Wizard: Start with Biological Transformation to Grind Experience-Chapter 152 - 027: Powerful High-level Apprentice

Western border of the Dark Forest, Giant Monster Forest.

This place was originally a stretch of ordinary woods at the intersection of the Dark Forest and the human world. However, after three Giant Trolls recently migrated here and built their nests, it came to be known as the Giant Monster Forest.

One-Eyed Giant Monster.

This is a type of high-level demon in the Dark Forest, belonging to the giant species under the forest category. Standing between five to six meters tall, it possesses a massive single eye capable of emitting a Dissolving Beam that rapidly corrodes and disintegrates living beings. Its strength is extraordinarily savage, able to easily uproot large trees.

It favors eating humans, especially fresh young women, and it often ventures to villages and settlements in the human world to capture and devour them. These creatures are frequently featured as terrifying monsters in minstrel legends.

At the moment, a battle is taking place in this Giant Monster Forest.

On one side of the fight is the terrifying One-Eyed Giant Monster—three of them, to be exact.

The opposing side is a lone young boy.

The three monsters form a triangular formation, encircling the boy in the middle. Their enormous bodies resemble three mountains standing on the ground, exerting a suffocating pressure.

The boy stands alone in the center of the triangle, carrying no weapons, dressed only in a thin cloak.

After a brief stalemate, the giants make the first move.

"Roar!"

One of the giants grabs a weapon and swings it toward the boy’s head. The weapon, fashioned from a giant tree trunk, is thicker than a man’s waist and several meters long; its swing creates a violent sound of air tearing, even stirring up a fierce gust.

But faced with this horrifying attack, the boy casually raises his right hand to block. A loud "Bang!" echoes, and the movement of the giant’s hand comes to an abrupt halt.

Next, the boy clenches his palm inward.

Immediately, several transparent barriers emerge around the giant’s body, weaving into a triangular polyhedron. As Lynch’s hand continues to tighten, the polyhedron compresses inward rapidly.

"Crack-crack-crack—Bang!"

Amidst the sound of snapping bones, a loud "Bang!" erupts, and the enclosed giant is crushed into a mass of flesh and blood.

High-level apprentice force-field magic, [Polyhedron].

"Roar!"

The death of their companion instantly triggers the ferocity of the remaining two giants. Their gigantic single eyes widen in fury, emitting two gray beams of terrifying energy that shoot at the boy.

Faced with these incoming rays of destruction, the boy simply lifts his hand to block once more.

"Crack-crack-crack!"

With a crisp sound, an enormous amount of elements rapidly crystallize in front of the boy, forming a mirror-like crystal surface within moments.

The destructive Dissolving Beam strikes the crystal and is astonishingly reflected back.

High-level apprentice defensive magic, [Reflection Crystal].

Caught off guard, one of the giants is struck by the reflected rays—one hits its chest, creating a deep cavity, while another beam obliterates its head entirely.

"Boom!" With a heavy sound, the giant’s corpse falls hard onto the ground.

With two of its companions dead in quick succession, the final giant’s rage instantly clears to terror, filling its massive single eye with dread. It turns and starts to flee.

"Do you think you can escape?"

The boy sneers, extending his right hand outward. A howl of wind erupts as he summons a crescent-shaped Wind Blade several meters in diameter. Gripping it firmly, he sweeps it forward with a "Whoosh!" The Wind Blade flies out.

High-level wind-element magic, [Wind Splitting Slash].

"Splat!"

Like a silent wind passing through.

The fleeing giant halts abruptly, then its body splits down the center, blood and internal organs spilling sideways in an instant.

In a flash, three terrifying demons equivalent to high-level apprentices fall lifeless onto the ground.

The noisy forest regains its calm.

Having dealt with these giants, Lynch turns his gaze to the right-hand side, where a makeshift campfire and a pile of white bones are heaped. These belonged to humans captured and devoured by the One-Eyed Giants.

Lynch clicks his tongue and remarks, "How fancy—learned to eat cooked food, have they?"

