The battle traces at the west gate of Casipe Village were even messier than at the east gate, with scorched earth and frost-frozen blood intermingling, speaking of the intensity of the fight that had just occurred.
Ezel followed behind Sarah and immediately saw the slender, upright figure standing amidst the ruins — Rhea.
She was looking down, inspecting the charred remains left by the Lord-tier Goblin, her silver hair particularly striking amidst the dissipating smoke and dust.
“How are things on your end? You’re not hurt, are you?” Sarah walked forward quickly, asking with a face full of concern.
0
Rhea raised her head at the sound, her exquisite face still covered in its usual frost.
She briefly and concisely described the ambush by the Lord-tier Goblin and how that crucial magic circle had automatically triggered, helping her restrict and ultimately resolve the powerful enemy.
Her narrative was straightforward and devoid of extra emotion, but as she spoke, those cold silver-gray eyes uncontrollably fell upon Ezel, who was a bit further away.
Her body began to feel hot again.
Almost at the same time, the system notification sound rang coldly in Ezel’s mind:
【Tip: Rhea’s favorability is currently 78 … 79 .. 80 … 】
Ezel’s heart skipped a beat.
As the distance closed, the residual effects of the “Obedient Water” were starting to affect her again?
He subconsciously glanced at Rhea’s face and, sure enough, caught a glimpse of an extremely faint blush quietly spreading from behind her ears, with a tendency to gradually intensify.
Danger!
Almost without thinking, Ezel quickly moved his feet backward, opening up a distance of a full dozen meters from Rhea.
Sure enough, the favorability notification in his mind stopped ticking and finally stabilized at a value that no longer climbed.
He warfare secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He didn’t know if it was his imagination, but seeing him run away, did a hint of disappointment and reproach appear in Rhea’s eyes instead?
“Senior Ezel, what are you doing hiding so far away?” Luke turned back in confusion, looking at Ezel who had almost retreated into the small grove of trees.
“Uh … I’m seeing if there are any Goblins that slipped through the net over here, or any other abnormalities … ” Ezel gave a casual excuse while pretending to look around, though the corners of his eyes were closely monitoring Rhea.
0
Seeing the blush on her face gradually fade and return to its usual fair complexion, his hanging heart finally truly settled down.
“You mean a Lord-tier Goblin appeared at the west gate too?” Sarah caught the key point in Rhea’s words, her beautiful brows furrowing tightly.
For low-level magical creatures like Goblins to have Lord-tier individuals appear one after another and display extraordinary intelligence, the situation was far more severe than imagined.
“Yes.” Rhea nodded, a rare crack appearing in her frost-like expression.
She looked at Sarah, her tone carrying a hint of imperceptible solemnity, “This time … thank you.”
Sarah was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, her eyes full of doubt: “Thank me? I didn’t support the west gate, so I didn’t help, right?”
“That magic circle that activated at the critical moment at the west gate, wasn’t it something you set up in advance?” Rhea’s confusion deepened.
“If not for that magic circle’s defensive barrier blocking in time, combined with the subsequent binding effect that controlled that Lord-tier Goblin, I couldn’t have killed it so smoothly, and might have even had to pay a significant price.”
Sarah shook her head decisively, her tone certain: “It wasn’t me.
According to your description, a magic circle capable of withstanding and restricting a Lord-tier Goblin would necessarily have an extremely complex and precise structure.
Setting aside whether I could complete it independently, even if I could, it would require a lot of time and materials to prepare in advance.
I have not set up any offensive or restrictive arrays in this place.”
Lean, who had been observing in silence, also frowned at this moment.
He had also guessed it was Sarah’s handiwork before; after all, in the self-introductions during the previous dinner, Sarah had explicitly mentioned having some knowledge of magic circles.
Now it seemed that the mysterious person who had ruined his “hero saves the beauty” plan was actually someone else.
“Among us, you are the only one who clearly stated proficiency or involvement in magic circles. If it wasn’t you, then who could it be?” Rhea raised the key question, her gaze once again sweeping over everyone present.
Hearing this, Luke suddenly slapped his forehead, a “now I get it” expression appearing on his face.
He turned and shouted toward Ezel’s direction: “That’s not right! Among us, there’s clearly also Senior Eze—”
“Slap!”
Before he could finish his sentence, Ezel had already closed in like a ghost, and a precise Physical Silence Spell was slapped mercilessly onto Luke’s mouth, producing a crisp sound.
The force was controlled just right, making Luke spin twice in place with stars in his eyes, and the words that followed were all forced back into his stomach.
“Ezel, why did you suddenly hit Luke?” Emma was startled by this sudden action and asked in confusion.
Ezel coughed twice without changing his expression and explained: “I just saw a highly poisonous black mosquito land on Junior Luke’s lip. The situation was critical, so I acted without thinking.”
He pointed at Luke’s rapidly swelling lip, his tone carrying a fitting amount of concern, “Look, the toxin in this mosquito is really intense; it swelled up like this after just one bite. Fortunately, I acted in time.”
Several people nearby looked at Luke’s “sausage mouth,” which was clearly the result of a palm strike, and the same thought surfaced in their minds simultaneously: ‘This swelling mark … are you sure you didn’t hit him yourself?’
