Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 190 - 94: Going Back Up the Mountain

Chapter 190: Chapter 94: Going Back Up the Mountain

The cold air bit into their skin, and the mountains were sealed by heavy snow.

The north wind howled, sending white feathers fluttering through the air.

Aske and Medea trudged through the snow, one step deep, the next shallow.

"I’m so cold." Medea clung to Aske’s arm, "Warm me up, will you?"

"Why don’t you make a fire?" Aske suggested.

Medea: ......

She suddenly began to hate herself for having Flame Ability.

As a ball of fire danced in her hands, a pleasant warmth spread out in all directions, pushing back the bitter cold in a circle around them.

"Hold on." Aske suddenly stopped, staring at the footprints in the snow beneath them.

"It’s Snow Monster tracks."

"What should we do?" Medea instantly tensed up.

Though Aske was by her side, he was still gravely injured and had also lost his Longsword.

"We don’t do anything." Aske said, "If we encounter it, we kill it."

"How do we kill it?" asked Medea.

Then, Aske turned his gaze towards her.

"Me?" Medea was incredulous, "But... I’m a Mind Mage! You want me to confront a Snow Monster head-on?"

"It’s fine, I have faith in you." Aske responded.

"I freaking don’t have faith in myself!" Medea was somewhat frantic.

"Don’t talk like that, after all, you were trained by me." Aske spoke leisurely, "When we encounter the Snow Monster, just follow my commands."

Just as he finished speaking, two Snow Monsters turned around from the mountain path ahead.

"What a coincidence." Aske commented.

"What do we do!" Medea almost screamed.

"Flames right, control left." Aske instructed.

Medea extended her hand, summoning a ball of flames and threw it towards the Snow Monster on the right while locking eyes with the one on the left.

"I’ve got it under control!" she shouted.

"Make it charge full force to the left and ram the other Snow Monster!" Aske commanded.

The flames flew straight ahead; the targeted Snow Monster hastily retreated, and the controlled one, which was an exact body length behind it, suddenly veered left and crashed into it.

Caught off guard, the other was instantly thrown off the mountain path, and unable to stop, it too rolled down the cliff.

"Is it that simple?" Seeing both enemies so cleanly taken care of, Medea expressed her disbelief.

"What did you expect?" Aske said meaningfully, "You need to learn how to use the environment."

"So, what if there were three Snow Monsters?" Medea asked, "Control one, knock one down, but what about the third?"

"Think for yourself." Aske said, "Using the environment essentially means creating displacement, forcing the enemy off the mountain path."

"Snow Monsters fear fire, so your Flames Throwing can limit their movements. Imagine your release path as a straight line, in which direction would the enemy dodge to avoid it?"

"Once you realize that, you can calculate how to place the line so that the enemy is forced towards the outer side of the mountain path."

"And then there’s the choice of the control target. You can either choose a Snow Monster positioned more towards the inside to manipulate it into knocking its companion down the mountain or choose one positioned more towards the outside to grab its companion and drag it down with itself as it falls off the cliff."

"So what is the difference in choices? Considering the mountain roads are extremely narrow, any method is viable. What then, is the disadvantage? Of course, it’s the weight of the Snow Monster itself."

"The heavier the Snow Monster, the stronger and larger its muscles, and the harder it is for comrades to move it. So shouldn’t you prioritize controlling the heaviest Snow Monster first and then manipulate it to move the lighter ones to increase the success rate of the move?"

"So how do you judge the weight of a Snow Monster? Considering that all Snow Monsters have roughly the same density, it obviously comes down to their size."

"I say?" Medea was full of admiration, "How did you come up with so many tactics the instant you saw the Snow Monster?"

"It’s all about the accumulation of experience," Aske said. "Seeing a mountain path, you need to think about how to use displacements to knock enemies off; seeing a swamp, you need to think about how to move so as to lure the enemy into the muddy area and slow them down."

"Even different professions focus on different aspects of the environment. Gunmen focus on high grounds and the distribution of cover, while melee Samurai focus on the positioning of enemies and themselves, as well as the attack ranges of both."

"Mages, on the other hand, are relatively more concealed; they neither need to face enemies directly like melee Samurais nor focus solely on output like gunmen, who expose their positions the moment they fire, thus they have more opportunities to observe and use the terrain."

"Uh-huh," Medea made a thoughtful expression.

"Medea, I see great potential in you, you’ll become a formidable Mind Mage," Aske seemed to recall something, speaking sentimentally.

"Really?" Medea nodded and suddenly asked, "Who is Little Willow?"

Aske was stunned for a moment then realized she was reading his memories again and explained:

"She’s one of my juniors from the training camp, later scouted by the Purple Lightning team."

"Was she also..." Medea paused, "I mean, did she also play as a Mind Mage?"

"Yes, like you, she followed the path of a Purgatory Demon," Aske replied. Since Medea could read minds, there was no need to keep his past as a secret—it couldn’t be hidden anyway.

"Ha, ’I see great potential in you,’ you said that to her too, right?" Medea was a bit upset.

How many people have you said these words to!

"Yes, she was a very talented player," Aske said. "But you are different from her."

"Oh, how am I different?" Medea was interested.

"She was the type who relied on hard work," Aske said. "The most standard maneuvers, the most standard techniques, she would solidify all her tactical moves with millions of repetitions to ensure everything was exactly like the textbook."

"Although the tactics in the textbook are the most efficient, it also means that top players can easily see through her. If everything is done by the book, then when to read minds, when to implant thoughts, even when to manipulate the enemy’s mind are all like pre-set actions on a timeline, making it completely transparent to the opponent."

"Sounds like you were a bit disappointed in her?" Medea probed.

"Not at all," Aske spoke candidly. "I originally planned to guide her into the basics and then slowly teach her the tricks of varying tactics. Unfortunately, not long after she joined, she switched teams."

"Was it because of a personal dispute?" Medea asked.

"Of course not!" Aske couldn’t help laughing, "She is from the North, and just as the Purple Lightning team was established in Imperial City, her parents wanted her to develop her career back home..."

"Oh," Medea suddenly felt a bit smug.

Because she could abandon her homeland for Aske, while Little Willow could not, this immediately gave Medea a psychological advantage.

"You just said I’m different from her, right?" Medea grinned, "Is it because I’m incredibly charming and can better utilize the advantages of a Mind Mage?"

"Of course not for that reason," Aske was slightly exasperated, "What I mean is, you are a naturally gifted player."

"Her personality is quite honest and introverted, so systematic learning suits her. But you’re different, you’re full of cunning ideas, so you’re more suited to pull off some more tricky maneuvers," Aske said. "I think the style of Deceit suits you more."

"Right, I forgot to explain, Deceit is a player from our team, his bloodline is ’Resentful Spirit,’ and his main sequences are ’Spiritual Body’ and ’Mind.’"

Medea tried to read his thoughts and immediately envisioned a short, sleazy, trash-talking ghost figure.

"This Deceit..." she didn’t know what to say.

"Pretty nasty, right?" Aske said, "But his trash-talking skills are formidable. It’s said that in his early years he was a professional internet troll, getting paid to verbally assault people, able to make his opponents rage quit with just a few words."

"Combined with his ’Mind Power’, he can forcibly transmit all sorts of trash talk directly into the opponent’s mind during a fight."

Medea briefly imagined it and was instantly covered in goosebumps, feeling chilled to the bone.