have known from the fact that this blessing forced me to increase my reserves first before being able to acquire higher levels of castable spells.

Honestly, these spells were far too strong to not upgrade. I truly wished I could be more of a knight and opt into defense. The defense and support skills that the yellow evolution promised tugged at me, but I knew now that I was absolutely going for the blue one.

Come to think of it, the yellow evolution also stated something like “Allows spells to be merged.”

Elysa?

Could I get an example?

Crap.

That last one would be quite the spell. I felt conflicted as I felt like it would be something that I’d love to take, if only it was to teach Cellestra the spell…

Why did my mind wander off to her again? I knew that the blue evolution could offer me the best tools to grow stronger, yet here I was considering taking an evolution for someone other than me.

I looked down at the boar that I’d killed with the fireball and watched as the flames ate away at what was now a blackened corpse. There would be nothing left to take home. Not that that was an issue, we still had most of the other boar.

The smell was nice, though…

I thought back to the questions I had earlier. I realized that I’d forgotten to check after I had just evolved. I couldn’t help but put the blame on being distracted by Cellestra. She seemed to do that a lot.

Earlier, I had absent-mindedly stated that the number of evolution points I could get was severely limited to which the blessing had responded without me asking that it was an incorrect assumption.

What’s up with that, Elysa?

That was a good thing to know.

Wait a second…

Which of the three final choices offers speech?

Speech and a way to get more evolution points? That sounded amazing.

I was even more desperate to get there as quickly as possible.

I was eager to see what other spells would be offered if I selected the blue evolution, but I quickly turned my attention back to the present. I still had a long way to go and didn’t want to sit by idly.

It was scary just how easily I killed off that boar, and even scarier how I was eager to repeat it until I’d gathered the necessary power.

May Elysa have mercy on me for mindlessly killing these animals.

I didn’t know what the goddess expected of me. I started wondering about it. I mean, I was a knight and as much as I loved life, I had no trouble taking it when that’s what was needed to protect others. It felt like she was steering me away from that path. Why?

I didn’t let my mind wander off further. I still had to find more prey.

I climbed down and continued my trip deeper into the forest.

It wasn’t that there was no wildlife about, there was plenty, but I knew that squirrels, snakes, and other small animals would be pointless for me to kill. I killed a hedgehog with a venom bolt, just to be sure, but regretted my decision when it gave me no experience.

Poor hedgehog…

I came across an anteater which I blatantly ignored. I already knew it would be pointless.

As I explored I made sure to keep in mind in what direction Cellestra’s home was located.

Cellestra…

How did she survive in this forest, alone? Wild wolves seemed to roam closely around her house. Has she never run into trouble with them? Then again, she could cast fireballs…

Thoughts of the elf had distracted me once more. I almost didn’t notice the creature in front of me until it growled.

There was a wolf before me, and it was close. I quickly cast my physical barrier as it leaped forward.

I had cast it just in case, but I jumped out of the way. I had no intention of getting hit by this creature’s teeth. I knew my barrier was quite strong, but I wasn’t going to test to see just how strong.

As the wolf turned to face me again, I cast my fireball and aimed for its fur. It was bound to burn just as well as the boar’s.

It was slightly bigger and hotter than the one I had cast before. Its power was undeniably greater; I could gather as much from the extra mana that flowed into the spell. I finalized the cast and jumped back after firing.

The fireball struck the beast's snout with an explosion that sent flames rolling across its body. The wolf, like the boar, tried to run away in frantic panic and pain. It didn’t take long for the flames to end its life.

Such a horrible way to kill…

I wished I could wield weapons or at least other forms of magic that could make this as quick and as painless as possible. I doubted my ice lance would do the trick, unless the highest rank was stronger than I expected and it could pierce hide and heart.

I wasn’t sure if I should even upgrade my ice lance for the moment. The destructive ability that this fireball currently had was beyond what I initially thought possible. Besides that, I would have to spend a lot of evolution points on it that I could probably spend better elsewhere.

I walked towards the wolf’s corpse when I heard an angry-sounding howl from nearby.

From the nearby vegetation appeared a wolf far larger in size than the charred remains before me. I think it was about twice the mass. It had spotted me and I swore I could see a fire burning in its eyes. I quickly started climbing inside the nearest tree, knowing that it was likely out for revenge.

It was fast too.

Before I could even cast my fireball properly, it was already jumping at me as I climbed the trunk.

I fired a paralytic venom bolt at it as I ascended. I cleanly hit its back and fired again.

The second bolt missed as the wolf started climbing the tree as well. I made my way up to one of the higher branches and fired another paralytic venom bolt that hit right between the eyes. It didn’t seem to pierce its skull, unfortunately.

I moved to another branch where I would have a better line of sight to its vulnerable parts. I then fired another two paralytic venom bolts that did properly pierce its hide.

I had no idea how many bolts a wolf of this size needed so I kept firing and hitting until I was out of venom. I didn’t dare to use my fireball currently as I could set the tree itself ablaze… with me in it.

I could try to rappel myself down, but this wolf had shown incredible speed. I had no doubt it would outrun me or even snatch me while I was in mid-air before that.

I hoped the venom would do its work soon.