Chapter 106: Fake?

The ice didn’t hinder the Centaur Knight’s movements at all; it merely raised its shield and blocked the shards.

Facing the Centaur Knight’s unstoppable charge, the heavily-armored Swordsman was also forced back.

But the moment he turned around retreated a few steps back, his fate was already decided.

The heavily-armored Swordsman lifted his sword, intending to counterattack. Suddenly, a towering shadow loomed over him. When he looked over his shoulders, he saw the Centaur Knight’s huge body just a few centimeters away from his face!

Sh*t!!

That was the last thing he could remember saying before his mind was sent into a whirl. The Centaur Knight smashed its shield into his chest and sent him flying, landing on the ground a few moments later. All he could do now was moan in agony while clutching his stomach.

He was out of the battle.

“Andon!”

The Ranger who was about to attack apparently didn’t expect that his comrade to fall in one hit. As a result, he panicked and released an arrow towards the Centaur Knight before quickly backing off. Their original plan was to let the Swordsman hold the Centaur Knight’s attention while the other three would find opportunities to attack. Alas, the plan hadn’t lasted ten seconds before it shattered. The Ranger wasn’t ready for such a drastic change in the plan at its initial stages, so he could only back off and think of other options.

At that moment, the Thief who had been concealing himself also made his move.

If he knew that Andon would fail so miserably, he would’ve hesitated and retreated like the Ranger. But it was too late as, by the time he attacked, Andon had already been knocked out. In a blink of an eye, his outcome was decided.

An intense wave of pain swept through the Thief’s body. The Centaur Knight kicked backward using its two hind legs, stamping two black hoof prints on his chest. After that, the Thief was no different from the Swordsman and was left groaning on the ground.

If the Centaur Knight hadn’t held back its strength, perhaps his ribcage would already have been shattered.

With two down, the Centaur Knight now shifted his attention to Randolf and rushed towards him.

“Lapis!”

Randolf quickly pulled his bow and yelled. He shot another arrow towards the Centaur Knight’s chest, but its armor deflected it easily. The girl who Randolf shouted at recovered from her shock and grabbed another flask before throwing it onto the ground in front of Randolf.

On the surface, nothing seemed to have changed. But when the Centaur Knight galloped near Randolf, its huge body halted abruptly and tilted forward. Because of the inertia, the Centaur Knight ended in an awkward position; its two front hooves were stuck in the ground as though it was made out of mud. It began struggling wildly, but its legs sunk deeper into the ground the more it tried to move.

“That is indeed Elemental Fusion.”

Marlene said as she propped her chin with her fingers. She stared at the girl curiously with a glimmer of delight.

“That’s strange… since she has already learned about Elemental Fusion, why would she use such elementary spells?”

When Rhode caught Marlene talking to herself, he chose to stay silent. He was also paying close attention to the girl named Lapis. As for the matter Marlene was thinking about, Rhode naturally knew her doubts.

Typically, when someone manages to reach the level of Elemental Fusion, it means that his or her ability is comparable to that of a full-fledged Alchemist. Alchemists were able to produce magic items and cast low-tier spells via concoction, but Lapis hadn’t shown any magic instruments nor used any low-tier spells. All she did was imitate apprentice-level spells. Although her spells were passable, other than in training, there was no point for her to store these spells in flasks as they could be learned easily.

The purpose of alchemy was to make complicated things easier, but all Lapis was doing was making it more complicated.

As for the level of this alchemy, not only could Marlene passively ignore it, it could also be blocked by Lize’s barrier. Rather than wasting time to concoct the spells into a flask, wasn’t it better to use her Ranger skills?

When the two of them were still trying to figure out her intentions, the battle had already been decided.

Although they took the Centaur Knight by surprise, Randolf still didn’t manage to win. When the Centaur Knight realized that it couldn’t leave the trap, it hurled its spear at Randolf when he least expected it. As Randolf was in the midst of nocking his arrow, he didn’t manage to react in time and was the third person to be sent flying.

Lapis, being the last one standing, knew that her brother was in a difficult position. She once again tried to attack the enemy by using alchemy, but her performance made Rhode and Marlene sigh at the same time.

The Centaur Knight caught sight of her movements and tossed its shield towards her. With an ear-piercing screech, the shield shot past her head. Lapis immediately lost her courage and squatted down with her hands on above her head. Apparently, she forgot what she was supposed to do.

A group of newbies.

From the beginning to the end, it took no less than thirty seconds for the Centaur Knight to wipe the floor with them. Rhode shook his head in disappointment. Frankly, this standard was even worse than the newbie players.

