Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 101 The Strange Movements of the Mysterious Statue

As Richard began to use his summoning spell.

Suddenly, transparent spirits were summoned from the scattered corpses around them.

Seeing the abundance of delicious food, the Soul-Devouring Spider Egg became instantly excited. Its first target was the tall steel fork fishman spirit. Richard could almost picture the Soul-Devouring Spider drooling with desire.

As an invisible ripple spread outwards from the Soul-Devouring Spider Egg, a powerful suction force emanated from it.

The spirits of ordinary fishmen fell from the sky like dumplings being dropped into a pot, and were all sucked into the white egg.

Among them, the tall steel fork fishman spirit struggled the most violently, barely managing to avoid being sucked in. Then, Jenna's spirit also resisted with all her might, her lifelike little face filled with a look of terror!

But as the suction force from the Soul-Devouring Spider egg grew stronger, the spirits of the three dual-wielding merfolk could not resist and were swallowed up one after another.

Next are the spirits of the short girl Brandy and the tall, thin boy Mijat.

Finally, as Jenna, the peculiar dual-wielding merman, and the towering steel-forked merman spirit were devoured, a sense of dormancy and evolution emanated from the Soul-Eating Spider Egg.

Richard was overjoyed. Just as he had expected, the Soul-Devouring Spider Eggs, having eaten their fill and fallen into a deep sleep, no longer needed to be fed and were ready to hatch at any moment.

It might be a few days later, or it might be a few hours later, but it certainly won't be long.

Speaking of the Soul-Eating Spider, Richard had already found information about the Blood Pact in the library.

Currently, as described in the book, before the other party officially hatches, preliminary communication can be conducted at a frequency of one drop of essence blood per month.

Richard has now established a certain degree of intimacy with the Soul-Devouring Spider. All he needs to do is sign a blood oath contract once the spider has fully hatched.

Of course, the Blood Oath Pact is not the highest level of pact.

The highest level of contract is the life contract, which generally states that if one party dies, the other party will also perish. If there is any secret technique involved, the lifespan will be greatly reduced. Therefore, wizards rarely use this type of contract.

After advancing to the rank of a formal wizard, even a level one wizard will have a lifespan of two to three hundred years. However, if one's contracted creature is accidentally killed by an enemy in a battle, one's lifespan will be greatly reduced or one will die directly. This is completely unacceptable for a formal wizard.

Therefore, the next level of blood oath contract has become the most commonly used contract. It simply involves feeding the contracted creature some essence blood every once in a while in order to control the contracted creature.

After carefully storing the Soul-Devouring Spider eggs, Richard and his companions left the dangerous area. Based on the feedback from Ophelia's plant senses, they continued along the underground river for several miles until they found a fork in the road that led directly upwards, presumably to the surface. This route was nearly twice as fast as their original route back.

Immediately, the three decided to take the fastest route back to the school's headquarters. Considering that Andrea had almost lost her fighting ability, Richard no longer concealed his strength this time, and summoned two sword-and-shield skeletons to protect her from the front and back.

Although the gains this time were meager, the greatest gains were still knowledge, such as Jenna's experimental manuscripts, the ancient parchment scrolls—the walking corpse conversion ritual, and the rare level zero sorcery scroll of the Necronomicon.

In the wizarding world, advanced knowledge is always equivalent to magic stones, and sometimes, advanced knowledge is even more useful than magic stones.

So, thinking about this, Richard didn't feel like he'd lost out.

Moreover, Jenner's technique for creating mutated Frankenstein's monsters can be considered exclusive knowledge.

It's important to understand that one typically only has the time and energy to research or optimize their mastery of witchcraft and level zero witchcraft after being promoted to a formal wizard. However, this requires a significant amount of time to adjust the witchcraft model. If major changes are involved, or even adjustments to the rune structure are required, the difficulty becomes even greater.

However, if successful, it can be sold as exclusive knowledge, generating substantial profits.

Because the Skeleton Warrior was severely injured in the battle with the Fishmen, he would need to recuperate in the Netherworld for a day before he could fully recover. Richard also dared not summon the Sword and Shield Skeleton, who had been marked with a tracking mark, for the time being.

With two sword-and-shield skeletons guarding them from the front and back, the three of them made their way through without incident.

Suddenly, a huge black shadow lunged straight at the sword-and-shield skeleton guarding the front.

"It's a petrified lizard!" Andrea shouted. Although his combat strength was greatly reduced, his eyesight as a mid-level knight was still sharp.

"No, it's an Iron-faced Lizard!" Richard said calmly. As a top archer, Richard's eyesight was actually slightly better than Andrea's. He could clearly see the attacker's external outline and physical characteristics.

Because petrified lizards do not have such wide jaws and shiny black skin.

The Iron-Grilled Lizard opened its blood-red maw, and its sharp steel teeth instantly bit off the skeleton soldier's thigh bone. It chewed it up in its mouth, making a crunching sound like a normal person biting cartilage. White bone fragments fell off from both sides of the Iron-Grilled Lizard.

