Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 246 Spoils of War

"Stop! Richard, I am also a teacher of the Ignis School."

Seeing this situation, Raymond anxiously waved the seal ring in his hand, signaling to Richard, who was still hiding in the forest.

"I was just passing by when I saw a huge fire suddenly break out here from the sky, so I came to take a look."

Although Richard was a seasoned veteran, this was the first time he had encountered such a shameless guy as Raymond.

Richard was utterly dumbfounded that someone could say such a thing.

"What kind of nonsense is this! You probably wouldn't even believe it yourself!"

Richard had no desire to even talk to this kind of person; it would be a complete waste of time.

In response to Raymond, Richard unleashed a series of mental shocks and death rays!

"Pop!"

The continuous ranged magical attacks immediately threw Raymond into disarray, and the defensive spells he cast were constantly being destroyed by Richard's rapid attacks.

Raymond, his face filled with terror, looked at the two undead summons that were about to rush towards him and said:

"Richard, believe me! It really wasn't my men trying to kill you just now, it was Gildas! Gildas of the North Ring!"

It seems that in any world, it's more common for fellow Daoists to die than for oneself.

In his anxiety, Raymond immediately sold Gildas.

Unfortunately, although Richard heard about it, he still had no intention of stopping.

"Splash!"

Raymond couldn't dodge in time; a thick, dark chain wrapped around his ankle, instantly freezing his movements.

"Pfft!"

A black beam of light shot out from the woods and pierced Raymond's heart.

"Plop!"

At this moment, Raymond, lying on the ground, had lost focus in his eyes, but he was still muttering:

"It really wasn't the assassin I contacted."

Seeing that he had killed his opponent, Richard slowly walked out of the forest.

Richard approached the body of the deceased Raymond and began searching through it.

"There's no tracking mark or anything? Well, the other party is already a high-level level one wizard, so there's no point in setting a tracking mark."

The group of second- and third-level wizard apprentices that Richard killed on the surface seemed to be mostly "potential candidates" who could advance to wizards, so they were tracked by various forces, families or mentors.

However, once he killed someone who reached the level of a high-level first-tier wizard, there were no more tracking marks left.

It seems that at this level, if someone is still killed, it is difficult for even the family or academy behind them to take revenge. In addition, formal wizards usually have a way to remove the tracking mark.

This saved Richard a lot of trouble!

Richard pulled an antique parchment scroll, several bottles of potions, a bag of magic stones, a letter, and a palm-sized bone tablet from the other man's pouch.

Richard first opened the bag of magic stones, and found ten high-grade magic stones, more than thirty mid-grade magic stones, and hundreds of ordinary magic stones inside.

"Huh! There are so many magic stones. This guy must be someone important."

Richard sorted the magic stones into different categories and put them into his bag. Combined with the spoils from killing the assassin of the Hand of God, Richard's harvest from this trip was quite substantial, especially in terms of magic stones alone.

After arranging the magic stones, Richard picked up the letter.

The letter had already been opened. Richard took it out and looked at it. His expression turned slightly grim. The letter was written by his old acquaintance Gildas to a man named Raymond Soto.

Clearly, the corpse at his feet is most likely Raymond Soto.

Although Richard didn't know Raymond, the fact that the man's surname was Soto immediately made Richard think of something.

"The Soto family."

Gildas's letter contained two main points: first, he expressed dissatisfaction with the Soto family's reluctance to directly confront him; second, he instructed Raymond to track his movements.

Seeing this, Richard began to believe Raymond's earlier statement that the assassin of the Grim Reaper's Hand was not sent by him, but rather was Gildarts's doing.

but

"It's a pity I found out a little too late, otherwise, if I had captured him alive and returned to the Ignis School, I could have extorted some money from the Soto family."

"If the other party does not agree, I can choose to expose this matter. In that case, there will be no doubt that the Soto family betrayed us and colluded with the North Ring to murder our own school's newly promoted genius wizard."

After thinking for a moment, Richard carefully put the letter away and turned his attention to the dominoes.

