Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

Chapter 108 The Seventh War Zone

"roll!"

With a roar, Kelham charged forward, his hands bursting with blazing white flames as he fiercely grabbed at the threads.

Sizzle! The flames and shadows clashed fiercely, the silk threads sizzling as they burned, finally snapping.

In the chaos, Ian's extremely condensed frost-like thread, amidst numerous attacks, silently struck the core of O.

Shadow Weaver paused again, her smooth face suddenly turning to look at her.

Calem's hands were burned, but he didn't care. He took the opportunity to punch the Shadowweaver in the chest!

boom!

The dark purple light spot finally shattered!

The Shadow Weaver let out a piercing shriek, and its entire body disintegrated like smoke.

In the end, only a small clump of pure shadow energy crystals and a few inactive shadow threads fell to the ground.

The battle is over.

Calem was panting heavily, his hands were trembling, and sweat was pouring down his scarred face.

Rod's face turned pale, and another crack appeared on the die.

Kelly's staff was dimming, clearly indicating that it had been greatly depleted.

The apprentices, still in shock, felt an even greater chill as they looked at the withered arm and several corpses on the ground.

Fortunately, no one died, and the seriously injured received timely medical treatment.

"Gather your spoils and leave this area quickly."

Calem's voice was hoarse. "Shadowweavers rarely appear alone—there might be others nearby."

He quickly put away the precious shadow crystal and threads.

The group dared not linger and continued northward.

In the following days, strange things continued to happen frequently.

The number of monsters encountered along the way has decreased sharply; sometimes you can walk for most of the day without encountering many, as if something had cleared them out beforehand.

The few monsters you occasionally encounter are mostly injured and panicked, as if they are running away from something.

This unusual silence only made the team more uneasy.

Seven days later, a different scene finally appeared on the dark horizon ahead.

A huge, hemispherical barrier, radiating a pale golden glow, resembled an inverted bowl, covering an area spanning several miles.

Inside the barrier, towering watchtowers, neat barracks, and a particularly magnificent rock fortress in the center are faintly visible.

At the edge of the barrier, the flow of energy forms a distinct "door," through which figures dressed in robes of various colors enter and exit.

Headquarters of the Eastern Seventh War Zone, frontline outpost in the Mossy Caverns, have arrived.

As you approach the barrier, a solemn and immense aura washes over you.

Unlike the makeshift camp of the Sixth Cleanup Team, this was a true frontline fortress.

The pale gold main barrier was thick and solid, with complex chains of runes flowing across its surface, clearly possessing powerful defensive and purifying capabilities.

Beyond the barrier, there are three auxiliary defense lines. The outermost layer consists of an interlaced array of ground spikes and corrosive swamps, specifically designed to target giant monsters that excel at charging.

The middle layer was covered with a dense array of rune-inlaid watchtowers, with detection crystals embedded at the top of the towers constantly rotating, scanning every inch of the surrounding space.

The innermost layer consists of mobile patrol squads of constructs, humanoid or beast-shaped constructs powered by metal and magic, moving in perfect unison, their eyes flashing with a cold red light.

As you enter through the main gate, a wave of noise immediately engulfs you.

Inside the gate was a wide plaza, paved with smooth gray stone, where people came and went.

Besides the numerous Silver Ring wizards in their silver-white robes trimmed with black, Ian also spotted many other factions.

"Look, that's the wizard from Shadowmoon Tower—"

He paused slightly, quietly pulled up his hood, and turned to look.

"Strange, what happened after I left?"

The wizard's robes at Shadowmoon Tower are no longer the original red, but have been changed to dark blue.

He also saw the people of the Crimson Royal Court, still dressed in blood red, with arrogant eyes, and a faint smell of blood emanating from them. Some even had a few blood-dripping crystals floating around them.

The members of the Withering Council are the most bizarre; their gray-black robes seem to conceal inhuman limbs, and the ground they walk on occasionally leaves traces of decay.

Foreigners can also be seen everywhere.

