“So awesome, Manager-nim!”
“You weren’t just lazing around while playing the harp!”
Sapjil and Ulmeok gave her a thumbs up and praised her. Sapjil and Ulmeok were talking about the time Roco took to learn the ‘Rhapsody Melody’ from the ghost. ‘Melody Rhapsody’ was divided into 5 movements, with each movement having an unique effect. And the song Roco was currently playing was the prelude ‘Illusion Sonata.’
-Melody Rhapsody Prelude:【Illusion Sonata】(Intermediate, Active)
The tragic fate of the genius musician who composed the Melody Rhapsody dwells within the ‘Illusion Sonata.’ All those who listen to such wonderful magic will be lost in a world of illusion. The people listening to such music on the battlefield will really feel like the main character of a tragedy. Illusion Sonata uses that to target the area where it can project a illusionary landscape. However, the images produced by the illusion have to actually exist. In addition, the realistic sense of the illusion will change depending on the degree of completion.
Yes, the Lancel village that Jewel’s group entered was a mirage created by Illusion Sonata.
‘The illusion seems perfect.’
Ark had seen the illusion of Lancel village that appeared not long ago. After Roco had used the Illusion Sonata, Ark had checked the degree of completion. The result was indeed amazing. Even Ark who knew about it in advance was 100% deceived by the illusion. Furthermore, there was no size limit on the illusions that Roco could create. The reason was simple. It was an illusion but the one Roco produced was different from illusion magic. To be exact, it was a hallucination not an illusion. The Illusion Sonata dragged Jewel’s group into a fantasy world and made them ‘see it as reality.’ That’s why it could show a ridiculous effect like copying a whole village. Although a Minstrel was treated as a boring profession, music was able to create tremendous illusions like this. It showed that there was more to each profession. The only downside was that the target had to be listening to the music. But that problem was easily solved with Redian using her amplification magic on Roco’s harp. Roco’s present coverage of the Illusion Sonata was several hundred metres! Jewel’s group didn’t realize that they were hallucinating because of the music. Then Ark placed traps in advanced and they walked right on top of them.
“It really is rewarding watching those guys suffer.”
Ark said with a smirk. Anyway, it wasn’t necessary to listen to Racard’s live coverage. Those guys undergoing the terrible ordeal in the fake Lancel was only 200 metres away. Therefore Ark could see the rising flames and the screams from Jewel’s group. After a while, the screams seemed to decrease and Racard’s voice could be heard.
“Master, I think all of them have escaped the traps.”
“The damage?”
“Um, there aren’t that many that burned. Around 30~40 or so?”
‘It wasn’t that strong.’
Ark looked disappointed after Racard’s report. However Ark hadn’t expected that he could deal critical damage to them like this. Even if the bombs maximized the power of the Fire Stones, they were still just traps. At the beginning quite a few of them suffered but once they grasped the situation then they managed to avoid the traps.
‘Well the traps were mainly for the magicians and priests who have low health. In a war the magicians and priests have tremendous influence. I’ve achieved my purpose of reducing the number of priests and magicians. And the illusion hasn’t been broken yet.’
“Roco, from now on maintain your maximum output.”
“I understand.”
Roco’s fingers began to move even quicker. Her ten fingers raced like the wind over the 47 strings. Dozens of tones were created and a captivating melody flowed out. Then lights from 3~4 more Lancel villages appeared. The degree of completion of the ‘Illusion Sonata’ has increased and made it more welcoming.
“Hihihihi, they’re overwhelmed and don’t know what they’re doing!”
Racard giggled as he used satellite surveillance mode to watch them. As expected, Jewel’s group were in a state of chaos. But it was impossible for them to retreat now. One by one Jewel’s group followed the light.
And that was what Ark aimed for.
Snap, bang! Snap, syu syu syu syuk!
The mechanical sounds rang out throughout the forest. He had placed pitfalls along that area. Those guys didn’t know about the welcoming lights and just rushed in blindly. He had created a few copies of the same village. Although they weren’t stupid so they didn’t blindly rush into the village like before. So Ark had buried traps between the different villages.Those guys who were fooled by the lights fell victim to the traps.
