The secret realm blood battle that Black Bone Forest had been forced into put its apprentices at a complete disadvantage.
The apprentices of the other two rival factions would hunt them down like prey.
"But! Even the cleverest hunter, once separated from the pack, can be killed by the very beasts they were hunting!"
Leilin licked his somewhat dry lips, revealing a savage grin.
Right now, the apprentices from all three academies had been scattered throughout the secret realm, and the apprentices of the two rival factions hadn't regrouped yet. This was the perfect opportunity for Leilin to accumulate contribution points!
Once the enemy apprentices fully banded together, there would be nothing he could do.
"That's the plan! Today, I'll kill as many enemy apprentices as I can, rack up enough contribution points, and then use the Chip to dodge the main enemy force..."
Having settled on his strategy, Leilin quickly stripped the Magic Stones and resources from the apprentices' bodies and departed the scene.
About two hours after Leilin left, another apprentice arrived at the scene.
"It's Gegewu!!!" The apprentice stared at the corpse on the ground, his pupils contracting.
He and Gegewu were academy mates. Seeing his own companion lying there on the ground, the apprentice's face turned deathly pale, looking like he wanted to throw up but couldn't.
The apprentice murmured to himself:
"Too dangerous! This mission is far too dangerous! Gegewu and I are just second-rank apprentices — coming here was nothing but suicide! If I'd known, I never would have taken this mission!"
His face was twisted with regret.
"Judging by this wound, it was likely a zero-level earth spell with a strong physical component. The caster was definitely a third-rank apprentice! Using ambush tactics against a mere second-rank... how despicable..."
A powerful enemy wasn't what was truly scary — what was truly terrifying was a powerful enemy who had no shame!
Fully grasping this truth, the apprentice felt his scalp go numb, as though somewhere in the nearby undergrowth, a pair of bloodthirsty and greedy eyes were locked right onto him.
"No, I have to leave — now!"
The apprentice gave a slight bow to the corpse on the ground. "I'm sorry. Even though we were good friends, I absolutely don't have time to bury you... Perhaps the fate of a wizard is to die on the path of pursuing truth!"
After offering a brief prayer over his friend's body, the apprentice prepared to leave.
"Tsk tsk! Not even bothering with your companion's corpse — how cold-blooded of you!"
A woman's voice came from above.
"Who? Who's there?" The apprentice immediately sprang back several meters like a rabbit, his hand already clutching a black scroll-like object.
"Haha! Look at him — just like a rabbit cornered by hounds with nowhere to run!"
The woman's voice sounded again. The treetops nearby rustled, and a young woman in grey robes appeared before the apprentice.
The female apprentice wore the style of White Forest Castle, which made the apprentice — who had been ready to fight to the death — relax slightly.
"Hmph! Useless!"
A male voice rang out from the surroundings. A young man stepped from the shadows, bearing the insignia of Gothic Sage's Cottage. His entire right hand was silver, gleaming with a lustrous sheen that reflected the shadows of the surrounding bushes.
"That look?"
The apprentice's hand trembled, and the scroll dropped straight to the ground. "Silver Claw Soren!!! You're Silver Claw Soren!!!"
Silver Claw Soren was, without question, one of the most notorious figures among the apprentices of Gothic Sage's Cottage. Rumor had it that Soren was incredibly ruthless — he had once slaughtered an entire village of ordinary people just for a single experimental material!
Though it was only a rumor, this apprentice had personally witnessed in the academy how Soren dealt with his enemies — it had been a scene straight from hell!
Although Gothic Sage's Cottage was a Light Wizard faction, it inevitably produced apprentices with extraordinary combat talent and ability. Clearly, Soren was one of them.
Soren ignored the junior apprentice nearby, who was on the verge of fainting from fear, and walked directly to the corpse to examine it.
"Very seasoned technique! An Earth Spike spell! From this distance, the enemy must have launched it suddenly from about twenty meters away — that's exactly the maximum range of Earth Spike! This enemy has exceptional talent in both the application and calculation of zero-level spells!"
Soren licked his silver right hand, a savage smile curling at the corner of his lips.
"He's mine!!! I'll hunt him down personally and show the world what happens when you provoke Gothic Sage's Cottage!!!"
"As for you!" Soren cast a dismissive glance at the trembling junior apprentice beside him.
"Scram!!!"
"Y-yes! Yes, sir!!!" The apprentice nodded frantically and fled like a startled deer, covering several hundred meters in the blink of an eye, even casting a speed-enhancement spell on himself.
Watching the apprentice's retreating figure, the woman sneered coldly: "A completely worthless waste!!! If not for the academy's rules, I'd have killed him right then and there!"
"Compared to him, I'm far more interested in this apprentice from Black Bone Forest!!!"
Soren extended his tongue — a long, crimson appendage that curled and twisted like a serpent's fang: "I can hardly wait to find out what that apprentice's blood tastes like!"
...
"Chip! Set the detection range to maximum!"
Leilin ran along a path paved with white cobblestones, issuing commands as he went.
Within the secret realm, the Chip's functions had been somewhat suppressed, reducing its detection range. But for early warning and scouting, it was still more than sufficient.