Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
In the underground palace, Lucien was running fast along the corridor like a shadow, and Sophia, after casting Speed on herself, was following close behind him. However, they could not move at their full speed since they had to stop and figure out the direction from time to time.
“Watch out. The door up ahead is dangerous. There’s a magic circle behind it,” Sophia said after closely studying the magic patterns around and comparing them to those on the map.
Lucien, who had been aware of the danger behind the door long before the warning, pretended to be lost and said while frowning, “What shall we do, then? Cracking the magic circle would be a waste of time.”
Sophia was amused by Lucien’s words, and it seemed that her fear had gone completely, “We’re not cracking it. We are going around it. This is not a test from the Congress of Magic. Except for me, barely do anyone knows about magic. The rest of the candidates will either go around or wait until the magic circles become invalid.”
“So which takes longer? Waiting, or going around?” asked Lucien. He felt that he was like a professor, trying his best to give the clues to the student.
Sophia answered without hesitation, “We go around. Take this way to the room. It is connected to the other corridor.”
As she was saying it, she was pointing at the room with the rosewood door. As a caster, her face was lit up with pride.
Like a teacher, Lucien nodded in his mind. Then, he took a few steps forward before Sophia and pushed open the door.
In the underground palace, sensing failed to work. Lucien was also unable to spread out his spiritual power as Sophia was right beside him.
The rosewood door was even heavier than Lucien’s expectation as if it was made of the most precious metal, not wood. When the door slowly opened, the stench that came out was overwhelming.
“Be careful!” Sophia hurriedly reminded him.
At the same time, Beaulac made a sudden dodge aside as if he was well-prepared.
Sophia quickly lifted her jade-colored staff and a strong wind was brought to the space.
“Toxic gas?” asked Lucien, although he had known the answer.
Sophia nodded seriously, “Maybe someone just passed here and activated the magic circle. Do be careful.”
Lucien nodded and grabbed his blue sword tight. He walked into the room using the knight pace ready for fighting.
In the room, the wardrobe, couch, and the desk had all been severely damaged, and the pieces were scattered all around the floor. Clearly, a fierce combat had just taken place there.
On the ground on the other side, there were two young nobles. Their faces had turned black and their hands showed contractures, like chicken feet. At the corners of their mouths, there were stains of vomit.
“They have been poisoned… to death?” Lucien recognized that they were the two nobles helping Arthen, and one of them had even awakened his blood power.
A short cry came from the back when Sophia saw the two bodies. Her face turned gloomy again, “They are Deniz’s cousin, but they died here. No matter how the competition ends at this time, your family is going to face big trouble. The noble families will unite together. It will cost a lot for the Gorse family to pacify their wrath.”
“The damned plotters! The bloody traitors in our family!” cursed Lucien, just like what Beaulac would do. Then, he slowly moved to the two bodies and carefully checked the wounds.
To Lucien’s surprise, he saw a big dent in the chest of one body. A human being was very unlikely to be able to launch such a horrible attack on the body!
As soon as the thought struck Lucien’s mind, he instantly made a sideways roll. The next moment, the rosewood door broke into pieces, and a strong wind blew in.
“Steel golem!” cried Sophia to remind Lucien.
Lucien pressed his elbow against the ground and turned around. He saw a big steel golem about four meters tall. Two red spots, which were the golem’s eyes, were shining coldly. The golem lifted its huge hammer high, which swooped down right upon Lucien.
Lucien knew that he could not use magic right now, so he made a swift dodge and then hacked at the side of the huge hammer with the sword, Frost.
Bang!
In the sharp sound of the metal collision, the heavy hammer was hacked sideways. Under the great power, Lucien’s hands felt very numb, and right now they were trembling slightly.
The power of the steel golem had greatly exceeded that of a grand knight. Although Lucien was wearing the Ogre glove, it was still hard for him to take the pain.
The steel monster, however, was not much influenced. After swinging the hammer in a semicircle in the air, the weapon was swung right toward Lucien again!
Both of Lucien’s hands shone with a layer of silver-colored light. He pulled back the sword and blocked the fierce attack.
Suddenly, wind blew fiercely. It turned into countless blades targeting the golem. However, the many blades only managed to leave some scratches on its steel body.
Lacking experience in a real battlefield, at the very beginning, Sophia had picked the wrong magic!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Without being affected, the golem wielded its heavy hammer continuously, and facing the great power, Lucien was busy with defending, which was the only thing he could do at that moment.
Lucien still remembered what Natasha and John had taught him to fight like a knight. However, the room was not spacious enough for him to move freely. Step by step, Lucien could only retreat to reduce the great pressure on his sword.
The power of the golem was around that of a level-five grand knight. Lucien started to feel tired. However, he did not panic. Although his hands were shaking, he still held the sword very tight.
A blue light started to shine, and the golem and its hammer were gradually covered with a layer of ice and frost. Although the golem was not hurt, it started to act slower and slower.
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Seizing the chance, Lucien took a step forward and avoided the attack of the heavy hammer. With all his strength, Lucien managed to hack the knee of the golem.
