PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

After some thought, Desmond understood. “This is called intent exhaustion, the reason why elementalists often build vast repertoires of abilities with different intents as a base. I guess my mana reserves had never been so vast that I would use skills recklessly, so I had never felt it.”

To put it in simple terms, the stronger the intent and concepts behind a skill, the more powerful it will be. That was the basis of Elementalist skills. But, the strength of intent also determined the number of times an Elementalist could use a certain skill.

Intent tended to wear down if used too often without a break, resulting in the inability to execute a skill. It was like thinking of a grape; although it sounded easy, imagine doing it dozens or hundreds of times, focusing your whole being on it. Eventually, your mind couldn’t think of the grape due to exhaustion.

Although the example was somewhat simple, that was how the abilities worked. The only difference is that these “Grapes” were stored in the mental realm of elementalists.

Whichever the case, Desmond found the experience somewhat uncomfortable but enlightening. For the first time, Desmond experienced what it was like to have his intention exhausted, which instead of upsetting him, thrilled him. This meant two things to him: the first was that there was room to improve the intent of his abilities, and the second was that his mana reserves had increased more than he had believed.

Desmond felt a new vigor fill him; the prospect of improvement brought him much excitement. His face, filled with expectation, did not waver or falter as he began to bombard the ant horde with his most powerful abilities.

Water snakes of various sizes covered the battlefield creating an unparalleled massacre. As a prolonged manifestation type technique, Desmond’s , started a killing field around Desmond, where any ant that came near was slaughtered. With each execution, Desmond’s left hundreds of corpses in a straight line.

Interestingly, Desmond felt that his Leviathan-series ult had yet to get that strong. Still, it took a little while for him to figure out why.

.....

“At the end of the day, it’s an ability that I copied from Harmony. Due to the ridiculous mana cost, it’s also the skill I’ve trained the least. It’s not unusual that my current intent level can’t keep up for now.” Desmond reasoned.

With a snap of his fingers, all of Desmond’s abilities collapsed, leaving a swamp of water and ant viscera in front of Desmond. Desmond had tested the limits of his abilities with water manipulation. So, he thought it would be good to practice a bit with the elements he had neglected.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never used that skill again.” As he did remember something, Desmond commented with a thoughtful expression. “At my current level, I should be able to execute a decent version of that. After all, is inspired by that skill.” Desmond added.

Having made up his mind, Desmond cleared his mind, trying to get into the right state of mind. The wind in the desert was dry, murky, and weak, full of earth and fire elements, making it difficult for Desmond to find what he was looking for.

Following his instincts, Desmond let out a long breath filled with green mana and felt it resonate with the small green mana particles in the air. With a mischievous grin, Desmond took a deep breath, creating a vortex that sucked in all these green particles. As Desmond opened his eyes, his predatory instincts flared, and turbulent wind formed around him.

Unlike the time Desmond needed almost a dozen seconds to gather the mana, it only took Desmond a breath this time. The giant ants approaching him were immediately cut to pieces by the tens of thousands of micro wind blades forming around Desmond.

That battle against the lightning wolf on the city’s outskirts flashed through Desmond’s mind, bringing a sense of nostalgia and an intention that had lain dormant all this time. With an expression full of savage aggression, Desmond howled/shouted. “”

The massive wolf head formed around Desmond by sheer blades of wind created crushing pressure. This was the same ability that Desmond had used to defeat the werewolf Keneth in the bitter winter battle. Although, back then, Desmond had to use three different types of mana to manifest an ability of that level.

Now relying exclusively on wind mana, Desmond could manifest this ability. Desmond wasted no more nonsense, and instead, he simply swept across the battlefield, running. At the same time, his ability turned everything he touched into blood mist.

After running around for a while, Desmond gathered momentum and jumped into the air. Then, like a stormy meteor, Desmond slammed into the ground, unleashing all the wind around him like a shear wave.

