Netheril’s Glory
Chapter 21: Secret behind the Undead Forest.

A fluttering red flame flew out from the big ruby ​​on the tip of the staff. Every inch of its path was swept by extreme heat, and every leaf of grass instantly turned into ash; even nearby stones started to turn soft. The fireball was at least seven thousand degrees because it instantly carbonized all the small trees in its path. The extreme high temperature even made Punk feel unbearable heat through the "secondary mage armor."

The fireball spell flew at very high speed toward the gathering place of the undead. And only after a few moments it reached the area between the group of undeads and exploded, engulfing everything nearby. The red flames revolved and burned on the ground like a storm.

The whole undead forest was illuminated. Every creature in the small forest, including the skeleton soldiers who were far away, was staring blankly in the direction of the mini firestorm. They were shocked and shaking. This was the Instinctive fear of all creature when they face the power of absolute destruction.

It took dozens of seconds for the blazing flame to go out. The undead skeletons that had been wiped out as soon as the flame touched; didn't even have their ash left. Their bones, equipment, and the corpse of the female priest, everything was vaporized in less than five seconds in the terrifying firestorm. Even the ground melted by the intense high temperature and turned into the glass that was reflecting a cold light in the gloomy weather.

"The power of the trainee level spell was definitely two or three times greater than a missile."

Punk though while enduring the discomfort brought by the surrounding hot air. Many areas on the ground were still red like melting iron.

"This is power! It represents the mighty power of destruction; this is knowledge! The magical knowledge to manipulate destruction,"

Punk sighed while gently rubbing the ruby in the head of his staff which was still emanating heat.

After wiping the already shiny and spotless ruby, Punk turned around and left the glazed area, filled with nothing but the hot air. Now, he would explore the secrets of this incongruent grove and collect his well-deserved spoils.

The closer Punk was to the centre of this forest, the thicker the death aura became. It even started to condense into a grey mist. After some time, the concentrate of the death energy became so great that even Punk's "secondary mage armour" started to struggle to isolate it from his body.

Punk found the skeletons in robe wandering in the woods. Although these skeletons' frames were mottled and cracked, Punk still felt the residual soul energy on them. This proved that the two mages were definitely trainee-level powerhouses when they were alive.

Although they all turned into dead bones and were wandering aimlessly in this desolate forest,

the appearance of the robes worn by these two former trainee level mage was beyond Punk's expectation.

It was just too intact, except for the loss of magic effect due to the undead's erosion; there was almost no other damage.

And the surrounding skeleton soldier's bones were also undamaged; some of the soldiers seem to have not even pulled out their swords. In this centre area, they had no trace of a battle, whether in their body or equipment.

Now Punk was even more confused than before. It stands to reason that the soldiers at the centre should have fought more brutal battle than the rest, and the traces of the fight should also become more apparent. But the situation with this undead army was just the opposite.

It seems the battle at the periphery was harsher than the centre area. The mages seem to did not even take action.

But somehow, both the outer soldiers and the inner circle of the mage lost their lives. Something this strange can only happen if there was a situation where the enemy was overwhelmingly strong. Hence the battle was so short that the soldiers at the inner circle died before they had the chance to draw their swords.

Punk leaned down and picked up a small piece of a dead branch for "the system" to analyze.

"Analysis result: The death energy completely neutralized the life energy of the branch within six seconds, 100% cellular destruction."

"Sure enough,"

Punk threw away the branch and allowed it to fall to the ground, and smashed into pieces of wood.

"The death energy here does not come from nature. It was entirely produced by a spell."

Punk straightened his waist and began to think about it seriously. The existence of this undead forest was already very shocking, and now whoever caused this can also kill trainee level mages within seconds. And even after almost a month, the excess death energy didn't disappear.

This was definitely caused by some terrifying method of a formal-level powerhouse. Moreover, Punk knows from inheritance memory that a spell with such destructive power and wide range considered powerful even amongst formal-level spell.

Punk suddenly remembered the corps of dead soldiers he seen outside the woods; it seems that about one-third of the skeletons have a faint strip of cloth on their shoulders; Punk thought it was some kind of custom in the Kingdom of Camos. But now, it seems like it was a kind of marker to distinguish the enemy from allies, and because of the adhesion of the dye combined with the erosion of the death energy, the patterns and colours were washed away. At the time, Punk was focused on dealing with enemies and the obnoxious female priest, so he didn't care about these little details.

But after thinking about it carefully, it is clear that the Kamos soldiers who died outside died under the sword of each other; and there were originally two opposing armies. As for why they were all wearing the same uniforms, Punk really don't know!

Punk now can only guess what happened in this small forest.

"The two Camos Kingdom armies met in this small forest. Maybe one of them was a fake army, or maybe both were real army but split up for some reason; perhaps even both were fake, and they just happened to meet here. Most likely, one party was chasing the other. Anyway, they fought in this small forest. When the battle was halfway, a formal-level mage suddenly arrived and used this AOE spell for a specific purpose. The elemental energy spells killed one team or both army entirely. As for why the most powerful amongst this army, the regiment of mage did not make any move, it may be because the mages needed to contain the enemy or they had scruples about the collateral damage, or some other reasons. Anyway, when the official level powerhouse came, they didn't even have a chance to make any move."

"This damnable affair is really messy; it even involves the official level powerhouse. I don't know how there is an official level powerhouse in such a humble little wasteland? and above all else, a rare mage!"

"In any case, whether these things are some kind of a conspiracy or just a coincident, they have nothing to do with me."

Punk has made up his mind; when he goes back, he will say that he killed a few undeads from a distance, took a few pieces of equipment, and ran back after mapping the coordinates.

And if they ask any other question? he didn't know what to do, so he didn't pay much attention to this matter after recording the coordinates. Punk wasn't even sure if the mage Union, who paid very little attention to this matter, will even choose to come over and check it after getting the coordinates.

After figuring out his return plan, now more relaxed, Punk looked at the robed skeletons, who were still wandering in a daze, with slight joy in his heart.

"Finally, it's time to open the treasure box I am longing for!"