Abe the Wizard

“Ja ja!” Wizard Malon sent off his unique laughter over to Abel’s side. Abel was very shocked to see how in awe Wizard Malon was towards him.

Wizard Malon laughed out loudly, “I knew you had a secret, Wizard Abel. You’ve rushed your ranks to become an advanced wizard without any pushback. It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to do that, especially when they’re in a piss-poor place like the Holy Continent!”

From his sense, he could feel that the mana around him was like droplets of water. For all his understanding of the world, he was astonished to see the amount of potential floating around Abel’s body. Abel was just too talented of a man. Even if he were born with absolutely no intelligence whatsoever, all it took would be a little time for him to become capable of achieving great things—legendary feats, at that. If Abel continued to train here, perhaps he could keep pushing his limit until he became a mystical being.

This was all very exciting for Wizard Malon. The frantic joy in his mind could not be expressed by the rigid, almost non-existent muscles on his face, but he could still express himself somewhat with his large, scary eyes and his voice. As for Abel, he thought that this was the worst possible situation he could be in. This was the first time he’s ever been stuck inside the dark world with a law-defying wizard throughout his whole life.

Abel tried to sound natural despite the antagonism he was sensing, “I hereby declare you to be an enemy to the whole world!”

As soon as he said that, the mana throughout the entire Rogue’s Encampment started rejecting Wizard Malon’s existence. It was like the dimensional force here was actively treating Wizard Malon as the enemy.

Wizard Malon threw a taunting look at Abel, “So you are a god in this world, eh? That’s very funny of you, Wizard Abel. Did you not know that wizards got their powers from killing off gods in the first place?”

No, Wizard Malon was not too affected at all. Heaven and the earth were resisting him, but Abel as a god of this world was too inexperienced to do any real harm. At his current level, it was completely impossible to subdue Wizard Malon where he was at.

Wizard Malon continued to laugh as he took out an intermediate gemstone from his portal bag, “I can’t use the mana of this world yet, but as long as I have the magic gemstone, I can cast an endless amount of spells. Hear me out, Wizard Abel! Today is the day I kill you, a god of this world, and rob you of it!”

Abel didn’t respond to that. He noticed something that he thought was crucial, and that was that while Wizard Malon was in the midst of being resisted by this world that contained them, the restraint over the wizard crystal body just wasn’t there anymore. With that, he got the best result he wanted. It was enough to teleport him right outside of the Rogue’s Encampment.

Wizard Malon laughed and followed Abel out of the Rogue’s Encampment, “You can’t run, Wizard Abel! Hurry! Give up everything! Surrender this world to me! Hand over your status of divinity!”

As soon as Abel fell on the ground, he summoned Johnson, Jason, Flying Flame, and White Snow. Simultaneously, eight spiritual guardian knights and eight spiritual guardian wizards were called out to fight alongside him. He also got the five undead crows and the poison ivy out since there was no backing out whatsoever on this one. He was facing a law-defying wizard, the most terrible being of all. He needed all the respect that he could muster to face this opponent of a lifetime.

Wizard Malon seemed quite perplexed, “Lemme see, three summon creatures with two of them being stone giants. The spirits seem to be almost too giving of you, aren’t they? The young dragon there, wait… aren’t you afraid that the dragons, those crazy things would knock on your door? And what’s this? Spirit wolves and skeletons? That’s what I sensed, at least… Was it your perfected summoning spells that did this?”

Without really showing it to Abel, Wizard Malon was actually pretty scared the more he counted. Since the power of the rule was interfering with his own power, the condition was not enough for him to cast the remaining of his spells. For now, what was left for him was his strength of being a rank twenty wizard. Also, since the mana floating around was literally repelled off him, the only mana source he could channel energy from was through his own magic gemstones. That being said, he still had some advantages. He was a law-defying wizard, and one spell he could cast, if he got the chance to cast them, it’d usually be several stronger than any rank twenty wizard. He just needed one chance, one opening if he wanted to turn this situation around.

As though he was a scholar doing research, Wizard Malon started asking questions, “I’ve got to ask, Wizard Abel, how do you retain your individuality when you’ve mastered abilities from so many classes? There’s a wizard, priest, and druid. It must be hard to separate the effects of the different powers, so I was wondering if you can tell me about it.”

He didn’t rush to make his move. For now, he was more interested in making the most by learning as much as he could from Abel. The part he was more interested in finding out was about how Abel could hone both the power of his mana and the death qi at the same time. While wizards got their powers from transferring mana, priests got theirs from transferring death qi, and death qi was a very erosive element that could, very literally, melt a person’s body when in contact.

So why was Abel not reduced to just his skin and bones? That’s pretty much the question Wizard Malon wanted to be answered before he ends Abel’s life right here.

Abel produced an “aging” curse rune in his hand, “Only one of us gets to be alive today, Wizard Malon! I’ll show you why I got to master so many occupations? Wait and see, then!”

After saying that, the lightning long spear in Johnson’s hand, the white flame inside Flying Flame’s mouth, and the ice frost that White Snow was spitting out all rushed over towards Wizard Malon. Wizard Malon seemed to be the faster gun, however. He prepared an “instantaneous movement” spell in advance, and before Abel noticed, he moved to his side and cast a “frost newborn star” in front of him.

Abel was prepared to block the attack, despite having slower reflexes and whatnot. He teleported himself away from the frost newborn star, but his “aging” curse rune remained at his original position. Wizard Malon didn’t see it coming. No, he didn’t even think that Abel could cast curses, so the rain of curse hit right onto him in time. This would’ve never happened if he was doing this if he was using something other than his magic gemstones, which took too much time for him to transfer the energy from.

