Chapter 1671: Bruce Wayne and the Magic Stone (Fifteen)

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Early the next morning before dawn, Harley was awakened by Barry. She was still half asleep and staggering as she walked, looking bewildered at the two very alert individuals, she asked, "How can you two get up so early?"

"We didn't sleep all night."

Harley was even more puzzled, then her eyes started darting back and forth between Barry and Little Bruce. Little Bruce, getting impatient, pushed Barry aside and said, "We need to go check on the greenhouse, remember? We have to check the types of plants that went missing."

Harley yawned deeply, turned around to change her clothes, and soon, the three of them were walking through the large garden drenched in dew under the sunrise, and returned to the small building next to the greenhouse.

Pamela didn’t live here, so she had been absent all night and morning. The trio entered through the front door. Little Bruce didn’t find any footprints on the stone slabs in the yard.

"It's either he was very careful, deliberately avoiding the mud, waiting for the night's rain to wash away any traces on the stone slabs on the road, or he can simply fly, never touching the ground, otherwise it would be impossible not to leave footprints."

Saying this, they bypassed the building to the backyard. Little Bruce pointed at a flower rack in the small garden and said, "I clearly remember the second row here was full of Spiral Grass and below it was Strange Cabbage, and now four or five pots of plants are missing."

"There's also a pot of Alada Marsh Mushroom missing, that’s a type originating from barley, covered in a sticky slime, which is usually used as a catalyst in Healing Potions."

Barry looked around and asked, "Are you sure all the missing items are ingredients for healing medicine?"

"Yes, of course," Harley nodded her head, very sure of herself.

Little Bruce still had a headache, the cold air penetrating his nostrils felt like nails in his eyes, but he still tried to concentrate and said, "Whoever took these herbs couldn't possibly be concocting them in his own office. He’d have to use the Zatara Academy's potion laboratory, and since the laboratory is used during the daytime, he must have completed the potion concoction before the students arrive in the morning."

"That means he might have just finished making the potion!" Barry raised his voice.

The trio then quickly ran through the large garden, bypassed the main castle, and headed to the college’s underground potion and alchemy laboratory location. Just reaching the staircase leading downstairs, Harley, who was running ahead, collided head-on with someone.

However, disappointingly, it was not the expected Professor Rodriguez, but Professor Constantine.

"What are you rushing for?" Constantine helped Harley up from the ground, curiously looking at them: "It's breakfast time, why aren’t you in the great hall, what are you doing here?"

But Little Bruce just sniffed, stepped forward and looked into Constantine's eyes, saying, "Were you just concocting potions?"

"Your nose is sharper than a dog’s." Constantine reached out and touched Little Bruce's head, and said, "Yes, I just came out of the potion laboratory, what about it?"

"Sorry, Professor Constantine, may I ask what potion you were concocting?"

"Some Healing Potions, is there a problem?"

"Are you sick?"

"No, one of my colleagues asked me to make it, because he doesn't like the smell of the laboratory. If you're not busy, you better hurry to breakfast, the canteen is about to close."

After Constantine walked past them, his figure disappeared into the staircase, Little Bruce squinted and said: "Master of psychology... He definitely knows how to manipulate others to achieve his goals."

"That’s indeed a bit suspicious," Barry furrowed his brow and said: "Director Wayne said, Professor Constantine, Director Rodriguez, and Night Master Jim are friends, Constantine’s arm looks perfectly fine, he said he was making it for a colleague, who else could that colleague be?"

"Why do you keep guessing here?" Harley seemed a bit impatient: "Defeat the Tree Demon, blow the door apart with a shot, ensure the safety of the Magic Stone, that's how people from Gotham do things."

Harley, with her hands on her hips, looked at the two boys and said, "Listen to me, go after class today. Besides hand grenades, I have quite a few other good things here, no matter what’s in the room, they can feed them all!"

After saying this, Harley quickly walked towards the main castle, joining the stream of older students heading to class. Bruce tugged Barry's arm, saying, "I feel something's not right, she seems to be hiding something from us."

"She's a local from Gotham, she definitely knows more than us," Barry walked alongside Little Bruce in the opposite direction of the hallway, adding, "But with your previous attitude, if I were her, I wouldn't tell you either."

"She probably knows more about Rodriguez than she lets on," Little Bruce mused.

Just as they were about to follow the crowd into the classroom, they saw Constantine walking against the crowd toward the direction of Rodriguez's college. Little Bruce grabbed Barry, stopping him from entering the classroom, instead pulling him to follow Constantine.

