42: Chapter 42 Why is this woman so pretty?

The forest was shrouded in the night, devoid of any light.

Fortunately, Zhang Mu and Avril were magicians; the tiny bits of moonlight and starlight filtering through the gaps in the layered leaves and branches were enough for them to see the veins on the grass leaves.

The two of them walked into the forest.

Zhang Mu relied on his fresh memories of searching for magical beasts during the day.

He led Avril along a "road" where the ground was relatively flat and the shrubs were sparse, passing the clear spring where he had washed his face, and arrived at the edge of the magical beasts' active area.

Compared to the silence of the morning, the howling of wolves from deep within could now be clearly heard rising and falling.

Looking at Avril, Zhang Mu asked, "What did Teacher Potter prepare for us?"

"How did you know, Junior?"

"I'm not stupid."

Avril gave him a sidelong glance, reached into the wide sleeve of her robe to feel around for a moment, and pulled out something that looked a bit like a circular disc compass.

"What is this?"

Staring curiously, Zhang Mu guessed its function in his heart.

Before entering the forest, he had figured Potter probably knew that Avril was carrying helpful magic items.

Otherwise, there was no reason to be so confident in the bet with Hercules.

But he didn't guess it would be some item capable of releasing world-destroying magic.

Common knowledge from Avril's Little Classroom—high-quality robes have a "spatial storage" function.

It was common knowledge that robes could store items; as a Bishop of a large city, Hercules certainly knew this, yet he didn't say much and simply circled the two with a crystal.

This indicated that "spatial storage" could not isolate the crystal's search.

Therefore, hiding powerful magic items in the robe wouldn't work.

So Zhang Mu could only guess that this was a low-level item that could have a great effect, low enough to evade the crystal's detection.

As he expected, Avril held the "compass" in her fair palm and explained with a smile:

"When Teacher was young, he explored dungeons everywhere. This is a low-level magic item he obtained by chance back then."

"It can detect the locations of magical beasts within a certain range."

"Any level of magical beast?"

"How could that be? If the effect were that strong, it wouldn't be just a low-level item."

"The upper limit is Rank 2 magical beasts. Teacher had no use for it, and I actually rarely use it, but I liked how it looked, so I asked for it."

Pinching his chin, Zhang Mu was lost in thought.

When a magical beast tide stays in place, the leader usually stays in the center, while the pack members are at a certain distance on the periphery, surrounding the leader in a ring.

Some bored magicians who studied this stated that this is because the leader worries about being ambushed by challengers to the throne while resting.

There was no strong evidence, but no matter the level of the magical beast tide, they basically all followed a similar operational pattern.

With this item, he and his Senior wouldn't have to wander around like headless flies; they could break through from the weakest part of the magical beast protection circle.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Saying that, Zhang Mu stepped into the dangerous area belonging to the magical beasts' territory. Avril's mana poured into the item, and she walked a few steps faster to stand side-by-side with him.

After walking silently for a few minutes, she whispered a reminder: "Two hundred yards to the right."

"Three hundred and sixty yards to the front left."

"To..."

Despite having the help of the item, the magical beasts were so densely scattered that several times, the two were separated from the silver-furred wolf pack by only a single tree.

Fortunately, it was a close call without any actual danger; they slowly advanced deeper without alerting any Thunder Wolves.

After avoiding another dozen or so Thunder Wolves huddled together, their spirits were a bit weary.

Concentrating intensely on observing their surroundings while simultaneously controlling their Mental Energy to mask their scent was very mentally taxing.

To avoid making mistakes in mobilizing Mental Energy due to fatigue, the two decided to rest for a short while.

Zhang Mu sat down against a thick tree trunk. Avril scanned the surroundings alertly and sat down beside his shoulder.

Taking advantage of this brief interval, Zhang Mu called up his panel to check.

[Character: Zhang Mu]

[Race: Human]

[Class: None]

[Rank: None]

[Skills: Meditation Method—Mana Sensing (Level 1, 99%), Mana Absorption (Level 1, 99%), Mana Control (Level 1, 99%)]

[Fireball Spell (Level 1, 99%)—Releases a powerful fireball to attack the target.]

[Wind Blade Spell (Level 1, 99%)—Releases a powerful wind blade to attack the target.]

[Ice Cone Spell (Level 1, 99%)—Releases a powerful Ice Cone to attack the target.]

[Unlocked Functions: inventory, Revive on Spot, Revive in City (City not yet bound)]

With several consecutive battles in one day, exhausting and recovering mana, and frequently releasing spells, the experience bar had grown more than it would have during three days of buried-head practice.

It's just... Zhang Mu looked at the three abilities of the Meditation Method.

