Chapter 446 Data, Thieves, and Using the Wizard Tower to Attack
Gregory had left with the evidence.
Meanwhile, Sfendice and Locke quickly found Barnaby, along with the family wizards associated with him.
When they found them, they were actually still reveling in the witch tavern on White Dragon Street, chatting and bragging to their witch mistresses about the things they had done.
When Locke and their mentor, Sfendice, arrived, the expressions of the entire group turned pale.
Even the Third-Class Wizard Apprentice witches in the tavern turned pale; they had never seen a Formal Wizard in person in their lives, and now, in front of Locke and the others, they were so terrified they did not dare make a sound.
Immediately after, Sfendice, who was furious at Locke, began to lash out at Barnaby. The intensity of his words, combined with the arrival of Gregory, made Barnaby realize instantly that the prank-like things he had been playing seemed to have spiraled out of control.
The situation had become very serious.
Leopold's mentor was actually an Archaeologist, and he had used archaeological methods to record everything they had done, turn it into evidence, and send it to the Supervisor, Gregory.
Barnaby was so frightened that he repeatedly apologized to Leopold and the others, and returned the magic materials and laboratory data he had obtained from Leopold from his astral ring.
Leopold took the items with a cold face, and after checking them, whispered to Locke: "Teacher, the data is all here."
Only after learning that Sfendice had paid the price of two bottles of Advancement Potion to appease Locke did Barnaby understand the severity of the problem. He hurriedly bowed to Locke and apologized: "Teacher Augustine, I just wanted to play a prank and teach Leopold, who I do not get along with, a lesson."
"I did not expect it to blow up into such a big deal."
"This really was not my intention, I..."
Locke glanced at him coldly, not lowering himself to speak with this Wizard Apprentice, but instead looking at his mentor, Sfendice.
Sfendice also felt a glimmer of luck in his heart, wanting to suppress the matter. "It is just a small conflict between students. I think as One-Ring Wizards, we should..."
Locke frowned at Sfendice. "What kind of joke are you making? Wizard Sfendice?"
Sfendice's mind was already a bit chaotic from being handled repeatedly. "Huh? A joke?"
"I am not joking."
"Lord Locke, you..."
A Shadow Eye Grass in Locke's hand dropped imperceptibly, falling toward the ground like a skydiver, and then silently merged into the shadows of the witch apprentices in the tavern.
The next moment, the Shadow Eye Grass suddenly appeared behind one of the witches and released a blast of Earth-Polarity Elemental Magnetism from the Innate Magic Eye on Locke's forehead.
The witch's expression changed drastically, and the aura of a Liquefaction Stage One-Ring Wizard rose from her body. At the same time, her dusty face cracked, and then that mask-like face suddenly shattered and fell to the ground, turning into fragments.
This was a One-Ring Deformation School spell—Artificial Mask.
By morphing the form of mana, and even simulating finer mana forms to mimic specific soul auras and magic pressure fluctuations, it could simulate their properties using these microscopic structural details.
At the same time, one could disguise themselves as whoever they wanted to be, changing from a Wizard Apprentice to a One-Ring Wizard, or even a Second Ring Wizard.
However, as far as Locke knew, a Deformation School spell like Artificial Mask required a great deal of mental effort, so if a wizard was proficient in this type of magic, they would certainly not be proficient in other directions, especially in combat.
At this moment, the mask fell to the ground, revealing the cold face of a man.
Sfendice immediately understood everything; the problem was even more serious than he had thought. There was actually an academic thief involved in this matter.
Some Black Wizards specialized in going to various laboratories to steal data and then handing it over to interested parties, or simply handing it to the client.
Clearly, this was not just a simple provocation caused by family wizards discriminating against commoner wizards, but an act by a Liquefaction Stage Black Wizard attempting to steal data from Locke's laboratory.
And the role his student Barnaby played in this was likely communicating with these Black Wizards, a serious act of betrayal against the White Dragon Tower.
Barnaby was not just here to revel; he was here to meet up and hand over the obtained data to that Black Wizard.
However, he probably did not expect that the high-and-mighty wizard mentors would condescend to go to the apprentice living area.
Locke would actually pursue this matter to the end because of his student and to protect his research group students from being harassed in the future.
And as an Archaeologist, Locke investigated directly to the real culprit, Barnaby, and then brought people over in a very short time.
Therefore, what was supposed to be a simple investigation task actually attracted two Liquefaction Wizards to this small witch tavern.
Seeing that the matter was exposed, the Black Wizard immediately tried to flee. He used a Deformation School spell, causing a pile of sofas in the tavern to fly up automatically. The pile of sofas formed a humanoid shape, attempting to attack Locke.
