"Die!"

No one knew when a greatsword had appeared in Merlin's hand. Although he had depleted his Magic Power, his physique was comparable to a Third-level Elemental Swordsman at their peak, a little more and he would be comparable to the level of a Fourth-level Elemental Swordsman.

With such great physical attributes, he threw the greatsword with all his might. The speed the sword was flung was like a flash of white light across a vacuum, emitting a burst of swooshing sounds.

The cloaked man had the same idea as Merlin. As he turned around suddenly, he held a well-crafted black arbalest in his hand. With a quick release of the trigger, a black bolt shot toward Merlin in an instant.

The cloaked man was a roaming Wizard and therefore it was natural for him to have numerous survival methods. The bolts he carried around were simply a safety measure. After all, he did not come from a wealthy background like the Spell Casters in the Spell Caster organizations who could afford to have powerful casting tools, so he could only bring with him bolts and other tools for defense.

No matter the bolt or Merlin's greatsword, both were hurled at extremely fast speeds. As both wizards had exhausted their Magic Power, they were unable to cast Defensive spells.

"Swish!"

Merlin's greatsword punctured the cloaked man's midriff, the force of the impact hurled the cloaked man a good distance backwards before he landed heavily on the ground. His expression contorted as dissatisfaction filled his eyes, he struggled for a while before finally succumbing to his injury.

As for the cloaked man's black bolt, it was heading towards Merlin at a high speed. Merlin's Earth Guard no longer had any Magic Power – all he could do was cast "Gale" to divert himself to one side as quick as possible.

Still, he was unable to escape the black bolt, which sank into his calf. Immediately, Merlin felt a violent pain, followed instantly by total numbness.

"Damn the bolt was coated with deadly toxins!"

Merlin was startled – he did not think that the cloaked man's bolt would be laced with deadly toxins. The man must have prepared a Toxic Potion and smeared it on the bolt. Once it hit its target, even an Elemental Swordsman with a great physique would be killed at once.

Merlin sat down immediately and tore away the cloth at his leg. Where the bolt had pierced him, he could see his flesh rotting away at a visible speed, revealing the bone in a horrifying manner.

"It's a Corroding Potion!"

At once, Merlin recalled the details of highly toxic potion. If one came into contact with this potion, it would flow along the bloodstream and quickly eat into the flesh, corroding it straightaway. It was frightening indeed.

Without hesitation, Merlin drew a sharp dagger from his ring and directed a vicious swipe at the flesh of his calf.

"Pshhh."

With the slash, a large part of the flesh was cut away. Naturally, ordinary people would not be able to withstand pain such as this, not even if one had astonishing willpower. However, Merlin had a strong Mind Power and could turn down the pain to its lowest. Only this allowed him to endure the pain of "flesh-cutting".

This was real flesh-cutting, and it must be done quickly without the least bit of hesitation.

As Merlin continued to slash away at his thigh, almost half of the flesh on his thigh was sliced off. Most of the Corroding Potion had been cut away, but there remained a small amount that had invaded other parts of the body.

There was no way around this. It was impossible to get rid of the potion completely in such a short time, hence Merlin quickly took out some potions – amongst them was the Coagulation Potion, which could stop the bleeding, as well as a few simple Licorice Potions.

These Licorice Potions could neutralize a few common poisons. Although they might not eliminate the Corroding Poison in his body entirely, they could inhibit it somewhat; when there was time, Merlin would then prepare some other potions to clear the Corroding Potion from his body completely.

The Coagulation Potion was very effective but because he had lost too much blood, add with the fierce combat from before, Merlin now seemed to be exhausted. He glanced at the corpse of Wizard Vyksa and shook his head helplessly.

"It was really dangerous this time! Between Zero-level and First-level spells, there is still a disparity; particularly, when Dark Mist is of no use, this disparity is even more obvious…"

Merlin mumbled softly as he leaned against the large tree. Quietly, he recalled the battle just now – it was very dangerous indeed. If his attention had slipped for a moment, it would have been him who was lying on the ground now.

After resting for a while, Merlin felt some of his strength returning. He still could not move properly, so he could only crawl towards Vyksa's corpse and removed the ring from his finger.

Wizard Neil's ring was also taken by Merlin, after which Merlin checked the contents of both rings. Inside the ring of Wizard Neil were various potion materials, elemental crystal stones, and even some First-level spells – it must be a First-level spell he was getting ready to create.

Now that Merlin had it, it was considered a substantial amount of riches.

The contents of Wizard Vyksa's ring were even more surprising. As a formidable roaming Wizard, Vyksa had killed an indefinite amount of Spell Casters, thus obtaining numerous peculiar items from them.

"A potion formula? Not just any potion formula, it's a formula for Mind Power!"

Merlin was pleasantly surprised by this. He had discovered a rare potion formula for Mind Power in Wizard Vyksa's ring. No wonder Vyksa's Mind Power was so strong, reaching the standard of Third-level Spell Casters. Even the strengthened version of Merlin's Dark Mist was useless against Wizard Vyksa.

It seemed that Wizard Vyksa's Mind Power was largely linked to this potion formula.

