Outside Swamp Forest City, at the foot of a mountain.
After a great deal of effort killing and tracking frenzied magicalized wild beasts, the Hunting Team of five had finally pinpointed their target to the location right in front of them, pushing aside thick grass to reveal a concealed passage nearly half a person tall.
This passage must have been dug by some kind of magicalized wild beast, and a faint smell of blood and decay lingered.
Inside the passage, the group could faintly sense the presence of high-energy particles, and given their experience, it was not difficult to deduce that there was either a relic or an abandoned laboratory below.
“Boss Wolban, shall we go down tomorrow?”
Even as 3rd Class apprentices, nighttime somewhat impaired their vision, which was different from the daytime.
Wolban said, “The passage leads underground, there’s no difference between day and night, let’s go down.”
Sure enough, led by Wolban, the group entered the passage one after another and kept moving forward.
Soon, a staircase built of stone appeared underfoot, slantingly descending into the unknown depths.
With a casual flick of his hand, Wolban lit the wall lamps hanging on the mountain’s side. This action triggered a mechanism that caused the lamps on both sides to light up one after another, following the staircase downward.
“Haha, we’re in luck.”
“In tracking, our Hunting Team is the professional one, the Enchantment Group has been wandering aimlessly until now.”
The path they had just traversed entered from the left side of the mountain; it was a beast trail, but the steps underfoot were definitely made by an intelligent creature, most likely humans, which suggested there could be an abandoned laboratory below.
Under the eerie green glow of the lamps, numerous messy paw prints were visible on the steps.
The men continued forward unperturbed, stepping on the stairs.
“Squeak, squeak.”
“That’s one fat rat.”
Not far ahead, a corpulent rat squeezed through and landed on the steps ahead, its body half a meter long with notably red eyes. Cooke quickly took action, sending out a fireball the size of a thumb.
Rats are naturally timid creatures; bewildered at the sight of the group, it was about to flee but was struck by the tiny fireball.
Although Cooke’s fireball was small, its power was not comparable to ordinary fireballs, instantly burning a charred hole straight through the corpulent rat, killing it on the spot.
“Cooke, have you optimized your Secondary Fireball Technique again?”
“Just a slight tweak, nothing worth mentioning.”
“I really don’t understand how you think; others aim for bigger fireballs, but yours are getting smaller.”
“That’s what you don’t get; smaller spells consume less mana, making them more durable and long-lasting.”
At the 3rd Class apprentice stage, apprentices would spend a lot of energy optimizing magic. The same basic magic could be developed into a variety of effects based on different concepts.
The group approached and found a small hole on one side of the stairs, where the rat had emerged.
After this minor incident, Wolban and his team continued downward.
Meanwhile.
From inside the rat hole, a scrawny rat was rapidly climbing out. It followed the winding tunnel upwards until it emerged from the mountainside and reached the surface. The rat moved through the dense grass and appeared before a female apprentice.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak—-“
“Ah, after such a long search, they finally found the right place, hahaha.”
“Send the order, cut off their retreat first, then we’ll have a good time playing with them.”
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After hearing the report from the thin rat, the apprentice Melinda’s face showed happiness. They had gone to great lengths to set up this trap, and it wasn’t easy to escape once inside.
It seemed the thin rat understood and returned the way it had come.
Before long, the thin rat led many of its kind to another passage, precisely the one where Wolban and his team had gone underground. The magicalized rats began a frenzied excavation along the path, severing the reserved node points.
“Boom.”
A massive sound of collapse echoed in the distance, reaching the ears of the apprentices through the steps on the other side.
“What was that sound?” Cooke’s face changed slightly upon hearing the noise from behind.
“The passage we came through must have collapsed.” Wolban’s expression darkened—clearly, someone was plotting against them from behind, involved in the events of Swamp Forest City.
Beyond the sound of collapsing, a rustling enveloped the area, signaling that they were being surrounded by something.
Two paths lay before them: one was to turn back, which they had traveled for a significant time and was not a short distance; the other was to move deeper, as the abandoned laboratory was not much farther.
The creatures making the rustling noise revealed themselves as magicalized rats and magicalized snakes, continuously falling down the stairs, surrounding them from both front and back, their numbers increasing.
“Damn it, we’ve fallen into the enemy’s trap.”
At this realization, everyone’s expression turned grim, but they did not panic.
In this predicament of advancing or retreating, everyone looked towards Wolban, hoping he would have a plan.
“Keep going down.”
Considering the situations on both sides, it was clear that emerging above ground easily was not an option, so Wolban chose to delve deeper into the laboratory.
‘Lightning Cloud Jump’
‘Continuous Fireballs’
With enemies both in front and behind, Wolban and Cooke took on the rear and the front, respectively.
In a moment, thick dark clouds appeared on the staircase behind them, with lightning roaming among them. The lightning transformed into a scythe that reaped the lives of wild beasts, striking lethally upon contact, and screams echoed through the air.
In front, there were evenly spaced small fireballs, acting like a staircase sweeper, whether it was magicalized rats or magicalized snakes, none could withstand the sharpness of the small fireballs, which strung them together and killed them in sequences.
In this manner, the apprentices worked in groups, clearing a bloody path to the front of the laboratory.
A dense defensive array membrane blocked their path.
The five of them struck together, causing significant ripples on the defensive membrane, but it quickly returned to calm.
Sorcerers’ laboratories are typically protected by runes sorcery arrays, varying in strength, and the one before them was undoubtedly a tough one.
Cooke asked anxiously, “What do we do? With our current strength, it’s difficult to break through this protective sorcery array quickly.”
All this while, the group had spent a considerable amount of mental power and mana, with magicalized wild beasts still relentlessly pursuing them. They had slain many, but the numbers of magicalized rats and snakes did not seem to decrease.
The smell of blood filled the passage, inciting the magicalized wild beasts to become even more bloodthirsty, launching relentless attacks on the apprentices.
Under the apprentices’ organized resistance, the magicalized wild beasts couldn’t get near them for the moment.
However, once their mental power and mana were exhausted, maintaining the current situation would be nothing but wishful thinking.
“I have a way.”
Wolban pulled out a small triangular drill, its faces covered with various runes, a special magicalized item.
“Array-breaking drill, you have such a treasure.”
Seeing the object in his hand, Cooke’s eyes lit up.
No wonder he was so thrilled; the array-breaking drill was a famously rare magicalized item used specifically to break through defensive sorcery arrays, hard to come by, and it was unexpected that Wolban had one.
Wolban immediately pressed the array-breaking drill against the defensive membrane. The defensive membrane once again rippled like waves, and intricate rune lines emerged.
The rune lines on the array-breaking drill were activated, spreading from the triangular body onto the defensive membrane, where the lines contacted each other, creating slight collisions and increasing the ripples on the membrane.
Behind them, the magicalized wild beasts exhibited their fierce and fearless nature, forcing the group to increase their offensive power, shifting from defense to offense, to ensure their safety.