Chapter 337 - 44: Reward from a Level 3 Wizard

Chapter 337: Chapter 44: Reward from a Level 3 Wizard

The crows’ attack itself might not have been fatal, but the ensuing stampede would have definitely knocked people to the ground, where they would have been trampled to death by the crowd.

Mo Ning unhesitatingly switched his consciousness into the body of the Phantom Carving soaring through the sky.

In a way, this great eagle had already become his "second body."

Wherever he went, the Phantom Carving would follow.

In the next moment, Mo Ning’s perspective shifted abruptly. He was now looking down upon the earth from the sky, the massive school building appearing like a small box in his field of vision.

He beat his wings without hesitation. Faint, thread-like sparks, barely visible to the naked eye, appeared around his body as he dove toward the school building.

The strangest part was that he seemed to defy the laws of physics, his downward acceleration reaching more than twice that of gravity.

However, the flock of crows was closer to the students.

Based on the current situation, the crows would attack before the Phantom Carving could even get close.

But Mo Ning wasn’t flustered in the slightest.

He knew, with a natural certainty, that this Phantom Carving’s body had just mastered a wondrous new ability.

He opened his beak and let out a piercing screech. "SCREECH—!"

With that cry, the strands of electricity weaving through his feathers all shot out, melting into the air.

An even stranger scene unfolded.

"BOOM—"

A clap of muffled thunder suddenly exploded in the sky.

As if sensing mortal danger, the flock of crows was instantly terrified, frantically beating their wings to scatter and flee.

The massive lead crow flew even faster than the others.

It was extremely cunning, flying straight for the woods behind the school building in an attempt to hide.

But its natural predator was far faster than it had anticipated.

Wisps of electricity flashed behind the Phantom Carving, and its speed increased yet again.

Just two seconds later, the Phantom Carving launched its attack on the lead crow.

At the same time, the lead crow tried to strike first—it suddenly twisted its body, planning to give the Phantom Carving a vicious peck.

Due to inertia, the Phantom Carving should have been unable to dodge. It was bound to crash right into the attack, getting a bloody hole pecked in its neck, and possibly even risking its life.

Without a doubt, the lead crow’s earlier retreat had been a deliberate ploy to lure the Phantom Carving into pursuit, creating an opportunity for a counterattack.

But it pecked at nothing.

From two meters away, the Phantom Carving swiped its claws. An Electric Snake flashed past, striking the lead crow with pinpoint accuracy.

The lead crow was instantly paralyzed. Its beak could no longer strike out; it could only watch in terror as its predator descended.

The Phantom Carving swooped down, its sharp talons easily crushing the lead crow’s skull, killing it instantly. It then flew off into the distance, carrying the dead crow.

"CAW—"

The caws of the flock were now filled with terror as they all fled frantically into the distance.

The stampede at the stairwell was averted, and the students evacuated the school building in an orderly fashion.

A short while later, a group of rotor drones painted with military insignia flew in swiftly and began to pursue the dangerous, mutated crows.

Mo Ning stood at his dorm window, watching a drone circle above the residential area, when he suddenly remembered something.

’Right, the Magic Pattern Drone I designed also has this quad-rotor structure.’

The moment this thought arose, he understood with a natural clarity: ’So this is all just a Meditation.’

The entire world froze in place.

The Meditation was over.

Mo Ning sat stunned for a few seconds before his consciousness fully returned to reality, and he realized he was in the Cabin in the Woods.

The scenes from his Meditation flashed through his mind like a flowing stream, and a curious expression appeared on his face.

’My power is growing, so is that why the Meditation World is starting to increase in dimension, leading to this strange Spiritual Energy Revival phenomenon?’

He walked to the courtyard behind the cabin and let out a soft cry, "Thunder!"

"BOOM—!"

A startling clap of thunder exploded out of thin air above the courtyard.

Within a hundred-meter radius of the cabin, the leaves of all the birch trees trembled slightly, and a great number of them rustled to the ground.

This was undoubtedly another Soul Witchcraft.

Flower’s voice sounded, tinged with surprise.

"Mr. Mo Ning, that cry contained a rather strong Spiritual Intimidation. I’m afraid even a Second Level Apprentice with a Spiritual Strength of 20 would be affected."

She came to a conclusion: "Judging by the Effect of the Witchcraft, that cry was in no way inferior to the Level Zero Witchcraft, Thunder Shock Technique."

But what surprised the Artificial Soul even more was the astonishing speed at which her master was grasping Soul Witchcraft.