But the next moment, Locke snapped his fingers, and Primal Fire flew out, burning the entire sofa to ashes without causing any damage to the surrounding environment.
"Petty tricks." Locke channeled his magic, and sea gold sand appeared in his hands. The golden sand filled the air; it was the fifth spell of the Scorching Gold Sand Flow series—[Flowing Gold Sand Waterfall].
A large amount of golden sand fell like a waterfall toward the Black Wizard. The Black Wizard used three Magic item rings in front of him to set up three Protection School spells—[Lightning Shield], [Flame Shield], and [Storm Shield]—which were instantly submerged by this powerful magic.
Meanwhile, Sfendice, as a wizard of the Plutarch Family, also immediately took action. A dragon-scorpion backplate appeared on his body, and he used a common bloodline spell, Blood Flame, to attack the Black Wizard academic thief.
Under the magic attacks of both, the Liquefaction Stage Black Wizard suddenly used deformation magic to deform his body infinitely, then turned into a piece of white paper. The white paper floating in mid-air then folded itself and emitted a certain 'ticking' sound.
It sounded like the sound emitted by a metronome used when practicing musical instruments.
The paper dart folded from the white paper managed to bypass all the sea gold sand spores and the Blood Flame summoned by Sfendice burning his bloodline energy, and fled toward the door.
Clearly, the opponent wanted to escape.
"The Eternal Defense Field of Deformation School wizards, why are they all so strange, one after another." Locke immediately noticed that the opponent could deform himself so thoroughly; that was clearly his Eternal Defense Field, and the fixed ticking sound the paper dart made while flying was clearly the ruler required for a First Ring deformation spell.
The ruler system was something that Deformation School wizards inevitably had after reaching the First Ring stage.
The emergence of the ruler system gave the Deformation School the ability to safely deform and quickly change forms, taking the Deformation School up several levels.
Ordinary First Ring Deformation School wizards liked to use heartbeats as the [ruler] to express the passage of time and remind themselves.
Some First Ring wizards liked to carry clocks with them; the size of the [ruler] would affect the minimum and maximum volume of the objects they could deform, so choosing which kind of ruler was of paramount importance to the Shapeshifters of the Deformation School.
Locke could not think of a good way to target the Black Wizard's [ruler] for a while, but the opponent wanting to come and go freely within the White Dragon Tower was underestimating him.
The astral ring on the middle finger of Locke's right hand flashed with a magical radiance. He directly mobilized the authority in his hand to draw an elemental torrent from the elemental fission pool of the White Dragon Tower.
Using the Wizard Tower's magic amplification module to amplify his magic!
With the support of the current authority of the Wizard Tower, Locke could be invincible at the same level without using any trump cards.
At the same time, all magic was amplified!
Moreover, he could directly call upon the Spell Models engraved in the elemental fission pool of the White Dragon Tower to attack the enemy.
Immediately, a materialized bloodline energy shrouded the Black Wizard's head, turning into a beast claw that struck the paper dart he had transformed into.
The solidified bloodline common spell of the White Dragon Tower—[Beast's Tribulation]!
A spiritual beast claw condensed from bloodline energy, like a seal, was stamped onto the Black Wizard.
Sfendice was stunned for a moment, looking at the astral ring in Locke's hand in astonishment. "Lord Locke, you actually possess such high authority that you can use the Wizard Tower's [Beast's Tribulation]!"
Beast's Tribulation was a higher-level bloodline common spell; its efficiency in converting bloodline energy into attack power was extremely high, and it had the special ability of the Wizard Tower to amplify ordinary magic.
As a result, once Beast's Tribulation was activated, even a First Ring Crystallization Wizard could not withstand this blow.
And if one possessed the highest authority of the Wizard Tower and had the magic level of a First Ring Crystallization Wizard, using [Beast's Tribulation] could activate the maximum power mode of Beast's Tribulation, or even more complex war bloodline spells, so even if a Second Ring Wizard came, they would have to retreat in defeat.
Once six Crystallization Wizards simultaneously presided over six Wizard Towers and activated the highest authority, they could mobilize the highest-level bloodline common spells solidified and engraved behind the six signal towers.
Legend had it that it could resist a Third Ring Wizard!
At this moment, the Black Wizard felt that the spell [Beast's Tribulation] actually had a locking function; no matter how he folded and deformed himself, he could not avoid the beast claw stepping over.
He immediately realized that this was the most common form of damage locking in Bloodline Studies at the First Ring stage—[Bloodline Identification]. Bloodline Studies attack methods could lock onto your bloodline spirituality at the moment of attack.
