Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Chapter 404 Bone Dragon "Little Zha"

The profession of mage is divided into several schools, but the most common understanding is that there are four major schools: Evocation, Arcane, Dark Magic, and Divine Magic.

Within this, the Evocation faction is further divided into Elemental Evocation and Fel Evocation, while the Dark faction is divided into the Cursed faction and the Undead faction.

As for arcane magic, this school is somewhat mixed, including spells such as divination and prophecy, as well as spells like spirit servants.

The category of divine magic encompasses the magic of the four major churches, such as the nature magic of druids and the light magic of the Crusaders.

Of course, bloodline sorcerers like Agatha were excluded outright. It wasn't that astral magic wasn't powerful; it was simply because the Spellcasting Association didn't recognize it. Those old fogies were very stubborn; they didn't believe that those born with bloodline abilities possessed the ability to resonate with magical fields.

However, Charles scoffed at this, thinking it was just a bunch of jealous guys who were sour grapes.

Of all these factions, the most recognized combat factions are Evocation and Necromancy. These two types of mages are significantly stronger in combat than other factions. Arcane magic also has its own advantages in terms of crowd control and support. The only faction that is generally considered the worst is the Curse faction. Some Evocation mages even ridicule the Curse faction as the "gutter faction," meaning that these guys are like rats hiding in the gutter, only able to cast invisible curses in the dark.

However, magic, in essence, is just the application of magical energy; it doesn't limit a mage's faction.

It's safer to learn a particular school of magic, as there are complete sets of materials and books to consult, and teachers to guide you. So, low-level mages will initially specialize in one school of magic, but as they gradually grow, they will discover some of the shortcomings of their own school.

For example, the biggest weakness of the curse faction is that they cannot fight. Although they can cast curses silently, even the highest level of Annihilation Curse cannot guarantee that they will kill their opponent in one hit, especially if the opponent's strength is similar to yours.

For example, elemental mages have a weakness: they need to chant incantations and even make gestures every time they cast a spell in order to communicate with the elemental spirits and obtain magical energy. However, enemies won't wait for you to put on a show before attacking you. Therefore, elemental mages will learn some arcane spells to increase their combat adaptability.

Charles had previously heard Agatha talk about the training process of these magicians, and Uncle Musa had also told him that his sister Vivian had found the arcane archmage Afif to be her teacher so that she could learn more arcane magic. But the fact that this high-ranking curse archmage in front of him had switched from the gutter faction to the "Frankenstein" faction completely baffled him.

Within the enormous magic circle in the sky, a colossal construct crashed directly to the ground. Its size was in no way inferior to that of Elephant Lord. Its pale body surface was covered with various stitching marks, and many places were even reinforced with steel. Behind it were two enormous arms, and all four arms were gripping thick weapons.

"Did you think I only know how to use curse magic?" Cunningham grinned maliciously, slowly floating into the air. He pointed directly at the lizardman lich in the distance, uttering disdainful words, "Now, let me see how your bone forest deals with my construct. This is the trump card I spent my whole life creating."

"This is a colossal monster that could be pieced together from countless corpses." In the bone forest, Spencer looked up at the massive construct, the stench emanating from it making him fan his nose in disgust.

Charles stared wide-eyed at the massive construct. Just as Spencer had said, this thing had definitely consumed a huge number of human corpses. He remembered that the other man had mentioned he was also wanted; the other man must have been wanted for causing a large number of human deaths.

This guy researched the plague, not only using goblins for experiments, but also seemingly a lot of humans, and the corpses weren't wasted at all, being directly turned into constructs.

"Grawoora." The construct shouted in a strange voice, and under Cunningham's command, it charged toward Spencer, brandishing its weapons. It seemed that those huge weapons could clear out the lizardman lich's bone forest in one go.

Cunningham, however, was completely unconcerned about the outcome of the battle. He turned directly to Charles in the distance, raised his staff with a smirk, and prepared to fly towards Charles.

"Now, the owner of this place, I must trouble you to come with me."

Hearing Cunningham's words, Charles's previously relaxed body tensed up again. Fortunately, he had been holding the [Acceleration] scroll in his hand, ready to deal with such an unexpected situation.

But before he could tear the scroll, he heard Spencer shout from not far away, "Zucker, come out and help!"

The shout immediately attracted the attention of those around, and even the goblins that had been frightened away hid behind the stone trees, peeking out half of their heads.

With a loud "boom," another huge magic circle appeared in mid-air, its size no less than the purplish-red magic circle that Cunningham had used to summon his constructs, and it even looked a bit bigger.

Immediately afterwards, a tremendous dragon roar resounded, causing the hiding goblins to fall to the ground, and Cunningham's previously dismissive expression turned to terror once more.

"Clang!" A sound like shattering glass rang out, and then the huge gray-white magic circle that Spencer had summoned shattered into several pieces. A huge black crack appeared directly at the crack, and a huge bone claw emerged. Suddenly, a huge bone shot out of the crack and roared as it rushed toward the structure on the ground.

"Bone dragon? You can summon a bone dragon?" Cunningham exclaimed, pointing at Spencer in the distance with an incredulous look on his face.

"Of course, I am a lich no matter what." Spencer put his hands behind his back, stepping directly onto a floating bone fragment, moving away from the dusty battlefield where the bone dragon Zar was already locked in combat with the constructs.

The enormous bone claws swung continuously at the construct, each strike causing massive wounds and even tearing flesh off, while the construct's weapons also slashed at the bone dragon, producing loud "crackling" sounds.

Then, Zack suddenly leaped up, raised his head, and spewed a grayish-white mist at the construct on the ground. This mist directly attacked the construct, slowing its movements many times over.

