Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 72 Corpse Explosion Technique (4477)

Gabby sat in the carriage, driven by an ordinary human coachman she had hired.

This way, you don't have to pay expensive magic stones; you only need to pay this ordinary person a certain amount of gold dragon coins.

The Golden Dragon Coin is merely a gold coin issued by the Golden Dragon Empire, the largest empire under Lilith's House. Its purchasing power is limited; to wizards, it is just a pile of waste, but to mortals, it is the most valuable currency for transactions besides magic stones.

At that moment, the ordinary human coachman suddenly stopped the carriage, which forced Locke's carriage, which was following behind Gabby, to stop as well.

The three centaur coachmen looked ahead in confusion. "Why has that wizard's carriage stopped?"

At the same time, Gabby was also puzzled. She lifted the carriage curtain and looked impatiently at the human driver. Gabby didn't treat mortals with the same friendliness she showed Locke. "What's going on?"

The next moment, the driver turned his head, a scarlet light flashing in his right eye, and a crazed look in his left eye.

Gabi was so frightened by the man's madness that he froze for a moment, forgetting to chant the incantation. The next moment, the mortal coachman pounced on him, chanting "Kill you, you monster," and then threw himself into Gabi's arms, pinning Gabi Montoya down.

Gabby's first reaction wasn't to immediately retaliate, but rather to wonder, 'What's wrong with this guy?'

He was just a mortal, and his attack was insignificant to Gabi.

But just as the coachman lunged at his employer, a series of 'clanging' sounds suddenly came from the ground of the carriage, and vampires emerged from the ground, startling the rickety horse pulling the carriage, which reared up and let out a terrified cry.

Five apprentice wizards from the Blood Curse Court, their eyes gleaming with calculation and deadly threat, laughed as they extended their blood-red claws and lunged at Gabi. They spoke rapidly, their laughter echoing:
"These white wizards at Lilith's Hut are really useless. They only used hypnosis magic to hypnotize a mortal, and they were so scared that she forgot to chant the spell."

"What use is a wizard apprentice who can't fight?"

"Killing these wizard apprentices is easier than slaughtering pigs. Hahahaha..."

"Kill her first, take her head, and intimidate that second-class wizard apprentice named Locke Augustine. Then we can easily take his head too!"

The five vampires threatened Gabi with increasingly louder threats, further reducing Gabi's reaction time. In his terror, Gabi froze on the spot, unable to utter a single spell.

At the same time, these apprentices who transformed themselves into vampires were clearly deliberately putting psychological pressure on Locke in the car behind them, creating panic in a very short period of time, causing Locke to panic and make wrong judgments, and then make one wrong step after another, and then kill Locke at a very small cost.

The next moment, the five vampires, whose speed was so fast that their afterimages were almost one after another, cried out in alarm. They looked down and found that, without them noticing, the mandrake vines covered with blood-colored patterns had wrapped around their bodies, restricting their movements.

"When?"

"How is that possible? If those useless wizards in Lilith's Hut used magic, how could we, with our combat experience, not have noticed?"

"Break free quickly, these magical vines are very fragile."

However, the blood claws of the five vampires landed on the level 7 Ominous Mandrake vines, but to no avail, and they were unable to destroy the Locke Magic Vines.

The Ominous Mandrake Vines can sense hostility, so the moment they detect an enemy nearby, they lock onto the Blood Curse Court wizard apprentices hidden underground. The instant the apprentices launch their attack, the Mandrake Vines silently wrap themselves around them using their invisibility.

At the same time, Locke's magical pressure spread along the mandragora vines to the two second-class wizard apprentices and the three third-class wizard apprentices.

The faces of these wizarding apprentices from the Blood Curse Court changed drastically.

An invisible pressure descended upon every inch of their skin.

That's demonic pressure!

“It’s demonic pressure. He’s not a second-class wizard apprentice; he’s a first-class wizard apprentice.”

“How is that possible? Just nine months ago, he was a second-class wizard apprentice.”

"Run! The intelligence is wrong. We can't kill him; we're just throwing our lives away."

A glint of savagery, fueled by the Crimson Echo potion, flashed in Locke's eyes. "It's too late to run now."

"Leave them all here."

It turned out to be a wizarding apprentice from the Blood Curse Tribunal who had infiltrated and was trying to ambush him on the way. This place was indeed the only way back to the school's headquarters.

I was already being very careful, but I never expected that I would still be targeted by the Blood Curse Court.

