The environment deep within the core area of the Winter Forest was vastly different from the canyon regions on the outskirts.
Here, towering ancient trees that would take several people to embrace were an everyday sight.
Moreover, the danger level was exponentially higher. The biological clans thriving in this deep territory were far more aggressive and troublesome. Just searching the perimeter for a few days had left the entire Exploration Team utterly exhausted.
Damian Black's spirits, however, were actually quite high; he was able to return to the Hogwarts World from time to time to rest and recover in a safe environment.
Ever since entering the core area of the Winter Forest, the distance to that massive, looming shadow in the Mist World had grown noticeably shorter during his dreams.
When he dreamt in this specific region of the forest, he could even vaguely make out the base of the colossal shadow piercing through the gray fog.
Damian had a strong premonition: if he entered the dream state from somewhere specific within this core area, he would finally be able to reach the shadow's true location.
As they navigated the dense woods, Link would periodically cast a specialized bloodline tracking magic, attempting to sense Old Watson's exact location.
Because they didn't have a specific heading for the elusive Shadow White Deer, the team had unanimously agreed to follow Link's suggestion and search in Old Watson's direction first.
Now, they had finally found Old Watson's campsite.
The Protective Magic Array guarding the perimeter was still active; from the outside, the camp was completely invisible. Old Watson and his group had clearly been using a high-tier, visual-concealment artifact.
However, upon stepping through the barrier, the team was met with a terrifying scene. The campsite was completely trashed. Tents were shredded, and deep scorch marks scarred the earth; a fierce, desperate battle had clearly taken place here.
The Campfire Artifact in the center of the camp was also a specialized magical artifact. Thanks to its enduring warmth, the ruined camp had not been buried by the falling snow.
Link frowned deeply, his eyes scanning the wreckage. He didn't see Old Watson or any of his companions. Yet, the compass of his bloodline tracking magic pointed directly to the center of this very camp.
"Link, there's blood over here," Damian called out, noticing a dark, frozen splatter near the magical campfire.
Link hurried over, squatting down to cast a secondary bloodline confirmation spell. The magic glowed a sickly pale color. "This is my grandfather's blood."
Link anxiously followed the trail of frozen spatters, discovering several more pools of blood leading away from the fire. Following the gruesome trail to the edge of the camp, he stopped in front of a massive, ancient tree.
Thick, dried blood stained the bark, making it look as though the tree itself had been bleeding from within.
Link drew the longsword at his waist. With a swift, desperate strike, he cleaved the thick bark away, revealing a hollowed-out cavity.
A corpse was hidden inside.
"Grandfather!" Link cried out.
The body stuffed into the tree trunk was indeed Old Watson.
Link hurriedly pulled his grandfather's frozen body from the cavity, his face twisted in profound grief. He had been raised by Old Watson; his love and respect for the old man ran incredibly deep.
After carefully laying the body down, Link examined the wounds. There was a massive, fatal puncture wound straight through the chest, piercing from the back to the front.
"Grandfather was murdered," Link said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, deadly whisper.
The team carefully searched the surrounding area, but no traces of the attackers could be found.
When Old Watson was young, he had been a powerful Formal Wizard. Though a near-fatal injury had damaged his magical foundation and caused his power level to fall, he was still a seasoned veteran. Whoever—or whatever—had killed him was incredibly dangerous.
Before leaving the royal capital, Old Watson had left the bulk of his accumulated wealth at home, including a highly valuable storage-type magical artifact.
Magical storage items in this world were astronomically expensive; most Wizard Apprentices could never dream of owning one.
Fortunately, Link had brought his own family storage artifact with him. With trembling hands, he gently placed his grandfather's corpse inside the dimensional space, determined to take the body home for a proper burial.
Having found nothing else of value in the ruined camp, Link stood up. He looked at Damian and Anna, his eyes hard. "Let's go. The others have been waiting long enough."
Aside from Link's trio, the rest of the team did a final sweep of the perimeter before heading out.
Once Link's group rejoined the main formation, the solemn wizards continued their trek deeper into the forest, resuming their search for the Shadow White Deer.
Noticing the deep fatigue setting into the team's bones, the Team Leader steered his Land Strider Bird toward Lilith's position at the front of the column.
