Wizard: Start with Biological Transformation to Grind Experience
Chapter 200 - 014: Temporary Teammate

Chapter 200: 014: Temporary Teammate

A while later, by a small stream in the forest.

Lynch washed his face, then turned and walked back to the nearby riverside.

At this moment, a bonfire was already lit on the riverbank. The flames crackled and burned steadily, while Susan sat before the fire, staring at it without blinking.

Lynch asked, "How are you feeling? Any better?"

Susan shifted her gaze from the fire and nodded toward Lynch. "A little better. Thank you."

Lynch shrugged. "No problem."

He sat down by the fire without further comment, retrieved some prepared dried meat, apples, and other provisions from his space ring, and placed them over the fire to heat. After a long night, his stomach was indeed a bit hungry. Adding a meal wouldn’t hurt.

Staring at the bonfire, Susan spoke bitterly. "I just wanted to collect some blood crystals... I had no choice. My time in Shadow Land is running out, and I haven’t found any good options. If this continues, my future will likely be working at a plantation or forest, and that will be the end of it..."

"I’ve heard that in those places, there’s endless work from dawn to dusk and you can only earn a minuscule amount of magic stones each month. Continuing down the Wizard’s Road under those conditions is nearly impossible. Advancing to a wizard in the future would be a distant dream..."

She sighed heavily. "I don’t want this to end so early. If I could just gather enough blood crystals, I could exchange them for an opportunity to enter Netta. If not that, joining a Wizard Family would still leave me satisfied. But I never expected..."

Lynch interjected, "You didn’t expect danger so soon after coming out, right."

Susan shook her head. "I was prepared, ready to face enemies, even considered the possibility of dying here."

"What I never expected was... that the ones who would betray me would be my allies... Daniel and the others invited me intentionally. We had agreed to leave the safe zone together to search for red crystals. I trusted them so completely..."

As she spoke, her tears began to fall again. She hurriedly covered her mouth, silently sobbing.

Lynch handed her a handkerchief.

Susan wiped her tears away and apologized softly. "Sorry."

Lynch replied, "It’s alright."

After a slight pause, he changed the topic and asked, "So, what are your plans now? If you want to return to the safe zone, I can escort you to the nearest area, but the route will prioritize the direction where I’m gathering red crystals."

Susan’s face flickered with a hint of painful struggle.

But she quickly made her decision. "I’ll return to the safe zone. On a battlefield this merciless, I simply don’t have the capability to survive. Maybe..."

"Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a wizard. Perhaps returning to the human world is the best choice for me..."

She sighed again.

Lynch nodded. "That might be for the best."

This was a real battlefield, one without rules, focusing purely on slaughter.

A novice like Susan, who’d rarely ventured outside, had their best combat experience in the rigorously zoned hunting grounds of Shadow Land. On a battlefield like this, venturing out impulsively would likely only lead to becoming fodder.

After resting through the night, Lynch resumed his journey early the next morning, now accompanied by Susan.

He first opened his map for a glance.

The number of uncollected blood crystals marked on the map had slightly decreased since last night, but there were still plenty, densely scattered across the entire map.

At present, most apprentices were still staying in the safe zone, observing cautiously. Active collectors like Lynch who roamed outside in search of crystals were still the minority. With too few people gathering, the efficiency naturally remained low.

The top-ranking collector had already amassed two hundred, nearly three hundred crystals. Judging by that, they probably hadn’t slept all night!

"Let’s go."

After briefly planning the route, Lynch took Susan along and moved forward.

After a night of adjustment and emotional stabilization, Susan’s mood was visibly much better than the previous evening. Lynch had been worried she might struggle to keep pace with him due to fear or panic, but it turned out he was overthinking. Throughout the journey, Susan kept up with his footsteps excellently, her expression consistently calm.

"Let me help too!"

She even participated in combat, wielding her magic wand to cast spells and provide Lynch with modest support.

Her adaptability proved to be rather decent.

The two of them continued traveling intermittently, sweeping through areas marked with blood crystal locations on the map.

Time quickly passed, and it was now afternoon.

