Round Fifteen: Approaching

“Damn it! Where the hell did you run off to, you iron bastard?” Blood Axe glared, clearly ready to swing his axe if Forty-Seven didn’t give a good answer. “If those swamp goblin rats hadn’t suddenly scattered like mindless flies, we don’t know how much longer we’d have had to fight!”
Forty-Seven stood beside a thick patch of swamp plants, stretching his joints. Quick was still limping, with Jason supporting him. Copper Hammer was covered in blood, with a large gash on his face, but he didn’t seem as badly injured as it looked. Cain had an injured left arm, and the worst-off was the werewolf, his body covered in wounds from the goblins, his arm almost completely scratched raw.
Forty-Seven grabbed Moriel’s pack and threw it into the bushes.
“Who brought this? I’ll reward them.”
“Shut up! I’m asking you questions! Moriel is dead. I’m your master!” Blood Axe roared.
“You’d better follow Blood Axe’s orders. You’ve already caused us enough trouble. You said you’d kill the elders’ lackeys and then run away. Look at my leg—this is all your doing. And look at my arm, full of bite marks. God only knows what kind of disgusting poison those filthy things have!” It was clear that Cain no longer intended to be friendly toward Forty-Seven, who was about to become his subordinate.
Forty-Seven ignored him and noticed Jason smiling slightly, nodding.
“First, I’m not dead,” Moriel said, emerging from behind the bushes in a red robe. “Second, I don’t remember making a will declaring you, Lord Blood Axe, my heir. Third, those goblins did indeed run away after killing the leaders, but that so-called elder wasn’t the leader.”
“Moriel?” Blood Axe’s gaze narrowed.
Then he grinned. “I can’t believe you weren’t completely devoured by those filthy goblins! Are they on a vegetarian diet today?”
“Oh, luckily, they decided to use me as an offering to their gods today—apparently, they’ve chosen something in this swamp to worship as a new god. I must say, they’ve got good taste this time,” Moriel said nonchalantly.
“By ‘good taste,’ I guess you mean they didn’t capture anyone else. So what do you mean by ‘something’?” Jason tightened the white cloth around his arm.
“Obvious.”
“Haha! Then it seems we’re close to my destination!” Blood Axe laughed. “After all this trouble at night, let’s rest here. We’ll set off again tomorrow!”
Although the tent was fairly spacious for Moriel, it became extremely crowded once Forty-Seven entered. Moriel could even only use Forty-Seven’s arm as a pillow.
“You’d better stay alert,” Moriel said coldly. “I don’t want to be dragged underground by something and get dirty… just like you.”
“That fat woman’s sonic attacks are quite powerful,” Forty-Seven said, looking at the top of the tent as if checking for holes. “I envy that.”

