[A powerful extraordinary life form has been detected!]

  [The life form is expected to have fifth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus combat capability.]

  A fifth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus?! Victor’s eyes widened slightly beneath the Mask of Impersonation. He’d been prepared for a difficult opponent, but this was a step above his initial estimation. Still, even though this would be his first time going up against an official Magus, he felt confident in his own power.

  It appeared that the old Magus already sensed his presence, as the System had notified him of a powerful enemy in advance. Before long, he spotted the group of knights led by a bearded, white-haired elderly man in a traditional Magus robe.

  “Who are you? A Magus?” the old man questioned, gazing at Victor warily. On closer inspection, he had a composed, sagely appearance, but his wilting vitality was not lost on Victor’s eyes. Even his aura seemed withered.

  “Me?” Victor raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you come and find out?”

  “But first…” He glanced at the group of knights below, already preparing to cast a spell. He didn’t want them to slip past him to get to Lillie while he was facing off against the old Magus.

  “Sir Magus! He’s trying to kill us!” shouted a visorless, spiky-haired knight. “Let’s not dilly-dally and kill him immediately!”

  The old Magus ignored the knight’s outburst and fixed his gaze on Victor. “My name is Roland Actus. As a fellow Magus, I advise you to stand down. The Merlin family has commissioned me, and it will do you no good to stand against them.” He paused, a thin smile forming on his lips. “Do me a favor and withdraw. I’ll see to it that you’re compensated.”

  Victor’s only response was to cast the spell he had prepared. There was no dramatic flash of light, no violent explosion of elemental force. Instead, the atmosphere around the group of knights subtly shifted, as if the very air itself had grown heavier. One by one, the knights’ eyes glazed over, their weapons lowering as something far more terrifying than any blade took hold of their minds.

  “Aaah!” One knight shrieked, dropping his sword as his eyes darted in terror.

  “Die! Die, Die!” Another frantically swiped his weapon at something only he could see, injuring a comrade in the process, while a third one fell to his knees, clutching his head as if trying to escape the horrors that had taken over his mind.

  Victor’s spell was a non-elemental Bet-tier called {Curse of the Nightmare}, something he had developed over the last two weeks in preparation for the expedition, specifically for moments like this. It implanted deep hallucinations of its victims’ worst fears and darkest anxieties, akin to the effects of the Dreamweaver Ivy that Victor had used on Graviel’s group.

  “How dare you!” Roland’s voice rang out, thick with anger and surprise. Even though he was caught within the range of the spell, as a top-tier Elemental Adept Magus, he resisted its effects with little effort. The knights, however, weren’t so lucky. Whether Roland couldn’t help them or simply didn’t care enough to use valuable magic items on them, he remained unmoved.

  Victor’s voice was firm as he addressed him. “Are you still going to do this?”

  Roland hesitated for a brief moment before stepping forward. “I see… You’re no ordinary Magus. Developing such a spell at your age…” His words were laced with disdain, but beneath it, there was a grudging respect. “But don’t think you can beat me with mere tricks. I’ve faced far worse in my years.”

  The elderly Magus raised one of his hands, revealing an intricate sigil etched on the back of his hand. Sparks crackled around his fingers, and with a swift gesture, he shot a bolt of lightning into the sky. Clouds gathered overhead almost instantly, forming a roiling thunderstorm. The man clearly wasn’t planning to hold back—Victor could already feel the immense power of the sigil bearing down on him.

  But he didn’t flinch. Instead, he manipulated the Cosmo elemental particles in the air and took out his magic weapon—the Voidborn Orb—as he calmly prepared his next move.

  “—{Skycloud Vajra}!” Roland’s voice echoed as he unleashed the spell. In an instant, a bolt of vibrant blue lightning tore down from the storm clouds, aimed straight at Victor. The raw power behind it was beyond that of a normal Bet-tier spell, as it had been powered up by a sigil. Any ordinary Elemental Adept Magus would be obliterated by the strike if they took it head-on.

  “—{Ethereal State}!” With a flick of his finger, Victor phased into subspace, rendering him intangible just as the lightning bolt struck. Simultaneously, Victor cast {Blink} to close the distance between them. He reappeared just behind Roland, his hand already raised as he unleashed {Warpblade}, sending an ethereal blade slicing through the air toward the old Magus.

  “What—! You have Cosmo elemental affinity?!” Roland’s voice rose in panic as he spun around, hastily summoning a wall of crackling lightning to defend himself. The air sizzled with electric energy as the shield formed, but it wasn’t enough. Victor’s ethereal blade was an esoteric spell that was perfect for countering shields. It cut through the barrier with ease, leaving a deep gash across Roland’s side.

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  The old Magus grunted in pain and immediately flew away using a movement spell. “You... injured me that easily.” His voice was laced with disbelief.

  “Power doesn’t belong only to those who’ve lived the longest,” Victor said coldly, his gaze unwavering. “You should have known that when you saw me.”

  Though Victor’s words might have sounded cool for players, the old man was not so easily shaken. With a sharp wave of his hand, a yellow amber scepter materialized in his grip, and a gleam of determination lit up his withered eyes. “I admit that you’re skilled, lad, but you underestimate me.”

  He thumped his scepter against the ground, and with that motion, a series of complex runes began to weave into the air, glowing with an earthen hue. Another sigil on Roland’s body illuminated as he invoked more power. The ground beneath their feet trembled violently, fissures spreading out in jagged patterns as the air around them crackled with raw magical force.