The dominoes were entirely white. When Richard held them, they had a warm, jade-like feel. However, upon closer inspection, they were indeed made of the bones of some kind of creature, not jade.

The pale blue lines on the surface of the dominoes clearly outline the head of a bird, while the lines shimmer with a faint light, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

Upon seeing the bird's head design, Richard immediately thought of the flying mount that Raymond had just ridden.

It is similar in shape, and remarkably lifelike.

Richard's expression shifted slightly, and after a moment's thought, he realized that these must be dominoes used to control the flying mount.

He had heard that wizards would try every means to prevent their ferocious mounts from rebelling or getting out of control. Therefore, they would make special magical tools or artifacts and inscribe special magical arrays on them to control the mounts.

Most land mounts and ordinary flying mounts do not require dominoes.

For example, Richard's giant nocturnal bat is an extraordinary evolution of an ordinary nocturnal bat. It has a docile temperament, so it only requires a few months of training by an experienced animal trainer before it can be ridden with peace of mind.

However, swamp wyverns, hippogriffs, and other highly aggressive birds of prey cannot be tamed in a short period of time.

Sure enough, after a while, Richard figured out how to control it.

As he channeled a wisp of spiritual energy into the dominoes, birdsong soon filled the sky.

The large bird that originally belonged to Raymond now flapped its wings and slowly landed next to Richard.

The large bird stood on the ground, almost a head shorter than Richard. Its feathers were fine and interwoven with blue and green, making it quite magnificent.

The bird's head resembles that of an eagle, but it has a separate ring of palm-sized feathers at the back of its head, resembling a peacock's tail.

The bird also has a branded pattern on its chest, exactly the same as the pattern on the dominoes.

"This appears to be a hippogriff."

After carefully observing the bird's appearance, Richard quickly identified its name and origin, and couldn't help but beam with joy.

Adult hippogriffs possess a unique magical ability when flying – Cyclone – which allows them to spontaneously separate high-speed air currents to both sides. This makes them much more comfortable to ride than other flying mounts and greatly increases their flight speed.

Therefore, its flight speed is at least 30% faster than that of the giant nocturnal bat, and its combat power far surpasses that of the giant nocturnal bat.

According to the books, adult hippogriffs are extraordinary birds of prey that can rival swamp dragons.

Richard jumped onto the hippogriff and circled once. His face lit up with joy. The airflow spontaneously dispersed to both sides of the hippogriff. No wonder it was more comfortable and faster when flying at high speed.

Obviously, using a hippogriff to travel would save a lot of time.

Richard maneuvered the hippogriff to land again, went to the giant night bat, took the luggage, and placed it on either side of the hippogriff before securing it.

Richard has decided to abandon the giant nocturnal bat that Raymond has somehow tampered with.

After securing his luggage, Richard quickly piloted his hippogriff and sped off towards Pandos, the city of griffins.

After flying for several hours.

Richard found a secluded spot in a dense forest and landed.

As night falls, a light mist rises from the entire forest, creating a dreamlike scene under the faint moonlight.

Richard lit a campfire, casually stuck a few crooked branches around it, and hung some processed game on the branches to roast.

After finishing his meal, Richard finally took out the old-fashioned parchment scroll.

After untying the ropes and unfolding the parchment, a map came into Richard's view.

There is a large red X in the center of the map.

The red dot is located halfway up a mountain, surrounded by continuous mountain ranges and forests, with a river-like shape below the forest.

Richard immediately frowned upon seeing this incomplete map.

There are at least fifty, if not a hundred, places like this on the continent of Bysos, and the meaning of the red crosses is completely unknown.

"Raymond is so attached to this map and carries it with him, so the locations marked with red dots and crosses on the map must have some important meaning to him."

"Could it be a family treasure? No, it shouldn't be."

After a moment of thought, Richard suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

He recalled something: according to records, ancient wizards seemed to enjoy playing tricks when it came to keeping maps secret.

Could this map be one too?

