Spellcasting Gods

The young man nodded vigorously: "That's right! The Yeti dug a very deep cave at the foot of the mountain. You can reach Tarrenmir by following the path near the cave. I've prepared the horses. Shall we set off now?"

“Of course! I don’t want a big fish to escape right under my nose.” With that, Sophia sat up and gently tapped Zhang Cheng’s nose with her finger. “Darling, get up. I know you’re not asleep. Now we’re going out hunting together.”

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go. I'm also very eager to see who invented this thing that even Archmage Ansrem Ruinvivor praised." Zhang Cheng turned over and got off the hammock, his eyes revealing a strong sense of anticipation.

After a brief preparation, the two quickly mounted their well-rested warhorses and found a place to send out the signal before it got completely dark.

Sophia searched the ground carefully for a few minutes and quickly found the mark carved on the tree trunk. She curled the corners of her mouth and muttered to herself, "Hehe, it seems that this little mouse has been spotted by the hunting dogs I released. He can't escape."

"Is that so? If I were you, I should mourn for those poor hounds. Because members of the Royal Apothecary Association aren't alchemists in the ordinary sense, but a dangerous group that could unleash deadly poisons at any moment..."

Before Zhang Cheng could finish speaking, a scream shattered the tranquility of the night.

"Aaaaaaaahh ...

"Monster... Monster!! Run!"

"Hahahaha! Run? Sorry, you can't escape. Just obediently become my experimental subjects."

"No!!! Go away! Go away! Don't come near me!"

"what!!!!"

"Ahhhh!!!"

……

With a few painful cries uttered before death, the surroundings quickly returned to silence.

"Damn it! How dare he kill my men?" Sophia immediately drew her weapon and ran towards the direction of the sound.

"Okay, I admit these hunting dogs were quite competent; at least they pointed me in the right direction before they were taken out," Zhang Cheng said, urging his warhorse to give chase.

The two ran one after the other for about a few minutes before finally seeing a scene that looked like hell.

The six Syndicate bandits were being torn to shreds by a massive undead creature pieced together from the carcasses of a mountain lion, a yeti, and a grizzly bear. One of the unfortunate men had been snapped in half at the waist but was still alive, lying on the ground struggling in agony.

The culprit behind the tragedy, a Forsaken apothecary dressed in a dark black robe, is pouring a bottle of gray, unidentified liquid into his mouth.

In the blink of an eye, the man who had been cut in half at the waist began to swell rapidly like an inflating balloon, and then exploded with a bang.

In an instant, bright red blood, entrails, bits of flesh, and bones were scattered everywhere...

However, the Forsaken's apothecary seemed used to it, muttering to himself, "Well, I failed again. Maybe next time I can try a milder formula..."

Seeing her subordinate die on the spot, Sofia became extremely angry. She circled around from behind and stabbed him hard in the back.

Just as she thought her sure-fire strike was about to hit, the Forgotten Apothecary suddenly took out a bottle of potion, tilted his head back, and drank it down.

next second...

A golden energy shield appeared around his body.

The female assassin's sharp dagger seemed to have struck a hard rock, unable to advance even an inch further.

"A limited invincibility potion?!"

Zhang Cheng immediately recognized it as the famous magic potion in the game, favored by countless magic-based players.

Anyone who takes the potion will be immune to all physical attacks for an extremely short period of time...

Chapter 0046 The Mad Pharmacist (Part 1)

"Fool! You think you can fool my eyes with such clumsy stealth skills?" The Forsaken Apothecary sneered as he drew a dagger that emitted an eerie green light and plunged it into Sophia's eyes.

Because of the close proximity, she had no time to dodge and could only raise her arm to try to block with her arm guard.

However, the leather could not withstand the piercing of the sharp blade, and blood splattered everywhere!

In just a few seconds, the original color of the blood changed from bright red to a chilling black!

Moreover, it emitted a pungent, fishy stench!

Sofia's expression changed drastically. With lightning speed, she tore off her wrist guards and sleeves, and gritted her teeth as she used her short sword to cut off all the muscle around the wound.

As a seasoned assassin, she could almost instantly tell how potent the poison was; a moment's hesitation would have meant certain death.

