Chapter 42: Battling a rank-2 magician (2)

Any artifact user upon leveling up usually receives a general knowledge regarding the beasts, the warriors, and their artifacts. Included in that knowledge; was the meaning of the grades (common, rare, special and epic).

Any artifact with any of those four grades allows its user to unlock spells with the same grade as the artifact, or lower, but never higher.

For example, common grade artifact allows the magician to unlock common grade spells. Rare grade artifact unlocks rare grade spells, special grade artifacts unlocks special grade spells and so on…

Of course, it goes without saying that the rarer the grade of the spell, the better it is.

Any artifact with the grade common allows its user, the magician, to unlock common grade spells, and also, it increases the magician's magic energy pool by 5 magic energy units every time the artifact is leveled up. So, since there are 4 levels to the artifact within each rank, the magician usually receives 4 increases of magic energy by 5 points each.

The rare grade artifacts unlocks rare grade spells, or common, and adds 10 units of magic energy to the magician's magic pool, which is double that of what the common grade artifact adds each level up.

As for the special grade artifacts… it unlocks special grade spells, or lower, and adds 20 magic energy unit. The epic grade unlocks epic grade spells and adds 40 energy units.

Considering the pattern, it was obvious how vast the gap between the grades becomes as the artifacts advances further and further!

For instant, when rank-1 magician with common grade artifact advances to the second rank, his magic energy pool would be somewhat around 25 magic energy units, considering that his starting units were 5 when he first got the artifact. As every level up of the artifact grants him 5 magic energy units , which leads to him having around 25 magic energy units when he levels up four times to advance to become rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact.

As for the rare grade, by the time the magician becomes rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact, his magic energy pool would be around 50, considering that his starting point is 10 magic energy units.

Special grade artifact would be around 100, if the starting point was 20 units.

In the case of ramie, it would be 89 units when he advances to become rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact, as his starting point was only 9 units.

As for the epic grade, it would be around 200 units, when he is merely rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact, which is simply too monstrous! Especially when considering that when magician with common grade artifact advances into the forth rank, he would have magic energy pool with less than 100 magic energy units…!

The disparity was too insane! As if saying that magicians with common grade artifact shouldn't even think of comparing themselves to the epic grade...That even a first-rank magician with epic grade can defeat fourth-rank magician with common grade.

However, this wasn't actually true… not when taking some other factors into account.

And the first of those factors and the most important – was the rank barrier!

As for what the rank barrier means… simply, when a magician advances to a higher rank, he'd gain a certain advantage that enables him to suppress other magicians with lower ranks.

For example, when a magician advances to the second rank, and regardless of his artifact grade, would gain a force field that almost no rank-1 magician can breach with any offensive spell!

Which is to say, even a rank-1 magician with rare or special grade artifact probably won't be able to breach the force field that a rank-2 magician with common grade artifact have.

This force field is the reason why the second-rank magicians could fight the insanely strong tier-2 beasts.

The second factor was the magic energy consumption rate!

As to what did that mean… it simply meant that the rarer the grade of the spell is the more magic energy units it requires to be casted. For instant, Neil's fire burst spell requires only 2 magic energy units to cast, as for the rare and special grade spells, it is likely to need much more magic energy units to be casted, and would probably have other forms of strict restrictions on the cast of the spell, such as long cooldown time (which is the interval time between two casts for the same spell) or some others restrictions. Which somewhat reduces the difference between the grades.

Meaning, that even though the rarer grades allows the magician to have larger magic energy pool, but it does not mean that they can cast their spells wantonly, which was obvious in the case of the brown-clothed man.

Even though he had two rare graded spells with high offensive power, but the magic energy unit requirements and their cooldown time made it so that he could only cast any of the two spells only once during a battle… which was a flaw that had ultimately lead to his demise.

As for the third factor… it was probably the most important one, as it was directly related to the reason why the magicians were so formidable in the first place.

It was the advancement of spells!

It was of no doubt that the ability to cast spells was the reason why magicians were considered so formidable in the first place. So, by extension, the subject of advancing the spells was the core concern of magicians, as it is directly associated with their source of advantage.

When a magician levels up his artifact, he gets one skill point every time. And since in every rank, magician had to level up his artifact four times, it naturally meant that in every rank, a magician gets four skill points.

These skill points could either be used to unlock new spells or to advance an existing spells. Of course, there was the possibility of saving up these skill points for later use.

When a new spell is unlocked, it is by default considered rank-1 spell, even if a rank-2 or rank-3 magician exchange a skill point, he'd still get a spell in its most basic form, which is the first rank.

