Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 245 Setting the Scene

Looking at the swamp dragon that was on its last legs, Richard couldn't help but shake his head in regret.

Swamp dragons are obviously much cooler than giant bats, and their combat power is also a level above.

However, for Richard, who already possessed a high-level first-tier strength, he valued the Swamp Dragon's carrying capacity and speed more, since the Giant Night Bat's carrying capacity was currently just right.

If there were one more person, like Stephena, or if they had a little more luggage, the giant nocturnal bat would be overwhelmed.

Richard walked up to the man in black robes, conjured a longsword from his mimicry metal, and began to rummage through the corpse.

Soon, he found a metal ball, a palm-sized emblem, a high-grade magic stone, more than ten mid-grade magic stones, and several bottles and jars of potions in the other person's waist pouch.

With Richard's expertise as a master apothecary, he could easily tell that the other party's bottles of potions were all emergency potions, such as mental recovery potions, fog potions, and various poisons.

For him, it was better than nothing.

However, Richard soon discovered that the lump of metal was actually mimicry metal, and in terms of weight, it weighed eight or nine hundred grams.

As Richard infused his mental energy, the metal sphere instantly transformed into a sharp dagger.

If a mimicry metal is pre-set in its core, it can quickly transform once mental energy is input.

Of course, you can change into other forms if you want, as you can change at will with the input of mental energy, but the speed of this change is not as fast as the first form that is set in advance, and at the same time, the mental energy consumed will also increase greatly.

However, the dagger form was clearly of little use to Richard.

Richard played with it for a while and quickly decided to find some time later to break its core and reintegrate the mimicry metal into his original mimicry wristband.

As the amount of mimicry metal increases, Richard will be able to transform into even more weapons, such as two-handed greatswords, tower shields, and other massive weapons or shields.

Looking at the pale silver metallic emblem on his hand, engraved with a giant black hand, Richard remained silent in thought.

He knew exactly what the symbol meant; it belonged to a well-known assassin organization on the continent of Byers.

"It seems someone commissioned an assassin from the Hand of Death to kill me."

When Richard returned to the giant nocturnal bat, he hesitated.

"Something must have been sabotaged somewhere. I've hardly been anywhere except the classroom and the alchemy room lately. So, the most likely culprit is this newly purchased giant nocturnal bat."

Thinking of this, Richard's gaze fell on the giant nocturnal bat beside him.

"However, if I give up directly, my plan to quickly reach the capital of the Kingdom of Heron—Pantos—will be ruined."

Richard hesitated for a moment.

"Since the other party is tracking my flying mount, I might as well try to lure it out."

"If the other party continues to plot in the shadows, then for safety's sake, I have no choice but to abandon this flying mount."

Having made up his mind, Richard returned to the battlefield and piled the bodies of the wyvern and the black-robed man together.

Then, Richard took out a glass bottle containing a pale yellow liquid from his pocket and poured it onto the corpse, immediately spreading the smell of kerosene.

As Richard flicked a spark from his finger, the pile of corpses instantly burst into flames.

After doing all this, Richard stepped back into the woods and concealed himself completely.

He planned to wait two hours to see if the mastermind would actually show up.

If the other party doesn't appear, then I'll have to go to the wizard market in the Black Forest ahead, sell the giant night bat, and at the same time, buy a land mount.

He had been to the Black Forest Wizard Market before. Most of the items there were useful for wizard apprentices, and all the mounts were land mounts; there were no flying mounts for sale.

-

Because Raymond tampered with the giant nocturnal bat.

Therefore, Richard knew this as soon as he left the Ignis School's headquarters.

To avoid being discovered by Richard, Raymond rode his hippogriff at a great distance, a distance that could be described as beyond visual range tracking.

In other words, within Raymond's line of sight, he couldn't see Richard at all, and naturally, Richard had no idea that someone was hanging far behind him.

At this moment, Raymond was controlling the distance using a small, fist-sized, gray, rat-shaped creature in his hand.

