I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Chapter 113 Mutated Fire Vine Root

It rained heavily that night.

The abandoned ranger's hut outside the contaminated area was located on higher ground and was not flooded by the flood, but the collapsed hut was leaking everywhere.

Roland sat in a relatively dry corner, staring at the heavy rain in front of him.

There was no wall opposite him, and the roof over there had caved in. Heavy rain blew past him, yet he felt completely at peace.

He was fiddling with a silver candlestick in his hands, and there was a small pile of magic stones in front of him.

Retracting his gaze, Roland looked at the pile of magic stones in front of him, reached out and picked up a very round and beautiful magic stone.

Normal magic stones were only the size of a fingernail. Their shapes were irregular, and they often contained many impurities, making them look like they couldn't be cleaned.

This magic stone is the size of a thumb, a perfect square, and looks crystal clear and very beautiful.

It is three times larger than a normal magic stone, but the purity of its magic power is more than ten times higher, and its value is a hundred times higher.

"So this is the mid-grade magic stone?"

Roland played with it for a while and couldn't let it go.

The Red Skull's men were very wealthy. The ten low-level apprentices alone had seven or eight hundred magic stones, and the three mid-level apprentices had twice as much money in their bags as theirs combined.

The total number has exceeded two thousand three, of which more than one thousand five hundred are low-grade magic stones and eight medium-grade magic stones.

The eight medium-grade magic stones all came from Alina and the other two.

Roland took out all the Red Skulls' treasures, six in total. Or maybe seven. The seventh was a wooden stake on Red Spirit's body, so Roland didn't count it.

Of these six artifacts, three were familiar to Roland: the silver candlestick and the chain. Another was a clay figurine that could counterattack enemy damage, but it couldn't negate it. Roland planned to keep these three, and he intended to give the last one to the Ballet Ghost.

Of the remaining three items, one is used to refine potions, though it's far inferior to the Crucible of Bitterslumber. One is a needle, thread, and clamps, used to sew corpses together and refine souls, improving the quality and success rate of undead creation. The third is a stomach sac, which, when sewn into the body, can digest various foods, restoring vitality and magic power. Eating monsters will increase one's own magic power.

All three items were useless to Roland. He had intended to keep the undead-making tools, but the side effects were too severe. Sally was stinking and looked emaciated. If she used them too much, she would most likely lose her sexual function. And it would only be a matter of time before she was arrested.

Bernard, on the other hand, was handsome, dashing, and charming. He had Benjamin's sister completely captivated by him. While studying the dead, he never neglected his most important life activities. Furthermore, the wizard Arakkar had examined him twelve times and still couldn't find anything wrong with him.

Both of them are necromancers, but obviously there are better and more side-effect-free magic items available in the field of necromancy.

Besides, this set of tools couldn't be used to refine Red Spirit. Roland planned to make some extra money to get a better Undead artifact and turn the Red Spirit into a high-level puppet or something like that.

Besides these three rare items, the robes, inner armor, and other odds and ends belonging to these dozen or so people are actually worth quite a bit of money. Even if you discard the damaged ones, they're worth thousands of magic stones. However, they're covered in various emblems, so I'll need time to process them before selling them.

After collecting all these things, Roland left behind the silver candlesticks and chains.

Elena's chain had been marionetted and needed to be unmarionized before it could be used. Roland couldn't tell its quality yet, but he guessed it was a top-grade artifact. He could unmarionize it and refine it himself.

Roland couldn't let go of the silver candlestick. It was incredibly effective against the undead. It provided protection and concealed traces. Adding the lantern provided a double layer of protection.

The only drawback is that the candles on the candlesticks consume soul essence. Once the candles burn out, they must be replenished with soul essence.

Additionally, the silver candlestick contained some spell locks and mental imprints that no one else could use. Normally, deciphering these would be time-consuming and laborious, but Roland, relying on his intuition (the Eye of Truth), found it surprisingly easy. He planned to find time to decipher them during his forest patrols over the next couple of days. Then, he would add his own spell locks and mental imprints.

He collected all these things and then removed the fire vines that were wrapped around his body.

