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Chapter 73: Thinking of Danger Even in a Time of Peace

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Anfey slowly woke from his dreams in the morning. He had not slept well for the past few days but his health had been good. His desire for sleep was not as strong as normal people, but he did feel tired. Last night's sleep was sound and high-quality without any reason. He opened his eyes, feeling refreshed. The sky seemed clearer than before. Anfey could not have felt any better.

Anfey felt someone was staring at him. He turned to the side and saw the little unicorn, which had not been able to open its eyes yesterday, already had opened its eyes and stared at him in curiosity. The light blue eyes were so cute that Anfey could not help patting its head and smile. The little unicorn enjoyed his patting with its eyes half closed.

"Anfey, you are awake. Did you have a good dream last night?" Blavi smiled and sat next to Anfey.

"Me?" Anfey asked.

"Yes, you were smiling in the dream. Miss Niya was woken up by your laugh and complained about you."

Anfey tried to recall his dreams but nothing came to him. He said, "I am so sorry if I disturbed your rest. You can wake me up next time when you see me dreaming."

"It was alright. You had been the most tired one for the past few days. We all knew it. Miss Niya wanted to wake you up, but others stopped her. Hahaha," Blavi said.

Anfey felt warm inside. Anfey was a person who could not express himself in words and did not like to express himself, so he did not respond in any way to Blavi. He looked out from the cave and found it was already bright outside. He was thought for a while to clear his mind.

Anfey said, "Blavi, is everyone awake yet?"

"Yes, they are meditating outside," Blavi answered.

"Can you ask everybody to come back? We have to hurry to finish something," Anfey said.

"Sure." Blavi nodded, stood up, and walked outside.

Everyone returned to the cave after a while. Anfey looked around and found that Riska was not there. He frowned and asked, "Where is Riska?"

They looked at each other with excitement. Anfey was surprised and wondered if anything good had happened that had made them so happy. He had given them reasons to laugh at him last night though.

Smiles appeared on Anfey's face as well. It was a good thing to see the bond among team members getting stronger. The stronger the team was, the safer they would feel. If all of them were mages, it would not be difficult to kill a Zedar. They might even be able to overthrow the king in any country on Pan Continent. Anfey understood that anyone who had the power could change the rules in this world, and anyone who could change rules could hold the truth. No one could disobey.

"Ok, we should not disturb Riska. Hmmm, how did Riska learn how to meditate," Anfey asked out of curiosity.

"You should have asked Suzanna this question. She knows best." Cristian smiled.

Anfey looked at Suzanna. Suzanna hesitated for a second and said slowly, "Yesterday I was carrying Riska as we ran with the manticore just behind us. I asked Riska to meditate immediately to restore his magic power, and then…"

"Is it that simple?" Anfey shook his head with a smile.

"I have already mastered the trick. Feller, we are going to look for a senior magic beast today. I will use up my magic first, and you will carry me as you run away from the beast. Hahaha, tomorrow I will be a magister." Sante laughed.

"Sante, my magic power was far less than yours. I would not be able to carry you as we run. Why don't you let me try to meditate in danger? I will protect you if I could be magister later. Don't worry. I will protect you even if you were a mage your whole life." Blavi said.

"Damn it! You are a mage all your life, Sante said angrily.

"Ok, ok. Stop playing. Danger could actually trigger your potential, but there have only been a few successful cases. You had better dedicate yourselves to your practice." Anfey thought a little bit and continue to ask, "Christian, what are the benefits of the blood of a unicorn? Can you tell us in detail?"

Anfey understood that he should give rewards after the battle to better encourage everyone, so he needed to know about the benefits of the unicorn blood before he could distribute it to his legion.

"There are a lot of benefits. No matter for mages, swordsmen, or knights, it is priceless. However, it was more beneficial to mages. Anfey, let me put it this way. If Riska carried the unicorn blood with him yesterday, Suzanna and Riska would not have been in danger. At least Riska could have restored his magic power and escaped the danger with levitation magic. There will be changes to the body every time you take unicorn blood. For instance, both mental power and magic power could change. I can give you another example. If a muggle who had never practiced any magic before was fortunate enough to have unicorn blood, take it for a long time, and practiced magic for over ten years, he could break through to become a magister even without talent," Christian said slowly.

"Does it have any other benefits?" Anfey asked.

"This is all I know, but it was blood from a top-level unicorn, Anfey. I think it will give us even more benefits," Christian answered.

"Anyone else know other benefits?" Anfey looked around.

Everybody shook their heads. Suzanna noticed Anfey was looking at her. She gave it some serious thought and shook her head. "What I know is almost the same as Christian."

"Then, Christian, can you distribute the unicorn blood to everyone, but not too much. Keep the rest of it. You guys listen up. This should be used to save your lives. You should take it only in life-threatening situations. Do you understand?"

"Yes," everyone answered loudly.

"Suzanna, is the unicorn blood good for you as well?" Anfey asked.

"Yes," Suzanna nodded.

"Christian, give Suzanna double amounts. Keep one for later and take the other one." Anfey thought Suzanna needed it.

"No, I do not need it. I will take the same amount as everyone else." Suzanna was shocked and turned it down immediately.

"This is an order, and everyone in this legion should follow my orders," Anfey said flatly. In fact, Anfey decided to give her the double amounts of unicorn blood because he thought it was the best for the team, not because he wanted to give her special treatment. Senior swordsmen were considered high level, not only in this legion, but also outside the legion. Suzanna's ability to fight with full force at dangerous moments would decide the fate of the team.

Suzanna looked down. She did not expect Anfey to give her any special treatment. Instead, she thought he would blame her for the damage she did to the team because of her carelessness yesterday. Maybe this man was not as evil as she thought. Suzanna remembered that particular night when the word "evil" came up in her mind. Her face turned red, and then she turned quickly to the side. She did not dare to look at Anfey.

"Christian, can you set up a passing magic array?" Anfey turned to Christian and asked.

"Magic crystal," Christian said.

"I have said before that you do not have to worry about the magic crystal," Anfey interrupted.

"Another passing magic array was set up in the manticore cave, about 20 miles away from here. If we run into any danger, we could move over there immediately."

Christian was quiet for a while and smiled bitterly, shaking his head. "No, it is too far. My mastery of magic was not good enough, plus my ability was only enough to set up the smallest passing magic array. It could only send one person at a time. It would not be that helpful if we were in danger. We could only have one or two people escape, at the most."

"So, never mind." Anfey shook his head. "Sante and Sanchez, can you take a look at the manticore cave to see if there is anything we can use. Hmm, be careful. If there is anything unusual, come back immediately."

"Yes." Sante nodded.

Anfey was still a little worried. He thought a little bit and said. "Blavi, were you on watch last night? How do you feel now? Do you need any rest now?"

"No, I am ok. Anfey, do you need me to do anything?" Blavi asked.

"Can you go with Sante and Sanchez? I am worried about them," Anfey said.

"No problem." Blavi smiled.

"One more thing. We need make our shelter better," Anfey said. "We had to sleep as a crowd before. You know we have girls in our legion. It looks inappropriate. I do not want us to look like just animals."

"Yes, sure." Niya nodded to agree. She was the one who really wished to change their living situation. She was used to comfortable living and suddenly she was on the run, which made her depressed. Anfey and his legion were clean enough that there was no one with untidy hair, no odor in the cave; but she could not sleep well every night.

"Christian, can you separate the cave with your construction magic," Anfey asked.

"No. Magic is against the natural rules. It can temporally control elements, but not permanently. The elements will disappear at some point."

"It seems that we have to build a wall with our bare hands," Anfey said, smiling.

"Anfey, why are you separating the cave? Why don't we build a house outside the cave?" Niya asked loudly.

"A house in the field would be an obvious target. What would happen if enemy saw it?" Anfey said, shaking his head.

"I know a good place. Shally and I used to live there. It was surrounded with very tall ancient trees and thick brush. If we build a house in the brush and cover it with some ivy, no one could find it, even people passing by," Suzanna said with a smile.

"Sounds good. Anfey, let's build a house over there, ok?" Niya was so happy. It seemed that she and the unicorns were inclined toward the light. They hated the dark and gloomy cave.

