Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 17 The Crystal Web Spider (Please continue reading)

In an instant, the silver-haired girl Karina, showing no weakness, swiftly fired the white feathered arrow in her hand through a series of difficult movements.

Her entire body was spinning, stretching, and leaping in the air, as if she were performing a magnificent Viennese waltz.

Sometimes, like a graceful butterfly, it deftly dodges the webs spewed by one black widow spider after another.

Sometimes it is as swift as the wind, leaping several meters away by stepping on the spider's head.

With a series of dazzling and captivating moves, he had unknowingly killed seven or eight black widow spiders.

This is the secret technique, [Elf Arrow Dance]!

The two men's outbursts, one after the other, became the turning point of the entire battle.

After the black widow spiders were almost wiped out, the two wizard apprentices, Melo and Nicolo, finally had the opportunity to chant spells and launch a counterattack.

With a wave of her hand, Meiluo unleashed a black arrow composed of dark elements, trailing a long flame, which shot straight at the wounded crystal web spider.

"Boom!" As it hit, it also corroded a deep hole in the hard chitinous shell of the Crystal Web Spider.

This caused the already severely injured Crystal Web Spider to let out another miserable scream.

"Shadow Shock!" Nicklo shouted, brandishing his short staff.

Suddenly, a small dark elemental snake appeared in front of him and shot towards the crystal web spider.

Its power was no less than that of a secondary Shadow Arrow, and it pierced through the chitinous shell in an instant, burning and corroding the inside of the Crystal Web Spider's body.

Richard was slightly shocked. Sure enough, the damage from witchcraft was high!

He did attack the injured crystal spider just now.

However, his black-feathered arrows could not penetrate even the hard chitinous shell of the crystal web spider unless they hit a broken part of its shell.

That's where the difference becomes apparent!

Under the combined fire of Richard and the other three, the Crystal Web Spider, which was already severely damaged by the Fire Dance Star bomb, was quickly killed on the spot!

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

"Yes!" Richard was overjoyed. Sure enough, killing monsters would earn him energy points.

The risks of this field mission are worth taking!

[Gained 368 energy points.]

Wow! There are so many. But thinking about it, it makes sense. It turns out that killing a parasitized tree spirit can give you more than 200 energy points.

Consider that a native monster like the Crystal Web Spider must contain far more energy than a parasitic monster transformed from a human.

[Host detected using a crossbow. Do/Do you want to consume energy to gain inspiration for crossbow use?]

"No!" Given that the current situation is clear, Richard does not intend to expend energy to improve his archery skills for the time being.

After all, he had just witnessed that even level zero sorcery could easily pierce the hard chitinous shell of the Crystal Web Spider.

Therefore, for Richard, the allure of mastering witchcraft far outweighed the temptation of improving his archery skills.

Although it only took about ten seconds, the four of them killed the wounded crystal spider.

But Hans was already in grave danger. After all, a quasi-knight was not a full-fledged knight. Facing a monster that was even stronger than a full-fledged knight, it was already quite remarkable that he had been able to hold out for so long.

Everyone immediately began to help Hans. After being slowed twice by Melo and Karina, the Crystal Spider saw that the situation was not good and turned to run away.

But with its speed greatly reduced, it couldn't escape and was quickly surrounded and killed by the crowd, following in the footsteps of the previous one!

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

"yes!"

[Gained 377 energy points.]

Richard checked his panel and was overjoyed to find that he had already accumulated 745 energy points by killing just two Crystal Web Spiders.

If they hadn't joined the school and instead continued to stay in Silverpine Town, accumulating energy points would have taken forever.

"Well done!" Hans was both pleased and regretful to see his team manage to kill two Crystal Web Spiders at the same time.

"What a huge loss! The Fire Dance Star is worth a full fifteen magic stones! I wonder when I'll ever be able to earn it back."

Despite complaining, Hans's hands never stopped moving.

Richard watched him skillfully use his knight's longsword to forcefully cut open the shell of the crystal web spider, taking out a venom sac with dark black patterns and two fist-sized, crystalline strands of spider silk.