The gray mouse is currently holding a nut the size of a walnut and happily munching on it. The closer it is to its target, the more excited the gray mouse becomes and the faster it eats. The farther away it is, the less excited it becomes and the slower it eats.

but

When he tracked it to the Black Forest, he suddenly saw a huge swamp dragon rising from the distant woods. He immediately realized that this must be Gildarts's backup plan.

His previous actions were all for this moment.

This made Raymond a little excited.

He naturally kept the patriarch's words in mind, which is why he came up with this workaround.

They neither take action themselves nor ask others to take action.

But he will leak Richard's whereabouts to Gildas. As for what Gildas will do?

That's beyond his control!

A few days ago, when he came up with this method, he was quite pleased with himself.

This way, he could avoid going against his family's wishes and also use Gildas as a tool to avenge the loss of his son.

Kill two birds with one stone!

unfortunately

To avoid being exposed, he could not go forward to watch the battle.

Tsk tsk! I really want to see how Richard dies!

Not long after, Raymond sensed a strong fluctuation of elemental energy erupting ahead.

"Looks like they've really started fighting!" Raymond exclaimed with delight.

So he immediately pulled on the reins, stopping the griffin he was riding, which hovered quietly in mid-air.

Less than a minute later, with a beastly roar, the energy fluctuations quickly stopped.

Raymond shook his head and muttered, "They're really too weak!"

"However, that's normal. How much combat power can a little guy who has just been promoted have?"

After a while, Raymond felt that the time was about right, so he began to control the hippogriff and slowly fly towards the place where the energy fluctuations had just occurred.

This time, he didn't look at the tracking mouse again, but instead put it away in a leather bag.

Since Richard is dead, the giant nocturnal bats will most likely be killed as well, and their bodies disposed of.

There's no need to keep track of them!

Richard was a newly appointed wizard and instructor of the Ignis school, and after his death, his body would inevitably be destroyed to cover up the crime.

Even if the Ignis School investigates by then, they won't find any useful clues.

but

If Raymond had been a little more attentive and hadn't put away the tracking mouse so early, he would have noticed that the little thing was munching on nuts faster and faster, clearly becoming more and more excited.

The hippogriff was very fast, and soon he saw a glimmer of light in the dark forest at the edge of his vision.

Raymond's face immediately lit up with joy, as the direction and approximate location matched the location of the energy fluctuations he sensed.

Clearly, in Raymond's view, the fire must have been Gildas's men destroying evidence after they had finished their business.

The cautious Raymond immediately stopped the hippogriff, and after a moment's thought, he waited for several more minutes to make sure there was no further movement before flying toward the fire.

Soon after, Raymond arrived above the flames.

However, due to the dense trees and the stench and black smoke from the burning corpses, Raymond could not see clearly.

"The stench from burning these giant nocturnal bats is truly overwhelming!"

Raymond covered his nose and said.

"But since we're here, we should at least go down and take a look!"

After circling for a while, the hippogriff prepared to land.

However, when Raymond descended to a few meters above the ground and saw the burning material through the blazing fire, his pupils immediately contracted!

"This! No! This isn't the carcass of a giant nocturnal bat at all!"

"This corpse is way too big!!"

In that instant when Raymond was stunned...

Suddenly, a black beam the size of a thumb shot out from somewhere in the forest, heading straight for his chest and heart!

Raymond immediately felt a sense of urgency. At this critical moment, a black light membrane suddenly erupted from the necklace on his chest, covering his entire body.

But Raymond still felt unsafe and tried his best to avoid it.

However, the black beam attack arrived in an instant, and he only had time to dodge it by turning to the side.

"Pfft!"

The light membrane was just like a bubble in front of the black beam of light, and it broke with a single blow!

After piercing the membrane, the black beam went further and pierced Raymond's right arm, splattering blood everywhere!

This was only because he managed to dodge it in time.

Otherwise, they would definitely be killed in one hit!

"Death Ray!!" Raymond exclaimed in horror, clutching his wound.

"Could it be that it wasn't Richard who died, but one of Gildas's men?!"

In an instant, several possibilities flashed through Raymond's mind, but the least likely person remained firmly fixed in his mind!

Almost immediately after the previous black beam attack ended, a transparent wave swept out from the forest once again.

This terrified Raymond, who immediately jumped off the hippogriff.