Emma sighed helplessly and stepped forward, soft healing light condensing in her hand as she cast a healing spell on Luke’s lip.
The swelling receded at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Luke touched his mouth, which had returned to its original state.
Although he was still a bit dazed, he still thanked him foolishly: “Thank you, Senior Ezel!”
Sarah shifted her gaze away from Luke and continued to press: “Luke, what were you trying to say just now? What else is there among us?”
Just as Luke opened his mouth, he immediately felt a warning gaze from Ezel’s direction that could almost freeze the air.
He shivered and finally realized the real reason he had received that slap.
He hastily changed his tune, his voice rising by an octave: “I, I was saying! Sting Academy! People from Sting Academy must have someone skilled in magic circles! We can go ask them!”
This explanation was reasonable, and everyone’s attention was successfully diverted, all thinking it was a possibility.
Just as they were preparing to head to the other two directions to inquire, the village chief of Casipe Village ran over out of breath to inform them that the people from Lemon Academy and Sting Academy had finished their battles and returned to the village to assemble.
Everyone returned to the temporary gathering point in the center of the village.
After some exchange, they learned that the south and north gates, which were defended by Lemon Academy and Sting Academy, had not seen any Lord-tier Goblins.
There were only a few Elite-tier Goblins leading teams, so the pressure was relatively small, and they had been successfully repelled.
Rick, the young man from Sting Academy who had previously served as a test subject for the potion competition between Emma and Elsa, pushed up his glasses after hearing the inquiry about the magic circle and responded calmly: “Our Sting Academy does indeed focus on magic tool forging and magic circle studies, but individual research directions vary. Such an exquisite magic circle that can trigger autonomously, provide precise defense, and bind a Lord-tier target is by no means easy to set up. We several ask ourselves and know we couldn’t complete it independently in a short time.”
At this moment, among all those present, the only one who vaguely guessed the truth was probably Luke.
He knew clearly how unfathomably deep Ezel’s attainment in magic circles was — those concealment and protection arrays on the outskirts of Astral Academy that even the Imperial Magic Management Department couldn’t detect were all from the hands of this senior.
That level was definitely at the Grandmaster rank.
But did he dare say it?
He didn’t dare.
Who told this senior of his to carve the word “low-key” into his very bones.
It was fine that he didn’t like to show off, but now he had clearly saved someone (and the one he saved was someone his subconscious identified as the “senior’s sweetheart”), yet he didn’t even have the courage to admit it.
“…Wait, ‘sweetheart’?“ The word suddenly popped into Luke’s head, and he himself was stunned for a moment.
“Although Senior Ezel did indeed confess to Lady Rhea, why do I feel like the two of them are already sweethearts?”
He rubbed his temples hard, feeling as if a cloud of mist was blocked inside, “My head is so itchy … it feels like I’ve forgotten something very important … “
Sarah see the inquiry yielded no results, so she made a judgment based on the existing information: “Perhaps it was a protective array left behind out of caution by the noble army that came to clear the area previously before they retreated. It just happened to be activated during this attack.”
This explanation seemed the most logical at present, and everyone nodded one after another, temporarily accepting this explanation.
Only Lean’s brow remained tightly furrowed.
He silently observed everyone present, especially that Ezel who always tried to reduce his presence, the doubts in his heart not yet dissipated.
The “voice” in his head had experienced such a large deviation for the first time, and that mysterious array setter was like a thorn stuck in his heart.
Just then, Rhea seemed to remember something and took out a fragment about the size of a palm, dull in color, with irregular metallic luster shimmering on its edges, from her storage equipment.
“This was found on that Lord-tier Goblin. It seems to be a scale fragment from some kind of magical creature.”
Everyone gathered around, passing the peculiar scale around, but no one could identify its origin.
Roger took the scale, scrutinized it for a moment, and analyzed it in his usual scholarly tone: “The fracture marks on the edges of this scale are very fresh; its texture is hard and contains a trace of strange energy. Looking at its shape and size, it should only be a small part broken off from a complete piece of scale armor.”
As he spoke, Roger exerted magic power to begin studying the scale’s texture, and his face couldn’t help but turn to one of surprise.
“The hardness of this scale is not simple; I’m afraid even Fifth-rank magic wouldn’t be able to cause damage to it.”
“I’m afraid this scale originates from an A-rank magical creature.”
Everyone was startled upon hearing this.
B-rank Lord-tier magical creatures generally correspond to Fifth-to-Sixth-rank mages.
A-rank Lord-tier magical creatures correspond to Seventh-rank mages.
If it really was a creature above A-rank, then they might have to ask the top combat forces of the Empire to deal with it.
1
When the scale was passed into Lean’s hands, his body gave a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.
The power within his body originating from “Dragon Blood” actually became faintly restless and began to boil at this moment, transmitting an unprecedented sense of longing and attraction.
This feeling … it can’t be wrong .. Lean’s pupils shrank slightly, and waves rose in his heart, ‘This fragment most likely originates from … the Dragon Race!’
He tightly gripped this scale fragment, feeling the power contained within it that shared the same source as the Dragon Blood in his body.
A thought rose uncontrollably: ‘This thing … perhaps it can help me further stimulate the power of the Dragon Blood, or even …. master a more complete ‘Dragon Transformation’!’