Anfey was quiet for a while before he said with a smile, "Ok." In fact they were in some danger if they stayed there. He could not keep everyone in this cave for safety. They would be easily noticed if enemies flew by in the sky when Anfey's legion went out to move around as a group. This was all Anfey could do. It was their fate if they would be noticed by accident.

"Yeah!" Niya jumped up happily.

"Blavi, three of you can go to the manticore's cave now. Come back as soon as possible. The rest of you get some rest, and we will build our house later," Anfey said.

The little unicorn seemed to sense the happiness in the air. He looked up and bit Anfey's fingers with something that sounded like talking.

"This little guy is hungry." Anfey smiled. He felt the little unicorn was constantly sucking his finger. "Feller, can you give me a piece of bread?"

Feller tossed Anfey a piece of bread. Anfey took the bread and patted it around the unicorn's mouth. The little unicorn turned to the side to smell it and then continued to suck Anfey's finger.

"You are picky about food, little buddy. Feller, can you give me a sausage?"

"Anfey, unicorns are not carnivores!" Niya yelled. She was jealous of Anfey because the little unicorn was only close to Anfey. She fell in love with the little unicorn at first sight. Unfortunately, the little guy did not pay any attention to her at all. The little unicorn could not have its eyes open, and of course it would not be able to look at her and pay attention to her either.

"How do we know unicorns are not carnivores if they were never fed with any meat?" Anfey took the sausage from Feller. He teased the unicorn with the sausage. Of course, the little unicorn did not care about the sausage.

"This little guy! Feller, can you give me a piece of steak?" Anfey said helplessly.

"Anfey, are you a fool? It is still a baby. It needs milk."

"Right, right. This little unicorn needs milk," Suzanna agreed with Niya and nodded. Like Niya, Suzanna liked the little unicorn, but this little guy had only been close to Anfey. Anyone who wanted to be close to the little unicorn had to be close to Anfey, so Suzanna could only watch from a distance.

"Bulls*^t!" Anfey's lips curled down.

Niya got mad and yelled at Anfey with her hands resting on her hips. "What do you mean I am bullsh*^ting? Anfey, you need to give me an explanation!"

"Do you have milk?" Anfey asked.

Anfey's question made Niya's anger subside right away. Niya wasn't sure whether he was speaking of cow milk or breast milk. Niya had to think in context, or think on the bright side that Anfey meant to ask about the milk to feed the little unicorn. She shook her head anxiously.

"Do you have milk?" Anfey laid his eyes on Suzanna.

Suzanna stepped back and curled up next to Niya with a red face.

"If neither of you have milk, why do you think I would have milk?" Anfey took the steak and touched it to the nose of the little unicorn. "Little guy, I am telling you this is the last try. If you do not want it, you will not have any food."

Everyone was containing their laughter, but no one dared to laugh out loud. Niya did not dare to show her temper to Anfey when she was mad. However, to the others, it was a different story.

It seemed that unicorns did not care about meat. The little unicorn just held the steak on its nose and make some sounds in protest.

"How about we pick some fruit and crushed them into juice to see if he would like it," Suzanna said quietly. She found that Anfey had the ability to make anything he said sound reasonable and just. She felt helpless in the face of it.

"Alright, you and Niya will be in charge of picking fruit. You guys could not help build the house anyway." Anfey rushed to take some responsibilities off his shoulders. He tried to pull his finger out from the little unicorn's mouth. It gripped his finger tightly even though it did not have any teeth yet. It bit on Anfey's finger and would not let go, with the result that the little unicorn was hanging in the air.

Anfey did not know what to do with this little guy. He could try to hit him, but the baby unicorn was simply hungry and had done nothing wrong. If he tried to scold him, others would laugh at him for losing his patience. Great leaders throughout history do not scold others for no particular reason. He could not reason with it, because the little unicorn was not able to understand.

"Can you guys go and pick some fruit now?" Anfey lifted his head and asked for a facor.

"Sure," Niya agreed quickly, nodding. She seemed to be even more enthusiastic about the little unicorn than Anfey.

On the other side of the cave, Christian was passing out the unicorn blood. Anfey was afraid Christian would distribute too much unicorn blood, so he reminded him about it beforehand. In fact, Christian was very careful with the amount of blood he gave away. He gave everyone only three drops and kept most of it. Everyone seemed fine with this, because they trusted Anfey, just as they trusted their team members. The unicorn blood would be theirs, and it did not matter where it was now because it would disappear for no reason.

Blavi led Sante and Sanchez to explore the manticore cave. Niya and Suzanna went to pick fruit. Feller stayed to take care of Riska, who had been meditating. Anfey lead Shally and the rest of the group to the cave where the two sisters used to live.

In terms of magic skills, Anfey was the second worst among the mages. This second-to-last position was earned by "battling" with Shally. Anfey beat Shally with fire balls. In other areas, Anfey was so much better than these mages. At least Anfey knew that no matter whether they were going to build a wood or brick house, they would have to start with the foundation.

Anfey walked around with the little unicorn in his arms. Suzanna was right that this area was hidden very well from the outside. Even though it was not surrounded by mountains in the front and back, the trees were tall and thick. The area they chose to build the house was especially surrounded by seven or eight huge ancient trees, one of which was so thick that it took four people to hold their hands together to hug the tree. These ancient trees were evergreen trees. Only tree branches could be seen from the top or sides. Even if they built a tall house, it would be covered by the ancient trees.

Anfey remembered that regular bushes did not grow well under the trees, since the trees would block the sunlight the bushes needed; but in the magic world his common sense had been turned around quite often. The bushes here not only grew everywhere but also very thick, showing their energetic life spirit. Grasses under the bushes grew as high as their knees. The air smelled fresh, which permitted people to feel refreshed as well.

"Let's build it right here." Anfey nodded. "Shally, come over for a second."

"Yeah? What happened, brother Anfey?" Shally answered quickly, but did not move any closer.

"Shally, come over," Anfey asked again.

"Why?" Shally saw Anfey looking over and felt a little nervous. She quietly moved her body to better block something from Anfey.

"What is behind you?" Anfey was a good observer. He noticed that Shally pretended to act casual, which raised a flag for Anfey. Anfey saw a little dirt pyramid behind Shally.

"Nothing, there is nothing." Shally blushed and waved her hands nervously.

Anfey realized something and smiled after seeing Shally's red face. Even if a person was an archmagi or master swordsman, the need to eat, drink, urinate, and defecate had to be met. That dirt pyramid must be the sisters' temporary bathroom.

"Christian, let's build the house here. Everyone else needs go and collect wood. It's better to collect just one tree from one area. Don't cut down too many trees, which would appear suspicious," Anfey said.

"We got it. What will we do then?" Christian asked.

"Then build the house," Anfey answered.

"We...we have never built a house before," Christian said, smiling awkwardly.

"I have never built one either, so you guys can build it the way you want to. Make sure it's sturdy."

"But you need to give us some instructions," Christian complained.

Instructions? Anfey shook his head. Neither of them had ever been a carpenter, nor did they have any tools for building the house. What could Anfey do? They had to build it with their instincts. The ancestors of human beings could survive and generate offspring under similar conditions. So could they. Moreover, practice makes perfect. If they failed once, they could try it again. They would improve later.

"I will make marks and you guys can just follow the marks to build the house." Anfey walked to an area and tapped it with his foot. "For example, you can put a post here. You can hammer the post into the dirt."

"Wait, Anfey, what do we hammer with?"

Anfey looked around and found a rock about up to his chest lying not far from him. "Do you see that rock? Two of you can hold the post still and the rest of you need to control the element in the air to lift the rock and smash it onto the post."

"Oh, my god Anfey, are you kidding me? It will take so much of our magic power," Christian said, his eyes wide.

Anfey had a wide grin. That smile looked wry in some way. Compared with their escape, they were comparatively safe now. What should they do when they felt safe? They should prepare for danger in advance, even in a time of peace. What could they do to deal with any potential danger? The simplest, most direct and effective way was to improve the legion's power and skills.

Anfey could not give any suggestions with regards to magic. He could only think from another perspective. The mages were physically weak, so they would be very vulnerable once they lost their magic power. Anfey understood that it was not good to rely on just one thing. Therefore, he planned to make them do some physical work to build their bodies stronger.

