Every time the academy conducted a search, the various mentors in the academy would act as the team leader, leading the apprentices and mages who had volunteered to go to the Dark Forest to search.
The teachers in each academy were of different levels, but they were all outstanding teachers in all aspects. In Derek Academy, only advanced mages and a few outstanding intermediate mages were qualified to be teachers. The strong faculty was also one of the contents of Derek Academy's publicity during the enrollment season every year.
With the guidance of these mentors, they would escort the search mission in order to prevent any accidents from happening to the apprentices and mages in the process of searching for people. He didn't want to lose some apprentices in the search for the missing people.
Such an annual search was one of the contents that every academy had to publicize to the outside world every year. The entire process would be broadcasted to the entire continent of Tyre by the publicity department using a transcribed symbol. They wanted to show the public the strength of the academy and the care and concern they had for their apprentices.
If any academy were to let an accident happen to an apprentice during such a mission, it would not only damage the academy's reputation, but the other academies would also get hold of it and wantonly use public opinion to attack.
For most of the apprentices, this was the best time to explore the Dark Forest with the protection of the high-level mages of Derek Academy.
Thus, even though many apprentices and mages had strong opinions about Miller, they still signed up to participate in the search.
Michael knew that Miller's underlings were already dying, and Miller had actually escaped.
Based on Miller's injuries, there was a high chance he died in the Dark Forest.
"I think we should still sign up for the mission." Michael discussed with his teammates. "Everyone can take advantage of this rare opportunity to search for alchemy materials in the Dark Forest. And we didn't see Miller's body last time, though he's probably dead. But I still want to confirm it."
"I agree." Carl continued, "Miller is a vindictive person. Last time, we only saw him escape. If he has an Advanced Recovery Potion on him, he will definitely find a chance to come back and take revenge on us."
"So troublesome? As expected of a scourge who lives to a hundred years old." Mr. Royce was drawing a new talisman. "The academy's publicity department will be watching the entire search. If he's still alive, it'll be very troublesome to find a chance to kill him."
After hearing Mr. Royce's words, Michael fell into deep thought.
Indeed, the entire Tyre continent was searching for the treasure. It was an operation that the academy cared about very much. If Miller was discovered by others and sent to the entire continent, even if everyone hated Miller, they couldn't really do anything to him in front of so many people.
Not everyone in Tyre knew the whole story. They would only believe what they wanted to believe.
When they saw Michael killing the other mages, they would only think Demick's mages had no bottom line and were all murderers. At that time, for the sake of their own reputation, the academy might even chase them out.
That would be troublesome.
It looked like he had to plan properly to deal with Miller. Michael thought that he had to find Miller before the main team. It would be fine if they found a corpse, but if they found him alive. Then they would kill him before the people from the publicity department arrived.
In short, he could not let Miller return to Derek Academy alive.
Who knew what Miller would do to Mage Z's team after he returned to the academy alive? Although Michael was a Tier 4 Mage, he wasn't afraid of Miller's revenge. However, Karl and the others were still apprentices; if Miller caught them, they would be in big trouble.
Morning, Dark Forest.
In order to speed up the search for Miller, all the registered mages and apprentices set off early in the morning.
It had been more than four hours, but they still hadn't found even a single strand of Miller's hair. Most of the apprentices who had signed up just wanted to take the opportunity to go deep into the Dark Forest and find some alchemy materials that could not be found in the periphery of the Dark Forest. The four Advanced Mages who came this time were busy checking the environment and ensuring the safety of all the apprentices present.
"I'm not going to Miller. He even bullied me last time."
"That's right, that dog once said he was going on a mission with me. Ultimately, I was asked to do the mission myself, and he took all the rewards." An apprentice who was bending over to pick spiritual plants said indignantly, "I didn't give it to him, and he even beat me up with his underlings. He almost didn't pass the academy assessment that year."
"Me too. The last time I passed the assessment, I was in a bad mood. He intentionally went with me during the actual combat drill."Another fat apprentice said, " He tricked me into going to the depths of the Dark Forest to get a high score. In the end, when we encountered a magical beast, that fellow actually pushed me out to feed the magical beast to buy time in exchange for a chance for him to escape. If I hadn't met the high-level mage of the academy, I would have been killed."
The apprentices who came gathered together and talked. The entire place was filled with apprentices whom he had offended.
Michael looked at these people and sighed. He continued to search for Miller with his teammates. Among the people who had signed up for this mission, only Mage Z's team might have been really trying their best to find Miller and kill him.
There was a limit to the number of people who could sign up for each search. After all, the number of people a high-level mage could protect was limited. But this time, it was obvious that the apprentices who signed up were all people who had a grudge against Miller.
The reason they signed up was simple. They didn't want anyone to save Miller and bring him back to the academy. As long as none of the apprentices went to search for it, the event would end hastily. In the end, the academy would publicly announce that the search had failed. Miller's name would also be completely erased from the academy's name list.
In other words, after this search, even if Miller was still alive, he would not be able to return to Derek Academy.
Mr. Royce was using search charms to distribute them everywhere, and Michael was also releasing magic power to explore. The few had already walked a lot deeper into the Dark Forest. But Miller was still nowhere to be seen.
In the deeper regions, almost no mages could survive for a long time. It looked like Miller was probably gone.
However, this did not make Mage Team Z lower their guard. They continued to move forward.
"Magic Mushroom?" A few gray mushrooms by the roadside caught Michael's attention. The soup made from these mushrooms could increase a mage's mana.
Michael walked over and picked up the cute mushrooms from the ground.
"Michael?" A hoarse voice came from behind the tree, and a familiar face appeared.
It was Miller!