This time, to avoid having to guard against strangers in the wild, Roy and Renien decided to stick together for warmth.
Just right, the four of them formed a team to sign up, waiting for the senior apprentices assigned by the Wizard Tower to take their positions, which was a standard task squad.
What pleased them was that this was not just any senior apprentice.
She was strong enough to intimidate the petty criminals.
But what worried them was whether the Wizard Tower would assign simple tasks to Sophia, sending her out with a group of rookies for a picnic. No matter how they looked at it, this was clearly a configuration for a difficult task.
Moreover, to put it bluntly...
The most dangerous one might just be the senior sister!
But with things as they were, there was nothing they could change, and they could only passively accept it.
Early in the morning, they arrived at the Wizard Tower's entrance ahead of time. Many apprentices had already set off, most of them with long faces, looking as if they were trudging toward death.
Roy and the others looked at the task description, and their expressions were about the same.
At that moment, they learned that the task location assigned to them by the Wizard Tower was a level-zero resource point nicknamed "The Orchard of Apples."
Indeed, it was marked as a difficult-level task location.
However, the resource point...
Roy suddenly seemed to ponder.
While checking the details, Renien reminded, "Botning is coming!"
Botning approached Roy, revealing a hint of coldness: "Roy, you haven't taken my words to heart at all, have you? Just treating them as wind in your ears."
At this point, Roy had already attained knight-level strength, giving him a bit more confidence.
However, he didn't show it, maintaining a calm demeanor: "Lord Botning, what do you mean by that?"
Botning said, "During this time, you actually dared to secretly sell that calming perfume! Trides has already told me."
Roy frowned.
That guy again! Trides' social circle overlaps too much with his own, making it hard to keep things completely under wraps.
He could only wave the tiger's skin as a flag: "Our team leader this time is Senior Sister Sophia!"
Botning sneered: "I know there's a senior apprentice leading this task, but she can't protect you forever; she'll deal with you sooner or later!"
...
"Finally, he's gone!"
"Roy, you need to be careful; this guy might really hold a grudge against you."
Not long after, Botning left, and the companions let out a sigh of relief, looking at Roy.
Roy's expression was calm: "It's fine; I just need to get stronger quickly."
Renien looked at him in surprise, as if sensing something.
This calmness...
It was as if he wasn't the one being threatened!
After a while, Sophia arrived late.
To their surprise, she brought along another person, the girl with the braided hair they had seen before, Celine.
"You are the investigation team for the Orchard of Apples?"
"Yes, Senior Sister Sophia, I am..."
Renien stepped forward, trying to get closer.
But Sophia interrupted him: "If that's the case, let's go."
Renien felt awkward and didn't dare to say more.
Roy, however, was quite interested as he watched Sophia touch her ring, summoning two glowing orbs from what seemed to be a storage Wizardry Artifact.
Following that, the forms expanded, transforming into two giant wolf puppets that stood about ten feet tall, appearing before everyone.
These were flesh puppets made from the corpses of magical creatures, exuding a chilling aura of death, yet their appearance was lifelike; if one didn't pay close attention, they might really think they were living beings.
"Everyone, get on."
Sophia instructed the group to climb onto one of the giant wolves, while she and Celine took another.
Along the way, the giant wolves galloped, jostling everyone quite a bit.
Roy had to grip tightly onto its fur to prevent himself from falling off.
This journey was definitely not comfortable, but it was quick and efficient. In just over two hours, they arrived at the task location marked by the Wizard Tower, the "Orchard of Apples."
Sophia instructed everyone to dismount from the wolves, and she led the way inside.
The two giant wolf puppets followed closely, flanking them until they reached a narrow area, where they were retracted.
What appeared before everyone was an outdoor garden within a valley. The walls built long ago still stood tall but were now covered in ivy and moss.
Inside the garden, the vegetation was lush, with winding paths leading deeper, flanked by trees that resembled apple trees.
"This is the so-called Orchard of Apples..."
"It doesn't look particularly special."
"However, these fruits do look quite peculiar; at first glance, the skin has patterns resembling snake scales. If you're not careful, you might really think there's a snake coiled around it!"
"I almost got dazzled just now."
Everyone surveyed their surroundings, their expressions varied.
Roy, however, seemed to be deep in thought.
Although low-level apprentices rarely had the opportunity to explore outside the tower, he had learned some things about the outside world over the years.
The Seven Towers Alliance's seven Wizard Towers were all concentrated on a continent known as the Mysterious Island, which was the place where magical energy was abundant and various materials were produced.
After the great wizards stepped out of the Star Sea and battled in other realms, they brought back many good things to nourish the World's Will, thus continuously cultivating lower-level wizards as a reserve force.
The "Orchard of Apples" was a resource point established in this manner.
Usually, there were guards here, but now, it seemed that danger was imminent.
"Hehehe..."
While he was pondering, a strange laughter floated in the wind.
"The trees... the trees are laughing!"
"No, it's the fruits on the trees!"
Everyone looked over in surprise.
Sophia looked down on the astonishment of the several intermediate apprentices: "It's just the Snake Fruit; what's so surprising about it?"
Only then did everyone remember that they had studied related content before.
The Snake Fruit was a magical fruit that could evoke human desires, possessing hallucinogenic properties.
Some alchemists extracted its juice to brew a potion called "Sweet Dream"...
Although it wasn't very effective, it was quite popular.
This was one of the more economically valuable fruit-type Magical Potions among low-level materials.
Roy recalled the knowledge in his mind and gradually turned his gaze toward the depths of the orchard, where a layer of mist resembling miasma enveloped the area.
"The radiation pollution of Wizardry Energy is far more severe than expected.
It seems that the previous incident has already begun to contaminate the ley lines, and the fruit trees and fruits inside may have undergone some kind of mutation."
Above the vast orchard, the sky was dim, and although it should have been noon, it felt as if night was approaching.
Yet the orchard below seemed to emit its own light, still bright as day.
"Wait, something feels off."
Sophia stopped, her gaze fixed on the distance, as if trying to see through the mist.
Roy's heart tightened upon hearing this.
He sensed a
hint of vigilance in Sophia's tone.
"There might be something hidden inside..."
Sophia's voice became ethereal.
The surrounding mist quietly spread.
Unbeknownst to them, it gradually enveloped everyone's figures.
(End of Chapter)