Wizard's Warning

"Was it a teleportation mechanism after all?"

Green's vision blurred, and he appeared in an unfamiliar place. This time, though, the teleportation distance seemed to be only a dozen kilometers or so, not too far, so he did not feel any discomfort.

"Mm?"

Green turned his head. He sensed that about two thousand meters away from him, there seemed to be another secret realm's magical fluctuation.

Green was delighted. He simply made no attempt to conceal his mark's fluctuations, which were like the sun in the sky, surging out like stormy waves. Then he directly summoned a wind-element bat and charged toward the secret realm.

At the same time, on the bat's back, Green held the magic staff he had just obtained and began studying it.

A moment later, Green showed a somewhat disappointed expression.

"It's only a magic staff with a simple thunder sorcery sealed inside it. The attack strength is probably around 35 to 45. Its traits are high speed, a certain penetrating paralysis effect, and bonus attack against other elemental sorceries."

He shook his head. This magic staff was of no use to Green at all. "At the academy, it would only be worth around 350 to 450 magic stones, I suppose. It's not even as good as killing one more wizard apprentice."

However, if other wizard apprentices possessed this kind of mass-produced magic staff, their strength could indeed see a fairly significant increase.

Moreover, the penetrating paralysis special effect of the thunder sorcery sealed within the staff could produce unexpected results, whether used to kill the weak or to escape from the hands of the strong.

Considering the others in his squad, Green continued flying toward the secret realm.

After a while, Green arrived at the secret realm he had sensed. Under Green's powerful-to-the-point-of-exaggeration mark fluctuations, the dozens of people in front of this secret realm had actually huddled together, staring nervously at Green.

He jumped down from the wind-element bat. His golden curls and the Spring of Joy earring on his chest floated up, and a pale mask printed with purple spiral patterns covered his face, revealing no expression at all.

With a bang, as Green's feet landed firmly on the ground, he already had a hint of the legendary "aura of the strong."

"It's you!"

A voice came from the crowd opposite him, carrying an expression of disbelief.

This man was fully one meter eighty-five tall. His long golden hair was slicked back, his face was covered in a coarse full beard, and his broad, solid chest was bare, with some faint black chest hair.

This man was Lafi's suitor, Amiida, and also one of the three great leaders among the people on the ground at this moment. Beside him were two unfamiliar members of the Blood Sail Alliance.

"Amiida."

Green responded faintly. He did not seem to care too much about Amiida's past rudeness, because Green could tell that although this fellow was very annoying, from the bottom of his heart, this fellow loved Lafi far more deeply than he did.

And the reason Lafi had chosen Green could only prove that Green was a lucky man, caught by Lafi in that instant of heart-pounding feeling back then.

Besides, Green was not stupid enough to provoke a team of dozens who were hostile toward him. That would be no different from foolishly seeking death.

Green walked straight up to the Labrador Nightmare Tree guarding this secret realm and said loudly, "Can you tell me the conditions for entering the secret realm?"

The people in the distance looked at Green as if he were insane. He was actually talking to a man-eating monster?

Some people even thought excitedly that it would be best if the Labrador Nightmare Tree directly killed this guy.

However, the next scene made everyone's jaws drop. The Nightmare Tree actually spoke!

"Wisdom and strength. Your strength has already reached the requirement, but you have already entered another secret realm once, so you cannot enter again."

The huge tree, which was somewhat smaller than the Labrador Nightmare Tree Green had encountered before, spoke.

"Oh, is that so..."

Green lowered his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "What if I force my way in again?"

The Labrador Nightmare Tree swayed its branches and said slowly, "You misunderstand. I am only responsible for screening qualified wizard apprentices. I will not stop you. If you are willing to go challenge it, do as you please."

As it spoke, this Labrador Nightmare Tree actually gathered in all of its branches and opened up a path for Green.

Green revealed a thoughtful expression. After hesitating slightly, he walked toward the secret-realm hut.

"Wait."

Suddenly, in the distance, Amiida clenched his teeth tightly, as if forcibly controlling his emotions. He stepped forward and shouted at Green, "I want to know why I lost to you! Why Lafi chose you!"

As he spoke, the muscles on Amiida's body actually began to bulge violently, as if they contained explosive power. At the same time, his mouth lengthened, revealing two fangs, and black fur began gushing out from his body. In an instant, he had practically transformed from a human into a savage beast.

"A gorilla great-ape-type bloodline sorcery?"

Green glanced at him indifferently, unmoved.

