envy and jealousy
If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools.
Now they have some mineral materials on hand and have unlocked most of the areas of the academy. The closer they are to the core part, the more cautious they must be.
Moreover, although it is still unclear how they can truly escape, Ruixia has made two plans for the final solution.
If after finding the princess, she is conscious and can directly tell them the truth, guide them on how to correctly solve the problem, put an end to this incident that has trapped everyone, and allow them to return to reality smoothly, then everyone will be happy.
But if that doesn't work, and if we can't find any other definite clues...
Then they can only advance into the Moon-Viewing Tower and directly destroy this most critical position in the magic circle in a physical sense, making the refining array and the illusion unsustainable, forcing out the ultimate mastermind and trying to defeat him.
Although it sounds crude and simple, it is better than being locked up here forever, either committing suicide or becoming one of the monsters.
"I...I think it's okay."
Unexpectedly, the first person to speak out in agreement was Sorens.
He pulled many books to his side, flipped through them and classified them roughly. Although his voice trembled slightly because he rarely spoke in public, his eyes were firm.
"This is a magic academy, after all, and I'm the only magician among us... It's unrealistic for me to be the main force against the two deans, but if I'm given a little more time, I might be able to help a little more..."
Seeing that everyone turned to listen to his speech, the brown-haired boy began to get nervous and his voice became softer and softer.
"You kid, you clearly want to stay and read by yourself, right?" Molina nudged him lightly and jokingly whispered, "Just say no. You're the only one who can understand these things anyway, and now there won't be any annoying people trying to snatch them from you."
Knowing that Sorens was often ostracized by other students because of his background and dull personality, Morina originally wanted to comfort him - but the situation in front of her seemed a bit like a hellish joke.
Since Ruixia had told them the truth, the rest of the people thought about it for a moment and felt that in order to prepare for the worst, the more thorough the preparations, the better, so they all agreed.
Although it is said that they need to rest, in fact everyone is busy.
As the only two main output units, Ximu was assigned to help Zhuiren familiarize herself with the environment. After all, the latter had been wandering around in the underground mines before and was not very familiar with the terrain within the academy.
As for how the two of them suddenly started fighting in the courtyard, the friends who stayed behind in the stronghold were not quite sure.
"ah."
The priestess girl, who was reading a tome with Sorens, preparing to fight a hundred battles with a clear understanding of both herself and the enemy, inadvertently looked up and caught a glimpse of the image transmitted back from a certain screen above her head. She suddenly called out, "Ruixia, are they fighting? Are you going to intervene?"
Ruixia was currently repairing the wreckage of the mechanical dolls that had been dragged back from the workshop. After hearing the news, she peeked in to observe for a while, then quickly turned back with peace of mind.
"It's okay—neither of them looks serious. They probably found a wide area to spar, right?"
Because his parents were adventurers, he moved around with his family before settling down in life, so he has some vision.
The small screen could not accommodate the two people moving at such high speed, and several surrounding screens had to be pieced together to barely capture most of their figures.
"Ximu is about the same age as us, but her skills are so sophisticated and versatile..."
Attracted by the flashing swords and shadows over there, Molina watched with great interest for a while, and naturally raised a question that she had never really confirmed with herself before -
"What did she do before?"
The person who asked this question was naturally Ruixia. After all, he and Ximu knew each other the earliest and had been together the longest.
He really didn't know it before.
Although he was curious, it was very rude to ask about something that his friend didn't want to mention, so if Ximu didn't say it, he really didn't ask.
But now, he knew Ximu's background for sure, but he didn't know whether he should share this information with others.
Currently, only the two of them know about the existence of the "Thorn of the End", because once this matter is mentioned, it will inevitably involve Xi Mu's life experience, but she did not explicitly instruct him to make it public, so he has remained silent about it.
"She must have had a very hard time before."
The young mechanic answered the question irrelevantly and in a low voice, obviously not wanting to continue this topic.
Of course, Morina also knew about this. When she examined Ximu's body, she realized that this girl was not living a normal life at all, and almost forgave all the unpleasantness when they first met on the spot.
"Yeah, people who live a good life definitely won't have a bad temper..."
Rubbing the back of her neck with lingering fear, Molina pouted, her mind no longer on reading. She simply put the book aside and focused on watching the live broadcast of the fight between Ximu and Zhuiren, commenting from time to time.
"Did that stinky swordsman choose a longsword before? It seems like he's not used to this length and is often exploited..."
"It's really more entertaining to watch humans fight. Tsk tsk... Look at our Ximu, this agile and powerful professional back-spinner will always appear in the corner you can't see in the next moment!"
