Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 139 New Sorcery: Shadow Dance

Richard took out formic acid potion from his pocket from Muken's body. He had also purchased it from the Black Forest Market. However, Richard did not expect that he would use this potion so soon.

He only thought of this problem after experiencing the previous battle with the three second-level wizard apprentices from the North Ring.

In the Gray Fern Wilderness of the Underdark, every monster's corpse can be used as a blood sacrifice to the three-headed serpent god Kumaila. Even the slightly inferior ones can serve as food for the merfolk tribe, so there's no need to use potions to treat the corpses.

But things are very different once we return to the surface.

Many of the enemies Richard encounters are no longer primarily monsters, but mostly humans.

Therefore, destroying evidence is sometimes very necessary.

While it cannot completely conceal one's tracks, it can at least greatly increase the difficulty for the other party to investigate.

Formic acid is a highly corrosive agent made from the saliva of fire ants and mixed with other herbs.

For common items such as corpses, flax, and ordinary fur, just a few drops are enough to turn them into a puddle of black water.

However, it is much less effective on inorganic materials such as iron and stones.

"Zzzzz!"

As several drops of formic acid dripped down, a loud corrosive sound rang out, and a wisp of black smoke instantly rose from Muken's corpse, emitting a foul stench.

It smells like rotten eggs that have been expired for more than half a year, mixed with the smell of excrement.

Richard, who had been holding his breath, immediately shook his head!

Soon after, only a pool of black water remained on the ground, and Muken's body and clothes had vanished without a trace.

With that, Richard finished cleaning up and began packing his things. He did a quick inventory of his gains, and even disregarding the knowledge he gained in areas like witchcraft and potion recipes, the tangible rewards alone were quite substantial.

It was even more lucrative than the spoils he had obtained from the three second-level wizard apprentices of the North Ring.

The top-tier sorcery item [Storm's Fury] alone is worth approximately two thousand magic stones.

Moreover, Richard later found a top-tier active-trigger type sorcery item on Muken, the Wind Spirit Pendant, which Richard estimated might be even more valuable than the Storm's Fury.

【Wind Spirit Pendant】, a top-tier sorcery item. When the holder is attacked, it will automatically trigger a level 0 sorcery wind element shield and swift wind. In addition, after the item triggers its effect once, it only requires a 12-hour recharge time to trigger it again.

Richard touched the rhomboid, transparent crystal pendant in his hand, and could feel the two ever-increasing wind elemental forces inside the crystal.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for Richard not to be envious of such a defensive magical item that could be triggered on its own, but he still decided to sell it immediately at the next wizarding market.

Reduce the risk of being tracked or located.

Muken also carried seven intermediate-level magic stones and more than three hundred ordinary magic stones with him.

In addition, there are a series of other medicines, such as hemostatic agents, healing agents, and basic mental energy recovery agents, which are also quite valuable.

If you add them all up, they're definitely worth around seven or eight thousand magic stones.

A substantial gain!

Before setting off, Richard summoned three skeleton guardians who formed a triangular formation around him.

At the same time, he took out a black robe from his pack and covered one of the skeleton guards with it.

This arrangement makes it look like two wizard apprentices are leading two skeletons.

That way it won't seem out of place.

After all, it would be too conspicuous for a wizard apprentice, even a level three wizard apprentice, to be accompanied by three skeleton guards.

As for why not take out three sets of black robes?

It's very simple. The number of black robes in the package is limited, so we have to use them sparingly.

As he traveled, Richard also reflected on the battle, considering areas for improvement and shortcomings.

In terms of combat awareness, you cannot directly improve it through your own inspiration panel.

During his six months in the Darklands of Grey Fern Wilds, Richard spent most of his time in battle.

Therefore, in terms of combat experience alone, he is no less experienced than Muken, a third-level wizard apprentice from the Gurus Academy.

But most of Muken's enemies are fellow human wizard apprentices, unlike Richard, whose enemies are mainly monsters.

Therefore, from this perspective, Richard's combat experience is not rich enough.

Richard has a good habit of constantly summarizing and accumulating combat experience.

Good habits, once formed, will benefit you for life!

He did the same thing in the Gray Fern Wilderness; after each battle with an unfamiliar monster, Richard would summarize his combat experience.

As a result, whenever Richard encountered a familiar monster, he was able to quickly find its weaknesses, devise tactics, and thus achieve a swift kill.

This is why the warriors of the blind fishman tribe have such great admiration for Richard, the "wandering wizard".