The circular blade of wind cut almost sixty ants before scattering. Seeing the field of corpses and the thick breeze of greenish blood, Desmond nodded in satisfaction. “Pretty good for breaking a siege on a battlefield or mopping up a bunch of weaklings on the move. Definitely not inferior in kill count to my other abilities, though hardly useful against anything with high defense.”

Satisfied with his accomplishment, Desmond prowled around for a couple more minutes slashing and destroying giant ants with the golden weapons he kept creating with his mana. Unlike the other skills in his repertoire, was more suited to one-on-one combat. It had high offensive power, plus it was difficult to predict and evade once it had been summoned. As if that wasn’t enough, mana consumption was much more moderate due to the reduced size of mana constructs.

Desmond didn’t see an incredible improvement in his , but that was to be expected. Desmond had not understood this skill on his own; instead, it was a gift from Titania. However, Desmond saw a lot of potential in the ability and liked it quite a bit, so he intended to train the skill.

By the time Desmond finished testing his abilities, the two-hundred-meter radius area around him had turned into a swamp due to all the spilled blood and gore. But, incredibly annoyingly, the ants still wouldn’t stop coming. Only now did Desmond properly understand what would be considered a plague even by a kingdom with three-star class beings in its ranks.

Despite the complete genocide Desmond had just carried out, he still had half of his total mana reserves left. Pretty amazing, considering how quickly he used to run out of mana when he was still a one-star class Mana user. Unfortunately, Desmond could already tell that even if he used up all of his mana, he would never finish killing all the ants in this place.

Since staying to fight was useless, Desmond decided to run from the place. Quickly, Desmond summoned Zero and used Zero’s shadow form to sneak out.

As Desmond expected, the ants couldn’t use their tremor sense to track him down when he did that. Ditto for the chemical mark their blood left behind. That way, Desmond could get away from the spot easily.

Desmond was a little upset about the whole ant thing. Although, thanks to that plague, he had the opportunity to test the scope of his new power. The presence of those ants was also going to make his mission in this place very difficult.

Desmond was prepared to curse the goddess of fortune mentally. Still, he quickly stopped himself, instead beginning to sing praises about how beautiful and magnanimous the goddess was. The reason? Desmond saw his target moving through the desert as he prepared to curse the goddess.

From the direction the target came from, Desmond deduced that the target must have encountered the horde of ants he had left behind. Following Desmond’s action, his goal detracted and avoided starting a conflict with those pesky ants. Even Desmond couldn’t believe his luck.

Speaking of the target, it was the first time Desmond had seen a creature like that in person. Truth be told, Desmond had a hard time making a comparison. His target, whose nickname was Stalker, had a fairly ordinary humanoid form with no additional arms or appendages. Only one thing stood out about Stalker: the brown exoskeleton that covered his entire body.

Desmond didn’t care what his target’s appearance or species was since he had come for the life of it and nothing more. But something didn’t quite add up, something that bothered Desmond. After observing and secretly following his target for a couple of minutes and finding nothing unusual, Desmond was forced to ignore the ominous feeling that bothered him.

With endless desert around him, anywhere was good and bad for an ambush. Desmond pulled no punches, stepping out of the shadows behind Zero’s back. Desmond appeared a significant distance from his target, planning to use his bow to get a shot ahead, maybe even end it all with one shot. Still, an ominously calm voice broke whatever plan he had.

“I found you.”

Desmond had no idea when it had happened, but now his target, Stalker, was standing less than a dozen meters in front of him. Desmond’s surprise was quickly reinforced as Stalker disappeared. Feeling a rush of wind next to him, accompanied by sharp pain and the dull sound of something hitting the ground, Desmond thought, “He didn’t disappear; he just moved so fast I didn’t see him.”

Desmond felt pain wash over him, but he still endured the pain to see what had happened. Looking down, Desmond saw his left arm on the ground and the fountain of blood that continued to ooze from his wound. Despite the surprise and the pain, Desmond was forced to look back, finding his would-be prey staring back at him calmly.

With a smile full of razor-sharp, slender teeth, Stalker spoke in a mocking tone. “I’ve been waiting for you too long, Desmond Astryd. Now I need you to answer a few questions.”