I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 177 Before Midsummer (5200 words)
Saturday arrived in the blink of an eye, and William strolled around the academy with his newlywed half-elf wife, enjoying this rare holiday time.

As is customary, a half-day holiday is usually given before major festivals like Midsummer's Day. He had already collected all the scrolls that needed to be confiscated last night, so he could enjoy the festival in peace today and freely enjoy the free drinks and food.

Even his wife, who isn't a professional, can come here to visit without registering; otherwise, it would have been quite troublesome for her to come here normally.

Of course, as an employee, he could go home for the holiday if he wanted to, but who would miss the Midsummer Festival hosted by Pastor Shuni?

Stunning attire, an ambiguous atmosphere, suggestive poetry, and a final, arousing crimson ritual—all these can be obtained simply by watching, far surpassing the aphrodisiac potions sold by the Alchemy Department.

Unfortunately, Harua is too isolated. Apart from the Magic Lady and her servant Azus, there are no other temples here. Even the allied deities like the Church of Suni do not allow churches to be built in the country to preach their doctrines. Basically, you can only see these beautiful priests once a year, which is really regrettable.

But this also makes Midsummer Festival seem more precious and more anticipated, William thought.

However, the back mountain of the academy is not convenient to go to at this time. It used to be a good place for a walk, but today there are probably quite a few daring apprentices having a passionate encounter there. If you go there and interrupt their good time, there are not a few cases where you will be ambushed and beaten with a sack when it gets dark.

It's better to chat with colleagues in the square, or stroll along the forest path near the dormitory, while waiting for the lunch and the afternoon festival celebrations.

At lunchtime, the canteen was much more crowded than usual. Fortunately, the small canteen, which was only for faculty and staff, was relatively quiet. William also saw the few pretty pastors, Shuni, who were still there. Their makeup already had a festive feel to it. A light dusting of powder on their noses concealed the freckles, making them look less youthful and more charming. Once they changed into their signature revealing holiday dresses, they would probably be able to spot the eyes of all the freshmen in the college.

Even he only looked away slightly, slightly embarrassed, after his lover coughed softly.

These priests don't usually seem this alluring. Could it be that they've unleashed the majesty of the eagle?

Just then, a rather large figure sat down opposite him. William subconsciously turned around and found that it was Benjamin, with a girl named Tiplin whom he had never seen before beside him.

"It's a bit crowded today, let's share a table," Benjamin said, raising his head slightly, sounding somewhat perfunctory.

Although he was slightly annoyed, what could William say when the other person was a legitimate mentor with a silver medal? He just lost his leisurely mood during the meal.

After a quick meal, the two went to the staff dormitory to rest. As a bronze-level employee, William's dormitory space wasn't much larger than that of an apprentice, but each room had a single room with a spacious double bed. As long as he didn't leave the company, the room was basically his own, and he could add or remove items and decorations as he pleased, which was quite convenient.

“I vaguely remember that mentor, but I think he mentored an elf lady last year. Why has he changed mentors?” his lover asked with some surprise.

“If he gets tired of playing around, he can just switch. As long as he doesn’t play around with the students in the academy, who cares about such trivial matters?” William said with some disdain. “As far as I remember, he has never brought his wife here. He basically changes wives every year. Isn’t he afraid of catching some strange disease? The treatment costs hundreds of gold coins.”

"Don't you dare follow his example," the half-elf said nervously, but William chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Don't worry, I don't have any special skills, I just live off a fixed salary, and I have to make money by copying scrolls. Anyone who wants to be my servant would be blind."

The half-elf thought for a moment and nodded, then pretended to be angry: "That makes sense. I'm the only one who fell for your trick."

"Hehe, it's too late to run!"

When she woke up again, it was already past 3 a.m. The sunlight was already quite gentle. The half-elf tidied her makeup and looked out the window, only to find many skeletons wandering around downstairs. She was immediately alarmed: "Honey, what's with the ghosts here?"

William yawned slowly, glanced around and shook his head. He calmly cast a spell to light the fireplace in the room and placed a copper kettle full of water on it: "Didn't you see the clay golems over there moving things? These skeletons are similar. They're all tools for mages. After all, even apprentices don't do chores. These guys are just right to replace them."