"Miss Lilith," the Team Leader suggested carefully, "many people in the formation are reaching their limits. We cannot stay in this core area indefinitely to help you hunt the Shadow White Deer. You need to make a final plan."
Lilith tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear, pondering for a moment. "We will search for two more days. Let's set up camp early today so everyone can rest."
"Tomorrow, we will deploy the Beast-Luring Potion designed to attract magical creatures," Lilith decided. "If it fails to draw out the Shadow White Deer—or if it attracts a beast that is simply too difficult to handle—we will abandon the mission and withdraw from the Winter Forest immediately."
The Team Leader nodded in agreement. "Understood. I will inform the others once we make camp."
Just as he turned his mount, a series of strange, echoing laughs drifted out from the dense treeline.
"Hehe... hehehe..."
The laughter was incredibly eerie, grating against the ears. It made everyone feel as if thousands of icy ants were crawling up their spines.
The Team Leader instantly drew his wand. "Alert! Defensive formation!"
A moment later, a horrifying, slovenly woman stumbled out of the shadows of the forest.
Her hair was dry, matted, and filthy. Large patches of her scalp had been violently torn away, exposing bloody, raw flesh. She wore a tattered, rotting wizard's robe, and the hands protruding from the sleeves were covered in festering scars.
As the horrified wizards watched, the woman raised her right hand. Using her single remaining fingernail, she began casually picking at the raw, bloody wounds on her own scalp.
The woman didn't look human at all. The Team Leader shouted a warning, "Stop right there! If you take one more step, we will attack!"
The strange woman acted as if she hadn't heard him. She continued shambling toward the wizard team, her head lolling to the side.
Damian narrowed his eyes, clearly perceiving the magical fluctuations radiating from her body. This creature was technically a Witch, but her magical signature was violently unstable—completely different from a normal human wizard.
The strange Witch smiled, her jaw unhinging slightly. "You... stay... feed... my darlings..."
Instantly, Damian sensed a massive, skittering presence surrounding their formation.
The Team Leader checked his Detection magic artifact and cursed loudly. "We're surrounded! Attack!"
More than twenty spells instantly flew toward the strange Witch. The veteran wizards had already been secretly channeling their magic the moment she appeared.
The strange Witch was instantly blown to bloody pieces by the barrage.
But before the wizards could even breathe a sigh of relief, a deafening, rustling sound erupted from the forest floor.
A dense, nightmarish swarm of insects poured out from the trees like a black tide.
These insects were the size of a man's fist. They possessed oval, beetle-like bodies connected to eight segmented, spider-like legs. Their exteriors were covered in a thick, armored chitin, and the gaps between their shell plates were lined with dozens of compound eyes that glowed with a dark, sinister red light.
To the team's horror, hundreds of the insects quickly crawled over one another, stacking and merging together. Within seconds, they perfectly recreated the upper half of the strange Witch's body. The lower half of her form remained a writhing pillar of stacked bugs.
"Hehe... darlings... quickly... eat..." the insect-Witch giggled.
Before she could finish her sentence, she was struck by a volley of fireballs, instantly blowing her form back into a shower of scattering bugs.
But the swarm simply didn't care. The Witch's upper body quickly condensed out of the tide once again.
Opening her mandibles, she let out a shrill, piercing scream. An invisible, destructive sound wave blasted toward the wizards.
Link grimaced in pain. He quickly grabbed the enchanted necklace resting against his chest and shouted, "Gather around me! Now!"
He channeled magic into the necklace, and a translucent, shimmering dome expanded outward, enveloping Link and the teammates closest to him.
The invisible sound wave crashed against the barrier, sending violent ripples across the shield's surface.
Most of the other wizards managed to deploy their own defensive measures in time. However, a few slower wizards were caught directly in the blast. They screamed in agony, feeling as if iron spikes had been driven into their eardrums. Blood poured freely from their ears, and they instantly collapsed, their combat effectiveness shattered.
Lilith stepped forward, holding her hands flat. A heavy, ancient spellbook floated in front of her, its pages flipping wildly on their own.
A moment later, a massive fireball, several meters in radius, condensed in the freezing air above her. It radiated a terrifying, suffocating aura of heat.
