Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 139 Cooperation with the Shapeshifters
No. 231, Diandao Lane.

Locke rode Engel's Whirlwind Snail into the alley. His magical pressure was as obvious as a lighthouse in the dark night. The powerful magical pressure was like a small stone thrown into a river, causing ripples in the small lake of Upside Down Alley.

Many second-class wizard apprentices looked at Locke with surprise and respect, and took the initiative to greet him.

Upside-down Alley is a small lake, too small to hold large fish.

There were basically only second-class wizard apprentices here, so these second-class wizard apprentices were all wondering what had prompted a first-class wizard apprentice to enter Upside Down Alley in such a menacing manner.

Locke nodded slightly to them, and then found Gabi Montoya, who had been drawn there by his magical pressure, at number 231.

Each wizard's magical pressure has a specific natural frequency, making it relatively easy to identify.

When a first-class wizard apprentice is in hiding, he needs to restrain his magical pressure; but when searching for someone, or wanting someone to find him, he needs to release his magical pressure as much as possible.

Locke said to Gabby, "Gabby, come on, I'll hire you again for 70 magic stones. I'm looking for a third-class wizard apprentice named Pierre."

He handed Gabi a leaf from the Ominous Mandrake vine. "Can you help me find him by the scent of this leaf? He has a leaf like this on him too."

Locke explained briefly, "He is in extreme danger right now, and I need to move as fast as I can."

Upon hearing this, Gabi immediately and carefully took the leaf of the Ominous Mandrake vine, and then his face transformed into an appearance with black cat features, a partial application of the Spirit Cat Transfiguration technique.

She took a deep sniff, then transformed into a black cat, ran around on the ground for a short while, and then Gabby breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Locke and said, "Senior Locke, I can smell his faint scent in the air."

"I can find him. Senior, should we leave right away?"

Locke smiled slightly. "Good. Let's go now. Jump onto this snail and come with me. You can show me the way."

Engel's Whirlwind Snail is created by a wizard specializing in beast taming within the academy through bloodline hybridization and modulation using different magical creatures. It not only possesses a 0.3-ring drift spell but also boasts astonishing stamina. Furthermore, its natural spells are passive, consuming extremely little energy, unlike the principles by which wizards cast spells.

Therefore, even if a wizard uses magic to temporarily increase his speed to exceed that of the Engel Spiral Snail, he still cannot match the Engel Spiral Snail, which can use the drifting spell throughout the long distance.

Gabi, now a black cat, jumped onto the snail's back, and the snail began to run quickly in the direction Gabi pointed.

Gabby sat on the snail's back, constantly sniffing the special scent in the air. The spirit cat was a magical creature with amazing agility, sense of smell, and tracking ability.

Low-level shapeshifters typically have limited combat capabilities, so their learning usually focuses on exploration, tracking, and reconnaissance.

The shapeshifter chooses to transform into a medium-sized magical creature, which basically possesses all the abilities of that magical creature, and may even be more powerful.

Because what is being transformed is the average value of this race.

Using bloodline modification to incorporate the bloodline of magical creatures like spirit cats into one's own body only grants access to a portion of the spirit cat's abilities. Moreover, it's generally not the case that wizards would choose to undergo physical modifications to incorporate spirit cat bloodlines into their bodies.

Different needs.

Five minutes later.

Gabi, now in her black cat form, stood on the snail's head, her eyes brightening. "Closer, it's in the mountains ahead, but I can still smell blood, and... the scent of the dead..."

"There should be another third-class wizard apprentice next to that one, and they should both be injured."

"Senior, you'd better hurry, or they'll all be dead."

Locke frowned and glanced at the three invisible Omen Mandragora vines wrapped around his right hand. The Omen Mandragora vines had turned very red, becoming a blackish-red color.

This indicates that the enemy is indeed nearby.

But this color is wrong.

Locke pondered for a moment, a sharp glint in his eyes. Anyone who dared to touch his experimental data would die.

He said to Gabby, "Gabby, turn into an owl and fly over there to take a look."

"You should have learned the secret language of the Transfiguration school by now, right? Be ready to follow my instructions at any time."

Gabby proudly replied, "Senior, the Secret Word technique is a core skill for us Transformers during our apprenticeship, so of course I've learned it."

"At least I know the Whisper spell for single-target transformation."

The so-called whisper spell is to deform magical power and turn it into a channel for whispering information. It can establish a communication channel between two wizards, and the two sides can exchange instructions and information at any time during the battle.

