Three faces exposed three shining smiles within the fog.
“Ah, you finally passed the first hurdle… But you are really too weak, you took so long to walk through the easiest maze…
“Whatever, this was just the appetizer, it was to give you a taste or you would have ended up being wiped out and that would have been boring.
“You see, I am reasonable and charitable, I’m letting you familiarize yourself with your opponents first.
“Now that you are already familiar with them, it is time to start the second stage. I call this stage the Fog Swamp. I hope you like it.
“Please don’t die, if you do, everything I prepared afterwards would be wasted…”
The three-faced monster let out a strange laugh as he disappeared within the fog.
Byron’s expression kept changing, he almost spurted out a mouthful of blood.
They had just exhausted their strength to force their way out of the maze, only to learn that it was just an “appetizer”?
This was only the first obstacle? They were facing the 2nd and there was a 3rd coming up?
“I’ll kill you! Damn b*stard, these are illusions, they are all illusions! You are just scared of me!”
Byron didn’t finish his shout when roars echoed in his surroundings.
Pairs of green eyes suddenly appeared within the dense fog like fireflies.
“Woosh, woosh, woosh…”
Numerous sharp sounds could be heard, as if sharp blades were slashing towards them. Countless Wind Blades formed a cyan wave that ruthlessly shot at them.
Byron used a Shadow Shield and released a dozen Shadow Arrays. A dozen popping sounds echoed as a dozen green eyes disappeared from the fog.
But there were a few hundred green eyes coldly staring at the group of mages.
As the fight started, the dense fog slightly dispersed and they could finally see what those green eyes were.
Long nine-headed green snakes were surrounding them. Wind Blades kept spurting out of their mouths as those heads shook.
Numerous cyan Wind Blades formed a cyan wave that fiercely flowed towards Byron.
Byron gritted his teeth and brandished his staff. He kept releasing Shadow Arrows, and those nine-headed green snakes’ heads were forcibly blown out.
Numerous Wind Blades fell onto their shields and created ripples. This rapidly consumed everyone’s mana.
After over half an hour, the surrounding nine-headed green snakes had completely disappeared as the last nine-headed green snake’s body burst open, transforming into a cyan tornado that faded away within the swamp.
It looked like nothing happened within the swamp and those few hundred monstrous nine-headed green snakes had never appeared.
The frantic Byron calmed his mana down.
“This is all an illusion, you can’t trick me! This is all fake, this isn’t real!”
The fierce mana consumption made Byron somewhat doubtful, why would his mana consumption be so high when those spells hit his Shadow Shield?
Those attacks were real, but if it wasn’t an illusion, then why did those monsters disappear after getting eliminated?
Moreover, he was carrying the Dark Night Cloak and possessed the Plane of Shadows Magic Conducting Rune. But even though his Shadow Stealth was comparable to an Ultimate Spell and could merge with the shadow of a Planar Path, it was useless in this place.
This wasn’t possible, the only explanation was that this place had no shadows and everything he saw was an illusion. Only when there existed no shadow could he be unable to merge with them.
Byron was already going crazy. He had a lot of confidence in his own Shadow Stealth, and as the Planar Infiltrator, he had every reason to believe that everything before his eyes was an illusion.
Byron bit his lips and walked towards the depths of the swamp with large strides without meeting any danger.
After he walked ten meters, the mages behind Byron seemed to suddenly wake up from a dream and hurriedly followed him.
As the group of mage walked through the swamp, the mage in the back suddenly disappeared within the swamp’s water.
A big-mouthed monster covered in mud had peeked his head out of the water and swallowed that mage in one mouthful.
Within the dense fog, the three-faced monster’s mocking voice echoed once again.
“Truly idiots. I kindly let you understand your opponents beforehand, how could you forget so fast?
“Idiots must die, they would just be burdens if they kept living. Take a look, don’t you remember now?
“Don’t disappoint me, your opponents are here. Don’t die… There won’t be any fun left if you all die…”
The three-faced monster slowly hid back into the dense fog and disappeared. Byron could only stare blankly, not daring to chase.
