A Wizard’s Secret

Merlin’s gaze turned to where Wizard Glen and the others were. Although his gaze seemed calm, Wizard Glen and the others felt a deep chill in their bones and did not dare move a single muscle.

In particular, Wizard Ken, who had previously sneered at Merlin, felt apprehensive after seeing the look in Merlin’s eyes.

However, Merlin soon retracted his gaze and turned away. Wizard Glen and the others heaved a sigh of relief.

“Glen, what should we do now?”

Wizard Ken was out of his wits and even wanted to leave right away. After all, it was a terrifying situation that they were in, whether it was Wizard Sammir and the others, or Merlin. Not even Wizard Glen was a match for them. If they had not withdrawn before everything happened, they would have ended up like Hodgdon and Baslow.

Wizard Glen fixed his gaze on Merlin, Wizard Sammir, and the others, before speaking in a low voice, “We mustn’t get too close to them. All we can do is wait for them to enter the ancient monument first, and if we bump into them again, we’ll turn around immediately. Wizard Merlin should be around, and he wouldn’t create trouble for us.”

After he spoke, Wizard Glen glanced at Elena who was standing at one side. Although Merlin had only stared at them for a moment, Wizard Glen’s sharp perception told him that it was Elena whom Merlin was looking at.

As long as Elena was here, he believed that even if they bumped into Merlin and the others, they would be fine. This was the main reason Wizard Glen decided on entering the ancient monument.

Thereafter, Wizard Glen and the others stood quietly at a far distance, cautiously observing every movement made by Merlin, Wizard Sammir, and the others.

…

“Wizard Merlin, I believe that after today, your name will shine far brighter than any of us old fools.”

Wizard Sammir smiled as he spoke. Wiping out fifty, sixty roaming Wizards in such a short duration was an astonishing feat even to Wizard Sammir and the others. They did not expect that other than possessing Pandora Demon Ability, Merlin also had such impressive spells.

“Alright, those eyesores have been eliminated. There were people who had already entered the ancient monument, so let’s quickly go in as well.”

Wizard Bren eyed the entrance of the ancient monument, and could not wait to go in.

“Fine, let’s go!”

Merlin nodded. He cast a glance at old man Hodgdon and Baslow who had been smashed to smithereens on the ground and felt that it was quite a shame. Although the power of Glacial Finger was formidable, once it had been cast, even the rings worn by old man Hodgdon and the rest were frozen and shattered as well.

This old man Hodgdon was an expert in escaping and had numerous survival methods as well as a few casting tools. However, these had been destroyed completely and Merlin was unable to obtain them.

Although it was a pity, Merlin did not express too much regret. Along with Wizard Sammir, the group of four quickly plunged into the huge hole in front of the ancient monument and began making their way into this mysterious monument.

After a moment had passed, a group of Spell Casters appeared at a distance. They were Spell Casters who were dissatisfied and who still wanted to enter the ancient monument. Seeing that the nefarious Merlin, Wizard Sammir, and the others had gone into the ancient monument, they began to become restless once more.

“Come on, let’s go in as well!”

Wizard Glen spoke in a low tone. Thereafter, he led Wizard Ken and Elena forward, and all three of them quickly disappeared into the monument too.

…

It was pitch-black in the ancient monument, and slightly damp.

Merlin gently stroked a stone wall – it was moist. With only a little effort, he was able to claw out a huge chunk of broken stone.

At the moment, they were still not in the middle of the monument. This structure was a tower with nine floors, of which only four floors were exposed above ground. These four floors had long been explored countless times.

The other five floors were located underground. It was these floors that were the main objective of their expedition.

Soon after going through the deep, pitch-black passage, the faint outline of a tunnel entrance appeared below. Beyond the entrance, a jumble of footprints had been left behind, indicating that people had passed by before.

This tunnel entrance was the true entry point into the ancient monument. Only by going in could they reach the middle of the ancient tower.

“Thump.”

Wizard Bren allowed his Alchemy Creature to first clear the way. As the Alchemy Creature moved in front, it would be the first to detect and hold back any danger up ahead.

The Alchemy Creature broke the rotten wooden door under its foot as it led the way into the tower. Merlin and the rest followed behind.

Just as he entered the tower, Merlin smelled the thick odor of dust. The ancient tower had been buried underground but its interior was still well preserved, only that the long passage of years had accumulated dust everywhere, obscuring the decorative displays in the tower.

“Crack!”

Without warning, Merlin cast Frost abruptly, and a mass of ice crystals swiftly appeared on the tower wall. A spider, covered in bright-colored patterns, about the size of a toddler’s palm, was frozen.

“Be careful. There may be dangers lurking around the ancient monument.”

Wizard Sammir glanced at the frozen patterned spider and reminded them once again. This type of spider was deadly toxic. The physical attributes of a Spell Caster were only slightly better than a Normie’s. If these spiders bit them in a moment of their carelessness, they would be in grave danger.