The One-Eyed Giants straddle the line between beasts and intelligent lifeforms, possessing a certain level of intelligence, though not very advanced.

"Snap!"

Facing the pile of bones, Lynch raises his right hand and snaps his fingers.

"Crack-crack-crack!"

In that instant, the seemingly lifeless bones come alive, trembling and gathering rapidly. Heads align with heads, arms with arms, swiftly assembling into complete skeletons that form into a regiment.

Lynch retrieves several jars and places them on the ground. With a flick of his fingers, the skeletons rush to the corpses of the fallen giants, slicing them open and scooping out organs and flesh to store in the containers.

The former victims could never have imagined that, even in death, they would enact revenge in this manner.

Once the skeletons are set to work collecting materials, Lynch opens the system panel and begins to check his progress.

[Polyhedron Skill Level+36]

[Polyhedron Lv1: 126/5000]

[Reflection Crystal Skill Level+28]

[Reflection Crystal Lv1: 762/5000]

[Wind Splitting Slash+32]

[Wind Splitting Slash Lv1: 328/5000]

Unlike the numerous middle and low-level apprentice spells, high-level apprentice public spell templates are rare within the Tower. After all, there aren’t many apprentices who reach high-level rank, and those who do often follow a mentor and inherit their magic system rather than picking templates from public areas.

The Tower’s public spell template section contains only a dozen or so high-level apprentice spells. Setting aside those associated with Light and Water attributes, which Lynch doesn’t meet the conditions to learn, only eight spells are available for him to study.

Apart from the three he has mastered, the remaining five are: [Death Storm], a combination of Dark and Wind elements; [Hellfire], merging Fire and Dark elements; [Molten Rock Devour], a blend of Fire and Earth elements; [Puppet Show], from the mind control category; and [Flash].

However, Lynch has yet to reach the entry-level stage for these spells and currently cannot use them.

High-level apprentice spells are significantly more challenging compared to mid-level apprentice spells, requiring 2000 skill proficiency just to reach the entry-level stage.

Without entry-level mastery, Lynch cannot use [War Comprehension] to quickly increase proficiency. Fortunately, his [Magic Master] trait enables him to learn at a decent pace. He estimates that in the coming months, he should be able to achieve entry-level mastery.

Soon enough, the skeletons complete their collection task. Lynch stores the materials, now neatly jarred, into his Space Ring. He then orders the skeletons to dig graves for themselves and lie inside. Finally, he releases a range-based earth-element spell, [Earth Cover], to bury the deceased fully.

Creatures of the giant tier wreak massive destruction if they venture into the human world. Thus, whenever wizards discover one entering human territory, they issue bounty tasks for apprentices to eliminate them.

While burying the dead wasn’t part of the task Lynch took on, he doesn’t mind sparing a few moments to perform this act.

After setting the nest ablaze to destroy it, Lynch turns and sets on his return path.

...

Upon returning to the Tower’s task area, Lynch heads to complete his assignment. As he steps inside, a long-familiar voice calls out to him.

"Well, well, look who it is!"

Lynch turns his head while filing his task completion. Behind him stands a small green-skinned creature.

Lynch says in surprise, "Bike? When did you return?"

Several years ago, the Tower established a trial zone on the southern edge of the Dark Forest, sending apprentices there for combat training. At that time, Bike had been reassigned there, no longer managing the task area work.

Now seeing Bike again, Lynch feels a tinge of warmth. Ever since the goblin left, there hasn’t been anyone to cherry-pick high-quality tasks for him.

Bike grins and replies, "I returned to the Tower just yesterday."

He pauses and glances at Lynch’s chest, where three distinctive leaf-shaped emblems adorn it—symbols of a high-level apprentice’s status, the Three Wisdom Leaves.

With a hint of admiration, Bike remarks, "When I left, I was still arranging tasks for you; now upon return, I must address you as ’Sir’."

"I imagine next time we meet, I’ll have to call you ’Master,’ won’t I?"