“Hmph, what’s there to envy? This kind of instinctive magic can’t compare at all to real spells! The simplest magic missile can disrupt it, not to mention spells like Silence or protective magic that reduce damage—even the worst mage has no fewer than a dozen ways to render such crude magical attacks useless! Only you would foolishly charge headfirst into it—and you call her a woman? Good heavens, don’t you even have any sense of aesthetics?”
“No, it’s quite powerful,” Si Qishi insisted on his view. “If it were a bit stronger…”
“I said it’s useless! Magic is a vast and intricate world beyond your imagination—it’s not about the greater the power, the better! If that were the case, what’s the difference from two barbarians wrestling?” Moriel, not knowing why, seriously explained to Si Qishi: “Although magic itself is chaotic, and the four elemental realms as well as the realms of positive and negative energy are in turmoil, those born with the ability to use magic, like the Rat Queen, can resonate with magic through instinct. There are also a very few legendary archmages who are close to gods and can directly open portals between dimensions or even draw power from chaos. But in reality, such actions are often counterproductive—The Magic Goddess created the magic network, but I believe The Magic Goddess herself is part of that network… But that’s irrelevant. What matters is that by studying the magic network, mages can use magic more effectively and diversely to achieve their goals. Well, since there are still a few basic spells left, I’ll demonstrate them for you. Look—”
Moriel whispered a spell.
A small medicine bottle floated unsteadily up from the box at their feet and landed automatically in Moriel’s hand. “See, this is a basic spell—actually, it can’t even be called a spell; it’s just a trick. It can move small objects around, one at a time. I know some people can move much larger objects, and not just one at a time. So does that mean they’re far stronger than me?”
Moriel snapped his fingers again.
The air inside the tent seemed to vibrate slightly, very faintly.
“That’s a spell of dizziness. It’s useless on someone brainless like you. But you should know that if I use this spell to attack those who can move objects, the only result will be that they’ll throw everything on the ground and be stunned—Actually, it’s just using the same amount of magic energy in different ways through the magic network.”
Moriel moved his head slightly to make himself more comfortable. “The only problem with mages is that they have to use complex spells, gestures, or runes to achieve their desired effects. Many also require materials, while those who are born with the ability to use only a few types of magic don’t need any of that and can act much faster—The more advanced the spell, the longer it takes and the more complex the process. And after each spell is cast, the magic network reclaims the energy spent as a cost. It’s not a big deal, because nothing comes for free. If you want to use it again, you have to meditate and spend the same amount of energy to remember it again. This is also the most vulnerable moment for mages—they’re almost defenseless.”
“That’s why mages use construct creatures as bodyguards,” Si Qishi interjected.

“Ordinary mages can’t afford to create construct creatures—the cost is much higher than you think.” Moriel tapped on Forty-Seven’s armor. “Someone like you is even rarer; they’re more complex and difficult to create, yet their combat power isn’t necessarily greater. Did that dead mage use you as a steward?”
“Uh… it was an accident,” Forty-Seven replied perfunctorily.
“Hmph. Accidents in magic aren’t this lucky. Never mind. Sooner or later, I’ll be able to access a higher-level magic network, master more advanced spells, then study that dead mage’s notes. After that, I’ll take you apart and study you thoroughly—excluding basic and legendary spells, magic is divided into nine levels in total, and I can only cast level three spells at most… And if it weren’t for… never mind.”
Moriel closed her eyes. “You stupid construct just need to protect my safety. It won’t be long before I can craft a wand. I just never wanted to study this before. If I equip you with a magic missile wand, you’ll have some magical attack capabilities too. Go to sleep. I still need to memorize the spells for tomorrow.”
“Hmm.” Forty-Seven showed surprisingly little interest in this promise. “So… what if one day the magic network disappears?”
“Disappears?”
“Yeah, vanishes, or rather, they forbid you from using it.”
“Ha, how is that possible?” Moriel laughed, opening her eyes to look at Forty-Seven, meeting those two glowing red dots.
“Yeah, how is that possible?” Forty-Seven glanced up at the tent roof again. He had seen the planet’s entire weapon defense system go down before, and all it took was an AI shutting down the planet’s photon network—was that so different from some magic goddess and her magic network?
“Damn, we’re taking turns on night watch… What do you think that female mage and her pet are doing in the tent?” Quick grinned lewdly, wiping his dagger with saliva, or rather lubricating it with it. “Is she maybe using a golem’s iron fingers to masturbate?”
“Shut your leaky mouth! If the mage hears you, your chin won’t just get smashed like last time when you angered Lord Bloodaxe with his axe handle.” Jason lay by the fire, mocking him. “Remember Castor?”
“What’s so great about him…” Kane was applying medicine to his injured arm, groaning in pain. “If it weren’t for that mage and her idiot follower, we wouldn’t have been attacked by goblins at all!”
“Oh? Then maybe the mage shouldn’t have used toxicity detection to reassure you.” Jason turned over. Not far away, the werewolf was licking his wounds beside Bloodaxe’s tent, while Copper Hammer was already fast asleep, snoring just as loudly.
“Go to sleep. You’re on night watch today, Quick. It’s a bargain for you… Who knows what we’ll encounter next.”