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Chapter 514: Chess Game and Change

“And in chess, obviously, the more pieces you have, the better. The stronger the pieces, the better. The more moves you can make, the better.”

Right now, our battle was like a chess game. Conservation and I were just like the kings. I was well protected by Yongye City’s defenses, while Conservation was extremely far away from me right now. It would be far too difficult for either of us to directly kill each other, so of course both of us could only focus on each other’s chess pieces first.

However, this was no fair game of chess at all. From the very start, Conservation had far more chess pieces at her disposal. And, my side had movement restrictions as I couldn’t allow any undead to bypass me and reach Starwood City. I was at disadvantage from the very start.

But, after Harloys intervened, the balance in the battle seemed to tilt in my favor.

Black lights clashed in the sky, while spells exploded with shadowy winds and demonic howls. It was quite evident that neither Harloys nor Conservation were using any positive type of magic. In fact, I couldn’t recognize most of the spells they were using, but I could tell who had the upper hand.

“The silly cat’s doing quite well.”

That was right, even I didn’t expect that Harloys had such an evident advantage here. She had gained the right to be proactive in her spellcasting battle against Conservation. But, after some careful observation, I felt that this result was only natural.

No matter how Conservation was able to cast so many mega-long distance spells without high cost, it would be impossible for her to bring her personal mage tower from her Death Plane to Eich’s mortal plane. She had just arrived, and didn’t have the time yet to create any Soul Towers to help replenish her mana. Basically, every single spell she cast was drawing on her personal mana pool.

Meanwhile, Harloys was drawing mana from the entirety of the mage tower Yongye City itself. The silly cat would be able to cast spells at zero mana cost to herself all the way until Yongye City ran out of energy.

Of course, I wouldn’t have to explain just how much understanding of magic someone with the title of “All-knowing” would have. Harloys had no weak magic subject whatsoever. She was also a Gold Elf, a species with astonishing natural talent at magic. Not only that: she inherited many elven secrets, and worked hard for more than ten thousand years, studying magic for revenge. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was far too difficult to become an Undead Emperor, and that the Three Heavy Doors between Myth and SemiGod were far too difficult for undead without flesh and blood sort of physical bodies to pass, she would have reached that level long ago. It was just that sometimes, no amount of hard work would ever be enough.

But now, Harloys had regained a full soul and physical body. Since she was now truly close to reaching the level required, her past efforts wouldn’t go to waste. Harloys’ pure magical knowledge and abilities exceeded even Conservation’s. The silly cat was able to swiftly analyze Conservation’s spells and find the weaknesses within. Harloys countered every spell quite excellently.

This type of fight caused me to remember something similar to League of Legends…

[A challenger ranked account booster using a rich person’s fully loaded account to beat up on ordinary players?]

Yep, that was it, a perfect summary from my System!

Harloys’ experience and techniques were stronger. Plus, she could casually use as much mana as she wanted without holding back. Even if Conservation was at a slightly higher power level, she would still have to use her personal mana pool to cast every spell. This was the exact equivalent of a pay-to-win player using money shop resources to outlast a free-to-play player. What could possibly be more shameless?

“…I never expected that we would one day become the pay-to-win players. It would seem that all my hard work didn’t go to waste. Neither did my generous ‘donators’ waste their donations! Even though Conservation’s clearly stronger, how does it feel to be suppressed? I bet she’s angered to the point of exploding. If it was me, I would probably be flipping tables in anger already.”

I was basically watching a pay-to-play player using the best equipment money could buy to suppress a free-to-play player who was higher in level. This fight was completely unequal because of Harloys using a mage tower, and Yongye City was no ordinary mage tower.

Ninety-nine percent of mage towers were immovable—primarily because the energy source would be so heavy that it was impossible to move. While it was convenient to absorb energy from the earth or a volcano, that would also render an ordinary mage tower even more immobile. Elemental pools stored in alternate dimensions would also have immovable coordinates.

Although the original Cloud Tower design was movable over short distances, the Cloud Tower would still typically remain anchored to one location. That was because moving the Cloud Tower would require an astonishingly high amount of mana output. Every time the Cloud Tower was moved, it would also require all sorts of coordinate checking and connecting, which was highly troublesome.

