Synthetic Wizard-Chapter 109 - 95: The Grand Wedding (Part 2)

"Tia, how was today?"

Sunan handed the flower nectar and honey to the flower fairies, then extended his palm for Tia to rest upon.

"Everything’s great," Tia replied with a sweet smile. "It’s just that the mandala grasses were a bit noisy, always screaming endlessly. I had to teach them a lesson before they calmed down."

"Oh, oh, two apprentices came over this morning. I played hide and seek with them, hehe, and they couldn’t find me at all."

Nature bestows the flower fairies with mystical self-preservation abilities. As long as they hide among the flower fields, even Official Wizards find it difficult to discover them.

Tia babbled to Sunan about the day’s events, occasionally emitting a series of bell-like crisp laughter.

Sunan listened patiently, occasionally adding a word.

Barring any unexpected events, the management of the future Magic Plant Garden will mainly be handled by the flower fairies.

The flower fairy queen possesses the ability to summon her kin. In the future, whenever necessary, Tia can be asked to summon new kin.

From now on, Sunan won’t have to worry about the shortage of manpower in the Magic Plant Garden anymore.

However, while most things can be handled by the flower fairies, some tasks must still be completed by the apprentices.

The third round of aptitude tests held in Golden Rock Province ended last month.

Compared to the first and second rounds, the third round was much larger.

As a result, eighteen young boys and girls successfully passed the aptitude tests.

Now, at the base, there are already thirty-three students.

Nearly half have already started with the Star Ring Meditation Method.

Like Sherman, Cole, and Attila, they have already constructed the second star ring and successfully mastered three to four Tier Zero Magic.

In addition, Sherman and Attila have successfully produced Tier Zero Potion.

In terms of data, both of their [Potion Making] skills have reached level 1.

Cole has already mastered the [Puppet Refining] skill.

Thanks to this, Sunan no longer needs to waste energy on making low-level potions and refining Black Rock Leopards.

These two tasks have been fully handed over to the three students.

Sherman and the others now mainly take on potion making and puppet refining tasks.

Tasks like caring for magic plants, cleaning the laboratory, and maintaining golems are handled by other newcomers.

"Once more people learn potion making, we can expand the scale of potion sales."

The profitable business must continue, and the scale needs to gradually expand.

After all, as Sunan’s strength increases, the need for money grows too.

To say nothing else, researching materials to substitute Demon Pattern Cores alone has cost over three thousand Gold Coins.

Fortunately, the money wasn’t wasted; three substitutes were successfully synthesized.

Now, only twenty-one rare metals are needed to gather the materials for refining the Demon Pattern Core.

...

The midnight forest was exceptionally silent.

A group of men clad in leather armor traversed the forest under the dim starlight.

The sound of insects vibrating their wings filled their ears, like a nocturne intertwined together.

The group moved silently, their rustling footsteps traversing through one thicket after another, the cold air of the night and the dead silence tightening their nerves.

After walking further, someone finally couldn’t help but softly ask the leader at the front, "Fredre, how much further is it?"

"Almost there," Fredre replied without turning his head.

"You said that half an hour ago. How long exactly?" The speaker’s tone was filled with suppressed impatience. "Are you fooling us?"

Fredre turned his gaze on him coldly and said, "If you don’t believe me, you can leave now."

"You..."

"Enough, stop bickering!" An older burly man interrupted. "Be careful; too loud a noise will attract beasts; Black Wolves often roam here at night."

The burly man held no small amount of prestige among them; once he spoke, the one complaining immediately fell silent.

Fredre glanced at the burly man and whispered, "I’ve already seen the markings left before; just seven to eight hundred meters ahead, and we’ll reach the cave I discovered."

Hearing this, everyone’s spirit was lifted, and they hurried their pace.

Shortly thereafter, their view suddenly opened up, revealing a clearing leading to a steep cliff.

At the bottom of the cliff was a dark cave entrance.

In the night, the cave entrance looked like a menacing mouth waiting to devour an unsuspecting guest, somewhat unsettling.