"Haha, not bad, there are two clumps of crystal spider silk, worth six magic stones. At least I can break even."

Seemingly remembering something, Hans turned his head and looked at the severely burned crystal spider with a regretful expression.

"What a pity, the silk from that crystal web spider is probably useless now!"

"Richard, thank you for saving me!" Meiluo said as she walked over to Richard.

At this moment, Meiluo's pretty face was covered in mud, and her calves were wrapped in sticky spider silk, making her look a bit disheveled.

"Senior, it's what I should do!" Richard waved his hand with a smile.

"Hans, now you can prove Richard's strength, right? Look at that patch of black widow spiders, Richard shot them all down. He definitely deserves the treatment of a full-fledged team member!" Meiluo puffed out her full chest and said to Hans with full confidence.

"Of course there's no problem now!" Hans nodded without any objection this time.

Indeed, if Richard hadn't performed so well in that battle, they might have had a very tough fight, and they might have even collapsed.

"I'm fine with it too!" Nickloo said.

After all, he had witnessed Richard's superb archery skills.

Richard was delighted, after all, getting more points and magic stones was definitely a good thing.

It seems that this world is the same as the previous one, respecting people with strength. As long as you have strength, you will find it easier to get along wherever you go.

Having learned from this experience of dealing with the spider swarm, killing the Crystal Web Spiders again became much easier.

Two days later.

"Hans, that's about enough. We've killed six Crystal Web Spiders in the last few days, it's time to head back!" a tired-looking Meiluo said.

In the wilderness, the group had to take turns keeping watch at night, making it difficult to relax mentally, which left them all quite exhausted.

Especially for wizard apprentices, the daytime requires a lot of mental energy to perform witchcraft, and the nighttime lack of sleep makes them even more exhausted.

Richard was also exhausted, but when he saw the striking 2231 energy points on the panel, he immediately felt energized and knew he could continue!

Hans looked around at the group, pondered for a moment, and said, "Alright! Let's head back first. This trip has far exceeded our expectations. Even after deducting the cost of the Fire Dance Star, we're still making a small profit!"

Upon hearing that Hans had agreed to return, the expressions on the faces of the team members relaxed considerably.

The group immediately decided to start walking back.

With a good harvest, the team's morale was naturally high, and there was a significant increase in communication among the members. Richard also heard a lot of useful information.

For example, the assessment standard for a first-level wizard apprentice to advance to the second level is that their mental strength must meet the standard, and only those with a mental strength exceeding 10 degrees can pass.

The concept of degree is easy to understand. It's the black triangular pillar that Richard used to test his talent last time. One mark on it represents 1 degree.

In terms of mental strength alone, Richard is far inferior.

According to Hans, his current mental strength is only 3.8 standard units. He needs to seriously practice basic meditation for at least two years to have any hope of increasing it to around 10 standard units.

The second is the witchcraft assessment. To be promoted to a second-level witchcraft apprentice, one needs to master two level zero witchcraft spells, and both need to be at a proficient level.

Regarding this, his current progress is zero!

However, he already had a target for witchcraft: the Shadow Grip, one of the strongest level zero shadow magic spells that Karina and the blonde girl had mentioned during their chat in the mission area.

He was very interested in this witchcraft.

What? Too difficult? No way! With the Inspiration Panel, as long as you have the energy, you'll improve rapidly after getting started!

Just as Richard was pondering this, suddenly!

With a "whoosh!" sound!

A huge black shadow suddenly sprang out from the thick mud of the path beside the road.

Suddenly, Nickloh, standing in the center of the group, let out a scream. It turned out that his entire lower body, from the waist down, had been bitten by an enormous crocodile, and he was on the verge of death!

"Help me! Hans, help me! Karina, help me! I don't want to die!" Nicholas struggled desperately.

But it was clearly too late, because his entire lower body had already been swallowed by the enormous crocodile.

"It's a swamp crocodile!!! How could a swamp crocodile appear here!"

"Damn it! Run! Split up and run!"

Hans stared in horror at the bloody scene before him and shouted.

(End of this chapter)