Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 47: The Failed Apprentice

Riding an Engel Swift Snail felt like speeding in a small car. As magical creatures selectively bred and modified through beast-taming magic, these snails moved incredibly fast, equipped with a 0.3-circle trick spell [Drift].
They could run tirelessly for five or six hours at high speed, making them the preferred choice for Lilith’s Cottage wizard apprentices needing quick transport in the city.
Locke looked toward the patrol team’s destination, his pupils narrowing. Ahead lay the familiar Dwarf Street.
But the stone statue of the Hearthstone dwarf at the street’s entrance had been forcibly removed, leaving only a bare stone pedestal.
At the entrance stood a humanoid creature with elongated limbs like ropes. Its body was covered in appendages: child-sized arms on its shoulders, adult-sized arms on its back, and two pairs of beastly arms.
A jagged hole pierced through its chest.
This humanoid monster gripped a third-class wizard apprentice in its hands, roaring with a mix of maniacal laughter and fury. With a twist, it crushed the apprentice, blood and flesh exploding outward.
On Dwarf Street, panicked third-class wizard apprentices froze in shock. A few attempted to use magic to resolve the crisis.
But the meager mana of third-class apprentices had little effect on the creature.
Undeterred by their spells, the humanoid monster advanced, moving like a spider through the street, its long arms reaching to seize another wizard prospect.
“Just a bit more… just a bit more…”
“Where did I go wrong? I wasn’t wrong. My head hurts. Kill… kill… kill…”
“I must become a second-class wizard apprentice. I won’t be eliminated. This is my last year… I won’t… kill… kill…”
From the frenzied humanoid monster’s head, Locke saw a pair of human eyes, their blue irises growing increasingly deranged, their last traces of sanity fading.
Captain Bruno Suarez observed the scene calmly and sneered, “How many times has this happened this year?”
“Damn Blood Curse Court. They send spies to plant flawed advancement materials in front of desperate wizard apprentices who’ve lost hope, luring them onto a path that turns them into these monsters.”
“They aim to crush our morale, making us question whether the academy’s system is flawed.”
“Enforcement team, listen up. That wizard prospect is beyond saving. Its flesh has been deeply altered.”
“Kill it and collect its remains for recycling.”
The next moment, the second-class wizard apprentices of the enforcement team leapt from the snails’ backs, casting trick spell models at the mutated monster.
[Lesser Flame Arrow]
[Acid Splash]
[Mage Hand]…
Under Captain Bruno Suarez’s command, over twenty second-class wizard apprentices coordinated effectively, quickly suppressing the black magic-altered monster.
A Lesser Flame Arrow caused the creature’s right arm to explode, the limb falling to the ground.
Captain Bruno Suarez chanted a spell, casting the trick spell [Thorn Whip], manipulating a Tiflo Root Vine hidden under his wizard robe, coiled around his right arm.
The vine lashed out like an iron whip, striking the monster’s back, nearly cleaving it in two.
Thorn Whip, an advanced spell in the Vine Hand series, caused the Tiflo Root Vine to sprout steel-like barbs under the spell’s effect, shredding the monster’s flesh.
The humanoid monster let out agonized screams.
Just when everyone thought the creature was near death, it tore open its tattered clothes, revealing a human wizard apprentice’s head hidden in its chest.
Captain Bruno Suarez froze. Locke, standing beside him, could tell he recognized the head’s original owner.
Bruno whispered, “The Blood Curse Court is full of lunatics. Before, they only tricked our apprentices into using necromancy’s limb-grafting magic, transplanting powerful magical creature limbs to forcibly boost mental strength.”
“But now, they’re deceiving our prospects into transplanting the heads of dead wizard apprentices.”
“That head… I saw it on the battlefield. It’s from a second-class wizard apprentice of the Blood Curse Court. That prospect grafted that head onto their own body…”
Locke shuddered. “The black wizard’s mana is clearly stronger than the prospect’s own. Is it the prospect grafting the black wizard’s head, or the black wizard grafting their head onto the prospect’s body?”
“Captain Bruno, I’m skilled in the Vine Hand series. Perhaps I can coordinate with you.”
Bruno glanced at Locke behind him. “New guy, right? You’re correct.”
“Limb-grafting magic is banned even within the Blood Curse Court. It’s a dead end.”
“It turns you into something neither human nor ghost, severely disrupting your self-awareness.”
“New guy, be careful. Our opponent isn’t just a failed experiment but an elite second-class wizard apprentice from the Blood Curse Court, close to first-class status in life.”
“You don’t have much combat experience. Stay on the battlefield’s edge and observe. It’s not easy for you overseas apprentices to make it this far.”
“No need to show off.”
Bruno glanced at Locke again. “I believe in equivalent exchange. You didn’t enjoy the patrol team’s glory days at Lilith’s Cottage.”
“There’s no need for you to risk your life now.”
Locke paused, realizing why Bruno assumed he was from overseas.
Only apprentices with no connections, unaware of the deeper implications, would join the patrol team at a time like this.
His overseas origin was an easy guess.
A strange voice, both childlike and adult, emanated from the head on the monster’s chest. “Well, well, isn’t this Bruno Suarez?”
“Hahaha… You potion-brewing nobodies from Lilith’s Cottage never expected I’d infiltrate this way, did you?”
“This body has been modified to be perfect for my rebirth.”
The head chanted a spell: “Blood feast is truth, darkness forges eternity; sin binds in chains, those who fear light submit forever!”
The monster began to transform. Its four beastly arms on its back fused into a pair of bat wings.
Its muscles and bones shifted, vertebrae protruding from its back like a spinal insect, bone spikes piercing through its skin.
The head on its chest moved upward, settling at the throat, while the original head shifted to the left shoulder.
The head bared vampire fangs.
Locke felt the creature’s ominous, unsettling mana. “Blood Curse Court… vampire…”
“No wonder they’re called the Blood Curse Court.”
“This must be a branch of necromancy, a niche category within curse magic, transforming oneself into a vampire magical creature through curses.”