BXBX NOVEL Chapter 4: Return
While most of the demons backed away, frightened by the magical flame that had just appeared in the air, Leon jumped out of the way, dug into the ground beneath a nearby Murdering Tree, used his magical flame to burn through the thick root of the tree, and finally saw the material he came to harvest.
Among the tangled roots and pale white human bones were some small fleshy root nodes. Some were white, some were red, and there were even a few colored violet. Leon suppressed the disgust he felt and, using a small knife he carried with him, carefully harvested three of the purple nodes and placed them in his waist pocket. Then, he quickly ran back to the road.
If this task hadn’t been so important, he would never have strayed from the edge of the road! Even though he had moved with great speed, those demons that had already fled gathered again. Moreover, the Bloodsucking Rattans that hung from the Murdering Trees now occupied the space he had entered while digging the roots.
If he had been a second slower, he wouldn’t have escaped without a tough fight!
In fact, thanks to his new "elemental vision," he was able to directly find the roots of the Murdering Tree’s core. If it had been before, he would have had to make repeated trips to find his harvest. The farther he went down the road, the greater the risk.
He continued following the mysterious path for another two hundred meters, soon leaving the main group of Murdering Trees. In front of him, he saw a horrifying ghost tree, which seemed alive as it stretched over the rocky trail; the vines and branches of trees hanging from it looked alive as they swayed in the air.
Taking the magical talisman from under his shirt, Leon whispered the secret spell that every Apprentice Mage had to master.
"Muhantoria • Sinra."
Upon completing the secret magical spell, a mysterious and invisible force erupted from the talisman, quickly covering every inch of his surroundings.
A warning exploded in Leon’s mind.
"Abnormal force field detected!"
The functionality of this chip is being interfered with…
The voice of the chip grew weaker and weaker. It slowly faded into a soft whimper before finally falling completely silent.
Leon ignored the chip and began to walk forward, holding the magical talisman above his head. With each step he took, the vines and tree branches in front of him recoiled. Eventually, they parted, allowing him to pass and continue on his way.
Now that he was done with the Murdering Trees and the Bloodsucking Rattans, it was time for him to enter what was known as a paradise for a type of being known as Demonic Baby. Leon’s heart was filled with a strong fear for this place.
The area right after the ghost tree was filled with demons. They called it the Garden of Whispers.
If one looked off the path, they would see fields of flowers, but all of those fields were filled with ashes, corpses, and countless demons.
The unique environment of the magical swamp made this place a paradise for Demonic Babies, Banshees, and Flower Fairies, which were simply twisted creatures whose only desire was to fill their stomachs with the corpses and souls of the unprepared beings who entered this place.
Whenever a fool entered this place, their fate was to collapse under the endless influences and evil illusions and become fertilizer for these unique plants, which thrived on death and despair.
Mushrooms with human faces gathered on both sides of the path. They were all holding hands and singing a cheerful melody, warmly beckoning Leon to join them. These little things looked like small mushrooms with hands and feet. They had a pattern on their caps resembling a human face.
Although these human-faced mushrooms had small hands and cute little feet and were no more than a foot tall, when they gathered together, jumping and laughing, it sent chills down Leon’s spine.
"Warning…"
"Warning…"
"Strange energy is affecting the host…"
"Recommended that the host leave this place immediately…"
Leon quickly moved away from the dancing mushrooms. As he distanced himself from them, the chill running down his spine finally diminished.
No matter how cute these human-faced mushrooms were, they were still true carnivorous demons, known for sparing no soul of their prey. The original form of these demons was actually a type of white mushroom that had been injected with vast and potent dark Elementium.
Individually, they only possessed a weak illusion ability, which was definitely not enough for them to capture prey like a human, who was much larger than they were.
But these creatures lived in groups.
When hundreds of human-faced mushrooms gathered, they could form a large illusory region, causing their prey to get lost without even realizing it. Thus, if someone stumbled upon and became trapped in a large group of human-faced mushrooms, their victim might still have a smile on their face, being completely immersed in some kind of fantasy!
For an official Mage, these human-faced mushrooms, which only possessed basic illusion abilities, were simply good material to enhance their own magic. But for an Apprentice Mage like Leon, he would face the risk of being killed by them every time he encountered them.
If Leon could not withstand the illusory region created by these human-faced mushrooms and veer off the path of his own accord, then these creatures could enjoy a grand feast without violating the agreement made with the tower!
Therefore, returning to these smiling yet insidious demons, who continued to approach him, Leon smiled and quickly pulled out an egg-sized stone, throwing it directly into the center of the dancing mushrooms.
"Zosh~~"
In the next moment, a blue flash erupted from the stone as a faint lightning bolt struck everything nearby.
"Buzzz~~"
"Bang~~"
Five human-faced mushrooms lay lifeless on the ground. All the other human-faced mushrooms were frightened and fled in all directions, hiding in the nearby foliage.
Leon walked over to the five corpses of the human-faced mushrooms, carefully picked them up, and placed them all in his waist pocket. Then he grabbed the small round stone and returned to the road.
