The Battle Begins

As Herbert listened to Sutton's “sensible” words, the feigned hesitation in his heart instantly vanished, replaced by a sense of satisfaction and calculation.

This was exactly the attitude he wanted from Sutton! If he had directly demanded a larger share just now, it would have looked unsightly and might have even triggered Sutton's defensiveness. After all, Sutton was a Third-Grade Apprentice, with his own dignity and bottom line.

Now that Sutton had “voluntarily” proposed it with such sincere words, laying out the logic of “greater effort, greater reward” on the table, everything became much more straightforward.

“Sutton, you are far too polite.”

A slightly more “sincere” smile finally appeared on Herbert's face, as if his previous solemnity had merely been caution born of responsibility to the team. “Since both of us believe it is worth a try, let us work together. Your men are well-trained, and young friend Matthew hails from the Tower, so perhaps he has some unique insights as well. Let us cooperate well, take down this puppet, and explore deeper into the tomb! As for the distribution... as you said, we will discuss it after the battle based on our contributions. I, Herbert, am by no means a greedy person.”

With these words, he not only accepted Sutton's “proposal” but also draped himself in a cloak of “reasonableness and team-mindedness,” while subtly hinting that everyone needed to contribute, tying the whole team together.

Hearing this, although Sutton knew the price would not be small, seeing Herbert finally clearly agree to join forces allowed him to secretly breathe a sigh of relief. At the very least, the worst-case scenario—Herbert insisting on retreating or acting passively—had been avoided.

The two of them turned their gazes back to the giant stone golem, which seemed to have fully awakened from its slumber, its eerie red crystal eyes glowing intensely. The pressure and murderous aura permeating the air suddenly peaked.

The nearly five-meter-tall giant stone golem had completely broken free from the ground, its massive, dark brown, almost black body filling a corner of the hall.

The two eerie red crystal “eyes” embedded in its head suddenly flared with brilliant light, like a magma core injected with life, emitting a low, heavy hum.

The light swept over the intruders, not aimlessly, but as if some ancient and fundamental identification mechanism within it had been activated.

Its “gaze” first swept over Rex and Leah, who stood ready, radiating waves of combat qi. The pressure made their blood churn, but its eerie red eyes did not linger on them for long.

It then swept over Sutton. The stable spiritual field of a Third-Grade Apprentice radiating from the one-eyed wizard caused the light in its crystal eyes to flicker imperceptibly, clearly marking him as a high-threat target. However, when its “gaze” finally locked onto Herbert—

A hostility far stronger and more solid than before spread out like a physical shockwave!

The spiritual field radiating from Herbert was not only stronger than Sutton's, but its nature was also sharper and more aggressive, carrying a faint, chilly lingering charm unique to ice spells.

This undoubtedly triggered the golem's pre-programmed highest-level alert response.

In its simple and brutal logic: eliminating the greatest threat was the highest priority.

“Rumble!”

With a dull boom far more violent than when it had burst from the ground, the golem's right arm—composed of a solid piece of hard rock and comparable to a battering ram—suddenly rose. It was not slow or clumsy, but instead carried an explosive speed after gathering power, completely mismatched with its size. Shrouded in a suffocating, vicious wind, it crashed straight down toward Herbert's position!

This strike was entirely without flourish, a pure crushing force of strength and mass, as if it wanted to shatter this apprentice who brought it the greatest sense of threat, along with the very ground beneath his feet.

Facing this sudden, unavoidable thunderous strike, there was not a trace of panic on Herbert's face. Instead, a cold arc curved at the corner of his mouth.

Just as the giant stone fist was about to strike—

Herbert moved.

His figure did not retreat violently. Instead, in the nick of time, with a fluidity and swiftness that nearly defied the laws of physics, he slid forward and to the side.

The movement was so fast that it left only a blur of his grey robe, and a faint sonic boom even echoed where he had just stood!

The giant fist crashed down. The stone slabs where he had been standing cracked inch by inch, sending stone fragments flying and kicking up a cloud of dust, but Herbert himself had already appeared at the edge of the golem's attack range like a ghost.

Matthew's pupils contracted sharply, and alarm bells rang wildly in his mind!

So fast! He saw it clearly. The explosive speed Herbert displayed just now was absolutely not something a regular wizard apprentice's weak physical body could achieve.

The fluidity of that slide, the precise grasp of timing, and the sense of power generated by the instantaneous coordination of muscles and bones during the burst...

This movement speed was already enough to rival an experienced Silver Rank warrior, and was even a notch stronger than an ordinary Class holder who had just stepped into the Silver Rank!

And this was merely the most basic physical movement he showed to evade an attack, far from the point of going all out in a life-and-death struggle.

Just as Matthew was secretly shocked by this speed, his highly focused Spirit perception captured something even more subtle.

During Herbert's lightning-fast movement just now, a very faint, almost imperceptible shimmer of mana had flashed across the surface of his body, especially on his leg muscles and joints.

It was not an externally projected spell radiance, but rather a faint glimmer of energy naturally escaping as mana circulated at high speed within specific internal pathways to strengthen his physical body.

Furthermore, Herbert's currently stable stance, steady breathing, and the body beneath his grey robe resembled a taut yet relaxed longbow. Every inch of his muscles contained a sense of coordination and power far exceeding common sense, faintly resonating with the active mana particles in the surrounding environment.

Waves surged in Matthew's heart, instantly overturning his previous stereotype of a wizard's physical constitution.

Obscure terms he had only seen in the corners of books, such as “human alchemy,” “life form optimization,” and “elemental assimilation,” flashed rapidly through his mind. He also thought of Earth's science fiction concepts regarding genetic enhancement and mechanical modification, ultimately merging them into a deeper, awe-inspiring understanding of this wizarding world's power system:

This realization caused Matthew's danger assessment of Herbert to skyrocket once again.

An opponent with powerful spells who also possessed impressive close-quarters mobility and strike resistance was far more troublesome than a pure ranged glass cannon.

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