Imperial Crown.

Chapter 243 Flame Affinity
Many thanks to QQ reading master [洋洋得意@] for the 10.11 reward on October 100!

Many thanks to the Qidian boss [Book Friend 20231014041840885] for the 100 reward!

……

No matter how much Raven kept talking, the new castle could not be completed in a short time.

This is exactly the same as Annuo's helplessness.

In fact, ever since the competition began and the nobles began wandering around Raven's territory, Annuo had approached Raven more than once, hoping that he could find a way to interfere.

Many young nobles, at best because they have an adventurous gene in their bones, at worst because they are bored, like to go into the deep mountains and forests where few people go, hoping to go on a legendary adventure, fight a dragon, save a princess, etc.

There were no princesses or evil dragons, but there were always unlucky people who got close to the academy, so much so that in just two months, Annuo had to take action himself and scared away four groups of no less than a dozen noble children without showing up.

However, this further stimulated the nobles' adventurous instinct.

Raven didn’t have a good solution to this problem - he couldn’t just put up a sign at the foot of the mountain that said “There are no secrets here”, right?

All Raven could do was spread the word that that was where his magic laboratory was located.

This method can only fool people temporarily, but it is enough for a while.

After all, according to the current schedule, the competition will be over in a month at most, and most people will leave by then.

After 7 days of fierce competition, the third round officially ended. Simon and Eric both advanced to the fourth round. Coupled with Weston's previous victory, the pessimistic public opinion about the Griffith family gradually disappeared.

There were 131 contestants who successfully made it to the fourth round, including Weisdon, and only 5 first-level extraordinary people were left.

In order to ensure the excitement of the upcoming games, the number of games per day has been adjusted to 8.

In order to facilitate the schedule arrangement, Ingra reached an agreement with two of the five first-level extraordinary people, allowing them to voluntarily give up their rights before the new list was announced at the cost of 5 gold coins.

And Visdon chose to give up voluntarily, so there were 4 participants in the fourth round.

For both the family and Weston personally, reaching this point is enough.

A few days after the battle with Batum, Visdon thought a lot while lying in the hospital bed.

In terms of business acumen, 10 of him put together cannot compare to Denise; in terms of territory management, 100 of him put together cannot compare to Raven.

Not to mention the intrigues in political struggles.

All he can do is to keep walking on the extraordinary path and provide military force for the family to realize his own value.

So as soon as he was able to get out of bed and move around, he found Raven and asked a question: "Brother, how can I improve myself quickly?"

This is a simple question, but the simpler it is, the harder it is to answer.

Raven thought for a moment and handed him the bloody combat skills collected by his family. He also told him: "In fact, your basic skills are already solid enough. You can't be impatient to advance your fighting spirit. What you lack most at the moment is the judgment of the battle situation and the practical experience of the extraordinary level."

"Go watch the competition, be aware of their shortcomings, and learn from their strengths."

Visdon took these words to heart, so after the fourth round of competition officially began, he dragged his sick body to the spectator seats, carefully watched every battle, and wrote down his own experiences.

At first, Denise thought that Weston's behavior was the same as before, just a moment of passion, and his old habits would return after the excitement wore off.

But for 8 consecutive days, a total of 64 battles, Visdon watched every one of them, and the accumulated parchment was several inches thick.

Moreover, Visdon would not only record the information, but would also reorganize and revise the information based on the news on the Sky Eagle platform afterwards, and would also take it to consult Raven and Eric.

It has to be said that when a person devotes himself to a certain cause, he can always burst out with unexpected energy. Even Raven and Eric have to admit that what he summed up has strong practical and guiding value.

This kind of enthusiasm and concentration was the first time Denise had seen it from Weston.

Finally, she couldn't help herself and approached Raven: "What kind of magic did you use? Visdon is like a completely different person!"

"Nothing." Raven said slowly, "Just a little trust, a little encouragement, and a little love."

With every word he said, Denise's expression became more and more strange, and finally she rolled her eyes and turned away: "I knew you wouldn't tell me the truth!"

Raven helplessly spread his hands and looked at Petty beside him: "Is there anything wrong with what I said?"

Petty was stunned for a moment, then shook his head firmly: "No, sir, not at all!"

"Alas..." Raven sighed heavily - I finally told the truth, why no one believes it!
In the 4th round, Simon, who was promoted to the second level, won the victory as a dark horse, and advanced to the 5th round together with Eric, who played steadily and defeated his opponent, which is the top 64 of this competition.

