Chapter 22. Black Mage

Alice awakened from her state of mind with the silver barrier shattering. The lord had arrived. Her survival rested on his shoulders. The image of that long, shadowy arm ending in curved claws that looked sharper than any blade Alice had ever seen while working for her father’s merchant company flashed through her mind. What is the lord? Is he a creature of darkness? Or was that merely an extension of his true form? She began to doubt that the lord was a mere necromancer. Then, with a huff, she stood up. Her teeth chattering away from the cold and her soaked lingerie clinging to her body were doing her no favors, but Alice kept them on. She wished she could get some new clothes, but that wasn’t important now.

She focused and began running down the length of the massive, undead worm. Alice ignored her painfully numb feet that kept slipping around on the muck of wet moss and concentrated on avoiding the many bright red fruits, enormous teeth, and green sludge that littered the cavern’s floor. “Status,” she chanted and selected the party option.

[Name: Alice] (Leader)

[Race: Human]

[Level: 12]

[STR: 30, DEX: 42, CON: 12, INT: 72, WIS: 56]

(Weak) (Slave)

[Name: UNKNOWN]

[Race: UNKNOWN]

[Level: 303]

[STR: 7130, DEX: 7130, CON: 7130, INT: 7130, WIS: 7130]

(Lifeforce Unstable)

[Name: Terry]

[ERROR: CONNECTION LOST]

“What the hell?” She double- and triple-checked. “What happened to Terry, and what the hell happened to the unknown lord’s stats? Seven thousand in each category? Last time I checked, he was level two hundred eighty-one with over two hundred fifty thousand in each category! How did he level so fast yet lose stats?”

A scream of pain that sounded primal, like one from an ancient creature, filled the cavern, and Alice watched in shock. Beyond where the barrier used to be were two dragons. A large ugly tar-black one was on its haunches staring in horror at the silvery one that lay on her back with blood pooling down her scales and a hole in her head. The silvery dragon’s eyes had glossed over, and her pink tongue hung carelessly from her mouth and onto the floor.

But the shadowy creature hovering over the dragon’s corpse grabbed Alice’s attention. Unfortunately, the cavern ceiling got in the way. She could only see the bottom of its legs and hands hovering just above the dragon’s fatal wounds, blood dripping down its claws. And then it was gone. With a blink of her eye, the looming creature of shadows vanished into thin air without a trace. Alice cast a nervous glance at the blue status screen in the corner of her vision.

[Name: UNKNOWN]

[Race: UNKNOWN]

[Level: 304] (Level up!)

[STR: 43200, DEX: 43200, CON: 43200, INT: 43200, WIS: 43200]

(Lifeforce Unstable) (Out of range)

“So that was the lord’s doing…” The level-up confirmed that the creature she had just seen was indeed the unknown creature in her party. Alice shuddered. She had been discovered by a creature that could one-shot dragons, and it hadn’t killed her. A weird feeling bubbled in her chest. Was she so insignificant that it didn’t even bother to kill her? Or did she perhaps have a more significant meaning than she knew? Terry seemed to think so by calling her “mistress,” but that guy was an idiot, and she refused to take anything he said seriously.

The black-tar dragon swiped the area around the silver dragon’s corpse before bellowing a breath of jet-black flames into the air. Superheated wind blew past Alice, making her hair dry and feel much better. Well, she did feel better until the old dragon turned its head and stared directly at her with its blood-red eyes and wrinkly face.

Alice felt rather silly that her automatic reaction was to cover herself up under the dragon’s intense stare. Luckily, the dragon turned its head back to the corridor and snarled. She was confident it was a type of dragon language as it sounded far too sophisticated to be mere snarls like some kind of dog.

Without warning, the shadow creature appeared on the black dragon’s back, and the world went white for a brief second, followed by a flash of purple. Alice desperately rubbed her eyes and ignored her ringing ears. Although still blurry, the shadow creature had vanished again, and unfortunately, the black dragon was fine. A thin sheen of black mana shrouded the dragon like a barrier, and purple energy rippled across its surface before defusing into the ground.

[Name: UNKNOWN]

[Race: UNKNOWN]

[Level: 304] (Level up!)

