Instant Kill

Fran spoke those words as if by divine inspiration:

"Richter..."

Richter's expression changed instantly, his hand, which had been hanging naturally at his side, reaching for something at his waist.

He suddenly felt he had made a mistake; the person opposite him knew who he was...

She shouldn't have known his identity, as he had never once revealed himself in front of Fran.

Yet now, Fran knew he was Richter, and her tone was incredibly certain. It was highly probable that Fran had known the person luring her here was Richter before she even arrived.

Although he believed an apprentice could never defeat a High-Rank Apprentice, if this apprentice knew she was coming to face Richter—that notorious madman—would she really have come unprepared?

If he put himself in her shoes, knowing he was being targeted by someone who had maimed multiple apprentices and killed who knew how many others, he would certainly have done everything in his power to counter them.

If nothing else, he would have contacted several rivals who held a grudge against him—like someone from Velos Academy whose family member he had just killed—who would surely come to slay him upon hearing news of his whereabouts.

He was now terrified that two or three High-Rank Apprentices might suddenly emerge and surround him; if that happened, he would likely meet his end right here.

His defensive equipment was not as complete as it had been during the assessment; he only had a third of that gear left.

Many precious one-time-use items had been damaged while he was besieged during the assessment, and if someone were to surround him now, he doubted he could withstand even two rounds of attacks.

Damn it, who was targeting him? Was it Milank, who had kept his distance and never engaged with him during the assessment?

He should have known; why would someone see him and not try to surround him, but instead keep their distance? That wasn't something a normal person would do.

Now, he had to strike first and render the apprentice before him incapable of fighting.

He pinched a handful of bone powder from the material pouch at his waist and scattered it rapidly, the white dust vanishing into mid-air.

His other hand fired a pale ray, shooting straight toward the apprentice.

Skeletons began to crawl up from the ground, the "clatter" of their bones echoing through the air.

Yet, Fran felt a surge of power envelop her, and she sensed her attributes had significantly increased in that moment.

But in the heat of battle, Fran did not dwell on the origin of this power; she activated her Breathing Technique first, wind elements gathering in her hands.

With wind blades already condensed in her palms, she released them toward the skeletons, then immediately activated [Mental Power].

She had long since crafted her sword into an enchanted weapon with the [Swift] and [Sharp] runes, and she activated them at this moment as well.

Like a flash of lightning, Fran brushed past Richter's throat, then delivered a strike to the neck of the apprentice beside him.

Richter only felt his neck touch something, followed by a warm sensation flowing down to his collarbone.

His vision went black, and only in his final moments did he realize: I've been attacked, I'm going to die.

No, why didn't my defensive equipment activate? He carried gear that would immediately emit an impact wave if an object struck his body, so why hadn't it triggered?

Furthermore, he had made a second mistake: as a spellcaster, he had gotten too close to a melee combatant.

In his final moment of life, he looked around, finding no other figures; only Fran remained on this wasteland.

Fran did not rush forward, remaining on guard against a possible counterattack from Richter—what if he had some way to self-destruct?

"Ah..." Richter tried to speak, but with a fatal wound to his throat, he could only let out such unintelligible cries.

Why does this apprentice have such strength? Could she have truly defeated a school instructor?

Richter felt his worldview crumbling, falling into deep self-doubt.

However, he thought of something else, and a curve formed at the corner of his mouth.

Even if I die, the school will still send people to identify my killer, because I have a notebook on Transmutation School studies on me, as well as a reward obtained from my ranking in the assessment.

These things were very important; the former could lead to the leakage of school knowledge, and the latter was something every High-Rank Apprentice coveted.

He glared at Fran, eyes wide. Just wait. Once the school finds my corpse and kills you, the status of a High-Rank Apprentice from another school won't be enough to make them overlook the cost of potential knowledge leakage.

Fran waited on the spot for three minutes, watching as the ground beneath Richter darkened and his wide-open eyes lost their luster, no longer moving.

Enough. That's enough blood lost; he has to be dead by now. We're all just apprentices; there's no such thing as a tough guy who doesn't die after losing this much blood.

Fran slowly stepped forward, beginning to cautiously inspect the two corpses lying on the ground.

After a thorough check, confirming that Richter was truly dead, she finally let out a sigh of relief and began the essential post-battle ritual: looting the bodies.

After some rummaging, her hands were stained with blood, but looking at the spoils, she felt the effort had been well worth it.

Fran used a shovel to dig two pits and threw the bodies inside.

It had to be said, having a high constitution really made this kind of manual labor fast, and with the soil here being quite loose, she finished digging in no time.

After tossing both bodies in, she walked back, carefully carrying the night's harvest.

The next day, two apprentices from the Construct School arrived at the wasteland.

"Is this the place?"

"That's right. According to the description on the list, this is it. We just need to lay the foundation."

The two did not waste time and immediately began their work.

They inserted dozens of white spikes into the soil at specific intervals; these were tools specifically designed for compacting the ground.

Once all the spikes were secured, they would activate a spell, utilizing the device at the side to forcefully compress the earth downward.

Naturally, if there were anything in the soil, it would easily be crushed by the immense pressure and mixed into the dirt, becoming impossible to distinguish from its original form.

"Hm?"

An apprentice suddenly discovered something.

"It looks like there are traces of digging here."

He pointed to some patches on the ground where the color was relatively darker.

"Should we dig it up and take a look? Maybe there are some gold coins or something inside."

But another apprentice shook his head, stopping him from acting on the thought.

"Is this your first time handling a job that just requires compacting the ground?"

"Yeah, so what? Is there a problem?"

"The problem is huge! It's fine if you dig it up and find nothing, but what if there's a corpse inside?"

"...Report it to the Enforcement Squad..."

"Heh! Let me tell you, if the corpse inside involves some heaven-shaking secret, the higher-ups will use us as scapegoats when they can't find the killer."

"This..." The apprentice felt a chill run down his spine; he had heard of many seniors who had gone missing one after another due to excessive curiosity, and now he was acting just like them.

"Thanks for the reminder, let's finish this quickly and leave."