Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 244 Flying Mounts

The supply depot of the Ignis School is not only where the school's official wizards collect their monthly supplies and exchange them, but it also serves other purposes.

For example, when a task is posted, if it is a task at the ordinary apprentice level, the task will be immediately transferred to the task hall dedicated to apprentices.

At the same time, wizards can also issue quests targeting formal wizards at resource points.

The task type can be trading, purchasing, or exploring ruins, etc.

Richard's post two days prior at the School of the Arts' supply depot, requesting to purchase any flying mount, was quickly learned by Raymond Soto.

At the same time, Raymond immediately passed the news to Gildas, and eventually, the news that Richard might be going out reached the assassin organization, the Hand of Death.

However, Richard was unaware of these inside details.

These past few days, Richard has been busy completing the puppetry course he's taught over the past six months in just a few days, while also making some preparations, such as arrangements for Lina after he leaves.

The headquarters of the Ignis School.

in an office.

"Todd, did you capture a giant nocturnal bat recently? How's the training going?"

Raymond Soto, a middle-aged man with a sinister face, was asking a question to a middle-aged black-robed wizard beside him.

The giant nocturnal bat is a mutated species among nocturnal bats, and after mutation, it can be considered to have barely reached the lowest level of extraordinary creatures.

Ordinary nocturnal bats are generally only about half a meter long, while giant nocturnal bats are two meters long with a wingspan of about four meters. They are grayish-black in color and their carrying capacity is not very strong. It might be a little difficult for them to carry a fully armed heavy armored knight, but carrying a wizard dressed in black robes is no problem at all.

The main reason is that nocturnal bats are widely distributed and numerous in the muddy swamps, so wild giant nocturnal bats can often be found, which is why they are not particularly expensive.

"I just finished training a couple of days ago, do you need anything?"

"How about transferring it to me?"

"Raymond, don't you have a flying mount, a hippogriff? Why do you need my giant night bat?" the wizard named Todd asked in surprise.

It's important to know that the strength and coolness of the hippogriff are a whole level above that of the giant nocturnal bat.

"I need it. By the way, I heard you've been looking to buy Flame Flowers lately. How about exchanging ten Flame Flowers for your giant nocturnal bat?"

"make a deal!"

Todd's face lit up with joy!

Normally, a giant nocturnal bat that one has trained is worth at most eight Flameflowers, so Raymond's willingness to pay a premium for it is naturally a good thing.

As for what Raymond bought it for, that's naturally not his concern.

A moment later, when Raymond saw the giant nocturnal bat that was nearly two meters long, he nodded to Todd, while he began to make plans in his mind.

"The giant nocturnal bat is worth at least five thousand magic stones, and it's extremely rare. Richard's offer is only three thousand magic stones. He certainly won't refuse this deal."

After Todd left, Raymond quickly took a small glass jar containing gray powder from his waist bag.

After opening the glass jar, Raymond circled the giant nocturnal bat several times, sprinkling all the gray powder onto it.

Since the giant nocturnal bats are also grayish-black in color, the gray powder sprinkled on them makes them completely invisible from their appearance.

Moreover, the powder didn't seem to have any particularly noticeable smell; it was completely undetectable under the cover of the giant nocturnal bat's own body odor.

Raymond did not cast any spells on the giant nocturnal bat because many wizards are very sensitive to subtle fluctuations in spells, and he did not want the other party to detect it in advance.

After doing all this, Raymond quickly relayed the message to Gildas.

Just as Raymond predicted.

When Raymond had done all this and entrusted a better school of wizards to make the deal with Richard, Richard, who had already posted the purchase request for three days, immediately agreed to the deal.

That was Richard's oversight and assumption.

Because he only spent 1,000 magic stones when he bought the mutated winter wolf before, this time he listed the price for buying the flying mount as 3,000 magic stones.

But in reality, even the cheapest flying mount can't be bought with 3,000 magic stones.

So after a few days, naturally no one took the orders.

