85: Chapter 85 Encirclement

Walking through the city gates and onto the grasslands, Zhang Mu felt a bit puzzled.

How did she know that he was going to cause trouble for the Burg Magic Family tonight?

A strange elf.

Shaking his head, Zhang Mu activated his Shadow Technique and quickened his pace, arriving at the entrance of the island labyrinth.

The labyrinth remained open for a very long time.

Generally speaking, there were two possibilities for the labyrinth to close its entrance: one was that the monsters in the final treasure chamber were cleared out.

The other was that if condition one was not met within a year, the labyrinth would teleport all Adventurers out and then disappear.

Therefore, Zhang Mu was not worried that the Burg Magic Family would leave this place.

He summoned his interface and glanced at it; the three abilities of his Meditation Method were about to break through, and he estimated it would happen after this battle.

Standing beside the stone gate that faced the sky obliquely, he rubbed his chin, pondering his tactics for the upcoming fight.

Actually, there wasn't much to think about: lay down smoke, then use firearms and magic to take out Fritz's clansmen, and finally, focus on dealing with him.

But the Magic Shield was indeed a problem.

He didn't know if his amplified magic could break through that defense.

Even if he could break through it, the other magic family in the labyrinth's entrance hall was also a nuisance; it wouldn't be good for them to see his mutated magic.

"High-level Magician... has only initially mastered the Magic Shield, and there hasn't been a qualitative increase in total magic power..."

"Maintaining a Magic Shield requires continuous input of magic power. Hmph, let's see if you have more magic power or if I have more bullets."

Zhang Mu thought of the gatling in his inventory, the corners of his mouth curling up as a plan formed in his mind.

Just as he was preparing to enter the stone gate, he heard footsteps and chatting coming from inside.

He stepped aside to the edge of the door, and a five-person Adventurer Group came up along the stone stairs, looking dejected.

"The magic families in Bala City are too greedy. In other cities, they only take thirty percent of the treasure chests, but they actually want seventy percent!"

"What can we do? If we don't hand it over, we won't even have the remaining thirty percent."

"Damn bastards! It was clearly us who worked hard to hunt down the monsters and magical beasts to get those treasure chests, but his high-and-mighty attitude makes it seem like we are beggars on the city streets, and the treasure chests were all charity from him!"

"Alright, that's enough." The female magician in the group consoled them, "We just won't come to Bala City in the future."

The five walked away side-by-side, heading towards Bala City.

Zhang Mu was lost in thought; he stood there pondering for a moment before jumping into the stone gate.

...

The labyrinth entrance hall.

Fritz led his clansmen to occupy the center, while Dante stayed a bit closer to the corner.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the spacious hall was not good, and the air pressure was exceptionally heavy.

The main source was Fritz.

He stood still, gripping his staff, his expression terrifyingly gloomy.

Dante looked over with his peripheral vision, feeling a bit of regret in his heart.

That little guy actually managed to run away. If Fritz had killed him, he could have completed the deal with Haige, and he himself wouldn't have gotten into trouble.

Just as he was sighing, an Adventurer Group walked out from a doorway in the wall.

Dante counted silently in his heart; this was the third Adventurer Group.

According to their unspoken rules, for every three Adventurer Groups, Fritz would take two, and the remaining one would belong to him.

Thus, Dante gestured with his chin towards the Adventurer Group, and a few clansmen wearing light armor immediately went over to block them.

"Seventy percent."

The male magician walking at the front was stunned: "Isn't it always thirty percent?"

Dante, already angry, heard this, and his figure instantly vanished from where he stood, reappearing in front of him: "Now, it's eighty percent."

This Adventurer Group had clearly not been traveling the continent for long and seemed to lack knowledge about magic families, so they still tried to argue:

"But according to the generally accepted rules..."

"Ninety percent now." Dante still maintained that gentle smile.

Seeing the male magician's lips part as if to speak, Dante released a terrifying fluctuation of magic power from his body: "What, are you not convinced?"

