Chapter 35 — Return to the Academy "I wonder how
Leilin forced himself to climb to his feet, feeling as though his entire body was about to fall apart.
"With the Chip helping me, I ended up in this state — their situation can't be any better. I need to find them quickly. If they stumble into some trap or attract a wild beast, things will really go south."
Leilin fished a red potion out of the leather pouch at his waist, pulled the oak stopper free, and poured the crimson liquid over his wounds.
Tsss!!! White wisps of steam rose continuously from the spots where the potion made contact. Leilin clenched his teeth, his face twisting in pain.
Once the steam subsided, a thin red membrane had formed over the wounds — sealing the blood flow and holding the torn skin together firmly. Leilin waved his arm experimentally; it barely hampered his movement.
"Styptic potion is great and all, but it stings like hell when you use it!"
Leilin grumbled, then pulled out a tube of blue Stamina Potion and drank it down. The blue liquid was sweet, carrying a faint aroma of fresh white bread. He felt much better almost immediately, recovering some of his strength. He stepped out of the undergrowth and leaned against a large tree to rest.
"Chip! Is there any way to deal with that hallucinogenic gas?"
Since he now knew that only the gas in that area could incapacitate people, and there were no other dangers besides it, Leilin didn't mind trying to rescue his companions on the way.
If nothing could be done, though, Leilin would have no choice but to turn back and notify the Academy instructors, while praying for them.
"Suggestion: Clear water has a strong blocking effect against this type of gas!"
The Chip's response came back.
"Clear water?" Leilin opened his canteen, thoroughly soaked a handkerchief in it, and wrapped it tightly over his nose and mouth before retracing his steps to where he had been.
"I thought I'd run much farther than this — it turns out it wasn't even a thousand meters!" Following the trail, Leilin took only a few steps before arriving back at the spot where the five of them had separated. He couldn't help but feel exasperated.
"Chip! Scan the area ahead and generate an image!"
Since he knew there was hallucinogenic gas up ahead, even with protection, Leilin still felt it wasn't quite safe enough.
"Beep! Scan complete!"
An image materialized before Leilin's eyes. Not far from where the five of them had originally been standing, in a shallow depression, clusters of enormous mushrooms grew.
These mushrooms were massive — nearly as tall as a person — displaying an eerie purple hue, their surfaces dotted with black spots that faintly formed the image of a tormented human face.
"What kind of mushrooms are these?"
"Comparing against database! Similarity: Spider Face 98.7%, Goria Mushroom 74.5%, Purple Umbrella Flower 23.3%"
"Spider Face?" Leilin recalled the botanical encyclopedia he had browsed in the library.
"Spider Face is a remarkable plant capable of emitting extremely potent hallucinogenic gas. Humans and other sentient beings with even slightly below-average constitutions cannot resist it. It tends to attract certain birds, forming a symbiotic relationship with them. It seems those two red-eyed Crows from before were drawn here by them."
Leilin noticed that at the base of the purple mushrooms, there were several skulls — some appeared human, and many others belonged to various animals.
"But around our academy, this kind of dangerous plant should have been cleared out long ago. Unless… it was transplanted here recently!"
As Leilin theorized, a sudden chill ran through his body, as though he had grasped the edge of some conspiracy.
He shook his head. "This isn't something I can get involved in right now. I need to find Ni Lan and the others quickly, then get out of here!"
With the Chip scanning for detection, locating the rest of his teammates turned out to be remarkably easy.
Lannuo had collapsed nearby, a broken branch driven through his thigh — it looked like he had run straight into it.
Kreweir was found not long after. At the time, he had been hacking wildly at a large black boulder like a lunatic, unable to even see Leilin approaching. In the end, Leilin knocked him unconscious and carried him away.
As for Ni Lan and Lilith, they were the luckiest. Not long after they had wandered off, they were ensnared by a cluster of vines. When Leilin found them, the two of them were still surrounded by the green glow of an acceleration potion — completely unscathed.
Leilin took the four of them well away from the Spider Face's range, found a small stream, and tossed them all into the water.
This, too, was the Chip's recommendation.
As the ice-cold, biting stream water surged into Kreweir and the others' noses and mouths, their bodies began to convulse violently.
"Cough, cough!!" Kreweir and the others began to cough intensely.
Leilin then moved them onto flat ground and laid them on their backs. Afterward, he picked up his weapon and stood guard nearby.
"What happened?" Kreweir rubbed his aching head and propped himself up.
"Do you still remember what happened earlier?" Leilin walked over to Kreweir.
"Yes! I remember now — we ran into a Mountain Storm Bear, and Scavenging Wolves!" Kreweir touched the wound on his face.
"Was it you who saved us?"
"That's right! But what we encountered wasn't beasts. I'll explain everything once the others wake up." Leilin pointed at the remaining members of the group, who were clearly showing signs of regaining consciousness.
