Chapter 34: A Knight’s Breakthrough
After Kaliweir finished speaking, he took out a black powder-like substance from his robes and sprinkled it onto his legs. He suddenly appeared taller and upon closer inspection, it seemed that not only had his height increased, but there were also tufts of black fur growing out of the bottom of his shoes.
With this black fur, Kaliweir’s speed increased tremendously and he disappeared from the forest in the span of a few steps, with a speed faster than Raynor’s.
“The seed from a blade of Nimble Grass? It seems like Kaliweir used it to protect his life, but the aftereffects of this seed are not small!”
Leylin muttered, looking towards the two girls at his side, “It is a little embarrassing to say this, but we had still better split up!”
“Since we chose to come out here and take such risks, we should naturally be prepared to lose our lives! To be honest, the fact that you were able to stay behind those two guys has already shocked us !”
Neela said as she took out a green potion in a test tube and threw it on the floor. A green-coloured hurricane swept up and enshrouded Neela and Lilisse within its centre.
“See you at the academy!” Enveloped in a whirlwind of green, the two girls disappeared from Leylin’s vision.
“Everyone has a trump card, huh?” Leylin smiled, moving his feet and disappearing from the forest.
In a flash, the party of five began to split up, with everyone using their own methods to escape from the scene.
Leylin’s footsteps never faltered, and the trees on either side of him disappeared into the distance as he sped ahead.
“The attack power of the Violent Hilly Bear is extremely high, while its speed is just average. In the party of five, Kaliweir used the Nimble Grass, while Neela and Lilisse used a speed-enhancing potion. As for me, I have the strength of a Knight, and therefore, my speed is pretty good. However, Raynor, the first to run, has the slowest speed amongst the five of us and is also in the greatest danger. If he did not prepare any trump cards, it is highly likely for him to die here.”
“I should be able to escape from this Violent Hilly Bear’s hunting grounds with Raynor as a decoy, so I had better not use this potion just yet!”
As a Potions Master, Leylin was still rather rich despite not being able to sell his goods in bulk. Naturally, he had prepared several trump cards that could protect his life, without which he would not have the confidence to come outside to train.
Every step he took was perfect, his every move and action seemed to blend in with the forest and he did not receive any obstructions from any branches or vines, his actions as smooth as flowing water. His speed was actually almost the same as Kaliweir who had used the Nimble Grass.
“Groarrr!” A vicious roar sounded.
Suddenly, a black figure appeared in front of Leylin, and with it came a huge bear paw.
“Impossible! How could it have made a detour to be in front of me? Was Raynor unable to draw it away ?”
Greatly startled, Leylin’s body reacted, his conditioned reflexes causing him to take out his cross blade and begin slashing in front of him.
*Clang!* Leylin hurriedly used the huge recoil travelling through the cross blade to turn his body around and escape the attack range of the bear’s paw. He did not have a good grip on the cross blade and as a result, it flew out of his hands.
*Bang!*
At this moment, Leylin did not hesitate to throw a fire red potion at the Violent Hilly Bear.
The moment the test tube exploded, a scorching red flame suddenly engulfed the Violent Hilly Bear.
Leylin did not stay to watch the scene. Instead, he immediately turned around and ran.
“The explosive potion’s might may be great, comparable to an average rank 0 spells, however, it still lacks the power to penetrate the Violent Hilly Bear’s thick hide.
“Groarrr!” The Violent Hilly Bear’s roar sounded from behind, and it seemed to be getting closer to Leylin.
Leylin turned around to look, and his eyes almost popped out, “This is illogical!”
He saw that the Violent Hilly Bear’s head was a little charred, but the rest of the body remained undamaged. The explosive potion seemed to do nothing else apart from further enraging the Violent Hilly Bear.
The Violent Hilly Bear’s massively oversized body seemed to be as light as a feather and did not hinder its speed in the slightest, allowing it to tail behind Leylin.
“A.I. Chip! Take readings!”