"W-we'll give it!"

The five Adventurers could not withstand the pressure of the magic fluctuation, their faces turning pale. The male magician, looking as if he couldn't breathe, said intermittently.

The clansmen took the storage bag they handed over, inspected it, removed ninety percent of the treasure chests, and returned it.

The five Adventurers took back their storage bag and hurriedly turned to run into the entrance stone stairs.

Dante watched their panicked backs and sighed: "I really am merciful. If it were someone else, they would have already been chopped into minced meat."

"Are you referring to me?" Fritz's cold voice came from over there.

"My dear Clan Leader Fritz, I... Little guy, you actually dare to return?"

Dante looked at the person standing at the labyrinth entrance, his tone filled with surprise.

Fritz turned around instinctively and saw Zhang Mu standing at the doorway. He didn't feel the anger of being looked down upon; his eyes were filled with the wild joy of recovering lost treasure chests.

"Surround him!"

"Hahaha..." Zhang Mu laughed heartily, "Ah, yes, yes, yes, it is a surround, but it's not you surrounding me; it's me surrounding you."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and threw more than a dozen grenades, thick smoke spreading wildly.

Seeing the smoke again, Fritz sneered: "The same trick, do you still think it will work?"

"You." He pointed randomly at four clansmen wearing light armor, "Block the entrance. No matter what happens, do not leave!"

"Yes!"

After the magic fluctuations of the four clansmen blocked the entrance, Fritz ordered with a ferocious expression: "Capture him alive! I want to use the sharpest blade to chop him into minced meat bit by bit!"

More than twenty clansmen accepted the order, and the clansmen with the Knight class rushed into the gradually expanding smoke cloud.

The magician clansmen raised their staffs, the gemstones at their tips lighting up in various colors as they brewed magic.

Fritz also raised his staff high, intending to use Wind Blade to disperse the smoke.

But before the Wind Blade could even materialize, several "smoke bombs" flew out from the smoke cloud, flying straight towards Fritz.

He brushed them away with his Mental Energy without caring. The "smoke bombs" landed and rolled to the feet of the magician clansmen.

"That thing will emit smoke, kick it away." Fritz instructed his clansmen while raising his staff.

"Boom——"

Intense fire and a loud explosion, followed immediately by a terrifying shockwave, struck from the air.

Although he didn't know what this was, Fritz still successfully erected a Magic Shield based on the principle of a magician activating a Magic Shield the moment they encounter an enemy.

The oval, pale blue Magic Shield enveloping his whole body rippled like the surface of water into which a pebble had been thrown.

Dust and charred smoke scattered. Fritz's heart sank as he turned his head to look at the magician clansmen on his right.

Sure enough, limbs and body parts were scattered everywhere. Those who were lucky enough to be further away from the center of the explosion were also covered in blood and charred, lying on the ground with more air going out than coming in.

"You..." Fritz was so angry he couldn't speak.

These were the elites of the family; without them, the Burg Magic Family would no longer be a match for the Marvin Magic Family in Bala City.

"I want you to die!"

He no longer thought about dispersing the smoke; he even had the intention of involving the nearby Marvin Family as he began to cast a High-level Magician spell.

A hurricane suddenly whipped up in the spacious hall, and cyan magic power appeared in front of Fritz, converging into several tornadoes that gradually grew taller and thicker.

The thick smoke filling the air was about to be blown away, so Zhang Mu immediately threw out more smoke bombs, intending to fill the entire hall with smoke:

"What a joke. You're allowed to kill me, but I'm not allowed to kill your people?"

"If I want to kill you, the only thing you should do is stand obediently in place and stretch out your soft neck!"

Ignoring the clansmen of the Knight class who were still entangled with Zhang Mu, Fritz controlled most of the tornadoes and charged into the smoke and dust.

The remaining small portion was directed, intentionally or unintentionally, towards Dante.