Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

A faint red mist rose from his body, at first just a thin layer, like the morning fog, but it quickly thickened, enveloping him entirely.

The mist spread, touching the nearest rock, and the surface began to crack, as if corroded by something invisible.

It touched the bloodstains on the ground, and they evaporated instantly, leaving no trace.

Andre’s three faces opened their mouths simultaneously, emitting a silent roar.

The left face had interlocking fangs, the right face’s vertical eye spun wildly, and the front face’s blood-red eyes shone ever brighter.

Duke furrowed his brows.

He sensed danger. Not the kind of oppression from a strong opponent, but a more primal, instinctive alertness.

Like standing at the cliff’s edge, like being eyed by a venomous snake, like sensing something awakening in the darkness.

His intuition wildly warned him not to let Andre complete this state.

He did not hesitate.

Duke raised his right hand, spreading his five fingers, palm facing the sky.

A dark yellow speck of light gathered in his palm.

It was tiny, only the size of a fingernail, but the moment it appeared, the surrounding space began to distort.

The scattered rubble on the ground started to tremble, then slowly floated up, drifting toward Duke’s palm.

Andre sensed that power, his body began to feel lighter, as if something was pulling him upward.

He struggled to stabilize himself, but the gravitational force grew stronger, and his feet started to lift off the ground.

Andre looked up at Duke, at that dark yellow speck of light, and at the stones drifting toward it.

A flash of astonishment crossed his blood-red eyes. How did this person still have strength...?

That summoning magic of the colossus clearly reached the Taboo Level, not something an ordinary wizard could conjure easily.

Even if performed successfully, it would certainly deplete a vast amount of magic power, and it would be impossible to recover much magic power in a short time.

But now, it seemed Duke acted as if nothing happened, about to cast another large magic spell.

"This kid... is simply a monster..." This thought appeared in Andre’s mind.

Duke’s five fingers curled into a virtual grasp and jerked upward.

The gravity suddenly intensified, pulling Andre entirely off the ground, like a beast grabbed by the scruff of its neck, flailing its limbs wildly in the air.

He wanted to spread his wings, but the left wing was long broken; the right wing barely extended but was nearly dislocated by the pull of gravity.

He tried to use his tail to stabilize himself, but the bone blade on his tail was broken at a section, rendering it powerless.

The ground’s rubble began to fly upward, countless rocks and sand surged from all directions to cover Andre.

Those fragments piled on him layer upon layer, like iron filings attracted by a magnet.

He struggled, roared, desperately tearing at the rocks covering his body.

But with each layer torn away, more sand rushed up.

The blood-red glow in the gaps of the rocks flickered unsteadily, like a caged beast’s final struggle.

Soon, a gigantic stone sphere over ten meters in diameter hovered in mid-air.

The stone sphere’s rough surface, compressed from countless rubble and sand, faintly showed something frantically struggling within—Andre’s final defiance.

Duke slowly clenched his five fingers.

The stone sphere began to collapse inward.

Rocks crushed rocks, sand filled the gaps, the struggles inside grew weaker and weaker, more and more feeble.

The blood-red lights seeped from the stone sphere’s surface cracks, as if something inside was burning.

But under gravity’s crushing pressure, those lights dimmed bit by bit.

Andre was compressed at the stone sphere’s center, his entire scale armor shattering, his bones groaning.

Blood covered his three faces; the left face’s mouth closed, the right face’s vertical eye stopped moving, only the front face’s blood-red eyes still glaring fixedly in a certain direction.

Not at the outside world of the stone sphere, but at an image in his mind.

The wizard with the black sail stood beneath the colossus, sand currents slowly spinning around him, with just a raise of his hand, invoking the power of heaven and earth.

Inside the stone sphere, the gravitational force grew even stronger.

Andre’s consciousness began to blur; he could feel his body reaching its limit, one more breath and he would die here.

But he felt no fear, just thinking, how could this person so calmly use such a level of magic.

As natural as breathing, as effortless as drinking water, his performance completely unlike that of a Level 2 Mage.

Andre’s Six-Ring Badge suddenly lit up.

Golden light exploded from inside the stone sphere, shattering the rocks and sand into powder.

The light grew ever brighter, enveloping Andre entirely.

His body began to turn transparent, like sand slipping through fingers.

Those blood-red eyes took one last look at Duke, the man standing amidst the colossus’s collapsing sand dust, with sand currents slowly spinning around, expressionless.

The golden light swallowed him.

Duke stood in place, watching the direction Andre disappeared, silent for a long time.

He lowered his right hand, the dark yellow speck of light in his palm dissipating slowly.

The floating rubble lost its traction, clattering back to the ground.

He looked down at the badge.

On the rankings, Andre’s name had already turned gray, indicating his elimination.

Duke withdrew his Spiritual Power, turned, and walked towards the valley entrance.

Behind him, the shattered valley stood silent in the wind.

Unfortunately, defeating an enemy didn’t yield their resources or points, only triggering their protection mechanism leading to elimination.

However, Andre’s elimination alone was enough to cause a stir.

Soon, those who regularly watched the rankings noticed Andre’s name had turned gray, followed by shock.

Andre was somewhat notable, only not as famous due to being under Audric’s Blood Rose, but still a person to reckon with.

Most people didn’t expect him to be eliminated so soon, truly beyond their expectations.

For a moment, many speculated on what Andre had encountered; most thought he must have faced some powerful demon tribe and couldn’t escape in time, leading to his elimination.

Few considered that Andre was eliminated by another wizard.

Because Andre was ranked fourth in the Illusion Tower, with only three people ahead of him.

Even if Andre couldn’t defeat these people, he should have no problem escaping.

...

Duke withdrew his Spiritual Power, turned, and walked towards the valley entrance.

The moment he stepped out of the valley, his form suddenly disintegrated, transforming into a stream of dark golden sand, sinking underground.

The sand flow frantically traveled deep underground, passing through rock layers, crossing the Dark River, traversing those ancient power-torn tectonic rifts.

He kept changing directions, distancing from the valley where the commotion just occurred.

After an indeterminate time, the rock layer ahead suddenly became loose.

The sand flow squeezed through the cracks, entering a naturally formed underground cavern.

The cavern was small, surrounded by damp rock walls, with a small pool of underground water seeping from rock cracks in the corner, the water clear, glistening faintly in the dark.

Duke condensed his figure from the sand flow, landing on the ground.

He closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, confirming no life auras or tracking traces around.

Then he focused his Heart Thought, disappearing from the cavern.

In the Light God Court, the air was rich with Life Energy.

Duke did not linger, swiftly moving towards the Spring of Life.

The spring water remained clear, and at its bottom, the World Tree seed lay quietly, next to the cup of golden tea gifted by Mr. Rabbit.

The seed and the tea reflected in the spring water, one emerald green, the other golden, like two slumbering stars.

Duke crouched by the spring, took out those ten herbs from the Space Ring.

They were carefully sealed in specially designed cultivation containers, each with complete roots and soil, each exuding unique and rich energy fluctuations.

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