Chapter 21 : Fire Mage

It was hard to imagine such a scene existing deep underground.

When they looked up, the ceiling that should have been solid rock had been replaced by a vast, dim yellow sky.

Stretching before them was a massive, cold, and lifeless city.

The place where they now stood was the top of a tall spire, connected to the city center by a wide stone bridge.

The architecture throughout the city shared the same style—constructed from dark, almost black stone.

Rather than houses, the buildings looked more like towering tombstones, each exuding a heavy, ominous stillness.

This was the land of twilight and eternity—Amber City.

Li Wen had never seen it with her own eyes, but she had studied it through the internal materials of the strategy group.

Amber City was a colossal city that didn’t belong to this era.

It was divided into three main parts: the outer district beyond the spire’s boundaries, the inner district within the spire, and finally, the heart of the city—the Amber Temple.

The Amber Temple was the only dwelling of the Twilight Witch in the mortal world.

In fact, the entire city had been built by her followers around this very temple.

The outer district was strictly off-limits.

It was inhabited by exiled immortals and rebels—beings who, in their futile pursuit of perfect amber, had gone mad and were permanently banished, forbidden from ever returning to the city.

Since only immortals could enter Amber City in the first place, it was highly likely those exiles were still alive even now.

The inner district was home to priests, nobles, and witches.

Their sole purpose was to serve the Twilight Witch’s incarnations that resided within the temple.

While less dangerous than the outer district, it couldn’t be considered safe either.

After the collapse of the Pillars of Twilight, all the followers had taken their own lives in devotion, following their goddess into death.

But that didn’t mean the inner city was without peril.

According to the strategy group’s data, key locations were still guarded by immortals who protected relics left behind by the followers.

Most notably, the Amber Temple itself was still home to the Daughters of Amber—eternal creations of the Twilight bloodline.

In game terms, they were level 50+ entities.

Fortunately, the immortals paid no attention to intruders in Amber City, and the Daughters of Amber remained in deep slumber, awaiting the Witch’s call to awaken once more.

The only current threat might be the fire mage from the Secret Academy—he had likely arrived in Amber City ahead of them.

Just as Li Wen was thinking this, a strange mist suddenly descended, shrouding the group.

Her brow furrowed, and a flicker of unease passed through her.

She was about to speak but stopped herself, quietly retreating into the spire to allow her mana to recover in silence.

“What a thick fog.”

The players, who had just been marveling at the grandeur of the underground city, were now annoyed by the sudden white mist that had ruined the mood.

“Everyone be careful, something’s off with this fog,” Taketori warned loudly.

From a game design perspective, sudden changes in a new map usually meant one of two things: monsters were coming, or a cutscene was about to start.

Either way, it wasn’t good.

Before anyone could react further, the male player at the front suddenly felt a strange warmth spreading through his body.

In the next instant, his health dropped straight to zero.

To the others, it looked as if the player had been instantly consumed by fire, turning into a blazing torch within seconds.

“Enemy attack!”

Taketori was the first to react.

The rest were stunned for a moment before instinctively backing away from their burning teammate.

They had been prepared for combat before entering, so while the ambush caught them off guard, they weren’t defenseless.

“Eleven o’clock! Footsteps!” shouted the hunter, a female player.

She had already knocked an arrow and fired in that direction.

She used a recurve bow.

While not as powerful as a high-poundage longbow, at close range it could still be lethal.

But even after a moment, she heard no sign that the arrow had hit its target.

The fog severely hindered her role as the only ranged attacker.

She regretted not bringing a hunting knife as a backup.

Taketori remained unusually calm.

They were currently on a wide stone bridge, completely exposed.

The first player to die had been a level 2 guard—the only one carrying a shield.

The remaining members were two level 2 warriors and a level 1 hunter.

None of them could withstand more than a couple of hits.

With the thick fog and the lack of cover, their best option was to retreat into the spire and use the building’s structure to hold the line and drag out the fight.

Before she could give that order, the white mist abruptly dispersed.

Standing before them was a young man in tattered mage robes, covered in blood.

His short red hair was striking, and his golden eyes glowed fiercely.

Most notably, his long, pointed ears marked him as one of the elven races—much like the elf-type players.

“I thought the old fossils from the Academy would’ve been sent to someone by now.”

“Turns out it’s just a bunch of clueless mercenaries.”

“I suppose you’re with those idiots smuggling contraband, too?”

“Damn it, wasting my precious mana on the likes of you…”

Taketori didn’t care what he was saying.

The guy clearly looked down on them.

A mage daring to charge in like this—did he not understand the meaning of the word “death”?

She made a hand signal: delay the enemy and buy time for the archer to get a clean shot.

Taketori had a friend in real life who played a mage, so her understanding of their class went far beyond that of an average player.

Low-level mages were fragile.

Their physical endurance was no better than ordinary people’s, and their limited mana was a huge weakness.

Every spell required materials, incantations, and specific gestures.

In short, if a mage tried casting in close quarters, it meant they were exposing their greatest vulnerability.

The hunter began to slowly back up, bow still drawn.

She didn’t shoot immediately—she was waiting for the right moment.

Meanwhile, the two warrior players had already charged in—one wielding a greatsword, the other a flail.

The greatsword user let out a low roar, activating the universal warrior skill Charge, boosting his speed by 20%.

The fire mage didn’t even glance at him.

With a casual wave of his hand, the still-burning corpse of the first player suddenly exploded.

The flames, manipulated as if alive, turned into a serpent of fire that devoured the charging warrior.

The hunter’s heart tightened.

She lost an arrow.

It shot through the flames, heading straight for the mage.

But just as it was about to hit, a translucent, red-tinged barrier shimmered into existence around him.

The moment the arrow passed through it, it disintegrated into ash.

A magic shield?

The hunter realized the truth—her earlier shots hadn’t missed.

They’d been blocked by the shield all along.

Now what?

Her only reliable means of damage had just been nullified.

How were they supposed to beat a boss like this?