Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 133 One Against Three

Richard silently sensed three powerful auras waiting for him ahead.

Of course, the "not weak" mentioned here refers to the fact that all three auras are above the ordinary level two wizard apprentices and have reached the superior level. One of them has even reached the peak of a level two wizard apprentice.

The aura that Richard exuded after using the Rodriguez meditation technique to conceal his breath was almost identical.

Richard was quite puzzled that three people of such strength had come to intercept him. After thinking carefully, he realized that he had only recently returned to the school and had been following Seras, mainly studying and researching potion science. He had not done anything to make enemies around.

"Heh heh, as expected of the former top student of the Ignis School, his strength is indeed extraordinary, he was able to detect our presence in advance." Three men in black robes emerged leisurely from the bushes, looking as if they had Richard completely under their control.

The person who spoke was the one in the black robe in the middle, the one Richard sensed whose aura had reached the peak of a second-level apprentice.

All three were wearing hoods, with the brim hanging low in the front, obscuring most of their faces and making it impossible to see their features clearly. However, Richard was certain that he did not recognize them and had never even seen the three of them before, based on his own sense of their presence.

"If you obediently kneel down and beg for mercy, you can suffer less." The short man in black robes on the far right added this sentence.

This left Richard completely bewildered. How much confidence did the other person have to say such things in front of him?

Moreover, judging from what the black-robed man in the middle said, the words "top freshman" clearly indicated that the other party was definitely surrounding him, and there was absolutely no possibility that they had chosen the wrong person.

Since that's the case, there's no need for me to waste any more words with them.

Richard took his first step, and a dark elemental shield appeared around him. He waved his Bone Summoning Staff and pointed it at the ground. In less than a second, three skeleton archers appeared in the huge inverted pentagram array on the ground.

Immediately, the opponent began to frantically dodge the arrows fired by the skeleton archers while quickly casting defensive spells.

"Instant-cast spell? No, it's silent!" the person in the middle on the other side exclaimed in surprise.

An expert's skill is immediately apparent. Richard's move instantly made the three realize that they had seriously underestimated his abilities, because the technique of silent sorcery requires an extremely high level of mastery over sorcery.

Generally speaking, it takes at least a master level of mastery to master silent casting; many level three wizard apprentices have not mastered this skill.

Furthermore, Richard cast those two spells too quickly. The black-robed man in the middle, Lucius Redman, was no ordinary person; he had keen observation skills and had already noticed that Richard's level zero spell of summoning skeletons took less than a second to cast, which was terrifying.

This indicates that the opponent's mastery of the zero-level sorcery of summoning skeletons surpasses the master level and has reached the grandmaster level.

The other two men in black robes, seeing that Richard had summoned three skeleton archers, realized that this mission was definitely going to be difficult.

"How could Richard be so strong!" Lucius's face, hidden beneath his hood, was filled with anger!

"Summon your contracted creature quickly, or we definitely won't be able to hold them off," the short, black-robed man whispered.

The black-robed man in the middle suddenly emitted a black light, which was the dark element shield. However, Richard noticed a flash of black light in the wooden short staff in the man's hand. Presumably, the short staff solidified the dark element shield, which is why he instantly cast the defensive spell.

The short, black-robed man summoned a zombie and immediately hid behind it.

The last tall man in black robes suddenly moved at an incredible speed with a flash of blue whirlwind around him, barely managing to dodge the arrow attack.

At this moment, the three of them began to feel regret. Richard's strength was unfathomable, and he was not like an ordinary second-level wizard apprentice at all. He seemed to be even more troublesome than an ordinary third-level wizard apprentice.

What was supposed to be a simple task turned into a life-or-death battle!

A sharp bone flute sound rang out.

At this moment, Richard sensed a fierce aura, at least a level stronger than the three of them, rapidly approaching from the nearby swamp.

Richard smiled slightly. Things had finally become a little more interesting and less boring. To be honest, the three level-two wizard apprentices still didn't interest him much.

However, now we finally have a worthy opponent.

Suddenly, a huge snake head emerged from the swamp, its long neck at least seven or eight meters long, followed by a broad and flat body, and a pair of long and wide fleshy fins that were clearly visible.

