Advent of the Archmage

In the tunnel

Skinorse walked in front of the magic door, inspecting the words carved on the door. "Hmm, this door… Power, Wealth, Love… These are all life's great lies. However, they aren't really the greatest."

Using his dagger, Skinorse drew some lines on the door. As the sharp edge of the dagger brushed the surface of the door, it created a sharp scratching sound. However, it did not even leave a mark on the door. Skinorse turned to Link, saying, "Lord, this door is really sturdy. How are we supposed to break through? Don't tell me we really have to answer the question?"

As an adventurer, Skinorse felt that it could not be so simple.

The black cat in Nana's bosom looked at the door. "Meow, this door is really interesting."

Saying so, he ducked back into Nana's chest, not bothering to speak further or explain the method to get past the door. Looking at it made Skinorse's gums itch.

Link looked at the door and sighed to himself. In his previous life, he was played to death by this very door.

At that time, he was still inexperienced and had come with some friends to explore this dungeon. Upon reaching this door, the group of them had sat down discussing the topic of what life's greatest lie was. Their discussion lasted three days and three nights. Finally, because of some accident, they realized they were tricked.

Link walked forward and, using his wand, wrote down a line in the blank space on the door. "You are the greatest lie!"

Life's greatest lie?

How could there be anyone answer to this question?

The most hateful thing about this door was that it used the players' self-doubt to lead them on. The more the player thought about the answer, the more they would wrack their brains to come up with more and more answers. However, all of that was just wasting the player's time.

The answer was simple. The key to opening this door had nothing to do with the complicated looking question. The only purpose for the question was to con you.

The moment Link wrote this on the door, an illusory voice sounded out from the door. "Wrong answer."

This response from the door was also a con.

In most situations, when someone tells you that your answer is wrong, you would naturally reconsider what the correct answer could be. However, that would just mislead you deeper and deeper into the con.

Ultimately, this trap made use of the player's self-doubt to keep them from proceeding. During the game, many teams were toyed with in this manner by the Night King.

"Lord, the answer is wrong," Skinorse said.

Look, this fellow fell into the trap.

Link replied, "If I were the creator of this magic door, I would not bother putting a real answer. If I'm not wrong, these are the only four words that this door knows."

As he said this, Link selected "power."

As expected, the door immediately replied, "Wrong answer."

"Then how do we enter?" Melinda asked.

"Don't rush," Link replied.

Link walked around the magic door until he reached a part of the door not under the light. There was a normal looking stone sticking out from the stone wall.

Link took a clean cloth and lay it on the stone. This was to ensure that he did not leave his scent behind. Then, he pressed down hard onto the stone. Suddenly, the stone was pushed into the wall! Immediately, the magic door started ringing, and after three seconds, it vanished.

"What…!" Skinorse suddenly felt that the world was truly treacherous. A simple trap like this could have led him around in circles forever. How would people dare to adventure like this?

"Alright, don't worry, let's go in!" Link instructed urgently. The magic door made a lot of noise before it vanished and would surely have alerted the pursuing demons. They definitely could not afford to dally any longer.

After they entered the passage, Link pressed down hard on another similarly normal looking rock. Ringgg. After ringing again, the passage they were in lit up, and two seconds later, the magic door was back in place.

This magic door was a very high-level door with the strength of Level-8. Link hoped that it could delay the demon commander. It would be the best if the commander fell into the trap and wasted time solving the riddle. Even if he didn't but used brute force to break through the door, Link could use it to gauge the demon commander's true strength.

Once the magic door was reformed, Link warned the rest, "Later on, we've got to be more careful. There could be Assassins appearing at every trap we encounter. Also, watch your step, don't step into any holes. Any of them could be dangerous.

The trickster door was only the beginning. After passing the door, there were all sorts of other traps that made adventurers nervous or irritated. Without knowing it, they could find themselves in trouble.

Skinorse swallowed his saliva. Earlier, he had been tricked by the magic door and was feeling less confident about himself. However, he was the only Assassin with the highest agility in the group. Therefore, he still went ahead to scout for traps.

The path behind the magic door was very wide, about ten feet wide and five feet high. Magic lamps hung on both sides of the passageway. Under the dim light of these lamps, the passageway could be seen clearly enough. Link stopped his light magic.

"Watch out, these lamps aren't meant to guide us, it's for Assassins to conceal themselves. As we walk in this lit place, we would naturally feel more at ease and let down our guard. Also, because of the flickering light, it would distract us from focusing on the shadows and help to conceal any Assassins hiding inside. In this situation, we have no way of knowing when the Assassins may rush out."

"What should we do then?" Melinda asked. She was currently standing under the glow of the lamps. As she looked around, she could see dark areas but couldn't see anything in them.

"Well, it's easy. I've got a way," Skinorse replied. He took out an eyepatch and used it to cover his eyes. With one eye covered, he looked like a pirate.

Link immediately understood what he was doing. "Great idea!"

With one eye covered, they could walk around in the light with no worries. When they entered the darkness, they could take off the eye patch to see normally as the eye covered by the eye patch would already be acclimatized to the darkness.

