The Wizard's Secret Journey

Chapter 256 Puppet Runes (4k)

When Lynn first attacked the Rotten Monster, he sensed a fluctuation within the monster that resembled the Black Moon Rune.

But at that time, he couldn't be sure. It wasn't until later, when attacking the alien spirit, that he confirmed that it was the fluctuation of the Black Moon Rune.

For this reason, Lynn fell into a mental trap, never thinking of the Corrupted Monster, and kept trying to obtain information about the Black Moon Rune from the alien body.

After all, in Lynn's view, the Otherworldly should be no different from the Corrupted Monster, at least from the perspective of studying the Black Moon Rune.

But in reality, his idea is clearly wrong.

As Lynn attempted to attack the enormous rotting monster, his lightning spell severed a portion of its body. However, unlike the otherworldly creature, this portion, no matter how small, did not possess the fluctuations of the Black Moon runes.

The small piece of body that fell from the rotten monster did not emit any fluctuations from the Black Moon runes.

This means that the Black Moon Rune inside the Rotten Monster is not like the Black Moon Rune inside the Otherworldly Spirit, which is permeated throughout the Otherworldly Spirit's body and has no specific entity, but rather possesses a specific entity.

This clearly overturned Lynn's previous speculation, but for Lynn, it was actually a good thing.

The alien spirit's body was filled with Black Moon Runes, making it impossible for Lynn to study them. However, if he could find a separate Black Moon Rune inside the Rotten Monster, the difficulty of his research would undoubtedly be greatly reduced.

As for why there is a difference between the Black Moon Runes possessed by the Otherworldly Spirits and those possessed by the Rotten Monsters, Lynn has not yet been able to determine the reason. However, he speculates that this may be related to the fact that the Rotten Monsters have a substantial physical body, while the Otherworldly Spirits do not have a physical body and are only spiritual entities.

As Lynn pondered, the mud and stone monster in front of him returned to its original state.

Lynn looked up at the rotting monster and smiled with delight.

Ten minutes later.

Lynn hovered high in the air, holding a constantly twisting and changing substance in his hands, a slight smile playing on his lips.

From its appearance, this substance looks somewhat like a miniature version of the withered branch monster we've seen before, but there are very few traces of withered branches left. It is mostly composed of a misty, liquid crystal-like substance.

This was something Lynn had painstakingly obtained from the third Rotten Monster, which he called the "Black Moon Rotten Monster Core."

The reason why it took until the third Rotten Monster to finally obtain the Black Moon Rotten Monster Core was mainly because the Black Moon Rotten Monster Core was constantly moving around inside the Black Moon Rotten Monster.

Moreover, it will perish along with the Black Moon Corruptor.

Therefore, Lynn had to be very careful to control the intensity of his attack in order to successfully separate a relatively complete Black Moon Rune.

In fact, the Black Moon Runes contained in the Black Moon Corruption Core that Lynn obtained from the third Corruption were not entirely complete.

But compared to the previous two times, one where I gained nothing and the other where I was left half-crippled, this is much better. At least I can now try to conduct research.

Because the current Black Moon Corruption Monster's core is actually an extremely weak and shrunken Corruption Monster, it still has extremely strong attack power and vigorous vitality, making it impossible to properly store.

So Lynn acted immediately, took a deep breath, and conjured a lightning blade in his hand, carefully removing the impurities from the core of the Black Moon Corruptor.

However, this step was extremely difficult. The life force of the rotten monster in Lynn's hands was almost on the verge of death, but it was still stubbornly recovering from its physical damage and constantly growing a black, slimy body, interfering with Lynn's further exploration of its internal core.

A few minutes later, Lynn could only frown deeply and watch helplessly as the Black Moon Corruptor Core in his hand completely perished.

"Only by weakening the Black Moon Corruptor to the point where only its core remains can we barely conduct research. Otherwise, the Black Moon Runes will just keep moving around inside the Corruptor's massive body, and there's no way to control them. I simply won't be able to conduct any research."

'But now it seems that even if the Black Moon Corruptor is weakened to the point where only its core remains, it is still continuously growing 'flesh and blood,' and continuing to study the Black Moon Runes under the interference of this flesh and blood is almost impossible.'

Lynn turned his head and looked down at the street below.

