It shoots across the space between Novus and the sneaky slime, but what the young man who created this attack finds extremely interesting is that, unlike a standard fireball created with magic circles, the kind he learned in the academy and what is considered the norm, the orthodox, this fireball he created doesn’t burn things in its path; it only follows the trajectory where he throws.

There is a certain beauty to it that he can’t help but admire, but he is well aware that he cannot be doing such distracting thinking right now.

Hence why even before this newly created attack reaches its intended target, he is already preparing himself, wrapping mana around his entire body to prepare for the explosion about to come, all while starting to tense his legs, prepared to burst forward on the off-chance that his opponent shows even the tiniest of openings.

’You’re fucked by then...’ he thought to himself as he watched the full sequence of his attack go.

As he had initially expected, the fireball just passed through, a bit of disappointment to him, but nothing too detrimental, as from the structure of the magic he whipped up alone, he knew that it wasn’t being hit by that heatless fireball that really hurts, no.

It is the explosion that comes after the shell destabilizes, turning itself into fuel for the volatile fire magic inside.

And there it is, the moment that the ball hit the ground, an explosion, paling greatly in comparison to the previous simultaneous collapse of four such volatile masses of magic, but a powerful explosion nonetheless, shockwaves from it forcing the caster to take a few steps back despite being several meters away from the center of its detonation.

It takes a few moments for the dust to settle, burning grass, cracked grounds, and scorched, glowing red earth being the only thing that remains in the explosion, yet behind all the flames and heat distorting one’s sight, looking towards the site of calamity, a silhouette still stands, that rounded body’s shadow remaining still upon this harmful ground.

"Still alive, huh... Well, I expected just as much..." The young man, seeing this silhouette, feels not a single tinge of fear anymore, as is certain, even if it is not grievous or serious, that sneaky slime still took damage from his attack, and if it does, it is only a matter of how much damage it will take for him to bring it down.

’Although I can only do it a couple more times at best...’ he laughs to himself as he noticed how heavy of a toll it takes for his current self to manipulate mana to that degree, his body, still well and kicking because of his talent, but his mind already getting a bit weary from all the controlling, both of mana and his body, that it is performing.

The grace of luck never fails to shine through those who are willing to endure and see through their actions to the end, though, contrary to his expectation that the sneaky slime took that attack without any serious injury at all, the true form that came out from that silhouette says completely otherwise.

The once transparent, protective blob is now damaged, pocket spaces appearing like bubbles populating its inside, its motion, once graceful despite appearing a bit comedic, now appears forced and stiff, and the most obvious sign of its quickly approaching demise is its core, its substrate, is now shattered into smithereens.

It only makes sense, as even its relative, which has the most powerful defense amongst the slimes, the Amber Slime, fails to defend itself against such a powerful explosion of fire imbued mana, and as if to signal its weakness being caught, a system prompt appears in front of Novus, all while he watches the once cohesive blob dissolve into thin liquid on the ground.

[Defeated: Shadow Slime. Rewards: F-Tier Evolution Crystal (10), Slime Substrate (4), Liquid Shadow (2)] 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

[Detected victory over a new creature, new compendium entry created]

[Shadow Slime]

[Combat Rating: F ~ D]

[Talent: Shadow Phasing (E-rank Talent) or True Phasing (D-Rank Talent)]

[Strength: 10~2000]

[Agility: 100~4000]

[Vitality: 5~1000]

[Arcane: 10~2000]

[Harmony: 10~2000]

[Possible Drops: F~D-Tier Evolution Crystal (1~10), Slime Substrate (4~7), Liquid Shadow (0~3)]

[Note: The tier of the Evolution Crystal dropped will be dependent on the tier of the creature; the higher the creature’s tier is compared to the lowest tier it can have, the less Evolution Crystal acquired, but the higher the quality is as well.]

[Skills]

[Intermediate Stealth]

[Triple Stealth Slash]

[Torrent Stealth Slash]

[The blessing of the Evolution Domain grants Shadow Slimes a near-transparent body, perfectly made for stealth hunting. Once they merge with their surroundings, there is nothing that can touch their bodies, no matter what.]

Reading through the description of the opponent he had fought against, Novus finally understood why it ended like that, despite this Shadow Slime making him feel like it was such a threat, the high level of agility surpassing even his own being the biggest threat, and the reliance of these creatures.

’The skills are pretty self-explanatory... so the talent is that phasing? I thought it was a skill and the stealth is its talent... well, whatever, still, it really feels like it’s made for sneak attacks...’

He thought to himself before closing the screen in front of him, now that he knew a bit more about this threat that had kicked him out of the Evolution Domain the previous day, he felt confident that he would be able to handle the fight against it better the next time he encountered one.

’Other than the harvest from this new slime, there’s also this...’ as he stopped paying attention to the new list of opponents he can fight in the Evolution Domain, he starts paying attention to the groundbreaking success that is the remote fireball he came up with, playing around the heatless ball of fire with great interest scrutinizing it at every angle, as even he himself still could not believe that he just pull off something that completely defies the current convention of mages in his world.

’I think I can improve it more...’ thinking of incorporating more ideas towards this simple concept that he discovered, the young man starts looking forward to how much he can improve this method, opting not to do anything harsh for now, as he doesn’t even have an idea regarding the direction in which he should improve this method of magic right now.

’It’s a great harvest overall...’ he added in his mind, snuffing out the fireball by taking mana out of it, something he thought was only normal now that he pretty much controls his magic mentally instead of via magic circles, a sight that will scare the living hell out of any experienced mage in the outside world.

Heaving a sigh of relief, feeling just a little bit safer now that he knows that at the very least, he can fend off against this major threat to him yesterday, Novus decided to take a little break as the fight takes a lot of mental prowess out of him, his tiredness way too clearly obvious for him to see but still refusing to fully let his guard down, his senses expanded, prepared for when a threat closes in on him.

It took him several couples of minutes before he finally felt like he is prepared to go once again, standing up from the comfortable warmth of the grassland where he rests, the young man takes long, deep breath as if to reset himself, sharpness returning to his eyes as he finishes doing so, an excited smile starting to appear on his face as he looks forward to how much further he can improve during his time here.