"Hey, what are you doing? We're going to be late for class."

"We must catch a reliable handle!" Little Bruce pulled Barry along, speeding up until they were running, he looked back at Barry saying, "Constantine might be going to deliver medicine to Rodriguez, if so, then we'll know what's going on!"

Barry, pulled along, followed Constantine into Rodriguez's college's Director's office. The two saw Constantine pull out a Healing Potion from his chest and hand it to Schiller.

They wanted to continue observing to see if Schiller would reveal an arm wound, but by then Constantine had already come out, and they could no longer peek without being discovered, so they had to leave early.

"Now we're sure it's him," Little Bruce clenched his fists and said: "Injuries caused by a paper shredder? No one would believe that, not even a three-year-old!"

"So, what should we do?"

"Tonight, we first check on the Magic Stone. No matter what he plans to do, as long as the Magic Stone is safe, there’s no problem."

As the two children's figures disappeared at the end of the hallway, Schiller took the healing medicine to Strangecollege's Director's office, then slammed the medicine down in front of Strange.

Strange raised an eyebrow and said, "You know I'm dissatisfied with the difficulty of the trial, you must want to secretly change the content of the trial, so you specifically brought a Tree Demon to the door, betting I'd get hurt without magic."

Strange picked up a vial of medicine, opened his sleeve, revealing a bandaged wound underneath, and poured the medicine over it.

"But I must say, the trial you, Jim, and Constantine set up is a bit too childish," Strange shook his head, looking at Schiller and saying, "Just defeating a certain monster, passing through some challenges set up by professors in a room, is that really enough to give them the courage to face Angels and Demons?"

"What do you think?" Schiller asked noncommittally.

"You're a bit different from the Schiller I know, the biggest difference is, you really are a good teacher, you seem strict with students, but you actually don't want them to get hurt."

"You're not like Greed, who only cares about achieving educational goals, no matter how cruel the process, this is why you can mutually torment with your students, feeling pain when they do."

Schiller did not deny it, he just looked at Strange's chest and said, "You still took out that Magic Stone we put in there, didn't you?"

Strange took out a crystal-clear green crystal emitting a faint glow from his chest, weighed it in his hand, and said, "If those children knew this thing could be piled up like a mountain, they would definitely be furious... Did you know your student Bruce Wayne came to see me?"

"I was wondering what you two talked about."

"He told me he had several goals to achieve, hoping I could cooperate, and from this, I saw a new possibility for the students to undergo a real trial, so I took the opportunity to switch out the Magic Stones you set up."

"Switched it with what?"

"Didn't you ask Master Andrew to place many magic projections in that corridor? Tonight we'll find out."

By evening, Schiller, Bruce, Strange, Constantine, Pamela, and Zatanna sat on the sofa in the reception area of Rodriguez college Director's office, with a huge magic projection screen floating in front of them, displaying the scene of the main castle's fourth-floor corridor.

Soon, three figures stealthily peeked around the staircase entrance, but before anyone appeared, several shadows like shooting stars traced beautiful arcs, rolling to the feet of the Tree Demon.

The Tree Demon, not so clever, was commanded to stay put if the door wasn't attacked, so when five, six, seven, eight hand grenades exploded simultaneously, it didn't even dodge.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The scene on the magic screen was immediately enveloped in smoke, and when the smoke cleared, the corridor walls, made of materials much more durable than any in ordinary society, had a huge hole blasted in them.

Pamela covered her forehead and said, "I didn’t give Sergey any advanced magic protection, you didn't tell me your students would be throwing hand grenades."

"People from Gotham are like that," Constantine sighed.

 "It’s not just magic that's used in magic colleges, I've always said, even a defenseless devil fears bullets, explosions, and fire."

But when Harley, leading the way, pulled out a shoulder-mounted anti-tank rocket launcher, Constantine fell silent.

The only one unmoved in the room was Schiller, who bowed his head to cut a cigar, then said, "Because I understand Gotham people, that Tree Demon was just an appetizer, the majority of puzzles in the trial cannot be dealt with by force."

Watching the teaching building wall and the splintered remains of the Tree Demon, Harley cheered.

She pushed a cart loaded with the rocket launcher, machine guns, hand grenades, and countless bullets, charging toward the trial room door.

The trial begins!

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Chapter 1672: Bruce Wayne and the Magic Stone (Part 16)