First Move, Checkmate: How Will You Respond?

Chapter 20: The Dignity of a Substitute!

Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions can only be stopped by mages.

Especially since the eruption of Mount Vesuvius this time seems to be extraordinary in scale, after all, its not very normal in any era for a hundred-zhang tall pillar of fire to spurt out from the crater.

Once the lava from the volcanic eruption spreads over hundreds of miles, villages and crops could be destroyed.

Not only would it cause tremendous economic damage to the capital, but even the lives of many creatures near the volcano would be threatened.

The capital attaches great importance to this matter, and immediately summoned all the mages in the city who could take action.

The empires army sent batch after batch of mages who gradually made their way to Mount Vesuvius.

Duke Rivierre and Erica were no exception.

After almost a day of continuous night marching, everyone was a little tired.

In the early morning, the team finally reached its destination and rested on the spot.

Because of the collective evacuation of the Knights, all the people of Sanchel Town gathered outside the town.

Even livestock like chickens, ducks, cows and sheep, including some cats and dogs, were herded out without exception.

Outside the town, it was a complete chaos like chickens flying and dogs jumping.

The villagers saw large numbers of troops and mages entering the town, but no one knew what had happened.

At this moment, the atmosphere around the camp was tense to the extreme.

Duke Rivierre was one of the last batches of mages to arrive. When he got off the carriage, many mages from other noble families smiled and took the initiative to approach him.

Its been a long time, Duke Rivierre.

A white-haired noble walked over to Duke Rivierre with a cane, followed by other aristocratic mages from other families.

Nice to see you again, Mr. Beck.

Duke Rivierre politely responded with a sentence.

Im afraid we havent seen each other since the last time the kingdom convened.

Beck recalled the past and spoke to the Duke.

The Duke nodded and smiled cordially.

This must be your daughter. Shes gorgeous and graceful indeed.

You flatter me too much.

Beck saw the badge on Ericas chest that symbolized a second-rank mage.

He pushed his glasses and continued:

Sure enough, Your Excellencys daughter has reached the second rank stage.

It seems what the academy said is true.

Erica knew this was just polite talk between adults.

But hearing the evaluation from other famous mages made her a little happy inside.

No one dislikes praise, especially Erica who grew up surrounded by compliments.

Duke Rivierre looked at his daughter with a smiling face. She was his pride.

Haha, your daughters talent for magic really makes us old guys jealous.

The adults chatted and slowly calmed down.

In the mage community, almost no one was a stranger to each other.

Duke Rivierre was one of the few third-rank mages, and the remaining third-rank mages were also nobles.

In the Carenthia Empire, high-rank mages were almost monopolized by the aristocracy.

Even a second-rank mage was difficult for a commoner to become.

At this moment, a silver-white figure appeared before everyones eyes.

Duke Rivierre glanced at her and knew she was the second daughter of the Delin family.

She was currently serving as the commander of the Royal Knights in the capital.

Gwen Delin comes to report.

The mages saw Gwen come before them with a gloomy expression, and they felt tense inside. Could the situation with the volcano be not optimistic now?

Honorable mages, since the abnormal changes in the volcano yesterday, it has remained relatively stable until now.

Gwen gripped the silver sword in her hand tightly, and beads of sweat dripped from her forehead.

The mages breathed a sigh of relief when they heard her news. The white-haired mage patted his chest, and his hand holding the cane also relaxed a lot.

This way, they only needed to take preventive measures instead of expending a lot of energy to confront the natural disaster head-on.

At this moment, Erica was standing quietly next to Duke Rivierre, watching all this.

Father, who is she?

Duke Rivierre whispered in Ericas ear: She is the current commander of the Royal Knights.

Erica nodded. She saw the commander of the Knights for the first time and was still a little shocked. She didnt expect the commander of the Knights to be a female.

She didnt know Gwen, let alone that Gwen was Victors fiance. But Gwen recognized her.

The nationally renowned magic genius student, Gwen had naturally heard of her.

Not to mention that Victors incident last time made her remember Erica clearly.

Gwen looked at the blonde girl in front of her and thought to herself:

So this is Duke Rivierres daughter? Shes so beautiful, no wonder Victor rushed to confess to her.

Erica had only been seen by Gwen in the newspapers before. Meeting her in person now, Gwen was also stunned by her charm.

Just one look at her would make one feel like falling in love.

