Chapter 1700: Bruce Wayne and the Magic Stone (Part 15)_1

Harley was woken up early in the morning by Barry, even before dawn had broken. Still half-asleep and unsteady on her feet, she looked at the two energetic individuals before her, and asked in confusion, "How on earth are you guys up this early?"

"We didn't sleep all night."

Harley was even more mystified. She glanced back and forth between Barry and Little Bruce. Little Bruce, impatiently shooing Barry aside, said, "We need to check the greenhouse, remember? We have to identify the types of plants that were stolen."

With a big yawn, Harley turned around to change her clothes. Soon, the three of them were making their way through a garden glittering with dew, lit by the rising sun, to once again approach the small building next to the greenhouse.

Pamela did not live there, so she wasn't around all night or in the morning. The trio walked in through the main door. Little Bruce didn't find any footprints on the flagstones in the yard.

"Either the perpetrator was very careful not to step on the soil, and waited for the night's rain to wash away any traces on the stone path, or they could simply fly and didn't touch the ground at all. Otherwise, there's no way they didn't leave footprints."

Speaking this way, the trio went around the building to the backyard. Little Bruce pointed to a flower shelf in the small garden, "I clearly remember there being a full row of Spiral Grass here, with Alien Cabbage underneath. Now, there seem to be four or five pots of plants missing."

"Here's also missing a pot of Alada Swamp Mushroom, a type covered in sticky mucus, originally from malt. This kind of mucus is often used as a catalyst in healing potions."

Barry looked around carefully and asked, "Are we sure all the missing items are ingredients for healing potions?"

"Yes, of course." Harley nodded her head, incredibly certain.

Despite the lingering headache and the piercing pain brought by breathing in cold air, Little Bruce mustered his focus and said, "Whoever took the herbs couldn't possibly prepare the potions in their office. They must use the potion lab at Zatara College. The laboratory is in use during the day, so they'd need to finish making the potion before the students arrived in the morning."

"In other words, they might've just finished making the potion!" Barry exclaimed.

The three quickly scampered across the large garden, circumventing the main castle, and arrived at the location of the magic academy's underground potion lab and alchemical laboratory. Reaching the basement stairs, Harley, who was leading the pack, collided with someone.

But to their disappointment, it wasn't Professor Rodriguez, as they had hoped, but rather, Professor Constantine.

"Why are you guys running around like this?" Having helped the fallen Harley up, Constantine curiously eyed them, "It's breakfast time, go to the big hall. What are you three doing here?"

However, Little Bruce took a big sniff and moved closer to Constantine, looking him in the eye as he asked, "Were you just making a potion?"

"Your nose is sharper than a dog's." Professor Constantine ruffled Little Bruce's hair and admitted, "Yes, I just came out from the potion lab. What's up?"

"Sorry, Professor Constantine, may I ask what kind of potion you were making?"

"A healing potion. Is there a problem?"

"Are you sick?"

"No, one of my colleagues requested it. He doesn't quite like the smell of the potion lab. If you all have nothing else to do, go and eat quickly. The cafeteria is about to close."

Having said that, Constantine moved past them. His figure disappearing into the stairwell. Little Bruce squinted his eyes and said, "A master of psychology...he surely knows how to manipulate others to fulfill his needs."

"That is indeed a bit suspicious," Barry said, furrowing his brow, "Dean Wayne had mentioned that Professor Constantine, Director Rodriguez, and the Master of the Dark Night, Jim, are friends. Professor Constantine's arm looks perfectly fine. He said he was making the potion for a colleague. Who else could this colleague be?"

"What is it with all this guesswork?" Harley seemed a bit fed up, "Taking down the Tree Man, blasting the door open with a single gun shot, ensuring the safety of the magic stone...these are the ways of the Gothamites."

Hands on her hips, Harley looked at the two boys and said, "Listen to me, after class today we will go. Besides grenades, I've got a bunch of other handy tools here. Whatever's in that room, we can feed it till it's full!"

Following that, Harley quickly made her way into the main castle, blending into the crowd of upperclassmen as they headed to class. Bruce pulled at Barry's arm and said, "Something feels off. It's like she's hiding something from us."

"She is from Gotham, she definitely knows more than we do" Barry said, walking side by side with Little Bruce down the hallway as he continued, "But given your earlier attitude, if I were her, I wouldn't tell you either."

"She definitely knows more about Rodriguez than she's letting on." Little Bruce said thoughtfully.