-

Two days later, in the afternoon.

After completing all the preparations, Richard bid farewell to Celes, Lina, Ophelia, and the others, and set off for Pentos, the "City of Griffins".

Richard leaped onto the seat on the back of the giant nocturnal bat and pulled on the reins.

Instantly, the bat's huge fleshy wings began to flap loudly, generating tremendous upward force.

Seconds later, a dark gray shadow shot straight into the sky!

Richard looked down at the rapidly shrinking Ignis School outpost and couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

This was his first time riding a flying mount, and it felt like he had ridden an airplane in his previous life.

Just half an hour later, Richard left the muddy swamp and arrived in the Black Forest region.

Previously, this journey would have taken about half a day.

This speed is almost five to six times faster than the previous land mounts!

Richard admired the view below while pondering matters after arriving in Pentos.

"Splash!"

Since giant nocturnal bats rely mainly on gliding, they fly almost silently. Richard keenly heard a faint sound of wings flapping mixed in with the wind behind him.

Richard immediately turned his head to look behind him.

A small black dot appeared above the horizon where the sky met the Black Forest, rapidly approaching Richard.

Although the distance was great, Richard's keen eyesight allowed him to clearly see that the other party was a man in black robes riding a swamp dragon.

This immediately surprised Richard. Could it be a chance encounter?

Richard's giant night bat excels at gliding silently and maneuvering and turning, making it an agile flying mount.

In terms of speed alone, it is not that good at it. At least compared with the Swamp Wyvern, its flight speed is still somewhat different. As the opponent gets closer and closer.

Richard immediately maneuvered the giant night bat to adjust its direction, shifting it forty-five degrees to the right.

If the other party's target is him, then the other party will inevitably adjust their direction accordingly.

Sure enough, within seconds, after observing that Richard had adjusted his flight direction, the other party immediately followed suit and adjusted their own direction as well.

This immediately convinced Richard that he was undoubtedly the target of the other party.

Gildas?

Or is it the Soto family?

Several enemy names popped into Richard's mind.

Also, how did the other party know that I was out and how were they able to track me down so quickly?

Knowing that you're riding a flying mount, it's almost impossible to be tracked down without some kind of marking.

Richard immediately realized that someone might have tampered with his newly purchased mount.

"This is my first time riding a flying mount, and my flying mount is clearly a level below the opponent's swamp dragon. It would not be a wise move to engage in aerial combat directly."

Richard glanced once more at the swamp dragon that was becoming clearer behind him, and decided that if they were going to fight, they should choose a favorable location.

"To fully utilize our combat capabilities, ground operations are still the best option."

In the dark forest ahead, a small lake reflected the setting sun, shimmering with golden light.

Richard rode the giant nocturnal bat and swooped down toward the lake, quickly disappearing into the dark forest beside it.

Richard immediately placed the giant nocturnal bat in a secluded spot to serve as his flying mount for long journeys; it would be troublesome if it died in battle.

At that moment, Richard stood leisurely in the dappled sunlight of the woods, waiting for the enemy to arrive.

Suddenly, he looked up at the sky above the forest.

The sky above him suddenly darkened.

A swamp dragon with a wingspan of nearly ten meters appeared above him.

Suddenly, the air surged, and because the trees in the forest were tall and the leaves were lush, the breeze that reached Richard was just a gentle breeze on his face.

"Huh? It's stopped running!"

A hoarse male voice rang out from the dragon mount.

Since Richard was still under the effects of the fluctuation suppression potion, in the eyes of the man in black robes, Richard was merely a weakling who had just been promoted to a formal wizard.

The energy emanating from his body perfectly matched the level of a first-stage beginner wizard as stated in the mission information.

Therefore, he felt that Richard's behavior of standing in the woods and waiting for him to come to him was undoubtedly a form of suicide.

The man in black robes leaped more than twenty meters down from the swamp dragon, his movements agile and his landing silent.