Ask them to go on a mission with him with this standard?

Impossible.

Rhode then recalled his summoned spirit.

From Rhode’s gloomy expression, the four of them knew that their performance was unsatisfactory.

“To be honest… your performance is far below my requirements.”

Rhode didn’t coat his words in sugar. This caused their already de-spirited expressions to turn even worse. However, they knew that what Rhode said was a fact.

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“But, I will give you another chance. In the following days, I will teach you how to improving using your own strength. If you can successfully improve, you may have the opportunity to become a formal member of my mercenary group. But if you fail, then I’m sorry…”

Rhode spread out his palms.

“You can only be servants here.”

The four of them were shocked and lifted their heads to look at Rhode. Randolf opened his mouth, but no words came out from it. They weren’t supposed to be treated like this, still, Randolf could tell that their performance was truly substandard.

In the past, they could still get away with their level of skill because Anne was there as the backbone of the team. But now, she had left, and they found themselves unable to function properly as a team when faced with a strong opponent.

Can they still be considered mercenaries?

While Randolf sunk deep into thought, Rhode’s voice brought him back to reality.

“Your answer?”

“Yes, Sir!”

Randolf quickly stood up and lifted his head.

“We assure you that we will comply with your request.”

“I hope so.”

Randolf’s answer didn’t assure Rhode at all.

Luckily Shauna had warned them about Rhode’s lack of emotions otherwise Randolf would think that he didn’t care at all. But Rhode’s attitude still left him somewhat frustrated. Perhaps they wouldn’t be this uneasy in his presence if he could at least give a smile,

“But I have one more question regarding Lapis.”

Hearing this, Randolf immediately tensed. Lapis was still holding onto her brother’s sleeve, carefully watching the young man who was only older than him by a few years. Although Rhode was aware that both of them were nervous, he didn’t plan to stop and continued to speak.

“I can see that she’s at the level of Elemental Fusion. But why didn’t she use magic instruments? It wouldn’t be difficult for her to concoct low-tier spells. What’s the purpose for spending effort crafting elementary spells?”

“Yes…umm”

Randolf’s expression eased up a little after understanding Rhode’s intentions. It wasn’t a strange question as Mark White had asked them the exact same thing during their recruitment.

“Lapis isn’t very talented. She likes alchemy and had been always able to comprehend every theory since young, but somehow, she hit a bottleneck and was unable to improve since. Yes, she has the ability to perform Elemental Fusion, but she can’t concoct higher-tier potions…”

“Wait.”

Rhode face turned strange and stopped Randolf from continuing. By the side, Marlene expression also turned weird.

“You mean that… she can comprehend every subject in alchemy? From mysterious creations, potions to construction? All of it?”

“Y..Yes, Sir.”

This time, Lapis answered personally, albeit timidly.

“I, when I learned alchemy, I thought that every alchemy subject must be studied together, so I…”

“…”

Rhode and Marlene glanced at each other, speechless. They finally understood why she did that.

Just like a person who studied foreign languages, they would usually study one language at the time. But for Lapis, she chose to it learn all at once. That was why her performance and ability differed so much. Elemental Fusion was indeed the basics of alchemy, but more than often people would only excel in one division of it. If she majored in mysterious creation, her Elemental Fusion would be to create magic instruments. If she majored in potion-making, her Elemental Fusion would be concocting potions. And if she majored in construction, her Elemental Fusion would be used as a core to enhance magical constructs.

Different divisions had different outcomes, but this greedy girl wanted to eat everything all together.

Maybe this is the so-called saying that ignorant people have no fear.

But what struck Rhode and Marlene speechless was her ability to learn all three divisions. Typically, an ordinary person could only dedicate their entire life to one division. Even if they were greedy and wanted to learn one more, they had no time.

Even the superhumanly player couldn’t escape from this limitation. When a player chose a division, it would consume 1 Skill Point. If they wanted to unlock another division, they would need to use 5 Skill Points. These Skill Points could directly level a single division to 6. Therefore, using so many Skill Points to do something like this was just plain wasteful. Moreover, every division had a different set of skills and knowledge requirements. Even the most bored player who wanted to become the king of alchemy couldn’t do it without dedicating around five years to it.

At least from what Rhode remembered, from his many years of playing Dragon Soul Continent Online, he had never seen someone who was successful in learning all three divisions in alchemy.

But now there was actually a weird person before him that managed to do so, at least in the theory part.

Is she a genius or not?

At that moment, Rhode felt utterly helpless. He had the urge to pat her shoulder and give her this advice:

Kid… that’s enough. Just… delete your character and replay.