A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 60 Nightmare Island

Unfortunately, Teacher 87's competition journey has come to an end, and the team with only one member can do nothing.

However, Jiang Shuzhou's competition has only just begun.

At this moment, Jiang Shuzhou was cautiously approaching a mission point, not wanting to get entangled with the demon any further.

The competition isn't about who kills the most monsters. Killing monsters only grants temporary talents that enhance one's strength. If everyone kills monsters to gain talents, Jiang Shuzhou would actually be at a disadvantage.

Others have a team of three, and the whole team benefits from clearing a group of monsters. He can only get one talent, while others can get three. If this continues, the situation will be very unfavorable for Jiang Shuzhou.

This wasn't the decisive reason; what truly made Jiang Shuzhou make up his mind was the devil himself.

Demons are synonymous with chaos, not just in terms of personality. They truly have the ability to corrupt people. Many mages have fallen into the abyss because they have long enslaved demons, become corrupted by chaos, and ultimately fall into the abyss.

Even if Jiang Shuzhou were to summon a succubus, what he summoned was a projection, and all safety measures were taken.

Prolonged battles with demons can also lead to personality changes, which is why spellbooks within the Mage Alliance advise mages against frequent contact with demons.

For this reason, Jiang Shuzhou planned to reap the benefits without lifting a finger, deliberately loitering near the mission point, waiting for others to eliminate the demons and complete their missions, and then making his move when they were in the midst of a fierce battle with the demons.

He wants both blessings and a share of the spoils!

This is the answer: be the sixth one.

Moreover, Jiang Shuzhou was all alone, without any teammates, so the probability of him being discovered was naturally much lower.

As far as the eye could see, there was only desolation. The surrounding area was filled with withered flowers and plants, and occasionally one could see the stark white bones. The earth had lost its former color, and the gray-white earth resembled a scene from the end of the world. Jiang Shuzhou carried a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, and walked through this scene of destruction.

"Woof!"

A dog's bark broke the silence. Upon hearing the bark, Jiang Shuzhou immediately lay down, preparing to hide.

He wasn't worried that the dogs could smell him. In this stench-filled land, the sense of smell was completely useless; the smell here was nothing but stench.

Then Jiang Shuzhou heard the sharp cry of an eagle and the roar of a bear.

The sheer number of animals made Jiang Shuzhou realize that there must be a druid in the other party's group, and only a druid could find so many animal friends.

The animals were all brought, it's just a pity.

In this situation, if an eagle flies too high, it may mutate when it lands.

The hazy atmosphere wasn't caused by clouds or mist; it was likely shrouded in chaotic dust, the dust of the abyss.

This stuff is no good. To abyssal creatures it's just ordinary dust, but to people living in order it's deadly poison.

It's best to avoid contact before you have a strong will. Although Jiang Shuzhou has a good will, he doesn't want to cause trouble for no reason and gamble his rationality on whether his will can withstand it.

Fortunately, the chaotic dust remained high in the sky, otherwise Jiang Shuzhou would never have dared to stay here.

Physical damage can be repaired, but mental damage is much harder to heal, especially in a cesspool like the Abyss, where even a little bit can take a long time to remove.

"Bang bang bang!"

Gunshots rang out, clearly indicating that the team was fighting the demons.

Jiang Shuzhou moved to a shelter made up of several dead trees.

Peeking out, he saw a team engaged in a fierce battle with demons. There were more demons than Jiang Shuzhou had encountered before, and he even saw several Quassa demons.

These Quassa demons were all wounded, mostly with scratches, clearly indicating that they were left from fighting each other during an internal conflict.

That's how demons are; the more demons of the same rank there are, the more likely they are to fight amongst themselves. Even if the enemy is right in front of them, they will not hesitate to betray their teammates.

"roar!"

A black bear roared and bit off the body of a Primal Demon in one gulp. The Primal Demon died on the spot, and the body in the bear's mouth turned into pus, making Jiang Shuzhou frown.

This bear is no good, it's too dirty.

However, this approach does fit Jiang Shuzhou's stereotype of druids as ignorant and barbaric. But then again, where are the druids?

Looking around, Jiang Shuzhou only saw two people and three beasts; he didn't see the druid at all.

Of the remaining two, one was a warrior wielding a sharp sword and wearing plate armor, while the other carried a lever rifle with an extremely high rate of fire and great accuracy.

It's obvious that neither of them are Druids.

No one gave the beasts orders? Or am I mistaken, and there are no druids at all?

No, this group definitely has druids. Looking at the flawless coordination between the animals and humans in combat, no other class could possibly command animals so smoothly at this level.

"roar!"

The black bear attacked a Quassamon. The Quassamon chuckled, took a step back, and prepared to become invisible to escape the battle and launch a sneak attack.

Just then, a red light suddenly shone from his body.

This is "Detecting Enemies of Nature," and the mage's "Detecting Faith" originates from this spell.

