This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

A flying Magic Beast?

Hercules looked up at the shadow in the sky, shielding his eyes from the direct sunlight. But this was an opportunity; a drop of ink silently appeared and began to dissipate, while his right eye had transformed into a mechanical eyeball, constantly adjusting and focusing.

This was another enhancement method for Mechanical Wizards besides controlling mechanical creations for combat—mechanical transformation.

Accomplished Mechanical Wizards who specialized in this field had replaced parts of their own bodies with mechanical creations, thereby acquiring abilities beyond human capacities. Combined with the witchcraft that Mechanical Wizards excelled in, they could achieve synergistic effects greater than the sum of their parts.

Although Hercules did not use witchcraft to assist him at that moment, the sheer functionality of the mechanical eyeball alone allowed him to clearly lock onto the eagle-like Magic Beast.

The Magic Beasts here were not extraordinary creatures but a type of demon species, also bred by the Demon Nest, but in the form of beasts, and hence differentiated from the standard concept of demon species and called Magic Beasts.

Typically, these Magic Beasts were the claws and hounds of the demon species and generally did not act alone. Instead, they roamed around the Demon Nests or were dispatched by higher-ranking demons as scouts or vanguards to attack isolated merchant groups or villages.

Under normal circumstances, these Magic Beasts, though lacking in intelligence but savvy in attacking the weak and fearing the strong, would not dare to roam above a Knight Squadron like theirs. After all, if discovered, one might be able to trace their way back to the backing demon species.

Unless there was another reason...

Hercules lowered his head again, and the mechanical eyeball that had slightly extended rapidly retracted. He then casually glanced over at Rafael and the others nearby.

"Elton," he commanded, operating Roland.

"Captain!" A company commander heard the command and briskly ran towards Roland, then quickly performed a military salute, his movements sharp.

"There’s an eye in the sky, latch onto it. Our mission is to clear out the demon nests anyway, and now that we’ve seen these lurking demons, let’s warm up with it," Hercules said with a piercing look.

"Yes!" Elton quickly moved away, also signaling to his team, "Scoundrels, assemble, quickly assemble..."

"Sister Roland?" Once Hercules had finished assigning the tasks, Sura’s slightly confused voice came from the side.

"We just spotted a Magic Beast in the sky—it seems like a sentinel deliberately released by some demon species. By following it, we can trace back and root out the demon behind it," Hercules softened his sharp tone and gently explained.

This was his third cycle of the dream realm, and the current Hercules, playing his role, was already adept and experienced.

"But isn’t our target the two demon nests about to erupt to the northwest?" Rafael’s voice came from the side, seemingly a casual inquiry, but Hercules felt that he was being tested.

"Ah," Hercules sighed softly, his voice tinged with helplessness. "It’s mainly those lurking demons who are really stirring up trouble."

"It’s said that the situation over at the Menter family’s side is even more severe. Although no one died, all the inhabitants of one residence fell into a mysterious coma for almost half a day, and after waking up, the entire family was thrown into temporary chaos."

"Now that these lurking demons have everyone on edge, the Duke has ordered that if any of these infiltrating demons are found, they should be killed on sight to prevent any irreversible consequences."

Hercules spoke casually, but his actions were anything but slow. Although Roland’s title was just the vice-captain of the Knights, that was because the captain’s role was concurrently held by Duke Trujillo. In these routine cleansing missions, it was Roland, or rather Hercules, who was the primary decision-maker.

"So that’s how it is..." Rafael revealed a smile of satisfied curiosity, and soon the team set out. However, it wasn’t long before Elton, sent out by Hercules, came back looking somewhat dejected, his expression also showing despair.

"Captain, it’s messed up. The bastard behind this beast noticed us; as soon as he realized we had a member with the ’Tracking’ talent, he decisively abandoned this creature."

He said this while angrily throwing the corpse of the Magic Beast Eagle to the ground. "Just now, it recklessly charged down here and even injured a very promising young lad..."

"That’s really unfortunate, that cunning fellow got lucky." Roland lowered his eyes, his expression calm yet tinged with restrained emotion.

...

"Regarding the intelligence on the two Demon Nests in the north..." Lucien was walking down the corridor, his mind occupied with matters of intelligence.

He had now confirmed that this intelligence was inside Harvey’s study, and all he needed was to wait until night to use his true form to sneak in and copy down the information.

"Harvey, the two demon nests in the north are quite special, and they might also present an opportunity for you..." Just as Lucien was preparing to continue impersonating Lurah to wander around gathering intelligence, he heard his father Anos’s voice, which made him stop in his tracks.

Previously inhabiting Anos and impersonating him, the Soul Hunter is dead, so now, Anos is a character controlled by a dream.

Hearing Anos suddenly mention the two northern demon nests made Lucien pause, then he feigned excitement and crouched down to admire a nameless insect perched on a blade of grass, attempting to eavesdrop on the conversation between Anos and Harvey.

After all, these two Demon Nests seemed to involve the dream’s "main storyline"; not only Rafael would participate, but even Harvey, who had not planned on going, was drawn and arranged by the unseen forces in the dream, with Anos persuading him, seemingly intending to pull the character back onto an important track.

"Is there something very important inside those two nests? Or is it that something big is supposed to happen there and certain characters must be involved?" Lucien speculated in his mind. However, the information he had was too scant to piece together anything substantial.

"But father, didn’t you previously say there were some issues inside those two demon nests, and so you advised me not to meddle?" Harvey’s voice carried confusion, but it quickly made Lucien outside think of part of the whole story.

After all, the "father" Harvey was talking about was probably still being digested inside the Crimson Pages... Lucien muttered to himself, then listened even more carefully to the conversation inside.