A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 61 Nightmare Island

It is only polite to reciprocate. Jiang Shuzhou had taken more than a dozen bullets from the other side, and he couldn't let it go unpunished. Besides, he had just run out of bullets for his pistol.

"Bang bang bang!"

After emptying the magazine again, Jiang Shuzhou cast Mage's Hand to assist with reloading while heading directly towards the enemy's cover.

"Holy crap! Why is a mage so hard?"

The musketeers cowered in their bunkers. Jiang Shuzhou could take a dozen bullets with his face, but he couldn't. He regretted choosing to be a musketeer as a profession.

The dog was hiding with him in the cover. The musketeer had originally planned to have the dog harass the enemy before he fired. He thought that if the mage was hit by a few shots, he would be seriously injured, if not killed.

In reality, even if he hadn't encountered Jiang Shuzhou, even if it were an ordinary mage, such an encounter would only cause some trouble; serious injury would be impossible.

Mages have mage armor, so they are almost invincible until their mana is depleted, except when ambushed.

"Woof woof!"

The dog was barking wildly, but the musketeer didn't let it fight Jiang Shuzhou, because he knew that death was certain once it left the cover.

Moreover, he hasn't fallen into a desperate situation of isolation and helplessness; he still has teammates!

The black bear transformed from a druid has thick fur, so its defensive capabilities should not be underestimated. It will surely give the opposing mage a surprise!

Then he peeked over and the joy on his face vanished instantly.

In his line of sight, he only saw a beam of cold light.

With a swish, the musketeer's head fell to the ground, and at that moment, he had only one thought in his mind.

Where are my teammates? Where are my teammates? Help me, teammates!

Points +1

"Woof woof woof!"

The dog barked hostilely and charged forward, trying to avenge its owner, but to no avail.

"Bang!"

With one shot, Gouzi, who had been charging towards Jiang Shuzhou, was knocked to the ground. Due to inertia, he rolled several times before gradually losing consciousness.

As for their beloved teammates?

They're still fighting a bloody battle with the demons.

Fortunately, his teammates didn't betray them; he was just insane.

One glance at the thimble revealed that it was from drinking abyssal pus.

"Hopefully, the mental impact of the game can be eliminated, otherwise this person will probably be gone in real life too."

This is also what Jiang Shuzhou fears most. Not to mention that the match would be over once he loses his mind, what's even more terrifying is the unknown. He doesn't know if the organizers can completely eliminate the influence of the abyss.

"roar!"

The black bear roared and charged at the demon again, its mouth full of the demon's flesh and blood, which then turned into water, making it look utterly disgusting.

If you look closely, you can see that the black bear's eyes are blood red, its face is somewhat ferocious, and it is full of aggression.

His teeth became longer and sharper than usual, and sharp claws grew on his paws—all signs of corruption by the abyss.

"We can't wait any longer; a druid who has been completely corrupted is not easy to deal with."

Although this guy will most likely find a place to fight to the death, Jiang Shuzhou is going to get points, so he naturally can't let the opportunity slip by.

The saying goes, "Strike while the iron is hot." Now is the time when the druid is at his weakest. Once he has fully mutated, things will get complicated.

Thinking of this, Jiang Shuzhou decided to stop holding back. As the saying goes, a large body is weak and a lot of hair is weak and fire is weak. He figured that a fireball spell would give this druid a different kind of surprise.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, the black bear's fur began to burn, but it seemed oblivious, still opening its blood-red maw to tear at the demon before it.

They've really gone mad, just like demons, they don't even have the instinct to survive.

Seeing the burning black bear ignoring the flames on its body, Jiang Shuzhou didn't do anything, just kept throwing oil at the bear with his oil bomb technique.

The flames burned for a long time.

"Thump."

Finally, after a loud bang, the huge black bear finally collapsed. Even in its dying moments, it continued to roar wildly, as if filled with endless regret and anger.

Points +1

The squad was wiped out. To be fair, the squad was quite strong, but they made a fatal mistake.

It was precisely because of their lack of understanding of demons that their greatest fighting force was corrupted by demons, ultimately leading to their total annihilation.

This is the consequence of not studying.

After quickly clearing out the remaining demons, Jiang Shuzhou selected his talent again, and this time the talent was quite good.

"Strengthen Body: Increases maximum health by 20%"

This talent effectively compensates for Jiang Shuzhou's weakness of having relatively low health.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A soldier fell; he was the last survivor in the unit.

