Leo nodded.
Leo's confirmation immediately changed Aifel and Kairila's expressions. They respectfully said to Leo, "Congratulations, Wizard Leo."
"Congratulations, Wizard Danville."
Kairila's attitude became even more respectful.
Even before becoming a wizard, Leo had already possessed such formidable combat strength.
Now that Leo had become a wizard, dealing with all the knights aboard their ship would probably be effortless.
Facing a wizard, Grand Knights like them had no chance of victory at all.
Leo merely smiled at the knights' attitudes and let it pass.
When Hughes saw Leo, he also noticed the change in him.
"Leo, congratulations."
Hughes's face was filled with envy.
Hughes's mental energy was only at 6 points now. He still had some way to go before becoming a wizard.
As Hughes walked toward Leo, he suddenly stopped. He gave an awkward, sheepish smile and said, "Sorry, Leo. There's an aura around you right now that makes me feel terribly uncomfortable. Let's keep this distance."
Leo cast him a sidelong glance but said nothing.
After becoming a wizard, Leo unconsciously released Mental Radiation. Though it was very faint and posed no threat to the life of a Wizard Seedling, it still made people feel uncomfortable and unwell.
Of course, Leo could consciously restrain this Mental Radiation, but he needed some time to grow accustomed to his state after advancing.
The knights' warship would return to the Tower of Dawn by the afternoon.
Leo returned to his room and continued cultivating the Meditation Method.
After becoming a wizard, Leo could clearly feel that his meditation efficiency had increased.
This increase in meditation efficiency had nothing to do with the Intermediate Meditation Method. It was something that had appeared after Leo became a wizard.
Since it was not a bad thing, Leo merely felt surprised for a moment before continuing his cultivation of the Intermediate Meditation Method.
At noon, Leo stepped out onto the deck and discovered another ship beside the warship.
Judging by its appearance, it was also a knight ship.
Kairila and more than a dozen knights were crossing a plank onto the other ship.
When Aifel saw Leo, he respectfully said, "Greetings, Wizard Leo."
Leo asked, "Is this ship also part of your knight order?"
"Yes, Wizard Leo," Aifel respectfully replied. "But it belongs to another squad. They plan to subjugate a powerful sea monster and are short on manpower, so Kairila is taking some people over to assist them."
Leo looked over the people crossing the plank and discovered that the three Ordinary Knights who owed one hundred Magic Stones were all following Kairila aboard.
Presumably, they might obtain some Magic Stones from this sea monster subjugation as well.
But this was the knights' business and had nothing to do with Leo.
Leo asked, "Will this affect our voyage?"
"No. Our ship will still return to the Tower of Dawn."
Hearing that, Leo stopped concerning himself with the matter.
Leo returned to his room. This time, instead of cultivating the Meditation Method, he took out a Stone Sea Dragon Scale.
Then, Leo removed his shirt.
Techniques related to the Basic Magitech Studies books surfaced in Leo's mind.
He wanted to see whether he could fuse this dragon scale into his shirt and create a defensive Magitech Device.
Leo entered the learning state of the Basic Magitech Studies Codex.
Mastered the inferior-quality Basic Magitech Studies Codex. Obtained 10 Refinement Points.
After a long while, Leo put his shirt back on and stored away the Stone Sea Dragon Scale.
He stroked his chin.
This attempt at learning had not been entirely fruitless, but using a dragon scale for his first Magitech Device was clearly still far too difficult.
For Magitech Devices involving things from a dragon's body, Leo felt that he might need to study the Advanced Magitech Studies Codex before he could possibly make one.
And clearly, it was impossible to make it using only Leo's shirt as material.
He needed higher-grade materials.
The Stone Sea Dragon Scale needed to be paired with more advanced materials before it could react with mental energy.
Leo rose and left his room, intending to ask Knight Aifel how far they still were from the Tower of Dawn.
But when he reached the deck, a sharp gleam flashed through Leo's eyes.
The surrounding sea was covered in vast stretches of pale red water that shimmered with light.
This was something that only appeared when approaching the Crimson Sea.
But they were clearly heading back toward the Tower of Dawn.
Why were they instead gradually entering the bounds of the Crimson Sea?
"Something's wrong. These knights seem to be..."
At that moment, Leo noticed that the knights on deck all had vacant eyes, just like John and the other six knights yesterday.
Though they had not yet gone mad, they had clearly fallen under the Siren's control.
A sense of foreboding rose in Leo's heart.
Leo took out the Prismatic Dragon Scale, but it sensed no hostility from these people.
With that thought, Leo went to Hughes's room and pounded hard on the door.
"Hughes!"
Hughes opened the door, yawned, and said, "I just woke up. What's wrong?"
Seeing that Hughes had not turned into that state, Leo immediately sighed in relief. Then his face quickly darkened as he said, "Hughes, this is very bad. The knights on this ship seem to have been infected by the Siren's Song again. The ship is now sailing toward the Crimson Sea."
The moment Hughes heard this, his face went pale with panic. "We're finished. What do we do? Leo, even if we kill them now, we don't know how to steer the ship back!"
Leo pondered briefly. "Subdue the knights first."
Hughes uneasily said, "We can only try that."
The two left the cabin together and headed toward the helm.
But along with the sound of their footsteps, the knights surrounded them.
These knights drooled from their mouths, their eyes hollow, meaningless murmurs spilling from their lips.
Among them was Grand Knight Aifel.
Leo ran his fingers across the Rainbow Dragon Scale. This time, the Rainbow Dragon Scale reacted to the hostility of these knights.
Leo's gaze fell upon Aifel.
He opened his mouth, his eyes hazy as saliva dripped from his lips.
Seeing that even Aifel had become like this, Leo immediately came to a judgment. He said, "Hughes, protect yourself. Don't hold back. Since even a Grand Knight has become like this, the other knights are even less likely to return to normal."
"Without Wizard Nova here, we have no way to restore them either."
"I understand." Hughes nodded, a shield formed by Arcane Hand appearing in his hand.
He knew his own capabilities. Facing knights, he could only protect himself as best he could and avoid becoming a burden to Leo.
Leo cast Arcane Hand, and a huge net spread toward the knights.
The knights seemed to know that the net was dangerous and nimbly evaded it.
Seeing this, Leo cast Arcane Hand once more.
After becoming a wizard, the greatest improvement Leo had gained was the drastic reduction in the cost of casting spells.
The Spiritual Seed provided purer mental energy.
If Leo's original cost for casting a spell had been 10, then after becoming a wizard, the cost of casting that spell was 1, or even less.
The current Leo could cast spells many more times.
Grand Knight Aifel charged toward Leo.
Leo gripped the greatsword formed by Arcane Hand in one hand and swung it at them.
Aifel drew his weapon.
Leo cast the Basic Body Fortification Spell.
Immediately afterward, Leo swept his sword sideways and shattered Aifel's weapon.
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