Forest of Undead Secret

A burst of fiery red flames shot out from the ruby atop the staff. In an instant, every inch of the path the flames swept over, every blade of grass, turned to ash, and every stone became red and cracked. The flames, at least seven thousand degrees Celsius, instantly carbonized the few small trees nearby, and the extreme heat made Punk feel unbearably hot even through the energy-based "Minor Mage Armor."

In less than a second, the flying flames reached the gathering of skeletons, and the exploding fire engulfed them all. The flames burned fiercely on the ground like a storm, and the blazing light illuminated the entire Forest of Undead. Every creature in the forest, including the skeleton soldiers far away, stared blankly in the direction of the swirling flames. They were trembling, they were terrified—this was the instinctive fear of living beings when facing something that brought destruction!

The wildly raging, scorching flames burned for a good tens of seconds before gradually extinguishing. The Undead skeletons, which had turned to ash the moment they were touched by the flames, left no trace of their existence. Their bony frames, their equipment, and the priestess's "corpse" all vanished into vapor within five seconds in the terrifying storm, leaving only the rocks melted by the intense heat, which had transformed into slowly flowing, viscous glass, reflecting a cool light under the gloomy sky.

"This power is definitely two or three times greater than a rocket," Punk endured the discomfort, taking a breath or two of the heated air. Many areas on the ground were still glowing red like a branding iron.

"This is power! The mighty power that represents destruction, this is knowledge! The magical knowledge of manipulating destruction," Punk murmured to himself, gently caressing the gem-studded staff head, which still retained its scorching heat.

After making the already spotless gem even more spotless, Punk turned around and left the "glass wasteland" which was devoid of anything but hot air. Now, he was going to explore the secrets of this discordant little forest; he was going to collect his well-deserved spoils!

The closer he got to the center of the forest, the more concentrated the necrotic aura became. In the areas closer to the center, there were even mists formed by the necrotic aura. Many black mists settled down, reaching ankle-deep on Punk, and even the "Lesser Deflection Field" could hardly isolate all the necrotic aura.

Punk found the mage robe skeletons wandering in the forest. Although their skeletal frames were mottled and cracked, Punk could still feel residual soul energy on them, proving that these two mages were definitely Journeyman Level powerhouses in life. But now, they had all turned into wandering withered bones. However, the mage robes worn by these two former Journeyman Mages were unexpected. They were too intact, with only the runes, which had lost their magical efficacy due to the necrotic aura's erosion, appearing dim and incomplete. Most of the soldier skeletons in the center were the same; some soldiers even looked like they hadn't even drawn their swords. The Undead in the center, whether their bones or equipment, showed no signs of battle.

Now Punk felt even stranger. Logically, the center should have offered fiercer resistance when invaded by enemies, and there should have been more signs of battle. But this army was the exact opposite; the outer perimeter looked like a fierce battle was raging, while the most destructive mages in the center hadn't even acted. In the end, both the outer soldiers and the inner mages lost their lives. The mages and soldiers who died without any signs of battle could only mean one thing: they had all died in a very short period, and they hadn't even had the chance to draw their swords and prepare for battle before they perished!

Punk bent down and picked up a small dry twig for the System to analyze.

"Analysis result: Short-term erosion by necrotic aura, completely neutralizing the twig's life energy within six seconds. Twig cells have died."

"As expected," Punk threw away the twig, letting it fall to the ground and shatter into a few pieces of wood debris. "The necrotic aura here doesn't come from some kind of erosion; it's entirely produced by a spell." Punk straightened his back, beginning to feel a sense of dread about the existence of this forest. A spell that could cause such widespread destruction, kill Journeyman level warriors and mages without any resistance in seconds, and remain "vigorous" even after half a month of dissipation—this was definitely the terrifying method of a Formal Level powerhouse. Furthermore, from his inherited memories, Punk knew that such a destructive and far-reaching spell could be called "powerful" even among Formal Level spells!

Recalling the skeletons of the dead soldiers he saw on the outskirts of the forest, about one-third of the skeletons seemed to have a strip of cloth on their shoulders. Due to the poor adhesion of the dye and the erosion by the necrotic aura, the pattern and color of the cloth strips were no longer visible. At that time, Punk had thought it was some custom of the Kingdom of Kamos, like people on Earth tying a cloth band around their heads when working diligently. Moreover, Punk was focused on dealing with the enemies and calculating the priestess at the time, so he hadn't paid attention to these small details. Now that he thought about it carefully, the most direct use of wearing such a marker would be to distinguish friend from foe. The dead soldiers of Kamos outside died by "each other's" swords because they were actually two opposing armies. As for why they were all wearing the uniforms of the Kingdom of Kamos, he really didn't know the reason!

Now Punk had a rough idea of what had happened in this small forest.

Two armies of the Kingdom of Kamos met in this small forest. Perhaps one side was a fake army, or perhaps both were genuine armies but had a split, or maybe both were impostors, and they just happened to clash here. Most likely, one side was pursuing the other. Regardless, they started fighting in the forest. When the battle reached its midpoint, a Formal Level spellcaster suddenly descended and, for some unknown purpose, used this large-scale Evocation spell to kill one or both groups of people. As for why the most destructive accompanying mages didn't act, it might be that they needed to tie down the enemy's mages, or they had reservations, or for some other reason. Regardless, by the time the Formal Level powerhouse arrived, they no longer had a chance to act.

"This whole mess is quite chaotic, even involving a Formal level powerhouse. How could a Formal level powerhouse descend in such an unremarkable little wasteland? And a rare spellcaster at that."

Regardless, whether these events were conspiracies or heroic deeds, they had little to do with Punk. He had already decided to say that he had killed two Undead from afar, stripped them of some equipment, located a spatial coordinate, and then ran back. As for any other information, he would claim complete ignorance. He figured the Mage Guild, which wouldn't likely take this matter too seriously, would choose to investigate themselves after obtaining the spatial coordinates, rather than pestering a mere apprentice like him.

After thinking about what to do upon his return, Punk, now much more relaxed, looked at the still aimlessly wandering mage robe skeletons and felt a slight joy in his heart: "It's finally time for the much-anticipated treasure chest opening!"