I can evolve everything

Chapter 101 The Mage Named Thales

The snow is still falling.

Raine had already dismounted and charged into the horde of monsters ahead.

With each breath, the Black Rock Breathing Technique relentlessly exploited this body, constantly generating life energy to replenish Rein's strength.

"die!"

The two-handed greatsword in Renn's hand was no longer being swung, but smashed.

In this horde of hundreds of frenzied monsters, only the most primal instinct for killing exists.

Smash the blade into the gnoll's collarbone, pull it out, and then sweep it horizontally to sever the goblin's throat.

How many times did Ryan repeat this action?

One hundred times? Two hundred times?

I could no longer feel my arm, and my vision under the visor began to blur. Red blood mist clouded my eyes, and I couldn't wipe it clean.

"How much longer—"

Another soldier fell behind him.

No one has time to be sad.

They didn't even have time to glance at the corpse.

This is the battlefield, which indifferently crushes all vibrant lives into mincemeat.

Behind Raine, the mage Thales, having exhausted his strength, was unable to cast spells and was silently clutching his dulled staff. He had been protected in the very center of the group.

His hands were shaking.

It wasn't because of the cold, but because of the palpable aura of death.

Thales was most afraid of death in his life.

He was a greedy wretch, a coward, a petty scoundrel who would argue all afternoon with the quartermaster of the Northern Fortress over three silver coins.

In the northern fortress, all the mages looked down on him.

Which of those men of noble birth didn't come to this harsh land for glory or for the grand ideal of protecting the North?

Only Thales was in it for the money.

In this world, all mages are considered valuable talents, and the Northern Fortress offers high stipends to mages. Even if they just cast a few light spells and fireballs, they can still receive twice the salary of those in southern towns.

"It's gone—it's really gone, not a trace of magic power left."

Thales groped through the empty pockets of his robe, his fingertips touching only a few crystals shattered into powder.

Am I really going to die here?

In this godforsaken place where there isn't even a tombstone, I'll become rotten meat in the mouths of these monsters.

Thales looked up and, through the gaps in the crowd, saw the figure in front of him frantically swinging a sword.

Ryan Wilder. That reckless apprentice knight.

And there was that red-haired half-elf, constantly slaughtering monsters beside Renn.

"They're all lunatics—" Thales muttered to himself, "These brainless knights—"

His vision was somewhat unfocused.

That scene from my memory resurfaced.

That was twenty years ago in the South, the sun so warm it made you want to sleep. Under the grape trellis, a girl named Emily smiled and said to him, "Thales, you said you want to become a Grand Magister, that's a very high position!"

"It's huge," young Thales said, puffing out his chest. "Big enough to pluck the stars from the sky and give them to you as a necklace."

"Then go ahead." The girl stuffed a basket of freshly picked grapes into his arms. "I'll wait for you to come back and pick stars."

and after?

He spent ten years in the academy, but his talent was mediocre, and he struggled even to learn a simple fireball spell.

He was too ashamed to go back.

He wanted to make a lot of money. Even if he couldn't become a Grand Magus, he could at least buy a big house with a garden and hire ten servants. That way, he could go back in style.

He spent another ten years in the northern fortress.

I've saved some money, but it never feels like enough. I'll save some more, and save some more.

Until last year, he received a letter.

Emily died. From a common bout of typhoid fever. Until her death, she was waiting for someone under that grape trellis.

That night, Thales got drunk alone in a small tavern near the Northern Fortress, throwing away half of his gold coins to the group of dancers who had mocked him.

From that day on, he became even more greedy.

Because besides money, he didn't know what else he had left.

He had no dreams, no lover, no glory. He was just a small man in a mage's robe, barely surviving in this world, haggling over a few silver coins.

"How ridiculous, Thales."

The monk looked down at his withered hands.

"In your entire life, you haven't even used a single decent spell."

Renn, who was in front, let out a muffled groan.

A dire wolf had somehow infiltrated the monster horde and bit his calf armor. Although it didn't bite through, it definitely damaged the bone.

The line came to a standstill.

The remaining six soldiers stood back to back, looking around in despair.

There were too many monsters. They were like a black tide, constantly trying to completely engulf Rein's squad.

