Chapter 597: Chapter 300: Chill Touch (Part 3)

Working together for many years, they have developed a tacit understanding, knowing each other’s personalities and ways of handling things. Their relationship had long surpassed that of ordinary friends.

In contrast, Mage Joshua was truly a newcomer who had just joined the team not long ago.

And his Professional Level was far from reaching the team’s average standard.

Joshua was a newly escaped apprentice, a Level 1 Mage.

Under normal circumstances, considering that mages are a profession that becomes powerful later on, at such a low level, unless they are Wild Mages who have unexpectedly acquired a meditation method and have the corresponding qualifications but lack resources, they would likely spend twenty-four hours a day holed up in the lab before reaching Level 5 and would never venture out recklessly.

And judging by Joshua’s nervous manner in the forest, it was naturally impossible for him to be one of those Wild Mages who are more dangerous and desperate than regular professional mages of the same level.

The reason why he left home at such a level to take on tasks as an adventurer to earn gold coins…

Actually, knowing just two points is enough to roughly deduce the situation.

1. He is from Neum;

2. His family is a fallen noble, stripped of their title.

A very clichéd yet true story, anyone who has listened to a few melodramatic tales told by a minstrel could guess the classic storyline development within.

Yes, it’s just as you think.

And it was precisely because of this that the unremarkable adventurer team “Oathkeeper Blackwood” recently gained a rare and precious spellcaster teammate due to a chance encounter in Neum City.

His Professional Level might be a bit low, but at least he is a bona fide Level 1 Mage who has mastered multiple tricks and support-type first-circle spells.

He could be of great assistance during missions.

Take the recent battle with the brown bear for example, although Shajin complained that Joshua’s casting preparation was too slow, almost getting him hurt.

But it was precisely the barely cast “Chill Touch” that caused the forest brown bear to become briefly rigid, providing Margaret with an opportunity to land a fatal blow as she strategically attacked from the side.

Alone, he might die faster than ordinary low-level adventurers;

But if there are teammates with professional levels to watch over him, the role he could play would be considerable.

Having just returned from Neum to town shortly, they hadn’t even spent many nights in the tavern, nor did they catch up on the town’s latest rumors like before through boasting and idle chatting.

The older members of the team were planning to look for some investigation tasks that required less combat, to hone their coordination during the adventure and find some rapport.

“You sit there and rest for a while.” Seeing him so nervous, Margaret patted Joshua’s shoulder and pointed to a nearby open space.

“Okay, Miss Margaret.”

Obediently nodding, the mage with a pale face staggered forward and sat on a fallen tree trunk.

Watching his two teammates skillfully stripping materials from the brown bear’s corpse (with Shajin on guard beside them), he felt somewhat useless and guilt crept into his heart.

He took out a map from his pocket and studied the pre-planned route they had mapped out before departure.

Their goal was the nest of a deceased Petrified Lizard, located on the border between the outer and core areas of the Mist Forest.

If it were the ordinary adventurers from the town, they would naturally take a detour, avoiding getting too close to the forest’s interior as much as possible.

But as a professional-level team, they had been to the core region of the Mist Forest countless times, so such concerns were irrelevant to them.

They would cut straight through, just slightly avoiding a few dangerous demon territories along the way, disregarding notions such as “outer” or “core area.”

As if seeing something, his gaze suddenly focused.

Joshua looked at the map route, where they were about to pass an irregularly oval special terrain.

It was rare, but it was marked as a necessary waypoint with a name:

—— “Rotroot Swamp.”