Chapter 27: The Wizard Apprentice’s Wild Imagination

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Wizard Apprentice’s Wild Imagination

The world spun.

When Chen Shang landed, he bent his knees to absorb the impact.

He was surrounded by a forest. It was an incredibly primeval forest. The canopy blotted out most of the sky, and the tree trunks were so massive that it would take three or four people to wrap their arms around one. The bark was overgrown with moss and ferns, with dense aerial roots dangling from the branches. The air was humid, carrying the scent of rotting leaves and dirt, while the humus layer beneath his feet felt soft and yielding.

His training as a Wizard Apprentice allowed Chen Shang to rapidly assess his surroundings: gravity, air composition, temperature, humidity...

It was a habitable ecological Plane! As for more detailed data, that would require in-depth testing.

Then, the Celestial Net Access Device on his wrist chimed.

[Mission issued!]

[Survive. Harvest a Hallucinogenic Mushroom.]

Chen Shang frowned in thought. Generally speaking, the shorter the message, the deadlier the task. Survive? That meant danger was present. As for the Hallucinogenic Mushroom? He accessed the Celestial Net Access Device but couldn’t find any relevant data. That meant this item was a specialty of the examination world and wasn’t categorized as a Wizard resource.

He turned off the device and signaled the Ben Bo’Erbas behind him to advance.

The sixty Mechanical Species scattered silently, their figures fading in and out of the tree shadows. The high humidity left them completely in their element. Combined with [Scent Concealment], they seemed to blend perfectly into the forest as if they were native creatures.

Chen Shang walked in the middle of the formation, observing the surrounding flora as he moved. Ferns, mosses, fungi, herbaceous plants...

For three consecutive days, Chen Shang didn’t encounter any dangerous creatures, nor did he run into any other Wizard Apprentices. He did, however, collect quite a few samples.

On the evening of the third day, he suddenly heard a noise ahead. It wasn’t the sound of an animal, but Mechanical... the sound of turning gears, exceptionally clear in the quiet forest.

He had encountered another pending Apprentice!

With a thought from Chen Shang, the Ben Bo’Erbas halted, reducing their Scent Concealment to the absolute minimum. Pushing aside a bush, a clearing revealed itself ahead.

In the clearing, a chubby, round-faced youth was operating a swarm of spider-like Mechanical devices. The tips of their six legs were equipped with small shovels, digging incessantly into the dirt. The youth himself was squatting to the side, holding a Crystal Plate displaying dense rows of data as his fingers swiped across the screen.

Chen Shang recognized him. His name was Baal. He was also a pending Apprentice from Starfall Laboratory. They had seen each other a few times while auditing classes, so Chen Shang simply stood up and walked out of the bushes.

"Baal?"

The chubby youth looked up and froze for a moment when he saw him. "Chen Shang? You’re in this area too? That’s great! I’ve been walking alone for three days without a single person to talk to."

Chen Shang glanced at the Mechanical spiders still digging in the dirt. "You’re collecting data?"

"Yeah, but I haven’t found anything!" Baal sighed, putting away his Crystal Plate and shaking his head. "The mission is so weird. It didn’t give any information on the Hallucinogenic Mushroom at all."

Chen Shang voiced his speculation. "Maybe... it wants us to analyze the evolutionary system of this world’s biological life on our own?"

The chubby youth nodded. When he saw the Ben Bo’Erbas emerging from the shadows of the trees, his eyes lit up.

"Is this the Mechanical Species you made? Ben Bo’Erba? I’ve only heard about them before, but this is my first time seeing one. Can I take a look?"

Chen Shang made a hand gesture, and a Ben Bo’Erba stepped forward, standing in front of Baal.

Baal circled it, reaching out to touch the Rune carvings on its shoulder and squeezing the muscles on its arm. Finally, he crouched down to examine the webbing between its toes.

"Four subsystems and a set of Runes. Impressive! I can’t handle biological Mechanical Armor, it’s too complicated. I can only tinker with Mechanical stuff."

Chen Shang glanced at the Mechanical spiders still digging in the dirt. "Your spiders aren’t bad either. Fully automatic?"

Baal shook his head. "Semi-automatic. I still haven’t figured out how to achieve sensory synchronization." He crouched down, picked up a spider, and flipped it over to show Chen Shang the structure on the bottom. The spider’s abdomen was a Crystal Plate engraved with dense Runes. "Look here, the output signal of this sensory Rune doesn’t match the input signal of the judgment Rune. It’s missing a conversion layer in the middle. I’ve tried seven different solutions, but none of them worked."

"Want to travel together?" Chen Shang suggested.

"Sure, sure!" Baal was delighted, nodding repeatedly.

The mission objective wasn’t to eliminate other Apprentices, so there was no hostility between them. Joining forces would actually expand their search radius—so why not?

The two set off together.

Chen Shang spread out the Ben Bo’Erbas. Seeing their agile movements, Baal couldn’t help but marvel, "Man, the combat power of your sixty Mechanical Species isn’t low. You must have spent a ton of resources on them, right?"

"It was alright. I sold a few finished products in exchange for Contribution Points, and I carved the Runes myself, which saved a lot of costs."

Baal nodded and scattered his Mechanical spiders as well. Then, he pulled a pendant from his clothes and waved it at Chen Shang. "Man, my Mechanical devices might have low combat power, but I make up for it in numbers. I brought several thousand of them in. I definitely won’t drag you down."

Chen Shang stared at the pendant, his eyes suddenly widening. "Space Equipment? Where did you get Space Equipment?"

In the Wizard World, Space Equipment wasn’t rare, but it wasn’t cheap either. Apprentices could rarely afford it. If someone hadn’t obtained it through their own abilities, no one would care during normal circumstances. But bringing it into an examination would inevitably lower their evaluation.

"Don’t worry, man, I bought this with my own hard-earned money. Even if the Pan-Wizard Alliance comes to investigate, there absolutely won’t be any issues!"

Baal chuckled, then pulled a seed out of his pocket. The seed was tiny, only about the size of a fingernail. Its shell was dark brown, with fine patterns on the surface that looked like some kind of ancient Rune.

He held the seed in his palm and offered it to Chen Shang. "Here, this is my product."

Chen Shang took it and examined it. The seed was very light and felt a bit soft to the touch. He tried to sense it with his Spiritual Power. There were faint life fluctuations inside, but it was different from that of an Ordinary seed; it felt more like... some kind of pre-set program.

"What kind of product is this?"

A hint of pride crept into Baal’s tone. "A Doll Seed. After planting it, you can use Spiritual Power to map out its growth. It will grow into whatever you want it to be."

Chen Shang was momentarily stunned. "Literally anything?"

"Anything! Size, shape, color, texture, hardness, elasticity... everything can be controlled. When you plant it, you engrave the blueprint into it with your Spiritual Power, and it will grow according to the design with a margin of error of less than one in ten thousand."

Chen Shang looked puzzled. "Isn’t this just a low-end version of Creatively Born Creatures? And it doesn’t even have any combat power. Where’s the market for this?"

Baal’s smile turned subtle. "Man, this thing... feels exactly like a real biological creature.

"Skin texture, body temperature, softness... most importantly, it grows into whatever you desire. Face, figure, hair, eyes, skin color... everything can be customized."