Chapter 158 Panic and Battle

Trees with trunks a single person could barely wrap their arms around were everywhere, with tall, straight trees and low shrubs growing unevenly and intertwined. As the stranger arrived, the birds in the forest and some ordinary beasts were startled and scattered. Although this strange intruder had entered their territory, the beasts' sharp instincts sensed that this guest was not someone they could drive away, so they could only helplessly flee their habitat.

After hastily surveying his surroundings, Shaoke checked his gear to make sure everything was where it should be.

Once the inspection was complete, he decided to first probe the forest to make sure no mages who shared his idea hadn't already arrived and were lying in wait to deliver a fatal blow while he was off guard.

A detection crystal similar to the one Mage Roman used, though not a frost crystal but an ordinary crystal ball.

After the crystal ball enhanced his mental power, he sent it out to disperse and scan his surroundings. Through the feedback, he quickly got a read on the immediate area. Aside from a few slightly larger animals, there were no enemies as he had imagined.

After leaning against a tree to think it over, Shaoke decided to proceed with the work he had planned before arriving. First, he needed to find a place to sleep for the night, a shelter that could ward off the wind and cold. Only then would he attend to other matters.

In a clump of tall grass between several adjacent thick trees, Shaoke immediately identified the location for his night's lodging. Here, he once again probed the surroundings, and after finding no abnormalities, he officially prepared his temporary dwelling. A small bag, crafted from dozens of tanned monster hides stitched together, was spread on the ground, covered with some weeds, before he turned and left the spot.

This time, he thoroughly scouted the situation within the forest. He also took out the disc-shaped magic item issued to him after his promotion to the third rank, using it to observe whether any companions were nearby.

Since the disc did not contain a map of the area, Shaoke could only rely on the red dots to estimate the distances between them. The red dots representing their identities were not many—only a few dozen—and the distances between them were vast. Shaoke attempted to move toward the direction of one red dot, but after traveling for over a *magic hour*, he found no change in the distance shown on the magic item. This made him realize that temporarily reuniting with others would not be easily achieved.

While conducting mental power scans, Shaoke focused the enhanced mental power from the crystal ball into a slender thread. Using a method he had recently learned to conceal fluctuations, he did his utmost to mask the disturbances caused by mental power detection, to prevent others from prematurely sensing the unusual activity here.

The detection continued until evening, and Shaoke had also surveyed the area around his intended night lodging. After finding no abnormalities, he finally let out a soft sigh of relief. Retracing his steps from memory, he carefully chose a route to return to his temporary dwelling, where he would spend his first night on this mission.

When he was still a good distance away, Shaoke frequently released mental power to probe his surroundings and deliberately slowed his pace. Upon reaching the vicinity of the temporary dwelling, he cautiously scanned the area several times and tried to suppress the fluctuations of mental and magical power emanating from his body.

Only after a bird inadvertently landed on the tall tree where he was hiding did Shaoke carefully stretch his body. With a burst, he unleashed his mental power to probe the prepared temporary dwelling once more, but the result remained unchanged from before. All he found was a small beast fleeing his prepared spot.

Even so, he cautiously crept to a pile of weeds not far from the temporary dwelling and stopped there. After checking the positions of his fellow mages on the magic item, he quietly waited.

It wasn't until late at night, when he felt sure no hostile mages were around, that Shaoke finally relaxed. Carefully using magic powder to set up alarm arrays around the dwelling to scare off beasts and alert him, he inspected the hide bag before crawling inside to sleep.

The howling of the cold wind, the clatter of colliding branches, and the cries of birds and beasts repeatedly jolted him awake from his dreams. Several times, he felt as if he had been locked onto by a mage and killed in his sleep. At this moment, he found himself actually missing the battles he had participated in outside the Bloody Fortress in the mountains. Although night ambushes were not prohibited in those battles either, with companions guarding him, they could still get some decent sleep.

