Chapter 117: Forest Ambush
Bang! soul lost weight, thoughts shuttled. As Jia Na's spirit body returned to the Prime Material Plane, the silver-faced round mirror that had been floating in the air suddenly fell, and the sea beast hide engraved with the Contract Summoning magic array was also scrapped.
“Return everything to its place—”
After clearing away all the scrapped ritual materials, feeling the fatigue deep in her soul, Jia Na couldn't help but rub her temples.
“Although the consumption of soul power wasn't much this time, two consecutive summons in a short period are indeed a bit overwhelming—.”
Normally, due to the excessive consumption of soul power by 【Contract Summoning】, Jia Na would need to wait at least seven days before performing 【Elf Summoning】 again. However, in order to successfully complete the academy's mandatory task, Jia Na still decided to perform 【Elf Summoning】 in advance.
“As long as I don't frequently cast soul-type Witchcraft in the future—there shouldn't be any major issues.”
After her soul talent was officially promoted to A-level, Jia Na found that her soul power was indeed much stronger than before. Besides soul strength, the recovery speed of her soul power was also much faster.
“Is it already eleven o'clock?”
Looking at the mechanical clock on the wall whose hour hand was already pointing to eleven, Jia Na, enduring her mental fatigue, took out a few slices of toast bread from the refrigerator, spread butter and honey on them, and ate a few bites as a simple lunch.
After quickly filling her stomach, taking advantage of the more than twelve hours before midnight, Jia Na sat cross-legged on the bed,
and began to enter deep meditation to speed up the recovery of her soul power.
“I hope the rewards from this task will be worth my efforts—”
While silently hoping in her heart, Jia Na couldn't help but think of the red task related to the Dark Sun Church on the task panel.
“There's also a task?”
Thinking of that long-term task with excessive difficulty, Jia Na's mood couldn't help but become a bit heavy.
“I can only take it one step at a time.”
Considering the current situation, Jia Na didn't think she could complete this red-level task.
Even if the task reward was tempting, White Coral Academy's requirement that first-year apprentices were not allowed to go deep into the Mist Forest, as well as Jia Na's current strength, meant Jia Na didn't have many ideas about this task.
“If I discover the other party without them noticing me, at that point, I actually wouldn't need to act; a simple report would be enough to resolve it———”
She silently exhaled. The fatigue deep in her soul left Jia Na no time to think too much. After quickly clearing the distracting thoughts from her mind, she relaxed her mind and sank into thought. Accompanied by even breathing, Jia Na gradually entered a state of deep meditation——
The bright moon hung high, the wind was gentle, and the clouds were light.
According to the agreed time, Jia Na arrived at the cafeteria entrance punctually at midnight.
“Jia Na, you were almost late.”
Looking at Vivian and Bell-Moonshadow who had arrived at the cafeteria entrance early, and the extremely awkward atmosphere between the two, Jia Na, who had finally recovered her energy, naturally walked between them.
“Isn't it still a little bit early—Vivian, you're fully armed today, aren't you?”
An enchanted wizard robe that was even more luxurious than before, plus enchanted short boots, a magic item necklace, an alchemical ring, an interdimensional space bracelet, and an exquisite staff held in her hand—even though Jia Na had a general understanding of Vivian's financial strength, she found that she had still underestimated it.
“After all, I can't drag everyone down, otherwise, I'll be told I'm not qualified again.”
Proudly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Vivian provocatively glanced at Bell-Moonshadow.
As for Vivian's sarcastic tone, Bell-Moonshadow, unusually, didn't respond this time. Only half of her face was hidden in the shadow of her wizard hood, making her emotions unreadable.
“Let's go.”
In the quiet night, besides Jia Na's small team, there were quite a few other teams with the same goal. In groups of two or three, they actually made the entire campus seem quite lively.
“Caw——caw—”
Accompanied by the occasional cawing of the Raven, the three of them, Jia Na included, quickly passed through the tree-lined path and arrived at the outskirts of the Mist Forest.
“There are quite a few people who set off early.”
Along the way, their team had already encountered several waves of people. But most of them were led by Three-level Wizard Apprentices and quickly surpassed them. Some didn't even bother to explore the outskirts of the Mist Forest, walking directly into its depths.
“It seems everyone is heading for the task of eliminating the Dark Sun Cultists. Completing the academy's mandatory task might just be a side objective.”
Just as Vivian said, the Three-level Wizard Apprentices who had long been eager to leave White Coral Academy rushed directly towards the Mist Forest based on the task clues released by Black Bone Forest after the academy was officially unsealed, fearing that apprentices from other academies would snatch the first achievement and miss out on the bounty rewards.
“Creak——creak—”
As the three of them wandered around the outskirts of the forest, besides the creaking sound of stepping on broken branches, the only sound left in the forest was the low chirping of insects.
“We're being watched.”
Their steps paused slightly, but only for an instant, then the three of them continued walking forward as if nothing had happened.
“They have more people than us.”
After a delay of about ten seconds, Bell-Moonshadow's transmitted voice sounded in Jia Na and Vivian's ears again. But in order not to alert the enemy, the three of them didn't show any signs of abnormality.
“What about their strength? Can you sense it?”
“There are first-level—and also second-level. From their magic aura, there is at least one or more second-level apprentices.”
Their steps still didn't stop. Through Bell-Moonshadow's peculiar intelligence gathering ability in the intermittent transmitted voices, the three of them also gained a preliminary understanding of the strength of the apprentices hiding in the dark with malicious intent.
“Should we just attack directly? Anyway, I brought teleportation scrolls. If we can't win, at worst, the three of us can just teleport back to the academy.”
The wealthy Vivian didn't think the other party could keep the three of them. Even if the other party had the numbers, with Vivian's ample supply of scrolls, there was still a possibility of winning.
“Don't be impulsive first. After all, we still don't know what their goal is. Instead of getting flustered, it's better to adapt to their moves.”
After rejecting Vivian's suggestion to "just attack directly" via voice transmission, Jia Na winked at the two of them respectively.
As the three of them gradually slowed their pace, a mist like thin gauze silently spread outwards from Bell-Moonshadow as the center—