So, to upgrade new spells, 2 skill points are required for the first advancement, which makes the spell rank-2 spell. And to advance it even further, 3 skill points are required to advance it to become rank-3 spell, then 4 skill points to advance it to rank-4, and so on…

Also, a magician cannot advance a spell to a rank higher than his own. And that means, that a rank-1 magician cannot advance any of his spells to become rank-2 spells, as they'd exceed his own rank… which is why it wasn't possible to advance spells in the first rank, not unless the magicians can reach the second rank, where only then can they advance a spell to become rank-2 spell.

This particularity was the reason why rank-1 magicians were typically unable to defeat magicians in the second rank, not in one versus one fight. As, at least a rank-2 offensive spell is required to destroy the force field that the rank-2 magicians has.

And since magicians in the first rank can't advance any of their spells beyond their rank, it became quite obvious that fighting second rank magician was not a very good idea.

Unfortunately… for Ramie and the others, this was precisely their dilemma right now.

The man floated toward them had a conical-shaped whirlpool of wind rotating around him, enabling him to float. He was obviously a magician.

Focusing on him, lines of information appeared to Ramie.

- Rank-2 magician

- Lv.1 Magic Artifact (17%)

- Path: Elemental Magic

- Class: Wind Magician (Common)

Ramie's heart jumped in trepidation at this reveal, this was the scenario he wanted to avoid the most.

This was beyond bad news! It was simply a disaster for them to fight a second rank magician, much less an angry one!

The knowledge ramie had received from the artifact clearly stated that rank-1 magician had a little to no chance of surviving against a magician in the second rank… not unless he finds a way to break the force field.

But now, not only were they about to fight one, but also Ramie's own condition was far from his optimal state, and his remaining magic energy was less than half.

Ramie's heart sank. Lance expression turned grave, while Neil's face was completely stiff. The situation couldn't possible get any worse than this.

With the half moon in the sky and the countless stars lighting up the night, the eye sight range was very good considering that this was still night time.

Seeing the minced corpse on the ground beside them, the floating man's expression became petrified, his eyes froze, and his mind lagged. He was ferociously resisting the idea that this minced puddle of blood and meat on the ground was actually his brother…

He'd rather believe that he had gone insane, and that this sight was simply his mind playing cruel trick on him…

He didn't have the notion in his mind that his brother would even be detected, much less dying in such gruesome manner.

How was this even possible…?

With his brother's rare grade artifact, and that terrifying invisibility spell of his, he had even managed to sneak on a low tier-2 magical beast, and plant a bag of explosive material in its lair, and then detonating them, thus killing the beast. And that was why he himself managed to level up to the second rank, by using the magical core belonging to that very magical beast.

So, not in his wildest imagination had he expected that his brother would actually die to a group of survivors whom weren't even awake, but sleeping…! It didn't even cross his mind!

The black-clothed man's trembled all over, disbelieve and shock alternating on his face. His mind was reeling, to process the sight, and its implication. Then, and as the cruel reality finally started sinking in, an anger and hatred that was like no other, shrouded his heart.

Fiercely raising his head, he roared like a madman, as look of madness and menace started brimming in his eyes.

"YOU ACTUALLY KILLED MY BROTHER...! MY BROTHER...!"

Unable to contain his explosive emotions, the man stretched out the palm of his right hand toward them, and bellowed atop his lungs.

Wind Cutter!

Wind Cutter!

Wind Cutter!

Wind Cutter!

At his frantic shouts, multiple arch-shaped distortions of air flew at the locations where ramie, the other two, and the summoned beast were standing, one for each of them.

Ramie immediately sensed the sudden rise of the man's killing intent, and knew that he was going to attack even before he could hear the shouts.

"Evade!!" with a roar, ramie alerted the others to dodge the incoming attack. On the same time, he jumped to the side and rolled on the ground while maintaining only one vine for protection, as he didn't want to waste what little of magic energy he still had.

Whish!

As he jumped, ramie heard a sharp whizzing sound passes through the place where he was originally standing, as if something had cut its way through the air.

Luckily, he had successfully evaded the attack.

Getting up, and looking over at the others to see their condition, ramie saw that the azure gazelle king has already started engaging in a heated battle with floating enemy. Evidently, the beast had dealt with the previous attack somehow. Whether by dodging or by using the lightening shield, ramie didn't see as he was busy avoiding the spell that was thrown on him.

The azure gazelle king was bombarding the enemy with his laser-like, flashy lightening beam spell. Which according to Reem, was his strongest offensive spell, even stronger than the lightening ball.

Looking at the enemy side, ramie could see that the man had landed on the ground, probably to reduce his magic energy consumption. Around him, was a semi translucent, dome-shaped, rotating wind current that was resisting the lightening beam and preventing it from hitting him while he was standing within the core of the dome, perfectly protected.

Apparently, he had casted some sort of defensive spell to protect himself.

Ramie knew that unless they somehow manage to destroy that defensive spell and force field that were protecting the enemy, their chances of walking away alive from here were close to zero.