Yet the group felt no fear; their gazes towards the cave brimmed with fervor, faces full of excitement.

"Fredre, you found those silver ingots in this cave?" The burly man asked sternly.

Fredre nodded heavily: "Yes, I saw a silver ore vein deep within the cave with my own eyes."

The group’s expressions grew more excited.

A silver ore vein, even if it’s just a tiny shallow one, digging out silver ingots could make them rich overnight.

If the deposit is larger, they might live worry-free for the rest of their lives.

"Go, let’s head in!"

The big man suppressed the excitement in his heart and led the group into the cave.

Some people in the team lit torches, and the bright flame illuminated the scene inside the cave.

The big man observed the cave walls, frowning in puzzlement.

This cave was full of signs of being manually dug, and moreover, the marks were quite new. Considering the silver ore vein inside, it should be a newly excavated mine.

But if that’s the case, why was there no one to be seen here?

Moreover, he had inquired in the city, and no one had ever mined in this forest.

The big man felt inexplicably uneasy and began to consider if they should retreat and come back after thoroughly investigating.

Just then, a low call suddenly came from beside his ear.

"It’s a silver ore vein!"

Instinctively raising his head, he saw a patch of dull silvery-gray on the cave wall jumping into view.

His heart began to pound rapidly.

The desire for silver ingots instantly overwhelmed the deep-seated unease within him.

Without further hesitation, the big man immediately took down his pickaxe from his waist and said excitedly:

"Mine!"

Everyone had been waiting for this sentence and eagerly started working upon hearing it.

"Haha, we’re going to get rich!"

"Once this is done, I can rest for several years!"

"This cave seems to be quite deep. If we go further in, there might be other ore veins."

"That’s right, let’s explore it later."

A group of people excitedly discussed it.

Just then, some strange noises suddenly came from the depths of the cave.

Though excited, the big man, with his rich experience in adventure, immediately noticed something was wrong.

"Quiet!"

"There seems to be something inside the cave, everyone be on guard!"

Everyone immediately put down their pickaxes, drew their weapons, and vigilantly stared into the darkness at the depths of the cave.

"Squeak squeak!"

In their shocked gazes, a group of rats the size of cats rushed out from the darkness.

"What is this?"

"Rats?"

"How can there be such big rats... Damn, these monsters are fast, I’ve been bitten!"

The rats that suddenly appeared had slightly bloodshot eyes like frenzied beasts, using sharp fangs and claws to madly attack everyone.

Even more frightening was their extremely swift movements and large numbers.

In the cramped cave, everyone found it hard to dodge and were quickly injured one after another.

"Stay calm, defend back-to-back!"

The big man swung his sword, slicing a giant rat in half, and shouted loudly.

The next second, a dull whistling sound suddenly came from behind.

Before the big man could turn around, a massive silhouette from behind knocked him to the ground.

"Captain!" someone exclaimed in shock.

By the flickering firelight, everyone quickly saw that the one who had tackled the big man was a fat and sturdy monster.

It had a toad-like head, skin of a dark red color, no eyes, and extremely strong limbs.

"Gulp gulp!"

The toad monster opened its bloody mouth wide and fiercely bit the big man’s head off, chewed it a few times, then swallowed it, before leaping towards the others.

"Ah!!"

The big man’s death plunged the team into total panic.

Everyone lost their will to fight and scrambled frantically towards the cave entrance.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get far before being pounced on successively by the pursuing toad monster and rat swarm.

The fastest, Fredre, was the first to reach the cave entrance.

Seeing he was about to escape to freedom, he couldn’t help but show an expression of ecstatic joy.

But the next moment, a slippery tongue suddenly shot out from behind, wrapping around his waist and pulling him back forcefully.

"Ah!!"

The short scream was abruptly cut off, followed by the hair-raising sound of chewing.

"Crunch crunch!"

It didn’t take long for the sound to disappear, and the pitch-black cave returned to its deathly silence.