The moisture in the air instantly evaporated into steam. The thick snow on the surrounding trees and ground flash-melted into water, and the temperature of the entire battlefield skyrocketed.
Judging by Lilith's sickly pale complexion, channeling this tier of magic was taking a massive toll on her core.
With a final, desperate push, Lilith detonated the massive fireball.
It was as if a localized meteor shower had descended upon the forest. Hundreds of smaller, volatile fireballs rained from the sky, smashing mercilessly into the insect tide.
The swarm was instantly ignited. The sickening smell of roasting chitin and burning meat filled the air.
However, the swarm adapted with terrifying speed.
The surviving insects rapidly condensed, rolling over one another to form a massive, solid sphere. The flames could only burn the bugs trapped on the outer layer. The burning insect-ball then violently rolled forward like a juggernaut, barrelling straight toward the wizard formation.
As the outer insects burned to death and fell away, the gaps were instantly filled by fresh, living insects pushing out from the core.
Seeing the fiery juggernaut approaching, a bright light flashed in Damian's palm.
A jagged bolt of pure, runic lightning shot from his wand, slamming directly into the center of the rolling insect sphere.
The outer layer of bugs was instantly carbonized by the strike, but more importantly, the raw electrical current violently chained through the tightly packed swarm, instantly paralyzing the inner layers.
Unable to maintain their grip, countless paralyzed insects rained down, causing the massive sphere to rapidly disintegrate.
As the paralyzed bugs hit the forest floor, they were quickly swallowed by the residual flames Lilith had left behind.
The strange Witch's agonizing screams echoed from within the burning pile. As fewer and fewer living insects remained to sustain her consciousness, her voice grew weaker, eventually fading into nothingness.
"Well done, Black!" Lilith panted, offering rare praise. Her ultimate spell had consumed a massive amount of energy but failed to pierce the swarm's core. Thanks to Damian's perfectly timed lightning strike, they had successfully broken the juggernaut.
With the core threat neutralized, the wizards easily mopped up the remaining stragglers. The seemingly apocalyptic insect swarm was completely annihilated before it could breach their lines.
Exhausted and battered, the team immediately retreated a short distance and set up a heavily fortified camp to recover.
Later that night, Damian closed his eyes and drifted to sleep, instantly waking up in the Mist World.
However, the moment he opened his eyes, he noticed something completely unprecedented.
The mysterious metal disc embedded in his consciousness was actually glowing with a faint, pulsing light.
This was the very first time this had happened; the artifact had always remained dormant upon his entry into this gray fog realm.
Damian immediately drew his wand, his eyes quickly scanning his surroundings.
He was standing in the center of the phantom camp. The spectral campfire was still burning, emitting its usual gray-white light. Beyond the camp's invisible borders, the world was still swallowed by the endless, shifting gray fog.
On the surface, nothing seemed different.
Trusting the pulsing artifact, Damian stepped out of the camp and walked directly into the gray fog.
The environment within the mist perfectly mirrored the real-world core area of the Winter Forest. Towering, spectral ancient trees stood tall in the gloom, their massive trunks fading into the fog above.
From here, Damian could vaguely see the massive, monolithic shadow looming in the distance—the exact location the Antlered Girl had pointed to.
Damian had tried walking toward that shadow in the Mist World several times before, but the distance had always seemed infinite, like a mirage that constantly retreated as he advanced.
But this time, as he walked deeper into the gray fog, the light emitted by the metal disc in his mind grew increasingly intense.
A moment later, Damian spotted a familiar glimmer of light cutting through the fog ahead.
Cautiously stepping forward, he found himself standing at the edge of a very familiar campsite.
"Did I just walk in a circle?" Damian muttered, thinking he had somehow returned to the camp he had just left.
But he quickly realized this was a different location entirely.
This was the phantom version of the ruined camp where they had found Old Watson's body!
Unlike the real world, the campfire in the center of this phantom camp was still burning brightly, emitting a pale, gray-white light.
Moreover, there was actually someone sitting in the camp.
The figure had its back to Damian, sitting motionless in front of the spectral fire. Due to the heavy backlighting, Damian couldn't make out any distinct features, only a dark silhouette.
