The incandescent fireball crashed into the teleportation rune, transforming into countless points of light. The points of light were then reverted into pure magical energy. At the same moment, the teleportation beam descended, but was disrupted by this unexpected surge of magical energy. With a loud 'boom', the teleportation core rune at the top of the hall exploded directly.

This explosion triggered a massive chain reaction, causing all the immense magical energy stored within the entire teleportation tower to spiral out of control.

'Boom! Boom! Boom!'

The teleportation tower flickered with dazzling magical brilliance. Blazing platinum orbs of light rose and dissipated—this was magic gone wild. Amidst the chaos, large cracks appeared on the outer walls of the teleportation tower, and many runes shattered, causing even more magic to go out of control.

With a rumbling roar, under the flickering light, the teleportation tower collapsed into a pile of rubble.

Luke Carter had already run far away. He returned to the small grove from before, hid in the shadow behind an ancient tree, and cast a Lesser Invisibility spell on himself once again.

The commotion at the teleportation tower attracted a large number of dark elf assassins. The assassins all knew the significance of the teleportation tower and quickly rushed toward the ruins.

Hiding in the shadows, watching the dark elf assassins fleeing past one after another, Luke Carter heard a prompt from the game system in his mind.

Mission: Communication Disruption Complete.

Player Luke Carter has gained 20 free points.

Step Three Mission: Escape.

Mission objective: Escape the pursuit of the dark elf assassins.

Mission reward: 20 free points.

Looking at this information, Luke Carter showed a wry smile. The city was full of dark elf assassins. He had killed the action commander of the Magic Academy, Giggs, and blown up the teleportation tower. More importantly, he had let the warrior Terry escape. Now, he had definitely become the target of everyone’s pursuit.

All the dark elf assassins in the academy were surely searching for him. No, not just the assassins—soon, dark elf mages would come to the academy to use the teleportation tower. With the tower destroyed, those mages would naturally join the search party as well.

Recalling the mage he had encountered in his previous life’s game, Luke Carter's wry smile deepened.

That dark elf was no gentle academic mage, but a true battle mage, a member of the Silvermoon Mage Council of the Black Forest, and a level 2 elite.

In battles between battle mages, level was a huge advantage. That mage would be his most terrifying opponent tonight.

'Fortunately, I have 20 free points, and I don’t need to kill my opponent—just escape pursuit. It’s not entirely hopeless.'

……

Gristone City, outskirts.

In the darkness, a flash of white light suddenly appeared, and a figure materialized out of thin air—it was Celine.

After she appeared, she stepped aside and waited patiently.

Half a minute passed—no white light. A minute passed, and a blinding white light appeared, but not on the outskirts; it was at the location of the Magic Academy in the distance.

Celine was startled. Watching the white light flicker continuously at the Magic Academy and feeling the massive magical energy fluctuations coming from there, she immediately guessed what had happened and understood Luke Carter's intention.

"He didn’t come. He destroyed the teleportation tower to prevent the dark elves from using the teleportation array to pursue us. But by doing so, I’m safe, while he’s trapped in the middle of danger!"

At that moment, Celine felt a tightness in her chest.

"You go first, I’ll follow right after. I’ll activate the teleportation rune for you." The boy had said this with a smile on his face.

At this moment, that smile was incredibly vivid.

"Idiot! Fool! Moron! Smart-aleck! Did I need you to save me!" Celine stomped her foot hard, suddenly making up her mind: "No, I have to get him out of there."

From childhood to now, she had grown up in loneliness. Other than her mother, no one had ever treated her so well!

Chapter 9: The Dark Elf Mage Holm

Hiding in the shadow of the ancient tree, Luke Carter slowed his breathing as much as possible, while his mind raced to figure out how to escape the dark elves’ pursuit.

"20 free points—first, I’ll add 9 to mana regeneration speed."

If nothing unexpected happened, he would be playing a game of hide-and-seek with the dark elves for quite some time. During this period, if he had a high mana regeneration rate, the longer he hid, the more mana he would recover, and the better his chances.

With 9 points added to mana regeneration speed, his mana regeneration immediately became 9.2 per hour. His current mana cap was 91 points, and he still had 23 mana left. In just over 7 hours, his mana would be fully restored.

By then, he would have six level-0 spells and two level-1 spells available for use. Even if something unexpected happened and a fight broke out, he was confident he could escape.

Faint voices drifted from the ruins of the teleportation tower behind him—the dark elves were probably discussing something.

The people of the Magic Academy had all been killed, and most of the dark elves were likely gathered around the teleportation tower. Now was truly the best time to escape the Magic Academy.

Luke Carter thought for a moment and came up with a plan.

"Purchase spell: Silence."

Silence

Level 0 spell

Effect: Greatly reduces the sounds made by the caster, including footsteps, breathing, speech, etc. Each casting lasts for 20 minutes.