The effects are similar; both are tests for something.

The blinding red light shattered Quassa's plan to become invisible; it was now locked on.

What followed was the warrior's slashing attack. Everyone knows the consequences of an assassin being caught in close combat by a warrior. This Quassa demon died very quickly.

This...this isn't right, is it?

Druids don't have a long casting range, so it's obvious who cast the spell.

Druids have the ability to morph into animals; this is not a spell but a Druid class ability.

"He's a ruthless person."

Even Jiang Shuzhou had to admit that the other party was indeed a ruthless person, daring to transform into a bear and even bite the demon with his mouth.

It is known that the abyssal pus that demons turn into after death is not only disgusting, but also has a polluting effect.

How dare it bite?

Before this, Jiang Shuzhou had never submitted to anyone, but now he did.

He was speechless at the stupidity of these druids. They were the earliest spellcasters to emerge, yet they were so ignorant.

However, it's also possible that the other party treated it all as a game, and therefore didn't study the knowledge in detail.

"No, we can't wait any longer, or this druid will mutate."

The abyssal pus is no joke; its status in the mage world is roughly equivalent to nuclear fuel. If handled properly, it can bring enormous benefits to mages; if handled poorly, they'll be doomed.

If the abyssal pus occasionally splashes on your skin, or you accidentally swallow a few drops, it's not a big problem. However, if you put it directly into your mouth like this druid did, you can imagine the consequences would be dire.

Without hesitation, Jiang Shuzhou raised his pistol and aimed at the eagle. Nothing else mattered; he needed to take out the most mobile one first, otherwise he would be harassed badly later.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Perhaps because the eagle's color was somewhat dark, Jiang Shuzhou emptied the magazine without hesitation.

The result was satisfactory; Jiang Shuzhou's sneak attack successfully killed the eagle.

The eagle, which had been flying low and disrupting the demon's attack, was hit in the wing and body by Jiang Shuzhou's shot and finally crashed into a dead tree.

"I'll f*** your ass!"

Surprisingly, the person most furious about the eagle crash was not the druid, but the musketeer, who fired at Jiang Shuzhou while swearing.

At the same time, the warrior realized that someone was preparing to reap the benefits. He hesitated for a moment, and after killing a charging demon, he began to slowly retreat, clearly intending to deal with Jiang Shuzhou first.

However, the druid was not so rational. The black bear continued to fight madly among the demons, seemingly becoming one with them.

While rapidly reloading, Jiang Shuzhou cast an oil-smear spell in front of him, specifically to defend against the soldiers' charge skills.

As expected, the soldier charged towards Jiang Shuzhou without hesitation, and then, unsurprisingly, slipped and fell a dozen meters away from Jiang Shuzhou.

However, his charge did not disappoint him. In any case, the soldier finally managed to reach Jiang Shuzhou, albeit by rolling all the way.

Jiang Shuzhou accepted the points offered to him without hesitation and thrust his Miao sword directly at the warrior.

"Pfft."

The soldier's head, which had no protection, was pierced directly by Jiang Shuzhou's knife. His body twitched a few times before returning to stillness; it was clear he was not going to survive.

Points +1

Since entering the competition, most of the game system's functions have been disabled. There are no items in the inventory, attribute bar, or battle data. If it weren't for the exit button still being available, Jiang Shuzhou would have thought the system had malfunctioned.

This time, at least there was some response.

After dealing with the soldiers, Jiang Shuzhou had also run out of bullets.

While Jiang Shuzhou was dealing with the soldiers, the musketeer did not stand idly by. He fired more than a dozen bullets at Jiang Shuzhou with his lever rifle.

Unfortunately, the effect was minimal; the bullets were blocked by the mage's armor. Although there was no damage display, Jiang Shuzhou was still able to roughly estimate the damage dealt to the opponent.

Jiang Shuzhou's armor is 37 points, which means that all damage below 37 cannot penetrate his armor, while the damage from firearms is about 40 to 50 points.

While it may seem that guns deal significant damage, this is not actually the case. A warrior's slashing damage is around 60 points, and if skills are included, it could even reach 100 points.

It may seem like just two shots are enough to cause damage, but in reality, the difference is enormous.

After removing armor defense, Jiang Shuzhou will only take about 10 points of damage per shot, while a warrior's charge will cause Jiang Shuzhou to take 60 points of damage.

This is why Jiang Shuzhou, despite having a gun, only used it as a secondary weapon to clear out the mobs.

This thing can't damage units with high armor; its single-shot damage is too low.

Moreover, Jiang Shuzhou's armor comes from his talent, not from his equipment, so it won't become ineffective due to low equipment durability.

"How is that possible!"

Seeing Jiang Shuzhou, who had taken more than a dozen bullets from him without being hurt, the musketeer felt his worldview completely collapse.

The fact that a mage could withstand more than a dozen of his bullets was a huge shock to his worldview.