Wizards: Starting with Fairy Crests

001: The Woods of the Hanged

The Karen Plane.

Night, west of the gray fog jungle, in the Hanged Man's Woods.

The Hanged Man's Grove is a terrifying woodland in the western part of the Gray Fog Jungle.

Travelers who approach this place are drawn by an inexplicable force, and enter the woods to hang themselves.

At this moment, on a worm-like path leading to the Woods of the Hanged, a solitary figure draped in a cloak is walking hurriedly.

The fat candle in his hand was burning with a hissing flame, the inextinguishable flame illuminating the path ahead and also revealing a young face with a furrowed brow beneath the hood.

On the third day after his transmigration, Lin Qi finally sorted through the chaotic memories in his head and fully accepted his new identity.

An apprentice of the Grey Tower who is still in the probationary period.

The world of wizards...

Thinking of this, Lin Qi felt a wave of gloom wash over him.

He was originally an ordinary working dog on Earth. The night before last, after getting off work, he turned on his computer as usual to play his favorite game, "The Witcher World".

I never expected to wake up one day to find myself transported into a game...

Although Lynch loved the game very much, to be honest, he never thought about traveling into the game.

What kind of place is the Wizarding World?

That was a world ruled by a bunch of selfish, inhuman madmen who would do anything in pursuit of truth.

War is rampant and disasters are frequent; the world can be destroyed with the flick of a finger by a high-ranking wizard.

In such a place, no matter where you are or what your prestigious status is, you could lose your life at any moment.

It's scarier than a horror movie!

Take the faction Lynch belongs to, for example. The Grey Tower is the largest wizarding organization in the South Coast Alliance, possessing more than ten kingdoms and controlling a population of tens of millions. Isn't that a powerful force?

But Lynch knew that the entire Gray Tower would be destroyed in less than six months.

Six months later, a high-level monster called the Nightmare Beast will awaken from its dormancy and release a gray mist that will envelop the entire Gray Mist Forest.

All the apprentices in this jungle will be swallowed by the gray fog and plunged into an endless nightmare.

He eventually died of a mental breakdown amidst a terrifying dream.

The entire Gray Mist Forest is actually just the lair of that Nightmare Beast, a terrifying monster that feeds specifically on the mental fields of apprentices, feeding only once every sixty years.

This powerful nightmare beast was merely a monster kept by a second-tier wizard.

The so-called Gray Tower Wizards were nothing more than apprentices and servants of that second-tier wizard.

The real purpose of building the Grey Tower to recruit apprentices in the human kingdom was to assist this second-tier wizard in raising nightmare beasts.

However, don't assume this second-tier wizard's fate will be any better; in the long run, everyone's ultimate end is the same—

destroy.

The entire Karen plane is nothing more than a giant star turtle in the endless void.

In the future, a sixth-tier wizard from the endless void will set his sights on this prey, kill it, and take the plane's core.

With the death of the Starry Sky Giant Turtle, the entire plane will also fade into oblivion and decay, and all living beings on the plane will naturally face only destruction.

"What does the destruction of the world have to do with me! Let it die if it wants to die; I won't go down with it!"

Lin Qi knew that there was still a lot of time before the world was destroyed. As long as he reached the fifth level during this period, he would be able to cross the void and travel to other planes.

This is also his only way to get through this crisis in the future.

"Endless time, eternal truth—now that I've come to this world, these are the things I truly seek!"

Although the wizarding world is fraught with danger, its potential for advancement is extraordinary. Almost all the legends that only exist in myths on Earth are real here.

Omnipotent supernatural magic, world-destroying power, and even... endless eternal life and the truth that answers all questions...

Thinking of this, Lin Qi subconsciously clenched his fist, his eyes burning with fervor.

Bringing his wandering thoughts back to the present, Lin Qi focused his attention on the present moment.

These problems are too far in the future; what we really need to address now is the immediate crisis.

How to pass the assessment period in Gray Tower?

New apprentices joining Grey Tower have a six-month probationary period during which they must produce at least one intellectual achievement to prove their worth.

Otherwise, they would either be banished to the Gray Mist Forest or used as experimental subjects by wizards.

The Gray Mist Jungle is teeming with monsters and eeriness; being driven out is tantamount to suicide.

And the experimental subjects of wizards... they'd rather be dead...

The assessment period was fast approaching, and the original owner of Lin Qi's body had yet to achieve any significant academic results. Ultimately, he fell seriously ill due to worry and resentment, and died in his dormitory.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Lin Qi was able to be resurrected.

