A violent explosion rang out, tongues of bright yellow flame darting in every direction, scorching the surrounding ground pitch black.
At the epicenter of the blast, a pit roughly a meter deep and several meters across had already formed.
The earth was upturned, and scattered across the surrounding ground were blackened blood, severed limbs, and the remains of organs and bones, all but unrecognizable after the intense fire. It took considerable effort for Leilin to fish out several badges from among the carnage.
"One Third-rank! Two Second-ranks! Nice haul! Explosive Potion rigged into a triggered trap — it really does the job!"
Leilin was quite satisfied with his results. This had been one of several plans he'd devised: use the identity of a First-rank Apprentice created by his Mimicry Spell as bait to lure enemy apprentices into position, then spring a trap to eliminate them.
With the Chip providing detection, every one of Leilin's "hunts" had wrapped up flawlessly, without so much as an interruption.
"Almost there!" Leilin pocketed the badges.
He had to collect enough badges before the enemy's main force assembled, then lie low until the Blood Battle ended.
To that end, after a brief attempt to kill an apprentice using his Mimicry Spell and earthen spikes, Leilin deliberately stopped drawing on his own Spiritual Power and mana. Instead, he relied on potions and scrolls to fight, keeping his condition on a steady, comfortable plateau.
After tidying up the scene, he departed at speed.
Shortly afterward, a male and female apprentice appeared in the area.
Surveying the obvious aftermath of an explosion on the ground — along with the Whitewood Castle uniforms on the severed limbs — it was the female apprentice whose face turned ugly this time.
"I'm going to kill him!!! Hang his head from the front of my carriage for a hundred days!!!!"
The female apprentice was nearly gnashing her teeth.
"You'll get your chance soon enough! We're getting very close to this slippery apprentice…"
Silver Claw Sorin crouched half-low to the ground, pulled up a pale green grass stalk still caked with mud at the root, and stuffed it straight into his mouth.
"Still, I have to admire his nerve — actually daring to ambush our apprentices!"
"Less talk! Did you find him?"
the female apprentice demanded.
"That way!" Sorin, grass stalk clamped between his teeth, closed his eyes for a long moment, then pointed in a specific direction. The two of them set off in pursuit.
Deep within a dense forest, a gray-robed figure sat cross-legged on the trunk of a gnarled, three-forked dead tree, gazing up at the sky.
"It's dark now," Leilin murmured to himself.
Inside the secret realm there was no sun and no moon — not even stars. Yet strangely enough, the sky was filled with light during the day, and once night fell that light vanished entirely, creating the distinction between day and night.
It almost looked as though some kind of barrier were directly blocking out the sun and the moon.
"One whole day, and this is all I've managed to earn!"
Leilin quickly tallied his contribution points.
Nestled quietly in his cloak were six Apprentice Badges. Five of them belonged to Second-rank Apprentices; only one was a Third-rank badge, contributed by the leader of that Third-rank apprentice's squad.
The badges of Second-rank and Third-rank Apprentices were constructed differently, making them easy to tell apart.
"Per the Academy's rules, an enemy Second-rank Apprentice is worth three contribution points, a Third-rank is worth ten, and well-known apprentices are calculated separately. On my end, I've got at most twenty-five contribution points — still a full half short of the fifty needed to trade for Greenwater."
Leilin's expression turned somewhat grave.
He might have earned twenty-five contribution points in a single day, but today every apprentice on every side had been randomly scattered across the secret realm. They couldn't cluster together, which was the only reason Leilin had found his openings.
After a full day and night, the apprentices of the other two hostile factions would surely have finished consolidating, banding together in groups to hunt down the Black Bone Forest apprentices.
Under those conditions, merely keeping his own life would be cause for celebration — let alone seizing enemy badges.
In the prior wars between the two factions, Black Bone Forest Academy's apprentices had suffered devastating casualties and were in no shape to contend with the other two forces, who had been resting and rearming.
Besides, walk dark roads often enough and sooner or later you run into ghosts. Leilin had no illusions that his simple traps could keep working indefinitely.
"If it really comes down to it, I'll just have to give up!"
His expression turned resolute. He was not the kind of person to throw his life away for profit. Even if he was determined to become the supreme ruler of the Wizard world, that ambition was predicated on surviving first — because if you were dead, what good was possessing everything else?
"Chip! Maintain detection range! Report immediately if anything comes up!"
After issuing the Chip a sentry task, Leilin hollowed out a cavity in the trunk of the dead tree behind him, applied a bit of camouflage, and lay down inside the hollow.
The apprentices of all three Academies would spend a full three days and two nights inside the secret realm. Physical exhaustion could be pushed through with Stamina Potions and similar methods, but mental fatigue was not so easily remedied.
Fortunately, Leilin had the Chip, which could handle the watch duty without issue. With its capabilities, the task was well within its reach.