Chapter 3: Swamp

This was a strange and fearsome magical swamp.Although it was daytime, the thick clouds and mist meant that little light could pass through, making the world appear quite gloomy. The entire world seemed to have a dark, earthy yellow tone.

After living in this environment for a long time, even a person's character would change and become more ruthless.

Both waited until the stone door behind them was completely closed, then Nolan lifted his hood and said:

"I'm going this way."

He didn't wait for Leon's response, simply turned and took a path that led to the left, which brought him to a narrow, winding trail paved with tiny white stones.

Leon waited until Nolan's bulky figure disappeared into the shadowy mist, then pulled up his hood, turned to the other side, and took the trail to the right.

As he walked, he whispered, "Show me the data detected on Nolan."

In the next second, a report on the Apprentice Mage Nolan, produced by the Biological Assistance Chip, was projected in his mind.

"Nolan"

Race: Human

Condition: —

HP: —

Apprentice Mage [Beginner]

Experience: —

"Attributes:"

Strength: 7

Agility: 3

Physique: 8

Spirit: 6

…

Leon's mouth twitched in surprise. With that Physique, why hadn't this guy changed paths and become a Warrior? His strength and physique were double that of Leon's. This meant that if he fought Nolan, it might only take a single punch to bring him down.

But as an Apprentice Mage, Nolan had 6 Spirit, 2 less than Leon. No matter how hard Nolan tried, that innate advantage would be difficult to overcome.¹

Knowing this, Nolan was probably planning to follow the path of a Body Refining Mage. Using specific methods to strengthen his body, then using magical spells to aid his close-combat ability… Perhaps that was the only path he could choose!

Only by staying close to the target for a period could the Chip analyze and acquire such precise information. Monitoring the target's movement and behavior. Undoubtedly, this allowed Leon to take a more proactive position when working with others. It also enabled him to avoid unnecessary risks.

And that was, without a doubt, the most important thing for Leon!

But perhaps such a method would be useless against a real Mage, as their bodies sometimes radiated strong elemental energy. This was something Mages passively gained after their body accumulated a massive amount of energy. It was also how they prevented others from perceiving their strength.

The amount of valuable information the Biological Assistance Chip could verify when the target was under the powerful interference of energy radiation was unknown. Not only that, but Leon was concerned that Mages might be able to detect his Biological Assistance Chip, so he needed to be more cautious when using it within the tower.

The stony trail ahead remained winding as it led deeper into the foggy haze.

Strange plants of all sizes, barely visible on either side of the path, included small, thick, cone-shaped trees, small leafy plants curling into spirals, rattan vines brushing overhead as he walked beneath them, and mystical, incredibly colorful flowers with petals as large as big vases… there was also a muddy, stinking pond…

Despite all of this making it seem like this was just an ordinary swamp, Leon knew very well that he could never take even a single step off the stony trail.

To all those animals and plants that had managed to survive in this magical swamp, they were terrifying demons that would devour any human they encountered, leaving not even bones behind.

These short, simple-looking trees were actually quite frightening. If a person got close enough to them, their swaying branches would instantly expand, grabbing and holding the person tightly within their clutches. At that moment, the blood rattans hanging from those trees would coil around the person, piercing countless sharp thorns into their body, slowly draining the blood drop by drop.

Once the person's blood was completely dried up, the remaining skin, flesh, and bones would become the best fertilizer for these killer trees.

If one could safely dig up the blood-red soil beneath these killer trees, they would surely discover a massive pile of skeletons, some human and some animal. Without doing so, there was no evidence of any prey these plants had devoured!

There were two reasons why this tower in the swamp cultivated these demonic plants. First, it was to prevent invasion by other humans. Second, it was so they could harvest some unique magical materials from the plants.

The root of the Killer Tree and the blood sac that grew inside the Blood-Sucking Rattans were good tonics. They were a beneficial supplement for Mages lacking a strong physique. On a regular basis, an apprentice Mage had to risk being attacked by these demonic plants to gather materials. Therefore, this was a dangerous task that had a very high death toll.

It was probably because they smelled the blood and flesh on Leon's body that the dead swamp suddenly seemed to come alive. Consciously or unconsciously, all these demonic plants started twisting their bodies, branches, and roots slowly toward the stony trail.

Leon pretended not to see the movements of these demonic plants. He was not truly worried about them at this moment.

No matter how frenzied they were, they did not dare move onto the simple, clear stony trail beneath his feet, as if there was something on the path that they feared.

"Consult the database, record and archive all magical plants in the surrounding area!" seaʀᴄh thё Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Insufficient initial data…"

"Root database is incomplete and unable to match species…"

"Activating elemental vision, reconstructing database…"

Following a series of warning tones from the chip, the image projected onto his retina began to flicker, then stabilized as a large amount of data started cascading like a waterfall before his eyes. At the same time, every object within his view was highlighted with different colored lights.