It is worth mentioning that in this round of competition, Simon won the title of "Morning Wind Knight", which means that he has a gentle temper like the morning light and a fierce offensive like a storm.

Next will be the 5th round of competition, which will select the top 32 teams of this competition.

There are no weak players who can make it to this stage, and every game is highly anticipated.

If it was purely based on luck, it would be very likely that a few third-level players would collide with each other, and the semi-finals or even the finals would be staged ahead of time, so the big guys from various teams found Raven and hinted to him openly or secretly, hoping that he could arrange the schedule well and never let any "accidents" happen.

Raven agreed to all of these, but he still followed the old tradition and threw this difficult question to Ingra.

The guiding ideology is that you should not offend anyone, but you should not do it too obviously either; you should try to protect Xuefeng County's own people as much as possible.

This is a tough time for Ingra.

There are 3 members from the Fox family who advance to this round; 1 member under Marquis Anthony; 3 members from the Slater family; and 2 members from the Holy Knights of the Vatican.

If we stagger all these people, we will need to arrange 9 games, not to mention that there are 2 people from our own family and 4 people from Xuefeng County.

It's not easy to do this perfectly.

Fortunately, Ingla will comfort herself - at least she won't ask such questions in the round of 16!
Raven, who took some time out from his busy schedule, began to enjoy his life.

We usually eat food from Eagle Territory, but today, at Nancy's suggestion, we tried the Fox family's special menu.

Nancy was wearing a Lolita-style long dress, with her fiery twin ponytails hanging softly on her shoulders. Her small hands in white silk gloves raised a cup of black tea and drank it, diluting the greasy sweetness of the dessert in her mouth. Her pink tongue licked her lips like a kitten:
"How about it? I invited you three times and five times, but you refused to have lunch with me. Now you know how delicious the Fox family's dishes are, right?"

Raven put down the spoon and was slightly stunned: "Is this true?"

"Hmph, you're playing dumb again!" Nancy wrinkled her nose. "As a punishment, you are not allowed to come to my room tonight!"

"Oh, punish me?" Raven raised a meaningful smile and slapped his chin gently: "It's still unclear who will punish whom."

Nancy blushed, remembering their first encounter.

At that time, she went to Lei Wen angrily to ask for "justice", but was caught and beaten severely by Lei Wen. Thinking back on it now, her little butt still feels burning.

What was that man's name? Carlo? Cumming? Nancy couldn't remember the name of the unlucky guy killed by Raven, but it didn't matter. She bared her fangs and whispered, "Hmph... If you dare to hit me again, I will bite you!"

Raven grinned and clenched his teeth: "Then you can't bite me."

Nancy rolled her eyes, and suddenly a light came up: "Then I'll ask my brother to help you and teach you a lesson!"

"Him..." Raven smiled playfully, drank a sip of tea and said no more.

"You think he's no match for you?" Nancy asked.

"It depends on which aspect you look at it from." Raven sighed, "Although he is the heir to the Earl's family, I am only a Baron."

"But, my life can be described as..."

Jenny, who was standing by and serving, suddenly shuddered and whispered in Nancy's ear, "Madam, I'll go and rush for the dishes."

Nancy waved her hand to indicate that she could leave, and Jenny quickly moved her feet, leaving the room with the largest stride allowed by etiquette.

Baron Raven’s experience is indeed very fascinating, but no matter how good the story is, you can’t listen to it every day!
In just two months since she came back, she has already listened to it eight times and is almost able to memorize it.

After dawdling outside for a long time, Jenny returned to the room with the next dessert. As soon as she walked in, she heard Raven say, "Jenny is back. Where were we talking about before?"

"Yes, I can say that I started my life from scratch..."

Jenny's eyes went dark.

This time there was no reason to leave, Jenny could only maintain her expression with great professionalism so that Raven would not notice any flaws.

Nearly an hour and a half passed before Raven finished his story, kissed Nancy goodbye, and went about his own business.

Jenny breathed a sigh of relief, and while clearing the table, she whispered, "Madam, you've worked so hard, do you need to take a rest?"

"No, no." Nancy shook her head and twirled her hair with her fingers. "I don't think it's hard."

"But this is the ninth time the master has told this story."

"You don't understand." Nancy smiled and said, "Husband and wife are supposed to understand each other."

"Raven has never liked those cumbersome aristocratic etiquettes. Every time he holds a cocktail party, it is almost always a buffet. He can be patient enough to accompany me for a two-hour lunch. He is just trying to accommodate me."

"In that case, why can't I calm down and listen to what he has to say?"

