Ethan was still looking at the description of Spell Formation Concept.
Removing the preparatory motions didn't sound particularly impressive. It didn't increase damage, expand range, or directly restore mana. But in actual combat, the value of this ability was far greater than any mere number could convey.
Chaos Domain was the clearest example. The first time he activated this Forbidden Spell, Ethan had to complete a series of incantations before the spell entered its release phase. If the opponent was experienced enough, that interval could easily be used to retreat, break line of sight, set up defenses, or directly find a way to interrupt the spell.
Next time would be different.
With Spell Formation Concept, Ethan wouldn't need to speak the incantation aloud. He could even eliminate the motions that served only to construct the spell's structure. He could stand motionless in front of his opponent, neither chanting nor raising his staff, revealing no obvious signs at all, while Chaos Domain entered its release phase directly.
By the time the opponent realized what was happening, Meteor Shower might already have appeared overhead.
That alone was enough to prove the value of this skill book.
It was originally just a support skill. After Limitless Amplification, its nature had been pushed to the point where it could completely change the way a Forbidden Spell was used. It was therefore hardly surprising that the system categorized Spell Formation Concept as a Forbidden Spell.
Ethan was just about to put the book away when the ground beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble.
At first, it was only a brief tremor, but immediately afterward, the entire island began shaking more violently. The cracks that had already appeared after Meteor Shower's impact continued to widen, loose rocks slid down the slopes, and from the center of the island came a deep, heavy sound, as if the entire geological layer were being crushed apart.
Ethan immediately lowered his center of gravity.
He looked toward the volcano in the distance.
A column of black smoke was billowing from the crater. Then a red glow began to appear amid the layers of ash. Just a few seconds later, blazing lava surged over the rim and flowed down the slope.
Ethan immediately understood what had happened.
“As expected.”
Meteor Shower hadn't merely destroyed the island's surface. It had destabilized the geological layers beneath it, adding pressure to magma chambers that were already near their limits. The volcano Ethan had been watching since last night had finally been pushed past its eruption threshold.
But the volcano was only one part of it.
Farther out at sea, the ocean had changed as well.
A vast expanse of water had been thrown out of balance by the impact and the shifting geological layers. The initial waves quickly piled over one another, rolling into gigantic walls of water that raced away from the island. Heat, pressure, and chaotic elemental mana simultaneously dragged powerful currents of wind along with them, causing the layer of air above the ocean to begin swirling violently.
In less than a few minutes, the entire region had entered a chain of successive disasters.
The volcano erupted.
A massive flood formed.
An elemental storm was intensifying over the sea.
Ethan's gaze sharpened.
It worked.
That was exactly why he had chosen Stormtide Reach instead of a safe leveling area around Chicago. This place had already been right on the verge of forming a major Elemental Calamity, and Meteor Shower had just provided the final push.
At that moment, two additional lines of information appeared on Chaos Domain's interface.
「Current Enhancement Effect: Damage Taken -30%.」
「Current Enhancement Effect: Movement Speed +50%.」
Ethan glanced at the two lines of text and immediately began moving.
In the distance, the walls of water continued growing. He knew this chain of disasters would certainly cause trouble for the outposts and human settlements in Stormtide Reach if it spread far enough. But he couldn't stop now just because of that.
Elemental Origin was a mandatory requirement for surpassing Level 10.
He had deliberately come here and deliberately triggered the disaster. Now, the opportunity had truly appeared before him.
Ethan stored the remaining loot in his portable space, then charged straight toward the volcano. The movement speed boosted by Chaos Domain made every step longer and faster than normal, while the shield of Truth Cloak continuously absorbed falling rocks, hot ash, and fragments of material hurled out of the geological layers.
The closer he got, the higher the temperature rose.
The old roads on the island had almost completely vanished. The ground had been torn into pieces, many places had collapsed into deep ravines, and lava flowed through newly formed channels like glowing red streams between layers of black stone.
