Chapter Ninety-Five: The Truth

Zhao Xu, who had just been about to cast a spell, was nearly blinded by the sudden prompt.

Level 2?

In his previous life, he had only entered the game eight months after launch, and it had still taken him another four months to reach level 2. During that time, aside from doing quests and a little adventuring, the main reason was that he had never grasped the tricks of the level 2 warrior, could not find the threshold for second-tier attacks, and his mastery of various weapons had been merely average.

Yet now, just as he was about to cast a spell, he had somehow broken straight through to the critical point of level 2.

With a little more time to reinforce his foundation, he would be a proper level 2 mage among players.

More importantly, for his second career path, after reaching level 1 cleric, he could at last take up the mysterious level 1 Archive Scholar as a side vocation.

If Antinoya learned that he was already level 2, she would probably make an exception and have him return at once by teleportation for training.

But however beautiful Zhao Xu’s imaginings might be, he still had to deal with the creature before him.

"Oh? You were just about to turn the tables on me? What a pity. I suppose I’ll have to teach you this: when you refuse to choose, I choose for you," Mage Ryan suddenly said with a ferocious grin, casually pointing at Roa on the ground.

With a muffled burst, Roa, who had been lying beside Zhao Xu’s feet, instantly turned into countless wisps of gray ash.

Sixth-circle arcane disintegration.

Right before Zhao Xu’s eyes, that spell capable of reducing all things to dust played out in full.

For an ordinary person, watching a living human vanish beside them and crumble into drifting ash would have been enough to shatter their sanity.

Yet Zhao Xu remained remarkably calm.

"Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," he said coolly. "The traces are far too deliberate."

"When people cannot bring themselves to believe in the evil they have done, they are apt to think the fault lies with the world, that everything is false. A comforting delusion, I suppose," Mage Ryan said with an unconcerned smile.

"Where is my companion?" Zhao Xu asked again.

As if he had not seen Roa’s death at all, he simply questioned the mage Ryan before him.

"Hm?" This was the first time Mage Ryan sounded puzzled.

From Zhao Xu’s serious expression, he could tell it was no feint.

"These illusions of yours are simply too crude," Zhao Xu explained.

Then, in an instant, all the scenes of heaven and earth tore apart into fragments of emptiness, as though time itself were flowing backward.

The darkness slowly receded. The mage Ryan before him, along with the demonic scales all over his body, gradually faded away, revealing his original handsome features.

"Even though you don’t have true seeing, how was my ‘Eternal Mirage’ still seen through? Ah," Ryan sighed, lowering his head.

Dozens of yards behind him stood the seven people including Roa, held back by an invisible barrier.

They were waving and shouting at Zhao Xu from afar, but their voices could not reach this side.

"No need to look. I silenced them and sealed them off with force-field magic," Mage Ryan said. "So, tell me. How did you see through my second illusion? My performance and my illusion were flawless."

"Of course, those earlier remarks about the guardian of spells were no act. I really was jealous of you."

Zhao Xu frowned, but he did not relax. Instead, he became even more guarded.

"No need to be tense. Honestly, you people really should improve your bluffing and read-the-room skills. The look on your face just now practically shouted that you had a hidden trump card that could kill me. You almost made me want to see exactly what Antinoya gave you."

At the mention of Antinoya, Zhao Xu could not help regarding the mage Ryan before him with a trace of doubt.

Was there some connection?

"Don’t look at me like that. Every magical item she makes carries her mark. Take a look at the base of your staff. Isn’t there a little lace pattern, the sort a girl would like?"

Hearing this, Zhao Xu gave a slightly awkward smile. From his Howard convenience pouch to this staff, everything indeed bore that mark.

But if this man knew Antinoya, then was he actually safe?

"Then could you at least let my companions go first?" Zhao Xu tried to ask.

"The rest of what I’m about to say is not for their ears. I’m also in a hurry, so let’s finish this quickly and then get lost. This is not a place you can enter yet," Mage Ryan said.

"Who are you?" Zhao Xu asked, despite the countless questions in his mind, deciding in the end to return to mankind’s three great questions.

"Heh. Who am I?"

Mage Ryan shook his head.

"I thought that when I showed you this handsome face, you would recognize me, your distinguished senior."

Suddenly, his expression stilled. He looked at Zhao Xu again, deeply, the jealousy in his eyes burning even more fiercely.

"Just as I thought, just as I thought. Some people are born with what others spend their whole lives chasing. You don’t know me? Then you came in and received private instruction from the start?"

Hearing that, Zhao Xu became even less willing to speak carelessly.

These advanced mages knew far too much, and were far too perceptive. He did not count on Antinoya’s banner being able to protect him for long.

After all, he had secrets at a deeper level.

After a moment of silence, however, Mage Ryan did not press the matter further.

"I’m an idiot. Since Antinoya gave you this thing, you’re definitely of the Final Scroll line. Heh. Truly maddening with jealousy."

"In one sentence: Ryan. A mage who made the wrong choice, and is now here atoning for it."

After saying this, Mage Ryan looked considerably more forlorn.

"What wrong choice?" Zhao Xu hesitated for a while before asking.

Mage Ryan lowered his head further.

"The same situation you faced just now. Only I made the opposite choice."

"The reason I gave myself at the time was that I could always go back and beg the temple to resurrect them with revive. Better for a few to die than for an entire group to die. But I was still too young then. Some souls, once lost, are not yours to take back. So afterward, I spent my life here guarding them."

Zhao Xu looked at Ryan before him and said nothing more. He also did not stand on any moral high ground to condemn him.

Thinking of Demogorgon’s altar here, Zhao Xu had already begun to understand something.

"How did you come here?" it was now Mage Ryan’s turn to ask.

Zhao Xu’s expression stiffened. With a helpless smile, he said, "I heard there was some great secret here, so I came in to take a look along the way. I was in a hurry and didn’t investigate much before coming in."

"What a brave adventurer," Mage Ryan said, shaking his head. "Back then, the miners dug something up here, and I happened to be nearby, so I came to have a look. Who would have thought that abyssal power was watching this place too, and it took the chance to set me up."

"Still, after all these years, I’ve finally found some clues about what they dug up back then."

"What clues?" Zhao Xu asked, going along with his line of thought.

"Naturally, the secret treasury of the Arcane Sovereign, Ernest. You haven’t heard of Ernest? You should have sat in his throne plenty of times when you awakened. Rumor has it that he had some connection with the first Goddess of Magic."

As he spoke, Ryan gestured with a finger.