Chapter Ninety: Setting Traps The secret realm blood battle that Black Bone Forest was forced into left its apprentices at a complete disadvantage within the secret realm.
And the apprentices of the other two hostile forces would inevitably hunt them down like prey.
"But! No matter how clever a hunter might be, once they're alone, there's always the chance they'll be killed by the beasts themselves!"
Leilin licked his somewhat dry lips and revealed a savage grin.
Right now, the apprentices from all three academies were scattered throughout the secret realm, and the apprentices of the two hostile forces hadn't banded together yet — this was the perfect opportunity for Leilin to accumulate enough contribution points!
Once the enemy's apprentices formed a solid group, Leilin would be completely powerless.
"That's the plan! Today I'll kill as many enemy apprentices as I can, collect enough contribution points, and then use the Chip to avoid the enemy's main force..."
After settling on his strategy, Leilin quickly stripped the Magic Stones and resources from the apprentice's body and left the scene.
About two hours after Leilin departed, another apprentice arrived at the scene.
"Gogo!!!" The apprentice stared at the corpse on the ground, his pupils contracting sharply.
He and Gogo had come from the same academy — they were companions. Now watching his fellow apprentice lying on the ground, the apprentice's face turned deathly pale, looking as though he wanted to vomit but couldn't.
The apprentice murmured to himself: "This is too dangerous! This mission is way too dangerous! Gogo and I were only Second-rank Apprentices — coming into this secret realm was practically a death sentence! If I'd known, I never would have taken this mission!"
The apprentice's face was full of regret.
"Judging by this wound, it should be an Earth-element Zero-level Spell focused on physical damage. The caster was definitely a Third-rank Apprentice! Using sneak attacks against a mere Second-rank... how despicable..."
A strong enemy wasn't the scariest thing — the scariest thing was a strong enemy with no shame!
Having deeply internalized this truth, the apprentice felt his scalp go numb, as though somewhere in the nearby bushes a pair of bloodthirsty, greedy eyes were locked onto him.
"No — I have to get out of here, now!"
Grogue gave a slight bow to the corpse on the ground. "I'm sorry — even though we were good friends, I simply don't have time to bury you right now… Perhaps the fate of a
The apprentice offered a brief prayer over his friend's corpse, then prepared to leave.
"Tsk, tsk! Won't even bother with a companion's body — how cold-blooded!"
A woman's voice drifted down from above.
"Who? Who's there?" The apprentice immediately sprang back several meters like a rabbit, his hand already clutching tightly at a black scroll-like object.
"Haha! Look at him — he looks just like a rabbit cornered by hunting dogs with nowhere to run!"
The woman's voice rang out again. The treetops a short distance away rustled, and a young woman in a gray robe appeared before the apprentice's eyes.
The female apprentice was dressed in the style of White Woods Castle, and the sight of it made the original apprentice — who had been prepared to fight to the death — involuntarily relax.
"Hmph! Useless!"
A man's voice echoed from somewhere nearby. A young man stepped out from the shadows, bearing the insignia of the Gothic Sage's Cottage. The entire surface of his right hand was silver, radiating a smooth luster that reflected the surrounding shrubbery.
"This appearance?!"
The original apprentice's hand trembled, and the scroll dropped straight to the ground. "Silver Claw Solen!!! You're Silver Claw Solen!!!"
Silver Claw Solen — within the apprentice circles of the Gothic Sage's Cottage, he was absolutely a figure of fearsome renown. It was said that Solen was ruthless and cruel, having once slaughtered an entire village of ordinary people just to obtain experiment materials!
Though this was only rumor, this apprentice had personally witnessed in the Academy how Solen treated his enemies — and it was truly a scene from hell!
The Gothic Sage's Cottage, though aligned with the White Wizards, always produced some apprentices with outstanding combat talent and exceptional ability. Clearly, Solen was one of them.
Solen ignored the junior apprentice on the other side who was on the verge of passing out from fright, and walked straight to the corpse to examine it.
"A very seasoned technique! Earth Spike spell! Judging by the distance, the enemy must have launched the spell suddenly from about twenty meters away — that's exactly the maximum range of Earth Spike! The enemy possesses an extremely high talent for the application and calculation of Zero-level Spells!"
Solen licked his silver right hand, a savage grin spreading across his lips.
"He's mine!!! I will hunt him down personally, and let the world know the consequences of provoking our Gothic Sage's Cottage!!!"
"As for you!" Solen cast a disdainful glance at the apprentice trembling beside him.
"Get out!!!!"
"Yes! Yes! My Lord!!!" The apprentice nodded frantically and fled like a startled deer, covering hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye, even casting a speed-boosting spell on himself as he went.
Watching the apprentice's retreating figure, the woman let out a cold, mocking laugh. "A completely useless piece of trash!!! If it weren't for the academy's agreements, I would have killed him already!"