Lin Qi, who took over the project, naturally had to solve the problem of intellectual property issues first.

It was impossible to study on one's own. Apart from the "Apprentice Meditation Method," the Grey Tower only taught these new apprentices some basic magical knowledge.

Aside from a very few exceptionally gifted individuals, no one could produce intellectual achievements in such a short period of time.

However, it doesn't matter. If you can't do it on your own, you can take other paths and borrow other people's research results. Grey Tower has not imposed any restrictions on this.

Like the guy who lived next door to Lynch, because he was a nobleman with extensive connections and resources, his family managed to get him a vampire bat bloodline and fused it with his blood.

And now Lin Qi is also planning to use the same method!

Of course, the original owner of this body was born a serf, and his entire family had died out. It was impossible for him to have the resources and connections to obtain the precious vampire bat bloodline.

Fortunately, he possessed abilities far more powerful and extraordinary than anyone else could match—

prophet.

As a veteran player who has been playing The Witcher World for over ten years, he knows all the resources and treasures in the game inside and out, and he is familiar with even the most unknown treasures.

But in the Hanged Man's Woods right before him lies a treasure that can help him overcome this crisis!

At the heart of this Hanged Man's Grove is actually a high-level apprentice-level monster, the Twisted Tree Spirit.

This monster feeds on human flesh and blood, and releases a psychic field to distort the will of passing travelers, causing them to enter the forest and hang themselves from trees, thus becoming its food.

This mental field is extremely powerful, and ordinary low- and mid-level apprentices cannot resist it at all. Often, some apprentices without affiliation to any faction are drawn in and die inside.

Lynch deduced from the timeline that not long ago, an unfortunate apprentice had been lured in and died inside.

He was an apprentice who had spent many years navigating the gray fog jungle, and he possessed a complete spell model.

If I can obtain the model from the other party and turn it into a result, then the first crisis will be over.

Lin Qi looked up at the sky and unconsciously quickened his pace again.

The Twisted Tree Spirit falls into a deep sleep at night, during which its mental energy field is also empty, which is the only time it can search for treasure.

Otherwise, by morning... there will be another hanged ghost in the woods.

Soon, Lynch arrived at this terrifying woodland.

Looking around, countless dark shadows hung from the crooked trees in the woods.

The outline of the vines tightly binding its neck swayed gently in the night wind, its stiff toes almost touching the cold, damp ground, like a silently swaying piece of rotting fruit, silently waiting for new ones to join it.

The cold moonlight cast eerie shadows on the hanged man's woods. Countless twisted branches were adorned with ropes that hung from "fruits" that swayed slightly in the night wind, revealing swollen, blackened faces, stiff tongues protruding from lips, and bare, white finger bones exposed beneath skin cracked from decay.

The damp air was filled with the stench of decay and the earthy smell of decay, and occasionally the creaking of vines rubbing against branches could be heard, like the faint sigh of the dead.

"Glug~"

Looking at the dense mass of dried corpses before him, Lin Qi couldn't help but swallow hard, a sudden chill running down his spine.

So here's the question: which corpse was this unfortunate apprentice?

There were countless dried corpses hanging in the trees in front of him, and there were quite a few of them that had just died and were relatively fresh. Could Lin Qi really find the target he was looking for among them in one night?

This would be completely unrealistic for anyone else, but for Lynch...

This is where he will use his second greatest ability besides being a 'prophet,' which is also his greatest reliance for survival in this terrifying world full of dangers!

Lin Qi took a deep breath and whispered, "System!"

It sounded like a "whoosh".

A virtual panel, like something out of a science fiction movie, unfolded before Lynch's eyes.

Name: Lin Qi.

Age: 15 years old.

Occupation: Junior Apprentice lv1 (266/3000).

Attributes: Strength 0.6, Agility 0.8, Constitution 0.5, Spirit 0.6.

Mana: 6.

That's right!

Not long after Lin Qi transmigrated, he discovered that, apart from being transported into the game, the player panel from the game could also be used in this world!

What is the reason for this?

Lin Qi wasn't sure, but since something like time travel had already happened, having multiple panels didn't seem so strange.

Without dwelling on it too much, Lin Qi quickly found a button on the main menu bar that almost every RPG game has—

survey.

Lin Qi approached the nearest hanging mummy, focusing his attention on the body, and silently thought: Investigate!

The next second, a string of words appeared before their eyes: a useless dried corpse.