Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2881: Chapter 2882: Monster Gathering

Can you gather the monsters? Laplace’s eyes lit up midair.

Although she was having fun with her explosions, one thing that annoyed her was that despite the abundance of magic monsters, they were mostly scattered, requiring her to constantly shift positions and defeat them one by one.

She could bomb at most ten magic monsters at a time, which was really nothing compared to the number of monsters in the sky.

If she could gather the magic monsters, killing a hundred or several hundred at a time, she might be able to clear out the densely packed monsters in less than a day.

Thinking of this, Laplace blasted the nearby magic monsters into pieces, and after kicking a monster that had sneaked behind her in half, she descended from the sky into the safe zone set up by Angel.

—The safe zone was a special area arranged by Angel using intermediate-level Magic Rune Scrolls of arcane nullification, warding, purification, exorcism, and restoration, combined with a Mana Matrix Plate. Its appearance was a glowing dome, and under its protection, even if hundreds of magic monsters attacked at once, it would take several minutes to break through.

Although the duration of safety wasn’t long, Angel could supply it indefinitely. Once a safe zone was destroyed, a new one would rise up the next second, so it didn’t matter if the maintenance time was short.

The biggest function of the safe zone was for Laplace to rest.

Even if her body wasn’t tired, constantly killing magic monsters would wear out her spirit. As long as she entered the safe zone, Laplace would quickly recover from her fatigue and revitalize.

It could be said that the safe zone was extremely useful for Laplace.

For Angel, the existence of the safe zone also allowed him to avoid accidental injuries.

The only regret Angel had was that even though he could supply it indefinitely, arranging the safe zone was somewhat troublesome, as it required multiple Magic Rune Scrolls and coordination with the Mana Matrix Plate. If he could use the Dream Conch to bring the Sunlight Garden or the Sunlight Sanctuary in, it would be better because both were several times more effective than the safe zone set by Angel... Unfortunately, the Sunlight Garden and Sunlight Sanctuary both contained a mysterious aura internally, and the Dream Conch was powerless.

On the other side, after Laplace returned to the safe zone, her fatigue vanished instantly, making her moan comfortably.

Stretching lazily, Laplace walked to Angel’s side: ”How do you plan to gather? How many magic monsters can you gather?”

Angel was about to speak when Laplace interrupted: ”Forget it, it doesn’t matter how you gather them, just tell me the coordinates where the monsters will gather, so I can guard nearby in advance.”

Angel: ”I currently can’t predict the exact coordinates.”

Laplace: ”What do you mean?”

Angel: ”I will first experiment once, and whether it can gather monsters depends on whether this attempt is successful.”

After speaking, Angel turned his gaze to a small mound.

What was called a small mound was actually formed from the Crystal Origin soil blasted by Laplace, perfectly gathered into a mound because of a large charred magic monster inside.

Angel pointed at the small mound and said: ”That will be the center.”

Laplace: ”You mean I should wait over there?”

Angel nodded.

Laplace didn’t ask why, nor did she linger, leaving the safe zone without hesitation and heading towards the small mound.

Angel then closed his eyes, using God’s View to determine the location of the target point.

After confirming with certainty, Angel activated multiple Magic Rune Scrolls in succession.

Immediately, a large birdcage-shaped shadow appeared, centering around the small mound, covering thirty or so magic monsters, which coincidentally was the exact number within a kilometer radius.

Soon after the cage appeared, barbed thorns began to extend from the lattice of the cage, constantly spreading and compressing the space where the monsters could move.

Upon seeing this, Laplace understood Angel’s intentions a bit more.

”Shadow of the Cage” was a Space Series Magic Rune Scroll used to lock space. The thorns that appeared afterward were ”Thorny Forest,” a control-type Magic Rune Scroll. The thorns were very tenacious, difficult to break, and also poisonous. Trapped monsters would significantly slow down.

Angel used the Shadow of the Cage to confine a space and the Thorny Forest to compress the space where the magic monsters could move.

Ultimately, these magic monsters gathered together.

This was what Angel called gathering monsters.

This method worked, but it was only effective on magic monsters without intelligence.

