Other Mages

When they looked outside and saw the enormous crowd of demons and wandering souls overwhelming the mercenaries around them, the three Apprentice Mages were finally forced to remove their cloaks and join the battle, revealing their faces to the world.

The leader of the three was a muscular young man. He had a head of messy blond hair that fell to his shoulders. Just beneath his hair, a mysterious tiara was wrapped around his head, clearly not an ordinary item. He was wearing a well-crafted leather jacket and carried a sword on his back. Judging by the size of the sword, it would be too heavy for an ordinary man to even wield.

The other man was dressed like a noble. The delicate and luxurious clothes on his body were quite impressive, but even more striking was his head. He had dark green skin, a long, narrow mouth, and a thin tongue that kept flicking in and out... He, unexpectedly, had the head of a snake.

Meanwhile, a little girl stood between these two men. She had an angelic face and was wearing a long, light yellow dress. She was of average height and was holding a golden cage in her hands. Curiously, not only did she show no sign of fear towards the bloody scene in front of her, but she was actually looking around with a cute smile on her face, making her simply seem like a curious young girl.

Leon's eyes suddenly widened.

Through his Elementium Vision, he saw extremely bright Elementium and spiritual ripples that resembled tidal waves emanating from all three Apprentice Mages.

According to the Chip's assessment, these three were Pseudo-Mages or elites among Advanced Apprentice Mages. No matter who they were, they were not something Leon, a Beginner Apprentice Mage, could think of handling.

Why had such powerful people come here like this? This place was private property of Master Eclivel and a resource site of the Sarubo Family. Except for the annual shipment of resources, this place was not open to outsiders.

All of this made Leon really curious about the motives of these outsider Apprentice Mages.

But after witnessing their immense skills, Leon's curiosity instantly died, leaving him fully alert and a bit fearful.

The human mercenaries were able to handle demonic beasts, but when faced with Demon Babies, Wandering Souls, and other similar demons, they were like sheep being led to the slaughter. When the simple defensive shield was broken, the swarm of demons began to massacre the mercenaries.

Demon Babies were running and jumping all over the place, shouting terrifying curses to weaken their prey's fighting abilities. Using the bushes as cover, these monsters launched surprise attacks and brought the mercenaries down. Thus, it was a scene filled with mercenaries on the brink of death. Additionally, those dreadful Wandering Souls circled in the air, seeking chances to snatch a mercenary into the skies. When this happened, the other demons swarmed in and tore the defenseless prey apart.

In the midst of this chaotic scene, a Wandering Soul, with an ugly and twisted face, dove from the air, targeting those three strange and casually dressed Apprentice Mages.

Before the young man and the little girl could do anything, the snake head struck.

With great force, a pale green venom in the form of an arrow pierced the body of the Wandering Soul instantly, exploding on impact. The intense corrosive poison melted the 'Resentment Core' hidden within its body, turning it into a pile of ashes with a horrible, painful scream.

Leon noticed that the venomous 'arrow' was not created using normal spells but was launched from that Apprentice's mouth.

"Buzz~~"

And that attack was just the beginning.

"Whoosh~~"

"Whizz~~"

The Apprentice did not stop what he had started and opened his mouth wide, continuously spitting venomous 'arrows.' With each strike, he precisely eliminated one of the horrifying Wandering Souls, classified as possessing the power of an Intermediate Apprentice.

A Lineage Mage!

He was definitely one of those Lineage Mages mentioned in the basic book about Mages!

Within the vast and complex hierarchy of development in the Mage World, four branches stood out: Lineage Mages, Body Refinement Mages, Principle Mages, and Deep Mages. It could be said that most other branches of Mages derived from these four main branches.

Lineage Mages were a group of lunatics who desired to possess the purest lineages. They used the power of these lineages to enhance their own strength. Usually, they would choose some incredibly powerful creatures from another world as the source of their lineage, then improve the purity of their own blood, often through a method traceable back to some ancestor. After doing all this, they gained incredible abilities that aligned with those of ancient powerful creatures. Generally, their ultimate goal was to revive the glorious life of these ancient beings.

As for Body Refinement Mages, they were another group of fanatics who strove to strengthen their own bodies. To them, all resources were just a means, a consumable supply that could be used to enhance their muscles. To stimulate their muscles, they might immerse themselves in a vat full of poisonous chemicals or implant a deadly, highly radioactive meteorite into their bodies. They could venture out and endure the most extreme and lethal environments… And they would do all of this to strengthen their bodies so that nothing could harm them.

Honestly, Principle Mages were the most common type of Mage in the Mage World. Whether it was the Elementium Mage, who pursued the ultimate powers of their Elements, the Curse Mage, who used strange abilities to kill people in hidden ways, or even the Dark Mage, who enjoyed using violent, murderous skills, often leveraging the power of souls and emotions — they all belonged to the branch of Principle Mages. Although there seemed to be a tremendous difference in what they did, when they reached an advanced stage, they did their best to master specific Principles or Rules of the Universe.