Bang! This was Lucien’s first time attacking the golem. A layer of ice climbed onto the golem’s knee. Although the thin layer broke into the fine pieces as soon as the steel golem moved, it slowed the monster down for one second. Very decisively, Lucien attacked the other knee joint of the golem.
A strong wind blew, which turned into many ropes. The neck, knees, elbows, wrists of the golem were all constrained, and now it was moving even slower.
Lucien’s fighting had inspired Sophia. Now she knew what to do to help him!
It was time for Lucien to launch his full attack. Like raindrops in a fierce storm, Lucien’s sword fell on the body of the steel golem without stop.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The smile on Lucien’s face was confident. He felt that his blood was burning because of the fight!
The golem’s red-light eyes shone. It’s iron jaw opened, and from it, a greenish-yellow gas came out.
When Lucien was about to dodge, the gas was pushed backward by the strong wind.
Dissipate Smoke. Sophia chose the proper magic again!
With his feet pressing against the ground, Lucien rushed forward again. His swift movement made the heavy hammer miss its target again. With another successful hack, the steel golem moved very slowly like it was already rusty.
However, Lucien’s level-four sword could only leave some shallow cuts in the golem. With so many cuts, its knee joints were still able to move. For a few times, Lucien was almost hit by the dangerous, big hammer.
Still, at this time, Lucien felt a strong pulling force from the opposite direction, attracting the sword in his hand. Meanwhile, the golem was even not able to move forward an inch at all!
After around ten seconds, the low sound of metal cracking came from inside of the golem. The two red light spots dimmed. Then, the steel monster collapsed like a falling small hill.
It seemed that Sophia had finally come up with the idea that the spells creating a strong magnetic field worked best for beating the steel monster. So she cast her talent magic spell – the level-five spell, Magnetic Field Shock.
Lucien was glad that right now he was not in his teacher’s palace, the Lord of Storm, since most advanced steel golems produced by the Congress of Magic were still able to fight in a strong magnetic field for a few minutes, and during those few minutes, a steel golem was able to kill most middle-rank sorcerers and grand knights.
Gasping hard, Lucien felt very exhausted, yet he also felt very good after the great workout. Ever since he became a sorcerer, he hardly ever fought physically anymore. For a few times, he almost used magic.
From the fight, Lucien realized the importance of exercise again.
As usual, his brain was filled with many strange thoughts.
Seeing that Beaulac was gasping hard, Sophia approached him with her flushed face, “Sorry… I was too nervous. All the knowledge that I learned… did not come to me until later. Are you alright?”
“I’m okay. It’s your first time facing a real monster, and you did very well, Your Highness,” said Lucien, who felt that his power was recovering very fast when his blood was running fast. At the same time, he was wondering if the power of wind was equal to electromagnetic force in this world. This was because he was told that Princess Sophia had the blood power called the Angel of Wind, but her talent still allowed her to cast the spells that created strong magnetic fields.
According to what Lucien knew, the Congress of Magic had redefined the four elements. Many arcanists had agreed on the statement that the element of wind represented electromagnetic force, and the element of earth was created by gravity. However, there was no agreement on how the element of fire and water were related to the other fundamental forces.
“This was a cruel fight. It is so nice having you as my knight,” said Sophia gently.
“My pleasure.” Lucien pretended to be very excited.
Sophia nodded, “We take a short break and then move on.”
When she was casting the spells to check the corridors ahead, Lucien looked down and slightly shook his head. He believed that Sophia was testing him during the fight.
Unless she was scared out of her mind, or no one had taught Sophia how to stay focused, there was no way that the interval time between two of her spells was this long! Within a minute, Sophia had only used four spells. Even taking into consideration the time she needed for thinking, it was still too slow.
After a while, Lucien and Sophia set off again.
To avoid all the rooms filled with dangerous magic circles, they somehow arrived at another hall directly from the original one they were in.
In this hall, more than ten nobles were already gathering!
Relph and Claire were standing in two separate corners in the hall, and each of them had two to three young nobles on their side. In the opposite corner of the hall, Arthen and his helpers were ready for the fight.
In the middle of the hall, a few bodies were on the ground, with blood and flesh everywhere.
Their faces were written with fear. They were scared by the real death right in front of them.
From their numbers, Lucien guessed that probably most of the nobles had not found the correct way, or they had been scared out of their mind and were now trying to find a safe place to hide, like Duda. For those nobles who were there, they had already proved their competence. If they were still alive when they got out of this place, they would probably become the leaders of their generation.
“You! You changed the magic circles! Beaulac!” Seeing Lucien and Sophia, Arthen cried out loud, with his sword in his right hand and shield in left hand, and his voice was filled with strong hatred, “You want us all to die here!”
“Among us, only the princess is a caster, and she is able to change the magic circles. And she supports you!” shouted another young noble.
“Claire, Relph! We should kill Beaulac together first!” Another noble also yelled.
All of the young nobles were more than furious.