Seeing bright red blood flowing from the wound again, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and quickly used the torn sleeve to tighten her arm, making a makeshift tourniquet to prevent excessive blood loss from causing unconsciousness and shock.

Of course, even so, she couldn't use any weapons with her injured arm.

In just one round, the Forsaken's apothecary demonstrated a wealth of combat experience and the variety of magical potions he carried.

Besides, the undead monster next to him, pieced together from numerous corpses, was clearly not easy to deal with either.

After assessing the situation, Zhang Cheng jumped off his horse and stood calmly in front of the other party, placing one hand on his chest and giving a slight bow: "It's a pleasure to meet you, an important member of the Undercity Royal Apothecary Association. If you don't mind, could you hand over your research notes and data? I guarantee that as long as you hand over the data on the new plague, you can leave safely."

"Heh heh heh, Dalaran mage, do you really think you have the ability to stop me from returning to Tarren Mill?" The Forsaken apothecary retorted with a look of disdain.

"Alright, it seems the fight just now made you a little too confident. Let me teach you what humility really means..."

The words had barely left his mouth!

Zhang Cheng immediately took out the Soul Diamond and summoned Melroyas, who was sealed inside.

Accompanied by the sound of rushing water, in the blink of an eye, a water elemental over four meters tall condensed into a relatively fixed shape.

Although his original intention was to avoid fighting as much as possible through negotiation, and even make some exchanges if necessary.

But now it seems the other party clearly had no such intention, so in the end they had no choice but to use violence to get what they wanted.

Without any unnecessary words, the moment the water elemental summoning was completed, Zhang Cheng swiftly issued an attack command through the mental connection.

Melroyas created a huge wave and rushed towards the location of the stitched-together monster.

The moment the giant wave crashed down from the sky, all the water instantly froze into icy ice under the influence of the cold air currents.

The clumsy undead monster had no time to dodge and was hit squarely, frozen in place, becoming a hideous and terrifying ice sculpture.

At the same time, Zhang Cheng was not idle either. He flashed to a place only a few meters away from the target and released Frost Nova with a snap, freezing the target in place without giving the opponent any time to react. Then he cast Ice Spike.

Although the dead have no pain receptors, the severe frostbite still made the Forgotten Apothecary's movements sluggish. Several times he tried to take something out of the bag at his waist, but in the end he was unable to.

The reason was simple: Zhang Cheng used the end of his flint staff to stab the other man hard in the chest, causing him to stagger several steps.

How can someone who can't even maintain basic balance possibly get what they want?

In fact, from the very beginning, Zhang Cheng noticed that the Forgotten Apothecaries were not combat-oriented professions like mages or warlocks; they relied entirely on various bizarre poisons and magical potions to fight their enemies.

Therefore, he was determined to take advantage of his speed and control the opponent as quickly as possible, without giving the opponent any chance to use the drug.

Clearly, his plan succeeded. The Forsaken had no idea that a mage would teleport to his side the instant the battle began, nor did he expect that a mage would not cast a spell but instead poke him with a staff.

After all, under normal circumstances, the strategy of Dalaran mages is to maintain maximum distance and slowly eliminate the enemy with spells while ensuring their own safety.

Unfortunately, Zhang Cheng is definitely not among them. His understanding of the mage class comes entirely from the game and from battles between players.

Just as the pharmacist was struggling to get up and fight back, Sophia, who had somehow entered stealth mode, suddenly emerged from the shadows and wielded her short sword with an extremely elegant posture, severing all ten of his fingers in less than two seconds.

Precise! Efficient! Deadly!

The female assassin proved with her actions that even with only one arm left, she was still a force to be reckoned with.

Without fingers, one cannot grasp anything, especially a long and thin medicine bottle.

The Forgotten Ones' apothecary showed no sign of tension or fear. Instead, he grinned wildly and laughed, "Hahahaha! Very good! Excellent! You are the first living person to have driven me to this point! Now I will show you what true despair is!"

After saying that, he raised his hand, which was dripping with preservative liquid, and put it directly into his mouth to chew. The disgusting scene was enough to make anyone vomit up their dinner from the night before.

