Chapter One: The Wilderness Streamer

Noiafa Continent, Amarin Principality, Amast Tropical Rainforest.

Catherine was maintaining several faintly rosy magic shields. Their color was dim, circling her in gentle rotation. Whenever the blood-eyed toads around her spat their blood arrows, the shields would flare brightly, whipping into place with lightning speed to intercept. The blood arrows would hiss as they struck the shields, stopping dead, and then, in the next instant, would ricochet back along their original trajectory, smashing apart the toads that had attacked.

Seven or eight blood arrows from all directions were reflected by the shields, and several toads were blasted apart midair. It showcased Catherine’s exquisite control over magic, but her increasingly pallid face and ragged breathing left no doubt—she was at the end of her strength.

The blood-eyed toads besieging her were each the size of a human head. Their backs were not warty and uneven like ordinary toads, but arranged in neat, overlapping scales that gleamed with a deep brown luster. Clearly, these were battle-hardened beasts; the death of over a dozen companions had not cowed them, only stoked their ferocity. The leader, a toad easily a foot square, showed flashes of intelligence as it croaked encouragement to its underlings, urging them on. Their large prey was about to collapse. Once she was down, they could paralyze her with their venom and haul her back to the nest—come spring, its young would surely thrive!

Catherine flicked her sweat-soaked bangs aside, revealing a bitter smile. She spoke to the swirling magical camera sprites around her: “Dear viewers, I don’t even have enough mana left to cast a third-tier spell. Looks like I’m going to die here today.”

Catherine was a popular streamer, active in the wilderness adventure section of the SharkBite platform, with countless fans. She was already an attractive girl, and this smile, touched with poignant resignation, only made her more captivating. Her audience, watching via the magic web, flooded her stream with messages:

“Stay strong, streamer! Don’t give up hope!”

“There must still be a way out! Blood-eyed toads aren’t that smart—their encirclement must have gaps!”

“Try casting Wind and Thunder Surge toward three o’clock! Fewer toads on that side—turn yourself into lightning, zap those two smaller ones, you might just escape!”

“Don’t listen to the above nonsense! Wind and Thunder Surge is suicide—no human body can withstand a hundred thousand volts! Whoever created that spell must have had rocks for brains!”

“Zapping yourself might not kill you outright, but if you get drained and can’t try anything at all, you’re dead for sure!”

“Why don’t you try it yourself, or have your mother try?”

“I’ll ****…”

For a moment, ideas and arguments poured forth in a torrent, scrolling ceaselessly across the virtual screen in Catherine’s left eye. Some wealthy fans sent gold-highlighted messages, and a few even spent a thousand silver coins each on giant banners to offer their advice.

But the magic web never lacked for bystanders eager to see chaos. Even with Catherine at death’s door, some were still snarking:

“Nice, streamer! You court death every day—finally succeeded!”

“Well, you won’t die if you don’t ask for it +1.”

“Didn’t you say you’d confidently take a stroll around the outer rim of the monster forest before you went live? You haven’t even gotten inside and you’re about to croak?”

“Heh, after surviving in the perfectly safe Norvorowei Pinewoods, streamer got cocky—thought she was invincible. Now she’s really headed skyward!”

“She’s about to die, and you’re still making fun? Are you even human?”

“There’s always these damned keyboard warriors everywhere. Once the magic web enforces real-name registration, let’s see if they keep it up!”

Catherine had been streaming for long enough to be unfazed by troll comments. Wiping sweat from her brow, she steadied herself and said, with a touch of calm, “Friends, perhaps these next words will be my last. I thought that as a high-level mage, even if I couldn’t… Never mind. I truly underestimated the savagery of the monster rainforest. Even the outskirts of the Amast Forest have me cornered. The eight deadly lands of the continent are famous for a reason.”

A piercing light flashed on Catherine’s left index finger. She pressed it hard to her brow. Visibly, the pallor drained from her face, replaced by a flush of unnatural crimson. Her shoulder-length hair stood on end, crackling in the air. Witnessing this, every viewer—whether they’d been cheering or mocking her—fell silent. For a heartbeat, the stream’s message feed was blank, then erupted in a frenzy:

“Luo’s Mental Stimulus Technique! She’s going all out!”

“But that permanently damages your magical foundation! Still, compared to your life, what does it matter?”

