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Chapter 250: Brazier

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Vermillion

Countless illusory pale arms rose from the gray stone floor. Those evil arms were infused with hatred and they were trying to grab the things above them. It seemed like they would tear apart anything that fell into their hands and drag it to hell.

There were countless muscular arms with pale skin spurting out of the wall on the left and the bookshelf on the right. It almost looked like they formed a wall of arms that came straight from hell.

The pale arms around Lucien, Charlie, and Sandra detected their presence. The arms quickly moved toward them and tried to grab their ankles, arms, or edges of their clothes.

The 11 crystal orbs that were rotating over Lucien's head released eye-blinding light as the arms reached his body. The pale arms were burnt into white smoke in the intense light.

Susan and Sandra were surrounded by Sandra's three remaining energy orbs and the energy rays of the orbs were destroying the pale arms around them. The arms that touched Charlie's body left the floor and the wall, being absorbed into Douglas' Absorbing Wall. The flowing magic runes quickly expanded in size and they looked as if they would explode any time.

Charlie, Sandra, and Lucien did not deactivate their defensive spell when waiting for Bill's speech.

However, the more arms they destroyed, the more arms would appear from the walls and the bookshelf. It felt like those endless pale arms came from the deepest abyss.

Three translucent strings originated from Sandra's head, flying to Lucien, Charlie, and Susan.

Lucien and Charlie recognized that the spell was a third circle spell named Lesser Mind Connection. They did not block the strings and let them contact their minds. Susan saw that the two sorcerers took the strings like nothing and decided to take the string as well.

"The only way to solve the problem is to destroy the summoning circle in the binding room. The monsters will get the chance to revive and they will do whatever they want to us if we try to escape." Sandra's thoughts were transferred into Lucien, Charlie, and Susan's mind through the translucent strings.

The spell could help the sorcerers to communicate directly and it was much faster than speaking using their mouths. Lesser Mind Connection and its advanced version were the best choices for communication for the sorcerers when they were battling or adventuring. The weakness of the spell was in the short effective range and also due to the fact that the connection could be interrupted by the spells that could affect their mind.

Charlie agreed with Sandra's plan without any hesitation. "The mist is thick outside. I think if we don't destroy the summoning circle and kill that monster, the mist will never go away. Also, if we wander into the mist, the monster will eliminate us one by one."

The two aggressive sorcerers decided to strike, since they had no way to contact the others. They had two choices: the first was to defend at their current position; the second one was to strike or run away after fighting through the path of the pale arms. They could only wait desperately if they decided to defend their current position. Also, it seemed like the monster was still reviving, since it had not attacked them after the wall of arms appeared. It was the best chance they had.

They would not be able to utilize their power when escaping, as they would be anxious and they might get lost.

"Let's head to the binding room." As the leader of the team, Lucien wasted no time and made the decision.

Bill sealed the secret chamber after the wall of arms appeared, but Sandra had no time to check if he was still safe. Sandra asked Susan to follow after her as she knew that Susan was terrified of the situation.

If Susan was left behind or out of reach in such a dangerous environment, Sandra was certain that she would risk her life for Susan.

Susan was one of the two survivors that escaped the castle, and thus she could protect herself to some extent. However, if the place was too terrifying, she wouldn't be able to do much without help. Thus, Susan followed closely after Sandra, who just summoned the energy orbs again.

Lucien was following after the team and he was running at full speed with the help of the knight-level speed that was buffed by the spell named Speed. He was moving so fast that his body blurred. The starlight of Maskelyne's Star splashed on the ground and the pale arms from the walls were purified. However, Maskelyne's Star was just a third circle spell and only eight stars out of the eleven were left, since there were so many pale arms. Also, it could not eliminate all the pale arms fast enough, so Lucien's body and outfit were grabbed several times.

Luckily, Lucien still had the Death Ward and the Powerful Fire Shield, that successfully destroyed the arms that escaped from the starlight.

Lucien thought he was walking on some rotten meat or slippery moss as the arms rose up from the ground. It was a horrifying scene and an unpleasant experience.

The sorcerers knocked down more than ten bookshelves before entering the hallway, they had no time to dodge every object on their way.

The hallway was more terrifying than the apprentice's hall. Pale arms were no longer reaching out of the walls, but they were replaced with arms from dead bodies. Those rotten arms were covered with bloody wounds and there were red tongues hanging down the ceiling.

Sandra pointed her wand forward as she ran and the whole hallway was brightened up quickly. The light gathered together and burned the translucent arms, bloody arms, and the tongues into ashes.

Charlie also cast a spell. Two intense flame walls appeared on both sides of the hallway. The arms had to pass through the flames before reaching the sorcerers, but the flames could deal a large amount of damage to both the bloody and the translucent arms. Those arms would lose their power even if they could pass through the flame walls, and Sandra's Burning Sun could easily purify them.

The two sorcerers who were good at offensive spells cleared the path and Lucien could travel at full speed without casting any extra spells. Lucien had the chance to focus on checking the surroundings, so he could react as soon as possible to any potential threats.

That was usually how the sorcerers fought during intense battles.

Although the hallway was long, the sorcerers were traveling so fast that they reached the end quickly. The pale arms, dead arms, and the bloody tongues were getting stronger and stronger. Some of them passed through the flame wall and the Burning Sun, landing on the sorcerers' bodies. Those hands and tongues almost broke through their defenses. It meant that the monster would be revived soon.

The arms on the ground slowed down the sorcerers greatly and the arms almost formed a forest by the corners.

Lucien quickly created a large fireball and released it. The fireball went over the sorcerers in front of him and landed on the ground.

*Bam*

The noise was loud in the narrow space of the hallway and the shockwave blew a lot of arms away. The doors on the walls were also destroyed, and numerous cracks and holes were left on the ground.

Half of the forest made of arms was destroyed, and Charlie, Sandra, and Susan passed through it easily as the rest of the arms were no longer a problem. However, a lot of arms spurted out of the ground again when Lucien tried to pass through.

Lucien changed the rotating trail of the eight light spheres over his head. Two of them crashed into two other, as if they were trying to change their destiny. The four light spheres quickly disappeared into the air after crashing into each other.

Lucien walked to the corner after making changes to the spell, Maskelyne's Star. The translucent arms and the bloody arms reached out to him but they were centimeters away from contacting Lucien's body. Some of the arms grabbed each other after missing the target.

Such situation only happened several times when they were running through the hallway but it was happening all the time at the moment.

It was one way to use the Maskelyne's Star. The target would lose its luck and it would not be able to do anything after its destiny was changed by the stars.

