Upon concluding the battle, Kael didn''t dare to tarry. After a brief respite, he shed his blood - stained outer garment, remaining clad only in his stab - proof vest.
Subsequently, shouldering his backpack and lugging all his possessions, he set off along the road.
Staying put was out of the question.
With the corpses of the six goblins lying there, and the pungent smell of blood permeating the air, who could say whether it might attract other perils?
Furthermore, he was still in the dark about the presence of other goblins in the vicinity.
He had just finished a strenuous fight with these goblins and was thoroughly drained of physical energy.
If a few more goblins were to materialize, the outcome of the encounter would be highly uncertain.
Walking with utmost caution for half an hour, Kael slipped into another building.
After a quick reconnaissance, and finding no signs of danger, he took up residence in a relatively clean room.
After a cursory sweep to clear away the dust and debris, Kael slumped onto his backpack.
The battle and the subsequent trek had truly worn him out.
Recollecting the recent skirmish, he couldn''t help but feel a sense of lingering fear.
Fortunately, he had managed to dispatch most of the goblins through surprise attacks.
Otherwise, if all six had charged at him simultaneously, it would have been an arduous struggle.
This train of thought led him to recall that during the battle, after two of the goblins had perished, two faint light spots had hurtled towards him.
What on earth were these two luminous specks?
Kael conducted a thorough self - examination but discovered nothing amiss on his person.
With a mental command, he summoned his attribute panel.
Sure enough, there were alterations on the panel.
Name: Kael
Bloodline: Human
Rank: 0th Rank Apprentice
Strength: 1.3
Physique: 1.1
Agility: 1.1
Spiritual Power: 2.1
Magic Power: 21/21
Skills: "The Breath of Darkness Meditation Method"
Potential Points: 2
The potential points, which had hitherto been at zero, had now increased to 2.
How had this come about?
Could it be that he had acquired them by slaying those two goblins?
But why hadn''t he received potential points upon killing the other four goblins?
This conundrum left Kael perplexed.
Kael attempted to allocate the potential points to attributes such as strength but found it impossible to do so.
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So, what precisely were these potential points, and what purpose did hoarding them serve?
Unable to fathom the answer, he decided to set the matter aside for the time being...
After the battle and the lengthy walk, Kael''s stomach began to growl.
He retrieved some compressed biscuits and began to nibble on them.
He refrained from overeating, for he knew that after such intense physical exertion in the battle, a full stomach would likely induce drowsiness.
He still wasn''t certain if he had eluded danger, and this was hardly the time to sleep.
After a short rest, he once again leaned against the window to better gather auditory information.
Then he summoned the magic book and readied himself to resume his study of the spell "The Bone Tooth."
Suddenly, the attribute panel, which had previously receded from view, popped up again, accompanied by a line of text.
"Do you wish to utilize potential points to expedite learning?"
What!
Could potential points actually hasten the learning of spells? Kael was taken aback.
After a moment''s reflection, he clicked "Yes."
The panel then retracted once more.
Seeing this, Kael didn''t dare to waste a moment and bent his head to commence learning the spell.
This learning experience was nothing short of astonishing.
It was as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes.
The runes, which had previously seemed arcane and impenetrable, now appeared as straightforward as one plus one.
He could effortlessly conjure them in his mind.
If learning spells before had been akin to a primary school student grappling with advanced mathematics, now it was as easy as a university student performing basic arithmetic.
Was this the might of potential points!
Potential points, go for it! Let me see just how far you can take me!
Kael''s heart was ablaze with excitement, but he didn''t dare to pause.
He couldn''t afford to squander this precious learning opportunity.
...
As evening descended and the sun began to set, Kael roused himself from his intense study.
The enhancement provided by the potential points had been expended, and Kael had emerged from that seamless learning state.
Nevertheless, the learning during this period had reaped rich rewards.
He silently traced the magic runes in his mind, and three seconds later, a sharp tooth, the size of a peanut, materialized and hovered beside him.
The spell "The Bone Tooth" had been successfully cast!
"Whoosh!"
This bone tooth hurtled through the air with a piercing sound and struck another building, more than thirty meters away on the opposite side of the road.
It left a hole in the building''s wall, the size of a human head.
Although it failed to penetrate the wall, the damage it inflicted was substantial. Had it struck a goblin''s head, it would have undoubtedly splattered it.
The attack range wasn''t overly extensive.
Calculated based on his spiritual power of 2.1 multiplied by 25, it was merely 52 meters.
However, for an apprentice, this was still a respectable distance.
As he continued to practice meditation in the future, his spiritual power would steadily increase, and the attack range would surely expand.
He called up the panel and examined his attributes once more:
Name: Kael
...
Magic Power: 18/21
Skills: "The Breath of Darkness Meditation Method", Zero - level Spell: "The Bone Tooth"
Potential Points: 0
Sure enough, the potential points had been depleted.
This was truly a remarkable resource.
Regrettably, he had no idea how to obtain potential points consistently.
The two light spots that had appeared when he killed the goblins were likely the potential points.
But why had they manifested when two of the goblins were slain and not when the other four were?
If he could amass hundreds or even thousands of potential points, learning spells would become a breeze.
Glancing at the magic power consumption, casting "The Bone Tooth" once depleted three units of magic power.
In his current state, he could only cast the spell seven times in total.
Conversely, casting the spell consumed relatively little spiritual power.
His spiritual power of 2.1 was more than adequate for the time being.
Nonetheless, this was still a significant improvement over his previous situation.
Now he finally possessed the ability to launch a long - range attack.
If he had had this capability during the earlier battle with the goblins, he could have eliminated them one by one from a distance, without even revealing himself.
Channeling his spiritual power, Kael scanned all the dilapidated buildings within a radius of over fifty meters and detected nothing out of the ordinary.
Now he could rest easy. He had learned to harness his spiritual power after mastering his first zero - level spell.
With the aid of spiritual power, reconnaissance would be far simpler in the future.
At the very least, when moving to another building, he wouldn''t need to scurry up and down for a search.
A simple scan with his spiritual power would suffice.
However, this form of spiritual power scanning also exacted a heavy toll on his spiritual energy. In just a few minutes of use earlier, Kael''s spiritual power had plummeted from 2.1 to 1.9.
By calculation, if he used his spiritual power to scout at full tilt, it would last for less than half an hour.
As for when his spiritual power was completely drained, the recovery time was measured in days.
Spiritual power differed from magic power in that it recovered at a much slower pace.
Even if he sat down to meditate, the recovery rate was still slower than that of magic power.