023 Stiff-Necked to the End

Anna carried Roland toward the group’s location, but after a short distance, she suddenly dropped him.

Roland hit the ground hard, feeling dizzy and disoriented. By the time he recovered and steadied himself, he realized he was still some distance away from his mentor. Looking back, he saw Anna perched on a large tree before vanishing in a blur—her movements were like those of a frenzied cat, a stark contrast to the elegant and composed demeanor she had displayed just moments ago.

For some reason, Anna seemed to have suffered another sudden bout of madness, abandoning Roland as soon as she brought him here.

Roland looked toward the woodland where his mentor waited. After a long moment of hesitation and a shifting expression, he finally started walking. On the way, he thought to himself, "If I say I wasn't running away, but simply got lost in the forest, would the mentor believe me?"

Roland decided it didn't matter whether she believed him or not. What mattered was that he *had* to say it.

*Focus on the facts, not the intent. Besides, I didn't run! I went to hunt blood moths!*

Deep in thought, Roland returned to the vicinity of the group. He was stunned to find that not a single person was missing. The two freshmen, Wallace, and Leonard were all there.

Anna had not taken any medicine earlier, yet her intelligence had inexplicably soared, as if she were a completely different person; this left Roland bewildered.

The two freshmen looked pale, as if they had lost too much blood. They sat listlessly on a rock, appearing deeply shaken, though their mental states seemed to have stabilized. Roland noticed two empty vials beside them, suggesting they had just consumed some kind of potion.

Wallace was completely uninjured, though his clothes were stained with patches of dark, reddish, pus-like blood—the blood of a moth. He was pacing anxiously, and upon seeing Roland emerge from the woods, he let out a sigh of relief and hurried over. "You're finally back! Sir Nall has been looking for you for half an hour!"

Without another word, he grabbed Roland and brought him before the mentor.

"My Lady, it’s all my fault!" Wallace knelt on one knee, looking devastated. "I knew Roland was a first-timer at this trial, yet I let him go hunt blood moths alone, causing him to fall into an illusion and get lost."

Roland wanted to hug the big guy. Stealing a glance at his mentor's expression, he saw she was stone-faced. His heart pounded as he tentatively said, "Mentor, this isn't Sir Wallace's fault. I was greedy and wanted to catch more blood moths."

Baron Hall laughed and chimed in, "Oh? Roland managed to catch blood moths too? You've been gone for so long, surely you had quite a harvest?"

This remark drew everyone’s attention. The two freshmen, in particular, grew tense upon hearing that Roland had a significant harvest. After all, they were teenagers in the throes of adolescence, their characters yet unformed, and they still failed to grasp the current situation. They merely thought they had made fools of themselves; if Roland, a fellow freshman, performed too well, the contrast would be too sharp. It would affect their future chances to shine and impact the allocation of artifacts.

Baron Hall, eager to stir the pot, urged, "Roland, hurry and show everyone!"

Roland remained silent. He pulled the carcass of a massive blood moth from his wallet and tossed it onto the ground. The onlookers’ eyes widened.

The mentor sneered in silence.

Sensing the faint killing intent in his mentor’s eyes, Roland slowly produced three more massive blood moth carcasses. The group gasped. The pale faces of the two freshmen turned even uglier, while Wallace and Leonard looked on with admiration.

Baron Hall nodded in satisfaction.

However, the mentor’s expression was extremely strange. She watched Roland, seemingly waiting for him to produce more, but Roland showed no intention of doing so.

At this moment, Baron Hall noticed Katherine’s expression was grim and whispered, "What's wrong?"

Katherine replied via telepathy: ["He shook off my artifact multiple times along the way, deliberately provoked a nest of blood moths, and used them to delay the artifact's pursuit... then he escaped the swarm. Not counting what my artifact devoured, he killed at least twenty moths himself... but he only pulled out the ones recorded by the crystal ball!"]

Baron Hall froze. He looked at the few moths on the ground, then at Roland, his expression turning truly spectacular. If Roland hadn't been distracted by the artifact and had been allowed to do as he pleased, given enough time... this kid could probably have cleared out every monster in the vicinity by himself.

He had thought he was mentoring a promising novice, but in reality, he was dealing with a mini-boss who had just steamrolled the beginner zone. If it weren't for Katherine, he would have been fooled today... no, if not for Katherine, the boy would have run away!

*Clap, clap, clap.* Baron Hall applauded, nodding deeply. "Excellent, excellent, Roland. Truly excellent. You are far more capable than your father... Katherine, he is truly a student worthy of your teaching."

The anger in the mentor's eyes burned even brighter.

Roland’s eyes shifted. *Anna only opened the crystal ball after I spotted her... The mentor should only know about the one moth the wallet swallowed, yet she acts as if she knows everything... Before Anna found me, the mentor was already closely monitoring my every move.*

As it turned out, Roland hadn't pulled out only two moths out of a death wish. He was testing just how much the mentor could monitor him. He had taken the risk, dancing on the edge of his mentor's threshold of patience. Now, he confirmed one thing: the mentor didn't need Anna the scout; she could keep tabs on his every move herself. She possessed some unique ability, allowing her to perceive distant events in an illogical way.

Roland had guessed correctly: Katherine was a true witch capable of "remote viewing." As long as she possessed an object belonging to someone, she could touch it and see exactly where that person was and what they were doing, even from thousands of miles away.

Seeing his mentor on the verge of erupting, Roland spoke three sentences:

"Mentor, you have misunderstood. With your artifact in hand, I naturally returned with a full harvest. But these blood moths are still alive, and I feared they would escape if I took them out."

Roland looked at his mentor with feigned trepidation and whispered, "This is the only item I have to carry loot, so all my spoils are kept here. Since this item is yours, you can take it and inspect it at any time, so why would I be foolish enough to hide the truth from you? It’s just that with so many classmates around, if I displayed too much, Instructor Leonard might lose face."

The excuse was perfect—if you want to see how much is in the wallet, just take it and look; why would I hide anything from you?

The mentor was momentarily taken aback. *The boy has no reason to hide things from me. What does he gain? Provoking me? Dancing on my anger threshold? A death wish?*

She felt something was off, but she could find no reason to discipline him. Looking at the infuriating boy, she suppressed her rage and spat out a single word: "Get lost."

Roland scrambled over to the two freshmen.

The two freshmen were clearly not as enthusiastic as before; their gazes were filled with deep envy. People are like this—if the gap is too large, no competitive spirit arises. But if the gap is small, many ulterior thoughts emerge.

However, there are some people who simply cannot see the true scale of the gap between them and others. Even if Roland had shown everything today, the two freshmen would still believe he just had beginner's luck, or that he only succeeded because of the mentor's artifact.

*That’s right, he just got lucky! We are all low-level apprentices; the gap can't possibly be this big! We didn't even see the monster before we were wiped out—it’s impossible for anyone else not to be! You just relied on luck and the artifact! If we had the artifact, we wouldn't need luck to do better than you!*

They were deeply resentful, looking forward to the next chance to prove themselves, hoping to shine and earn Katherine’s favor and an allocation of artifacts.

Watching their eager expressions, Roland thought with a hint of apology, "My apologies, classmates... Go ahead and show off. I have a feeling we are about to run into a boss."