One second later, the arms returned to normal but Lucien was already past the corner. He saw that Charlie's defensive force field palm perished in the air and the absorbing wall reached its limit. Four of the energy orbs above Sandra's head also broke into pieces.

There were no longer arms reaching out of the walls and the door of the binding room was not visible to them. Instead, enormous eyes formed a giant wall that blocked the path. Their black eyeballs and white pupils were everywhere. They were like the messenger that brought the desperation to this world.

Lucien felt like his soul turned black after being stared at by those eyes, he felt that he was losing himself in the abyss. The Maskelyne's Star above his head extinguished right away and the crystal orbs dropped to the ground after losing their color. The Powerful Fire Shield was fading away and the rotating divine runes of the Death Ward appeared in the air.

Suddenly, a thin layer of pure light appeared on Sandra's body. Rays of light were released by her and the rays flew toward the Wall of Evil Eyes like fireworks.

It was a fourth circle spell named Arcana Light. The spell was created based on the level four divine spell named Light from the Heavenly Mountain. Although Arcana Light was not infused with the mysterious power of a divine spell, it could still be used to eliminate evil creatures.

Lucien activated Sun's Corona at the same time and holy light landed on the Wall of Evil Eyes. The twisted eyes were purified in the light one by one.

Level three divine spell – Burning Radiance.

Meanwhile, Charlie created a clear mirror in front of the Wall of Evil Eyes and forced the eyes to stare at themselves. It was a second circle force field spell named Staring, that was designed for the staring attacks.

The mirror broke into pieces under the pressure, but at the same time the evil eyes exploded one by one. Black liquid splashed onto the ground and it sounded like metal being corroded. The rest of the eyes were perishing in the light from the Burning Radiance and Arcana Light.

When the situation was complicated, low-level spells might be more effective than the high-level ones.

The Wall of Evil Eyes fell down without making any noise, revealing the door to the binding room.

A fireball was released from Charlie's white gloves, it blew the door and the wall into pieces. The sorcerers finally had the chance to see what the room looked like.

There was a normal-looking magic circle in the binding room, but there were dead bodies lining up on the end of each string. Blood that dripped down from the dead bodies was transferred to the core of the magic circle through the strings.

In the center of the magic circle, there was a brazier containing dark flames, but it looked like a common, kitchen brazier. From within the flames, a body covered with a luxurious long black robe was rising, with its two skinny pale hands placed on the borders of the brazier to push its body upward.

The skull with a thin layer of rotten meat and a pair of bloody red eyes was staring at Charlie, who was the closest to the door. The expression on the skull's face did not look as if it was anxious, angry, or threatening. It was simply a strange mocking smile.

Chapter 251: Bitter Fight

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When the demon's scarlet eyes looked at Charlie, Lucien noticed that Charlie's face froze immediately, and the symbols on the magic shield started to swell and break into pieces. Then, the whole shield was destroyed. As soon as the shield was gone, Charlie was enveloped by a heavy black fog.

It happened so fast that neither Lucien nor Sandra managed to take any actions.

After a second, the black fog disappeared all of a sudden. A small black pig showed up at the spot where Charlie was, and it looked beyond lost. Turning around in circles, its thin tail kept wagging.

"Baleful Polymorph!" Sandra's voice came to Lucien's mind through their telepathic bond, "We need to kill it before it gets out of the brazier!"

At the same time, dark clouds gathered under the celling. Among those clouds, streak lightnings were flashing, turning the whole place into a lightning forest.

The forth-circle spell in the school of Electromagnetics, Lightning Clouds!

A big fireball was created in front of Lucien, and he threw it fiercely at the demon at the center of the magic circle.

The demon might be immune to flame and blast, but the magic circle and the brazier should not. As long as the demon lost its rebirth ability, the sorcerers were confident that they could kill it again.

At the same time, Lucien was being cautious not to cast Elemental Swirl right away before making sure it was effective to do so with the demon, because if the demon was completely spiritual, Elemental Swirl would not only lose its power but also hurt Lucien badly.

The second before the fireball hit the brazier, a dark mist rose, expanded very fast, and devoured the whole room completely, even including the lightning and Lucien's fireball.

However, at the same time, the lightning and fireball also made the mist look quite thinner, as if both sides were fighting for the dominant right of the space.

Sandra's lips were half open, murmuring. The darkness in the space started to be distorted by some kind of invisible power. The lightning showed up again and fused together into a lightning ball. The target of the ball was the center of the room.

The forth-circle spell in Electromagnetics, Distorted Magnetic Field.

Seizing the chance, Lucien pointed his coral staff at the demon and cast the second-circle spell Sadism on it with the assistance of the staff's power. The spell, in the intersection of Astrology, Necromancy and Light-darkness, could build a special connection between a sorcerer and their enemy: when the enemy was hurt, the sorcerer would reach quite a significant improvement on his or her life force, spiritual power, attack and defence, and the enemy would be hurt even further!

At this time, only spells like this could work in this magnetically distorted environment.

When the demon was hit by the lightning ball, it burst out hoarse and terrifying scream.

All of a sudden, Sandra's shadow became alive, and the shadow directly grabbed her ankles and pulled her toward the deeper shadow pit nearby, that looked like a well.

Lucien heard Sandra's scream in his mind, and lots of lightning exploded in the shadow well!

That was totally out of Lucien's expectation. He was about to activate Sun's Corona, and he hesitated for a second—should he save Sandra first or keep attacking the demon?

As soon as Lucien had the two thoughts, he already made the decision. He decided to continue to launch his attack. He had to be prepared for the moment when the demon got rid of the control of Distorted Magnetic Field, so that his spell would not be distorted as well.

The moment when the distortion and lightning completely wore off, the demon covered itself with black fog again, as if it was just prepared for Lucien's attack.

However, somehow, everything suddenly got quiet, silent, more relevant, and the fancy black robe that the demon was wearing cracked. From the crack, rotten flesh covered with white tiny maggots was revealed.

In a corner of the room, Charlie's figure slowly rose. However, the little black pig was still near the room entrance. Charlie looked pale, and his black battle robe was gone. There was a weird-looking book page written with mysterious characters that quickly disappeared in front of the white glove that Charlie was wearing on his right hand.

Lucien recognized it immediately: it was a forth-circle spell in Transformation, Demon Elegy, a exclusive spell from the Congress!

It seemed that Charlie just used some kind of magic buff on his robe or some unique spell and somehow avoided Baleful Polymorph, then he attacked the demon with a totally unexpected strike!

When the demon was screaming out of great pain, Lucien suddenly felt refreshed and activated Sun's Corona immediately. A streak of flame came down onto the demon directly. In the flame's holy light, the demon's fancy black robe was burned into ashes, and most of its body was also burned down together with those maggots crawling over it.