By dawn, Shaoke was once again awakened by birds taking flight and could no longer fall asleep. Finally, he welcomed the first day of the mission settled into a light meditation.

After hastily eating some of the specially prepared jerky he'd brought, Shaoke observed the situation on the magic item. He discovered that the number of red dots now displayed had increased to several hundred. Without time to count them carefully, he suddenly noticed a red dot representing one of their own not far from him. This discovery excited him greatly.

So he hurriedly rolled up the hide, concealed any traces of his prolonged stay there, and headed toward the location of the other mage. However, before he had gone far, he noticed that the red dot had quickly disappeared. This discovery stunned him. He hadn't expected his companion to be hunted down so quickly.

He swiftly released his mental power, and after a round of probing without detecting any mages nearby, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. He then abandoned the idea of quickly gathering with other mages and instead moved cautiously, continuously using the crystal ball to probe his surroundings.

After hastily eating lunch, Shaoke hid in a low shrub to rest, occasionally releasing mental power to probe the area. Not long after, just as he was about to leave, a violent surge of magical fluctuations came from ahead. The roaring sounds of spell collisions repeatedly startled the forest beasts and some low-level monsters, causing them to flee their territories.

Nervously tightening his grip on the staff on his back, Shaoke took several deep breaths and finally decided to investigate the conflict. After all, he had already joined this mission, and there was no need to hide anymore now.

Keeping his mental probes on a short leash, he quickly ran toward the direction from which the magical fluctuations originated. Covering nearly ten thousand meters, he soon reached within spellcasting range. Relying on the intense fluctuations from the spell collisions, he boldly increased the strength of his mental power detection. Under these circumstances, he quickly identified the two mages engaged in combat.

Two mages, both in black robes, continuously cast spells at each other from a distance of less than a few hundred meters. The thick trees between them were either pierced or blown apart as the spells failed to change direction in time. As those trees fell, a sparse passage appeared between the two mages. Once this passage opened, the two mages attacked even more frantically. Their rapidly moving figures, constantly chanted incantations, and colliding spells.

Everything before him made Shaoke forget the fear he had felt the previous night. Gently patting his forehead, Shaoke quickly activated all the defensive spells and the few support spells on his robe and cloak. He also took out three rune stones, activating them with his mental power to let them float around his head, enhancing his mental control abilities.

Attack. When Shaoke had already approached one mage, an opportunity presented itself. A black-robed mage was knocked back by a columnar whirlwind released by his opponent, and the already weakened defensive spells on his body were quickly shattered. As that mage's body slammed heavily against a large tree behind him, Shaoke's spell was ready.

Lava Ray, one of Shaoke's favorite types of spells. A crimson beam of light pierced through several thick trees before streaking toward the now-alerted mage.

The mage who had just defeated his opponent, on the verge of completing his mission, suddenly sensed being locked onto by another mage. Without time to locate his adversary, he quickly moved his body and cast an interference-type spell unfamiliar to Shaoke, aiming to reduce Shaoke's mental lock.

Although the mental lock was somewhat diminished by the opponent, Shaoke's spell, under its master's willingness to expend a large amount of mental power and using newly learned control techniques, barely managed to curve around a large tree at the last moment and struck the black-robed mage.

The depleted defensive spells, not replenished in time, were ultimately shattered by the slightly weakened Lava Ray, leaving a fist-sized deep hole in the mage's shoulder.

A rapid and brief incantation emerged from the injured mage's mouth, and then the staff in his hand suddenly exploded. A massive fireball materialized in the air and, under the mage's command, spun toward Shaoke's direction.

Shaoke, who had only half-prepared another Lava Ray, wisely forced himself to interrupt the spell preparation upon seeing the three-to-five-meter-tall fireball crashing through countless trees toward him with a roar. He knew that the Lava Ray could not shatter the spell structure of such a large fireball, as it was a piercing-type spell incapable of causing widespread damage to a fireball with such an enormous spell structure.