The Wizard's Secret Journey

Chapter 25 Greenery
snap…

pat-

Tears kept falling.

Ant knelt beside the shattered body of Leona and sobbed.

Jigos squatted beside him, looking silent and with red eyes.

Before all this happened, they all knew that bad results might occur, but no one mentioned it. They just imagined the bright future after success together.

Now the bad results have appeared.

While Jigos could hardly believe it, he also slowly felt his whole body getting colder, as if he was gradually sinking into a bottomless cold well.

"It's all your fault..." Ant murmured.

He slowly raised his head, looked at Jigos, and said one sentence at a time:

"It's all your fault, Gigos."

"..." Gigos remained silent.

"It's all your fault!" Ant suddenly yelled hysterically and pushed Gigos.

“We shouldn’t gamble, we shouldn’t take this risk!

"It's all over now!"

Gigos was knocked to the ground by his sudden push, and he was furious. He stood up quickly, grabbed Ante's collar with both hands, and said through gritted teeth:

"Damn it, this wasn't just my decision! This was something we came up with together, remember?!
"You agreed, I agreed, and Leona agreed too!"

He gasped violently, his chest heaving like a bellows, and coughed as he let go of the hand that was holding Ant's collar.

"It's not my fault that this happened... It's not my fault...

"…It's not your fault, Ant, it's not our fault…"

Jigos looked at the stone house behind him, and the face of the second-class apprentice named Somle appeared in his mind.

Is the extraordinary transformation with a 25% success rate really true?
He suddenly wanted to curse hatefully, but when the words came to his lips, he looked at the stone house in front of him and worried that Somme inside might be able to hear it.

After a long while, Jigos sighed dejectedly and tiredly:
"Ante, let's go, we need to find another way out."

There was no response from behind him, so Jigos turned around.

All that was left in sight was the fragments of Leona on the ground; Ant had disappeared.

……

……

Outside the Wuhuan rally.

Ant looked up at the huge building with a dazed look on his face.

He didn't know why he came here.

He didn't even know how he got here.

He just wanted to escape, wanted to leave...

The image of the bright red flesh was still reverberating in his mind, and Ant desperately shook his head, trying to drive it all out.

"What's going on, Ant?"

A familiar voice suddenly sounded in Ant's ears. He looked up and saw two familiar figures.

Dole and Ellison.

Ant was stunned for a moment. He didn't think about why Dole was with Ellison.

He just shed tears quietly and said to Dole in front of him with a hoarse voice:
"Leona is dead, Dol."

The gentle-looking young man raised his eyebrows slightly and turned to Ellison beside him.

"Allison, why don't you wait for me over there so I can catch up with this junior, okay?"

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Ant felt that Dor seemed to have undergone an indescribable change compared to when they first met.

His brown eyes...seemed to be shrouded in some kind of green.

"Don't make things complicated, Dole, you said you would take me there today..." Ellison said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry." Dole interrupted him and said gently, "It won't delay anything. On the contrary, Ellison, this may even bring us benefits.

"Remember those things I told you about? You can take this opportunity to go to the nearby acacia market and buy them."

"You mean, I should go and buy it alone now?" Ellison was stunned and shook his head quickly, "I can't do that. I have never been to these markets..."

"It's not as scary as you think." Dole frowned impatiently. "The market here is no different from the ordinary market you usually visit in the wooden house area. Just go ahead and do it, okay? Just remember to lower your head when you see someone wearing a witch robe and walk around them."

"But..." Ellison still hesitated.

People living in the shantytowns rarely come to the stone house area for free, let alone go to the extraordinary markets for terrifying wizards.

This is true even though Ellison is an official member of a small gang and usually has a few strong subordinates.

It’s not a question of can, but a question of will.

The extraordinary people are right beside these mortals, but there is also a thick invisible barrier separating them.

And in fact, God bless you, Ellison can't even read.

"No buts. If you want to get it—" Dole glanced at Ant, paused, and continued to look at Ellison and said, "If you want something, you have to do something... Go, Ellison, prove to me that you deserve it."

Ellison's face showed a struggle.