Based on what the other party knew about my situation nine months ago, it can be inferred that they must have been watching me nine months ago, when I was still on patrol. However, I left the patrol team because I obtained a breeder assistant certificate, which is why they waited nine months without finding an opportunity to ambush me.

Until recently, I took on a mission to investigate magical plants and went out, leaving the school's headquarters.

This gave them an opportunity.

'I was already very careful, but I didn't expect the Blood Curse Court to still try to kill me just because I advanced within a year.'

"Luckily, Teacher Sophia reminded me and told me to switch out of the patrol team in advance. If I had encountered them nine months ago, I would have been in real danger," Locke realized.

At this moment, the two second-class wizard-level vampires, relying on the extreme speed and blood claws brought by their vampire bloodline modification, as well as their excessive combat experience, barely managed to sever the mandrake vines' bindings, and then fled in two directions.

Locke chuckled coldly, noticing that his mandrake vines were still deep red. If the other party truly wanted to escape, the ominous mandrake vines wouldn't sense any deep hostility, as the color of the veins would have faded considerably.

But now, the ominous Mandela vines are still a deep, dark red.

These dark wizard apprentices are truly fascinating. Despite such a significant power disparity and intelligence errors, they have maintained such a strong fighting spirit.

In comparison, Gabi, one of the traditional wizard apprentices at Lilith Hut, was far inferior in combat.

Two vampires, at the level of second-class wizard apprentices, used their vampire speed to change directions more than a dozen times while fleeing, making it seem as if they were really looking for an opportunity to escape.

But suddenly, the two of them looked at each other across the distance.

Both of them had madness in their eyes. So what if they were a higher-ranking wizard? In the Blood Curse Court, they had killed white wizards who were higher-ranking than themselves before. Although at that time they were only third-rank wizard apprentices, they had used their combat experience to forcibly kill second-rank wizard apprentice white wizards.

Every wizarding apprentice in the Blood Curse Court has fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

If they can kill Locke for the Blood Curse Tribunal, they will receive a huge reward from the school and might even be transferred back to headquarters, no longer having to be cannon fodder undercover agents!
That was their hope for survival!

The next moment, the two vampire apprentices, who were still pretending to flee, suddenly turned to the side and pounced on Locke.

The two vampires' thinking was simple: they believed that Locke, as a newly promoted first-class wizard apprentice, must not have a sufficient spell library and was not at the level of a true first-class wizard apprentice. Furthermore, they believed that Locke's use of magical vines to attack would put them at a disadvantage in mid-to-long-range combat, leaving them powerless to retaliate.

Therefore, the only chance is close combat!

By deceiving Locke, he gets close to him and then uses the speed and power gained from the modification of his second-class wizard-level vampire bloodline to decide the outcome in close combat.

But their hearts sank, because they noticed that Locke, witnessing this scene, showed no surprise or panic in his eyes. It was as if he had always expected them to do this.

Locke said, "Hypnosis is an enchanting spell, isn't it? You have enchanting spells, and so do I."

The Ominous Mandrake's ability to sense hostility is essentially a trick spell from the Enchanting school.

The next moment, Locke's mandrake vines plucked the heads off the three previously trapped third-class wizard apprentices and vampire apprentices, and then gathered death energy towards their heads with the vines!
The skull explodes, killing one person, gathering the death energy of that person, and casting a spell.

Originally, this spell required at least physical contact with the skull to be cast.

However, first-class wizard apprentices possess magical pressure, which can be transmitted remotely. In other words, many spells cast by first-class wizard apprentices no longer require physical contact.

The demonic pressure traveled along the mandrake vines, transmitting magical power and death energy into the heads of the three vampires Locke had just plucked. Then, Locke used the vines to throw the mandrakes at two of the vampires.

The three heads flickered with an eerie green light, then let out screams, creating the first wave of mental damage that caused the two vampire second-class wizard apprentices to pause in their tracks.

Then comes the second wave of extremely compressed negative energy, resulting in a negative energy explosion.

The two vampires were blasted away.

One lost a leg in the explosion, and the other lost half of his right hand.

Both of them were covered in blood.

They didn't expect that Locke would directly use the third-class wizard apprentices they had brought as spellcasting materials to launch an attack on them.

Are these still the 'kind' white wizards?

Locke's mandrake vines quickly followed, transforming into drills that severed their limbs, further reducing their fighting ability.

