Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 100 Blood Curse

The next second, a black lightning bolt pierced through the blood-red phantom and through the snow-white neck of the short girl Brandy. It was Richard's steel arrow. Brandy clutched her neck tightly, but her body swayed and she fell to the ground.

But the blood-red phantom seemed completely unaffected by physical attacks; Richard's arrows seemed to hit nothing but air, failing to impede the slightest bit.

As Ophelia turned around, she saw a blood-red phantom rushing towards her, its face filled with terror.

"Blood Curse!"

Suddenly, a strange green light shone brightly from Ophelia's chest, firmly blocking the blood-red humanoid mist outside.

As time passed, the power of the crimson humanoid mist weakened, and the once lifelike, ferocious face of the short girl Brandy gradually became blurred. After a few more seconds, the crimson humanoid mist, unable to enter Ophelia's body, finally dissipated into the air.

Ophelia breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the necklace on her chest. She had thought she was about to be hit by the other party's blood curse, but thankfully the protective necklace her mother had given her had worked its magic.

Richard's heart finally settled down. He had thought that Ophelia would suffer the same fate as Andrea. But looking at the strange appearance of this blood-red humanoid mist, he knew that if she got involved, something terrible would definitely happen.

"Ophelia, are you alright?" Richard stepped forward to comfort her.

"I'm fine. Luckily, I had the protective necklace my mother gave me, otherwise I would definitely have been hit by Brandy's Blood Curse, and that would have been troublesome." Ophelia shook her head, indicating to Richard that he didn't need to worry about her.

Upon hearing the Blood Curse, Richard immediately understood why Ophelia had said it was troublesome.

Generally speaking, curses are not easy to remove, especially those cast by short girls before their death, which incorporate their own blood essence and part of their soul, making them extremely difficult to resist.

It seems that Ophelia's protective necklace is a top-tier item among witchcraft artifacts, or perhaps a low-level witchcraft artifact, otherwise it wouldn't spontaneously activate a green light to protect the wearer. In that case, Ophelia's background is not simple.

They might be descendants of some kind of wizarding family.

"Oh right, hurry up and check on Andrea."

Remembering Andrea's previous injury, Richard quickly called to Ophelia, who was still in shock, and came to Andrea's side.

Upon closer inspection, the two noticed that Andrea's mental state was not bad, but she had been severely affected by the cold air, and her face was bluish-purple. Moreover, she was faintly radiating wisps of cold air.

"W-How are you? I'm alright!" Andrea was shivering from the cold, her whole body shaking, and it took her a long time to finish her sentence.

"Don't speak yet, let Ophelia treat you and see." Richard patted Andrea's shoulder, but the surface temperature of the heavy knight's shoulder armor was so low that Richard's palm almost stuck to it.

This is similar to how, in the extremely cold weather of the north in my previous life, licking metal objects would cause them to stick firmly; it's the same principle.

Ophelia immediately used herbal healing techniques to treat the patient. Small green dots of light gathered from the surrounding area into Ophelia's fair palm, and soon they condensed into a cloud of mist radiating green light.

Ophelia gently placed the cloud of green-glowing mist on Andrea's head.

As the green mist seeped into Andrea's body, he seemed to feel much better.

His complexion was no longer so ashen, and he had a little bit of color in it, but the effect was not as good as Richard had expected, not enough to make Andrea full of energy.

"The injuries are quite severe. Even if I treat her three times a day, it will probably take at least three days for Andrea to recover her fighting strength," Ophelia said with a worried expression.

Upon hearing this, Richard fell into deep thought. Of the three of them, Andrea had essentially lost her fighting ability. It seemed very difficult to continue earning points, as the scattered merman warriors and cavemen offered too few points for Richard to be of any interest.

However, if they were to encounter a large group of fishmen or powerful monsters like petrified lizards, it would be quite dangerous for Richard and Ophelia to be alone.

Moreover, with the underground races almost completely wiped out, the probability of encountering other academy opponents has increased rapidly. If a conflict occurs, Richard doesn't think he and Ophelia can defeat a team of four or five people, such as the purple-haired boy or the third-level wizard apprentices who have yet to appear.

Another important reason is that he is vaguely worried about the aftereffects of killing the red-haired girl Jenna, because it is clear that there should be at least one formal wizard who values ​​Jenna.

