After I saved the students, I headed to the Mage's Association. To say the mission is not going perfectly, He Yu will likely be alive and well, but I think it won't be difficult to send Xiao Hou into the army, so we'll consider this a gift to him before he enters military service, saving his girlfriend. My next goal was to awaken my third element amidst the catastrophe.
According to my assumptions, there should be no one in the association building now, as all employees have been directed to guard the safe place, search for survivors, and evacuate them. On the way, I stopped by a building materials store where I picked up a sledgehammer, it might be useful. Approaching the association, I felt that someone was inside, namely a couple of beginner-level mages. If they are employees, then I have problems; if they are adepts of the black church, then everything becomes simpler. I quietly entered the building, heading towards those mages. To my surprise, they were at the magic stone storage chamber. Am I not the only smart one? Damn, this upset me a little.
"Yes, hurry up and break this door. I don't want to be here any longer than necessary," said one of the mages. I hid behind the corner, watching one mage try to break the lock of the vault, and the second stood with bags at the ready. Great, they are adepts, they also want to steal the awakening stones, but why do they need them? Aren't they already recruiting ready-made mages?
"Calm down!" replied the one who was breaking the door. "If we don't get the stones for those losers who agreed to join us as ordinary people, the priest will turn us into monsters."
Clear, they are still recruiting ordinary people, most likely those who have lost the meaning of life, awakening their magic and raising them as cannon fodder. Black church adepts? Yes, this seems more effective than recruiting only mages. Well, let them break it, I'll come later when everything is ready.
"Done, I opened it. Let's go," said the mage, opening the door to the storage. At that moment, I began to act, taking the sledgehammer and knife, I rushed at them using wind step. Out of surprise, they only managed to turn to me. On the fly, I threw the sledgehammer at one, and pierced the other with a knife, knocking him to the ground. For certainty, I cut both their throats. They didn't even have time to orient themselves, and they were already dead. I love ambushes.
Throwing their bodies out into the street, I returned to the storage. It still had awakening stones arranged in neat rows. Which element should I choose? It's not that I particularly cared, as any magic is very powerful if developed, and besides, there can't be high-quality stones in the association of Bo City. Of course, they are better than what schools offer, but not much. After all, Bo City is a small county town in China.
Walking between the rows, I decided to close my eyes and randomly point to a stone. Opening my eyes, I looked at the chosen stone. It turned out to be a medium-quality stone for awakening plant magic. Well, not bad, let's begin. I placed my hands on the stone and relaxed. I was immediately pulled into my inner world, where I saw the familiar nebulae of lightning and wind. However, now next to them was a small silver-colored stardust. Dimensional magic? But which one, summoning or sound? Definitely not chaos, it has a slightly different color. Focusing on the stardust, I tried to understand what element it was. What I felt surprised me greatly, it was the element of space! I awakened space at a mid-level! How cool.
Okay, there was no time to rejoice for such an element for long. Throwing the stone aside and knocking over the shelves with other stones, as if monsters had broken in here, I took the sledgehammer and caused even more destruction. After that, I headed to the security room. Most likely, the adepts had disabled the cameras, but I had to make sure. They really did, after reviewing the recordings, I didn't find myself on them, but for certainty, I broke the hard drive with the sledgehammer and trashed this room as well.
After such thorough destruction, I stayed in the Mage's Association for a while, rested, and restored my strength and magical energy. My head ached from frequent use of magic, and my body ached from excessive physical exertion. It was deep night. Mo Fan would likely set out for his sister closer to dawn, after he settled all his affairs in a safe place, so I had time.
After resting, I headed to the supermarket where Jiaxing Xia was. Getting there was not difficult, however, what I felt approaching it did not please me at all. Near it, I felt the energy of a pack leader. I definitely cannot confront such a monster on equal terms right now, let alone defeat it. The most I can do is distract and scratch. If there really is a pack leader, then I have problems.
Continuing my movement, I saw a wolf towering over the two-story supermarket building! It was white as snow, stained with blood in places, its back showed bone spikes, and it had three eyes on its head! This is definitely the three-eyed wolf pack leader, damn it, why me. Fortunately, I noticed it in time and was able to hide without attracting its attention. It was devouring what was on the road. After thinking a little, I remembered the pile of rats and one-eyed wolves that I had left there, damn it!
The most obvious solution was to wait for it to leave on its own. I had time, at least I believed so. However, to my great disappointment, the wolf ate everyone I had left and went to sleep! Damn, something needs to be done about this. If it wakes up before dawn and leaves, then fine, but if not? The simplest way to drive this wolf away is to find another wolf and set them against each other, but where to get one and how to set them against each other?
First, I decided to survey the surroundings. While the wolf was sleeping, I could be less afraid. Nearby, there was no worthy opponent for that pack leader. Damn, the plan failed. How else can I get the wolf out of there if I can't kill it? Make another pile of corpses further away, wake it up and send it there to sleep? I could try. Although no, wait, that's also stupid, how to convince it to stay there? Not at all. I could try to weaken it and finish it off, set traps and the like. That would be more reliable.
However, first, I found a group of three one-eyed wolves and killed them, throwing them in one place. After that, I found a large rope, and outside, in the direction of those corpses, I broke the windows on the first floor and tied the rope. In this place, the wolf might stumble, and I would get an opportunity to strike. But I knew one rope was not enough, so I tied four at once.
