Chapter 80

"In here...," in the pitch-black underground waterway, Il, who was emitting a bright white light, stood like a saint in the darkness, on the ground paved with large moss-covered stones, muttering to himself.

Occasional strange sounds came from the unseen dark corners, mixed with the "rustling" sound of either rolling stones or something running, which seemed somewhat terrifying in the empty passage. But Il's calm face was not affected at all; his long white beard looked somewhat stiff and lifeless at this moment.

Turning another corner, Il's breathing clearly paused. The scattered stones and damp air seemed to remind the old village chief of something, and he shook his head in distress. But this expression only lasted for a moment, and then Il noticed the light source in the corner and the silent corpses within the range of the light spell.

"Square?" Il called out tentatively, but the thief did not respond. In the dark passage, only the faint echo of Il's voice could be heard.

Il took a deep breath, walked to the light source by the wall, and the equipment on the ground was clearly the monk's leather armor. The increasingly weak light faintly revealed the marks on the wall. Il lightly tapped his staff, and a light ball several times brighter than the original slowly flew to the side of the corpses, illuminating the crooked words on the stone wall: "Il..."

Almost simultaneously, the old mage's staff swung backward, and the dark green spell light of Mauve's Acid Arrow was cast behind him. A gray figure flashed past behind Il, avoiding the spell's trajectory, but the three black crossbow bolts aimed at the old mage's head were deflected by an unknown force and fell to the ground with a "plop plop" sound.

"Adventurer, what are you doing?" Il's face was as calm as water, and he took two steps back toward the stone wall, the light from the shield spell and the spell to protect against arrows intertwining like a large soap bubble.

"Hehe," Fang Yi's lightning-fast figure had already retreated beyond the range of the mage's light spell, hidden in the endless darkness, and he laughed coldly, "Old village chief, there's no ranger here, so you don't need to cast the stone skin spell. Why did you cast the spell to protect against arrows? Are you afraid of someone's crossbow?"

"..., Adventurer, I think we have a misunderstanding," Il's face lost its gloom, and the sharp tip of his right staff lightly touched the stone wall inscribed with "Il." With a "crack," a square foot of the stone wall crumbled and the debris scattered into the darkness.

After a series of stone collisions, there was a moment of silence. A hint of a satisfied smile appeared on Il's face, and he cast a spherical light spell straight ahead.

"There's nothing here, adventurer," Il squinted his eyes, searching for the thief's figure at the boundary of light and darkness, "That was just your hallucination. Come out, let's go back to Green Creek Village. Since we've found the passage the enemy used to sneak in, I will give you a sufficient reward, and we can bury these heroes..."

While planning the next spell to cast, Il's voice suddenly stopped. A slender figure, holding an apprentice mage's staff, stood straight on the wet ground, staring blankly at the glowing Il.

"Forte...! What are you doing here!" Il was clearly unprepared for the sudden situation and showed a hint of panic.

"Is this your brooch?" Forte's face was expressionless as he showed Il his left hand, where a round brooch with a faint white glow appeared.

The moment Forte revealed the item, Il's face turned lifeless, his eyes fixed on the small boy, "Where did you get this!?" Il's voice trembled slightly, perhaps from nervousness, and his hands, gripping the staff, turned white from the force.

"Why!?" Forte took a step back and shouted, "These are the villagers of the village, many of whom are your juniors. Why did you do this!?"

Il stood still, as if in a daze. In the white light, the purple glow from his chest was particularly striking. Suddenly, the old mage extended his arm and raised his staff, pointing it at the boy not far away, "You won't understand the feeling of being full of power."

Il's hoarse voice was like an unlubricated bearing, harsh and unpleasant. The magic light on the staff flickered, ready to burst forward at any moment. At that moment, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the darkness with lightning speed, leaving a trail of afterimages. With a "snap," the shield-protected Il was hit and crashed into the stone wall, scattering broken stones everywhere.

Fang Yi, who had been lying in wait, increased his speed to the maximum, swung his arms, and slammed another stone slab into the mage leaning against the wall. With the two points of strength from the rage skill, the stones hit the mage like cannonballs, making his body jump.

Il's shield spell was of high enough level to prevent any damage, but the force still left him dazed. The three crossbow bolts that followed all missed their target, but Fang Yi had successfully approached the mage and smashed his hand crossbow into the mage on the ground, drawing his short sword and hacking away: I don't believe your shield spell is infinite!

Fang Yi's close combat attack was extraordinary. In just one second, Il's shield spell became almost transparent and was about to collapse. But Il had already recovered and reached into his pocket to pull out a scroll.

"Forte, fire!" Fang Yi, not daring to linger, dodged to the side and shouted to the boy in the distance. Forte was clearly still in a state of shock and only mechanically turned his head at Fang Yi's shout, showing no reaction. At this moment, the scroll in Il's hand burst into light, and the rainbow spray spell effect instantly filled the space around the old mage, almost affecting the fleeing thief.

Il, who had been forced back, looked particularly disheveled, clearly frightened by the two stone slabs. After getting up, he immediately cast a protective spell on himself. Before the second spell was formed, he noticed a sharp blade rushing out of the darkness, flying toward his head, the whistling sound indicating the force behind the short sword.

A clear "ding" sound rang out as the blood flow easily penetrated the shield but hit the stone, bouncing far away. The -9 damage number that appeared on Il's head already made Fang Yi realize that the old man had cast the stone skin spell on himself again.

Seeing the lightning-fast thief approaching, Il showed a cruel smile, and his staff glowed again: "Low-level creatures who only use brute force!"

Il's staff moved slightly, pointing at the approaching Fang Yi. The grayish ray hit the thief in front of him and then passed through.

Il's pupils suddenly contracted. The "thief" in front of him did not slow down, and the ray of fear only made the "thief" waver for a moment before returning to normal: an illusion!

At the same time, Il felt a familiar magical pulse from behind, and then a cold sensation spread over his entire back.