Supreme Archmage:Deathbringer

Lucian Vale stood atop the wooden bed, its frame already creaking under his weight. After the intense struggle, it was on the verge of collapsing. He yanked the fire axe out of the Goblin's skull—only then did the creature finally expire for good.

Suddenly, a faint speck of light rose from the dead Goblin's body and shot straight into Lucian's chest. He barely had time to react before it vanished into him.

"What the hell was that?!"

Lucian was startled, but since he felt no immediate change in his body, he pushed it aside for now. Survival was the priority—he'd check it out when he had the chance.

He picked up his backpack, tossing the food and tools back inside. Luckily, none of it was stained with blood. He left the pack in a different room—it was time to deal with the remaining four Goblins.

Returning to the Goblin corpses, Lucian picked up a stone spear. Using his short blade, he cut away the twine binding the jagged stone tip, then replaced it with the knife itself, tying it tightly onto the shaft.

A weapon with reach was a major advantage in combat.

The short blade was far sharper than the Goblins' crude spearhead. Its slight curve and pointed tip made it an ideal substitute for a spearhead.

Lucian leaned by the window, occasionally glancing at the two other Goblin teams across the way while firmly securing the short blade to the wooden shaft with thick grass cord.

In a matter of minutes, he had crafted a much more effective spear—far superior to the crude ones the Goblins wielded.

Without delay, he grabbed both his new spear and the fire axe, dashed down the stairs, and slipped into the building where one of the other Goblin teams was still searching.

Just as he reached the stairwell, he heard the two Goblins chattering and descending from the upper floors.

There was no time to go up. He quickly ducked beneath the staircase on the first floor—dark enough that they'd never notice him unless they looked closely.

One after the other, the Goblins stepped down the stairs, both carrying miscellaneous items in their arms.

Crouched beneath the stairwell, Lucian took a slow breath. He let the first Goblin pass.

When you ambush, you never strike the one in front. You take the one in the rear.

As the second Goblin stepped down behind the first, Lucian rose to his feet.

With a long stride forward, he gripped the spear with both hands and thrust with all his strength.

"Thwack!"

The spearhead pierced the Goblin's chest, blood spilling from the wound.

"Uhh-gh…"

The Goblin whimpered, looking down at the spear embedded in his torso with a dazed expression.

The front Goblin immediately spun around, only to see Lucian kick his dying comrade to the ground and yank the spear free.

"Ahhh!"

The Goblin screamed in terror, tossing his loot aside and even dropping his spear in panic.

Perfect.

Lucian didn't hesitate. He sprinted the few steps to close the distance and drove his spear straight through the Goblin's back. He wrenched it free as the creature turned in shock, blood gurgling from its mouth as it clutched its chest and stared wide-eyed at Lucian.

Lucian's face remained cold.

Across the street, the last two Goblins had already heard the commotion and were emerging from their building, long spears in hand, shouting in their strange guttural language—trying either to threaten him or bolster their courage.

Lucian exhaled deeply. He tightened his grip on the spear, bent his knees slightly, and assumed a stance ready for combat.

This time, it would be a direct fight. No ambushes. No mistakes.

The two Goblins circled cautiously, each looking for an opening in his guard.

Lucian knew he couldn't wait. Two against one—if either Goblin got behind or to his side, he'd be in trouble.

With a roar, he charged forward to seize the initiative.

His sudden shout startled the Goblins. Then Lucian lunged toward the one directly in front of him, spear thrust forward.

The Goblin shrieked and charged as well, his aggression awakened. But he was too short—barely 1.3 meters tall—far smaller than Lucian, whose reach was far superior.

Using a technique learned from bayonet drills, Lucian gave a sharp twist of his spear, knocking the Goblin's weapon off-line.

"Thwack!"

His spear found its mark again—this time burying into the Goblin's shoulder. It wasn't fatal, but it was enough to make the creature wail in pain.

The Goblin instinctively grabbed the shaft of the spear. Lucian tried to pull it back but it wouldn't budge.

The Goblin gritted his teeth through the pain and shouted to his remaining comrade for help.

Lucian gave the spear another hard tug, but it remained lodged. With a grunt, he let go and reached for the fire axe at his waist.

The Goblin froze, confusion and panic flooding its face.

"CRACK!"

The axe cleaved through the Goblin's neck with a gruesome crunch.

The creature slumped, lifeless, its head lolled at a sickening angle.

As before, a faint glowing mote drifted up from the corpse and entered Lucian's chest.

The last Goblin, who had been running to help, stopped dead in his tracks. His courage evaporated the moment he saw his last ally fall.

He dropped his spear and bolted.

Lucian turned just in time to see the creature sprinting away at full speed—already over ten meters out and showing no signs of hesitation.

He couldn't let it escape.

Who knew how far away its tribe was? Or how many more Goblins were hiding in this area?

If this one got away and returned with reinforcements, Lucian would be in serious danger.

He stepped on the fallen Goblin's body and yanked his spear free.

Then he took off in pursuit.

The Goblin was fast, but Lucian was faster. Building momentum, he hurled his spear with all his might.

It arced through the air.

"Thwack!"

The spear slammed into the fleeing Goblin's thigh, burying itself deep into the bone. The creature stumbled and collapsed, unable to run.

It dragged itself forward feebly, clutching its injured leg and whimpering—but it didn't get far.

Lucian quickly closed the distance, raised the axe, and brought it down—ending the Goblin's life in one final stroke.

