Chapter 72: Wild Ogre
At the sa ti.
Throughout the Imperial Palace, every last person who knew the Princess had been taken fell into complete chaos.
Guards and servants alike were consud by panic.
Confusion, bewildernt, despair, and urgency saturated the air.
Where was the Princess? The Princess had been taken by Viktor!
At this point, they didn't even dare go and report the news to the Emperor.
Who would dare tell the Emperor?
The Princess had been seized right from under their noses—if the Emperor so much as lost his temper, their heads could be rolling in the next second!
At this point, they had to find the Princess before the Emperor found out!
But how were they supposed to find her? Where were they even supposed to look?
This was the Teleportation Magic of a 4th-Tier Mage—its range was enormous!
Viktor could be anywhere in the Royal Capital, or even—he might have taken the Princess and left the Royal Capital entirely!
Suddenly, one of Auréliane's personal guards thought of sothing and hurried to speak up.
"Knight Commander Gwen! She's Viktor's Fiancée!"
"She might know where Viktor is!"
At this point, it seed like the only option left.
She threw on a black cloak and turned to the crowd of frantic servants.
"Stay calm for now and keep the news contained."
"But what if Knight Commander Gwen doesn't know where Viktor is either?"
One of the servants asked in a flustered rush. A shadow passed through the personal guard's eyes.
"Then we imdiately inform His Majesty."
"The Princess absolutely cannot co to harm."
***
Delin Manor.
Gwen stood at the entrance, staring blankly at the royal guards.
She blinked, taking in the news the royal guards had brought.
The Princess had been taken by Viktor?
What was Viktor playing at now? Did he feel uncomfortable if he went even a single day without stirring up trouble?
"The matter is urgent. We ask that Knight Commander Gwen set out imdiately to find Viktor."
Faced with the guards' appeal, Gwen found herself at a loss.
She had no idea where Viktor would have taken the Princess, let alone how to find him.
Gwen was stuck—where was she even supposed to go to look for Viktor right now?
Kavra was standing nearby and poked Gwen in the side with a finger.
Gwen flinched, then shot Kavra a glance that was sowhere between exasperation and reproach.
But Kavra just grinned and said:
"You can definitely find Viktor. He did leave sothing for you, after all."
"Sothing?"
Gwen froze, and then it suddenly ca back to her.
Viktor had indeed left sothing for her.
She quickly pulled out a golden sheet of parchnt from her waist—faint traces of Magic Power still clung to it.
It was a magic Viktor had left behind.
He had requested a batch of refined steel, and had deliberately left this parchnt to tell her:
This parchnt could locate his position.
In an instant, a wave of puzzlent stirred in Gwen's heart.
What on earth was Viktor trying to do?
If he wanted to take the Princess away, why would he have given her a tracker that could locate him in advance?
Was it an oversight?
Impossible. Viktor was absolutely not the type to be careless like that.
Kavra noticed the hesitation and confusion on Gwen's face and offered a reminder:
"Since you can find Viktor, why not just bring a good number of people along?"
Gwen couldn't make sense of it, but Kavra spoke as though she already knew sothing.
"Maybe Viktor wanted people to co and find him on purpose?"
***
By this ti, Auréliane had already covered more than half of the journey.
Along the way, she ran into another monster ambush—this ti with 1 more Flower-cluster Monster than before.
But Auréliane was now extraordinarily calm.
She calmly kept casting spells, targeting the monsters' weak points, and wave after wave of trendous fire incinerated the monsters without leaving so much as a scrap behind.
Even though the monsters were already dead, she still felt a lingering sense of dread.
It was just like bungee jumping—there were safety asures all around, yet the tension of coming close to death again and again kept needling at her nerves without end.
But this ti, she would not lose.
The next mont, several monsters reappeared and lunged at Auréliane.
Spells kept flowing from her hands, wearing away at her Magic Power bit by bit.
Yet with Auréliane's astonishing innate talent, her Magic Power barely diminished at all, and those common tree sprites were swept away in one clean pass.
Her weak-point strikes grew more and more practiced, making it easier and easier to deal with these monsters.
Auréliane breathed lightly, a faint flush coloring her cheeks from fatigue.
Walking up to the remains, she didn't forget to pick up the materials just as Viktor had done.
She had already been walking this mountain path for nearly 2 hours.
During that ti, she had died no fewer than 20 tis.
Every ti death drew near, Teacher Viktor's flas would spread and consu every last monster.
But that also ant she had to start over from the beginning.
The monsters reappeared as though deliberately drawn back, and she had challenged this sa stretch of road over 20 tis in a row.
She could feel her combat experience growing with every pass.
Countless rounds of spell-casting made everything feel more natural and effortless—even releasing 2nd-tier spells no longer demanded the effort it once had.
Auréliane continued walking forward. The forest grew denser and denser, and the sunlight gradually failed to push through the barrier of leaves, until it was blocked out entirely.
Darkness slowly swept over what remained of the path ahead.
White mist began to rise, blanketing the final stretch of the mountain road.
Instinct told her that sothing dangerous lurked within the white mist ahead.
It felt as though once she stepped inside, she would be like soone standing at the edge of an abyss—with no way back.
