236: Chapter 236 Magical Attacks, True Damage

'Since the equipment attributes mention magic attack, does that mean I can manifest magic attacks with this green wood staff?'

Thinking this, Xiao Niao raised the green wood staff in front of him, staring intensely at it with both eyes while exerting effort. He didn't know if it would work, but he focused all his attention on the green wood staff before him.

Just a second or two after trying this, Xiao Niao felt a change in the staff. The green light flowing over it seemed to be growing denser, and it no longer circulated at a uniform speed; instead, it purposefully flowed toward the gem embedded at the top, converging from countless green light specks into a green magic orb.

Under Xiao Niao's surprised gaze, the green magic orb gradually grew until it was the size of a pigeon egg. He felt the power contained within it and a sudden feeling arose in his heart—if this orb grew any larger, he wouldn't be able to control it, and it would explode!

Xiao Niao didn't know where this feeling came from, but he indeed felt a great strain now; the green magic orb was about to break free from his control. To prevent it from exploding in front of him like a bomb, he quickly aimed at the Irritable Red Wild Boar not far outside the corridor and swung the staff. Feeling a release in his hand, the pigeon-egg-sized green magic orb was indeed thrown out by him, flying straight out of the corridor and smashing into the Irritable Red Wild Boar's head.

-20.

The green magic orb smashed into the Irritable Red Wild Boar's head, and a damage number that wasn't low popped up. Not only Xiao Niao himself, but Tang Yao and Hu Gualing also showed surprised expressions.

Because Xiao Niao had a prior record—during the Dungeon, he had a history of casting six consecutive Recovery Spells on a boss until his mana was empty—Tang Yao and Hu Gualing subconsciously thought he was acting up again by healing the enemy when they saw the green magic orb fly out. It wasn't until they clearly saw the '-20' damage number pop up that Tang Yao and Xiao Niao realized with surprise that this wasn't a Recovery Spell but an attack?

But... when did Xiao Niao learn to manifest magic orbs? Also, isn't this a Wuxia-style game? Is it reasonable for a mage who can manifest magic orbs to appear?

Regardless, the orb did indeed take away 20 health points from the Irritable Red Wild Boar in one hit.

Seeing this, Xiao Niao stood dazed in the corridor as well.

He was both shocked that he could actually manifest a magic orb by hand and surprised by its power.

He had a good idea of his own attack power. After all, when dealing with that Fearless Black Wild Boar earlier, he had crept close while it was being surrounded by Hu Gualing and Tang Yao, yet despite the advantage of his bow and arrows, he had barely been able to break through its defense. This showed how low his basic attack was.

But that hit just now dealt a high damage of 20 points to the Irritable Red Wild Boar. He had personally seen Hu Gualing deal only 17 damage to a Ordinary Wild Boar with a punch. Even if the Irritable Red Wild Boar's defense was low, as a minor leader of the herd, it couldn't be lower than its subordinates, right? By comparison, this magic orb he manifested, as a ranged attack, was more powerful than Hu Gualing's fist wearing the steel knuckle duster?!

Xiao Niao looked at the green wood staff in his hand with an expression of disbelief and checked its equipment description again: 'This is a staff made from Materials of a thousand-year-old tree trunk. It has a decent magic bonus effect. Equipping it grants a certain boost to Mental Energy, and the staff also carries a decent magic attack, allowing the user to have some combat capability in battle.'

'Good heavens, so the combat capability mentioned in the description refers to being able to manifest magic orbs after equipping this staff!'

Xiao Niao was filled with emotion.

Furthermore, the magic orbs manifested with this green wood staff had another characteristic: zero consumption!

Yes, zero consumption. Xiao Niao carefully checked his attributes and found that except for his mana, which had decreased by 20 points from using two Recovery Spells, all other energy resources were full. This meant manifesting magic orbs consumed no energy resources and could be done indefinitely! Wasn't this much more exciting than shooting arrows? Not only did it require no arrows or energy, but the damage was also significantly higher. So... is this the power of deep blue quality equipment?

Xiao Niao was repeatedly amazed by the green wood staff in his hand, unable to calm his racing heart. Excitedly, he focused all his attention on the green wood staff again. Five seconds later, another pigeon-egg-sized green magic orb formed at the tip. Xiao Niao controlled it and threw it at the Irritable Red Wild Boar again.

-22.

The damage this time had changed slightly, being 2 points higher than the previous 20.

Xiao Niao secretly guessed: 'The reason for the damage fluctuation is that the green wood staff's attribute is 3 to 5 points of magic damage. Whether it deals 3 or 5 points each time isn't fixed, which is why it changed from 20 last time to 22 this time. So, subtracting the 3 to 5 bonus magic damage, the remaining damage is 17, which is exactly the sum of my own Mental Energy plus the 3 points of Mental Energy added by the staff. This means the damage dealt by the manifested orb = Magic Damage = (Personal Mental Energy × 1) + Magic Damage Bonus?'

Based on the damage values from the two magic orbs hitting the Irritable Red Wild Boar, Xiao Niao quickly deduced a possible damage formula in his mind.