Richard had fought almost all the monsters on the outskirts of the Gray Fern Wilderness. Later, he would instinctively know how to kill them as soon as they met, and he would quickly kill them. The ordinary merman warriors could just cheer from the sidelines and collect the spoils after the battle.

Based on his observations in this battle, Richard felt that the first problem was that he lacked powerful single-target spells. Although Shadow Grip was a versatile spell with multiple functions, its attack power was only strong, not top-tier.

Secondly, in terms of ranged attack methods, the longbow originally from the Shadow Hunters is gradually becoming less effective in keeping up with the increasingly powerful enemies.

His enemies are getting stronger and stronger, from first and second level wizard apprentices to third level wizard apprentices.

From the Ring of North to the Academy of Gulus, their origins have grown increasingly impressive.

Moreover, Richard discovered that Gurus Academy truly lived up to its reputation as the number one necromancer academy among the three major necromancer academies; the third-level wizard apprentice, Muken, was quite powerful.

Leaving aside top-tier witchcraft tools, even disguise potions and goblins are extremely rare items, yet the other party managed to gather them all, demonstrating a plethora of sophisticated methods.

If Richard hadn't had enough backup plans and hadn't been so vigilant, things might have gone wrong.

According to Muken's memory, Richard discovered that following the Black Forest trail southwards, after entering the territory of the Kingdom of Heron, but before reaching Rossby County, there were two more county towns to pass through. One of them, Ander City in Ander County, had another wizard market nearby.

Based on my own travel speed, it would take about two and a half days to reach Ander City, but if I worked hard and traveled day and night, I could reduce the time to one and a half days.

It's okay to work hard!

Richard planned to quickly get to the wizarding market, sell off what he had, and then see if he could find a suitable powerful bow.

Many wizards and wizarding apprentices in this world come from noble families, and for them, archery is a basic skill.

Therefore, many people, even those who have become third-level wizard apprentices or even wizards, will try to make or buy bows of the wizarding tool level, that is, bows engraved with special wizarding arrays and with special effects.

If I can buy this powerful bow at the next wizard market, it will greatly improve my ranged attack power.

-

Time continued to pass as Richard traveled on his journey!

Richard glanced up unintentionally and was surprised to find that it was a full moon. The moon in this other world was just as bright and flawless as it had been in his previous life.

Moonlight shone on the dark forest where branches intertwined, casting dappled patterns that made the already oddly shaped trees appear even more grotesque and bizarre.

The trees lining the path swayed and rustled in the breeze, making a sound like a strange laugh.

If an ordinary person saw this scene, they would be so frightened that they would fall ill.

No wonder that even first- and second-level wizard apprentices generally don't choose to travel at night in the Black Forest.

The atmosphere alone is terrifying enough!

Only someone as skilled and daring as Richard would dare to travel through the night, but he also noticed several groups of people following him all the way. Some had already left, while others were still closely following him in the bushes on both sides of the path.

As dawn broke, the sky gradually brightened.

Richard, who had been traveling all night, was showing signs of fatigue despite his advanced knightly physique.

The unidentified creatures along the Black Forest trail, after following Richard for a while, ultimately didn't dare to rush up and attack him, probably because the two fully armed skeletons wielding swords and shields didn't look like they had any meat and wouldn't taste good.

Looking at the gradually thinning tall trees on both sides of the path, Richard knew that he had left the core area of ​​the Black Forest and was now roughly at the border of the Kingdom of Heron.

The borders of this world are basically only roughly defined, such as using a certain river as the dividing line, but it's just an approximation.

The border no longer has the barbed wire, boundary markers, and patrol soldiers who patrol the border 24 hours a day like in the previous life.

Therefore, the journey was peaceful and uneventful.

After walking for about an hour, Richard finally emerged from the Black Forest and entered a plain area.

As the sun slowly rose and the mist gradually dissipated, Richard, with his excellent eyesight, was able to see what appeared to be a human village dozens of miles ahead, with scattered houses faintly visible.

Richard's face immediately lit up with joy; the presence of a village meant there were people there.

I can rest for a while and buy some food, water, and even horses.

While ordinary horses are certainly not as fast as mutated winter wolves, they are only used for transportation, so there's no need to be so particular.

Since he no longer had the mutated winter wolf, a mount skilled at traversing mountains and valleys, and also needed to travel to the wizard market near Ander City, Richard changed his original plan to take a shortcut over the mountains and valleys, and instead headed quickly to Ander City along the main road.

As Richard got closer to the village, he noticed a significant change in the environment on both sides of the path.

What was once a mess of shrubs of varying heights has now been transformed into a uniform winter wheat field.

Now that it is the month of green grass, the winter wheat has survived the harsh winter and entered the greening period.