So Richard tried various methods to test the old sheepskin roll, including smoking, burning, moonlight, and developing agents.

After the developing agent was used, Richard noticed that several small characters had suddenly appeared on one side of the forest. Upon closer inspection, he realized that these characters were written in the Hutt language—"Evs Forest."

Next to the red cross, there are also a few small words marked in the Hutt language: "Land of the Undead's Immortal Life".

"Could this be the Ifos Forest, located at the border between the Vitlor Continent Commercial Alliance and the Death Plains?!"

This immediately shocked Richard.

"And those six words, 'Land of Immortality for the Dead,' sound so familiar!"

Richard immediately walked quickly to the gryphon, took down his luggage, and began rummaging through it.

Soon, Richard found another parchment scroll that he had obtained long ago.

Richard quickly opened the parchment scroll, and in the center of the scroll was a depiction of a continuous, towering mountain range with snow-capped peaks. On one side of the mountain range were the words "Bering Mountains" written in Hutt language.

In the southwest of the Bering Mountains, on a mountain peak near the core area, there is a large X-shaped mark, and next to the X, there are also a few small words in the Hutt language: Land of Immortal Life of the Dead.

Although both maps are in Huttite, the size of the characters varies slightly depending on who wrote them. Richard carefully compared them, especially noting that both maps contained the words "Land of the Undead's Immortal Life."

This makes Richard's comparison very convenient and intuitive.

After multiple comparisons, both the stroke habits and the font size are extremely similar, so it can be basically concluded that they were written by the same person.

In addition, there are two sensitive place names: Ifos Forest and Bering Mountains.

Richard was almost certain that the markings indicated the location of the Rodriguez-related archaeological site.

At the same time, the newly acquired map also serves as evidence that the previously obtained Bering Mountains map is undoubtedly the site of the Rodriguez ruins.

Richard felt a surge of excitement.

"Meiro knows how to get to Basellus Island in the Summer Sea, and I already have two maps: one of the Bering Mountains and the other of the Ifos Forest."

"It seems I've found all three locations mentioned in the clues Professor Seras gathered last time!"

"However, as Meiluo clearly stated last time, the only captain who knows the route to Basellus Island in the Summer Sea is currently being held captive by her uncle. It seems I need to go there as soon as possible, lest things get complicated."

"With my own hippogriff, compared to Meiluo's land mount, even if I go to the capital, the time I arrive at Crab Claw Peninsula should be very close to hers."

As for the capital, Richard definitely had to make a trip there.

Because apart from that person, there has been no news from Stephana so far, which is also very unusual.

Has Stephana regained her ambition?

No, even if she had ambitions and wanted to be free from her own constraints, she wouldn't resort to such a silent approach.

He had a vague premonition that something might have happened to Stephanie.

-

three days later.

Near the city of Pentos, the Griffin City.

Richard rode on his griffin and flew along. Before long, a majestic mountain range appeared in the distance.

The highest peak of the mountain range, a gray-white main peak, resembles a sharp sword piercing the sky.

As Richard flew closer, he discovered that the entire mountainside was covered with numerous buildings.

Starting from the foot of the mountain and going all the way up, there are densely packed single-story houses.

As the terrain rose higher, the style of the houses became more and more beautiful and grand, but the overall color remained unchanged, with most buildings still being gray or white.

Near the summit, there is a protruding platform, which seems to be used for sightseeing or landing some kind of large flying mount.

There are several large, pointed-roof palaces on the left, right, and rear sides of the platform.

Richard could see from afar that several small black dots were hovering and flying above the palace.

"That must be the unique feature of the Griffin City—the griffins, right?"

"If I fly there myself, I will receive a warm welcome, but it will be too high-profile and will not be conducive to my investigation of Stephena's situation."

Richard thought about it and decided to find a place to land first, and then walk into Pentos to scout out the situation.

Just moments ago, Richard tried to contact Stephanie through the communication mark on his chest, but there was still no response, which was clearly very strange.

(End of this chapter)