Huo Teng and Roland had just poured rain on it, but the flames still burned. This magical flame was not afraid of rain and did not require oxygen. As long as there was magic power to maintain it, it would continue to burn.

Then, Roland lifted up the floor of the cabin and chanted a spell to the ground. After a while, the stone and soil on the ground softened.

Then he chanted the spell to Huo Teng again.

Under the spell, the fire vine climbed up the nearby wall like a snake and dug its roots deep into the stone and soil.

The flame flowers on the fire vines grew more vigorously, and the house became much warmer.

Roland took off his salamander skin, put on his hood, and walked through the heavy rain to the basement.

The basement door was sealed, but there was still a lot of water. However, the magic array was not damaged.

"Entering and exiting the barrier requires a spell. When Alina and I repaired the barrier, we specially changed the spell to open the door. Now I am the only one who knows this spell. No one else can enter the barrier." Roland used a few magic tricks to drain the accumulated water in the basement, and then closed the door and sealed it to prevent more water from entering.

"It's safer this time."

This was deep in the Black Forest, a place rarely visited. The several mountain paths leading to the ranger's cabin were difficult to navigate, and now it was so dark and raining so hard. Climbing the mountain was akin to seeking death. No one would come.

Roland put on his hood, took the ranger's compass, and went outside for another round of inspection. Half an hour later, he returned to the corner of the cabin, all wet.

Roland took off his coat, drained the water with a spell, and then leaned against the fire vine to warm himself for a while.

After warming up for a while, Roland took out a wine glass and poured some wine. He drank two cups to quench his thirst, and then poured the third cup on the roots of the fire vine.

A few minutes later, a creaking sound came from the fire vines. The vines grew visibly larger and thicker, soon covering the entire wall.

The flame flower above originally looked like a plum blossom, but now it is growing bigger and bigger. Before long, it is as big as a palm.

At this moment, Roland suddenly felt a crying sound coming from the bag on his waist. He opened the bag in surprise, and a little elf flew out.

The elf babbled a few times around the fire vine, its eyes twinkling with excitement. Then, like a bee, it pounced on the flaming flowers and began to roll around.

Looking at the little elf collecting honey, Roland's face turned ugly.

"Damn it! I actually forgot about it. I was planning to let it go, but now I'm sorry, you have to be my slave."

The elf didn't hear Roland's muttering and was still laughing and enjoying his meal.

At this moment, Roland discovered that the flame flowers that the elves had plucked nectar from were slowly turning into buds. After a while, these buds slowly withered and died. Three of the buds condensed into three small, large, and strange fruits.

It looks a bit like cherries.

Roland picked a flame fruit and studied it for a long time before figuring out what it was.

"I remember that the flame flower licked by creatures like salamanders would condense into fruit, but it doesn't look like this."

These 'cherries' contained pure fire power. Roland wrapped them in magic foam and placed them in a small box to prevent them from being damaged in the collision.

Looking up at the little elf sleeping on the fire vine, Roland tied it up with a spell and held it in his palm.

After observing for a while, Roland found that the elf's wings had become a little bigger.

"Hehe, you've been kidnapped, little girl."

While the elf was fast asleep, Roland took out the magic contract scroll from Elena's bag and added some devilish clauses to it.

The difference in strength between the two parties is too great, and a contract can be forced to be signed by using certain unethical means.

The relevant content is in the Demon Book, and the whole process went very smoothly.

After completing the contract, a rune appeared on the elf's body. It gritted its teeth, turned over, and continued to sleep.

"From now on, someone will take care of my potions, keeping them dewormed and watered. I'm not sure if the elves can learn how to make potions. I'll check later."

Roland smiled as he removed the spell from the elf and put it back into the dimensional bag.

Looking at the thick fire vine on the wall, Roland chanted the spell and spent a long time to finally get its roots out bit by bit.

After coming into contact with the tree shepherd, Roland felt a strong urge to break through.

According to Alaye's assessment of Roland's condition, his promotion success rate has doubled - from 3% to 6%.

This improvement was no different from no improvement at all, but Roland had a strong intuition that today was his lucky day.

"With a 6% chance of advancement, plus the Fire Vine Root and that low-grade advancement potion, I should have a -% chance of success."

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(End of this chapter)