"Returning to green" means that winter wheat begins to grow new leaves again, and the leaves that were originally yellowish-green to survive the cold winter will now turn green.

Accompanied by the unique fragrance of new winter wheat leaves and the scent of soil from the wheat field, Richard's mood began to improve without him even realizing it.

Before entering the village, Richard put away the three skeleton guards.

With a warm smile on his face, like a sunny boy, he stepped into the village.

Soon, Richard was treated like a VIP at the home of a slightly wealthy farmer, after paying a gold dinar.

After having a breakfast that the farmer's family considered quite luxurious, Richard asked for a room to rest for a while.

The bedroom on the second floor of a farmer's house.

Richard stared at the 76598 energy points he had accumulated over the past six months on the inspiration panel and fell into deep thought.

The original plan was to save this large amount of energy points for breaking through the limits of meditation, but now it seems necessary to improve [Shadow Dance] first.

This rare level 0 sorcery allows the caster to merge into the shadows. Within the shadows, the caster's movement speed is greatly increased, and some of the damage received from attacks is absorbed by the shadows. The specific effects vary greatly depending on the level of mastery of the sorcery.

If Richard masters this sorcery that focuses on increasing movement speed, his strength will experience another small leap.

[Host detected practicing Level 0 Shadow Dance. Do/Do you wish to consume energy to gain inspiration for practicing Level 0 Shadow Dance?]

Richard thought for a moment, then dragged the slider to 5000 and selected "Yes!"

In an instant, Richard entered a dream space. This time, the location seemed to be in a forest. Richard possessed the body of a man in black robes and began chanting the incantation for the Shadow Dance, simultaneously sketching out the six sorcery runes involved in the Shadow Dance in his mind.

With each attempt, Richard's understanding of the Shadow Dance Steps improved rapidly.

After an unknown amount of time, Richard's figure began to speed through the dappled light and shadow of the forest. As soon as he entered the shadow area, Richard's speed would increase dramatically, and at the same time, his whole body seemed to be draped in a dark veil, making him difficult to see clearly.

After thousands and thousands of practice sessions.

After a dizzying spin, Richard returned to his original form.

Upon opening the panel, the [Witchcraft] section displays the following:

Shadow Dance (Master 38%, Special Effect: Basic Shadow Damage Reduction)

[Basic Shadow Damage Reduction: When the caster is in a shadow area, all damage taken is reduced by 20%.]

Richard's face lit up with joy, because this special effect was highly practical.

So Richard didn't hesitate to start improving again.

After several dream journeys, Richard spent a total of 12000 energy points to upgrade [Shadow Dance] to its limit.

At this moment, the relevant information displayed on the panel is as follows:

Shadow Dance (Extreme, Effect: Shadow Damage Invulnerability)

[Shadow Damage Reduction: When the caster is in a shadow area, all damage taken is reduced by 50%.]

Looking at the above information, Richard smiled with satisfaction.

With the window half-closed, Richard couldn't wait to begin testing the sorcery [Shadow Dance] inside the room.

Richard maintained his speed in the bright area, but when he entered the shadowy area where the sunlight did not reach, he seemed to be covered by a black veil, like a human-shaped black mist, and his speed increased exponentially.

But once he left the shadowy area, Richard's figure returned to its original speed. This alternation of fast and slow speed, repeated many times, immediately gave the viewer a dizzying feeling that made them want to vomit.

It is conceivable that if the other party is unprepared, they will be caught off guard by Richard's witchcraft.

The Shadow Dance Steps, mastered to the extreme level, doubled Richard's movement speed within the shadow area. Keep in mind that Richard already possessed the physical attributes of a high-level knight; doubling that speed on top of that is truly remarkable!

Its mental energy consumption is approximately 2 standard units of mental energy per minute.

Richard didn't think this was a big problem, as formal battles usually only lasted a few minutes.

If you can't win in a few minutes, it's best to choose a strategic retreat!

Half an hour later, Richard reluctantly mounted a nag and bid farewell to the hospitable farmer family.

This nag was the best horse the farmers could find after searching the entire village for Richard.

But the speed of a slow horse is about the same as Richard's walking speed. The only advantage is that it's less tiring.

So Richard rode his old horse along the damp path toward Ander.

-

A day and a half later, Richard, who had been traveling day and night, finally arrived at the wizard market near Ander City.

After paying an entrance fee of one magic stone, Richard entered the Andel Market, which shared the same name as the nearby county town.

At both ends and in the middle of the street, there was a signboard displaying the logo, name, and types of goods sold at the official shops.

