Reunion

Sure enough, as soon as he exited the secret passage, Richard heard the sound of fierce fighting coming from several miles away!

Richard quickly ran in the direction of the noise and arrived at the scene in less than a minute, looking intently from afar.

On one side of the road, seven or eight soldiers dressed as castle guards and a wizard apprentice wearing the robes of an Ignis School apprentice were guarding a group of more than a hundred children and women in the middle, and were engaged in a tug-of-war with dozens of buck-toothed hyenas.

More than a hundred women and children were hugging each other tightly at this moment, curled up into a ball, and couldn't hide the panic on their faces!

Among them, the wizard apprentice wearing the robes of the Ignis School played a huge role. He chanted spells from time to time to release zero-level wizard shadow shocks, which scared away many bucktoothed hyenas.

After all, witchcraft is extremely powerful, and shadow shocks can hit the bucktoothed hyenas one at a time.

It is estimated that if this wizard apprentice had not been there, this group of mainly women and children would have suffered casualties long ago.

However, looking at the sweaty face of the wizard apprentice in the middle, he won't be able to hold on for too long before his mental strength is exhausted.

Closely guarding the wizard apprentice was another tall man dressed as a knight, who was his brother Levi.

After not seeing him for a year, it seems that my brother has become taller and more muscular. It seems that he has most likely been promoted to an official knight.

At this moment, the bucktooth hyenas, under the command of the hyena queen, did not adopt a hard-fighting strategy, but adopted a step-by-step pressing strategy, surrounding the team. The hyena queen seemed to realize that as long as they waited for the wizard apprentice in the center of the crowd to exhaust his mental power, they could easily enjoy a feast.

Unfortunately, it misjudged the situation. Its step-by-step strategy was not wrong, but it was too time-consuming.

This made Richard feel a little fortunate. If from the very beginning, the bucktooth hyena queen had commanded many bucktooth hyenas to launch a fierce attack on the family's "thin-skinned but big-filled" escort team regardless of casualties.

Then when he arrives, he can only collect the bodies!

Perhaps, his brother Levi may survive by chance, but his mother, maid Serena, and most of the women and children will most likely die tragically under the sharp claws of the bucktoothed hyena.

No more hesitation!

Immediately, Richard used the mutant summoning staff in his hand to instantly summon a huge abomination that was 2.7 meters tall. When the huge abomination rushed towards him with big strides, both the bucktoothed hyenas and the human guards suddenly changed their expressions with fear!

Duan, a second-level wizard apprentice in the guard, couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in his heart, thinking to himself: "Oh no! This is an abomination, and its strength is comparable to that of a formal wizard! It's over, how can we resist it!"

Brother Levi also saw the huge monster rushing towards him, but unlike the other guards who began to retreat timidly, even though he knew he could not win, he immediately held his sword and shield, bent down and crouched, blocking Duan in front of him and posing as a guard.

Suddenly, in the surprised eyes of Duan and the guards, the huge abomination that was charging straight ahead suddenly turned a corner and killed the bucktoothed hyenas!

Suddenly, a group of people looked at each other in confusion!

However, when they saw a black figure wielding a pure white frost sword suddenly appear behind the abomination and start killing the bucktoothed hyenas one by one, they finally burst into warm cheers!

Obviously, whoever came was helping them!

It was Richard!

The Ice Guardian in Richard's hand was forged by an elven craftsman. It was slender and graceful. At this moment, it was condensing with frost flowers and emitting bursts of cold air, like the frost sickle of the god of death, constantly reaping the lives of bucktoothed hyenas.

Richard chopped down with his sword. Even though the chopping point was the hardest skull of the bucktooth hyena, there was no resistance at all. He was able to cut open the hard skull in an instant, splitting their heads in half.

Moreover, the Ice Guardian's cold effect will instantly freeze the wound, covering the entire wound surface with frost and quickly solidifying it into ice, making it as smooth as a mirror, without a drop of blood flowing out.

Therefore, the scene of limbs flying and blood spurting out did not happen. All the wounds were as smooth as ice and emitted a faint chill.

At this time, Richard couldn't help but think with evil humor, whether the two ice magic arrays engraved on the hilt of the Ice Guardian were deliberately made by the elves. After all, this was in line with the style of the elves - love cleanliness!

