Seizing this opportunity, Annabell brandished her staff, her hands enveloped in magical radiance as she unleashed the “Prince’s Battle Technique” at the BOSS. A continuous barrage of magical impacts slammed into the massive cat.
In just a short moment, Annabell had whittled down this Level 8 magical beast, which had already lost its will to fight, until it was dead.
The Thunder Flame Raging Tiger’s enormous body went completely rigid and crashed to the ground.
With the target’s death, the Nine Dragon Coffin Seal Curse also depleted its magical support, slowly fading into the void, allowing the world to resume its flow.
“Whew… this skill is cool, but it really drains the mana.”
Annabell wiped the sweat from her forehead.
This real combat experience had allowed her to grasp the details of the forbidden curse.
This thing definitely had more than just a pressure effect. Just now, she had faintly sensed that if she had enough mana, she could even summon those nine Divine Dragons to breathe various elemental magics.
Moreover, what was inside that bronze coffin was the most terrifying existence…
She recalled the relevant settings from online novels.
“Never mind, no time to study this now. I need to catch up quickly.”
***
Meanwhile.
Charlotte had already arrived safely at her destination.
It was a massive ruin hidden deep within the mountains, entangled by ancient vines.
This was exactly the turning point the old woman in her dream had guided her to—the Elven King Ruins!
Unable to contain her ecstatic joy, Charlotte was about to take out the jade pendant to open the rune-carved stone gate.
However, at that very moment, a chilling, hair-raising sneer sounded from behind her without any warning.
“Hehehe… Finally arrived, last little mouse.”
Charlotte felt a chill run down her spine, as if she had fallen into an icy abyss.
That sinister laughter was like a venomous snake that had been stalking its prey for a long time, sticky and disgusting.
Reacting quickly, Charlotte spun around and pulled an explosion spell scroll from her sleeve, which she had bought at a high price on the black market, her entire being on high alert.
Standing in the shadows not far from the stone gate was a thin man in a black mage robe.
The man’s face was covered in bizarre green magical runes, his narrow eyes like cold serpent pupils, his expression extremely vicious.
“Dark Mage, Snake.” The man sneered as he spoke. “Hand over your entry token, and maybe if I’m in a good mood, I’ll leave you with a whole corpse.”
A murderous intent thick with the stench of blood instantly enveloped Charlotte, as if she would be devoured alive by a poisonous snake in the next second.
“Snake, you don’t even have a single relic gem, yet you’ve been lurking here like a dead dog. So this was your plan?”
At that moment, a handsome young man with a playful smile stepped out from a concealed spot on the other side.
At the same time, figures began to appear one after another from different directions around the entrance of the ruins.
Three women and five men, eight people in total.
Charlotte’s pupils contracted slightly. She had seen all of these people in the Empire’s daily newspapers!
That handsome young man was Charles, the Fourth Prince of the Empire, exceptionally talented since childhood, and the strongest contender for the throne.
Standing beside Charles was a young girl in a white holy robe, radiating a sacred aura. She was Rosalind, the Saintess of the Church of Holy Light. Her talent was so high that she was once compared to the former Charlotte.
The other six were all heirs of major noble families, all of them experts!
These eight unparalleled geniuses, renowned throughout the continent, gathered here, yet they could not recognize this down-and-out tomboy as the “Empire’s First Genius,” Charlotte, who was once their equal and even surpassed them.
Looking at the eight people who had emerged, Snake was not afraid. Instead, he spread his hands and chuckled lightly, “What can I do? I’m just an ordinary Dark Mage, not like you princes and saintesses, backed by endless resources.”
“The resources I want, I naturally have to take with my own two hands.”
“Am I right, Your Highness the Fourth Prince?”
Snake made an incongruous bow to the group. “Please, everyone, stand by and just watch. Give me ten minutes. After I kill this kid and take the last slot, eighty percent of all the treasures I obtain inside the ruins will be offered to you all as compensation, free of charge. How about it?”
Prince Charles chuckled lightly, “Snake, you’re a sharp businessman. This deal, where I gain a lot without any investment, I approve of.”
Charles turned to look at Rosalind: “Lady Saintess, what do you think?”
Rosalind’s expression was blank, her eyes looking as if at an ant beneath her feet: “As long as the nine gems are gathered to open the ruins, the process doesn’t matter to the Holy Light.”
