The Wizard's Secret Journey

Chapter 202 Divergence (4k)

The projected message on the white crystal quickly dimmed and disappeared.

But Lynn's astonishment lingered for a long time.

"Mr. Durant, what on earth happened?!" Lynn frowned deeply, replying to Durant with a white crystal, and also sending a message to Felicity:
"Your Excellency Felicity, are you alright?"

However, several minutes passed, and neither Durant nor Felicity responded.

Lynn's mood gradually became heavy.

'An unknown attack... Could it be the Spirit Crystal People?'

He thought of the high-level spirit crystal beings in the Radiant Crystal Secret Realm, one of whom had reached the intermediate level of the first rank in terms of life level.

This is something that usually only happens in a second-level world.

Since the Mossy World has already defied common sense, it is not impossible for there to be advanced or even second-tier beings among the Spirit Crystal People!

After putting away the Stone-Tracing Treasure in his hand, Lynn stopped thinking about it and immediately took out the Beacon Compass, flying towards the camp!

However, after flying only a few meters, Lynn thought of something and pointed to a spot between his eyebrows, canceling the camouflage effect of the Urzasha Assimilation Worm.

For the Urzasha worms themselves, no matter what kind of camouflage they use, it will not affect their ability to perform.

Because their own strength is as weak as an insect, by disguising themselves they will actually gain a certain boost in strength due to the change in their appearance.

However, for powerful wizards, using the Urzasha Assimilation Worm will, in most cases, limit their ability to exert their power to some extent.

The specific restrictions depend on the specific disguise.

Only in very rare cases where the disguise is perfectly suited can a wizard fully unleash his power.

In general, apart from being much shorter and having unique crystal chips, the Spirit Crystal People are quite similar to the Gunn race.

Therefore, Lynn was able to exert about 9% of his strength after disguising himself, so the impact was not significant.

But at that moment, Durant sent an urgent message, and Lynn rushed back to the camp, so he could no longer ignore this one percent of the impact.

As the pale blue light that enveloped him faded, Lynn returned to his original appearance.

hum-

He immediately transformed into a golden mist, flying forward at a speed unimaginable to the Spirit Crystal people, following the direction indicated by the beacon compass, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

rustling—

At this moment, the moss in place seemed to have detected something, and suddenly lit up with a ghostly light, wriggling and growing rapidly like a living thing.

Then, even more moss began to glow!
They shone one after another, like some mysterious luminous creatures moving through the moss on the ground.

Moreover, judging from the direction they were heading, they were chasing after Lynn!

……

As a fragmented world, the Mossy World is not very large, roughly the same size as Earth in the previous life.

Compared to a complete world, it is not a perfect sphere. If you travel in one direction, you will not eventually return to the starting point, but will encounter some kind of "boundary".

Sometimes, this boundary is an invisible barrier, behind which lies the endless astral plane. Once broken, one can officially enter the wondrous astral plane.

Sometimes, the boundary is a dark rift; if you step into it, you will vanish instantly—no one knows where those who disappeared went, and no one has ever returned after disappearing.

These dark fissures, which appear only in the fragmented world that is gradually heading towards destruction, remain an unsolved mystery to this day.

Wizards determine whether a world is a fragmented world, and what state it is in—whether it is balanced and stable, gradually improving, or heading towards destruction—by observing the appearance of its boundaries.

Getting back to the main point, with his mastery of the Golden Mist Shadow Technique, Lynn was soon able to see the hillside where the camp was located.

But at this moment, Lynn, who had calmed down, suddenly hesitated a little.

'Lady Felicity has never replied to the message, and Durant is not replying either... Moreover, Durant's strength should not be stronger than Felicity's. If the camp really encountered an attack that Felicity could not withstand, why is Durant still alive and conscious?'

'No, I have to be careful. The possibility of Durant sabotaging Felicity is small, but it's not impossible.'

'Furthermore, if we've encountered an attack that even Durant and Felicity combined couldn't withstand, my going there now would probably be futile... Perhaps Durant hasn't replied because he, like Felicity, has fallen into a coma.'