Richard is unsure how much importance the other party attaches to Jenna. If it's just a casual attitude, then the matter will basically be over. But if they value her, they will continue to investigate, which would be troublesome.

First, even if he sent the sword and shield skeleton marked with the mark back to the Netherworld, making it impossible for the other party to sense the location of the mark now, if the other party came in person, or sought out a formal wizard of the divination school, wouldn't it be possible to find him through the clues at the scene?

After all, the methods of formal wizards are unpredictable. For example, the magic of time travel can show images of events that happened here at a certain time in the past. For example, a prophetic wizard can predict Jenna's killer through an inconspicuous item here.

If Richard leaves behind obvious items such as blood, hair, or skin fragments, a prophetic wizard can easily pinpoint Richard's location.

Secondly, besides him, the other living people here are Ophelia and Andrea.

Even if Richard himself can keep it a secret, if the other party finds out that Ophelia and Andrea are involved, will the two still keep the secret under pressure?

Richard felt he shouldn't have too much hope for something that tested human nature.

Therefore, considering the above two points, Richard was still quite uneasy, which made him consider backing out. After returning, he could subtly ask his mentor, Seras, if there was any way to remove the mark or avoid being found by the prophetic wizards.

After all, his achievement of becoming the top freshman and his demonstration of alchemical talent were all for the sake of gaining the protection of his mentor and the school under the current circumstances.

As long as the other party cannot produce substantial evidence, I will be fine.

"Then let's head back now!" Richard thought for a moment and made a decision.

"Ah? You don't need to give up the mission of the three academies' joint organization for my sake. This is really a rare opportunity!" Upon hearing this, Andrea thought that Richard had given up the clearing mission because of him, and she was immediately moved to tears.

As the duke's illegitimate son, although the steward and maids always treated him with exceptional respect, other noble children of his age often gossiped and slandered him behind his back, especially a few of them who were close to the duke's direct descendants. As a result, Andrea had few friends growing up.

This is why he agreed to team up with Ram, who was far weaker than him, and rejected the invitation to team up with a level two wizard apprentice who was clearly much stronger than Ram, because he considered Ram his friend.

Ophelia stared blankly at Richard, seemingly surprised that he was such a loyal and compassionate person. In order to escort Andrea back to the school, he was willing to give up the opportunity to continue earning points and exchange them for rare potions and top-level sorcery items!

If that's really the case, Ophelia felt she really had to look at Richard in a new light!

Richard was taken aback. He hadn't expected Andrea to be so moved. However, after a moment's thought, he immediately understood the reason and smiled faintly: "What are you thinking? If it weren't for the possibility of being contacted by Jenna's people, I would definitely choose to continue the cleanup mission."

Although Richard said that, Andrea was still deeply moved, and Ophelia clearly didn't believe him.

At the same time, the same thought popped into both of their minds: although Richard was a bit cunning and treacherous, he was still a very loyal friend!

If Richard knew that his honest explanation would have this effect, I wonder what he would think.

"Richard, don't worry, if anyone asks me about this, I will absolutely not reveal a single word!" Andrea said with a serious expression.

"Me too, Richard, I will never tell anyone," Ophelia said.

Richard felt a warmth in his heart upon hearing this, but he was keenly aware that even if the two had the will, they might not always have the means.

Wizards possess bizarre and complex abilities. For a certified wizard, it is a very simple matter to directly use mental power to violently search the memories in an ordinary person's brain. Apprentices only need to exert a little more effort.

Richard knew of many similar witchcraft techniques, such as the Truth-Revealing Technique.

So Richard smiled slightly and said nothing.

However, having decided to retreat to the school's headquarters, Richard planned to quickly pack up his spoils.

According to Ophelia, the three people killed in the North Ring were all top students among the new students of the opposing academy in the past year or two. In particular, the red-haired girl Jenna, after entering the North Ring last year, was said to have advanced to the level two wizard apprentice in just ten months, a true genius.

Thinking about it this way, Richard figured that geniuses must have a lot of good things, so he started by searching Jenna.

After a search, in addition to hundreds of magic stones, a bag of unknown dark crystals, and a large number of raw materials such as merfolk eyeballs and dorsal fins that he had collected before, Jenna also had a thick book with a dark red cover, which immediately caught Richard's attention.

(End of this chapter)