Chapter 70: Chapter 70

Gabby sat in her carriage, having hired an ordinary human coachman.

This way she didn't have to pay expensive magic stones, only needing to pay this ordinary person a certain amount of Golden Dragon coins.

Golden Dragon coins were merely gold coins issued by the largest empire under Lilith's Cottage's jurisdiction, the Golden Dragon Empire. They had limited purchasing power and were just a pile of scrap to wizards, but for mortals, they were the most valuable trading currency besides magic stones.

At this moment, this ordinary human coachman suddenly stopped the carriage, forcing Locke's carriage following behind Gabby to stop as well.

The three centaur coachmen looked ahead in confusion. "Why did that wizard lord's carriage in front stop?"

At the same time, Gabby was also puzzled. She lifted the carriage curtain and looked impatiently at the human coachman. Gabby didn't have the same friendly attitude toward mortals as she did toward Locke. "What's going on?"

The next moment, the coachman turned his head, his right eye flashing with a crimson light, his left eye flickering with a mad gaze.

Gabby was stunned for a moment by this person's madness, even forgetting to chant a spell. The next moment, this mortal coachman directly pounched at her, muttering "kill you monster," then dove into Gabby's arms, pinning down Gabby Montoya.

Gabby's first reaction wasn't to immediately counterattack, but rather confusion. "What's wrong with this person?"

But just as the coachman pounced on his employer, suddenly continuous "clanging" sounds came from the carriage floor, and vampires emerged from underground one after another, frightening the draft horse pulling the carriage into rearing up on its hind legs and crying out in terror.

Five wizard apprentices from the Blood Curse Court, with calculation and deadly threats flickering in their eyes, laughed as they extended their blood claws and pounced at Gabby, speaking rapidly as they laughed:

"These white wizards from Lilith's Cottage really are all trash. Just using hypnosis magic to hypnotize a mortal actually scared her into forgetting to chant spells."

"What use are wizard apprentices who can't fight?"

"Killing this kind of wizard apprentice is even simpler than slaughtering pigs. Hahahaha..."

"Kill her first, take her head to intimidate that second-class wizard apprentice named Locke Augustine, then we can easily take his head too!"

These five vampires intimidated Gabby with increasingly loud threats, further reducing Gabby's reaction ability, causing her to freeze in place from fright without managing to chant a single spell.

At the same time, these apprentices who had transformed themselves into vampires were obviously also deliberately creating psychological pressure for Locke in the rear carriage, manufacturing panic in an extremely brief time, wanting Locke to panic and make wrong judgments, then with one wrong step leading to more wrong steps, allowing them to kill Locke at a very small cost.

But the next moment, the five vampires moving so fast their afterimages were about to connect into a single line each cried out in alarm. Looking down, they discovered that somehow, those Mandrake Vines covered in blood-colored patterns had already wrapped around their bodies, restricting their movement.

"When did this happen?"

"Impossible. If those trash wizards from Lilith's Cottage used spells, with our combat experience, how could we not notice at all?"

"Break free quickly. This kind of magical vine is very fragile."

But the blood claws of the five vampires landing on the Level 7 Omen Mandrake Vines proved very futile, unable to damage Locke's magical vines.

The Omen Mandrake Vines could sense hostility, so the moment they discovered enemies nearby, they had already locked onto those Blood Curse Court wizard apprentices hiding underground. The instant they launched their attack, the vines had already silently wrapped around them using their invisibility ability.

At the same time, Locke's magical pressure spread along the Mandrake Vines to these two second-class wizard apprentices and three third-class wizard apprentices.

The faces of these Blood Curse Court wizard apprentices all immediately changed dramatically.

Invisible pressure descended on every inch of their skin. Thɪs chapter is updated by n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net

That was magical pressure!

"It's magical pressure. He's not a second-class wizard apprentice, he's a first-class wizard apprentice."

"How is this possible? Nine months ago, he was still a second-class wizard apprentice."

"Run quickly! The intelligence was wrong. We can't kill him, we're just sending ourselves to death."

A flash of violent emotion caused by the Crimson Echo Potion passed through Locke's eyes. "Wanting to run now is far too late."

"You can all stay here."

So it was Blood Curse Court wizard apprentices who had infiltrated to ambush him along the way. This was indeed a necessary route back to the sect headquarters.

He had already been very careful, yet he hadn't expected to still be targeted by the Blood Curse Court.