Xiao Niao also noticed something unusual: his magic damage was exactly the damage dealt to the Irritable Red Wild Boar, without any reduction. Doesn't this mean magic damage is essentially like True Damage for normal monsters and even this elite-level Irritable Red Wild Boar? This was quite extraordinary because it meant no matter how strong the monster was, his magic orbs would deal full damage! Of course, this might just be because the monsters encountered so far don't have magic defense attributes yet, so they can't resist magic attacks and must take the full brunt of it.

Even so, Xiao Niao was quite pleasantly surprised by the green magic orb he could manifest. Moreover, manifesting orbs was cooler than shooting arrows and had no cost. Like a child with a new toy, he couldn't put the green wood staff down. Two magic orbs hitting the Irritable Red Wild Boar wasn't enough; instead, he focused on the staff with even more enthusiasm, repeating the process over and over.

-14.

-18.

-11.

One green magic orb after another formed on the green wood staff in Xiao Niao's hand and was flung out of the corridor to accurately hit the Irritable Red Wild Boar. As for the varying damage each time, it was because Xiao Niao intentionally tried to shorten the manifestation time.

During the first two times he channeled the orb, he focused until the mana intensity within the green magic orb at the tip of the staff showed signs of breaking free from his control before he was forced to hurl it at the Irritable Red Wild Boar. This process of focused channeling to enlarge the orb took about 5 seconds. Xiao Niao felt this was too long and thought that if he could shorten the channeling time, he could significantly improve his output efficiency. Therefore, for the next three times, he deliberately didn't wait the full 5 seconds but tried to hurl the orb once it had formed but before it grew particularly large.

After throwing three consecutive orbs, Xiao Niao began to understand the mechanism of this green magic orb.

The magic orb seemed to be an attack method automatically included after equipping a staff. Since he had only encountered this one staff, he couldn't tell if all staves had this feature or only special ones. However, based on the current situation, the magic orb attack seemed to be a basic attack that didn't consume mana or stamina but required channeling time. Channeling for 5 seconds maximized its power, following the formula: Magic Damage = (Personal Mental Energy × 1) + Magic Damage Bonus. But it didn't strictly require 5 seconds; in fact, after about 2-plus seconds, the orb would already be formed. Although not as large as a pigeon egg, it could already be thrown. Naturally, the damage was lower than a fully channeled orb. Through these tests, Xiao Niao figured out that while the maximum damage was capped at (Personal Mental Energy × 1) with a 5-second channel, shorter channeling resulted in lower damage. The shortest possible channel of 2-plus seconds dealt only half of the maximum damage.

Xiao Niao hadn't had enough after figuring this out and wanted to throw a few more full-damage orbs at the Irritable Red Wild Boar. To his dismay, however, the aggressive Irritable Red Wild Boar was down to a sliver of health. Before his orb could finish channeling, it was cut down by Tang Yao's sword, falling as a corpse on the mountainside. A green and a white orb of light dropped from its body.

Having just seen blue and even purple quality items in the Dungeon, Xiao Niao didn't care much about the two light orbs dropped by the Irritable Red Wild Boar. What surprised him was how an elite monster with over two hundred health points could be gone just like that.

Actually, on second thought, it was quite reasonable. Although the Irritable Red Wild Boar had 240 health points, before Xiao Niao even started, it had already been hit several times by Tang Yao, who was in the Sword Heart Enlightenment state and protected by a mental shield, losing over a hundred health points. Xiao Niao had been so excited manifesting orbs that he hadn't noticed its health, so he hadn't had his fill before it collapsed.

Helplessly, Xiao Niao had to throw the already manifested green magic orb at a slightly more distant target—a Ordinary Wild Boar.

-20.

The green magic orb, fully channeled for 5 seconds, hit a Ordinary Wild Boar and caused a red damage number. There was no difference from the damage dealt to the Irritable Red Wild Boar. This didn't surprise Xiao Niao; rather, it further validated his previous deduction about the orb's mechanism. It seemed that magic damage from this magic orb was indeed no different from True Damage at this stage. Whether attacking an elite monster or a normal mob, the damage was exactly the same.

The subsequent battle was very easy. Hu Gualing pulled four Ordinary Wild Boars, occasionally finding time to punch them while dodging and parrying. Even if he was accidentally gored by one, with the 5 defense points provided by the pants of the vibrant white boar, he only took about 10 damage. Even if hit three times in a row, a single Recovery Spell from Xiao Niao would fill his health back up. It could be said there was no pressure at all.

Furthermore, once Xiao Niao could manifest magic orbs, the party's overall output efficiency improved significantly. To deal with these Ordinary Wild Boars with over a hundred health points, it only took two rounds of focused fire from the three of them to kill one. Before long, the four Ordinary Wild Boars were all corpses lying scattered on the ground, dropping four or five white light orbs.

Seeing the battle end, with Hu Gualing and Tang Yao still missing a bit of health, Xiao Niao didn't hesitate to cast two Recovery Spells to top them off. As for himself, having stayed inside the corridor the whole time, he naturally hadn't taken any damage. He then leisurely walked out of the corridor holding his staff.

Stepping out, he naturally drew the attention of Hu Gualing and Tang Yao.

"How did you learn to manifest magic orbs?" Hu Gualing asked, glancing at the green wood staff in Xiao Niao's hand and staring at him suspiciously.