Chapter 96: Gray-Spined Bee Swarm

The team continued their advance and exploration.

The injury of a magic apprentice would not affect the entire team's operations.

Moreover, this was already within expectations.

How could there be no casualties in land reclamation?...

In fact, if not for the newly emerged ley lines, within the two-kilometer zone on both sides of the official road, one would have seen almost no ley line creatures appearing after years of repeated sweeps by magic users.

But now, everything was different.

The ley line creatures emerging from the new ley lines were not like those that had become "indigenous," knowing that the vicinity of the official road was human "territory" and not to be approached.

Furthermore, the deep mountain forests far from the official road were basically occupied by "old ley line creatures."

By comparison, these "transitional zones" that had been cleared out had instead become "no-man's-land" in the eyes of the "new ley line creatures."

Thus, they became the best landing spots in the eyes of these "new ley line creatures."

"There!" The middle-aged magic user leading the group had a flash of spiritual light in his eyes; this time, he was the first to discover the ley line creature.

The team members looked in the direction he indicated.

In the distance stood a towering tree, estimated to be over ten meters thick, its trunk pitch-black like iron and covered in cracks.

And within those cracks, one could see with the naked eye black insects resembling wasps clinging to the surface.

These black insects lay motionless on the tree trunk, their own color blending perfectly with the bark; if not for the middle-aged magic user's indication, they would have been very difficult to notice.

"Gray-Spined Bees, Rank 0 ley line creatures. The stingers on their tails can be fired. The individual threat of a Gray-Spined Bee is not great, but they always appear in swarms and are extremely afraid of fire." The middle-aged magic user quickly stated the information about the insects.

"Raise your hand if you have mastered fire attack spells," he said in a low voice.

Seven or eight hands were raised sparsely, including Gao De's.

Out of more than twenty magic apprentices, only about one-third had mastered fire attack spells.

"Attack with me, and strive to wipe out most of these Gray-Spined Bees in the first wave."

"Among the rest, those who have mastered area-of-effect attack spells, get ready. After we attack, you immediately launch the second wave of offensives to mop up," the middle-aged magic user gave simple combat instructions.

He could only give such simple combat instructions.

Firstly, everyone was a temporarily assembled team, and no one was clear about each other's strength or the spells they had mastered.

Secondly, a combat plan that was too complex would not be coordinated well by everyone.

In this situation, a monotonous and straightforward tactic was actually the most suitable.

Everyone nodded one after another.

Thus, following the middle-aged magic user's order, the magic users who had mastered fire attack spells quickly triggered their spell models.

Gao De took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart—the Gray-Spined Bee was exactly the type of gregarious ley line creature he liked most!

He also triggered the 【Fire Arrow+】 spell model.

A scorching aura immediately permeated the surrounding air.

Everyone cast their respective fire spells.

Several spell flames of different shapes intertwined in the air into a small sea of fire, whistling toward the Gray-Spined Bee swarm clinging to the tree trunk.

Among them, the most prominent in power was the spell released by the leading middle-aged magic user.

And what made Gao De slightly surprised was that the fire attack spell released by the middle-aged magic user was actually 【Fire Arrow】 as well, exactly the same as his.

Of course, both in power and momentum, it surpassed his by more than a notch.

"High-circle magic users still use low-rank spells, and at the same time, as the magic user's rank increases, the power of the spells also increases."

These thoughts flashed through Gao De's mind quickly.

Boom! The fire attacks arrived one after another; once they touched a solid object, they would trigger a slight explosion.

The Gray-Spined Bee swarm was startled by this sudden fire attack.

They flew about in a panic, but the fire spread too fast, swallowing a large number of Gray-Spined Bees in an instant, emitting a sizzling sound.

The Gray-Spined Bee swarm clearly did not possess any special traits. Under the scorching fire, they turned into ashes without much struggle.

Just this one wave of offensive had reduced the Gray-Spined Bee swarm attached to the towering tree by more than half.

The remaining Gray-Spined Bees, startled, immediately flew out from the tree trunk.