‘It won’t deal a serious blow but the damage will cumulate. The cumulative damage will be a significant penalty when the war begins.’
His plan was to take care of the magicians and priests with traps. However, the ones in the forest weren’t traps to deal damage. They were traps to make the magicians and priests consume their mana. If someone was caught in a trap than the magicians and priests would have no choice but to use magic. And even the smallest loss of mana would be helpful on a battlefield.
‘They’ve already lost dozens of priests and magicians and they should’ve lost 20~30% of their mana from the traps. That will increase the chances of winning the war! Of course they will start using scouts to carefully search for traps as they move through the first but it will be good for buying some time.’
Yes, the biggest reason Ark developed this plan was to gain some time. However, that time wasn’t to build up defences for Lancel village. The raccoons had already finished all the defences for Lancel.
The reason he needed time wasn’t for defense preparations……
Snap, syu syu syu syuk!
-The Poison Arrow trap has been activated. 300 damage.
“Damn, another poison!”
“Hurry up before I lose any more mana!”
“Dammit…..”
Racard’s live coverage showed the real condition of Jewel’s group. Of course, the ability to detect traps was one of the vocational skills of the Rangers and Hunters. However, the welcoming lights of Lancel were spread out across the forest. In other words, the spreading forest was full of traps. It would take a few days just finding all the traps in the forest. So Jewel had his warriors with high health and defense lead the group.
If it wasn’t possible to find one by one than they planned to ignore it and head straight to Lancel. But the traps in the forest were different from the traps in Lancel. The traps in the illusion were damage oriented traps.
Since 100 spheres were triggered at the same time, quite a few magicians and priests with low health were sacrificed.But the traps in the forest had the effect of draining mana. In this situation losing mana was more threatening than losing health. Health could be restored with recovery magic but there was no way to recover mana within a small amount of time. Even if they were warriors, they wouldn’t be able to use skills without mana. Skills played a huge role in battle. No matter the level difference, if no skills were available than the odds couldn’t be guaranteed. But despite their efforts, the warriors’ mana still flew away. In fact, their mana drained even faster as they struggled blindly.
“Jewel, have you caught anything?”
Duke asked in a pained voice.
“…….I don’t know. I’ve been using Mana Track but I can’t seem to find anything.”
But Jewel’s answer was also pained. Jewel’s original occupation was ‘Force Stalker.’ The primary accomplishment of a Force Stalker was their ability to trace mana. After changing to his 2nd stage profession ‘Force Officer’ with the help of the alliance, this mana tracking technique was reinforced even further. Yet Jewel still hadn’t found any traces of mana in the forest.
“There are 3~4 villages visible. If the illusion is of this magnitude than wouldn’t there be some traces of mana?”
“I’m going crazy.”
Jewel murmured in an irritated voice.
‘Dammit, there are also people like this at Lancel……’
Jewel had previously had members of the suicide squads hide around Lancel village. The reason Jewel had them hide beforehand was to keep an eye on Lancel. However, those guys had been caught by Shambala and were now rotting in jail. Therefore Jewel couldn’t risk anyone else scouting around the area. They were trapped in the cell but he had received all the basic information so there was no reason to check again. He never imagined that a situation like this could happen. No, in fact the situation would’ve still been similar even if he scouted beforehand. The suicide squad members didn’t just see the illusion inside the village. The illusion was made with many layers that some of them overlapped with the trees. In addition, the night was so dark that not even starlight was visible. It would be difficult for them to identify anything strange in the forest.
“Damn, I should’ve known that Ark would play a trick like this……”
Then Duke spoke in a worried voice.
“Jewel, should we still proceed with the plan?”
“You want to retreat because of some traps?”
“It’s not that. You saw it as well so you know that Ark is in the village. He probably came back after seeing the video.”
“Yes, but that was one of the purposes of the video.”
Jewel murmured in a cold voice. In fact, Jewel’s goal in making Duke film the video wasn’t just to scare away users from Lancel. Jewel knew that Ark wasn’t in Lancel. That was the main reason why Jewel made the video. If Ark saw the video then he would return to Lancel village. If Ark lost his store and Lancel village than it would be a big blow to him, so he would come rushing back. And that was what drove Jewe