Flame Strike!

Lucien did not stop. When the remaining part of the demon was still writhing from the pain, Lucien's left hand pointed at the brazier. It was his next target!

Seeing Lucien's gesture, the demon was more than scared. Turning itself into black mist, the demon rushed at the brazier, dragging the flame around, to stop Lucien.

The brazier was close to the demon, and it had been improved by magic, so it would not be destroyed by Lucien at one shot easily.

However, as soon as Lucien pointed at the brazier, a cracking sound came from its inside, and colourful light quickly covered it. On the next second, the brazier suddenly swelled and broke down into small pieces of different colors!

The third-circle exclusive spell, Elemental Order!

The demon paused for a second out of great shock and was forced to come back to its previous form, wearing the black robe, because the brazier was already gone. At this time, clusters of flame which smelled like sulphur covered its body, and its rotten flesh and bones started to swell.

Seeing that, Lucien quickly activated Powerful Fire Shield again, and his body was covered with a layer of white and golden flame shield again.

At this time, Sandra, who just got rid of the shadows and came out from the shadow well, instantly cast Palmeira's Power Magic Spheres again on herself as well as on Susan.

On the other side, Charlie also activated Douglas's Absorbing Wall decisively.

The demon exploded. The great explosion sound buzzed Lucien's ears. Through the layer of flame, he saw heavy black smoke mixed with flame billowing, and in the smoke there were chunks of rotten flesh as well.

The flame shield was shaking from the great surge of power created by the explosion. Although Powerful Fire Shield did not work facing attacks targeting the soul or spirit, as a fifth-circle spell, the fire shield could definitely handle it.

When the explosion settled and the heavy smoke started to disappear, everything was a great mess in the summoning room. The floor was covered with chunks of rotten flesh, and the summoning circle was completely destroyed. Even parts of the walls, which were fortified with lots of defensive magic circles, were torn down, so Lucien could see the light mist outside slowly disappearing through the gaps.

"That was tough, uh?" Charlie's magic absorbing wall disappeared, and his white glove now looked ragged. His face still looked pale, and he was coughing from the heavy smoke.

All the magic spheres above Sandra's were gone after absorbing the great explosion power. Fortunately, because of Stone Skin and her purple magic robe, she did not get hurt, and Susan, who hid behind Sandra, was also fine, except that her hair was beyond messy.

Checking her surroundings, Sandra released a long sigh, "We finally sent the damned demon back to hell, at great cost."

"My precious magic robe has been ruined!" Charlie took a glance at the burned little pig body, "I've gotta report this to the Congress for compensation."

If a sorcerer's own magic item or potion was destroyed or used in this kind of forced task, the Congress would compensate the sorcerer.

Lucien also relaxed a bit, but he still felt that something was not right, "The brazier keeps reminding me of the ridiculous summoning rite that we found in the apprentice hall. I wonder if Bertren really tried the rite… And also, don't you guys find it weird that the thing just exploded itself in the end? I mean… it did not have to. The thing at least should try to escape…"

"Maybe it was not able to." Charlie looked at the thin mist outside, still coughing, "Maybe it was trapped within the brazier, and once the brazier was destroyed, the thing could not exist any longer. When we leave this place, Mr. Evans, please contact Mr. Gaston. It's way safer to let those senior-rank sorcerers investigate this place further."

Charlie leaned his back against the wall and took out a tiny, fine tin box from his pocket. After a click, the lid of the tin box popped up and Charlie took out a cigarette from it.

"Want one?" Charlie puffed out the gray cigarette smoke, and started to feel soothed, "Top tobacco from Tria."

"No, thanks." Lucien shook his head.

"The mist's almost gone now. Mr. Evans, why don't you try contacting Mr. Gaston?" Sandra rubbed her forehead a bit. "And we can check whether Bill is still alive in the apprentice hall."

As she was saying, Sandra looked around at the metal pieces on the floor to see if there was any precious material left.

A metal piece on the floor reflected Sandra's tired-looking face. Suddenly, the face put on a creepy smile, and two white, fat maggots crawled out of the eye and the nose!

Chapter 252: Hatred

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Lucien activated his monocle, before he could try to contact Mr. Gaston again, he suddenly sensed a great magic power and subconsciously cast Maskelyne's Star. The crystal ball that Lucien had just picked up from the floor rose to the air again above his head, surrounded by twelve shining light spheres.

Charlie was slower than Lucien, but not by much. The giant palm made of force covered him again.

Susan, however, was completely lost. Without Sandra's protection, she had no idea what she could do, but only watched the electric sparks in front of Sandra's chest fighting against the cluster of black smoke. Very quickly, the black smoke was driven away from Sandra.

As soon as the black smoke left Sandra's body, the several metal pieces on the floor in front of Sandra turned burned black.

"The thing's still around!!" Sandra's voice was sharp with fear, "I almost got controlled by it!"

The collar of her magic robe had partly burst from some kind of great power, and a deformed amulet that Sandra was wearing dropped on the floor with a crisp sound.

The sorcerers had killed the demon twice, and they had revealed all their strongest spell, but the demon was still around! Experienced as Sandra was, her back was still covered in cold sweat.

With star-like spheres spinning above his head, Lucien looked around cautiously, and he tried to call Gaston through the monocle. However, it still did not work.

Charlie cast Lesser Mind Connection, connecting the four of them together.

"We should leave this place!" Susan was experiencing another nervous breakdown again, "It never dies!"

Lucien remained calm, and he made a quick analysis, "We thought the demon summoned by Bertren needed the brazier as a medium to keep coming back, and now we know that's not true. Mr. Bertren understood arcana, and it is very unlikely that an arcanist would try such a ridiculous rite. It must be someone else who summoned the demons!"

"Bill..?!" Charlie responded quickly, although he still felt very tired. "He's the only one who's still alive in this castle."

"Impossible," said Sandra. "I've checked him with Charm Person. Wait… unless…"

"What?" asked Charlie.

"Unless the demon helped Bill… Unless the demon erased part of his memory!" Sandra murmured.

Hearing that, Susan suddenly stopped crying. She was shocked.

"Susan mentioned that Bill was often bullied by other apprentices, and the kid's mind was probably filled with anger and hatred. He wanted to take revenge, but he did not know much about arcana, so he decided to try that vicious rite, no matter how ridiculous it was in other apprentices' eyes." Lucien nodded, then he turned to Susan and asked her through their telepathic bond, "Did Bill ever read Pain Fable?"

Susan frowned, trying to search the answer from her memory, and then her eyes suddenly opened wide, "Yes! Bill… Bill told me reading Pain Fable made him more determined to put more effort in learning arcana!"

