"Beverly, did you really go find the priest?" The rookies shouted as they stepped on the shattered magic circle. "I'll definitely tell the instructor when I get back. This is against the rules."
"Hehe." After confirming that everyone had gotten off, Beverly took back the magic carriage.
"What do you mean!"
"I'm not going to waste my entire vacation on this crappy place," Beverly replied.
Magicians and priests are notoriously at odds with each other, so how could the instructor assign tasks that require priests to trainee magicians?
Due to the unstable aura within Dragon Gorge Waterfall, a barrier was once placed outside to prevent ordinary people from entering. Magicians who can balance the magical elements and form a corresponding magic circle can easily enter.
A magic circle that balances magical elements requires at least the five basic elements to be balanced. This barrier, however, requires much less skill from the priests; they only need to gather a certain amount of light element to open it.
The problem is, a trainee magician can only master two elements at best. Being able to master one element is already impressive, but how can one possibly balance all five? So, this is essentially a collaborative project. Beverly's hiring outside help was cheating, simply because she'd been at odds with her classmates for an entire school year before even receiving the project.
"I will never bow to those fools!" Beverly once said proudly.
She once thought about hiring a magician to complete the task for her, but unfortunately her pocket money was not enough for any magician willing to take the task to accompany her to Longxia Forest and back. In the end, she had to settle for the second best and could only secretly seek help from the priest who earned extra money.
Their mentor had already considered this possibility and commented on it this way: "I simply don't believe that those stubborn donkeys would really do anything for money. Only when the children get cheated a few times will they realize how good I am to them." He was also well aware of the children's bad tempers and was sure that the priests would not be able to stand their temper.
"Besides, no priest is willing to go to that place."
While the trainee magicians were fighting, Reese walked to the edge of the lake and groped around: "It should be here." It seemed like something in the air was isolating him from the outside, and he couldn't go any further.
"Let me see." Jenny also stepped forward and reached out to explore. "This is it, for sure. The rest will be left to the High Priest."
Eryi glanced at Beverly, who was still arguing with her classmates and hadn't had time to come over. She walked over to the adventurers and poked at the spot they'd mentioned. The barrier felt like a thin layer of plastic film floating in the air. When you pushed, it drifted slightly inward, then slowly returned to its original position when you let go.
"Interesting." Eryi muttered this, gently stroking the barrier, and suddenly had an idea to poke it quickly with his finger.
Broken.
Eryi felt that the finger that pierced the barrier seemed to be sucked by something, and the feeling of being sucked spread throughout her body, pulling her whole body away.
"Your Excellency the Priest!" This was the last voice heard.
When Eryi opened his eyes again, the scene before him had changed. He could hear the crashing sound of a waterfall, ripples forming on the lake nearby, and the cries of animals mingled with the sound of the waterfall.
“…”
"I can't handle monkeys." All the monkeys on the hill turned their heads and looked at the uninvited guest curiously.
"Beverly, the priest you brought is missing." After hearing the adventurers' cries, one of Beverly's classmates reminded her.
"What?" Beverly looked around and turned to the adventurers and asked, "Where is she?"
"The High Priestess has gone in." The adventurers were still wondering how she got in since they didn't see her release the protection.
"No." Beverly's expression changed, and she finally managed to say, "Fortunately, I haven't given her my magic coins yet."
Eryi recalled the time when a monkey snatched his snacks from him when he was a child at the zoo. He stepped back repeatedly until his back touched the barrier again and he returned to his original place.
"The High Priest is back."
"Yes, it seems you have the ability to get in." Beverly changed her tone again. She took out eight magic coins and said, "Give me a protection first, and give me two more after you come out."
"I'll try, but I won't go in." Eryi said. She still didn't understand how she got in.
"What's inside?" It was only at this time that Beverly realized that the country bumpkin priest she brought with her had a strange expression on his face.
"Monkeys," Eryi recalled. Seeing Beverly's nonchalant expression, she added, "A lot of them, covering the entire hill."
"They're just monkeys." The trainee magicians gathered around to listen and chattered, "I've seen a lot of them in my mentor's bottle."
"Dried eyeballs can be preserved for a long time and are one of the ingredients needed for hair growth potion recipes."
"You remembered it wrong. The hair growth potion requires its hair." Several trainee magicians began to look for the items they brought with them to see if there were suitable bottles and props to collect monkey hair.
After Eryi took the eight magic coins handed to her by Beverly, he cast a healing spell on her and called up the skill description panel, preparing to release the next spell. Eryi didn't know how he got in, so he was not sure whether the healing spell would be effective.