But soon he thought of the strange power Dole had shown him and the wonderful but brief experience of fulfillment he had had.

A barely perceptible hint of green flashed in his eyes. He finally nodded, took a breath, and walked towards the Acacia Market.

"Since when did Dole start to take on the role of leader in front of the Iron Claw Gang's manager, Ellison?"

Ant stood aside, suddenly feeling a little confused.

"Okay, let's talk now." At this time, Dole turned around and looked at Ant gently.

Dole's words made sadness resurface in Ant's heart. He put aside his doubts and confided to Dole in a halting manner.

At this moment, Ant needed such an outlet.

After a while, Ant finished telling everything. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and finally felt better.

"Thank you, Duo..." He raised his head, intending to thank Dole for listening, but saw a face with a sneer on the corner of the mouth.

"Foolish, really stupid."

Ant's heart felt stabbed and his face suddenly turned red.

"...As stupid as I was before." Dole suddenly sighed.

Only these eliminated apprentices can understand what each other has been through.

During the 9 years in the mountains, this group of young boys and girls are completely free from work and have no pressure to survive.

They lived in spacious and comfortable houses in the witch circle with a constant temperature throughout the year, ate delicious food, and had servants to take care of their daily lives. They never knew what cold or hunger was.

But suddenly, they were driven out and lost everything.

That feeling of confusion and panic is suffocating.

But the world was merciful and did not give them time to adapt, and they were driven into the chaotic Greenwood City.

For the past nine years, they have been able to visit this city for a day every month.

The boys and girls who wore the uniforms of the Horsens School at that time had only fond memories of this place.

Then, time came to an end.

Only then did the young boys and girls gradually hear about the cruelty down the mountain.

They began to have a vague understanding of the cruelty below the mountain...

But they don’t know that they can be cheated when renting a house, that someone can rob them when they stay at home, and they don’t know that even if they do nothing but just look delicious, someone will pounce on them and tear them apart!
The world was not kind enough to give them time to adapt, nor was it considerate enough to give them time to prepare before the cruel reality came knocking on their door.

During this process, there are indeed a small number of young boys and girls who will prepare in advance, such as Elena.

But most young boys and girls are like Ant and the other two. They can only grow and transform after a hard fall.

Dole looked at Ante, whose eyes were red and whose face was stunned, and sighed softly.
"Ante, you know what?

“Whether it’s you, me, or your friends… we all need to gamble, and we must gamble.

“But one thing you need to understand is we can’t be a gambler.

“When you decide to gamble, you need to consider not what you can gain if you succeed, but what you will lose if you fail.”

“I’ve lived in Greenwood for two years and have only learned two things.

“This is one of them.”

Ant stood there with a gloomy expression.

'Don't be a gambler...'

Most so-called gamblers are like this. They can only see the beauty of success in their narrow eyes.

But those...are just wishful thinking after all.

"Come with me, Ant, I'll take you to a place." Dole suddenly said again.

He patted Ant on the shoulder and turned to walk back, seemingly not worried at all that Ant would not catch up.

Ant stood still.

After a moment's silence, he took a step forward as if possessed by a ghost and followed.

Dole smiled.

Ant came to Dole's left and walked side by side, and suddenly asked:

"What's the second thing?"

"what?"

“Think about the consequences of failure first.

"What was the second thing you learned, Dole…senior?"

Dole chuckled and did not answer:

"You'll find out later, Ant."

The two of them headed forward together and reunited with Ellison outside of the Acacia Market.

Then, walk towards the south.

To the south is the direction of the Green Shadow Forest.

……

On the other hand, Jigos returned to the shed silently.

He looked at Leona's closed shed next to him, clenching and unclenching his right fist.

Apart from the clothes and the body fragments, Leona didn't leave anything behind. Jigos remembered that he should have had two secondary magic stones and some coins on him, but they were not in his clothes... probably taken away by Somle.

Gigos went to Lynn's shed instead.

He was about to knock on the door, but found that the door of the shed was also locked from the outside.

"You're not here."

He sighed and turned away.

At the same time, Lynn came to the Black Alley Market and was talking with Bakin Thor.

(End of this chapter)