Just as they were about to follow the crowd into the classroom, they saw Constantine going against the flow, heading in the direction of Rodriguez College. Little Bruce grabbed Barry, keeping him from entering the classroom, instead pulling him to follow behind Constantine.

"Hey, what are you doing? We're going to be late for class."

"We must find a concrete lead!" Little Bruce was moving faster with Barry, they even started running at the end. He looked back at Barry and said, "Constantine might be delivering a potion for Rodriguez, if that's the case, then we will know what's going on!"

Barry, pulled along by him, followed behind Constantine and sure enough, Constantine entered the Dean's Office of Rodriguez College. The two personally saw Constantine hand over a healing potion to Shiller from his bosom.

They wanted to continue observing and see if Shiller would reveal the wound on his arm, but by then Constantine had already come out. They would certainly be discovered if they continued to peep through the window, so they had to leave early.

"Now we are sure it's him." said Little Bruce, clenching his fist, "An injury caused by a shredder? No one would believe such a lie even if they were three years old!"

"So, what should we do?"

"Let's first check the magic stone tonight. No matter what he wants to do, it's all fine as long as the magic stone is safe."

Just as the two children's figures disappeared at the end of the corridor, Shiller picked up the healing potion and went to the Dean's Office of Strange College. He slapped the potion down in front of Strange.

Strange raised an eyebrow and said, "You knew I was unhappy with the difficulty of the trials and definitely wanted to secretly change the content of the trials, so you deliberately sent a Tree Man to the entrance, bet that I would be injured without magic."

Strange picked up a potion and rolled up the sleeve on his arm, revealing the bandage-wrapped wound underneath. He poured the potion on the wound and said,

"But I have to tell you, this trial that you, Jim, and Constantine arranged is a bit childish," Strange shook his head, looking at Shiller, and said, "Simply breaking school rules, defeating a monster, and passing through some checkpoints arranged by the professors in the room, would all this provide them with enough courage to resist when faced with angels and demons?"

"What do you think?" Shiller asked noncommittally.

"The Shiller I know is a bit different from you. The biggest difference is, you really are a good teacher. You seem strict with the students, but you don't want them to get hurt," Strange calmly adjusted his sleeves.

"You're not like Greed, as long as the students are educated, however brutal the process. This is why you can torment your students and be pained by their suffering,"

Shiller didn't deny it, he just looked at Strange's chest and said, "You took out the Magic Stone we put in there, didn't you?"

Strange took out a piece of clear emerald-green crystal from his bosom that emitted a faint glow, weighed it in his hand and said, "If the kids knew that these things could stack into a mountain, they would be furious… Did you know that your student, Bruce Wayne, came to see me?"

"I want to know what you talked about."

"He told me that he had several goals, and he hoped that I could cooperate. I saw from it the possibility of a really new kind of trial for students. So, I took the opportunity to replace the Magic Stone you had set."

"What did you replace it with?"

"Didn't you have Master Andrew put a lot of magic projections in that corridor? We'll find out tonight."

Soon it was evening, Shiller, Bruce, Strange, Constantine, Pamela, and Zatanna were sitting on the sofas in the guest area of the Dean's Office at Rodriguez College. In front of them was a giant floating Magic Screen, showing the scene of the main castle, the fourth-floor corridor.

Suddenly, three shadows began to peek around the staircase, but before anyone showed up, several dark shadows swept across in a graceful arc and rolled down to the feet of the Tree Man.

The Tree Man wasn't that smart, according to the command it was given, if no one was attacking the room, it shouldn't move. So, when five, six, seven, eight grenades exploded at the same time, it didn't even try to hide.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The scene on the Magic Screen was instantly shrouded in smoke. When the smoke cleared, a large hole had been blown in the corridor wall made of magical materials, which was stronger than any material in any regular human society.

Pamela in front of the screen covered her forehead and said, "I didn't put any advanced magic protection on Sergei. You didn't tell me that the students here would throw grenades."

"That's how Gothamites are," sighed Constantine, "Just because we are in Magic Academy, it doesn't mean that we can only use magic. I've said it before, a demon without any defenses fears bullets, explosions, and firebows."

However, when Harley, who was leading, took out a shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket launcher from nowhere, Constantine fell silent.

The only one in the room who remained unmoved was Shiller, he was quietly trimming his cigar and then said, "Because I understand Gothamites, that Tree Man was just an appetizer. Most of the puzzles in the trials can't be solved with brute force."

Looking at the teaching building wall blown out with a large hole and the Tree Man broken into pieces, Harley cheered.

She pushed the trolley full of rocket launchers, machine guns, grenades, and countless bullets and raced toward the trial room.