Could he really be Brother Funeng

In the pine forest on the north slope, the snow was ankle-deep. The cold wind howled through the coniferous trees, emitting a sharp whistling sound, yet it could not mask the terrifying low growls coming from ahead.

"Stop."

The dwarf Bronzebeard, walking at the very front, halted his steps and heavily slammed his massive pickaxe into the ground. He twitched his bright red, bulbous nose, his eyes turning fierce. "I smell it. It's the stench of those wolf pups."

Following his gaze, at the leeward slope covered in jagged rocks, over a dozen pairs of eerie green eyes lit up one after another in the shadows.

It was a pack of Tier 1 Wind Wolves.

They were a full size larger than ordinary wild wolves, covered in bluish-gray fur. Saliva dripped from their bared fangs; clearly, they had been starving for a long time.

"Eighteen in total. The terrain is open, and the wind is blowing north... unfavorable for us."

Asik pushed up his monocle. Even though the hand gripping his staff was drenched in sweat, his voice carried an air of forced professional composure.

As a theoretical mage determined to enroll in the Nine Schools Alliance, his mind was filled with various tactical diagrams.

At this moment, in his eyes, this wasn't a battle, but an exam question titled "Encounter Battle Formation Deployment."

That's right, this guy had even considered testing into the command major... Although the competition for the command major was extremely fierce, well, I, Asik, have boundless potential, so it's not impossible!

"Follow my command!"

Asik shouted, attempting to display the authority of a captain:

"Bronzebeard, activate [Rock Skin] and hold the front to draw their aggro! Uncle Rhodes, roam the left flank and cut off their flanking routes! Mr. Lynch... you will stay in the back to provide support and potion supplies, make sure to protect yourself!"

"I will stand in the center and be in charge of damage output!"

This tactical setup was perfectly orthodox, completely matching the standard answers in the Beginner Adventurer's Tactical Manual.

"Alright! Just watch me!"

The dwarf Bronzebeard roared. An earthy yellow glow enveloped his body as he charged into the wolf pack like a cannonball. "Come bite your grandpa, you little bastards!"

The battle erupted instantly.

The Wind Wolves were enraged by this arrogant shortstack and pounced forward with vicious howls. But Bronzebeard's skin was as hard as stone, and coupled with his wildly swinging, impenetrable giant pickaxe, he actually managed to withstand the siege of five or six Wind Wolves all at once.

On the other side, the guard Rhodes drew his longsword. The blade flashed like silk, steadily holding the left flank and forcing back several Wind Wolves that tried to circle behind them.

"Now's the time!"

A sharp gleam flashed in the eyes of Asik, who was in the center of the protective circle.

He raised his staff high and began chanting the incantation he had memorized by heart:

"Fire elements drifting in the atmosphere, heed my call, gather into a scorching sphere..."

He spoke very fast, enunciating every syllable clearly (this was the standard pronunciation he practiced for exams).

A full three seconds passed.

"Fireball!"

A fist-sized, orange-red fireball shot out from the tip of the staff, dragging a fiery tail as it smashed into the wolf pack.

"Boom!"

The fireball exploded on the back of a Wind Wolf, scorching a patch of its fur and making the wolf roll on the ground in agony.

"A hit!"

Asik was ecstatic. Was this the feeling of real combat? Was this the power of magic?

However, excessive excitement caused him to make the most fatal rookie mistake.

He stared intently at the burned Wind Wolf, completely ignoring the other side of the battlefield.

Just as he was preparing to chant his second spell, a slightly smaller but exceptionally cunning Wind Wolf used the chaotic battlefield and the snow cover to silently slip past Rhodes's defense line.

Like a streak of gray lightning, it lunged from a blind spot on the right straight at the defenseless Asik.

"Young Master! Watch your right!"

Rhodes yelled in terror from afar, but he was tangled up by three wolves and couldn't possibly make it in time to rescue him.

Asik abruptly turned his head.

What met his eyes was a gaping, bloody maw right in front of him, along with two rows of razor-sharp fangs. The foul, hot breath was already spraying against his face.

It's over.

Asik's mind went completely blank. His chanting was interrupted, and he had no time to deploy a shield. He could even see his own fear-twisted face reflected in the wolf's pupils.

"Am I going to die here? My dream of going to a prestigious school..."

Just at this critical, life-and-death moment.

"Swish—"

There was no chanted aria, no violent fluctuation of elements, and not even the motion of waving a staff.

There was only an incredibly light, incredibly fast screech, as if the air itself was being forcibly torn apart.