“That’s really convenient.” The half-elf looked at her man: “Then why do you still do all the cooking at home?”

“Although the skeletons summoned by magic won’t affect the local necromantic atmosphere, it’s still quite an eyesore to have a skeleton waving around like that. Who knows, it might scare someone.” As William spoke, his fingers moved, and the teapot, which was already emitting white steam, automatically poured a cup of hot water. The cup swayed gently in mid-air, and the thick black liquid spun rapidly before it arrived in front of the half-elf: “Try the coffee from the Churt Forest.”

The half-elf blew on the powder and took a small sip, but the bitter taste made him frown and complain, "What rubbish! It tastes awful."

“Hehe, I also think it tastes awful, but this stuff is all the rage in the academy now. They say it’s refreshing and invigorating, anyway, it’s all very mysterious.” With that, William waved his hand, sending the teacup flying back to the table. He added milk and sugar and then handed it to the half-elf: “Try it this time.”

The milk and sugar created a bitter taste, and the half-elf nodded in satisfaction: "How much is this per pound?"

William didn't reply, but instead asked a question: "Do you know why that teacup flew in front of you?"

"Uh, not the power of magic?" The half-elf asked, somewhat puzzled. "I've heard that it can bring normal objects to life, and they will then act according to the master's input of consciousness. Is that what it means?"

“You guessed one result, but mine isn’t that high-end. If that kind of thing were permanent, it would cost hundreds of gold coins.” William shook his head, then suddenly bent down and picked up a little bit of wood ash and sprinkled it into the air. A slender figure, like an elf, appeared in mid-air, but it had no face or facial details, like a simple snowman made by a child in winter.

"This thing is called an Invisible Servant. Although it is not very strong, it can do chores according to my will. It can be seen by me but you cannot see it. Normally, it and the Mage's Hand are enough for chores."

"I was wondering how it's so convenient for you to be at home." The half-elf looked out the window with a hint of envy, but suddenly spotted a figure he had seen in the newspaper a few days ago.

"Hey, honey, isn't this the DuPont you mentioned before?" The half-elf's voice drew William to the window. He looked at him, nodded, and smiled, "Indeed, he's a very interesting young man. He's already higher level than my mage, and he has a very promising future."

"Wow, that's amazing! No wonder he's in the newspaper." The half-elf said with some envy, "What does he do? Is it part of an evening program?"

"Perhaps the school is training his practical skills by giving him temporary management work. After all, if he develops smoothly, he will at least become a high-level mage, and becoming a councilor is not impossible. He needs to gain some experience."

William laughed loudly, "We used to be like brothers, but that might not be the case anymore."

"Oh, there's such a time? Tell me about it."

DuPont was unaware of the conversations taking place in the staff dormitory. He was indeed exceptionally busy at the time, and even the bronze badge on his chest had turned silver.

Although he is still an apprentice, he has successfully been promoted to vice president of the student council this week.

Since the chairman is currently away gaining experience and cannot return to directly become the top leader, he can guide the apprentices in their work.

However, DuPont didn't care about anything. He simply instructed that everything should be done according to the mentor's arrangements, and then sat down to enter a meditative state and begin the sparring.

Although being a student council member is an official position, and a silver-ranked one at that, it would be a bit of a stretch to think you could use that status to bully others in the college. You'd be forgetting to use your cunning when you leave home; that would be a bit of a brain fart.

Most of the fifth-year apprentices are already doing internships outside, and the lowest-ranking fourth-year apprentices are all second-ring mages. It's a pipe dream for me to think I can use this status to suppress them.

For example, if Connor were the vice president, and he wanted to use that position to do whatever he wanted, he could forget about it. You'd be lucky if you didn't spit on his shoes.

Even the president of the association is not an option.

Of course, most apprentices don't have his confidence, but the kind of thing that involves shirking work and slacking off is something that anyone with a little common sense doesn't need to be taught. He's getting too involved, and who knows which guy might deliberately do something bad. It's better to leave it to the class leaders to keep an eye on things themselves, while he can relax here in the sun and practice tactics with the young Blue Dragon at the training ground.

However, this badge is still somewhat useful, as it allows you to choose a default +2 attribute, which is a small perk the academy gives to its students.