The white dire wolf king remained standing a hundred meters away. It silently watched the scene, its eyes devoid of any emotion.

One hundred meters.

For a mage, this is an awkward distance. Putting aside whether Thales could even cast a fireball, the fireball's decay range is also just around one hundred meters.

unless----

Thales took a deep breath.

The air was icy cold, yet it made his heart suddenly pound violently.

He reached into the innermost pocket of his coat.

There were no gold coins there, only a dark blue sphere about the size of a thumb.

That was all his savings.

That was the only thing he refused to give up—an Arcane Singularity that Emily had saved up for ten years to buy, which arrived with that letter.

It was originally a surprise Emily left for Thales, but it was sent to the Northern Fortress along with news of her death.

He originally planned to wait until he was really old and had earned enough money, then take this Arcane Singularity back to the south to retire.

But now, retirement seems to have become a joke.

"Raine!"

Thales suddenly shouted.

Raine cleaved the monster in front of him in two with a single stroke of his sword, not even turning his head: "Shut up! If you don't want to die, hide behind me!"

"I told you to throw me out!"

Thales rushed forward and grabbed Renn's cloak.

Those small eyes, usually filled with calculation, were now burning with light.

"What did you say?" Renn was stunned for a moment, and was almost attacked by the gnoll next to him.

"I said, throw me out!" Thales pointed to the dense sea of ​​monsters ahead. "Throw me into the sky! The higher the better! The farther the better!"

"Are you crazy?" Renn shoved him away. "Do you want to become food for those monsters?"

"I'm not crazy!" Thales clung tightly to Renn's arm guard. "My mana is depleted! But I still have this! This is the most valuable thing I've ever owned! If you can throw me on top of them, I can clear a path for you!"

"No way." Ryan refused decisively. "I won't use my comrades as pawns."

"Comrades?"

Thales paused for a moment, then gave an awkward smile.

"Hey—I never thought I'd hear that word again in my lifetime."

He suddenly straightened his back.

The tattered mage robe fluttered in the wind.

At this moment, this middle-aged man exuded an aura that was only found in the great mages at the top of the tower.

"Listen, Ryan Wilder."

Thales' voice calmed down.

"I am Thales, an employed mage of the Northern Fortress. Although I have spent my whole life calculating, running away, and scheming for those few silver coins—"

"But I am still a mage."

"The mage's destiny is to die in the brilliance of arcane magic."

He clutched the deep blue sphere tightly in his palm; the energy within it had begun to overflow, stinging his skin.

"Throw me!"

This roar even drowned out the howls of the surrounding monsters.

Ryan looked at him.

Two seconds.

In those two seconds of life and death, Ryan understood those eyes.

That wasn't seeking death, that was seeking life—seeking proof that one had lived a decent life.

"Rain!" Ella suddenly shouted from beside her, "Do as he says! He's burning his life force to channel magic, he can't stop!"

Renn suddenly didn't know what to say, and just nodded.

He sheathed his greatsword and grabbed Thales by the back of his collar with one hand.

"Thales".

"Um?"

"What else do you wish for!" Renn's arm muscles bulged as he briefly channeled all his life energy into his arm once more. "Ha—then you'd better prepare a mountain of gold coins to send back to my hometown—"

"rise!"

With the explosive power of his breathing technique combined with the skill of targeted infusion, in that instant, Renn gathered all his strength into his right arm.

Thales's thin body soared into the sky with a whooshing sound.

The wind whistled in my ears.

Thales felt like he was flying.

The monsters on the ground grew smaller and smaller, and the dark, surging tide churned beneath his feet.

He saw the scenery further away.

Those were the snow-covered mountains of the North, that was the gray-white sky, that was the world he had lived in for decades, yet had never truly seen.

"Wow, that's really high!"

Thales spread his arms in mid-air.

The cold wind filled his mage robes, making him look like a large bird with outstretched wings.

He looked at the dire wolf king a hundred meters away. The beast was raising its head, coldly observing the strange human in the air.

"What are you looking at?"

Thales grinned.

"Haven't you seen the Grand Master before?"

He crushed the deep blue sphere in his hand, simultaneously detonating the long-dried-up magical energy within his body.

"Let's see for ourselves—"

"This is—the giant fireball I've been saving up my whole life!!!"