…

After the fight ended, Lucian Vale didn't dare linger. He took a short rest, then stripped off his bloodstained outerwear, keeping only the stab-resistant undersuit.

Shouldering his backpack, he set off along the road.

Staying in that spot was out of the question. The bodies of six Goblins lay behind, and the stench of blood was thick in the air—who knew what it might attract?

And he still had no idea if there were more Goblins in the area. The fight just now had drained a lot of his stamina. If another group showed up, the outcome would be far from certain.

He moved carefully for about half an hour, eventually finding another building to hole up in.

After a quick recon, finding no immediate danger, he settled into one of the cleaner rooms.

He cleared away some of the dust and debris, then collapsed onto his backpack. He was utterly exhausted.

Thinking back on the earlier battle sent a chill down his spine. He'd been lucky—his ambush had taken out most of the Goblins before they could react. If all six had attacked at once, victory would've been a lot less certain.

Then his thoughts drifted to those strange moments during the fight—two of the Goblins had released faint glowing motes upon death, which had flown straight into his body.

What were those?

Lucian checked himself over but didn't find anything new or unusual.

Acting on a hunch, he summoned his status panel.

Sure enough, something had changed.

Name: Lucian Vale

Race: Human

Tier: Apprentice, Rank 0

Strength: 1.3

Constitution: 1.1

Agility: 1.1

Willpower: 2.1

Mana: 21/21

Skill: Breath of Darkness

Potential Point(s): 2

He'd had zero Potential Points before. Now he had two. Could those points have come from killing those two Goblins?

But then why hadn't the other four yielded any?

He tried to assign a point to Strength or one of his other attributes, but it didn't work.

So what exactly were these Potential Points for? What was the purpose of saving them?

Puzzled and unable to find an answer, Lucian decided to let it go for now.

His stomach rumbled. After the intense combat and the long walk, he was starving. He pulled out a pack of compressed rations and started chewing.

Still, he didn't eat too much. After that much physical exertion, eating until full would just make him sleepy.

And he wasn't sure he was out of danger yet. This wasn't the time to let his guard down.

After resting a bit, he returned to the window to keep an ear out for any movement.

Then he summoned his spellbook, preparing to continue studying the Bonefang spell.

Suddenly, his status panel reappeared on its own—this time with a new line of text:

"Use Potential Point(s) to accelerate learning?"

What?

Potential Points could be used to speed up spell learning?

Lucian was stunned. He hesitated briefly, then tapped "Yes."

The panel vanished once more.

Lucian didn't waste a second—he bowed his head and focused on his study.

And the result was incredible. Runes that had seemed nearly impossible to understand before now made perfect sense—like solving simple addition problems.

What had once felt like a child trying to solve advanced calculus now felt like a college student doing basic math.

So this was the power of Potential Points!

Potential Point, don't let me down. Show me your limits.

Lucian's heart pounded with excitement, but he didn't stop. This window of accelerated learning was too precious to waste.

…

By the time the sun began to set and shadows stretched across the ground, Lucian emerged from his trance.

The bonus from the Potential Points had run its course, and he snapped out of study mode.

But the time had been well spent.

He mentally traced the runes in his mind. Three seconds later, a sharp, fang-like shard of bone materialized, floating beside him.

Bonefang—successfully cast.

"Whizz!"

The projectile shot through the air with a sharp hiss, slamming into the wall of a building across the street, over thirty meters away.

It left a crater the size of a human head. Though it didn't pierce through the wall, the force of impact alone was deadly enough.

If that had been a Goblin's skull, it would've burst like a melon.

The only downside was the limited range. Based on his Willpower of 2.1 multiplied by 25, the maximum distance came out to just over fifty meters.

Still, for a rank-zero apprentice, that was more than respectable.

As he continued to train and meditate, his Willpower would grow—and with it, the spell's range would increase too.

He summoned his status panel again:

Name: Lucian Vale

…

Mana: 18/21

Skills: Breath of Darkness

Tier-0 Spell: Bonefang

Potential Point(s): 0

As expected, the Potential Points were all used up.

But damn, what a resource.

The only question now was—how could he reliably earn more?

From what he saw, those two glowing motes must've been the Potential Points. They appeared after killing two Goblins—but not the other four.

Why?

If only he could earn hundreds, even thousands of them… spell-learning would be practically effortless.

He eyed his mana again. One cast of Bonefang cost three points of mana. That meant he could fire it up to seven times in his current state.

At least spellcasting didn't drain Willpower nearly as much—his current level of 2.1 would last him for a while.

Still, this was a huge improvement. He finally had a way to strike from range.

If he'd had Bonefang earlier, he could've wiped out those Goblins without ever showing himself. Just stand back and snipe.

Channeling his Willpower, Lucian swept the nearby buildings—everything within fifty meters—with a focused scan.

Nothing.

No heat signatures, no signs of life.

He could finally rest easy.

This application of Willpower was a breakthrough he discovered after mastering his first tier-zero spell.

With Willpower, scouting became much easier. No more running up and down stairs to check every room—now he could just scan from a single location.

The only drawback? It burned through Willpower fast.

In just a few minutes of use, his Willpower had dropped from 2.1 to 1.9.

At this rate, he could maintain high-output scanning for less than half an hour.

Once Willpower hit zero, recovery would be slow—measured in days, not hours.

Unlike mana, Willpower regenerated at a crawl. Even with focused meditation, it refilled far slower than magic energy.

Still, for now, it was enough.