Chapter 136: Evenly Matched-I Can Extract Objects from Mirrors(Contemplating the cat in solitude before the wall)

Chu Yun chose not to use his Flight Wings to escape the quicksand. As the Ethereal Boots emitted a faint glow, his body vanished from the spot in an instant.

The next moment, Chu Yun appeared outside the Death Desert, narrowly avoiding the onrushing hell of quicksand.

“Annihilation Divine Lightning!”

Lightning descended from the heavens. Annihilation Divine Lightning possessed an extremely powerful ability to dispel magic, and the shield Hope had released through his equipment was shattered almost instantly. Before Hope could react, Chu Yun’s follow-up Mana Blast had already arrived.

“Boom!”

Three beams struck Hope, who was no longer protected by his shield. A mage’s physical body was exceedingly fragile without defensive magic. Unable to withstand the Mana Blast, Hope was blown to pieces.

A true battle often ended within only a few exchanges. Those drawn-out clashes lasting hundreds of rounds usually occurred only between two tank-type combatants.

“Combat awareness and experience really are important. In a mage’s battle, the ability to identify spells can provide the advantage of striking first…” Chu Yun reviewed the fight and drew his conclusions.

Hope was an academic mage devoted to research and had little experience in combat. Moreover, he was merely a mirror duplicate, so it was hardly surprising that he had lost to Chu Yun.

Aside from knowing relatively few third-tier spells, Chu Yun’s attributes and mental power had, in truth, already far surpassed those of an ordinary third-tier mage.

Chu Yun walked over to the items Hope had dropped. His signature spell, Quicksand: Death Desert, had been among them. He had also discovered a trick to duplicating mirror images. In addition to randomly copying skills from the mirror duplicate, he could copy a dropped item to reproduce a specific skill more accurately.

However, this spell was too special. Rather than copying it, he turned toward Hope’s translucent mirror image and activated his duplication ability.

[Duplication successful. Acquired third-tier spell: Meteor.]

Meteor was the spell previously used by the Dragon Soul Priest of the Dragon Worshippers to force Haig into submission.

Under ordinary circumstances, this spell was not well suited for one-on-one combat. However, in group battles, military engagements, or fights against monsters, it could display tremendous power. If luck was on one’s side, a third-tier Meteor could even achieve effects beyond those of certain fourth-tier spells.

Although the spell was unsuitable for a practical combat examination, it was more than adequate for the basic spell examination. Until he copied another third-tier spell, keeping it for the time being seemed like a reasonable choice.

After copying Hope’s spell, Chu Yun stuffed the Quicksand spell that had fallen to the ground back into Hope’s body, accelerating his recovery.

Each mirror duplicate could have only one skill copied from it each time it died. Chu Yun now needed to deal with another mirror duplicate living in the third-tier mage district.

“Let’s see who lives here.”

Another cheap Mana Blast shot out, and the mage’s residence was instantly blown apart.

Before long, a furious female mage charged out. The person living there was none other than Selena.

As an inspector, Selena was nominally responsible for overseeing the construction of the Magic Academy. In truth, however, her grandmother had deliberately left her here to receive instruction from Nelson.

Selena was a prodigy. Although her grandmother was immensely powerful, she had already taught Selena most of what she could. All that remained was for the girl to absorb the knowledge and cultivate on her own.

Nelson’s attainments in earth-element magic were exceptionally high, so Selena’s grandmother had wanted her to come here and learn from him. For the sake of her granddaughter’s future, even though she was reluctant to part with her and detested Nelson, she had no choice but to put Selena’s prospects first.

In reality, there were quite a few powerful earth mages in the imperial capital. However, the stronger a mage was, the more conservative they tended to be. They would never casually teach others their truly valuable knowledge. Nelson was different. He practically wanted to lock Selena up and tutor her every day, pouring out everything he had learned throughout his life.

Thus, Selena had temporarily settled in Blackstone City. Since she disliked being nagged by Nelson every day, she had not moved into his house. Instead, she had relocated to a new apartment near the school.

“A genius mage from the imperial capital? Then let’s see just how capable you really are.” Chu Yun grew interested. Selena was a combat-oriented mage who, despite her young age, had challenged and defeated nearly every mage of the same rank in the capital.

Chu Yun was somewhat older than her, so they could not truly be considered peers. Yet he had been learning magic for less than a month, which made a battle between them reasonably fair.

The moment the battle began, Selena’s mirror duplicate unleashed a special ability that left Chu Yun astonished. This genius girl could actually cast two different spells simultaneously!

Chu Yun’s dual casting essentially relied on elemental resonance to cause the same spell to appear twice. Selena’s dual casting was entirely different.

She could divide her attention, construct two spell models at once, and then cast them using simplified one-handed gestures.

Selena truly deserved to be called a genius who had been capable of modifying spell models on her own since childhood. After her alterations, the spells were only slightly weaker than those cast normally, yet she could release two of them simultaneously.

The spells Selena had primarily learned from her grandmother were ice-element spells. She now cast Ice Lance at Chu Yun with one hand while using the other to release Ice Mirror, obscuring his vision.

Numerous mirrors made of ice appeared around Chu Yun. Each one reflected an image of Selena, making it difficult to determine which was her true body. Ice lances attacked from every direction, leaving Chu Yun at a temporary disadvantage.

“Burning Hands!”

Roaring flames melted the incoming ice lances. However, the heat of the fire created a veil of white mist in the frigid surroundings, making Selena’s true body even more difficult to locate.

—

While raising a shield, Chu Yun spread out his senses, trying to determine Selena’s position.

The interference produced by the ice mirrors was highly effective. Relying solely on mental perception to detect her presence was far from easy.

Just as Chu Yun was searching for her whereabouts, Selena launched another attack.

All the images in the ten ice mirrors turned toward Chu Yun. Then ten Freezing Orbs flew toward him.

Every orb looked completely real, making it impossible to tell which were genuine and which were illusions.

Freezing Orb was a second-tier spell. Once it struck, the victim’s body temperature would plummet, freezing them into an ice sculpture. It was extremely dangerous.

“What a nuisance. I’d better get out of the way first.”

Chu Yun activated the teleportation ability of his Ethereal Boots and avoided the attack.

Two of the ten Freezing Orbs changed direction. The rest continued along their original paths, collided with one another, and dissolved into icy mist.

The two that had changed direction were both real. Under Selena’s control, they continued flying toward Chu Yun.

Once he had created some distance, Chu Yun finally had time to cast a spell. A bolt of Annihilation Divine Lightning destroyed one of the Freezing Orbs.

Selena, however, seemed to have anticipated this outcome. At that very moment, the other Freezing Orb suddenly accelerated several times over. Chu Yun had no time to react before it struck him.

Mage’s Protection activated automatically, keeping the Freezing Orb outside. Even so, a layer of frost quickly formed across the shield.

Still shaken, Chu Yun took out the Tome of Explosive Flames and began chanting the invocation for summoning fire elementals. Mage’s Protection possessed formidable defensive power, enough to withstand the successive barrage of ice lances.