"Let's go," said Lucien decisively. This time, they must completely kill the demon before it regained its power again from Bill.

Bill just lied. He misled them to the summoning room to buy more time for the demon!

In the battle formation, the three sorcerers headed for the apprentice hall. Susan took all of her courage and followed Sandra.

Lucien, as usual, still felt something suspicious. He wondered why when they entered the summoning room, they indeed saw the demon getting out from the brazier. However, he had no time to figure it out right now.

To leave no time for the demon, they moved really fast. On their way back, there was no creepy, pale arms or disgusting, bloody tongues, which meant that the demon was still recovering!

When they got back to the chamber, they saw the eyes of the copper statue were swelling, and many eyes, with black eyeballs but white pupils, covered the doors and nearby walls.

Seeing the Wall of Evil Eyes was not even completely formed yet, the three sorcerers were slightly relieved, as they knew that they came back in time. Right now, the demon must be very weak!

This was a great opportunity!

Quickly exchanging their thoughts through the telepathic bond, they figured out a battle tactic within a few seconds. Then, Lucien fiercely threw a powerful fireball right at the gate of the chamber.

An instant before that, Charlie had cast Staring in front of the forming Wall of Evil Eyes. As soon as the eyes saw themselves in the mirror, the creepy eye wall collapsed together with the mirror screen.

So, Lucien's great fireball directly hit the chamber gate.

The defensive magic circles on the chamber got destroyed layer by layer from the great explosion, and the stone gate was exploded into pieces and stone dust. Following that, Sandra's purple magic staff illuminated the whole chamber with Arcana Light.

In the light, Bill half knelt on the floor of the chamber, where dust and smoke was everywhere.

Bill's eyes, staring at the sorcerers, were filled with great hatred and anger. However, there was the same creepy smile on his distorted face. His muscles kept bulking and his skin together with his apprentice uniform was torn up. His whole body was covered with swollen muscle and blood, and even his veins could be seen. Among his muscles and veins, white maggots were crawling. Some even came out from his mouth, nose, eyes and ears!

"Bill? You…" Susan was shocked. She thought that it was Bill who summoned the demon, but now, seeing that, she realized that the demon was Bill himself!

A transparent wall showed up in front of Bill, in which countless black, weird magic symbols were floating. He burst out laughing, "They slapped me in my face! They mocked me! But when I saw how terrified and desperate they were when I killed them, I realized that they were just timid, filthy dirty mice! Look, only a strong will can bring you power, and power derives from pain! Pain has awakened me!"

His words were sharp.

Two streaks of white light directly hit the transparent wall, and some magic symbols started to disappear. Neither of them wasted their time having any kind of chicken soup conversation with Bill, but directly used a third-circle Force Field spell called Dispel Magic, which had a chance to remove a magic buff or a defensive force field from the target.

At the same time, three Maskelyne's stars above Lucien's head collided with the other three, and dazzling light burst out, which improved Charlie and Sandra's Luck to maximize the power of Dispel Magic.

"This is not power! This is evil!" Susan cried.

Bill laughed, "No, this is not evil. This is ourselves! Hatred, jealous, greed, anger… We all have it!"

As he was laughing, his lips fell off, revealing his teeth, and his eyes became scarlet.

The transparent wall had been destroyed. Obviously, its power was not back yet, not even a small part of it.

As soon as the wall disappeared, both Charlie and Sandra activated their magic items and recast Dispel Magic again!

The layer of black smoke on Bill disappeared with Charlie's casting, and then clusters of smoke started to come out after Sandra's spell hit him!

Lucien's right hand was now covered with purple light, as if he was holding a small, purple sun. Instantly, colourful light spots in golden, silver, black, white, purple and more, surrounded Bill, and they started spinning at great speed around him, like a crazy swirl. The swirl was tearing Bill's body apart!

The monster might be pure spiritual, but Bill was not! Bill was still made up from elements!

This was the right time for the last strike!

The swirl was getting bigger and bigger, and the light brighter and brighter. The whole place was filled with dazzling light.

Lucien felt great pain in his heart and head. His soul was very weak and his spiritual power was scattered. He could not even open his mouth to speak, but leaned his body against the bookshelf.

At this time, Charlie came to his aid. Using Mage Hand, Charlie made Lucien take the magic potion called Water Song.

Sandra, in the front, stared at Bill intently, protecting Lucien and Charlie.

When the swirl slowly disappeared, the chamber was completely destroyed. Through the several huge holes on the floor, they could see the hall downstairs.

Except for a burned mark on the floor, there was nothing left of Bill.

"Did we… kill it?" Sandra was a bit hesitant. When she looked out of the window, the mist was completely gone, and the sunset was quite nice.

"Not sure, but now that the mist is gone, we should contact Mr. Gaston," said Lucien. He felt much better after the potion, although he could still feel pain in his soul. Trying his best, he activated Electromagnetic Message.

Water Song was definitely the ideal healing potion for middle-rank sorcerers. However, right now Lucien could only activate magic items, but not cast any spells.

"Mr. Gaston?"

After several seconds, Gaston's elderly voice came to them through the monocle, "Any trouble there, Lucien?"

"Yeah. A demon." Lucien briefly told Gaston what happened there. During that time, he relaxed a little bit.

After a moment of silence, Gaston said, "You four find a safe room. Go in there and cast defensive magic circles around it. Stay in the room and wait for the nearby senior-rank sorcerers to get there."

Hearing that, all of them felt a little more relieved. They started to head for the power room through the other corridor of the apprentice hall to wait there.

"Yes, Mr. Evans?" Seeing Lucien frowning, Charlie asked, "Is there anything wrong again?"

Lucien nodded, "Yes, something… I'm just thinking, why the thing attacked Sandra and alerted us before it was fully recovered?"

Chapter 253: Behind Them

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Maybe the thing knew that we had relaxed our guard after destroying the brazier, and since you still could not get in touch with Mr. Gaston, we would find out very soon that the thing did not die completely. So, controlling one of us and launching an unexpected attack might be the best way in its mind at that time." Charlie tried to analyze what just happened, "Also, according to Bill's words, this kind of demon comes from negative emotions, and very often they can't control themselves, not to mention figuring out the best tactic."

As his body was gradually absorbing the magic potion, Lucien felt much better, although he still could not run or use magic. Listening to Charlie's words, he slightly nodded, "I know what you mean, Charlie, but I just feel the whole thing is quite suspicious…"

The two ladies were walking in the front. Hearing what Lucien just said, Sandra quickly looked around with great caution, while Susan looked very terrified and her voice trembled, "Mr. Evans… Are you saying that the demon's still alive?!"

In this great nightmare, Susan could bare no more.

