Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

"If there's nothing else, I'll be on my way." Duke didn't have time to waste with this peculiar woman and planned to leave directly.

Frey quickly extended her hand to stop him, then took out a brass token: "Take this with you, it'll let you move unimpeded within the Toulouse Territory."

Duke looked at the token in front of him but did not take it, pondering whether there might be something fishy about it.

He even considered whether Frey intended to track him and locate the position of the Fifth Outpost.

The possibility wasn't absent; when traveling in other planes, caution was paramount.

Frey realized Duke was hesitant to accept it and quickly understood what he was concerned about, so she said, "You are overly cautious; this is just an ordinary brass token. Don't be so ungrateful for my kindness!"

Duke thought for a moment, reached out and took it, then immediately stored it in the Light God Court.

"I've accepted it. Can I leave now?"

Frey was visibly stunned at the scene, not knowing where Duke had put the token, she said, "I'm becoming more and more curious about you..."

Duke ignored her, turned, and left, with Frey being unable to stop him.

She could only watch Duke's departing back, biting her lip lightly, a hint of a smile on her face.

After shaking off Frey, Duke immediately manipulated the surrounding water elements to wash his entire body, then extracted those water elements to cleanse any scents he might have picked up.

As for the brass token, he wouldn't take it out for the time being unless he encountered other patrols on the way.

Once outside the Toulouse Territory, he would discard the token.

With the token stored in the Light God Court, Duke was not worried about any tracking methods on it.

The Light God Court was akin to another plane; tracking across planes wasn't impossible, but certainly not achievable by the token at hand.

…

Ten days later.

Duke stood over a wilderness, with a city faintly visible on the horizon behind him.

He now was fully out of the Toulouse Territory, on the White Land Wilderness north of it.

During this time, Duke encountered two patrols, but Frey's token sorted out the trouble smoothly.

All the patrol members who saw the token showed expressions of respect.

Duke just realized that Frey was the daughter of the Toulouse lord and had an unusual status here.

Not only was she exceptionally beautiful with a fine figure, but also incredibly powerful, being a formidable first-level Awakened being.

Frey was a noble with real power in the Toulouse domain, possessing her own influence and faction.

Duke didn't know why Frey wanted to help him, nor how Frey noticed he wasn't an Awakened being.

He had been very cautious along the way, barely revealing anything, yet Frey saw through him.

More importantly, even after learning he came from an other plane, Frey still chose to help, which was puzzling.

Looking at the brass token in his hand, Duke casually tossed it out, then manipulated the surrounding earth to bury it deep.

He couldn't identify any trickery with the token, but for the sake of caution, he still couldn't keep it on him, even within the Light God Court.

The next step was heading from the White Land Wilderness to the Arsenal Mountain Range, where the Fifth Outpost was located.

Duke had found out beforehand that for the people of this plane, the Arsenal Mountains were absolutely forbidden because they contained erosion-body-polluted zones.

The position of the Fifth Outpost was near those forbidden areas, a location so cunning that ordinary people wouldn't venture there.

All the Awakened beings avoided it like the plague, but placing the Fifth Outpost there actually made it relatively safe.

Duke took one last look at the blurry city outline in the south of the Toulouse Territory, then turned to face the even more desolate and disquieting region to the north, the Arsenal Mountain Range.

Three days later, the ground beneath his feet transitioned from relatively solid wilderness to hills covered with rubble and low, twisted shrubs.

The air became dry and thin with an indescribable smell, as if it mingled with rusty decay.

The sky took on a sickly gray-yellow color, with sunlight filtered through thick clouds, casting a cold, lifeless light.

The surroundings were eerily silent, even common insect and bird calls vanished, leaving only the mournful wailing of the wind through jagged rocks, reminiscent of the whispers of the dead.

This was the edge of the erosion-body-polluted area.

Duke could clearly sense an extremely faint yet profoundly unsettling energy wave permeating the air.

It was unlike the ferocity of demons or the energy of Awakened beings, but rather a slow, continuous, intensely erosive stillness.

However, Duke wasn't significantly affected; this energy in the environment didn't seem to react with his magic power.

But it would be a different story for an Awakened being here; in the forbidden zone, they would slowly get tainted and thereby contract erosion disease, becoming erosion bodies themselves.

At this point, Duke understood why Black Sail set the Fifth Outpost here, as the pollution power didn't affect wizards.

Despite this, he still chose a relatively gentle valley to advance, avoiding zones with intense energy fluctuations and more treacherous terrain.

Every step was taken with utmost caution, the pebbles underfoot made faint noises, sounding extraordinarily jarring amidst the deathly stillness.

Moving deeper into the mountain's core, the landscape grew more bizarre.

The initially gray-green rocks were covered in dark red, moss-like substances resembling congealed blood scabs, emitting a faintly bloody odor.

Twisted trees had long since died but hadn't fallen; their branches reached towards the sky like despairing wraith claws, with bark filled with dark red veins as well.

The rusty and decaying smell in the air grew stronger, now mixed with a faintly sweet blood scent, causing dizziness.

Duke continuously scouted with the Eye of Darkness ahead, quickly detecting the presence of demons in front.

There were three wolf-shaped creatures with distorted forms, nearly twice the size of normal wolves, but most of their fur had fallen away, exposing dark red, seemingly charred muscle and bone.

Their eyes were cloudy and emitted a mad red glow, with corrosive drool dripping from their mouths.

Most bizarrely, their claws and teeth were covered with densely packed dark red tendrils, exuding the same erosive energy inherent to the surroundings.