Leylin gave a command, but the A.I. Chip did not reply even after half a day and only a faint static noise could be heard.
“A.I. Chip! A.I. Chip!” Leylin called out again, but it was to no avail.
“Damn it, just what exactly is happening?”
Leylin’s face distorted in frustration. The A.I. Chip was his greatest trump card in this world. Suddenly losing it had turned him a little crazy.
*Thwack!* The Violent Hilly Bear caught up to Leylin once again, and it swatted with his massive paws as if it was swatting at a mosquito.
“Umbra’s Hand!” Leylin hurriedly chanted and a black coloured hand rose from the Violent Hilly Bear’s shadow, firmly holding on to the bear’s paw.
The huge bear roared nonstop but was unable to escape from the Umbra’s Hand.
Seizing this opportunity, Leylin hurriedly ran off. “The Umbra’s Hand’s effect will only last for a few seconds! I must hurry!”
Leylin fled miserably.
“Damn it!” Leylin grumbled yet again, “What on earth is going on? This Violent Hilly Bear is stronger than my expectations, and it has such a swift speed too!”
In the black forest, the grass and shrubbery blew in the strong wind and the occasional insect cry could be heard from time to time.
“At last, I have finally escaped for now!” Leylin ran for a dozen-odd minutes before he dared to turn back and look. The dark forest resembled the mouth of a huge beast, seemingly wanting to swallow him whole.
“Caw! Caw!” Just when Leylin had finally caught his breath, the abominable sound of ravens could be heard in the sky.
Leylin raised his head and looked. There were ravens that were much larger than the Red-Eyed Ravens from earlier. Furthermore, there were three of them! Once they spotted Leylin, they immediately swooped down towards him.
“My cross blade has already been lost and my spiritual force and Magical Power are almost drained too. Am I going to die here today?”
An ominous premonition rose in Leylin’s heart.
A black talon came slashing at him, and Leylin hurriedly attempted to dodge it. In spite of his attempts, the claw of the raven etched three gashes into his back.
The immense pain clouded Leylin’s vision, “No! I don’t want to die! I have not qualified as a Magus yet! Or seen the rest of the world! How could I just die a silent death here !”
As he tumbled to the ground, Leylin picked up a green rock from behind him.
“Ha!” Jumping back up, he viciously smashed the rock down onto the Red-Eyed Raven’s head!
*Bang!* This time, Leylin used all of his strength, and the Red-Eyed Raven swayed as it fell onto the floor.
“Caw! Caw!” Angry cries were heard in the sky. Seeing that their comrade had died like that, the other two Red-Eyed Ravens immediately cried out and swooped down to avenge it.
“Bring it on!” Leylin lowered himself slightly, coiling his body into position, like a leopard who was about to catch its prey.
He felt every artery in his body expanding quickly, and the blood continuously surged, circulating huge amounts of energy into the various parts of his body. A warm current gradually rose in his lower abdomen, and the wound on his back no longer seemed as painful.
“Die!” Leylin shouted, and flung the rock in his hands out ruthlessly. This time, he seemed to have used all his energy, and the warmth in his body constantly responded to him. The rock let out an ear piercing whistle and directly struck one of the Red-Eyed Ravens.
“This is……Internal life energy!” Leylin was mildly shocked. He had attained the qualities of a Preparatory Knight long ago. Moreover, he meditated constantly, so he was almost comparable to that of an actual Knight. However, he had not been able to ignite his internal life energy until now, and he never thought that he would be able to have a break through at this point.
Right at that moment, the warm current in his lower abdomen travelled to his two eyes, and a piercing pain in his eyes made them water.
When he opened his eyes, his vision was extremely blurry, as if he was shrouded in mist. However, the faint blue words of the A.I. Chip had finally reappeared.
The screen of the A.I. Chip displayed was intermittent as if it was suffering from a very strong interference.
“Hallucination!” Leylin was startled. However, at this moment, the other Red-Eyed Raven had already swooped down right in front of him. Behind him, there came a violent roar from the forest and a massive bear paw vehemently struck out at Leylin with a hooked claw.