"I agree. The demons' contradictory behaviour pattern is quite beyond our understanding." Charlie nodded.

Hearing that, Susan almost fell to the floor.

After a moment's pause, Charlie continued, "However, from many ancient notes and legends, we know that demons are indeed disordered. After all, they come from a place of chaos."

"Mr. Charlie… You really scared me there." Susan could not help complaining a bit.

"That's true." Lucien was totally okay with Charlie putting forward his opinion, "Those pit demons are of various kind. Especially on Skeleton Land, new demon species are being created every day, and of course we cannot recognize them all."

Susan let out a long sigh of relief. She trusted Mr. Evans' words.

However, Lucien then changed his tone, "But no matter how disordered the demon was, it would not give up the chance of killing us. The thing got enough power to kill me, either using Baleful Polymorph or Shadow Well, because I had nothing specifically to defend myself at that time. However, what the thing cast on me were spells that targeted the soul or spirit, although the thing knew that I was protected by Death Ward, so the spells could not directly kill me."

As Lucien was saying, he concluded that his study in arcana was too imbalanced. Although he was very dedicated to the school of Element and Astrology, he ignored other schools, so he did not have enough variety of spells to face the demon. When he went back to Allyn, he would need to branch his study in a wise way.

"Maybe, when it was trying to attack us using the mirror reflection, the demon just could not use other spells except those ones targeting at one's spirit or soul." Sandra had her own understanding, and her comment definitely made sense. When the demon was casting other spells, it wasn't inside the mirror.

"Discussion really helps." Lucien smiled, "Thank you for aswering my questions, but I've still got some: first, why the summoning room looked just like what the rite instruction described, if Mr. Bertren never tried that ridiculous rite? Bill had no right entering Mr. Bertren's summoning room. Second, why the half-burned parchment was there? Why we happened to find it? Why it is just half-burned?"

"Well…" Charlie found those questions quite hard to explain, "For the first question, maybe Bill went back to the summoning room after Mr. Bertren was dead, in order to make his teacher be blamed for it. And the fact that the summoning room looked like that also distracted us and directed us to the wrong direction. And the second one… I don't think Bill wanted to burn the instruction. When they were fighting, the parchment was set on fire by accident."

"Yup, and we just found it." Sandra nodded. Then, they came to the corridor that lead to the power room.

"Then I've got no more questions." Lucien took out his pocket watch and said, "Now it's 5:25 p.m.. In fifteen minutes, the senior-rank sorcerer should be here. Let's be patient."

"Okay." The other three nodded.

Although they had found answers for all of Lucien's questions, those questions still made them feel nervous. Therefore, neither of them lowered their guard. The colourful power spheres were still spinning above Susan and Sandra, and a power absorbing wall was protecting Lucien and Charlie.

When they walked down the corridor, Susan looked at one of the rooms of which had its door open, and she looked a bit confused.

Lucien, Sandra and Charlie also looked at the inside of the room. It was empty. There was nothing there.

"Susan?" asked Sandra, "Any problem?"

Susan frowned a bit and answered, "This is Mr. Bertren's vault. He stored all his treasures like gold, silver, and precious materials here, but now they're all gone…"

Knowing that demons and monsters definitely had no interest in those things, instantly, they all got nervous again!

"Let's not panic for nothing." Sandra was being a bit hesitant, "Maybe… maybe that thing needed precious gold, gems and materials to maintain its existence…"

However, although she was saying so, Sandra herself was still quite nervous, checking the surroundings by looking around.

"I don't think so… Bill was not summoning dragons. Those demons do not need treasures to be summoned." Charlie could not agree with Sandra, "Let's stop moving and just stay here. This place is surely weird, but I think it's because of something else, not that thing. There's no way that the thing can come back again."

Then, Charlie and Sandra started to cast defensive spells around them, and Susan also tried to help, while Lucien was still leaning against the wall, feeling quite weak. Right now his spiritual power was only enough for activating magic items.

Soon the magic circles were all ready. They could finally take a rest there. Anyone or anything that were lower than fifth-circle needed to use at least ten minutes to break their defence, and the two fourth-circle sorcerers behind the magic circles were confident that they could easily make it last until the senior-rank sorcerer arrived.

Charlie and Sandra were standing on each side of the gate, Lucien was leaning against the wall, and Susan was hiding in a corner. They could see their blurry figures in the smooth stone wall surface in front of them, including Sandra's ripped collar, Charlie's torn vest and Lucien's monocle.

Lucien said to them seriously, "The demon might have died, but someone, or something, is behind all of this."

When he was saying it, all of a sudden, he saw that his own monocle-wearing figure in the wall grinned. The smile was not creepy, but more like a victor's smile!

Lucien immediately activated Sun's Corona, although his headache was still very bad. A streak of holy light hit the wall.

"What?!" Sandra and Charlie immediately got ready for another battle, but there was nothing there. Only the light from Lucien's Holy Strike was shining on the wall.

Lucien carefully checked the surroundings. Nothing happened.

He told them what he saw, and then said, "I might be too nervous… I don't know. It can be just my illusion…"

"If the demon was really there, it could have attacked you directly, Mr. Evans, instead of revealing itself in front of you for nothing," said Sandra. Both Sandra and Charlie believed that it was just Lucien's mind playing tricks on him.

Lucien adjusted his monocle a bit and said, "I don't know. Anyway, the senior-rank sorcerer should be here in a few minutes. We shall still remain vigilant."

…

In the apprentice hall, the black, corrosion marks started to wriggle and then suddenly shot upwards. A giant creature with strong body and long neck showed up in the hall. The creature's head looked like that of lizard, and on its back, there was a pair of transparent wings similar to those of a bat. The creature's body was covered with a layer of big scales. In the light of sunset, its scales were shining in a dream-like manner. As soon as the creature showed up, the whole place was filled with a strong, oppressive aura.

This thing was a giant dragon!

In the corner of the hall, the air suddenly rippled, and a figure slowly showed up.

It was a handsome-looking, middle-aged man wearing a fancy magic robe. There was a notebook and a quill in his hands.

As soon as the dragon saw the man, it leaped forward and put its huge front claws on the force shield surrounding the sorcerer, showing its red tongue. The man's shield was cracking, however, he was not scared at all. Instead, he wrote something down on his notebook and smiled, "You're a good actor."

The dragon's nose made an "uh-huh" sound. Clearly, the dragon was quite cheerful and proud. It kept licking the sorcerer's force shield.

The sorcerer stopped writing and read his notes in a low voice, "Cautious, agile, decisive, calm… Facing danger, the sorcerer outperformed most of his peers. Choice of spells and magic combination can be quite problematic, however. Majors imbalanced… A lot of work shall be done to fix this problem…"

After closing the notebook, the middle-aged sorcerer stared at the dragon seriously, "Atforest, you should know that the treasures belong to the Congress. You cannot have it."

