Alas, it was unknown if such vast fields of cauliflower still existed in this world.
Colin, lost in his reverie, strode forward, the bee sting firmly fixed to the brown leather sword holder given by the shop owner at his waist, making no sound.
As he walked on, evening arrived, and the sun set in the west, enveloping the land in a deep yellow hue.
The small town had a curfew, and as night fell, more pedestrians appeared on the dirt roads, with carriages occasionally passing by.
He walked among the crowd, yet it wasn't crowded; the pedestrians around him consciously maintained a distance of one meter from him.
On the island, social classes were distinct; those dressed like him in the small town were either core members of a gang, descendants of a family, or at least related in some way to a wizard.
After walking a distance, he gradually reached the outskirts of the town.
There, farmers with agricultural tools and fishermen with dark skin reeking of fish became more common, and carriages were rarely seen.
The houses along the street changed from wooden houses to mud and seaweed buildings, and some were not even seaweed houses but merely crude tents made of palm leaves.
The passersby became more meek; upon seeing Colin, they either shrank back into their homes or bowed their heads in fear and stood still.
After walking a bit further, suddenly, the sound of a woman sobbing, interspersed with the loud cries of a baby, rang out.
Turning a corner, Colin saw the source of the noise.
In front of a palm lean-to by the roadside, a woman clad in tattered linen clothes was sitting on the ground, holding a baby wrapped in black cloth, crying.
A few men dressed as fishermen surrounded her. The robust young man among them was holding a cloth bag;
he handed the cloth bag to the woman, "This is all that's left of Gal, take it..."
"Hey!"
At this moment, another man beside him spotted Colin and quickly alerted him in a low voice, then bowed his head and stood aside.
The robust young man looked back, saw Colin, and quickly bent his head down as well.
Colin, with a calm and expressionless face, continued forward.
The woman also saw him, immediately swallowed her sobs with effort, and then forcefully covered her baby's mouth with her other hand.
Though the sound stopped, tears continued to flow unrestrainedly; large tears fell from her chin, hitting the ground, and forming dark stains.
The face of the baby in her arms quickly turned red and struggled more fiercely.
Colin sighed softly to himself and quickened his pace.
But suddenly, whether the woman couldn't bear it or the baby struggled too vehemently, the piercing cry of the child rose again.
The woman's expression dramatically changed and she hastened to muzzle the baby more tightly.
Colin did not pause or turn his head; he just looked straight ahead and passed by quickly, expressionless.
Soon, he had left that area.
Although he hadn't heard everything, he guessed that the woman must have lost her fisherman husband.
The sea was vast and magnificent but also full of perils; such occurrences were frequent.
More than that, he cared about the attitudes of the people in the ghetto towards him.
"Class..." he sighed imperceptibly.
On the island, aside from wizards, other ordinary people should all be on the same level.
Those people hadn't recognized him as a wizard; they shouldn't have been so deferential.
Yet, there were clearly distinctions among ordinary people; the ghettos' inhabitants and those ordinary people connected with the wizards were worlds apart in status.
Earlier, he had also heard that a father of a Basic Level Wizard Apprentice from the city had come to the edge of the ghetto deliberately to provoke people.
Then, when those people could no longer endure and began to retaliate, he would use the formidable power of a knight to brutally kill them for amusement.
Although the Guard Team later became aware of this issue,
the punishment was only to forbid him from committing the act again and to fine him some magic stones...
The island was poor in resources, the wilderness filled with fierce beasts and strange occurrences; ordinary people could only survive by relying on wizards, which was one of the reasons for wizards' exalted status.
An instructor once said that sixty years ago, before the Lap School came to this island,
the original Official Wizards had died, leaving only some Advanced Apprentices relying on the relics left by their ancestors, barely holding off the night's eeriness and the wilderness's fierce beasts.
Thus, the settlements became smaller day by day, continuously forced to reduce their area.
Only when Lap Wizard arrived did the settlements gradually stop shrinking and even began to expand.
Now, they had expanded back to their original peripheries, and the damaged outer mud wall had also been reinforced and repaired.
This was the power of an Official Wizard and the unbreakable status of the Lap School!
Thinking all this, Colin was about to reach the city gate.
A thin man suddenly sprang out from a nearby path and then inexplicably stopped in the middle of the dirt road.
Colin halted, frowning at him.
The man, hunched over, stood sideways to him, his head down.
The yellow light of the setting sun turned him into a dark silhouette, highlighting his emaciated figure.
The backlight prevented Colin from seeing the man's face clearly.
After pondering for a moment, he decided to take out his identity badge from his pocket.
