165 Reckless Low Rank (1/2)

After getting over the fact that bully Elf stole her precious red buff, Nia headed toward Mid. Along the way, she placed a ward in one of the intersections Tipmancer recommended as top priority warding spots.

And so, the laning phase began. She had to deal with a Pyromancer.

”Do you know how to farm with Wizard?” Yuel asked.

”Yeah, it's in the app,” Nia glanced at her phone again. ”I slow them down before they arrive using Quicksand and then hit them with Windstorm. Ah, but they're all already here...”

Since Nia's team was slow at taking the red buff, the minions from both sides have already reached the center of the lane and clashed. Ideally, a Wizard was supposed to slow down the incoming wave with Quicksand to pack them into one spot, then blast them away with Windstorm from afar. This setup guaranteed that both spells hit the entire wave so it maximized damage.

Alas, the enemy minions have already assumed their battle positions. The swordsmen fought on the frontline while the bowmen stayed behind. With such a distance between the frontline and the backline, it was impossible to hit all minions at once with Quicksand; the radius of the spell wasn't big enough at low levels.

With that said, Nia could still hit the entire wave with Windstorm thanks to its amazing reach and width. It wasn't optimal damage but it wasn't that bad. Probably.

”Do you know how to farm in this scenario?” Yuel asked.

”Hmm,” Nia's eyes naturally gravitated toward the phone beside her. However, she couldn't find any further instructions regarding farming. The only advice in Tipmancer was to do the Quicksand play into Windstorm. There was no mention of what to do when the wave was already there and it was too late to use Quicksand.

”Oh, I know,” Nia claimed. ”I'll just hit them with the wind. Better than nothing.”

”Wait. Get closer to the swordsmen and make sure they're within the first half of Windstorm, the half that knocks back. That'll send them flying toward the bowmen.”

”Ok,” Nia cautiously advanced toward the frontline with Windstorm ready in target mode. The targeting animation was neatly split into two parts to inform the caster where the first half of the spell will hit. That half had a knockback effect, which was crucial for this operation.

Nia fit all the enemy swordsmen within the first half of the spell and unleashed a storm. The winds slammed into the swordsmen and shoved them to the backline. At the same time, the other half of the spell hit the bowmen in the back without repositioning them.

This clustered all enemy minions into one packed area. It was time for Quicksand! Nia encircled the minions with a deadly quicksand. It damaged them over time and slowed them down, which made it harder for the swordsmen to return to the frontline.

[Her mechanical skill is decent.] Yuel nodded to himself.

Nia's execution was swift but accurate as she chained one spell into another with next to no delay. In Yuel's younger days, he used to mess up whenever he tried to chain spells quickly like that. Even though he knew exactly what he should be doing, he was always either too slow or rushed too much in fear of being too slow. Either way, it often ended up as a disaster. Even now, he wasn't so fluent with casting multiple skills in a row unless it was a specific setup he practiced a lot.

[That feel when you know the right thing to do but often mess up, while there are players like Nia who don't know what to do but still pull it off somehow.] Yuel smiled wryly. To be honest, he was a bit jealous of people who had such a good gaming sense. Perhaps he wasn't blessed with one or maybe he failed to develop one as a kid because he didn't play video games much before Classmancers. Either way, it has been giving him a lot of trouble, and despite all the regular practice he has been doing, the issue haunted him to this day. Sigh.

[At least, Nia won't need much coaching in that area.] Yuel concluded. The main thing Nia lacked was game knowledge regarding the main 5v5 mode. That Yuel had in spades and will gladly share. So, given Nia's already-decent execution, she'll level up into a solid player in no time as long as she keeps absorbing knowledge from Yuel.

The Windstorm plus Quicksand play almost wiped out the entire enemy wave. Such was the strength of an early-game Wizard. Its spells had both an amazing range and they hit hard thanks to the extra magical power coming from Wizard's passive. This power advantage was only going to last Nia a couple of waves but it'll be a big factor in gaining early-game momentum.

”You won the lane,” Yuel announced. ”The Pyromancer should be retreating now, so you can push on.”

”Um, but he's coming closer?”