Ethan didn't charge straight into the magma. He followed the cracks and newly opened vents around the mountainside, searching for a path that could lead down near the most active area inside. The intense heat made the shield around him fluctuate constantly, but with Truth Cloak's protective capabilities, his body empowered by Limitless Amplification, and Chaos Domain's damage reduction effect, the energy consumption remained within acceptable limits.
There were no monsters left alive inside the volcanic area.
The creatures that had once occupied this place had either been killed by Meteor Shower or were unable to withstand the ongoing geological upheaval. Ethan therefore encountered no obstacles beyond the environment itself.
He continued deeper.
The air was searing hot and thick with the smell of minerals and ash. Fire mana had also grown so dense that it could almost be felt against his skin, each wave pulsing upward in rhythm with the eruptions below.
Just then, a glow ahead entered Ethan's field of vision.
He stopped.
Amid an area of glowing red, fractured rock, that light stood out completely from the surrounding lava. It wasn't as dazzling as fire, nor did it fluctuate chaotically like natural mana. Instead, it remained in an unusually condensed and stable state.
Ethan recognized it immediately.
“Fire Origin.”
The characteristics of an Elemental Origin were basic knowledge in the awakened curriculum. Ethan had seen its images and descriptions in textbooks countless times, so he hardly needed a second check.
He moved forward, endured another wave of heat sweeping over his shield, and reached out to collect the Fire Origin.
Everything had gone more smoothly than expected.
Ethan had only known that this area had a high chance of producing an Elemental Origin if the disaster truly erupted. He hadn't expected to find what he needed so quickly after triggering the volcano.
With the Fire Origin in hand, the material requirement for his current advancement had been fulfilled.
Once he completed the advancement, he could break through the Level 10 limit and continue leveling up.
But Ethan didn't leave Stormtide Reach.
One Elemental Origin was enough for this advancement, but according to the information in Profession Profile, his next advancement would require two sources.
Elemental Origins were extraordinarily rare in their own right. Most awakened people who wanted to find a suitable one had to prepare for a long time, spend money, use connections, or resign themselves to entering areas with high mortality rates.
Ethan currently had a unique opportunity.
Beyond the volcano, the storm system above the massive flood had also grown to the scale of a genuine Elemental Calamity.
If that place could give birth to a Wind Origin, he had no reason to pass it up.
Ethan immediately retraced his path, leaving the volcanic area before the geological structure could change any further. When he stepped outside, the sky was darker than before—not because of Meteor Shower anymore, but because layers of storm clouds were churning thickly over the sea.
The wind howled through the remaining parts of the island.
Farther out at sea, enormous layers of water were surging.
Ethan didn't stop.
He accelerated to his maximum speed and charged toward the shore. When the first wall of water swept toward him, the shield around him immediately took a heavy impact, but Ethan wasn't thrown far away. He used his enhanced speed to adjust his direction, slipping past the strongest whirlpools before continuing deeper into the disaster zone.
To find the Wind Origin, he couldn't just look for the place where the waves were highest.
The flood was merely the most visible part below. What Ethan needed lay in the storm, where the wind and Wind mana were being forced into their most concentrated state.
According to the knowledge in his textbooks, Elemental Origins usually formed near the center of maximum activity within an Elemental Calamity. That was also the most dangerous area.
Ethan observed the direction of the waves, felt the pressure of the wind against his body, and compared it with the movement of the cloud layer above. The currents on the ocean's surface weren't entirely uniform. Some areas were being pulled to the side, proving that the wind above was creating a whirlpool strong enough to alter the direction in which the waves traveled.
He continued moving in that direction.
The shield was constantly battered by water, rocks, and objects swept along by the current, but the damage reduction effect and increased speed kept Ethan from being held up in any dangerous area for long. For an ordinary person, the force of the water alone would have been enough to cause serious injuries. Ethan, however, could continue advancing through the heart of the disaster.
After a short while, the wind's direction changed distinctly.
Ethan looked up.
