Chapter 89: The Illusion inside the Jungle.
Elenka's grandfather left a map for the route to the Spider Cave. The old mage, who had a keen interest in adventurous exploration, had some skill with map drawing. So, even though the map he left with the Dokdo family was just a backup map, it was still fairly detailed.
Punk was now in the dense Jungle, and the area under his feet was actually the central area of the dense Jungle. This Jungle was a forbidden place for ordinary people, as there were many magic beasts with great power walking everywhere, and here even those ordinary fierce beasts were just snacks for the magic beasts living at the bottom of the food chain.But most of these magical creatures only had apprentice-level strength, so after sensing Punk's official-level aura, no creature dared to approach near him.
After gently rubbing the parchment map, Punk paused and instructed No. One, who was dressed in a gray robe, to protect him. However, since No. One had limited intelligence and poor judgment, it ended up tearing apart all the items in its vicinity, including a leaf that came near Punk. Punk after seeing such hyper-alertness of No. One, Punk returned to examining the map left behind by Elenka's grandfather.
The parchment map he held displayed numerous subtle and mysterious ink lines. It would be hard for an ordinary person to believe that a person could draw such horizontal and vertical lines on paper.
Punk carefully injected some mana into the magic formation engraved in the parchment. Once it absorbed this energy, the seemingly ordinary paper started giving off a soft blue glow. Surprisingly, the lines drawn in ink lifted off the parchment and shaped into a 3D map in the midair.
The map depicted nearly half of the lush Jungle's iconic terrain. From the tall cliff to the small stream, everything was clearly visible, and its quality was not even inferior to some well-made 3D presentation from the earth.
Punk zoomed in on the 3D map, and through some prophetic spells, he easily found out his exact position on it.
According to the map, he was already very close to the Spider Cave, and it was even possible that he was standing right beside the cave,
but...
Punk carefully stored the map and then made a puzzled face while scanning the area. All he saw were trees, vines, and occasional bird sounds in the jungle. Not many folks came to this remote part of the lush jungle, so the ground was covered in a thick, green moss.
So now the question in Punk mind was,
"where is the spider cave...?"
Punk didn't find the spider cave, but he also didn't think that he was in the wrong place. The prophesy spell clearly showed that he was very close to the spider cave, but he couldn't see a single trace of the spider cave for some reason.
"Illusion! Or it is located in a different plane!"
Punk made an educated guess. He ruled out the possibility of someone hiding in a different world because only master level mages could open gateways to other realms. Unlike the Abyss, other dimensions weren't friendly to outsiders. If the person controlling the spider cave was already an Master mage, there'd be no need to hide in this distant forest and act in such sneaky manner.
So...Illusion was almost the only conclusion!
Knowing the root cause of the problem, Punk was eager to quickly solve the puzzle of unraveling the Illusion.
He understood that to unravel an Illusion, you had to start by identifying its origin. If it was a mental illusion, a mental defense spell could help resist it. If it was a magical illusion, using "True vision" would be very helpful to see through it.
To be on the safe side, Punk first blessed himself with a mental spell, "Mental barrier."
A large amount of mana was quickly transferred into mental power, then these mental powers, outside Punk's control, created a barrier around his soul.
But even after that, everything was the same as before in front of his eyes, so Punk rechecked the Mental barrier, but he didn't found any corrosion of any external energy.
So now...
"It is an illusion created by a spell..."
Punk took the staff out of his back expressionlessly. The emerald green staff was now connected with his soul, so as soon as he held it in his hand, the emerald ball at the top staff began to emit a clear emerald halo...
Although Punk still seemed to be indifferent on the surface, but as soon as he suspected the existence of the Illusion, his heart immediately became very alert, because he knew that the enemy was most probably already preparing for a surprise attack under the cover of the Illusion.
"Since you are so insisted on hiding, then I will have to force you out."
Punk whispered coldly.
But there still no other sound around but the rustles of wind blowing through the leaves! But somehow, a tense atmosphere was formed automatically.
As a mage, Punk was not good at this kind of sneaky confrontation, and the unknown factor of the enemy was also very unfavourable to him. But Punk had a little experience when it came to dealing with this type of hidden enemy.
Since the enemy was so determined on hiding, it proved that the enemy's frontal combat ability was not strong enough. So as long as they were forced into revealing themselves, the situation would be reversed immediately.
After deciding on his following actions, Punk ordered No. One to continue its guarding, then he quickly took out a handful of some kind of powder and chanted a spell in a low voice in a focused manner.
"Official-Level Spell- Cursed Fire."
As the spell was quickly chanted, the powder also turned into hot green sparks with high temperature and formed a small cluster of green fires on Punk's hand.
At this time, the average enemy would choose to attack the mage who was preparing his spell; because a mage's most vulnerable time was when they were preparing an unfamiliar spell, and at that time, even a slight distraction could lead to the spell crashing inside their mind palace, which could injure their soul.
Punk was secretly very alert when he was preparing the Cursed fire's spell model. Though it seemed like he was struggling to manage an unfamiliar spell with some mistakes in his actions, he was actually ready to cancel the spell at a moment's notice. If the enemy tried to exploit this situation, they would face a swift and powerful kinetic energy burst spell.
But... the enemy did not appear...
"Since you haven't come out yet, you don't have to come out anymore"!
A cold light flashed in Punk's eyes. As he still wasn't entirely sure if it was the enemy who was playing tricks or the source of the Illusion was a magical item, he especially chose "Cursed Fire" because although it was an extremely mana consuming spell but it was also enough to destroy any Ordinary magic items or kill any Assassin without some powerful trump card.
With the high-speed rotation of the brilliant blue mana in Punk's pupils, the green flame swaying in his palm violently formed a massive green ring of fire. The fire ring then started to spread and burn everything around Punk and the No. 1. The cursed green flames slowly spread across the Jungle. The giant trees turned into a dark green torch and started to make a crackling sound. The high temperature instantly evaporated the moisture from the tree leaves.
The Cursed fire spell covered an area of about 400 square meters and actively burned for fifteen seconds.
The flame created by this spell did not have a very high temperature, just a little more than 700 degrees, which was not even comparable to some trainee-level spells.
But there was one significant trait of the cursed fire was its ability to be exceptionally challenging to put out on the battlefield.
This cursed fire, which could set almost anything ablaze, proved even more stubborn to extinguish than white phosphorus incendiary bombs. If it touched even a bit, its relentless flames would keep burning on the skin until it turned the person into ashes.
On one hand, using this spell allowed One to deliver a relentless attack to the enemy, and on the other hand, it could serve as a distinct mark on the opponent's body!
but...
Punk's pupils shrank, and he looked around again, but except for the raging green flames, nothing unusual could be seen. And there was still no trace of the spider cave!
"Then is it really not here?"
" Underground maybe!, no, then No. 1 would have found it..."
"So then...the sky!"
The moment this thought appeared on Punk's mind, a shadow suddenly appeared above him, and a feeling of danger became very clear in his heart.
However, instead of getting nervous, he felt quite pleased. The enemy's skill in hiding was impressive, and if the opponent didn't reveal themselves. But now... it seemed this person couldn't keep quiet any longer and was planning a surprise attack while he is in a state of "confusion"!
Weekly Power Status
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