Normally, one would choose to increase Intelligence, but since DuPont already has the headband, this item has +2 Perception, which is a way to compensate for the weakness.

However, this did not offer much help to DuPont's training and combat operations at the training ground.

Youth Blue Dragon
Size: Large, with a total length of approximately 30-40 feet, a body length of around 13-20 feet, and a weight of over 2500 pounds.

Strength 23, Agility 10, Constitution 19, Intelligence 14, Perception 15, Charisma 14
Immunity: Lightning damage, sleep, paralysis

Supernatural Abilities: Linear lightning breath 60 feet long, reduces physical damage by 5 points, mimics sound.
Skills: Proficient in deception, hiding, and spell identification
He doesn't possess legendary moves, but his powerful muscles make his attacks extremely fierce, comparable to those of a high-level warrior.

The Lightning Breath can deal up to 100 points of lightning damage, with an expected damage of 55. If dodged successfully, the damage is halved. It can unleash more than 5 consecutive breaths in a short period of time. DuPont has personally tested it and found that he can withstand two hits without dying, but his body and internal organs are all severely injured, leaving him almost completely unable to move without unleashing his berserk mode.

However, before unleashing its lightning breath, the blue dragon always has a very obvious inhalation motion. If you pay close attention, it's easy to dodge.

However, because the lightning breath is so fast, and the blue dragon's breath is not like a lightning bolt that disappears in the blink of an eye, but rather like Diablo in Diablo, it continuously releases lightning bolts, and the lightning pillars sway left and right as he shakes his head, so it is almost impossible to completely avoid it if you are within the range of the breath.

After multiple tests, it was found that as long as you are within 60 yards of the Blue Dragon, you will take at least 27 points of lightning damage with each breath.

Is there any good solution?

It's quite simple; for example, you can release fake life forms, increase your lightning resistance, or absorb elemental damage.

The blue dragon's breath deals entirely lightning damage. If the elemental damage absorption of the third-circle spell is changed to lightning absorption, then based on DuPont's current level, it can directly absorb 48 points (12 points of damage absorption per mage level).

The awkward thing is that DuPont doesn't know how to do it yet, and this spell's priority isn't as high as Haste, Flight, or Fireball. He'll have to find a way to learn it later.

Or to put it simply, buy a scroll or a scroll that increases spell resistance, and just tough it out.

The scroll that increases spell resistance is a level 2 spell. At DuPont's current level, it can increase elemental resistance by 10 points, which is relatively easy to learn. Therefore, the damage dealt to himself by the Blue Dragon's Breath is only 17 points.

It's still quite threatening, but a moderate healing spell should be enough to recover; it's not a big problem.

After several attempts, DuPont also discovered the most troublesome thing about dealing with dragons.

This creature is even less ethical than a vampire. If there were no external conditions to suppress its flight, the dragon wouldn't land and fight it one-on-one; it would simply run away.

It lacks the commanding presence of an evil boss; instead, it's more like those bratty kids who kick you and run away yelling that you can't catch them—utterly despicable.

In the battle against the Blue Dragon, first find a way to prevent it from flying. Traps/spells can be used, and rangers with excellent ranged threats can also be used.

DuPont tried operating it and found that the siege ballista had a chance to pierce the blue dragon's wings, but due to its special structure and the fact that it was a magical creature, this would only slightly reduce the dragon's flight speed.

To completely render it unable to fly, it's more likely that the dragon's wings will be severed from the keel connecting its body.

Although the blue dragon is quite large and not particularly agile in the air, its accuracy when shooting at moving targets while in flight is less than 20%.

Furthermore, due to the Blue Dragon's intelligence, the giant crossbow only has one chance to fire. If it misses, it will sense something is wrong and run away, not giving the Blue Dragon a chance to encircle and kill it.

DuPont silently took notes: We must set up bait to prevent the blue dragon from flying, otherwise we cannot kill it.

Under these demanding conditions, the next problem proved even more perplexing for DuPont.

Faced with a blue dragon that is unable to fly or escape and has fallen into a frenzied state, what price must be paid to kill it?

DuPont tried three times and found that he had almost no chance in a one-on-one situation.

