Witch Training Manual: My Water Magic Is Wrong

Upon seeing Wayne, Theon approached.

"Sir, the old man has led the main force to the lower levels, leaving me to guard this camp. We've held the line at the front, but news from the lower levels hasn't come back yet."

Wayne asked, "How many men did the old man take down with him?"

"I took most of the fighters above level four, leaving about thirty to guard the place." Theon gave a wry smile. "But I didn't expect the higher-ups to explode first."

"That's alright." Wayne nodded.

Schiller walked over, axe in hand, and slammed it to the ground. "We can't hold out. Most of the camp has been destroyed; there's not much value left. Rather than wasting our lives here, we should move the rest of our men upstairs. The underground level is chaotic too, but at least there are stone houses and passageways to defend."

Theon frowned as he listened: "What about the old man and the others? Once we leave, they'll lose contact with the lower levels."

Wayne glanced at the battlefield. The defensive line had been temporarily stabilized, but the monsters were still there. The camp's fence was practically useless; continuing to hold out would only delay and wear them down.

He looked at Theon: "I'll go find the old man. You take the men and retreat upstairs, take as many as you can. Go to the basement level and find the old man guarding the gate, he'll make arrangements for you."

Schiller also cupped his hands in a gesture of respect towards Wayne: "Then I'll have to trouble you, young man." He was helping his brother move people, especially Linda, and there was no room for carelessness.

Wayne nodded.

"Then I'll be going now. If I run into your father, I'll tell him."

Theon and Schiller led the wounded uphill, while Wayne continued downhill alone along the platform.

After jumping across more than ten platforms and descending nearly a hundred meters, the space in front of me suddenly opened up.

Wien paused.

The scene below has completely changed.

No longer are the mine tunnels built of rocks and ore. Instead, an endless forest stretches across the platform, with tall trees, gnarled branches, and dense vines entwining them.

Every tree is laden with fruit.

The fruit is dark purple, about the size of a fist, and covered with dark veins that pulsate like blood vessels. There are so many of them, hanging in clusters, that the branches bend low under their weight.

Wayne stared at the fruit, his expression grave.

This is a Devil Fruit.

He had seen similar accounts.

The abyssal monsters parasitize host plants with their seeds, and once the fruit matures, each seed can hatch into a low-level demon. And in such a vast area, there are countless seeds.

If they all mature and awaken, not only will the defenses of the dungeon be disrupted, but the balance of the entire City of Eternal Sleep will be completely shattered.

As he was considering whether to start clearing the orchard, a commotion suddenly arose from the depths of the orchard ahead.

Wayne crouched low and, using the tree trunk as cover, moved forward several dozen meters, finally seeing a clearing through the branches.

Five people dressed in the grey and white robes of the Divine Servant Corps are attacking a person wearing a black hood.

The man was forced to the edge of the open space, his body covered in wounds.

Wayne's gaze fell on that face, and he paused slightly.

That person is Tessa!

The five men attacking her were ruthless, leaving no survivors, forcing her to retreat repeatedly. Tessa wasn't bad at fighting, but she was clearly not in good shape; her steps were unsteady, and each move she made seemed to lack power, as if she was just barely managing to cope.

The panel quietly appeared.

Tessa's Current Status

[Status: Being hunted by the Divine Servant Team, she has been on the run for over a day, wounded. Furthermore, she has been drugged with a complex aphrodisiac from the Abyss, and its effects are mostly in place. Currently, she is only able to suppress it through sheer willpower, and is operating at less than 30% of her full strength.]

[Note 2: She stole the artifact that the Divine Servant Team unearthed from the fifth level, and it's currently on her person. This is the direct reason she's being hunted down.]

Wayne stopped looking.

He emerged from the shadows of the trees, water elements condensing into a water blade in his palm. With a flick of his finger, the water blade flew out, striking precisely the back of the leader's blade and instantly knocking it away.

The leader paused, looking in the direction the water blade had come from. Seeing Wayne emerge from the shadows, his expression hardened: "Who? Is he also with this traitor?"

Wayne ignored him, walked in front of Tessa, and separated her from the other members of the Divine Servant Team.

Tessa was taken aback when she saw who it was.

"...It's you?"

She clearly recognized Wayne.

Upon seeing this, the leader's face immediately darkened: "If you know what's good for you, get out of here and mind your own business."

Wayne ignored him and glanced back at Tessa.

"Can you still move?"

Tessa took a couple of breaths and nodded: "Yes, but it might not last long."

Upon seeing this, the leader's face flushed with anger.

"court death!"

He led his men to charge toward Wayne.

Wayne glanced at the five people opposite him.

All five are at the fourth rank. The leader is at the mid-stage of the fourth rank, and the remaining four are at the early stage.

This configuration would be considered elite in the dungeon, but the scenes he'd seen were far larger than that.

Seeing the opponent rushing towards him, he raised his left hand, and three water chains shot out from his palm at the same time. They split into three strands in mid-air, precisely wrapping around the three closest divine servant team members. The water chains tightened, suspending the people in the air.

Before the three could even react, they were locked in mid-air by the water prisoner.

The leader's pupils contracted; he was about to break free of the water prison to rescue the person when Wayne was already in front of him.

He didn't use magic; he delivered a powerful punch straight to the opponent's face. The leader hastily raised his arm to block, but the fist slammed into his forearm, and an extraordinary force sent him staggering back dozens of steps.

The leader gritted his teeth, steadied himself, drew his short sword from his waist, and with a backhand flick, slashed the blade toward Wayne's throat. Wayne dodged to the side, then pushed off with his right foot, closing in and elbowing the leader's wrist as he gripped the sword.

The short sword flew out of his hand.

The leader turned around to create some distance, but Wayne kicked him in the lower back, sending him crashing into a tree trunk.

The leader crashed into a tree trunk, slid down it, and a trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth.

The remaining four servants exchanged glances, each pulling a dark red fruit from their robes and swallowing it in a few bites. The moment the fruit entered their throats, dark red lines simultaneously appeared on their skin, their exposed muscles bulged, and veins rose from their necks to their temples.

The leader also recovered, took out a similar fruit from his waist, chewed it, and swallowed it.

He straightened up again, and his eyes now held an inexplicable fierce glint.

Tessa leaned against a tree, her breath catching in her throat, and cried out, "Watch out! They ate the Crimson Fruit. That stuff can temporarily boost your combat power by a small rank, and it seals off your sense of pain. They wouldn't even flinch if someone bit off their arm!"

Wayne did not turn around.

"understood."

The five men charged forward at once, their speed increasing by 20%. The leader rushed to the front, throwing a punch at Wayne's face. The force of the punch created a muffled thud, a completely different experience from before.

Wayne sidestepped the punch from the front.

The leader quickly recovered, sweeping back to force Wayne's escape route. The other four surrounded him from both sides, their coordination much better than before, using punches, elbows, and knees to almost completely block his retreat.