Therefore, Merlin maintained fluctuations of Earth Element over his body – he was casting Earth Guard at every moment. Although this increased the consumption of Magic Power, he had accumulated many spells in the Earth Guard’s Spell Model to the point where he could keep this up for a few hours.

With the protection of Earth Guard, smaller instances of danger would not cause Merlin any harm whatsoever. As for Wizard Bren, Wizard Riesen, and even Wizard Sammir, they did not cast any Defensive spells. Instead, they were wearing robes, and with the protection of these robes, naturally, they did not need to deplete their Magic Power to cast Defensive spells.

Merlin admired the robes that they were wearing. With those robes, many troubles could be avoided. Fortunately, he only had to construct Dark Light Realm successfully to become a First-level Spell Caster. Then, he would return to the Dark Magic Region and automatically obtain a free robe from the organization.

With the Alchemy Creature leading the way, their group moved at a swift pace. Soon, they were heading into the depths of the ancient tower. However, just as they had walked past, the patterned spider, which had initially landed frozen on the ground, began to gradually shine with a green glow as its body enlarged quickly.

“Bang!”

The ice crystals were shattered in an instant. The patterned spider had currently grown to the size of a washbasin. Two black fangs protruded below its mouth, making it look sinister and terrifying.

Having escaped from the grip of the ice crystals, the patterned spider stared at the direction in which Merlin and the rest had walked. Thereafter, it swayed its head while it followed closely behind and quickly vanished into the darkness.

…

“Hold on, there’s a whiff of blood!”

All of a sudden, Merlin frowned and yelled in haste. He had persisted in practicing the posture on the relief sculpture, and his physical attributes were substantially improved. His senses were far sharper than the average person’s, so he was able to catch a faint whiff of blood.

Wizard Sammir and the rest stopped as well. Even though they did not smell any blood, for the sake of being cautious, they still quickly readied themselves.

“Darling, go and see what lies ahead.”

Wizard Bren instructed one of the Alchemy Creatures in a low voice, after which the Alchemy Creature with a well-developed physique bounded ahead quickly.

Wizard Bren had two Alchemy Creatures. This was an alchemy technique unique to him, just like Wizard Sammir’s Mithril Alchemy Technique. These were their respective secret techniques, which they would not easily divulge to others.

Wizard Bren, who had two Alchemy Creatures, was naturally scouting the path ahead. Even if there was some danger which caused one of his Alchemy Creatures to die, he would still have one Alchemy Creature to protect him.

As they were waiting for the Alchemy Creature to examine the situation up ahead, Merlin began walking on the spot.

The faint light from the fire illuminated the room in which Merlin was. Everywhere was covered in dust, and he could not discern the original features of the ancient tower. Merlin gently approached a wall and reached out a hand, and casually wiped away the dust on the wall.

Then, he noticed mysterious symbols on the surface where he had wiped the dust away.

Merlin’s heart stirred and he said to Wizard Bren, “Wizard Bren, could I trouble you to use a Wind-type spell to clear away the dust in this space?”

“Wizard Merlin, have you discovered something?”

As Wizard Bren asked, he cast a Wind-type spell as well. In a moment, powerful gusts of wind rushed by, blowing all the dust on the wall away.

As the walls were cleared by the wind, distorted and uneven symbols gradually appeared. This was not the Molta language, and Merlin could not understand what these symbols represented.

However, a small change seemed to have washed over Wizard Sammir as his eyes evidently lit up and he spoke in a soft voice, “These are mysterious calculations for potion preparation. I had entered a few ancient monuments before and found many of these mysterious symbols in them. These are formulas for potion-making used by ancient Spell Casters. Since these symbols have appeared here, it means that a room for potion-making may lie somewhere ahead. Perhaps the potion that I need will be there!”

Wizard Sammir seemed worked up. The Spell Casters here had their own agendas for entering the ancient monument, and Wizard Sammir’s purpose was to find a potion which would stabilize the Spell Model in his Awareness.

Once any clue that was related to potions showed up, he would become excited.

“These symbols…”

Merlin frowned. These symbols were in fact left by ancient Spell Casters while they prepared potions three thousand and six hundred years ago. Merlin had an intuition that these mysterious symbols represented the supplementary methods used by powerful Spell Casters in potion-making during the most glorious age of Spell Casters.

Modern Spell Casters had a very low success rate in potion-making and yet, it was mentioned in ancient books that three thousand and six hundred years ago, the fields of potions, alchemy, spells, and runes were all at their peak.

Perhaps they could obtain some knowledge from the mysterious symbols regarding potion-making.

As he thought of this, Merlin instantly recorded these symbols in the Matrix. He would slowly analyze them when he had time in the future.

“Whoosh.”

Just then, the Alchemy Creature that Wizard Bren had sent ahead to scout had returned. Furthermore, its hands were carrying a corpse, from which came the sharp stench of blood.