Sorcerer’s Handbook

Chapter 242: The True Soldier

Thinking to use the poison fog’s advantage of the cave to whittle down my minions…

Demilo watched the steel monster burrow into the dark green manure pit, its buzzing roar as if urging him to hurry in.

To enter or not?

It seemed a no-brainer—venturing into tactical terrain laid out by others was foolish, and besides, there was no imperative to battle the sorcerers. Moreover, if he truly needed to engage in combat amidst the poison fog, he would have to use some of his precious ‘soldiers.’

The Divine Master had given no instructions regarding heroic souls; in fact, unless in times of war, heroic souls were free. But to accumulate enough merit for soul fragment exchanges, even during peaceful development, they would patrol their territory and transport materials actively. Like Demilo, who had mobilized this round specifically to transport resources from the surrounding areas back to the Main City.

Thus, Demilo could ignore these arrogant sorcerers and walk away; he was free to do as he pleased.

And that’s why he was somewhat perplexed.

In the past thousand years, he had never encountered a moment requiring his decision. During wartime, the Divine Master’s edicts were clear; in peace, he methodically managed the Main City, weighing the possibility of victory against enemy legions, deciding whether to fight or flee. When encountering ordinary sorcerers, it was a matter of simply crushing them and moving on.

He had encountered many sorcerers; some happened to be crushed by the Star Shepherds incidentally on their march, others fled swiftly. As long as they survived the first wave of long-range attacks from the legion, Demilo would not pursue them specifically.

He had encountered sorcerers, yet not only had he failed to crush them, but they had also significantly reduced his minions. The sorcerers were not fleeing; they roamed under his watchful eye, yet he could not easily squash them.

Though without evidence, Demilo believed that the cleanliness of the cave’s resource point suggested these sorcerers couldn’t be uninvolved.

Benefits, losses, battle, departure… various thoughts surged, but in the end, without any precedent to refer to, the decision was left to Demilo.

He had to follow his own heart.

For a Corpse without a heartbeat, it was indeed a cruel joke.

Yet, when Demilo turned back to gaze at the cave without immediately choosing to leave, he had already made his decision.

Anger? Jealousy? Curiosity? Demilo, devoid of even a fragment of a Soul, didn’t believe he was capable of harboring such emotions. Nevertheless, the scales of thought had decidedly tipped in favor of confronting the Sorcerers.

If there had to be a reason, it would be the gaze of the male Sorcerer. That look had placed a significant weight on the balanced scales, enough to determine the outcome.

Although their appearances were entirely different, his gaze was reminiscent of the one who had killed Demilo.

“The sacred Stars connect us.”

Murmuring the prayer internally, the power of the Stars infused through the void chains into the Knowledge Creature bodies. The surviving eight Serpent-Scorpion Dragons instantly took on a deep blue hue, including Demilo’s remaining mount.

They yawned lazily as if just awakening, their bodies covered in a blue distortion. In a second, the Serpent-Scorpion Dragons vanished without trace, replaced by eight deep blue double swordsmen in full armor with no gaps to be seen. Behind the visor of their cross-shaped helmets were only deep blue pupils, and behind them, a scorpion tail, not with a stinger, but a blue-glowing Thrust Sword.

“Star Swordsman Serpent-Scorpion Dragon Specialization”!

Since the decision to engage in Battle was made, Demilo naturally spared no expense with his “soldiers.”

He had been commanding Knowledge Creatures, but they couldn’t truly be considered soldiers, merely followers.

Knowledge Creatures were, after all, monsters and could not be compared to Sorcerers capable of wielding tools. Even if a commander could control them with ease, as tactical executors, Knowledge Creatures were far too inferior to Humans.

The strength of the heroic soul legion lay in the commander’s ability to transform followers into a much more powerful ‘type of soldier,’ preserving the original combat power of the Knowledge Creatures while also endowing them with more powerful combat skills.

And when followers became soldiers, they would undergo different mutations based on their physical characteristics. For example, the Serpent-Scorpion Dragons, with their distinct pincers and scorpion tail, mutated into double swordsmen with tail swords, capable of executing three attacks at once, overwhelming any ordinary Sorcerer with a flurry of six eyes and three swords.

Although Serpent-Scorpion Star Swordsmen are merely a primary class of soldier within Star Hall, when assigned to the right Knowledge Creatures, they can form an impressive combat force. To Demilo and his fellow heroic souls, the Knowledge Creatures themselves are of lesser importance; what matters are the ‘soldiers’ they carry.

The Knowledge Creatures of the Virtual Realm are endless, but ‘soldiers’ are not born from the Virtual Realm; they hail from reality. For Star Hall, soldiers are the most crucial and rarest resource for warfare. It’s of no consequence how many followers perish, but each soldier must be used with caution, preserved ideally for sieges and national wars.

Until just moments ago, Demilo believed that merely expending followers would suffice to kill the three Sorcerers, naturally unwilling to use his own soldiers. In truth, he didn’t carry many soldiers with him, for this was but a resource transport mission to the hinterlands during a time of peace. Under normal circumstances, the vast majority of soldiers must remain in the Main City, under the Lord’s custody and direction.

However, Star Hall had recently recruited a batch of soldiers in reality, an unexpected boon, allowing each heroic soul to receive a small reserve for emergencies, Demilo included.

It was a pity that the Thousand-Feathered Dragons were gone. Had they been available, Demilo could have enhanced them to the second-class “Star Archer” rank. Combined with their inherent Thousand-Feather mutation, they could have turned the steel behemoth into a sieve in the blink of an eye.

But the Serpent-Scorpion Star Swordsmen alone were enough.