The small egg-shaped stone was a Thunder Stone, which he had bought from the apprentice Rick for a high price. When activated, it shook violently for a moment before releasing a small explosion of lightning that dealt 5 points of electric damage. It was the perfect weapon to deal with these human-faced mushrooms, which were quite weak.
After all, his spell "Flaming Hand" was quite destructive, and thus he needed another method.
None of these human-faced mushrooms dared to show their faces after being attacked. The countless glances and noisy whispers followed Leon, leaving his hair standing on end.
The human-faced mushrooms were one of the materials he had to gather for his task. Therefore, once Leon completed this part of the task, he quickly hurried down the winding path, not daring to linger in this place any longer.
To be honest, among all the lands around the tower, this place was known for having the highest mortality rate among Apprentices!
Leaving the flower-filled fields where the human-faced mushrooms grew, Leon soon arrived at the region where the Demonic Babies lived.
The Demonic Baby was a small monster with a tiny wrinkled body that resembled a human baby. They also had something like an umbilical cord trailing behind them as they moved. They crawled on the ground, but the speed at which they crawled was extremely fast.
These Demonic Babies were not real babies, but truly horrifying monsters. They possessed an innate ability that was very similar to a "Curse." With this "Curse," their words and wills would unite to become reality. One could imagine their power as something akin to the spell "Wish."
Unfortunately, they were all evil creatures with absolutely twisted minds, and their hearts were filled with vicious hatred. So don’t expect them to grant you good wishes; you could only reap the endless and vicious abuse of the Demonic Babies’ curse.
When dozens of Demonic Babies gather and unleash their most powerful curses toward a target, even a powerful Earth Bear would be greatly weakened by the stacking of their evil intentions. After that, the Demonic Babies could easily kill their victim.
Walking among this group of terrible monsters, one would need a heart and iron will, or else they would end up having their skin stripped and bones dismantled by the Demonic Babies, soon becoming one of the many wandering souls in this Garden of Whispers.
Leon quickened his pace as he dashed through the desolate shrubs of the Garden. He didn’t have the courage to stop and simply held the talisman tightly against his chest, running faster and faster as he crossed this part of the swamp.
The moment the sharp screams of the Demonic Babies began to fill his ears, Leon was running. Though it was terrifying, he soon left the Garden of Whispers, breathing heavily as he turned onto another narrow path.
Although he had set out to gather materials, the most important part of this routine task was to inspect the activity of the demons near the tower and check for anything out of place, such as signs that a stranger had tried to come into this area. Every seven days, he had to take note of the activity of all the demons around the tower, properly gathering some magical materials, just as he had done.
This was the purpose of Leon’s trip.
In fact, the region he was inspecting was truly part of the inner boundary of the magical swamp. It was very rare for a stranger to actually come to the swamp. After all, demons created by Mages were extremely dangerous, and even using a magical talisman would not be enough to guarantee the safety of an Apprentice Mage.
As for ordinary humans trying to sneak into this place to steal resources from a Mage, the chances of them getting past all these monstrous demons were almost impossible.
To be honest, mortals would probably not even get past the outer perimeter of the magical swamp.
But, according to Leon’s knowledge, sometimes the Mage Tower would deliberately disable some of the defense mechanisms of the outer perimeter, actively luring some ordinary humans into the depths of the swamp. At that moment, the swamp would turn into a demonic carnival while everyone enjoyed the deaths of the ignorant!
The Mage Tower was a huge ring-shaped structure, and the landscape around its base was extremely complicated. The demons were distributed throughout the swamp in a very methodical manner. Therefore, each inspection trip would require at least two Apprentice Mages—one going clockwise and the other counterclockwise. They would follow a fixed route, crossing most of the demon-infested areas.
Starting from the front door of the tower and gathering at the back door, once they completed this circular route, their inspection would be considered complete.
Each inspection task awarded them four knowledge points and some gold coins. Compared to other tasks within the tower, the reward for knowledge points was quite good. But even with such a high reward, most knowledge-hungry Apprentice Mages would still steer clear of this inspection task, avoiding it like the plague.
The reason for this was obvious: the mortality rate for the inspection task was definitely the highest among all tasks in the tower! None of the other tasks could surpass it.
For this inspection trip, Leon took the counterclockwise route, which required him to cross the grove of Killing Trees, the field of human-faced mushrooms, the Garden of Whispers, and a few other areas. As for the other Apprentice Mage, Nolan, he took the clockwise route, but it was also not a safe path.
After all, those Giant Alligators and the Parasite Insect Sovereigns were just as dangerous as some of the creatures on his side!
Especially when one had to gather some Alligator eggs or insect cocoons. Doing such things required entering their nests, and that was just as dangerous as the inspection task going clockwise. Therefore, when Leon saw Nolan at the back door of the tower, he felt relieved that Nolan had survived as well.
Neither of the guys spoke much after they met. They simply nodded indifferently and continued toward the tower.
It was the Apprentice Leader, Theodore, who was waiting for them there. After sending the necessary items for the task, the two were basically free for the next six days. As for the knowledge points, Theodore registered them on his magical talisman using a secret method.
For all the apprentices in the tower, their magical talisman was truly a symbol of their identity.
2142 Words