Wizard: I brought the wrong system.

Chapter 217 Shadow Wolf

Bard had previously mentioned that the most people died on the stairs when they were exploring the castle.

They were attacked by a giant, elusive black wolf.

If Bard wasn't lying, that giant wolf should be the most common shadow wolf among shadow creatures.

These wild shadow wolves possess a variety of magical materials, which many apprentices like to use to create enchanted artifacts that can summon shadow wolves. This was also Aro's primary goal from the beginning.

"Appearing and disappearing unpredictably? Possessing shadow stealth magic? If the entire animal hide were stripped off, it might even be used to make a stealth cloak?"

A successfully crafted stealth cloak is worth at least two hundred magic stones!
Even basic crafting materials can sell for twenty or thirty magic stones!
Yaro had not learned how to craft enchanted artifacts, but simply selling these materials was enough for him to solve most of his troubles.

How much does a bottle of purification agent cost?
You can buy a bottle at the academy for just three magic stones!
Buying ten bottles at once will be more than enough to deal with the remaining abyssal power on your body!
Not to mention the other materials on the Shadow Wolf; if all of them were collected and sold, there might be extra magic stones to buy materials to make new magic armor.

Looking at the pitch-black stairwell, Yaro murmured, "My little darling, are you still there?"

He pursed his lips nervously, his gloved hands secretly rubbing together, adjusting the sword hilt to the most comfortable angle for exerting force.

He clenched his fist lightly, and a ball of light floated out and came to a steady stop beside him.

This is just a normal casting of the Light spell. Because the light energy contained within it is not released instantly, it can last for about twenty minutes.

Unlike the previous shadow creatures, the shadow wolves have physical bodies, so light cannot harm them. However, stable and continuous light can weaken some of their abilities.

For example, some shadow-based spells, or—shadow stealth.

Pure darkness is not the best combat environment for shadow-type characters, but in complete darkness, it is even more difficult to detect attacks from the shadows.

……

The floating sphere of light, like an incandescent bulb, emitted a soft glow, illuminating the old, cramped stairwell with a clear and bright light.

The light was stable, but the shadows on the ground did not immediately disappear. They seemed to have a sticky, oily feel, and rolled around under the light, receding like the tide and revealing the bluestone steps.

A thin layer of dust had accumulated on the steps, covered with messy footprints and scattered knife marks. Just seeing these marks was enough to convey how terrified and powerless those people had been.

Yaro glanced at it, ignored it, tightened his grip on the heavy sword, and stepped onto the stairs.

The stairs spiraled upwards, with the sphere of light from the Light spell closely following Yaro.

As he climbed.

The shadows ahead kept rolling, and the dark places behind also hurriedly contracted. Every now and then, some mottled black shadows rushed into the light impatiently, and then retreated quickly as if they had been electrocuted.

The light swirled, its edges constantly surging like tides, concealing countless acts of malice yet maintaining an eerie calm.

The steady footsteps of Yaro echoed through the secluded spiral staircase.

The footsteps grew heavier and heavier, gradually mingling together, creating an inexplicable commotion in the area.

The heavy breathing echoed in Yaro's ears, and the disorienting feeling made him wonder if the sound was his own or if someone had poked their head into his ear.

In the pitch-black central space, the chaotic noises continued to mingle and echoed from the darkness outside the corridor, as if a group of people were hiding there, pointing and whispering comments at the wary Yaro.

The castle, which doesn't look very tall from the outside, took Yarrow a long time to reach the top of the stairs.

Instead, the noise outside grew louder and louder, as if seeing that Yaro did not react, they became more and more unruly.

But when a certain limit is reached...

"when--!"

The Fiery Greatsword slammed against the railing. Yaro sneered and said, "Everyone, stop wasting your time. If you want to eat me, show me your real skills. Don't think you can annoy me to death with this kind of method."

Isn't he just trying to scare himself and absorb the scattered spiritual energy?

They have absolutely no experience!
Didn't the wizard's mental strength have been trained long ago, to the point that he could control it with his own will?

I wonder if the only way to consume a wizard's mental energy is to first break through the meditation core in their sea of ​​consciousness?

Judging from the extent of this manipulation, it doesn't seem like something irrational or stupid. How can it lack even this basic common sense?