After that, I found a high-power portable generator in the stores, as well as a long rebar, about one and a half to two meters long. And I placed them seventy to a hundred meters from the tripwire. Then I found a store with fireworks and laid out a huge pile of them under the supposed falling spot of the wolf, as well as in the buildings on both sides.
The third step was to find fire stones, which are usually used in internal combustion engines. The book about them says that they have enormous explosive power if struck with fire or lightning magic nearby. Well, they also need to be hit separately from the engine casings, otherwise they won't explode, and close means almost a direct hit. So I had to work hard with the cars that people abandoned, fleeing from monsters.
I put about thirty of them near the fireworks, another twenty, I put in bags and placed them near the generator. Meanwhile, a few rats that bothered me while searching for the necessary items were added to the pile of corpses. The last thing I thought of was to drag the generator to the roof of the building, next to the wolf, and tie a rebar to one of its cables. I did the same with the one I left at the tripwire. These generators run on lightning stones, and if you dig a little and remove the limiter, they can release a powerful lightning discharge once. If I'm lucky, hitting the wolf in the eye, I might kill it by burning its brain. Although I'm not sure about this, as it's a pack leader, and such a weak discharge by its standards might only slow down its reaction, but it's better than nothing.
I finished all the preparatory actions half an hour before dawn. The first rays of the sun had already begun to appear in the east. It was time to act. The wolf was still sleeping, the perfect moment for my attack. In fact, because it was sleeping, I acted incredibly carefully, freezing at every rustle it made. I managed to drag the generator to the roof and climb up here myself, hiding my strength and breath. Taking the rebar in my hands, tied with a bare cable from the generator, I prepared a wind blade spell and directed it along with the rebar into one of the wolf's eyes. Thanks to the acceleration of the wind blade, it successfully pierced the eye, at the same time turning the eye into a bloody mess, and also leaving a scratch on the wolf's face, a scratch! Yes, quite a deep one, but a scratch! And I used the third stage of wind magic!
From the wound received, the wolf growled and began to get up, waking up and looking for the offender. I, not wasting time, turned on the generator with one hand, and with the other sent lightning wrath into the wolf's damaged eye. The generator's discharge hit the wolf's eye, seasoned with my magic, which further stirred up its eye and affected the nerves, all the way to the brain. But the wolf wasn't going to die! It howled in pain and looked in my direction. I, expecting this turn of events, rushed down to the street using wind step, and from there forward to the pile of corpses.
The wolf didn't pounce on me immediately, but a second later, the partial brain damage showing, and it moved slower than it should have. Slipping under the tripwire, I ran to the second generator and quickly turned around. The wolf was chasing me, picking up speed. I prepared a lightning seal and, the moment the wolf reached the tripwire, unleashed magic at the fire stone lying in a pile of fireworks.
To my regret, the wolf tore through all four ropes and was ready to charge on, but an explosion sounded, which almost knocked me over. Shrapnel saved me from the debris, and I stood behind the car, with the second generator. Getting back on my feet, I looked towards the wolf. It was badly injured. Firstly, its front paws and belly were severely burned, with bone visible in places, but these were far from fatal wounds for such a beast, and I expected more from the ten stones. Also, its entire body was wounded by debris from buildings that had scattered during the explosion, but those were just minor scratches.
The explosion also knocked the wolf to the ground, and it slid a short distance towards me, which played into my hands. Quickly creating a star path of wind, I threw rebar into its eye, accelerating it with a wind blade. The same situation as the first time repeated: the eye was pierced through and turned into a mush that made me nauseous. Without much thought, while the wolf was recovering and trying to get up, I activated the generator and directed the wrath of lightning at it. After that, the wolf, which had managed to partially stand up, fell again, almost losing consciousness. Even for a pack leader, it was difficult to survive a discharge of such power directly into the brain twice.
However, it didn't die and continued to try to get up. Now I started throwing bags of fire stones at it, exploding them with a lightning seal near its snout. There were four bags in total, and the explosion from each was quite good, but not comparable to the one from thirty, plus fireworks. The first bag, exploding, burned the skin on the right side of its face and also burned holes in its eyes; the wolf was blinded. The second ripped off its jaw. By this point, the wolf's limbs were no longer obeying it; it tried to stand up with their help, but its brain had been partially turned into mush by the lightning. The third bag tore off half its snout, entering its mouth. The fourth completely destroyed its head. The wolf was dead.
However, despite the simplicity of this kill, I also suffered quite a bit. Firstly, the physical fatigue from running and all the other nonsense was unbearable; I can't rely on increased strength from cultivation, I need to work out myself. Secondly, mental fatigue from constantly casting spells and switching between elements. Thirdly, the explosions didn't pass without consequences for me! My new sports jacket was torn, and I had burns on my arms, chest, and head – not fatal, but not minor either; they would take a month or two to heal, along with the cuts from building debris that had still reached me. This was clearly a suicidal plan, in which I was lucky to survive.
And what did I get in return? The soul of the pack leader, which my tooth immediately absorbed. Yes, it was a whole soul, and it could have fetched about twenty million, but I had neither the strength nor the ability to stop my tooth and preserve the soul. Although, considering that it glowed and vibrated after it, just like when it once became a spiritual vessel, perhaps it was its last drop for breaking through to a new level?