I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Chapter 42 Living towards death
"Brother Wallace, I'm not sure if we're going to fight later. Please tell me the functions and usage of these things."

Roland took out all the magic props and artifacts and asked about their functions and usage. Wallace explained them to Roland in detail.

After listening to it, Roland felt more and more that he needed to brush up on the basic knowledge of wizards.

Finally, Roland took out the strange gem he picked up from the devil's ashes.

Wallace was horrified after reading it. "I knew it could condense a treasure like this! This is the Abyss Stone, also known as the Demon Stone. Given its quality, if I bring it back to the academy, not only can I exchange it for credits and magic stones, I can even get a lot of those big-breasted succubi of noble blood—Wait, bring it closer, bring it closer! Oops! Why is there a crack?"

Roland asked, sweating profusely, "Can we change to a busty succubus?"

"Big breasts? You're dreaming!" Wallace said, "It would be great if you could change to someone with smaller breasts!"

Both were heartbroken.

After a pause, Wallace sighed and said, "Brother Roland, to be honest, if I had enough souls, and this Demon Stone, then when the big demon comes down next, I might be able to help. But now I only have the Demon Stone but no souls."

Roland said, "Brother Wallace, we don't have to be so negative. The two demons are actually one. If I kill the smaller one, the larger one will also be affected. The mentors have so many trump cards and are so cunning. They should be able to survive."

Wallace said, "I hope so. Let's all take a break. My magic power is seriously depleted. I hope that guy comes down soon so that I can help a little."

The two of them stopped talking. Wallace lay there to reduce his energy consumption, while Roland closed his eyes and began to meditate, recovering his condition.

This meditation was inexplicably smooth, and Roland's magic power increased significantly.

Roland was secretly shocked. "The core of Ayelai Meditation is to enhance one's own strength through contact with the lower world. On this journey through the fern forest, I witnessed too much madness and came into contact with too many things in the lower world. Through this continuous and in-depth contact with the lower world, a lot of mysterious power has accumulated in my body."

Gradually, Roland entered a state of ecstasy.

A few minutes later, Wallace's voice woke Roland up: "Roland, Roland, are you okay?"

Roland opened his eyes.

There was nothing unusual happening in the palace. Wallace woke Roland up simply because he was worried about him. After all, he had been meditating for too long.

Roland glanced at his pocket watch and his pupils suddenly shrank. It felt like only a few minutes had passed, but in reality, eight hours had already passed.

His own magic power has been greatly improved, and according to the display of Alaye's notes, his realm has also increased from the original 5.6% (56/1000) to about 30%!

Roland's expression turned strange.

On the path to becoming a wizard, Ayelai's Codex provided him with two shortcuts.

The first shortcut is to witness the madness.

The second shortcut is to get in close contact with the underlying things.

These two shortcuts either require you to let your SAN value plummet, or to jump left and right along the cliff of the abyss.

It's simply that one has to be crazy to become a demon, and one has to seek death to become a sage.

Sighing, Roland thought to himself, "If I continue to meditate, I might gain something, but now is not the time to meditate."
He put away Alaye's notebook and asked, "Has there been no movement from up there? Has the instructor contacted you?" Wallace sighed and said, "No, no one has come down yet, and no one has contacted me. Roland, there is only one possibility."

Roland took a deep breath.

Even though he had already prepared himself mentally, at this moment, his heart felt like it was being pricked by needles.

[——Roland, survive and collect our bodies.]

[——Don't even think about fighting that thing inside, brat! Once you get the Holy Grail, run for your life! Your future mother-in-law is waiting to use it to heal her!]

"Let's go, Wallace." Roland stood up. "Let's go collect their bodies!"

Roland felt mixed emotions after hearing the conversation between his mentor and the baron.

He thought back to the thousands of statues lining the passageway and said, "Our mentors are buried in the martyrs' cemetery. We didn't let our pioneers down. We won. They can rest in peace now."

"Ahem, Roland, you seem to have misunderstood me," Wallace said awkwardly. "The young lady and I have a contract. If she fell again... ahem, I mean, if she died, I wouldn't be here talking to you. They're probably unconscious, with only that crazy girl Anna still conscious—but that crazy girl doesn't even know what a magic circle is, so we can't count on her to open the door and save us."

Roland's eyes suddenly lit up.

Yes, Wallace is the demon of his mentor. If his mentor dies, Wallace will be banished back to hell!
So the mentor must still be alive.

The mentor's body is the most fragile among everyone. If she can survive, can others survive?
Hope ignited in Roland's heart, but Wallace's next words made Roland anxious again.

"Roland, as long as the young lady is alive, Anna will definitely be alive. But both of them are definitely seriously injured. The best case scenario is that Anna is still conscious, but she doesn't know how to save people. At most, she can find some herbs to chew and help the young lady stop the bleeding. The ruins are full of monsters from the abyss, and the fern forest is also full of monsters. Without help, I'm afraid they won't survive for long."

Hearing this, Roland immediately started rummaging through his dimensional bag: "I see, Wallace, let's go find that crazy girl."

Then, Wallace watched as Roland took out a teleportation scroll from his pocket.

"If you have this kind of thing, why didn't you take it out earlier?!"

Roland replied, "Since I have this thing, why should I leave in such a hurry? Wallace, I cherish my life as much as you do. But the burden on our shoulders is too heavy. If there is even a slight chance of victory, I don't want to be a deserter. Otherwise, if I have to practice with such a heavy burden for the rest of my life, I'm afraid my path as a wizard will be difficult to advance."

Wallace looked at Roland in silence for a long time, and finally understood why Roland was able to kill the devil and survive in the end.

Roland may not be the most cautious and rational one, nor the most cunning or brave one.

But he is the bravest and least fearless of all the rational, cautious and cunning people.

He faced death head-on, searching for a way to survive, and ultimately found his way back to life.

Wallace sighed, "Roland, none of us are as good as you. Your fight with that demon today will not be in vain. The young ladies will definitely survive."

The two of them said nothing more. Roland put Wallace into the dimensional bag, activated the scroll, and left.

(End of this chapter)