Illusion Rune

Green stepped calmly over the Man-Eating Trees' corpses. They might have posed a serious threat to apprentices, but a Wizard could deal with them at a wave of his hand.

After clearing the surrounding Man-Eating Trees, the Treant did not stop. The vines wrapped around his body kept extending, cracking open the trees' shells and drawing out one green core after another.

The Treant cupped more than a hundred green cores in his hands and respectfully presented them to Green.

"What an ancient method, leaving such a fatal weakness in the form of a core!" Green remarked.

The Ancient Era was different from the modern day. With energy so much more abundant, most creatures of that era condensed cores within their bodies to advance quickly. Once a core advanced, its owner could rapidly break through to a higher level.

Ancient Wizards did the same, solidifying Mental Power in their minds into special Mental Power Crystals and engraving Innate Sorcery upon them.

This method made advancement fast. Given enough resources, even someone with mediocre talent could quickly become a Wizard.

But its flaws were just as obvious. Solidifying Mental Power each time required vast resources, and an attack on the core would bring everything crashing down.

Modern Wizards had abandoned this method of advancement with its obvious flaws. That did not mean the Ancient Wizards had been wrong, of course. The environment had changed, and the Modern Wizard system was simply better suited to it.

Green used Mental Power to lift a green crystal and let it float before him, then examined it.

Green juice and bits of wood still clung to its surface. As he sensed the energy within, intense radiation poured from it, along with a powerful sense of vitality.

"What a shame. It holds so much vitality, but