Chapter 102: Elemental Calamity
At the villa entrance, four people and one horse appeared out of thin air.
“Ah—” Several exclamations rang out.
Anse turned his head to look, and Tina was standing not far away with a group of servants, holding a food box in her hand.
Facing his gaze, Tina slightly lowered her head, her fingers tightly pinching the hem of her clothes: “Mr. Anse, it’s time for dinner.”
“Mm, thank you, Miss Tina.” Anse said casually, still thinking about that twisted treant in his mind.
Brat knew Anse too well and could tell from his tone that he was distracted, so he quickly went up to greet them: “Leave it to us.”
“This… alright.” Tina looked at Anse and felt a bit disappointed seeing that he wasn’t paying attention here.
Brat and the others took the food box and watched Tina and the others leave before carrying the food box into the villa.
“You guys eat, I’ll go back to my room to study it.” Anse dismounted and hurried upstairs.
Finn hummed in acknowledgment, sniffed, opened the food box, and his eyes lit up when he saw the two-foot-long grilled fish.
Brat looked thoughtfully at Anse’s back; the earlier experience felt somewhat dreamlike, and combined with the word “base,” it made him a bit expectant.
Returning to the luxurious master bedroom, Anse plopped down on the carpet and sank into his mind to review the earlier combat record.
‘Cursed Treant, Challenge Rating 9…’
A treant of this level was equivalent to an advanced professional, with Strength and Constitution both over twenty, unafraid of blunt attacks and piercing attacks, and able to animate trees into treants, making it very difficult to deal with.
But it wasn’t without weaknesses, like being afraid of fire, unable to fly, slow reactions, and speed comparable to an ordinary person.
‘Land combat definitely won’t work; flying in the air and using distant Super Magic to cast Fireball should do it, but need to watch out for its Wood Splinter Barrage and Stone Throw.’
The Reader probably didn’t know the internal situation; Anse hadn’t detected any other mana residue in the Scepter of Sanctuary, so it likely hadn’t been touched in many years.
‘First upgrade the equipment, then go in and scout around.’
Anse took out two small boxes from his bosom; there were too many people earlier, so he hadn’t put them in the dragonhide pouch.
Moreover, the dragonhide pouch didn’t have much space left, only enough for some small things.
Opening the boxes revealed two elemental essences resembling gemstones, one yellowish-brown and one deep blue.
He grabbed the two elemental essences and tossed them toward the floating elemental orb.
The orb immediately absorbed the two elemental essences, buzzing continuously, with the outer mithril sphere contracting and expanding like breathing, mana spiritual light flickering nonstop.
‘Hope it doesn’t break.’
This was the first time he had encountered a magical item that could be assembled and upgraded.
After a few minutes, the orb finally calmed down, with four elemental essences of different colors floating inside, rotating and dancing in a pattern, light and shadows interweaving, extremely cool.
Anse checked its attributes again; the quality had upgraded to uncommon, and it gained three new traits.
「Earth」: You are unaffected by ground-based difficult terrain, such as mud, rocky ground, etc.
When using the orb to cast Super Magic Spells, gain a period of adaptive resistance; each cast extends the duration, but effects do not stack.
Adaptive Resistance: Before an enemy’s attack arrives, gain resistance to the corresponding damage type; can only have one resistance at a time.
「Water」: Spells related to water have faster casting speed and are more chillingly cold.
When using the orb to cast Super Magic Spells, you can use elemental resonance to erupt a burst of water flow originating from you, radius 15 feet（4.5 meters）.
Every creature in the area takes 2d6（2-12） cold damage and makes a Strength saving throw; on failure, they are pushed 15 feet away and knocked prone.
「Elemental Calamity」: Your Super Magic Spells always apply Elemental Calamity effects to enemies.
The target must make a Constitution saving throw, or lose resistance to the damage type corresponding to that Super Magic Spell, lasting 6-30 seconds, limited to: acid, cold, flame, lightning, thunder.
‘Worthy of an uncommon quality arcane artifact; the Dragon Treasury really has good stuff, wonder which unlucky guy sent that delivery.’ Anse grinned from ear to ear.