The giant dragon was still licking the force shield happily and directly ignored his words.

Observing the rising number of cracks on his shield, the sorcerer shook his head slightly, "All right, all right… You can take part of it, as your reward."

"Huh!" the giant dragon's nose made a happy noise again. Then, to show its happiness, the dragon licked the shield again. This time, its long red tongue licked it into pieces.

Chapter 254: In the Library

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The middle-aged sorcerer looked around the hall and signed a bit sympathetically, "It's so unlucky of Bertren. He was just summoning a couple of demons for his experiment, having no idea that his youngest apprentice was also secretly conducting a summoning rite in the chamber, or there was no way that an experienced sorcerer like him would fail to notice what was going on in his own castle in time."

"Well… Thompson, I don't see this as just merely bad luck." The dragon pulled out a bulky bag from under its belly satisfactorily, and started to count the gold nuggets, coins and precious magic materials, "According to my experience, when the kid was trying to seek for power from Pain Fable, the hatred demon had already cast its projection in his mind, and started to affect his way of thinking, behavior, and emotions. The special rite later was only made to reinforce the demon's power."

The dragon's voice was, surprisingly, like that of a kid and also sounded genderless, which was in sharp contrast to its great power.

The sorcerer named Thompson looked at the dragon, who squatted there counting his treasures, smiling, "Atforest, what do you mean by 'your experience'?"

"I mean it. Every time I see shining treasures, a demon projection arises in my mind, and the demon's called Greed," the dragon said innocently. "The demon projection affects me so much that I cannot stop myself from taking all the treasures away. It's not really my fault…"

"Where's the demon from?" Thompson was a bit amused, "Now that you can explain all of this to me, I'm sure that you are in control of your thoughts now. Atforest, why don't you give all the treasure back?"

"But… But you've promised me, Thompson. This is my reward." The dragon shook its head, "And I don't know where it comes from… maybe the ancient hell… I don't know. It's just there."

Atforest's nonsense made Thompson think, "Several grand arcanists have explored hell and even met some dukes and counts there. From their adventures and those ancient legends, the grand arcanists heard that once there were seven powerful and mysterious demons in hell, and each of them represented the seven negative things—arrogance, greed, envy, anger, pain, acolasia and hypocrisy, but unfortunately, there's no solid evidence for this. And there's also another saying—some believe that the seven negative things were symbols from those cunning and evil demons in hell, and each demon had at least one of the traits."

"I see…" Atforest was not interested in Thompson's words. It secretly hid away some small-sized, precious items from the bag for himself. After all, Atforest knew that some of them indeed belonged to the Congress.

Thompson pretended that he did not see what Atforest was doing there but continued, "It is necessary that we pay more attention to the book, Pain Fable, since it might be connected to some secrets of the world. The demon's power and even its existence were so strange and mysterious. Without you, Atforest, I might have failed the mission and the demon could have escaped from me. Your ability of casting those spiritual and soul spells is very important."

The senior-rank sorcerer also felt that the demon was very strange and mysterious.

Then Thompson took out his badges and put them on, in front of this chest.

…

In the corridor, because Lucien all of a sudden attacked the wall, Charlie, Sandra and Susan got very nervous again, especially Susan, who didn't even dare to breathe.

And when all of them heard the solid footstep reverberating through the corridor, the tension peaked. A middle-aged man wearing a flame-like magic robe walked to them. He had black hair and blue eyes, and he was wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. The man was elegant and good-looking.

"Hello, I'm Thompson, from the Affairs Committee. I happened to be around in Caspar, so the Congress sent me to deal with the rest of the stuff here," said Thompson with a kind smile on his face in front of the magic circles and the defence wall. Apparently, the three sorcerers were still very cautious and alert.

Thompson was wearing three badges on his chest: one was a six-star arcana badge; one was an eight-circle magic badge; and the third one was the black-fire badge representing Affairs Committee.

Lucien stopped Susan, who was just about to step out of the magic circles and defensive wall due to her excitement, and he said to the man, "Mr. Thompson, we mean no offence, but to make sure we're safe, we want to check your badges. The demon was very creepy and unpredictable."

Both Charlie and Sandra nodded. They had heard more than once that bad things happened when sorcerers lowered their guard in front of a transformed demon.

Thompson did not mind. Smiling, he took down his badges and let them check it freely.

After making sure the badges were not fake, Charlie walked out of the magic circles and reported to Thompson directly, "Sir, the demon was very weird. When we first entered the castle…"

It was supposed to be Lucien's job reporting to Thompson, however, he was too weak to talk that much right now.

After listening to Charlie carefully, Thompson nodded, "This task turned out to be tougher than we thought, and the correct level of the task should be 'Dangerous'. You will all receive way more arcana points later than what was promised, and all the magic items and potions that were consumed in the task would be compensated by the Congress. Just write them down into a list and submit the list to Task Zone. That will take about a week."

"So good to hear that." Sandra was relieved. Clearly, the amulet she was wearing was precious and must be very important to her.

Charlie was also glad to hear that he would get the same magic robe back as well.

Thompson blocked the whole castle using magic, and he decided to first send the sorcerers back to Fraser town.

…

In the coach heading for the major city of Kapas, after a long time of silence, Sandra said to the rest of the people in the coach a bit hesitantly, "This task was surely creepy and mysterious, and the only thing we could be certain was that an apprentice summoned a terrifying and powerful demon through a ridiculous rite, which could not yet be explained by Summoning arcana. The whole thing has been bothering me a lot…"

Among them, Sandra was the only one who specialized in the school of Summoning. Thus, she was the one who was influenced the most.

Although the School of Summoning, compared to other schools, fell behind in its arcana study, and it was still of the strong style of ancient magic empire, the summoning rite that Bill followed was even ridiculous in the ancient empire's understanding of Summoning.

If an apprentice could summon a demon which was at least of fifth-circle, what should sorcerers from other schools do with themselves? This whole thing was beyond Sandra's understanding, and for most ancient summoners, a summoning rite like this must sound like a joke.

Charlie nodded, "Only part of the summoning instruction was left. We cannot draw any solid conclusion before we see the full version of it. Indeed, the whole thing was very creepy."

"I feel that the demon was Bill himself…" Susan also made a comment. Honestly speaking, if the rite could really improve the power of an apprentice directly to fifth-circle level, it was actually quite alluring, although she would never want to lose control of herself and look that ugly.

Lucien had recovered a lot, and he looked at Susan and Scott through his monocle and asked, "Have you ever read Pain Fable?"