In the small town, given his attire, most people wouldn't bother him.
And for the few who might, showing the identity badge in his pocket would usually resolve the issue.
Colin watched the man while feeling for the badge in his pocket.
As his eyes gradually adjusted to the backlight, the man's figure became clearer in his vision.
'Why is he... trembling non-stop?' Colin's pupils constricted, and a wave of unease suddenly surged from his heart.
He immediately withdrew his hand from his pocket, quickly formed a seal, his lips quivered, and he whispered a spell as he stepped backward.
Just as his spell resonated, the man standing on the muddy ground in front of him suddenly made a move.
He slowly raised his head, looking at Colin, his eyes glowing with a bizarre green light.
Colin felt a sudden tightness in his chest, quickened his pace backward while continuing to chant the spell.
At that moment, a noisy sound came from the right, from the direction where the man had just appeared.
The man seemed to have some problem with his body, his head suddenly dropped heavily again, and he continued to tremble, hunched over.
This time, even large pools of fresh blood spilled from his mouth, making a strange hissing sound when it hit the ground.
After a few more seconds, the hunched-over man finally caught his breath and gradually straightened his back.
By then, Colin had already retreated dozens of meters away, and his casting of witchcraft was nearing its end.
Buzz—
Accompanied by the last syllable, a translucent white light enveloped Colin's entire body.
But it suddenly shattered and disappeared.
Colin's face turned pale as he suppressed the discomfort of the failed spell and pulled out the sting needle from his waist, continuing to retreat quickly.
The white light was Steel Armor, a powerful witchcraft he had been learning recently.
Unfortunately, despite having Golden Paper's help, ten days was too short of a time, and he was still some distance away from mastery. The casting took a long time and was prone to failure.
Seeing that he was getting farther away from the man with the eerie green glow, Colin breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Although he was now an Advanced Knight, this strength was nothing in the face of real danger.
The man's bizarre appearance, eyes glowing green, was clearly beyond Colin's ability to handle!
Why risk it? Decisive retreat was the right choice!
It was a pity…he had not succeeded in casting Steel Armor…
Just as Colin was pondering, the now fully upright lean man suddenly stared at him!
In the dim world, his eyes glowing green were strikingly prominent.
Colin startled, kept his gaze on the lean man, continuing to retreat to increase the distance.
Although they were already a fair distance apart, blindly turning around to run was still the poorest choice!
The next second, the man suddenly charged towards him with a speed so fast that in the blink of an eye, he closed the distance to within ten meters.
His heart clenched!
"This speed, there's no escaping."
Colin let out a heavy breath, stopped in his tracks, gripped the sting needle in his hand, ready to fight!
Whoosh!!
Just then, a beam of orange-red light shot fiercely from behind the right side of the lean man.
The man, startled, forcefully leaped while curling up his body.
His reaction was quick, but his waist and abdomen were still grazed by the beam!
The man grunted.
At the waist, where it had contacted the beam, had vanished, leaving only a charred gash.
But this only further provoked the man's ferocity; ignoring the threat behind him, he charged headlong at Colin!
It looked like he was intent on taking Colin down with him.
Using his recent leap, the man was now only three meters away from Colin.
He widened his eyes, his pupils gleaming with green fury, and roared hoarsely,
"Die! Die! Die, all of you should die!"
But what he didn't expect was that a blinding white light suddenly burst forth from the handsome young man's chest in front of him!
"Ah!!" With his vision whited out, the man flailed his arms.
At this time, only a trivial sliver of the setting sun remained in the sky, making it incredibly dim.
The sudden explosion of white light temporarily blinded the unprepared man.
Colin, looking at the eerie man in front of him, thought again.
A flame abruptly appeared at the crotch of the man's canvas pants.
Then more flames appeared one after another in different places on the man's clothes.
The man roared in anger, but the flames on his body soon made him instinctively lie down and roll on the ground.
Unfortunately, the man was wearing only plain linen clothes, which weren't soaked in any fuel.
The fire, under his rolling, was quickly brought under control.
Seeing this, Colin hurriedly grasped the sting needle and stabbed towards the man's head.
Before the blade in his hand could touch the man's skin, another orange-red beam of light struck his head first.
Half of the man's head instantly disappeared.
Yet even after such severe damage, his body continued to move.
Then another orange-red beam shot out, completely erasing the man's head.
Only then did his body gradually stop moving.
The intense smell of charred flesh mixed with the scent of cooked meat filled the air.
Causing Colin's stomach to churn continuously, his complexion growing even paler.
He looked up at the figure slowly approaching in a Wizard Robe, took out a triangular badge from his pocket, and gestured to the other person.