Common knowledge from Avril's Little Classroom—when a magician advances to the Apprentice level, their mana attribute will manifest.

Using the Apprentice Magician Avril as a reference, his Mental Energy and total mana should be somewhere between a Magic Apprentice and an Apprentice Magician.

Because he couldn't sense Avril's Mental Energy fluctuations, but the Priest Charlie could.

Why hasn't his mana attribute been triggered yet?

Does he have to wait for the Meditation Method to break through to Level 2?

What class and rank will he obtain then? If the rank shows Magic Apprentice, does that mean his Level 1 is someone else's Level 2, or even Level 3?

"Junior."

"Hmm?" Zhang Mu, who hadn't figured it out yet, came back to his senses and turned his head to look.

"If we fail to hunt the leader, you return to your hometown immediately, understand?"

"What about you?"

"I'll go help Teacher."

Looking at Zhang Mu's strange gaze fixed on her, Avril lowered her head and explained softly, "It's not that I doubt your character, it's just..."

"Senior."

Mid-explanation, she was interrupted by his slightly raised tone. She was a bit dazed and raised her head to meet his eyes.

In the dark night, Zhang Mu flashed a dazzling smile that looked like the rising sun: "We won't fail."

"I, Zhang Mu, Zhang Mu said so."

The soaring emotion deeply infected Avril. There was a blur in her eyes, and she unconsciously raised her hand, wanting to touch the gentle golden light that dispersed the haze in her heart.

Halfway through, she snapped out of it and withdrew her hand inconspicuously, only watching him: "Junior, Avril trusts you."

She wasn't just casually agreeing; Zhang Mu's actions all along proved that he never boasted about things he couldn't do.

"I've rested enough, let's go." Being stared at by those icy blue pupils made Zhang Mu feel like ants were crawling all over him, so he stood up and urged her.

Why does this woman always stare at people with that kind of look? Hmm... she really is a little bit good-looking...

No, no, no, I cannot betray my faith. Cat Girls are my faith!

Zhang Mu pulled a long face and shook his head to himself. Seeing her lean closer, he subconsciously dodged to the side.

Looking at him from the side, the corners of Avril's lips curled up in an almost imperceptible arc: "Junior, is Senior very scary?"

"Ah?

No, not at all, I just..."

"Awooo—"

A wolf howl that seemed ready to shatter their eardrums came from right behind them. Their Mental Energy swept out simultaneously.

Eight Thunder Wolves. How did they find us?

The two didn't look back, charging straight ahead while lifting their staffs to mobilize mana.

A pure white fireball emerged, blowing apart the nearest Thunder Wolf that was mid-pounce.

The other Thunder Wolves were a bit further away. Zhang Mu took the opportunity to turn around, blocking the way in front of Avril, and emptied all the mana in his body at once to condense seven Ice Cones.

"Ice and Snow, freeze!"

An elegant voice chanted from behind him. Above the seven Thunder Wolves charging over, a blizzard began to blow.

In the blink of an eye, seven ice sculptures of Thunder Wolves in various poses—running, jumping—were formed.

Zhang Mu turned his head and looked at Avril, who had lowered her staff, in surprise.

She smiled slightly: "A primary spell. Senior is not very proficient with it yet."

As an Apprentice Magician, being able to release a primary spell one rank higher with the help of only five syllables was almost not enough to be called a genius.

One must know that most so-called geniuses couldn't release a spell one rank higher even if they chanted all the syllables.

But the way she said it... Zhang Mu's expression was strange. Was she being a bit of a tsundere?

Avril was making a gesture she had never made before and had thought she would never make.

Her rounded chin was slightly raised, and her eyes fell on the empty ground, as if reminding Zhang Mu—hurry up and praise me.

"Senior is so strong!" Zhang Mu, whose emotional intelligence was not low, saw through it and satisfied her.

"Before I met you, Junior, Senior never lost a duel among the entire new generation in the Lake Kingdom and the surrounding neighboring countries."

After hearing this, Zhang Mu felt he should probably praise her a few more times, otherwise Senior might look for trouble with him.

"Awooo—"

But the wolf howls echoing through the night sky one after another warned them that they had been exposed.

Their expressions turned solemn. Avril held up the "compass" and took a look: "The distribution of magical beasts is getting sparser. We're not far from the leader."

"Before being surrounded by the magical beast tide, we must rush into the range where the leader is resting and deal with it as quickly as possible."

Without the leader's command, pack members dared not step near the leader; otherwise, it would be seen as a provocation and result in certain death.

Zhang Mu nodded to show he understood.

They no longer wasted precious time and sprinted toward the depths of the forest at full speed, following the prompts from the "compass."