White Bone Order

Lorne Guerrero suddenly shouted at Locke, "Locke, behind you!"

Careful!

By then, the zombie horde had completely separated the Wizard Seedlings aboard the Wizard Ship. Most Wizard Seedlings spent all their time studying, so they had little actual combat experience.

Only Black Wizards trained Wizard Seedlings in real combat ability from the very beginning, rather than starting them off with ancient languages.

Just as Locke turned around, he saw a zombie with bluish-green skin and eyes filled only with whites lunging at him. It slammed into his chest, and the tremendous impact sent him flying from one side to the other, threatening to knock him off the Wizard Ship's deck and into the sea.

"Krass~" At the critical moment, Locke forcibly chanted a spell and activated Vine Hand. The five branches of the Mandrake Vine wrapped around his right hand slithered out from his coat sleeve like vine serpents.

Two branches pierced into the Wizard Ship's deck, anchoring his body in place.

The other three wound along his arm and wrapped around the zombie clutching him, pulling it slightly away from him. Then they coiled around its head. With a crack, the zombie's head was separated from its body.

Before Locke could even breathe a sigh of relief, he saw that the headless zombie had not lost its ability to move. Its right hand reached for his neck like an iron claw.

"I'm such an idiot." Locke came to his senses. "This thing is a corpse controlled by necromancy. What's the use of just taking off its head?"

Locke glanced at the Dark-Blue Orb Gold Ring on his right thumb, index finger, and middle finger. With three Dark Cyan Orbs, he had 30 more points of Mana than an ordinary Third-Class Wizard Apprentice.

This was a dangerous moment. Naturally, he could not afford to conserve Mana.

Locke chanted twice in rapid succession, using Vine Hand twice in an extremely short span of time. The Mandrake Vine, as the spell's vessel, effectively received the Mana of Vine Hand twice in that brief moment.

This temporarily enhanced the Mandrake Vine's mobility.

The Mandrake Vine's five branches transformed into a giant hand, grabbing the zombie before him, pulling it away from him, and forcing some distance between them.

Then, with another crack, the Mandrake Vine gripped the zombie's entire body and broke several of its bones.

Its limbs and spine twisted and fractured, leaving it unable to move.

Locke breathed a little easier, only to see zombies all over the deck. They were attacking the Wizard Seedlings.

They were not trying to kill them.

However, quite a few Wizard Seedlings had already been shoved into the sea by the zombies and abducted by the Black Wizards within the black mist overhead.

Now, even more blue-skinned zombies were lunging at him. There were at least five in sight.

Sweat ran down Locke's forehead. "These zombies were all dropped here by those Black Wizards. Maybe they were even deployed by Formal Wizards."

"There are too many of them. Their bodies are stiff, yet impervious to blades and weapons. Every one of them is incredibly strong. It takes a lot of effort for me to deal with even one."

A zombie attacking Locke was struck across the back by Lorne Guerrero's silver cross sword. It immediately let out a scream as its back rapidly began to melt.

Lorne Guerrero swung his two-handed cross sword like a spinning gale, slashing the zombie blocking his way across the back more than a dozen times in succession. Soon, the zombie collapsed, the runes on its surface gradually melting away.

Lorne Guerrero fought his way to Locke's side and said, "In this situation, it is hard for one person to protect himself. We should stick together."

Locke stood back-to-back with him, facing the attack of the remaining four zombies together. "You're right."

"Lorne, thanks."

Locke looked at the silver cross sword glowing in Lorne's hand. This must have been the Magic Item described in the books.

A masterpiece of the Alchemy School, it was one of the treasures that could most increase a Wizard Apprentice's combat strength before becoming a Formal Wizard.

Every Magic Item was the crystallization of alchemy.

Yet Corfu Island did not possess a single Magic Item.

The first time Locke had seen one was on Lorne Guerrero, a prince from Schleswig Island.

It seemed that although both were mortal worlds, there was still a vast gap between Corfu Island and Schleswig Island.

With the Magic Item in his hand and his Grand Knight physique, Lorne fought two zombies evenly. Meanwhile, relying on his Mana reserves that exceeded those of ordinary Wizard Apprentices, Locke controlled Vine Hand, turning the Mandrake Vine into a giant vine hand that repeatedly hammered the two zombies, preventing them from approaching him.

Locke glanced at the glowing silver sword in Lorne's hand. "Lorne, your sword is extremely effective against zombies."

Lorne slashed open a wound across one zombie's chest. The wound immediately began to rot, and beneath the silver light of the cross sword, the zombie rapidly disintegrated.

Lorne quickly said to Locke, "Yes, my sword is a Magic Item. It has an Enchantment School cantrip, [Lesser Undead Ward], specifically meant to counter Undead Creatures and negative-energy spells. That's why it works so well."

"Unfortunately, there are too many of them. They're strong and fast. Even with this sword, it's difficult for me to clear them all out."

Locke suddenly dropped to one knee and crouched on the deck, ignoring the two zombies charging at him, as well as another one that had just joined them. "Then we need to change our approach, and we'll find the best solution."

He chanted a spell and slammed his right fist into the ground. The Mandrake Vine's five branches immediately burrowed into the wooden deck, then suddenly burst out from the surrounding planks and bound the left legs of five nearby zombies.

The five zombies were immediately pinned in place by Vine Hand. No matter how they jumped, they could not break free from Locke's Mandrake Vine.

In battle, Locke was becoming increasingly proficient at using the Vine Hand cantrip.

Locke said to Lorne, "Now, Lorne, kill them."

After being stunned for a moment, Lorne burst into laughter. "Good, that makes things much easier. One slash each."

He raised his silver sword and drove it directly into the chest of a zombie restrained by Vine Hand. The zombie let out a beast-like roar.

Then, the runes on the zombie's body quickly dimmed one after another, and it lost the ability to move.

After killing the five zombies, Lorne smiled. "Locke, if we work together like this, two Wizard Apprentices like us won't need to fear these zombies."

"I think the Wizard mentors aboard the ship will come to rescue us soon."

When Lorne turned around, he saw Locke's face had become incomparably grave. He froze. "Locke, what's wrong?"

Locke pointed ahead of him. "Look around..."

By then, at least thirty zombies had surrounded Locke and Lorne.

This was an absolute difference in numbers!

That densely packed horde was enough to make most Third-Class Wizard Apprentices lose any thought of resisting.

Lorne swallowed. "This..."

A mass of black mist fell from the sky like a meteor and crashed onto the Wizard Ship's deck. A witch stepped out of it, wearing black cowhide high heels and a black robe draped with an entire fox pelt over the shoulders.

A five-pointed-star badge hung from the witch's chest. Within the pentagram was a white bone skull, and within each of the skull's eye sockets was another pentagram.

The badge was exceedingly eerie.

Witch Barbara smiled. "You two little ones, the White Bone Order has taken a liking to you. One of you has extensive combat experience, while the other grows quickly and makes decisive judgments. You are exactly the talents the White Bone Order needs."

"Therefore, I, Witch Barbara Vayne, hereby invite you to give up resisting and join the White Bone Order. If you follow those hypocrites, you will accomplish nothing. The Dark World is the final destination for all of you."