Seeing that her whole body was emitting white light, Beverly walked towards the barrier with satisfaction and disappeared in front of everyone.
"Are you going in now?"
"Why have we been here for so long?"
"That's nothing. The priest we support is much more powerful than her." An intern magician interrupted his companions and said, "Cheating is bad. Look at me. Even though my family supports a priest, I didn't bring him here."
This magician's family belonged to a branch of the nobility. Even if magicians and priests were at odds, all nobles were required to adhere to the state religion. Every nation on this continent needed the support of the church to be recognized. Relatively speaking, family-supported priests tended to be slightly more tolerant of the nobility.
He was clearly just bragging, taking advantage of his classmates' ignorance. Priests supported by the nobility wouldn't easily leave their city. They had no worries about food and clothing, so there was no way they'd come to the mountains just to help a trainee magician cheat on their course.
The trainee magician who had been sitting silently in the corner suddenly spoke up: "We still have a month left of vacation."
"Yes," his companions responded.
"We've been here for two days, and we still haven't broken this barrier." He swallowed and glanced to the side, where a priestess sat cross-legged on the grass. "Based on past experience, it will take at least another two weeks before we have a chance of breaking this barrier."
"You're right." His companion scowled. "It'll take another half a month to get back, and then I'll have to start learning new magic. My instructor asked me to buy a new crucible. I just blew up the old one, and I'm not good at potions at all."
"We still have to spend time preparing a lot of things. I haven't finished my homework yet. We even have to write reflections after completing this practical project." Another rookie covered his head, thinking about his unfinished homework, and fell into fear.
"But we only need each person to pay ten magic coins..."
"Shut up and apologize to the elements."
"Then you can go back half a month earlier to buy your cauldron," he said, turning to the curly-haired little man who was covering his head and screaming, "and you can finish your homework so I can go on vacation with my family."
"I agree." A tall trainee magician, squatting on the ground, wiping and drawing a magic circle, looked up. "We're missing Beverly. Five elements are simply not enough. Can we just wait here for her to come out?"
"Can you grow up a little bit? Can't you even control the fire element?"
"If you can do it, come on." The tall man sat down on the magic circle, and the magic circle that he had just drawn halfway was ruined.
Eryi was quietly observing from a distance, the noises of the people clamoring rising and falling. She glanced briefly at the words on the magic circle. While she didn't understand the arrangement and the shapes, after translating them, she recognized the words. There were a few garbled characters after the translation, probably typos.
Jenny lit a fire to boil water and prepared some food: "I hope she can come out soon. It's just to get some water. It shouldn't take long."
The trainee magicians argued for a long time, and finally one of them stepped forward and said, "If I pay you the same amount of magic coins, can you give me the same protection as Beverly?"
"Okay." Eryi opened his palm and motioned him to hand over the magic coins. The outsider didn't care whether these kids were going to cheat or not.
[The energy value of the one in the middle is less than 100] Zero Zero Eight appears again.
"This one won't do." Eryi picked and chose according to Ling Lingba's instructions.
"Sorry." The trainee magician's ears flushed as he pulled out another magic coin. "I forgot." Magic coins are actually mana storage blocks made from various minerals, filled with pure magic from various elements. They can be used to power various magical items or even absorbed directly for use as mana. Advanced magicians can infuse them with magic and reuse them, so they have no shortage of money.
"Alright." Eryi put away the magic coin and cast a healing spell on the trainee magician: "Let's go."
Seeing another classmate disappear behind the barrier, several trainee magicians could no longer hold back and took out their magic coins to line up. These little prodigals, with ten magic coins in a normal family, could live carefree for years. If they were sent to the border town near Dragon Gorge Forest, and if they were a little frugal, they could live forever.
"Too rich." The adventurers once again felt the gap between the rich and the poor.
"It's so profitable." People sighed at the priest's ability to make money.
Eryi put the magic coins away, not converting them into energy. According to Ling Lingba's previous explanation, if she wanted to build a larger treatment station, she would need to purchase the building rights, so she had to save them first.
…
At dusk.
"It's been half a day, why hasn't it come out yet?" Jenny was roasting a rabbit. This long-tusked rabbit, clearly a monster, had been hunted down by the priest. Adventurers weren't very good at dealing with such fast monsters.
Eryi toyed with the magic core in his hand, which was only the size of his pinky fingernail. Should he convert it? He would gain 100 energy points.
Eryi has a new understanding of the energy reserves of this world, which is worthy of being a B-level plane.