With his sharp eyes, Xia Er noticed that the plants on the ground around the construct were rapidly withering after being shrouded in mist.

"Aging Breath?" Cunningham gripped his staff tightly. He was somewhat familiar with this spell, since there was an aging curse in the curse faction.

However, that was nothing compared to the aging breath of the bone dragon. Under the influence of the mist, half of the construct's body was rapidly shrunken and shrinking, and even the two hands on one side were drooping down, unable to hold the huge weapon anymore.

The aging breath directly accelerated the disintegration of the structure. The huge ropes and iron components stitched together on it also cracked one after another. It felt like after enduring a few more aging breaths, this huge structure would directly disintegrate into a huge mountain of flesh.

"This ability is completely unreasonable," Charles slowly took a few steps back, afraid of being affected by the aging breath. This spell doesn't care about the enemy's situation at all. Even inanimate objects like constructs are affected. Moreover, the aging curse is only applied to individuals, but the bone dragon's breath attacks everything in front of it indiscriminately. Flesh, materials, ironware, and even weeds on the ground are all affected by the breath.

"Your abilities are incredibly powerful." Cunningham showed a serious expression for the first time. Even when the high-level annihilation curse was blocked by Bone Forest, he didn't "turn black-faced," he just frowned. But now, he completely lost his previous aloof and nonchalant demeanor. Instead, he hunched over, looking as if he was gathering strength.

"Not every necromancer can summon a bone dragon. Dragons are creatures with a strong sense of pride; they don't want to be driven by necromancers." Cunningham coldly stared at Spencer, this lizardman lich posing an unprecedented threat to him. "Those half-baked liches can at best summon wyverns, pseudo-dragons," he continued, "and pseudo-dragons don't age or breathe fire."

"Ah," Spencer straightened his back and waved his hand, "Of course, summoning Little Zack also comes at a price, and it's quite troublesome. If I could, I'd like to summon a wyvern, so I wouldn't have to pay a price."

"Roar—", a dragon's roar rang out in the distance. It was clear that Zuckerberg had heard Spencer's words and was in a bad mood.

"Are you really going to stop me until the very end?" Cunningham gritted his teeth as he looked at the lizardman lich. "You should know that I'm working hard for all mages. If we keep going, we'll eventually conquer the plague."

"Conquer the plague?" Spencer smiled. "Is that difficult?"

"How dare you, a lich, speak so arrogantly?" Cunningham said bitterly. "Don't think I don't know why you became a lich. It was to avoid the influence of the demonic plague that you turned into this inhuman, ghostly creature."

"Of course, avoiding the plague is one aspect," Spencer said with a smile, putting his hands behind his back and taking a few steps toward Charles. "But more importantly, it's about being able to return to our former kingdom."

"Moreover," he took a few steps, then stopped, turned to look at Cunningham, "to avoid the plague, we don't need to conduct such disgusting life experiments."

He pointed to the structure being torn apart by the bone dragon Zaza in the distance. Under the constant bombardment of the aging breath, Cunningham's proud masterpiece had collapsed to the ground, weakly raising its arms. It was completely unable to resist the bone dragon's attack. Even though it had desperately cut off the bone dragon's wings, it still couldn't defeat Zaza.

"What nonsense are you spouting? How can you not conduct experiments?" Cunningham shouted. This lizardman lich was truly incomprehensible. Did he want all mages to switch to necromancers and become liches?

“I’m telling the truth,” Spencer said, straightening his posture. His black robes billowed in the air currents from the battle with the bone dragon, giving him an unusually profound appearance. “There should be a way to deal with the plague in the Tower of Babel. After all, magicians in the past had never heard of such a thing.”

"The Tower of Babel?" Cunningham frowned, but then burst out laughing. "You don't need to lie to me like that. That legend has been around for so long, but no one has ever seen it. Even if you say you've been there, who can prove you're right? Maybe the Tower of Babel is just a dream you had while you were sleeping."

His words made Spencer shake his head. "Sure enough, you crazy people who do life experiments are all so stubborn. You won't believe anything until you see the real thing."

He pointed to Charles not far away, then slowly asked, "Have you ever experienced a magical plague since you started learning magic?"

Charles tensed up. He looked at Spencer, then at Cunningham who was frowning and staring at him, and at Diana and Sophia not far away.

No, weren't you two high-level archmages having a magical duel? How did the topic turn to me again?

Moreover, my magic wasn't learned from magic books; it's me, I "took" it from the demon lord.

Of course, there would be no plague in this situation.

He looked at the group of people in front of him. Spencer had a calm and collected expression, while Cunningham looked inquisitive but full of disdain, seemingly not believing the answer at all. As for Diana and Sophia, their curious gazes had completely ruined the atmosphere of the battlefield.

“I,” Charles hesitated for a moment, glanced at Spencer one last time, and decided to tell the truth, “I have never experienced the plague, not even once.”

"What?" Cunningham frowned, but then he immediately smirked. Goblins are cunning creatures, and they're masters of deception.

"You don't believe me?" Spencer glanced at Cunningham, then continued, "Then, have the other goblins in your tribe, those few magical goblins, experienced the plague?"

"They don't either." This time, Charles didn't hesitate and gave the answer directly.

This fluent answer left Cunningham speechless. The fact that these goblins were completely unaffected by the plague struck him as utterly absurd.

He felt that the "research career" he had devoted most of his life to sounded like a joke.

The plague that tormented all mages, a problem that had persisted for thousands of years without being resolved, was completely ineffective against goblins.

Why?

Why aren't goblins a result of the plague?

How could these lowly green dwarfs, how dare they?

Thinking of this, Cunningham raised his head and looked at Charles with a smile, "I guessed right, you really are my most important experimental material."

After saying that, he raised his staff and charged towards Charles.