Even though typically, a magician in the second rank could trample over a first rank magician... but that was in one on one fight. Now however, there were three of them, not to mention the powerful summoned beast.

So, it wasn't completely out of question for them to live past this night.

Looking over at lance, ramie saw that he seemed to have dodged the initial attack, ran back to the boulder, and picked up Jeffry's assault rifle.

It was obvious that he intended to use the rifle to join the summoned beast in attacking the enemy, in order to suppress him and prevent him from launching any other attack on them.

Then, as ramie looked over at Neil, his expression changed.

Neil was lying on the ground unconscious, while a small pool of blood was slowly spreading from underneath him. Upon a careful look, ramie could see a gaping wound on his shoulder.

When the black-clothed decided to attack, his radiating killing intent gave away his intention even before he launches his spell, which is why ramie was not taken by this attack, and why he had reacted so fast. It could be said that he evaded the moment the spells were released.

When it came to Lance, he had his life energy, so, his reaction speed was exceptional. Thus, he managed to dodge in time even despite the critical delay between Ramie's warning and him reacting.

As for Neil, he was a magician, which meant that aside from fueling the cast of spells, his magic energy didn't give him any strengthening effects. Which is to say, without spells that enhances physical reaction, Neil pretty much had the physic of a normal person. Hence, by the time he heard the warning and understood the meaning, the wind spell already struck him on the shoulder.

Lance wanted to go over and check on Neil's condition, but the enemy was too formidable, and their situation was too severe. So, he decided to focus on defeating the enemy first.

At this moment, lance started opening fire at the enemy, so as to not give him any chance to cast other spells on them. Although he could close the gap and throw punches and kicks at the wind barrier, he however, chose not to.

As to why, it was because if this magician decided to cast spell at him, then with such short distance, he'd definitely be unable to evade in time. More ever, even if he destroyed the barrier, this magician is not a rank-1, but rank-2. So, the force field would prevent Lance from knocking this magician unconscious, at least not before he throws a deadly spell on him. Hence, Lance played it safe, and resorted to use ranged attack.

Ramie did not hesitate, taking a step forward, he poured magic energy crazily to increase the length of the vine, and then, he used the same attacks that he used on the dead man. He started pounding the vine in frantic manner at the dome-shaped defensive spell, hoping to break it.

Lance did not stop in his place, but moved to another direction while maintaining his shooting pace at the enemy.

Seeing that, ramie understood that lance was trying to surround the enemy and attack from different directions, to confuse him. Fighting this way would mean that when this man stops defending and tries to attack any of them, he'd leave himself open for the others to attack.

Having understood so, ramie started moving to the opposite direction while maintaining his attacks on the man.

Ramie and Lance understood that right now, the best chance for them to outlive this night, was by not allowing this man to cast any spell on them. As for the reason, it was pretty simple one…

This man was a rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact, which meant that he had gotten 4 skill points as well as the one spell that any magician gets when he first acquires the artifact.

As to what did that mean… it simply meant that this man had either exchanged the 4 skill points to get 4 spells, or had used 2 skill points to get 2 spells and used the other 2 skill points to advanced one spell into becoming rank-2 spell!

To ramie and the others, it was bad for them either way… because if this man gone with the former choice, then it meant that he had more spells to use on them that they had no idea about.

On the other hand… if this man went with the latter choice, and advanced a spell into the second rank, especially an offensive spell… then it would mean that the moment they give him a chance to attack – is the moment they die.

Although, stalling for time and extending the battle for a longer duration might be a good choice to exhaust this man's magic energy, as he only has a limited magic energy, due to having common grade artifact… However, if this man had an advanced spell, then it would make 'prolong the battle' strategy a very bad plan.

Because if this was the case… then stalling for time and prolonging the duration of this battle would mean giving this man a lot of chances to cast his rank-2 spell on them and finish them off in one go.

Of course, this scenario would be true only if this man had actually advanced a spell in the first place.

However, and considering that the stakes were their lives, they didn't want to depend on 'if'

Following that logic, the strategy of exhausting the enemy's magic point by prolonging the battle was a deadly plan with way too high of a risk.

So, the best chance they had was to not give this man any opportunity to cast any spell on them. And to achieve this, they had to maintain their current pace of attacks.

But… this was precisely were the problem laid. As ramie's magic energy was already more than half spent, and him using this manner of attacking was eating up his energy at a terrible rate. Also, it wasn't as if the assault rifle in lance's hand had unlimited ammo.

On the other side, the black-clothed man was maintaining his defensive spell, to withstand their attacks, which naturally meant that he too was spending his magic energy.

Taking that into account, this fight became a battle of attrition.

Would Ramie and Lance run out of magic energy and bullets first…? Or would this wind mage run out of magic energy…?

If it was the former, then they'll get the first seat to witness the might of Rank-2 spells…

…