Chương 38: Death of the Crocodile

Early the next morning. There was no sunlight underground, but Rowan's precise biological clock woke him up exactly on time. The Möbius ring on his right wrist had completely restored itself; its profound luster indicated that he could return to Terra at any moment. But Rowan was in no rush to leave. This burrow was incredibly safe, and he decided to thoroughly digest the final portion of [Wellspring Step] here. He opened the ancient book once more.

Cross-referencing the model in his mental sea, he began to dig deep into the foundational architecture of the spell. However, as his deduction deepened, Rowan's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

"Something's not right..." Rowan extended a finger, tracing several mana trajectories in mid-air from memory, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

"This spell model is entirely too bloated." As a modern mage accustomed to Terra's extreme pursuit of the "mana-efficiency ratio"—a place where mages wished they could split every single drop of mana in half to spend it—Rowan's sensitivity to mana circuits was exceptionally high. He discovered that to construct the simple action of a "water flow burst from the soles of the feet," this Wellspring Step manual actually invoked nearly two hundred Water Source Runes!

In his eyes, nearly a third of those circuits were completely redundant. While their function did indeed increase speed, when compared to the massive mana expenditure required, it was absolutely an exercise in diminishing returns.

"Such a massive quantity of source runes, such a complex spell assembly and mental channeling method..." Rowan compared it to Terra's spell textbooks in his mind and arrived at a staggering conclusion.

"Based purely on the complexity of the spell model, this thing absolutely meets the standard of a high-tier D3 Terra spell!" But what was its actual effect? Rowan recalled the book's description: "Condense water beneath the soles to achieve short-distance gliding and bursting." On Terra, that was at best the effect of a peak D1, or entry-level D2 ordinary mobility spell.

"It uses D3-level complex processing power, but only outputs D1-level results?" Rowan was somewhat dumbfounded. At first, he was even a little speechless, unable to hold back his internal grumbling. Was that wolf-woman really that stingy? A majestic high-tier mage casually tosses me a 'spoil of war,' and it turns out to be a bloated, defective product that looks impressive but is practically useless? But Rowan was a rational man.

This thought lingered in his mind for a mere three seconds before he overturned it himself.

"No. Something treated as a secret legacy by a mid-level family absolutely cannot be just for show." Rowan's brain rapidly shifted its dimensional thinking. He stopped using Terra's stingy "mana-depleted environment" mindset to evaluate it, shifting his perspective back to this alternate continent brimming with dense mana.

"The reason Terra's spells pursue extreme optimization is because our mana is too precious; redundancy means bankruptcy and running out of steam in combat. It's like using the lowest-spec, garbage computer to run a program—you have to optimize the code to death just to make it work.

"But the alternate world is different... The mana here is practically limitless! They don't even need to consider the concept of 'conserving mana'!" Having figured out this layer, Rowan instantly remembered what Rad had told him. The spells excavated from ancient ruins on Terra were indeed outsourced to computing corporations for optimization before being sold on the market. This complex redundancy, although lowering mana utilization efficiency, highly likely traded it for a "higher ceiling" of the spell.

Although, in Rowan's view, this pursuit of marginal power at the cost of massive mana waste wasn't a great choice—after all, in the middle of combat, you don't have the luxury of time to regenerate mana!

"Furthermore..." Rowan chuckled wryly. He suddenly understood the wolf-woman's true intent.

"With my meager strength, having just stabilized at Tier 1 Single-Phase, even if she really threw me a Tier 2 or Tier 3 spell, given the conventions here, the model's complexity would be even higher. I simply wouldn't have enough mental power to carve even a tenth of the circuits. This Wellspring Step, with a complexity rivaling D3 but a power output perfectly capped at D1, is exactly the only thing my current body can 'digest'." It wasn't a stingy gift; it was the most precise, tailored fit.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Having completely digested the theory of Wellspring Step, Rowan tucked the ancient book into his jacket and prepared to continue practicing the spell. Inside the underground blind chamber, time flew by in tedious yet highly efficient cultivation. Rowan pulled out the premium chunk of deer-like mana-beast meat the wolf-woman had left him; it was only enough for two meals for him. He started a small, concealed fire using a lighter.

The lighter itself was a product of Terra's magitech industry, powered by a tiny fragment of fire crystal. The moment the meat was roasted, the berserk wind-element fluctuations radiating from it instantly energized the pangolin. It shook its body, its glittering scales fanning out, and waddled over to affectionately nuzzle Rowan's calf. Rowan sliced off a chunk with his dagger, shoved it into his mouth, chewed vigorously, and swallowed. Instantly, an explosive, searing energy detonated in his stomach!

He immediately kicked the Furnace Melding Art into overdrive. Hssss— Rowan sucked in a breath of cold air, his skin instantly flushing crimson. This fragmented ancient manual displayed astonishing conversion efficiency, but the energy of this deer-beast was simply too overwhelming. With just that single bite, Rowan felt his muscle fibers stretched to their absolute breaking point.