In the Gray Forest Ruins, the number of Rotten Monsters is far less than that of Otherworldly Spirits; the block he was in just now only had those three Rotten Monsters.

To obtain more Black Moon Corruption Cores, he must proceed to the next block.

Assuming it takes Silver Ring Academy half a day to react and take measures to support the first-tier wizards who are carrying out missions in the Ashwood Ruins.

"If I try to balance research during this time, I can only obtain a maximum of less than twenty Black Moon Corruption Monster cores. This is not only because of the limited time, but also because of the limited number of Corruption Monsters."

Lynn understood that what he needed to do now was not to continue acquiring new Black Moon Corruptor Cores, but to come up with a practical way to limit the Black Moon Corruptor Cores from constantly regenerating flesh and blood.

Generally speaking, self-healing ability has nothing to do with the amount of energy in the body, but only with the ability itself.

However, the fact that the Rotten Monsters can perform such frequent and numerous self-healing processes must require a massive amount of energy. Since energy doesn't come from nowhere, this energy either originates from within the Rotten Monsters themselves or from external sources.

Thinking of this, Lynn's eyes flashed, and he descended towards the Gray Forest Ruins once more, arriving beside the new Black Moon Corruptor.

A few minutes later, Lynn returned to the sky, holding a new Black Moon Corruptor Core in his hand.

This time, Lynn did not convene a research team. Instead, he took out materials and set up a small anti-magic array around the core of the Black Moon Corruptor.

Lynn then reassembled the lightning blade and began to remove excess flesh and blood tissue from the core of the Black Moon Corruptor.

Shila-

Under Lynn's skillful control of sorcery, the dark red, writhing flesh fell like snowflakes, then turned into gray-black dust in mid-air.

On the core of the Black Moon Corruptor, the parts that had been removed and exposed their pure interior began to regenerate flesh and blood as usual, and successfully did so.

However, the speed is significantly slower than before.

Lynn's face lit up with joy, but in that instant, he noticed that the core of the Black Moon Corruptor was gradually shrinking and becoming dim and dull.

'This is... because without external magical energy, it heals entirely using its own energy?' Lynn quickly realized, 'So it seems the Rotten Monster's powerful regenerative abilities don't entirely depend on external magical energy; it can also heal itself using its own energy.'

This discovery was not good news for Lynn, as it meant he couldn't completely stop the Black Moon Corruptor's core from healing itself. Furthermore, the research required constantly removing the "flesh" from the Black Moon Corruptor's core, meaning it would still gradually die out. And because it was isolated from external magical energy, the Black Moon Corruptor's core would die out even more rapidly.

But this isn't exactly bad news, since Lynn has achieved his goal.

Although the Black Moon Corruption Core in his hand is still healing itself, the speed is much slower than before, which gives him enough time to carefully study the inner core.

Lynn stopped his thoughts and, with surgical precision, removed the interfering parts from the surface of the Black Moon Corruptor's core with his lightning blade, then focused on his research. This time, he finally witnessed the Black Moon Runes, like liquid crystals, buried beneath the Black Moon Corruptor's body.

Unfortunately, in those few seconds of research time, Lynn could only confirm that it was indeed a Black Moon Rune, with clear rune dots.

As for the specific structure of this black moon rune and the location of the rune points, he hadn't had time to see them clearly yet.

'But it doesn't matter. As long as there is progress, all that's needed next is to spend time.' Lynn thought to himself.

Over the next few hours, Lynn continued to search for the Corrupted Monsters, then carefully weakened them little by little until only the core of the Black Moon Corrupted Monster remained, before taking them into the air to study them on the spot.

Finally, Lynn completely figured out the runes inside the Black Moon Corruptor and memorized its specific structure.

Lynn named the rune he obtained from the body of the Black Moon Corruptor "Puppet".

The complexity of this rune is no less than that of the Black Moon Enforcement Order. Lynn currently finds it difficult to understand and can only barely memorize it by relying on the wizard's immense mental power.

Fortunately, Lynn possessed the talent of clairvoyance, which naturally gave him resistance to the 'unknowable' nature of the Black Moon script. Otherwise, even a second- or third-tier wizard would not have been able to memorize this puppet rune in such a short time without any external assistance!

During Lynn's ongoing research into the Black Moon Corruptor, he saw distress signals more than once, and encountered giant alien spirits or enormous corruptors more than once.

