Wizarding Era

The Killing Tree

This is a sinister, foreboding place. Even in the daylight, the dense fog casts a heavy pallor over everything, making the light seem somewhat dim and the background color even more inclined to be cold and earthy. After waiting for a while, the stone door behind Tony and Grim slowly closed.

Tony turned around and spoke coldly, "I'm heading over there." Without waiting for Grim to respond, he strode onto the path paved with fine white granules.

Grim pulled up his hood before twisting his body to take the right path. As he walked, he muttered softly, "Let’s check out this Tony’s data."

Instantly, a biochip report on Tony appeared in his mind, detailing:

Name: Tony

Attributes: Strength 7, Agility 3, Spirituality 6, Stamina 8

Grim was taken aback by Tony's physical stats. With strength and stamina both being twice his own, it would mean that if they were to fight physically, he might not even have time to punch before being knocked down by Tony. Moreover, as a mage apprentice, Grim's spirit points were only 6 at 2 points lower than Tony's. Such an inherent advantage could never be overcome by numbers alone.

Perhaps he should consider switching to the warrior's path? Using various potions to strengthen his physique and then relying on magic to assist him in close combat, that seems to be the only viable option for Tony. They had spent some time together recently, and from his actions, Grim could deduce that Tony must be planning to develop along the lines of a warrior warrior.

However, such precise information could be gathered just from a short interaction. The biochip could detect such detailed data from their actions based on gestures and other subtle cues. This undoubtedly gave Grim more initiative in social interactions and allowed him to avoid many unnecessary risks.

Moreover, such detection methods likely wouldn't work on true mages. After all, the bodies of formal mages constantly radiate strong elemental fluctuations without them being aware of it. It also serves as a means to prevent others from sensing their true conditions.

Under the intense energy radiation interference, how much valuable information can the biochip obtain from them? Could they even detect the presence of the biochip itself? Would they confirm Tony and Grim's identities? All these uncertainties made Grim particularly wary of using such detection methods within the tower.

The path ahead continuously stretched into the mist. On either side of the road, one could vaguely see tall and short plants of irregular shapes. The cone-shaped trunks, tightly closed leaf faces, drooping tendrils, and scattered petals of bright colors and large faces indicated a foul and dirty swamp. However, the seemingly low-key trees were actually deadly man-eating trees. Once someone approached, their leaves would instantly unfold, wrapping them in their embrace. Then the hanging vinces would wrap around them, piercing countless sharp thorns into their bodies, causing them to bleed to death until life gradually faded away.

Their blood would be sucked dry, leaving only bones and flesh as the best fertilizer for the man-eating trees. If one were fortunate enough to dig under the blackened soil with hints of white, they would find countless bones of skeletons, both human and beast. These were the only proof left of their prey captured by the maneating trees.

The tower kept these monsters for two purposes: to block outsiders from entering and to harvest special magical materials. The roots and sap of man-eating trees are excellent nourishing ingredients, while the blood sacs within the parasitic blood-vines are also sought after for special magical materials. Every so often, mages apprentices would venture out to gather materials to face the risk of attack by mutated plants. Therefore, this task carries a high mortality rate, making it one of the most dangerous tasks for mages apprentices.

Perhaps sensing the vitality on Grim's body, the previously sluggish swamp suddenly became livelier. The trees and plants that Grim couldn't perceive or sense started to inch towards the path, moving branches and trunks closer to the small path. However, when Grim looked over, they would freeze again, becoming motionless again as if they had never moved before.

Grim completely ignored the small movements of these plant monsters; he knew that no matter how crazy they were, they wouldn't dare step onto the simple and plain path underfoot. It seemed like this path was adorned with something they deeply feared—a deterrent that prevented them from approaching.

"Record the database, archive this magical plant," Grim ordered calmly.

"Task initiation failed... The database is damaged, unable to perform species matching..."

