Chapter 42: The Dying Fire Mage [Seeking Recommendations and Collections]

What responded to it were the combat blades of three Wolf Cavalrymen, who rapidly closed the distance and slashed at its body.

The three Wolf Cavalrymen simultaneously activated their combat skill: Saber Slash!

Three silvery-white arcs of blade light appeared, striking directly into the back of the Mutated Ghoul.

Three instances of slashing damage, amplified by a 1.5x multiplier, instantly appeared above its head.

【-85】

【-85】

【-85】

This dealt a massive 255 points of damage, and that was even with the Mutated Ghoul possessing 10 points of armor. Otherwise, these three strikes would have been enough to instantly kill it.

Now, the Mutated Ghoul was left with only a sliver of health.

"Let me get the finishing blow!"

Zong Shen shouted, stopping Tiezhu, who was about to launch an attack from the shadows.

It was a joke—by taking the kill himself, he would get half the experience, and the soldiers participating in the battle would split the other half.

He stepped forward quickly and swung his sword!

【-36】

The Mutated Ghoul's health was instantly depleted.

It dissolved into several clumps of light floating in place.

Among them, there was actually a clump of blue light.

In addition, there was a man covered in mucus, clinging to life.

This fellow must have been swallowed directly by the Mutated Ghoul just now. That was why the ghoul's belly had been so bloated.

Now that the Mutated Ghoul had been eliminated by Zong Shen, this lucky fellow had been saved.

【Killed Lv.16 Mutated Ghoul】 【Gained 880 Experience Points】 【Gained Mutated Ghoul's Fangs ×10】 【Gained Complete Green Soul ×1】 【Gained Ghoul's Ring (Blue) ×1】 【Gained Cellar Construction Blueprint ×1】 【Gained Rune Iron Gate Key ×1】

Five white lights flashed simultaneously.

Tiezhu, Zong Shen, the three Wolf Cavalrymen, and the giant wolves beneath them all leveled up.

The Wolf Cavalrymen reached Lv.11, Tiezhu reached Lv.5, and Zong Shen himself reached Lv.6, being just a little short of Lv.7.

Zong Shen took a quick glance; Tiezhu had put all his attribute points into Agility, while the Wolf Cavalrymen had all invested in Strength.

Their combat strength had all seen a slight increase.

As long as they engaged in prolonged combat, soldiers could achieve continuous strength improvements through leveling up and equipment upgrades.

Next, Zong Shen turned his attention to the equipment.

There was actually blue-quality equipment. This was the first time he had obtained such a drop.

He wasn't in a hurry for the other items; equipment needed to be inspected first.

【Ghoul's Ring (Blue)】 【Quality: Excellent】 【Effects: Strength +3, Agility +3, HP +50】 【Skill: Summon Ghoul Lv.10 (Summons 2 ordinary Lv.10 Ghouls to fight for you; duration 10m; cooldown 8h)】 (Congratulations, Blue Quality, Excellent Grade. You deserve to own this.)

Zong Shen immediately slipped the ring onto his finger.

After equipping it, his Strength became 21, his Agility became 11, and his HP soared to 253.

His attributes had received a significant boost.

As expected of blue-quality equipment. It seemed to be a tier higher than green quality, though not as precious as purple.

So far, Zong Shen had discovered six grades: Broken (Gray), Common (White), Refined (Green), Excellent (Blue), Rare (Purple), and Legendary (Orange).

A preliminary quality ladder had been established. As for whether there were better qualities beyond Legendary, Zong Shen would need to continue his exploration.

Following his usual habit, Zong Shen put the other rewards away first.

He turned his gaze toward the man wrapped in the mass of mucus.

The man was wearing a mage's robe adorned with flame runes, and he held a short staff topped with a fiery red gem, which looked quite valuable.

Zong Shen wondered if he should strip the fellow's equipment first.

【Dying Fire Mage: Favide】 【Aptitude: Excellent】 【Level: Lv.10】 【Attributes: (Click to expand)】 【Satiety: 80】 【Loyalty: 0 (Original master deceased, unowned status)】 【Occupies 2 Command Points】 【(Click to Save and Recruit)】

It seemed this fellow was a soldier belonging to that previous unlucky lord. He was a fire mage.

Unfortunately, he had been swallowed by the Mutated Ghoul. Without strong soldiers, that unlucky lord naturally couldn't be a match for the ghoul and was quickly killed.

An average lord would find it difficult to reach Zong Shen's level of individual combat strength. Currently, Zong Shen's combat power was approaching that of a Wolf Cavalryman without a mount. This was largely due to his decision to follow a Strength-based build from the start.

Since this dying mage could be recruited, Zong Shen pondered for a moment and then expanded the attributes.

【Fire Mage: Favide】 【Strength: 13】 【Agility: 12】 【Intelligence: 30】 【Charisma: 9】 【HP: 13/285】 【MP: 27/385】 【Magic Damage: 46~49】 【Blunt Damage: 18~21】 【Head Armor: 0】 【Upper Body Armor: 19】 【Lower Body Armor: 9】 【Magic Resistance: 9】 【Skills: Fire Rain (Cast time 10s; summons 10 waves of fire rain to attack a designated area; each wave deals a fixed 80 magic damage and 8 burn damage; consumes 100 MP; cooldown 30m), Magic Amplification (Magic recovery speed increased by 20%), Small Fireball (Cast time 2s; consumes 20 MP; fires a small fireball dealing 1.2x magic damage and continuous burn damage of 0.1x magic damage per second for 3 seconds), Exploding Fireball (Cast time 5s; consumes 50 MP; fires an exploding fireball dealing 1.5x magic damage, 1.5x explosion damage, and continuous burn damage for 3 seconds)】

Very strong. This output was off the charts.

Especially the Exploding Fireball. Magic damage + explosion damage + burn damage.

In terms of skill output, this guy was even stronger than Tasia. This was the characteristic of fire mages; their fire magic possessed extremely high lethality, ranking in the top three among all mages.

He had struck gold.

Facing such a powerful fire mage, Zong Shen naturally had no reason to refuse. He decisively chose to save and recruit him.

【Please restore Favide's HP to above 50 first】

"Boys, lift him up," Zong Shen called out.

In the next moment, several burly men crowded around...

Then, Zong Shen took out a wooden bucket containing about 80ml of Moon Spring water. These were the Moon Spring waters he had brought out for trading this morning; since 80ml remained, he had brought it along for backup.

Zong Shen had Colby pry open the fire mage's mouth and then poured half of the Moon Spring water directly in.

"Cough, cough..."

After a light cough from choking on the water, Favide slowly woke up. However, his expression was still somewhat dazed.

"Did you save me?" "Where is my Lord?"

Zong Shen leaned in front of him. He hadn't expected him to be such a handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes.

However, the smell on his body was truly hard to compliment. The mucus emitted a strong stench of rot and acidity.

Zong Shen looked at him and flashed a smile.

"Brave mage, it was indeed I who saved you..."