My Joker System: From Low Mana Trash to the Mightiest Wizard!-Chapter 69: The Ancient Great Forest of Eordyrr

"Haah... Haah..."

Hal and Loki huffed and puffed, running as fast as they could deeper into the forest.

With Loki’s senses and his own strength, they had a fairly high chance of surviving even if they went a bit deeper than they should.

He believed that the bastards wouldn’t be willing to risk their lives to catch someone they weren’t even sure was the one they were searching for.

Hal just had to survive long enough until his pursuers gave up.

He could then exit in another direction to lose them completely.

’Good thing those idiots didn’t have an orb of memories...’

Unbeknownst to Hal, Hector and the others did have an orb of memory.

They just hadn’t been thorough enough, and by the time they decided to be, he had already escaped.

It would be an utter nightmare to search for him with just a fake name and a vague to a somewhat vivid memory of his face.

A sketch could never be as accurate as an actual photo, after all.

Hal had quite the head start, so as long as he didn’t slack off and kept running as fast as he could, they wouldn’t be able to catch him.

Their Manatech Hoverboards would be impractical in such an obstacle-rich terrain.

Meanwhile, somewhere behind him, squads of men, including those who had been lurking in the shadows earlier, rushed forward desperately, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cunning young man they were chasing.

Unfortunately, their subconscious would not allow them to ignore that they were going deeper and deeper into the forest.

Most of them were Novice Wizards of the E-rank, despite their age.

Continuing was simply a death sentence for them.

And so, as they ran deeper, many began to hesitate.

"Boggy, Ling, Rowin, what are you doing?!" raged Leoric, the Buskarr Clan Squad Ten’s Vice Leader.

"Leave them, Leoric. You and I shall continue!" Hector ordered, prompting the unwilling deputy to follow suit and leave the cowards behind.

They could somewhat understand why the majority ultimately decided to stop chasing.

Even the underlings from rival factions gave up, as they were all novice wizards.

Only the captains and vice-captains proceeded with gritted teeth.

From the initial seventy-plus men, only a little over ten pursued Hal, and none of them could even catch a glimpse of him.

’That darned nutjob! Does he even know how dangerous the deeper areas of this forest are?’ Hector cursed inwardly.

There are four great forests in the Arcanum Imperium, and the one they were currently in—the Ancient Great Forest of Eordyrr—is one of them.

It is ruled by one of the ten Megala Deoras, the Ancient Forest Leviathan Deora.

Even he, an Adept D-ranked wizard, wouldn’t dare venture too deep.

The young man they were chasing was either too stupid or too brave to rush in without hesitation because Hector was sure as hell that Hal wasn’t stronger than him, especially since they suspected him to be the young arcanist "Joker."

’Damn it!’

Fear was slowly creeping in as more time passed.

Even the leaders of the rival squads, who had long since revealed themselves and were running a few dozen meters apart on slightly different paths in hopes of catching the young man, began to hesitate.

Hal, on the other hand, showed no hesitation in his eyes.

He would either die or live a life worse than death if captured.

If that was the case, why not risk everything for a clean escape, especially since he had a fair chance of survival?

It was a no-brainer decision.

The only problem was that he didn’t know which way to go, so he would probably be stuck in the forest for quite some time.

’Better than being someone’s puppet for life or being killed by rich bastards, I guess...’

At least he would die trying.

Unfortunately, things weren’t going to be that easy.

Hal suddenly felt danger behind him and turned instinctively.

His eyes widened at the sight of what looked like ice slithering on the ground like a snake.

Before long, it caught up and pierced toward him, solidifying into spikes.

’Fast!’

Without a second thought, Hal used a charge of [Blink].

He wouldn’t be alive now if he hadn’t.

"Huh? Blink?"

A voice sounded from the shadows of a nearby oak as a lavender-haired young man, perhaps only five or six years older than Hal, emerged.

"I didn’t expect someone as young as you to be able to use a spatial-type spell... hmm..."

The sheer amount of mana needed to use it was quite astronomical for anyone not talented in spatial magic.

If Hal could master the Blink spell, the young man doubted he was the celebrated arcanist who had turned Azmarin City upside down.

"How about this, brat? I’ll let you go if you just show me any kind of identification and let me take a photo of you," the pursuer offered.

But Hal merely sneered in refusal:

"Heh, no thanks. I don’t trust the promises of lackeys."

He then grabbed Loki, turned around, and bolted off again.

Veins popped at the sides of the lavender-haired young man’s head.

"Hoh... you’re quite the unruly brat, aren’t you? Do you think you can escape a C-ranked wizard like me? Fine then, let’s play cat and mouse."

Hal’s eyes momentarily widened at what he heard.

Being chased by such a high-ranking wizard was bad news.

But what else could he do except keep running?

Glacial shards flew toward him. freёweɓnovel_com

Most he redirected with his own shards, slowed with mana barriers, or dodged using Blink.

The shards from the C-ranked wizard were faster and more powerful than his, and Hal’s spells barely kept up.

Unbeknownst to him, the lavender-haired young man was just as shocked.

’Who the hell is this brat? Is he a student of the Grand Magic Academy?’ Glade wondered as he fired spells while giving chase.

He, too, had been a student once.

Back then, he was an average three-star, but he had a fifty percent affinity for mana and a solid 30% boost to ice magic thanks to his mana-bound artifact, the Ring of Frostbite.

’Nah... We’d have heard about him by now if he was from the academy. Also, didn’t those idiots from the Buskarr Clan say he’s from Calaren City?’

The aristocratic faction that employed Glade had plenty of eyes inside the academy, and someone this young and skilled would’ve been a five-star student.

After all, their clan’s young master was also among the five-stars.

’A crouching tiger, then? Is he under the tutelage of a master?’

The lavender-haired pursuer didn’t have more time to ponder, though, as he spotted random, glowing blue marks ahead.

They were like veins, sprawling everywhere.

The ground, the trees, the bushes, and even the pebbles had these veiny marks.

Glade’s eyes widened, and his heart began to race, a sudden urgency washing over him.

"Y-You idiot, stop! Don’t you know you’re about to ent–"

Unfortunately, before the C-ranked youngster could even finish his words of warning, Hal had already entered the area without a moment’s hesitation...and Glade didn’t dare follow.

There would be far too many consequences for doing so, and death was just one of the lesser, more peaceful ones.

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