Exploring Technology in a Wizard World

The black bear was somewhat stunned, slow to react.

The next moment, before the black bear had figured out what was happening, another beehive tumbled out from the bushes, rolling to its feet.

Then a third, a fourth...

Until finally, seven or eight beehives stopped by its side, all of them emptied of honey, quietly waiting to be savored.

The black bear suddenly felt a bit dizzy, not from hunger, but from sheer bliss.

What had happened to the world? Could beehives really just pop up from the ground? If so, had it been foolish to go to all that trouble to steal beehives before?

The black bear habitually scratched its head.

At that moment, there was a rustling sound, and a person emerged from the bushes, looking at the black bear—it was Sande.

The black bear was startled, suddenly understanding something.

Sande spoke slowly to the black bear, seriously saying, "I'm leaving this place. I feel that the way I treated you before wasn't very nice, so I wanted to come see you before I left and bring you some gifts. After I deliver the gifts, I will disappear from your world. Of course..."

After a slight pause, Sande said to the black bear, "Of course, if you want to come with me, I don't mind taking you along. But it could be very dangerous for you, so be prepared."

Having said this, Sande looked at the black bear.

The black bear glanced at Sande, not sure if it understood him, then turned around and walked away, vanishing into the woods.

Sande's expression went rigid for a moment, then, after a long while, his icy eyes shifted slightly, and he pursed his lips, "Are you still holding a grudge about before? Well, that's normal. Not following me is the right choice, it is indeed dangerous. It seems you're not so foolish after all."

"Phew—"

Sande exhaled and turned to leave, "Since that's the case, I will go now. Goodbye, foolish bear."

Just then, there was a disturbance in the woods, and the black bear that had left returned, carrying a purple vine it had found somewhere.

Next, under Sande's bemused gaze, the black bear carefully strung the beehives with the purple vine, hung them around its neck, and walked up to Sande with big strides.

At this moment, the black bear's inner thoughts were: Is this person stupid? With so many beehives, not stringing them together, how do you plan to take them all away without wasting any?

Sande: "..."

After a speechless moment, shaking his head, Sande walked with the black bear out of the forest, his voice filled with a sigh, "Sigh, are you really smart, or actually foolish?"

The moon sank toward the west, and dawn was about to break.

...

Before the dawn, the final moments of the night.

Inside Eden, in the Mechanical Processing Sector, inside the research lab.

Richard had not slept, but was busily, with great interest, studying a strange box he had just acquired—from Sande.

The reason for his interest was because he had a guess about the box: it might just be the legendary Witch Demon Life Box.

Yes, the Witch Demon Life Box.

Considering the Undead Magic that Sande possessed, this guess was logical and reasonable.

If it was indeed true, the value of the box would be immense.

If he could figure it out, he might get his hands on a Witch Demon Soul from who knows how many years ago.

In the current world, the lineage of magic like Undead Magic was severely broken. If he could obtain a Witch Demon Soul, he might comprehensively study, understand, and research Undead Magic and thus help analyze the Magic System and even uncover some ancient secrets unknown to the world.

Thinking about all this, Richard began to use various methods to try to open the strange box.

However, the box was made of a special material, wholly integrated, utterly unopenable. It showed no response to temperature, light, electric current, or magnetic fields—all stimuli.

After testing a slew of methods with no progress, Richard couldn't help but frown.

Was brute force really the only way to open it?

But opening it in such a way would cause irreversible damage. Once he failed, there would be no chance to undo it.

Maybe... try a different approach.

Richard raised his eyebrows.

If this truly contained a Witch Demon Soul, and inside was a slumbering Witch Demon Spirit, then unless the Witch Demon was foolish, it would make its Life Box as indestructible as possible, since it was crucial for resurrection.

Thus, it was very difficult to open the Life Box and forcibly awaken the Witch Demon's Spirit using external methods.

However, one could do the opposite, by stimulating the Witch Demon to awaken its own Spirit and open the Life Box.

To accomplish this, one would need to truly affect the slumbering Spirit of the Witch Demon, which required the use of spells from the Spiritual school of magic.

If he remembered correctly, the "Vaisya Secrets" contained a very useful spell for this purpose…

With this thought, Richard flipped his hand and took out the Wizard Book "Vaisya Secrets" from the Space Iron Ring, quickly flipping through it on the table.

"Rustle, rustle..."

Moments later, Richard stopped moving, looked at a certain part of the "Vaisya Secrets" and said, "Hmm, I've found it, the spell is called... 'Soul Worm', yes, that's it."

...

Three days later.

In three days' time, Richard had fully understood and mastered everything about the spell "Soul Worm."

The difficulty of the spell was not too high, it was an attack spell of the Spiritual type. According to the "Vaisya Secrets," the spell could use spiritual power to condense a worm that specifically gnawed at souls, and inject it into a person's body. Its effect on a person was not strong, but it could indeed affect the Soul.

If the Caster had enough patience, they could spend years repeatedly casting the spell and manipulating a target, eventually completely changing the target's personality and mind - but whether such effort was worthwhile was subjective.

Now, Richard didn't plan to use the Spirit Worm to devour the Witch Demon Soul within the Life Box, but merely wanted to give a slight stimulation to make the other party awaken from its slumber.

It was like someone lying in bed deep asleep, and him tossing a worm onto the person's body.

The worm would crawl around on the person's face, neck, and chest. If the sleeper was light, they would wake up immediately. Even if they were in a deep sleep, it didn't matter – as the worm chewed on their skin, one bite, two bites, three bites...

As the injury grew and the pain intensified, the person would wake up sooner or later.

"Let's see the effects," Richard murmured softly, reciting the spell in the lab.

In a moment, as the spell ended, Richard felt a slight heaviness in his brain and a two-centimeter-long, translucent Spirit Worm appeared in the palm of his hand.

He walked over to the square box on the table, without hesitation, placed the Spirit Worm onto it.

After being placed, the Spirit Worm moved around restlessly, then as if it detected the scent of delicious food, it lunged into the square box and disappeared.

Richard watched the box intently and patiently waited.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

"Buzz!"

Without warning, the box vibrated.

Richard's eyebrows snapped up, then saw the square box begin to shake violently.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

The entire table started to wobble.

After more than a dozen seconds, the vibration ceased, followed by a "snap" – the worm that had entered the box was flung out harshly.

Following that, a dense black mist surged out from the box, condensing into an ethereal figure midair.

It appeared to be an old man, withered and gaunt like a skull, but his temper was fiery, he cursed loudly.

The voice echoed in the room: "What's going on! How did a Soul Worm get into my Life Box, disturbing my slumber? Damn it, what exactly happened!"

After a good bout of cursing, the old man suddenly sensed something, whipped his head around to look at Richard; first in shock, then scanning the surrounding area, his brows deeply furrowed, and finally he said to Richard cautiously, "Um, may I ask... where am I?"

...