Facing such a life-threatening attack, Leylin grit his teeth and actually closed both his eyes.
The sharp claws pierced his body and he felt an immense pain. However, it was not as painful as he thought, and Leylin’s body did not fall.
“It really is like this, huh?” Leylin’s lips curled upwards.
“A.I. Chip! Show me my current state!”
The A.I. Chip’s display merely appeared more distinct in the darkness.
The lines full of red-coloured warnings about the abnormal status was extremely striking, but Leylin had actually not realised it before.
“Begin expulsion immediately!” Leylin commanded.
The A.I. Chip indicated that the expulsion was complete, and only then did Leylin open his eyes.
Right now, he was situated inside a shrubbery, and the Violent Hilly Bear and Red-Eyed Raven disappeared without a trace.
There were many cuts on his body from the barbs in the shrubbery, and blood was dripping from them. However, there were no gashes on his back.
“It seems like it really was an illusion. What I saw earlier was completely artificial!”
Leylin looked at his surroundings again. On the left, there was a tree that had fallen, and he saw traces of scorch marks in his surroundings.
“Although what I saw was fake, my reactions were all real. The explosive potion and Umbra’s Hand uprooted the tree, and it is very likely that I mistook the tree for the Violent Hilly Bear!”
Leylin felt a little regretful. The explosive potion had cost him plenty of magic crystals, and he had spent a whopping amount before buying the formula and ingredients from Woox. But now, he had actually used it against a tree.
“However, it’s not like I didn’t reap any benefits.” Leylin looked at the prompt shown by the A.I. Chip earlier.
“It might have been an illusion all along, but the igniting my internal life energy and advancing to a Knight was real!”
“It is also thanks to my advancement into a Knight that led me to realise that something was amiss, if not, I would have died just like that!”
Leylin was a little afraid, “A.I. Chip! Record the status I was in earlier when I broke through into a Knight!”
“This state may be the key to igniting internal life energy! However why would it have some resemblance to the magic powers of my previous world? It seems extremely unconventional!”
Leylin harboured a few suspicions. This Knight’s advancement method was extremely perilous. Many of the situations required luck, otherwise, there might be an excessive secretion of adrenaline, opening up the possibility of being poisoned to death.
Chapter 35: Returning To The Academy
“I wonder how Kaliweir and the others are doing now?”
When Leylin feebly picked himself up, he felt like his whole body was going to fall apart.
“Even with the A.I. Chip, I have fallen into this state, let alone their situations. I had better find them quickly, it would be really terrible if they were to fall into a trap or encounter other wild beasts.
Leylin drew out a red-coloured potion from his waist pouch and opened the wooden plug. He poured the red liquid onto his wounds.
*Hiss!* White mist continuously rose up from the wound. Leylin gritted his teeth, his face a little twisted.
After the white mist dispersed, a red membrane was covering the wound, and the bleeding had already stopped. It had also closed the wound. Leylin waved his hands around and noticed that his movements were not restricted.
“This hemostatic potion is very good, but it’s so painful when it’s being used!”
Leylin grumbled, drew out another blue coloured potion, and gulped it down. The blue potion was sweet and carried the fragrance of white bread. Leylin felt his body getting much better and also recovered some strength. He walked out from the shrubbery and leaned against a big tree to rest.
“A.I. Chip! For that hallucinatory gas, are there any remedies against it?”
Since he knew that the only danger over there was the hallucinatory gas particles, Leylin did not mind rescuing his other party members.
If it really wasn’t possible, then Leylin would just turn his head and return to the academy to inform the professors while praying for them.
The A.I. Chip replied.
“Freshwater, huh?” Leylin opened his water bottle and soaked a handkerchief, wrapping it over his nose and mouth before heading back to their previous location.
“I thought that I had run very far away, but I haven’t even gone a thousand metres!” Leylin retraced his footsteps. Moments later, when he returned back to where the party of five had split up, he was a little speechless.
