Boom!
With a thunderous roar, the Fireball exploded, directly interrupting the mage puppet's attack.
-652
A damage number floated above the mage puppet's head.
Despite its strong magic resistance, John's Fireball still dealt over six hundred points of damage.
That was more than enough.
He only needed to hit the opponent ten times to take it down.
The mage puppet, its skill interrupted, showed a flicker of confusion in its eyes before quickly gathering magic again.
As an epic-level mage puppet, it had more than just two skills at its disposal.
Zap!
A bolt of lightning struck precisely, interrupting the mage puppet's skill once more.
This was immediately followed by a Wind Blade.
The constant interruption of its spells left the mage puppet in agony.
It was like being on the verge of a climax, only to be suddenly pulled back.
Boom, boom...
The ground trembled as the mage puppet abandoned its magic attacks and charged directly at John.
Now it was John's turn to be surprised.
A fragile mage trying to engage in close combat with an assassin? That was suicide.
Even though the mage puppet was an epic-level boss, its physical resistance wouldn't be high, and its health was just inflated.
Standing his ground, John flashed a faint smile, calmly putting away his staff and switching to two daggers.
The mage puppet noticed John's movements and was puzzled, but didn't pay much attention. It couldn't believe that this human mage apprentice had any means of physical attack.
Then John moved, using the assassin skill Assassinate. In an instant, he was in front of the mage puppet, his dagger slicing precisely across its throat.
-1220
A massive crimson damage number appeared.
Critical hit!
John was slightly surprised. He only had a 5% physical crit rate, yet it had triggered this time.
The mage puppet's eyes were filled with terror and disbelief.
Its health was now down to just over two thousand points.
This human in front of it truly had physical attack capabilities.
"It's time to end this!" John's cold voice rang out, as cold gleams flashed from his daggers, each strike targeting the mage puppet's vital points.
His control over the battlefield and his extensive combat experience made his close combat abilities just as formidable as his ranged attacks.
The mage puppet, in a state of panic, swung its staff wildly. Every time it attempted to cast a spell, John ruthlessly interrupted it.
As an epic-level mage puppet, it had never felt so frustrated.
Damage numbers continuously flashed above its head.
-201
-217
...
The two thousand plus health points were quickly drained.
The mage puppet's body shattered and scattered across the floor.
Its large head rolled to John's feet, its eyes filled with regret and unwillingness.
If it had another chance, it swore it would never engage this strange human in close combat.
[Killed Epic Mage Puppet. Plunder Talent Activated. Obtained B-Level Talent: Spell Combo; Luck +4]
"I actually plundered a talent!" John was overjoyed and quickly checked his new acquisition.
[Spell Combo: B-Level Talent. 50% chance to trigger a combo effect when casting spell attacks]
No wonder the mage puppet could cast two Fireballs at once—it had the Spell Combo talent.
This talent was almost as powerful as Wrath of the Gods, although it was a pity it was only at B-level.
In addition to the Spell Combo talent, John also gained 4 points of the rare Luck attribute.
[All trials completed. Awakening hidden profession]
At this moment, a prompt appeared.
The Magic Temple trials only had seven stages, and John had cleared them all.
A beam of light enveloped him, and he felt a powerful, ancient magical energy flowing into his body, transforming into a warm current that spread throughout his limbs.
[You received the blessing of the Magic Temple. Spirit +100, Skill Points +10]
John was pleasantly surprised to find he had received additional rewards.
The 100 points increase in Spirit significantly boosted his magic damage.
Additionally, he gained 10 more skill points.
[Detected Wrath of the Gods talent. Advancing to hidden profession: Wrath of the Gods Mage, Tier 1]
[Wrath of the Gods Mage: Hidden profession. Increases magic critical hit rate by 10. Each level up grants an additional 4 Spirit points and 1 skill point.]
[Your assassin profession has not yet advanced. Unable to level up for now.]
[Trial completed. Transferring out of trial space.]
A series of notifications flashed, and John exited the trial space, reappearing in front of the dilapidated Magic Temple.
"What a powerful hidden profession!" John eagerly checked the details of the Wrath of the Gods Mage, feeling both surprised and thrilled.
The profession directly added the rare attribute of 10 points to magic critical hit rate.
