Overpowered Wizard-Chapter 306: B3: C96: First Round Side Character

Something was off.

Zarian felt it in the way he thought, the way he moved, the way he breathed and existed. He felt unimportant. Or less important than he should be. Not quite weak, but definitely disadvantaged.

He could trace when it had started during the fight against the evil woman and her charmed thralls. Something had shifted, similar to how a POV change would happen.

He could barely recall things from her perspective before he’d ended her, which should’ve brought the POV back to center on him. Yet, he wasn’t the focus.

Zarian looked at her headless corpse.

Yup, dead. He was sure of it.

Zarian checked his rank. With the turning of the new season, it should’ve been updated.

Rank: Master (9th Mage)

Going from 4th Master Mage to 9th Master Mage wasn’t a big drop off and wasn’t indicative of his newfound weakness.

But the power of the POV wasn’t back where it should be.

Instead, it felt spread out, disseminated, separated into many many parts sent far away from him. It was to where he couldn’t really see or sense who had pieces of his main POV, neutering his Lion Prince skill.

“I feel like a side character,” Zarian muttered.

That’s troublesome, Para shared, all nine tails waving with worry.

With a nod, Zarian summoned his shade spiders.

<Super Shade Spider System +2 (Level 25): Summon supernatural shade spiders connected to a system of your design. You and allies linked to this system can direct your super shade spiders to work as mini warriors, rogues, mages, and other roles while being able to observe and communicate through them. Scales doubly with Wonder. Advancements: +1 grants them similar aura abilities like yours. +2 scales doubly with Mysticism.>

From the shadows dappling the ground of the steamy and bright jungle, the shade spiders rose like little wraiths, each one the size of two of Gilbert’s fists put together.

If they had weight, they would be as heavy as a fat house cat. The armored ones, however, were as heavy as a medium-sized dog.

Zarian watched shade spiders dressed in hardened chitin armor raise their chitin swords and shields while wearing little helmets over their heads.

He watched shade spiders unfurl their webbed capes and tilt their little conical hats while brandishing their staves.

Then there were the shade spiders who held up two little bone-knives while wearing hoods and others who held a bow with chitin arrows made from spines on their thoraxes. It was pretty obvious the roles each shade spider would fulfil based on their equipment.

They all were self-sufficient, too, but each one’s initial summoning cost was significantly higher than the spectral spiders of the previous skill. The trade-off for the cost was having them be vastly more powerful than any little critter ought to be.

Comparably, each shade spider was a fresh Level 125 without rank. By putting them into parties with two of each role – warrior, mage, rogue, archer, berserker, and bard – a full party of twelve shade spiders could out-do a single legendary Master Ranker, even one at Level 140, as long as they had some advantage or sneak attack.

Zarian summoned fifty of such parties, six hundred expensive shade spiders, and sent them scuttling, flying, shadow-stepping in all directions across the jungle.

With a blink, he observed through multiple perspectives outside of his, some close to the muddy ground and under giant leaves of the foliage, others crossing over thick vines stretched between jungle trees like large green-fleshed bridges. In the next minute, they skittered for over five miles in all directions and found no immediate dangers.

Zarian had time to set down some roots and figure some things out to orientate himself.

Using sorcery, Zarian placed a circle of wards three hundred feet in all directions. He layered the wards with alarms, magic that warned away unwanted approach, and magic that hid his and the others’ presences.

He made sure each ward sucked in aura from their environment competently before cutting off his own aura, making them complete and steady.

Next, he used his sorcery to plant long-lasting arrays for gathering aura at his feet. While he was scarily efficient in balancing his aura supply these days, six hundred capable shade spiders were a hefty cost.

Hence, the aura-gathering arrays he wrote out in elven runes, the scripts and symbols flashing with a crackling power that drew excess aura quickly to him.

It was for this reason he’d placed down the wards first. That way, he didn’t come across as a beacon of power signalling to everyone for miles upon miles around him. If someone did notice, his shade spiders should be able to give Zarian a heads up or deal with the threat themselves.

Can I eat the charmer? Para asked via mind. I’m curious about her taste, though I wished you didn’t splatter her brain bits. I could’ve drawn from her remnant memories if that was still intact.

“My bad,” Zarian said, chuckling. “Go ahead and enjoy.”

Folding his legs into a lotus pose, Zarian floated in the air as his nine fox tails stretched out like thick tendrils.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The ends of the blue tails wrapped around the corpse, encasing it like a cocoon, before the sounds of chewing and crunching reverberated from Para’s warm and bloody feast. By that point, the drop troopers were back on their feet, their magic plasma rifles pointed at Zarian.

“Relax, I told you I wouldn’t kill you in the First Round.” Zarian waved them down casually.

The drop troopers turned from him to Para’s shapeshifted form as another loud bone crack and wet squelch sounded out.

“She … that woman … she fucked with us. She got into my head. Fuck,” Rocket said, looking shaken even in his armor.

“And now Starlight is eating her,” Zarian said. “That’s the name of my tails. We’re like a symbiotic partnership. Say hello, Starlight.”

“Hello! Please excuse me while I’m feasting. I wish to take my time with this scrumptious meal. She tastes of another world and of new experiences, like trickery and ambition and ruthlessness and sorrowful blood that isn’t hers. She is delicious, honestly,” Para said, her voice reaching out from the chewing blue tails.

“Rocket, it’s a damn man-eater,” Turret said tensely. “We need to get the fuck out of here.”

Arty and Shield kept their rifles aimed at Zarian and Para, but the masked man and his shapeshifted phantom tails weren’t bothered whatsoever.

The drop troopers were epic Master Rankers, but the bottommost version of epic, almost on the verge of falling into rare quality. And they were of the neutral alignment, which made them vastly weaker.

