Rampant Tree
Skylar returned to shore and dried his body and clothes with magical flames.
He wasn't wearing a watch, so he could only calculate in his mind that he had spent nearly an hour at the bottom of the lake. Including the time spent collecting the Sopophorous Plant, the competition had probably been going on for about an hour and a half.
Eel eyeballs, Frog Brain, and lionfish spines are all easy to collect; the only troublesome item is the mucus secreted by water snails.
Water snails are creatures that prefer to hide underground in lakes and rarely come out, making them one of the hardest ingredients to collect on the list. Fortunately, Skylar found a group of colorful Plimpy — Plimpy are patterned spherical fish with two long legs and webbed feet, whose favorite food is water snails.
Skylar patiently followed them and actually found a small group of water snails, which he caught and put into his satchel.
"Let me see," Skylar said, pulling out a list written on waterproof parchment. He crossed out what he had already found and focused his attention on what could be collected in the cave. "Next up should be bat spleens and wings. I remember snipping at the cave's location from a distance; it should be up the slope... Don't forget to check for these along the way— Armadillo Bile, belladonna, African Tree Snake..."
The journey was peaceful, but Skylar remained vigilant. He was certain that no creature could ambush him within the range of his Divine Insight of Amaterasu. Suddenly, he stopped; he smelled a strange odor—
"This is... the aura of Dark Arts..." Skylar frowned deeply. Although the aura was extremely faint, and normal wizards could not sense it at all, nor could ordinary Dark Arts detection methods, Skylar's tireless study of Dark Arts over the past month had given him an extraordinary sensitivity to the aura of Dark Arts.
He carefully looked around, but finding nothing amiss, he ignored it and quickened his pace to gather all the raw materials as quickly as possible.
Alison, Mara, and Raffaella reunited.
Perched on the branch of an ancient tree, Mara waved his hands, a faint magical fluctuation emanating from his palms. His magic silently spread out, transforming into an invisible current that drove the scattered Fairy toward Alison.
This is Wandless Magic technique, and the way he performs it demonstrates remarkable skill and exquisite control over magical power. This is not surprising, as while such magical techniques are generally difficult to execute in Europe and America, and can easily lead to unexpected consequences if not performed accurately, many wizards in Africa are proficient in this skill.
This is because the wand was invented in Europe, and Africa sorcerers only began to use it as a useful tool in the last century. Therefore, in Uagadou, many spells are cast using fingers or hand gestures.
"They're here!" Mara chuckled, and with a flick of her wrist, the Fairy seemed to be swept up by the wind, rushing towards Alison.
Alison took a small step back, raised her wand, and a shrewd glint flashed in her clear blue eyes. She murmured, and an invisible magical wave spread out, as if the air in front of her was being torn apart. A huge, transparent cage materialized out of thin air, trapping all the Fairy firmly inside.
The creatures that were once fluttering and playing were now flapping their wings and chirping in protest within the cage, but they could not escape no matter what they did.
Mara watched this scene, raised his chin with satisfaction, crossed his arms, and said with a hint of smugness, "Now it's all right. I've cleared out all the Fairy nearby. No other contestant will see even a single one."
Alison smiled slightly, a hint of smugness in her eyes, while Raffaella curled the corners of her lips and nodded gently.
Fairy Wings are also an extremely important material on this collection list. They are even marked with a red line on the list, and there is a mandatory requirement for the quantity - at least ten pairs of wings are needed.
"So, next up should be... the feathers of the Jobberknoll —there are Jobberknoll living here?" Mara said.
However, the next second--
"Quiet down, everyone!"
Raffaella's expression suddenly turned serious.
Her relaxed expression vanished, and her nostrils twitched slightly, as if she were using her keen sense of smell to detect anything unusual in the air. She frowned, raised her hand, and pressed down on Alison's arm, signaling her to be quiet for a moment.
A faint, rotten, and eerie smell filled the air.
Raffaella took a deep breath, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Something's wrong... the scent of this forest has changed."
Alison and Mara exchanged a glance, a hint of doubt in their eyes.
Raffaella slowly surveyed her surroundings, her dark pupils slightly contracting, like a predator locating its prey. Her voice grew low and serious. "This forest has been cursed."
"Spellcasting?" Mara raised an eyebrow. "What kind of magic?"
Raffaella lightly traced a line in the air with her fingertip, sensing the almost imperceptible fluctuations of magical energy. After a moment, she murmured, "Most likely some kind of Dark Arts that can control the forest."
Her tone carried a certain certainty. At the same time, a strange, cold wind swept through the depths of the forest, causing the leaves to rustle slightly, as if something was quietly awakening...
"What kind of magic makes you so serious?" Mara leaped down from the tree, and as he approached the ground, he lightly patted his palm downwards, creating an invisible current that supported his figure, allowing him to land slowly. At this moment, he still had a cheerful expression on his face, as if he didn't take Raffaella's words to heart.
"Do you know... uh... about what happened in the Enchanted Forest on the Siberian Plain around the time of the Quidditch World Cup in 1809?" Raffaella said seriously.
"1809? The Siberian Plain?" Alison frowned her lovely brows, a thoughtful expression on her face. After a moment, "Ah! I remember now—"
Mara also looked up at the same time, and the two said in unison, "The Killer Forest Attack Incident!"
The Quidditch World Cup of 1809 is a significant and dark chapter in Quidditch history, considered by many History of Magic to be the most serious violation of sportsmanship in wizarding history.
The Quidditch World Cup at the time was hosted by Russia and took place in a magically hidden wilderness plain in western Siberia. The event took place during the final of that Quidditch World Cup, with Romania and New Spain facing off.
Before the match, Romania Beater Niko Nenad secretly contacted black magicians operating in Russia and paid them to cast a curse on the entire forest next to the plain. Two hours into the match, when the Romania team showed signs of defeat, Nenad deliberately hit Bludger into the forest. As a result, the trees came to life, roaring and powerfully uprooting themselves from the ground, transforming into a walking army of giant trees that trampled the Quidditch stadium.
The Quidditch Match quickly devolved into a bloody battle between the human wizards and the army of the giant trees. The battle lasted for seven hours before humanity finally achieved a hard-fought victory, with countless wizards killed or wounded, including even the instigator, Nenad.
Later, people began to study what kind of power could transform an entire forest of trees into a fearless, iron-blooded army. The final result was that it was an ultimate dark magic secretly passed down among Russia black wizards, which they named—
"The Rampant Tree."