Wizard: You can become stronger by living life to the fullest.

Chapter 152, page 049: The Strange Manor

"Hoo hoo~"

Suddenly, a gust of wind whistled past his ears, and Buffel felt a chill creep up his back. He instinctively stopped and turned around to look back.

"What's wrong, Buffel?" Just then, another apprentice in front of him turned around and asked.

This is Nadal, also a senior apprentice of the Withered Forest, who discovered the ruins and spearheaded this operation.

Buffett looked behind him in confusion: "I feel like there's something behind me."

Upon hearing Baffir's words, the others in the group turned to look behind them, but found nothing.

Nadal asked doubtfully, "Are you kidding us? There's nothing there."

Buffet looked away: "I don't know, maybe I was just too nervous."

"Suspicious and paranoid, if you're so afraid, why don't you go back to the tower and play with those two new girls you captured? Why bother with the ruins?" Just then, a sarcastic female voice rang out.

This is Julia, the only witch in the group, and also a high-ranking apprentice.

Looking at Julia's fair swan neck, Buffel forced an ugly smile and retorted without any politeness, "If you don't know how to speak, I can open your throat for you for free, so you can keep quiet."

Julia's eyebrows shot up: "If you think you have the ability, you're welcome to give it a try."

The two didn't get along very well when they were in the tower; they had a major disagreement over a bottle of soul-splitting solution.

If it weren't for Nadal's involvement and the fact that it involved precious relics, Julia and Buffel would never have been able to come together, let alone complete the mission together.

At a crucial moment, organizer Nadal smoothed things over, saying, "Alright, everyone, let's all keep quiet. Now our focus should be on the ruins. Julia, Bapir's magic is key to our successful exploration of the ruins."

Julia snorted, but ultimately said nothing more.

Buffel is an apprentice specializing in necromancy, proficient in souls and perception, and keeps several mature ghosts, which are of great help in exploring ruins. This is the main reason why they invited Buffel this time.

The group continued onward, but no one noticed that there was now an extra person in the group.

Rosie's gaze lingered with slight curiosity on the apprentice named Buffel, who was currently in a sonic state. Unless he activated his mental power, even a high-level wizard would have difficulty detecting him.

The apprentice was able to vaguely sense something was amiss, which was quite strange.

"Did you learn some kind of special magic?"

Luo Xi was curious.

The group walked along the valley floor towards the river valley, and after passing through several forks in the road covered with thorns and weeds, they arrived at a valley.

This is the confluence of two river valleys, forming a Y-shape. It is covered with thick, dark green vegetation, and a stream about one meter wide flows slowly along the valley floor.

A thick, grayish-white fog filled the valley, obscuring the view beyond.

"Mist! Is this the place?"

All eyes turned to Nadal, the only apprentice who had ever been here.

Nadal nodded: "This is it."

He looked at the thick fog ahead with a puzzled expression: "But when I came here before, the fog wasn't this thick. Back then, I could vaguely see the scenery through the fog. It feels strange now."

"Forget about the fog, the ruins are the most important thing."

As Julia spoke, she eagerly took the lead and walked ahead.

The rest of the group followed closely behind.

"Hmm? This fog..."

As he stepped into the thick fog, Rosie suddenly sensed a strange mental energy field emanating from it. Although he couldn't determine the specific level of this mental energy field, judging from its strength, it was at least at the wizard level or above.

"what?"

Just then, he seemed to have made another discovery, and suddenly looked in a certain direction of the group, while squinting his eyes.

"Crunch! Crunch!"

After walking through the fog for about ten minutes, a harsh, metallic sound suddenly came from the depths of the fog. It sounded like the sound of some rusty metal parts rubbing together, sharp and teeth-grinding.

In the distance, the outline of a manor vaguely appeared in the thick fog. It was in the Gothic style, and the entrance was a large, weathered iron gate. The grinding sound that had just been heard came from this iron gate.

The group arrived at the gate.

The team originally consisted of 23 people: 20 knights and three wizard apprentices. However, after passing through the mist, no one realized that the team's size had suddenly changed to 25 people, with two more.

No, to be precise, it wasn't that no one noticed at all.

At the very back of the group, Rosie, still invisible, kept her gaze fixed on the two 'knights' clad in leather armor.

Wizards have very sharp mental abilities. Although these two guys didn't attract anyone's attention when they joined, Rosie discovered how they could escape his elemental vision the moment they infiltrated.

What is this?

Although its appearance is human, the feedback of its mental energy is not, but Rosie couldn't tell exactly what it was.

It seems these apprentices are in trouble.

The apprentices, completely unaware of the situation, were now preoccupied with the ruins before them.

At this moment, the gate of the manor in front of us is open, and there are some messy footprints at the entrance, which are obviously just left.

Upon seeing this, the apprentices' expressions changed drastically.

The three of them said in unison, "Someone beat us to it!"

Julia's eyebrows furrowed as she confronted Nadal, demanding, "Nadal, what's going on? Does anyone else know about this place?"

Nadal's expression was also not good: "Several apprentices came into this fog together at the time, but I don't know exactly who they were. It's possible that the apprentice from the Angmar Wizard Tower leaked the news."

Baffel frowned and said, "Angmar Wizard Tower? Didn't I hear there was an accident there recently? My mentor said that the Blood Wizard Angmar came to him to borrow a potion to restore his soul. From my mentor's tone, the injury was very serious; half of his soul was destroyed."

Julia said with a dark expression, "I don't care about that. We'd better not waste any more time on this kind of thing. I don't want to make a wasted trip."

Nadal nodded: "Julia is right, let's go inside first."

Buffel hesitated for a moment, glancing at the eerie manor. "Shouldn't we be a little more cautious? I can send Ghost to scout out the situation first."

Julia said, "Once your ghost has figured out what's inside, all you'll see is a mess."

"You'll have to wait yourselves, Alf. Let's go."

After saying this, Julia took the lead and walked inside, followed by the knights who bowed to Buffet and his companion.

Seeing this, Buffet and the other man didn't say anything more and went inside together.

Soon, the group disappeared into the thick fog.

Just after everyone left, the space at the manor entrance distorted slightly, and Rosie pulled down her hood and emerged from the thick fog.

He glanced at the manor ahead, but didn't immediately follow them inside. Instead, he went to the gate first, his gaze falling on a unique pattern on the gate.

(End of this chapter)