Returning To The Academy
“I wonder how Kaliweir and the others are doing now?”
When Leylin feebly picked himself up, he felt like his whole body was going to fall apart.
“Even with the A.I. Chip, I have fallen into this state, let alone their situations. I had better find them quickly, it would be really terrible if they were to fall into a trap or encounter other wild beasts.
Leylin drew out a red-coloured potion from his waist pouch and opened the wooden plug. He poured the red liquid onto his wounds.
*Hiss!* White mist continuously rose up from the wound. Leylin gritted his teeth, his face a little twisted.
After the white mist dispersed, a red membrane was covering the wound, and the bleeding had already stopped. It had also closed the wound. Leylin waved his hands around and noticed that his movements were not restricted.
“This hemostatic potion is very good, but it’s so painful when it’s being used!”
Leylin grumbled, drew out another blue coloured potion, and gulped it down. The blue potion was sweet and carried the fragrance of white bread. Leylin felt his body getting much better and also recovered some strength. He walked out from the shrubbery and leaned against a big tree to rest.
“A.I. Chip! For that hallucinatory gas, are there any remedies against it?”
Since he knew that the only danger over there was the hallucinatory gas particles, Leylin did not mind rescuing his other party members.
If it really wasn’t possible, then Leylin would just turn his head and return to the academy to inform the professors while praying for them.
[Suggestion: Freshwater has good protective properties against the infiltration of the gas particles!]
The A.I. Chip replied.
“Freshwater, huh?” Leylin opened his water bottle and soaked a handkerchief, wrapping it over his nose and mouth before heading back to their previous location.
“I thought that I had run very far away, but I haven’t even gone a thousand metres!” Leylin retraced his footsteps. Moments later, when he returned back to where the party of five had split up, he was a little speechless.
“A.I. Chip! Scan the area in front and form a map!”
Since he knew that the path in front was filled with hallucinatory gas particles, Leylin still felt very vulnerable despite his safeguard.
[Beep! Scan completed!]
An image appeared in front of Leylin’s eyes. Where the five of them were earlier, there was a depression with huge mushrooms growing out from it.
These mushrooms were extremely big and almost as tall as a human being. Each one was a mysterious purple colour, with many black spots faintly forming the image of a human in pain.
“What type of mushrooms are these?”
[Comparing to database! Similarity level: Spider-Faced Mushroom 98.7%, Spear-Lining Mushroom 74.5%, Purple Umbrella Flower 23.3%]
“Spider-Faced Mushroom?” Leylin thought back to an image he had seen in a picture book from the library.
“The Spider-Faced Mushroom is a very mysterious plant. It is able to emit extremely strong hallucinatory gas particles, and people with weak constitutions and other intelligent beings will not be able to resist them. They will often attract flying beasts and live together in harmony with them. It seems like the two Red-Eyed Ravens from earlier were attracted to them.”
Leylin noticed a few bones at the stem of the purple mushroom, some seemed to belong to humans, and some were from various creatures.
“However, these kinds of dangerous plants should have been cleaned up around our school area, unless they were moved here only recently!”
Leylin conjectured and suddenly felt chills over his body as if he had discovered a part of a conspiracy.
Shaking his head, “This is not something that I can attend to now. I had better hurry and look for Neela and the others and then leave immediately!”
With the help of the A.I. Chip, finding the others of his party members proved to be extremely easy.
Raynor was lying not far away, with one of his thighs impaled on a branch. It seemed like he had run into it himself.
Not long later, Kaliweir was found too. At this moment, he looked like a lunatic, cleaving at a huge black boulder. He could not even see Leylin walking over, and was knocked out by Leylin in the end.
As for Neela and Lilisse, they were the luckiest. Not long after they left, they had been entangled within some vines. When Leylin found them, they were still clad in the glow of the green hastening potion and were actually not injured at all.
Leylin brought the four of them far away from the Spider-Faced Mushroom. When he found a stream, he tossed all of them into the water.
This was the suggestion given by the A.I. Chip.
With the bone-chilling cold water from the stream invading the noses and throats of Kaliweir and the others, their bodies began to convulse violently.
“Cough Cough!” Kaliweir and the others started to cough violently.
Leylin moved the few of them onto flat ground and laid them on their backs. He then picked up a weapon and got into a defensive stance.
“What happened?” Kaliweir rubbed his aching head and propped himself up.
“Do you still remember what happened earlier?” Leylin came in front of Kaliweir.
“Yes! I remember now, we met with the Violent Hilly Bear and even some Direwolves!” Kaliweir touched the gash on his face.
“Was it you who saved us?”
“Indeed! However, what we encountered were not ferocious beasts. I’ll explain it when the others have woken up!” Leylin pointed at the others, who seemed to be regaining consciousness slowly.
When the few of them left the domain of the Spider-Faced Mushrooms and gulped down huge amounts of fresh water, their minds started to clear again.
