Claude walked leisurely along the mountain path with his gun slung over his back.
There were three physical subjects in the afternoon, one wrestling session and two firearms training sessions.
As long as he didn't have to face Welikro in wrestling class, he was practically invincible in class. After sending three of his classmates flying, no one else was willing to play the game of being thrown around with him.
Firearm training was the first class of the semester. Its main purpose was to train the students to familiarize themselves with firearms and understand the basic steps of loading and firing a matchlock. They also had to achieve a certain level of marksmanship in order to pass the class.
Even though the school only provided the oldest Gally mark 1 matchlock muskets that could be considered antiques, those students who had never held a matchlock before felt that it was a good way to master the basics.
As long as they were able to use this complicated and troublesome matchlock, they would be able to adapt and master it faster when they picked up the latest standard matchlock in the future. It would also make it easier for the kingdom to bring these reserve sports students into the army and send them to the frontlines as cannon fodder.
Claude and Welikro only attended the firearms training class for two days before the instructor announced that they had passed. They could choose whether or not they wanted to attend the firearms training class in the future.
The instructor couldn't do anything about it. After all, the two of them had gotten used to the antiques in their hands. Be it reloading speed or shooting accuracy, they far surpassed the instructor's. For the sake of his reputation, the instructor decided to let the two students do as they pleased. He didn't want others to laugh at him for being inferior to the two students in the academy.
So, Claude and Welikro were able to leave the school early in the afternoon and ignore Borkal and Eriksson's aggrieved expressions.
As for what they said about being brothers in need and staying in school to accompany them for the firearms training class, Claude pretended not to hear it. It was their fault for not practicing their marksmanship properly in the past. Rather than playing with the antique muskets in school, Claude might as well bring his gun into the forest. Who knows, he might even be able to bring some game back home.
That was the excuse Claude used, but Welikro didn't want to go hunting with him. He would rather sit by the lake with a fishing rod for the entire afternoon.
To him, fishing was much more interesting than hunting. His father was known as the best hunter in Whitestag and he had spent a lot of time in the woods with his father. He was no longer surprised by that. Besides, he only wanted to walk around the outskirts of the town. There wasn't much danger there and he didn't need to accompany him.
Well, sometimes it was troublesome when friends were too close. At the very least, there was no personal space to be with friends every day.
Claude was quite satisfied with the peace he had for the past few days. He carried his gun on his back and used the excuse of hunting in the forest outside of town. As long as there was no one around, he could practice Magic Missile and Mental Shock.
Magic Missile was the basic combat spell Claude was most satisfied with. Its effects were just as he imagined. It was like carrying a .54 pistol with him at all times. As long as the mana in the hexagram wasn't used up, he could keep firing it. If he was quick, it would be like carrying a machine gun.
What surprised Claude even more was that Magic Missile could be used while his body was moving. It was completely different from the other alchemical spells that could only be used when the body was still and focused.
Perhaps that was the biggest difference between combat spells and alchemical spells. Magic Missile could be used while the body was rolling and dodging, making it impossible for the enemy to defend against it.
Claude wanted to use a common saying from his past life to praise this basic spell: "This is practically a divine tool for self-defense when traveling at home or away from home!"
It's the best choice for killing and ambushing people.
However, the short range of Magic Missile was indeed a problem. If an agile wild beast were to pounce on you from ten meters away, it could deal damage in the blink of an eye.
It was no wonder Landes wrote in his diary: He asked Tawari if Magic Missile could guarantee his safety.
Tawari replied that it couldn't, but it could heavily injure the wild beast that attacked you. That way, you can die with dignity.
Just as the diary said, it could heavily injure wild beasts. There was no problem with the power of Magic Missile.
Claude had already experimented with it. He fired Magic Missile from seven to eight meters away and the hole it made on the tree was even larger than the hole made by a musket at close range.
At the same time, Claude also discovered that Magic Missile had to be aimed. When he fired it, he had to keep his eyes on the target to make it hit the target with his mind.
Naturally, the process was short as the distance was only ten meters.
The basic spell, Magic Missile, didn't disappoint Claude, but the other basic spell, Mental Shock, truly shocked him.
Claude had originally thought that the spell was of little value and that it was the most useless of the seven foundational spells. He didn't think that the mental shock spell would be more useful to him than Magic Missile.
In the diary, Landes wrote that Mental Shock, a simplified version of Banshee's Howl, was created for the purpose of feeding the wild beasts.
The main purpose of the spell was to give the wild beasts trapped in the room a shock before he fed them. It was akin to smashing them in the head with a stick and sending them into a state of stupor. That way, he would be able to smoothly finish the task of pouring the food into the room.
In short, Landes described Mental Shock, which wasn't an alchemical spell or a combat spell, as a mental spell that dealt mental damage to the target but didn't affect the body at all.
However, Claude didn't think so. Mental Shock was more like a Bludgeon spell. Targets that were hit by it would react the same way as if they were hit by a Bludgeon.