Additionally, each level up would grant him an extra 4 points of Spirit and 1 skill point.
Ordinary Tier 1 professions only provided 8 free attribute points and 1 skill point per level up.
John would gain an extra 4 Spirit points and 1 skill point with each level.
A small difference at level 1, but what about at level 100? Or level 1000?
In his previous life, his Judgement Mage profession only provided 2 extra Spirit points per level.
Yet even then, John became one of the top players in the world of Gods.
The Wrath of the Gods Mage was far superior to the Judgement Mage.
"Let's upgrade the skills first." John opened his attribute panel. Since his assassin profession had not yet advanced, he could not increase his level.
He had now accumulated 138 skill points and decided to upgrade all his mage skills to the novice level.
1st-3rd tier professions could learn novice skills; 4th-6th tier professions could learn intermediate skills; 7th-9th tier professions could learn advanced skills.
Beyond the 10th tier, professionals could learn ultimate skills, and even forbidden spells.
However, as the skill level increased, the skill points required for upgrades also skyrocketed. Many players, even in the later stages, had to rely on novice and intermediate skills due to the lack of skill points.
But John was different. As a Wrath of the Gods Mage, each level-up provided an additional skill point. Coupled with his Plunder talent, he never had to worry about skill points.
[Consume 10 skill points to upgrade Fireball to the novice skill Great Fireball.]
[Consume 10 skill points to upgrade Wind Blade to the novice skill Wind Blade Slash.]
[Consume 10 skill points to upgrade Fire Rain to the novice skill Rain of Fire.]
[Consume 10 skill points to upgrade Lightning Strike to the novice skill Thunderstorm.]
[Consume 10 skill points to upgrade Earth Shield to the novice skill Rock Armor.]
John used 50 skill points to upgrade all five of his apprentice-level mage skills to novice-level mage skills.
Each novice skill upgrade required 10 skill points, with single-target skills increasing their spirit attribute boost by 10% and area skills by 7%.
John still had 88 skill points left, enough to upgrade his skills eight more times.
After some thought, he decided to focus on Rain of Fire.
With his exceptionally high spirit attribute, his single-target magic attack damage was already sufficient, but he needed more area-of-effect magic damage.
John reviewed his upgraded skills:
[Great Fireball: Level 1, novice magic. Deals spirit * 110% fire magic damage to the target. Consumes 10 mana points, 3-second cooldown.]
[Wind Blade Slash: Level 1, novice magic. Deals spirit * 110% wind magic damage to the target. Consumes 10 mana points, 3-second cooldown.]
[Rock Armor: Level 1, novice magic. Earth element condenses into a suit of armor, protecting the user and absorbing damage equal to spirit * 110%. Consumes 10 mana points, 30-second cooldown.]
[Rain of Fire: Level 9, novice magic. Deals spirit * 146% fire magic damage to targets within the area. Consumes 30 mana points, 10-second cooldown.]
[Thunderstorm: Level 1, novice magic. Deals spirit * 110% lightning magic damage to the target and splash damage equal to half the initial damage to surrounding enemies. Consumes 10 mana points, 3-second cooldown.]
All five magic skills showed significant improvements after being upgraded to the novice level.
Especially with Rain of Fire upgraded to level 9, its damage was nearly double that of Fire Rain.
John's level remained at 10, but his experience points had reached an astonishing 370,000.
Once he completed his Assassin profession advancement, he could start leveling up normally.
John initially planned to enter Jade City to find an Assassin instructor for his advancement.
But as he looked at the desolate ruins of the city in front of him, he had another idea.
Since there was a magic shrine trial here, might there also be a similar trial for the Assassin profession?
He was already a hidden profession, Wrath of the Gods Mage, and wouldn't mind having another hidden Assassin profession.
This place had once been a prosperous city, so there must have been an organization for Assassin trials.
John began searching through the dilapidated buildings around him, hoping to find some clues.
Beep!
At that moment, his private chat pinged—it was Sini.
Gale: Master, it's time to eat.
Godslayer: Okay, I'll log off soon.
After replying to Sini, John glanced around the vast, ruined city. Finding any clues in a short time was unlikely; it would take a more prolonged search.
...