Colin's footsteps paused imperceptibly, and with a slight movement of his left hand, a black scepter entwined with dark golden patterns silently emerged from his palm.
Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but he always felt that in such a situation, if Lillian knew, she would surely come to find him herself!
Colin then spoke again,
"Where exactly is our destination on the bottom level?"
"It's next to the storeroom at the very bottom; there are several dark rooms there."
Silear kept walking, distinguishing the direction in front of him while he continued to respond.
Colin nodded again, his expression inscrutable.
He always felt that there was something familiar about the speed of Silear's speech and his subtle movements.
Colin's gaze flickered, then he suddenly changed the topic, voicing his doubts,
"Lord Silear, why don't we use a faster way to go downstairs?"
"A faster way?" Silear paused slightly in stride, turning his head back in confusion to glance at Colin.
His gaze lingered momentarily on the scepter in Colin's left hand but dismissed it as merely a tool for self-defense.
"Well, for example, directly breaking through the floor beneath us and descending through the hole to the next layer, avoiding the hassle of taking the stairs," Colin calmly added.
Silear paused briefly in his steps, silent for a while before abruptly smiling and looking back,
"This disturbance won't last long, and if we damage the airship, I fear the repairs afterward..."
His tone was calm but unavoidably revealed a sense of strain and insufficiency.
In such an urgent situation, possibly threatening life, how could one still worry about trivial matters like a shattered floor of an airship?
Watching Silear's reaction, Colin's suspicions peaked.
With the help of the Superbrain, a conjecture faintly formed in his mind.
Silear's current tone brought a scene slowly to his mind.
It was several days after the gathering where Magic Stones were distributed.
He had just left Lillian's room after studying the Ancient Tree Heart, and at the corridor's corner, he met Silear, while at the end of the hall, Herard's figure flashed by...
With the assistance of the Superbrain, he distinctly remembered that on that day, Silear's final words were uttered in this same tone.
The subtle movements were very similar too.
If Silear now was making excuses,
Then it was likely that Silear then was also speaking falsehoods...
What was Silear talking about at that time?
He had supposedly seen Herard by chance...
Colin silently shook his head in his mind.
Now it seemed that Silear might not have encountered Herard by chance as he claimed,
More likely… he had just been speaking with him!
With this thought...
Although his mind was filled with thoughts, only a moment had actually passed in reality.
"Where is Herard waiting for us?"
Before Silear could finish, he pressed further.
The simultaneous enhancement from the Mechanical Mind and the Superbrain allowed him to maintain a consistent speed in his speech, astonishingly aligned with his previous statement.
Perhaps it was because his question was too sudden, or maybe because Silear had focused all his thoughts on the question about taking a shortcut.
In any case, Silear subconsciously started to reply.
"Not far from the middle side staircase on the second floor..."
'As expected...'
Upon hearing this, Colin gradually stopped his pace, his doubts completely dispelled.
He gripped the Foolishness Scepter tightly in his hand.
The next second, Silear finally realized what was happening, abruptly stopping and closing his mouth.
But he didn't turn around; instead, he slowly spoke with his back to Colin,
"You shouldn't have found out, Colin."
"You were supposed to be brought to Herard, neatly captured, transformed into a puppet, then help me deceive Lillian...?!!"
At that moment, Silear suddenly felt a wave of heat coming from behind.
He quickly turned around, only to see an enormous orange-yellow fireball shooting toward him!
"?!"
Silear was suddenly startled; at the last moment, he conjured defensive witchcraft!
In a blink of an eye, a brilliant green light enveloped his entire body. The whole process lasted only 0.2 seconds, forming just before the fireball could hit him!
Such quick casting speed was precisely the confidence he had in not deploying defensive witchcraft in advance!
He saw the pale green light flicker on.
Silear felt a slight relief in his heart, having successfully cast defensive witchcraft meant he had already won half the battle!
Colin had only recently advanced to a First Rank Wizard, and the fact that his witchcraft could reach the strength of a Basic Level First Rank was already commendable—breaking through his defense was out of the question!
Boom!
Just as he thought this, the fireball made contact with him and then exploded violently, the flames surging forward.
The next moment, feeling the intensity of the fireball, Silear's eyes widened in disbelief as he shouted at Colin,
"You've just advanced to a First Rank Wizard, how could you cast such a powerful witchcraft!"
If he wasn't mistaken, the power of this witchcraft had reached the peak of Middle First Rank!
Elsewhere, Colin gave no response.
The combination of a Mechanical Mind and a Superbrain allowed him to keenly seize the flaw Silear showed under the fireball's attack.
Hiss!
Thud!
A metallic cone bullet, flickering with cold light, shot out from his hand and vanished in an instant, leaving only a pale white trail of vapor in the air.
Thud!
Silear, touching the gaping hole in his waist, his complexion pale and unsightly, hurriedly tried to cast a counter witchcraft.
But another huge orange fireball appeared in front of him.
His defensive witchcraft had been forcibly broken, temporarily unable to be cast again.
To counter the fireball, Silear had no choice but to change the attack witchcraft he originally intended to cast into a huge water orb.
Hiss—
The two collided, producing a massive amount of white steam. Silear controlled the water orb, enveloping the fireball, trying desperately to extinguish it.
But just then, his eyes suddenly widened.
In the hazy, diffusing mist, a flash of cold light streaked past.
With a plop, Silear fell to the ground, lifeless.
He had never imagined that behind the second fireball, another Silent cone bullet followed.
He had just needed to wait one more second to cast defensive witchcraft again...
But the counteracting water orb and the dispersing white mist blurred his vision and cost him his only chance at survival.
Elsewhere, Colin approached Silear's side. He cast Detecting Three Abilities around to ensure no one was nearby, then quickly took the Storage Ring from his hand.
Then again wielding the scepter, he cast the only Middle First Rank witchcraft he mastered—"Trace Erasure!"
Witchcraft brilliance flashed by, and in an instant, the fluctuation of witchcraft in the air vanished completely, along with the surroundings and the marks made by witchcraft on Silear's body, all became chaotic and blurred.
At least with his current level of observation, he could discern the marks of Non-fireball Technique and Arrow Shooting Skill.
But it did not end there.
Colin gathered up Silear's body and quickly headed to a hole nearby made by a creature.
After confirming again that no one was around, he dropped it off the airship.
The body fell like a drifting leaf.
Just as it was about to sink into the clouds, a massive figure, like a hawk diving for a rabbit, burst out from the side, grabbed Silear's body, then tore it apart and swallowed it.
Flesh, blood, and the tattered pieces of Wizard Robe fluttered down.
Colin suppressed his shock, withdrawing his gaze.
Milo was right, the environment around the airship had indeed been surrounded.
He opened Silear's Storage Ring, quickly took out the Magic Stone, and without a glance at the other items inside, he tossed it lightly.
Whatever the reason, within the School, killing a fellow member was the greatest crime, something he couldn't afford to be careless about!
Of course, there was another more important reason—
On this airship, the leading Wizard of the Tin Saint School was Eugene.
Herard's mentor, Eugene.
'Not far from the second-floor middle staircase…'
Colin's expression remained calm and deep, recalling the location Silear had just revealed, and he stepped forward.
Trouble wouldn't be resolved by avoidance... This was a lesson he had long understood.