Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 464 - 9: The Scourge of Parasitism

Upon hearing Ulysses’s warning, Richard’s expression subtly changed, the warning sending a chill down his spine.

If this group of Wizards had been parasitized, then who had he been communicating with all this time?

Wizards? Or Mayflies?

If it was the former, it meant these Wizards were still unaware of being parasitized—there might still be some hope. But if it was the Mayflies...

A bone-chilling coldness suddenly surged in Richard’s heart.

What do these Mayflies intend to do?

When Rico saw Richard holding the Crystal Ball but not using it, he asked with some confusion,

"What’s wrong, Master Richard, is there a problem with the Crystal Ball?"

"No, no," Richard flipped the Crystal Ball into his pocket, his face showing a trace of fatigue.

"I’m just a little tired. That last strike drained quite a bit of spiritual power."

Rico heard this and didn’t show any surprise; instead, he nodded in agreement.

"I have some Magic Potion here; you can use it if you like."

Rico pulled out two bottles of standard Magic Potion from his pocket and handed them to Richard.

"I know that Masters who’ve just joined the Military Department tend to wait until crucial moments to use Magic Potion.

But our Military Department isn’t lacking money, and we should use Magic Potions whenever available, especially on a battlefield like this."

Looking at the kindly-faced Rico, Richard managed a forced smile and took the two bottles of Magic Potion.

"Ha-ha, old habits die hard."

After the battle, the Wizards naturally headed back to the Fortress right away—it all seemed very normal.

If not for Richard’s near unconditional trust in Ulysses, he would definitely think Ulysses was being neurotic and hallucinating.

These Wizards were too normal.

Back at the Fortress, Richard took the remaining Black Wizard squad and set off again. Rico too was polite to the door, with no intention of taking any action.

Such behavior even began to foster some doubt in Ulysses.

He even began to wonder if he was mistaken.

"It’s strange," Ulysses’s eyes lit up slightly as he watched the soon-to-disappear Rico.

However, Rico’s body showed no abnormalities; there were no traces of Mayflies.

"Could it really be that I was being neurotic and saw things?"

Ulysses shook his head, his peripheral vision unintentionally catching a glimpse of the Black Wizards in the squad.

And that glance made him instantly dismiss the idea of having been mistaken.

"Richard, your men have also been parasitized."

The tone of Ulysses’s voice sharpened Richard’s gaze immediately; he turned to the Wizard squad still by his side and asked discreetly, "How many?"

After scanning the squad, Ulysses gave a chilling answer.

"All of them. All these people have been parasitized."

In Ulysses’s Divine Eye, the brains of these Wizards were all host to a parasitic Mayfly larvae.

Richard took a deep breath, trying to calm himself as much as possible.

"Is Fortress 192 the same?"

"Yes, apart from that man called Rico, the rest are all parasitized."

"Rico actually has no problem?" Richard said, somewhat amazed.

A Fortress’s White Wizard Army being parasitized while their commander remains uninfected and oblivious?

That didn’t sound like good news.

"Stop imagining things. I guess it’s because his physique is too strong. As soon as those Mayflies parasitized him, his cells squeezed them to death."

At this, Richard paused, indeed, Rico’s physique was even stronger than his. If he was fine, then it made sense for Rico to be unaffected.

Parasites dread a host with too strong a physique. Once faced with a powerful immune system and cell activity, the parasites learn what cruelty is.

"Is there any hope for these Wizards?" Richard swept his gaze over the surrounding Wizards, a hint of sympathy flickering in his eyes.

Though these Wizards couldn’t be considered elite, their quality was still decent. Killing them all would be such a waste. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Besides, these were his subordinates; if they all died, he’d be left without any troops.

How would he carry out his mission then?

"Maybe there’s a chance to save them. Have your little elves give it a try," Ulysses replied. "I’ll have the Snake King prepare a soporific poison mist to ensure that these Wizards get anesthetized as soon as they enter the Secret Realm.

But you need to be prepared; the Fortress isn’t too far from us. If we take these things out recklessly, the Fortress’s Mayflies might notice."

A glint of ruthlessness flickered in Richard’s eyes.

"So be it, just kill them when they come."

Without a commanding officer, the White Wizard Army, although formidable, wasn’t impossible to deal with.

Ulysses offered no objection; he didn’t think that group of White Wizards would pose a serious problem either.

Having made a decision, Richard then commanded the Wizards beside him, "Everyone, stop."

Hiss, hiss, hiss...

A sequence of reins pulling sounded around Richard.

The Wizards of the squadron looked at Richard, not knowing what their squad leader was planning.

"I’ve thought about it and to prevent an incident like what happened to Squad Nine, I’ve decided to have you enter my Secret Realm Fragments.

"Your strength is too weak, meeting a swarm of Parasitic Mayflies greatly reduces your survival chances. If things continue like this, I feel that by the time we reach our destination, half of the squad will be gone,"

The wizards in the squad had no objections to Richard’s decision, and in fact, they were unusually supportive.