Ahead, layers of clouds were spiraling around a relatively narrow area. The sea below was no longer merely being pushed in one direction. It was being pulled into enormous whirlpools, while the Wind mana in the air was far denser than in the places he had just passed through.
Ethan's gaze immediately locked onto the center.
He found it.
The Wind Origin was there.
At the same time, a new alert appeared on the main screen at the Stormtide Reach Anomaly Monitoring Center.
“Director Brooks, we have another problem.”
Nathan Brooks turned around.
The technician in charge of ocean data enlarged the area map. A warning zone was rapidly expanding from the island where the source of the Forbidden Spell had appeared.
“The geological layers have shifted across a wide area. A massive flood is forming and continuing to intensify. According to the current model, it will hit some of our coastal outposts and settlements if it isn't weakened before it reaches them.”
Nathan stared at the map for a few seconds, then planted both hands on the table.
“What the hell is the person out there doing?”
The mana source earlier had already been enough to put all of Stormtide Reach under emergency response conditions. Now, in hardly any time at all, an island had been destroyed, a volcano had erupted, and a massive flood had begun spreading beyond the epicenter.
An employee standing nearby said quietly, “If the previous assessment was correct, the person who created that disturbance may have been on the verge of Saint Rank. We don't have the ability to directly intervene against someone at that level.”
Nathan glanced over.
“I know.”
That was exactly what bothered him.
If this were merely an ordinary awakened person who had caused the incident, they could send a unit to the scene, seal off the area, make an arrest, or at least order the other party to stop. But if the source really belonged to an individual with power equivalent to Saint Rank, sending an ordinary response team to question them would be no different from putting their own people into a situation they couldn't control.
For now, protecting populated areas was more important than tracking down the culprit.
“Contact all high-level response units at the eastern and southern outposts. Have them prepare to stop the waves along the outer line. Begin evacuating residents from low-lying areas in any settlement within the forecast zone.”
As one employee acknowledged the order, another came running over with a communications device in hand.
“Director, it's Warren.”
Nathan took it.
“This is Brooks.”
Elliot Warren's voice came through immediately. “What the hell is going on over there? I just received a warning about a massive flood. Why didn't the system provide an early forecast?”
Nathan kept his voice calm. In his mind, however, he had a very different answer. Stormtide Reach was so vast that the sensor network had to cover countless islands, outposts, dungeons, and unexplored areas, while the annual budget had never been enough for everything his superiors wanted monitored.
But that wasn't what needed to be debated right now.
“This disaster isn't a normal natural process.”
The other end of the line fell silent.
Nathan continued, “The flood's point of formation overlaps with the location where we just recorded a disturbance equivalent to a Forbidden Spell. Before that, there was no data indicating the area would erupt into a disaster of this scale today.”
“You mean it's artificial?”
“Highly likely.”
Nathan looked at the map, which continued updating. “The most reasonable conclusion at present is that an extremely high-level awakened person is fighting in that island region. Their opponent may be a monster powerful enough to force them to use a Forbidden Spell. The resulting impact then broke the geological layers, triggered the volcano, and ultimately caused the flood.”
Elliot remained silent for quite a while.
“How do you plan to handle it?”
Nathan answered immediately. “We've called in the strongest response forces we can mobilize in the area. The immediate priority is to stop or weaken the flood before it hits the outposts and settlements.”
“What about the source of the Forbidden Spell?”
Nathan looked at the warning marker still sitting in the middle of the map.
“We haven't identified them, and we don't have enough information to approach safely. If a Saint Rank awakened person is truly fighting there, our current forces can't intervene in that battle.”
He paused for a beat, then continued, “Stormtide Reach has suffered enough damage for one day. For now, we have to keep this wave from breaking through the defensive line.”
Far away from the monitoring center, Ethan had no idea that he had been mistaken for a mysterious powerhouse fighting a high-level monster.
He only looked toward the eye of the storm ahead.
The Wind Origin was within reach.