Your Excellency Tesla Was Angry!

The last time the royal city's alarm bells rang was during... the centaur stampede.

King Cervantes still remembered being only ten years old that year. Those damned centaurs had ignored N cities in the heart of the kingdom, insisting on charging over and raining arrows down on the City Wall.

The alarm bells that year had nearly cost Cervantes XIII his throne.

Listen—

That was the sound of a heart attack!

A replay of an event from thirty years ago!

His Majesty the King nearly jumped out of his skin. "W-what's happened now?"

Before long, the news from the front made the king feel as if he'd plunged into an icy abyss—

Duergar!

These villains, who usually stayed in the Underground World, had habits almost entirely unlike those of their kindhearted Dwarf brethren.

Cruel! Cunning! Brutal!

Of course, compared with their Black Skin masters, their wickedness was child's play.

However, a Duergar invasion often meant that a large, organized army was likely following close behind. Known for their Lawful Evil nature, Duergar were quintessential social creatures.

They hated other races, and other races didn't like them either.

This trait drove them to stick together in unusually tight-knit groups.

It was rare to see a Duergar act alone.

The one bit of luck for the Cervantes capital was that these dead Dwarfs, who lived underground year-round, had a peculiar trait. Although they had powerful Darkvision, strong sunlight dazzled them because of their sensitivity to bright light.

These fellows had ambushed the city, but not quite.

Their tremendous roars had thrown the defenders into some disarray, but their own dizziness had given the city guard commanders ample time to react.

"Charge! Take down these evil bastards!" the commanders urged their soldiers on, managing to form a reasonably orderly shield wall. Using their tower shields and long spears, they pushed back the force of over a hundred Duergar.

Under normal circumstances, five ordinary soldiers might not be enough to kill a single Duergar.

Their ridiculous blunder of having the sun blind their Kryptonite Dog Eyes had given the city guards an opening.

The Dwarfs' armor was fairly well made, but even the finest armor wasn't necessarily much better than the city guards' equipment.

After losing three unfortunate men to serious injuries from the enemy's dying counterattacks, the shaken commander wiped the sweat from his brow. "At last, we've taken care of those inexplicable bastards."

In Ganis's eyes, the scene meant something entirely different. "Lord Tesla... Is he warning the Cervantes Kingdom!?"

The moment he blurted it out, Famite hurriedly asked, "What does that lord mean?"

Ganis's face turned black as the bottom of a pot. "It's possible that the lord saw through us. We only want to win over Downs Quijote, and we refuse to show him any sincerity. We even want to use Downs to morally blackmail him. In the end, the lord got angry."

Famite knew all about his king's little scheme.

But if he were in the lord's shoes, he'd probably be furious too.

They were only willing to pay for an apprentice, yet expected a Master Level mage to help them for free.

What master could put up with that?

And this was no ordinary mage—he was a dignified Legendary Mage.

Wanting the horse to run fast while refusing to feed it? There was no deal that good!

Famite asked in a trembling voice, "Ganis, how confident are you in your prediction?"

"Seventy percent. No, eighty." Ganis was sweating all over. He called over an attendant. "Go back immediately and tell His Majesty my prediction. The first wave of enemies, which seemed to have been sent as fodder, was only a small warning. If my prediction is right, the enemies that follow will be stronger, but still within that lord's control... until..."

"Until what?" Famite pressed.

Ganis really didn't want to say the answer, but as an old retainer who had followed the Cervantes family for nearly two hundred years, he couldn't bear to see the kingdom destroyed. "Until our king thoroughly enrages Your Excellency Tesla!"

Five minutes later, when the king heard the news, he was completely numb.

Come on, I was just being a little stingy. Was that really necessary, Old Man?

While Ganis, the king, and the others were wildly imagining things, an entirely different scene was unfolding inside the Mage Tower.

"Downs! There's one thing this trial has made clear: when you weather this storm called [Despair], you won't be the same person you were before." Lei solemnly repeated the words his elders had used to lecture him back in the day.

To Downs, the words were both heartening and moving. "Master, I'll keep growing. Please watch over me."

"Mm." After Lei touched the first spatial coordinate, nothing seemed to happen. No—something had happened, but he hadn't managed to link up with the Mage Tower's targeting function in time, so he hadn't seen what was happening outside at all.

So Lei connected to the second spatial coordinate, which the system had assessed as [High-Level].

Lei thought he could handle it.

This time, Lei finally got the response he wanted.

Although he'd opened only a tiny portal, a strand of the other party's divine consciousness darted through immediately.

The phantom of a graceful woman nearly brushed past him in Lei's mental world. It wasn't that she'd missed him; she'd done it on purpose.

Her fiery, deep-red eyes stared straight into his. Lei could clearly feel her brazenly probing his mind with a mysterious force.

"Human! Since you foolishly opened this spatial coordinate, I, Lisangquesi Shambala, command you to offer up everything you have, including your body and your soul—"

Perhaps the true strength of this certain master's soul hadn't fooled her. As a result, she seized the opportunity to escalate her demands, like a snake striking when the moment came. Even the way she spoke was entirely possessive, her tone full of contempt and domineering arrogance!

What a pity. Because the two master and apprentice had the powerful potential to [become Great Mages by the age of thirty], they received a hefty bonus to their Will checks.

They passed with ease.

Lei's face was as cold as water as he said mercilessly, "Say no to unlicensed taxis! It's everyone's responsibility!"

What a joke!

A Dark Elf—didn't she ever look in a mirror?

She looked like a little mermaid. She might fool some fair-skinned prince, but she'd never get away with bullying good socialist youths like us.

Clearly, Lei had instantly broken her [Human Charm Spell]. This Shambala woman was utterly flabbergasted. Even more unexpected to her was that the moment she made her move, she triggered the [Active Defense Tower] of some mysterious academy's Defense Department.

An eight-meter-wide bolt of terrifying lightning shot through space and illuminated a certain region of the Dark World.

From that day on, the legend of the [Thunder God] spread through the Dark World.

That day, over a hundred Dark Elves, fleeing the deadly thunderbolts, were forced to leap into some inexplicable portal. In the blink of an eye, they found themselves in the capital of the Cervantes Kingdom.

At that moment, Ganis and the king turned ashen—

"As expected! Lord Tesla is angry!"