After a successful attack, Richard did not stop, and with the help of Shadow Dance, he cut into the group of bucktoothed hyenas at an ultra-fast speed and continued to kill. Every time the Ice Guardian in his hand swung out a graceful arc, it would take the life of a bucktoothed hyena.

The buck-toothed hyena queen in the back realized that this was not going to work, so she howled loudly and led more than a dozen buck-toothed hyenas to bypass the huge body of the abomination and attack from all directions.

The people watching the fight on the sidelines secretly cried out in alarm, thinking that the man in black would definitely temporarily avoid the attack of the buck-toothed hyena.

Levi was eager to go forward to help, but Duan on the side pulled his arm, shook his head, and told him not to worry, as the man in black robe must have a backup plan.

Sure enough, Richard did not retreat but advanced, and suddenly increased the output of cold air on the Ice Guardian.

Suddenly, two dazzling blue lights emerged from the hilt!

The energies of the two ice-based magic formations, Deep Winter Chill and Gradual Freezing, on the hilt suddenly erupted, and an extremely strong chill rushed out like a giant white python, instantly covering the hyena queen and more than a dozen buck-toothed hyenas. After the chill passed through, all of them were frozen into lifelike ice sculptures.

At this moment, the fat Abomination strode forward at the right time, howled to the sky, and used his sturdy arms to swing the extremely heavy iron axe and giant chain hammer, smashing all the ice sculptures to pieces!

Seeing that Richard killed the bucktooth hyena queen and many bucktooth hyenas in just a few moves, the remaining bucktooth hyenas were immediately terrified and fled in all directions under the pursuit of the Abomination!

Richard sheathed his sword!

When Richard turned around, took off his hood and faced everyone, his brother Levi suddenly opened his eyes wide and shouted in disbelief: "Richard!!!"

Suddenly, brother Levi's whole body shook, and the sword and shield in his hands fell to the ground.

However, he had no intention of picking up weapons. Instead, he ran straight towards Richard and threw himself on his brother Richard, hugging him tightly.

"Richard, my dear brother, is it really you? It's unbelievable!" Brother Levi was so excited that he was incoherent.

"It's me!" Richard smiled and patted his brother Levi on the back, comforting him.

In the center of the tightly packed group of women and children, a dignified lady and a young maid looked at the two brothers hugging each other with an expression of disbelief!

The next second, when the two confirmed that it was really Richard, they stood up excitedly.

The dignified lady was Richard's mother!

And the young maid was undoubtedly Serena!

When the two heard their brother Levi calling out that familiar name, they were stunned. When they confirmed that the person coming was Richard, they were already so excited that they couldn't help themselves, and tears filled their eyes in an instant!

At this moment, Richard, who was also excited, also saw his mother and Serena in the crowd.

He gently patted his brother Levi's back, loosened the hug, gestured in the direction of his mother, ran towards her, hugged his tearful mother tightly in his arms, and then gave his maid Selina a warm hug!

"Mom, I'm sorry for making you worry!" Richard gently wiped away the tears from the corners of his mother's eyes.

Brother Levi looked at his younger brother, then at the huge abomination guarding beside him. He knew that he could never be a match for the monster in front of him.

Even if there were ten of me, I guess they would all be easily defeated.

So now, he couldn't even defeat his brother Richard's summons! This really made the older brother feel a little surprised and helpless.

"When the Ignis School informed me that you were killed in action, I really couldn't believe it. Sure enough, now it has been proven that this is not true. Richard, it's great that you are back. By the way, has your strength reached this level now? It's really amazing!"

Duan, who was standing by, watched the family reunion, smiling and standing quietly.

At this time, brother Li Wei remembered to introduce Duan, and hurriedly pulled Richard to Duan and introduced him: "Brother, this is Lord Duan sent by your school to guard our family."

Duan immediately waved his hand and said, "Sir Richard, hello!"

The moment he saw the hatred, Duan knew that Richard's strength was far beyond his, and he did not dare to be arrogant. Although Richard had only been in school for a year, the rules in the wizarding world were based on strength.

"Senior Duan, thank you for your hard work. If it weren't for you, I might never see my family again." After saying that, Richard bowed slightly to Duan.

Although Duan in front of him was far inferior to him in strength, he still admired a wizard apprentice who could abide by the spirit of the contract and would never leave until the mission was completed.

You know, Duan is only two days away from reaching the six-month deadline for the garrison mission. Generally, the wizard apprentices who are more flexible in their thinking have already begun to slowly return to the school.