At this moment, they arrived at a new blood crystal collection site—a seemingly abandoned small town. The ground was dotted with several broken structures, coated in dust and spiderwebs, surrounded by rampant weeds.

Dimension spaces host independent ecosystems. Occasionally, due to various factors, human or other intelligent life forms might inhabit them, forming villages or even cities.

However, since dimension spaces are limited in scale and lack sufficient material composition for sustainable ecological cycles comparable to the main dimension, most human eco-circles within them gradually deteriorate and perish over time without external intervention.

This time, the red crystals were located atop a tower, and the guardian monster was the tower itself.

This creature resembled a massive alchemical beast, immensely strong, capable of shaking the tower’s bell to unleash powerful sonic attacks. Overall, its strength roughly equaled that of a fairly strong high-level apprentice.

Lynch had to exert a bit of effort to destroy it.

But upon seeing the rewards, the earlier strain suddenly felt more bearable.

From within the tower monster, Lynch extracted a whopping eight blood crystals, a yield comparable to visiting several prior sites.

The quantity of blood crystals at each collection point isn’t fixed; some locations yield more, others less. However, sites with higher numbers of crystals often come with more formidable guardian monsters, making both the risks and rewards proportional.

"All that effort wasn’t for nothing!"

Satisfied, Lynch cheerfully stashed the freshly acquired blood crystals into his space pocket.

"Rustle..."

Just then, a faint rustling noise arose from afar.

Hmm?

Lynch casually glanced in that direction.

He keenly sensed a sneaky figure concealed behind a distant structure, clearly plotting something against him.

Sure enough!

"Whoosh!" A sharp whistle pierced through the air.

A pitch-black arrow suddenly shot out from behind the structure, speeding straight toward Lynch.

"Watch out, Lynch!"

Susan’s face paled abruptly. Mistakenly thinking Lynch was unprepared, she gasped in alarm, stepping in front of him and hastily erecting an Elemental Shield.

However, this pitch-black arrow was no ordinary projectile. The Elemental Shield Susan hurriedly summoned shattered upon contact, and in the blink of an eye, the arrow continued its trajectory, aimed directly at the center of Susan’s forehead.

In this life-and-death moment, a large hand abruptly reached out, firmly catching the speeding arrow, halting it mere inches from Susan’s forehead. The sharp tip was practically brushing against her skin.

"Whoosh!" Another sound rang out.

The assailant hiding behind the walls wasted no time, retreating the instant their attack failed. Their movement was extraordinarily swift, clearly enhanced by some kind of speed-boosting spell.

Lynch sneered, "Hit and run? Not so fast!"

With a flick of his sleeve, Parker shot out like an arrow, chasing after the fleeing figure.

"Ahh... Ahh!!"

"Boom!"

Moments later, cries of agony echoed along with the sounds of fighting. Flames sprang up in the distance, consuming the area before everything quieted down completely.

Not long afterward, Parker flew back, clutching a crossbow in its claws.

Lynch took it and examined it briefly. It was a finely crafted piece of alchemical witchcraft, primarily designed to fire arrows, embedding several solidified enhancement spells that granted the projectiles power comparable to high-level apprentice spells.

Not the best weapon, but it was worth some magic stones.

Lynch casually stowed it away.

Susan finally snapped out of her daze. She looked at the composed Lynch with amazement. "You knew they were there earlier?"

Lynch nodded. "I sensed them."

Susan said, "Then I guess I overstepped..."

Pausing briefly, she marveled, "Apprentice Lynch, I have to say, you’re truly incredible!"

Ten years ago, he had merely been a low-level apprentice who had just entered the Inner Ring. Yet in mere ten years, he had grown to possess high-level apprentice strength—a feat she couldn’t fathom as she herself was still just a mid-level apprentice.

Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked, "Could you tell me how you managed to do it? How... how did you grow to this level in such a short time? Is there some sort of secret method?"

"A secret?" Lynch thought for a moment before replying honestly, "Not really. It’s just been nonstop cultivation. Morning, cultivation. Evening, cultivation. Eating while cultivating. Sleeping... well, I don’t sleep much."

"Just cultivate, cultivate, and keep cultivating. Gradually, the strength builds up."

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