Abe the Wizard

Wizard Lucian’s voice echoed across the air, “The wizard’s war shall commence! There will be one hour of fighting between the Lightning clan and the Blizzard clan. Again, I would like to implore both sides to follow the rules of the Wizard Union. Any violators of the rules will face sanction from the Wizard Union.”

Wizard Jevos was very excited to hear this, “It’s here! It’s here! Place your bets, everyone! It’ll be one to five if you bet that the lightning clan can break through the city’s large circle. If you are bet that the lightning clan can’t, your at one to one point two!”

Abel didn’t know what to think regarding what he saw next. The wizards beside him passed the gemstones that they had to Wizard Jevos. The bets were placed very quickly. It was like they did this before. Rather, maybe they didn’t want the lightning clan and the Blizzard clan to know that they were doing this at all. If they were found to be betting on this wizard’s war, maybe they would be annihilated by the wizards fighting on the battlefield.

By the way, it seemed that the wizards here had a lot of faith in the lightning clan. It was almost like they never thought that the lightning clan would lose at all. There wasn’t even the option to bet on the chance that they would lose, actually.

As soon as Wizard Lucian declared the commencement of the wizard’s war, a rank twenty wizard from the lightning teleported himself to a spot that was 200 meters outside of the city gate. He was putting himself in the attack range of the enemy wizards on the city wall.

The rank twenty lightning clan wizard announced, “Wizard Marz! Everyone here knows why I came here today. Wizard Abel is a member of the lightning clan, and it is a direct violation for you to put up a bounty on him. I don’t think I need to make that point any clearer at this point! If you continue to do so after today’s battle, then I’m warning you. Elder Hal has already made it official that he’s going to participate in the next wizard’s war.”

Elder Marz called back in a clearly weakened voice, “Well, Wizard Hog, I want to state first that we didn’t know that Wizard Abel is a member of the lightning clan! We did not know! Also, the bounty wasn’t put up for no reason! Wizard Abel attacked Frost City, so we declared him a wanted man. And, and! I thought Elder Hal just became a wizard mediator, and now you’re saying, what, the referee is going to be the one playing the game? Have you no respect for the rules of the Wizard Union?”

“Ha!” Wizard Hog responded with a burst of loud laughter, “That’s a good joke from you, Wizard Marz! When was the last time you’ve heard a rank sixteen wizard invading an entire city? And Elder Hal just got promoted very recently, but he’s not quite done with all of you yet. He’s still very interested in the Blizzard clan from what I’ve heard lately.”

Elder Marz’s expression changed when he heard that. The statement “he’s not quite done” sounded quite normal, but there was certainly a lot of weight behind these words.

Usually, most regular advanced wizards would reach the end of their lives once at rank twenty. There were a few exceptions to that. Those with talents and luck might find themselves breaking through their boundaries and become what was known as “wizard mediator.” As the name suggested, wizard mediators were those who have essentially ascended to a point where they no longer had to follow the norms. Regular wizards were no match for them, so their only enemies would be other mediator wizards.

The Wizard Union set some rules to keep these “living weapons of mass murder” under control. For starters, they were not allowed to participate in any wizard’s war was held by the wizard organization. It was the same as any conventional warfare, but there were still exceptions to everything. For example, if one just became a wizard mediator, there would be one free chance for him to engage in any warfare he wanted without caring for the Wizard Union’s rules.

Elder Bunch called out loudly, “We’ll cancel the bounty on Wizard Abel today, Wizard Hog! It doesn’t matter which side wins. We’ll get it done!”

Wizard Hog laughed out loudly, “Sure, sure! Let’s get into it then!”

After saying that, a “lightning” spell rune appeared on the lightning staff in Wizard Hog’s right hand, and a lightning bolt was shot towards the city gate. Simultaneously, an “instantaneous movement” spell rune appeared in his left hand, helping him dodge the countless arrows and one “blizzard” spell that were immediately shot towards him.

Wizard Hog’s first shot was the fire that ignited the whole war. As soon as he made his move, the other nine lightning clan wizards, excluding three rank seventeen wizards, started using their spells to attack the city’s large circle. Their goal was very simple: to inflict as much loss upon the Blizzard clan as possible by attacking the city’s large circle. Their goal wasn’t really to destroy the city’s large circle, by the way, because it wasn’t really possible for them to invade Frost City.

The seven advanced wizards continued to dodge between the spells and arrows that were thrown at them. The lightning spells in their hands were repeatedly activated as they did everything they could to damage the city gate. The process was quite tedious, but the lightning arcs were really starting to erode the city’s large circle over time.

Meanwhile, three rank seventeen wizards took some mechanical parts from their portal items and tried to assemble them. Since they were about one kilometer from the wall, it wasn’t all that possible for the Blizzard clan to deal any real damage to them at all. When they finished assembling all the parts, they produced a long-distance ballista cannon which they placed on the ground.

Two of the rank seventeen advanced wizards stood on either side of the long-distance ballista cannon. They both had their hands on it, while the other rank seventeen wizards had his hand on the back of the cannon. The one at the back then took out a cannon that had runes drawn all over it.

One of the wizards on the hill screamed in excitement, “Ha, ha ha! I think the chances are higher for the lightning clan now!”

Needless to say, he must’ve placed a lot of bet on the lightning clan.

Wizard Jevos sighed, “That’s a lot of money the lightning clan’s put. I didn’t think they’d take out arrows that could explode.”

Abel seemed kind of confused, ‘What do the explosive arrows do?”

