TRANSMIGRATED AS A GHOST

Charging in, Alaric wielded his staff in front of him and cast a spell out of it

“Hail Buckshot.”

With the spell completed, the end of his staff began glowing and hundreds of pebbles of ice fired off at high speeds.

This was a tier three ice magic spell he had learned from one of his magic instructors at the Guldur spire and had a large area of effect.

This made it impossible for the snow wolf that was his target to avoid the onslaught, and it was quickly pelted by the fast-moving bullets of ice.

However, while they did penetrate its thick fur and piece into its flesh, the overall damage was far less than Alaric had anticipated.

He was certainly not conceited to think that the spell would finish off the already injured beast, yet it was still alive and only bleeding slightly. Albeit from dozens of wounds.

Of course, he knew that this beast had a resistance to ice magic but reading about it and seeing how effective it was in practice were two different things.

Alaric had thought that even with its resistance it would still take a decent amount of damage and be incapacitated if it was not killed.

Instead, it shrugged off the attack rather well and charged towards its attacker.

It fangs were glowing slightly and a frosty aura appeared around them.

This was its signature attack that allowed it to imbue its bite attack with cold energy and freeze its target.

But while Alaric was surprised that it had survived and was caught off guard for a bit, he quickly regained his composure and spun his staff around to hit the wolf hard in the side of the head while jumping to the side.

The difference in their level was quite great, and with that one solid hit the snow wolf let out a loud yelp before crumpling to the ground.

Those two attacks from Alaric were all this wolf could take, and now it teetered on the verge of death with its jaw broken along with wounds all over tis body from Alaric’s magic and the fight it had been in before.

“Ice Spikes.”

Casting another spell from afar, Alaric made sure to play it safe and not approach on the off chance the wolf could still move and might attack if he got close.

Quickly the snow around the wolf began to shift and formed a dozen solid spikes of ice and pierced through its body.

Even with its resistance to ice magic, it could not take this spell and its body was pierced and raised into the air.

This spelled the end for it, and its red blood flowed down the ice spikes and onto the pure white snow.

“I won. My first fight in the dungeon, I won!” Alaric said in almost a daze.

He could feel the blood rushing in his body and his breathing that was heavy.

Then it sunk into him that the battle was over, and he smiled happily while running up to the wolf’s body.

When he arrived, he erased his magic and got to work on dismantling the wolf’s body.

Its pelt damaged as it was had a decent amount of value, plus there was its core.

But above all else it was important for adventurers to not be wasteful if they did not have to be. He had learned this especially from the veteran Depths Delvers.

“Good work on beating your first enemy in a dungeon. I will give it passing marks, but you did make a couple of mistakes that we can unpack at the end of the day. I want you to continue fighting for a bit longer and think about any mistakes you might have made.” Marcus said once Alaric had finished taking apart the wolf’s body.

After that they continued going around the area and getting into battles with beasts and monsters that made these snowy hills their homes.

Eventually Alaric called it a day. He had been fighting hard and all alone for hours, while Marcus watched over him and healed the wounds he incurred.

“You are starting to get a better feel for fighting I can see. And I believe you have grasped what to do against most of the creatures in this area. Now tell me what you did wrong in your first couple of fights.” Marcus said while pouring a bowl of warm soup for Alaric.

Taking the bowl, he looked into it for a few moments before fixing his gaze on Marcus with a resolute expression.

“I was over relying on my ice magic. It is my strongest offense, so I have been using it far more than my wind or smoke magic. But here most monsters and beast resist or are even immune to ice magic. Like that frost elemental we came across. I need to be flexible and understand which of my magics work best in a given situation. Not just what does the most damage. That is what you wanted me to learn right?” Alaric said, with a tinge of hope in his eyes.

He as pretty sure that his answer was correct and was waiting with bated breaths for Marcus to tell him.

“Yes, you are mostly correct. That is the main thing I wanted to teach you when bringing you to this area. But you also got surprised and lost your focus a bit when your spells did not work as well as you thought. I know it is hard to shake that feeling of disbelief when you see and attack you expected hit big do little to nothing. But when that happens you need to make sure not to get caught up on it and think about what you need to do next. You were fine this time thanks to the difference in your level and strength, but against an opponent that is around your level or stronger it can be fatal to let yourself be caught off guard for even a moment.”

Once Marcus was finished extoling his wisdom to Alaric. he both complemented the parts he excelled at and critiqued each of the mistakes he made.

Alaric for his part took it in strides, and even when Marcus tore him apart, he listened intently.

His wish to get stronger was genuine and he was wholly willing to listen to Marcus and do what he needed to in order to catch up with Lilia.

“Now I think that is enough review for tonight. Go ahead and get some sleep and I will keep watch thought he night.”

At the mention of sleep Alaric let out a long yawn and finally realized exactly how exhausted he was.

Not long after he entered his tent and fell unconscious pretty much the instant his head hit his mat.

‘Roxene, Inten you both can come out now.’ Marcus said with his telepathy.

An instant later the two beasts appeared out of his companion storage and looked at him expectantly.

“Go ahead and feel free to explore as you whish and fight the beasts and monsters here for some experience. Blitz and I shall keep watch over Alaric. When I need you both back, I will call.”

With Marcus’ permission, his two beast companions shoot off into the area and soon made havoc over the hierarchy of the strongest entities in the area.