However, I used my bug-like personal Hell world to store Yongye City, a super mage tower, making it portable and taking it with me anywhere I wanted. This was something absolutely inconceivable, as well as the reason why those unlucky “donators” didn’t expect that I would help them “move their homes for free”. Right now, they were still probably trying to figure out how it was that I had taken away their entire homes.

Cough, getting back on the main topic, the pay-to-win player Harloys was having an easier and easier time. All of Conservation’s attack spells were basically blocked in midair. The silly cat even had the spare energy to help me clear out a part of the undead army. If it wasn’t for the fact that we couldn’t lock onto Conservation’s current exact location, she probably could have counterattacked against Conservation’s true body as well.

Since I’d confirmed that Harloys would have a big advantage for the short time being, I could now really focus on the game of whack-a-mole against the undead.

Right, whack-a-mole. That was what I was basically doing now.

The undead were constantly proceeding forward. Any who showed themselves would immediately receive a fireball. Then, those who managed to survive would retreat, or the undead troop would be entirely eradicated. I would then wait for the next undead troop to show itself.

“Ha, take this, super tactical fireball, increased damage fireball, super long-range fireball…”

Actually, this was a boring game as the undead were quite smart, and scattered as much as possible. In order to save as much mana as I could, I had to constantly toss fireballs.

What? You’re asking me why I wasn’t using a big spell to clear the entire area?

This was clearing out the undead as well. Undead had disgustingly high ice magic resistance, and weren’t idiots that would allow themselves to be continually frozen by my [Hibernation Chill]. Since the undead obviously didn’t fear the cold, nor did they need to worry about body temperature, the cheap efficiency of fireball magic became the best spell to use.

Fireballs. Big fireballs, strengthened fireballs, cluster fireballs, super long-range fireballs, and chain fireballs. No matter if you were a novice to magic, or an expert archmage in some magical field, people would look down on you if you didn’t know how to throw a fireball. After all, fireball magic was extremely simple—all you had to do was combust some mana to control a small amount of fire element, which would then result in the classical fireball attack spell. Fireball magic was also highly efficient in how much damage it could cause for its low mana requirement. In mana efficiency, it would be far more efficient than ninety-nine percent of higher-level spells. It was basically a necessary spell for any traveling mage to have in their arsenal for the purpose of robbery and murder— er, protecting themselves.

Perhaps the novice mage adventurers might not know any support magic spells, and the novices might not be as wise and calm as experienced mages, but they would definitely always know how to use fireball magic.

What? You’re saying that this sounds too boring? Fine, let me change the spell a little. I’ll just compress the mana some more, which will increase the explosion radius. Let’s call this the Inferno Explosion spell!

“Good game! Thank you! But I’m sorry! Good game! Sorry! Good game! Sorry! GG! Sorry…”

My malice-filled apologies echoed in the air as giant Inferno Explosion spells appeared everywhere. The undead scrambled backwards like moles as they were smashed into pieces.

I whacked a mole, I meant an undead general, and the fiery explosion engulfed everything around him. Although I was no expert in fire magic, I still knew how to toss out fireballs.

What, you’re saying that whack-a-mole sounds so lacking in seriousness for the current situation? It was an inappropriate analogy?

Fine then, since whack-a-mole was inappropriate, I was harvesting the undead players like they were the poor zombies in Plants vs. Zombies… Whoops, I accidentally referenced something from my original world again.

“Can’t you be a little more serious? Don’t you know how to use bigger spells and forbidden spells?”

Although Harloys had the advantage, not being able to eliminate Conservation meant that this battle had no end. The silly cat was also under some pressure. Seeing how much fun I was having made her a bit peeved at me.

“Tossing a forbidden spell when I’m only Legend rank? You want me to die again so quickly?”

The difference between forbidden spells and ordinary spells was one’s understanding and control over foundational concepts. Forbidden spells would change the very essence of magic itself, and the pure magical power accumulated would also mean that my physical body would be unable to handle the forbidden spell’s magical backlash. Although it was possible for me to cast Ice Aeon with Yongye City’s support, there was no guarantee that Ice Aeon would destroy Conservation and her army, while I would one hundred percent be sent back to the Cycle of Reincarnation to be born again.

“Don’t you know any other large-scale AOE attack spells? I remember that Legend-ranked mages should have quite a few available to them.”