As he pondered, Lynn gradually stopped, but couldn't think of a solution for the time being.

'If only I had Felicity's doll magic...'

Lynn was in a real bind. After a moment of contemplation, he waved his hand to cast a concealment spell on himself and slowly moved forward.

There was no other way; the coordinates of the interdimensional portal were fixed at the camp from the beginning. Unless Lynn wanted to stay in this world, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go back to the camp.

After walking slowly for a while, regardless of Lynn's inner thoughts, he had already reached the vicinity of the camp.

The cave that Durant dug in the cliff using witchcraft was completely different from ordinary caves and could be noticed at a glance.

There were no signs of a battle outside the cave, and the concealment array that had been set up had been removed...

Lynn's heart sank. Just as he was about to risk going into the cave to check again, he suddenly saw a sound recording crystal outside the cave.

Carefully capture it, activate it, and a secret message will immediately be transmitted.

Lynn looked enlightened and immediately flew away.

……

“Mr. Durant,” Lynn greeted warily from beneath a large blue stone.

Durant didn't reply. After scanning the surroundings with his hawk-like eyes, he said in a deep voice, "Come in with me first. This is not the place to talk."

After the attack, Durant immediately moved Felicity to this location and set up strict concealment and isolation magic, so that even the white crystal communicator could not transmit a signal.

Lynn nodded, silently took out the enforcement order, and stepped inside.

This is a cave located under the bluestone – it was just opened up by Durant and hasn't had time to be finely adjusted yet, so it retains a very rough appearance.

“Felicity is over there,” Durant said, pointing to the earthen bed against the wall.

Lynn looked over and saw the old wizard curled up on his side on the earthen bed, his face pale and his brows furrowed, as if he were trapped in some kind of nightmare. "I've examined him. Felicity's body is perfectly healthy; it seems there's something wrong with his mind... but my understanding of the spiritual realm isn't very advanced, so I can't tell what kind of injury he's suffered."

Lynn glanced at Felicity, then at Durant, whose expression was normal, and his tense heart eased slightly.

It's not that Lynn was nervous; Felicity had told him too many stories about exploring other worlds and being betrayed by his companions before they set off. Plus, this whole thing seemed suspicious, so Lynn couldn't help but overthink it.

After all, although the three of them signed a fair exploration contract before setting off, everyone knew that the binding force of the wizard contract relied on the will of the wizarding world.

This also means that in places where the will of the wizarding world cannot reach, wizarding contracts have no real effect. Even if they are violated, there will be no punishment for the time being. Only when you return to the wizarding world will you pay the price for breaking the contract.

This delay mechanism also created a more serious vulnerability in wizard contracts—

If a wizard who has breached the contract advances to a higher rank in another world, he will not be subject to the penalty for breach of contract when he returns to the wizarding world...

Therefore, whether one stays in a different world that the wizards have not conquered after breaking the contract, or advances to a higher rank and then returns to the wizarding world, one can circumvent the punishment of the contract.

This is why Felicity had such a hard time finding teammates, and why she chose Lynn as her teammate.

“Mr. Durant, you said you were attacked…” Lynn walked to Felicity’s side and asked slowly, “What kind of attack was it?”

Durant paused for a moment and said, "In fact, I'm not sure whether that counts as an attack or not."

"I was chatting with Felicity when he suddenly looked extremely terrified and, before he could say anything to me, he fell into a coma."

"I immediately cast a defensive spell on myself and searched the surroundings, but I couldn't find anything... After that, I sent you a message, retrieved the coordinates of the portal, changed camps, and waited for your arrival."

Durant's reaction was perfect; Lynn couldn't find a single fault with it.

He squinted and pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, "Perhaps that wasn't an attack."

Durant paused, then looked at Lynn with a puzzled expression.

Lynn didn't answer directly, but instead asked, "Where are Lady Felicity's dolls? Where did they go?"