This scene greatly shocked Richard.

He knew how hard the bones of his sword-and-shield skeletons were, but even so, they were still bitten through by the Iron-Siphon Lizard, which showed how strong its bite force was, truly living up to its name, Iron-Siphon.

Recalling the record in the Imprint Crystal that the Iron-Striped Lizard possessed the physical strength of a Great Knight, capable of splitting gold and breaking stone with a single Iron-Striped Lizard, it seems to be true.

Richard's reaction was swift; he immediately pulled out four or five tubes of Fire Dance Star from his pocket and launched a counterattack in an instant.

Amid the violent explosion, Richard and the others retreated rapidly. Ophelia began to quickly generate Bloodthirsty Vine and her plant squad, while Richard immediately cast Dark Element Shield and Bone Armor on himself.

The Iron-toothed Lizard before them possessed an astonishing bite force; even a Dark Element Shield would likely be insufficient against it.

Seconds later, a dark shadow suddenly emerged from the center of the explosion.

The three of them stared intently, and were instantly shocked!

Despite the violent explosion, the iron-skinned lizard was not seriously injured. Although some of its skin was charred, the overall damage was relatively minor.

"That explosion was enough to seriously injure even a petrified lizard. What kind of defensive ability is that? It's incredible!" Andrea, who was injured nearby, exclaimed in surprise.

"That's what makes the Iron-Striped Lizard so terrifying. Its resistance to magic is too strong. Ordinary first or second-level wizard apprentices are completely helpless against it and have no way to break through its body's defenses," Ophelia said with a solemn expression.

Compared to the petrified lizard, the iron-skinned lizard in front of them, although lacking innate witchcraft, possessed an extremely strong resistance to witchcraft on its skin, causing Richard and his companions a great headache.

"However, as long as it can cause damage, it's doomed!" With that, Richard pulled out a Fire Dance Star from his pocket, mixed it with more than ten packets of Silver Moon Dust, and threw it directly at the charging Iron-faced Lizard.

Richard may not have brought many other things, but he brought a lot of alchemical bombs.

The sight of the dozen or so red test tubes flying towards it startled the iron-snout lizard, which had just suffered a setback.

As the first sound of shattering glass rang out, a series of explosions, like firecrackers, immediately followed, crackling and popping across the shallows.

The high-frequency, continuous explosions of the alchemical bombs were too much for even the Iron-faced Lizard, a monster with extremely high resistance to witchcraft. It felt dizzy and saw stars.

Suddenly, it felt a sharp pain in its neck. When it opened its eyes, it saw a sword and shield skeleton inserting an iron sword into its jaw, piercing its neck and slashing it hard. Instantly, dark red blood splattered everywhere like a burst water pipe.

Immediately, the Iron-Striped Lizard felt its strength draining away. With all its might, it tried to turn its head and bite the sword-and-shield skeleton in half.

However, due to severe injuries that slowed his movements, or perhaps because the opponent moved too quickly, the sword and shield skeleton immediately dodged.

Before the Iron-faced Lizard could turn and run away, the sword-and-shield skeleton charged forward again and plunged the iron sword directly into its eye socket.

This time, it had no chance to fight back!

Iron-toothed Lizard, dead!

[Is absorbable energy detected? Will it be absorbed?]

"yes!"

[Gained 5914 energy points.]

Richard's face lit up with joy. Great! It had been a long time since he'd received any energy points. This Iron-Snout Lizard was a timely help, arriving just in time. With these energy points, he could quickly learn and improve the level zero sorcery skills he was interested in, Undead Vision and the Corpse Conversion Ritual.

After collecting the raw materials from the Iron-faced Lizard, Richard and his companions continued on their way, but just as they were about to reach the fork in the road ahead...

Richard felt something warm in his arms. He reached out and touched it, only to find that it was the palm-sized, lifelike three-headed serpent statue he had obtained from the tall steel-forked fishman warrior.

This greatly surprised Richard. After careful observation, he discovered that a fork in the road ahead led to a deeper underground river. The further they moved in that direction, the more intense the heat became.

However, if Richard chooses to move towards the surface, the fever will gradually subside.

This made Richard ponder: Could it be that the large group of fishmen heading in this direction just now wasn't without reason, but was also guided by this statue?

This made Richard hesitate, unsure whether to explore deeper into the underground river or return directly to the surface.

A shallow area in the underground river, crisscrossed with battle marks, indicates that this is where Richard, Jenna, and the other two from the Ring of North fought.

About an hour after Richard and his companions left, a young man dressed in a gray robe with three plague worm symbols on his chest arrived, looking travel-worn.

This was due to the underground rivers and the dense network of waterways. Although he had a clear location in his mind, it still took him a lot of effort to get there. If it were on flat ground, he probably would have arrived an hour earlier.

(End of this chapter)