On the battlefield, Rand brought his sword down on an orc with a single strike, but failed to reduce its numbers.
The orc stood back up, let out a roar, raised its shield, and charged again. Fear showed in its eyes, yet there was no hesitation.
Abrupt footsteps rang out. With a glance from the corner of his eye, Rand saw two figures hurrying in from the rear.
His eyes lit up as he shouted, "Reinforcements are here—everyone, hold on!"
This was a tactic. He did not believe the two could play a major role; he was simply using it to boost morale.
The human side was indeed invigorated, even though most people had no time to pay attention to how many reinforcements had arrived.
...
At the outer edge of the battlefield.
Anser slowed his pace. The battlefield was chaotic, unfavorable for a spellcaster to enter directly.
Seeing the low slopes on both sides, an idea struck him. He adjusted his direction, took a running start, leapt up, and began climbing.
The slope was not steep. After a few moves, he climbed six or seven meters, found a place to stand, straightened up, and looked down. Just over twenty meters ahead lay the battlefield, fully within view.
"Perfect!" Anser rejoiced.
At that moment, Bratt had just entered the battlefield. He looked back over his shoulder and only relaxed after spotting the figure on the slope to the side.
Anser nodded to him, then cast Mold Earth, creating a thin wall nearly one meter high in front of himself.
These actions looked like a waste of time, but in truth he was "creating advantage."
From a higher position, he gained an accuracy advantage, and his spells would not be blocked by the crowd or obstacles. The wall served as cover, making him harder to hit—simple and practical.
His gaze swept across the battlefield, locking onto a goblin wielding a bow.
"Sorcery Burst (Fire)!"
In less than half a second, a mass of sorcerous energy blasted out from the tip of his staff, flashing over everyone's heads and slamming into the goblin's chest.
The goblin was struck as if by two heavy hammers, crashing hard to the ground. Its chest caved in, blood poured from its facial features, and after a few spasms, it lay still.
[You cast Sorcery Burst on the goblin… The goblin is hit, taking 13 (8+5) fire damage. Critical hit. Target killed. You gain 50 experience points. Level up…]
Level Up!
This time, luck was on his side. A chain burst was triggered, and the goblin—having only 7 Hit Point—was instantly killed.
On the battlefield ahead, Rand saw the scene and felt a surge of delight.
Spellcasters were not rare, but under conditions where the Weave was in turmoil, a spellcaster who could still cast spells efficiently and accurately was exceedingly uncommon. Even casting his Holy Slash felt strenuous, let alone for low-level professionals.
Anser paid no attention to that. He crouched down and immediately summoned his character sheet.
After leveling up, a professional could choose to increase the level of their original class or multiclass into another—one focused on specialization, the other on broad versatility.
Anser decisively chose to increase his Sorcerer level.
[Level Up: Sorcerer Level 2! You gain two new class features, and you can learn new spells.]
With no time to review his class features, he quickly locked onto a new spell: Magic Missile.
Magic Missile creates three shining darts formed from a magical force field. Each dart deals 1d4 (1–4) + 1 force damage to the target. The base casting range is 120 feet. The force tracks its target and never misses.
For low-level spellcasters, the most awkward problem when facing stronger opponents is this: they cannot hit.
High-level professionals have high attributes, many features, and many skills. They can dodge and run; no matter how strong a spell is, if it cannot hit, it is useless.
Magic Missile perfectly solves this problem.
Anser stood up. A faint glimmer of magic power flickered in his eyes as every sensation related to Magic Missile surged through his mind.
Several seconds passed. He locked his target onto Bratt's opponent.
It was a bugbear, half a head taller than Bratt. Its strength was inferior to Bratt's, but clad in beast-hide armor and wielding a shield and a morningstar, it was pressing Bratt hard.
"Magic Missile!"
Three shining darts flew out almost simultaneously, each tracing a bizarre, unpredictable arc through the air as they whistled toward the bugbear.
The bugbear was caught off guard. It barely managed to raise its shield, but it was too late. The darts struck its head, chest, and arm in succession, bursting into sprays of blood.