After they moved out of the Spider Face's area of influence and drank large amounts of clean water, the group finally recovered their senses.
Leilin gave a brief account of the Spider Face incident. As for himself, he simply said he happened to possess an item that countered illusions, which was how he avoided the danger unscathed.
By the time Leilin finished, the color had drained from Kreweir and the others' faces.
"Leilin, thank you! I owe you my life!" Kreweir said solemnly.
"So do we!" Ni Lan and Lilith said in unison, while Lannuo beside them opened his mouth but ultimately couldn't get a single word out.
"I suggest you treat your injuries first." Leilin pointed at the puncture wound on Lannuo's thigh.
"All right, I have some medicinal powder here. Lannuo, do you want some?"
Kreweir felt around his body and produced a small bottle of powder from his waist pouch, handing it to Lannuo.
Leilin gave it a slight sniff and knew it was a mundane-world remedy — it had some effect on wounds, but was far inferior to a proper blood-staunching potion.
The group slowly tended to their injuries. Lannuo had been hurt the worst; his lips were paper-white, and his thigh had been wrapped in a thick layer of bandages. Kreweir found a tree branch for him to use as a makeshift crutch, and only then was he barely able to walk.
A
"What do we do now?" Kreweir looked at Leilin. Though he was nominally the leader of their small team, Leilin's performance had compelled him to defer without hesitation.
"Can you still walk?" Leilin asked Lannuo.
"I — I can definitely walk! No, please don't leave me behind!" Lannuo hurriedly propped himself up using the crutch.
"Then we should set off as soon as possible." Leilin thought back to the spider-faced forest he had seen earlier, along with his own deductions, and a sense of unease settled over him.
"Agreed!" Ni Lan and Lilith both said loudly, looking as though they had already had their fill of this place.
"My Speed Potion! I spent five Magic Stones on that!" On the way, Ni Lan began to lament.
"You're lucky — look at me!" Kreweir packed up his things, most importantly the bundle containing twelve Red-eyed Crow claws, proof that they had completed their mission, then pointed at his ankle.
On Kreweir's legs, a ring of fine black fur had already grown over his calves and was beginning to spread upward toward his thighs.
"Though Quickstep Grass seeds can make you run fast, the stuff's reproductive capacity is insane, and the contamination afterward is a real problem. If we don't get you back to the Academy for treatment soon, you'll probably turn into a hairy man before long!"
"Appearance is one thing — the bigger issue is that Quickstep Grass parasitizing a human body long-term produces toxins! At that point, the only option is amputation!" Kreweir's expression was resolute. "Move it!"
Though he kept a stiff expression, his pace noticeably quickened.
After the attack by the spider-faced creature, the five of them became jumpy for the rest of the journey, tensing up at every little rustle or gust of wind.
When they spotted the Black Bone Forest cemetery, Leilin swore he had never before realized how endearing a graveyard could be.
"Password!" This time it was the two-headed hound asking in a female voice.
"Black Bone supreme!" Kreweir answered slowly.
The Academy's entry password changed periodically, but for those like them who had gone out on missions, the secret phrase had naturally been provided in advance.
"Correct!" The two-headed hound stepped aside, returned to its stone pedestal, and turned back into a statue.
Only after passing through the Academy gates did Leilin finally let out a deep sigh of relief.
Though no one had died on this adventure, they had faced danger more than once, and without the Chip, their team would likely have been wiped out entirely.
"Come on! Let's turn in the mission first!" A grin broke across Kreweir's face, and Lilith and Ni Lan both looked as though a weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
The five of them arrived at the mission area. Kreweir headed to the counter to queue up while the other four waited nearby.
"Ni Lan, were the casualties from past missions always this bad?"
Leilin felt something was off — the number of injured in the mission area had clearly increased, and curses and sobs could be heard intermittently.
"It's never been this many before! I'm absolutely certain!" Ni Lan watched the many apprentices with grim expressions on their faces — it seemed their missions had not only failed but come at a heavy cost.
"Look! The missions have changed!"
Leilin looked up and saw a line of striking red text appear at the very top of the black wall.
"Warning!!! The probability of dangerous creatures appearing around the academy has significantly increased. Apprentices venturing outside are advised to exercise extreme caution. It is recommended that those below Third Level Apprentice do not leave the academy grounds!"
These characters were noticeably larger than the others, rendered in a vivid, eye-catching red that made them impossible to miss.
Behind the warning, there was a new quest displayed in red as well.
"Quest: Investigate the source of the anomaly around the academy! Reward: five hundred Magic Stones, any three advanced subjects of knowledge, or an improved Spell Model! This quest is extremely dangerous — please consider carefully before accepting!!!"
"Three hundred Magic Stones, plus any three advanced subjects of knowledge, and an improved Spell Model!" Leilin exclaimed in astonishment.
"If only I had that many Magic Stones!" Lilith was equally stunned by the generous reward.