Chapter Fourteen: The Despicable Spellcaster

Since she was confident enough to handle the cluster of guards on the second floor of the mechanical factory alone, it was only natural that she possessed her own unique secret techniques.

Those who master arcane powers rarely pride themselves on exaggerated destructive force when facing enemies. Fireball is powerful, and Meteor Swarm is ferocious, but an obsessive pursuit of damage always risks encountering insurmountable problems when one's strength falls short.

Mages are inherently lazy; they tirelessly pursue a master key that can solve all the world's problems, and that key is wisdom—the most troublesome path, requiring the most diligent study and inspiration. It is a paradoxical conclusion: to become a loafer, one must first become a sage.

Spellcasters believe that applying the right spell at the right time and place can achieve any goal. In this sense, no spell is useless; even the most ridiculous or weak effect is merely one that hasn't found its proper place.

The Soul-Calling Shrine Maiden stood on the stairs, just a few steps from the second floor. Her diminutive figure poked out, peeking at the defensive fortifications built by the mechanical cluster.

In this four-player Purgatory-difficulty dungeon, the second floor contained twenty guards. The number of crippled flamethrower robots had increased to three, and the shooters to five. The remaining melee models patrolled in groups around the bunkers.

For a melee class, this was a thorny position; one would normally have to lure the patrol guards out one by one to clear them slowly. It was extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Starry-Eyed took a pendant from her collar. It was a brass disc inlaid with jewels, slightly larger than a child's palm, looking both heavy and opulent on her petite frame.

Her teammates leaned in curiously. The brass pendant was inlaid with five gems, their texture resembling glass. The largest one in the center had a dull luster, while the four surrounding it each radiated a different color.

These five gems were the dwellings for souls that had accepted the shrine maiden's pact, also known as Soul Jades. The largest one belonged to the armored swordsman who followed the maiden everywhere. The other four were the spirits of essence creatures she had contracted in her original world.

These essence spirits were the source of Starry-Eyed's spellcasting abilities. To be precise, she didn't actually cast magic; she directed these spirits to unleash their innate spell-like abilities.

The origins of arcane power have always been diverse.

Among the players of the General Network, the most common form is spellcasting originating from the DND multiverse, where casters weave magical energy with the help of the Weave.

Like a programmer writing code, mages weave the warp and weft of the Weave to create individual magical applications, which are then packaged into spell slots.

However, the Soul-Calling Shrine Maiden was clearly not part of the Weave system; the spells she could master depended entirely on the souls she had contracted.

She was now going to use the essence spirits to cast "Cloud Fog" and "Darkness."

Both were area-of-effect spells. The former created a dense fog, forming an area of heavy obscuration, while the latter created a sphere of magical darkness that even creatures with darkvision could not see through, and non-magical light could not illuminate the obscured area.

Starry-Eyed whispered the incantations of the pact, awakening the spirits sleeping within the Soul Jades.

Two purple sparks flew from the pendant and landed on the maiden's shoulders, transforming into a ball of black soot and a chubby cloud. Both had shiny, puppy-like eyes, and their bodies were semi-transparent, consisting of soul-matter.

The Rogue immediately praised them in the channel: So cute!

The Barbarian leaned in curiously, stretching out a thick finger to poke the soot ball, only to have it bite his fingertip, causing a needle-like pain. He glared and shook his hand.

Lin Bo met the eyes of the little cloud. The cotton-candy-like creature spun around, nimble and light, waving its bean-like, chubby little hands at the mage.

The Rogue also tried to tease the little cloud, but it showed its disdain by hiding directly behind the maiden’s collar.

It was indeed quite cute, Lin Bo had to admit.

The maiden plucked the biting soot ball from the Barbarian's finger, hurriedly bowing and apologizing to her teammate on behalf of the child. The Barbarian didn't mind, just laughing it off.

Starry-Eyed: "This is Mili-Li and Little Black. We'll have to rely on them in a moment."

Nightingale: "I'll be watching." (Rubbing hands)

FlyingBigGrass: "(Rubbing hands)"

Lighthouse Keeper: "(Rubbing hands)"

Three flies.

