Chapter 345 The Beginning of the Wanderer

Without a moment's hesitation, Shaoke instantly extended his mental power to lock onto the other mage's position.

Tens of thousands of meters away, a Gray-robed Mage slowly floated in the air. When he noticed Shaoke, his expression shifted slightly, and he accelerated, flying in Shaoke's direction.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" The Gray-robed Mage did not evade Shaoke's lock but instead spoke loudly after maintaining a certain distance.

"Are you a wandering mage? Don't you know the rules for eighth-order wandering practitioners?" The Gray-robed Mage glared at Shaoke, then waved his staff, signaling Shaoke to land.

"Don't talk to me about rules. I don't know any." Shaoke noticed the Mage Guild emblem on the other's robe. "I hope you won't use such hostile behavior next time; otherwise, I can't guarantee it won't cause misunderstandings." With that, Shaoke slowly floated a bit closer to the Mage Guild mage, not intending to let him off easily.

In response to Shaoke's rebuttal and cautious approach, the Gray-robed Mage quickly became alert. He watched Shaoke warily and activated his defensive spells, saying, "As an eighth-order wandering practitioner, you must stay within the areas designated by the empire. I recall there aren't any eighth-order practitioners in this region. Have you obtained the empire's permission to be here?" Though aware of Shaoke's approach, he did not retreat, instead preparing for battle. He had to punish this lawless wandering mage.

When Shaoke got within a certain distance, he launched the first attack. Under his control, a black line of fire shot from his staff, splitting into three smaller lines in mid-air and striking at the Gray-robed Mage.

The Gray-robed Mage had two layers of eighth-order protective spells, but he didn't dare face Shaoke's attack head-on, carefully dodging instead. After being attacked, he took his spellbook out of a magic bag and began counterattacking.

After casting his spell, Shaoke also retrieved his spellbook, though he used a secret technique from his meditation space to do so. The pale blue spellbook expanded to normal size in front of him, and the blue butterfly-decorated cover emitted a faint blue glow. A giant butterfly flew out, hovering over Shaoke and scattering light particles to protect him. This spell was formed through a special method of consecrating the spellbook after reaching the eighth tier, providing protection stronger than two layers of ordinary eighth-order shields.

Shaoke lightly touched his spellbook with his staff, and the consecrated pages flipped rapidly as commanded. He then took out a handful of black gems, similar to large diamonds from his past life, and arranged them into an eight-pointed star magic array above the blue spellbook.

Just as the eight-pointed star magic array formed, Shaoke's spellbook stopped flipping. With his urgent incantation, beams of black light composed of magic script flew from the book and merged into the array. Meanwhile, the Gray-robed Mage released an area-of-effect attack, but Shaoke used the specific spell 'Spell Disjunction' to completely neutralize it.

The ancient magic incantation soon ended. The eight-pointed star magic array burst apart, releasing a black beam that shot toward the Gray-robed Mage. The rapid spell attack gave the mage no time to dodge; the two layers of eighth-order shields were easily shattered by the beam. This light was the Death Ray, cast using the unique spellcasting method of eighth-tier mages.

Though both protective layers were destroyed, the Gray-robed Mage quickly struck his spellbook with his staff. Dozens of magic scripts and a complex spell structure flew from his black book, rapidly forming a pale golden shield. This was a full eighth-order defensive spell activated through his spellbook.

When the shield formed, Shaoke's Death Ray struck it, causing a ripple but dissipating entirely. The Gray-robed Mage then blinked away, intending to flee. He hadn't expected Shaoke's spell to be so powerful, and lacking strong single-target attacks himself, he chose escape.

After one blink, Shaoke followed with his own blink, covering a greater distance thanks to his knowledge of space magic from an underground fortress. After the first blink, he immediately performed a second, landing right in front of the Gray-robed Mage.

The Mage Guild mage hadn't anticipated consecutive blinks. When Shaoke suddenly appeared, he used his spellbook to instantly cast his only eighth-order single-target spell, Ice Spear, at great cost in mana and mental power, hoping to stop Shaoke's assault. But it was all in vain.

Facing the attack, Shaoke used Spell Disjunction to partially break the spear's structure, letting it hit his shield harmlessly. He then instantly cast the extremely powerful spell Death Gaze. This time, the mage was frozen and began falling.

The partially destroyed Ice Spear caused no real harm to Shaoke, only slightly shrinking the butterfly overhead. Shaoke then prepared another attack spell to kill the falling mage.

He didn't believe Death Gaze alone would finish off an eighth-tier mage; such practitioners had many ways to survive.

Of course, if outnumbered, the outcome might differ.

Just as Shaoke's Death Ripple formed and he was manipulating it, the falling Gray-robed Mage's body erupted with a loud explosion. A fiery red glow spread around him, halting his descent as he shot back toward Shaoke. Shaoke felt his Death Gaze structure completely shattered.

"Today I'll send you to the eternal abyss, where you'll suffer forever," the Gray-robed Mage snarled, his ornate staff gone. He chanted in a language Shaoke didn't understand, and after a few syllables, a page from his spellbook turned to ash. A seventh-level area spell formed instantly, rushing at Shaoke. The mage repeated this several times, unleashing seven or eight seventh-level area spells in quick succession.

Shaoke recognized this technique as the most effective last-ditch attack for eighth-tier mages. It consumed no mental power or mana, only shrinking the caster's meditation space, but the spells were amplified to eighth-tier power.

Of course, there were other costs, which we won't detail here.

Facing this frantic assault, Shaoke endured the turmoil in his meditation space to blink three consecutive times, escaping the Gray-robed Mage's irrational barrage. On the final blink, he appeared beside the mage.

The rapid mental power and mana output damaged his meditation space, causing violent fluctuations. Fortunately, the silver light in his Arcane Fire continued its long-standing function, so after a brief pause, he cast Death Gaze again.

The Gray-robed Mage froze once more, and Shaoke, suppressing his meditation space's discomfort, instantly cast a fifth-tier Rending Ray, piercing the mage's chest. He then grabbed the corpse and descended quickly.

Back on the ground, Shaoke used his spellbook to absorb the Gray-robed Mage's golden light, then laid out defensive magic arrays with gems and crystals before starting meditation to recover.

The battle had been taxing. Though he'd been an eighth-tier mage for a long time, potions had little effect on his level, leaving his mental power and mana lacking. Worse, the consecutive casts of blinks and Death Gaze had damaged his still-unstable meditation space.