Elemental vision? Was this a special ability he gained after the chip merged with his current body?

The plants were highlighted with a green light, indicating that these plant demons contained many Elementium, which, surprisingly, were often found in natural plants. Other colors such as red, yellow, blue, and purple indicated the areas where respective energies were collected.

Additionally, the humidity, temperature, wind speed, poison particle thickness, particle distribution of elements, and circulation—all the data the chip could detect—were projected into his eyes in a dynamic, colorful graph.

Leon frowned.

This colorful, excessive retinal projection severely affected his normal vision. This was too much information.

"Remove unnecessary colors… remove scattered highlights… only display vision within the most common energy bands…"

After Leon issued his commands, one by one, the brilliant and colorful orb finally receded little by little, and all the items in his vision gradually returned to their normal colors.

The thick, pale, shadowy mist now transformed into countless clumps, threads, and sheets of slow-moving elemental water particles. They were restrained by a mysterious force and couldn't disperse, forced to cover this magical swamp month after month, year after year.

Leon stopped moving and stood still. Hidden under the shadow of his hood was a pair of bright eyes, staring at the demonic plants beside the trail without blinking. With the help of his new vision, the true nature of these plants hidden under the guise of the swamp was finally revealed.

Beneath the wrinkled, withered bark of the tree, there was an array of ghostly faces pressed together. These were all the souls trapped by the Killer Trees. Furthermore, Leon could "see" a green energy glow in the needle-like stingers at the edges of the Killer Tree's branches. This energy indicated the presence of the paralytic poison the Killer Tree used to sedate its prey.

As for the Blood-Sucking Rattans hanging from the Killer Tree, they looked utterly demonic, appearing completely red under his elemental vision. Pure blood flowed beneath their twisted, crawling green skin, and right at the point where they connected with the Killer Tree, inside a hollow cavity of the tree, numerous blood sacs the size of a human fist pulsed rhythmically, resembling human hearts.

Caw ~ caw ~

Accompanied by a few sharp caws, a group of Carrion Crows flew in and perched on a tree branch, shifting their blood-red eyes and staring at Leon.

Honestly speaking, being stared at by such a group of menacing demons made Leon feel incredibly uneasy.

In the face of these dangerous swamp demons, Leon didn't dare to be even slightly careless. Although Carrion Crows weren't considered strong demonic animals, their blood-red eyes possessed the 'Ruin' ability, and there had been some horrific incidents where Apprentice Mages had been blinded by these crows.

Seeing that these Carrion Crows were eager to attack, Leon raised his right arm and softly intoned a spell he had memorized.

"Burning Hands, come forth!"

"Burning Hands, I summon thee!"

"Burning…"

Five seconds after the spell was cast, a large, violent, twisting red magical fireball appeared in Leon's hand.

"Buzz~~"

Leon's entire right hand was completely engulfed by this magical fireball, yet he remained unharmed and unburned.

This was his Burning Hand spell!

After spending six years in the Magic Tower, this was the only spell Leon had managed to master.

With Leon's current ability, he could barely extend the flame up to 5 paces. That was his limit. Thus, it could currently be considered a close-range spell.

The fiercely burning magical flame illuminated the surrounding mist. The powerful ripples generated by the fire element finally made these demons realize that this human in front of them was not someone they could easily capture.

As for the demons that were slowly approaching Leon, it seemed they were struck by great terror, and all of them quickly fled from the sides of the trail in a panic. Additionally, the group of Carrion Crows let out loud caws as they flew into the sky, circling briefly in the air above before disappearing into the depths of the fog.

Leon let out a long sigh of relief. With that, the pressure on him was eased.

None of these demons dared to step onto the stony trail, but that did not stop them from using their own methods to try to lure or intimidate Apprentice Mages into leaving the path.

If Leon had been frightened by the terrifying scene of being surrounded by demons and, in his panic, accidentally stepped off the boundaries of this stony trail… even with the help of the Magic Talisman, he would likely face a terrible death.

The soul, blood, and flesh of an Apprentice Mage. Without a doubt, they were far more delicious than common humans or wild beasts. Moreover, this did not violate the agreement between the demons and the Magic Tower. Therefore, every inspection journey outside the tower was a complete test of willpower. Once these demons found a weakness in the mind, the future of that person would not be promising.

"Record everything you can about these demons!" Leon said calmly.

"Beep…"

"Recording completed!"

Host, name the creatures in the order they are presented.

Images of creatures appeared before his eyes.

"Killer Tree… Blood-Sucking Rattans… Carrion Crows…"

"Naming completed!"

"New information has been recorded in the database."

...

1875 Words