[You successfully cast the 1st-level spell Magic Missile. You gain greater understanding of innate magic and obtain 1 class experience…]
[You cast Magic Missile on the bugbear… The bugbear is hit, taking 12 force damage. Current Hit Point: 9/27…]
"Only 1 experience point for casting?" Anser was speechless.
On the battlefield, Bratt froze for a moment, then reacted at once. He stepped in with a thrust, his longsword piercing up under the unbalanced bugbear's armpit and straight into its heart.
[Target killed. You gain 31 experience points…]
The human side's morale surged. These armored bugbears were a major problem; removing even one eased the pressure considerably.
At the rear of the battlefield, the Duergar shouted orders. Several orcs and goblins tried to rush forward to kill Anser, but Bratt and the human side blocked them firmly.
"Watch out—" Rand shouted, twisting his head around.
Anser looked up and saw a point of black light rapidly expanding before his eyes. His scalp tightened. He dropped into a crouch, hiding his entire body behind the low wall.
Whoosh—
A javelin screamed past, half a foot above the wall. His heart pounded wildly.
"Damn!"
He immediately leaned out from the side to look back toward the battlefield.
A tall, powerfully built hobgoblin with red skin, pointed ears, and half-plate armor had already set his stance, preparing to throw a second time.
Suddenly, an arrow shot in from the upper slope. The hobgoblin hurriedly tried to dodge, but it still struck his arm.
Anser looked up. At some point, a human archer had appeared on the slope, bow drawn and arrow nocked.
Enraged, the hobgoblin shifted his target to the nearer archer.
"Good opportunity."
Anser sprang upright, his focus locking onto the hobgoblin.
"Magic Missile!"
Three shining darts streaked across the battlefield with a skin-prickling wail, far faster than a javelin.
The hobgoblin rolled to evade. The darts' trajectories shifted slightly and arrived in an instant, slamming in succession into his backside as it was exposed during the roll.
"Aaagh—"
The piercing howl made fighters on both sides instinctively clench.
[You cast Magic Missile on the hobgoblin officer… The hobgoblin officer is hit, taking 20 (critical) force damage. Current Hit Point: 35/58…]
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—three arrows followed close behind.
The hobgoblin officer rolled on the ground by instinct. The arrows were deflected by his plate armor; only his leg was hit, sending up a spray of blood.
"Magic Missile!"
As the resounding Dragon Tongue rang out across the battlefield, Magic Missile had already descended.
Knowing he could not dodge, the hobgoblin raised both arms and took the darts head-on.
Boom, boom, boom—
[…The hobgoblin officer is hit, taking 7 force damage. Current Hit Point: 24/58…]
"Pretty tough." Anser breathed lightly, steadying his turbulent magic power.
If he were an ordinary Sorcerer, he would have already exhausted his spell slots or fallen into fatigue, completely unable to deal with the opponent. Fighting across a two-level gap was extremely difficult.
Fortunately, he was not ordinary. After leveling up, he had 11 points of magic power, more than enough to blast the opponent to death.
At that moment, Rand finished off his own opponent, took a few strides to the hobgoblin officer's front, knocked aside the defense with one sword strike, then took his head with a second.
[Target killed. You gain 190 experience points…]
"So much experience." Anser was delighted.
Unfortunately, the kill was not his. He realized that if he did not land the killing blow himself, the experience gained would be much less. Still, as long as he personally participated in the fight, he could obtain experience.
With the threat eliminated, he held his staff in one hand and stood facing the wind, transforming into a ruthless spellcasting machine. One spell after another was hurled out—accurate and fast.
"Sorcery Burst."
"… "
With limited magic power, he tried to rely on cantrips, focusing on rear-line shooters or unarmored goblin grunts, occasionally helping Bratt ease the pressure.
Cantrips had no lock-on, and moving targets were hard to hit. It was not suitable to directly intervene in close combat; in the chaos of battle, hitting an ally would be disastrous for morale.
Boom—
One goblin grunt was unlucky enough to trigger a chain burst. Its facial features were smashed in as it collapsed stiffly to the ground.
[…Target killed. You gain 37 experience points…]
By this point, at least six or seven goblins had died directly or indirectly at his hands.
Such an opportunity was truly rare. Wave after wave of experience gains felt as exhilarating as downing an ice-cold drink on a forty-degree day—so satisfying that it was hard to stop.
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