From the fact that they knew about his situation nine months ago, he could deduce that they had probably been watching him nine months ago when he was still in the patrol team. It was just that he had obtained his breeder's assistant certificate and left the patrol team, making them wait nine months without finding an opportunity to ambush him.

Until recently, when he took on a magical plant investigation mission and went out, leaving the sect headquarters.

Only then did they find their opportunity.

"I was already very careful, yet the Blood Curse Court still tried to ambush me because I advanced within a year."

"Fortunately Teacher Sophia reminded me and had me transferred out of the patrol team early. If I had encountered them nine months ago, I really would have been in danger." Locke realized.

At this time, the two second-class wizard level vampires, relying on the extreme speed and blood claws brought by vampire bloodline modification, along with their excessively rich combat experience, barely managed to cut through the Mandrake Vine restraints, then split up and fled in two directions.

Locke sneered, noticing that his Mandrake Vines were still deep red. If they really wanted to escape, then the Omen Mandrake Vines wouldn't sense deep hostility at this moment, and the pattern colors would fade considerably.

But now, the Omen Mandrake Vines were still red to the point of purple.

These black wizard apprentices were really interesting. Facing such a major power disparity and intelligence error, they still maintained such strong fighting spirit.

Compared to them, Gabby's combat performance as one of Lilith's Cottage's traditional wizard apprentices really fell far short.

The two second-class wizard apprentice level vampires, while fleeing, used the vampires' inherent extreme speed to continuously change directions more than ten times, looking as if they were truly seeking opportunities to escape.

But suddenly the two of them made eye contact across the distance.

Both their eyes revealed madness. So what if he was one wizard level higher! At the Blood Curse Court, it wasn't like they hadn't killed white wizards above their level before. Although at that time, they were only third-class wizard apprentices who forcibly killed second-class wizard apprentice white wizards through combat experience.

Every wizard apprentice at the Blood Curse Court had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

If they could eliminate Locke for the Blood Curse Court, they would receive huge rewards from the sect, and might even be transferred back to headquarters, no longer having to serve as cannon fodder spies!

That was their hope for survival!

The next moment, the two vampire apprentices who were still pretending to flee suddenly turned and pounced toward Locke.

The two vampires' thinking was simple. They believed that Locke, as a newly advanced first-class wizard apprentice, definitely had an insufficient spell repertoire and wasn't at the true magical level of a first-class wizard apprentice. Moreover, since Locke used magical vines for attacks, they would definitely be at a disadvantage in medium to long-range combat and wouldn't have the ability to fight back.

So their only chance was close combat!

By deceiving their way close to Locke, then relying on the speed and strength gained from second-class wizard level vampire bloodline modification to decide victory through close combat.

But their hearts gradually sank, because they discovered that when faced with this scene, Locke's eyes showed no surprise or panic.

It was as if he had originally expected them to do this.

Locke said, "Hypnosis is an enchantment school spell, isn't it? You have enchantment school spells, and so do I."

The spell ability of the Omen Mandrake Vines to sense hostility was essentially a type of enchantment school cantrip.

The next moment, Locke's Mandrake Vines completely severed the heads of the three third-class wizard apprentice vampires who had been trapped earlier, then used the vines to gather death energy toward their skulls!

Skull explosion, kill one person, gather one person's death energy, cast one spell.

Originally, this spell required at least touching the skull with one's own hands to cast.

But first-class wizard apprentices possessed magical pressure, and magical pressure could be transmitted through the air, meaning that many spells of first-class wizard apprentices no longer required direct contact to cast.

That magical pressure traveled along the Mandrake Vines, transmitting mana and death energy into the three vampire heads Locke had just removed, then he used the vines to throw them at the two vampires.

The three skulls flickered with eerie green light, then the three skulls let out screams, forming the first wave of mental damage that caused the two second-class wizard apprentice vampires to pause in their movements.

Then came the second wave of negative energy extreme compression, forming a negative energy explosion.

The two vampires were blown away.

One had a leg blown off, the other had half his right arm blown off.

Both were covered in blood.

They hadn't expected Locke to directly use the third-class wizard apprentices they had brought as spell materials on the spot, casting spells to attack them.

Was this still one of those "good" white wizards!

Locke's Mandrake Vines quickly followed up, turning into drills to separately sever their limbs, further reducing their combat ability.