Magic monsters with low intelligence didn’t know that if they charged at the barrier, they might damage the Shadow of the Cage or the Thorny Forest. These low or non-intelligent magic monsters would instinctively move towards what they perceived as safe places, a natural tendency to seek good fortune and avoid disaster, but sometimes this tendency made them miss the chance to break the cage.

Angel took advantage of this.

Currently, the magic monsters from the Dream Realm were indeed low-intelligence monsters, making this method quite apt.

Soon, thirty magic monsters gathered together, and Laplace easily dealt with them by blasting scales multiple times.

After killing the magic monsters, Laplace returned to the safe zone once again.

Seeing Angel, Laplace’s first sentence was to shake her head in denial: ”No, this gathering speed is too slow.”

While the gathering was successful, the drawbacks were too evident. First, it could only deal with monsters with low intelligence; second, the gathering speed was slow.

The first point aside, the second point was crucial. Although killing thirty magic monsters at once was a lot, the time spent waiting for the monsters to gather was too long. In that prolonged period, Laplace could kill many more monsters at her previous speed.

Angel: ”I understand, but this was just an experiment. The main course is next.”

After saying that, Angel took a cloak from the side and handed it to Laplace: ”Take this.”

Laplace glanced at the cloak in her hand: ”This is...?”

”Simos’s Skin, it wards against the Power of Space.” Angel paused: ”I may continue to use the Power of Space to limit the monsters’ actions later. With Simos’s Skin, you don’t have to worry about being accidentally injured by the Power of Space.”

Laplace didn’t think much and directly put on the cloak.

Angel: ”You don’t need to worry about what happens next, just continue to kill the magic monsters at your pace. I’ll keep replenishing your shed scales. As for gathering monsters, you’ll see soon enough.”

Laplace gave Angel a doubtful look but said nothing, nodded, and left the safe zone.

Once Laplace left, Angel immediately returned to reality. Then he took out another ”Shadow of the Cage” from his bracelet, followed by... over a hundred various-sized Array Plates.

This time, Angel planned to use the Array Plates to make a big move!

Closing his eyes, Angel didn’t enter the Crystal Origin of Dreams but opened God’s View through the Gate of Dreams. He then continuously placed the Array Plates into the Crystal Origin using the Dream Conch.

These array plates are positioned in various locations within the Crystal Origin of Dreams, with the farthest array plate being even a thousand miles apart!

Once all the array plates were set up, Angel took the last array plate and the Shadow of the Cage Skin Scroll, and entered the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

Opening his eyes, Angel’s location was still in the safe zone.

Angel measured the position slightly, and finally placed the array plate in his hand at the exact center of the safe zone.

As this array plate fell, the other 137 array plates that Angel deployed throughout the Crystal Origin of Dreams began to emit a gentle glow at their respective positions.

The function of these array plates is really only one: to magnify the effect of the core position.

And the core position is the array plate where Angel currently stands.

Angel activated the Shadow of the Cage, slowly placing it on the array plate.

In an instant, the massive Shadow of the Cage reappeared in the sky.

Laplace also noticed the Shadow of the Cage, but this time, to Laplace’s surprise, she couldn’t see the edges of the Shadow of the Cage at all?!

Laplace seemed to think of something, and while fighting the magic monsters, she transmitted to Angel: ”How big... how big is your Shadow of the Cage this time?”

Angel: ”Three thousand miles.”

Laplace was taken aback, muttering softly: ”You really went big this time, never mind, let’s not worry about you for now.”

Laplace resumed fighting, while Angel returned to God’s View.

In God’s View, a three-thousand-mile cage isn’t actually big, not even one percent of the size of the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

Angel could indeed make the Shadow of the Cage bigger, five thousand miles, six thousand miles, or even tens of thousands of miles. But there’s no need, as currently, no magic monsters are beyond three thousand miles.

In other words, the Shadow of the Cage now covers all the magic monsters!

Laplace said that using the Shadow of the Cage to gather monsters is slow, and Angel agreed. He couldn’t improve the speed of gathering monsters; the only improvement he could make was to cover a wide area with the Shadow of the Cage, continually compressing the activity area of the magic monsters. Finally, all the magic monsters would be confined to one area.

This is Angel’s real plan.