Auréliane reached out a hand and touched the mist before her.
"……"
Nothing out of the ordinary. Even so, she steeled herself, and with a heart full of apprehension, stepped inside.
She walked into the white mist—and almost instantly, everything in front of her opened up.
Stretching before her was a wide, open plain.
Dense trees surrounded it on all sides, as though this patch of ground had been deliberately left clear, giving the whole place an eerie quality.
The mont Auréliane stepped in, a wall of white mist sealed the path behind her. It startled her so badly she stumbled back a few paces.
But no matter how she pressed or struck it, this layer of mist seed to have solidified into a hard wall and gave no reaction at all.
She was trapped here.
Soon, the rustling and shuffling sounds of the dense forest ca one after another, and the ground began to stir.
With a trendous tremor shaking the earth, a massive creature burst up through the tangled roots underground and appeared before Auréliane.
Its entire body was wound in green vines and coarse hair, obscuring its face entirely, making it impossible to see what it truly looked like.
All that could be seen were 2 enormous red eyes glowing dimly in the darkness.
"ROOOOAAARR—!"
A ferocious roar slamd into Auréliane's eardrums, and a damp, stifling breath rushed into her nose—like sothing had seized the life from her very heart.
Her eyes went wide. She simply could not believe the monstrous thing standing before her.
"The Wild Ogre."
This was the Lord-tier Boss at the end of the Mirute Trail—a type of field Boss.
Its respawn window was roughly once a week, and upon death it had a chance to drop an item—【Ogre's Heart】.
A crafting material that could be used to make equipnt.
Viktor compared Auréliane's HP against the Wild Ogre's.
This was a Level 20 Wild Ogre.
It wasn't particularly powerful, but owing to its Boss Panel, its thick health and high defense made it an enormous challenge for Auréliane at Level 15.
Auréliane stared at the magical beast before her. She felt as though the monster's breath was a giant drum being beaten over and over—each heavy strike landing squarely on her heart.
Under the overwhelming pressure the creature exerted, she retreated several steps.
It was only when she touched the white mist wall behind her that she understood: there was nowhere left to retreat.
This... wasn't this a little too intense?
Auréliane had no close-combat experience whatsoever—there was simply no way she could defeat it by any ans other than magic.
But... this thing.
Would it really give her the chance to attack from range with magic?
A Boss would never give anyone ti to wait. In the re instant Auréliane hesitated, the Wild Ogre tore free of its countless vines, trailing their broken ends, and charged straight at her.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Every step it took seed to vent its fury at the intruder—as though it couldn't believe soone had actually dared to enter its territory!
With one abrupt swing of its enormous arm, the shadow had already swallowed Auréliane completely.
BOOM!
One palm ca crashing down. Caught off guard, Auréliane didn't even have ti to react.
It was as though she could already see the conclusion of her own death.
But just as the Wild Ogre was about to land the hit.
The next mont, a white Magic Formation began to glow from throughout the entire forest, and the radiance swallowed everything.
When Auréliane opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in place.
The Wild Ogre had been reset to its starting position too, bound once more by its heavy vines.
Auréliane looked at her own unhard body—but in her mory, it was exactly as though she had died once.
She touched her neck. Her head was still on her shoulders.
On the ground where she stood, a new number had appeared.
"1."
Was this a record of her failures, or rather...
"I died... once?"
Auréliane raised her head and looked at the monster again. The creature itself also seed puzzled as to why it had suddenly found itself tangled in vines all over again.
But it didn't care about any of that. All it needed to do was charge forward once more and kill the frail human in front of it.
Auréliane finally understood she couldn't keep hesitating. She resolved to attempt her first real resistance.
She couldn't use Teleportation Magic, but there were still ways to break free of the creature's lock-on.
For instance, the Grey Haze magic Viktor had made her learn today.
She shaped the Formation between her hands—and because she had done it several tis before, her construction this ti was practiced and swift.
The Wild Ogre tore free of the vines again and charged at Auréliane.
Before it could even reach her, the sweeping black mist imdiately engulfed the Ogre.
The Ogre let out a screech and began to thrash wildly at the trees around it.
Auréliane knew the hallucinatory magic had taken effect.
So she attempted to seize the opening and attack from the side.
Countless sparks flew toward the Ogre—but the mont they made contact, the sparks were extinguished by the Ogre's frantic flailing.
Whether it was the thick leaves, the damp air, or the monster's enormous bulk, Auréliane's attacks were rendered pitifully weak.
The Ogre had taken almost no damage at all—and instead, Auréliane's attack had provoked it all over again.
She was astounded. Her magic had done virtually nothing. She stood frozen with wide eyes, at a complete loss.
"How is that even poss—"
Before she could finish, the Ogre kicked a massive fallen log from the forest floor and sent it hurtling at Auréliane.
In an instant, everything before her eyes went dark.
With the signal of death, a white light faded away—and she and the monster were reset to the beginning once more.
A faint green glow rose across the Wild Ogre's body. That was a healing spell.
Auréliane was bathed in blue light, and the Magic Power she had spent was fully restored.
Her body, too, was restored to the sa state as before.
As though foretelling sothing, the number on the ground gained another mark.
"2."
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