Temporary Return

Roar!!!

The obese zombie, bound into a ball by spider silk, was finally killed by Taylor with three fireballs. After its bloated body, covered in rotten flesh, fell, a pair of invisible hands formed from azure wind elements parted the black ashes and found a transparent crystal the size of half a fist within.

For the sake of his own safety, Taylor had not chosen to restore his mana in this plane, so he had been using mana recovery potions and mental power recovery potions along the way to replenish his expenditure.

After defeating this massive obese zombie, Taylor had also used up the potions in his hands. It was time to return.

Taylor casually entered a room. First, he checked whether he had left anything behind. Then, he manipulated the Flame Medal and used its fire elemental barrier to cleanse himself inside and out, burning all impurities into drifting ash.

Only after confirming that everything was in order did Taylor open a deep-blue mirror-like surface, step through it, and return to his familiar laboratory.

Looking at the empty little cages in the laboratory, the familiar equipment, the notebooks he had filled with records, and the rack bed beside them that he occasionally used for rest, Taylor felt immensely relieved.

Compared to the other world, the White Tower Alliance, steeped in its rich academic atmosphere, still made him happier.

After returning to his laboratory, Taylor rested briefly before immediately analyzing the transparent crystal extracted from the zombie's skull. This special crystal, which gathered human vitality and mental power, was something he had never encountered before. Perhaps he should acquire some knowledge of potion-making before conducting further research.

Taylor had a feeling that if he wanted to make himself as powerful as possible during the wizard apprentice stage, this special transparent crystal might be his shortcut.

Within his mental space, a pale-blue dot had condensed beside the ability that allowed him to travel between planes. This dot marked the zombie plane he had just visited.

According to the information fed back by his ability, when the energy was fully charged for the next planar transfer, he could choose to explore a new plane or travel to one he had already visited. It would take around three months for the energy to fully recharge.

The energy required for planar travel was related to the strength of the plane itself. The zombie plane could only be considered a weak plane with relatively active magical elements.

In the laboratory, when Taylor laid the notebooks containing all his gains, his notes on dissecting the zombie species, and records on magical rune knowledge, magic circle knowledge, and the use of magic channel energy on the table, together with his existing study notes, he finally realized that his personal store of knowledge had already filled more than a dozen thick notebooks.

His old canvas bag could no longer accommodate the growing number of notebooks. He now needed a spatial storage item.

After placing the transparent crystals brought back from the zombie plane and some of his notebooks in a concealed corner of the laboratory, hollowing out part of the wall and sealing it with bricks to hide them away, Taylor felt that he needed to spend some time specifically doing apprentice tasks and accumulating enough points to exchange for the things he needed.

Miscellaneous Affairs Office

Among the apprentices, there was a special task that could be accepted alongside other tasks to earn additional points, and its execution time was fixed in the afternoon. It was the patrol task responsible for inspecting the Monster Forest.

This was a long-term task. Its content involved patrolling the roads specially established by wizards around the Monster Forest, checking whether the enchanted witchcraft runes on the roads had been damaged, and personally dealing with certain magical beasts or monsters that crossed the boundary when necessary.

The entire patrol task was divided into four sections: patrolling the east, west, south, and north of the Monster Forest. The task duration was a lengthy three months.

Although such a task offered high rewards, it was also quite dangerous. Basically, every two or three days, one would encounter a magical beast or monster attacking the road barriers.

More importantly, only second-level wizard apprentices could accept such a task, and they had to form a team of two.

Taylor had set his sights on the task of patrolling the southern part of the Monster Forest. The eastern, western, and northern patrol tasks had already been taken, leaving only the southern one unclaimed.

However, he now faced a difficulty: he had no familiar friends. This patrol task required two people, but he was alone.

"This really was an oversight. I should have made a few friends earlier."

Perhaps because he had been a loner in his previous life, Taylor still remained in a solitary state. He had always stayed within his fixed social circle, doing his own tasks, researching his own experiments, and gathering his own knowledge.

He had already been in the White Tower Alliance, this holy land of white wizards, for two or three years, yet he did not even know how many apprentices there were, how many people he knew, or what they looked like.

The manager of the Miscellaneous Affairs Office, a plump middle-aged man, saw Taylor's troubled expression and said, "If you truly do not know any apprentices, I have a fairly good candidate here. His strength is decent, but his personality and preferences are somewhat strange. I don't know whether you can accept that."

Upon hearing this, how could Taylor refuse? He had been wondering how to find an apprentice to accompany him on this two-person task. Since there was a suitable candidate right in front of him, he naturally nodded in agreement.

"Strange preferences are normal. After all, every wizard apprentice follows a different path of research."

"As for having a strange personality, that doesn't matter."

Seeing Taylor's indifferent expression, the manager of the Miscellaneous Affairs Office said nothing more. He simply wrote down two names after the task to patrol the southern part of the Monster Forest.

Taylor, Taifas

Taylor quickly came to regret the bold words he had spoken yesterday. Taifas, his partner for this task, was simply not someone an ordinary person could endure.

"Taylor, do you know? I've always wanted to take on a task like this, but no one ever wanted to go with me. At last, I found a good person like you."

"Wow, Taylor, come look! It's right over there, not far away. Do you see it? That Swamp Mop Witch flying above that swamp. Other swamp witches ride brooms, but she rides a mop. More than three hundred years ago, Wizard Usteme discovered this entirely new branch of swamp witches and named them Swamp Mop Witches."

"Taylor..."

"Taylor..."

Before they had even reached the Monster Forest, Taylor had already had enough of Taifas's endless chatter and constant fussing over everything. He finally understood why no one was willing to carry out tasks with the person before him—a skinny fellow with a large head, glasses, a few freckles on his face, red hair, and black eyes.