The Wizard: Starting with Infinite Part-Time Jobs

Chapter 146 Secret Passage

Aiden was already crouching to the side, like a hunter, with his bow drawn and arrow nocked.

His bowstring was drawn taut, the muscles in his arms were taut, and the veins were bulging as if they were about to burst.

The bow trembled in his hands, emitting a low hum, the power on the bowstring had reached its limit.

"Soaring Eagle Wings Technique." Aiden activated his arm strength technique.

"Go forth, my new arrow."

As soon as he finished speaking, two eagle cries emanated from Aiden's arm, and two arrows shot directly towards Adeline and Arthas's backs.

The arrows trailed a thin layer of air, like two swooping eagles.

The sound of something cutting through the air exploded in their ears, but it was too late.

Before the two could react, knowing only that the crystal Ganoderma was almost within reach, they were pierced through the heart by two arrows.

Two plumes of blood mist dispersed in the air.

"Well----"

Arthas coughed up blood; half of his body was pierced by an arrow, and he collapsed in the grass, rolling around and vomiting blood.

His magic broom flew out of his hand, bounced twice on the ground, slid a long way, and finally came to a stop after hitting a rock.

His hands were still unconsciously gripping the ground, his fingernails were broken.

Adeline fared slightly better, but her condition was already extremely poor, and then everything went black, and she knew nothing more.

Her body tumbled off the broom, landing face down in the grass, where she lay motionless. Her wand slipped from her hand and rolled to the side.

"Don't blame me for being merciless," Aiden said calmly, looking at her corpse.

He stood up, patted the dirt off his knees, his expression unchanged, his eyes as cold as ice.

"Damn it, who are you? You ambushed me, damn it—" Arthas barely managed to turn over, looking at Aiden approaching, and said while spitting blood.

His hands were clawing wildly at the ground, his fingernails digging into the dirt, and blood was still gushing from the corner of his mouth.

Aiden remained silent.

He simply looked at Arthas silently, without answering.

Soon, Arthas died with his eyes wide open, completely dead.

His mouth was still open, his eyes were wide open, and his body was gradually stiffening.

"Very good, two opponents have been taken care of."

Aiden put away his bow and flicked his wrist.

"Sneak attacks are still more fun," Aiden grinned.

"Next up is my favorite part: looting the corpses. Little Butterfly, it's up to you now." Aiden looked at the virtual butterfly on his shoulder and said with a smile.

Little Butterfly flew off his shoulder, flapping her wings, and landed next to Arthas's corpse.

They began to search the two corpses.

Its little hands rummaged through the pockets and waists of the two people, moving quickly and efficiently.

He would stuff each item he touched into his personal pocket with practiced ease.

"The three organizations together have nearly twenty people. As long as I'm careful and don't get surrounded, I can slowly reduce their numbers," Aiden muttered to himself.

He leaned against a rock, arms crossed, ears twitching, listening to the sounds around him.

Soon, after Xiaodie spent ten minutes looting the corpse, it compiled a resource list and read it to Aiden.

"A total of 500 magic stones? There are also some wind-attribute wands and wood-attribute wands, as well as two bottles of basic mana restoration potions," Aiden said, frowning.

"Two penniless bastards—"

"Maybe it's because I'm too rich. I have several thousand magic stones now," Aiden muttered to himself.

"What is this?"

Xiao Die handed over a note in the shape of a parchment scroll, which seemed to contain clues about the crystal Ganoderma.

Aiden grabbed it and began to examine it carefully.

The parchment scroll was yellowed, and the writing on it was crooked and messy, as if it had been written in a hurry.

"It turns out that there are actually 5 crystal Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms, only one of which is real."

"As for which is true and which is false, nobody knows."

"The best option is to take them all," Aiden concluded, speechless.

He crumpled the parchment into a ball, then unfolded it again, and looked at it repeatedly, his brows furrowing more and more deeply.

"However, it seems that Xiaodie can tell which one is real and which one is fake."

"That explains it," Aiden continued to mutter to himself.

"So other organizations have more clues than I do. If I want to make sure I get the real Crystal Ganoderma, I have to gather everything together." Aiden paused, then continued, "Of course, if I'm lucky, the next one will be the real one."

