A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 151 I'm sorry

Rays or projectiles?

The opponent's finger made the apprentice Paul's hair stand on end. The young man from Gascoigne was indeed quite skilled in combat. He did his best to adjust his state, holding his breath and mobilizing every muscle to twist his body.

Paul deduced that Rorschach's next attack would be a projectile/ray, and dodged the imagined trajectory.

Unfortunately, he guessed wrong. Rorschach was also somewhat surprised by Paul's dodge. He lowered his body, but his thrust towards Rorschach did not diminish. However, this did not affect the effectiveness of Rorschach's spell, because he did not intend to use any melting ray to pierce through the young man. Instead, he used his long-lost "unicorn arm".

Back in Andorella, he could pull "Flying Man" down. With Rorschach's current spellcasting level, "Kirin Arm" plus "Grappling Palm" doesn't even require him to exert his full strength; he can slap Paul to the ground like swatting a mosquito.

The misjudgment was obviously fatal. In order to maintain his offensive posture, Paul lowered his body and leaned forward sharply, resulting in a spectacular face-plant.

Even after being slammed to the ground, the apprentice challenger didn't drop his Demon-Slaying Blade, gripping it tightly and pointing it at Rorschach. This unwavering resolve was truly moving, and both the challenged and Philip, standing nearby, nodded in approval.

However, the outcome was decided in that instant. Rorschach maintained the strength of his "Mage's Arm" to control his opponent, and approached the knife-wielding youth step by step.

Paul strained with all his might, gritting his teeth and holding his head up, but could only watch in despair as the newcomer strolled in and squatted down in front of him.

Luo Xia glanced at the Blade of Evil, now only a dark golden light remained. He stretched out his right hand and flicked his finger across the blade.

The golden light shattered along with the blade.

The Blade of Destruction contains a great deal of stress? Rorschach was certain his "head-thump" wouldn't shatter the blade directly; perhaps it was damage from just striking the target? No, it seemed more like intentional. Could it be that this design allows for shrapnel effects after the enchantment is consumed...?

It seems the church's weapon designers also have talents who can handle both magical and physical damage.

"Master Rorschach wins."

With neither side sustaining any serious injuries, Rorschach easily defeated the challenger and eased off Paul's pressure, but the kid didn't seem to be getting back up.

"Senior Brother Luo Xia, I'm so sorry I didn't let you use your full strength."

What are you thinking? It's not your fault, you didn't know who I was fighting with all my might! Rorschach really wanted to show off, but it didn't seem appropriate to do so in front of the entire research group, so he just smiled and reached out to help Paul up:

"If you want to go further on the path of combat, master the [Light Spell]!" That way, you won't be fighting alone!

Paul was initially bewildered, but then (thinking he understood the other person's good intentions):

Was Master Rorschach instructing me to master magic, even something as simple as the non-attacking spell "Light"? Paul then felt a little ashamed. Now that he was in the Tower of Stars, he should have studied magic more diligently to improve his combat abilities.

He often boasted of his combat skills, which came from a land rich in martial virtue, and felt superior to the other apprentices who could only cast spells and were physically weak. Now, however, he had been thoroughly humiliated by a true mage, both physically and mentally.

Paul resolved to correct his attitude towards learning magic: "I will remember your teachings!"

"Huh? I was just kidding, don't mention any weird professions." Rorschach noticed the sparkle in Paul's innocent eyes, which almost made him feel ashamed.

"The spell test is over! Let's submit the scroll of the spell array test to the guild for direct verification. Rorschach, you can write a mid-term report as a progress report during this period."

Cano was somewhat disappointed; the battle was too short and one-sided, and the nearly expired recovery scrolls hadn't been cleared out.

While a "friendly sparring" takes place inside the Tower of Stars, a "super unfriendly sparring" is about to erupt in the catacombs of the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

The last organized force of the cult in Valuana was now concentrated deep within the tomb passages, with "elders" leading the way, groping their way through the skeletons, murals, and stone coffins, each carrying an oil lamp.

He was getting a little impatient. After waiting all night, Salamander, the key figure whom the Great Mother had revealed to him and whom he had painstakingly invested in caring for, had not appeared.

The revelation from Mother Earth revealed that this person was connected to the kingdom's largest corporation and a sub-plane. She sent trusted key personnel to make contact, but now both have disappeared.

"We can't wait any longer. With the church and paladins' attention focused on those lowly people in the eastern suburbs, now is the perfect time for us to escape." So the elder adopted the advice of the other members and led this truly underground team to begin their escape.

He could hear prayers behind him; believers were praying to the sublime "Mother".

What a cowardly act! Normally, we should be fully engaged in rituals, not disturb a great being like this and reveal our incompetence.

The elder was very dissatisfied with the person behind him, but everyone was on edge at the moment, so he couldn't show it.

But the prayers grew louder and more numerous. One person took the lead, and gradually others joined in. Some even secretly began to inhale the powder as they walked.

Even if a person speaks very softly, the combined noise can create a buzzing sound, which is especially noisy in the quiet tomb passage.

"Stop, you idiots!" The elder was on the verge of collapse. His group seemed to have forgotten that they were on the run, even though they were separated from the church's lackeys by several layers of tombs.

These fools couldn't tell whether the elder was telling them to stop praying or to stop walking. Most of them stopped, but the madman, whose drug had just taken effect, stopped walking and not only prayed but also knelt down to pay homage to the gods.

Just as the group reached a fork in the road, he gestured for the people behind him to be quiet and pulled out a map from his already filthy robe to examine it. The map was very rudimentary, showing a route that a few key members had explored beforehand, with their destination being a sewer drain on the other side of the suburbs.

The sound of prayer finally ceased, but the stopped procession could hear faint footsteps—the sound of mud and shoes grinding against each other, the friction between tiny grains of sand amplified in the tomb passage.

The elder's lantern illuminated the fork in the road, revealing the figure he least wanted to see, and there were figures on both sides of the tomb passage. The rear guard, also carrying lanterns, watched as a group of armored soldiers drew ever closer in the light.

When did the paladin and the grey-robed man appear? This was a question that puzzled everyone.

Puff, puff, puff.

The line of people, starting from the last person at the very end, was struck by arrows of judgment that shattered the heads of the cultists one by one, while beams of judgment that erupted in six directions obliterated their corpses.

Without uttering a word, the leading elder shattered the lantern at lightning speed. His body instantly broke apart, but this was not an attack from the paladin; it was something he did on his own initiative.

"Go to hell! Those who believe in the Mother died on the earth, those who believe in false gods died under the church, both died in the right place, both died in the right place!" Although the elder's head, body and limbs were all blown apart, his last words echoed perfectly in the tomb passage.

A thick green fog billowed his robes and then gushed out, instantly filling the entire tomb passage. The fog was not only poisonous, but also acted like pheromones, catalyzing the "seeds" in the bodies of the believers.

Whether they were living or had just died, all the cult members burst forth with vines, so thick they seemed to collapse the tomb. Any skeletons that came into contact with the green mist were turned into rotting zombies.

Like the process of sprouting, the vines and green mist continued to grow and spread outward and upward, "breaking out of the tomb." The resting remains in the layers of tombs became unseeing living corpses, and their numbers increased.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral was trembling and shaking, the bells colliding with their hammers and emitting an ominous hum.

The minimum requirement of two updates has been maintained! Today's acknowledgments will be postponed to the "Author's Note" in tomorrow's first update. Thank you all for reading!

(End of this chapter)