Damian did a rough count. He estimated that the pack of Lantern Monster Apes surrounding them numbered around fifty. The sight of so many glowing orange lanterns hanging inverted from the dark canopy was both spectacular and deeply unsettling, casting an orange light over the entire grove.
"There are too many of them!" the Team Leader Wizard shouted over the screeching. "Watch out for their lantern heads! Don't stare directly at the light, or the light will induce severe hallucinations! Can anyone cast Mist Magic?"
The orange light of a Lantern Monster Ape was designed to hypnotize and confuse. Once the prey was dazed, the beasts would drop from the canopy and extend the mouthparts from the lanterns to suck the prey's flesh and blood. The glowing lights were simply too numerous right now, making it almost impossible not to look at them.
"I have something better!" A young wizard pulled a smooth, black glass orb from his robes and smashed it against the ground. It was an artifact imbued with Mist Magic.
Instantly, a thick, hazy grey fog erupted, blanketing the clearing.
Filtered through the heavy mist, the orange lanterns were reduced to faint, harmless glimmers. This completely neutralized the hypnotic effect while still allowing the wizards to track the Lantern Monster Apes' positions in the canopy.
"Now's the time!" the young wizard yelled. "Suppress them with area-of-effect magic!"
The Court Wizards and mercenaries immediately unleashed their magic. Wind Blades, lightning, and fireballs tore through the canopy, alongside massive boulders shot out into the surroundings.
Two dozen wizards fighting in a coordinated formation functioned like a high-powered artillery battery. In an instant, shrill screeches echoed from within the mist as the glowing orange lanterns were extinguished one by one. Damian could sense that this initial barrage had completely decimated their front line.
Infuriated, the surviving Lantern Monster Apes shrieked and leaped rapidly across the branches, quickly closing in on the wizards.
Like most forest-dwelling beasts, the Lantern Monster Apes were terrified of fire. Damian cast a heavily modified Hand of Burning, conjuring a massive, spectral hand of roaring flame. He swatted two diving Lantern Monster Apes out of the air, the intense heat instantly charring them to a crisp in no time.
The Team Leader Wizard noticed the effectiveness immediately. "Suppress them with fire-element magic! Keep them pushed back! If they get inside the perimeter, the grey mist won't be able to block the lanterns' mental attacks!"
Preparing magic took some time, so several wizards used their magical artifacts to cast instant spells. An invisible force repelled the approaching Lantern Monster Apes; some failed to grip the branches after being pushed back and fell from the trees.
At some point, the ground below had turned into a swamp. The monster apes that fell into the swamp struggled violently but could not break free, instead sinking deeper and deeper into the marsh.
With the frontline secured, the wizards finished weaving their fire-element magic, and they hurled over a dozen massive fireballs toward the group of Lantern Monster Apes.
The fireballs exploded among the apes, and the scorching flames instantly engulfed the surrounding Lantern Monster Apes.
The pack finally broke. The remaining Lantern Monster Apes lost their will to fight and began to flee in all directions. Some Lantern Monster Apes, having lost their minds, even fled in the wrong direction, heading toward the Exploration Team's position.
Link drew a silver longsword—a rare, Goblin-wrought weapon. He wasn't particularly skilled with fire-element magic and had been slacking off just now. With a casual swing, he sent out a Wind Blade, slicing an approaching Lantern Monster Ape in two.
Link smoothly sheathed his weapon. "The weaknesses of these Lantern Monster Apes are too obvious; they're easy to deal with."
Damian controlled the Hand of Burning to slap a Lantern Monster Ape to death. "It would still be very troublesome if encountered in small numbers. After all, Lantern Monster Apes are social creatures; seeing one means there's a tribe nearby."
The surrounding forest soon fell eerily quiet. The defeated ape pack had run far away, with about a dozen or so monster apes escaping. Lantern Monster Apes didn't have any high-value materials on them, so no one bothered to give chase.
Once a Lantern Monster Ape died, the light from its lantern no longer affected the mind.
Damian was curious about the lantern structure on the Lantern Monster Ape's body. He found an ape corpse to examine the lantern and touched the body while he was at it, discovering that these monster apes contained no energy that the metal disc in his mind could absorb.
The structure of the lantern on the ape's neck was simple. It looked like an oval lantern on the outside, supported by bone. The wick, which emitted an orange light, was the ape's mouthpart, looking like a long, thin lamp tube. The lantern was not actually the ape's head; the monster ape's brain was located at the junction between the lantern and the neck.
Interestingly, Damian couldn't find any visible eye structures on the monster ape, and he didn't know how they observed the world.
Logistics Wizard Al suggested, "These dead Lantern Monster Apes can continue to glow for a few days. Let's take the lanterns and use them as streetlights; they might come in handy if we need to travel at night."
The Team Leader Wizard looked at the sky and nodded, saying, "Let's camp here tonight. Clean up the area to avoid attracting other Magical Creatures."
The magic had blasted a clearing in this area, leaving it free of trees and providing an excellent, unobstructed line of sight.
A campfire was soon lit in the center of the camp. However, this was no ordinary fire. It was a specialized magical artifact that maintained a constant, comfortable temperature in a small area, drove away wild beasts, and masked the camp's scent.
Damian took a bite of his roasted meat and found that Logistics Wizard Al's cooking was quite good. The venison was roasted perfectly—charred on the outside and tender on the inside. Logistics Wizard Al had also found some mushrooms nearby and boiled a meat soup with the mushrooms and dried meat.
Taking a slow sip of the meat soup, he observed the wizards in the camp. The Exploration Team was subtly divided into two small groups: the Chamber of Commerce wizards huddled together, while the three Court Wizard squads gathered on the other side of the campfire.
Judging by their seating arrangement, the true core of the Chamber of Commerce group was not the Team Leader Wizard, but rather Madam Jill's twin granddaughters, who sat heavily guarded in the very middle.
The atmosphere among the three Court Wizard squads was also fairly harmonious; Link was acquainted with the captains of the other two squads.
One captain was a strikingly tall witch; she was the tallest among the Court Wizards and had a very hearty personality. The other captain was a delicate-looking male wizard who even had long chestnut hair and a soft, androgynous voice. If Link hadn't explicitly introduced him as a man, Damian wouldn't have known he was male.
After dinner, the Team Leader Wizard came over and said, "Let's each send one person to handle the night watch; we'll arrange a rotation."
Wizard Apprentices couldn't go without sleep yet, so someone needed to keep watch.
The tall witch took the initiative to say, "I'll take the first half of the night."
Link nodded. "Then I'll take the second half."
After practicing his Meditation Method for a while, Damian went to sleep.
In his haze, he was suddenly startled awake by a sensation of falling.
Damian jerked awake and quickly looked around. Everyone in the camp except for Damian had vanished without a trace.
Damian stood up quickly and drew his wand.
The light cast by the campfire was actually black and white.
Looking out beyond the range of the campfire's light, the forest had turned into a hazy grey; the entire world was left with only three colors: black, white, and grey.
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