Chapter 32 Du Mingna heard a drier and hoarser voice coming from his throat.

 "No.

" He really didn't.

 All his abnormalities now were only related to the system.

 "I see..." Old John still didn't move.

 He continued to stare at Du Mingna.

 Even if Du Mingna didn't look at him, he could feel how strangely he was being observed.

 "Old John? Aren't you coming up to join us?" Belinda's voice floated from the stairs, "Or should we all come in and hide now?" There were footsteps.

 Belinda deliberately walked clattering, making heavy footsteps.

 "Coming.

" Old John finally turned around, "Let Judd accompany the young master.

 You kids probably don't like staying in the basement for long, right? The young master surely wouldn't want you to come in early just because he's uncomfortable.

" Old John walked towards the stairs, leaving the basement with Belinda.

 Before long, Judd came in and sat next to Du Mingna.

 There was only the open entrance in the basement, letting in more light.

 But where Du Mingna was, it was far from the entrance.

 He could only see vaguely, Judd was also just a dark shadow.

 But Judd's shadow was lighter than Old John's...

 There seemed to be some connection.

 But Du Mingna couldn't explain.

 He closed his eyes, forcing himself to sleep.

 If he couldn't sleep, he had to stop thinking as much as possible, stop feeling the intense pain in his head.

 Only then could he increase his mental recovery speed, recruit as soon as possible, and truly end this pain.

 Only when Judd was with Du Mingna, he was truly undisturbed.

 The children around him were quiet as if they didn't exist.

 But suddenly, there were many noises around him.

 Villagers came to inform the children to hide in the basement as soon as possible.

 Old John was definitely directing the children to hide.

 Besides Old John, who else? Belinda? Or were there other villagers assisting in directing? Du Mingna couldn't move.

 The noise prevented him from entering a semi-sleep state to alleviate discomfort.

 The children who had completely entered the basement didn't make any more noise.

 Du Mingna occasionally looked around and could only see many clusters of shadows in the basement.

 The children were huddling together.

 There was only Judd next to Du Mingna.

 Du Mingna once heard Old John tell the other children not to disturb him and let him rest well.

 After the children finished hiding, Du Mingna once again fell into a dazed and shallow sleep state.

 But suddenly, he was startled awake.

 This time, he heard it.

 The scream Old John mentioned! That piercing sound should come from deep within the Sui Pu Mountains! And after that deafening scream, he faintly felt he heard countless running footsteps! The monsters were finally coming! The monsters were leaving the mountain and heading towards this small village! For no reason, but Du Mingna was sure there was a connection between these two things.

 The scream he heard drove the monsters out of the mountains.

 It was also possible that the owner of the scream scared the monsters into fleeing for their lives.

 But Du Mingna leaned towards the former.

 The scream made the monsters leave the mountains.

 The monsters had a purpose.

 They weren't just running for their lives.

 They might also be looking for something.

 Just like when the Ironclad Mercenary Group came to Grey Rope Village, stayed here, and then entered the Sui Pu Mountains to search for something, the monsters were also looking for something, possibly more than one thing.

 Only those beasts were truly fleeing in panic.

 Before the scream sounded, the monsters might have already started searching for something in the mountains, but they could never find it, driving their existence to anger, they had to make a move, they had to leave the mountains and search outside.

 At the same time, it was also to stay away from the mountains, temporarily avoiding the wrath of that existence.

 Dumina had no evidence to support his speculation.

 After hearing the scream, he recalled the information he had received and quickly pieced them together to come up with an answer.

 This was his intuition.

 The speed at which the monsters arrived was fast.

 Dumina only vaguely heard their footsteps coming down the mountain, feeling that they had already reached the village outskirts, then entered the village and wandered around.

 Dumina's perception range was not very large.

 Even at his peak mental strength, he could barely sense any movement in various parts of the village.

 Under normal circumstances, he shouldn't have been able to hear the monsters' footsteps coming down the mountain.

 But the scream drew his mental strength, making him feel some strange sensations.

 Now, his perception had returned to normal levels.

 He couldn't even sense what was happening outside the village anymore, only vaguely aware that the monsters were wandering outside the stone house.

 He felt himself getting weaker and weaker.

 These were symptoms of mental fatigue and overuse.

 Dumina finally passed out.

 His body was protecting him by making him faint.

 After some time, Dumina heard the voice of the system in his ear.

 "Ding~" Unlike the usual cheerful and crisp reminders from the system, this "ding" sounded like wind chimes in a gentle breeze, soothing and comfortable, just enough to slowly wake Dumina up.

 Sensing the change in Dumina's mental activity and confirming that he was awake, the system's voice changed.

 "Ding!" This was the prompt sound that Dumina would always notice no matter how busy he was.

 "Congratulations, the host has successfully completed the first recruitment! The host has recruited to the next level, achieving the hidden achievement 'Recruit You Even in Death'!" Dumina: ??? What's going on here? Is this hidden achievement serious? "Congratulations, the host has successfully established a connection with the 'Three-Star Teacher' Bush Mage Oak! Would the host like to immediately sign a recruitment contract with Oak?" Dumina blinked.