With a series of chip prompts, the projection on the retina flickered momentarily, then stabilized images cascaded down like a waterfall, vividly coloring every object in sight. Besides the base green indicating the plant nature, clusters of red, yellow, and blue indicated energy convergence areas. Other than that, constantly changing environmental humidity, wind speed, temperature concentration of toxic particles and particulate matter, airborne elements all presented in dynamic color charts.

Grim frowned. This overly colorful and complex visual projection severely hindered his normal vision. How could he see anything clearly in the future? He commanded step by step, "Remove invalid spectrums... Remove diffuse glow... Only focus on a few common energy spectra on the spectral system..."

As Grim issued commands, the previously blinding glare of light finally dimed down down bit by bit, and all objects regained their original appearances. Under the powerful elemental vision provided by the Biochip, the edges of all objects seemed semi-translucent and partially transparent. Every object was outlined with a faint trace of green indicating its plant nature. In the severe wind and rain, the constantly changing environmental humidity, wind speed, temperature concentration of toxic particles and particulate matter in the air were barely visible.

Grim stood firm, hiding his eyes under the hood of his cloak and stared at the roadside mutated plants. Under this new visual perception, the hidden aspects of their disguise finally became vividly apparent.

The wrinkled bark under the tree bark clustered numerous ghostly faces, with each knot tightly binding a soul trapped by the tree. On the gray-white trunk of the man-eating tree, curled leaves, branch edges, and needle-tips of the cactus all emitted a pale green fluorescent glow. This was the paralytic poison spectrum emitted by the man-eating tree. On the parasitic blood-vines, Grim saw even more terrifying red witches—the entire twisted green outer skin flowed pure blood, and in each hollow cavity of the tree trunk, combined with the blood sacs, a fist-sized blood sac rhythmically expanded and contracted, looking extremely similar to a human heart.

As for the parasitic blood sacs on the man-eating tree, Grim saw even more horrifying red demons—the entire twisted green green outer skin flowed pure blood, and inside each hollow cavity of a tree trunk, a fist-sized blood sac rhythmically expanded and contracted, looking extremely similar to a human heart.

A few harsh caws came from afar, and a group of crows flew over from afar, attracted by the stench. Perched on a branch, they stared with their blood-red eyes with suspicion.

Seeing such a group of unwelcome mages, Grim felt uneasy throughout his body. However, even facing such frightening creatures, Grim didn’t dare neglect them. Crows with blood-red eyes also possess slight curse abilities—although they aren't considered powerful mages, but those blood-red eyes have a mild "curse of power" that can cause terrible damage if a mage apprentice gets pecked in the eye by them. Previously, there have been terrible examples of mages apprentices getting pecked blind by crows.

Seeing the crows showing signs of eagerness to try, Grim didn’t dare to neglect them and raised his right hand chanting softly his well-practiced incantation spell. A big burst of fiery red magic flame appeared in his hands in Grim’s right hand completely enveloped by the magic flame without suffering any harm.

This is Grim’s only mastered magic spell—Incinerate!

Although Grim's capabilities are limited, he can only extend the fire to five meters away at most. Currently, surrounded by thick magic mist, the intense elemental fluctuations finally awakened the demonic creatures in the swamp. They realized that these humans in front were not easily capturable. Gradually, those who gathered around Grim quickly retreated with great alarm. Those crows let out harsh caws and took off into the sky flying around in confusion before disappearing into the mist.

Grim finally breathed a sigh of relief feeling much more relaxed. These demonic creatures definitely wouldn't dare to step onto this path but they could still use various ways to deceive or threaten mages apprentices to leave the path. If Tony was surrounded by such a terrifying scene and panicked upon seeing it, he would run out of the path in a panic resulting in instant death despite having protective magic charms.

The soul and flesh of a mage apprentice are far more delicious and nutritious than ordinary humans and beasts which aligns exactly with the agreement between the tower and demons. Therefore venturing outside is indeed a severe test of willpower for mages apprentices. If a loophole is found in a mage apprentice's soul, even demons won't let them go easily.

"Record all these demons," Grim commanded coldly. "Please name them."

"Record complete... Please name the subject."