A Strategic Halt

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

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

Rumble—

A slightly weaker surge of magma, covering only a hundred-meter radius, erupted directly amid the outer 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 covering most of them would not be a problem.

Who lived and who died depended entirely on luck.

Outside the magic array.

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

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

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

"A mid-tier 1-ring spell!"

Those six words surfaced in every wizard apprentice's mind.

"This is a trap!"

"Run."

"Run, now."

The next moment, they all turned and fled in unspoken agreement.

The Divine Power Crystal, the depleted elemental energy—it had all been a lie!

That person wanted to wipe them all out in one stroke.

Yet the moment they turned around, an intensely explosive heat rose beneath their feet.

"I won't accept this—"

"No!"

"Ah—"

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

The remaining fifty or so fled even faster, terrified that another stream of magma would suddenly erupt beneath their feet if they slowed for even a moment.

Five li away, Lohr casually shifted his gaze toward a young apprentice with brown hair and dual fire-wood elements, then took four consecutive steps.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—

Four magma flows, each covering a hundred-meter radius, directly encircled the brown-haired youth, leaving him unable to advance or retreat.

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

He did not dare resist in the slightest, even as the magma rain falling from the sky scorched his defensive barrier black in countless places and left it on the verge of shattering.

"Quite a strong will to live."

Lohr smiled, cast a Levitation Spell on himself, and waved away the magma rain filling the sky. Only then did he stroll over to the brown-haired apprentice.

"What does Your Excellency want me to do?" Seeing Lohr approach, the brown-haired youth immediately spoke respectfully. "As long as it is within my abilities, I will do everything I can to help Your Excellency accomplish it."

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

"Thank you for Your Excellency's mercy." The youth bowed, then silently cast a Levitation Spell and led the way ahead of him.

Having been targeted by this person, being able to keep his life was already a great blessing.

As for the people at the base...

He had only joined the base a little over a day ago, and he had done so solely for Contribution Points. What did their fate 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, Your Excellency." Feeling his body become several times lighter than before, the youth was somewhat shaken.

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

After learning it, it was also common to spend Contribution Points on an optimized model.

The optimized model he had bought cost 500 Contribution Points and could raise Levitation Spell to 0.6 rings.

Beyond that, the required Contribution Points would increase geometrically.

Yet this mysterious apprentice's Levitation Spell was many times better than his. One could easily imagine how many Contribution Points it had cost.

But when he considered this person's strength again, he felt relieved.

Of course. Someone this powerful must have an extraordinary background. An optimized Levitation Spell model was nothing to him.

Three hours later.

With the support of Lohr's Levitation Spell, the two crossed a distance of more than a thousand li.

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

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

Other than the conspicuous blaze in the far distance that seemed to set an entire hill alight, they could not see anything more than ten meters away.

"You people are pretty brazen!" Lohr raised an eyebrow. "You dared to light such a massive bonfire in the Dark Godland. Aren't you afraid people won't notice you?"

"I suppose my... that little fellow didn't expect someone like you to exist within the Godland."

The youth gave a bitter smile. "For ordinary apprentices, being able to fuse a 1.3-ring spell is already unimaginable. If we joined forces, we could still surround and kill them. But 1.4 rings..."

He did not continue, because he had never heard of such a thing before. It completely shattered everything he knew.

"A little fellow?" Rather than explain anything, Lohr grew curious about how the youth referred to that flamboyant person.

"Yes. My former boss was actually a little fellow around eight or nine years old."

The youth nodded. "I heard he is 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 suddenly stopped, staring at the youth as he spoke the name.

He was all too familiar with that great figure.

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

He would be one of the supreme figures of the future Wizard Alliance.

He was the ruler of fire.

He was a great being who had embarked on the path of seeking truth.

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

There had even been a short verse about him circulating on the game forums in his previous life.

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

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

"Chairman?" The youth's eyes widened abruptly. "Your Excellency, do you mean that person is a five-ring wizard?"

The youth knew nothing at all about those higher-ups. He only knew the master of his own Wizard Tower.

That was normal. Other than the magic arrays in their laboratories, apprentices only had their mentors as a means of learning information about such figures.

But there was no point in mentors telling apprentices about them. They could not come into contact with them anyway.

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

Good thing I asked beforehand.

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

Although a five-ring wizard could not see the specific events within the Godland while it was sealed off, that person would certainly be able to sense whether his grandson lived or died.

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

To put it bluntly, he was not afraid of that little fellow. He was merely 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 ill-behaved, there would be no issue with teaching him a lesson. Given that man's temperament, he would probably even appreciate it.

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

"Yes, thank you, Your Excellency!" The youth was overjoyed and immediately fled as if a dog were chasing him.

Watching the youth's retreating back, a vague thought suddenly flashed through 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.