 Recruitment...

 contract? Hmm, it seemed that the recruitment system was a bit unreliable.

 Not only did it require extracting his mental strength, but it also didn't inform him in advance, and now it required signing a contract and paying the employee's salary! Can't the contract be without salary? Dumina mentally calculated the amount of money he had brought from home.

 His previous pocket money was quite substantial, and during festivals, his elders would also give him large sums of money when they were happy.

 His small treasury was actually quite substantial.

 All his money was stored in the "Crystal Card.

" The Magic Tower issued the Crystal Card.

 The Crystal Card management was like a bank in Dumina's previous life, and the Crystal Card was like a bank card.

 However, the Crystal Card had some additional functions.

 When two Crystal Cards were placed together, they could complete a transfer transaction.

 The Crystal Cards issued by the Crystal Card management included savings Crystal Cards, fixed amount Crystal Cards, variable amount Crystal Cards, and fixed amount receivable Crystal Cards.

 The savings Crystal Card had to be registered, while the fixed amount and variable amount Crystal Cards could be registered or unregistered.

 The fixed amount receivable Crystal Card was used for remote transactions, where the guild would deliver goods to the door, and then the delivery person would use the fixed amount receivable Crystal Card to collect payment.

 This type of Crystal Card required the responsible person from the guild to bring the Crystal Card that had already received payment to the Crystal Card management for withdrawal or transfer, so there was no need to worry about guild staff running off with the money.

 When Dumina left the Hall family, he took his Crystal Card with him, but he wasn't sure if he could still use it.

 The Hall family probably didn't have enough power to influence the local Crystal Card management to freeze his Crystal Card forcibly or even withdraw the money from his Crystal Card treasury.

 Old John knew he had a Crystal Card treasury, so he wasn't too surprised when he saw a big bird helping him deliver the "Magic First School" plaque, thinking he was just using the Crystal Card and completing the transfer with the fixed amount receivable Crystal Card brought by the big bird.

 Perhaps Old John has strong power, but Old John definitely does not always perceive his surroundings.

 Old John most likely actively closed off his mysterious perception.

 Otherwise, working in the Hall Castle before, and following Duminna, he did not know how many people with mysterious perception he had encountered, and he did not know how many times he had been discovered.

 Even though Duminna has not officially started practicing yet, his extraordinary perception can still allow him to sense whether he is being perceived by someone.

 If someone with much greater strength than him perceives him, he may not be able to determine who is doing it, but he will definitely have a vague sense.

 Thinking about these things related to Old John, the shadow in Duminna's heart grew a bit larger.

 He silently stopped to think, and the thoughts that had already emerged naturally dissipated without his further support.

 Calm.

 He began to contact the bush mage Oak and draw up a recruitment contract.

 As he thought, complex and magnificent runes naturally appeared before his eyes.

 The densely packed rune lines left almost no gaps between them.

 Duminna's head throbbed as if something inside was jumping fiercely, trying to jump out from deep within his brain.

 Fortunately, this pain came and went very quickly.

 Those complex and magnificent runes only briefly appeared before him, then burst into a soft light.

 This light made Duminna think of the Tyndall effect.

 Light passing through a colloid will create a bright pathway.

 Since the light passes through the colloid, the feeling of the light given to people will be different from the usual direct light.

 The light pathway is bright, but not as stimulating as direct light sources.

 This light pressed down on the runes.

 It is also possible that the runes are now the source of light.

 Duminna still did not understand.

 He vaguely raised a thought that when he recruited, his head suddenly hurt so badly, most likely because he had stared directly at the formation of the runes without knowing the consequences.

 Mysterious spells cannot be learned lightly; if the realm is not reached, forcibly learning will only result in backlash.

 His current strength is simply not enough to withstand the consumption of supporting a recruitment, but the system is strong, able to cast at an extremely slow speed, continuously absorbing a bit of his just recovered mental power...

 Duminna realized how the system was doing it, but he felt that the system's approach was subverting his various understandings of spellcasting.

 He tried to focus all his attention on the mage Oak, with whom he was about to make a contract, and those thoughts naturally dissipated in his mind.

 Finally, he felt his consciousness also entering a strange space along with the light.

 This space was surrounded by eerie darkness, as if it could swallow people whole.

 But in the center of the space, a faint light emerged out of nowhere, illuminating the area where the light shone.

 At this moment, on one side of the space, a person was already standing there.

 The person was completely black, with hair scattered to the shoulders, uneven at the ends, and with a texture that seemed burnt.

 The person was robust and sturdy, completely different from the conventional mages in Duminna's memory.

 His nails were not long, but there was a lot of black dirt remaining in the cracks of his nails.

 As soon as Duminna appeared in this strange space, the person immediately looked at Duminna.

 His gaze was full of scrutiny.

 "You, are you the one who wants to hire me, Duminna Hall?"