However—lack of experience means the level of danger is not high.

The fact that the floating orbs of light beside him were still using these ridiculous methods indicated that the space was not very dangerous.

The master who controls all of this may have encountered mortals before, and only summarized the methods for dealing with mortals.

……

After Yarrow finished speaking, the noise from the outside world remained unchanged.

It was as if they couldn't hear what Aro said, or perhaps it was just some natural effect, and Aro was overthinking it.

Yaro frowned slightly.

What does it mean?
Are there no other options?

Want to maintain this effect until you break down?
Looking up ahead, all I saw was still pitch black.

An unknown number of shadow creatures surrounded the edge of the light, making it seem as if a circle had been drawn around Yaro, with a bright area inside and pitch black outside, with a clear dividing line in the middle.

This also made it impossible for Yaro to see how far above was or how far he had traveled below.

"Maintaining the Light spell requires mental energy, and my physical condition isn't good either. Just holding the Fiery Greatsword consumes a lot of stamina. Dragging this out isn't a solution!"

Yaro's eyes flickered slightly, then he stopped.

As he stopped, the surrounding noise also paused inexplicably, and then gradually subsided.

It's as if those sounds were just echoes of footsteps.

Ignoring the voices, Yaro closed his eyes, panting and resting while pondering a way to break the deadlock.

"Basically, only formal wizards can distort space. This can't possibly be a formal wizard-level monster!"

If there were monsters of formal wizard level, this eerie space would not be easily accessible and connected to Perrin Castle.

Only a massive, eerie space can contain a monster of the formal wizard level.

"If it wasn't a distortion of space, then the thing that was tampered with was most likely the steps!"

Yaro looked down at the bluestone steps beneath his feet.

"Is it being controlled to rotate?"

"Or was it manipulated into a step-like shift?"

Focusing his perception on the cat's running and punching, Yaro stomped his foot.

"Da da."

The sound was crisp, yet inexplicably had a soft, yielding quality.

A look of realization flashed across Yaro's eyes. "Just as I thought!"

Om-!
The power core on the Fiery Greatsword spun rapidly, the surrounding air constantly flowing, and the dull, piercing sound was like an alarm.

Heat Melting Technique Activated!
A red light spread out from the hilt of the sword, and the metal in the middle quickly turned bright red, reflecting a crimson glow onto the translucent crystals at the edge of the Fiery Greatsword.

boom--!
In just a moment, the temperature had accumulated enough that raging flames erupted from every part of the blade.

Looking at the heavy steps ahead, Yaro's muscles tensed, and his mental energy quickly activated the power core of the Fiery Greatsword. A powerful airflow, accompanied by thick steam, surged out from above the sword guard.

"Blazing Sword Technique - Blazing Fire!" The blazing longsword drew a semi-circle, the scorching flames trailing in a crescent shape, and Yaro roared, "Slash!"

boom!
Flames erupted, and powerful energy flowed along the hard blade of the Fiery Greatsword, all of it being released onto the surface of the third stone step in front!
Crash-!
The steps shattered in the middle, and intense flames surged in through the cracks.

"what!!!"

A scream suddenly came from inside!
……

[Ding! Defeat the enemy, and the Fiery Sword Technique has gained 63 skill experience points]

[Converted into personal experience, personal experience points increased by 63]

[Remaining skill points: 1]

[Personal Level LV21: 663/30000]

……

"open!"

Yaro roared, his arm muscles bulging as he twisted the greatsword with all his might.

Click!

A stone was thrown into the air, revealing its interior.

The inside of the steps had been hollowed out, and inside lay a curled-up, mutilated corpse. Judging from the style of the leather armor on the corpse, this person was Bard's former partner!
Yaro's eyes narrowed slightly as he suddenly looked down at his feet.

Since there are steps ahead, what about the ones under my feet?

There are so many steps in front and behind.

Suddenly, a small crack appeared in the steps beneath Yaro's feet, and a pale hand broke through the stone platform and reached out, grabbing Yaro's foot.

"roll!"

With a roar, Yaro thrust his Fiery Greatsword down, the surging, scorching flames on it rapidly merging into the crack, causing a faint red glow to rise from the entire staircase!