“A.I. Chip! Scan the area in front and form a map!”
Since he knew that the path in front was filled with hallucinatory gas particles, Leylin still felt very vulnerable despite his safeguard.
An image appeared in front of Leylin’s eyes. Where the five of them were earlier, there was a depression with huge mushrooms growing out from it.
These mushrooms were extremely big and almost as tall as a human being. Each one was a mysterious purple colour, with many black spots faintly forming the image of a human in pain.
“What type of mushrooms are these?”
“Spider-Faced Mushroom?” Leylin thought back to an image he had seen in a picture book from the library.
“The Spider-Faced Mushroom is a very mysterious plant. It is able to emit extremely strong hallucinatory gas particles, and people with weak constitutions and other intelligent beings will not be able to resist them. They will often attract flying beasts and live together in harmony with them. It seems like the two Red-Eyed Ravens from earlier were attracted to them.”
Leylin noticed a few bones at the stem of the purple mushroom, some seemed to belong to humans, and some were from various creatures.
“However, these kinds of dangerous plants should have been cleaned up around our school area, unless they were moved here only recently!”
Leylin conjectured and suddenly felt chills over his body as if he had discovered a part of a conspiracy.
Shaking his head, “This is not something that I can attend to now. I had better hurry and look for Neela and the others and then leave immediately!”
With the help of the A.I. Chip, finding the others of his party members proved to be extremely easy.
Raynor was lying not far away, with one of his thighs impaled on a branch. It seemed like he had run into it himself.
Not long later, Kaliweir was found too. At this moment, he looked like a lunatic, cleaving at a huge black boulder. He could not even see Leylin walking over, and was knocked out by Leylin in the end.
As for Neela and Lilisse, they were the luckiest. Not long after they left, they had been entangled within some vines. When Leylin found them, they were still clad in the glow of the green hastening potion and were actually not injured at all.
Leylin brought the four of them far away from the Spider-Faced Mushroom. When he found a stream, he tossed all of them into the water.
This was the suggestion given by the A.I. Chip.
With the bone-chilling cold water from the stream invading the noses and throats of Kaliweir and the others, their bodies began to convulse violently.
“Cough Cough!” Kaliweir and the others started to cough violently.
Leylin moved the few of them onto flat ground and laid them on their backs. He then picked up a weapon and got into a defensive stance.
“What happened?” Kaliweir rubbed his aching head and propped himself up.
“Do you still remember what happened earlier?” Leylin came in front of Kaliweir.
“Yes! I remember now, we met with the Violent Hilly Bear and even some Direwolves!” Kaliweir touched the gash on his face.
“Was it you who saved us?”
“Indeed! However, what we encountered were not ferocious beasts. I’ll explain it when the others have woken up!” Leylin pointed at the others, who seemed to be regaining consciousness slowly.
When the few of them left the domain of the Spider-Faced Mushrooms and gulped down huge amounts of fresh water, their minds started to clear again.
Leylin explained the matter of the Spider-Faced Mushrooms to them. As for himself, he said that he was lucky to avoid their situations because he had an item that could resist hallucinations.
After listening to Leylin, the expressions of Kaliweir and the others weren’t very good at all.
“Leylin! Thank you! I owe you my life!” Kaliweir said solemnly.
“Us too!” Neela and Lilisse spoke at the same time. As for Raynor, he opened his mouth but no words came out from it.
“I suggest that you all better tend to the injuries on your bodies first!” Leylin pointed to the puncture in Raynor’s thigh.
“Alright. I have some medicinal powder here. Do you need it, Raynor?”
Kaliweir felt for the item on his body, and then retrieved a bottle of medicinal powder from his waist pouch and gave it to Raynor.
Leylin took a whiff and knew that it was medicine from the regular world. While it had certain effectiveness, it was still incomparable to a hemostasis potion.
The party slowly treated the wounds on their bodies. Raynor was the most injured, and his lips were as pale as snow. His legs were wrapped very thickly with gauze. Kaliweir managed to find a stick for him to use as a crutch, so he could at least manage to walk.