At this moment, the two Blood Sail Alliance companions beside Amiida cried out in alarm, "Amiida, are you insane? You can't possibly be his opponent. His mark value is too powerful!"

"Don't go! He'll kill you!"

Faced with the persuasion of his two companions, Amiida's eyes grew wet instead, and he shouted, "Stay out of it! For Lafi, I'm willing to give everything I have. Even if Lafi chose this man, I respect her. But I want to know why Lafi chose him!"

After he finished speaking, Amiida let out a violent roar. Like a primitive beast without any reason at all, his deafening roar could be heard even several kilometers away.

His two thick arms pounded against his own chest with rumbling booms, producing dull thud thud thud sounds. No one would doubt the terrifying power contained in those exaggeratedly thick arms.

With a boom, Amiida planted both arms on the ground, immediately cracking out two small pits. "Fight me, Green! I want to have a fair and open duel with you like a man!"

At this moment, everyone held their breath and looked at Green. Quite a few people had hidden anticipation in their eyes, hoping that this fool Amiida could test Green's depth.

Green stopped walking toward the secret realm and slowly turned his head. After a long while, he murmured, "Boring..."

Amiida, transformed into a giant ape, had his pupils shrink. He looked at Green in disbelief, unable to believe he could say such words.

"Wizards aren't knights, nor beasts. They are beings who use wisdom to fight. And you're actually talking to me about some duel? Boring..."

After a pause, Green said again, "As for Lafi, only she knows her choice. I was only luckier than you. Did you think Lafi chose me because of martial strength? No... I understand her. She has an extremely strong desire for control. If she ever discovers that I'm stronger than her, that will be the moment all feelings between us end."

Green had no intention of making a move.

Because he did not know whether Lafi would be unhappy if he truly killed Amiida.

Without realizing it, Lafi had already reached an extremely important place in Green's heart. Green did not want Lafi to be saddened because of something like this.

Amiida stood where he was for a long, long time, watching Green leave, and his eyes actually grew a little moist.

The deeper the love, the deeper the wound.

No one could understand why this somewhat reckless wizard apprentice loved that sharp-tongued queen—feared and loathed by many—so deeply. Was it only because of her bright, beautiful appearance?

If that were truly the case, it never would have wounded a man this deeply.

The two companions beside Amiida let out a breath of relief. They glanced at the gorilla, so devastated by pain, silently shook their heads, and sighed.

On the other side, Green did not take Amiida's matter too much to heart at all. He only slowly walked toward the secret realm ahead, sensing the faint magical fluctuations within that were aimed solely at him. His body actually began to tremble instinctively, as if that surge of magical power was warning Green.

"This kind of fluctuation is completely different from a magic apprentice's magical power fluctuations. It has actually begun to form some inexplicable connection with the natural energy around it, suppressing me. Is this the power of a wizard?"

As Green drew closer and closer to the secret realm, that wondrous fluctuation grew stronger and stronger, and the instinctive trembling of his body swelled greater and greater as well.

Green had a feeling that if he cast elemental sorcery within this fluctuation right now, the energy fluctuation that could originally be pried up to nine times its strength by the wizard's lever would at most be maintained at six times.

On the other hand, the fivefold elemental energy of that basic elemental magic array seemed to be affected very little by this fluctuation.

He slowly reached out a hand, wanting to pull open the door to the secret realm. However, when Green's trembling palm was less than three centimeters from the door, that wondrous fluctuation suddenly erupted in a violent burst, as if giving Green one final warning: if he truly touched the secret realm, he would suffer punishment from a wizard.

After pausing for more than ten seconds, Green slowly withdrew his arm. Once his body had firmly memorized this wondrous fluctuation, he strode away.

Green faintly guessed in his heart: could it be that the strange intimidating force in the mark on every wizard apprentice's forehead came from a simplified version of that power fluctuation of a wizard?

This power seemed to be the power of the soul, as well as the restraining power of nature and all things. This was absolutely not the kind of profound sorcery knowledge and power that a wizard apprentice could comprehend.

Only after Green had completely vanished did everyone in this secret realm let out a breath of relief, because the fluctuation of Green's mark was far too powerful. It had even made these wizard apprentices lose the courage to attack.

At this moment, some quick-witted wizard apprentices came before the Labrador Nightmare Tree and tried to strike up a conversation, but the only response they received was the Nightmare Tree's merciless attack.

It seemed that the Nightmare Tree had conditions for whom it spoke to. The greatest possibility was wizard apprentices whose mark value had reached thirty.