With a light gesture from the Star Shepherd, the Star Swordsmen marched in formation into the poison fog cave, utterly fearless of the toxic miasma. Upon being granted their soldier class, the Star Swordsmen acquired an armor-like barrier. Unless an attack could penetrate the armor in a single strike, it would inflict no harm upon the Star Swordsmen.

Even if the attack could breach the armor, it would only deplete the energy of the armor, still not harming the true body of the Star Swordsman. Equipped with three layers of armor, the bone-corroding, soul-dissolving toxic fog was no more than a mild nuisance, slightly impairing their vision but nothing more to the Serpent-Scorpion Star Swordsmen.

Demilo stood outside the cave, harnessing the perception of the Star Swordsmen to pinpoint the direction of the enemy, and then—

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The steel behemoth charged clumsily at one of the Star Swordsmen, playing right into the hands of the Star Shepherd.

Defend!

Facing the monster’s charge, the Star Swordsman crossed his swords in an X formation to defend, directly countering the massive inertia of the Evil Blade!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Three layers of armor shattered one after the other, but the Star Swordsman still stood his ground, staunchly blocking the steel beast!

Clang—

A chorus of sword rings erupted as the remaining Star Swordsmen immediately launched an assault on the Sorcerers within the monster, sword light enveloping from all directions like a net cast across the sky!

“Ah!?”

“Why… who are they!?”

The poison fog could not hide the Sorcerers’ voices of shock, which was expected by Demilo. Just as he wouldn’t waste soldiers to kill Sorcerers, other heroic souls would certainly only let their followers expel these pests.

Just as no Sorcerer knew the secret of the heroic souls, naturally, no Sorcerer had ever witnessed these monster soldiers granted a military class.

If this moment of shock could dominate the enemy’s thought process, then it was a tactical victory. If the enemy hesitated, even slightly, their Souls would be torn to shreds the next second…

However—

Hum!

The steel monster roared again, its fanged blade smashing the armor-broken Star Swordsman into two halves! At the same time, the male Sorcerer seemed to perform a Miracle, cloaking the entire vehicle in a warm yellow barrier, which, though shredded by the sword net the next second, managed to create a gap, allowing for a narrow escape from a certain onslaught!

How many more times can you perform such a protective Miracle? Next time I will leave two Star Swordsmen as a pursuit force; you won’t get a second chance… Demilo quickly adjusted his battle plan inwardly, commanding the remaining seven Star Swordsmen to continue the siege.

Just one mistake, and death would cling on relentlessly.

The steel monster circled within the cave, and after multiple instances of accumulated damage, it finally seized an opportunity to crush a Star Swordsman.

Just one mistake.

The steel monster’s continuous drifting and spinning dodged the Star Swordsman’s pincer attack, incidentally slicing two Star Swordsmen to death.

Just…

As the last Star Swordsman was struck down by the steel beast, Demilo stepped aside at the entrance of the cavern. Seconds later, the steel monster roared as it emerged once more from the poison fog-filled cave, its claws that shredded the Star Swordsmen showing no signs of wear. Its four round wheels viciously carved cringe-inducing scratches into the earth!

The man emerged unscathed, his gaze fixed intently on Demilo as if to say—

You’re next.

Watching the man clad in a deep red trench coat, Demilo knew he had been outmaneuvered.

Defeated thoroughly, without a sliver of excuse to offer.

Though the opponent had but one steel monster unit, to command a single unit was still to command. He managed to stay cool under Demilo’s siege tactics, brutally tearing open a gap and picking off the Star Shepherd’s soldiers with guerrilla tactics, a classic example of triumphing with fewer against many.

“Where did those deep blue soldiers come from? Which fairytale did they escape from?” the Female Sorcerer with black to red gradient hair asked curiously, seemingly anticipating a response from Demilo.

Demilo paid no heed to the other Female Sorcerers, silently invoking in his heart: “Stars, please twinkle for me.”

Boom!

A deep blue armor materialized over his body, his left hand holding a fierce-looking giant bow firmly planted on the ground, his right hand drawing a dazzling large arrow from his quiver as if made of Diamond, aiming at the steel monster still polluting the environment with its farts.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

As the steel monster charged, sensing danger, Ashe quickly grabbed Sonya and Deya, diving under their seats!

In contrast, the Star Shepherd stood his ground, not moving an inch, casually releasing an arrow.

The dazzling arrow, upon missing its mark, split into three, striking down like Thunder onto the sports car!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Snap!

The front windshield shattered instantly, the dazzling arrows grazing over the heads of Ashe and his companions, whisking away a few strands of hair. At the same time, the sports car’s terrifying Evil Blade struck fiercely at Demilo, carrying the momentum of over sixty kilometers per hour, seemingly poised to cleave him in two!

Thud!

The Evil Blade, capable of slicing through stone as if it were butter, not only failed to cut down the Star Shepherd but also spun in place as if it had hit a pillar!

Demilo was merely pushed back a few steps by the impact, his deep blue armor showing almost no change as he casually drew a second dazzling arrow.

The Sorcerers, fighting off the dizziness from the collision and spin, peeked out to assess the situation. Sonya nearly screamed, “Those creatures were just hit and even if their armor wasn’t breached, the color should have faded a bit… How can he seem completely unaffected!?”

“His armor is very high-grade,” Deya said, her hair now a messy mix of black, red, and white—impure black, tainted red, and dim white, her voice a trio: “This must be the privilege of a heroic soul, but no matter, as long as we keep hitting him, surely—”

“It does matter.”

Ashe interjected, “His last attack took out one-fifth of the car’s remaining health.”

“Four more hits like that, and the car will explode. Without this vehicle, we stand no chance, but the enemy only has the heroic soul commander left.”

“It’s either the car explodes first, or he dies first.”

“The final round begins.”