"Compared to him, I'm far more interested in this apprentice from Black Bone Forest!!!"
Solen extended his tongue, the long crimson appendage curling and twisting like a viper's forked tongue: "I can hardly wait to find out what that apprentice's blood tastes like!"
……
"Chip! Push detection range to maximum!"
Lei Lin issued the command while sprinting along a path paved with white cobblestones.
Within the secret realm, the Chip's capabilities were also affected — its detection range had shrunk considerably. Still, for early warning and pathfinding purposes, it was more than adequate.
A blue three-dimensional image immediately materialized before Lei Lin's eyes.
On the map, the white cobblestone path wound like an intricate pattern, spiraling around a circular garden at the center.
Furthermore, the Chip had detected faint traces of low-concentration radiation in the soil, indicating that the previous Wizards had put considerable effort into cultivating this place — even the earth had been tampered with.
But there was clearly nothing of any real value here. It was obvious that this secret realm had been thoroughly stripped clean before it was ever opened for use.
"Trying to score a freebie off a Wizard looks like it's going to be harder than I thought!"
Lei Lin shrugged his shoulders and pressed onward.
"Ding! Humanoid entities detected ahead — assessed as Wizard Apprentices, count: three!"
The Chip's alert came through, and a glint flashed in Lei Lin's eyes as he crept forward on silent feet.
The trio consisted of two male apprentices and one female. The male apprentice walking at the center had clearly already reached the rank of Third-rank Apprentice.
At the moment, the small group was heading toward the garden.
"Seriously! Is this really worth the risk?" The male apprentice trailing at the rear began to complain. "We should hurry up and link up with the other apprentices! Once we form a Wizard Formation together, we won't have anything to worry about…"
"Shut up!!!" The male apprentice walking at the center didn't even look back. "How many merit points do you think we'd get tagging along with the Academy's main force? I asked around before we came — this is an abandoned Wizard secret realm! A secret realm! As long as we can grab even a little something, we'll be set for the rest of our lives. We might even be able to advance into Wizards!"
When he spoke those last words, a look of longing and envy surfaced on the center apprentice's face.
"If you're not willing, you're free to turn back! Look at Mary — she hasn't said a word!"
"Fine! Fine!"
The apprentice trailing at the rear fell silent, apparently conceding the center apprentice's point.
After all, he and Mary were both only Second-rank Apprentices, their status far below that of the Third-rank Apprentice in the center.
"That's more like it. We still need to—" The center apprentice hadn't finished when he suddenly pointed ahead. "Look! What's that?"
On a clearing ahead of the three, an apprentice in the gray robes of Black Bone Forest Academy was staring at them in terror. In his hands he clutched a purple flower studded with barbs, with several tentacle-like appendages extending from its center and dangling straight down to the ground.
Spotting the trio approaching, the Black Bone Forest Academy apprentice startled and bolted.
"An apprentice from Black Bone Forest Academy! And only a First-rank!!! Is that a… Wolf Whisker Flower in his hands?"
The Third-rank Apprentice in the center dropped his jaw wide enough to swallow several eggs.
"Kill him! That Wolf Whisker Flower is a precious material worth nearly a thousand Magic Stones!"
The Third-rank Apprentice let out a roar and charged after him.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Even faster was the Second-rank Apprentice behind him. A green whirlwind rose around the latter's body, multiplying his speed several times over as he raced toward the Black Bone Forest apprentice.
"Damn it! Didn't I say we absolutely cannot use that unless our lives are in danger?!"
The Third-rank Apprentice slapped his own forehead hard, then reached back and scooped up Mary beside him. "Hold on tight — I'm about to speed up!"
"Drop the Wolf Whisker Flower!" The Second-rank Apprentice gave chase with all his might, his voice cracking from sheer excitement.
"He's only a First-rank Apprentice — I can absolutely kill him! That's a Wolf Whisker Flower!!!"
In that moment, a seed of greedy desire took root and sprouted instantly in the young apprentice's heart.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Just as the young apprentice was letting his imagination run wild, the team leader caught up with Mary.
"No! Nothing!!!" The young apprentice saw the cold gleam in his team leader's eyes, and it was as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been dumped over his head — every last trace of desire vanished completely.
"Don't let him escape into the bushes!" The Third-rank Apprentice team leader barked the order.
"Got it!"
The young apprentice steadied his heart and joined the team leader in chasing the apprentice running ahead of them.
100 meters!
50 meters!
30 meters!
20 meters!
10 meters!
The distance between them closed rapidly. The young apprentice could already see the expression of terror on the other's face.
"Wolf Whisker Flower! The Wolf Whisker Flower is ours! Even split three ways, that's still at least several hundred Magic Stones!"
The young apprentice's eyes burned with greed as he stared at the fleeing apprentice ahead, as if he were already gazing upon countless Magic Stones.
The very instant the trio was about to catch up to the apprentice in front— BOOM!!!!!!