Its upper and lower jaws protrude quite a bit, and its mouthful of sharp, angular teeth are exceptionally sharp.

Richard recognized the creature at first glance: a swamp plesiosaur, with combat strength equivalent to a level three wizard apprentice.

Sensing the call of its contracted partner, the swamp plesiosaur quickly arrived, its original ambush location being more than a hundred meters behind.

But as soon as the swamp plesiosaur arrived, it sensed that the person it was going to deal with was no ordinary person. As a creature with far more acute senses than humans, it could feel the volcanic energy lurking within Richard, as well as a faint sense of natural threat.

If the plesiosaur knew that the person opposite it had already killed hundreds or thousands of monsters like itself, it would know that its senses were indeed very sharp.

Originally, it wanted to carefully sense the enemy before attacking, but the urging of its contracted partner forced it to launch an immediate attack.

Sensing a great threat from Richard, it immediately unleashed its innate sorcery—Surge.

The swamp plesiosaur spread its fleshy fins, which were over ten meters long, and began to vibrate rapidly, making a "whoosh whoosh whoosh!" sound.

Instantly, the silt and murky black water on the surface of the swamp surged up like ocean waves, crashing in layers towards Richard and his three skeleton archers.

The silt and turbid water were like wave after wave of giant waves, making a roaring sound like a tsunami.

As the seven- or eight-meter-high silt surged toward Richard like a mudslide, Richard remained calm. With a wave of his hand, a dark elemental hand nearly three meters in diameter appeared out of thin air, slashing down and instantly splitting apart layer after layer of mudslide waves, instead rushing straight toward the swamp plesiosaur.

Richard's body was also shimmering with the light of white bones, as he had donned the skeleton armor.

Richard then equipped the three skeleton archers with a suit of skeletal armor each and ordered them to continue fighting the three men in black robes.

Even when a lion is hunting a rabbit, it still needs to exert its full strength; this is a sign of caution.

Richard drew his knight's longsword with his right hand and charged straight at the plesiosaur, leaving a trail of afterimages behind him. He was incredibly fast.

Richard, now a high-ranking knight, has surpassed the speed of the third prince William, who was known for his speed just six months ago.

The swamp plesiosaur was somewhat disheartened when it saw that the surge had been broken by the opponent's dark elemental hand, but when it saw that Richard actually dared to rush over, its face lit up with joy, because it had another innate ability - Hundred Crack Strike, which required close combat.

The swamp plesiosaur tilted its long neck back and instantly used its sharp jaws to stab dozens of times with lightning speed.

Each strike to the ground sent mud flying, creating a crater several feet deep, demonstrating the immense power of the attack.

In contrast, Richard's figure moved like a butterfly flitting among flowers, dodging the plesiosaur's lightning-fast, sharp jaw strikes. For the few strikes he couldn't dodge, he used his skeleton armor to withstand them.

The swamp plesiosaur was surprised by the hardness of its skeletal armor. Its sharp jaws struck with force, only managing to shatter the surface bone spikes, but the recoil itself sent it reeling.

Richard saw this as a good opportunity.

Richard leaped high into the air, aimed at the plesiosaur's long neck, and brought his sword down heavily, accompanied by a high-speed shockwave skill.

In an instant, like a hot knife cutting through butter, it sliced ​​through the hard scales, tough muscles and bones of the plesiosaur's neck, and the slender neck snapped off!

The cut was as smooth as a mirror. The next second, blood several meters high shot out from the cut like a crimson fountain, drenching Richard under his white armor and making him look like a blood-red god of death!

Lucius Redman, the second-level peak wizard apprentice who had signed a soul contract with the plesiosaur, let out a scream and collapsed to the ground as the plesiosaur died, dying almost simultaneously with it.

Richard understood why the swamp plesiosaur, whose strength far surpassed its own, would willingly obey the orders of someone weaker than itself—it turned out that the two had signed a soul contract.

Signing a soul contract means that if one party dies, both parties die.

However, signing this contract has one major advantage: for wizard apprentices, it allows them to form contracts with creatures much stronger than themselves. In other words, once the soul contract is successfully signed, it's like gaining a powerful battle pet, instantly boosting their strength.

Therefore, in the wizarding world where strength reigns supreme, many wizarding apprentices choose this shortcut.

