Perhaps during the rest of my apprenticeship, I could try making a witchcraft tool of my own. My current grasp of witchcraft runes is still lacking, but I can record the basic concept here for further deduction and analysis. In any case, I will definitely create a witchcraft tool that belongs to me...
Perhaps a flash of inspiration truly was powerful. Taylor suddenly came up with an entirely new idea: to create a witchcraft tool made specifically for himself, one that would suit the witchcraft he had learned and provide some enhancement to his spiritual power.
After recording every fleeting spark of inspiration in his mind in full detail, Taylor tucked the precious notebook close to his body and stored the other notebooks one by one in a large canvas bag hanging from his waist.
For the moment, there were already four or five notebooks in the canvas bag. There would surely be more in the future, perhaps enough to fill a small bookshelf. Taylor felt that it was time to acquire spatial storage equipment, but his points seemed insufficient at the moment. Besides, he still had something he needed to do immediately.
He needed to collect a large number of spider eyes from different species.
After collecting enough spider eyes from different species and combining them with magic crystal solution, he would use a crucible for preparation and a coagulant for solidification, maintaining them in a state suitable for witchcraft rune enchantment. Only then could he enchant them with witchcraft runes and create a Spider's Eye Witchcraft Tool.
Taylor had already prepared all the magic crystals, binding agents, coagulants, experimental crucibles, and other equipment needed to make a Spider's Eye Witchcraft Tool. All he lacked were spider eyes of various kinds.
After putting away his notebook on the Spider's Eye Witchcraft Tool and placing it in his canvas bag, Taylor began stuffing in all the poisons, narcotics, hallucinogens, small explosive potions, and other concoctions he had prepared. He crammed them in until the bag could hold no more. After adjusting everything overnight and replenishing his magic power and spiritual power, he set off.
After spending 100 points at the Miscellaneous Affairs Office to exchange for an entry badge for the Spider Cave, Taylor left the office and the core region of the White Tower Alliance alone, arriving at a small monster range around the alliance where monsters of all sizes roamed.
As long as one stayed on the roads designated by the White Tower Alliance, the monsters wandering around them would not dare cross the boundary.
This area was also a place where the White Tower Alliance's wizards raised various monsters specifically to temper apprentices. Apprentices often patrolled here, checking whether the witchcraft runes enchanted onto the roads had failed.
The most famous monster gathering places were the Spider Cave, Little Volcano, Black Mine Cave, Monster Forest, Stinking Mire, and several others.
Different locations gathered magical beasts and monsters with different habits.
The sheer number of magical beasts and special monsters here was daunting. There were Broom Witches, Many-Eyed Spiders, Thorn-Spike Spiders, Earthmine Spiders, Flame Spiders, Fire Lizards, Saltwater Giant Crocodiles, Swamp Crocodiles, Stonearmored Bears, Flame Lions, Half-Body Knights, and more...
Most of them were magical beasts or monsters at the apprentice level. The more powerful, ranked magical beasts capable of contending with wizards dwelled in the deepest parts of these gathering places, waiting for a wizard's summons.
The places inhabited by those ranked magical beasts were also beyond the reach of apprentices.
"Let me see... where exactly is the Spider Cave?"
Taylor lowered his head to study the map in his hand, then looked up at the signpost at a fork in the road. He discovered that the direction of the Spider Cave recorded on the map was completely different from the direction indicated by the signpost. They even pointed in opposite directions.
The map showed that he had to turn right at this fork, then turn left again, pass three bends and seven intersections, and only then would he reach the Spider Cave.
But the sign in front of him told him to turn left.
So which one was he supposed to trust?
As Taylor stared at the signpost before him, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. Its color seemed somewhat yellowed, and the lettering was crooked and uneven. It did not look like a sign set up by the perfection-seeking White Wizards, because wizards and wizard apprentices had strict requirements even for the lettering on signs.
It was completely different from the signposts he had seen earlier.
Every signpost was enchanted with witchcraft runes, so magical beasts could neither destroy nor climb them. Coupled with the wizards' and wizard apprentices' demands for neatness and appearance, there was no way a signpost could have turned such a faded yellow.
Then there was only one possibility: some reckless magical beast had disguised itself as a signpost to mislead travelers.
Thinking of how the signpost had appeared, the discrepancies with the map, and the issue with the lettering, Taylor extended a finger. A condensed Fireball the size of a fingernail appeared at his fingertip. With a flick of his finger, the Small Fireball shot toward the fake signpost like a bullet.
This was Taylor's clever application of his first witchcraft spell, Lesser Fireball. It not only compressed the flame's volume and increased its internal energy and temperature, but also made it more concealed and faster. It involved a method of manipulating and compressing spiritual power.
Sensing the astonishing heat and elemental magic power contained within the fingernail-sized Fireball, the disguised signpost immediately reverted to its true form, cried out, and fled.
Shapeshifter.
It was a transparent, jelly-like creature that often transformed into various forms to deceive ordinary people or wizard apprentices who lacked sufficient knowledge.
Once successful, a Shapeshifter would cling to its target's head and consume their spiritual power. Ordinary people whose spiritual power was drained would become idiots on the spot. If the victim was a wizard apprentice, the loss of spiritual power could leave them listless, and in severe cases, damage their very foundation.
For that reason, Shapeshifters were extremely rare. Once discovered, they would be exterminated. They were hunted not only because they corroded and undermined the foundations of the wizard system, but also because their bodies could be used to make masks that altered one's appearance—highly practical witchcraft tools.
It was worth mentioning that although Shapeshifters lived by feeding on spiritual power, they were not particularly clever and often remained in one place to hunt.
As he watched the Shapeshifter, which resembled a transparent slime, bounce away in panicked flight, Taylor memorized the location. Perhaps he could make use of this Shapeshifter later. After all, it was a rare thing.
He just did not know how the creature had evaded the patrolling apprentices.
After memorizing the location and marking it on his map, Taylor continued toward the Spider Cave according to the map's directions.
Before you continue