[STR: 41100, DEX: 41100, CON: 41100, INT: 41100, WIS: 41100]

(Lifeforce Unstable) (Out of range)

Alice looked at her potential savior’s stats and confirmed a suspicion. “He somehow uses stats as fuel for spells. I wondered how his stats went down without a debuff appearing on his page, but now it all makes sense.” Her previous thoughts about ways to abuse his Lifeforce Unstable debuff to kill him had vanished, and now her mind raced with ways to help. “Bah. Who am I kidding? How can I help?” First, she saw a humongous fruit lying on the floor and debated hurling it at the black dragon a hundred meters away. However, her puny thirty in strength crushed her dreams. An average adult human male has fifty in all stats except INT and WIS, which are usually a bit lower. Next, she looked at her body and could practically see the bones poking through, and not a hint of muscle remained. In fact, her heart was pounding heavily in her chest from the short run she had just done to get closer to the action.

[Senior silver dragon defeated! Exp awarded to all party members…]

[Contribution has been calculated at 0%]

[Exp awarded: 0.1% of total gain]

Alice stared at the screen that had appeared in her vision. She had never actually used the party feature before. Why would she? She was a wealthy merchant’s daughter, not some suicidal fool delving into the dungeons’ depths.

Some unknown force commanded the ambient mana and carefully directed it into her body.

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

(Level up!)

Alice had experienced the high that came with levelling up a few times before, but she had never received so many levels at once. She felt on cloud nine. It was euphoric. Her fatigue washed away, and her mind became clear and sharp. The pang of hunger that had sat in her stomach since being rudely awakened was resolved, and she felt the best she ever had. With giddy excitement, she opened her status page.

[Name: Alice]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 20(+8)]

[STR: 38(+8), DEX: 50(+8), CON: 20(+8), INT: 88(+16), WIS: 72(+16)]

[Unspent points: 8]

(Weak) (Slave)

Seeing the increased numbers made her giddy, but the most important was her increased level. “I am level twenty! My class should be unlocked!”

[Blessing: Darkness]

[Class: Awakened Black Mage]

[Sub Class: Apprentice Merchant]

[Divine Mission: None]

[Skills]

[…]

Without hesitation, she clicked on her class to get its full description.

[Black Mage] is the standard type of magician serving the Goddess of Darkness. They specialize in spells of mass destruction and lethal assassination. Throughout the years, they have been the most feared and renowned type of mage due to their dark tendencies and psychotic behavior, making them hard to control. With many cases of them causing extinction-level events, they are now hunted down before they blossom.

Class Effect: All spells inflict [True Damage]

Alice slowly read through the description, making sure to not miss a single word. She was in awe and beyond excited. The description overflowed with a promise of overwhelming power. She could see why Black Mages were feared compared to other mages. Their specialty was beyond overpowered. True damage…if I remember correctly, that means my spells ignore any magical protections.

[Class Skills]

[Stealth II]

[Fireball I] (New!)

[Sub Class Skills]

[Fast Counting I]

[Identify I]

Alice clenched her fist with determination. Then, without hesitation, she dumped all her unspent points in her wisdom stat. “INT is the size of my magic pool, whereas WIS is my ability to manipulate mana. And I’m going to need all the control I can get…”

[STR: 38, DEX: 50, CON: 20, INT: 88, WIS: 80(+8)]

Feeling slightly more confident, she ran a bit closer. The metal slave collar felt tight around her neck, a reminder of her past. She shoved those thoughts away and focused on the future. She was going to become the greatest Black Mage to ever live. Her plan? To kill a dragon.

With a mental thought, she activated her Fireball I skill. Mana rushed through her reinvigorated body and down her right arm. Unfortunately, the skill didn’t find a wand to use, so the fireball appeared in her palm. Alice held back a hiss of pain as the orange ball hovered above her palm and burned her skin.

Alice raised her head and concentrated on the black dragon’s majestic form. It was preoccupied with locating the shadow creature that would appear every few seconds and slash at the dragon’s scales. Sometimes it would also hurl ice and purple lightning that got deflected by the dragon’s mana shield before vanishing again. Much to the dragon’s fury.

Alice gritted her teeth. Raised her hand. And with all the power invested in her, she willed the fireball to fly. The little orange ball sailed through the dim cavern, lighting the way. She watched with anticipation as it made contact.

It hit the black mana shield on the dragon’s neck and passed straight through before dissipating on one of the dragon’s scales. The dragon didn’t even react to the mosquito bite and totally ignored her.

Alice summoned another fireball. “You will regret ignoring me,” she hissed between clenched teeth as she tried to ignore the pain. This time she would aim for the eyes.