Think about it: when mages cut down a big tree with their magic power, they would have to clean up the branches with their magic power, then carry the tree back and, finally, build the house. They would work a lot every day. Of course, they could take some rest when they were too tired. There was no due date for this project. It would be fine if it took them half a month or even one month to build the house. If they had a supervisor, it had to be Niya, since she wanted to move in so badly.

They would be stronger when they finished building the house. They would be able to do regular fitness training after it was done. If Anfey had asked them to do fitness training now, they would not benefit from it much. If Feller, for example, was asked to run 1000 meters, he would be exhausted to death. Working over their limits would not benefit him at all.

"If you use up your magic power, you guys can do meditation. Take this task as a practice. Ok, starting tomorrow, everyone will practice magic power in the morning, build the house in the afternoon, and rest after the dusk," Anfey said with a smile on his face.

Christian walked to the rock and tried to move the rock by controlling the elements in the air. The rock almost weighed a thousand pounds, so Christian could not move it by controlling the elements in the air.

"How can this work?" Christian smiled bitterly.

"Try a few more times. You'll catch on. If this rock is too heavy, you can find smaller ones first, but be careful with it. Don't have any accident," Anfey said with a smile.

"Anfey," Niya's voice rose from the bottom of the hill.

From the area where the sound came from, Anfey saw Niya running excitedly with a cup full of white glue-like stuff in her hand.

"Take a look, we got the fruit pulp." Niya raised the cup high to show off.

"You guys finally came back," Anfey sighed softly. His fingers were hurt from the little unicorn's sucking. It had already been sucking all ten fingers for one round. He could not imagine what might have happened to his fingers if they had come back a day later. His fingers might lose their skin.

"Come, little one." Niya held the cup out.

The little unicorn seemed to smell something and let Anfey's finger go a little. Its little head turned to Niya and tested the fruit pulp by sticking its tongue in the cup. The little unicorn suddenly looked so happy. The little unicorn rolled its tongue two or three times in the fruit pulp. It quickly emptied the cup. It was obvious the little guy was starving.

"That's it?" Anfey asked in a disappointing tone. He just had a feeling of relief because he did not want to walk around with this little guy any more.

"I'll have some." Suzannna smiled and took the cup. She took out an indistinguishable fruit and gripped it lightly. The fruit was crushed into white pulp, flowing down through her fingers.

This was the power of a senior swordswoman, a walking blender.

Niya caught the pulp with the cup and held it next to the little unicorn's mouth. The little unicorn finished it in a few gulps again.

The little unicorn finally made a satisfying sound after eating seven or eight of those fruits. It licked Niya's hands and moved closer to her. Niya was so happy about it, she jumped around. Most girls like cute animals. No matter how smart she was and what kind of personality she had, she was still a girl.

"What do we do later on?" Suzanna asked, frowning.

"What about later?" Anfey asked, momentarily shocked.

"When Shally and I used to live here, we searched everywhere. There were not many trees with fruit. Some of them are not edible, so it would not take long for this little guy to eat up all the fruit."

"How much fruit do we have now?" Anfey asked.

"Not much. Those were saved by Shally and me for later, when we are starving," Suzanna answered.

"It's alright. We will talk about it when the time comes." Anfey paused for a second and suddenly remembered something. "Right, unicorns do not eat honey, do they?"

"I am not sure about it," Suzanna answered.

"I found a huge beehive yesterday. Today it's too late, but I can go and get it tomorrow. If this little guy does not eat honey, we can have it. It will add one more dish to our meal anyway." Anfey smiled.

"Sounds good. Anfey, I will go with you tomorrow." Hearing honey was edible, Niya looked even more excited than the little unicorn when it was eating the fruit pulp. It was getting hard for Niya just to eat bread and sausages.

The little unicorn suddenly struggled in Anfey's arms. Anfey could not wait for this moment to happen, so he quickly put the little unicorn on the ground. The little unicorn slowly struggled to stand up.

"Wow, it can stand up now. It can stand up!" Niya screamed in surprise.

The little guy did not give Niya any chance to show off. After she screamed, the little guy's front legs buckled and its head hit the ground.

"Was it hurt?" Niya reached out her hand to touch the little unicorn.

Anfey pulled Niya away and smiled. "This is a unicorn. It would not get hurt easily." Anfey even gave that little guy's butt a little kick.

"You…" Niya was not happy with Anfey's action.

Anfey pretended he did not hear her and gave it another kick on the butt. If it was not an significant issue or something involving providing directions to the team, Anfey did not want to confront Niya with it.

"Stop kicking!" Niya was so concerned that she grabbed Anfey's foot to stop him.

The little unicorn started to stand up, trembling like a very sick person. It could not stop wobbling. The little guy was surprised after he first tried standing up. It did not dare to move: its feet were frozen to the ground.

"Look, my way is better." Anfey smiled.

"You are so bad!" Niya complained.

"If men are not bad…" Anfey suddenly stopped right there. If he had finished his saying, it would have sounded like he was flirting with Niya.

Chapter 74: Reach out for a Yard after an Inch

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Niya sat at the pond with a concerned look. She looked so upset. Suzanna found the water in the pond had already been polluted, which meant that they could not take a bath in the pond anymore. Suzanna tested the water in the pond with the horn they cut off the unicorn. It could purify the water poured into the horn, but could not purify the whole pond water. Purifying the water in the horn to shower was far from enough. The unicorn horn was dead, so its power was not comparable to when the unicorn was still alive.

Niya tried to stop Anfey from dipping the little guy's mini unicorn into the pond, but Anfey ignored the complaining from her and the little guy and did it anyway. He waited for a while, but the water quality did not change at all.

The little guy whined and looked up at Anfey with his blue eyes filled with tears. It wished that Anfey could make up for his rudeness. Unfortunately, Anfey's mind had flown somewhere else. Anfey did not care whether the water in the pond was poisonous. With a group of mages present, drinking water was not a problem, since there were plenty of water elements in the air, and even more water elements in the forest. Anfey never worried about that.

"Suzanna, can you come with me for a second?" Anfey stood up.

"Huh…" Suzanna was momentarily shocked. She hesitated a little bit before she followed Anfey, about 40 feet behind.

The little guy saw Anfey leaving and jumped to follow Anfey. It already had forgotten about its complaints. Senior magic beasts were rated as senior level for a reason. It only took the little unicorn two hours at the most to learn to run after it just learned how to walk. The problem with the little unicorn was its vision. He had tripped at the place where he should not, and then he would slide for a little bit before he fell heavily on the ground.

Suzanna felt unreasonably nervous when she saw Anfey walking straight ahead to the forest. In fact, from any outsider's perspective, her nervousness was unnecessary. If Anfey and Suzanna wanted to have a fair fight, there was no way Anfey could beat Suzanna. There was no reason for Suzanna to be nervous.

"Anfey, let's talk here." Suzanna suddenly stopped. Her frequent eye movements showed she was thinking. She pinched the bark here and there on a tree. That poor tree seemed to suffer an unexpected natural disaster when a large piece of bark fell off in a very short period of time.

"Huh? Sure." Anfey nodded and looked at Suzanna with a weird look.

"What is the matter?" Suzanna asked.

"Suzanna, do you feel someone has been watching us?" Anfey asked.

"No, Why? Do you think someone has been watching us?" Suzanna looked up in surprise.

"I was only guessing. I hope I was just thinking too much, but…" Anfey paused for a second. "Suzanna, can you walk around a little more when you have time. Maybe you can find something."

"I got it. That night…" Suzanna blushed before she even finished her sentence. She remembered what Anfey had told her after he caught her, but she could not say out loud that she had understood what he meant that night. Suzanna felt so ashamed and wished there was a hole in the ground where she could hide from Anfey.

A wave of magic surges appeared in the air. The little unicorn felt it before Anfey and Suzanna. The little guy suddenly turned its head to the side and barked in a low pitch. The mini horn on its head pointed to the sky. Anfey looked quickly at Suzanna and walked slowly out of the forest. Suzanna followed Anfey about 40 feet behind.

Christian and the other two landed. Christian did not look too bad, but Blavi looked awkward, with mud and rotten leaves on him. Luckily there was no blood on him.

"What happened?" Anfey asked worriedly.

"S*^t! That manticore cave was occupied by a group of wyverns. We almost got caught," Blavi blurted out with fury.

