Whether or not Tang Qi's music could actually inspire people in battle was beside the point.
Black Snake no longer dared let him sing.
He feared another infuriating lyric would make him want to turn around and slash his own teammate.
Flowers stuck in them, too—was that any way for a human being to talk!?
Meanwhile, the two-headed troll rolled amid the chaos and put out the flames on its body.
Dragging this fight out any longer was anything but wise—
"Run!"
As the squad's former captain, he knew exactly what to do.
"Lure the troll into camp, then escape in the confusion!"
He shouted as he turned, intending to warn Tang Qi as well.
But when he looked back...
The poet had already run eighty feet away.
"Screw you!"
Black Snake swore and immediately took to his heels.
The two-headed troll followed close behind, not even bothering to pull the short blade from its head. Its uneven strides pounded the earth, shaking the leaves and mist and instantly drawing New Star's attention:
"You two bastards, don't bring it over here!"
"You were the one who cursed us to pay the price. Well, here's the price—you're responsible!"
Before Tang Qi finished speaking, he pulled an exquisite little bottle from his trouser pocket and drained its clear solution.
The instant the potion reached his stomach, his vision suddenly became astonishingly clear.
The dense mist filling his sight quietly retreated beyond the corners of his eyes.
Even when he looked up at the forest canopy, he could glimpse a long river of countless stars winding through the clouds in the distant sky.
[True Sight Eye Potion]: Reveals illusions. Duration: 8 hours.
It wasn't that the Twilight Forest had produced a hallucinogenic mist.
The forest itself was shrouded in an illusion.
"Enough! Stop! Stop it!"
Seeing the two-headed troll about to charge into camp alongside those two bastards, New Star couldn't help breaking into a run himself—
At a time like this, whoever fell behind became the meat shield.
"Clear the battlefield. I'll deal with that thing!"
Fortunately, with the pressure off him, Explosive Wolf had enough attention to spare for what was happening in camp.
He sprinted forward, covering dozens of feet in a few breaths, his two-handed greatsword trailing naturally behind him, then planted a foot beside the troll and stopped short.
In craftsmanship alone, this greatsword was the work of a dwarven artisan, forged from nordic steel from the northern mountains. It was strong yet resilient, finely made.
The trade-off was that it weighed twice as much as an ordinary greatsword.
An ordinary warrior would probably struggle just to hold it.
But in Explosive Wolf's hands, that long greatsword was no more cumbersome than a light stick.
As his leading foot braked against the earth, the momentum of his charge seemed to pour into his legs. His weight shifted forward, his pelvis tilted, and his torso and arms exerted force in succession, channeling all his strength into the greatsword in his hands.
"[Upward Slash]!"
His rough voice thundered as the gleaming blade flashed coldly.
A crescent suddenly cleaved through the thick mist—
Its first half was milky white as snow; its second, scarlet with blood.
Despite the dozens of kilograms of plate armor he wore, the slash carried Explosive Wolf's body upward with it.
Thick blood sprayed from the rent flesh onto Explosive Wolf's face, making him look even more ferocious.
As he rose just above the troll's head, before it could react, the greatsword poised behind him swept down in another crescent, falling with him to land beside the troll's feet.
Squelch—
Two slashes in the space of a breath left the troll drenched in blood, its body listing sideways.
The sword wounds opened all the way from its waist to its left ear.
Tiny blood-red buds of flesh emerged amid the spilling blood, trying to reach one another and stitch themselves together.
"[Flame Arrow]!"
A chant abruptly rang out, and a streak of fire struck its wound, scorching the newly grown flesh until it withered.
The troll roared in pain, forcibly straightened its body, and swung its club, smashing Explosive Wolf into a nearby tent.
Charred flesh flaked from the wound's surface, and lumps of new flesh sprouted, slowly beginning to knit together.
Meanwhile, its rounded belly grew increasingly shriveled:
"Hungry, hungry!"
A round fireball sped like an arrow into its arm, setting its hair ablaze.
This most direct and effective damage-dealing cantrip had always been widely praised among spellcasters.
According to the statistics, it had consistently maintained its impressive ranking as "the wizarding world's second most useful spell."
When spellcasters were running short on spell slots, it was their handiest weapon.
And with only one troll remaining, he had no need to use his final spell slot.
Once Explosive Wolf got up to slow it down and the nearby mercenaries dealt with the ambush, surrounding and killing this two-headed creature would only be a matter of time.
Then he would make sure to teach those two bastards a lesson...
Hmm?
Where were they?
New Star couldn't spot either of the two culprits anywhere in his field of view.
Looking around, he finally saw them quietly sneaking toward the edge of camp:
"Two idiots. Can you even find your way through the illusion?"
Just as he was about to mock them, he quickly realized something was wrong.
"Damn it, isn't that the direction of my tent!?"
He had never imagined they were planning to raid his camp.
Along with the black saber, his Dimensional Bag was in that tent.
Terrified that the two bastards would quietly make off with it, New Star hastily shouted:
"Stop—"
The moment the words left his mouth, everything before him suddenly turned stark white, making him instinctively narrow his eyes.
The dampness of the mist still clung to his skin, but now it carried a trace of dry heat.
This phenomenon wasn't particularly unusual.
After all, in the sixteen hours since they had entered the forest, they had already experienced two cycles of day and night...
He suddenly realized something was wrong:
Hadn't we decided to make camp and rest precisely because night had just fallen?
If it was still the dead of night, what was this "daybreak," this dry heat!?
New Star's eyes flew open. Only then did he clearly see the thing above the forest canopy that had burned away the white mist and lit up the sky—
If the second most popular spell is [Flame Arrow], what's the first?
When he had first become a mage's apprentice, he, too, had been curious about that question.
Until he heard a saying among his fellow spellcasters:
"There's nothing in this world that one Fireball can't solve. If there is, cast another. Or cast it at a higher ring."
So, when he learned his first cantrip and hurled the sparks that sprang from his hand at a target...
He happily shared it all with his mentor:
"Look, I've finally learned Fireball too!"
To him, this cantrip that scorched the straw target—an orange-red sphere of flame flying like an arrow—had to be the "fireball" everyone talked about.
After all, the spell's name seemed so plain and unassuming.
But his mentor was always haughty and distant.
Rather than treating his excitement as innocent enthusiasm, his mentor wore that same mocking curl of the lips and sneered:
"If that counts as Fireball, all those brute-force mages who only memorize Fireball would probably be out of a job."
"But what I threw clearly looked like a fireball too?"
"When you actually have the talent to surpass me and qualify to dabble in third-ring spells, you'll understand how ridiculous you are."
His mentor couldn't be bothered to explain, but that hadn't extinguished his curiosity.
Curiosity was what drove a person to learn and improve.
Yet in all the years since he had truly reached his mentor's level, resolved to leave the ivory tower, and set out adventuring, he had rarely seen anyone cast a third-ring spell.
Most spellcasters at that level had already made a modest name for themselves and could hold their own. They wouldn't form a party with a "New Star" like him.
And so he had never gained a true understanding of this "fireball."
But now...
As the heat against his skin steadily intensified, as he clearly saw a bright point beneath the vault of sky tear through the darkness like a meteor, shatter the mist, and descend toward the ground...
He seemed to finally understand what "ignorance" meant.
If what he held in his hand counted as a "fireball"...
Then what he was seeing now must have been the sun.
The flames bored into his eardrums like a low roar.
The brilliant point of light blossomed, burning into a sea of fire amid its dazzling radiance—
BOOOOM!!!
Before you continue