From the flowing hem of the black robe that the other person wore when he jumped down, Richard noticed that underneath the robe was a tight-fitting, dark leather armor.

This outfit, with a black robe on the outside and leather armor underneath, doesn't resemble a wizard in the conventional sense; it's more like that of an assassin.

"It's a pity that the genius of the Ignis school is about to fall today!"

The man in black glanced at Richard and muttered a sentence to himself, his words filled with absolute self-confidence.

It seemed that in his eyes, Richard was already a dead man.

"Who sent you?" Although he knew the other party wouldn't say, Richard still asked. He had heard the other party mutter to himself very clearly.

This indicates that the other party was definitely commissioned by someone or some organization to kill him.

As Richard expected, the man in black completely ignored his question and launched an attack instead.

Suddenly, a wisp of black smoke appeared around the man in black robes, growing thicker and thicker. The next second, it condensed into a giant black skull in mid-air, which swiftly attacked Richard, who was not far away.

Richard then saw a green inverted pentagram array flash beneath his feet, and a newly created blood and bone puppet, three meters tall, appeared before him.

Just in time, Richard also wanted to take this opportunity to test the combat capabilities of the new puppet.

As soon as the blood-bone golem appeared, it charged toward the black skull.

Upon seeing Richard use the physical attacks of his summoned undead creatures to block his black-mist skull, the man in black robes couldn't help but let out a sneer.

As expected, the black skull dissipated again upon encountering the Blood Bone Puppet, transforming into several wisps of black mist that passed through the Blood Bone Puppet before coalescing back into the black skull and continuing its attack on Richard.

"Mental shock!" Richard thought to himself.

In an instant, a transparent energy wave shot from in front of Richard toward the black skull.

"boom!"

The black skull seemed to let out a scream before perishing along with the transparent energy fluctuations.

"Huh! It actually blocked it!"

The man in black robes seemed to find it hard to believe that his witchcraft had failed on the first strike. Finally, he began to seriously examine Richard.

"What! He's actually a high-level first-tier wizard!"

Because Richard had used witchcraft, the effects of the fluctuation suppression potion he had taken earlier naturally dissipated, and his high-level aura was now undisguised before the black-robed man.

The man in black robes was immediately filled with utter horror!

"Charge! Unleash Bone Blade Storm!" Richard commanded the Bloodbone Golem.

"Swish!"

The sharp bone blades at the joints of the Blood Bone Puppet's elbows and knees shot out like spring-loaded knives.

The Blood Bone Puppet stretched out its arms, holding the bone blades at the outermost edge, and its entire body spun rapidly like a top, forming a storm of bone blades that directly attacked the black-robed man.

Immediately, the man in black robes was thrown into a panic, tearing open three scrolls in succession and throwing one protective spell after another at himself.

At the same time, he quickly drew two black wavy short daggers from his waist and engaged the blood bone puppet in battle.

"Jingle bells!"

Sparks flew everywhere!

Although the black-robed man wielded two daggers to defend himself, the colorful protective magic on his body was quickly broken down one by one in the face of the blood-bone golem's storm of bone blades.

Moreover, his black robe was quickly torn apart, the shredded pieces fluttering like butterflies, until the robe was completely shattered, revealing his dark, tight-fitting leather armor.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! How could your summoned creatures be so powerful?!"

The composure and calmness the man in black initially displayed had vanished, replaced by a furious indignation.

"Is the Grim Reaper's intelligence network completely worthless?!"

"They actually said the other party was merely a newly promoted level one wizard! Who the hell has a newly promoted wizard who's a high-level level one?!"

Originally, the man in black robes believed that even if Richard was a high-level first-class fighter, he could still put up a fight if he unleashed his full power.

Unfortunately, before even exchanging blows with the main character, he couldn't even defeat the opponent's undead summons.

"Hiss!!"

The sound of a bone blade rapidly cutting through the air rang out!

Several more seconds passed.