Claude was certain that apart from using it to feed the wild beasts, Landes hadn't used Mental Shock on any other targets. Otherwise, he would've realized how powerful the spell was.
The first time Claude tested the two basic spells in the forest outside of town, it was easy to find a target for Magic Missile. Any tree within ten meters could be used as a target.
Mental Shock, on the other hand, was much harder to find. First, it had to be a living thing. Second, it couldn't be something as small as insects. Even though they could be used as targets, they were too small and the effects of the spell wouldn't be as obvious. Claude wouldn't use them as targets for his experiments. He couldn't afford to lose face like that.
In the end, Claude searched the forest for a long time and finally found a small spotted snake. He wasn't sure if it was poisonous or not.
Delighted, Claude decided to use it as a target and cast Mental Shock.
What he didn't expect was that the snake immediately died after being hit by the spell.
At first, Claude didn't know what was going on. He only saw the snake lying on the ground and thought that the spell had worked.
But after a long while, when he was about to return home, he found that the snake was still in the same state. Feeling that it was strange, he picked up a branch and found that the snake was already dead.
That can't be, right? Mental Shock is that lethal?
Claude didn't dare to believe it. After experimenting for a few more days, he finally understood that the spell was indeed lethal to small animals.
For example, the little squirrel that was jumping around on the tree fell to the ground after being hit by the spell and died. Claude still couldn't figure out whether it died from the fall or from the mental blow.
But the cat resting in the corner, whether it was a house cat or a wild cat, stiffened after being hit by the Mind Shock spell, and was quickly picked up by a passerby who was quick enough.
Soon, a group of passersby gathered around to discuss the reason for the cat's sudden death. In the end, they came to the conclusion that it was probably due to some illness.
To be on the safe side, to avoid infecting others, they unanimously decided to cremate him …
During that time, he could only pretend to be a bystander and watch the show from the side. However, he was certain that the cat was really dead after being hit by the mental shock spell.
Why didn't Landes mention that in his diary?
Claude only figured it out after getting home and lying on his bed for a long time. The main purpose of the spell was to deal with the larger beasts he fed. Apart from those beasts, he couldn't find any other targets in the tower to use the spell on, so he didn't know how effective it was against smaller beasts.
Otherwise, he would have proudly explained it in detail in his diary …
Sneak attacks could also kill people, and this Mind Shock spell should be the same.
For larger animals, being hit by the spell was like being hit by a stick and they would go into a stupor. For smaller animals, however, the blow was fatal. It was the same as turning their brains into mush. No small animal would be able to survive that.
In order to test if his guess was correct, Claude started wandering around the town, looking for livestock to attack in places where no one would notice.
The result soon proved that his idea was correct. The Mental Shock spell was more effective against animals that were smaller than goats.
Like chickens, ducks, and geese, a single mental shock was all it took to kill them.
Dogs fared better than cats. Even though they were still alive, they ran far away with their tails between their legs the moment they recovered.
The largest test animals were cows and horses. These two animals in the open-air market behaved like idiots after being hit by the Mind Shock spell. A cow was drinking water and forgot to raise its head, so it choked to death.
The other horse forgot how to walk and tripped over itself. This was something that had never been heard of before, so the people in the market surrounded the poor horse and stared at it for a long time, trying to figure out why it was so stupid …
Claude really wanted to find someone to test out the mental shock spell on and figure out how it would work on humans.
However, he only kept this thought in his mind.
Firstly, he didn't have a suitable test subject. Secondly, he didn't want anyone to find out that he knew magic.
Thirdly, he felt uneasy about using humans for the experiment.
However, there was a small drawback to the Mind Shock spell, and that was that the user had to make a sound in order to cast it.
In a sense, the sound was like a switch. Even if mana was circulating in the formation, the spell couldn't be used without a sound.
This was completely different from the previous six basic spells. The previous six basic spells, whether they were alchemy spells or combat spells, could all be silently cast.
However, the mental shock spell couldn't be used. It had to be made with sound.
For some reason, Wizard Landes set the sound of the Mind Shock spell to be two "clatter" sounds.
Perhaps he was simulating the sound of smashing a big stick on the heads of those beasts.
Claude, on the other hand, felt that using those two sounds was rather embarrassing, especially when he was hiding in a corner of the open-air market and used the mental shock spell. He felt like a lunatic.
Claude's destination was the forest to the southwest of Whitestag's outskirts.
It was similar to the forest farms and orchards in the southern outskirts of town. The only difference was that the farms and orchards in the southern outskirts were smaller, while the ones in the southwestern outskirts were larger. It was said that the owners there were of higher status than those in the southern outskirts. Many of them were nobles with noble titles.
Claude went there mainly because he heard from Welikro that the owners of the farms and orchards were of higher status, so the hunters in town rarely went there to avoid conflict. That was why there was more prey in the forest. He even heard that a wild boar was seen swaggering through the mountain path.