Susan shook her head, while Scott looked very terrified, "Mr. Evans, I was closer to Bill. Once, I saw the book in his room and I did read a couple of stories in it. All the stories I read were more than gloomy and desperate, and they made me feel so angry and dark that I almost wanted to destroy this world of pain. I don't understand why they can be called fables… Someone might use them to terrify children who don't want to go to bed…"

"We need to go to arcana library to get more information, and also I need to expand my magic reserve with two more schools." Lucien nodded. He was planning on borrowing some basic works in Force Field and Necromancy, and he also had a copy of Book of Necromancy.

The school of Force Field had many powerful defence spells, and for Necromancy, its spells were mostly about soul, spirit, blessing and cursing. As for the School of Electromagnetics and Thermodynamics, Lucien believed that his arcana understanding was solid enough so far that he did not need to dig into them right now, thus he might just pick up some useful ones in the two schools and upgrade several spell models in his soul with some new ones, and it was the same with Illusion and Transformation spells.

Selecting and focusing was very important in further progressing in arcana study.

Of course, the major idea that the Congress pursued was that, despite the existence of the different schools, the word could finally be understood with a fundamental as well as ultimate explanation. Thus, most senior-rank sorcerers also studied other fields in addition to what they were good at.

Charlie and Sandra both nodded. As arcanists, they had this consistent impulse to understand all mysterious things.

…

In the basic arcana library, Alex, the djinn librarian, said to Lucien politely, "Hello, Mr. Evans, what can I do for you today?"

Wearing the level-four arcana badge, Lucien could enjoy half price for borrowing a book there, which was one point for forty books.

"Do you have Pain Fable here, Alex?" After submitting the task report and loss-item list, and because the reward arcana points of the task needed to be reevaluated, Lucien, Charlie and Sandra came to the library together.

Alex shook his head, and due to the style of clothes he was wearing his chest was revealed, "Sorry, Mr. Evans, we only have arcana books here. If you're looking for fables, you might want to try Allyn City Library or Rentato Royal Library."

"Then, can you find a book containing the sentence 'special summoning rite of V…' or something like that…" Lucien kept trying, using Alex like a searching engine.

The searching took Alex a while, and then he listed, "There are five qualified books – Special Summoning Rite of Verlam, Special Summoning Rite of Viken, Special Summoning Rites in Vertra…"

Lucien asked for all of them and started leafing through the books with Sandra and Charlie.

"I found it! Mr. Evans, it's Special Summoning Rite of Viken!" Sandra held the book high.

Lucien took over the book and he indeed saw the exact same summoning instruction that he read in the apprentice hall. Furthermore, the whole thing was even more ridiculous compared to the version with missing parts, including crawling and dancing around the brazier, and telling the brazier one's painful past, and so on.

Lucien turned the book back to its first page, and there was a comment left by a sorcerer, "This ridiculous book borrowed Viken, the ancient legendary archmage's name, and other than that, it is totally a joke. The book should be kicked out of the library."

"Viken?" Although Lucien was complimented as a "historian" in Aalto, he was not an expert at all with the history of the land across Storm Strait.

Charlie explained, "Viken was an ancient legendary archmage, and his territory was today's Brianna. He was very cruel. Once, in order to study a spell, he blockaded a city of twenty thousand people, and he let those people kill each other out of desperate and starvation… They ate each other…"

"I've never head his name before. What's his legendary class?" asked Lucien out of curiosity.

Sandra answered in a casual way, "No idea. He disappeared before the War of Dawn."

The book Lucien was holding suddenly dropped from his hand and fell on the floor.

Chapter 255: A New Journey Again (The End of Volume III)

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Mr. Evans?" Sandra looked at Lucien a bit confusedly. She did not understand why what she had just said was surprising at all.

"Uh… My hand just trembled, from the reflected damage from the ring…" Lucien quickly found an excuse and picked up the book.

What Lucien said was not true, and the truth was that he was shocked by Sandra's words, because Viken was not the only sorcerer who disappeared before the War of Dawn. Maskelyne also did.

Although Sandra and Charlie knew part of the story, they did not know those details: Maskelyne, the Prophet, went missing deep into the World of Souls, together with his several friends mentioned in his notes, and at that time, they were all working on some important magic experiment. The whole thing got even more weird with the fact that Maskelyne could make divine items with magic, and his symbol, the Grand Cross, looked very much like the Church's Cross of Truth.

This made Lucien think whether Viken was one of Maskelyne friends and whether he was part of the experiment. Also, did the experiment had anything to do with the special summoning rite? Lucien wondered if the ultimate secret of the world lay deep inside the World of Souls? The place must be very, very dangerous!

"One day if I can become a grand arcanist, or even a legendary archmage, I'm definitely going to explore the World of Souls." Lucien decided to keep this information to himself, but when he was ready, he wanted to invite other legendary archmages or grand arcanists he trusted to go together with him.

Neither Charlie nor Sandra doubted Lucien's words. His words made totally sense.

"No matter how curious we are, the last thing we should do is to try the rite." Sandra reminded them. As a sorcerer who specialized in Summoning, she was very concerned with such a creepy summoning rite and its unpredictable consequences.

Lucien smiled, "I'm not gonna touch it before I become a senior-rank. I don't think I can handle the demon right now, and I believe that the Congress will soon gather more information about the demon."

"The Congress should. If we had had more information, we would not have been so lost when facing the demon." Charlie agreed.

Sandra nodded, "The Congress can take away some pressure, so we don't have to worry about it too much, but I still want to read Pain Fable to see whether it is as desperate as what Scott described."

"Me, too, but I still need to borrow a few other books from here first," said Lucien. Then, he asked Alex to find him some basic arcana books in the schools of Force Field and Necromancy and basic magic books in other schools.

Charlie put on his hat and said, "I've still got some other stuff to deal with, so I have to go now. Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans, Ms. Sandra, and I hope we can work together again in the future."

"I'm heading for Allyn City Library as well, Mr. Evans. You're not that kind of arcanist who can only survive in labs. You're reliable, and you're a good leader." Sandra was also going to leave, and before that, she shook hands with Lucien.

Lucien said to them in a humble manner, "You two are very experienced sorcerers, and I've learned a lot from you two. Without you, Sandra and Charlie, I would certainly have died in the castle already. We should stay in contact with each other to exchange ideas from time to time."

…

At the bottom floor of Aalto Abbey, a female voice was humming an old and solemn tune, as if the sky was being covered with dark clouds before the storm came. The voice was a bit hoarse but sexy.

The pitch got slowly higher, and the voice became softer but sad. Then, the melody got faster and more pressing, like rain drops hitting the ground and wild wind blowing.

