Bang.
Bang.
Amidst the Gray-White Cave Hall littered with corpses, only muffled and peculiar collision sounds echoed.
Apart from that, there were no other sounds within the Gray-White Cave Hall, eerily silent.
The stench of blood nauseatingly filled the nostrils, underfoot was the hard, icy gray-white ground.
Colin lay motionless on the ground, maintaining his silence.
He knew that these strange collision sounds were made as the Apprentice's bodies hit the Cave Hall's unyielding floor.
Time passed.
Buzz—
Suddenly, bluish-green light shone; the sphere of light appeared once more.
Gurgle—!
At the same time, from not too far away, several loud stomach growls could be heard due to digestive movement.
Colin tensed his body, trying hard to suppress his feeling of hunger.
At this point, some time had passed since he had feigned death.
The bluish-green spheres of light had already reappeared twice.
However, the number of Apprentices still alive in the ritual, including him, was still as many as ten.
This was not because the ritual's punitive mechanism within the Cave Hall had stopped working.
Rather, the bluish-green light spheres had abruptly ceased to decrease after they had dwindled to nine!
It was as though the ritual had entered a new phase.
But the fact that the spheres didn't decrease didn't mean that this phase was any less vicious.
On the contrary, the horror of this stage was undiminished.
With his eyes scarcely opened a crack, Colin cautiously spied on the distant Apprentices,
Watching them being dominated by hunger, behaving like wild beasts, he couldn't help feeling a chill inside.
Perhaps the ritual had indeed reached a new phase, and the scent of the Magic Potion had become stronger.
Or perhaps it was because the previous sequential consumption of the Magic Potion by the Apprentices had enhanced the allure of its scent.
At any rate, those who had consumed the Magic Potion were now hardly able to contain their craving for it.
Whenever a new Magic Potion was presented by the light sphere, they would be dominated by hunger, transformed into irrational wild beasts.
Only knowing to drool and scramble forward with hands and feet to gulp down!
But this wasn't what he felt was the most thrilling.
The most horrifying was what happened to the Apprentices after they swallowed the Magic Potion!
For instance, right now—
The Apprentices had just ingested the Magic Potion.
Like being struck by lightning, their bodies stiffening, those Apprentices fell to the ground unconscious, like deadwood.
Bang.
With the collision sound that signaled their fall, the true aberration quietly began.
Due to the angle, Colin couldn't see very clearly.
But the inexplicably bulging bodies of the Apprentices, like a surging wave, and the strange rustling sounds near his ears,
Gave him the sensation as if leeches were sucking on his skin, an unexplained chill of fear crawling in his heart.
He knew, such aberrations in the Apprentices would last a while, until the next Magic Potion was presented.
They would wake up abruptly, once again turning into thirsty wild beasts!
"I can't keep waiting like this," Colin thought to himself.
After entering the passage to the Gray-White Cave Wall, he had been quietly using Floating Cone Bombs to identify and record the direction.
Regrettably, although he could determine the general direction, due to the winding passage and varying elevations,
He couldn't confirm the specific distance he had traveled at the surface.
But the location of the Gray-White Cave Wall was roughly on the western side of the Central Castle…
Which was also roughly on the western side of Blackstone City.
Before he could think further, suddenly!
Cough—cough—cough!
Lap's violent coughing sound faintly came from behind him, getting closer and closer.
Colin's scalp exploded with alarm.
At the same time,
"Colin," a familiar voice appeared out of nowhere in his mind.
Before he could inquire further,
He heard the familiar voice in his mind continue,
"There's no time to explain. Wizard Lap is on his way back, follow my guidance and escape from here quickly!"
Colin's expression shifted slightly, a flash of resolve in his eyes.
'There's no time to think!'
'No matter where this voice is guiding me, it can't be worse than facing Wizard Lap!'
After all, with his over-sensitivity,
The Spiritual Light on him was like a torch, incredibly conspicuous, making such a basic disguise utterly pointless.
He also hadn't had time to master the White Crystal Pendant on his chest; he could only passively form Spirit Fog… and in the state of over-sensitivity, that too was extremely conspicuous.
As for placing hope on Wizard Lap not activating over-sensitivity…
He was not that naive!
Despite the multitude of thoughts in his heart, his decision came in an instant.
In a life-threatening crisis, even if it wasn't a lifeline but a red-hot iron stick offered, he would have to seize it without any hesitation!
The superior body control that came with being the Ultimate Knight allowed him to rise as silently as a nimble cat.
None of the Apprentices on the ground noticed anything.
Colin didn't pause for a moment, taking strides and dashing towards the corner of the Grand Hall's stone wall.
Then, like ripples spreading from a raindrop falling into a lake, his figure quietly vanished.
Afterwards, within the Gray-White Cave Hall.
The bluish-green light shone again, the loud stomach growls rose and fell in succession.
In mid-air,
Wizard Lap's figure also quietly appeared, hovering silently.
His face was pale as Golden Paper, calmly watching everything below in the Grand Hall.
Under the state of over-sensitivity, the entire world was dotted with black spots, and the Apprentices aglow with light halos were consuming a golden plant.
This was the ritual's final Magic Potion.
Had Colin been there, he would have recognized this plant at a glance, the plant he had once consumed—
The special Golden Four-leaf Clover!
After ingesting the last Magic Potion, the Apprentices fell once more.
Seeing this, Wizard Lap's wooden face flickered with a hint of anticipation.
He slowly descended from the air, stepped forward to the black iron column, and silently awaited.
But just then.
Whoosh!!
A dark, translucent spike shot towards him.
Wizard Lap slightly shifted his position, his expression unchanging.
An abrupt burst of orange-yellow flame appeared in front of the semi-transparent spike, exploding on contact.
Both annihilated each other, dissipating.
He turned his head slightly, calmly looking at the black-robed figure walking out from the nearby dark shadows, and spoke softly,
"I knew you would appear...
Remnants of the Blackstone Family."