"Wyverns?" Anfey asked.

"Now I understand why I saw a pair of wyverns outside the manticore's cave. I could not figure out the reason back then, but I see it now. They were trying to take that territory," Suzanna said, showing in her eyes the enlightenment which had come to her.

"Didn't you say there have rarely been any conflicts among senior magic beats?" Anfey asked.

"Anfey, have you ever seen a wyvern?", Blavi asked.

"Riska mentioned them to me," Anfey said.

"Their bodies are shaped like ducks with smaller heads. They eat a lot, and eating takes half of their day, so they like to prey on big magic beasts. They eat so much that an adult three-eyed magic cow could only be enough for two or three days of meals. They are like nomadic people, changing their caves for survival, since they have to change to a different cave when they eat up all the big magic beasts around it," Suzanna said.

"Magic Beast Forest will never lack magic beasts, right?" Anfey asked.

"Anfey, you do not know the way wyverns prey. They are called "the ambusher" in the forest. They know their speed is not fast and flying style does not look sharp, so they rely on waiting for or slowly approaching their prey to catch them. When a group of wyverns go out to hunt, they would take almost the same amount of time to catch a magic rabbit as a three-eyed magic cow. A magic rabbit is far from enough for a group of wyverns to divide, while a three-eyed cow would be good enough for few days' food. Do you think they would care about little magic beasts?" Suzanna said.

"Suzanna, you seem to know a lot about the magic beast forest. I am just curious why you did not prepare for it before you came to the magic beast forest."

Suzanna bit her lips and said quietly, "That was an accident. I do not know much about the magic beast forest either. There are so many secrets that no human beings could understand."

"If so, let's not worry about it. We need to build the house here first." Anfey felt a little helpless. He never thought his territory would be taken by magic beasts. His legion just had a fight and should not continue fighting so soon. In addition, Suzanna as the main force had not recovered yet. They needed to swallow their pride a little bit.

"No," Suzanna and Christian said at the same time.

"Huh, why not?" Anfey was quite surprised.

"Anfey, wyverns are ambushers. If any of us fell into their trap,they would be in trouble, except for Suzanna. The range of the wyverns' prey is quite wide. They have already posed big threats to us," Christian looked worried.

"Right, Anfey. Christian is right. If they were unicorns, we would not have to bother with them. Unicorns would not hurt us as long as we do not offend them. However, the issue with senior magic beasts like manticores and wyverns needs to be addressed immediately," Suzanna said after Christian.

Anfey looked down in thought. Wyverns were senior magic beasts, so their power should be about equal to unicorns and manticores. They also lived in groups which made it even harder to kill them. Most importantly, Suzanna had not fully recovered. Suzanna told Anfey before that if she gathered all her combat power, she could battle with a manticore for a while. However, her combat power would decrease over time. Once it was beyond her limit, running away would become a luxury.

Suzanna had allowed herself to be pushed to the corner by manticore because she wanted to protect Riska. She was a strong fighter. Anfey needed to make a good use of her. In any case, it was not Anfey's style not to make good use of Suzanna. After giving it some thought, Anfey believed that Suznanna had to be part of the team, no matter whether they ambushed or confronted wyverns directly.

"We'd better wait a few more days. Ask everyone to be alert. If they absolutely need to go out, they need to go in pairs to take care of each other." Anfey shook his head at the end. "Ok. We will talk about it later. Blavi, you guys go and get some rest first. Christian, how is the house building over there?"

Christian did not give any other suggestions after he saw Anfey switching topics. "It's alright, but everyone is exhausted."

Suzanna sighed. There was a big difference between Anfey and her when it came to taking pressure. Once seeing the potential dangers, Suzanna had always wanted to get rid of the dangers immediately. Therefore, Anfey's decision had made Suzanna feel down.

"It's getting dark outside." Anfey looked up at the sky. "Christian, let everyone go back to get some rest. They can work on the house tomorrow."

"Ok. I am letting them know now." Christian nodded.

After Anfey and the others went back to the cave, it did not take long for other construction workers to come back one after another. Anfey did not get a chance to check on the progress of house building, but he could tell how hard this project was from the way these construction workers looked. Some of them simply laid on the mattress made from grass and fell asleep immediately.

Maybe everyone had high moral standards in the legion, or some sort of collectivism was developing in the team. No one slacked off. Everyone tried very hard without any complaints.

When Feller announced it was dinnertime, construction workers sprang up with energy and surrounded Feller. They gobbled the food down and fell back to sleep again. Was the day that bad for them? Not really: they felt lucky to be able to eat well and sleep well in life.

No one on the team heard the sigh outside the cave. There was a tree at the edge of a prairie opposite the cave. Ernest heaved a long sigh in the tree. He gripped his right hand into a fist. A cloud of powder blew with the wind into the dark when he opened his palm.

Ernest was very frustrated. It was not hard to understand his frustration, since he had been stressed, looking everywhere to locate an unknown wildflower. Ernest had already developed a severe wild-flower syndrome. Every time after he found the marks Anfey left him, Ernest could not resist holding the flowers in his palm, grinding them into powder. The powder particles were so fine that they could fly into the air.

After searching for Anfey for a couple of months, Ernest might already have felt dizzy and nauseous every time he saw those wild flowers. Luckily, he finally had tracked Anfey down today.

Ernest had planned to meet Anfey secretly, but he changed his mind when he found an adult size unicorn body with his strong sensibility. He could not figure out how Anfey and his legion killed a unicorn, since he could not have done it. Ernest was shocked by it, so he changed his mind about seeing Anfey. He wanted to follow Anfey for a couple of days to see what else he could do. It would be fine as long as he could help when Anfey was in danger. Anfey would grow more mature after handling dangerous situations. This was also the way Ernest taught his students back then.

At the same time, in the Sacred City far away from Anfey, the king of Maho Empire, Yolanthe, who had "passed away," was sitting properly in a secret chamber with a serious face. He looked like he was going to kill someone. He squinted and looked like he was in thought. Below Yolanthe, a cloud of light grey shadow stood there quietly. That shadow looked clear sometimes, and blurry at others.

"Are you saying Philip turned down your request? Is that it?" Yolanthe asked.

"Yes, your majesty," the shadow answered.

"Did you tell him anything about me?" Yolanthe asked.

"No, your majesty. Philip has been very stubborn and did not know what were the appropriate things to do. If he knew about it, he might have leaked the secrets in conversation, and then Ellisen Empire would be alerted to it," the shadow answered.

"You are right." Yolanthe was in thought for a while and said, "Let Wester be in charge of some of the Hurricane legion. If spies from Ellisen Empire learn about the Hurricane legion but do not see any action from it, it would raise the red flag for them."

"I understand, your majesty. But what kind of people should be given to the prince?" the shadow asked.

"You don't have to ask my opinion about these little issues, you can handle them yourself. Can you get in touch with Philip soon and ask him to come back to the Sacred City? Tell him the country needs him," Yolanthe said, smiling.

"Your majesty, please allow me to be honest with you. Philip is very emotional right now. He is not going to listen to me," the shadow said.

"Try to talk to him as an old friend. I hope he will not become an obstacle for the country. He contributed so much for this county. If it had to happen this way, maybe I need take some extreme methods." Yolanthe shook his head. "I have waited for this opportunity too long, too long, I will do anything to destroy Dark Moon Magic Legion in Ellisen Empire to get rid of the biggest threat to Maho Empire. I will do anything. I will not allow anyone to ruin my plan."

'Your majesty, you know Phillip's temper. I think we need to find Niya in the Forest Clarm and take her back. The rest of them we can leave to Phillip to handle. Only this way can we calm him," the shadow said.

"Do you know what the most important quality for a king is?" Yolanthe smiled and said, "It's justice. Niya is still young, naughty and stubborn. Niya would give them a lesson if she saw anyone in other royal families doing anything bad. However, she never bothered with Zeda, never. She did not want to put Saul in any awkward situations, but she was not afraid of Zeda. Zeda was just a bastard. He was not even comparable to a little girl. Where was he killed? It was in Saul's house. He went to Saul's house with some bodyguards to arrest people. Didn't he know the consequences of doing that? If he knew and continued to do it, then he was looking to be killed. If he did not know and had been manipulated by someone, then he deserved it anyway. No matter the reason, I have no sympathy for him."

