I Am Not Goblin Slayer
Chapter 79: Mage Armor lv3

“So, Gauss, you want to practice protective spells, right?” Lawrence’s face showed a look of pleasant surprise.  

“Yes.”  

Gauss had come here specifically for mutual training among members. Originally, he planned to spend some money in this town to hire others for practice, but free training was naturally better.  

His Mage Armor improvement required collecting a large amount of feedback from being hit, with as much variety as possible. After he obtained magic resistance, the level 1 Mage Armor seemed to show some resistance to magic attacks. He guessed it could resist attacks from other level 0 cantrips.  

This spellcaster mutual aid association was undoubtedly the best training room for him. Here, he could collect enough data and deepen his understanding of the resonance between magic power and Mage Armor through continuous practice.  

“Shall we start?” Lawrence led Gauss to a training room.  

Although this building looked ordinary on the outside, the interior was quite elaborate, especially the training room. On the surrounding walls, powerful spell traces were clearly visible. These magical effects were obviously beyond what ordinary spellcaster apprentices could produce.  

There were professional-level spellcasters behind the association.  

“The cantrip I’ve mastered is Chill Touch,” Lawrence introduced himself.  

In their mutual aid association, protection-type apprentices were the most respected.  

He hadn’t come here just to watch; naturally, he would pull Gauss into training first.  

Chill Touch? Gauss glanced at Lawrence with some surprise. He hadn’t expected a guy with a necromancer cantrip as his core skill. There was quite a contrast.  

“Let me feel it first.”  

Gauss activated Mage Armor. In the next moment, an invisible protective force field gathered around him. Looking carefully, the bottom of the protective field had a faintly glowing pale blue sheen.  

That was his own magic resistance.  

It seemed to have a special effect on the original Mage Armor.  

Lawrence nodded, then extended his right hand. With his eyes closed and focusing, after one second, a ghostly green skeletal hand slowly appeared in front of him.  

The moment the ghost hand appeared, Gauss seemed to feel a chilling coldness like being inside a tomb, but it lasted only briefly. His magic resistance seemed to dispel the negative effect.  

Seeing Gauss remain completely calm from start to finish, Lawrence silently approved.  

No wonder he had Andni’s letter of introduction. His strength and psychological quality were indeed stronger than most spellcaster apprentices.  

Though this level 0 cantrip Chill Touch seemed unremarkable, most apprentices would shudder upon first close encounter with its accompanying eerie coldness. This was the psychological pressure from a necromancer cantrip.  

“Let’s start formal training.”  

As the initial test, the ghostly green skeletal hand cautiously touched the edges of Gauss’s Mage Armor.  

Though called Chill Touch, this necromancer cantrip was essentially negative energy erosion. The original Mage Armor would have had difficulty resisting it.  

But with magic resistance, it showed a different effect.  

After brief contact, ripples quickly spread across the Mage Armor. However, under the strange resistance Gauss’s body emitted, the armor finally stabilized.  

Was it tough? Gauss was frozen on the spot the moment of contact, his whole body snapping alert. Before, he hadn’t had any negative reactions at all.  

At the same time, he felt his own magic power seemed to become active again after that attack. This resonance effect with Mage Armor appeared once more!  

“Let’s pause.”  

Originally, the spellcasters were surprised that Gauss had no reaction, feeling a little disappointed. Hearing Gauss say that, they continued attacking him.  

Ghostly claws relentlessly scratched at Gauss’s body. Ripples kept spreading on the Mage Armor, resisting the claws’ erosion.  

Thus, Gauss remained caught in an interplay of external coldness and internal warm currents.  

In this alternating cold and heat, his uniquely personalized Mage Armor gradually grew tougher.  

“Mage Armor proficiency +1”  

“Mage Armor lv3 (0/50)”  

Finally, at a certain moment, words flashed before Gauss’s eyes.  

Mage Armor successfully broke through to level 3.  

On his body surface, the Mage Armor seemed slightly stronger, accompanied by the generation of a special magical resistance coating.  

Gauss, firmly guarded inside the armor, felt the solid defense wrapping him.  

At this moment, he understood the significance of a level 1 spell reaching lv3.  

Unlike level 0 cantrips reaching lv3 proficiency, a level 3 proficiency of a level 1 spell formed a unique personal style.  

The same spell could show subtle differences in different hands. When your understanding of the spell was deep enough and you explored it further, you would eventually form your own personalized stylized spell.  

The current spell was already a variant based on the original, potentially even evolving into a new spell.  

Gauss closed his eyes.  

Feeling the Mage Armor entering a new stage, he already understood its transformation.  

Deeply combined with the power of magic resistance, the original Mage Armor began evolving toward an “omni-purpose armor” direction.  

Of course, this “omni-purpose” was just a concept. In reality, achieving omni-purpose in a short time was impossible since countless types of attacks existed in the world.  

Many factors were closely related: magic power strength, magic resistance strength, Mage Armor skill proficiency, and so on.  

Reaching the ultimate form of omni-protection was still a long evolutionary process.  

But the unique Mage Armor undoubtedly had stronger growth potential and adaptability now. In the future, it might be able to add other abilities just like it “added” magic resistance this time.  

Perhaps as a core skill, it was not just a simple armor!  

Gauss opened his eyes, a gleam of brilliance flashing in them.  

Lawrence was already sitting on the ground, exhausted from using up his magic power.  

Seeing Gauss still radiant and energetic, he secretly gasped and couldn’t help but sigh: No wonder Andni introduced this freak. His strength was terrifying.  

He seemed not like a spellcaster apprentice of the same level, but more like a professional spellcaster.  

“Thanks for your hard work.” Gauss helped him up from the ground and supported him to a nearby chair.  

“Are you really still at the apprentice stage?” Lawrence still couldn’t calm his shock and asked.  

“If not, why would I come here to train?” Gauss smiled and countered.  

True.  

Lawrence looked at Gauss’s relaxed expression.  

He felt increasingly powerless. Encountering a top-tier opponent of the same level by chance, he couldn’t shake him despite his all-out effort.  

“Do others have plans today?”  

Gauss wanted to invite others to train again.  

His Mage Armor had entered the v3 phase, but he was still some distance from fully resonating magic power and Mage Armor. He needed to collect a large amount of diverse hit feedback.  

Essentially, this was mutual practice; there was no concept of who was whose training partner.  

“Yes, yes,” Lawrence rested for a moment. “I’ll go call some people later.”  

Gauss’s reminder helped him regain his spirit.  

He just didn’t believe it.  

Was Gauss really that strong?  

After calming down, he thought maybe his necromancer cantrip was just naturally countered by the other’s skill. Otherwise, it was unreasonable that the other had no reaction at all on the first encounter.  

If another cantrip came, perhaps his protection wouldn’t work so well.