Forest spirits with dark green skin and wielding bone bows are usually accompanied by several glowing ferns.

The burly dwarf was clanging and banging as he repaired a damaged rune cannon, his prosthetic arm deftly switching between tools.

A barbarian painted with glowing totems was gesturing to a sea creature with tentacles, the creature having the lower half of an octopus and the upper half covered in fine scales.

What caught Ian's attention was that a "market" had spontaneously formed at the edge of the square.

Many wizards and other races would simply spread out a cloth by the roadside, display various underground products, and trade on the spot.

"Freshly mined Shadow Crystal, 70% purity, exchange for equivalent merit points or healing potions!"

"Nightmare mushrooms gathered from the edge of the Mossy Cavern have excellent hallucinogenic effects and are a top-quality ingredient for crafting mental potions."

""

"Just slaughtered a Molten Lizard, three complete Tier 1 hides, enough to trade for a Tier 1 protective accessory!"

The sounds of hawking and bargaining filled the air.

Although the underground world is dangerous, it also contains some rare magical potions and even precious materials that have disappeared from the surface. These were all collected along the way during the cleanup mission.

Ian's gaze swept across the stalls, stopping in front of a dwarf stall owner.

The dwarf's beard was made of dark gold metallic wire, and his right eye was a complex gear lens. On the stall in front of him were several pieces of ore, some skeletal parts of subterranean creatures, and a small clump of silver-gray metal that was slowly wriggling.

"What is this?" Ian crouched down and pointed to the lump of metal.

The dwarf raised his gear-shaped eye, scanning Ian with a red light, and said in a gruff voice, "Memory Soft Gold, a treasure from deep within the underground lava veins. Once you memorize a shape, you can freely change it by inputting energy. Its strength increases with the amount of energy input, reaching up to the hardness of a first-tier metal."

Ian's heart skipped a beat.

After taking the upgraded Rock Bear Potion, his physical strength increased dramatically, and his original clothes and ordinary protective gear were no longer sufficient.

If this memory gold could be made into a close-fitting inner armor or arm guards, it could not only adjust to changes in the body but also provide extra protection.

He checked his dimensional bag and took out a small bag of sharp-clawed lizard finger bones he had collected from monsters. These bones had a weak energy conductivity and were good alchemy materials.

Should we exchange this one?

The dwarf took the finger bone, turned the gear-shaped eye a few times, weighed it in his hand, and nodded: "The quality is decent, enough to exchange for half. Add ten high-grade magic stones, or other materials of equivalent value."

Ian added a few more pieces of hardened rock that had peeled off the shell of the Rock Armor Worm, and the deal was done.

He put away the fist-sized mass of soft gold memory. It was slightly cool to the touch. He infused it with his mental energy and could clearly perceive its subtle internal structure. Sure enough, it could be slightly deformed at his will.

"Good stuff." Ian put it into his dimensional bag with satisfaction, planning to prepare it in detail when he had time.

He continued to walk around the stronghold, observing.

The entire stronghold is centered around a rock fortress, with barracks, workshops, medical stations, and other structures arranged radially outwards.

Facilities such as the mission lobby.

Roughly estimated, there are about twenty resident Level 1 Wizards, not counting those scattered in various locations or leading teams.

Every now and then, small teams would return from all directions after completing their cleanup missions, bringing back new loot and lists of casualties.

The ultimate goal of the stronghold is to destroy the "Mossy Cavern" located about 100 miles to the northwest.

That was the largest, deepest, and most powerful demon nest complex in the vicinity.

It is said that deep within the cavern, not only are there massive amounts of abyssal crystals, but also treasures that can help even a first-level wizard break through to a higher realm, attracting the attention of many powerful individuals.

Ian could sense a terrifying aura emanating from the rock fortress at the center of the stronghold, an aura that sent shivers down his spine.

The aura had solidified into a tangible form, and the spiritual power seemed to have completely crystallized. The mere pressure emanating from it made him gasp for breath.

"He should be a level two wizard—" Ian thought with a chill.