Hussein said, "Locke, we can head to the Dispatch Department together now."

"I also don't plan to stay in the southeastern quadrant. The first time I saw you, I knew we would be kindred spirits. We will become friends."

"However, before that, I have one more request."

A fighting spirit eager to try showed in Hussein's eyes. "How about we fight again?"

"I've long had the qualifications to become a First Circle wizard. I was just lacking a bottle of advancement potion. So I already have a relatively complete permanent defensive field and a spell pool with First Circle magic that can be combined."

"Since we've already fought four times, how about we have a fifth battle?"

He was obviously unconvinced about being brutally beaten by Locke once before becoming a formal wizard, believing that was merely level suppression.

Hussein was someone who had fought his way out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the Blood Curse Court. Naturally, he didn't think he would be defeated by Locke in his most skilled field.

For him, who came from a black wizard background, combat was like eating and drinking, a necessity of life. Only wizards with powerful combat abilities could survive in black wizard lands. Even if you had talent in other fields, it was meaningless.

A talented quick-draw artist, no matter how artistically gifted, could only end up being called a weakling chick in black wizard lands.

Locke thought for a moment and directly agreed. "Fine."

"But I have my botanical fields here. Let's go to the wasteland outside the city. The scale of battles between formal wizards is quite large. Lilith's Cottage has regulations that you can't fight within the city or in nearby suburbs, or you'll have to pay compensation... You probably don't have money to compensate, right?"

He just happened to need someone to test out the First Circle magic combinations he had newly assembled. Who knew Hussein would conveniently volunteer himself.

Hussein was stunned for a moment. For the Blood Curse Court, everything had to prioritize the feelings of formal wizards, so there had never been such regulations.

When Locke told him about having to pay compensation, he was momentarily stunned.

He hadn't expected that Lilith's Cottage would actually impose certain restrictions on formal wizards because of mortals and the city, and the restriction was so reasonable that both parties could accept it—paying money.

For the formal wizard class, paying money could both make them remember this point and not truly anger them.

White wizard society was really interesting.

Full of soft yet sufficiently effective restrictions.

Hussein's eyes flickered as he immediately understood the hidden meaning behind this system, in other words, as long as you had enough money, you could do whatever you wanted, and the academy's upper management would happily accept money you voluntarily sent their way.

Of course, everyone had difficulty making money, so generally there wouldn't be such bored formal wizards.

The two arrived at suburbs far from the city. The next moment, their magical pressures collided. Locke didn't use abyssal energy, so his current magical pressure was 3040, while Hussein retreated several steps. In terms of magical pressure comparison, his magical pressure was only half of Locke's.

But magical pressure and the amount of mana weren't everything. What determined a First Circle wizard's combat ability was also the depth of research into their own field.

The next moment, Hussein's body swelled up, and a powerful aura erupted from within him. "Be careful, Locke."

"This is the original version of Vampire Count, traced back through research of the founding wizard's notes left by the Blood Curse Court. It's the complete version that disappeared as the Blood Curse Court people deliberately hid parts of the knowledge generation after generation. This version of Vampire Count may only be mastered by the Blood Lord."

"Its coefficient for enhancing my basic stats is particularly high. Although my magical pressure is only 1500, as long as I use this vampire curse transformation state, my combat power can receive an extremely exaggerated boost."

Hussein directly warned him aloud, using this method to make himself remember that this was just sparring with a friend, or rather a fellow disciple, and no longer the life-or-death battles for resources in the Blood Curse Court.

"Roar~" Hussein's body swelled up. The wizard robe on him seemed to have been replaced in Chimera Trading Market with some special magical fabric, which only stretched out when Hussein transformed into a small giant, without tearing.

Three pairs of black membranous bat wings grew from Hussein's back. His face transformed into beast form, and three pairs of scarlet eyes grew. His magical power fluctuations were indeed different from the Vampire Count that Locke had encountered before.

Moreover, a blood moon faintly appeared behind him.

