Leave it to me!!!
It was Jiang Jie's voice!
Hearing that voice did nothing to lift the others' spirits. They all knew who Jiang Jie was and believed a rogue apprentice could never kill that mid-level mage. He would only be throwing his life away!
By then, Jiang Jie had already slipped silently out of the guards' defensive circle.
"Xiao Feng, keep scanning. Send the scan of everything within a hundred meters into my mind!" Jiang Jie whispered soundlessly.
A holographic image appeared in his mind, revealing everything within a hundred meters of him as clearly as daylight at noon. Even the rogues maintaining Stealth appeared one by one, utterly unable to escape the gaming pod's scan.
Even the magical alarms and spell traps Mage Nolan had set were marked individually, with red circles indicating their effective ranges. Naturally, each person's approximate perception range was marked as well!
As though strolling through his own backyard, Jiang Jie perfectly skirted every magical alarm and spell trap, avoided the stealthed rogues and the warriors in their combat stances, circled around the charging wolves, and worked his way toward the rear.
Soon, he spotted a mage and a hunter, as well as a mid-level rogue who remained stealthed beside the two, clearly protecting them.
One mid-level mage, one hunter of unknown level, and one mid-level rogue!
The gaming pod had never scanned a hunter and had no reference, so it could not determine this hunter's level. Still, by any guess, he could hardly be weak. After all, he was proficient in beast control and controlled several dozen woodland wolves!
Then let the hunt begin!
Rogues walked in the shadows and hunted in the darkness, but Jiang Jie was no ordinary rogue. He was a Chinese martial artist hidden beneath a rogue's guise!
Relying on the Stealth Technique perfectly simulated through Internal Energy, Jiang Jie approached without a sound. Soon, he was behind the three, and then he struck without hesitation!
In that first instant, with the Blade of Cunning in hand, he closed on the mid-level rogue within a second, and then...
Sap!
The next moment, before the others could react, he had already reached the hunter, followed by...
Pegasus Meteor Finger!
A sudden jab struck the hunter's acupoint directly. The hunter had not sensed any danger at all and was left unable to move.
The circulation of Internal Energy for Pegasus Meteor Finger conflicted with that used to simulate the Stealth Technique. Jiang Jie had no choice but to emerge from Stealth, and the keen-sensed mid-level mage detected him.
But just as the mage was about to act, Jiang Jie vanished again.
Not Stealth, but a more advanced rogue skill: Vanish!
The Vanish Amulet had been activated!
Jiang Jie stalked through the darkness, swiftly approaching the mid-level mage. Seeing him casting a spell, he struck immediately.
Both daggers attacked at lightning speed!
A ring on the mid-level mage's right hand gave off a faint gray glow, forming a Mana Shield that kept Jiang Jie out.
Then...
Sinister Strike! Sinister Strike! Sinister Strike! Sinister Strike! Sinister Strike!
"Five-Star Eviscerate!"
After raising his Mana Shield, the mid-level mage breathed a sigh of relief.
According to reliable information from Shadow Watcher Corno, the rogue ambushing him was named Nicholas Jiang and was merely a rogue apprentice. Though he had defeated a low-level rogue before, breaking through his Mana Shield would not be so easy.
After all, rogues were a class that relied on "energy" to make their living!
The speed of energy recovery limited how frequently they could use skills. With that pair of utterly ordinary Blades of Cunning and only a few skills available, breaking through the Mana Shield would take at least ten seconds!
Without skills, the damage dealt by ordinary dagger slashes was simply far too weak!
Then,
There's no need to use the mana-intensive Arcane Explosion. I'll just chant Polymorph! The mid-level mage sneered as he cast, but in the next instant, his sneer turned to terror!
He saw that the rogue apprentice named Nicholas was actually using rogue skills at the same frequency as ordinary attacks!
That speed was probably already on par with a high-level rogue's, wasn't it?
How... how was that possible!
Could the Shadow Watcher's information be wrong? Was this fifteen-year-old boy actually a high-level rogue rather than a rogue apprentice?
There was no time to react!
When Five-Star Eviscerate struck, the Mana Shield shattered, and the dagger's edge was already less than half a meter from his neck.
The mid-level mage steeled himself and unleashed Arcane Explosion!
Arcane Explosion created a magical blast centered on the caster, dealing a burst of arcane damage to enemies!
The amount of mana invested directly determined the power of Arcane Explosion.
Facing a life-or-death crisis, the mid-level mage summoned the greatest amount of mana he could muster in an instant...
Not all of it, because mobilizing mana took time too, and he had no more time.
Even with only that much mana, Arcane Explosion was powerful enough. The mid-level mage knew very well that a human rogue's body was extremely fragile and could not possibly withstand a magical attack of this magnitude.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
But before he could let that breath out, he sucked it back in!
He saw a jeweled necklace around Jiang Jie's neck suddenly emit four-colored light. Then elemental armor wreathed in four colors appeared, with the four elements of earth, fire, water, and wind flowing over it.
When he sensed the concentration of elements within it, the mid-level mage instantly felt a sense of absurdity:
How was that possible!
A rogue apprentice actually had a superior-quality necklace, with an enchantment clearly made by a legendary mage. Wasn't that ridiculously broken?
A superior necklace, a legendary enchantment!
As someone who loved gemstones immensely, he could tell at a glance that the four-colored gemstones set into it were extremely precious, and the necklace alone was worth at least a thousand gold coins. But leaving that aside, was a legendary enchantment something just anyone could obtain?
A legendary enchantment!
The materials required for the enchantment were unimportant. The real question was, where could you find a legendary mage to enchant something for you?
A legendary mage!
What did that mean?
Dalaran was impressive enough, wasn't it? Known as the city of magic, it had more than a thousand Kirin Tor mages. The Council of Six alone had six Archmages, and there were several more Archmages outside the leadership!
Even so, only one mage had advanced to legendary rank: Dalaran's current chief Archmage and the supreme leader of the Kirin Tor, Antonidas!
Of course, the mysterious mage named Krasus, who taught Rhonin, one of Dalaran's two most astonishingly gifted mages, and Prince Kael'thas from the High Elf kingdom to the north were said to have advanced to legendary rank even before Lord Antonidas...
Wait!
Prince Kael'thas!