When Richard saw such a large group of children looking at him curiously with their bright eyes, he suddenly thought of something. He immediately took out a crystal ball from his arms, but after thinking about it, he put it back.

This crystal ball was something I bought at the Black Forest Market before. It was used to test the qualifications of a wizard. Although it can only give a rough test, it is enough.

At that time, he had thought about this issue, whether he should select children from his own family to take the wizard aptitude test.

Even if the children in his own family are not qualified, the children of the guards and servants may be qualified. In the worst case scenario, there must be a few children in Silverpine Town who have the qualifications to be wizards!

After all, Richard himself couldn't stay in the family forever, but there was no rush on this matter. The important thing now was to escort these women and children back to the family castle as soon as possible.

So, under Richard's protection, a group of people picked up the old baron at the exit of the secret passage and returned to the inner castle cellar again. When brother Levi and Duan and others returned to the castle again, they were shocked when they saw the "roasted turkey" all over the ground in the inner castle square!

After a few seconds, everyone came to their senses and immediately turned to look at Richard beside them. Obviously, the hundreds of corpses on the ground must have been killed by Richard.

After all, there is no such master in the castle!

Duan, who was standing aside, looked at Richard with more respect after being shocked. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Sir Richard, do these bodies need to be cleaned up?"

Only then did Richard realize that this was not the Gray Fern Wilderness, and there were no fish people taking the initiative to deal with the aftermath.

He immediately said, "Thanks to you, Lord Duan, for reminding me that it is best to deal with all these bodies before dark. The methods of disposal are either to burn them all, or to find a remote place and bury them all."

"But if you bury it, it's better to bury it deeper. Otherwise, it will easily attract some monsters that like to eat carrion!" Richard thought for a moment and added.

However, when he saw the corpse, Richard remembered that he had been busy with fighting and rescue, and forgot to collect the heart of the mutant crab demon, which was the main raw material for the rare potion [Mutated Heart].

I still remember when I was in the Grey Fern Wilderness, I was hoping to kill a few more mutant crab monsters, but after fighting for half a year I only got one. I didn't expect to get two as soon as I got home. It was really a pleasant surprise.

Moreover, with these two mutant crab demon hearts, he basically has all the other materials prepared, which means that he can make two more mutant hearts in the alchemy room at any time.

This means that the mutant heart that he had been reluctant to take before can now be taken at any time, instead of having to save it for when he becomes a formal wizard.

When Richard summoned the Soul Devouring Demon Spider to bring over another mutant crab demon corpse, his brother Levi and the others were stunned when they saw a crab demon fighting another crab demon. They stammered, "Why are these mutant crab demons killing each other? Did you, Richard, control their minds?"

Richard smiled mysteriously and didn't explain anything.

When the Soul-Eating Spider controlled the mutant crab demon and completed its task as a transporter, it quietly crawled out of the crab demon's mouth.

Seeing the mutant crab demon that was originally working as a porter suddenly collapse to the ground, everyone was amazed again and didn't understand how Richard did it.

Even Duan, a second-level wizard apprentice standing by, was wondering whether Richard had used some witchcraft to control zombies!

Under the astonished gazes of the onlookers, Richard used the Ice Guardian to cut open the mutant crab demon's body, took out its heart, and quietly took back the Soul-Eating Spider.

However, the heart of the mutant crab demon needed to be processed immediately, or stored in a special box. Immediately, Richard asked someone to help him take out the box with green patterns on the surface from the blind fishman tribe from the package.

With this box that solidified the Breath of Life witchcraft to store the mutant crab demon's heart, Richard didn't need to make a mutant heart in a short period of time. After all, now was not the right time to make potions.

Looking at the energy points on the inspiration panel that had exceeded 100,000, Richard was very happy at the moment. Through the battle just now, he not only rescued his family, but also gained nearly 30,000 energy points. This kind of good thing was like pie in the sky, which was unimaginable.

At this point, Rodrigo's meditation method should have enough energy points to break the time limit, and there might even be some left.

Richard and his companions inspected the surroundings of the castle and found that the buildings in the inner castle were generally intact.

Fortunately, the monster army did not invade for long and did not have time to destroy the inner castle. Apart from the two gates that needed to be repaired immediately, the rest of the work was mainly cleaning and burial.

After exchanging pleasantries with his family again, Richard couldn't help but think back to the rather strange monster invasion in Silverpine Town.

