Wizard Bren's face shifted slightly. He looked carefully at the corpse and noticed that it had been warped beyond recognition. Moreover, the body seemed to be tangled up in some white silk which was wrapped around the corpse. It was bizarre indeed.

"This seemed to be a Spell Caster who had entered the ancient monument but he had died such an unnatural death. What did he run into?"

Wizard Sammir frowned as well. They did not know what those Spell Casters, who had led the way into the ancient monument, had encountered. After all, there were all sorts of danger lurking in the ancient monument. No one could know for sure how many hazards they would come across.

"Come on, we'll go ahead for a closer look."

Wizard Bren seemed to have gotten some sort of message from his Alchemy Creature, and his expression changed as he spoke in a low voice.

Therefore, Merlin and the rest followed Wizard Bren's Alchemy Creature as they walked further ahead.

After walking for a moment, the heavy stench of blood appeared once again. This time, Wizard Sammir, Wizard Bren, and Wizard Riesen were distinctly able to detect the smell, and the three of them could not help but make a face.

"Be careful. There could be danger up ahead!"

Wizard Sammir reminded them in a soft voice. Merlin did not dare act carelessly as well, and expanded his Mind Power, paying close attention to his surroundings. If there were any abnormal changes, he would be able to perceive them immediately.

Merlin and the others soon reached a room that seemed to be in a mess. Many long stone tables were placed in this room, and dust-covered equipment was set out on the tables.

Merlin was very familiar with this equipment because it was needed for potion-making. Furthermore, Merlin had never seen some of the equipment and he did not know what their functions were.

On the other stone tables, delicate porcelain flasks with tightly sealed contents were set out.

"This was the room in which the master of the tower prepared potions over three thousand years ago. These sealed porcelain flasks must contain some marvelous potion!"

Wizard Sammir was the most overjoyed. His purpose in coming to the ancient monument was to seek a potion which would thoroughly eradicate the insidious instability in his Spell Model. He did not expect to discover the place for potion-making so soon after entering the ancient monument. Hence, Wizard Sammir was naturally ecstatic.

With this in mind, Wizard Sammir was about to step forward to open the sealed porcelain flasks and see what potion was contained inside.

"Wizard Sammir, be careful. The Spell Casters on the ground seemed to have died a miserable death. They must've encountered something."

Merlin lowered his voice and spoke to Wizard Sammir.

Wizard Sammir narrowed his eyes slightly and discovered that there were many corpses lying disorderly on the ground. All of them had been changed beyond recognition and were bound by loops of white silk.

Wizard Sammir hesitated for a moment, following which he stopped in his tracks. Although he was eager to examine the potion, he would not recklessly open the porcelain flasks on the desk. Thus he ordered his Alchemy Creature to approach the porcelain flasks.

"Open it!"

As soon as Wizard Sammir's order was given, the Alchemy Creature swiftly pulled off the dust-covered black cloth which was covering the flask. In that instant, clouds of dust quickly ascended into the air, filling the entire room with a strange odor.

Clutching the porcelain flask in both hands, the Alchemy Creature tipped it upside down.

Instantly, spiders whose bodies were covered in patterns poured out of the flask.

As these patterned spiders fell on the ground, they woke up immediately. They gradually began to vibrate their bodies and darted toward the Alchemy Creature in swaying motions.

"It's those deadly toxic spiders!"

Wizard Sammir frowned and his expression revealed his disappointment. It was not the potion that he had been looking forward to, so he simply cast a Fire-type spell.

In a second, the raging flames had quickly consumed the patterned spiders.

"Come on, let's search the next room."

Wizard Sammir shook his head slightly as he prepared to leave.

However, just at this moment, threads of white silk flew out from the midst of the blaze, spreading toward Wizard Sammir and the others as it covered the entire area.

"Hmm? Not dead?"

Wizard Sammir dared not wait any longer and immediately cast a Defensive spell. Merlin even cast the strengthened version of the Guardian Monument through the Enhancing casting tool.

In a moment, Merlin and the others were swaddled in strands of white silk. The white silk had strong corrosive properties, and would slowly corrode even First-level spells.

It was unsurprising that many Spell Casters had died here. They could have opened the porcelain flasks carelessly and released these patterned spiders.

"Furious Flame!"

Merlin quickly cast Furious Flame. In a flash, a surging stream of flame appeared on his Guardian Monument and began burning the while silk furiously.

The average Furious Flame was not effective against this white silk. It had to burn for a long time before it was able to break off the threads. However, Merlin cast the strengthened version of the spell right away, and the heat of the flame increased instantly. Surrounded by such a vicious blaze, the white silk emitted bursts of crackling sounds.

Finally, the white silk that had enclosed Merlin was burned away completely, and Merlin's figure retreated swiftly.

