Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Iron Heart was one of the skills that Ethan had been looking for and one of the pillars that made him become such a powerhouse in the other world. Now that he had finally relearned the skill, he recalled how troublesome it would be to train it. Ethan had to get hurt to train it. However, that was fine, and he was used to it.

"I wanted to continue for a while," Ethan said and then frowned. "but it looks like you aren't that fond of the idea."

Emily could also use healing spells, but wounding someone and healing it afterward was something that few people could do without damaging their own minds. Although that would help Ethan, he wouldn't force someone to do that and much less if that someone was a friend who was at a complicated age.

"I can't even imagine what you had to endure in the other world to make you think that this is training," Emily said and then sat on the floor since she was mentally exhausted.

"Nah, it was a pretty standard adventure," Ethan shrugged.

"Can I hear some details?" Emily asked.

"Sure… let's see, where from should I start?" Ethan rubbed his chin. "One day, a mighty awesome and handsome teenager was summoned to another world. His name was Ethan, and he fought the demon king's army for a year, punishing evil doers and rewarding those who did the good. Then one day, he kicked the demon king's ass because he was a fool who sat on his throne for an entire year and did nothing but send his minions to power-level, the mighty awesome and handsome Ethan. The end."

Emily sighed. If that were really the truth, then Ethan was supposed to be a fool even worse than Ian. However, since he wasn't, it was clear that such a tale was a blatant lie. In any case, Emily decided not to pry any further. In the end, both of them just trained their stamina. Still, since Ethan's training worked in a different manner, he also bought several potions from the school in order to train his support spells. It was weird, but Vigor could only level up after Ethan spent his entire stamina. If he used potions to recover it, the skill wouldn't receive that much experience.

After dinner on that Friday, Ethan headed to his bedroom feeling quite relaxed. He had just completed the set of his passive skills that could improve the maximum limit of his health, mana, and stamina. Now, he just needed the next set, which could help him restore energy while he fought.

"Although those three aren't that strong at the beginning, the fact that I can train them at the same time while fighting is the real benefit of them. Well then… what should I do next?"

For the good or the worse, Ethan was a warrior who more or less had muscles for a brain. So, just keep thinking about the skills he needed wouldn't make him think of a way to relearn them. Just like that happened that day, he should wait for those flashes of inspiration to come naturally. Although that wasn't how he usually approached to most situations, he couldn't do anything else since that was more or less a problem that was deeply related to magic.

"Anyway, I have too much money… well, not really, but I need to spend them on something useful. More mana potions? It is getting kind of hard to train the support spells all at the same time… there are so many potions I can drink, after all. I am still far from the level of power than I once had, but my set of skills is more or less pretty balanced… I just need one more type of skill… a skill that is completely focused on defense."

Trainining magic at home wasn't something Ethan should do, but as long as he didn't go far, things wouldn't get out of hand. Ethan used some defensive equipment while he was one Meizibio, but since he had grown quite a bit since then, those had become useless. Buying more low-level gear wasn't something that he wanted, so Ethan decided to learn a defensive spell, and he already knew which one he would learn: Ice Shield.

"Now that I think about it, learning this kind of spell is much more convenient since they can grow with me. I can't say that they will never become useless, but it certainly will take a while for that to happen."

Fortunately, even though Emily used that spell a single time, Ethan paid enough attention to see how she created the shield in the blink of an eye. Since Emily was someone practical, she didn't waste time giving many details to the shield, and she just created a massive square that would block all attacks that would come from the front.

Ethan began to create a smaller version using his knowledge of ice magic. As expected, it was hard to give a shape to his mana when he wasn't used to creating anything like that. However, eventually, Ethan created a perfect replica of that shield… one that was as big as his hands.

"Mmm… how did she manage to hit the golem when this was in front of her?" Ethan frowned when he noticed that he couldn't see the other side of the shield.

Ian and Ethan didn't stay behind Emily, so they saw things literally from the sidelines. Ethan didn't notice it, but Emily created a pretty thin shield, one that wouldn't block her field of vision but at the same time could block the magma spears. Ethan had a shield of that level, but it looked like it would take a while for him to reach that level of mastery.

"Well, I have the entire weekend to train, so I don't have to worry," Ethan shrugged. "Mmm… maybe I should even focus my entire magic training on this spell… for some reason, I feel this will be more useful than I can imagine."

Ethan did exactly that. However, before even trying to create a shield big enough to protect his whole body, he trained the smaller version of that spell until he could see through the ice shield. The trick was relatively simple, but it took a while for Ethan to notice it. He just had to be fast. If he weren't, the mana would end up concentrating on the center of the shield and thus making it denser in that area.

When Ethan was bored, he trained his body, but only to the extent of leveling up Vigor. It would be a waste of time to train other skills while his stamina is stupidly low, after all. Regardless, in the blink of an eye, the next Friday arrived, and thus the day when Ethan would participate in the expedition to another world.