For example, the symbol of an crossed sword and axe represents a shop called Dwarf Hammer Blacksmith Shop, which sells a variety of well-made weapons.

For example, the test tube and beaker symbol represents a shop called Yedder Pharmacy, which sells various alchemical potions.

And so on.

This allows newly arrived wizard apprentices to quickly find their target shops at the market.

Richard looked around and was surprised to find that there was a small auction house there.

Moreover, it seemed that the market was intentionally designed to avoid cutthroat competition, with no more than three shops of the same type. Richard looked around and saw that there were basically only two of them.

This is likely the result of deliberate guidance from the market administrators.

Just like the previous Black Forest market, both sides of the street were lined with wizard apprentices setting up stalls.

The market was larger than the Black Forest Market, probably because it was far from the large academies, and the trading needs of wizards and wizard apprentices were increasing.

After a moment's thought, Richard decided to go to the auction house first. Generally speaking, anything that can be auctioned must be a good item.

Moreover, the items I have on hand are probably too expensive for most shops to handle.

So Richard headed straight to the only three-story building in the middle of the street. On the way, Richard slightly adjusted the concealment effect, displaying the fluctuations of a level three wizard apprentice.

In unfamiliar environments, demonstrating your abilities can help you avoid a lot of trouble.

Just as they were about to enter, a beautiful young woman, about twenty years old, greeted them in the magnificent hall, radiating the spiritual energy fluctuations of a first-level wizard apprentice.

Clearly, the other party noticed the young Richard immediately, not because of his good looks, but because of the unfathomable aura emanating from him. This immediately made the girl realize that the young man in front of her might be a big client.

"Sir, welcome to Pete Auction House. Are you here to consign or to purchase?" A girl's clear, melodious voice rang out from the side.

"Buy."

The girl smiled and continued:

"Sir, please follow me to VIP Room Number Three to rest. I will then give you a detailed introduction to our auction house's collection. By the way, sir, do you have any requirements for the items you wish to purchase?"

"Are there any better bows?"

Richard hesitated for a moment, then said, "If there's a decent knight's longsword or a half-sword, I'd like one too."

Upon hearing Richard's words, the girl's face lit up with joy, and she hurriedly said, "Sir, you are very lucky. Just yesterday, someone sold a longbow of high-level witchcraft artifact level to our auction house."

Furthermore, our auction house also has two longbows of intermediate-level sorcery artifact quality. If your time permits, there will be a small auction in three days.

Richard immediately frowned, stopped in his tracks, and asked, "Can't you sell items in advance at your auction house?"

"Well, it's not impossible, but the price has to be 50% higher than the starting price in the auction before I can buy it directly. That might increase the price," the girl explained with difficulty.

In her opinion, this deal might fall through again, after all, a 50% price increase is something that most people can't afford.

"The magic stone shouldn't be a problem, as long as the quality is good enough." Richard breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand, interrupting the girl's answer.

Richard certainly wouldn't waste three days here just to buy a longbow.

Moreover, there might be other competitors at the auction, so buying directly wouldn't necessarily cost much more magic stones.

"Yes, sir, please rest for a while. This is honey tea, which has a calming and relaxing effect. I'll go get the longbow now." The girl turned and left the room happily.

Richard did not touch the honey tea.

A short while later, the girl brought three longbows.

What first caught Richard's attention was a pure white longbow that exuded a chilling aura. It seemed to be made from the spine of some kind of marine creature, with clearly visible polished joints on the bow.

"My lord, it is said that this longbow is a weapon from a rare sea creature called a Naga. Because it was transported from the distant Vitlor Continent Trade Alliance, its price is relatively high."

The girl noticed Richard's gaze and immediately focused on the white longbow, so she quickly introduced it to him.

"【Naga Heartpiercer】Advanced sorcery item level longbow, solidified with level zero sorcery ice arrows. Three special ice arrows formed from condensed ice can be used each day. After use, it needs to be charged for 24 hours before it can be used again."

The base price is 780 magic stones, but if you want to buy it directly, you'll need to pay 1170 magic stones.

Ice Arrow? Richard's eyes lit up immediately. "Three times a day? How powerful is Ice Arrow? Is it comparable to Ice Arrow Technique?"

The girl was immediately embarrassed: "My lord, how is that possible? If I can use the Ice Arrow spell three times a day, then this [Naga Heartpiercer] will at least be a top-tier sorcery item."

According to our appraisers' tests, when condensed into an ice arrow and fired with a longbow, its power is approximately half that of the level 0 sorcery spell "Ice Arrow."

Richard immediately frowned; the power was still too weak.

(End of this chapter)