At the same time, Locke whispered a spell and used the Poison Berry Catapult on a vampire apprentice. Amidst the explosion of more than twenty deep purple raspberries, the vampire burst into laughter and rolled around on the ground.

I simply can't control myself.

Locke glanced at the vampire. 'Skull Explosion is only a 0.3-level spell; even if I cast it, its power would be at most a 0.4-level. Plus, they're vampires, immune to the third wave of corpse poison damage and reduced by the second wave of negative energy damage, so they didn't die from my spell.'

'But the mad laughter spell poison I developed clearly also works on vampires. However, these two apprentices, who have become vampires, seem to retain a large part of their human physiological structure, so that might be why it works.'

Locke looked at another vampire apprentice and said, "Those who are poisoned by my magic will experience extreme itching in all their muscles and nerves. No matter how much they scratch, the itching will not be relieved. They will laugh uncontrollably until they die, which is extremely painful."

"However, if you are willing to tell me whether you have any other accomplices at Lilith's Hut, I might let you live for the time being."

The vampire apprentice's eyes had become filled with terror.

Although Locke's fighting skills were still relatively raw, the methods he used, including necromancy and magical poisons, made it seem as if they were fighting against senior first-class wizard apprentices from the academy.

It was so torturous.

This was completely different from those 'kind and innocent' white wizards, so at this moment, this second-class wizard apprentice had long lost the intention to assassinate Locke and gain merit, and became extremely fearful and uneasy.

"I...I'll talk...No...I can't say, the school of thought has a special restriction on me..."

The vampire second-class wizard apprentice, who had already given in out of fear, suddenly turned bloodshot and began to roar and scream like a madman.

Locke sensed that a large number of negative energy particles were converging towards his heart, and at the same time, his level 7 Mandragora vines felt a deep malice.

That was malice from a first-class wizard apprentice of the Blood Curse Court.

For a moment, Locke felt an unusual sense of being watched, as if a first-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court was observing him through the spells he had cast on these second-class wizard apprentices.

"Ah, no, I don't want to die, sir, please spare me, spare me!" the vampire apprentice cried out with the last shred of his sanity.

The next moment, Locke threw out both of the vampire second-class wizard apprentices he had captured.

In less than half a second, two huge clouds of blood mist bloomed in mid-air.

A massive shockwave swept out in all directions, sending sand and stones flying.

The ordinary coachman and three ordinary centaurs on the country road were all blown away by the shockwave.

Gabi could only lie on the ground, clutching his head.

Only Locke stood still, using his Green Grip to control the rapid growth of the Mandragora vines, forming a parasol that blocked the shockwave.

Locke's wizard robes fluttered in the wind. "This is... a Corpse Explosion spell of about 0.5 to 0.6 ring level. If my Mandrake Vine hadn't sensed it just before it was activated, I would definitely have been within the blast radius to some extent."

"They actually cast this kind of delayed spell on their own school's second-class wizard apprentices, using them as human bombs, activating it the moment they lose their usefulness and are about to betray the school, to launch a self-destruct attack on the enemy."

Locke shook his head slightly.

The society of dark wizards is truly insane.

Locke thought of the hypnotic magic that vampires used on mortals, and it was likely that the timed activation device for the Corpse Explosion spell was implemented using hypnotic magic.

By hypnotizing the apprentices, they explode the moment they have the idea of ​​actually betraying the school and are about to put it into action.

Locke thought of the first-class wizard apprentice who was observing him from afar through magic, but it didn't matter. He was a first-class wizard apprentice himself, so he wasn't afraid of him.

As long as they don't leave the school's headquarters, it will be difficult for the other party, as a first-class wizard apprentice, to enter the Lilith Hut headquarters.

After all, the difficulty for a second-class wizard apprentice to infiltrate is incomparable to that for a first-class wizard apprentice.

The traces of dark magic on first-class wizard apprentices were too heavy and too conspicuous. They themselves were likely to be the focus of Lilith's Hut's surveillance, making it difficult for them to infiltrate.

Therefore, it's not a big problem that I've been targeted by that first-class wizard apprentice.

Locke glanced around and, confirming that the mandragora vines had turned back to deep purple, said, "The scene is rather gruesome."

"The side effects of Scarlet Echo are really strong. Even after I finished the injection, I still felt a kind of exhilarating pleasure, as if my long-suppressed nature had finally been released. This must not be my own feeling; it must be a side effect of the drug."

"I am not a dark wizard."

"I am a white wizard, um."

(End of this chapter)