At the second-floor stairwell, the white-haired maiden poked her head out like a mushroom popping from the soil.

The shooter robots monitoring from above noticed her, their algorithms analyzing exactly what this white spot might be.

The maiden quickly reached out and pointed toward the high ground where the shooters were stationed.

The cloud spirit, Mili-Li, flew from her shoulder, drifting lazily. The guards remained indifferent to its harmless appearance.

The little cloud reached the space above the fortifications and immediately shook its body vigorously. A thick, dense fog exploded outward, forming a spherical cloud with a six-meter radius, completely blocking the line of sight for the gun-toting guards.

Just like that, the most threatening ranged units were blinded.

Starry-Eyed stepped onto the second-floor platform. Appearing in the line of sight of the patrolling guards, they immediately swarmed toward her.

The maiden shrank her shoulders in fear but remained in place. The black soot ball on her shoulder jumped into mid-air, releasing a thick sphere of magical darkness centered on itself.

Lin Bo and the others were also enveloped by the darkness; it was truly pitch black.

Surrounded by darkness, the mechanical guards lost their targets, emitting short, repetitive self-check beeps: [Lost—Beep-boop—Target escaped]. They stood in place, dazed.

The magical darkness created by the spell was not without a counter; creatures with devil’s sight could peer through it. Sonar detection was also unaffected.

But these mass-produced mechanical guards lacked sonar functionality.

At this moment, the soul swordsman behind the maiden raised his translucent one-handed sword; he clearly possessed the ability to see in magical darkness.

The maiden herself could not see; she held the swordsman's hand, following his guidance.

The fierce soul swordsman moved without a sound, and the maiden’s small steps were lighter than a cat's. Without the mechanical guards noticing a thing, they circled behind them, and the soul sword was raised high and brought down.

The area covered by the darkness spell moved as the little black soot ball moved, pushing forward from the second-floor entrance toward the fortifications bit by bit.

The darkness before the three teammates receded like a tide. Looking around, the mechanical guards stood with their heads bowed, short sparks erupting from the backs of their necks; they had clearly suffered a total system crash.

The spherical area of magical darkness was like a man-eating torrent, moving forward to devour life and spitting out skeletons in its wake.

Nightingale: "What a ruthless woman!"

FlyingBigGrass: "Who can argue with that?"

Starry-Eyed: "(Crying) (Crying)"

Lin Bo said nothing, merely staring at the maiden's spells with secret envy. To be honest, he was a legitimate spellcaster himself, yet he spent his days charging in to hack people like a barbarian—truly a hardship he couldn't voice.

A moment later, the enemies on the second floor were cleared by the maiden.

Everyone reunited, and the chat channel was once again filled with enthusiastic praise, making the little shrine maiden's face flush red.

FlyingBigGrass: "The final battle is next. These two elite mobs are quite tricky, but one-on-one, there's nothing to fear. The most dangerous things are the traps in the arena—flamethrowers, strong acid, and bombs dropping from the ceiling from time to time. We need to disable the trap mechanisms first."

In the four-player difficulty, the number of elite mobs on the third floor did not increase, but the arena traps doubled, causing the players' available space to shrink significantly.

Nightingale: "The bombs falling in the arena can be used to deal with that defensive elite mob with the shield."

The Rogue pointed out that the dungeon traps provided an effective way to solve the puzzle, allowing them to turn the tables by using the arena's own mechanisms.

The Barbarian nodded, then shook his head.

FlyingBigGrass: "The bombs are indeed very useful, but I think we need to shut down the bomb-dropping traps first, so we don't have bombs rolling all over the floor while we're fighting and end up in a mess. Once we go in, we have to separate the two elite mobs. I'll drag the armored defensive model."

Nightingale: "I'll be responsible for disabling the traps, but I can't move around too much once I start, so someone needs to protect me."

Starry-Eyed: "Leave it to me."

The teammates turned their gaze to the mage.

Lighthouse Keeper: "I will handle the other elite mob."

The four divided the work, rested for a final moment, and filed into the elevator leading to the third floor.