This potion was called Blueberry Potion; its main ingredient was blueberries. Even though this sort of blueberry was highly prized, Merlin had seen them in the Resource Tower. When he returned to the Dark Magic Region, he could head straight for the Resource Tower to trade for them.

Compared to Magic Potion, the potion materials for this Blueberry Potion were much easier to find. There were even some blueberries stored in Wizard Vyksa's ring – enough to prepare a few batches of Blueberry Potion.

After ransacking the bodies of Wizard Vyksa and Wizard Neil, Merlin used the little bit of Magic Power he had recovered to cast two Fireballs, which fell quickly onto the corpses of Vyksa and Neil. The flames burned violently, consuming the two corpses in a moment.

Merlin lowered his head to glance at his thigh, shaking his head helplessly. He was now powerless to leave this place and could only wait in this maple forest for his injuries to heal a little before he could leave.

Therefore, Merlin leaned on a huge tree and took out the elemental crystal stones, and began to gradually replenish his exhausted Magic Power in the Spell Model of his Awareness…

*****

On the wide road, about a dozen carriages slowly appeared. The carriages were not moving at a fast pace and there were some knights in armor beside the carriages, vigilantly watching the surroundings.

"Look, the maple leaves are so pretty."

A young girl of about fifteen or sixteen parted the curtains, and upon seeing the stretch of maple trees before her, cried out in surprise.

The girl was tall and willowy, her hair tied in two braids behind her head. She was wearing riding boots on both of her long legs, which displayed the slim beauty of her legs as much as possible.

"That's right, we've been out for a few months. I didn't think the maple leaves would have turned red by the time we return. Ditas Town is right in front. We'll rest in that town tonight, and continue on our way tomorrow. We'll reach Sunland City as soon as possible!"

The one who spoke was a middle-aged man of over forty. He was also riding in the carriage. He was looking at the stretch of red maple forest outside as he spoke ruefully.

"Father, let's go out to look at the leaves."

Looking at the forest of red maple leaves outside, the young woman could not hold back her excitement and beseeched the middle-aged man.

Before the middle-aged man could say anything, the lady inside the carriage immediately rebuked, "No, Emma, it's too dangerous outside. How many robbers have we met throughout our journey? It's safer to hurry back to Sunland City as soon as we can."

"Mother, it's not too far from Ditas Town here. How can there be robbers? We'll just go down for a moment and then leave immediately."

The young woman pouted her lips as she begged.

The middle-aged man muttered to himself for a while and nodded. "We'll let Emma head down for a look. It's rare to see such a magnificent maple forest. Ditas is not far ahead so the robbers wouldn't be so bold. Besides, we still have our bodyguards, so there shouldn't be much danger."

Seeing that the man had agreed, the girl appeared very excited. She quickly leaped down from the carriage.

Looking at the joyful girl, the middle-aged man said to the lady, "Come on, let's go down and take a look as well."

With that, he descended from the carriage with the lady, and the entire convoy also stopped. The guards that were decked out in armor relaxed visibly as well. Throughout their escort of the convoy, this was the place with the least danger – once they entered Ditas Town, their journey would be completed safely.

The stretch of red-leafed maple trees looked like the expanse of a red sea. It was soothing to the onlookers and it made them feel at ease.

However, in a short moment , a guard surreptitiously came in front of the middle-aged man, and said in a low voice, "Mr. Chablis, we've discovered a tramp in the maple forest."

"A tramp?"

The man looked towards where the guard was pointing and saw that under a large tree far away was a tramp with dirty clothes, messy hair, and a hidden face.

"Ditas town is just right ahead, so why is this tramp here?"

The middle-aged man had the special vigilance of a merchant, which made him afraid of staying any longer. Therefore, he said in a low voice, "Alright, Emma, you've seen enough. We should hurry on our way!"

The man stared at the tramp under that faraway tree, then did not take notice of him anymore. He had let the guard retrieve the young Emma and prepared to hasten on with their journey.

Suddenly, a group of horsemen with fiendish expressions burst out from the depths of the maple forest. As these horsemen appeared, they let out a strange cry and surrounded the entire fleet.

"Oh no, it's the robbers!"

The guard's face changed instantly, as he loudly ordered the guards to begin fighting. However, these robbers were unusually vicious and there were a great number of them – almost three to four hundred of them. As the robbers swarmed upon them, the guards were no match at all.

Very quickly, the hundred or so guards were completely slaughtered. Three men who seemed to be the leaders of this gang of robbers approached the middle-aged man. One of them gave a cold smirk. "After robbing for so many days, there's only such a small convoy. Well, it's your bad luck. Kill all men, capture the women, and carry back the stuff!"

The chief of robbers barked the order cruelly. In an instant, the robbers became excited and began to massacre the unarmed, ordinary people.

Young Emma and the lady were trembling as they hid behind the middle-aged man. As for the middle-aged man, his face was one of utter despair.

"Great chief, there's also a tramp in the maple forest."

A robber suddenly spoke into the great chief's ear.

"A tramp? Just kill him! Bring two others with you and kill him. Do you need my permission for such a small matter?"

The great chief also noticed the tramp leaning against a large tree in the maple forest a distance away as he spoke discontentedly.

A few robbers immediately turned around and sped towards the maple forest.