Magic Beasts Attack

Watching Adam walk toward him, the apprentice grew increasingly panicked, shouting fiercely to hide his fear, "What do you want? We're about to fight the Magic Beasts. Are you going to start infighting at a time like this? Or do you just want to accept our protection without contributing any strength of your own?"

Adam remained unmoved and continued toward the apprentice. William could not help saying, "Adam, at a time like this, we should unite as one. Believe me, even if you're a Great Knight, you're absolutely no match for a Magic Beast. Only unity, only magic, can save us." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand. Another magic ring activated, and a rapidly spinning Wind Blade took shape in the air.

No wonder William had been so confident. He had other magic items. Sure enough, when they saw William display his power, the apprentices who had been wavering also firmed their resolve to follow him.

William fired the Wind Blade at the sea. After a thunderous blast, towering waves spiraled into the air. Framed by the waves, William looked all the more heroic as he looked at Adam. "Join us. The alliance's strength can protect you until you master magic and make it ashore alive."

Yet Adam remained unmoved, continuing toward the apprentice. Ophelia could not help saying, "Adam, join us. Magic Beasts really are powerful."

"Move aside. You're blocking my way," Adam said to the apprentice.

The apprentice froze. He had not expected Adam to ignore him entirely and merely want to leave. Then he came back to his senses and stared at Adam as if he were insane. "Are you crazy? Didn't you hear what Mr. William said? Those are Magic Beasts! How could we possibly defeat them before we've mastered magic?"

The others had already written Adam off as an idiot, a dead man too stupid to know what was good for him. Only several apprentices from the Northland still refused to give up trying to persuade him. Krystal ran over anxiously, wanting to pull Adam back into the crowd.

Adam stopped and looked at them. Remembering how Sam Aiden had once lent him the ring for research, he decided to respond.

"An alliance of weaklings is meaningless. Black Mage said this sea is filled with countless Magic Beasts that could board the deck and tear you apart at any moment. With just one magic item, do you really think your safety can be guaranteed?"

Adam sharply exposed the alliance's weakness. William's expression changed. From the beginning, he had never intended to keep everyone safe. Several people with sufficiently high talent would master magic in a short time; they were the forces he wanted to win over. As for the other trash, who cared whether they lived or died?

"I have other magic items. I'll distribute them to everyone. As long as we endure the initial difficult period, once more apprentices master Fireball..."

Adam gave him a calm glance, then asked Sam Aiden, "How long is that ring's recharge time?"

Sam Aiden was no fool, and he had already caught on. "Fifteen days."

Adam turned and continued walking away, leaving behind one final sentence. "Rather than waste time on meaningless things, you'd be better off mastering magic as quickly as possible."

No one stopped Adam again. They had no choice but to admit he was right. Yet even so, they could not leave this alliance—an alliance of weaklings might not guarantee their survival, but they might not be the first to die. That was the thought now echoing through their minds.

"Mr. William, the eastern apprentices and I still agree to establish the organization," Quentin said as he walked over to William.

William stared venomously at Adam's retreating back. After Adam had exposed the truth, these apprentices would still join the organization, but their faith in William himself had almost vanished without a trace. Damn it! It should have been perfect. Damn it!

The clever ones had already begun looking out for themselves. At this point, it was no longer possible to trick people into dying for him, which undoubtedly greatly reduced his own safety.

Randy also led the western apprentices over to William and expressed their agreement.

Ophelia looked at Adam with a complicated expression before finally making her decision. "I... I've decided to withdraw."

William narrowed his eyes. "Miss Ophelia, do you know what you're saying? You should know that the organization absolutely will not share its protective strength with outsiders under these circumstances. Or do you think your strength as a Great Knight is enough to fight Magic Beasts?"

William absolutely did not want to lose Ophelia's support. At this stage, the protection of a Great Knight was crucial.

Once Ophelia had made up her mind, she no longer hesitated. "Thank you for your concern." Then she turned to the other Four People from the Northland and asked, "What about you?"

Krystal answered without hesitation, "I'm following Miss." Between the unfamiliar William and the familiar Ophelia, she made her choice without the slightest hesitation. Besides, she had discovered that runes were not as difficult as she had imagined. It seemed she would master them very soon?

Sam Aiden had a good relationship with the others, and they had always advanced and retreated together. Faced with Ophelia's question, he hesitated before saying in a low voice, "I'm sorry, Miss Ophelia, we..."

