“Actually came out unharmed?” A voice sounded behind Noah.

Noah’s wildly beating heart finally calmed down somewhat at this moment.

He lay on the ground and turned his head to see Brown, the leader wizard of his hunting party.

“Lord Brown.” Noah tried to stand up, hoping to leave a good impression on the wizard.

But his show of strength didn’t bring him any benefits.

“Looks like you’re in good condition. You can stay conscious when encountering anomalies, and you adapt well to mental potions. It’s a pity—if your spiritual body hadn’t been ruined by previous drugs, you might have had hope of becoming a low-level wizard apprentice.”

Noah’s movement to stand was stunned in place by Wizard Brown’s words, unable to move for a long time.

“I, I can no longer become a wizard apprentice?” Noah’s hopeful bubble was punctured.

He suddenly remembered the complex emotions in Saul’s eyes when he had asked to become his apprentice.

He felt completely powerless.

All his strength was drained away along with the shattering of hope.

Seeing Noah frozen in place, Brown’s patience was also exhausted. He looked at the mushroom forest ahead and compared it with the map in his hand.

“Rhine Lake is up ahead. Since you weren’t injured in the Summoning Grove, you might as well go explore Rhine Lake.”

Noah’s heart instantly turned half cold.

Their pathfinders took turns—one person would test a dangerous place, then the next person would take over. If the next person died, then the one after that would go.

Because each test would exhaust the explorer’s energy completely, some people couldn’t even stand up afterward.

Noah hadn’t expected that his attempt to appear strong and perform well would lead to this result.

Seeing Noah still not moving, Brown raised his hand and pointed at him from a distance.

“Ahhh!!!”

The next second, Noah hugged his head and crouched down.

The pain came fast and left fast.

Noah had just crouched down when the pain disappeared, as if everything just now was an illusion.

But Brown’s words made Noah recognize reality.

“Go quickly, or next time I’ll make you hurt all night.”

Noah didn’t dare delay further and had no energy left to grieve. He hurriedly got up and stumbled toward the mushroom forest ahead.

Looking at the mushroom forest that appeared increasingly tall as he approached, Noah no longer knew what he was feeling.

This place was much more eerie than the forest just now.

He had never seen such tall mushrooms, and so many of them.

“Why is this place called Rhine Lake? There’s clearly no lake here. Could there be a swamp under the mushrooms?” Thinking gradually calmed Noah down.

Although he no longer had the possibility of becoming a wizard apprentice, Noah didn’t want to die out here like this.

He had to try hard to find a way to survive in these dangerous places.

Taking one last look back at Wizard Brown, he saw the others had also taken a detour to arrive here, expressionlessly watching him.

Noah took a deep breath and stepped into the mushroom forest.

The mushroom forest was densely distributed. Noah had to be very careful not to touch these mushrooms.

Although grayish-white mushrooms usually weren’t poisonous, he tried his best to avoid touching them.

Strangely, these seemingly eerie giant mushrooms didn’t undergo any terrifying changes.

Noah walked on tenterhooks, circled around another giant mushroom, and his view suddenly opened up to reveal a frozen lake shrouded in white mist.

“So this… is Rhine Lake.”

In the center of Rhine Lake stood a pure white tower. The tower top strangely had a circular platform wider than the tower body.

Making the entire tower look somewhat like a mushroom too.

At this time, someone seemed to emerge from the base of the distant tower. But because of the distance and hazy mist, Noah couldn’t make out their appearance.

However, while Noah couldn’t see through the mist, Saul could.

He was currently carrying a pile of materials, preparing to go out and find a secluded place to set up an array. Unexpectedly, Marsh notified him that a group of people had arrived outside the wizard tower’s mushroom forest.

One small fellow from this group had walked into the mushroom forest alone.

It didn’t look like someone coming to steal mushrooms.

Saul happened to go out for a look and saw a familiar face.

“It’s him? How did he come to such a distant place?”