  From beneath the earth, an enormous ten-meter-tall golem of solid rock and packed soil arose. It towered over Victor with massive limbs that looked powerful enough to crush houses, but the most unusual part was the hollowed-out cavity in the center of its chest. There, Roland stood, encased in a protective earthen chamber, the scepter still clutched in his hand. His upper body was exposed through an opening, but his legs and lower half were melded with the golem, as if he had fused himself with the creature.

  A Geo-elemental spell?

  He had assumed that Roland’s primary affinity was Electro, but the old Magus clearly had many tricks up his sleeve. The longer this battle dragged on, the more Roland’s experience would surely tip the scales in his favor.

  “Why risk your life for that cursed girl?” Roland spat, his voice dripping with disdain. “You’ve no idea what kind of disaster you’re meddling with!”

  Victor’s eyes narrowed.

  From a Magus’s typical standpoint, what Roland said made a lot of sense. Magi were pragmatic by nature and would prioritize their benefit above all else, and what Victor was doing was exactly the opposite of that. Technically speaking, he wouldn’t be getting anything in return if he didn’t know of Lillie’s special constitution.

  However!

  Even if she didn’t have a special constitution, the conscience of a modern man that now resided within him wouldn’t allow him to simply turn a blind eye. Abandoning a poor little girl to her fate would be too cruel. How could he sleep at night knowing he’d let her die or be subjected to an even worse fate? He’d toss and turn, imagining all the ways he could have—should have—saved her.

  “Why?” His gaze flickered with unshakable resolve. “This is my oath. I swear to protect her, and I will—no matter the cost!”

  “Ha! Foolish sentiment. Then let’s see how you handle this!” Roland snarled as the golem’s massive arms swung forward. The wind howled as the monstrous fists of stone and dirt hurtled toward Victor like the wrath of the earth itself.

  Meanwhile, the fifteen players on the dirigible had gathered around in a loose circle for a meeting, staring at the holographic map of the mine taken from above. They had discovered the mine was tightly guarded, and were now brainstorming—albeit chaotically—on how to proceed.

  “Huh… This is a bit difficult.” Zero rubbed his chin, breaking the silence. “Unless anyone wants to volunteer as a meat shield and kite the enemy, it’s all but impossible to raid this mine without some players getting injured or dying in the process.”

  The only problem here was that the mine only had one narrow entrance and was heavily guarded with acolytes among other guards. Charging in without a solid plan would be a death sentence.

  “We have the advantage of being unknown and airborne, though,” Prominence said, his tone brimming with enthusiasm. “Can we use that somehow? Like, you know... Prominence Skyfall Squad to the rescue?” He grinned widely, clearly proud of the name he had come up with.

  Storm, sitting nearby, snorted loudly. “What ‘Prominence Skyfall Squad’?” He rolled his eyes as he said the name. “Using that parachuting trick might’ve worked last time, but this mine is hidden under solid rock, genius. No sky-falling into that.”

  “What about using a magic trick? Like, creating a distraction while the rest of you sneak in?” Patrick offered.

  Auralise raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Geez. A magic show? Are we raiding a mine or performing at a birthday party? Decide on one,” she said flatly, folding her arms.

  Amid the banter, Chicken stood up and put his hands on the table. “Amateurs! You guys are amateurs!” he mocked.

  “What’s that?” All the players chimed together, shooting him a glare.

  “Why overcomplicate things? Let’s just brute force our way through the front. A few well-placed spells and—boom! Problem solved. I’m willing to be the meat shield if you’re so scared.”

  “Oh, that’s some guts you have there. Smash first, think later. I like it.” Butterfly grinned, seeming to like the idea.

  Of course, this statement was then quickly followed by ridicule from Auralise.

  Zero sighed, rubbing his temples as the others continued to argue. Not even Sean seemed able to think of an effective strategy for the raid. Although every player here was considered among the best in the game, their spell arsenals were still limited. It had only been three months since the game launched, and gaining or developing spell models required precious merit points and time. Moreover, even with the Spell Assist feature, mastering each spell was a time-consuming process.

  Since the mages protecting the mine were stronger than any of them, with the exception of Butterfly as a Bloodline Magus, they couldn’t just rush in.

  Suddenly, a soft chuckle broke the tension. Aphrodite, who had kept his silence, was laughing under his breath, catching everyone’s attention.

  “What are you laughing about?” Locktekei asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at him.

  With a smile, Aphrodite responded, “For the past month, I’ve been developing a few... interesting things. Through countless trials and errors, I’ve managed to produce sulfuric acid and nitric acid. With some help from my colleagues, we even figured out how to mix them with glycerol.”

  Locktekei rolled his eyes, not interested in hearing the long details. “Just get to the point already.”

  “Don’t tell me…”

  “You don’t mean…”

  Several players like Storm, Thunder, and Zero seemed to have realized something as their brows raised in alarm.

  Aphrodite’s grin widened. “Yes. I’ve developed nitroglycerin,” he declared proudly, pulling a head-sized box from his backpack. The group was immediately on edge, some taking a few steps back in fear of an explosion. “I haven’t even told the headmaster about this. But I think this is the perfect time to use it.”

  So, it’s true. Most chemists have a tendency to like explosions. Sean couldn’t help but think in his heart, and then he decided to speak up.

  “Well, it’s unconventional, but it might just work.” A plan was forming in his mind thanks to the explosive that Aphrodite had presented. Although it wasn’t entirely foolproof, it just might be the key to their success.