The other overbearing geniuses all exchanged knowing smiles, their eyes filled with cold acquiescence.
Who wouldn’t be happy about an extra worker for free, handing over eighty percent of their earnings? And as for whether that latecomer, the unlucky bastard, gets killed or chopped to pieces, what did it have to do with them?
Snake sneered sinisterly, “Thank you all for your indulgence. Please wait a moment; I’ll go take my spot.”
The group stepped back, watching coldly, completely sealing Charlotte’s fate.
Snake loomed over Charlotte, closing in with cruel eyes: “Kid, are you going to hand it over yourself, or do I have to break you apart piece by piece?”
Charlotte clutched the jade pendant in her hand tightly, her steps slowly retreating as her mind raced. She instantly understood everything.
So, opening these ruins required nine keys (gems).
These eight big shots in front of her each had one, and the Dark Mage Snake didn’t have a key, so he had been hiding here, waiting for the last person to arrive so he could kill them and take their spot!
In other words, what she was facing now wasn’t just a cruel Dark Mage, but also eight top-tier geniuses watching coldly from the sidelines!
Charlotte bit her lip so hard she drew blood, tasting the iron tang.
There was no way she could hand over the jade pendant! This was her only chance to regain her power and stand proudly by Annabell’s side again!
Remembering Annabell’s bold declaration last night to defy the entire academy for her, a surge of determination welled up inside Charlotte.
‘If only I can get close to the ruins’ gate… if only I can activate the inheritance…’
A flicker of defiance shone in Charlotte’s eyes as she suddenly raised the explosion scroll!
Seeing this, Snake shook his head with some regret. “Sigh, how foolish. It seems you’ve chosen the most painful way to die.”
“In that case, become food for my children!”
Poisonous Serpents!
Snake slammed his staff down and chanted a vile curse.
With a skin-crawling sound, thousands of colorful, highly venomous snakes surged out from beneath Snake’s black robe and from the surrounding mud.
This guy was a summoner!
Startled, Charlotte instinctively hurled the explosion scroll.
Flames erupted, incinerating dozens of snakes.
Then, a massive Shadow Giant Python, as thick as a bucket, burst from underground, biting Charlotte on the shoulder and coiling its enormous body tightly around her, hoisting her into the air!
“Huh? No trace of magical fluctuation… You’re an ordinary person?!”
Through the snake’s sensing, Snake detected Charlotte’s true nature, and his face instantly flushed with a mix of anger and embarrassment, feeling like a complete fool.
He had assumed that someone who could make it here was definitely the heir of some major family, with considerable strength. To be safe, he had grudgingly promised the prince and the others eighty percent of the profits.
And after all that, his target turned out to be a defenseless ordinary person?!
But how did an ordinary person get here?
Does this make any sense?
The other big shots present were also stunned for a moment before breaking into amused, mocking smiles.
Prince Charles burst out laughing, “Hahaha! Snake, you’re the one who thought you were so clever, but now you’ve outsmarted yourself! Promising away eighty percent of the profit just to kill an ordinary person—don’t you dare go back on your word now!”
Snake was so angry he felt his lungs would burst, and he ground his teeth, “Don’t worry! I won’t short you a single cent of the promised benefits!”
With nowhere to vent his frustration, he poured all his venom onto Charlotte.
The slippery, cold giant python coiled tighter and tighter around Charlotte, her bones groaning under the unbearable pressure.
Intense suffocation blurred Charlotte’s vision, her face turning bright red from the strain.
“I’m not going to let you die so easily…” Snake walked up to Charlotte, his eyes wild with madness. “I’m going to strip you naked and throw you into the snake pit, plant snake eggs inside your organs, making you the host for monster births… Hehehe, I guarantee you’ll regret ever being born!”
Charlotte was pinned and couldn’t move.
The gap between an ordinary person and a Dark Mage was ultimately an insurmountable chasm.
From the very beginning, she never had a single chance.
‘I’m so unwilling… I don’t want to leave…’
‘If only I had confessed to her sooner… If she knew I was also a girl, that I actually… like her this much…’
Tears blurred Charlotte’s eyes. That night, Annabell’s public declaration that she would never break off the engagement was the happiest moment of her entire life.
Too bad… she would never see her again.
Charlotte slowly closed her eyes as despair completely swallowed her.
‘If I could just see her one last time…’