“All hail the Church of Noble Self-Destruction!”

The blood-eyed toads seemed to sense the danger, spitting blood arrows more furiously. But Catherine’s mana surged, her shields swirling faster, forming an impenetrable barrier. She chuckled, “The Wind and Thunder Surge idea from the chat is suicide, but the thinking isn’t bad. If I make it out alive, I’ll go kowtow nine times at Grandmaster Pagani’s grave!”

Before she finished, the light on her fingertip vanished into her forehead. A violent magical aura radiated from her, and the wind element in the air converged, swirling around her and fusing into her skin, which shimmered with a translucent sheen.

In the next instant, dozens of wind blades erupted from her body, forming a perfect, streamlined cone around her. She shot upward like a cannonball, hurtling toward three o’clock! This was the fourth-tier wind spell, “Gale Flash,” invented a century ago by Grandmaster Pagani, known as the Child of Wind.

The spell was nearly instantaneous to cast, with hardly any incantation. Its power outstripped any other spell of equal mana cost. But to use it, one had to channel the wind element into their own flesh—enduring agony as if being sliced by a thousand blades, undergoing partial elementalization. For this reason, it was notorious, never taught in compulsory magic education.

The blood-eyed toads were not particularly sturdy. The moment the wind blades struck, the two toads at three o’clock were sliced to pieces. Catherine encountered almost no resistance as she burst from the encirclement, and in the blink of an eye, she had shot more than ten meters away! Relief flooded her face, and her viewers began sending bouquets and congratulations—when suddenly, a powerful sense of danger surged within her!

There was no time to look back. Catherine summoned the last of her will, focusing the wind blades behind her. The next moment, she heard a barrage of sharp, snapping sounds as the wind blades shattered, then a numbness struck her back, and she lost control, slamming hard into a giant tree and sliding down like a rag doll.

It was the blood-eyed toad leader! Seeing Catherine escape, it had swollen to almost twice its size in rage. But instead of spitting blood arrows from its mouth like the others, it shot a long, blood-red beam from its bulging eyes, piercing the wind blade defense and striking Catherine’s back with unstoppable force!

Catherine slid feebly down the trunk, her body feeling completely broken, her mana exhausted to the last drop. With difficulty, she rolled onto her back, staring up at the sky, her face bruised and hopeless. The sudden reversal was so brutal that her entire chat went silent.

The toads surrounded her, but none attacked. The leader kept its eyes squeezed shut, blood tears trickling down its swollen cheeks. As an adventure streamer, Catherine had learned much—she knew they were waiting for their leader to recover and inject her with venom. That would paralyze her, but keep her “alive,” preserving this meal for as long as possible. The monster rainforest was too damp; fresh meat rotted in days.

Certain of her impending death, Catherine grew philosophical. “I’ve imagined my death many times, but never thought it would be this miserable—tortured for nearly a month before dying. Friends, do you see the toad leader? Its tears are about to stop; soon it’ll inject me with venom.”

“Don’t say any more, streamer. Rest in peace.”

“Another wilderness streamer lost during a live broadcast.”

“Poor girl! These toads are so evil!”

“Are you a child? Animals aren’t evil; they eat or get eaten, that’s all!”

The blood tears finally ceased. The toad leader cracked open its swollen eyelids, looking almost comical, and weakly struggled upright. With a lopsided hop, it moved toward Catherine. Seeing this, Catherine whispered, “Looks like my time has come. Oh, right—I'm an orphan. All the money I made from streaming, donate it to the Clerics’ Union. I won’t need it anymore.”

The chat filled with rows of “Rest in peace” messages, and a heavy sorrow hung over the stream. Tilting her head back, Catherine gazed at the world one last time, determined to imprint this final scene on her heart. But that last look ignited a sudden heat within her!

From the lofty canopy, a black shadow dove like an eagle, plunging into the midst of the toads at impossible speed. With a single stomp, it crushed the toad leader’s head into pulp!

No, not just pulp—its head was obliterated in an instant! Pale green blood and yellowish brains splattered everywhere, like a gruesome rain of flesh. Amidst the shower, the shadow stooped, seized the mangled corpse of the toad leader, and—unfazed by the gore—tore off half a thigh and began to crunch and chew with relish!