Courting Death

Ding~ Congratulations on killing the beginner-level magical creature Death Spirit Bird. You gained 60 experience points.

Ding~ Congratulations on killing the beginner-level magical creature Death Spirit Bird. You gained 60 experience points.

About ten minutes after the explosion ended, two more Strange Birds called Death Spirit Birds turned into experience points one after another. They must have been caught in the blast and failed to die immediately, only to finally succumb in the end.

Mo Shuying felt that they might as well have been blown to death right away. At least that would have been quick. Dying several minutes later after enduring all that pain was far more agonizing.

Another ten minutes passed. Only after the blast zone had completely quieted down did Mo Shuying emerge.

At that moment, a massive pit dozens of meters wide centered on the intersection was still smoking. Nearby buildings had collapsed, and three fire hydrants had been blown open, spraying cold water everywhere.

Perhaps thanks to those hydrants, the violent explosion had not caused a fire. If one had broken out, Mo Shuying would have had quite a headache.

He carefully approached the blast zone. Blink had finished cooling down, so he could Blink away at any time. Two Death Spirit Birds were still alive, and their auras were both within the pit. Though weak, they had not completely died. He had no idea how they had survived.

As he drew closer, Mo Shuying saw two mangled Strange Birds. They were clearly at death's door, at the end of their strength. Even if Mo Shuying ignored them, they would not last much longer. But as the little king of finishing blows, how could he possibly refrain from finishing off prey already at his doorstep?

Mo Shuying deactivated Presence Concealment. The two Strange Birds below turned their heads to "look" at him. Their eyes had actually been destroyed in the explosion; they had merely sensed his presence.

"Caw."

The two Strange Birds cried feebly. Mo Shuying slowly slid down the side of the pit and took out his revolver, intending to give them a quick end. But after thinking it over, he put the gun away again.

"Siphoning Strike."

Mo Shuying stepped forward and punched one Strange Bird in the head with a fist glowing purple-green.

"Caw!"

The Strange Bird, already at the end of its strength, lost its last shred of life to that punch. Its head caved in, and it died on the spot.

After killing the Strange Bird, Mo Shuying felt a thread of purple light fly out from its body and merge into his own. In an instant, he sensed that Siphoning Strike had grown slightly stronger.

It was an incredibly tiny increase, but it was real.

Mo Shuying waited five seconds, then repeated the process, taking out the other one with a single punch. Siphoning Strike was strengthened once more.

Yet after eliminating all the Strange Birds, Mo Shuying did not receive a completion notification for Daily Quest One: Eliminate Magical Creatures.

That meant one thing: more magical creatures would appear today.

After one Singularity had been destroyed, magical creature invasions from the other six Singularities had intensified. It was not just the creatures' strength that had increased—their numbers and frequency had increased as well.

"Looks like I'll be busy today."

With some guesses in mind, Mo Shuying clenched his fists. Magical creatures could appear at any time from now on, and that uncertainty made him rather unhappy.

But being unhappy would not solve anything. This was not something he could control. All he could do was find a place to train and try to complete his daily exercise quest before the magical creatures arrived.

Soon, night fell.

In the real Fuyuki City, three figures appeared atop an abandoned steel building.

The man in the lead was the middle-aged magus who could transform.

As they looked at the pitch-black building, one of them spoke.

"Captain, I can sense a powerful source of magical energy here. It should be related to the disturbance in the ley lines."

The speaker was bald, with strange runes tattooed across his head.

"Mm. It is indeed a terrifying power. But this is our mission. Get ready—we're going down to take a look."

The middle-aged magus spoke coldly, his tone allowing no room for argument.

The other person was a short-haired woman with a sinister gaze. She held a black-covered book in her hand. After hearing the middle-aged magus, she spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Captain, there's still no word from Charles or Hawk. The magical energy in this place is dark and violent. With only the three of us, it could be dangerous. Should we wait a little longer?"

The short-haired woman actually had a question in her heart. Her two teammates, Charles and Hawk, had vanished far too strangely. Although there was not a single clue, a woman's intuition made her wary of the captain of this temporary squad.

"Hmph. If you're afraid, you can leave right now. Don't worry, when we return, I won't say that you disobeyed my orders."

The middle-aged magus sneered, then leaped down and swiftly vanished into the darkness.

The bald man and the short-haired woman looked at each other. In the end, the bald man jumped down after him.

Seeing that both of her teammates had jumped down, the short-haired woman sighed and followed.

Very soon.

Clang!

The bald man landed heavily on the ground. The floor beneath his feet was entirely paved with steel, sturdy beyond measure.

The short-haired woman rode a vortex of wind down slowly. The two looked toward their captain, only for their attention to be drawn to a rotating spatial vortex.

"This is..."

"An entrance to some other dimension?"

"The magical energy is leaking out from inside that passage. It's so strong... such a terrifying aura."

"Captain, what do we do next?"

The two asked the middle-aged magus what they should do next. He smiled, stepped forward, formed hand seals with both hands, and began chanting.

"Detect and append an imaginary-number axis, reverse the world, fix the central coordinates, construct a magical energy passage! Mirror Space! Open!"

Buzz!!

Magical energy surged around the middle-aged magus. Rings of mysterious magecraft runes spread over the surroundings, linking with the spatial vortex before them and causing it to visibly expand until it was large enough for an adult to pass through.

The bald man and the short-haired woman stared blankly, astonished.

As expected of a fourth-rank magus. He's powerful—and he seems even stronger than before we set out.

Just as the two were marveling at the middle-aged magus's strength—

Boom!!

Even more surging magical energy poured from the stabilized spatial vortex, powerful enough to form a gale!

"Hahahaha! What dense magical energy! Don't rush—I'm coming!"

The middle-aged man had entered a Singularity space once before. In that previous otherworldly space, he could be said to have reaped abundant gains.

Now another otherworldly space stood right before him. He did not hesitate in the slightest and stepped directly inside.

"This..."

The remaining two hesitated, but ultimately chose to follow. When they entered the otherworldly space one after another, the sight before them left them stunned.

"Gulp."

Ahead of them, countless streams of scarlet magical energy gathered like smoke signals, piercing heaven and earth! Their captain took out a Double-Barreled Hand Cannon, ready to attack, when countless golden lights suddenly burst forth from within the blood-red smoke! In an instant—

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Dozens of weapons shining with golden light shot toward them like cannon shells! The three did not even have a chance to react before they were reduced to ash by that wave of attacks.

From where the middle-aged man had stood, only a card bearing the image of a gun-wielding warrior drifted out of the vortex on the wind, then vanished after a flash.