Negotiation Signal

With a plan in mind, Lohr continued toward the distant hills wreathed in flames, though he slowed his pace.

He needed to let the others return to the base first and tell that little fellow about him.

What happened next would depend on the little fellow's reaction. If he wanted to gather the Elemental Wizards and have a go at him, then he deserved a good beating.

Half an hour later.

The brown-haired wizard apprentice was the first to return to the base. He immediately headed for the hall built from piled stones by the Earth Elemental Wizard apprentices at the center of the base.

The moment he neared the entrance, he was stopped by two gatekeeping apprentices in red wizard robes.

"Sten, weren't you hunting with Yajieding and the others?"

One of the guards, a young apprentice, stared at the brown-haired youth and demanded, "Why did you come back alone?"

"Annel, Ihano, I have an urgent report."

Still visibly shaken, Sten said, "Yajieding is dead. A lot of people died. We encountered a terrifying wizard apprentice. He..."

He recounted most of what had happened since they first saw the cluster of magic arrays, only concealing the fact that he had led Lohr to the base.

"A 1.4-circle spell?" Upon hearing Sten's description, the two guards could not help drawing sharp breaths.

They did not care about 1.3-circle spells from the multi-element Elemental School. Once the runes were linked together, they could easily wear them down.

But a 1.4-circle spell was different. It was a qualitative leap, from the lower stage of the first circle to the middle stage. Its significance was entirely different.

Most importantly, according to Sten, that person's spell was an area-of-effect spell, one that almost completely countered single-element wizard apprentices like them.

"The multi-element Elemental School actually made another breakthrough at the apprentice stage."

After a long while, Annel finally came back to his senses. He fixed Sten with a hard stare and asked, "Did he follow you here?"

If that person really had followed him, then he would need to discuss fleeing... retreating with that person.

There was no helping it. Their raw strength truly could not match his.

"I... I don't know." Sten did not dare guarantee that person would not come, even though he knew their leader's grandfather was a Fifth-Circle Wizard.

"Ihano, watch him here." Annel turned to his companion and said, "I'll inform Lord Levan."

"Alright, go quickly." Ihano nodded.

Annel turned and entered the stone hall. After passing through several corridors, he arrived at a grand hall.

A stone table stood in the hall, and at its far end sat a child of around eight years old.

Dozens of parchment sheets lay before the child. He was constantly writing and drawing on them, thoroughly engrossed.

When he saw Annel arrive, the child smiled. "Annel, did someone bring back Divine Power Crystals again? Hurry and let him in."

As long as someone returned with Divine Power Crystals, he would receive a tenth of the share.

Although obtaining these Divine Power Crystals meant little to him, the feeling of gaining something had become addictive.

"Lord Levan, I just heard something. Not long ago..."

Annel's expression was solemn. Rather than responding, he directly reported everything he had just heard to Levan.

"What?" After listening, Levan's eyes widened abruptly. "You're saying there's an apprentice in this Divine Kingdom capable of casting a 1.4-circle spell?"

"Yes, Lord Levan. I suggest you secretly withdraw immediately to avoid any danger," Annel advised.

"What about the others? Are they leaving with us too?" Levan pursed his lips and hesitated before asking, "And what do we do with the Divine Power Crystals?"

If only they could bring spatial rings into the Divine Kingdom. Then they could pack everything up and take it with them directly.

Spatial rings could conceal the fluctuations of Divine Power Crystals, making them extremely convenient.

"No." Annel shook his head. "Leaving together would make too large a target. I suggest we withdraw separately. As for the Divine Power Crystals in the warehouse, we can distribute them directly among those people."

"If we give them the Divine Power Crystals now..." Levan frowned and said unhappily, "Annel, are you asking them to act as cannon fodder?"

Those people had been calling him boss these past two days. They had even offered him a tenth of the Divine Power Crystals they had risked their lives to obtain.

All they wanted was for him to exchange the other divine crystals for Contribution Points after they left.

Now that danger had appeared, they were supposed to abandon those people and flee. He found that deeply unacceptable.

Annel explained stiffly, "This is the best solution. Until now, you and they have merely been using each other."

"Once they obtain divine crystals themselves, they worry about them being stolen. But they are safe when stored with you, so giving you a tenth of their divine crystal shares is only natural."

"Now that they have provoked someone they cannot afford to provoke, they should not expect you to clean up their mess."

"At the very least, I should do something."

Levan shook his head. "How about this, Annel? Pass down the order. Find him, and I'll negotiate with him."

He truly did not care much about the Divine Power Crystals.

If he could use his share of the Divine Power Crystals to make Lohr refrain from targeting the others, he was willing to do it.

"You cannot negotiate with him personally. It's too dangerous." Annel immediately objected. "If you insist on doing this, I can negotiate on your behalf."

His sole purpose in entering the Divine Kingdom was to protect Levan. Naturally, he could not simply watch Levan approach someone that dangerous.

"If it truly comes to that, I can contact Grandfather directly and have him take me out."

Levan sat back down in his chair and looked at Annel. "It's settled, then. Go find him, Annel."

"Yes." Knowing that Levan could contact that person at any time, Annel said nothing further and left the hall.

More than fifty li from the temporary camp.

"It's been half an hour already. Has no one gone back to deliver the message?"

Lohr looked at the camp beside the Flame Hills, now not far away yet still completely quiet, and felt somewhat speechless.

He had let more than just one brown-haired youth go at the time, yet even now, it seemed that not a single person had delivered the news to that camp.

That speed of information transmission was truly hard to comment on.

Besides that, wizard apprentices occasionally passed by him.

After sensing the fluctuations from the Divine Power Crystals on Lohr, not only did they refrain from attacking, they even congratulated him enviously before leaving without looking back.

In the end, it's only a group that was formed two days ago, and all kinds of equipment haven't become widespread yet.

Lohr thought, Comparing the systems of later generations to the present really does seem a little unfair.

Just as he was wondering whether he should slow down even more, Fireballs suddenly appeared in the sky above the camp beside the Flame Hills.

The Fireballs launched into the sky at a steady rhythm, seemingly trying to convey some sort of message to the outside.

Every minute, the direction they were launched moved farther away from the camp, continuously spreading outward in all directions.

"A negotiation signal?" Lohr raised a brow, somewhat surprised by the decisiveness of Chairman Yasen's grandson.

He had considered the possibility that the boy might flee directly. If that happened, he could only take the Divine Power Crystals.

But now, if all went well, he would gain even more.