“He’s a half-elf?” the second-rank wizard asked incredulously.

“Yes.” The third-rank wizard nodded.

“My god, because of the elves’ disappearance, the remaining half-elves have become this powerful? If there were more half-elves, couldn’t they dominate like the elves once did?”

“Don’t worry.” The third-rank wizard said quietly. “These half-elves also bear curses from the elves. Their numbers will only decrease until they completely disappear.”

Thinking of the half-elf who had just left, the third-rank wizard silently sighed in his heart. “You’ll never know if the half-elf you encounter is the last half-elf in this world.”

As the wizards behind him discussed the half-elf who had already entered the Borderland, this wizard who had amazed everyone had already stepped into the danger-filled region.

He lifted his hood again, but his appearance had already changed to that of an ordinary thirty-year-old man.

It was clearly Saul’s excellent senior, Byron!

Byron was now a first-rank wizard.

Not only that, because of the Elf King’s head that Saul had given him, he possessed a bit of elven ability. He could not only change his appearance at will but also had extremely strong charm abilities.

Unfortunately, Byron still maintained his own appearance most of the time.

In his view, even with a different skin, he was still himself.

The so-called stunning beauty was about as useful as Mage Hand.

What satisfied him most about this outer skin was its extremely strong magical power and mental power adaptability.

This even gave him confidence for advancing to second rank right after reaching first rank.

This was the most precious aspect of the Elf King’s head, and it increasingly showed how rare Saul’s gift to Byron was.

However, Byron no longer felt he owed Saul anything.

Byron exhaled and gazed into the distance. “Where could Saul be?”

…

Just as Byron stepped into the Borderland, another person who had once briefly crossed paths with Saul also faced a turning point in his life.

Noah, the boy who had once helped Saul find the quicksand termite nest, voluntarily joined a hunting party organized by Lord Wind Sprite to earn money to treat his sick brother.

This hunting party was somewhat different from previous ones, recruiting large numbers of ordinary people and promising that good performers would have the chance to become wizard apprentices.

After meeting Saul, Noah had discovered that not all wizards just stared at candles in a daze.

Unfortunately, Saul had no intention of taking him as an apprentice.

Perhaps his aptitude was too poor.

However, Noah hadn’t completely given up hope.

After moving his father and brother to a new settlement, he had been constantly looking for opportunities to become a wizard apprentice.

He just hadn’t expected that the only opportunity would require him to risk his life.

At this time, his brother happened to have continuous high fever from radiation sickness, making him set aside his last concerns.

His father and brother had once given him the only chance to live, so today he was willing to give this opportunity to his brother.

From then on, Noah joined the hunting party and left the family he had depended on for years.

However, when he joined the hunting party and stepped into terrifying areas he had never set foot in, he realized he had still been naive!

The hunting party would indeed give them chances to become wizard apprentices, but the prerequisite was surviving repeated “danger investigation” operations.

Every ordinary person was a pathfinder. They were required to take a magic potion that temporarily enhanced their mental power, allowing them to perceive secrets they had never noticed before.

It was equivalent to becoming a temporary wizard apprentice.

But at the same time, their weak bodies would show various abnormalities due to the suddenly enhanced mental power.

Noah had personally witnessed a woman who had just taken the mental power potion suddenly go mad and tear off all her hair. Then she painfully clawed at her scalp until it was bloody, until white bone was visible.

When other wizards saw the woman’s reaction, no one came to help her. The ordinary people didn’t know how to save her and didn’t dare to.

Afterward, this dying woman became the first casualty before the hunting party even set out.

Besides that woman, other people’s appearances also showed various changes. Only Noah showed no change at all.

This immediately drew the attention of several wizards.

They came over, had Noah hold a crystal ball, and made him chew a leaf.

However, after Noah complied, these wizards left disappointed.

This also made Noah somewhat dejected—it seemed he really wasn’t cut out to be a wizard apprentice.

After these small incidents, everyone officially embarked on the hunting journey.

However, the ordinary people including Noah only then discovered that perhaps dying the night before departure like that woman was the best outcome.

On this day, the group trekked through mountains and rivers to reach a forested area.

This was already the fifth forest they had passed through.

Every time they passed through a forest area, their hunting party would leave behind at least one ordinary person.

Noah didn’t know what these people were doing. In any case, these subordinate wizards of Lord Wind Sprite would have them explore some very dangerous places. Regardless of whether those sent to explore could return alive, they would never enter the places just explored, but leave directly.

All along this journey, like discarded footprints, all they left behind were corpses.

This time, it was finally Noah’s turn to be required to carry strange, complex instruments into the forest.

Noah’s heart, which had become numb throughout the journey, began racing wildly. He finally felt the reality of approaching death.

He wanted to flee, but he knew the four wizards behind him wouldn’t give him the slightest chance to escape.

And it might implicate his father and brother in the settlement.

Noah swallowed and was pushed by a wizard behind him, beginning to move his limbs mechanically, walking forward mechanically.

Wind rustling leaves, bird songs and insect chirps all became chaotic noise in his ears.

The tremendous fear of death possibly arriving at any moment made Noah’s mind a complete mess.

But this chaotic state of mind also kept him moving forward without stopping.

“Rustle—”

The surrounding leaves and branches suddenly moved in unison as if by agreement, breaking the forest’s usual sounds.

Noah was jolted awake, seeming to realize what he was doing.

His foot that was about to step forward hung in mid-air. He carefully and fearfully raised his eyes, only to discover that the surrounding trees had somehow grown pairs of eyes and, like humans, were slowly bending their trunks, extending branches as if wanting to catch the human daring to walk in the forest.

A leaf touched Noah’s head.

“Wah—”

Noah, who looked fourteen or fifteen but was actually not yet ten years old, could no longer bear it. He cried out and ran frantically.

He no longer cared about the predetermined direction, only knowing to run forward.

“Thud!”

Suddenly, something underfoot tripped Noah.

His vision quickly fell with his toppling body. Because of the speed, there was no time to react and adjust his posture.

However, when Noah hit the ground hard, he found it didn’t hurt at all.

Looking down, beneath him was a dense mass of grayish-white mushrooms.

These small mushrooms caught Noah like a soft mattress.

He pressed one hand on a mushroom, bewilderedly supporting his body and looking around, only then realizing he had somehow left the forest.

Ahead was a downward slope, and these grayish-white mushrooms extended all the way to the bottom of the slope.

Further ahead were some sparse trees, and beyond the trees, row upon row of giant mushrooms three to four meters tall forming a forest.

“How can there be such big mushrooms? There aren’t pots big enough either!”

For some reason, Noah suddenly felt his fear diminish greatly, even having the mood to joke about the mushroom forest before him.

(End of Chapter)

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