Richard was very familiar with these monsters. He had killed countless of them in the Gray Fern Wilderness over the past six months. He knew very well that most of them were monsters unique to the Underdark.

At this moment, he couldn't help but be very confused. Logically speaking, it was impossible for the monsters in the Underdark to reach the surface in large numbers. One or two could be explained, but could there be an unknown secret passage near Silver Pine Town that could allow the underground monsters to come directly to the surface?

After a brief thought, Richard shook his head. Judging from the orderly attack of the monster army just now, there must be a mastermind behind the scenes who was in unified command. Otherwise, it was impossible to explain why a large monster like the mutant crab monster and a small monster like the bucktooth hyena group were colluding with each other.

At least, he had never seen such a strange situation in the Gray Fern Wilderness.

Therefore, for the sake of his family's safety, Richard decided to track the scattered monsters immediately to see where they were going.

Just as Richard was about to propose this idea, suddenly, the old baron spat out a mouthful of bright red blood, which immediately surprised Richard.

His brother Li Wei hurriedly supported his father and said, "Father, what's wrong with you?"

The old baron waved his hand and said, "It's okay. I'm just so happy to see your brother back."

Richard thought about it and seemed to realize that this might be due to his father's excessive emotional fluctuations. He immediately took out a bottle of healing potion from his bulging package and asked his father to take it quickly.

Except for a few healing potions such as hemostatic potions and healing potions, many of the alchemist's potions are not made for ordinary people.

For example, the lowest-level alchemical potion product, the Swiftness Potion, uses some slightly toxic herbs. If an ordinary person drinks it, the potion will certainly produce an effect, but it is very likely that after the drug effect takes effect, its side effects will cause paralysis of the lower body of an ordinary person.

If you want to drink the swiftness potion, it would be best if the drinker has the strength of a quasi-knight or close to a quasi-knight.

Of course, if the average person is strong enough, they can recover slowly and not be affected.

But this is just an entry-level alchemical potion.

As the effects of the potions become more and more powerful and unique, the toxicity contained in them also increases, and the requirements for physical fitness and even mental strength increase. Therefore, some potions that increase mental strength cannot be given to father and brother Levi, let alone to mother, an ordinary person.

After taking the healing potion, the old baron's face immediately turned rosy. He waved to his brother Levi, indicating that he could stand up.

Seeing that his father was fine, Richard told his father what he had just thought about, which was to track down the source of the monster.

When the elder brother Levi heard that his younger brother Richard was going to track the monster alone to find its source, he was shocked and said, "Richard, let me go with you."

Richard thought about it, shook his head and said, "Brother, it's better for me to go alone. I'll feel more at ease if you're here to accompany father and mother. Besides, your current strength is still too weak."

When brother Levi heard this, he couldn't help but laugh. He rubbed Richard's head and said, "Good boy, now you don't even look down on my strength."

Yes, a year ago, I was still suppressing Richard, but now, I can't even beat his summons!

However, elder brother Levi knew that although his younger brother's words were a bit direct, he actually didn't want him to take risks. He certainly understood this.

Duan, a second-level wizard apprentice, said, "Sir Richard, let me go with you."

Richard looked at Duan, thought about it, and felt that he still had a few too many secrets. It's not that he suspected there was anything wrong with Duan, but he didn't want to reveal too many of his secrets in the near future.

Another reason was that if Duan followed him, there would be no wizard apprentice in the family castle.

This is still quite risky in Richard's opinion. If you encounter some powerful lone monsters, it will be difficult to deal with them.

So, Richard paused and said, "Sir Duan, I may need to trouble you to continue to help guard our family castle for a few days. If I don't come back within three days, please contact my mentor, Wizard Ceres, and tell him about my situation."

When the old baron heard Richard's tone, his face suddenly changed and he said, "Richard, why don't you just not go? I believe the kingdom will send someone to investigate this matter soon. At that time, you can go with them, or let them investigate."

"Father, don't you still believe in my ability? I will ensure my own safety, you can rest assured about that. Moreover, this matter is too close to our family. I will feel uneasy if I don't go there in person!" Richard said with a smile.

Looking at Richard's firm tone, the old baron knew that it was impossible for him to change his second son's mind, who always had his own opinions, so he could only nod helplessly.

"When do we leave?"

Richard thought for a moment and said, "I will leave early tomorrow morning, so I can prepare in the evening."

(End of this chapter)