Leyline Creature Appears

Gao De broke out in a cold sweat after Mage Seda's threat. He washed up first, then returned to his workshop.

"Good thing that old bastard only made his move today." Once he had calmed down, Gao De secretly counted himself lucky, even feeling that his luck was not so bad after all.

At least he had already spent all his savings and learned a new spell.

And fortunately, he had made good use of his time and prepared many things over the past dozen or so days.

Mage Seda's decision to confine him had also completely killed Gao De's desire to run.

Since that was the case, only one road remained.

"Fuck him!"

Gao De said viciously.

He refused to believe that he, an "elite student from another world," would lose to a native old man with one foot already in the grave.

While bolstering his own courage, Gao De took out the Veilmist Fang he had bought today for four Sien Gold Coins.

Among Gao De's limited spell knowledge, there was nothing concerning Veilmist, so naturally, he did not know its exact effects.

But Veilmist was a First Circle Spell.

That alone was enough to fill Gao De with limitless anticipation.

"Doesn't sound like an offensive spell, but you never know," Gao De guessed.

No matter what, once he repaired the Veilmist Fang, he would know exactly what kind of spell Veilmist was.

Gao De gripped the Veilmist Fang, focused completely, and cast Repair+.

His mana began to overflow, and a faint glow streamed from his fingertips.

The heavily worn runes on the surface of the Veilmist Fang began to flicker with weak light. They extended and healed, as though an invisible pen were tracing them into shape.

After the process lasted around five minutes, another fine sheen of sweat appeared on Gao De's forehead.

With a gasp, the glow at Gao De's fingertips faded.

Yet the Veilmist Fang in his hand had not been fully repaired.

Only a small portion of its worn runes had healed. Most of them remained incomplete, waiting for more mana to be poured into them.

It was not that Gao De did not want to continue. The mana in his body had already been completely drained.

"With my current mana, repairing a First Circle Mystic Item really can't be done in a day or two." Gao De had expected this.

Repairing the Guidance Ring alone had taken tremendous effort. As a First Circle Mystic Item, the Veilmist Fang was naturally even harder to repair.

Compared to that, he was more worried that Repair+ would not work at all.

After all, this was merely a cantrip, while the Veilmist Fang was a First Circle Mystic Item.

It was Cross-Rank.

"Repair, strengthened by Wind Spirit Moon Shadow, may be powerful, but it must have its limits. There's no way a cantrip can repair high-level magical alchemical creations.

"But fortunately, at least First Circle magical alchemical creations aren't Repair's limit yet." Gao De secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"About ten days," he estimated the progress and arrived at an answer. "There's no use rushing. Still, ten days should be enough."

He stopped dwelling on it, carefully put away the Veilmist Fang, sat cross-legged, and began his cultivation for the day!

After finishing his daily cultivation, Gao De returned to the bedroom and had only just lain down to rest.

Before he could fall asleep, he heard a strange sound.

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

It sounded like a rat's cry, but far too shrill.

Against the excessively quiet surroundings of the herb garden, it was particularly jarring.

Gao De immediately rose in alarm.

Along with the strange sound came a faint stench of rot and fishiness drifting through the air.

"What is that?" Gao De's heart tightened.

The next moment, an incomparably shrill, agonized howl came from an apprentice's room not far away.

"Ah!!!"

It was immediately followed by another scream, one filled with terror and fear.

The piercing cries instantly woke everyone in the herb garden, including the sleeping Emil.

He woke in a fluster, lit the oil lamp in the room at once, then instinctively looked toward Gao De. "What's going on?"

"Something seems to have happened." Gao De's voice turned grave as he swiftly cast Mage Hand.

A spectral hand appeared and silently extinguished the oil lamp Emil had just lit.

After doing that, Gao De got up and went to the door, carefully opening it a crack.

Through the gap, he looked toward the source of the sounds by the dim candlelight in the corridor.

It was the room of the other two apprentices.

The door was still shut tight, so there was no way to know exactly what had happened inside to make someone cry out in such agony.

Just then, the continuous wailing from the room suddenly stopped.

The herb garden fell silent again in an instant.

But only for an instant.

Boom!

With a violent roar, the tightly closed door burst apart into chunks of wood and splinters.

Then, a savage shadow crawled out through the ruined doorway.

By the corridor's faint candlelight, Gao De could roughly make out its outline.

It was like a wolf, yet like a rat.

Like a rat because its appearance was strikingly ratlike, especially its distinctive head.

A pair of brown eyes glinted with savage light, and its ears were enormous.

Sharp, curved fangs protruded from its broad mouth. Its fur was the dark green of a shadowy swamp, gleaming with a cold, tough sheen.

Clearly defined muscle lines lay beneath that fur, displaying formidable strength and agility.

It resembled a wolf because it was far larger than an ordinary rat—two meters long and nearly a meter at the shoulder, more like a wild wolf.

"A Leyline Creature!" Gao De was horrified.

This was not his first time seeing a Leyline Creature.

But the ones he had seen before were Ash-Eyed Rats and Dark Mire Lurkers, "the shame of Leyline Creatures" that merely possessed Leyline Creature bloodlines but had no fighting power whatsoever. This was truly his first time seeing a Leyline Creature with such overwhelming pressure.

The giant rat's brown eyes swept around. Suddenly, its gaze focused, finding a new target.

The door next to it had opened, and two apprentices were peering outside.

Gao De and Emil were not the only ones awakened by the wailing. Every apprentice nearby had been roused.

It was just that not everyone was as cautious as Gao De.

"Squeak!"

Without hesitation, the giant rat lunged straight at the two apprentices peeking out the door.

Gao De witnessed the scene with his own eyes, and his heart lurched even harder.

The giant rat moved so quickly, while the two apprentices seemed scared stiff. Watching it pounce, they simply stood there blankly, frozen in place.

One could only imagine that even if they survived this blow, they would be crippled.

"Beast!"

Just as Gao De began mourning for the two apprentices, a hoarse yet vicious voice rang out from the end of the corridor.

The air abruptly filled with scorching energy fluctuations.

An arrow made of pure flame streaked through the air in a brilliant trail, as if setting the air alight, shooting directly at the giant rat pouncing on the apprentices.

The giant rat sensed danger and immediately made the correct choice. It abandoned the "prey" within reach and chose to dodge instead.

However, having failed to notice the Flame Arrow at the first instant, the giant rat could no longer escape the judgment of fire.

The Flame Arrow struck its waist with unerring accuracy. Blazing flames instantly spread and wrapped around the giant rat's body.

"Squeak!"

The giant rat let out a pained shriek, but its fur was extraordinarily tough. It did not allow the flames to spread further, temporarily stabilizing its injury.

The scorching heat constantly pouring from its body made its suffering unceasing, stirring the giant rat's ferocity.

It shrieked again and lunged savagely toward the direction from which the Flame Arrow had come.

A figure of modest height emerged there.

Mage Seda!

In the herb garden, only Mage Seda could cast such a powerful spell!