Wizard Jevos reminded him, “Be careful when you see these explosive ones, Druid Bennett. They are not all that effective against wizards that can use the “instantaneous movement,” but for fixed targets, they can be quite deadly for someone in your class.”

Right. Abel was a druid now, so he couldn’t move rapidly as a wizard could.

Wizard Jevos continued to speak, “Once the explosive arrows hit their target, the runes drawn on it will also crack and explode, turning the arrow into countless fragment pieces. A lot of elemental and physical attacks will be released in a way that they can break through most defensive spells.”

Abel’s eyes sparkled when he heard this. If there were more of these arrows, they’d probably become so powerful that they could obliterate an entire area.

Wizard Jevos chuckled as he knew what Abel was thinking, “Dream on if you want, Druid Bennett, but those things cost points. I don’t think you’d have any points on you, no?”

On the battlefield, the three rank seventeen wizards already had their hands on the long-distance cannons. The cannon just had all the explosive arrows ready. The three wizards first disappeared from their original spot before they reappeared to a spot that was 200 meters from the city gate. The wizard at the back of the canon then loaded another arrow on the cannon. The three disappeared once more, this time at a spot that was a kilometer away from the city gate. They were very experienced, by the way. It was almost like they were a single person that did all this. The cannon, added with the force of the explosive arrow, could produce an attack that was the equivalent to what Wizard Hog, a rank twenty wizard, was capable of producing.

The city spirit’s voice came out to remind the three elders, “Elders! Two of the top-level gemstones have been reduced!”

Elder Langland was frustrated to hear this, “Damn! Ugh! Let me go out after them!”

Elder Bunch spoke calmly, “If you want to die, Langland, I’m not really going to stop you.”

Elder Marz shook his head, “Let’s… just wait. Give the lightning clan some time to vent out their anger and whatnot. Otherwise, the loss is on us if they go out to take the resources now.”

The three elders knew something very well. Despite having just one rank twenty wizard, the lightning clan was an elite team that consisted of some of the most terrifying fighters on the central continent. Even without having too much of a difference in their rankings, if the lightning wizards could hit their opponents with a zapping spell, then that opponent would be easily immobilized before they died completely. This way, the death rate was too high for the Blizzard clan seniors to really want to have a stand-off against the lightning clan’s wizards.

Abel was standing on the small hill as he watched the ten lightning clan wizards fighting for him. He felt very emotional. He felt especially emotional when he learned how valuable the explosive arrow was. “That’s it,” he thought to himself as he could no longer bear the thought of simply being a bystander. He tapped the neck of the dire wolf he was riding, and the dire wolf backed away and left the hill quietly.

Wizard Jevos didn’t say anything when he saw Abel leaving. He thought that it was a shame that Abel couldn’t watch the whole fight end, but he was too interested to see what’s going to happen next himself.

Once arriving in the middle of the forest, Abel used his transformation necklace to turn himself back into his original form. He was back into his human form. After that, he placed his left hand in front of his chest to summon Johnson. He activated the “instantaneous movement’ spell rune to get himself on Johnson’s shoulder. He was going to face off against a rank twenty wizard from here. He needed protection if he wanted to do this confidently.

Johnson took some very large steps as it walked towards the battlefield. Its gigantic body attracted the attention of everyone within or outside the battleground.

Wizard Lucian teleported next to Johnson and spoke to Abel, “You trying to join this wizard’s war, little fella?”

Abel said as he performed a wizard’s bow, “Respectable wizard mediator, yes. I want to participate in this wizard’s war as a member of the lightning clan.”

“Hey! Wizard Hog!” Wizard Lucian turned his head and screamed towards Wizard Hog, “Is this your member? Are you all crazy? Why would you let such a young man run around here by himself? Are you seriously thinking about having him fight with you?”

Having heard that, WIzard Hog immediately teleported himself to Johnson’s shoulder. He revealed a wide smile as he saw Abel’s face.

“You must be Abel, aren’t you? Dunn’s talked a lot about you with me.”

Abel jumped down to bow towards Wizard Hog, “My name is Abel Harry Wizard Hog. I’m deeply grateful for you starting this wizard’s war for me.”

Abel just jumped down from the shoulder of a ten-meter tall monstrosity. Wizard Hog and Wizard Lucian couldn’t help but be taken by surprise by that. Abel must’ve been above a regular wizard already in terms of his physical capability. That was not very commonly seen from wizards, because normally, while their mana resistance would increase exponentially after using mana for a long period of time, it would take a toll on their physical health. It was the same whether they were doing promotion or regular meditation, so having a physically strong body was a very good indicator of how much potential a wizard would have.

Again, Abel was just nineteen years old. As long as he wasn’t dead, given the ridiculous amount of progress he was making, he had the chance to be a wizard mediator. That was going to be awfully good for the lightning clan.

Wizard Lucian was thinking the same thing regarding Abel. He wanted to be on good terms with him before he really reached his full potential.

Wizard Hog started talking a lot, “Did you know, Wizard Abel? This isn’t really just about you, but we’ll get to that later. I’ve heard that, uh, well, you are Wizard Morton’s apprentice. How’s he doing now, if I may ask? I was the one who watched him grow up, and wow, time really flies. I mean, just look at you! I didn’t think that it would be this soon for one of his students to become an advanced wizard.”

Abel bowed humbly, “Mentor? Oh, he just became a rank twelve intermediate wizard. Given how good the Holy Continent’s environment is becoming, I believe that he’s going to have another promotion soon.”

It was surprising to see Wizard Morton’s seniors here, from Abel’s perspective. That made him humbler in terms of his attitude.