Exploring Technology in a Wizard World

Chapter 180: Chapter 179: Calm Before the Storm, Waves Rise Again
 

As everyone’s eyes widened in shock, a massive figure ascended to the deck. Spanning five meters in length, comparable to a two-story wooden building in height, its presence was more imposing than two Elite Sirens combined. The amber eyes slowly rotated, surveying everything around it.

If initially, the lesser Mermaids came, followed by the Elite Soldiers, now came the Mermaid leader.

Though there was only one Mermaid leader, everyone on the deck clearly felt that it was more formidable than all of the Elite Sirens combined earlier.

This! This! This!

Was this elimination test too difficult? Were they planning to eliminate everyone?

With color drained from their faces, the Wizard Apprentices’ expressions changed as well. Facing the powerful Mermaid leader, they could not muster the confidence to win, and they didn’t even feel they could survive an attack from it.

In despair, people glanced toward Dempsey standing in a corner, when suddenly, Dempsey reacted and spoke calmly, “Don’t panic, it’s not yours to handle; it’s ours.”

“Uh, this…” Everyone’s breathing eased.

“Yes, it’s ours. After all, you’re not capable of handling it yet,” Dempsey continued. As his words ended, three other Wizards appeared, rising from the sea outside the deck— they had been controlling the pace of the test from there to prevent all Mermaids from attacking at once, as those below the Wizard Level wouldn’t stand a chance.

At this moment, the three Wizards rose up, floating behind the Mermaid leader, while Dempsey looked on expressionlessly at the leader.

The Mermaid leader remained completely oblivious, its eyes revealing a bloodthirsty gaze as it watched over everyone on the deck.

“Roar!”

The Mermaid leader bellowed, preparing to attack, but the four Wizards were quicker to strike.

“Sploosh, sploosh, sploosh!”

In quick succession, the three Wizards floating behind the Mermaid leader—Siv, Louis, and Quinton—simultaneously waved their hands, creating three meters-long spears from rainwater. These spears pierced the body of the Mermaid leader without resistance, like knives through butter, nailing it down to the deck.

“Hiss, hiss!”

The Mermaid leader twisted its body, attempting to escape the control of the three water spears, but the spears seemed to have special magical properties that prevented any escape.

Then, Siv descended to the front of the Mermaid leader, placing one hand on its body and prying open its mouth with the other. With a “crack,” he pulled out a fang from its mouth.

Enraged, the Mermaid leader thrashed about, but the hand Siv had on its body seemed to be squeezing its heart, rendering it powerless no matter how furious it became.

Siv reached in again and with another “crack,” he pulled out the second tooth. Without pausing, he continued to search, and soon with two more “cracks,” he extracted two more fangs, only then stopping— it turned out the Mermaid leader had undergone some mutation and grown four fangs.

These fangs, completely dissimilar to typical Mermaid teeth, were over ten centimeters long and more than a centimeter thick. They resembled ivory but were more crystalline and transparent, shimmering faintly under the night sky as if made of crystal.

After extracting the four teeth, Siv tossed one to Dempsey, threw one each to Louis and Quinton, and kept one for himself.

After completing these actions, Siv nodded toward Dempsey and spoke, “It’s done.”

“Um,” Dempsey said.

Siv suddenly released his hand from the body of the mermaid leader and darted to the side, while Dempsey raised his hand and a greyish energy arrow flew out, hitting the fully resisting mermaid leader in the blink of an eye.

The mermaid leader shuddered violently, the roar he wanted to let out cut off in his throat with a “ugh,” as his body quickly collapsed. Then it shrank at a visible rate, turning into a pile of black ash.

A downpour rushed down, a gust of wind blew, and in an instant, it all vanished cleanly.

Having done all this, Dempsey looked up at the sky, his eyes twinkled and he said to the three Siv, “Since the test is over, there’s no need for this storm to continue causing trouble, let’s dispel it.”

“Okay,” the three Siv replied.

Dempsey raised his hand, and a beam of blue light shot out, piercing the sky, and the three wizards almost simultaneously shot out a beam of blue light each.

They then saw the gathered dark clouds in the sky suddenly blasted open, a series of “rumbling” noises sounded.

Finally, with a “slash,” a large expanse of dark clouds split apart, the falling raindrops quickly diminished, turning into a drizzle in just a moment, and the wind also lessened a lot, swiftly changing from a violent gale to a breeze.

Everyone stared wide-eyed, truly experiencing the strength of a genuine wizard.

With a wave of his hand, he killed a powerful demonized creature and changed the weather in an instant—it was simply divine.

Richard’s eyes flickered, and he speculated in his mind, “The energy arrow emitted, does it have an ultra-high temperature, able to quickly burn off the body of the mermaid leader? And the blue light emitted that artificially dispelled the rain, is it due to increasing condensation nuclei, or something else? Weakening the wind seemed to involve altering air currents, but the process must not be simple. It seems spells above Zero-Circle Magic are true spells and hold more research value…”

Dempsey spoke up and said to everyone, “Alright, this third test is considered complete, and those of you who survived are qualified. Next, you can collect your rewards—mermaid teeth. Besides the teeth, their fur and flesh have certain value too if you aren’t bothered by the trouble and can strip and preserve them. Also, remember to clean the deck.”

After finishing his speech, Dempsey headed toward the ship’s cabin, and the other three wizards landed from mid-air onto the deck and walked into the cabin together.

Everyone exchanged glances and then pounced on the mermaid corpses on the deck.

…

After a while.

Above the ocean, the rain had already stopped, and the wind had completely dissipated; except for the occasional sound of the waves, the night was utterly peaceful.

The large ship sailed, the people on the deck had already collected their rewards and were busy dealing with other matters.

Firstly, they had to place the bodies of the deceased students into a small boat, then they released the ropes letting the boat drift away, providing a simple sea burial.

Perhaps the process was very simple, everything that could be simplified was, but it was the limit of what they could do. After all, the dead had neither relatives nor friends on the ship; they couldn’t have a grand funeral even if they wanted. That said, albeit as simple as the funeral was, it was still better than the fate of the dead mermaids.

The dead mermaids’ bodies were pushed off the deck by everyone, plunging into the sea with “plop, plop” sounds, disposed of in the ocean. Blood seeping from the wounds in the mermaid bodies stained a swath of sea near the large ship red, attracting carnivorous fish to tear at them, leaving them mangled and beyond recognition.

Quite some time later, when the people had cleaned the deck, just as they were about to rest, someone suddenly pointed toward the ocean and asked in astonishment, “What… what is that?”

Uh? Everyone turned their heads to look.