They were the ones who grew by mastering the Principles of Elemental Laws.

As for Deep Mages, they were the purest type of Mages. They were unwilling to 'contaminate' their lineage just to gain a powerful ability and refused to join the Principles of the Planes and become 'Slaves to the Principles.' They gathered knowledge, delved into the world of knowledge, and used the knowledge they learned as a weapon. Thus, they became a strange group among the Mages, concerned only with gathering and expanding their knowledge while completely ignoring their own development.

With these four main branches as the backbone, an endless variety of strange Mages were born in this world. They conquered different worlds, plundered resources and knowledge, and enslaved thousands of Planes. They were the dominant force in the entire Mage World when fighting or conquering other realms.

This was the information about the Mage Hierarchy that Leon had obtained after the Chip spent some time gathering and organizing the mass of raw data that had been input. Since he knew only a handful of people, the gathered data was incomplete and likely had significant discrepancies. Although he had only this small amount of simple information, it painted the outline of the enormous and fierce Mage World he was now part of.

If he hadn't known about these branches, he would not have been able to correctly guess the details of that Lineage Apprentice a second ago.

But just as Leon was speculating which species of snake the Apprentice had inherited his lineage from, something even more surprising happened.

The beautiful little girl joined the fight!

A Demon Baby, moving rapidly across the ground, set its sights on these three people, marking them as targets and charging at them. At the same time, it kept letting out irritating shrieks from its twisted mouth full of sharp, yellowed teeth, casting its Curse attacks on the three.

"Heheheh, let me devour you, sweet Loli!"

Undoubtedly, its behavior provoked the little girl.

However, not only did her immature face show no sign of anger, but it also blossomed with a sweet smile. She raised the cage in her hands, which looked like a toy, pointed it at the Demon Baby, and shook it a few times. Although no sound was heard, lights and shadows flickered, and the Demon Baby that had just been charging at them disappeared from where it was.

At the same time, Leon, who had sharp eyesight, noticed that a miniature Demon Baby had appeared inside the cage the little girl was holding. It was only the size of a human hand, and it looked exactly like the Demon Baby that had just disappeared.

Obviously, the Demon Baby had no idea what had caused its sudden transformation. After being stunned for a second, it became extremely ferocious and let out a shrill scream towards the little girl outside the cage, repeatedly banging its body against the bars.

"ARRRR!"

"Let me go!"

"Get me out!"

But no matter how hard it tried, there was no way to escape that birdcage.

Spatial Magic?!

Leon pressed his hand firmly over his mouth to avoid screaming loudly.

Of the many Magical Principles, although each Principle would bring forth astonishing power at the supreme level, if one truly wanted to define their classification, the Principles of Time and Space Magic were among the highest. However, according to Leon's knowledge, these two high-level magical branches were among the weakest of all branches in the Mage World. This was simply because these two magical branches could only rely on each individual's innate talent.

Even the most powerful Mage, who could destroy a world with a wave of their hand, could never make time stop for a second. Yet, some people are born with that ability, and even if they might not learn any related knowledge about Magic, they can still achieve something that even the best Mages cannot.

And yet, just because these magics were so bizarre and unpredictable, and could only be used by someone with talent, those Mages who lacked such talent, no matter how brilliant they were, would find it impossible to produce great results through experimentation. Therefore, without a huge and solid foundation, it was very difficult for those who focused on the Magical Branches of Time and Space to produce top-tier Mages.

Leon was struggling to decide whether this was the little girl's innate ability or some bizarre magical item that allowed her to capture any enemy, regardless of distance.

Although Leon thought he had a deep understanding of this bizarre world of advanced magic, at this very moment, he had to admit one thing: the real world of Mages was much crazier and stranger than his wildest dreams and nightmares. These three outsiders were Pseudo-Mages or elites among the Advanced Apprentices. If Leon were forced to fight against them while only having access to his two low-level spells, he would likely die.

For this reason, he did not dare to continue watching. He turned around, followed the path, and silently returned to the Mage Tower.

When he reached the main door of the Tower, the newly appointed Apprentice Leader, Brandon, was there along with the three strongest: Headshot, Worm Controller, and Super Girl.

Leon cast a puzzled glance at Brandon but soon realized why they were there.

The warning he sent through the magical talisman could only be received by a special magical item, which was currently in Brandon's hands. When Brandon learned that there were three powerful Apprentice Mages in the Magical Swamp, he knew that, with his abilities, there was no way to pursue or capture these outsiders. Therefore, before Leon returned, Brandon sought help from the three strongest.

Obviously, it had cost him something to obtain help from the three strongest… But only he knew what that cost was.

Recalling what he had just witnessed, Leon did not have much confidence in the 'Three Strongest.' No matter how he compared them, those three outsiders were stronger than them. Perhaps Brandon was hoping that they would be enough to capture all of them?

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2018 Words