Chapter 95: Soloing a Three-Star (1/2)

Magical scrolls are one-use tools that have magic sealed within them. They come in a variety of types such as offensive scrolls, defensive scrolls, healing scrolls, dispelling scrolls and even curse scrolls.

Scrolls were initially created with the purpose of overcoming the weakness caused by a mage’s long cast times. However, their crafting process require a large amount of expensive magical ingredients as well as the expertise of a trained mage. This was especially so asthe stronger the sealed magic, the more difficult it was to craft the scroll.

While it was created with the common mage in mind, reality ended up being completely different than what was envisioned. Due to the cost of crafting these scrolls, they couldn’t become a staple of magic casting but instead ended up being a last resort for mages.

As more research was conducted in this field, the scroll crafting process had become significantly simpler over the ages. Not only was it simpler, the materials required had become more refined, allowing for less materials to be consumed in the overall process.

With the overall cost of crafting a scroll reduced, more and more mages were able to get into this field. There were even mages who specialized in scroll crafting as a livelihood. The addition of these scroll vendors boosted the supply of scrolls significantly.

However, even with all these advancements, the price of a scroll was still expensive. Even so, it remains a viable last resort option when one’s life was in danger. This was due to the low mana cost of using these scrolls which then only required the user to focus his mind on a target in order to fire the spell.

Given a forbidden spell scroll, even a mage apprentice was able to threaten a city.

——From <>

So even bad guys can fear death.

Seeing him pee in his pants didn’t fill me with joy as expected. Instead, I felt a sadness in the depths of my heart. If you were so afraid of retribution, why did you create this tragedy in the first place?

How should I kill him…flaying him alive would require too much skill, throwing him into a boiling pot of oil was too crass as well. I need to find a method that won’t kill him instantly but would still inflict unending pain on him. As I pondered this matter, I ended up drifting off once more in daze.

Spotting an opportunity, the robed caster who had been sneaking peeks at me all this while, chose this exact moment to make his move.

All I saw was the moment he clenched his left fist as he targeted me before a fireball the size of a basketball shot out of the ruby ring he wore on his finger.

By the time I was able to react to it, the fireball was already within inches of me. A second later, the fireball slammed into my head without even giving me the time to dodge…

It felt like I had been splashed by a bucket of hot water followed up by the shockwave caused by the fireball’s explosion which flung me to the ground unceremoniously.

“I bet you never expected that even without the necessary time to chant, I could still rely on a high-grade enchanted gear to cover for my long chant times.” Having regained the upper hand with his sneak attack, he abandoned his guise of a weakling and instead went on the offensive, firing off fireballs continuously, all the while laughing haughtily.

“I’m a bonafide three-star occultist! Just in terms of mana alone, I’m able to overwhelm you!”

A torrent of fireballs chased my back as I dodged around, blasting me with a wave of hot air as they exploded. If it hadn’t been for my innate devil resistance to fire, my back would’ve been severely scalded by now.

Initially, the appearance of enchanted gear had been to shorten the cast times of mages. A mage with a high-grade enchanted gear was at least several times stronger than one without. Take this occultist for example, if he didn’t have that ring with him, I could’ve broken his limbs and sliced off his tongue in the time he took to chant a spell.

However, with that enchanted gear aiding him with its magical array, he was able to fire off fireballs instantly, stacking the odds significantly in his favor.

Thankfully, due to my fire resistance, his fireballs mostly felt like splashes of hot water even if they hit my head. However, no matter how strong my resistance was, there was still a limit to it. Given enough hits, my hide would give way too and so taking them head on wasn’t an option.

Seeing that his fireballs barely hit me, the occultist probably thought that his fireballs were too slow and decided to mix it up. His right hand rose up, revealing a white glint that I did not want to see.

“Let’s see how you dodged this!” Splitting his focus, he simultaneously activated his ruby ring and the white gemmed ring on his right middle finger which was probably of the ice element.

*whoosh whoosh*

A fireball and an ice spike shot out of his respective rings and hurtled towards me. With a dodge and a tumble, I easily dodged the two spells. This room was after all built for a summoning ritual, given the vastness of the room, there was more than enough space for me to avoid these attacks.

At least that was how it was at the start.

While the fireballs were mostly harmless once they exploded, the ice spikes were different. As their crystalline bodies exploded, they would leave behind a glistening layer of ice and water on the floor. Not only was the ice surface chilling to the bone, it was extremely slippery.

All that, I learned first hand when I accidentally stepped on the ice and welcomed a fireball to the face as my body fell butt first onto the floor, my skin prickling with the spicy sensation of the flames.

Despite my best efforts, I didn’t make much headway into approaching the occultist. His defense was extremely tight; each time I came close to him, he would take out a scroll and rip it open without hesitation.

While I haven’t seen such scrolls in action before, I knew some basic knowledge about them. Normally, an offensive area of effect magic would be sealed in these scrolls which meant only one thing, trouble!

I immediately halted my advance but it was still too late. With a savage grin on his face, his hands pulled apart the seal on the scroll as his grinning eyes locked onto me.

A flurry of wind blades burst out of the scroll and flew straight at me the very next instant.