The man in black robes had several more bloody marks on his body, a result of his years of rigorous physical training and agile movements.

If it were any other mid-level level one wizard, they would probably have been torn to shreds by this terrifying undead summon.

But given the situation had reached this point, the man in black robes naturally had neither the intention nor the confidence to continue fighting.

Unfortunately, he can no longer pull out smoke grenades from his pocket, nor can he whistle to summon the swamp dragons overhead to come and meet him.

Because if he were to be distracted for even a moment at this moment, he would face certain death.

However, if no measures are taken, he will only exhaust his strength and die from a mistake.

The man in black robes had a distorted expression on his face, as if he were making some kind of decision.

The next second, the black wavy double daggers in his hands clashed heavily with the bone blades of the blood bone puppet, and the impact sent him flying back several steps, giving him a slight opening.

But in an instant, he also had four more bloody holes in his body, caused by bone blades from other joints of the Blood Bone Puppet. Blood was gushing out!

"call out!!"

He put the back of his right little finger in his mouth and quickly blew on it.

A sharp whistle rang out!

Richard noticed that the huge black shadow in the sky began to move and quickly swooped down toward the location of the man in black robes.

Clearly, the whistle was meant to signal the swamp dragons in mid-air to quickly fly over and provide support.

Richard watched this scene, his expression unchanged, but rather slightly pleased.

"Perfect timing to try out this new witchcraft!"

A short, sharp syllable rang out.

A fist-sized black energy ball appeared at the tip of Richard's right index finger, continuously absorbing dark elemental energy from the surrounding area.

Just then, the swamp dragon swooped down and swept past the man in black robes.

The man in black robes swiftly leaped onto the soft cushion on the back of the flying dragon, which immediately relieved him. Looking at the blood-bone puppet a few meters away, which hadn't been able to stop him in time, he couldn't help but laugh loudly:

"Richard Clavel, you've kept this a secret for a long time, but unfortunately, it'll be revealed soon."

"Pfft!"

A black beam of light pierced through the belly of the swamp dragon and emerged from its back. But that wasn't the end. The black beam, now slightly smaller, pierced through the chest of the black-robed man, severely injuring him as he was spouting nonsense!

This extremely penetrating witchcraft is the new witchcraft Richard learned at the Ignis School—the Death Ray!

Its superior single-target damage and penetration have been proven in actual combat.

"Aww!!"

After letting out a mournful cry, the swamp dragon was too weak to flap its pair of fleshy wings, which were about ten meters long. With the black-robed man on its back, it plunged directly into the forest with the momentum of its dive.

In an instant, it crashed into and broke a row of trees!

"Crackling and popping!"

As the sound of more than ten tall trees snapping rang out, a dragon and a man lay disheveled on the ground, surrounded by a mess, with broken trees lying haphazardly around them.

Richard stepped forward slowly.

At this moment, the hood on the black-robed man's head was gone, and a handsome human man with a pale face and blood flowing from the corner of his mouth was struggling to get up, one hand covering the large hole in his chest and the other hand supporting himself on the ground.

But after several attempts, he fell to the ground each time.

"Who sent you?"

The same question rang in the black-robed man's ears again, but this time, the impact on his heart was completely different from the last time.

"If you tell me, I can make your death easier! Since you know I come from the Ignis School, you should know that this is one of the continent's necromancer academies. Even if you commit suicide, I have many ways to make the spirit that torments you suffer."

The man in black glanced at Richard's calm face and felt a chill run down his spine.

Thinking of the utterly worthless quest information from the Grim Reaper's Hand, resentment welled up inside him. His bloodless lips trembled slightly as he uttered:

"Someone has issued a mission through the Grim Reaper to kill you! And I am the assassin of the Grim Reaper's Hand."

"That's all I know!"

The next second, a black beam of light pierced through the black-robed man's head.

Richard gave the other party a quick and decisive end!

"What a pity about this swamp dragon, otherwise, I could have exchanged it for a mount."

(End of this chapter)