So, Knight Commander Gwen, what exactly happened at the volcano?

Gwen briefly told Duke Rivierre about the investigation of the knight order after arriving at the volcano.

..

What? Youre saying you heard a loud roar halfway up the mountain?

After the knight order investigated the peak, the volcanos temperature rose immediately? And a 100-meter tall fire pillar erupted?

Beck and the other tier 3 mages were stunned to hear this. They asked each other:

What is this situation?

I dont know, do you know?

I dont know either, never heard of this before.

The mages looked at each other, dumbfounded and not knowing what to say.

Listening to Gwens account, Duke Rivierre also fell into deep thought. He was just as confused as the mages about what had happened.

Gwen suddenly remembered something and said:

This time we requested an accompanying mage, he went to the peak ahead of us, saying he was going to investigate something. But now hes missing and we still dont know his whereabouts.

What?

Now they were all dumbfounded. After all, words like these were too suspicious.

Hearing this, Erica was also surprised. It seemed like she realized something. She turned her head and said to Duke Rivierre:

Father, I want to go to the peak and take a look.

I feeltheres something on the peak.

No!

Hearing Ericas request, the Duke waved his hand firmly and yelled:

Erica, I can agree to many things, but not this!

Erica was unwilling to give up and kept begging her fathers permission: Father! Im a tier 2 mage now, with the ability to act independently.

Unless your strength surpasses mine, I absolutely wont allow you to take one step towards the crater!

Seeing the Duke like this, Erica could only keep silent.

This was simply forcing the strong.

Her father had been immersed in tier 3 magic for over thirty years.

Everyone said that if a new tier 4 saint mage were to appear, it would definitely be Rivierre du Cloy.

Erica thought about how she couldnt even surpass Victor, how could she directly cross two tiers to reach tier 4?

But

Erica felt stifled in her chest.

In that last roar, she heard a voice.

Some voice saying it hurts so much.

And Duke Rivierre had already begun issuing orders to the mages.

The volcanos abnormalities were becoming more and more obvious. The tier 3 mages got into formation, with tier 2 mages providing support by channeling magic in shifts.

They were going to draw magic circles, summoning powerful war magic before the eruption to cover the entirety of Mount Vesuvius.

By then, whether it was magma erupting, or something jumping out of the volcano.

They would destroy it all!

Finallyyoure injured?

Veega looked at Victor in a daze, incredulous.

His condition now was not great.

Half his coat was burnt away, and wounds inflicted by magma kept burning with flames on his body.

However, this was the first time Victor had been injured after fighting fiercely for a whole day

Monster, that was the only way she could describe him.

Facing a disaster like calamity, he was able to fight it for a whole day and even injure it.

In between, he was only injured once.

That was because he was a little distracted and grazed by that astonishing fire pillar.

Just that one hit caused him considerable damage.

If he had been directly struck by the fire pillar, Im afraid not even his bones would remain.

I guess it was too forced after all

However, getting injured was definitely not good news. It meant Victors energy was declining and he was falling into fatigue.

The sustained battle made it gradually harder for him to concentrate.

Why not just forget it and escape with the remaining magic power while you still can.

Veega whispered suggestions to him, though she knew Victor was not the kind of person who surrenders easily.

But his condition was worrying.

Victor did not answer him, only waving magic on himself for a fire resistance buff to stop the burns, while dodging another astonishing fire pillar.

If I leave now, this beast will instantly burst out of Mount Vesuvius.

By then, it would truly be a catastrophe for all living things.

Veega, do you understand?

Veega was stunned.

After finishing speaking, Victor suddenly recalled Veega was an evil god, so he continued:

Sorry, I forgot you probably dont care about these things.

But I do care.

Victor discarded his tattered, completely wrecked coat.

Letting it flutter in the wind and fall into the magma.

The coat turned into sparks in the air, disappearing completely.

Its not that I want to be a good person, but I also dont want this unstoppable behemoth to break out of its cage, and then have the world put a hat on me called the Destroyer.

Guldons HP had already been reduced by a third, which was his amazing achievement.

As long as he could break the beasts defenses, then there was no boss he couldnt kill.

Victor still looked at the enraged Guldon as determined as before, even more excited.

Only in such high-intensity battles could he feel like he had found himself again.

Its just one injury, I havent lost yet.

Because this was a battle staking his dignity as a gamer!