The Golem Mage

While Alec was busy in the beast forest, a handful of people stood outside his door, staring at it in disbelief.

Especially Terran Dunce.

“Are you sure about what you’re saying? Alec is still in there, and he hasn’t somehow slipped past all of us and left the room?” Terran asked, unable to believe what the Grand Dean had just told him.

The old man turned and fixed him with a hard stare.

“I’m clearly not the only one here who can use mental powers here, if you think I’m scheming with him, then go ahead and probe the room yourself to confirm whether he’s still inside, or if he’s already found a way out,” Old Man Alderic snapped at Terran, scolding him without restraint.

However Terran took no offense to it at all, he only looked puzzled, and he didn’t even hesitate to do what the Grand Dean had said, as he extended his mana sense into Alec’s room the next moment, but he froze after his mental sense came in contact with the room.

And that was because there was no mental barrier, no shield, nothing preventing a simple probe, for Terran, who knew just how proficient Alec was with mental techniques far beyond his realm, it felt wrong to him, that Alec was leaving his room this exposed , it all just felt too suspicious.

“We need to go in and confirm he’s actually there, I have a feeling Alec is toying with us, the reading we’re getting might be fake, and he might not even be in that room anymore.” Terran said.

Old Man Alderic narrowed his eyes, as he didn’t like the idea of intruding on Alec’s privacy.

Yes, he had already checked from a distance, but that was different, from far away, if Alec ever accused him of prying, Alderic could deny it, claiming it wasn’t his mental signature.

At his level, reshaping a mental imprint to deceive others was child’s play, that was why he’d been comfortable doing it.

But what Terran was suggesting now was another matter entirely, if they entered, and Alec woke up, he would clearly demand to know why they were in his room, and they wouldn’t have a clean excuse.

…which would make it easy for Alec to accuse them of spying on him, and this time, Alderic wouldn’t even be able to deny, that was how messy the situation was.

“I can assure you Alec has a very strong grasp of mental techniques, someone like him, someone who hates being probed, not putting up even a basic mental shield? That’s highly suspicious.” Terran said, trying to make old man Alderic see reasons to his demands.

This time, even the Dean nearby couldn’t help agreeing, if they checked and Alec really was inside, they could smooth over the consequences.

But they couldn’t afford to gamble with Alec’s life over something like this, and so, the three grown men forced their way into his room, strangely enough, the moment they entered, they found Alec sitting in a meditative posture, but when they looked closely they realize he had fallen asleep mid-cultivation.

“You see? I told you he’s here,” Old Man Alderic said, scolding both the Dean and Terran.

“Now let’s back out slowly and not disturb him, the poor child must’ve dozed off while cultivating after hearing his clan was under attack.”

But the Dean couldn’t help remembering something from before, he had once done something similar once, entering Alec’s room back at the inter academy competition—and found him sleeping then too.

And there was another detail that nagged at him: he had passed by Terran’s Peak a lot of times which just so happens to be the place where Alec’s quarters was located and among those plenty of times at night he passed, his curiosity got the better of him as he always quietly swept the area with his mental sense.

However one thing always stayed the same, and that was the fact that Alec was never awake at night, he was always asleep, unlike most dedicated genius mages.

And this has always made the Dean wonder… How, exactly, did this boy truly cultivate?

_ _ _

Alec stared at the notifications floating before him, shock written all over his face. In that instant, he completely forgot the happiness he’d felt when the system didn’t demand any points for the evolution.

Because now, he was in trouble.

In front of him, both Titan and Legion were already wrapped in thick evolution light, and a small elemental black hole had formed in the air slightly above their floating evolution cocoon, devouring even the faint of neutral mana around it, as if struggling to keep the evolution process alive.

But that wasn’t even the most frustrating part, it was the fact that he had to take each of them to a different location, and he felt there was no way he could pull that off.

His merge skill which produces his transformed state had already hit its limit, which was why the transformation had been cancelled.

And now, two different wolf packs were emerging from the dark, clearly they were the owners of the howls he’d heard earlier when he threw his own voice into the sky, they clearly were the ones who gave him a reply

The problem with wolves was rather complicated, they believed there could only be one alpha as king, so when another alpha howled near another’s territory, they took it as a challenge, an insult to their authority, and they answered it the only way they knew how.

With blood, so two packs had come in response to his howling.

When Alec activated his analysis skill, he confirmed that one of the packs were Shadow Wolves, but these weren’t like the Shadow Wolves he’d encountered in the second door of the Beast Forest.

There were similarities, enough to prove that they were the evolved High rank branch of the same race, but that only made it worse.

As in this region, under this shadow veil which made them much stronger , their presence was unnerving, like the forest itself had shaped them into something meant to haunt the living.

The second pack was labeled by the system as Grimfang Wargs, wolves that leaked death aura with every breath, their special Ability was Decay.

Though Alec didn’t know how they activated it, and he had no intention of standing around to find out, he already had enough trouble in hand as it is, for a brief moment, he wished he was back in the real world.

At least there, he could access the system shop properly and simply buy high-grade power stones instead of grinding through this mess with his life on the line.

“Master, we’re being blocked from the bridge by Tier 6 demonic beasts,” Oni reported, his voice grinding like metal on metal, as Alec’s right eyebrow lifted slightly , as he turned sharply and saw it.

At the edge of the bridge leading into the Dark Forest, the Tier 6 demonic beasts were in a frenzy, prowling and snapping, pacing like starving dogs… yet none of them dared to cross into the darkness region.

“They’re drawn to the evolution mana leaking from Legion and Titan,” Butcher said from the side.

“What do we do, Master?” Hive Queen asked, she is someone who rarely speaks again, so when she did her voice cut through the pressure as enemies had closed and locked them in from every direction.