Speed doesn’t matter, I’ll go for numbers, catching them all in one fell swoop!

With the Shadow of the Cage set, Angel now needs to compress the space for the magic monsters. Previously, Angel used the ”Thorny Forest” method for space compression, and this time, he planned to make slight modifications.

In addition to the ”Thorny Forest,” Angel also activated a new Magic Rune Scroll: the Sea of Electrocution!

The Sea of Electrocution, like the Thorny Forest, is a control-type Magic Rune Scroll. However, the Thorny Forest relies on the tenacious and indestructible thorns paired with venomous spikes to compress the magic monsters’ activity space. In contrast, the Sea of Electrocution works by conducting electricity through diffused mist, using water droplets in the air as electric chains to paralyze and confine the magic monsters.

The advantage of the Sea of Electrocution is its fast diffusion speed, achieving control effects swiftly.

Its drawback is also evident; the damage isn’t enough, resulting in a generally average control effect.

However, the Sea of Electrocution has a trait where the strongest electrifying effect is at the edges, and the weakest is at the very center. The electrifying effect decreases progressively from the edges to the center.

The control effect at the edges is actually higher than that of the Thorny Forest.

This trait will cause the magically affected creatures to instinctively move towards the center with weaker effects, coupled with the ever-spreading Thorny Forest, ensuring that the magic monsters are ultimately trapped at the center.

Numbers don’t matter, nor does size, without corresponding wisdom, one can only be trampled.

After setting up everything, Angel returned once more to the humble position of offering molted scales to the big shot.

As time slowly passed, Angel lost track of how many times he supplied Laplace with molted scales.

Finally, as Laplace turned the entire vicinity into a smoke-filled zone, the air began to condense with mist.

The appearance of the mist meant that the Sea of Electrocution finally diffused to the surrounding area.

Sure enough, within a few seconds, the crackling sound of electric currents began to emerge in the sky. Lightning Serpents darted through the mist, bringing along a chorus of screams from the magic monsters.

The currents’ effects weren’t causing significant damage to the magic monsters but made them extremely uncomfortable, prompting many to start congregating.

Laplace also noticed this fact.

Excluding the previous attempt by Angel to test gathering monsters, at most times, when she bombarded magic monsters, she could kill ten magic monsters at most per blast. But now, after the Sea of Electrocution appeared, she managed to kill over ten magic monsters with each blast.

Thirty, forty were entirely possible.

This drastically increased her bombing efficiency by more than just a little bit.

And this was just the prelude to Angel’s grand scheme of large-scale monster gathering!

Before, Laplace pondered how long it would take to completely clear the area; now, it seemed that perhaps it wouldn’t even take half a day to completely eliminate these bizarrely shaped magical creatures.

Seeing the hope of a thorough resolution, Laplace’s enthusiasm soared, leading to consecutive bombardments that even induced small-scale spatial oscillations.

Fortunately, Laplace was wearing Simos’s Skin, otherwise, these spatial oscillations might have harmed her.

Laplace paid no mind to the spatial oscillations, but Angel was startled.

Not worrying about Laplace bombarding the Crystal Origin of Dreams now is because future restoration could rely on authority slowly. But if continuous spatial oscillations were induced, potentially causing spatial collapse, given how recently this new world—the Crystal Origin of Dreams—had been born, it likely wouldn’t withstand such events.

It would be unfortunate if, after clearing out the magic monsters, their actions caused the Crystal Origin of Dreams to rupture.

To avoid this outcome, Angel hurriedly signaled Laplace to exert control as much as possible.

Even though Laplace was somewhat dismissive, she heeded Angel’s request and avoided extensively bombarding spaces that were structurally weak.

Seeing this, Angel felt somewhat reassured.

However, another previously overlooked issue was reconsidered by Angel.

While gathering monsters could rapidly decimate them, if the space at the final gathering point was fragile, and consecutive moltings couldn’t completely exterminate them, wouldn’t that instead collapse the newly born space?

Previously, Angel didn’t care about the final gathering coordinates, but now it seemed necessary to make preemptive arrangements.

Either fix the final gathering location in a space with stable structure, or... simply reinforce the space at the cage’s center position!