He stuffed the parchment into his pocket, straightened up, and stretched his neck.

"I need to find the next Crystal Ganoderma, but all I need to do is find people from the other three organizations." Aiden thought for a moment, then took out his wand, chanted, and unleashed a Falling Rock Strike.

The ground shook violently, and large chunks of soil and rocks surged up from underground, crashing down on the two corpses with a deafening roar.

The soil kept piling up, and soon it covered the two bodies completely, leaving only a raised mound on the ground.

"This earth magic is quite convenient, it saves me the trouble of disposing of the body," Aiden said with a smile.

He put away his wand, dusted off his hands, turned around and looked around to make sure he hadn't left any trace.

Soon, he rode away from the place completely on his magic broom.

Half a day later, Aiden returned to the lake, only to find it deserted. The many wizard apprentices who had been fighting on magical brooms were now at peace.

The lake surface was like a dead mirror, without a ripple.

The trees all around stood tall and dark, their branches and leaves motionless, and there wasn't even a breeze.

A faint smell of burning lingered in the air, the aftermath of the witchcraft burning.

Several broken broom branches were scattered on the ground.

"What happened? They all vanished in an instant. What happened?" Aiden muttered to himself, frowning. He shook his head in bewilderment and continued, "Never mind, let's just keep going deeper."

Just as Aiden mounted his magic broom and prepared to continue on his way, he suddenly realized that the scene before him had changed abruptly.

Aiden was riding on his magic broom, doing nothing, when his surroundings changed in the blink of an eye.

The lake water beneath our feet seemed to be suddenly sucked away by an invisible giant hand, and the entire ground shook violently.

The lake in front of me vanished completely in two seconds, replaced by two towering gray rock walls.

A cold wind blew up from the bottom of the valley.

"That's so weird, where should I go now?" Aiden said with wide eyes, feeling a wave of fear, and muttered to himself with a headache.

He swallowed hard; his legs felt weak, and he trembled as he stepped on the broom.

Just then, Xiaodie said, "Dad, there's a passage in the valley below. I noticed it when the scene changed, and the passage didn't change with the scene."

Little Butterfly's small body trembled, her six thin legs clinging tightly to Aiden's shoulders, lying on top of him, afraid to move.

"What? Good daughter, you've really been a great help," Aiden said with a grin.

Even if she becomes a wizard, she will still feel nervous and afraid when facing the unknown.

This maze is probably not as simple as it seems, since there isn't a single living creature here, not even a single fish in the lake we visited earlier.

Therefore, his opponents are not only the group of wizard apprentices, but also the unpredictable environment.

Aiden's tense shoulders suddenly relaxed, and the breath that had been stuck in his chest was exhaled smoothly.

"Then you can take me to this passage," Aiden said to the little butterfly on his shoulder.

"No problem, Dad, come with me." Little Butterfly nodded, then flapped her wings and led Aiden into the valley.

With each flap of its wings, the surrounding air rippled like water being struck by a pebble.

Aiden lowered his body, almost lying on the broom, gripping the broom handle tightly with both hands, and followed Xiaodie into the depths of the valley.

The wind blew in from between the rock walls on both sides, blowing his hair all the way back.

After flying for nearly 20 minutes, Aiden only knew that the further he flew down, the more endless it seemed.

Just then, the little butterfly in front stopped flapping its wings, turned around, and said, "Daddy, this is it. There's a secret passage here."

The valley narrowed as it descended, the rock walls on both sides almost touching, leaving only a narrow gap in the middle, barely enough for one person to pass through. The sky above was squeezed into a thin line.

The air was damp and cold, carrying a strong smell of earth and stone that was unpleasant to the nose.

Aiden pulled something that looked like a flint from his bag, lit it, and threw it out.

This is a common magical item that Aiden had purchased before, specifically to deal with particularly dark environments.

The moment the flint flew out of my hand, a string of orange-red sparks flew off its surface, and then it exploded in mid-air with a "bang".

A blinding white light suddenly filled the entire rock wall, so bright that Aiden subconsciously squinted and shielded his eyes with his arm.