Powerful shapeshifters are well-versed in the art of multiple shapeshifting and whispering, and can even shapeshift one person's magic onto multiple people to establish secret communication channels.

Locke had learned this in his class on all things. At that time, the dark elf Sassari had carefully explained to him the differences, similarities, advantages, and disadvantages among the four spell systems: the Transfiguration school's [Whispering], the Illusion school's [Sound Transmission], the Prophecy school's [Language Code], and the Mind school's [Mental Interference].

It can only be said that the realm of magic is extremely vast. Apart from the early, more primitive period of magic, when some wizards could learn many fields and become all-rounders, the white wizards at this stage emphasize mutual cooperation, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses, and dividing tasks.

This will be more efficient.

……

Deep in the mountains, Laun and Pierre were covered in wounds and panting heavily. Their already meager magical power was almost completely depleted.

They were surrounded by undead creatures, and there seemed to be even more putrid corpses hidden behind the trees in the forest.

"How can there be so many ghouls?" Laun said wearily.

The two of them had been obediently following Locke's instructions and hadn't accepted the missions issued by the academy to eliminate undead creatures, because Locke had told them that a group of Blood Curse Court spies were hunting down their apprentices at Lilith Hut.

But they didn't have much time to wait before they were drawn to the academy's reward of 15 magic stones for each mission to eliminate undead creatures.

Keep in mind, this is not a small reward.

Gabby's initial reward for conducting an investigation into an anomaly was only 25 magic stones. Although that mission didn't require her to fight, Gabby was a second-class wizard apprentice.

So, Pierre was tempted by Lauen several times, and then the two of them accepted the academy's mission together and went out.

Who would have thought that the two of them were different from others, and were attacked by a large number of ghouls as soon as they stepped out.

Pierre said regretfully, "Laun, Locke told us not to go out. We should have listened to him. He's a first-class wizard apprentice, he must know more inside information than we do."

Raun raised his sword and swung it, forcing back a ghoul. He wiped the sweat from his face. "It's too late to say anything now."

“Pierre, I’ll try to use my knightly strength to fight my way out with you…maybe there’s still a chance…”

No sooner had Laue finished speaking than a series of increasingly loud laughs erupted from the dense forest.

"Hahaha... These two naive wizards are really stupid. They've fallen into our trap and still want to fight their way out."

"That's ridiculous."

"Kill them both quickly, especially that wizard apprentice named Pierre. He should have an important potion on him for testing. Killing him will slow down the speed at which those potion sellers develop new potions."

Amidst the despair in the eyes of Laun and Pierre, seven second-class wizard apprentices of the Blood Curse Court appeared in the woods, either hanging upside down in the trees or standing beneath them.

Just as Laun was about to move, a vampire apprentice appeared in front of him in an instant. With incredible speed, it teleported to his side and then its blood claws pierced through both of Laun's shoulders.

The vampire apprentice said with a mocking yet cruel tone, "Don't move, or you'll lose both your arms."

"Now I'll ask you a question: do you want both your arms to be useless now, or do you want both your arms to be useless later?"

Pierre and Lauen were ashen-faced. They hadn't expected to encounter the second-class wizard apprentices of the Blood Curse Court!
On the other side, a vampire apprentice also grabbed Pierre's head with his blood claws. The five fingers of the blood claws, as if they were crushing stones, pressed down on Pierre's head, leaving five finger marks on his skull.

Pierre screamed in terror, but the scream only excited the vampire apprentice, who had become psychologically disturbed due to the long-term oppressive environment of the Blood Curse Court.

"Hehehe... Little white wizard, don't you know that pain and fear are the source of our curse magic's power?"

The vampire apprentice began to chant the paralysis spell in Pierre's ear.

For a curse spell to be successfully executed, a curse caster must cast a spell and hit the target. The person being cursed must experience some fear or at least have an emotional vulnerability. Furthermore, there must be physical contact or physical harm between the two parties before the curse can be directly applied.

All three conditions must be met.

Of course, this applies to those of equal level. If the magic levels differ too much, these three conditions are not required.

So, curses are weak against opponents of the same level, but when used to crush weaker opponents, they become an absolute game-changer.

Pierre gradually realized, amidst his terrified screams, that his body was becoming increasingly out of his control, and his breathing was becoming irregular and weak.

His body and limbs seemed to have lost all sensation.

Pierre and Lauen were like two lambs caught in a wolf pack, powerless to resist and constantly tormented by the mocking wolves.

(End of this chapter)