Non-Chanting Magic

"Eh..." Niya circled around Ye Chuan, full of curiosity about his ability to ride a flying sword. It wasn’t that she had never seen similar techniques before—for instance, the mages from the Magic Tower had mastered broom-riding spells—but this was her first time seeing a sword that could carry a person through the air.

"Let’s go," Ye Chuan said.

"What about me?"

"Get on."

Niya attempted to jump onto the flying sword. Her agility was excellent, and she had expected the sensation of stepping on something unstable, like cotton. Yet, to her surprise, the sword felt as steady as solid stone beneath her feet.

The wonder of it all left Niya amazed, and she couldn’t help but grow even more curious about Ye Chuan’s origins. Just who was this man who wielded such extraordinary abilities?

"Hold on tight," Ye Chuan instructed.

"Isn’t this a bit inappropriate?" Niya wore a cat-like expression, but her hands immediately wrapped around Ye Chuan’s waist. "Hmm, you look thin, but you’re actually quite sturdy, huh?"

Ye Chuan: "..."

With a mere thought, the flying sword beneath them lifted into the air, carrying them both upward.

As the buildings below grew smaller, Ye Chuan noticed that the town was laid out in a circular shape—encircled by walls, with low-rise houses neatly arranged, their oil lamps flickering like fireflies in the night.

"It’s round."

"Eh? Cities are built on magic circles to ward off monsters, so of course they’re round," Niya explained, still puzzled as to why Ye Chuan didn’t know such basic things.

"Magic circles..." Ye Chuan extended his spiritual sense and confirmed that the town was indeed enveloped in a translucent blue magic array, though invisible to the naked eye.

How interesting.

The Aiser Continent seemed far more peaceful than the Tianxuan Continent. Here, people only needed to defend against monsters—no one was going around refining entire cities with soul banners.

Dismissing his thoughts, Ye Chuan turned his gaze toward the forest beyond the town. After flying for a while, he spotted his destination at the foot of a silver-white mountain range—a cavern entrance about five or six meters tall, its interior illuminated by torches.

The air was thick with dampness, and moss covered the walls and floor. The messy footprints scattered across the ground suggested that this place saw quite a few visitors.

"We’re here. The Sunset Cavern is a massive multi-layered maze. If the intel’s correct, the Glowspider Queen should be on the third floor or below," Niya said.

"Then let’s go," Ye Chuan replied, stepping inside without hesitation.

"Right behind you!"

Once inside, Ye Chuan quickly found a stone staircase descending deeper into the cavern. According to Niya, each floor had one, though the maze’s layout shifted over time, so the staircases weren’t fixed in place.

"Pretty interesting," Ye Chuan mused, feeling a fresh sense of novelty, as if he were exploring a game world.

The first floor was well-lit, with oil lanterns hanging everywhere.

"These were left by other adventurers for lighting. But past the third floor, there won’t be any," Niya said. "You did prepare a light spell, right?"

"A light spell?" Ye Chuan shook his head. He wasn’t even from this world. If he hadn’t died back in the Tianxuan Continent, he wouldn’t have even considered exploring a second major realm so soon.

"Huh? You’re not planning to fight monsters while holding a torch, are you?"

"Doesn’t matter." Ye Chuan could easily perceive his surroundings with his spiritual sense—vision was irrelevant. But strangely, his senses couldn’t penetrate the lower floors, only allowing him to scan the current level.

"Good thing I came prepared." Niya pulled out a scroll from her backpack and tore it open.

A small magic circle appeared, coalescing into a bright floating orb.

"That’ll be five silver coins for the light spell, thanks."

"Put it on my tab," Ye Chuan said. He didn’t have any money anyway.

"Tch." Niya clicked her tongue.

Just then, Ye Chuan sensed something—and so did Niya. Both turned toward a dark corner as a foul stench filled the air. A rotting corpse, dripping with slime, slowly dragged itself toward them.

"It’s a slime," Niya remarked after a glance.

"Isn’t that just a corpse?" Ye Chuan pointed at the decaying body. Was this what they called a slime on the Aiser Continent?

"That is a slime. Look closely—that corpse can’t move on its own, and it hasn’t been reanimated by necromancy. It’s being puppeteered by a slime."

She paused, then added, "Probably some rookie adventurer who died on the first floor."

Ye Chuan took a closer look. The slime coating the corpse pulsed with life, writhing like a living film. The corpse wasn’t walking—it was being dragged, leaving a wet trail behind.

"You’ve never seen a slime before?" Niya wasn’t even surprised by Ye Chuan’s ignorance anymore. After all, this guy didn’t even know the name of the empire they were in.

"The slimes I know are bouncy and gelatinous."

"Hah? These things are sticky, stinking piles of sludge that love latching onto corpses and using them to move around."

"Why?"

"Probably to feed on the remains. The movement is for self-defense, though slimes have almost no intelligence." Niya drew a silver dagger and lunged forward like a hunting panther!

A few flashes of silver later, the slime coating the corpse was sliced apart.

"Ugh, disgusting. Slimes are the worst thing to run into on the first floor." She flicked her dagger, splattering thick green slime onto the ground like snot.

"Not bad," Ye Chuan commented, though she hadn’t seemed to exert much effort.

"Thanks for the praise," Niya said, wiping her weapon clean. "Shouldn’t you be the one protecting me?"

No sooner had she spoken than several more globs of slime oozed toward them.

"Why are there so many slimes today?"

"Your turn," Niya said, eyeing Ye Chuan’s sword. "You’re a swordsman, right?"

"Says who?" Ye Chuan casually raised a finger—and in the next moment, a massive fireball materialized in the air.

"You’re a mage too?!"

"Do I not look like one?" Ye Chuan flicked his wrist, sending the fireball crashing down. The explosion engulfed the slimes in flames, instantly reducing them to nothing. The sheer power left Niya stunned, but what shocked her even more was the speed of his casting.

"No incantation?!"

"Magic needs incantations?" Ye Chuan countered.

He also had infinite mana, not that she needed to know.

Niya was at a loss for words. Wasn’t this supposed to be common knowledge?

What was going on? This guy had zero grasp of basic facts, yet he kept doing things that defied all logic.