Sure enough, a passage appeared ahead, very well hidden inside the valley.

"It seems this is the secret passage in this map," Aiden nodded and said. "No matter how this maze changes, this..."

These secret passages remain unchanged; that's highly likely.

Aiden, resting his chin on his hand, continued, "Then I'll try going through this secret passage; maybe I'll find something good."

A smile involuntarily crept onto his lips as he began to speculate about what treasure might be hidden inside, and the more he thought about it, the more promising it seemed.

Soon, he rode his magic broom and floated slowly into the passage, keeping his bio-radar activated the entire time to constantly survey the surrounding environment.

Not only that, Aiden also had Xiaodie come with him to check out the surrounding environment.

After all, Xiaodie's spatial power is often a form of dimensional reduction attack.

The broom glides along the ground with its bottom close to the ground.

The biological radar unfolded in his mind as a pale green circular area, expanding outwards in concentric circles, and no living thing could escape its detection.

The passageway was quiet, except for the rattling of Aiden's wand.

Apart from that, the passage was completely dark. Aiden had no idea how much time had passed; he only knew that he had to keep walking forward.

"This is a bit like taking a shortcut," Aiden muttered to himself.

About two hours later, Aiden had replaced two magic stones and put them into the magic broom to replace the energy.

Light appeared in the passage ahead.

His fingers were already somewhat stiff and numb.

Aiden paused, covered his eyes, and muttered to himself, "Looks like this is the end of it."

As he spoke, he took out his bow and arrows and arrows made of magic-breaking wood from his pack, and carefully rode away on his magic broom.

What comes into view is a small garden, planted with many flowers of different colors.

Aiden was stunned for a moment, then couldn't stop drooling.

The garden wasn't big, maybe a few dozen square meters at most, but the flowers were planted so densely that there was almost no place to step. You could only find narrow gaps between the flowers to stand in.

Red and blue, clumps of them side by side, their colors so vibrant they were almost unbelievable.

The black soil was damp and exuded a sweet floral fragrance that wafted into my nose, instantly invigorating me and relieving most of the fatigue from the previous two hours.

The concentration of magic in the air was significantly higher than outside; just taking a breath made me feel comfortable all over, and my pores opened up.

"These are all very precious flowers, such as the Four Seasons Rose and the Ice Pink Rose. These are excellent materials for making magical potions. Although I'm not an apothecary, if I prepare the materials myself, I can just find an apothecary to make them," Aiden said, overjoyed.

His mouth was open, and his jaw could hardly close.

Aiden's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, the saliva swirling in his mouth before he swallowed it back down.

This garden has about 20 kinds of flowers that are hard to find elsewhere, and many of them are the main ingredients in medicines.

"We've struck it rich!" Aiden grinned and said.

His eyes scanned the flowers, like counting gold coins, and the smile on his face grew wider with each count.

"These flowers alone would cost thousands of magic stones to buy, and even then, it depends on luck and connections. Some could even be used to make potions for professional wizards, though we don't need them now, we'll definitely need them in the future," Aiden said with a smile as he identified them. "However, for a perfect transplant, we can only rely on Xiaodie, since the substances in Xiaodie's spatial pocket are very stable. If I pick these flowers and put them in my pocket, they'll all wither by the time I get back to the organization."

He crouched down, brought his face close to a blue flower, and carefully examined the patterns on the petals.

The patterns looked as if they were drawn stroke by stroke with the finest brush, so exquisitely detailed they seemed unreal; there was even a fine layer of ink along the edges of the petals.

Fine down.

Aiden said seriously, "The safekeeping of resources is also very important."

He quickly began picking the flowers according to their specific needs, based on the biological encyclopedia on the panel, and then had Xiaodie collect them.

With each flower he picked, Aiden became a little happier.

"I won't leave any of these flowers behind; they're all for me to enjoy alone. It's definitely better to come alone."

He pinched the flower stem with his fingers, applied force with his fingertips, and then gently twisted it, breaking the flower off.

Then he quickly held it to Xiaodie's mouth. Xiaodie opened her mouth and sucked, and the flower instantly disappeared, being stored in her spatial pocket.