Durant realized what was happening and frowned, saying, "You mean, Felicity was injured because of the doll? But I know his dolls. Even if 006 were to be torn to pieces, Felicity wouldn't be harmed in the slightest, let alone fall into a coma."

"Is it possible that the other party attacked him using the puppet that Felicity brought?"

“No…” Durant instinctively wanted to deny it, but Lynn interrupted him:

"Your Excellency was in the camp with Felicity. If there were any attack, there would be no reason to target only Felicity... Moreover, as you have said, Felicity showed a look of fear at the end."

“I suspect that it might be because Felicity saw something terrifying through the doll that went out to explore.”

Durant remained silent.

Lynn then asked, "Mr. Durant, do you know exactly where Mr. Felicity's doll is?"

Durant didn't answer, he just waved gently.

The soil in front of him began to surge and rise rapidly, eventually coalescing into a lifelike, enormous plant in the blink of an eye.

"Did Lady Felicity's doll go to the place where that giant fern is?"

“That’s right.” Durant nodded, then turned and took a crystal, activating it with magic.

In an instant, a series of images appeared in the cave.

There are lush plants, huge ferocious beasts... the background is very similar, a lush green landscape.

At first Lynn didn't recognize it, but after careful examination, he realized that it was actually the giant fern!

“Every so often, 006 sends some records to Felicity, including data and images. These are the previously sent video recordings,” Durant said slowly.

"The place where the giant fern is located should be the center of the Mossy Plane, where a large number of ferocious beasts live, and the closer you are to the giant fern, the stronger the ferocious beasts become."

"By the time the images were recently transmitted, some of the ferocious beasts had even reached the first-order life level!"

"However, strangely enough, after searching around the fern plant for a long time, No. 006 did not find any living intelligent life. They only found some ancient ruins. We speculate that the original 'main creatures' living in the Mossy World should have been basically extinct, while new 'main creatures' are still being conceived."

Every world has one or more kinds of beings favored by the world's will; these are also known as the world's main beings, and they are usually intelligent beings.

“No, the ‘main beings’ of this world have not become extinct.” Lynn shook his head and briefly explained the existence of the Spirit Crystal race to Durant.

Perhaps not expecting Lynn to be of any use, Felicity and the other two only kept in touch with Lynn to let him know they were safe, and Lynn did not take the initiative to share information about the Spirit Crystal People... However, Lynn did not expect that Felicity and the other two would not have discovered the existence of the Spirit Crystal People.

'But, looking back, I didn't actually encounter any Spirit Crystal People on the surface during that time. At the beginning... I was really lucky.'

"The main being still exists?" However, Durant's expression immediately turned serious after hearing this information.

"If the main being still exists, then this world shouldn't have a large number of Tier 1 ferocious beasts! If a large number of Tier 1 ferocious beasts appear, there's only one possibility—those beasts are invaders just like us!"

Lynn was taken aback; it was the first time he had heard this information. But quickly, he frowned and said:

“But… I also found first-order beings among the Spirit Crystal People.”

"There are also first-order beings among the Spirit Crystal People?" Durant repeated, then said with certainty, "Then it's even more certain. In most first-order worlds, first-order beings are only born when there are world invaders!"

"Those ferocious beasts are definitely foreign invaders!"

Lynn suddenly thought of the surface faction and the underground faction in Kalek's memory.

'Those spirit crystal beings may have indeed lived on the surface a long time ago, but were later driven underground by these ferocious beasts.'

Lynn then thought of the moss that could be seen everywhere on the ground, and the enormous fern.

'It seems highly likely that these ferns, like the ferocious beasts, are also part of the invaders.'

Shaking his head, Lynn glanced at the unconscious Felicity again and asked:
"Mr. Durant, what should we do next?"

Durant remained silent. He wasn't the kind of wizard who was good at giving orders, and for a moment he really didn't know what to do next... Should they evacuate the Mossy World?
'Perhaps, I should leave this world of moss first…'

Lynn glanced at the unconscious Felicity again, and just as he was about to back out, he heard Durant mutter to himself:

"No, we can't leave yet..."

(End of this chapter)