Just as everyone was shocked by Magus's decisive actions, the person involved was still not entirely satisfied.
"If my mental power were a bit higher, that Acid Splash just now would have been enough to kill the Iron-Eating Beast."
Magus felt a little regretful. He pointed his finger, and another Acid Splash shot out, flying like an arrow towards an Iron-Eating Beast.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
Although the Iron-Eating Beast dodged in time, it was still hit on its side, and more than half of its waist and abdomen were instantly corroded, inevitably affecting its movements.
Seizing this opportunity, Rune flashed forward and cut the Iron-Eating Beast into two with a single sword strike.
The two brothers cooperated seamlessly, taking down four Iron-Eating Beasts in a short while.
Seeing this, everyone's morale was greatly boosted.
The Iron-Eating Beasts seemed to realize something was wrong and gradually retreated.
Noticing this, Rune quickly shouted, "Don't let them escape! Stop them!"
The Knights rushed towards the Iron-Eating Beasts.
Magus narrowed his eyes and cast a Sleep Spell on an Iron-Eating Beast that was lagging behind.
To his surprise, however, that Iron-Eating Beast was not affected at all.
"The spell didn't work?"
Magus was stunned.
Just then, an Iron-Eating Beast suddenly leaped up and plunged into the rock wall as if falling into water, disappearing from sight. The entire process was incredibly smooth, so much so that everyone didn't even have time to react.
The other Iron-Eating Beasts followed suit, disappearing into the rock wall.
Seeing the last Iron-Eating Beast also leap and crash into the rock wall, the stunned Magus finally reacted, a faint light flashing in his eyes.
In an instant, the Iron-Eating Beast's elegant posture came to an abrupt halt, completely frozen in mid-air, as if it had been tightly gripped by an invisible giant hand, unable to touch the ground or the wall at all.
No matter how it struggled, it could not break free from the invisible restraint on its body.
"Kill it!" Magus said in a deep voice.
Everyone, who had been staring blankly at the bizarre scene before them, woke up as if from a dream and attacked.
Crack!
The Iron-Eating Beast in mid-air instantly shattered into pieces.
"Magus, you just…"
Rune looked at Magus, his face full of surprise.
If the Sub-Dragon Blood Potion was still within his understanding, then the miraculous methods Magus had just displayed far exceeded his comprehension.
Magus knew what he wanted to ask and explained calmly, "This is magic."
Magic!
Everyone present silently chewed on the word, feeling as if a whole new world was slowly unfolding before their eyes.
Magus didn't bother with the others. He quickly walked to an Iron-Eating Beast that had been cut in two, squatted down, and examined it.
A moment later, a strange expression appeared on his face.
"Is something wrong?"
Seeing Magus's expression, Rune quickly asked.
Magus shook his head, stood up, and said, "I probably know how these Iron-Eating Beasts came to be."
When the Sleep Spell failed earlier, he had already felt something was amiss.
There were generally only two situations where a spell could be immune.
One was sufficiently high magic resistance, like dragons.
Dragons were famously born with high magic resistance; adult dragons could be immune to all spells below the third circle.
The other was when a creature's life form happened to be immune to a certain spell.
Taking the Sleep Spell as an example, elemental creatures, undead creatures, and puppet constructs could all be immune to the Sleep Spell.
And the Iron-Eating Beasts could obviously only be the latter.
"I originally thought this was a metal-based creature, but I didn't expect it to be a puppet construct."
During his examination just now, Magus found enchanted runes in the fragments of the Iron-Eating Beast's body.
It was impossible for naturally occurring life forms to have enchanted runes within them.
The only explanation was that the Iron-Eating Beasts were artificially created!
And only Wizard Apprentices could create puppets!
"There is most likely a wizard inheritance left deep within this mine!"
Magus was filled with ecstasy.
He had originally planned to go out and search for the whereabouts of a wizard inheritance after being promoted to a second-class Wizard Apprentice, but he didn't expect to find one near Blackstone City.
This was undoubtedly a huge surprise!
Under Magus's explanation, Rune and the others all showed incredibly shocked expressions.
No one had expected that these Iron-Eating Beasts, whose combat power was comparable to Knights and who possessed the strange ability to burrow into rock walls, were actually puppets created by a Wizard!
Magical potions, terrifying spells, powerful puppet constructs—these unimaginable things in the eyes of ordinary people all came from the hands of a Wizard!
What kind of group were they exactly?
The more they understood, the more they could feel the mystery and power of Wizards.
Legend had it that thousands of years ago, Wizards once ruled the entire continent, creating an unprecedented golden age.
Previously, they had only considered this a vague legend, but now, it seemed very likely to have been a real event!
Everyone had different thoughts, and for a time, the tunnel fell silent.
Magus didn't care. He said something to Rune and then sat on the ground, meditating to restore his mental power.
He had cast many spells in the battle just now, and his mental power was almost completely depleted.
Considering that there would be another fierce battle ahead, it was safer to continue exploring after restoring his mental power.
About two hours later, Magus finished meditating.
The team continued to advance.
Fear comes from the unknown.
After learning the origin of the Iron-Eating Beasts, everyone's apprehension towards these monsters greatly diminished.
Especially after taking down five Iron-Eating Beasts in the previous battle, the team's morale soared to its peak.
However, what was puzzling was that on the rest of the journey, the Iron-Eating Beasts seemed to have disappeared and did not appear again from beginning to end.
"Where did those monsters go?" Jorton smacked his lips unhappily.
Rune also frowned.
If the remaining Iron-Eating Beasts just hid like this, they really had no way to deal with them.
Trying to find a group of wall-burrowing Iron-Eating Beasts in a dimly lit, interconnected underground tunnel was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Magus was thoughtful.
High-level puppets had autonomous consciousness and artificial intelligence no less than humans, but the Iron-Eating Beasts were clearly not among them.
They were obviously low-level puppets, generally acting according to certain specific programs.
For example, when encountering an enemy they couldn't defeat, they would prioritize their own safety.
This also explained why successive lords had been unable to eradicate the Iron-Eating Beasts.
Facing a group of 'bully the weak and fear the strong' monsters with first-rate hide-and-seek abilities, even a Great Knight would be helpless.
However, just because previous lords were helpless didn't mean Magus had no solution.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on sensing the energy particles in the air.
If nothing unexpected happened, these Iron-Eating Beasts should be the guardians of the unknown wizard inheritance deep within the mining area.
As long as he found the location of that wizard inheritance, the Iron-Eating Beasts would inevitably appear to block them, and then they could be completely annihilated.
And the concentration of energy particles at the location of the wizard inheritance would certainly be much higher than elsewhere.
As long as they walked towards places with high energy particle concentration, they would most likely find the target location.
Not long after, Magus opened his eyes and pointed to the tunnel entrance on the right, saying, "Go that way."
Rune was only stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted and led the way to the right without hesitation.
Everyone came to their senses and quickly followed.
Along the way, the team stopped and started.
Whenever they encountered a fork in the road, Magus would stop to sense for a while, then decide the direction of travel.
After an unknown amount of time traveling like this, everyone suddenly stopped.
This time, it wasn't because they encountered any monsters, nor was it because they found a fork in the road, but because the path was gone.
More precisely, a dark, heavy door appeared in the middle of the tunnel.
The tightly closed door sealed off the entire tunnel.