Before Zhang Cheng could react to what was happening, the pharmacist's body began to swell like an inflating balloon, eventually transforming into a terrifying stitched abomination over five meters tall.

"How about that? Didn't expect that, did you? I've already modified my body!" The massive stitched-up creature grinned as it charged forward with heavy steps.

"Oh—damn! You're a madman!" Zhang Cheng's eyes widened, revealing an expression of disbelief.

Having witnessed firsthand how this thing used its monstrous strength to pull the Arcane Golem, he had no intention of trying to see what would happen to him if he were hit. He used his teleportation spell again to escape more than ten meters away.

"Madness? No! I'm not crazy! This is art! The highest achievement of alchemy! You Dalaran mages simply don't know how to appreciate it!" The stitched monster roared as it uprooted a tree and used it as a weapon, smashing it down with all its might.

boom!

"Ahhhh!!!!!!"

With a loud bang and flying dirt, Sofia fell to the ground with a scream.

Her lower leg was bent at an unnatural angle; even an idiot could tell that the fracture was quite severe…

Chapter 0047 The Mad Pharmacist (Part 2)

"Aha! I caught a little mouse!"

Transforming into the apothecary of hatred, he quickly grabbed the female assassin's unbroken leg and lifted her up.

Although Sophia struggled desperately to break free from the enormous hand, unfortunately, compared to the terrifying strength of the abomination, her strength was like that of an ant. Even though she kept stabbing the hand with her short sword, she could not cause any real damage.

In just a few seconds, the wound slowly healed under the influence of shadow energy.

As one of the greatest masterpieces of necromancy, Abomination possesses extremely strong resistance to physical attacks. As long as the shadow energy within its body is not exhausted, no matter how severe the injury, it will slowly recover to its original state.

If you want to kill them, the best way is to burn them with a high-temperature flame, or to chop them into pieces in a short time, preferably minced meat.

Clearly, with her short sword, barely a foot long, Sofia couldn't possibly do it, so she shouted without hesitation, "Help me! Help me!"

The hideous, terrifying abomination grinned, gently shook its arm, and asked with a smile, "This woman is begging you for help. What do you plan to do? Will you give up and surrender? Or will you be a selfish and cold-blooded mage and abandon her?"

"What do you think?" Zhang Cheng glanced at the female assassin, who was filled with a survival instinct, but instead of answering her directly, he threw the question back at her.

Perhaps he had always remained an observer, or perhaps he was inherently cold-blooded; in any case, he was completely calm at this moment, utterly indifferent to Sophia's life or death, his mind preoccupied with how to snatch the deerskin backpack filled with documents.

"Me? Based on past experience, you selfish mages only care about yourselves and don't care about the lives of others at all. Of course, if you two are lovers, then things will get very interesting. You know, I once caught a young couple and did a little test on them. Guess what happened?" A hint of undisguised sarcasm appeared on his hideous face.

"What was the result?" Zhang Cheng asked eagerly.

"It was very simple. I gave them a bottle of plague potion and let them choose who would drink it. As long as one of them drank it, I would let the other go. The man grabbed it without hesitation and drank it first, collapsing to the ground in agony and howling. But what about the woman? She didn't even glance at him, turned around and ran away. But before she had run fifty meters, the man transformed into a ghoul, chased after her, and devoured her alive. Isn't that interesting? Their so-called eternal love was instantly exposed in the face of death."

As he recounted this story, a look of extreme enjoyment shone in his hateful eyes. It was obvious that his mind had long been twisted and morbidly tormented by some terrifying experience.

In fact, behind every forgotten person lies a great deal of untold pain and sorrow. Some even suffer from the torment of their remaining humanity and conscience, and over time they inevitably choose to go to extremes.

Just as the Forgotten Apothecary was expecting to find fear, disgust, or panic on Zhang Cheng's face, he suddenly realized that Zhang Cheng was staring at him with pity.

Instantly, an unnamed rage surged from the depths of his heart, and he roared furiously, "What are you looking at?!"

"It's nothing, I just suddenly felt sorry for you," Zhang Cheng replied with a shrug.