Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 285 Forbidden Forest Treasure Trove
An ominous mandrake vine extended from beneath Locke's right-hand wizard's robe sleeve and snatched a gray sloth stone lizard clinging to the trunk of a steel cedar tree.

Locke used his magical vines to squeeze the stone lizard's belly, and the stone lizard immediately tilted its head back and made a strange cry. The cry released invisible sound waves, and all the frogs that heard the special sound waves began to tremble inexplicably, and their movement speed became extremely slow.

Locke glanced at the other five first-class wizard apprentices, then took the lead and walked through the frog tongue moss jungle.

Locke said, "Frog tongue can be used to make various magical potions. The main ingredient in Frog Transformation Potion is frog tongue. In addition, the juice of this magical plant is also one of the common materials for making magical items. You can collect some if you need it."

Locke used three magical vines to cut off some frog tongues that had been slowed down by the sloth stone lizard's calls, and put them into his astral ring.

"Thank you, senior." Sebastian squatted down with a grin, took out a rune knife from his pocket, carefully selected the better-quality frog tongue moss, picked it off, and put it into his small cloth bag.

The small cloth bag is a medium-quality enchanted item containing a space-expanding spell, with an internal space roughly equivalent to a carriage.

Not everyone can afford an astral ring.

The other four first-class wizard apprentices also joined in harvesting the frog tongues and began to thank Locke.

Within the forbidden forest, there are unique resources that are not found in the outside world.

Harvesting its complex magical resources alone is a huge gain.

Before long, the group ventured deep into the Forbidden Forest, where various Forbidden Forest magical plants and creatures, rarely seen in the outside world, appeared before them.

Some trees are extremely tall, often reaching hundreds of meters in height. Walking beneath these trees, they appear as tiny as ants.

Some magical flowers have complex and vibrant colors, but they are all highly poisonous. Moreover, the poison is different for each different colored flower. Many of those present were assistants to the potion maker, so none of them dared to touch the unknown flowers in the Forbidden Forest.

No matter how beautiful it is.

Along their journey, Locke and his companions encountered many strange phenomena within the Forbidden Forest.

For example, there is a forbidden forest where, if you step on it, the ground nearby will make a loud noise and form a deep pit similar in size to your footprint, but this pit is usually dozens of times larger than your footprint.

There are many such strange and incomprehensible phenomena in the Forbidden Forest.

Sebastian said to Nixon, a first-class wizard apprentice who was over a hundred years old and traveling with them, "Ah, I remember that kind of peculiar footprint phenomenon is the main area of ​​research of one of my classmates recently."

"It seems to involve a magical theory from a school of illusion, but he has been working on this topic for many years with little to show for it."

"The main reason is that his wizard mentor's research direction is also in this direction, so he can only be forced to study the special footprint phenomenon for a long time, because it is his wizard mentor's order."

Nixon gave a wry smile. "There's nothing we can do about it. Sigh, this kind of field is inherently difficult to work out. Even professional wizards might not be able to figure it out. Your friend is really unlucky."

Nixon looked at Locke with respect and said, "It would be great if we could follow our senior into the Forbidden Forest this time and obtain some magical resources that will be useful to us in the future."

"We're all relying on Senior Augustine."

Locke glanced at Nixon, who appeared to be a member of one of the seventy-two native wizard families of Lilith Hut, and the head of the Nixon family.

These native wizarding families, although descendants of the original founders of Lilith's Hut, have all unfortunately declined drastically. The quality of their first-class wizarding apprentices is generally quite low.

Suddenly, a gigantic ant the size of a house sprang out from a secluded forest path ahead of them. The ant was covered in steel armor and had some bright red magical patterns on its body.

It seemed to have emerged from underground, and all the magical creatures that had been hiding nearby scattered and fled.

Locke frowned. "They're army ants. These ants don't travel alone; they must move in swarms."

"Be careful."

"However, the mouthparts of army ants are the main material for making high-level enchanted items, such as the Malice Curved Blade. You can hunt some back; they are quite a haul."

Nixon immediately cast a defensive spell, activating the Gear Iron Thorns he carried with him. The Gear Iron Thorns automatically meshed, transforming into armor that covered his body and blocked the army ants charging towards him.

The army ant's enormous and terrifying mandibles, like a pair of scissors, bit into his body. The mandibles rubbed violently against the gear-like iron thorns, producing sparks.

The army ant immediately twisted its body, raised its abdomen to reveal the venomous stinger behind it, and thrust it towards Nixon, injecting the acid-like curse inside the stinger into the gear-like iron thorns on Nixon's body.

Fortunately, the Gear Iron Thorn was a highly refined apprentice-level magical plant, so although a series of magical sparks appeared, and some parts of the Gear Iron Thorn even withered and made a loud noise, it was ultimately not destroyed.

On the contrary, the army ant was injured by the gear-like iron thorns, its mouthparts covered with wounds from the thorns on the surface of the gear-like iron thorns.

The army ant therefore emitted a hissing sound, similar to that produced by intense friction.

Nixon's face turned slightly pale; clearly, despite his limited combat experience, he was quite frightened.

But soon the ground shook again, and army ants emerged from the ground, leaving behind deep pits.

Hundreds of army ants suddenly emerged directly from the ground, their imposing presence terrifying, causing the ground to tremble as if a series of small earthquakes had occurred.

Nixon's face turned pale. "How could there be so many army ants? Even in the Forbidden Forest, there shouldn't be so many army ants together..."

Sebastian and the others were extremely tense and on guard, but they sensed the pressure of several unfamiliar magical forces rapidly approaching from afar.

Several wizards dressed in red robes quickly approached. They were all stunned when they saw Locke, seemingly not expecting to run into a first-class wizard apprentice at Lilith's Hut.

Locke recognized their identities as first-class wizarding apprentices of the Secret Fire Institute from their wizarding robes. The leader even wore a wizard seed badge, indicating that he was a wizard seed in the direction of the Incinerator in this generation of the Secret Fire Institute.

Wayne Acosta, the wizard seed of the Secret Fire Institute, frowned upon seeing the group at Lilith's Hut.

Since this part of the forbidden forest strictly belongs to Lilith's Hut, and they've now essentially trespassed into someone else's forbidden forest, he decided to preemptively demand, "What's going on with those wizards at Lilith's Hut up ahead?"

"These army ants are our target. They are being driven towards the planned magical trap. Please move aside and don't get in our way."

(End of this chapter)