The “frost newborn star” exploded quickly, but it wasn’t like the eight spiritual guardian knights, and the eight spiritual guardian wizards were too slow, either. They flashed themselves away before the attack hit them, so only five undead crows were hit by the ice rings before they could get away. But, as the name suggested, they were undead creatures. As they turned into ice cubes, they fell on the ground, had their bodies crashed into pieces, but that didn’t stop them from flying again after shaking off the feathers on their bodies.

Meanwhile, the spiritual guardian knights already got their Harry bows ready for long-distance attack. However, they were not meant for dealing actual damage but just for stalling Wizard Malon’s movements. Wizard Malon already became quite slower after being hit by the “aging” curse, but he took out an “instantaneous movement” scroll immediately from his portal bag with very little time. He didn’t hesitate to use it since the level three curse Abel put on him was simply too weak to work at all.

While he was at it, Wizard Malon cast a “frozen armor” right on himself. After that, he teleported away with another ‘Instantaneous movement’ and rushed right after Abel. Johnson and Flying Flame were fast enough to react to that. They quickly turned and became streaks of lightning that chased after Wizard Malon.

“Dammit!” a look of disdain appeared on Wizard Malon’s face. Once again, he unleashed another “frost newborn star,” and the ice ring inside of him exploded towards his front. Johnson stopped his movements as a large pile of ice frosts appeared on itself. The damage Wizard Malon wanted to inflict, however, didn’t happen.

Wizard Malon called out loudly, “A lunatic! You’re a lunatic, Abel! This is all mystic steel? You would use all of this on a stone giant?”

He could go on for days to rant about how much Abel was wasting, but he didn’t really have the energy for that. Mystic steel was enough to trade for large amounts of resources. Enough for a rank sixteen wizard to promote himself to twenty, actually. It’s insane to think that all this fortune would be used as armor for a mere stone giant.

Very quickly, Flying Flame spat a white flame towards Wizard Malon, and Wizard Malon responded by teleporting himself away. Abel watched everything from a distance. By this point, his world stone fragment was just about enough to make a clear analysis of Wizard Malon’s true strength. Right now, the handicap on Wizard Malon had already reduced him to having less power than Wizard Hog. He never really had the opportunity to show Abel what a law-defying wizard was capable of. If he had, any one of his freezing element spells would’ve killed any one of Abel’s summon creatures, even for Johnson on max defense.

As good as things were for Abel, he was still in a precarious position here. The world stone fragment could only do so much to resist Wizard Malon. It’s not like it could hold on for very long, either. If the energy inside it was to be completely drained, Wizard Malon could’ve had Abel frozen at the spot within a blink of an eye.

“Charge with all you’ve got!” Abel shouted, meanwhile doing a wave with his arm. At the same time, three hundred of his small-sized war puppets appeared behind him under the battle command spirit’s order. Right now, the only one he didn’t call out was Doff, and Doff was for a melee attack. He didn’t think that it would do much to Wizard Malon, but he figured that he might as well get it out right here.

“Beamon, giant beast!” Wizard Malon screamed in astonishment. This was a divine beast among the orcs. He knew that he had to get away as far as possible. He moved away with another one of his “instantaneous movements,” As soon as he did that, he saw a lightning streak that came very close to him. The spiritual guardian wizards were not moving before, but they suddenly attacked him with the “lightning chain” spells.

Just like that, eight streaks of the lightning chain hit Wizard Malon right on. Wizard Malon felt a great zap that immobilized him completely for a moment. Followed by that, Johnson rushed out and slammed at him with the lightning long spear in his hand. The green, lightning arc energy on the spear possessed a fatal yet beautiful essence piercing through the air as it was waved towards its target.

Boom.

The spear sent Wizard Malon’s body flying. When his body was hit to the ground, it slipped for several tens of meters before it stopped moving. Abel had all the physics involved calculated in advance. Inside this Rogues’ Encampment, his frightening calculating power got him figuring out everything there was about how to make the perfect strikes at his opponent.

Another heavy slam from Johnson. It was enough to flatten a block of steel, so there wasn’t really any problem with hitting an old wizard’s body. However, the truth was often more surprising than one would’ve foreseen. Even after sliding on the ground for another hundred meters, Wizard Malon managed to stand up like he was unhurt at all. The only thing that was scraped was his grey robe, from the looks of it. It became pieces of shattered cloth that were hung on his body. The body that was hidden underneath the robe was starting to show.

It was not a human’s body, no, but a body of a puppet with all sorts of strange runes drawn over it. Even as a grandmaster blacksmith, Abel had no way of deciphering the sort of materials used to make these puppets. The most he could tell was that these were from the Ancient Ruins.

Without holding anything back, Wizard Malon threw away the rest of his robe and revealed his artificial body. Johnson’s attack didn’t even leave a mark on it, as it seemed.

Wizard Malon laughed as he shook his body pridefully, “You found it out! That’s a shame. I thought I had more time to play.”

Abel didn’t know what else to ask, “So are you still a human?”

Wizard Malon laughed like a madman, “Of course! It’s not possible to kill me here, though. It took me five centuries to merge myself with this piece of work I got from the Ancient Ruins. It has become me now, and I am also it. Nothing can kill a being that’s alive in the way that I am!”

Abel’s heart sank when he realized that the world stone fragment had not so much energy to spare. Wizard Malon’s body was still standing very firm, but Johnson literally just went all out with its physical attack and the lightning attack. If that couldn’t do anything in the least, just what could?

Wizard Malon wasn’t shutting up, “Only the rules can kill me! Do you understand, Wizard Abel? Your divine powers are too weak! How weak, you ask? I can be standing here all day without doing anything else, and you won’t do a thing to me!”

At this very moment, Abel could feel the last traces of his world stone fragment’s energy disappearing. Wizard Malon would come back soon, and he would show what being a law-defying wizard really meant.