On one occasion, Lynn even encountered a strange place.

That eerie place looked unremarkable, except that there was more 'dust' in the air, with larger dust particles clustered together like inconspicuous gray spots.

Yet these gray spots, which fail to arouse any alarm, are each far more dangerous than any giant alien spirit or enormous rotten monster!

Lynn's only injury was caused by it.

At that time, Lynn's research on the core of the Rotten Monster was nearing its end. He suddenly had a whimsical idea and took the initiative to approach a huge Rotten Monster, wanting to see if the Black Moon Runes contained inside it were any different from those of ordinary Rotten Monsters.

Lynn successfully found such a rotten monster, and with his superior mobility, he continuously weakened it, and success was just around the corner.

But during one of his wanderings, Lynn accidentally stumbled into that gray patch of land!
His left hand accidentally bumped into three gray spots, and the force field shields that were always shrouded on them collapsed almost instantly. The collapse was so fast that Lynn didn't even have time to react!
Almost simultaneously, Lynn, who had been on high alert, activated the Black Moon Enforcement Order and teleported to a distant location.

Even so, three through wounds appeared on his left hand.

Fortunately, Lynn only grazed the edge, bumping into three gray spots instead of plunging headlong into the thousands of gray spots in the center. And thankfully, the gray spots were only incredibly lethal; aside from giving Lynn three painless wounds, they caused no other adverse effects.

And those wounds had mostly healed after Lynn teleported them.

But the experience still left Lynn with lingering fear, after all, the center of the gray spots was only a few meters away from where he had passed.

If he had veered even slightly off course back then, he would probably be seriously injured, if not dead!
After that, Lynn calmed down for a long time before landing in the Graywood Ruins again and finding the enormous, rotting monster.

After that, Lynn became very cautious, and she treated any unusual occurrence, even if it was just a slight change in the smell of the air, with all her might.

He eventually succeeded in obtaining the core of the enormous rotten monster, but he was exhausted.

As for the core of the massive rotten monster, it seems to be somewhat different from that of an ordinary rotten monster, yet it also seems to be no different at all.

Before Lynn could fully study it, the core in his hand was completely destroyed.

After that, Lynn did not encounter any more giant rotten monsters, but he did find two ordinary rotten monsters.

Only now have I finally figured out the puppet runes and memorized them.

Looking at the gray forest ruins beneath his feet, Lynn hesitated whether to continue searching for the enormous rotten monster.

But at that moment, a distress signal suddenly came from not far away.

A bright red signal exploded in mid-air. Lynn glanced at it; this time the signal was very close to him, only a few kilometers away.

'This must be a signal from the wizard responsible for cleaning the adjacent area.'

The place where Silver Ring Academy initially dropped off Lynn and his companions was in the center of the area they were responsible for, but Lynn, having been searching for the Corrupted Monster, had now reached the edge of that area.

Lynn silently withdrew his gaze, having no intention of going to provide assistance.

But when he looked up at the Silver Ring Fortress overhead and gazed into the distance, a slight unease settled in his heart:
'Why haven't the reinforcements from Silver Ring Academy arrived yet?'

It was already late, and the sun was setting. The dim light grew increasingly faint as it entered the Gray Forest ruins, turning the whole world into a faded, yellowed old photograph.

Night is about to fall.

Although the negative effects of darkness are almost negligible for formal wizards, they can overcome it with either the simplest night vision spell or other forms of magic.

But the fear of darkness is almost ingrained in the human soul, and the Gunn humans are no exception.

Nighttime is always more dangerous than daytime, at least psychologically.

'Troublesome... From my current location, it will take at least one or two hours to officially leave the third ring of the Gray Forest Ruins, and at least half a day to leave the fifth ring.'

Lynn sighed inwardly; it would be unwise to rush off to any place now.

He decided to stay there a little longer.

Although theoretically, going from high above to the outer perimeter of the Gray Forest Ruins should be relatively safe, and that's how they entered before.

But this is, after all, only in theory.

You should know that the previous gray spots appeared at an altitude of over a thousand meters. And now things are different. Who can guarantee that the high altitude will be as safe as it was before?

Therefore, for safety's sake, it's best to continue observing from where you are for the time being.

(End of this chapter)