Chapter 41: The Test

**Chapter 41: The Test**

Leaving the vicinity of the teleportation point, Jie Ming relied on his movement talisman artifact, swiftly traversing the vast wilderness of the Savage Plane.

Below, the gray rocky terrain, twisted ancient vegetation, and occasional glimpses of bizarre beasts painted a primal and perilous scene of this world.

He had no specific destination; each step was taken to find suitable “test subjects” and environments for the upcoming combat trials.

The first encounter was with a pack of oversized lizard-like beasts, their bodies covered in tough keratin layers, capable of spewing corrosive acid from their mouths.

Numbering seven or eight, they lurked in the gaps of the forest, their massive, moss-covered bodies disguised as large rocks, waiting to ambush passing creatures.

Spotting their traces from above, Jie Ming halted his movement talisman and landed lightly on the ground.

He didn’t evade, instead walking straight toward their hiding spot.

The first lizard beast launched its attack, a stream of green acid shooting toward him.

With a thought, Jie Ming activated his previously concealed shield. A thick, earthy yellow barrier instantly formed around him.

Sizzle!

The acid hit the shield, producing a harsh corrosive sound and clouds of smoke.

The shield’s surface remained unchanged, with acid sliding off and dripping onto the ground.

“No damage to the shield… just pure corrosive liquid without any energy enhancement?”

More acid streams came. Jie Ming switched his defensive talisman to a wind-element shield.

An invisible wind membrane flowed around him, deftly redirecting subsequent acid streams to either side, missing him entirely.

The acidic mist rising from the corroded ground was also swept away by the airflow from the wind shield.

“For low-impact kinetic attacks like this, the wind shield’s deflection works better than expected, and it’s surprisingly effective against mist-based attacks.”

Seeing their attacks fail, the lizard beasts charged from their hiding spots, intent on tearing into him.

Jie Ming seized the moment, activating his attack talisman artifact.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Four fireballs formed at his fingertips in less than a second, shooting out with astonishing speed toward the leading beasts.

The wild fire element caused the fireballs to swell mid-flight, their power terrifying.

The four beasts didn’t even get close before being engulfed by consecutive explosions, letting out short, agonized wails before turning into charred remains and scattered flesh.

The remaining lizards, startled, turned to flee without hesitation.

Jie Ming didn’t stop. As he advanced, he adjusted the attack talisman’s output frequency, testing its limits with rapid-fire shots.

The talisman artifact grew slightly warm but maintained a release rate of three to four fireballs per second.

Like a walking turret, Jie Ming precisely sniped the remaining lizard beasts one by one.

The battle—or rather, slaughter—ended in mere moments.

Jie Ming approached the remains, using analysis and alchemy to scan the wreckage, collecting samples of keratin layers and residual acid.

“The attack talisman’s instant-cast and rapid-fire capabilities far surpass those of ordinary wizards, but at high frequency, the talisman itself heats up faster than in training. Perhaps the plane’s elements are too active, causing over-efficient activation, with energy release outpacing material heat dissipation.”

Jie Ming pondered, “Should I consider adding heat dissipation or energy buffering structures to the talisman materials?”

He reactivated his movement talisman and left the lizard beasts’ lair.

As he ventured deeper into the forest, Jie Ming soon encountered another type of beast—massive, yet remarkably agile.

These creatures resembled giant apes, but their heads were insect-like.

With formidable physical strength, they excelled at leaping and climbing rocky cliffs, their attacks heavy and forceful.

Jie Ming singled out a lone giant ape as his target.

Instead of attacking directly, he lured it into pursuit, weaving through complex terrain to test the movement talisman’s evasion and maneuverability.

The giant ape roared and chased, launching attacks from above or the sides.

Relying on the movement talisman, Jie Ming glided close to the ground, leaped into the air, or briefly used cliffs for leverage, each change of direction as fluid as flowing water.

While dodging, he pushed the movement talisman’s power to its limit.

Visible wind-element vortices formed around him, boosting his speed even further.

However, after less than a minute at maximum speed, the talisman emitted an overload buzz, its runic patterns glowing unnaturally hot.

He had to reduce power immediately to let it cool.

“The movement talisman exceeds standard flight spells in base speed and agility, but its sustained high-speed performance is a weakness, far less durable than a wizard’s self-cast flight spell,” he concluded.

After all, one relied on material buffering, while the other drew from a wizard’s mental sea, a significant gap.

Having tested the movement talisman’s limits, Jie Ming switched to offense. Several full-power fireballs shot out, and the giant ape’s massive body collapsed under the barrage.

Jie Ming collected materials.

The ape’s fur and bones were exceptionally tough, potentially useful for improving defensive talisman artifacts.

In the days that followed, Jie Ming conducted his “experiments” across different regions of the Savage Plane.

He faced burrowing pangolin-like beasts that ambushed from underground, using alchemy to analyze soil structures and pinpoint their locations, then forcing them out with a sea of flames from his fireball spell.

He also encountered strange plants that sprayed toxic mist or ensnared prey, adding more unique materials to his collection.

Each battle, each encounter, was a test of his talisman artifacts’ performance.

He relentlessly pushed their limits, recording data and analyzing results.

Beyond the recurring heat issue, he noticed another limitation—regional element depletion.

During one high-intensity barrage of fireball spells, he sensed the surrounding fire elements being drained dry, causing subsequent fireball talisman activations to lose efficiency and power.

Though talisman artifacts outperformed their peers, they had clear limits under sustained high-intensity use. Their energy wasn’t truly “infinite,” merely drawn from the environment rather than the artifact itself.

Once the local elemental energy was exhausted, it would replenish quickly, but its concentration would temporarily drop.

Jie Ming had no immediate solution, only opting to move quickly while casting spells.