Raven did not hear these words. He had already returned to his secret room, lit the magic lemongrass, and continued to engrave the second structure of the fireball in the magic pool.

Engraving magic is like enchanting yourself.

However, when making enchanted items, even if there are one or two mistakes in the magic patterns, they can be sent back for remaking; if the engraving of magic goes astray, it will be a big mistake that cannot be corrected and cannot be reversed. If you continue to complete the engraving on this basis, not only will you not be able to advance to the fourth level, but you will also damage your own foundation.

In order to warn future generations, "The Path of the Mage" records in detail 13 magicians who made mistakes during this period due to their eagerness for quick success.

There are many true geniuses among them.

But among the 13 people, 9 were stuck at level 3 and could not move forward a single step until their death; 3 died suddenly; and it was not known whether the last one was lucky or unlucky, as the magic pool was completely destroyed. Although he survived, he became a disabled person.

In history, the only person who failed in engraving but still managed to advance successfully was a magician named "Aquinas", who eventually stayed at the fifth level.

Even so, he had never won a single battle against magicians of the same level.

So even with the help of the Eye of Truth, Raven was still extremely cautious and would only engrave when he was calmest and would not be disturbed.

Raven closed his eyes and manipulated his mental power to transform it into tentacles. He used the tentacles as knives to clearly outline the structure of the fireball on the pool of magic power bit by bit.

His brows furrowed slightly, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his breathing began to become heavy.

Every time he engraved a point, a ball of heat would burst out of his body, and he would have to stop and rest for a while, waiting until his mind calmed down before continuing.

To Raven, this was more like a doctor performing surgery on himself. Every engraving was like operating on his soul.

Time passed little by little.

Raven's clothes were soaked with sweat, dried up by the bursting heat, and then wet again until white salt marks appeared.

Normally, Raven would not fight to such an extent, but this time, since there was not much left, he was ready to make a concerted effort and complete the engraving of the second structure.

On the magic pool, with the last stroke, a complete magic circuit took shape, and a vibration spread from the inside out, causing Raven's mental strength and magic power to begin to surge.

The water level of the pool of mana began to drop, filling the structure, and a burning sensation filled Raven's soul.

Suddenly, Raven opened his eyes. Even without the Eyes of Truth, he could see the fire element flourishing around him.

He gently raised his palm, slightly pulled his mental force, and let the magic power flow. Without even chanting the spell, a cluster of green flames had already ignited in the palm of his hand!
"Monster..." Sikoret, who was lying on the side, uttered two words.

Although it was she who suggested that Raven choose Fireball, she did not expect that just by completing the double structure, Raven's affinity for the fire element would grow to such an extent.

It's like an elemental creature living in the elemental plane of fire!
Raven did not stop his exploration. He thought for a moment, stood up, and chanted a spell softly. The next moment, a ball of clear water floated in his palm.

"Interesting..." Raven raised his eyebrows, and the water ball in his palm began to distort. Dense bubbles rose from it, and large clouds of steam spread out, just like a drop of water on a hot pot!
It wasn't that Raven was using flames to boil water, but rather that the clear water condensed by the spell was boiling spontaneously with the help of the fire element.

This is the real magic of the second round of engraving, which allows every magic cast by Raven to be infused with the power of the fire element!
Of course, to use this feature, the magic power consumed by the same magic will also increase dramatically, almost doubling.

But with the support of the True Ancestor's blood core, the thing Raven has the most is magic power!
He could imagine that if he released the water mist technique and then added a sufficient amount of fire elements to it - tsk, this magic, in his hands could be called the "steamer technique".

After trying out a few more magic tricks, Raven left the secret room, washed up with the help of Patty, and changed into new clothes.

Petty helped Raven put on his clothes and also reported on Raven's training. "Ingra finalized the list of names for the competition last night. You said we couldn't disturb them, so Mr. Gordon reviewed and confirmed it. It can be released after you have reviewed it."

"In addition, Viscount Broca has organized a group of nobles from Snow Maple County, including Baron Judela, Baron Wessacine, Baron Moss, and others, to send you an invitation, hoping to invite you to dinner."

Raven nodded, and after a brief thought, he instructed, "Regarding the list, since Old Gordon has seen it, just send it directly; as for Brocka's invitation, please help me push it and say that I am conducting a very important magic experiment."

"You want to conduct an experiment?" Patty was stunned.

"Of course it's an excuse." Raven said with a smile, "This isn't the first day you've followed me. You can push this kind of thing off if you can."

"But I do have some magic-related stuff to deal with."

……

(End of this chapter)