This was the point that Deformation School wizards found most troublesome.
Because once their bloodline spirituality was locked, no matter how they, the Deformation School wizards, deformed, they could not dodge.
At this moment, after folding himself three times in a row and turning into different paper birds, paper grasshoppers, and paper airplanes, he still could not avoid the blood-red claw condensed from bloodline spirituality descending from the sky.
Bloodline Studies spells were actually very effective at countering Deformation School spells.
Previously, Alicia had only been defeated because of her lack of combat experience, which caused her mentality to collapse against the clown leader of the Magic Thief Clown Group.
'Bang!' The Black Wizard was forced out of the First Ring deformation spell [Paper Substitute] and spat out blood. He looked back at the astral ring in Locke's hand, obviously not expecting that the target he was going to steal data from was just an outsider wizard, yet he possessed the authority ring of the White Dragon Tower.
If he had known this, he certainly would not have accepted this theft mission. Stealing data from a wizard with control authority within the Wizard Tower was simply too risky.
However, [Paper Substitute] was his Eternal Defense Field, so 10 seconds after his spell was broken, and after his right hand was broken by Locke using the Botany spell Golden Sand Torrent, he regained the ability to use [Paper Substitute].
He turned into a piece of white paper again, weaving through the wall of an alley on White Dragon Street, and quickly folded himself into a paper dart, entering the sewer.
Sfendice looked at the vanished Black Wizard with an ugly expression, looking at Locke as if he were his backbone. "Lord Locke, that Black Wizard is gone, that Liquefaction Stage Black Wizard who sneaked into the White Dragon Tower is gone. What should we do?"
He glared fiercely at Barnaby.
He could forgive other things, but he could absolutely not forgive the act of luring a Black Wizard into the White Dragon Tower as a wizard of the Plutarch Family.
At this moment, the look in Sfendice's eyes toward Barnaby was already icy cold.
And Barnaby's heart turned cold too.
He knew that now, no matter how big his background was, he was absolutely finished; he would have to go to the Wizard Prison.
Locke raised his left hand and whispered a spell. During the previous battle, Locke had let a Shadow Eye Grass slip into the shadow of the paper the opponent had transformed into.
No matter how he changed his form, he would always have a shadow. As long as there was a shadow, the Eye Grass could slip into it.
Thus, that Shadow Eye Grass followed the opponent, and no matter how the opponent ran, he could not get rid of it.
Locke closed his left eye and saw the Black Wizard, who was seriously injured, in the sewer. "He cannot run. I want to see who hired him to steal my data."
Locke quickly recalled the contestants in the Yunze Cup competition group. He did not expect that there would be such an insidious person among them.
Indeed, by looking at some peripheral data, one could know the specific progress of his experiment. Could it be that Wizard Alaric from the Hui Ming Borderland?
But looking at his big-mouthed appearance, it did not seem to be his style of doing things.
Locke directly transmitted his vision through the Shadow Eye Grass and transmitted his magic with his vision.
And after activating the authority of the White Dragon Tower, all magic had an amplification effect, and Earth-Polarity Elemental Magnetism would also be amplified!
Because he used the Wizard Tower, even if the opponent was a wizard of the same level as him, he could quickly crush them and directly bypass their Eternal Defense Field, making them completely lose their combat effectiveness.
At that time, in the sewer, no matter how the Deformation School wizard changed his body, he could not get rid of the Eye Grass hidden in his shadow.
"Damn it." The Deformation School wizard's expression changed drastically. He returned to his original form, took out a silver dagger from his astral ring, and then turned around and stabbed fiercely at his shadow, but the Shadow Eye Grass slipped directly into the deeper part of his shadow to avoid his attack.
"How can there be such a tricky magic plant."
"Slipping into the shadow, completely unable to be attacked, and it is attached to my shadow, constantly transmitting the opponent's vision. I have never heard of such a troublesome magic plant before. Such a useful magic plant should have been used by many Botanical Wizards!"
"Could it be that it was just developed recently?"
"No way, I have already pulled away a distance from that wizard. Can this magic plant still transmit the opponent's magic? To be able to cultivate such an excellent magic plant in this kind of place." The Black Wizard's heart jumped into his throat, feeling the terrifying magic fluctuations coming from his shadow.
He only had time to take out a defensive Magic item worth 50,000 magic stones from his astral ring.
The next moment, a burst of Earth-Polarity Elemental Magnetism erupted from the shadow, enveloping him, and because of the Wizard Tower's magic amplification, it directly blasted the small silver shield in front of him into nine pieces.