The group of mages cautiously summoned Shadow Servants to follow behind them in order to not be caught by a sudden sneak attack.
After some effort, they managed to leave the swamp, but two mages still fell.
The next stage was a world of ice and snow. The mages were exhausted and covered in mud. They hadn’t dared to use Mana Shield casually in the swamp as the mana consumption was too great.
“This is definitely an illusion, don’t be afraid. A swamp and a world of ice and snow, how could there be such opposing environments next to each other. This is definitely an illusion! They can’t trick us with that! Let’s keep going forward!”
Byron gritted his teeth as he kept encouraging his subordinates. They kept moving forward after entering this world of ice and snow and would encounter a slow ice monster from time to time. Ice monsters could spurt out a large area of effect ice spells. In numerous quantities, they would transform the surrounding snow into hailstorms.
They kept pushing their way forward and lost two more mages.
After passing through the world of ice and snow, they ended up in a land of fire and flowing lava. Those big-mouthed monsters with heads half as big as their bodies appeared in large numbers. The group of mages could only forcibly resist their spraying flames while making sure that they killed monsters fast enough.
Otherwise, the number of big-mouthed fire monsters would just keep increasing. Moreover, cracks would occasionally appear under their feet and spurt out scalding lava like a fountain and form lava ponds.
Even the seemingly burnt black land would suddenly collapse when stepped on. It was just like a thin layer of ice on the surface of water. Under the burnt black ground was scalding lava.
They couldn’t fly out as many spells were restricted. Anyone that fell into the lava could no longer be found, and their bones disappeared.
After experiencing some hardships, they finally went through all kinds of terrible environments and met all kinds of monsters before they reached a red palace.
At the top of the palace was a Purple Dragon’s statue overlooking the front of the palace with dignity while holding a wheel in its embrace.
Fifty mages wearing dark red robes were standing in front of the palace, expressionless. That three-faced monster floated in the air with a mocking smile.
“Truly not easy, eh? You wastes. You actually spent that much time reaching this place? This was the simplest test…
“You made me wait that long even though it was a simple obstacle? And so many of you are missing… You were truly a group of foolish trashes…
“I thought I could have a bit of fun, but I really didn’t expect good-for-nothings…
“Forget it, forget it, I had more than enough fun. Kurumu, they are yours now.”
Byron looked at the palace before them and sneered at those expressionless mages.
“Hmpf, another illusion? Those stupid monsters are gone so you created some puppet-like mages?
“I’ve already seen through your tricks, Mafa Merlin, don’t waste your time!”
Byron raised his staff and led his subordinate to charge towards the mage army while continuously casting Shadow Arrows to pressure them.
‘It’s just another group of created monsters, only their appearance changed. I’ve already seen through everything, this is an illusion, everything is an illusion!
‘After we kill those monsters, they would turn into the most basic elements and dissipate without leaving a corpse behind. Such simple elemental lifeforms don’t have the most basic instincts.
‘How could we not have losses when combining those nasty environments with the continuous ambush of those monsters.
‘Now, this is just a group of fifty Archmages with the strongest being a 3rd Rank Archmage, and most of them are still at the 1st Rank.
‘How could an inferior force like this stop us?
‘I’m a 9th Rank Archmage, and the weakest ones of our group are at least at the 7th Rank. Ten of us versus fifty Low Rank Archmages… Those previous monsters would have been better.
‘Mafa Merlin may be rumored to be somewhat strong, with a burst power comparable to a Heaven Rank powerhouse, but his subordinates are weaklings.
‘Andlusan country bumpkins, it’s already their luck to have a powerful mage, they are a small Family after all…’
Byron cast Shadow Arrows with confidence. Their previous losses had been due to ambushes, but now, there was a battle formation waiting for him, he was confident that he could get rid of them within a minute.
Both Byron and the mages felt that everything had been an illusion, they were confident that they could get rid of that group of statue-like mages waiting for them.
The mage standing at the forefront raised his staff, and at that moment, the fifty mages made the exact same movement as if they were one.