Seeming to notice his arrival, the figure slowly stood up and turned around.
Damian's breath hitched. The figure wasn't obscured by the backlight—it was literally pitch-black all over, like a three-dimensional silhouette cut from the void itself!
If Link had been there, he would have instantly recognized the terrifying truth. The outline of this pitch-black entity was an exact, perfect match for Old Watson.
The shadow-entity suddenly raised its right hand.
Damian's expression drastically changed. Relying on pure combat instinct, he violently threw himself to the side.
A beam of concentrated, obliterating black light struck the exact spot Damian had just been standing. The spectral ground instantly disintegrated into nothingness upon impact.
Damian hit the ground rolling. He immediately erected his runic Mage Armor and pointed his wand at the earth beneath the shadow-entity's feet.
The ground violently rolled and buckled like ocean waves. Unable to maintain its balance on the shaking earth, the pitch-black figure stumbled.
Before it could recover, Damian conjured a massive, burning hand of pure fire out of thin air. The fiery construct slammed down, grabbing the shadow-entity and instantly igniting it.
The pitch-black figure struggled wildly against the flames, writhing in apparent agony, yet it didn't utter a single scream.
A moment later, the entity stopped moving entirely.
Damian cautiously stepped forward to inspect the remains. The pitch-black figure had collapsed, turning into a thin, two-dimensional layer on the ground, looking exactly like a normal shadow.
Using his Invisible Hand to poke at the remains, Damian noticed something solid hidden within the shadow's center: a heavily damaged, cracked blue crystal.
Suddenly, the cracked crystal dissolved into a streak of pure blue light and vanished.
Damian gasped as the blue light instantly reappeared inside his own mind, resting directly upon the metal disc!
The mysterious power contained within the metal disc surged outward, enveloping the damaged blue crystal. When the light finally subsided, the cracks had completely vanished. The blue crystal was now flawless and perfect.
Damian stood stunned. Suddenly, the metal disc transmitted a complex piece of information directly into his consciousness.
It was a spatial coordinate.
Moreover, it was a coordinate specifically anchoring to a location within this Mist World.
Before he could process the information, the light radiating from the metal disc flared blindingly bright. A sudden, intense sense of weightlessness seized Damian's heart.
In an instant, his figure vanished from the ruined camp.
When Damian finally regained his senses, the gray fog had parted.
He was standing directly at the base of a colossal, tower-like structure. It was unimaginably huge, its ancient walls reaching straight up into the heavens.
Only the very bottom of the giant structure was visible; the rest of the monolithic spire was completely swallowed by the swirling gray fog above.
This giant tower was the massive shadow Damian had been seeing in the distance all this time.
Taking a deep breath, Damian placed his boot on the first stone step leading to the tower's entrance.
Instantly, the entire structure seemed to come alive, emitting a deep, resonant vibration that shook the earth.
"Unknown visitor detected..." a disjointed, mechanical voice echoed directly into Damian's mind. " Core Hub fragment detected... Analyzing weight... Processing access permission..."
A moment later, the static cleared, and the voice became perfectly smooth and synthesized.
"Wizard Tower permission transfer initiated... Holder change successful. You have been recognized as the new Prime Master of the Wizard Tower."
Damian's heart pounded in his chest. This monolithic, heaven-piercing building was a genuine Wizard Tower? And he had just been recognized as its absolute owner?
"Who are you?" Damian asked aloud, his voice echoing in the empty courtyard.
The synthesized voice responded instantly. "Respected Master, I am Zero. The primary artificial Tower Spirit, at your service."
Damian caught the keyword. " Zero?"
He had read about ancient Wizard Towers in the modern Wizarding World's history books, but he didn't know if they possessed artificial intelligences like this. Judging by his experiences across two lifetimes, a 'Tower Spirit' was essentially the magical equivalent of an advanced AI.
"The Wizard Tower originally operated with twenty-four subordinate artificial Tower Spirits," Zero explained calmly.
"However, this structure has been continuously corroded by the gray fog of the Gap World for tens of thousands of years."
"Many internal sectors have suffered catastrophic damage, including the subterranean floors where the subordinate spirit data cores were housed. As a result, the other twenty-three Tower Spirits can no longer be initialized."
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