Chapter 73 – Reexamination
Reexamination
“A.I. Chip! Bring forth my current stats!” Leylin commanded inwardly.
[Beep! Leylin Farlier, level 3 acolyte. Strength: 3.1, Agility: 3.3, Vitality: 3.5, Spiritual force: 10.1, Magic power: 10 – (magic power is in synchronisation with spiritual force). Status: Healthy]
The A.I. Chip projected the data in front of Leylin’s eyes. Apart from him, nobody else could see it.
Leylin closed his eyes, yet his mind was rapidly processing and thinking.
“En! My vitality has increased by 0.3, which should be related to the use of the Reactive Elixir. Also, not only did my spiritual force increase to 10.1, I can feel that my spiritual force is brimming with more energy as compared to before. My perception towards energy particles in the air has increased too, so casting rank 0 spells should now be easier!”
“The realm of a level 3 acolyte is indeed not something a level 2 acolyte can compare to. However, the process of advancing is too perilous!”
Leylin put on an expression of lingering fear. No matter if it was his consciousness being trapped in the black space, or the backlash from the Reactive Elixir, they were all developments which he had not expected.
To Leylin, all the data and information he had garnered was still too little. Although the A.I. Chip’s calculation abilities were extremely tremendous, if the basic information was not there, being able to simulate the correct advancement technique was already considered to be not bad.
As for the setback met during the advancement, due to the various differences in vitality between people adding on to the shortage of information, even the A.I. Chip was unable to predict them.
“After all, in the library that Abyssal Bone Forest Academy opened for its students, much information had been restricted. Some high levelled information was not even released to be read by the acolytes!”
“Also, even if the A.I. Chip’s calculation abilities are comparable to 10 supercomputers, the Magus World has, at least, tens of thousands of years of history. With all of the hundreds of thousands of acolytes experiments, the results and models will surpass the A.I. Chip’s calculation abilities!”
“The advancement, this time, was indeed rather lucky, and luck played an important factor in it!”
Leylin’s face turn solemn, “I cannot go on like this next time! This is only for advancing to a level 3 acolyte! In the future, when I advance into an official Magus, I won’t be so lucky if something like this happens again!”
The difficulty of the advancement from a level 3 acolyte to an official Magus far exceeded that of advancing from a regular human to a level 3 acolyte,
And if at that time there were some mistakes or oversights due to negligence, even if Leylin had a few lives, it wouldn’t be enough to save him.
“After returning, I must inquire greatly about all the details pertaining to advancement into an official Magus, and not try to break through blindly again!”
Leylin gave himself this mission for the future.
“What’s next is to wait until my body has adapted to the sudden increase in spiritual force, and muster the few rank 0 spells that only level 3 acolytes can learn, then go back to reexamine that lab!”
Leylin opened his eyes and sent Anna and the other two maids away. After setting up a circle of warning with a spell formation, he dragged his weary body onto the bed on the other side and entered into slumber.
……
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed like that.
Night and the splendor of moonlight shone upon the ground. It was another full moon night.
Nearby the withering woods, beside that same large black granite boulder, Leylin muttered an incantation and repeated the same procedure as before.
Seeing the same dark hole of the cave, Leylin smiled and walked in.
After the observation of his previous exploration, he had already roughly understood the rules that were governing the spell formation. Moreover, he recorded all the danger inside there and had a way to counter them.
Furthermore, he had already advanced to a level 3 acolyte and had more confidence to break the defensive mechanisms laid by the unknown Magus.
The black tunnel passage was very short, and the surface was extremely shiny, reflecting Leylin’s black robed figure. It was even projected at multiple angles on the wall behind Leylin.
The villa that Leylin had seen previously was at the back of the tunnel. The Devil Vines and Bone Eating Flowers still littered the floor. There were even grey slates on the floor, and within it resided the Gnawing Slate.
On the door of the villa, there was a circular hole. At the side of it was a corpse and a black diary which brought lustre lay beside the corpse. Seeing this book that had records of Alchemy, Leylin’s heart began to palpitate faster.
In Leylin’s eyes, the exterior of the villa was set up with a dangerous halo of light coming from magic spells, and it was unknown how many traps were concealed under the brilliant light.
* Hehe! Haha! *
Just as Leylin’s right foot stepped on the stone slate, a childish laughter sounded. The slates on the floor twisted open and revealed a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, snapping viciously at Leylin!
“The first defense! Gnawing Slate!” Leylin smiled and tossed a gob of black stuff into the huge mouth.
* Ka-Cha! * The huge mouth gobbled up the black mass.
* Pu! * The grey mouth chewed, and immediately spit the black residue out. A red tongue continuously flickered outwards, and spat a yellowish green spittle.