Saul still had some impression of this little boy, and it was a good impression.

Thinking of Marsh saying there was a group of people outside but they let him come in alone, he was probably being used as an experimental subject.

Saul snapped his fingers, called over the magic wolf that was resting nearby, sat on the rear seat, and directed the magic wolf to run toward the boy.

Seeing the person across from him approaching, Noah’s first reaction was to run outside.

However, as soon as he turned around, several living vines emerged from underground, directly wrapping around his hands and feet and lifting him into the air.

Noah immediately wanted to struggle and shout, but he realized his cries for help couldn’t bring rescue from the hunting party outside and might instead anger the person across from him, so he forcibly suppressed his fear and didn’t scream.

But while his mouth could stay shut, he couldn’t control his body’s reactions.

Every part of his body not bound by vines was trembling.

His heartbeat was intense, almost bursting through his chest!

Until…

“We met again.”

As the distance shortened, the person behind the mist gradually became clear.

Noah widened his eyes, and his tightly closed mouth unconsciously opened. “Lord Wizard Saul?”

“Little Algae, put him down.” Saul had Little Algae’s offshoot put the boy down. “How did you come to Rhine Lake?”

Noah had now completely forgotten the words Wizard Brown had taught them, and seeing Saul, he told the truth.

“…Lord Wind Sprite organized many hunting parties, but they’re actually having ordinary people test all the dangerous areas one by one?” Saul stroked his chin. “But why would they do this?”

Morden: It sounds like they’re conducting tests to search for something.

Penny suddenly said to Saul, “Brother Saul, this child can’t hold on much longer.”

Saul was startled and squinted his eyes, indeed seeing that the boy’s body was already exhausted.

His spiritual body had originally been artificially matured, and now he had taken some unknown drug and been stimulated again.

The detection instruments on his body should be the reason other wizards had forcibly activated his mental power.

If Saul hadn’t given him a spiritual body repair potion in Survivor Ancient Forest, he probably would have died long ago from the exhaustion syndrome following spiritual body explosion.

But now, Noah didn’t have much time left either.

A spiritual body forcibly stimulated without equivalent magical protection was like putting one’s hand into corrosive acid without protective gloves. Soon only bare bones would remain.

At this moment, the boy’s face looking up at Saul seemed to overlap with a skull.

Saul sighed inwardly and didn’t say much. “Want to come to the island?”

Noah already knew he couldn’t become a wizard apprentice. Although he was very curious about Saul’s tower, he still restrained himself.

“No thank you, sir. I still need to go back and report. Anyway, reaching this distance is sufficient.”

Noah didn’t want to bring all these testing instruments into Saul’s wizard tower—it would be terrible if Wizard Brown’s testing instruments harmed the wizard tower.

Anyway, the distance from the lake center to here should be just within the instruments’ testing range, and the instruments hadn’t issued any warnings.

“I won’t take up more of your time, Lord Saul.” Noah respectfully bowed to Saul. “I’ll go back now.”

After speaking, he carried the instruments and ran outside with big strides.

Saul just stood in place, silently watching his retreating figure.

Perhaps knowing this place was Wizard Saul’s territory, Noah no longer found the mushroom forest frightening when passing through it again.

Even the round-headed giant mushrooms seemed somewhat cute.

He jogged all the way, ran out of the mushroom forest, and saw Wizard Brown and the others waiting outside.

He slowed down, calming his breathing and heartbeat that had quickened from running.

“Lord Brown, I’ve already tested this place—”

The voice stopped abruptly, and his intense heartbeat seemed to hit a pause button.

Noah’s mouth was slightly open as he fell straight down.

“Thud!”

The hard, dry earth only stirred up a little dust.

Wizard Brown stepped forward, efficiently removed the testing instruments from Noah’s body, paid him no more attention, and turned to the others. “The instruments gave no warnings. Let’s go to the next place.”

(End of Chapter)

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