Lynch, who was standing in the back "watching the show," merely raised a single finger and pointed it at the airborne Wind Wolf.

[Arcane Blast - Modified]

The next instant.

The Wind Wolf, which was less than ten centimeters away from Asik's throat, was struck in the head as if by an invisible giant hammer.

"Bang!"

A muffled thud.

The Wind Wolf's skull instantly deformed and caved in. Immediately after, its forward-lunging body flew backward at a speed that defied the laws of physics, tracing a miserable parabola in the air before heavily smashing into a pine tree five meters away.

Snow cascaded down from the tree, burying the corpse that hadn't even managed to let out a yelp.

Killed in a single strike.

The entire battlefield seemed to freeze for a second.

Asik maintained his terrified posture, staring blankly at the wolf that had flown away, and then blankly turned his head to look at the pharmacist behind him, who still had a calm expression and was putting his hand back into his pocket.

With the sudden death of the alpha wolf, the remaining Wind Wolves were scared out of their wits by this terrifying strike. Tucking their tails between their legs, they whimpered and scattered in all directions.

"Hey? Don't run! I haven't had enough yet!" Bronzebeard waved his pickaxe, attempting to give chase, but the wolves ran faster than rabbits.

The crisis was averted.

Rhodes rushed over immediately to check on Asik's condition: "Young Master! Are you alright?"

Asik ignored Rhodes.

As if he had lost his soul, he mechanically pushed the guard aside and stumbled over to the dead Wind Wolf.

He crouched down and inspected the corpse.

There were no scorch marks, no frozen stiffness, and no lacerations from wind blades.

The Wind Wolf's skull was completely shattered, as if it had been struck head-on by a battering ram, or blasted at close range by a solid iron cannonball.

Pure, extreme, physical impact.

"What... what is this?"

Asik looked up, his eyes behind the monocle filled with shock and bewilderment. He looked at Lynch, who was leisurely walking over, and his voice was dry:

"Mr. Lynch... what kind of magic... was that just now?"

"That?"

Lynch looked at the corpse, then at Asik, his tone entirely unremarkable, as if he were saying 'I just threw a rock':

"[Arcane Missile]."

"Huh?!"

Asik's voice instantly rose eight octaves, cracking.

"You call that an Arcane Missile?!"

As a theoretical apprentice, he knew all too well what an Arcane Missile was.

It was a mage's beginner trick, shooting a few purple spheres of gravity fluctuation that would at most leave a bruise on a person. It couldn't even pierce a wooden shield.

But what on earth was that strike just now?

Instant cast! No projectile trajectory! Powerful enough to blast a Tier 1 magical beast's skull into powder!

And you call this a basic spell?!

Besides both being physical attacks triggered by magic, do they have anything else in common, I ask you?

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Asik shook his head madly. "That's not what the books say! Arcane Missiles are supposed to be weak gravitational fluctuations, how could they cause such physical pulverization?"

"Huh? Is that what the books say?"

Lynch scratched his head with an innocent face. "Then I'm not too sure. You know I've never been to school, I just figured things out blindly at home."

He threw his hands up and explained sincerely,

"I just thought, since it's a missile, it definitely needs to fly fast and hit hard, right? So I tried compressing my magic power... and as I kept practicing, it turned out like this."

"I also find it quite strange, why doesn't it glow?"

Hearing this utterly pretentious humblebrag, Asik was completely petrified.

"Figured things out blindly?"

"Kept practicing and it turned out like this?"

"Thought it didn't hit hard enough, so you compressed the magic power yourself?"

These words echoed in Asik's mind, shattering his entire worldview.

This was like an elementary school student saying, "I thought basic arithmetic was too slow, so I blindly figured out a set of calculus on my own."

"Chantless casting..."

"Magic structure modification..."

"And... the high-tier technique of converting energy into pure kinetic force..."

Asik looked at Lynch's harmless face, and the conjecture in his heart became clearer and clearer, making him tremble all over.

How is this some countryside apothecary?

This is clearly a magic genius with terrifying intuition and talent!

Only the kind of monster that appears once in centuries could ignore the rigid rules of textbooks and, relying solely on instinct, modify a basic cantrip into a weapon of mass destruction!

"So... is this what a true powerhouse is?"

Asik swallowed hard, feeling that his proud dream of attending a prestigious academy seemed so ridiculous and pale in front of this unorthodox genius.

"Mr. Lynch..."

Asik suddenly stood up straight and bowed deeply to Lynch, his tone more respectful than ever before:

"I have been enlightened!"

Lynch: "?"

Wait, what were you enlightened about? I just did a basic attack!