……

[Ding! Defeat the enemy, and the Fiery Sword Technique has gained 67 skill experience points]

[Converted into personal experience, personal experience points increased by 67]

[Remaining skill points: 1]

[Personal Level LV21: 730/30000]

……

The steps beneath his feet grew increasingly hot, the heat traveling up the leather soles to the soles of his feet.

At the same time, as if they had discovered that Yaro had discovered the secret, cracking sounds came from the steps in front and behind them, and pairs of pale arms reached out from them.

"Basic Sword Technique - Slash!"

The mangled body, which had just emerged with half its body protruding from the front, fell down again.

……

[Ding! Defeat the enemy, and the Fiery Sword Technique has gained 66 skill experience points]

[Converted into personal experience, personal experience points increased by 66]

[Remaining skill points: 1]

[Personal Level LV21: 796/30000]

……

"go!"

Without hesitation, Yaro stepped onto the small, unbroken flat area in front of him, his greatsword flashing across his hand.

The monster that had just crawled out halfway was practically offering itself up as food!

However, no matter how fast Yaro slashed, he couldn't keep up with the monsters crawling out all at once. After comfortably killing seven or eight of them, the monsters behind finally rushed out of the stone platform before Yaro arrived, numbly charging towards him.

Only then did Yaro finally see what these monsters looked like.

They all have different defects on their bodies. These defects are either torn or have three claw wounds in a row. The wounds are basically the same and most of them have various defects. It is because of these defects that their body size has shrunk considerably.

That is why they can fit into the shallow steps.

The wounds were all roughly the same size, and even the missing parts on each body were almost identical, suggesting that they must have encountered the same kind of ferocious beast before they died, or even the same beast.

At this moment, thick, shadowy energy flowed through all those wounds.

Its entire body was like a tattered rag covered in patches, some parts were bloodless and pale, and some parts were filled with dark shadow energy flowing and pulling. It moved shakily, like a zombie or a puppet on strings.

Just looking at those things was enough to make one feel disgusted, and an unnamed rage surged within me!

"Shadow Trick - Shadow Puppet!"

Yaro recognized the name of the trick, then looked at the numerous monsters behind him, each dressed in different ways, his eyes flashing coldly.

"Many of the bodies were dressed in civilian clothes, and some of them had large and small bags tied to their bodies, making them look like refugees."

"That's quite a lot!"

Now that he had recognized the name of the magic trick, Yaro naturally knew the weaknesses of these monsters.

—Simply pierce the puppet's brain with fire elemental energy, and you can easily eliminate it!
Faced with such monsters, a typical intermediate apprentice would use fireballs to blast their heads open. However, even a fire-specialized apprentice could only use a maximum of one hundred fireballs, given their magical power.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, intermediate apprentices would not waste time on these puppets; they would only try to find the master of the spell through various means.

If you really can't find it, you can only use fireballs to fight your way out and get out first.

Yaro doesn't need to go through all that trouble!
The flames generated by the molten stone already contained a rich fire element; he only needed to use the sword in his hand to sever the puppet's head!

With all his muscles tense, Yaro adjusted his breathing rhythm using the Knight's Breathing Technique, and crouched slightly.

At this moment, he felt conflicted.

On the one hand, I hope the steps can be longer and there can be more monsters on them, since those are all experience points!
What's even more infuriating is that the monster killed so many people!
They even gnawed the corpse into this disgusting state!

"kill!"

With a roar, Yaro unleashed his pent-up rage into the Fiery Heavy Sword.

"Activate - Fiery Sword Technique!"

hum!
The lava eye in the center of the blade spun rapidly, constantly consuming the flames on the greatsword, causing the flames to become increasingly hot. Dazzling white flames shot into the sky, and waves of scorching air swept through the air, with rich fire elements surging and turbulent!

The raging flames of the Fiery Greatsword represent the rage in Aro's heart!

Tick!
A drop of flame, like viscous molten lava, fell from the sword blade, instantly scalding a large hole in the dark ground. A series of miserable cries, like the pitiful wails of wild rats, echoed in the void!
"Blazing Sword Technique - Charged Flame!"

Boom!

Rumble!
(End of this chapter)