Leylin explained the matter of the Spider-Faced Mushrooms to them. As for himself, he said that he was lucky to avoid their situations because he had an item that could resist hallucinations.
After listening to Leylin, the expressions of Kaliweir and the others weren’t very good at all.
“Leylin! Thank you! I owe you my life!” Kaliweir said solemnly.
“Us too!” Neela and Lilisse spoke at the same time. As for Raynor, he opened his mouth but no words came out from it.
“I suggest that you all better tend to the injuries on your bodies first!” Leylin pointed to the puncture in Raynor’s thigh.
“Alright. I have some medicinal powder here. Do you need it, Raynor?”
Kaliweir felt for the item on his body, and then retrieved a bottle of medicinal powder from his waist pouch and gave it to Raynor.
Leylin took a whiff and knew that it was medicine from the regular world. While it had certain effectiveness, it was still incomparable to a hemostasis potion.
The party slowly treated the wounds on their bodies. Raynor was the most injured, and his lips were as pale as snow. His legs were wrapped very thickly with gauze. Kaliweir managed to find a stick for him to use as a crutch, so he could at least manage to walk.
The physiques of Magi already begin to differ from those of regular humans. With the help of potions, wounds that are not too severe will usually finish healing in a few nights.
“What should we do next?” Kaliweir looked at Leylin. Although he was the party leader in name, Leylin’s performance made him bow his head.
“Can you still walk?” Leylin asked Raynor.
“I can definitely walk! Don’t... don’t leave me behind!” Raynor hurriedly propped himself up with the crutch.
“Then we had better hurry and set off!” Leylin thought of the Spider-Faced Mushrooms and of his own predictions. He had an ominous feeling about the recent events.
“That’s right!” Neela and Lilisse agreed in unison, it seemed like they were afraid of this place already.
“My Hastening Potion! That was something that I spent 5 magic crystals on!” Along the journey, Neela lamented.
“That is still okay, look at me!” Kaliweir adjusted his sack; the most important things were the 12 Red-Eyed Raven claws in it as they were the proof of completing the mission. He then pointed to his ankle.
On his legs, tufts of black fur already covered his calves and began spreading to his thigh area.
“Although a seed from the Nimble Grass can allow you to run quickly, their reproductive abilities are too great. After using them, you will definitely be contaminated. If you don’t hurry back to the academy to take care of it, you might soon become a furry man!”
“Outer appearance is one thing. The most important thing is that if the Nimble Grass live on a human’s body for a long time, there will be poisonous properties! At that time, you can only amputate your leg!” Kaliweir said with a resolved expression, “Hurry!”
Although he still wore a deadpanned expression, his footsteps had obviously quickened.
After suffering from the Spider-Faced Mushrooms’ attack, the five of them became easily frightened on the way home. Any rustling of leaves or blowing of the wind would make them feel nervous for a while.
When they finally saw the Abyssal Bone Forest Graveyard, Leylin swore that he had never found this graveyard so lovable before now.
“Password!” This time, the two-headed dog asked in a female voice.
“Abyssal Bone is paramount!” Kaliweir said slowly.
The password changes whenever a certain period of time has passed. However, the password will naturally be told in advance to those who go out on a mission, like them.
“Correct!” The two-headed dog allowed them to pass and returned to being a statue on the platform.
Leylin finally heaved a sigh of relief when they entered the academy’s gates.
Although there were no deaths on this mission, they still met with several dangers along the way. If not for the A.I. Chip’s help, it was very likely that their party would have been wiped out completely.
“Let’s go! We’ll first hand in our mission!” Kaliweir’s expression loosened and he smiled. As for Lilisse and Neela, they both seemed relieved as well.
The five of them walked towards the Mission Area. Kaliweir queued in front of the counter while the other four waited to the side.
“Neela, did the missions cause so many injuries or deaths in the past?”
Leylin felt that the atmosphere was a little off. The number of casualties in the Mission Area had obviously increased, and there were curses and sobbing heard from time to time.
“We don't usually have this many! I can guarantee that!” Neela looked at the many acolytes with darkened expressions on their faces. It seemed like not only did they fail their missions, but they had also paid a heavy price for them.
“Look! The missions have been refreshed!”
Leylin raised his head and saw a notice hanging in the upper corner of the black wall, with striking red words.
“Attention! There has been a significant increase in the dangerous creatures around the academy. We hope that the acolytes who go out in the future will be more cautious. If you aren't a level 3 acolyte, we recommend that you stay inside.
These words were a size bigger than the others and were written in a striking red font.
Behind the warning, there was a new mission written in red.
“Mission: Find out the source of the abnormalities in the academy’s vicinity. Reward: 500 magic crystals, high-grade information on 3 topics at will, or an improved spell model. This mission is categorised as extremely dangerous, be prudent when accepting this mission!”
“500 magic crystals, high-grade information on 3 topics, or even an improved spell model!” Leylin exclaimed.
“If only I had that many magic crystals!” Lilisse was also intimidated by the generous reward.