The physiques of Magi already begin to differ from those of regular humans. With the help of potions, wounds that are not too severe will usually finish healing in a few nights.
“What should we do next?” Kaliweir looked at Leylin. Although he was the party leader in name, Leylin’s performance made him bow his head.
“Can you still walk?” Leylin asked Raynor.
“I can definitely walk! Don’t… don’t leave me behind!” Raynor hurriedly propped himself up with the crutch.
“Then we had better hurry and set off!” Leylin thought of the Spider-Faced Mushrooms and of his own predictions. He had an ominous feeling about the recent events.
“That’s right!” Neela and Lilisse agreed in unison, it seemed like they were afraid of this place already.
“My Hastening Potion! That was something that I spent 5 magic crystals on!” Along the journey, Neela lamented.
“That is still okay, look at me!” Kaliweir adjusted his sack; the most important things were the 12 Red-Eyed Raven claws in it as they were the proof of completing the mission. He then pointed to his ankle.
On his legs, tufts of black fur already covered his calves and began spreading to his thigh area.
“Although a seed from the Nimble Grass can allow you to run quickly, their reproductive abilities are too great. After using them, you will definitely be contaminated. If you don’t hurry back to the academy to take care of it, you might soon become a furry man!”
“Outer appearance is one thing. The most important thing is that if the Nimble Grass live on a human’s body for a long time, there will be poisonous properties! At that time, you can only amputate your leg!” Kaliweir said with a resolved expression, “Hurry!”
Although he still wore a deadpanned expression, his footsteps had obviously quickened.
After suffering from the Spider-Faced Mushrooms’ attack, the five of them became easily frightened on the way home. Any rustling of leaves or blowing of the wind would make them feel nervous for a while.
When they finally saw the Abyssal Bone Forest Graveyard, Leylin swore that he had never found this graveyard so lovable before now.
“Password!” This time, the two-headed dog asked in a female voice.
“Abyssal Bone is paramount!” Kaliweir said slowly.
The password changes whenever a certain period of time has passed. However, the password will naturally be told in advance to those who go out on a mission, like them.
“Correct!” The two-headed dog allowed them to pass and returned to being a statue on the platform.
Leylin finally heaved a sigh of relief when they entered the academy’s gates.
Although there were no deaths on this mission, they still met with several dangers along the way. If not for the A.I. Chip’s help, it was very likely that their party would have been wiped out completely.
“Let’s go! We’ll first hand in our mission!” Kaliweir’s expression loosened and he smiled. As for Lilisse and Neela, they both seemed relieved as well.
The five of them walked towards the Mission Area. Kaliweir queued in front of the counter while the other four waited to the side.
“Neela, did the missions cause so many injuries or deaths in the past?”
Leylin felt that the atmosphere was a little off. The number of casualties in the Mission Area had obviously increased, and there were curses and sobbing heard from time to time.
“We don’t usually have this many! I can guarantee that!” Neela looked at the many acolytes with darkened expressions on their faces. It seemed like not only did they fail their missions, but they had also paid a heavy price for them.
“Look! The missions have been refreshed!”
Leylin raised his head and saw a notice hanging in the upper corner of the black wall, with striking red words.
“Attention! There has been a significant increase in the dangerous creatures around the academy. We hope that the acolytes who go out in the future will be more cautious. If you aren’t a level 3 acolyte, we recommend that you stay inside.
These words were a size bigger than the others and were written in a striking red font.
Behind the warning, there was a new mission written in red.
“Mission: Find out the source of the abnormalities in the academy’s vicinity. Reward: 500 magic crystals, high-grade information on 3 topics at will, or an improved spell model. This mission is categorised as extremely dangerous, be prudent when accepting this mission!”
“500 magic crystals, high-grade information on 3 topics, or even an improved spell model!” Leylin exclaimed.
“If only I had that many magic crystals!” Lilisse was also intimidated by the generous reward.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
27 Power
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