"But…" the shadow said.

"There is no but. The Philips started it and they need to know to take responsibility for that. If Niya went to Philip's house, beat up Zeda and killed him in his own house, I would not be on Saul's side either," Yolanthe said.

"Your majesty, I know you are right. But if Philip could not release his anger, he would not come back to the Sacred City," the shadow said.

"If talking could not do the job, why don't you try the sword and blood? If they put their family before the country, then I do not think there is any reason for their existence." Yolanthe waved his hand and said, "You can leave now. Ask Miorich to see me now."

"Your majesty…" The grey shadow trembled a little bit. He had followed Yolanthe for over twenty years. He knew better than anyone else how cruel Yolanthe could be if he made up his mind to kill someone.

"I will give Philip a last try and let him to choose his own path." Yolanthe let out a slight sigh. If there were any other options, he did not want Philip to die. Philip had made such a scene recently that he seemed ready to start a fight. This was unbearable to Yolanthe. To plan everything, Yolanthe had manage everything to its maximum. However, Philip had ordered his students to leave their positions to search for Anfey, while many of Philip's students were in high positions in the military. What Philip did was going to affect his military chain of command.

What was worse was that a student of Saul's, Entos, who was in training at Mercenary, returned immediately to help Saul after he received a letter from Saul. He was ambushed on the way by a group people. Entos had severe wounds all over his body. Luckily, Entos was a senior magister and able to release Time Ship scroll at the last moment to escape.

No one had claimed responsibility for it, but everyone knew who did it. In other words, who gave them the order to do it. This made Yolanthe even madder. Entos came back to the country to help. His power was far less than Saul's, but he was still a senior magister and a good helper. What Philip did was nothing different than dog-eat-dog.

To a king, an obedient dog was better than a furious flying dragon. Saul was a representative of the magic power for the Maho Empire, and Philip was a leader of the swordsmen of the Maho Empire. They had different personalities and ways to do things. Maybe because there were not many children in Philip's family, they had a very strong concept of family. Philip had total control of his students. His students had to go back to the Sacred City to get together with the Philips on holidays and birthdays. Saul was not like Philip. Besides providing instructions in magic skills, he was barely up on students' personal lives. Saul respected his students' own interests and choices. This was the main reason that Yolanthe got closer to Saul and kept a distance from Philip. Yolanthe did not want to see anyone act against his authority, but what Philip did was making the relationship between Yolanthe and him even more tense.

* * * *

Cling, Cling, the clear cling sound made by two pieces of metal arose above the prairie. Two people were fighting. Anfey was sweating profusely already. He tried to block Suzanna's sword as he stepped back. Anfey had asked Ernest to use combat power when they were practicing sword skills. He realized how wise that decision was after he had had sword fights with Suzanna over the past few days. The skills Suzanna used were quite simple, either slay or thrust. Anfey's used more "complex" skills like point, dodge, thrust, hold, move with sword trembling, slay, and press on. However, Anfey was at an obvious disadvantage in the fight. Within half an hour, Anfey was forced back from one end of the prairie to the other.

Suzanna thrust at his chest without any skill. Anfey thought he only needed to point his sword at Suzanna's sword three to five inches away from the tip to change the direction of Suzanna's sword and then make more offensive moves. He tried many times, but the results told him that he could not change the direction of her sword. Suzanna was fast and forceful when she used combat power. To Anfey, it felt like Suzanna's sword was frozen in the air, very hard to move. Anfey might be able to block her thrust, but he had given up blocking her slay. His arm, wrist and fingers were cramped. It was so painful that Anfey did not want to even try it.

In fact, Anfey had been prepared to lose the fight. That night when they fought for the first time in the water, Suzanna's punch did not get him, but the water waves created by her punch pulled some of his hairs off. He knew how good Suzanna was. The last few days' practice with Suzanna only told Anfey that actually he was not ready for it.

It was fortunate that Suzanna's speed was not super fast even though her attacks were fierce, otherwise Anfey would make himself look so bad.

Finally, Anfey raised up his hands to signal the end of morning training. Suzanna put her sword back into its sheath casually. She turned around and walked back to the cave. Anfey threw his sword on the ground and breathed heavily.

"Suzanna, did I make any progress today?" Anfey asked.

Suzanna turned around, looking at Anfey for a second, and then shrugged. She answered Anfey without saying anything.

Anfey smiled bitterly. He knew who he was and what he could do. When he was trying to kill the old guy in the Rose Home hotel, the old man was already hurt but he was still able to hit the heavy candlestick out of his hand. Anfey knew he might be able to handle swordsmen, but he had to be extremely careful with master swordsmen.

"What are you so proud of? Don't you remember you have lost to me?" Anfey murmured. He cared more how to improve his ability fast than to make himself look good. However, Suzanna's attitude of not wanting to talk to him still made him a little mad.

"You have lost to me hundreds of times over the past few days." Suzanna did talk to Anfey this time, but Anfey wished she had not said anything.

"…" Anfey was speechless. Anfey had no other way to improve his sword skills than finding himself an opponent, since it would take too long to make any improvement if he practiced swordfighting by himself. Besides Suzanna, who else could he practice with? No one would recommend Shally, would they?

Suzanna suddenly stopped walking when she heard an unpleasant screaming. It only took her a few strides to get back to Anfey. She looked up to the sky, where a swan-like animal flew by. That animal seemed to have a longer neck and bigger body than a real swan.

There was a saying that nice people tend to be bullied more and a tame horse tends to be ridden more often. The saying seems like it might have been an exaggeration in this situation, but giving it a little bit of thought, it was not entirely wrong. Anfey had never tried to bother wyverns.

Wyverns came to this prairie, but found the people living on it were hard to catch, so they had been just watching over them for a while and flown to other areas. As time passed, they seemed to be more comfortable approaching Anfey's legion. At the very beginning, several of the wyverns in a group were just flying by to check on them. Now even a wyvern was able to stop by and check on them. It was annoying.

"Anfey, We have to think about how to deal with these wyverns. Do we have to wait until something happens to us?" Suzanna said with a grave face.

"We do need take action," Anfey nodded. There was another saying that restraint in moments of confrontation calms down the torment; Conceding a single step may take you to a higher plain. It made sense at some point, but it did not consider the point view of the bullies. If the bullies saw that you would easily compromise and concede, they would take advantage of it, and bully even more. These wyverns were good examples of the bullies. They started watching the prairie from outside and realized Anfey and his legion did not care about them, then they started to constantly fly over it. Niya and Shally did not have any combat power. If they did not protect those two well, they might have become victims of the wyverns.

The wyvern did not bother Suzanna. It just flapped its wings and flew towards the cave. Christian was on watch so he immediately released the levitation magic to chase after the wyvern. Zubin and Sanchez ran from the cave and hastened to the side of Christian to protect him.

That wyvern suddenly changed direction and flew out of the prairie, leaving a series of coarse howling. It sounded like the wyvern was making fun of them.

"Let's go," Anfey said quietly.

"Ok." Suzanna nodded.

Anfey and Suzanna ran to the cave. Suzanna followed Anfey closely. Anfey knew Suzanna would remember the lesson from their last experience.When Suzanna heard the howling of the wyvern, she ran back to Anfey first. She put Anfey's safety first instead of her mission to locate wyvern.

Some people do not learn from their mistakes, but others learn from any mistake. Suzanna undoubtedly belonged to the latter group.

"Anfey, let's take these wyverns down. I cannot stand them anymore," Sanchez said angrily as he walked toward Anfey.

"Right. There were a pair of wyverns hovering above us when we were collecting wood. They were just watching us from a distance. They just followed us as we carried the wood back. We were worried the whole way back." Zubin smiled bitterly.

"Suzanna, how is your recovery coming along?" Anfey asked.

"Wyverns are far less powerful than manticores. I think I can handle them," Suzanna said.

"Ok, we need to make a plan this morning." Anfey was in thought for a while and then asked, "Christian, do we have any good material for fighting wyverns? We'd better not waste them."

"Besides magic crystals and fangs, other parts of their bodies are worthless. When the upper-class royals are being sarcastic, they usually say 'You are rotten like a wyvern.' Wyverns are the worst among the senior magic beasts, not only because wyverns' powers are the lowest, but also because their body parts are least useful to humans."

