Witch Training Manual: My Water Magic Is Wrong

On the other side, Wayne was observing his right hand.

The black layer on my hand was still there, as if it had seeped into my skin and spread along the veins up half of my arm.

The abyssal curse here is much stronger than any he's encountered before. The same deathly aura left by demons would dissipate with a ray of holy light if placed outside, but the aura on that wolf king has somehow survived under the holy light until now.

Rocco did not participate in Debon's celebration.

She looked at Wayne with concern.

"Young man, is your hand alright?"

"It should be nothing serious, nothing to worry about."

As he finished speaking, he placed his left palm over his right, and a stream of water element, far purer than before, seeped from his palm, enveloping his entire hand.

The black curse seemed to have encountered some natural enemy, dissipating at a visible speed. In less than three breaths, the palm was restored to its original state, clean and tidy, without leaving a trace.

Wayne wiggled his fingers a couple of times to make sure there were no hidden dangers, and he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

"Water magic is still the most effective."

In fact, it's not that the Holy Light is ineffective; its purification is perfectly fine, it's just that it takes too long to take effect.

That level of curse, even if repelled layer by layer by holy light, would take at least a quarter of an hour. Water magic, on the other hand, wipes it out almost instantly, leaving not a trace.

Debon was still happily collecting magic cores; he had already taken the skull of the three-headed wolf, and he couldn't stop smiling.

He looked at Wayne.

"Young man, you contributed the most this time, so you get the lion's share of the magic cores, and the three of us will split the rest, okay?"

"You can handle it as you see fit."

Upon hearing this, Debon picked up the items even more enthusiastically.

Soon, Wayne also joined in the looting. He took out a magic core and twirled it between his fingertips.

It feels slightly cool to the touch, with a pale golden sheen on the surface, and you can vaguely sense the energy contained within.

He had dealt with magic cores before, but those cores were all murky and dark inside, carrying a heavy aura of the abyss. This one in his hand was different; its energy was excessively pure, almost clean, without a trace of impurity.

"Strange." Wayne pinched the magic core, his eyes flickering slightly. "Something's not right about this thing."

Debon was crouching a few steps away, extracting the last wolf's skull. Hearing Wayne's words, he looked up: "What's wrong?"

"You hunt monsters every day, and all you get are magic cores of this quality?"

Debon glanced at the magic core in his hand, wiped the blood off his hands, and casually said, "You mean those golden stripes? That's normal. All the magic cores dug up in this city are like that; the murky ones outside are rarer."

Wayne asked, "Why?"

Debon stuffed a piece of dry ration into his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and answered vaguely, "It's normal that you don't know since you're new here. This place is the burial ground of a god; the corpse of a god is buried beneath the city. His divinity settled into the earth's veins, seeping into every piece of ore and every demon's body along the mineral veins. The demon cores and crystals we dig out absorb this residual divinity."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "To put it bluntly, the magic cores here aren't pure demonic crystals at all; they're mixed with divine embers. So their quality is far superior to those outside, and whether you absorb them directly or use them to process medicine, the effects are much better."

Luo Ke continued, "That's why people in this city treat magic cores as hard currency. They are the best material for trial participants to cultivate with; a single high-quality magic core is worth several months of arduous training outside."

Just then, a voice suddenly rang in Wayne's ears, old and deep.

"My child... came to find me..."

Go deeper...

Go deeper…

Wayne stopped moving.

He looked around. There were only the four of them in the mine. The corpses of the demon wolves lay scattered on the ground, and several glowing ores were shimmering in the distance.

He looked at Debon, Sanders, and Rocco, all three of them busy with their own things, none of them showing any unusual behavior.

"Did you hear that sound?"

Debon looked up, the dagger still embedded in the skull of a dire wolf: "A sound? What sound? You mean there was some noise in the mine?"

Rocco shook his head: "I didn't hear it."

Sanders didn't speak; he leaned against the wall and shook his head, indicating that he hadn't heard either.

Seeing that his expression was off, Debon pressed, "Young man, did you hear something?"

Wayne paused for a moment, then said, "Maybe I misheard."

Before he could finish speaking...

The sound rang out again, clearer than before.

"Child...come...come to me..."

Wayne's pupils contracted slightly.

This time he was certain it wasn't a misperception.

At the same time, the panel appeared.

[Hint: An ancient whisper]

[Content: You heard the call of a deceased god. He recognized your presence; this voice was a direct invitation from Him.]

[Note: Your transformation into a child is a gift from Him. He wanted you to enter His slumbering place in your purest form. He also considered turning you into a woman, but later changed His mind.]

Wayne silently looked at the panel twice.

A child is one thing, but to turn into a woman? What is this god thinking? His water magic is a bit special, but it shouldn't cause a dead god to worry about this much, right?

"Hey buddy, what are you daydreaming about?" Debon's cheerful voice interrupted his thoughts. "Hurry up, let's finish collecting the remaining magic cores and then we're out of here. I don't want to stay in this lousy mine for another second."

Wayne put away the magic core in his hand and suddenly remembered the missing wolf spider squad.

"Don't we still have the task of finding people?"

Debon was squatting on the ground, putting the last magic core into his pocket. Hearing this, he patted the blood off his hands and straightened up: "You mean the Tarantula team? Never mind them, they're just putting on a show."

Wayne raised an eyebrow: "Just for show?"

"This ghost town sees countless people enter and die every day. The disappearance of a small squad is just an invoice to be written off at the distribution center. We go down there, collect the loot, and that's it. Nobody really expects us to bring them back."

He gestured towards the depths of the mine tunnel: "The place where those guys disappeared is in the middle of the tunnel, just a few steps from the entrance to the third level. In that kind of location, nine out of ten teams that had accidents stepped on something they shouldn't have. It's much better for the four of us to get up there unharmed than to drag a few corpses back."

After hearing what Debon said, Wayne hesitated.

Debon was right; the Tarantula team was probably not coming back. The distribution office didn't really expect them to bring them back anyway; they'd just make the trip, hand over the loot, and that would be the end of the mission.

But he can't just go up there like that.

He didn't come to this city to earn points.

The Tree of Eternal Slumber, that so-called forbidden object, if it really is underground in this city, then it is most likely somewhere in this space.

Wayne made his decision quickly.

He looked at Debon: "You guys go up first."

Debon was taken aback: "You're not leaving?"

"I have some things to take care of."

Debon frowned, glanced at the deep darkness below the mine, then looked at Wayne: "Young man, you're not thinking of going down there, are you?"