"Roar~"

Like a mighty beast, the beast-type Vampire Count that Hussein transformed into emitted frightening sounds.

Locke frowned, looking at the blood moon phantom behind him. 'I see. The complete version of the original vampire transformation curse seems to be associated with some kind of astral phenomenon. Does it use curses to associate one's existence with the blood moon?'

'Borrowing that astral phenomenon's power to further strengthen one's physical body.'

'If that's the case, then the Blood Curse Court's inheritance may be even more ancient than I thought.'

Locke sensed the opponent's magical pressure nearly doubling, approaching 3000, and was slightly surprised. "It's associated with an astral phenomenon, like an external magical pressure source, strengthening his magical pressure. So his mana should now be 1500, with magical pressure around over 2900."

The next moment, the Vampire Count that Hussein transformed into suddenly dove over, his right fist smashing toward Locke. His fist violently collided with Locke's permanent defensive field life force field, and an invisible collision wave, centered on the two, swept in all directions.

Cracks appeared in the rocky ground, and stones flew everywhere.

Locke looked at the opponent's fist inches away from him, quickly calculated from the depth that the opponent's fist penetrated his life force field, plugged it into the formula, and mentally calculated that the opponent's magical pressure with external magical pressure source support should be 2997.

Even if this number fluctuated up or down, the difference shouldn't be large, and it definitely hadn't reached the level to break through the vaporization stage.

This meant that the original version of the vampire transformation curse on the opponent was far from providing as much enhancement as the Nature Guardian panel gave him, unable to help him jump directly from ordinary formal wizard to vaporization stage at the First Circle stage.

The next moment, the giant fist of the Vampire Count that Hussein transformed into continuously smashed toward Locke's head. Moreover, each eye of the Vampire Count that Hussein transformed into released a blood curse, the Fear Blood Curse and Hunger Blood Curse respectively, trying to weaken Locke's state, then defeat him with the Vampire Count's physical strength.

This was still the traditional combat method of Blood Curse Court black wizards, just more advanced and refined. However, from Hussein tracing back to the original version of the blood curse on his own, he had originally only taken this path.

At least so far, that was still the case.

Blood-red curse spirit threads crashed toward his permanent defensive field, impacting his soul, trying to weaken him.

They produced intense spell spark friction with his permanent defensive field but the next moment, Locke opened his right hand, and a green spiral staircase-shaped magical plant, Sea Gold Sand, appeared in his palm.

Locke softly chanted an incantation and used [Gold Sand Torrent].

Immediately, this green spiral staircase-shaped magical plant Sea Gold Sand transformed into a long spear, and its surface turned golden. The edges of its triangular leaves sprayed golden spore powder. These gold powders formed six gold sand spheres, then formed a gold sand wall blocking in front of him.

Two blood-red curse spirit threads of First Circle blood curse magic struck this magical golden wall, immediately leaving two red marks on it, but nothing else happened.

Hussein punched the golden sand wall, and immediately his fist, striking the sand wall, had its force dissipated. Then his fist was enveloped by the golden sand wall. "This is..."

"Golden magic? Locke, you've even learned such rare magic. It seems I'm not the only one who's made progress during this time."

The next moment, the golden sand wall transformed into three golden torrents, spiraling upward along his arm, attacking toward Hussein's face.

Golden magic possessed many properties. Currently, Locke didn't understand them deeply enough, but he unexpectedly matched very well with Sea Gold Sand.

Even when using Sea Gold Sand, he was actually even more formidable than those ordinary plant-based wizards who used Sea Gold Sand as recorded in magic books.

This might be related to the special ancient creature bloodline in his body.

Moreover, he could fully manifest the most important property of golden magic, immutability of gold.

Golden magic possessed a special property that was almost impossible to change. So Hussein's two First Circle level attack blood curse magic spells, hitting the golden sand wall, produced almost no effect.

But Locke conversely used [Gold Sand Torrent] to attack Hussein's body in reverse.