"So…" Anfey became thoughtful. Anfey had seen what benefits unicorns and manticores could bring him. It was well known how valuable unicorn blood and the legendary Tears of Stars could be. Besides unicorn blood and Tears of Stars, its horn could detoxify, and taking ground unicorn horn powder could save your life. Unicorns and manticores' fur could be made into top magic leather mail by alchemists. Manticores' teeth could be made into arrowheads that could pierce through knights' heavy armor. If fire element were added to the arrowhead, it would explode into a big fire ball when it hit the target. Its power could be a lot stronger than regular fireballs released by mages. Manticores' claws and both manticores and unicorns' bones were good as well.

All of them were just raw materials and needed be made into all kinds of magic tools by good alchemists. Generally speaking, all types of senior magic beasts, except for wyverns, were valuable.

Anfey's favorite was the manticore's stinger. The stinger was a little too thick to hold in his hands. Anfey hoped to turn it into a short-shafted spear if he could find a good alchemist. Christian said the magic effects of the stinger would partially remain, just like the unicorn horn. The unicorn horn partially kept the ability of purification, and the manticore's sting could partially keep the paralyzing effects.

"Wyverns did not come by again, did they?" Niya walked out of the cave as she rubbed her eyes. For her safety, she had not been able to go anywhere for the past few days which she was not so happy about.

"I've recovered, Anfey." Suzanna realized that Anfey could not make a decision yet because he was worried that her combat power had not recovered to its normal level. She had to firmly restate that she had recovered.

"Ok. Ask everyone to come here," Anfey nodded.

Chapter 75: Greed Provokes Evil

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The atmosphere in the cave became tense after the crew acknowledged that Anfey had decided to battle against the wyvern. Filled with excitement, they eagerly offered their advice and suggestions: some advocated direct attack in spread-out formation; some advocated sending a squad to harass, attract and split the wyvern's power so that the main force could take the chance to take down parts of its body; some advocated setting plenty of traps, and then leading the wyvern into a trap to beat the crap out of it; however, the final decision was Anfey's.

Using traps was indeed a solution, but to entirely follow Arrago's idea could be irrational. Digging traps in the forest was not very easy, since they only had a limited number of helpers. How many total traps were they able to dig? What if the wyvern was not dashing along the ground? The traps would become useless decorations unless there was ... some bait that could automatically lead the wyvern down to it.

"Zubin, in addition to the magic crystal and the fang, the rest of the parts are not one iota useful," said Anfey in a low voice, hoping to finally confirm that. After all, the wyvern was a high-level magic beast. Anfey was reconciled to the fact that they might take risks that did not match the gain.

"No, in the same family of magic beasts, the value of a wyvern cannot even be compared to a seven-winged magic fly," laughed Zubin.

"Seven-winged magic fly?"

"A seven-winged magic fly is a middle level magic beast. It is approximately as big as a sheeps head. Its combat effectiveness is very low. The attack can be accompanied with some weak magic, yet with little effect. Magic beasts that can beat the seven-winged magic fly would not be bothered by the weak beginner level magic. Those who cannot beat the magic fly... there is no need to fear at all. Since the seven-winged magic fly is very fast, even faster than the unicorn, the beginner level magic beast cannot escape in any case," laughed Zubin. "Seven-winged magic flies likes to live close to the lair of the wyvern. The task of hunting seven-winged magic flies is often given to the mercenary line. In order to protect their own safety, mercenaries often have to choose to kill the wyvern first, and then hunt down the seven-winged magic flies, since in their eyes, the value of seven-winged magic flies is much higher than the wyvern."

"What is the value of the seven-winged magic fly?"

"This," Zubin blushed suddenly, "is what I do not know.

"Zubin, why avoid it? Say it out aloud," Christian asked with curiosity, as he overheard Anfey and Zubin's conversation.

"I really do not know." Zubin shook his head again and again.

Anfey realized that Zubin was not comfortable saying it, so he waved it off. "Distraction, distraction. Let's talk about how to deal with the wyvern."

"What Zubin said should not be considered a distraction," Suzanna said. "Seven-winged magic flies always follow the Wyvern to migrate. Near this group of wyverns, there should be seven-winged flies too. Having small appetites, after the wyvern's successful hunting, the seven-winged flies can share some leftover carrion, which is enough for them to survive. On the other hand, the seven-winged flies' speed is ultra-fast, and they have sensitive perception. They usually play the role of a sentry. Just a little bit of a disturbance, and they would immediately send an alert to the Wyvern. "

"This may not be easy to deal with ..." Anfey couldn't help raising his brow.

"We did not see the seven-winged magic flies last time," said Blavi. "Maybe the group of wyverns had just migrated here, and there was not yet enough time to attract the seven-winged flies?"

"The fact that they were not there in the past few days does not mean that they are not there now." Susanna shook her head.

"It is meaningless to continue to this debate, I think ... Christian, Suzanna, you two should go for a walk around the wyvern's lair and see if you could find seven-winged magic flies."

"Right," Christian nodded.

"Sooner rather than later. You two should go now."

Without further conversation, Christian and Susanna went out of the cave one after another.

Anfey pondered a moment, smiled, and waved toward Zubin, indicating Zubin to come over, then whispered to him, "Tell me what is the use of seven-winged magic flies?"

"I..." Zubin looked around and lowered his voice with a bitter smile, "If you grind the wings of the seven-winged magic fly into powder, you can use it to make a strong kind of aphrodisiac. It's said that it has an effect on both men and women, and there is no age limit either."

"How amazing?" Anfey was astonished.

"What are you two talking about," asked Niya curiously, as Anfey and Zubin seemed sneaky.

"Nothing, Zubin said he would find you some good stuff to take," Anfey grinned.

"What is it?" Niya was even more curious.

Zubin's face turned pale and he desperately nodded at Anfey. If Niya understood the use of the seven-winged magic fly or would learn the specific use of it in the future, he would be dead for sure... it was not a funny joke!

"It is a type of snow lotus: have you heard of it?"

Zubin let out a long sigh of relief, looking at Anfey with a complicated expression on his face.

"What is the use of the snow lotus?" It seemed like Niya did not want to give up.

"The snow lotus contains natural essence that moisturizes the skin, making the skin moist, delicate. It restores the natural muscle elasticity, making the skin as soft as silk. It also prevents wrinkles…" Anfey dashed along without even thinking.

"Really? What a miracle," shouted Niya elatedly.

"Of course, this is exactly what Zubin told me just now."

"Zubin, thank you! Please bring me some!" Niya stared at Zubin earnestly. This girl too easily trusted others...

Zubin was stunned, and then immediately came back to reality. It seemed that it was too early for him to feel relieved. Snow lotus? He never heard of it. Let alone finding some.

"You're welcome." Zubin barely made a smile. Then he lowered his voice toward Anfey, "Anfey, you wanna kill me? Girls have extremely good memory of this type of thing. What if she asks me for snow lotus in the future?"

"It does not matter, I'll take care of it," Anfey laughed.

"Snow lotus? I just heard about it for the first time ...do you really have it?"

"There's plenty of stuff with similar effect, and those are easy to obtain."

At this moment, a hoarse scream came from outside of the cave, followed by a shadow dashing by. Strong wind blew right into their faces. The stones at the entrance were blown down, making a crackling sound. The most unfortunate part was that Sanchez was sitting next to the campfire to read his magic book. The flame blew right on him. Black smoke came out of the dry pages of the magic book. Sanchez hastened to blow out the magic book, and put it back into his space ring.

Half lying prone on the ground, raising his little head solemnly, the little guy that attended the serious military meeting was filled with excitement. It stood up to dash outside the cave. Fortunately, Anfey didn't hesitate. He grabbed the little guy's neck. Although the unicorn was considered the most powerful of the high-level magic beasts, it had to be at least an adult first. There was no doubt that this little guy would very likely be killed if it rushed out.

"Sanchez, stop!" Zubin yelled.

Magic books were the lifeblood of the mages. The books were priceless, like a golden castle with a stunning beauty inside. This was first said by educated people from another world, but was not taken seriously by other educated people. On the contrary, almost every mage valued their magic materials, since they deeply understood that their status, power, and wealth were all bestowed by magic! Seeing his magic book was burned, Sanchez's eyes turned red right then and there. He turned to dash outside, but was immediately stopped by Zubin.