This rabbit was easy for Eryi to defeat. After two adventurers controlled its direction, they cast Mental Weakness three times, and it collapsed on its own. And because it didn't actually feel the attack, it continued to foolishly run. The tusked rabbit's fur was unscathed. It was said that this appearance, combined with its tusks, could fetch at least ten silver coins. When Eryi offered to give the fur and tusks directly to the adventurers, the two were delighted.
"How many gold coins does a magic core like this usually cost?" Eryi asked Jenny who was grilling meat.
"The exact assessment will only be determined through magical energy testing at the guild. However, the magic core of a long-tusked rabbit contains very little energy, and not all long-tusked rabbits have a magic core. Generally, a fully formed magic core costs around 15-60 silver coins." Jenny removed the roasted rabbit meat, wrapped it in leaves, and handed it to Eryi. "Typically, long-tusked rabbits are hunted for their fur and tusks."
Eryi calculated in her head how many magic cores she could exchange for one magic coin while taking a bite of the barbecue. It was only salted, not very tasty. She began to miss the staff meals delivered daily at the Healing Station.
"Could it be that I need protection to get out of this barrier?" Er Yi stood up from the grass and decided to go in and take a look before coming out.
Since we have to leave this forest sooner or later, we might as well take Beverly's car to where humans gather and then consider setting up a treatment station.
"What are you doing?"
A hill of monkeys confronted several apprentice magicians. The apprentices were covered in mud, their hair a mess, and had been hit several times by rocks thrown by the monkeys. One tall one had his wand split. The monkeys weren't much better off either. Many had lost their hair, their buttocks pouting and their teeth bared.
"Come out as soon as you're ready." Seeing that the monkeys' anger had obviously exploded, Eryi decided to withdraw from the battlefield.
Several trainee magicians finally came out of the barrier cursing before sunset. Beverly sat by the fire in frustration, took out a bottle of purple potion and sniffed it with a little disgust, "I really can't stand this smell." She faced the mirror angrily and smeared the potion on her face, "Those monkeys actually scratched my face. Alas, my new robe is ruined, it was just custom-made." Only one of her twin ponytails was left.
"Look what I got?" The curly-haired dwarf proudly raised the full bottle in his hand: "A bottle of monkey hair." A small clump of hair on his head had been pulled out.
Considering that these employers had just given ten magic coins each, Eryi cast a healing spell on each of them.
The scars on Beverly's face healed instantly, the curly hair on the left side of the dwarf's head that was missing grew back, the scratches on the tall man's arms disappeared, and the other people felt the burning pain in their bodies gradually fade away.
"I think I understand why my cousin loves going to the temple." Beverly took out the two remaining magic coins and handed them to Eryi. She summoned a little flame and looked closely at the mirror. "Isn't this more powerful than Teacher Ivan's potion?"
"Don't disparage his potion in front of him."
The few people who were incompatible before are now interacting with each other, and it seems that the monkey has forged a strange friendship.
"Come on." Beverly took out her magic carriage and waved to the trainee magicians beside her. "Let me show you my new carriage."
…
Beverly's magic carriage was more than enough for eight or ten people, but it was getting late, so they had to make do for the night. Her two horses were not good at traveling at night, and there was no moonlight in Dragon Gorge Forest at night.
The enlarged magic carriage directly replaced the tent. Several trainee magicians simply spread their sleeping bags on the ground and slept there. Some of them even brought their own mobile tents, which had the same space as the magic carriage, with a room and a living room.
In the evening, they sang songs and sat around the campfire, complaining about the homework assigned by their tutor, and their relationship developed rapidly.
Unfortunately, Longxia Forest is not a suitable place for camping. The joy turned into sorrow. The delicious grilled fish and meat attracted wolves, and their howling made the inexperienced trainee magicians eager to make a move.
"Take out your magic wands," Beverly said calmly. "Does your mobile tent have an automatic defense function?" Beverly glanced at her classmate who had just been boasting about the tent. "Okay, I know, but it can't be activated because of insufficient magic power, right?"
"My wand split..." the tall man whispered.
"Then you can use it as a branch and draw some magic circles on the ground."
“Why didn’t we encounter something like this a few days ago?”
The curly-haired dwarf rolled his eyes: "Maybe it's because we didn't grill fish or meat before?" They had only eaten dry food before.
"Come on, I'll let you try out my new trick."
The ignorant youngsters challenged the wolves. The adventurers stood in front, ready to fight. Their priest pulled a sparking stick from the campfire and waved a banner to cheer them on. "Do you need my help? I want half the magic core."
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