Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 47 The Failed Apprentice

Riding the Engel Spiral Snail feels like riding in a speeding car. As magical creatures selected and modified by beast taming magic, the Engel Spiral Snails move extremely fast. These creatures come with a 0.3-level trick called [Drift].

They can run non-stop for five or six hours, maintaining a very high speed, making them the first choice for wizard apprentices at Lilith's Hut when they need to move quickly in the city.

Locke looked toward the direction the patrol's law enforcement wizards were heading, his pupils narrowing slightly, for ahead lay the familiar dwarven street.

However, by then, the iron statue of the Hearthstone Dwarf at the entrance to Dwarven Street had been removed, leaving only a bare stone base.

Meanwhile, a 'humanoid creature' with long, rope-like limbs was at the entrance of the street. Its body had many appendages, such as a pair of arms on its shoulders that were the size of a child's, a pair of arms on its back that were the size of an adult's, and two pairs of arms of strange beasts.

There was an irregular hole in his chest, running through his body from front to back.

The humanoid monster was gripping a third-class wizard apprentice with both hands. It tightened its grip, letting out a roar that was a mixture of savage laughter and fury, and then twisted it so hard that it crushed the poor wizard apprentice.

Instantly, fragments of flesh and blood exploded.

In the dwarven alley, the panicked third-class wizard apprentices were mostly stunned by this scene, while a few tried to use some magic to resolve their current predicament.

However, the little magic power of a third-class wizard apprentice did not have much effect on this humanoid monster.

The humanoid monster, defying the magic, moved forward, crawling through the streets like a spider, attempting to use its long arms to grab another wizarding prospect amidst the panicked crowd.

"So close...so close..."

"Where did I go wrong? I didn't do anything wrong. My head hurts so much. Kill...kill...kill..."

"I want to become a second-class wizard apprentice. I don't want to be eliminated. This is the last year... I don't want to... kill... kill..."

Locke saw a pair of human eyes in the head of the crazed humanoid monster, but those blue eyes were gradually becoming mad, and the last bit of reason was fading away.

Captain Bruno Suarez calmly watched the scene and sneered, "How many times has this happened this year?"

"Damn the Blood Curse Court! They sent spies to place information about problematic advancement paths in front of those desperate wizarding apprentices who had lost all hope of advancement, deliberately leading them astray and turning them into monsters like these."

"Their goal is to demoralize us and make us question the existence of problems with the college's system."

"Listen up, enforcement team! That wizarding prodigy is beyond saving; his flesh and blood have been deeply altered."

"Kill it, collect its flesh and blood, and recycle it."

The next moment, the second-class wizard apprentices of the enforcement team jumped off the snail's back and used magic models on the monster whose body had mutated.

Lesser Flame Arrow

[Acid splash]

[The Mage's Hand]...

Under the command of Captain Bruno Suarez, more than twenty second-class wizard apprentices cooperated well and quickly subdued the monster that had been transformed by dark magic.

A secondary fire arrow caused the humanoid monster's right arm to explode, and the arm fell to the ground.

Captain Bruno Suarez chanted a spell and used a trick called "Thorn Whip" to manipulate the Tiffan vines hidden beneath his wizard's robes and wrapped around his right arm.

Instantly, the Tiffany vines lashed out like an iron whip, striking the humanoid monster on the back and nearly splitting it in two.

Not only that, the Thorn Whip is an advanced trick in the Vine Hands series. Under the effect of this spell, the Tiffan vines grew barbs as sharp as steel needles, scraping off the flesh of the humanoid monster piece by piece.

The humanoid monster let out screams of agony.

Just when everyone thought the monster was nearing its end, it suddenly lifted its tattered clothes, revealing the head of a human wizard apprentice that had been hidden in its chest. Captain Bruno Suarez was stunned for a moment, while Locke, standing beside him, realized that he seemed to recognize the original identity of the head's owner.

Captain Bruno Suarez whispered, "The Blood Curse Court is a bunch of lunatics. Before, they were just deceiving our apprentices by using limb-splitting magic from necromancy to transplant limbs of powerful magical creatures to forcibly enhance their mental strength."

"But now, they've actually deceived our aspiring wizards by transplanting the heads of dead wizard apprentices."

“That head… I saw it on the battlefield. It was the head of a second-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court. That promising wizard actually transplanted that head onto his own body…”

Locke was also terrified. "That black wizard's magic power is clearly stronger than his own. With this transplant method, did he transplant the black wizard's head, or did the black wizard transplant his own head onto his body?"

“Captain Bruno, I am also skilled in the Vine Hands spell series. Perhaps we can work together.”

Captain Bruno Suarez glanced at Locke standing behind him. "New here, huh? You're absolutely right."

"Even within their Blood Curse Court, limb-extending magic is forbidden to learn; it's a dead end."

"It will change you into something inhuman and ghostly, seriously affecting your self-awareness."

“Newcomer, be careful. Our opponent now is not a failed experiment, but an elite second-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court. He was very close to becoming a first-class wizard apprentice in his lifetime.”

"You don't have much combat experience, so you'll just stay on the edge of the battlefield and watch closely. It hasn't been easy for you wizard apprentices from overseas to get to where you are today."

There's no need to be stubborn.

Captain Bruno Suarez glanced at Locke and said, "I believe in the principle of equivalence. You didn't get to enjoy the glory when our patrol was in Lilith's cabin."

"There's no need for you to risk your life now."

Locke paused for a moment, then realized why Captain Bruno Suarez was so sure he came from overseas.

A wizard apprentice who can join the patrol team at this time must have no background and may not even understand the intricacies of the situation.

People could easily guess that I came from overseas.

A strange voice, sounding like both a child and an adult, came from the head on the humanoid monster's chest: "Hey, isn't this Bruno Suarez?"

"Hahahaha... You bunch of useless people from Lilith Hut who only know how to concoct potions, you didn't expect me to get in this way, did you?"

"This body has been modified to be perfectly suited as the body for my rebirth."

The head chanted a spell: "The blood feast is truth, the darkness forges eternity; sin solidifies into shackles, those who fear the light will forever submit!"

Then, the head, controlling the humanoid monster, began a transformation. The four beastly arms on the monster's back began to merge, turning into a pair of bat wings.

His muscles and bones were changing; his spine protruded from his back like a spinal worm, and bony spikes grew back, piercing his back.

The head on the chest gradually shifted, moving towards the neck and finally settling on the throat, while the original head moved to the left shoulder.

The head revealed a pair of vampire fangs.

Locke stared at the monster, sensing its ominous and unsettling magic. "Blood Curse Court... vampire..."

"No wonder it's called the Blood Curse Court."

"This should be a branch of necromancy, a smaller category of magic within the curse sub-direction, which uses curse magic to transform oneself into a vampire magical creature."

(End of this chapter)