"Swish!"

Violent fluctuations of Ice Elements were transmitted from the Spell Scroll. Instantly, a white icicle appeared, shattering the sky and came straight at Merlin just like an iron awl.

This was a Second-level spell, Ice Awl!

Ice-type spells were mainly used for attacks and to bind the opponent. The speciality of Merlin's Ice-type spell was its binding ability. Meanwhile, the Ice Awl was the spell with the highest offensive ability amongst Ice-type spells. In addition, it was a Second-level spell!

Little did Merlin expect that Heghar would have a Second-level Spell Scroll as he was a roaming wizard. If he was back in the Resource Tower, such strong Offensive spell would at least cost him hundreds of contribution points.

This was Wizard Heghar's true trump card. A Second-level Spell Scroll was enough to eliminate many First-level Spell Casters, not to mention an Entrance-level Spell Caster such as Merlin.

"Hehe. Meet your death!"

Merlin could clearly sense the chilly aura emitted by Ice Awl, even from afar.

"Guardian Monument!"

Facing a Second-level spell, Merlin took a deep breath and instantaneously cast Guardian Monument – not just an ordinary one but its strengthened version. He had no intention to be careless in defending himself.

"Bang!"

Ice Awl clashed into Merlin's Guardian Monument violently. Merlin felt an unspeakable chill even within the protection of Guardian Monument. The chills from Ice Awl still seeped into Merlin's body.

However, he was lucky that the chilly aura was not that strong. Since Merlin's physical attribute was commendable and he possessed Ice-type spell as well, he could quickly neutralize this chilly aura in him.

"Crack."

Finally, the strengthened version of Guardian Monument could not hold against Ice Awl. At once, the monument broke into pieces, and the debris flew all over the place.

The strengthened version of Guardian Monument was already very close to a Second-level spell. Although it could not stand against Ice Awl, in the end, it was able to deplete most of its energy.

Thus, Merlin cast Guardian Monument twice, then completely exhausted the energy of Ice Awl.

"How is this possible? Guardian Monument is only a First-level spell. How can it stop Ice Awl?"

Upon realizing that Ice Awl did not cause any damage to Merlin, Wizard Heghar's expression changed. His eyes were filled with disbelief. It was not his first time using the Spell Scroll of Ice Awl.

Back when Wizard Heghar had obtained five Spell Scrolls of Ice Awl incidentally, he had eliminated a First-level Spell Caster every time he used a scroll. Once, a Four-Elemental First-level Spell Caster had even died from this attack.

However, Merlin had only utilized Guardian Monument to stop Ice Awl. This had completely overturned Wizard Heghar's understanding about Guardian Monument.

"That's not right. Guardian Monument's defensive ability is definitely not that strong. Can it be that you have some sort of casting tool to enhance its defense?"

Wizard Heghar changed his expression as if he had just thought of something.

Casting tools were generally divided into three types – Offensive, Defensive, and Supportive. Amongst all, Offensive casting tools were the rarest while Defensive casting tools were the most common. On the other hand, Supportive casting tools were the strongest where it had everything one could think of.

In addition, amongst Supportive casting tools, there was a type of terrifying casting tool – Enhancing type. Once one had an Enhancing casting tool, one could utilize it to enhance the power of the spell when the Spell Caster cast the spell.

However, such Enhancing casting tools were too difficult to come by. Many spell casters' organization did not even possess such a casting tool.

"Enhancing casting tool?"

Merlin did not reply directly. It was convenient that Wizard Heghar thought that he possessed an Enhancing casting tool. Things would be less troublesome this way.

"Swish!"

Merlin's figure flashed and the Wind Element on him began to fluctuate violently. He sprinted directly toward Wizard Heghar while the latter did not dare to confront Merlin since he was out of Spell Scrolls. Thus, Wizard Heghar cast his Wind-type spell and instantly, his speed doubled. So, he frantically retreated backward.

"Running away? Don't you think it's a little too late for that? Thunderbolt Net!"

Without hesitation, Merlin cast Thunderbolt Net. He wanted to take advantage of the paralyzing effect of Thunderbolt Net to stop Wizard Heghar.

"Swish!"

Merlin cast the strengthened version of Gale. In a moment, his speed rose drastically, even quicker than Wizard Heghar. When he had come close to Wizard Heghar, Merlin's Mind Power simulated the Dark Mist's Spell Model in his Awareness.

"Dark Mist!"

This time, Merlin directly cast the strengthened version of Dark Mist. After all, Heghar's Mind Power was not weak; he had the Second-level Mind Power now. An ordinary Dark Mist would not have much effect on him.

Soon, a mist appeared and enveloped Heghar. Before he was shrouded by the mist, a grim look appeared across his face.