Although not very agile, the blue dragon's powerful muscles made him quite fast. Even at a distance of 50 meters, DuPont only had a maximum of three spellcasting opportunities. Even if he had prepared buff spells in advance, because he only knew level 2, he could only choose to burn three Fireball scrolls and smash them while enduring the opponent's breath.

The calculation showed that the opponent would have about half a life left when they reached him, while he would have consumed about 90 of their life points.

The fixed value of the young blue dragon is 189, which may fluctuate depending on the target's growth stage, leaving about 100 health points.

Due to its size and low agility, it is almost impossible for a blue dragon to completely dodge fireballs. Basically, it can only change its position to avoid taking all the damage. If the damage is discounted, the expected damage is around 60 points. If you are unwilling to spend money and actually throw missiles, the opponent will only lose 20 health after three casts. Slaying the dragon is out of the question.

Based on this 100 HP, DuPont simulated that even with a +4 Strength belt and 22 Strength after unleashing Berserk, he still couldn't go toe-to-toe with the Blue Dragon.

The blue dragon's enormous size gives it a significant advantage in terms of power. Even with a hammer and greatsword, it cannot parry or block, and can only trade blows to avoid the opponent's attacks.

Dodging is good, as it prevents injury from being hit, but the problem is that dodging means you can't attack. And after DuPont rolled to dodge for the first time, a round tail came flying as the two passed each other, snapping off his arm that he couldn't dodge in time.

Faced with such an exaggerated and intelligent creature as the dragon, after losing his arm, he was almost unable to make any effective counterattacks. All he could do was continue to evade and could no longer fight back, basically just delaying his own death for a while.

DuPont successfully dodged the tail whip a second time, but when faced with the exaggerated and violent dragon charge, he found that he was still almost unable to fight back in melee mode. On the contrary, he had a chance to fight back when he was not in a berserk state and was holding the dwarven musket. He could also use the stealth step to dodge the dragon charge, which was a great improvement.

However, due to the limited number of spell slots in the second ring, this method of dodging attacks can only be used a maximum of 3 times, but it is still a significant improvement.

The dwarven muskets deal considerable damage. Although the added lightning damage is ineffective, the projectiles can easily pierce the blue dragon's tough hide, making it impossible to block the damage.

After those three rounds, I might be facing a blue dragon that is severely injured and has only about 50 health left.

However, DuPont was dumbfounded after the second round of shooting.

The young blue dragon actually disregarded all martial ethics and unleashed a spell that DuPont had used many times before: Shield Spell.

DuPont released a transparent shield half a meter in front of him, while Blue Dragon released a transparent barrier 10 meters wide. To DuPont's relief, the shield was not much harder than his, but the damage caused by the bullets was significantly reduced.

DuPont terminated the trial and realized that he had previously overlooked a template.

Dragons are natural spellcasters. The young blue dragon comes with a level 3 warlock rank, and the spells he casts are similar to those of warlocks with blue dragon bloodlines.

Please note that if you encounter a diligent and ambitious blue dragon, it may cast spells such as the old-style mage armor and shield, or the cat's agility. A wealthy dragon may also be carrying magical items specific to dragons.

? ?
I'll beat the hell up!
Just as DuPont was going crazy, he suddenly noticed someone walking in front of him. He snapped out of his daze, blinked, and realized it was his class monitor, Annie.

DuPont: "What's up?"

"It's nothing, I just saw you sitting here in a daze and thought you were asleep." Annie waved her hand, looked around nervously, and sent a message: "Do you have a dance partner for tonight's celebration?"

“I have an appointment.” DuPont nodded with a smile. Annie’s face immediately showed some disappointment, but she still forced a smile: “Okay then. By the way, Connor was released last week. I don’t know if his mental state is a bit bad because he was locked up for too long. He brought some people and beat up that fat guy you fought before. Be careful.”

"Oh?" DuPont was somewhat surprised. "Isn't that his classmate? Why would he do this just to vent his frustration?"

"That's why I said his mental state might be a bit off, maybe he's become a little twisted inside." Annie waved her hand after saying that, "I'm leaving, take care of yourself."

"Ah."

　Thank you to Red Dragon Anthony, the leader of the alliance, and Flying Fish 228 for the donation.

　　That's all for now, I'll be back at midnight tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)