Blood oaths do not have this problem; the death of a creature bound by a blood oath will not have a significant impact on the wizard apprentice.

However, the Blood Oath Pact also has three major drawbacks. First, when the contract is signed at the beginning, the strength of the contracted creature is below that of the wizard apprentice.

In addition, it is necessary to regularly feed the body with semen and blood.

Finally, if the strength of the contracted creature gradually surpasses that of the wizard apprentice, its required blood essence will increase significantly, eventually leading to a point where the wizard apprentice will be unable to provide it, resulting in the contracted creature's defection.

Richard signed a blood oath contract, but he was confident that his strength improvement speed would far surpass that of the Soul-Devouring Spider.

At this moment, Richard's effortless slaying of the swamp plesiosaur, comparable to a third-level wizard apprentice, terrified the other two men in black robes.

Their will to fight was instantly lost.

The saying "to catch the thief, first catch the king" probably means this.

"Richard, stop! I beg to redeem my life by offering gold as ransom according to the noble principle! I am willing to pay a thousand magic stones if you sign a contract with me," the short, black-robed man shouted hurriedly.

"Me too, me too! I also want to redeem my life! I know the location of an ancient wizard's ruins. As long as you sign a contract with him, I will tell you immediately," the tall man in black robes shouted, not wanting to be outdone, as his teammate had given in.

Richard smiled slightly, and just as the two thought Richard was about to agree, the skeleton archer shot two arrows that hit their throats directly, killing them instantly.

At this moment, the messenger bird in the short, black-robed man's hand slipped from his limp hand. It seemed he never expected Richard to kill him without the slightest hesitation, leaving him no time to even release the messenger bird.

Meanwhile, a delicate sheepskin scroll slipped from between the fingers of the other tall man in black robes. It seemed to seal some powerful magic spell, but obviously the counterattack plan had failed, and releasing the scroll would take time.

"Does Richard not care at all why he was ambushed and killed?"

Both of them had intense resentment in their eyes, and they couldn't understand why, under normal circumstances, they should ask a few questions before killing the person.

Richard's actions are simply illogical!

At this moment, the Soul-Eating Spider quickly crawled out of Richard's arms. The Soul-Eating Spider was now smaller, only the size of a normal person's palm, but its color had changed.

Its body has gradually changed from being entirely white to a crystal color, and more than half of its body has now completed this transformation.

It is said that when the Soul-Eating Spider's body turns completely crystal-colored, it signifies that it has reached maturity.

The Soul-Eating Spider now devours souls, so Richard no longer needs to use his spirit-manipulation magic.

One after another, four extremely fine yet pure streams of unowned spiritual energy flowed from the Soul-Devouring Spider and into Richard's spiritual sea. But the most crucial element was the trace of pure soul energy mixed within them.

Instantly, a tingling, exhilarating sensation swept over Richard, making him feel like he was floating on air!

Richard hadn't felt this way in a long time since returning to the school's headquarters.

From this perspective, Richard actually hopes that as many wizard apprentices as possible will come after him. As long as the formal wizards don't make a move, he is not afraid of anyone at the moment.

After the Soul-Eating Spider crawled into the bodies of three level-two wizard apprentices and searched their memory fragments, Richard realized that he seemed to have underestimated the forces such as the Mutual Aid Society all along.

Although these three second-level wizard apprentices all came from the North Ring, Richard was quickly identified through the otherworldly version of the "Hometown Association"—the Ignis School's Mutual Aid Society.

This time, they only targeted me because they received a bounty of 500 magic stones.

As for the person who commissioned the mission, in the memories of the black-robed man who signed a soul contract with the swamp plesiosaur, he was a third-level wizard apprentice from the North Ring named Joachim Frishhus.

Richard frowned, convinced that he definitely didn't know this Joachim, and the only time he had ever crossed paths with the North Ring was when he killed the red-haired girl Jenna and her two companions.

It seems that they've probably been targeted because of this incident.

But six months have passed, why are they still fixated on him? Could it be that this third-level wizard apprentice named Joachim Frishwitz is the boyfriend of the red-haired girl Jenna?

If that's the case, then it makes sense.

(End of this chapter)