“Death Howl, Banshee’s Curse of Despair, Five Fingers of Death (also nicknamed Death Palm), yep, all undead magic spells. Are you certain that you want me to heal them with undead magic spells? The undead are experts at undead magic, and we’re fighting against an Undead Emperor. It would be quite ineffective of me to use undead magic against them.”

“What about ice magic?”

“You know just as well as I do that undead are highly resistant to ice magic. Lowering the temperature to be fatal for living beings is just like a cool breeze to them. You want me to help freshen them up?”

The silly cat was rendered speechless. Although it was possible to create a mega-low temperature even the undead would be frozen in, the mana expenditure required meant that it was far more effective to simply throw fireballs.

“…It would seem that as a mage, you’re completely useless against the undead.”

Harloys was indeed correct. My power against the undead was rather limited. After all, no Undead Emperor would practice spells targeted at other undead, as their main enemies were the living. But on the other hand, Conservation would have the exact same problem I was having. We also had excellent undead magic, negative energy, and ice magic resistance. Those were also her specialty magic types, meaning her best magic was also rendered ineffective.

“Why would I think about facing an Undead Emperor? My planned enemies were the dead from the very start. Besides, in normal situations, if I meet an undead that’s difficult to deal with, I’d just use Holy Light… Oh, right, Holy Light!”

As a Holy Knight, of course I could use Holy Light. However, acting like a Holy Knight and charging fearlessly into a sea of undead would be equivalent to suicide. Yet, Holy Light wasn’t restricted to only melee. Since Yongye City had borrowed from many of the Holy Church’s churches, I had more than enough Holy Light artifacts to open up a museum. As long as I had the mana, producing Holy Light would be quite easy.

But, theory was one thing, while practice was another. In order to use a mage tower to cast Holy Light Divine Arts, many technical issues would have to be solved. At the very least, I would first need to confirm which Divine Art I wanted to use, and then transform Yongye City’s mana into the power of Holy Light.

While I was anxiously calculating the formula for transforming mana to Holy Light, the heavily suppressed Conservation took action first. She requested reinforcements from her new temporary ally. Soon, another batch of half-undead and half-mechanical creatures entered the battlefield. This time, there were more than a hundred of those “Gundam” type bone giants.

Conservation was still casting spells as well, but not an attack spell this time. Another dark cloud floated over on the battlefield, yet it didn’t head towards Yongye City. Instead, the dark cloud concealed the bone giants’ gigantic bodies.

After Conservation found out that just about all her attack spells were failing, she wisely gave up the idea of directly attacking Yongye City, and focused fully on supporting her subordinates with buff spells instead. This black mist hid her undead, making it impossible for us to see where to aim with our spells. Although Inferno Explosion was excellent for large scale destruction, it would still be useless if I couldn’t find a target to hit.

“Since I can’t see anything, let’s just go with a map-wide cannon barrage. How about I give them a good one?”

“You should hurry. Since both of us are casting spells, this means Yongye City’s mana reserves are being used up at twice the speed. Our mana reserves are running out.”

While Roland and Conservation’s rematch was nearing its end, Starwood City had just about finished reinforcing its defenses.

Numerous iron sentry towers had been erected. The vicious-appearing scorpion-tail-shaped magic cannons appeared quite dangerous. Timlad had just showed everyone his miracle technique of instantly transforming base minerals into metal through alchemy. The solidified castle walls now had an extra layer of metal on top.

And, the greatest engineer of all time had no intention of stopping there. He was currently melting down a large sculpture of the new domain lord of Starwood City, the newly deceased Kaen Stark. This sculpture became the base for a gigantic stone catapult. However, this catapult was no simple catapult using only the forces of physics.

Meanwhile, on the plains of Sala Dukedom, the royalty’s reinforcements received news that the undead had invaded. A procession of several hundred carriages kicked up a giant cloud of dust. It was evident that they were rushing to reinforce Starwood City.

Several hundred kilometers behind them, several black-caped figures were speedily heading towards Starwood City as well. These ladies were holding onto a certain wanted poster for Roland. It would seem that Roland’s identity had indeed been leaked. Judging from how distorted the leading woman’s face was from anger, Roland was going to be in for fun times.