The Bizarre Wizarding World

"That's also a tremendous event."

"Indeed," Shelley nodded, silently gazing out the window.

The pitch-black night sky enveloped the crescent moon in grey clouds, revealing only a sliver of its shape.

"Though the Divine haven't pushed the front line forward in two years, they've been fervently building churches and Divine Courts on the islands and within the Sea Domain they occupy. The number has already surpassed ten thousand, and near the Siya Continent's sea areas, they have even erected thirteen towering grey spires."

Colin was momentarily stunned. Over the past two years, he had read the Supreme Council's bulletins and the Neustadt daily almost every day, but he had never seen any news about these matters.

Before Colin could respond, Shelley turned his head and continued to talk to himself,

"But no need to worry too much. The Divine are not without their own problems, their internal conflicts of faith are also a big issue."

"It seems this temporary peace at the front lines will have to last quite a while."

Colin nodded silently, but it didn't bring him much comfort; instead, a mysterious chill seemed to sweep through his heart, making him feel even more urgency.

In just a few short years, he advanced from a mere Apprentice to soon becoming a Third Rank Wizard. Such a rate of advancement could not be considered slow.

But the world doesn't grant extra time because of it.

A tsunami could come at any moment, but at least before it arrives, one must climb as high as possible.

...

The conversation lasted a bit longer today, and by the time Colin saw Shelley off, the sky had already turned pitch black.

Colin quietly paced in the courtyard under the silvery crescent moon, whose weak light did not brighten the view in front of him, but instead made the darkness seem more profound.

After a long while, Colin gave up this meaningless activity, pushed down the anxiety in his heart, and stepped into the house.

The sky won't fall without taller people to hold it up, so better to continue diligently with my training, since there's really not much else I can do.

'Right, it's been about a week since I last used Anando's Dice?'

Just before entering the door, Colin suddenly remembered and paused, then with a thought,

Whoosh!

A pale golden dice spiraled down from the sky, landing in front of Colin. Moments later, it came to rest on one face.

As before, a location simultaneously appeared in Colin's mind.

"Huh?"

Colin raised an eyebrow slightly. He'd used Anando's Dice at least dozens of times at his Golden Barley residence. Around the tenth time, the dice started showing repeated locations.

By about the twentieth time, the locations provided were mostly ones he had seen before or confined within Golden Barley City, corresponding mostly to items of little value.

However, this time, Anando's Dice provided not only a new location, but it was also not within Golden Barley.

Colin's expression flickered with thought, recalling Shelley's words, and his gaze became resolute.

'Don't miss any opportunity to increase your strength.'

With that thought, Colin's figure vanished as he quietly flew up into the sky.

About ten minutes later.

A vast forest appeared before Colin's eyes.

'This is... the Lightless Forest?'

Here, trees a hundred meters tall were considered normal, their dense branches and leaves packed closely together, nearly filling all the gaps in the forest.

From high above, the deep green forest bathed in moonlight looked like a massive matcha cake sprinkled with sugar frosting.

'Hmm... Probably not the tasty kind.'

Colin silently added in his mind.

He then continued to fly forward, following the guidance of Anando's Dice.

'It should be right here.'

Arriving above the destination, Colin didn't rush to descend but quietly waited.

Soon, streaks of frost blue intent, visible only to him, emerged from the shadows surrounding him.

"Go down below and explore carefully, report back to me immediately if you see anything unusual."

At the thought, Colin silently commanded the three Frost Shadows to descend.

Puppet witchcraft like this was naturally the best assistant for exploration.

However, after waiting silently in the safety of the sky for a while, Colin's eyebrows began to furrow.

'No anomalies?'

After pondering for a moment, Colin personally descended into the dense forest.

Since the Frost Shadows had already scouted the area, there wasn't too much to worry about in terms of safety.

Colin carefully observed his surroundings.

The Lightless Forest lived up to its name; while sparse moonlight was visible from midair, upon entering the forest, nearly no light could be seen, just darkness.

Fortunately, this was not an issue for Colin now.

The interior of the Lightless Forest was actually not much different from ordinary forests, with low shrubs, brown soil, and all sorts of oddly shaped flowers and plants, vines that clung to trees and hung quietly down like snakes.

The lack of sunlight didn't seem to have much effect on this place.

Colin reached out to push aside the oddly shaped low shrubs in front of him, preparing to move forward.

But the next second, his steps faltered slightly.

The shrubs he had pushed aside revealed a complex root system hidden behind them. Unlike normal roots embedded in the ground, these shrub roots were mostly exposed, some not even penetrating the soil but spreading towards the distance.

Following the direction of the roots, they eventually embedded themselves into the trunk of a nearby large tree, resembling some kind of parasitic tentacle.

'No wonder these light-deprived plants can grow so robustly...'

Colin continued forward, coming to a large thick tree nearby—the exact center of the location given by Anando's Dice.

After a careful observation, even utilizing witchcraft, he indeed found no trace of anything unusual, nor any sign of treasures.

This place was just like the rest, an ordinary spot within the Lightless Forest.

'Could it be like what happened in the Elf Kingdom before, where Anando's Dice once again located a treasure moving on a person?'

Suspicions slowly emerged in Colin's mind.

Just then, one of the vigilant Frost Shadows nearby suddenly sent information—

A Demon Beast resembling a black bear, at First Rank, was approaching this location.

Colin let out a somewhat disappointed sigh, preparing to head back home.

He had thought it might be an undiscovered treasure, but it turned out to be a wasted effort.

In the vast Lightless Forest, how could one find the person carrying the treasure located by Anando's Dice? Besides, he had no interest in killing and robbing treasures without cause.

Thinking this, Colin silently flew towards the treetops, intending to leave.

Crack, crack—

Boom—Boom—

The sound of breaking branches coupled with heavy footsteps drew nearer, as Colin glanced down to see a Bear Monster, about five meters long, lumbering by, shaking its head.

The Lightless Forest indeed had many Demon Beasts.

However, just at that moment, Colin suddenly felt a premonition and hurriedly gazed into the distance.

He was already above the canopy when an unexpected faint blue glow suddenly illuminated his face and reflected off his pupils, revealing a massive explosion in the distance.

Boom!!

Long after the blue light appeared, the sound of the explosion reached him with the shockwave, soft as a whisper, while the shockwave itself was as gentle as a breeze on the face.

'Such power... at least Third Rank. What happened there?' Colin felt somewhat startled.

But shortly after, another message from the Frost Shadow below made him pause.

'A hidden unknown entity has passed by?'

While Colin was still puzzled.

He suddenly noticed the treetops not far away seemed to sway.

Immediately after, his keen Second Rank Knight senses allowed him to gradually outline an invisible presence in the seemingly empty air above.