Refined: Scorching Fireball (Extreme Enhancement)
Refined: Dragonscale Shield (Extreme Enhancement)
These two modified spells were the result of over a month of work by Li De, and they also incorporated the tireless efforts of the data analysis team that worked around the clock for him during this period.
“Ding~ Successfully modified Large Fireball into Scorching Fireball.
Improvements: The structure of the magic model has been fundamentally optimized. Casting speed increased to 1 second. Projectile speed increased to 100 blades/second. Power increased eightfold. Core temperature of the fireball increased to 5,000 degrees.
Drawback: Mana consumption increased significantly from 20 to 40 points.
Evaluation: Perfect-grade refined product. Although the mana consumption has greatly increased, the immense power has transformed Large Fireball into a new spell, Scorching Fireball.
Reward: 4000 Character Experience.”
“Ding~ Successfully modified Mage Shield into Dragonscale Shield.
Improvements: The structure of the magic model has been fundamentally optimized. Casting speed increased to 0.3 seconds. Defense increased fivefold. Additionally, inputting more mana can further enhance shield strength.
Drawback: Mana consumption increased significantly from 15 to 40 points.
Evaluation: Perfect-grade refined product. Although the mana consumption has greatly increased, the immense defensive power has transformed Mage Shield into a new spell, Dragonscale Shield.
Reward: 4000 Character Experience.”
This was the harvest Li De reaped after a month of relentless effort.
Over one hundred data analysts from Crimson Moon, using a variety of analytical methods, eliminated at least 80% of useless node combinations, greatly increasing Li De’s chances of success in modification.
Otherwise, he estimated that even if this winter passed, he might not have finished modifying these two spells.
It wasn’t impossible for him alone to complete the modifications to this level, but the time and energy it would have consumed were absolutely unacceptable, especially at this critical time node.
After all, no matter what, a computer calculating trillions of operations per second still yields far more data than his manual testing could.
Of course, the computer wasn’t the decisive factor in the entire modification process. The Crimson Moon analysis team merely played a supporting role. What it really depended on was Li De himself.
If not for his freakishly high level of mana control, he would’ve already been reduced to a vegetable from mana backlash.
At the beginning, the Crimson Moon analysis department was completely floundering, constantly churning out all kinds of wild, fanciful ideas, just like those silly posts on forums. Li De had foolishly followed along, and in the end, he nearly blew himself up.
It was unbelievably unreliable.
Only later, when he started providing more and more detailed data during the modification process, did the Data Analysis Department begin to get on the right track.
Li De reckoned that if an ordinary player tried to research spell modifications, they'd probably drop from a Level 20 Transcendent all the way back to Level 0.
Even thousands of lives wouldn’t be enough to survive it.
The price paid was just too steep. Even though he was already well-prepared, he still ended up with constant headaches. Having the Innate Talent Mana Affinity (Extreme) actually gave him psychological trauma from the process, just imagining how hard it was says it all.
But the power of these two modified spells fully justified the tremendous price he had paid.
Scorching Fireball was inspired by how Small Fireball could melt Anti-magic Stone through concentrated attacks to raise temperature.
If the temperature is high enough, even if the magic power isn’t, it can still deal fatal damage to enemies.
When Scorching Fireball hits its target, the super-compressed high-heat core at the center explodes, forming a short-lived area of molten-magma-level temperature within a few blades of the enemy.
Its lethality, compared to the old flame-based damage from raw magic power, is multiple times more destructive. According to Li De’s estimation, Scorching Fireball's destructive power is on par with the Tier 3 Spell Explosive Fireball.
But the casting time for Explosive Fireball is way too long, at least over ten seconds even with casting speed boosts. In contrast, Scorching Fireball takes just one second. And while Explosive Fireball deals splash damage and is effective for group attacks, it’s far less deadly against individual targets.
Li De calculated that if a warrior of the same level as him tried to take a direct hit from Scorching Fireball, they would lose more than half their combat capability.
Most importantly, even though the modified Scorching Fireball now contained up to 500 magic nodes, approaching the quantity of Tier 3 Spells, it was still classified as a Tier 2 Spell.
That means Intermediate Professionals from Level 5 to 9 could all learn it.
For the vampire troops, most of whom were still at this level, it was a massive upgrade.
This meant that the combat power of Li De’s army was about to undergo a qualitative leap.
If the original Large Fireball had a base damage of 10, then Scorching Fireball dealt 50-80 damage, and under certain conditions, like in enclosed spaces, buildings, caves, alleys, etc., the damage could even double.
Its terrifying heat was the most lethal weapon against enemies.
Moreover, the one-second casting speed upgrade transformed Scorching Fireball into a standard combat spell, free from the long casting times typical of other high-damage spells. That was another huge step forward.
And since Li De possessed Small Fireball’s Rapid Casting trait, the modified Scorching Fireball inherited this as well, he could cast this spell, dozens of times more powerful than Small Fireball, in just 0.8 seconds.
If Small Fireball used rapid fire and relentless pressure to suppress enemies, then Scorching Fireball relied on overwhelming heat to destroy them.
The two served very different roles.
Of course, Scorching Fireball had its drawbacks, its mana cost shot up to 40 points. Though for Li De, this wasn’t a problem at all. After all, his mana was about to surpass 900 points.
However, for low-level vampires, each person could at most cast it five or six times before running dry.