Along with the news spreading, there was another message, which is Merrick personally admitted that he killed Uli.
After this news was released, many people started to gossip, all curious about what would happen next.
The Jokic Clan was, of course, extremely furious because Uli had decent potential in their generation and surprisingly was killed during a regular assessment.
Moreover, Merrick, who killed Uli, was so arrogant as to directly admit he was the killer.
Now the Jokic Clan didn’t even need an investigation; they simply issued a bounty on the West Coast, offering ten thousand Level 1 Magic Stones for bringing Merrick’s head to the Jokic Clan.
They also sought Black Sail to hand over Merrick, but even if Merrick was only a regular Wizard Apprentice, let alone Land Master’s student, Black Sail wouldn’t hand him over.
The Jokic Clan had no way to deal with Black Sail; they were merely a Wizard Clan and could be considered a minor force compared to Black Sail.
They could provoke Land Master, but Black Sail was another matter entirely.
Land Master naturally made his voice heard, stating that if anything happened to Merrick, the Jokic Clan would face trouble.
He even published an article in some newspapers on the West Coast, implying that the Jokic Clan couldn’t afford to lose and resorted to desperate measures.
The rules of Black Sail’s assessment were just like that, and Land Master couldn’t guarantee Merrick would safely return.
Falling in the assessment could only be blamed on one’s incompetence and bad luck; seeking revenge seemed petty.
The Jokic Clan didn’t stay silent either, publishing articles in various newspapers accusing Land Master, even bringing up old accounts.
For instance, how Land Master used the guise of taking students to take in noblewomen from certain families.
These events stirred up a wave of gossip frenzy on the West Coast, significantly boosting newspaper sales.
In the morning, Duke munched on pumpkin pancakes and drank apple juice while reading a newspaper called Elf Daily.
This newspaper recorded many recent happenings on the West Coast, covering all sorts of topics, including finding partners.
Duke also saw the spat between Land Master and Jokic Clan and knew the Jokic Clan apparently didn’t know Uli was killed by him, so he was safe for the moment.
Even Merrick himself believed he had killed Uli.
But he didn’t know Uli possessed a Substitute Death Grassman, a Witchcraft Artifact, which allowed him to escape a tragedy.
Only, Uli was quite unfortunate as, after escaping the wolf’s mouth, he ran into a tiger’s den and encountered Duke, who killed him.
Currently, Land Master and the Jokic Clan are at a standoff, and neither side is likely to communicate this information.
However, as time goes by, they might eventually negotiate.
Because neither Land Master nor the Jokic Clan finds a death match beneficial to their interests.
Regarding the Jokic Clan, Uli was merely one of the more talented among this generation, not worth waging war with Land Master and losing family interests.
Their fundamental need is to leverage this matter to extract compensation from Land Master, aligning with the family’s interests better.
Even if Uli died, they would use his death to their advantage.
For these Wizard Clans to have developed for so many years and still carry on, they are not fools.
Land Master is also aware that the Jokic Clan’s purpose lies in this; it’s just a matter of whether a deal can be reached.
By the time negotiations occur, the Jokic Clan may very well discover Uli wasn’t killed by Merrick.
At that point, the Jokic Clan will inevitably investigate and identify the true culprit behind Uli’s death.
Even though all evidence should have been washed away by the seawater by then, Duke couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t have other means to identify him.
Before that happens, he must enhance his strength as much as possible.
"I hope it doesn’t involve me," Duke could only hope his luck wouldn’t be so bad.
Being cautious, he didn’t take Uli’s Space Ring, only taking magic stones and a portion of the Magic Potion Materials.
Since he had so few Space Rings, he barely had space to fit those more than five hundred Level 1 Magic Stones, let alone more Magic Potion Materials.
Duke didn’t regret killing Uli; instead, he felt fortunate for being decisive then; otherwise, it would’ve inevitably brought trouble.
Uli was extremely paranoid and inherently hostile towards half-blood magicians.
In that situation, Duke wouldn’t have surrendered his Space Ring. Not surrendering meant incurring Uli’s enmity.
Even if he lacked the ability to kill Duke at that time, he would’ve continuously caused trouble after the assessment.
Rather than that, it was better to eliminate Uli right there, thus preventing a lot of hassle.
Thinking about it, Duke realized it was just bad luck; no matter whether he killed Uli, encountering him still would’ve led to some trouble.
Duke looked at his full Space Ring, seeing all the Level 1 Magic Stones, indeed more than five hundred pieces.
He had to make good use of this money, turning it into his cultivation resources.
Duke glanced at the Skill Tree in his mind, pondering over the attribute panel.
[Constitution: 12]
[Strength: 12.6]
[Agility: 12]
[Spirit: 17.2]
[Free Attribute Points: 3]
Originally, he planned to slowly push his Spiritual Power to the limit through daily Meditation Practice before using the free attribute points.
But now Duke felt he had to speed up the process, as only by quickly boosting his strength could he manage more situations.
After some thought, he added the remaining three free attribute points to Spirit.
His Spiritual Power instantly reached twenty points, exceeding many Second-class Wizard Apprentices’ levels.
The threshold for a First-class Wizard Apprentice is only thirty points; Duke now needs just ten more.
For others, those ten points aren’t simple, as it’s harder to increase as the base Spiritual Power rises.
Eventually, even a 0.1 increase in Spiritual Power could take many Wizard Apprentices a lifetime to achieve.
Duke, too, felt this way; through Meditation Practice, the increase in his Spiritual Power was extremely slow, requiring a long time to accumulate.
But thanks to the Skill Tree, he could leap directly through free attribute points, making the process easy.
After raising his Spiritual Power to 20.2, Duke planned to prepare for advancing to a Second-class Wizard Apprentice.
To ensure safety, he decided to purchase a Dawn Potion.
With his current Spiritual Power combined with a Dawn Potion, his chance of successfully advancing to a Second-class Wizard Apprentice was significant.