If he were still riding the hippogriff, he would be a sitting duck in mid-air before the hippogriff picked up speed.

Raymond had barely steadied himself after landing when he heard heavy footsteps and the sound of branches snapping coming from the woods.

"Knock knock knock!"

Abominations, over four meters tall and wielding giant iron axes and flails, chuckled and charged toward Raymond.

"Splash! Splash!"

The small hand behind him suddenly hurled two thick, dark iron chains at Raymond, the hooks at the ends gleaming with a sharp, cold light.

This immediately made Raymond's expression hard. He waved his short staff, and three white bone shields appeared on his body.

The next second, the iron hook struck the bone shield.

"Clang clang!"

Sparks flew everywhere, demonstrating the immense power.

"I've been ambushed and injured. Continuing to fight is too risky; I need to retreat immediately!"

Raymond glanced at the rapidly approaching abomination.

As Raymond uttered a short incantation, a huge inverted pentagram array shimmering with pale green light appeared beneath his feet. With a burst of green light, ten skeleton guards wielding swords and shields, marching in unison, appeared before him.

Immediately, the skeleton guardians who had discovered the vengeful spirit rushed towards it like ants spotting prey.

"Splash!"

The vengeful spirit let out a sinister laugh, and with a swing of its giant axe, it sent the two skeleton guards who were charging at the front flying more than ten meters away, with seven or eight broken ribs falling from the air.

Although these skeleton guardians are different from those Richard summoned during his apprenticeship and are stronger, they are still far from being a match for the vengeful spirits.

But Raymond seemed to have known this all along, and he remained calm as he watched the skeletons being routed.

It seemed to be waiting for something in the same spot.

The next second, the air surged, and his flying mount, the hippogriff, left, circled in mid-air to increase its speed, and then flew quickly back towards Raymond from behind.

Raymond's expression relaxed as he watched the hippogriff approaching him.

It turns out that the skeleton guardians he had just summoned were only to shield him from a wave of abominations' attacks, giving him time to jump onto the hippogriff and escape the battle.

Upon seeing this, Richard, hidden beneath his black mask in the forest, revealed a slight smile.

With a seemingly slow but actually swift motion, he pulled a pair of iron shackle-like objects from his pocket and threw them directly at Raymond on the back of the gryphon in the air.

With a short incantation, the shackles rapidly expanded in mid-air, simultaneously emitting a dazzling purple light.

Raymond clutched his wound, leaped onto the hippogriff, and his face lit up with joy. But less than half a second later, his joyful expression froze.

He was stunned, as if struck by lightning!

Because a huge, shackle-like phantom suddenly flew out from mid-air.

One end of the shackles shot swiftly towards Richard in the forest, while the other end shot towards Raymond on the hippogriff, thus binding the two together in this way.

As the hippogriff flapped its wings and flew rapidly forward, Raymond was suddenly bound by the phantom of shackles, staggered, and fell down again.

"The shackles of war!"

The well-informed Raymond immediately recognized what the phantom restricting his movements was.

But once he recognized it, his heart sank!

At that moment, a three-meter-tall, strangely shaped skeletal creature burst out of the forest and rushed toward him at an extremely fast speed.

Almost simultaneously, the sound of violently surging water came from behind him. Raymond glanced at it quickly out of the corner of his eye and his expression changed drastically!

The towering abomination was spewing out large amounts of pale blue liquid from its mouth, causing the surrounding vegetation to wither rapidly. Even its skeleton guardians were unable to withstand the liquid, which was both highly toxic and extremely corrosive.

The hard, white skeleton hissed and quickly emitted pale blue smoke.

In no time, almost all of his skeleton guardians were wiped out. Some had their leg bones corroded away, some had their heads gone, and some had their arm bones melted away. They all lay scattered and broken.

After spewing its venom, the vengeful spirit swung its meteor hammer in a 360-degree arc.

"Splash!"

A meteor hammer with a radius of at least three meters swept across, instantly sending broken bones flying everywhere.

The venue was instantly emptied!

The entire battle situation turned into a pincer attack, with the Blood Bone Golems in front and the Wraiths and Hatreds behind.

(End of this chapter)