Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 164 - Insanity?

In the end, her action was primarily for show. She was a magician after all, and so were her enemies. She couldn’t physically block any attack.

Lena turned to Lumi, her voice cutting through the chaos of the battlefield. "Leave it to me!"

Lumi glanced at her, then at the two elite pixies rapidly closing the distance. He didn’t question her. He simply nodded once and vanished in a flash of light.

"Teleport."

He reappeared dozens of meters away, immediately resuming his relentless casting. His wand raised. "Lance of Light!"

The two pixies glanced at Lumi, considering the situation. He should be their target, but...

The two elite pixies locked onto Lena immediately. One of them licked their lips. The woman was the easier target anyways.

Lena stood her ground, gripping her wand, watching them approach. Her heart pounded in her chest. In truth, Lena had absolutely no confidence in winning a fight against two equal-level pixies at the same time.

None whatsoever.

These were Second Rank combatants, experienced, skilled, and significantly higher level than the previous trashy pixies they had killed a dozen of with relative ease.

But she also knew that she wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t for her to win this fight. The point wasn’t even for her to survive it.

The point was something else entirely.

Lumi’s spells were practically tailor-made for group fights. Lance of Light created multiple homing projectiles per cast. Light Shower had piercing properties that could hit multiple enemies in a line.

In fact, every single light spell was extremely effective in group engagements. That was the nature of light magic, at least the way Alton had created his spells.

Right now, across the battlefield, Lumi was obtaining massive amounts of experience. She could see it happening in real time.

She glanced at her own display, checking the notifications rolling in.

[EXP +113]

[EXP +132]

[EXP +98]

[EXP +145]

Even without making a direct contribution to any kill, by virtue of being in a party with Lumi and having buffed him with Blessing earlier, she was receiving experience shares from every enemy he contributed to killing.

So the point wasn’t for her to win.

The point was to leave Lumi free to farm experience at the inhuman pace he’d been maintaining. To keep these two elites off his back so he could continue his relentless assault on the weaker pixies flooding the battlefield.

Ding!

In Lumi’s hud, she saw through the party interface that a notification had appeared for him.

[Level Up! 36 -> 37]

That was the point.

Masteria was a real world, after all. The natives here had their entire lives ahead of them to slowly accumulate power. As they grew stronger, their lifespans would extend, giving them centuries, even millennia, to train and refine their abilities. The system introduced by the Dark One did its best to accelerate player progress by introducing an experience mechanic, artificially boosting the rate of power gain.

But even with that artificial boost, even with the system’s assistance, elite players were still averaging less than a single level per day once they passed level ten. That was simply how the math worked out. Gaining power was not so easy.

Lumi was currently gaining multiple levels in a single engagement.

That was absurd by any standard.

And even if she died here, so what?

She’d just resurrect after a few hours, courtesy of the system still desperately trying to trick players into thinking this was all just a game. Death wasn’t permanent. Not yet. Not until they broke free from the system entirely.

The two pixies kept their distance at first, hovering in a loose formation about ten meters away. They weren’t rushing in blindly. Despite looking down on her, they were examining her carefully.

There were two. One of them, slightly larger with dark green wings, tilted its head. Its eyes scanned Lena from head to toe, searching for hidden tricks, concealed weapons, anything that might explain why a single human mage at the start of the Second Rank would willingly intercept two Second Rank combatants.

It made no sense to take on twice your combat power in a fight, after all. Unless the human woman was just insane? That was also an understandable reason for Pixies.

The other pixie was smaller with pale yellow wings. It circled slowly to the side, changing the angle of observation. Its gaze flicked around the immediate area, checking for traps, for allies lying in wait, for anything suspicious. And yet, it couldn’t find anything.

After several long moments of careful observation and finding nothing immediately threatening, the green-winged pixie nodded to its companion.

Both raised their wands simultaneously, channeling dark energy that coalesced at the tips.

"Intelligence Drain!" the green-winged one cast.

"Mana Burden!" the yellow-winged one followed immediately after.

The curses shot forward, twisting through the air as they homed in on Lena.

When targeted by a curse, you had little choice other than to stand there and take it. Curses were infamously difficult to dodge. Dispelling it usually required specialized knowledge deep into a class, so it wasn’t a spell you could just pick up unless you already understood the underlying properties.

Curses held some of the best tracking of any spell, nor could they be blocked by solid matter. Teleporting away usually didn’t help because the curse would simply follow you to your new location.

But, they did have weaknesses. Weaknesses that could be exploited, if you understood the underlying mechanics.

Lena raised her wand high and cast immediately. "Holy Arrows!" The spell materialized as shafts of radiant energy formed in the air around her.

And then she aimed them directly at herself.

The arrows shot downward, piercing into her own body. One through her shoulder. Another through her thigh. A third through her side, just below her ribs.

[HP -87]

[HP -92]

[HP -81]

"Ngh... damn." Blood sprayed from her and pain exploded through her body. She gasped, her knees buckling slightly. Even through the pain, she forced herself to stay upright. She spread her arms wide, opening herself completely, and let the incoming curses strike her without any attempt at defense.