"Hey, this bastard can use magic too! - But the magic used by melee fighters like them is usually just for auxiliary combat. Oh my god, why are all the bright stars coming from the opposite side? When can we show off our skills?"
It was unclear whether this was said casually or with a hidden meaning. Anyway, after hearing this, Sorens began to move quietly to the corner, so that if Morina really asked him, he could pretend to be stupid and say that he didn't hear what she said clearly.
"Hahaha, did you see that? Those knights suddenly charged, and those two suddenly turned their spears and took out one each. The third one who was left was the unluckiest. He ran into these two who refused to give in. He died a miserable death... I really hope they don't come back to life."
"But then again... an expert is still an expert. After just a short while of getting to know each other, they're already able to work together very well."
After hearing this, Ruixia suddenly stopped what she was doing.
The battle on the screen had ended. Ximu and Zhuiren said something to each other. They stopped fighting and walked towards the teaching building one after the other.
Actually... this is normal.
Both of them are masters who have fought their way through bloody battles. How to judge, act, and adjust in critical moments has long been a muscle memory. It won't take long for both sides to adapt, get used to it, and quickly form cooperation.
This is normal.
In a team of adventurers, as long as they have rich practical experience, even members who have just met each other do not need to spend too much time on getting used to each other... He has seen a lot of this, so it's nothing.
Besides, it was precisely to relieve Ximu's pressure that he specifically asked them to bring Zhui Ling back... Now the two of them can quickly get started and cooperate with each other, isn't that something to behold?
Ximu can cooperate with anyone, this is nothing.
Even for someone like him who wasn't good at fighting, she had been able to seamlessly blend into his rhythm of combat...wasn't that natural? But why did he...
Why do I suddenly start to care about it?
Because they were familiar with the teaching building, when Ximu suggested that they didn't need to bring Molina along and that it would be more convenient for her and Zhuiren to move alone, he agreed without thinking too much.
Damn it... I really should have asked them to bring one more person with them.
The young man, who had behaved properly all along, was now full of complaints. No matter how he tried to reason, he couldn't suppress the inexplicable unhappiness.
After hesitating for a moment, he quietly opened a small control screen.
+++
"Ximu."
When Ruixia's voice came out of the mouth of the flying mechanical bird, Ximu did not show any surprise. It was obvious that he had noticed the approaching flapping sound.
She reached out and caught the bird. Although her expression didn't change much, her tone softened a lot: "What's wrong?"
"I saw you guys suddenly returned to the teaching building, so I came to ask you."
Before the two of them went to the atrium, they had indeed walked around the teaching building for a while - it was reasonable for their companions who had been watching them to notice that they had returned and came to inquire about them.
"We want to test the guy with the nebula head at the bottom."
Ximu, on the other hand, hid nothing and was very frank.
"Just the two of you?"
I don’t know if it’s due to the distortion caused by the transmission, but Ruixia’s voice sounds a little strange, mumbling, and seems to have some emotion.
Although Ximu felt that the main point of his doubt should be that it was too dangerous for the two of them to go, for some reason, he inexplicably imagined Ruixia looking quietly unhappy on the other side, like a puppy whining to express its dissatisfaction.
"It's okay. We'll keep our distance and test its moves and strength beforehand. If we can't handle it, we'll retreat immediately. We won't fight head-on."
This is indeed a solution.
It is always better to collect some intelligence in advance than to face a strong enemy directly without knowing anything.
Moreover, it is obvious that this monster was a person of high status in its lifetime. The things it dropped after being defeated must be much rarer than the relics of ordinary students.
"How about you wait a moment, I'll have Morina come over to assist you."
The puppy was obviously still worried.
"No need. We'll just use long-range magic to test the waters. We might have to dodge everywhere, so we won't be able to take care of Morina. With our respective speeds, retreating will definitely be no problem."
Having said this, she inadvertently glanced at the man in the bamboo hat next to her.
"But Morina will definitely not be able to keep up with us, and we will have to split our attention to take care of her."
Ximu rarely spoke so many words in one breath, but when talking with Ruixia, she was always more patient.
"...Okay, then you must be careful and stay safe."
The black-haired boy was always reasonable. The mechanical bird flapped its wings and flew away in the same direction as their destination. It seemed that it was planning to find a safe place to hide first.
Although the bird had no expression, Ximu looked at its receding figure and inexplicably sensed a sense of loss in it.
——What happened?
Ruixia has been staying in the base for too long and is feeling suffocated. Does she want to go out for a walk with them?
The silver-haired girl was confused and with a question mark on her face, she led her teammates to follow the bird that was flying away.
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