Besides Merlin, Wizard Sammir, Wizard Bren, and Wizard Riesen had also managed to struggle out of the white silk's clutches. However, displeasure was written on their faces. If they had not been Third-level Spell Casters with powerful spells, they really could have been ensnared by the white silk. It was very likely that they would have ended up just like the Spell Casters lying on the ground.

"Watch out, it's those patterned spiders!"

Wizard Sammir's face turned grim as he fixed a firm look on the patterned spiders, which he had burned with the spell he cast. These spiders were scorched black all over but at the moment, they seemed to be undergoing some incredible transformation.

The body of every single patterned spider enlarged rapidly until it was the size of a washbasin, and they looked extremely sinister and frightening.

"What kind of monsters are these patterned spiders?"

Merlin scowled. He had encountered these spiders before but it had been easily frozen by Frost, the Zero-level spell which he had cast. However, it seemed now as if these patterned spiders were far less simple than he had imagined them to be.

"Frost!"

Merlin quickly cast Frost but this time it was to no avail. These enormous patterned spiders merely had to struggle briefly to shatter the ice crystals before they darted toward Merlin and the others once more.

"Run, let's escape for now!"

Wizard Sammir did not know that these hair-raising patterned spiders would be this terrifying so his first instinct was to retreat.

However, just as they were about to back away, they suddenly found out that behind them, a large crowd of these patterned spiders had appeared unknowingly.

"It's those small patterned spiders from before. They've stealthily crept up behind us, and now they have us surrounded. How could they possess this level of intelligence?"

Wizard Sammir muttered in a low voice. The patterned spiders had them surrounded – it was clear that this was an intelligent behavior. If it was not the spiders which had high intelligence, then it could be some mysterious power which was steering these patterned spiders.

"Since we can't retreat, just kill them!"

Wizard Bren gave a hoarse cry. They were Third-level Spell Casters so of course, they would not be petrified by these spiders. Consequently, they each cast their Third-level spells.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The spells filled the room, shooting toward the patterned spiders in all directions. Perhaps First-level spells would not be of much use against these spiders for they were unafraid of ordinary attacks since their resistance was extremely strong.

However, Wizard Sammir and the others had cast Third-level spells, which were able to easily annihilate the patterned spiders. It was just that these were individual Offensive spells, so in order to exterminate such a legion of spiders, they would need to waste a lot of time.

At this point, Merlin's large-scale Offensive spell, Thunderlight Ball, was evidently a crucial spell.

"Water Whorl!"

Wizard Sammir swiftly cast his Binding spell, which restricted the movement of most of the patterned spiders in the room. Although these spiders had great strength and could spit out such durable white silk, they were unable to break out of a Third-level Binding spell.

"Wizard Merlin, it's up to you now!"

Wizard Sammir told Merlin in a grave voice whereas Wizard Bren and Wizard Riesen both turned to look at Merlin. Who knew how much time they would have taken if they depended on the method of killing the patterned spiders one by one? They may not even have enough Magic Power for that.

"Thunderlight Ball!"

Merlin nodded and cast Thunderlight Ball without delay. Spheres of thunder appeared immediately, flickering with bolts of thunder and lightning the size of fingers, which shot toward the bound patterned spiders.

"Pop! Pop!"

Every attack from Thunderlight Ball was only able to somewhat injure each spider but being a First-level spell, it was unable to effectively kill them off.

As he thought of this and without hesitation, Merlin cast the strengthened version of Thunderlight Ball.

In that instant, the power of the thunderbolts was clearly increased two-folds. The massive rays of lightning needed only a few hits to wipe out the patterned spiders. It seemed like the limit of the spiders' defensive capabilities did not extend to Second-level spells.

Most Second-level spells would be enough to handle these spiders. Merlin's strengthened Thunderlight Ball had broken the boundary and was comparable to the power of Second-level spells, so it only needed a few hits to annihilate the patterned spiders.

Seeing that Thunderlight Ball had the most desired effect, Wizard Sammir and the others heaved a small sigh of relief. Of course, with their discerning eyes, how would they not notice that from the beginning to the end, Merlin's Thunderlight Ball clearly underwent a significant increase in power?

They immediately linked this to the mysterious Enhancing casting tool that Merlin had on him. Only that casting tool could enable the same First-level spell to undergo such a huge change.

"The Enhancing casting tool is truly a superb item!"

Wizard Bren and Wizard Sammir exchanged a glance, and a trace of impulsive desire revealed on their faces. However, when they thought of how Wizard DeMarco had ended up, their hearts trembled slightly. They immediately pushed the yearning out of their minds.

It was only Wizard Riesen, who had always been mysterious, stared at Merlin's back as his eyes displayed an occasional, peculiar glint.