The cave entrance was deep and profound, the darkness like a gaping maw.
Inside the mine, the air was damp and cold, thick with the heavy stench of blood and decay.
Ethan's footsteps created a series of rapid thuds against the gravel floor. As he rushed inward, his gaze swept quickly across his surroundings.
Torches were shoved into iron brackets on the walls, their dim, yellow light flickering unsteadily, illuminating the carnage strewn across the ground.
The corpses of miners lay scattered everywhere.
Some had their throats torn open, others had their chests hollowed out, and some were gnawed down to the bone on one side of their bodies.
Judging by the marks on the wounds, some were the work of Human-Faced Wolves, while others bore the unmistakable traces of cantrips.
Ethan's pupils constricted slightly.
These Human-Faced Wolves were indeed being controlled.
They were sent out first to harass the mine and force it to seek help from the academy. Once the mission was posted, these people lay in wait here to harvest the apprentices who came to fulfill it.
Were these guys using Blood Bone Tower's apprentices as bait for fishing?
Weren't they afraid of the consequences if things went south?
While these thoughts raced through his mind, Ethan didn't stop. He vaulted over the corpses, charging dozens of meters deep into the mine before suddenly doubling back.
Taking three steps in two, he ran back toward the entrance. He grabbed a miner's corpse and pulled it over himself, then dragged several more to pile on top.
He adjusted his position until he was completely hidden beneath the pile of bodies, leaving only a tiny gap to observe the entrance.
Just as he finished his preparations, the sound of disorganized footsteps echoed from the entrance.
Eight figures filed in one by one. The torchlight stretched their shadows long and distorted against the tunnel walls.
"Should we split up or stay together?"
"Stay together," Isu's voice rang out, still carrying that lazy tone. "That kid is strong. We have the mine map; we'll search the tunnels one by one. Don't give him the chance to pick us off individually."
"What about the academy..." someone asked hesitantly.
"Don't worry," Isu interrupted with a note of certainty. "We of the Lost Forest have set such a grand stage; Blood Bone Tower won't catch on for a while. By the time they react, we'll be long gone. Besides, even if they do find out, who's to say it was us?"
The footsteps drew closer.
"God, the stench is overwhelming."
"I knew we should've killed fewer of them back then."
"Enough talk, find him quickly," Isu said without looking back, his gaze scanning the depths of the mine. "The kid couldn't have gone far. He's definitely hiding in..."
His words cut off abruptly.
As he led the group past the pile of miner corpses, the pile exploded.
The moment Ethan erupted from the heap, the bodies covering him flew in all directions. Flesh and bone fragments blasted through the narrow tunnel, obscuring everyone's vision.
Isu's reaction was incredibly fast.
His pupils constricted violently as he raised his right hand, purple electrical arcs beginning to dance at his fingertips.
But his casting was only halfway through when a large, blood-stained hand lunged out from the spray of gore and bone, accurately clamping onto his wrist.
Crack!
The sound of a shattering wrist was exceptionally crisp in the tunnel.
Isu's mouth fell open, but before he could even scream, Ethan used the momentum to swing him around entirely.
His six-foot frame felt as light as a straw man in Ethan's grip, whistling through the air as he was hurled away.
Isu's body flew sideways, the back of his head slamming hard against a protruding rock on the tunnel wall.
Thud!
The sound was terrifyingly dull as a spray of blood splattered across the rock's surface.
Isu's eyes bulged and rolled back into his head as he lost consciousness instantly. His body went limp, sliding down the rock wall to collapse in a heap on the ground.
From the moment Ethan struck to Isu being knocked out, the entire process took less than a second.
The woman in the dark red leather armor had the fastest reaction among the rest.
She leaped back half a step, her short knife held across her chest while her left hand reached for a dark red crystal at her waist.
But before she could activate the crystal, a short spear lunged from the side.
The spearhead pierced through her left temple, drove through her brain, and exited from the right side.
The woman's eyes went wide, her mouth agape as the knife and crystal slipped from her hands simultaneously.
【Life Energy +15. Current Life Energy: 763.】
Ethan yanked out the short spear. Her body fell stiffly, hitting the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Enemy attack!"
From the moment Ethan struck to the sixth person falling, the entire process took only three breaths.
Only one tall, thin man successfully managed to cast a defensive cantrip.
A pale blue barrier manifested around him. When Ethan's first spear thrust struck, it only caused a ripple on the surface of the light.
The man's face went pale with terror as he turned to bolt.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! This guy is a monster!"
The man ran desperately, his boots clattering against the gravel floor.
But he forgot one thing.
They were deep in a mine, and as a wizard apprentice, his physical constitution was naturally inferior to Ethan's.
Ethan caught up to him in just a few strides. He swung the short spear, the shaft whistling through the air before smashing against the pale blue barrier.
Bang!
The barrier shook violently. The man stumbled, nearly falling.
Bang!
On the second strike, fine cracks began to spread across the surface of the barrier.
"Don't... stop chasing me!" the man's voice broke into a sob, his legs turning to jelly as he slowed down.
Bang!
On the third strike, the barrier shattered like glass, dissolving into countless tiny points of light.
The man froze in place, his legs giving out as he collapsed to his knees.
"Don't kill me... please don't..."
Before he could finish, Ethan slammed a fist into his temple.
The man's eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Ethan shook the blood off his hand and grabbed the man, dragging him back the way they came.
Ethan tossed the tall man next to Isu and knelt down to begin looting.
Six corpses and two survivors—they certainly had quite a lot on them.
He started with the woman in the dark red leather armor.
One short knife; its blade had dark red patterns flowing across it and felt at least three times heavier than ordinary iron. Hanging from her waist was a small cloth pouch containing six magic stones of varying sizes and a few gold coins.
On her finger was a silver ring engraved with fine runes. Ethan recognized it as a protective Wizardry Tool, albeit of the lowest grade.
He didn't miss the other five corpses either.
Robe pockets, waist pouches, rings on fingers, bracers on wrists—he stripped anything that looked even remotely valuable.
The tall, thin man wore a pair of pale blue bracers that felt cold to the touch, seemingly woven from some kind of metallic wire with faint runes shimmering on the surface.
Isu was even wealthier. He had a dark red pendant around his neck, three thumb-sized crystals tucked into his belt, two rings on his fingers, and a silver-white bracelet on his left wrist.
Ethan piled the loot together and began an inventory.
There were fifteen Wizardry Tools in total.
Six rings, two pairs of bracers, one pendant, one bracelet, one short knife, and three small gadgets whose purpose he couldn't immediately identify, though they looked like one-time consumables.
He poured out the magic stones and counted thirty-six.
The largest was the size of an adult's fist, while the smallest was only the size of a fingernail, and their quality varied. Ethan weighed them in his hand and estimated that they were equivalent to about forty-four standard magic stones.
He didn't bother looking closely at the other trifles, stuffing everything into his storage ring in one go.
Pulling a bundle of rope from his ring, he tied the tall man and Isu up separately before turning his gaze toward the six corpses.
"Forget it. I'm a kind-hearted man."
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