The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Marilyn became even more nervous, and she was incredibly relieved that she hadn't lied.

　Although revealing her identity as a member of the Black Sands Chamber of Commerce would be detrimental to her, in that instant, she instinctively felt that lying in front of these people would lead to even more dire consequences.

　"If even the students are this powerful, how terrifying must the accompanying teachers be?"

　Marilyn's mind raced.

　After calming down, she suddenly realized that this might be her only chance in her life.

　If we could get in touch with these people...

　She didn't turn to look at the people around the campfire, but instead quickly searched her mind for the people who were easiest to target.

　"Elves, fairies, nobles, maids..."

　Then, with remarkable keen insight, she discovered the biggest, and only, flaw in that group of people.

　"That boy with black hair and wearing a green hat!"

　……

　The wind was howling, and the cold was biting.

　But Dak did not return.

　With his back to the crowd, golden light shone in his eyes. The vision of the "Eye of Truth" pierced through the darkness and revealed the truth.

　After a brief period of calm, the ground began to shake violently.

　Black dust billowed up wildly from the horizon.

　"Were you drawn here by the battle here?"

　Dak raised his hand and pulled on the hat that Layalvette had knitted by hand, a rare smile appearing on his lips.

　"If it's the Black Soil Plain, then it's the 'Scorpion of the Black Soil,' right?"

　If the Sands is the overlord of the Black Soil Plain, then the Black Soil Scorpion is the most terrifying nightmare.

　When the black scorpion passes through, no remains are left.

　"Gladiator, are you ready?"

　"Ee-boo!"

　"Very well, then let the blizzard rage on!"

　"Ee-boo!"

　"Gladiator" suddenly raised its head, and a strong ice-blue light emanated from its small body.

　The temperature around them plummeted again, and the ground was covered with layers of ice.

　Dark clouds rolled in the night, and swirling snowflakes, accompanied by howling winds and hail, swept down.

　When the black sandstorm approached within a hundred meters, a terrifying blizzard descended from the sky.

　Countless black earth scorpions were swallowed up by the blizzard.

　……

　[Blizzard: Attacks the opponent with a fierce blizzard, sometimes freezing them. In extremely cold weather such as (hail), the freezing probability doubles and the duration increases until the extreme cold weather ends, with a maximum duration of five rounds. A blizzard occurs once per round.]

Chapter 758 Corpses Form a Sea, Ice Forms a Mountain (4k)

　The professors clearly intended to give the students "experience" and wanted them to take on challenges.

　But Dark couldn't possibly let Aurora go, and given Witt's current condition, he wasn't too comfortable with him either, so he had to come himself.

　How much experience could a mere salon possibly provide for him?

　Professor Jones frowned, but he was too lazy to think about it... Let it be!

　Therefore, the professors didn't pay much attention when Dak got up by the campfire.

　Only the adventurers and caravan members remained uncertain.

　At that time, the caravan members were still puzzled by their identities, and the adventurers were extremely wary. The appearance of Sharon was an unexpected surprise. It was even more unbelievable that a boy who looked like a student would suddenly stand up and declare that he would deal with Sharon.

　The adventurers were of good heart. Seeing that the group of academics seemed to be really going to let the young student face the salon alone, they didn't have time to worry about the Black Sand Merchant Guild anymore and hurriedly spoke up to stop them.

　“That’s a salon!” Even the scarred man Congreve, who looked fierce, exclaimed in surprise.

　Daniel was even more worried that the people in the academy were just talking theory and did not know how powerful Sharon was, so he quickly said, "Sharon has dragon blood, and he is especially powerful in this sandy area. Ordinary dragons are no match for him and can be swallowed up if they are not careful."

　“Mr. Daniel, I recognize this salon,” Dark said with a faint smile, showing a goodwill towards the adventurer who had offered the reminder.

　Although this adventurer failed to kill a single enemy in three battles, he at least had the courage to go to the battlefield to defend his country, which is commendable.

　However, after leaving the campfire, Dak became slightly worried again.

　The Sand Dragon is a Ground/Dragon-type sub-dragon, with attack and defense capabilities roughly equivalent to a strong six-star Magical Spirit. However, real magical beasts have far greater total vitality and magical energy than Magical Spirits.

　In fact, the biggest weakness of magical spirits is their "low HP". That's why in magical duels, there are instances where a single ultimate move can instantly kill a magical spirit of equal strength.

　When a mage summons a magical spirit, it usually requires multiple magical spirits to fight in turn, or other magical cards to assist in successfully killing a monster of the same level.

　Furthermore, the monsters in the St. Marian dungeon are generated from the dungeon's magic. Therefore, they share a weakness similar to that of magical spirits. Only the dungeon's bosses and elite monsters have overcome this weakness and possess relatively long health bars.

　In terms of vitality:

　Dungeon Bosses > Elite Monsters ≈ Real Warcraft > Magical Spirits

　Therefore, junior mages graduating from St. Mary's Academy often experience some difficulties adapting when facing magical beasts for the first time.

　But that's not what Dark was thinking.

　He was wondering whether he should simply summon the magical spirit to fight the enemy, or use the longsword hanging at his waist to show some of the demeanor of the "Son of the Valkyrie".