No super intelligence from evil. No power ups from good. Just plain stats and abilities.

Yeah, weak.

“You should take the freedom option,” Zarian said. “The free for real sub-alignment reduces the chances of people using charm or manipulation magic on you.”

“How do you know that?” Rocket asked.

“I’m part of the freedom alignment. I know all about it and the Dark Emperor,” Zarian said. “I’m here to grow and defeat the Dark Emperor. As well as The Dragoness. They’ve caused too much death and destruction to go about as freely as they do, hence me being in the alignment. It’s part of giving me a better understanding of the Dark Emperor.”

Para finished her meal with one last crunchy squelch. Then her foxy tail form unwound, blossoming like majestic blue petals that curled from behind Zarian with the points pointed toward the drop troopers.

Without saying a word, Para’s nine-tail form seemed hungry and curious, as if ready to turn each of the drop troopers into tasty snacks.

“You … aren’t going to fuck with us or eat us?” Rocket asked shakily.

Zarian chuckled. “I don’t really know you guys, but I think you’re okay. And while I’m much stronger than you, I don’t bully people for no reason. Starlight isn’t going to just eat you randomly, either. So, chill out, okay?”

Nodding, Rocket waved for his drop troopers to lower their weapons. Then the leader straightened up before bowing at the waist in front of Zarian.

“Thanks … for saving us and for your mercy, Isaiah,” Rocket said, the others saying something similar while also bowing.

Zarian smiled behind his mask, appreciating the respect.

The cat-bat guy, Fong, had gotten up and ran off without another word, leaving the safety of Zarian’s warded area. Defender 342 had stayed long enough to get an explanation before turning and leaving, not saying much of anything, even with the magic locks placed on his weapons.

With a flex of his mythical power, Zarian removed the locks, granting Defender 342 his steampunk weaponry back. As for Valin…

Read latest chapters at freёweɓnovel.com Only.

“Beardless hells, Isaiah, you could’ve left me something to smack with a hammer! My ma always warned me about women like those!” thundered the not-dwarf.

The dvergr stomped up and raised his big meaty hand as if to slap Zarian on the shoulder. Then, in a moment of intelligence rising from the lowest depths, Valin thought better of treating his savior as the average chum. He pulled back his hand and coughed into it awkwardly.

“I, uh, appreciate your aid against that horrid whore,” Valin said. “And it is admirable to hear of your mission to slay The Dragoness and the Dark Emperor while using the power of freedom itself!”

“Part of the mission means I will act in my own accord regardless of what you do,” Zarian explained. “The area is warded for the long term. You can use this spot as a rest point while avoiding detection from the dangers of this world. I won’t attack you here or out there, either. However, we are competing against each other, so I won’t spare much of anything if I get to it first.”

Valin and the drop troopers had no issues with that and were understanding.

The drop troopers even went as far as joining the freedom alignment, each one becoming part of the free for real sub alignment, which had Zarian smiling even more behind his mask.

It was always great to see freedom spreading.

Valin Storm-Skull, however, was a stubborn sort. He didn’t refuse the option outright, but he was still a big fan of traditional good. Strangely, he was only good +2, which was surprisingly low at their levels.

It was really, really strange how weak Valin came across, despite his loud personality. Still, Zarian decided not to dig any further into that.

Making preparations, the dvergr and drop troopers went to pick up their dropped gear they’d bought from the last-minute weapon sales. Zarian took his time to go over the new rules and to assess all the scouting info getting sent to him.

His fifty shade spider parties were doing well, half of them already engaged in fights against monsters above Level 100. No Master Rankers, yet, but the Level 100 monsters were relentless and cunning and plentiful, matching the themes of their current environment.

It was a fitting way to start the Carrowmore Tournament, and the Star System and other Systems seemed to have a purpose in mind. Zarian could see that in the introduction of the First Round.

<Welcome to Jumunja, the Super World of Steam, Jungles, and Claws! This Super World is one of nine where over 36 Billion contestants from four separate universes will compete to make it to the Second Round of the Carrowmore Tournament!>

<Only 100,000 contestants can make it to the Second Round! How can you be one of those fortunate 100,000? You must gather Tournament Points! As many and as quickly as you can!>

<By the time a month is over, we’ll tally the Tournament Points, or TP, everyone has gathered. The first 100,000 contestants with the most points will reach the Second Round! The losers will be transported back to their worlds and universes they originated from unless they’re dead!>

<You can also leave the tournament and head back home by surrendering to another contestant with the intention of handing all of your points over. Once the transfer is complete, you’ll be removed from the tournament, alive and well!>

<Most of the tournament becomes null void if the Dark Emperor is beaten 8 times. Then we’ll skip straight to the Final Round while returning the remaining contestants home. Please note that killing the Dark Emperor could unleash another Darkrun Apocalypse, which could also be our last time existing!>

<Now go get those Tournament Points!>

Zarian checked his profile and found a new section under the Alignment section called Tournament Points. He had 545 TP so far.

Looking through his notifications, he could assess where some of those points had come from. Hells and heavens! He was getting more while he looked!

<Welcome to the Carrowmore Tournament First Round! +100 Tournament Points!>

<You’ve defeated Madeline Allora, Human Level 101 Charm Mage Master! +25 Tournament Points!>

<You’ve defeated 7 Raging Jaguar Monsters, Level 112 to 121! +35 Tournament Points!>

<You’ve defeated 12 Man Spider Monsters, Level 123 to 127! +60 Tournament Points!>

<You’ve defeated 19 Giant Worm Monsters, Level 107 to 113! +95 Tournament Points!>

<You’ve defeated 36 Clawing Abomination Monsters, Level 109 to 111! +190 Tournament Points!>

<You’ve defeated 42 Froggy Gulper Monsters, Level 104 to 117! +210 Tournament Points!>