"Riska, use the eyes of the sky!" Anfey stared at Sanchez.

Sanchez calmed down, hesitated for a moment, and slowly retreated.

Riska whispered a few spells, and the eyes of the sky opened between his hands. The scenery outside of the cave was clearly shown in the eyes of the sky.

Two wyverns were quietly hiding inside the cliff at the top of the cave, patiently waiting. Yet one wyvern hovered around, and rushed at the cave again. This time it did not just sweep by, but opened its mouth and breathed acid mist into the cave.

"How cunning the wyverns are." Sanchez felt a chill down his spine. If he had run outside just now, he would have been attacked by two wyverns!

Zubin spouted a spell which released of a magic shield, isolating the acid mist outside the shield. Then he looked at Anfey quietly.

"Wait!" Anfey blurted out. Anyways, everybody was inside the cave. Maintaining this geographic advantage made people feel fearless to the attacks from the wyvern.

The wyvern who was baiting them provoked them repeatedly. Noticing that there was no response from the cave, the wyvern could no longer bear it but to land on the ground, blocking the cave's exit and staggering about.

The eyes of the wyvern were very small, which made people cold and terrified. A pair of wings, half open and half shut, were just able to block the hole tightly. Its long neck shook from side to side flexibly, constantly letting out unpleasant calls.

Anfey suddenly realized that the focus of the wyvern was set on the little guy in his arms. He could not help but be stunned for a moment. The situation seemed a bit strange: in accordance with the description of the various wyverns' habits, they should not cause trouble before food had become scarce. Now it became clearer and clearer to him that the two wyverns were probably after the little unicorn! They should also be aware of the benefits of the unicorn's blood. In other words, they had an insatiable desire for the unicorn.

A certain degree of greed could lead to progress, but excessive greed could also bring disaster easily! It is a universal truth for both humans and animals!

This was a wyvern who was blinded by greed. It failed to control its own desires, landing on the ground and even getting into the cave. However, at the moment when its greedy eyes stared at the small unicorn, Anfey's hand had waved down. Then the wyvern felt some violent magic fluctuations blowing right on its face. Realizing the danger, the Wyvern tried to squeeze its fat body out of the cave to escape, but it realized what was happening too late.

In order to avoid the phenomenon of elements of mutual exclusion or conflict, everybody used fire magic: small fireballs, rockets, gigantic fireballs, flame radiation, flame dust, etc. All of the fire magic attacks were tossed at that wyvern. Riska even released a fire meteor in no time at all. Even little Shally released two small fireballs. Numerous fire magic elements lit up the cave, looking even ten times brighter than the grasslands blazing in the sun. All of the people inside the cave almost invariably closed their eyes.

Since the body of the wyvern was way too fat, it was easy for it to come inside the cave, but difficult to go out. With no time to retreat from the cave, fire magic had been hitting right on its body repeatedly. Screaming tragically, the wyvern flew around a bit. Its light blue body became green and black. Its chest and abdomen had received numerous wounds. The disgusting burnt smell in the air made people sick. Especially Riska's fire meteor put a meter-wide hole right in the middle of its chest. People could even see its internal organs.

The wyvern twisted on the ground, struggled, and failed to stand up again. Its flexible long neck had become bulky, and it let out a miserable cry. Among the family of high-level magic beasts, wyverns' resistance to magic was the lowest. Although wyverns could be immune from primary magic like fireballs and rockets, people like Zubin, Sante, and Blavi, who were all high-level mages, could release enough flying flame dust and flame radiation to cause damage to the wyvern. Riska's fire meteor was even stronger and caused serious injury to the wyvern!

If something had to be blamed, blame greed. If the wyvern had not crashed into the cave, facing a battle like this, it could at least have avoided some magic attacks instead of getting hit by them all.

Without leaving time for Anfey to speak, Riska had once again opened the eyes of the sky to see that the other two wyverns had already abandoned their partner and flown back to their nest.

"Magic beast, after all, are only beasts: too stupid." Anfey smiled. "Riska, are you alright?"

"I'm alright." Riska's face turned pale, but his mental state remained very good. In the past, after the release of a fire meteor he would no longer have magic. Yet now he could continue to release the eyes of the sky, suggesting that he already had made great progress.

"Zubin, Sante, you two come out with me. Riska, hold on for a while. If the wyverns return, immediately send us an alarm."

"Okay," Riska nodded.

Anfey walked out of the cave slowly. The wyvern was still struggling feebly, but raised its triangular head, rotating it with the footsteps of Anfey.

While he walked, Anfey took the scorpion-tailed lion's tail pin from his space ring. Since he had decided to make the tail pin his own exclusive weapon, he should be familiar with the performance of the weapon for sure. Or if an accident occurred, he would not know how he died!

Having seen that Anfey approached, the wyvern suddenly thrusted his head forward at Anfey's head and tried to bite him. However, since it was seriously injured, it didn't even have 20 percent of its original speed and strength. Anfey gently dodged and kicked the wyvern's neck, five inches under its head. The wyvern's triangular head bounced back with the attack.

The wyvern still attempted to recalcitrant, but Zubin and Sante each released a big fireball, both hitting right on the wyvern's head. As the big fireballs exploded, the Wyvern's head jumped twice, eventually dropping to the ground.

Chapter 76: The Experiment

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"Lightly, don't kill it!" Anfey declared, with an expression like that of a protective guardian. However, his movements were less polite, as he stabbed the wyvern with a manticore stinger. The wyvern screeched but lacked the strength to fight back.

The experiments of scientists must be rigorous! Three times Anfey mercilessly conducted his experiment on the wyvern. The force used was not extreme, so long as the tip of the stinger completely pierced the hide. After the seventh time, the strong beating of the wyvern's chest suddenly weakened and its wings stiffened. The manticore venom's paralytic effect had finally kicked in, but…such a small probability? Not even fifteen percent! Anfey was left a bit disappointed.

Patiently waiting, Anfey found that it took roughly twenty seconds for the wyvern's frantic breathing to resume. In addition to the numerous previous injuries, this wyvern had just endured the paralytic effect of manticore venom. With the wyvern's eyes losing focus, its life was rapidly approaching its end.

Anfey, feeling anxious, continued to repeatedly stab the manticore stinger into the wyvern's hide. This time the result was even worse; only on the eleventh attempt was the wyvern paralyzed again.

Alas, the results continue to worsen! Anfey could not help but sigh and wait patiently. Who would have guessed that even after thirty seconds, the wyvern would still be paralyzed. Anfey turned to look at the wyvern's head and noticed that its eyelids had already closed—fallen into the eternal paralysis of death…

"Anfey, what are you doing?" Sante asked, curious.

"I am testing the paralytic effect of the manticore stinger," Anfey replied. Thinking for a moment, Anfey turned around and asked, "Sante, could one use magic to increase the probability of paralysis?"

"I believe…it is not possible," Sante said, shaking his head.

"Never mind then." With his interest waning, Anfey returned the manticore stinger to the dimensional ring. Now, speaking to his two assistants, he said: "Remove its magic crystal and venom fangs. As for the body…we will discuss what to do after Christian and Suzanna come, but we will leave it here for now."

Suddenly, the unicorn foal rushed out from the cave. Despite only having learned to walk recently, his strides had already become second nature. In just a few gallops, it found itself atop the wyvern corpse. The unicorn initially bowed its head to inspect the corpse, then looked up with an air of conceited pride. As if facing a vast forest of magical beasts, the unicorn let out the cry of a mighty king. All the while his hind legs scornfully kicked at the wyvern corpse—such arrogance!

Unfortunately, the little guy had yet to fully express his desire for fighting or his contempt towards adversaries. Anfey sternly scolded, "You twit! Next time you run amok like this, I'll break your legs!" Anfey could manage people just fine, but not this guy. This little guy had been quite the miracle; in just a few days able to run so quick and with such grace! With the threat of the wyvern, Anfey often worried about the little guy! That is the heartache of being a parent—very difficult!!!

To "bully the weak and fear the strong" is a universal and unassailable truth! Whether human or beast! Not only does this little guy take advantage of Niya and Shally, but even Suzanna. When bored, he often sneaks up behind people to ram them in the back or to pull at their clothes. But if he hears Anfey speak loudly, the little guy immediately becomes well-behaved. It seems that even he knows who can bully whom…

"Anfey, you are bullying my baby again!" Niya screamed from the cave.