　"BOOM!"

　As he approached one of the dragons, the dragon, which was rushing down from beneath the ground, crashed into the wind barrier set up by Professor Sylph, causing the barrier to shake violently.

　As the impact rang out, the ground caved in, forming a vortex, and the sand dragon burst out of the ground, roaring at the nearest flying dragon.

　Those in the camp finally got a clear look at the entire salon.

　"Is this the salon?" Witt's pupils dilated, his heart filled with shock.

　Young mages who are used to magical spirits often find it difficult to adapt to the huge differences between magical beasts and magical spirits when they first encounter powerful magical beasts.

　The salamander had an extremely long body, as thick and fat as a roller, a huge cone-shaped head, thick transparent eyelids above its eyes, a short and thick neck with layers of wrinkles, four limbs on both sides that had degenerated into fins, a row of blade-like spine plates on its spine, and its body was covered with scars.

　It opened its blood-red maw wide, revealing a dense array of fine teeth; if bitten, one would surely be ground to dust.

　When it stands upright, it is even twice the size of a flying dragon, and its gaping maw could probably swallow a flying dragon whole.

　Perhaps it sensed the presence of the dragon and came to hunt it!

　"Roar!"

　The roar of the sand radiated across the black soil plain, forcing back countless grains of sand and creating ripples.

　A huge bubble-like substance swelled up from its abdomen, rushed out of its throat, and was suddenly expelled.

　The dark green slime splattered onto the wind barrier, corroding it and creating a huge gap.

　The stench of the salon immediately seeped in.

　Dark flicked his finger, and two magic cards flew out of his card pack and nestled between his fingers.

　After a moment's hesitation, he still chose the orthodox combat methods of the archmage.

　The reason is simple: that salon... just stinks!

　"Ground and dragon breath? I choose you, Eevee."

　He emerged from between the two dragons, a summoning circle already glowing beneath his feet.

　The adorable "Eevee: Monster Hunter" that's so cute it makes you want to commit a crime emerged from the summoning light.

　……

　"It's a Archmage!"

　The adventurers and caravan members around the campfire had calmed down.

　The silence among the faculty and students made them realize a possibility.

　They may have encountered a trial team from a magic academy...

　As times change and new professions emerge, old ones do not disappear entirely.

　The term "magician" simply replaced "sorcerer" as another synonym for rare and powerful.

　While magicians have stepped down from the most cutting-edge stage, their enduring historical legacy still makes them more widely known than archmages.

　However, what an academic mage learns in ten years is often less than what a mage learns in one year.

　Those living in the capital city, surrounded by numerous academies, might hardly notice. But once they leave the capital, they'll find that there are very few mages traveling outside.

　An adventure party is considered extremely lucky to have a mage join them.

　As for archmages, they wouldn't even dare to dream of it.

　They can mostly only see the Archmage in the Duel Arena.

　Magic academies are extremely rare.

　However, people know more about archmages than magicians.

　It's because you can see mages in the dueling arena.

　Marilyn turned to look at the "Magical Beast: Eevee" walking beside Dark, but couldn't help thinking, "The Archmage is powerful, but that Magical Pokémon's level shouldn't be very high, right?"

　"What is he planning to do? Is he going to summon a low-level magical spirit as a sacrifice?"

　Among this group, she held the highest position, was the wealthiest, and had watched the most magic duels, so naturally she knew more about magicians than the others.

　Those who only have a superficial understanding of mages often confuse mages with summoners and can never understand the mages' intention to summon weak spirits.

　The "Fantastic Beast: Eevee" summoned by Dark looks more like a pet meant to be used as a body pillow.

　How could such a magical spirit possibly stand against the Sands?

　The power that salon can wield in the current environment is terrifying.

　The reason why adventurers risk their lives to seek refuge is largely to escape this nocturnal sands!

　The twelve adventurers, even at the cost of their lives, could barely hold off a single sand dragon. If a new monster were attracted during the battle, they risked total annihilation.

　But the adventurers did not expose their ignorance like the supporting characters in biographical novels.

　They buried their doubts deep in their hearts and watched the boy's back with bated breath.

　"Perhaps it really could work?"

　Such thoughts arose spontaneously from the bottom of their hearts.

　……

　"In the name of Dark Demon, a magical summoning—'Greed III'!"

　Blue-purple light poured down, and "Eevee: Monster Hunter" gradually glowed as it moved forward.

　By the time Dark escaped the encirclement of the flying dragons, it had evolved into the ice-blue "Gladiator"!

　Ice-type is effective against Ground-type.

　Ice type is effective against Dragon type.

　A Ground/Dragon type Sand Dragon is nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter in front of an Ice type Magical Pokémon.

　"Glaceon, hail."

　"Bah!"

　Although "Gladiator" says "I don't want to," its actions are very honest.

　It stopped not far in front of Dark, gracefully raising its neck, the radiance of ice element emanating from its body, converging layer by layer towards its head, and then shooting straight into the sky.

　In the blink of an eye, a beam of ice-blue light appeared in the already pitch-black night sky.

　The beam of light suddenly spread outwards, turning the already frigid night into something resembling the Arctic.

　Hailstones, reflecting starlight, appeared one after another from the void, and then more and more appeared.