Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 209 Crisis and Truth

Around nine o'clock in the evening, the moonlight shone through the sparse treetops onto the rugged mountain road.

The fertile estate owned by Benoit Kevin's family also includes the dense forest behind the estate. The tenants of the estate planted many tea trees, a specialty of the Principality of Pharos, on the hillside, earning a lot of profits from the tea trade for the Kevin family.

"Six years ago, after secretly placing the teacher here, I had my trusted followers and servants secretly spread rumors in nearby villages and towns that a landslide caused by heavy rain on the mountain had resulted in the accidental deaths of tea pickers... They also claimed that because the family had forbidden church members from operating within the estate, the souls of those who had died unjustly could not receive a mass, and that the mountain was haunted at night."

Benoit led the two classmates into the mountains breathlessly, while describing his confidentiality methods with a bit of pride. Although the Principality of Pharos was a secular kingdom, the church's influence was not prominent and was firmly suppressed by the local Federation spellcasters.

Unlike the other two men, Melissa didn't need to carry the ritual materials, so she could walk a little more easily. "No matter how foolish and timid ordinary people are, can a mere fabricated rumor of a haunted place scare them so much that they won't dare approach this tea mountain for years?"

Jin put down his backpack, paused to catch his breath, and explained with a smile, "Rumors alone are naturally not enough. I also purchased numerous shadow bat vocal cords from secret societies of spellcasters across the country. I had Benoit craft alchemical traps that emit ghostly screams and illusory apparitions. We placed them in strategic locations at the foot of the mountain to deter hunters and herbalists who ventured up the mountain."

Melissa rolled her eyes speechlessly and muttered softly, "I still feel uneasy. Even if we don't seek help from the legendary lords in the forum, we should contact Mr. Kel'Thuzad in advance and exchange a practical method of reversing mana from him, instead of..."

Benoit glanced at Jin's expression and quickly tried to smooth things over, "Well, it's too late to make any last-minute changes to the plan now. All the ritual materials are ready. Let's just take it one step at a time!"

……

It took the three of them two or three hours to finally arrive at the secret cave halfway up the mountain near midnight.

This cave is indeed a natural cave formed by a landslide, but because the entire forest does not produce any minerals, it was soon forgotten and abandoned, making it a good place for them to hide and perform secret rituals.

Benoit waved his hands, summoning the magician's hand to brush away the dense vines covering the entrance of the cave. The three of them raised the activated magic stone of light and bent down to enter the cave.

After walking only a hundred meters in the winding mountain corridor, the space inside the cave gradually opened up, and a natural cave the size of a castle appeared before everyone.

In the darkness that the magic stone's light could not cover, there were bursts of extremely regular and strange panting sounds, like the sounds of some unknown and terrifying beast hiding in the dark, chewing and swallowing.

Melissa took the magic stones from the other two people, quickly chanted a spell to pick up the three magic stones, and spun them rapidly, emitting a fierce light. She raised her hand and threw the three magic stones together to the top of the cave, allowing them to float in the air and illuminate the entire cave.

A common low-level spell for arcane spellcasters - Arcane Radiance, can be cast using only illumination magic stones as spell materials, and the floating lighting time can last for several hours.

Just a dozen steps in front of them, crouching on the ground was a giant beast as huge as a four-wheeled carriage. Its body was pitch black with dense dark red lines, but its four legs were unusually thin and twisted, which seemed out of tune with its sturdy body, as if they had been temporarily stitched together.

The most terrifying thing is that above its neck is a human head with loose hair, face down and pressed tightly against the ground, making it impossible to see its specific appearance.

The strange, incessant gasps were coming from this terrifying half-human, half-beast creature. As the rhythm of its breathing shifted, the dark red lines on its body flickered in the light. Jin's face was filled with excitement. He took two steps forward and tremblingly called out, "Teacher Duncan! Teacher?"

The body of the terrifying beast trembled slightly, and its head, which was close to the ground, was raised up with difficulty under the drive of its skinny neck. A dark, gray and old face was revealed in front of the three people. Its unusually bulging eyes were dim and turbid. It opened its dry and cracked lips, but could only make a hoarse sound.

Melissa suddenly covered her mouth, her eyes reddened, "How could Teacher Duncan become like this..."

"Teacher Duncan is a high-level arcane mage who is more powerful than us... In the battle with the high-level priests of the church six years ago, the teacher rashly used the ancient transformation spell that had not yet been fully decomposed and formed, hoping to defeat the enemy in the form of an ancient dragon... The result..." Jin murmured in a low voice.

"Why? In that battle back then, the teacher clearly won with great difficulty. Wasn't it confirmed by the Church that the lamp of that high-ranking priest's soul had been extinguished, and he was declared dead?"

Jin chuckled self-deprecatingly, his voice trembling. "Yes, he won... The magical dragon that the teacher conjured up devoured the priest alive... When he tried to end the spell and regain his form, he became like this..."

"Okay, we'll discuss the details of what happened later. The most important thing now is to complete the ceremony as soon as possible and rescue the teacher from his current state!" Benoit urged as he took out the ritual materials from his backpack.

The three of them immediately came to their senses and began to carry out the tasks that had been assigned in advance.

Jin was responsible for preparing the ritual potion using secret methods and drawing the ritual array patterns, while Benoit took out the ritual materials prepared in advance one by one and placed them in the designated positions in the array.

Duncan, who was lying in the center of the unfinished magic circle, raised his dry and old head again and vomited a large piece of black and red coagulated blood with a wow sound. As soon as the blood clots fell to the ground, they immediately twisted and squirmed as if alive, and rushed back into the dark red lines and cracks on his body.

"This is a case of flesh and blood disintegration, but with the flesh and blood healing potion I injected in advance, it can still hold on for a while."

Benoit took out a rusty brass brazier from his backpack and placed it in the southwest direction of the magic circle. He threw the mutated egg case of the blackfin salamander brought by Melissa into it along with other equally rare magical materials. He rubbed his fingers together to produce a cluster of flames, quickly lighting the brazier.

At the same time, Jin had just finished drawing the last part of the magic circle pattern, stood up and began to recite the ancient ritual spell.

The air suddenly stagnated for a second, and then an invisible whirlwind began to blow, and the darkness around it seemed to wriggle as if it had life.

The ritual array shone with a dark red light, and the lines of the patterns drawn on it seemed as if half-coagulated blood was slowly flowing, and finally gathered under Duncan who was lying in the center of the array.

Duncan, who maintained his strange deformed state, began to tremble violently. He raised his head with difficulty again, but his gray and black face suddenly twisted, and a strange smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Snap! His two dim yellow eyeballs suddenly exploded and fell to the ground. Two dark red twisted tentacles suddenly shot out from his bloody eye sockets and quickly swept towards the nearest Jin Xi!

(End of this chapter)