The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the tide ebbs and flows at the seashore.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.
Clip-clop, clip-clop~
Sigh~
In front of the west gate of Blackstone City, the black carriage gradually came to a stop.
Colin stepped out of the curved black carriage and made his way towards the city gate with familiar ease.
He was dressed in a deep black wizard's robe, with a silver-white triangular badge on his chest and a white wolf-skin shoulder bag in his hand, containing manuscripts, Bright Crystals, and other sundries.
From a distance, the soldiers dressed in steel armor by the city gate greeted him respectfully.
Over the past month, they had become quite familiar with this new Wizard.
Entering the duty hut, Colin set his shoulder bag down, stretched a bit, and then continued his training.
In a few more days, his month-long duty would come to an end.
Since the last visit from Wizard Lap, the number of fierce beasts attacking from the Dark Forest had gradually decreased.
Their strength had also diminished, shifting from initially comparable to Intermediate Wizard Apprentices to now at most being on par with ordinary Basic Level Wizard Apprentices.
Several times, it was the City Guards led by a Great Knight who handled the situation directly.
There was no need for him to make a move.
And now, for the past few days, there hadn't even been any creature attacks.
However… whether for this reason or not, their squad had yet to be assigned any new Wizard Apprentices for guard duty.
To this day, it was still just him and Holt on guard in the far right area of West City.
In contrast, the Chiwen Gang next door had long since replenished its guard manpower.
Moreover, for most of the recent period, he was the only one in the entire area… Holt seemed preoccupied with something and was often nowhere to be seen.
After practicing the Hope Defense Field several times, Colin summoned the Golden Paper with a thought.
Pale golden particles converged.
[Name: Colin Leonard]
[Rank: Intermediate Wizard Apprentice (4/100); Great Knight (45/100)]
[Meditation Method: Apprentice's Circulation Meditation I (40/100); Sunlight Breathing Method I (95/100)]
[Witchcraft: Zero Level Tricks: Basic; Zero-Level Witchcraft: Steel Armor I (17/100); Arrow Shooting Skill I (19/100); Lesser High Temperature Tolerance (58/100); Hope Defense Field (70/100); Fireball Technique (64/100); Detect Evil (46/100); Purification Evil Power (41/100)]
[Skill: Basic Level Magic Crystal Making]
[Talent: Intermediate Strong Life (95/100)]
[Limit Breaking Point: 0]
His gaze slowly moved across the Golden Paper, and the intermingling glow of blue, gold, purple, and black caught his eye.
From previous attempts, he had learned that gold indicated a limit reached, blue represented one Limit Breaking, and black denoted the initial state of a skill.
But now a new color had emerged—purple.
This purple hue enshrouded the outside of the Intermediate Strong Life talent.
'Perhaps this signifies the equivalent of a second Limit Breaking?' he speculated in his mind.
Every time he practiced Steel Armor, a witchcraft that had undergone one Limit Breaking, the flashing ↑ symbol behind it was also the same shade of purple.
So it seemed, the display of the Intermediate Strong Life talent on the Golden Paper slightly differed from that of witchcraft,
Perhaps this was because their starting points were different… After all, unlike witchcraft, which one trains from scratch, talent is at the Intermediate Strong Life level from the moment it's attained.
In addition, the energy from the Golden Four-leaf Clover had been completely assimilated by him five days earlier.
His soul's strength had been greatly enhanced, and the progress of his Intermediate Strong Life talent finally settled at 95/100.
Although he hadn't broken through to Advanced, compared to before, his self-healing ability had significantly improved.
For wounds of the same severity, the time now required to heal was merely half of what it used to be!
The only thing that worried him was that—
after the energy at his heart disappeared, although the flashing "↑" symbol would still appear every time he practiced the Intermediate Strong Life Sunlight Breathing Skill, the speed of improvement had become very slow.
It had been five days since the energy was completely digested, yet there had been no increase at all.
However, aside from this, he had successfully practiced the Hope Defense Field and the Fireball Technique to the point of instantaneous casting, and the Sub-Level High Temperature Tolerance was only 2 points shy of instant casting.
Other witchcraft skills had also improved to varying degrees. It hadn't been a complete waste of time.
"Unfortunately, there's still not enough time," he sighed softly and closed the Golden Paper.
Although with Renee and Arthur's assistance, he now didn't have to deal with any miscellaneous tasks and could devote all his time to cultivation,
he still felt there wasn't enough time.
Due to the reward from the Black-Maned Giant Pig incident and the exchange of fierce beast carcasses, he now had a total of 109 Magic Stones.
109 Magic Stones were equivalent to 109 Limit Breaking Points.
With so many Limit Breaking Points in hand, he was eager to improve himself... it was just a pity that nothing on the Golden Paper had reached its limit yet.
But it was close.
At least the progress of the Sunlight Breathing Technique he needed to break through once was at 95/100; he was only 5 points away from another advancement.
Knock, knock, knock—
At that moment, there was a sudden knock on the door.
"Colin." Holt's voice came from outside.
Colin got up with a puzzled look and opened the door.
"Good evening, Captain," he greeted Holt.
"Good evening, Colin," Holt's expression was complex, a mix of expectation and melancholy. He looked at Colin and said, "There's something I need to talk to you about."
Colin nodded, watching him intently.
"Our team... might not get any new members," Holt sighed.
Colin's brow furrowed slightly, his face showing confusion.
'No new members? ...Does that mean from now on, it's just him and Holt on duty?'
"...Or rather, the team is considered dissolved," Holt sighed again and added, "I need to return to the Wizard Territory for a while... I just got notified by Minister Barton today."
He paused and then continued,
"This is probably a punishment for the Dark Forest incident..."
"Moreover, you've noticed that the attacks by fierce beasts in West City have been less frequent. This means that West City might not need as many duty Wizards for the time being..."
"And with me gone, you'll be the only one left in the team, so it's as if it has dissolved. You will likely be reassigned to another team, or another Guard Station within the city..."
Colin fell silent, absorbing the sudden news.
...He hadn't expected to be transferred again less than a month since he started duty in West City.
"By the way, do you remember Catherine from before?" Holt paused again and then suddenly asked.
"I remember," Colin nodded.
"She was indeed corrupted by the Evil God... and the degree of corruption was very high. I heard that in the end, it was Wizard Lap himself who took care of her body.
And it seems like there are shadows of Cultists behind this..."
Holt hesitated, then said, "…You'll most likely be sent back to the headquarters, in charge of city security... Although you're strong, those Cultists, those Polluters, are often tricky and difficult to deal with."
"You should practice Detect Evil and Purification Evil Power witchcraft more when you have time..."
Perhaps due to the imminent return to the Wizard Territory and the inability to leave for a while, Holt was feeling melancholic and rambled on for quite a bit before bidding Colin farewell.
Colin stood at the door, bidding farewell to Holt, watching as he walked away.
Holt was gentle and friendly, never putting on airs. Although sometimes he had his faults, he was undoubtedly a good captain.
He had no idea when he would have the chance to see Holt again after this return to the Wizard Territory.
He closed the door, turned around, and looked out at the bright moon through the window, feeling a sense of the unpredictability of life…