Even after a round of clearing, these remaining Gray-Spined Bees were still dense, looking like several gray clouds rising from the tree trunk.

Buzz buzz buzz! These gray clouds, emitting an irritating buzzing sound, crossed the gradually subsiding line of fire and surged toward Gao De's side, seemingly preparing for revenge.

But the magic apprentices who had not attacked in the first wave and had mastered area-of-effect attack spells now cast the spells they had already prepared.

Among them were 【Acid Splash】, which Gao De was extremely familiar with, as well as poison gas attacks, and one person even cast a lightning spell, which made Gao De glance sideways slightly.

However, most of the magic users in the team were wild magic users, so the means they mastered were very singular.

Counting carefully, there were only six people who cast spells in the second round.

In other words, the entire temporary team, which was a team of wild magic users specifically selected for having attack spells, actually had half the people without area-of-effect attack spell means. Was it that they didn't want to?

Certainly not; it was nothing more than being unable to learn them.

The spell formulas publicly sold by the Magic User Association were all functional spells.

For wild magic users, wanting to learn and master attack spells had always been an extremely difficult thing.

This made Gao De have to sigh once again at the difficulty of the survival environment for wild magic users under knowledge monopoly.

After the second round of spells, the approaching gray clouds were reduced by more than half again.

And Gao De and others who had mastered fire spells had already released their second round of spells to attack.

The flames erupted in an instant, clearing a large area again, and it was unknown how many more Gray-Spined Bees were resolved.

It was just that after these two rounds of entanglement, a small portion of the Gray-Spined Bees finally approached.

Swish swish swish! The next moment, these Gray-Spined Bees raised their tails.

One by one, the tail stingers shot out like raindrops toward the magic users in the team.

These Gray-Spined Bees were only the size of a thumb individually, but the power of the stingers they shot could not be ignored.

At the very least, penetrating several layers of clothing was not a problem, and the quantity was too large, dense and numerous.

Gao De's heart skipped a beat, and in his spell sea, mana flashed across another spell model.

He did not make any movements, but a layer of gray light flashed across Gao De's entire skin at this moment.

【Blade Protection+】! Bang bang bang! About twenty or so tail stingers shot toward Gao De.

But these tail stingers, shooting onto Gao De's skin at this moment, were like hitting a layer of cowhide with excellent elasticity, bouncing off one after another.

Others were not so lucky; either they had not mastered defensive spells, or their reactions were not fast enough, and they were all injured to varying degrees by the stingers shot by the Gray-Spined Bees.

Some people with particularly slow reactions, who did not have time to cover their faces, suddenly had small puncture wounds appear on their faces, with blood beads seeping out, looking extremely ferocious.

Seeing this scene, Gao De couldn't help but secretly rejoice that he had put the source points of the Fierce Bat into 【Blade Protection】.

The one spellcasting action saved after adding points made the spellcasting speed of his 【Blade Protection+】 almost only take a single thought.

Rank 0 ley line creatures mostly did not possess supernatural power; they were just slightly tougher wild beasts.

In this situation, 【Blade Protection】, which increased "physical resistance," was far more practical than 【Resistance Enhancement】, which increased "magic resistance."

Fortunately, after these few rounds of cleaning, the Gray-Spined Bees had been significantly reduced, and the stingers shot by the remaining Gray-Spined Bees had not yet reached the level where quantitative change leads to qualitative change.

So although many people were injured, most were minor injuries, and no one was in life-threatening danger.

The magic apprentices gritted their teeth, temporarily ignoring the tingling pain coming from their wounds, and once again cast spells to sweep away the remaining Gray-Spined Bees.

Acid, poison gas, and lightning erupted one after another.

After this wave of offensive, the swarm could no longer form a group, leaving only a sparse small patch that retreated in all directions amidst the buzzing sound, hiding into the dense forest.

"If the Gray-Spined Bees don't form a swarm, they don't pose much of a threat." The leading middle-aged magic user saw this scene and did not pursue them relentlessly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 97 =====