Points +1

The man in the robe put away the gun that was still emitting wisps of smoke.

After killing the druid, Jiang Shuzhou continued to uphold his belief in being the sixth member of the gang, and found another place to ambush people, killing two teams in succession.

The fighting strength of these two teams is no match for Jiang Shuzhou's; it was a one-sided massacre.

Due to the popularity of the Musketeer, almost every team in this competition has a Musketeer. However, the Musketeer is countered by heavily armored targets, and Jiang Shuzhou happens to be a heavily armored target due to his talent.

So he had no trouble along the way, and his enemies were all weaklings who he could easily kick to death.

Points +20

The competition is over, and Jiang Shuzhou has won first place.

Jiang Shuzhou, who was originally planning to find a few more teams to get points, was still a little unsatisfied. He suspected that there were not many teams that were eliminated by the contestants. Given the strength of the demons, he estimated that the casualties were half from combat and half from non-combat, since there really were druids who dared to drink the abyssal pus.

In any case, the game is over.

There will be another match tomorrow, so this is a rest period.

During his break, Jiang Shuzhou opened the website again. Today's matches were over, and he now needed to search for intelligence.

Others may not stream, but professional players from clubs and even many streamers will definitely stream their matches, all for the sake of traffic, or rather, monetizing that traffic.

After some searching, Jiang Shuzhou quickly obtained the information he wanted.

"A shield of steel forged from faith! An indestructible paladin!"

"Unstoppable! The Dynasty is tearing the game apart!"

"..."

There are many more video titles like these, clearly indicating that the club's online trolls are behind it.

But that suits me just fine, Jiang Shuzhou thought.

He needs some player combat videos to gather intelligence so he can deal with them more effectively when he encounters them.

The captain of the dynasty is called "Attitude," and he is also the paladin of the guardian god.

"Quickly, Shi Sen, we need to get to the mission point quickly to obtain the talent."

The attitude in the video directed the team members to quickly head to the mission location. Like Jiang Shuzhou, they were also born on Nightmare Island, or rather, all the participants in today's competition were playing on the same map.

"receive."

A soldier-dressed member answered.

"I suggest we set up a perimeter."

A mage dressed in a mage's robe said.

Could it be that, besides me, there are other mages among the players who have reached Tier 1?

Talented people are indeed as numerous as carp crossing a river; it seems I underestimated them.

Jiang Shuzhou was initially somewhat moved, but the next sentence shattered his thoughts.

"No rush. Everyone is taking the first Blessing right now. Don't waste your precious spell slots."

So this is a magic-wielding mage? I was wondering how he could coexist peacefully with the paladins and mages of the God of Protection. I thought he wasn't brainwashed enough, but it turns out they're all just lackeys of the gods.

As for the Magic Net Mage, was it the predecessor of the current Mage?

Sorry, it has already been cut.

Looking further, it displayed absolute defense, with its heavy armor and the massive two-meter-tall shield it carried demonstrating unparalleled defensive capabilities.

As expected, it's this set of equipment. Under normal circumstances, even a paladin would find it difficult to run around in heavy armor at the first tier, let alone with a two-meter-tall shield added on top of that.

In other words, the paladins who are protectors of the gods possess a special ability to reduce the weight of heavy armor due to the god they worship. Combined with their own strength, this allows them to carry a large shield and run around freely.

However, the attitude is a bit too extreme. The shield must be held with both hands to block damage. When it is held with one hand, you can only move around at most, and it is still difficult to block damage.

"Is this just defense without offense? Are they leaving all the offensive tasks to others?"

Watching the video of the paladin erecting a large shield and then unleashing divine magic to taunt the demon, Jiang Shuzhou made a guess.

As Jiang Shuzhou had guessed, the demons were indeed attacking the paladin relentlessly, but the paladin remained unmoved, like a rock being battered by waves, completely ignoring the demons' attacks.

Thus, amidst the infighting among the demons and the external attacks from the imperial forces, the demon army was quickly wiped out, and the army completed its mission and prepared to obtain the blessing.

"Mike, go and get the blessing."

"It's mac10, you mispronounced it."

"I don't care about this or that, just recite it like this, hurry up and go get the blessing."

Upon hearing this, the magician mac10 had no choice but to obediently accept the blessing.