At the same time, Locke softly chanted an incantation and used Poison Berry Shot on one vampire apprentice. In the explosion of more than twenty deep purple berries, that vampire let out bursts of laughter and kept rolling on the ground.

He couldn't control himself at all.

Locke glanced at this vampire. "Skull explosion is only 0.3 circles after all. Even when I cast it, the power is at most at a 0.4 circle level. Plus they're all vampires themselves, immune to the third wave of corpse poison damage and reducing the second wave of negative energy damage, so they didn't die from my spell."

"But the Maniacal spell toxin I developed clearly works on vampires too. However, these two apprentices who became vampires seem to retain a large portion of human physiological structure, so it might work because of that."

Locke looked at the other vampire apprentice and said, "Being hit by my spell toxin causes all muscles and nerves to itch extremely. No matter how you scratch, you can't relieve the itch. You'll laugh continuously until death, very painfully."

"However, if you're willing to tell me whether you have other accomplices at Lilith's Cottage, I can let you live temporarily."

That vampire apprentice's eyes had already become very terrified.

Although Locke's combat was still relatively inexperienced, the methods he used, both necromancy spells and spell toxins, made them feel like they were fighting against a first-class wizard apprentice senior from their own academy.

It was too torturous.

This was completely different from those "kind and simple" white wizards, so at this moment this second-class wizard apprentice had long lost any thoughts of assassinating Locke for merit, becoming very panicked and uneasy.

"I... I'll tell... no... I can't say, the sect has special restrictions on me..."

That second-class wizard apprentice vampire who had already loosened up due to fear suddenly had blood-red eyes, then roared and screamed like a madman.

Locke sensed that large amounts of negative energy particles were actually gathering toward his heart, while his Level 7 Mandrake Vines sensed a deep malice.

That was malice from a first-class wizard apprentice of the Blood Curse Court.

For a moment, Locke felt a strange sensation of being monitored, as if a first-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court was observing him through the curses he had placed on these second-class wizard apprentices.

"Ah, no, I don't want to die, my lord please spare me, spare me." That vampire apprentice shouted using his last trace of reason.

The next moment, Locke threw both second-class wizard apprentice vampires he had captured out.

In less than half a second, two huge clouds of blood mist bloomed in midair.

Massive air shock waves went in all directions, flying sand and stones.

The mortal coachman and three mortal centaurs on the country road were all blown away by this air blast.

And Gabby could only lie on the ground, holding her head.

Only Locke remained standing in place. He used Green Grasp, controlling the Mandrake Vine branches and leaves to grow rapidly, forming a parasol that blocked the air blast.

Locke's wizard robe fluttered in the wind. "This is... a Corpse Explosion of about 0.5 to 0.6 circle level. If not for my Mandrake Vines sensing it in advance the moment before it activated, I definitely would have been somewhat within the explosion range."

"To actually place this kind of delayed spell on their own sect's second-class wizard apprentices, using them as human bombs, activating at the moment they lose their utility value and are about to betray the sect, making them self-destruct to attack enemies."

Locke shook his head slightly.

The society of black wizards was truly too insane.

Locke thought of the hypnosis magic those vampires had cast on mortals. The timed activation device for the Corpse Explosion was probably achieved through hypnosis magic.

By hypnotizing those apprentices' minds, making them explode the instant they actually developed thoughts of betraying the sect and were about to act on them.

Locke thought of that first-class wizard apprentice who had observed him through spells from a distance, but it didn't matter anyway. He was also a first-class wizard apprentice now, so he wasn't afraid of him.

As long as he didn't leave the sect headquarters, it would be very difficult for the other party, as a first-class wizard apprentice, to enter Lilith's Cottage headquarters.

After all, the difficulty of second-class wizard apprentices infiltrating was incomparable to the difficulty of first-class wizard apprentices infiltrating.

First-class wizard apprentices carried far too heavy and conspicuous traces of black magic, and they themselves might be key surveillance targets of Lilith's Cottage, making it actually difficult for them to infiltrate.

So being targeted by that first-class wizard apprentice wasn't a very big problem.

Locke surveyed the area and confirmed the Mandrake Vines had returned to deep purple, saying, "The scene is quite gruesome."

"The side effects of Crimson Echo are really severe. Even after finishing the fight, I still have a feeling of exhilaration, as if long-suppressed nature has finally been released. This definitely isn't my own feeling. This should be a side effect of the potion."

"I'm not a black wizard."

"I'm a white wizard, yes."