Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

Another Lizardman watched helplessly as its companion died tragically, letting out a roar of grief and anger.

It abandoned its claws, turned, and lunged towards the stone door, trying to open it and escape inside.

But Duke didn’t give it a chance.

A flow of sand surged from beneath its feet, lifting its entire body into the air.

Countless sand blades cut from all directions, leaving deep wounds down to the bone on its body.

It struggled desperately, its claws thrashing in the air, but it couldn’t grasp anything.

A few breaths later, its struggles grew weaker until it finally stopped moving completely.

The sand flow dispersed, and two mutilated corpses fell to the ground, releasing a mist of blood.

Duke walked up to the stone door, raised his hand, and the sand flow condensed into a giant fist that struck the door with tremendous force.

Boom——!!

The stone door didn’t budge.

This stone door didn’t have a conventional key, but a special identification mechanism that only allowed Lizardmen to open it normally.

Naturally, Duke didn’t have the time to slowly investigate; the battle just now had not been brief, and the commotion would surely be noticed by those above.

He needed to resolve this matter quickly and couldn’t afford any delay, otherwise escaping would become challenging.

Duke frowned slightly and increased his force.

The sand fist hammered the door seven or eight times before cracks began to appear.

The cracks extended from the door seams, spreading like a spider web across the entire door.

On the tenth strike, the stone door shattered with a loud crash, sending debris flying.

Behind the door was a vast cavern.

The cavern wasn’t large, only about a hundred square meters, but what was inside caused Duke to pause momentarily.

It didn’t resemble the imagined treasure trove; instead, it was a field of herbs.

The field was neatly divided into ten sections, with each section housing a single herb.

The soil was dark brown, emitting a faint glow, evidently specially cultivated.

Several cracks in the cavern’s roof let in dim rays of light, which gently shone on the herbs.

Duke went over, squatting down to carefully identify them.

The leaves of the first herb were silver-white, with edges faintly glowing blue, and veins fine as hair resembling some ancient runes.

He recognized it, the Silver Radiance Moonlight Grass.

He had seen illustrations of it in library texts, but was seeing the real thing for the first time.

The Silver Radiance Moonlight Grass is the core material for refining Level 3 spirit-type magic potions. A five-hundred-year-old Silver Radiance Moonlight Grass is dozens of times more effective than a regular one.

Such a thing couldn’t be bought even with Magic Stones, and even at auctions, it’s incredibly rare.

This is also common with high-tier items; the higher the tier, the rarer they are, often requiring exchanges of goods, and even then it depends on fate to encounter them.

After all, people who typically need such things usually aren’t lacking in Magic Stones, and few would sell them.

Another herb was entirely crimson, resembling a mass of solidified flame.

The leaf edges were finely serrated, and a light touch revealed a slight warmth at the fingertips.

The Flame Flower, growing in the lava fissures near active volcano craters, absorbs the essence of earth fire as it grows.

The core material for Level 3 Fire Element magic potions, its age is at least six hundred years or more.

Duke also recognized another herb, a section of withered yellow vine wrapped around a wooden frame.

The vine’s surface was covered in fine cracks, with a golden light faintly flowing through them.

Ancient Vine Root, another top-tier material.

The century-old Ancient Vine Root he had previously procured for refining Kudzu Root Potion paled in comparison, like a firefly against the moon.

This section of vine, at least eight hundred years old.

The remaining seven herbs Duke couldn’t recognize.

One resembled a crystal-carved lotus flower, with transparent petals and liquid flowing inside.

Another was jet-black, emitting a faint, fishy sweetness, with the surrounding soil also blackened.

Yet another had no leaves, just a bare stem with a fist-sized fruit at the top, glowing faintly in the dark.

Each herb contained extremely rich energy fluctuations and was top-tier material for Level 3 magic potions.

Five hundred years old is a conservative estimate.

These herbs had been growing here for at least eight hundred, perhaps even a thousand years.

Duke didn’t delay.

He took out his potion tools from the Space Ring and, with great care, began digging.

Starting with the Silver Radiance Moonlight Grass, he used a small trowel to gently loosen the soil from the perimeter, careful not to harm the roots.

The roots of the Moonlight Grass were deep, penetrating nearly half a meter into the rock layer.

Duke dared not use brute force, slowly clearing the soil around the roots, removing the entire herb with its root-bound soil, and placing it into a specially made culture dish.

Next was the Flame Flower.

While its root system was shallow, there was a Fire Attribute Energy Crystal at its root that needed to be removed along with it, or its efficacy would greatly diminish.

Duke extracted the thumbnail-sized red crystal along with the Flame Flower, carefully sealing it.

The Ancient Vine Root was the most difficult to handle; its roots were entwined around the entire wooden frame, nearly fused with it.

Duke hesitated for a moment, then collected the entire wooden frame along with the Ancient Vine Root into the Space Ring.

One herb, two herbs, three herbs...

All ten herbs, along with the soil clinging to their roots, were carefully extracted by Duke and sealed in specially made culture dishes.

The entire process took less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

He packed up his tools and, after a final glance at the now-empty herb field, turned and headed for the cave entrance.

As he reached the entrance, he paused and looked back.

Where those herbs had grown for hundreds of years, only ten varying empty pits remained, along with scattered soil.

Retracting his gaze, Duke’s body transformed into a sand flow, slipping into the rock wall of the tunnel.

...

Aboveground, the battle was nearing its end.

The leader’s berserk state began to fade.

Its movements became slower and its breathing heavier, with the dark red glow on its scales flickering unsteadily.

Andre keenly noticed this change, his wings suddenly flaring as he shifted from retreat to counterattack.

His claws tore open the leader’s chest, extracting the still-beating heart.

The leader let out a cry of unwillingness, its massive body crashing to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust and sand.

The two Mechanical Wizards also dealt with the remaining Level 2 Lizardmen.

The Level 1 Lizardmen had long fled, leaving the valley in ruins, littered with broken stone houses and incomplete corpses.

Andre landed heavily, panting.

His scale armor was marked with scratches, and fresh blood seeped from wounds, dripping onto the ground.

But he ignored these, turning towards the water pool.

"The resource point is underground." He glanced at the pool, then moved towards the stone steps.

The two Mechanical Wizards followed behind.

They passed through the tunnel, over the shattered stone door, and entered the cavern.

Then they stopped.

The cavern was empty, with only ten varying pits and scattered soil.

Fresh soil marks still remained on the pit edges, clearly having been dug up recently.

Andre’s face darkened.

He stared at the pits, silent for a while.

Then he looked down at the emblem on his chest, probing with his Spiritual Power, and the leaderboard unfolded before him.

First place: Duke—6200 points

A base of twelve hundred, plus five thousand.

Six thousand two hundred.

Andre’s fist clenched, making cracking sounds, his knuckles turning white.

All three of his faces twisted, with the eyes on his front face narrowing to slits, the left face silently roaring, and the right vertical eye spinning wildly.

"Duke." His voice was hoarse, squeezed out through clenched teeth, "That Black Sail..."

Andre looked at the scene before him, his chest heaving violently.

"Pursue."

Andre didn’t have direct evidence that Duke was the one who took the items here, but coincidentally, Duke’s points had suddenly skyrocketed at this moment.

There are no such coincidences in the world; this resource point had been heavily guarded, implying the point value within was significant.

And Duke’s points suddenly surged at this time, leaving others far behind.

With little contemplation, Andre understood the situation, immediately filled with an intense hatred towards Duke.

They had been fighting desperately above, only for their rewards to be snatched by someone else, something Andre could not endure.

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