From the first Soul Witchcraft, Thunderbolt Spear, to the second, Lightning Chain, and now to Thunder Shock Technique... how long had it been?

Mo Ning broke into a smile and thought to himself, ’Just as I expected.’

The Phantom Carving had created a thunderclap from a clear sky in the Meditation World, frightening the crows into scattering. In the Wizard World, he had now mastered that same ability.

He had a strong intuition—yesterday, when he intercepted the Adventurer’s Guild at the ruins, he had fully activated the idol to release that giant Thunder Eagle. This had caused a change in the Phantom Carving within his Meditation World.

Meditation could influence reality, and reality could likewise influence Meditation, forming a wondrous cycle.

As usual, Mo Ning checked his Spiritual Strength.

[Spiritual Strength: 3.71 points.]

This Meditation session had increased it by another 0.01 points.

Since fully digesting the Soul Spirit Water, he had been consistently meditating for three hours a day, and his Spiritual Strength had increased by a total of 0.03 points.

This speed was not slow at all.

It was common knowledge that the higher one’s Spiritual Strength, the slower the improvement.

An ordinary Apprentice with a comparable Spiritual Strength would typically only see an increase of 0.01 points in the same amount of time.

Mo Ning silently sensed his condition for a moment, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.

’In about two more days, my Spiritual World should completely calm down. Then I can take another Magic Potion and cast the Starlight Secret Technique again.’

Both Secret Techniques and Magic Potions, after stimulating an increase in Spiritual Strength, would cause turmoil in one’s Spiritual World, which had to be calmed with a Meditation Technique.

Secret Techniques, Magic Potions, and Meditation. These three methods, each with their own pros and cons, formed the three pillars for an Apprentice to increase their Spiritual Strength.

The vast majority of Apprentices relied mainly on Meditation, supplementing it with the other two methods.

Mo Ning, however, possessed unusually abundant financial resources and a sufficiently high level of Divination, allowing him to advance on all three fronts simultaneously.

"Mr. Mo Ning, Lord Martin has prepared a gift for you. It’s on the wooden table in the living room."

Flower reminded him at just the right moment.

Mo Ning understood instantly. This was the reward for successfully "borrowing" the item from the ruins from Princess Peggy.

If the White Stone Kingdom had handed the item over to the academy, the bracelet might not have ended up in Lord Martin’s hands.

That was the biggest difference.

Mo Ning strode into the living room and immediately saw a simple wooden box.

Flower thoughtfully opened the box for him. A beautiful, diamond-shaped Crystal Stone floated out of the box, hovering half a meter in the air.

Thin, blue Electric Snakes continuously emerged from the Crystal Stone, slithered across its surface for a moment, and then burrowed back inside.

Mo Ning was utterly astonished.

The strange state of the Crystal Stone made him instantly think of a high-value item—the Thunder Essence Stone.

Flower’s next words confirmed his guess.

"Mr. Mo Ning, this is a low-grade Thunder Essence Stone from the Thunder Elemental Plane. It naturally contains pure Thunder Power."

Anyone with some knowledge of the planes knew that among the various elemental planes like wind, fire, water, and earth, the Thunder Elemental Plane was extremely dangerous.

Even a powerful Third Level Wizard who hadn’t mastered sufficient means to counter thunder elemental creatures would be courting death by rashly entering it.

Although this Crystal Stone was only low-grade Quality, its value was by no means low.

Mo Ning mentally appraised it—2,000 Black Tower Points.

However, Flower’s next words instantly overturned his assessment.

"This Thunder Essence Stone has a naturally formed Thunderbolt insignia inside, which is extremely rare among similar essence stones.

"As long as the stone’s remaining energy does not fall below 10%, the Thunderbolt insignia will not collapse. It can continuously absorb the free-roaming Thunder Power in the air to slowly replenish its energy.

"It takes about a month to recover from 10% to 100%. This cycle can be repeated about ten times before the Thunderbolt insignia finally collapses."

Mo Ning was overjoyed to hear this.

He instantly revised his valuation—at least 10,000 Black Tower Points.

’A Third Level Wizard indeed. He’s so generous!’

Mo Ning had mastered several types of Thunder Soul Magic, so this Thunder Essence Stone was of immense value to him.

To give a simple example, just by activating the essence stone and releasing some of its power, a Thunder Force Field would quickly form in the surrounding area.

Compared to the effort it took him to draw on his Magic Power to create a Thunder Eagle Illusion, this was at least ten times faster.

On the battlefield, this was also a powerful tool capable of turning the tide of battle.