"I roasted too much... I absolutely cannot eat anymore. One more bite, and my body will absolutely collapse." Rowan looked at the remaining meat on the stone slab with lingering fear. This was definitively a Tier 2 creature. The gluttonous pangolin scuttled over and swallowed the strip of meat Rowan had pre-cut for it. Its little green-bean eyes bugged out instantly, and its entire body uncontrollably curled into a rigid, hard ball. Rowan inspected it closely.

Watching its gentle breathing, the scales rippling with a lustrous sheen and their hardness visibly increasing in tandem with its breaths, he realized it had directly entered a deep digestive hibernation. Massive vitality ran rampant through Rowan's body, desperately needing an outlet. Without hesitation, Rowan harnessed this berserk physical energy and began practicing Wellspring Step. While frantically boosting his physical strength, he dodged and wove within the cramped space of the burrow.

The deep blue Water Source Runes continuously condensed and burst beneath the soles of his feet. The freezing cold of the water flow and the searing heat inside his body formed a perfect, alternating tempering cycle. It took three full hours of digestion before the energy of that chunk of meat was exhausted. Halfway through the practice, Rowan's mana had run dry.

The moment digestion finished, he immediately activated the Basic Mana Channeling technique, recovering his mana while simultaneously expanding his mana pool. Once the cultivation and expansion were complete, Rowan resumed roasting meat. This cycle continued for two days until Rowan and the pangolin had completely annihilated the deer meat. When Rowan thoroughly digested the energy from the final bite of meat, his strength spiked once again. Throwing a punch, he kicked up a gust of wind.

He felt his physical strength was already nearing the absolute peak of the D1-grade. The complex spell model of Wellspring Step had also been thoroughly ingrained into his muscle memory.

"Let's go see if that blind crocodile is still there." Rowan geared up and silently slipped out of the burrow. Amplified by Wellspring Step, he moved through the jungle like a phantom blue blur; his speed and stealth were several times higher than before. However, when he returned to the stream-marsh, he didn't sense that familiar, oppressive Tier 1 mana-beast aura. Using the canopy for cover, Rowan circled the edge of the swamp, his brow furrowing slightly at the scene before him.

The muddy ground was heavily imprinted with deep, treaded tracks—obviously the footprints of human tactical boots. A large swath of the surrounding terrain was utterly devastated by various magical bombardments. Among the scorched earth and frost, all that remained were a dozen or so shattered earthen-yellow crocodile scales and a small, cleanly severed segment of the crocodile's tail tip.

"Someone swooped in and stole the kill," Rowan muttered, his gaze darkening. He continued using the tip of his sword to flip through the rotting leaves nearby. Not far from the severed tail tip, a glaring splash of dark red caught his attention. It was a severed arm. An arm clad in tattered human leather armor, forcefully ripped off by the terrifying bite force of a crocodile.

The wound on the severed limb didn't just bear the marks of beastly tearing; it was also brutally crushed and pulverized by a heavy blunt impact. Rowan instantly recalled the Rock-Scaled Giant Crocodile's massive, pendulum-like tail. Rowan crouched down, using the tip of his sword to pry away the blood-caked bracer on the severed arm. Clink. A notched, silver-black metal dog tag fell onto a nearby rock. Rowan didn't pick it up with his hands. Instead, he used the flat of his blade to flip the tag over.

The front was engraved with a berserk cyclone totem, while the back bore otherworldly text. Rowan managed to barely decipher a few of the characters: [Wind-Severing Squad]"Looks like the crocodile was slaughtered by a local mercenary squad..." Pinching the dog tag, Rowan gained a deeper understanding of the mercenary strength in this primeval forest. This squad was clearly inferior to the cleric's team he had seen previously. To suffer actual casualties fighting an injured, weaker crocodile proved as much.

Rowan took one last deep look at the ruined battlefield, wrapped the dog tag in a leaf, and stuffed it into his pocket. There was more text on it. If the wolf-woman's mental shock hadn't fried his recording module, simply taking a photo would have been far safer.

"It's time to go back." Rowan erased his tracks, quickly retreated to the burrow, and slapped the ass of the snoring pangolin.

"Wake up, little guy. I'm taking you to a new place." Rowan planned to bring it to Terra this time. This area was temporarily unsafe, and he would likely need to bring it to Terra eventually anyway. He might as well bring it over now so it could adapt early. The pangolin rubbed its eyes and expertly burrowed through his robes, settling against his chest with only its little head poking out. Rowan stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

He took one last look around the dim burrow, then, with a thought, activated the Möbius ring on his right wrist. A profound blue light erupted instantly. Like a swirling nebula, it completely engulfed the man and the beast. The warped space closed. This underground blind chamber in the alternate world returned to absolute dead silence once more.