Strategic Retreat

After dealing with the three single-element squads, Lohr did not stop. He took another step toward the apprentices gathered on the outskirts.

This time, he did not apply High-Temperature Amplitude.

"Rumble—"

A somewhat weaker torrent of magma erupted, covering only a hundred-meter radius and blossoming directly amid the outer ring of apprentices who had just turned to flee.

He did not need that many people to lead the way. Since they had dared to attack him, they must have been prepared to die.

The magma within a hundred-meter radius would not cover all of them, but it was more than enough to cover most of them.

Who lived and who died depended entirely on luck.

Outside the formation cluster.

When Lohr's magma eruption wiped out the three squads of single-element apprentices, the hearts of every watching apprentice sank.

Three squads of single-element wizard apprentices had not even lasted a second.

This was absolutely not something a 1.3-circle spell could achieve!

"A 1-circle mid-tier spell!"

Those six words surfaced in the minds of every wizard apprentice.

"This is a trap!"

"Run."

"Run, quickly."

The next moment, they all turned and fled without prior agreement.

The Divine Power Crystal, the depleted elemental energy—it was all fake!

That man wanted to wipe them all out in one sweep.

Yet they had only just turned around when an incomparably violent heat surged up from beneath their feet.

"I'm not willing to accept this—"

"No!"

"Ah—"

More than a hundred and thirty apprentices were reduced to ashes by that single strike.

The remaining fifty or so fled even faster, terrified that if they slowed by even one step, another torrent of magma would suddenly erupt beneath their feet.

Five li away, Lohr casually turned his gaze toward a young apprentice with brown hair who possessed both fire and wood elements, then took four consecutive steps.

"Rumble, rumble, rumble—"

Four magma torrents, each covering a hundred-meter radius, directly trapped the brown-haired youth in the middle, leaving him unable to advance or retreat.

The brown-haired youth seemed to understand something. He gave up running and stood motionless in the center of the four magma torrents.

Even as the magma rain falling from the sky scorched his defensive shield black all over and nearly shattered it, he did not dare resist in the slightest.

"Quite a strong will to survive."

Lohr smiled, cast a Levitation Spell on himself, then waved away the magma rain filling the sky before slowly making his way over to the brown-haired apprentice.

"What do you want me to do, sir?" When Lohr arrived, the brown-haired youth immediately spoke respectfully. "As long as it is within my power, I will devote everything I have to helping you accomplish it."

"It's nothing major." Lohr's tone was calm. "Take me to your base, and you can live."

"Thank you for your mercy, sir." The youth bowed, then silently cast a Levitation Spell and began leading the way.

Being targeted by someone like this, keeping his life was already an immense stroke of luck.

As for the people at the base...

He had only joined the base a little over a day ago, and he had only done so for Contribution Points. What did the fate of those people have to do with him?

"Wait." After taking only a few steps, Lohr frowned. Meeting the youth's puzzled gaze, he directly cast a Levitation Spell on him. "All right, keep going."

"Thank you, sir." Feeling his body become several times lighter than before, the youth was deeply shaken.

Almost every elemental wizard apprentice learned a basic spell like Levitation Spell.

After learning it, spending Contribution Points to buy an optimized model was also common.

The optimized model he had bought, for instance, had cost 500 Contribution Points and could raise Levitation Spell to 0.6 circles.

Beyond that, the Contribution Points required would increase geometrically.

Yet this mysterious apprentice's Levitation Spell was many times better than his own. The number of Contribution Points spent was easy to imagine.

But when he considered this man's strength, he quickly accepted it.

Of course. Someone this powerful had to have an extraordinary background. A mere optimized Levitation Spell model was nothing to him.

Three hours later.

With the boost from Lohr's Levitation Spell, the two crossed more than a thousand li.

They had now left that seemingly endless Dark Forest and arrived in a steep, equally dark region of hills.

Hills were everywhere here, layer upon layer, stretching as far as the eye could see...

Apart from the conspicuous blaze in the far distance that seemed to set an entire hill alight, they could not see even ten meters ahead.

"You people are pretty ostentatious!" Lohr raised a brow. "You dared to light such a huge fire in the Dark Godland. Aren't you afraid no one will notice you?"

"I suppose the old... that little fellow never expected someone like you to exist in the Divine Kingdom."

The youth gave a bitter smile. "For ordinary apprentices, fusing a 1.3-circle spell is already unimaginable. If we joined forces, we could still surround and kill one. But 1.4 circles..."

He did not continue, because it was something he had never heard of before. It completely shattered his understanding.

"Little fellow?" Lohr did not explain anything. Instead, he became curious about the youth's way of referring to that ostentatious person.

"Yes. Actually, my former boss was a little fellow around eight or nine years old."

The youth nodded. "I heard he's the grandson of that great figure from the central fire-element Wizard Tower of our Murphy Continent. He came to this secret realm purely to have fun."

"Chairman Yasen Dempsey?" Lohr abruptly stopped and stared at the youth as he spoke a name.

He was all too familiar with that great figure.

Although he had failed to stop that Five-Circle Dark Faith Wizard from destroying the Murphy Continent ten years later, he would become a Seven-Circle Truth-Seeking Wizard in the future.

He was one of the supreme figures of the future Wizard Alliance.

He was the ruler of fire.

He was a great existence who had embarked upon the path of seeking truth.

He was the highest peak revered by all Fire Element Wizards.

A short verse about him had also circulated on the game forums in Lohr's previous life.

Lohr could not remember much of it, but he remembered two lines with absolute clarity.

"Borrow a wisp of flame, and speak all truths."

"Chairman?" The youth's eyes widened abruptly. "Sir, do you mean that great figure is a Fifth-Circle Wizard?"

The youth knew nothing at all about those high-level figures. He only knew the master of his own Wizard Tower.

That was normal. Other than the formations in their laboratories, apprentices only had their mentors as a channel through which to learn information about such figures.

But there was no point in mentors telling apprentices about them anyway. They would never come into contact with them.

"Yes." Lohr nodded, his expression darkening slightly.

Good thing I asked in advance.

Otherwise, if I accidentally killed that little fellow, this Dark Godland would probably be burned away the very next second.

Although a Fifth-Circle Wizard could not see the specific circumstances within a Divine Kingdom while it was sealed, that man would definitely be able to sense whether his grandson lived or died.

Lohr glanced at the still-bewildered youth and had no intention of silencing him.

To put it bluntly, he was not afraid of that little fellow. He was only wary of the existence behind him.

As long as he did not kill the little fellow, everything else was inconsequential.

If the little fellow was not sensible, even giving him a lesson would not be a problem. Given that man's personality, he might even appreciate Lohr for it.

"You can go back. There's nothing more for you to do now," Lohr said.

"Yes, thank you, sir!" Overjoyed, the youth immediately fled as if a dog were chasing him.

Watching the youth's retreating back, a vague thought suddenly crossed Lohr's mind.

If I get the chance, perhaps I can lure that brat to my side. He might become a protective talisman in the future?

With such a talisman, I can act a little more recklessly in the future.