As Heghar was shrouded by the strengthened version of Dark Mist, terror crawled onto his face. He howled, "No, no! Don't kill me, Wizard Merlin. I have a secret, an ultimate secret. If you…"

Before he even finished his words, his voice stopped abruptly. Wizard Heghar's expression turned blank; he had fallen into an illusion.

The strengthened version of Merlin's Dark Mist could send a Spell Caster with maximum Second-level Mind Power into an illusion. Since Wizard Heghar only possessed normal Second-level Mind Power like Merlin, he was not an exception.

"Bang!"

Merlin cast Fireball and killed Wizard Heghar.

Then, Merlin set his gaze on Count Longardi. At this moment, he had lost all his composure; his face was pale and his lips trembled slightly.

"Wizard Merlin, I can order the army to stand back!"

"Bang!"

Merlin would not care about Count Longardi so he cast Fireball at Count Longardi, killing him instantly. Moreover, Merlin had no intention to spare his enemy.

After killing Count Longardi, Merlin went to the six bodies on the ground. He scavenged all rings from Wizard Heghar and the others, then pointed a finger at the sky. Instantly, numerous small fireballs were shot into the air and exploded. Count Selin and the others who were far at the city walls could see them clearly.

This was the signal decided between Merlin and Count Selin. Once Merlin had successfully killed Count Longardi, he would send a signal to inform Count Selin of the situation.

…

"Haha. Baron Merlin has done it. He actually did it!"

Count Selin and the others were overwhelmed with surprise when they saw the fireball in mid-air.

Then, Count Selin resumed his serious expression and instructed his men. "Send my orders. Open the gate. All aristocrats to bring their knights and move out. This time, we'll defeat the army of Lebis City at once."

Count Selin gave his command calmly. This was the perfect chance to defeat Lebis City. If he could eliminate a sufficient number of army units from Lebis City, he would have been able to take Lebis City under his control.

Count Selin was stirred up thinking about this. Initially, he had expected a great loss even if Longardi did not break into the city.

Little did he think that Merlin had become so strong after a year in the Dark Magic Region. Not only did he break through the defense of numerous thousands of people, he had also killed all opposing Spell Casters alone. Even Longardi had died in Merlin's hands.

Without Longardi, the army of Lebis City had lost their backbone. As long as he brought his man and attacked, he would receive unexpected result without fail.

"Kill!"

The gate opened with thundering roars of killing. Immediately, endless knights poured out from the city. As they sprinted forward, they screamed, "Longardi is dead." Many Lebis soldiers turned around, expecting to see Count Longardi, but no one was there.

Thus, many soldiers began to believe that Count Longardi was indeed dead and they had the intention to retreat. As soon as one of them retreated, more would follow.

A poorly-planned retreat would only result in an unsightly defeat. The Lebis army was the perfect example of this statement. The Knights of Prakash City were right on their tail, chasing them frantically.

Meanwhile, Wizard Freyr and Wizard Hill were amongst the ordinary knights of Prakash City. They focused their attacks at the commanders of Lebis City!

This way, the army of Lebis City had no way of organizing their attacks, thus ending in an utter defeat.

After seeing the knights of Prakash City frantically chasing after the defeated Lebis army from afar, Merlin finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Merlin did not join in the chase. Instead, he began to look through the rings he took from the Spell Casters.

These Spell Casters were roaming wizards, so they did not have many resources. Merlin only took a brief glance at them and soon lost interest in them. Other than some unimportant potion materials and Zero-level spells, they did not even have an elemental crystal stone. Their situation was similar to that of Merlin before he joined the Dark Magic Region.

"The Matrix, scan and save all Spell Models!"

Merlin rearranged the items in the rings and only found a dozen Zero-level Spell Models. Although they were all common spells and were of not much use to Merlin, he still instructed the Matrix to save them. These were the solid foundation the Matrix needed for data integration process in the future.

After saving the spells, Merlin took the ring that he had scavenged from Wizard Heghar and checked it out carefully.

Heghar had constructed Four-Elemental spells and became a First-level Spell Caster. This was extremely rare amongst roaming wizards. Heghar could have encountered some strange events for this to happen.

Before Merlin killed Heghar, the latter even screamed about some sort of secret. It was not that Merlin was not attracted to that but he planned to kill Heghar first, then find the clues about that secret.

There were many things in Wizard Heghar's ring. Not only did he possess many Zero-level and First-level spells, he even had some elemental crystal stones and all sorts of precious potion materials.

His resources were richer than that of many wizards in the spell casters' organizations.

However, a book that gleamed a faint golden light in the ring grabbed Merlin's attention.

Merlin took out this strange book using his Mind Power and placed it on his palm. It seemed to only have a few pages. It was made with an unknown material and was flashing a faint golden light, appearing rather magical.

Merlin quickly flipped to the first page of the book. In an instant, the large bright golden words written on the first page caught Merlin's eyes – Demon Ability, Glacial Finger!