Fire element adds damage, air element enables flight, water element repels enemies, earth element provides resistance—each very practical.
The strongest is 「Elemental Calamity」; breaking enemies’ elemental resistances is awesome!
Though it requires a Constitution check and the duration isn’t long, from a practical combat perspective, it’s more than enough.
This way, even against monsters stacked with resistances, his spells would have sufficient lethality.
‘Too bad it only works on Super Magic Spells, at most one burst wave.’ He was still a bit unsatisfied.
Having sorted out the elemental orb, he stood up, grabbed the Scepter of Sanctuary, and decided to check out the Spatial Paradise again.
Activating the scepter, a pulling force descended; he relaxed his body, and with a blur before his eyes, he was already on the plaza.
‘Here again.’ He decisively unfurled butterfly wings and quickly flew upward.
In theory, as the owner, he could control the teleport landing spot, but he had just gotten it and wasn’t very proficient yet.
Seconds after he took off, a massive roar echoed across the island.
At the mage tower’s main entrance, a gigantic treant stood up and charged furiously toward Anse’s position, full of menace.
Anse flapped his butterfly wings, keeping his altitude above two hundred meters.
The treant threw a few stones and fired some Wood Splinter Barrage, but none reached him, frustrating it into stomping the ground and cratering the stone plaza.
Anse felt a pang of heartache; this was clearly his turf.
But he didn’t rush to deal with the treant; instead, he hovered high and carefully surveyed this realm.
The island wasn’t large, about four or five kilometers in diameter, with flat terrain covered in wildly growing trees everywhere.
There was a river on the island, winding through most of it, one end a small lake, the other connecting to the sea.
No sun was visible overhead, just a vast blue sky; the sea’s horizon was blocked by thin mist, hazy and unknown in distance.
The scene seemed harmonious, but closer inspection revealed broken walls and piled corpses under the trees everywhere, at least thousands.
The only relatively intact buildings were a black stone dock and a mage tower.
Moreover, no animals!
Not a single fish and shrimp or bird or beast in sight, only some insect-like creatures.
‘This place must have experienced a great battle that destroyed everything; what we see now is natural recovery over long years.’ Anse inferred.
He flew above the mage tower; perhaps all the secrets were hidden inside.
The black tower resembled a twelve-sided iron pillar, uniform thickness top to bottom, twelve stories total, covering thousands of square meters, and including the base elevated above the plaza, possibly a hundred meters tall.
He wanted to go in, but the outer tower body was like black metal, exceptionally smooth, no windows or doors, only the bottom gate for entry.
But the treant guarded the surroundings relentlessly, clearly with no intention of letting him pass.
“Roar—”
Perhaps sensing Anse’s intent, the treant roared again in intimidation.
Anse turned to look at it and chuckled: “Others can’t handle you, but I’m different!”
Wood Splinter Barrage’s effective range was fifty or sixty meters, longer than Fireball’s base range, enough to deal with ordinary ranged shooters or wizards, but he… was a Super Magic Master!
He flew dozens of meters away from the mage tower, luring the treant away to avoid damaging the tower.
Then he descended gradually, approaching the treant bit by bit, finally hovering at a position of one hundred fifty or sixty meters.
Seeing this, the treant grew even more agitated.
Anse smiled faintly as surging mana surged out; the elemental orb trembled, lighting up with rings of elemental spiritual light.
“
「Super Magic: Distant Spell」+「Fireball」!
The low chant resounded in this space after who-knows-how-many years.
The new feat allowed Anse to cast third ring spells even in mid-air.
He flicked his finger, and a bright spark burst from his fingertip, instantly landing on the treant’s head.
The treant, cursed and with little intelligence left, still had instincts and desperately dodged, but its reactions and speed were indeed too slow.
The fireball grazed the withered treetop and erupted violently.
“Boom—”
Flames surged, instantly forming a massive reddish-yellow fireball that ignited the treant, turning it into a giant torch.
It slammed to the ground with a thud, rolling frantically to extinguish the flames on its body.