It seemed that the parasitism of the Mayflies didn’t affect them much.

Seeing nothing unusual with the squad’s wizards, Richard opened the Secret Realm Rift, allowing Ulysses to fly inside.

"Line up first, one by one, do not let your Dragon Beasts fight!"

Behind the Secret Realm Rift, the Snake King, knowing what Richard needed, opened its mouth near the rift and sprayed a pale purple fog.

As the wizards entered, the sudden appearance of the fog instantly put them into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the Snake King used its tail to move them aside, preventing them from blocking the path.

Thus, within moments, all the wizards had entered the Secret Realm.

Looking at the wizards neatly laid on the ground, Richard waved his hand decisively, and the Holy Tree Elf came over to those wizards to start extracting the parasitic Mayflies.

The Holy Tree Elf, having used fungal filaments to construct its outer shell for years, had a significant advantage in delicate surgeries.

The Mayflies, having just hatched, weren’t tightly connected to the brain. Under the precise surgery performed by the Holy Tree Elf, the Mayflies were successfully removed.

Apart from a few unlucky ones whose brain nerves were slightly damaged, leading to potential minor coordination issues upon awakening,

Looking at those extracted Mayfly larvae, Richard did not destroy them immediately but sealed them all, preparing to use them as research materials and evidence.

Soon, the wizards woke up from unconsciousness.

Looking around the wild, their minds were blank.

Is this the Secret Realm Fragments? It doesn’t seem like it.

Due to the overwhelming effectiveness of the Snake King’s poison fog, the wizards’ memories still lingered at the moment they entered the Secret Realm Rift.

"Don’t just stand there dumbfounded, get up quickly."

Richard’s voice made them instantly stand up from the ground; at this moment, some wizards finally realized what was happening.

They hadn’t entered the Secret Realm, they were still in the Galaxy World.

"What’s going on?" a wizard asked confusedly.

Richard pulled out a sample of a Parasitic Mayfly.

"You were all parasitized by this thing at Fortress 192. I’ve just removed all these Mayflies from your bodies inside the Secret Realm."

Listening to Richard’s somewhat incredible words, a wizard immediately wanted to question him, but he remembered a certain stubborn old wizard and quickly shut his mouth.

Richard coldly said, "Touch the back of your heads and see if there are stitches."

The wizards touched the backs of their skulls and indeed felt stitched marks.

This was deliberately left by the Holy Tree Elf, just to make explanations easier.

After all, these wizards wouldn’t be foolish enough to think that Richard would intentionally render them unconscious and then leave stitched marks on the back of their heads just to fabricate an absurd lie.

After confirming the truth of the matter, a wizard exclaimed, "So, you mean Fortress 192..."

Richard’s expression grew somber as he spoke, "At Fortress 192, aside from the Fortress Commander Rico, all key personnel have been parasitized.

I’m going to report this to the Battle Zone Command Center, and we’ll likely be quarantined for a period of investigation."

It wasn’t just them; currently, all wizards who had passed through Fortress 192 were suspected of being parasitized.

The scale of this parasitic disaster was unknown.

Hearing Richard’s words, the squad’s wizards were quite pleased.

Being quarantined meant they temporarily wouldn’t have to enter the battlefield. By the time their investigation was complete, perhaps new equipment would be issued.

But the thought of being quarantined was somewhat distressing.

These wizards had entered his Secret Realm, theoretically contaminating it. During the quarantine period, his Secret Realm would also be subject to investigation.

This was definitely not good news for him.

However, fortunately, he had made preparations beforehand; before joining the war, he had prepared a small Secret Realm Fragment.

Since these wizards had been knocked unconscious upon entering his Secret Realm, they had no idea what it really looked like.

After using the Crystal Ball to relay the information upwards, Richard left the squad and flew towards the fortress.

Though the Mayflies hadn’t launched an attack yet, striking first was undoubtedly correct.

...

Inside the fortress, the wizards maintaining the fortress all simultaneously stopped their actions.

"We’ve been discovered."

"What do we do?"

"Control that wizard first."

Information transmitted through the Mayflies’ psychic network, and in a blink of an eye, the swarm made a decision.

Richard overlooked one thing: although the interior’s complex formation of the fortress wasn’t suitable for the White Wizard Army to deploy, for the Mayflies, such complex terrain was excellent cover.

The Mayflies’ formation was three-dimensional!

In the Command Room, while exercising and monitoring the surroundings of the fortress through surveillance equipment, Rico suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

A sense of danger unlike any before made his hair stand on end.

Without hesitation, Rico’s body jerked up and several different defensively shielded barriers deployed around him.

In the next moment, one of these barriers shattered.

"Damn it, a Spiritual Attack!"

Seeing the shattered barrier, Rico immediately started to organize defenses using his spiritual power, but before his Spiritual Protection could form, he felt darkness encroach upon his vision.

When he regained his senses, he found himself surrounded by several veteran wizards from within the army.

These veteran wizards looked at him anxiously, "Sir, Mayflies have attacked the fortress!"