Ophelia understood and said nothing more. Together with Krystal, she walked over to Adam. She had not made this decision on impulse. Her intuition told her that, given Adam's talent, he might already have mastered magic. If she could gain Adam's protection, she would be much safer.

Ophelia had not attended the nobles' parties. Naturally aloof and somewhat disdainful of that group of nobles, she had spent the past two months either alone or practicing mage training with Krystal. But because of her talent, her progress had not been great.

She had no particularly good solution. If she directly asked Adam for help, she would certainly be rejected. It would be best if she had something Adam was interested in and could trade with him, but for now, she had nothing. After turning it over in her mind, all she could do was follow Adam.

After walking to one side, Adam stopped paying attention to what had just happened. He was considering magic. Although the Fireball Rune Array remained in his mind, it had not been inscribed; it was merely lingering there. In other words, this spell was single-use. After using it once, he would have to construct it again the next time.

This high-level energy called magic power could only remain on the Rune Array—no, more precisely, it only attached itself after the caster activated the Rune Array. During this process, the caster could observe magic power, but could not absorb it.

"If my judgment is correct, one of these three runes guides magic power, one raises temperature, and one triggers it."

Setting magic power aside, the Rune Array was like a technological Black Box. The caster could use it relatively conveniently, yet knew almost nothing about the principles or knowledge behind its application.

Adam tried tracing one of the runes separately, but nothing happened. There had to be some knowledge linking these three runes together.

As he pondered, Adam activated the spell. The Fireball looked no different from the one generated by Sam Aiden's magic item, and even its temperature was very similar. The difference was that Adam activated it himself at great speed, almost instantaneously.

A blazing fireball appeared out of thin air. Unlike the one from the magic ring, Adam could control this fireball to a certain degree. For example, guided by Adam's Mental Power, it now bobbed up and down a meter in front of him.

"So Adam has already mastered magic," Ophelia thought.

"Adam is amazing. I have to work hard too," Krystal thought.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" William Alfred thought.

"So quickly? Did we make the wrong choice?" Sam and the other two thought.

At a temperature of one thousand degrees Celsius, Adam's body, which had not yet undergone magic power's baptism, could not endure it for long. Just then, his spread-out Mental Power detected a high-energy reaction in the seawater to the southeast.

Adam controlled the fireball and shot it toward the coordinates. At the same time, he ran ninety-nine percent of his threads at full capacity, continuously constructing Fireball.

A water arrow shot out of the sea and collided with the fireball in midair. When water and fire clashed, enormous steam erupted. Magic power collided within it, producing a series of fine explosions. In the end, the fireball held a slight advantage, but it had no strength left to harm the large fish that burst from the sea.

"So this is a Magic Beast?" Adam instantly retreated toward the center of the deck. If the Magic Beasts were attacking from the sea, his previous position had been too dangerous.

"Magic Beasts! The Magic Beasts are here!" William's side erupted into chaos. After seeing such monsters with their own eyes, their confidence in the organization and the so-called strength of unity plunged to rock bottom. Even William, the organizer, could not help shrinking toward the center of the crowd. Hearing about them from his father was one thing; seeing them in person was another. Now he seriously doubted how long several magic items and a group of trash could hold out.

Especially when one pitch-black figure after another surfaced from the sea.

At that moment, everyone understood what Black Mage had meant by countless. Around the Mordo Academy, innumerable Magic Beasts surfaced in dense clusters. Most resembled aquatic creatures, but each was far larger than its original form. The cold, indifferent eyes of those cold-blooded creatures were more chilling than any savage killing intent.

The only thing that offered everyone some comfort was that the Mordo Academy had not slowed down. It continued toward the Mage Continent at the same speed, and any Magic Beast daring to block the ship's path was mercilessly crushed into Fragments by some mysterious force.

Ophelia and Krystal moved closer to Adam. Adam ignored them. Where they chose to stand was their freedom; whether he helped them was his right.

William was a capable man. After his initial panic, he forced himself to calm down and began loudly issuing orders. He distributed his spare magic items to several talented people. He had to invest his resources in promising stocks; only then could he receive returns as quickly as possible.

The large fish that had fired the water arrow opened its mouth and let out a silent roar. Half the bodies of all the Magic Beasts surged out of the sea. They had prepared to attack.

"Magic Beasts are not mindless creatures. They possess a certain degree of intelligence, communicate through ultrasound, and obey commands."

"That isn't good news."