While Adrien was familiarizing himself with the city, checking his abilities, and planning his experimental theories these days, Luicia, Gizel, Ursula and Jecket were on their way to do their mission.
Adrien was really having it easy. Normally, low-level apprentices would have no ability to learn any spell. They could learn spells only when they reached mid-level when they had enough mental strength. Any spell before mid-level would risk their lives.
While there were a few spells that low-rank apprentices could learn, their effect was too basic. Simply no apprentice would pay attention to them. Lighting up a fire, creating a gale, loosening the earth... What would someone achieve by learning such spells?
Apprentices' ranks were divided into low, mid, high, and pseudo. Luicia had a dark elementium talent and was currently at mid-level. Whenever she stepped, the fragile plants would wilt. But in contrast to her unconscious actions, she kept jumping all around the place like a harp.
While Luicia was at it, Gizel and Jecket ignored her subconsciously as they were used to it, but Ursula kept reprimanding her like a mother from time to time.
Their mission this time was to collect at least five houndshrooms for each person, a total of fifteen houndshrooms.
"Jecket, are you sure? Can we really find vermices there?" Gizel asked with caution.
"Of course, I had not told you before, as I can never be sure of any leak. But vermices, there are plenty of them. Last time I met some apprentices from Miasma Tower. During my escape, I saw some clues, but I covered them in case anyone else found them." Jecket said cautiously.
"Miasma Tower..." When fighting broke out between towers, most of the apprentices were eager to taste blood. However, everyone was tired of these skirmishes by now.
The clues found by Jecket were sufficient; otherwise, a blind search would have been useless.
Hearing Jecket's comment, everyone became a notch more attentive to their surroundings but when Luicia heard Jecket, she discreetly opened her bag. Soon, a bony bird took off from her bag without anyone noticing it.
Everyone continued unaware of what had transpired and soon they were near their destination.
Jecket moved ahead and started uncovering clues when they heard some voices.
"...are you sure? Is it really... not a rumor..." A man's voice was heard.
"...patches of land... Ice and Dark elementium... I don't know... too much for me..." A feminine voice replied.
A third man replied, "...concentrated? ...will there...emerge...treasure?".
The moment they heard voices, the group of four was on high alert. The other party was not speaking loudly, but after these years of foraging in the wild, they had developed a keen sense of hearing.
Hearing the sounds Jecket made a hand sign and everyone positioned themselves. The moment they became visible, Luicia made a hand sign. A black eye appeared in front of her, locking on one of her opponents.
Taking out a long needle from her back, without hesitation she pierced herself in her abdomen.
The targeted man cried out in agony and fell to the floor, but the other two weren't faring any better. The other two had their feet encased in ice by Ursula.
Still, the two didn't stop their actions and continued to make a hand sign while reciting something. When the two finished their actions, Gizel had already approached the woman. From under his sleeves, two mechanical hands popped out lashing at the woman with all their might.
But before Gizel could strike her, a harsh and high-pitched screech resounded. Everyone in the surrounding area felt their heads explode the moment her voice released the sound. The man near her even stopped what he was doing and fell to the floor with his hands covering his hands.
Gizel did not seem to be faring any better and fell to the floor in a similar manner.
Luicia was the only one who fared a tad better than anyone else. Then, after healing herself with a spell that involved some strange object.
By the time Luicia could redo the spell she did a moment before, the woman had already escaped. Because of this, she commanded the bird she released before to follow the woman who was escaping alone.
Luicia did not remain standing in a single place, but ran toward the male apprentices and kicked them with all she had. She kept thrashing them until she broke their noses.
Jecket also soon recovered. Chanting a spell, he summoned a lava hound and sent it toward the male apprentices where the lava hound tore them apart.
A few minutes later the other two recovered. Knowing the woman had escaped, they didn't follow the woman. Running after your enemy of similar strength was never a wise idea even if they had a numerical advantage. A moment before, they were all lying on the floor licking dirt.
However, Luicia did something unexpected. With no opponent before her, she started doing her apprentice spell 'Ominous Eye' once again, even though there was no opponent before her. Nevertheless, everyone could see that one of her eyes had turned white.
In Luicia's case, it wasn't that she was injured in her eye or anything, but that she shared a vision with the bony bird. This meant that she could see the woman escaping clearly. Once again a black eye appeared in front of Luicia staring straight in the escaping woman's direction.
When the eye appeared in front of her, she took her needle and pierced it right through her right thigh. Luicia saw the woman stumbling to the floor as if she had hurt herself. Without even breaking a sweat, she recited a healing-type spell once again.
Every time they saw Luicia hurting herself they would get flabbergasted but this time she had completely thrown them off guard. But before they could ask any questions, she told them what she had done and her discoveries but never in any of her sentences did she tell them how she did what she did.
No one asked Luicia how she knew the information or how she was able to attack the woman from so far away since they didn't have the time. Unless the other party wanted to harm them it didn't matter how many trump cards the other party had. All that mattered was if the other party could be trusted. And currently, Luicia had nothing to gain from harming them.
Everyone hurriedly moved in the direction of the woman under Luicia's direction. In Luicia's vision, that woman was still trying to escape, when she turned her head in a certain direction.
Luicia told the boney bird to move its head and, through its vision, she saw them running toward the woman. But what was strange wasn't how she knew where they were coming from while still so far away. Instead, it was the silhouette of another human running with them. However, when Luicia turned her head to look behind, to her horror she saw no one.