Hearing the praise, Skinorse was delighted. "Heh heh, I learned this from a pirate. Whenever they pilfered others, they would often rush from the brightly lit deck into the darkness below deck and back again. Without this trick, they would have more difficulties adjusting to the change in vision.

The group continued walking. After about 3 minutes, Skinorse suddenly raised his dagger and cast out his battle aura, looking very fearsome.

Clang. The moment he cast his battle aura, Skinorse was knocked backwards by a figure cloaked in the darkness. He staggered a few steps back, trying to stabilize his footing. His both hands gripping the daggers were also hard at work fending off the attacks emerging from the darkness.

"Look out below! Levitation!" Link shouted, then immediately cast a spell onto Skinorse. The moment his spell was completed, Skinorse had stepped onto a piece of stone slab.

Because of the effect of the Levitation Spell, he did not step down onto the stone slab but only brushed the surface.

The trap did not trigger.

Immediately, Link followed up by throwing a dimensional ball the size of a sesame seed. The dimensional ball exploded directly in front of the Assassin, constricting the dark figure's movements.

The group was finally able to see the figure's features.

Its body was shrouded in a dark green fog, making it look like it was covered in a dark green cloak. Looking carefully, it didn't seem to have legs and was levitating in the air. It also didn't have a face, and here its head was supposed to be was completely covered in the dark green fog. It looked very much like a specter.

Amidst the fog, there were two crystal claws that glowing with red light.

At the moment, the claws were clashing against Skinorse's daggers over and over again. Each time they clashed, the crystal claws would glow a little brighter. After many clashes, the crystal was now glowing brightly, and they even seemed to be emitting a red fog which vaguely sparked with electricity.

Those with some fighting experience could tell that these pair of crystal claws would soon unleash a terrifying attack.

However, it didn't have the chance.

Link spent 1000 Mana on this Spatial Shackles Spell. The spell was over Level-8 while this Specter Assassin was only Level-7. It had no way to resist.

Its movements slowed down until they came to a stop.

Skinorse took advantage of the opportunity to regain his bearings. He looked at the stone slab he had nearly activated, noticing an array of creamy white runes flashing on the slab. It would have activated a lightning trap.

Normally, he would have easily noticed this trap, but in the midst of being sneak attacked, his concentration was fully directed at fending off his opponent's attacks and had no time to look at where he was stepping.

If he had been alone, he would certainly have stepped onto the slab, activating the lightning trap. Even if he did not die in the trap, he would be paralyzed. In a place like this, that was essentially the same as dying.

He rejoiced in his heart and rushed over with his daggers aimed towards the Specter Assassin.

Puff puff puff. His daggers pierced continuously into the fog-covered body. However, it was as though he was stabbing into the air, and Skinorse could not feel any resistance from the stabs. His opponent also showed no signs of injury.

"Don't tell me it can't be killed?" Skinorse exclaimed.

"This is a specter, its body is completely spiritual and normal attacks have little effect. Nana!"

Nana rushed forward, drawing out the dagger that would make even exiled gods nervous. The dagger slashed across the specter's body. Whoosh. The specter was ripped into two halves. The dagger had also slashed across one of its crystal claws which immediately split like a jelly bean, spilling out red light.

After being cut in half, the Specter Assassin dissipated into smoke. Its crystal claw fell to the floor with a clang.

Link picked the claw up and kept it. It was excellent material.

"Wow, Nana, that was great. What kind of dagger is that?" Skinorse could immediately tell that the dagger was special. Just watching it cut the crystal claws alone made him very moved. One had to know that the crystal claws were extremely hard and he could not even put a scratch on it.

"I made it," Link replied instead.

Skinorse was instantly filled with a sense of jealousy. Link was a Magician famous throughout the continent. Any dagger he made would definitely not be ordinary.

However, this dagger was really powerful.

Link instructed, "Let's slow down. Make sure to look carefully where you're walking. There will be many traps where you least expect them, and, although you would not normally step on them, you might be led towards it when fighting with the Assassins."

This was the most dangerous part.

"Understood," Skinorse replied, becoming extremely alert.

The group continued on meeting three more Specter Assassins along the way. This time, Skinorse was prepared for them, and together with Link and Nana, easily dealt with them.

They followed the curving passageway for another 450 feet before encountering a spiral staircase leading downwards.

Seeing the many magical doors that flanked the spiral staircase made the group nervous. There was one door every ten stairs. Looking down, there were 500 stairs, meaning there would be 50 doors.

At the end of the stairs was a dead end. There was simply no exit.

Meaning to say, if there were an exit, it would be found among one of these doors. However, who could say which door led to the exit and which led to a dead end? Worse still, which door would lead them into danger, and how were they to open these doors? They would need to try every door.

Even Link felt a headache coming after seeing this.

"Life Stealing Ten Thousand Door Array." This was the most painful part of the mission "The Night King's Sadness."

It was naive to think that the 50 doors was all there was to the Life Stealing Ten Thousand Door Array!

Here, players would experience what it meant to be mind-boggled to the point of desperation.