Beyond the competition within the City of Baator, players had even expanded into other areas of the Great Anzetta Waste. Some players were already planning expeditions to the headquarters of the Cinder Nest, the most dangerous yet lucrative place in the eyes of adventurers—Dragon Valley.
Over these five years, a rudimentary road had been laid between Dragon Valley and the City of Baator. Dubbed the "Bumpy Road" by the goblins, it facilitated monster thralls heading out to provide reinforcements.
And right now, along this very Bumpy Road, a group of players was advancing.
They all hailed from Magic Coin, a spellcaster guild that would become illustrious in the future, though at this moment, it was merely an obscure little guild with barely twenty-odd members. The guild master was Charlotte, one of the few wizard players stubbornly sticking to the class.
In this game version where spell scrolls were unattainable, wizards—plagued by the infuriating mechanics of transcribing spellbooks—had been reduced to useless "spell-grandsons," while sorcerers carried the banner for arcane casters, hailed as the "true spell-lords."
Even within the Magic Coin guild, only a handful clung to the wizard class; most had already rerolled as sorcerers.
The five players who had arrived here were all guild elites who had reached Level 3.
"Guild Master, are you sure we can get spells here?" asked a female player with the ID Feitian Nüwu.
She was a Wild Magic Sorcerer. Although belonging to the sorcerer class, it was notorious as one of the subclasses most likely to sabotage teammates—a Wild Magic Sorcerer's innate magic stemmed from the chaotic, untamed forces lurking beneath the order of creation, and their spellcasting frequently unleashed wild magic surges.
Charlotte looked at the crude parchment map in his hands, pointing to a crooked skull icon as he said, "Right here: Tower of the Great Savant."
"I spent eight gold coins treating an ogre overseer until the tavern's entire stock was wiped out just to get this map. It shouldn't be wrong. They looked pretty simple and honest to me."
Standing beside him, Vice Guild Master Mingyue felt a bit uneasy. "But I heard those ogres talking after getting drunk—they said their boss is an ogre, too. Are you sure these hulking ogres... can actually be wizards?"
Charlotte recalled the unsightly spectacle of those ogres sprawling on the ground chugging ale while hollering "Meat! Meat! Meat!", and his lips twitched slightly.
"They... should be able to, right?"
He didn't have much confidence either. In coming to Dragon Valley, he was fully prepared to return empty-handed. In any case, pooling eight gold coins together was quite easy for the entire guild.
"At the very least, we have to try."
"To restore the glory of wizards is our bounden duty!"
Charlotte's gaze was resolute; he was the last hope of wizard players.
"Guild Master!"
Mingyue was deeply moved.
Magic Coin was a guild formed by wizard enthusiasts. Though most of them had now switched to sorcerers, deep down they still held faith in the spell-lords.
Soon, the party from Magic Coin spotted the silhouette of Bedrock Fortress in the distance.
"Holy crap, it's that huge?"
"This fortress was built pretty spectacularly."
Wyverns screeched across the sky, hobgoblins patrolled back and forth along the perimeter of the walls, and ferocious roars echoed from within the fortress—the armies of the Cinder Nest engaged in training drills.
After observing for a while, Charlotte concluded, "We probably can't enter this fortress from the front. The devs likely won't let us get spells that easily."
"I feel like they're discriminating against wizard players."
"Yeah, I think so too," Feitian Nüwu grumbled, gnashing her teeth.
Just then, Mingyue keenly noticed a massive boulder on the hillside not far outside the fortress. There seemed to be a passage behind it, so he pointed in that direction:
"Captain, we can hide over there and sneak in."
"Good idea," Charlotte praised.
And so, the five players from Magic Coin crept behind the colossal rock.
Little did they know, they were making the exact mistake every adventurer made. That boulder had already witnessed the deaths of countless adventurers, and they were about to become the next statistic.
*Click.*
The moment Mingyue stepped inside, he sensed something was wrong.
"Wait! Don't come over, whatever you do!"
The intricate, elaborate magic circle beneath his feet blazed to life instantly, unleashing a surging tide of mana. Flames reflected in Mingyue's eyes.
"Holy... crap."
*Boom!—*
Accompanied by the roar of flames incinerating the air, Mingyue was engulfed in the fiery explosion of a Glyph of Warding, turning into a charred corpse and giving up his precious first blood.
Although Charlotte hadn't stepped within range of the magic circle, his face was still blackened with soot.
"There's an ambush! Everyone be careful!"
"Mingyue is dead. We can't afford any more casualties."
He noticed that in addition to that Glyph of Warding, there was another spell set in the corner, though he couldn't tell what it did.
However, the hobgoblin guards atop Bedrock Fortress had already noticed the commotion. They approached with practiced ease, even chatting casually among themselves: "Another batch of stupid adventurers fell into the traps." "Guess how many there are?" "How many are gonna die this time?"
Watching the hobgoblin guards close in, Charlotte said to the group, "No good, we have to get out of here, or we'll get party-wiped."
"Everyone, take this passage! Can one of you cast Mage Armor on me? I don't have any means to protect myself right now," Charlotte commanded.
Feitian Nüwu quickly said, "Oh, okay."
"Mage Armor!"
An aura of mana flared around her hands as she reached out to touch Charlotte.
However, the surrounding magical forces suddenly destabilized, churning madly.
[Your spellcasting has unleashed an untamed wild magic surge, producing an unknown magical effect!]
*Poof!*
With a resounding pop, Charlotte was transformed into a docile, meek sheep by the spell randomly triggered by the Wild Magic Surge.
"Baaah—"
The sheep Charlotte had become bleated, and even through the bleat, one could hear the sheer despair in his heart.
"Ah, sorry! The surge triggered..."
Feitian Nüwu hurriedly bowed and apologized to the sheep, but seeing the guild master's adorable appearance, she couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"Forget it, let's retreat first."
"If we stay here any longer, our losses will be even worse," the teammate beside them reminded.
"Baaah—"
Charlotte let out an agreeable bleat of his own.
And so, Feitian Nüwu and the remaining two party members scrambled into the passage, intending to flee along it.
"Why is there more?!"
"What is this?"
Yet someone triggered a Web spell, getting pinned down by the sticky webs that shot out.
*Rumble—*
A gigantic boulder came barreling down from the end of the passage, ruthlessly crushing the trapped players.
"Baaah..."
Having turned into a sheep, Charlotte let out a bleat of utter despair.
*The devs are definitely targeting us! How heartless can they get? How the hell are there more traps?!*
He roared silently in his mind.
Chapter 78