This scene looked very much like a regular human eating something disgusting and spitting it out.
“With Stinky Stench Flower, Faeces Carapace Mantis, and the Rotten Stemmed Grass as the components of this vomiting powder! It is indeed the bane of the Gnawing Slate!” Leylin looked at the grey slate vomiting again, which immediately grew two small legs as it ran away, and the sight made Leylin laugh.
“To the unknown Magus, this should be a temporary lab since the spell leaned towards concealment. As for its resistance, there should only be 3 layers! Moreover, using the Gnawing Slate, Devil Vines and Bone Eating Flowers combination, this is the trademark defensive measures of the Michael School of Thought!”
Leylin walked towards the front door, and immediately grabbed the black diary with his hands.
It was extremely heavy, and carrying it felt like carrying a brick. It was probably made with special materials.
Leylin kept the diary in his robes and walked towards the large door.
A layer of blackish green vine immediately wrapped around the door, and on it, many red petals bloomed. The petals assembled, and actually formed the face of a female.
“Intruder! This is somewhere that you shouldn’t have come!” The petals formed the opening and closing of the lips as the female talked.
“The Magus in there is already dead, I will inherit his fortune! As for you, I will keep your existence alive, and give you all the nourishment you require for evolving, how is it?”
Leylin took a red coloured fruit from his sack, “To you, the whole experiment lab cannot even be compared with this ingredient in my hand!”
“With it, you may even leave in the future, and regain your freedom, returning back to the woods where you came from….” Leylin spoke softly, with a tinge of beguilement.
“Freedom!” Hesitation and contemplations streaked across the woman’s face.
“I cannot betray the promise from before! Outsider, please leave!” The woman struggled, but she still rejected Leylin’s proposition. A green vine continuously writhed, as if it would strike anytime.
“Sigh….” Leylin returned the fruit to his sack and sighed, “I thought that I wouldn’t have to strike!”
“Stubborn intruder, only death will be your ending!”
The Bone Eating Flower howled, this time changing into the face of a male, and many black vines immediately came lashing forward.
* Bang! * The black shadow charged forward, and Leylin ducked with his body. The thick vines slapped the floor, and the stone pieces flew in the air, revealing a huge pit.
“Don’t be so impulsive, what if you damage the experiment lab?”
A layer of green light flew into the vine in the air, turning into a ball of light, and enveloped the flower and vine completely. The vine’s attack speed decreased.
Leylin’s brows furrowed and he took out a black powder from his sack, before sprinkling it all over the ground.
Moreover, as he scattered the powder, Leylin hurriedly chanted an incantation.
“Intruder! Die!” The human face formed by flower petals roared, and continuously changed, sometimes it was the voice of a male, and sometimes it had the face of a female.
* Bang! Bang! Bang! *
The blackish green vines were continuously brandished and hit many holes in the surrounding walls of the cave.
Leylin relied on the stats of a Knight to dodge, and his incantation never stopped.
Finally, after Leylin ran around the villa, the surrounding was already scattered with the black powder.
At this moment, the chanting stopped. Leylin pointed a finger at the human face, “Go to hell! Cloud of Afterlife!”
* Boom! *
The black powder continuously dissolved, turning into a gaseous body, and formed into an ominous black cloud that engulfed the entirety of the villa.
* Sssii! * From within travelled noises, which made Leylin recall the decomposition process of a man eating plant.
The black clouds grew denser, finally shielding what was happening within.
However, there were the occasional sounds of the Bone Eating Flower which continuously waned and finally disappeared, only leaving behind decomposing sounds, which would make people cringe.
5 minutes later, the black smoke dissipated, revealing the villa from before again.
By this moment, the surface of the villa had been severely corroded, and it looked as if it was going to collapse any moment.
The Devil Vines and Bone Eating Flower had long since disappeared, leaving behind only a few remains.
“What a despotic spell! Cloud of Afterlife, a rank 0 spell which only level 3 acolyte can muster. Each use costs 5 spiritual force and 5 magic power, but it is worth it!”
Leylin nodded his head approvingly.
With one use of Cloud of Afterlife, not only did the Devil Vines and Bone Eating Flower disappear, the villa had suffered from extreme corrosion, leaving behind only part of the defense, which could be said to no longer pose a threat to Leylin.
Moreover, the Cloud of Afterlife was a Shadow, Dark Element spell which was the least destructive. It was something Leylin specially chosen in order to destroy the spell formation on the villa, at the same time leaving behind the construction of the villa.
“Only that…. The villa seems to have been corroded, and cannot stay erect for much longer!”
Leylin walked forward and knocked on the wooden door. * Crash! * The wooden door immediately crumbled into many pieces and fell to the ground.