It could be said that if Niya's personality did not change, she would never amount to anything. To envy what others have is fine, to take by force what others have is fine as well. But one must consider the method. Where can one openly display one's own insatiable greed? Would doing so not raise the vigilance of others? Say for instance her goal is also not right; that the little guy being close with her is just for fun, but him being close with Anfey is instinctive. Can she ever win this way? Niya's painstaking effort to make that little unicorn into her little baby could only end poorly.

"Go, your mother is calling you again," Anfey said as he put the little guy on the ground.

Niya walked out of the cave and tried to talk to Anfey about how to take care of the little animal. But she ended up feeling embarrassed and went back into the cave.

The little guy did not want to leave Anfey and curled up by his feet. A perceptive person could see that the little guy was always trying to please Anfey. But with others, he just waited for them to please him. This was a fundamental difference…

Christian and Suzanna came out to see the wyvern corpse. Instantly shocked, they hurriedly retreated to the cave. Christian immediately asked, "Is everybody okay?" while Suzanna anxiously searched for Shally.

As long as one is perceptive, one can always determine the inner thoughts of another through hints and clues. Take Suzanna for instance: although she had become a part of the team and treated each member as a close partner, her little sister was still the most important to her. In case of any danger, Suzanna would never hesitate to save her sister's life over that of another team member. This of course was understandable!

"Everyone is all right! That wyvern foolishly got into the cave. When we combined our magic, and we took it down immediately," Sanchez said with a big grin.

"That's good," Christian said, much relieved.

"Anfey, where is Shally?" Suzanne worriedly asked.

"She is inside meditating," Anfey responded, "You guys saw a seven-winged magic fly?"

"Yes, there were a lot of them—at least 30!"

"Do they pose a danger to us?"

"They are generally weak and have poor magic. But when we are dealing with a wyvern, even weak magic can be quite dangerous."

"Despite having so many powerful mages who can easily disperse negative magic," Christian said, "allowing the seven-winged magic fly to outnumber and surround us is still incredibly imprudent."

"Is there any way to lure them out?"

"Yes, but there are difficulties. They are attracted only to rotting magical corpses. Of course…if we use the unicorn corpse…we may be able to draw the magic flies out!" Christian declared.

Anfey suddenly remembered that pair of greedy eyes from when the wyvern was eyeing the little unicorn; "That's a good idea. Suzanna, you take the second group and find a place to dig a trap. Zubin, Shante, and I will dig the unicorn corpse out. The rest of you, stay here. Niya, I'm handing the little guy over to you—do not let him run about!"

"I'll handle it," Niya said with a bright exuberance from being given this responsibility. Her heart was truly content.

"Let's try this. If it does not work, we will try something else," Anfey said slowly.

Anfey prefered to act cleanly and orderly. He initially did not want conflict with the wyvern; but now that conflict was inevitable, he had become vigorous and resolute. His soldiers were setting out on two separate tasks: one group to ready the trap, the other to retrieve the unicorn corpse.

What kind of creature is most merciless? The answer is quite simple: human!

Take for example the way humans deal with seals, whales, and mink; let alone the sheer cruelty of eating raw monkey brain and the dish of three sounds. Anfey would not partake in such indulgences here, as the unicorn had produced in him some kind of indescribable sentiment. But in circumstances such as these, he also would not oppose those on his team that do!

What was once an unparalleled and divine unicorn had become a wretched thing. It really could only be described as a thing now. Its once dazzling fur was taken as a commodity and would someday be made into the highest quality of magic leather. Its sky-blue horn neatly was placed in Christian's dimensional ring. Its priceless blood was drawn and used as the team's miracle medicine. With all its glory and power long departed, what remained was entirely covered by maggots.

"Anfey, do we really need to move this thing back?" Shante asked while pinching his nose.

"Let's bury it first," said Anfey. He did not know why, but ever since arriving here, Anfey had believed that decisions he made in the moment were even more surprising to the others.

"Bury…bury it?" Shante responded with a forced smile.

"Bury it now, and we will deal with it tomorrow," Anfey decided.

Shante and Zubin looked at each other, both thinking the same thing—digging a hole would not be so easy, and burying this body also would not be so easy. For two mages, they must expend a lot of physical strength. But Anfey had already spoken; they had no choice but to act according to his directive.

After everyone returned in time for dinner; and each had noticed that Anfey still had not uttered a word. Nobody had ever seen Anfey be lost in himself like this. Even the time Anfey realized that he had killed the sole grandson of a master swordsman, his face had remained undisturbed. Seeing Anfey like this now, even Niya and Shally dared not make a sound. After dinner, Anfey's appearance had just begun to ease, and everyone silently gestured for Christian to intervene. In everyone's mind, Christian was the team's second-in-command. As such, it was his job to help ease whatever worry the leader had.

"Anfey, are you busy? Can we go for a walk?" Christian asked as he approached Anfey's side with a sympathetic smile.

"Sure, I have some things I want to discuss with you anyways," Anfey nodded.

As everyone else watched silently, the two slowly left the cave.

Both were silent for a moment, then Christian began with, "Anfey, what's weighing on your mind? It seemed like your mood suddenly shifted earlier."

"Let's go a bit farther first—I do not want our conversation to be overheard," Anfey said.

"Sure," Christian agreed.

Suddenly little Shally ran out of the cave, handed something to Christian and said, "Thank you, Christian."

Anfey noticed that it was the unicorn horn.

"No problem, little Shally. You are too polite," Christian chuckled.

Then Niya and Suzanna also appeared out of the cave, walking towards the garden.

Anfey frowned, "What are you two up to?"

"Going for a bath," Niya timidly responded. Normally, she would certainly have responded with, "Who wants you to know" or "Not going to tell you." But this evening Anfey seemed off, so she naturally responded more politely.

"Nonsense, the lake is toxic!" cried Anfey.

"Anfey, they tossed the unicorn horn into the lake a full day and a half ago. The toxins have all been neutralized," Christian laughed. "If outsiders catch wind of us using a unicorn horn for bath water…we would probably get scolded for being too wasteful."

"This is true," Anfey agreed. "Susanna, you must be careful! Although wyverns have quite poor night vision and will not attack at night, what of other magical beasts?"

"I know," Susanna replied.

"These women…they're so delicate!" Anfey exclaimed, watching as Niya waited for the others. But just as the words left his mouth, he felt his back itch—he too wanted a bath…

"Women, they're all that way," Christian said, smiling. Returning to their conversation he asked, "Anfey, can we talk now?"

"Oh…how do I put this. Today, as Zubin, Shante, and I were digging up the unicorn corpse, I noticed that my mark had been moved."

"Mark? What mark?"

"It is difficult to explain. What I can tell you is that someone had been digging around the unicorn corpse!"

"What happens if…other magical creatures had touched the body?"

"It was not magical creatures," Anfey decisively replied.

"Do you mean…you think someone may be secretly monitoring us?"

"Beyond doubt, there is certainly someone!" Anfey smiled, "And through today's events, I have realized some things."

"What?"

"Remember Zeda?"

"Of course!"

"Has Zeda ever come to the master's house?"

Christian thought carefully, "Never."

"This confirms my hypothesis; we are inadvertently…or we are being forced into a huge conspiracy!"

"Anfey, why do you say that?"

"Zeda is too arrogant. Do you dare enter Philip's home to stir up trouble? Do not say there is some royal decree. But even if there were such a command, for the sake of the future, they should still act politely," Anfey sneered. "And if Maris is really working with Zeda, could you really call that a coincidence?

"I…am confused, Anfey," Christian responded, wryly smiling.

"The first time we met the Knights of the Holy Flame Legion, there were those who helped us—why would they help us?"

"Might have been a friend of the master or…"

"Don't you think that's too naïve?"

"Then…what are you saying happened?"

"Someone needed us to escape! Someone needed us to do this—they used our movements to convey to the outside world some kind of…message. Do you understand now?"

"There are still…some things I do not understand," Christian replied, perplexed.

"We have become pawns in somebody else's game!" Anfey spat. "I hate being manipulated!!!"