Chapter 20: Nina

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“I went to the market just now and searched for a long time. That liar actually disappeared.” Mr. Royce was furious. He finally found time to settle the score with the old man. In the end, he hurriedly packed up his things and pulled Michael all the way to the market. That old man had long disappeared.

“This might be a scam.” Carl carried his packed luggage and sat on his flying broom. Derek quietly shared half of the luggage and followed behind his master.

“He should be the kind of old man who goes to a place to lie for a while and then changes places to continue lying.” Michael recalled the information he had sent out to Kanal at the market in the afternoon. Only then did he learn that the old man was actually a famous swindler, and he made a living by selling maps of the Dark Forest that his so-called friends had personally drawn near various academies.

“This is called learning from one’s mistakes. Let’s not fall for it next time.”

The originally clear sky suddenly blew with a strong wind, and their broomsticks became unstable. Michael chanted an incantation and placed a protective shield around them. Mr. Royce used his own charm to strengthen the protective shield.

However, as the wind grew stronger, stones mixed with the wind kept hitting their protective shields. The entire world began to turn dark, and a strong wind swept over.

In this kind of weather, most apprentices would choose not to go out, let alone fly in the sky with a magic broom. With the abilities of ordinary apprentices, they would have been blown away by the strong wind.

However, even though Michael was already a Tier 4 mage, he could only barely maintain the appearance of his protective shield in the wind. Now that they were in the middle of the road, it was extremely difficult to return to the academy or continue to the castle.

“Everyone, be careful.” Michael continued to channel magic power to strengthen the protective shield. Mr. Royce threw out talismans one after another to surround the protective barrier. Carl wasn’t idle either. Together with Derek, they were releasing magic power to their magic brooms to ensure that they could fly in the sky in balance. To prevent the magic broom from being blown over by the wind.

However, they could not resist nature even if they used their full strength. Under the typhoon mixed with black magic, large and small cracks began to appear on the protective shield, and the cracks even showed signs of expanding.

For safety reasons, Michael had no choice but to bring his teammates down from the sky. The wind speed on the ground was clearly much lower, and their protective shields could comfortably protect them in the middle.

A loud roar came from the Dark Forest not far away. It seemed that the consciousness of the Dark Forest had lost control again.

Every time the Dark Forest lost control, there would be some natural disasters. This time, it evolved into a huge typhoon and tornado. Countless animals and plants were helplessly carried into the air, then heavily thrown to the ground by the raging wind.

As Michael braved the strong wind and walked towards the castle, he saw many century-old trees being uprooted. Even whales were not spared. They were swept into the air along with the seawater, forming a unique scene.

This happened almost every few years, but most of the time, it would only affect unguarded areas. The territories of the various academies, including the castles allocated to Michael and the other mages, were all protected by the magic of the academies, so they would not be affected at all.

In other words, they would be safe as long as they walked into their castle against the strong winds. Thinking of this, Michael hurriedly called out to his teammates and quickened their pace in the direction of the castle.

In the blinding gale, the three walked forward with difficulty. Suddenly, Michael saw a petite, sweet-looking girl trying her best to head against the wind toward the academy.

Unlike the indestructible protective shield on Michael and the others, the protective shield on the girl’s body already had a few obvious cracks on it, as if it was about to shatter. The girl was trying her best to transfer her magic power to strengthen the already unstable protective shield. A sparrow was anxiously flying around its owner.

The bad weather caused by the Dark Forest was almost without warning. Sometimes, it was sunny during the day, but there would be a strong wind or hail the size of watermelons in the afternoon.

This also caused many mages to go out to collect alchemy materials when the weather was good, but they were trapped outside halfway. If it were a mage, it would be better. If it were a group of apprentices, they would barely make it back to the academy alive.

However, once an apprentice was alone in such weather, it was almost equivalent to being sentenced to death. Their fragile magic shields were practically useless.

It seemed that the woman not far away was one of the unlucky apprentices.

Michael watched as the other party’s mana gradually dried up, and the protective barrier he used to protect himself began to dissipate. He still felt sorry for the other party, and he could not bear to watch them die in front of him.

“Let’s save her.” After Michael learned from Kanal that the other party had no ill intentions, he suggested to his teammates, “If we don’t help her, she’s destined to not walk back on her own.”

“I wanted to say it a long time ago.” When Mr. Royce saw that fragile figure, he couldn’t help but think of his sister at home. He wondered how she was now. Fortunately, the bad weather was usually near the Dark Forest. Their village was far away, so it should not be too serious.

Mr. Royce threw out a talisman with a complicated pattern. It rushed out of its protective shields and flew towards the woman not far away. It then merged with the woman’s protective shield and strengthened it. Carl mobilized his vines to pull the other party and the protective shield to his side.

The two different protective shields collided and finally fused.

Michael casually injected some magic power into the woman’s body to prevent her from dying from exhaustion.

“Thank you for saving me. My name is Nina. May I know the names of my benefactors?” Nina had wanted to take advantage of the good weather to go out and try her luck to see if she could find a few magic rabbits to tame. Her talent was to purify and tame spirit beasts, and she also liked small animals.

However, who knew that she would encounter such terrible weather when she returned? If she hadn’t happened to encounter Michael’s help, she might have died here. At the thought of this, she felt even more grateful to Michael. “If it wasn’t for your help, I might have died. Since you saved me, my life is yours from now on. I will definitely do whatever you want me to do, as long as I can do it.”