After a while, the female eased in a soothing and gentle tune as if an isolated but pure mind was recalling all the memories with emotions in the storm. And in those memories, lightnings were forgotten; thundering was forgotten; harsh raindrops were forgotten; and as well as all the depression and sadness, and even the whole world.

The storm was still lashing her mind, but soon, at the end of the first movement, the melody became warm and nice.

Natasha finished humming the major melody of Storm Sonata, and then she looked at the letter in her hand. It was the one Lucien sent on July 30th. She was very satisfied with the sonata, her birthday gift from Lucien.

"Although Storm Sonata is not as outstanding as Pathetique and Moonlight, it is still impressive, and it shares the same theme and spirit with Symphony of Fate—perseverance and faith. It's a great birthday gift," Natasha murmured in a low voice. Then she looked up and started to read the rest of the letter again. It was all about Lucien's interesting experiences in Allyn, including how he tortured the apprentices with lots of exercises, those apprentices complaints and jokes, the story when he was mistakenly invited to the conference because of his name, and so on.

Natasha was comforted by Lucien's letter. She felt that Lucien, her old friend, was telling her all those stories right in front of her relaxedly.

"Why do I feel those stories are more interesting than the music itself?" Natasha rubbed her chin a bit and asked herself confusedly, "Is it because I haven't talked to other people for too long?"

…

In the Month of Flower, the fifth of the year, the weather was getting hot. However, Allyn, as the city in the sky, still remained relatively cool.

In the magic lab of Lucien's garden villa.

The light white, tear-shaped mark on Lucien's left hand burst out gentle light, and slowly rose up into the sky. Lucien added the powder of Sunstone and some more magic materials into the tear mark and started casting.

After a long and complicated process, the tear looked less transparent but more solid. It's light still looked pure and gentle.

At this time, the light spots in the crystal ball in Lucien's right hand flew out of it one by one. The light spots surrounded the tear and formed a stellar map, and then, the map was absorbed by Lucien's left hand.

When the dazzling starlight disappeared, nothing was left on Lucien's left hand. However, Lucien could control the power anytime he wanted to use it by lighting the tear-shaped mark up.

According to Lucien Blessing Book, with all the materials gathered by Lucien and the mark left by the little girl, Lucien created his first permanent blessing, Innocent Gratefulness. It could help Lucien protect himself in the environment full of dead and rotten bodies, and also improve his defence level against soul attack spells.

In order to build the permanent blessing, Lucien spent his two hundred arcana points that he earned from Bertren Castle. In the recent months, he fully relied on the subsidy from the congress and the Will of Elements to continue his study of Life Force and Necromancy.

Currently, in total, Lucien had a hundred and two arcana points, and he had constructed another five third-circle spells: Dimensional Cage, Protection from Energy, Curse of the Putrid Husk, Secondary Telepathic Bond and Lightning. So far, as for second circle spells, Lucien had twenty of them, and he reconstructed many of the spells to make them work better.

After finishing his work, when Lucien was about to leave the lab, he saw his steward Charles, who was an elegant old gentleman, coming over.

"Mr. Evans, Mr. Gaston, from the Will of Elements, wants to see you in his office," said Charles.

…

In Allyn, the Will of Elements' division.

"Evans, I heard that you've been reading Pain Fable recently, did you find anything in it?" Gaston made Lucien sit down and asked him casually.

"Not really." Lucien shook his head lightly, "I feel that those stories were dark and gloomy for the sake of being depressing. The only purpose of the book was to make people feel painful and discouraged and upset. By the way, Mr. Gaston, has the congress made any progress in investigating the demon? I mean… if it's confidential, you don't have to tell me."

"So far not a single senior-rank sorcerer involved in the study has managed to summon the demon you guys encountered in the castle, and that makes the special summoning rite very suspicious in their eyes, and they wonder if Bill had hidden other parts of his experience…" Gaston directly told Lucien what was going on.

After a bit of a pause, Gaston stared at Lucien with his dark yellow eyes and said, "The reason why I asked you to come over here is that we have a mandatory task for you from the Will of Elements. A gentleman asked the Will of Elements to send a letter for him to Mr. Stanis, the King of Nightmare. Because you're from Violet, Lucien, we want you to take the mission. The reward is a thousand arcana points. Don't worry, the King of Nightmare would send his people to guide you through the Dark Mountain Range, so you'll not be alone there in the mountains."

Gaston's words brought Lucien's memory about the Duchy of Violet back instantly. Although Lucien had a pretty hard time there, he also had lots of good memories. In Lucien's mind, Aalto was like his hometown.

Seeing Lucien did not say yes immediately, Gaston continued, "Of course I'm not saying that it's gonna be a completely safe and sound trip. If you don't want to accept the task, it's also okay, and you can choose something else. But if you're willing to take it, you can get the one thousand arcana points in advance, as well as enjoy a year long subsidy, so you can go and buy all the materials and potions you need to get prepared."

All his friends' faces showed up in Lucien's mind, giving him mixed feelings. Then, Lucien nodded, smiling, "I'll take this task, Mr. Gaston."

"Be careful, Evans. You'd better take the north route as the Church is strengthening their patrols over Storm Strait." Gaston patted on Lucien's shoulder, "You still take the monocle with you, but because of the electromagnetic interference of Storm Strait, when you get to the other side, it will be hard for you to contact us."

Chapter 256: The East Haven

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

— Volume IV: The Dark Mountain Range —

In the Month of Hot Wind, the eighth of the year, the weather would be torturing hot in Allyn or Aalto, as if even the air was on fire. However, in this narrow and busy city across the continent, filled with buildings of mixed styles from different countries, the breeze was still cool and gentle like that of the Month of Life.

This was Segru, deep in the northwest of the far northland, the East Haven surrounded by countless giant, towering trees.

Because the Cabin of Palmeira of the Congress controlled the many busy cities along Storm Strait, and their control extended all the way up to the far northland, the Cabin of Palmeira had driven away lots of orcs, dwarf tribes and trolls and built up many cities. Therefore, in many people's mind, all of the far northland was the Cabin of Palmeira's territory, an area under the control of the Congress of Magic.

However, in fact, because of the vast territory of the far northland—Schachran Empire's northwest province to the west, Mintuck, an ice-free port which was close to the marine outfall of Boundless Ocean to the east, the empire's Flame Fortress and Storm Strait to the south, the polar region where the sun never set for the six months to the north, the congress and the Cabin of Palmeira could only control the southeast part of it, and deep into the land lived horrifying trolls, orcs, snowmen and ancient sorcerers who spent their life in solitude.

Because of the special location of Segru, sitting at the junction of the broad primeval forest in the northeast of the empire and the central part of the far northland's coastal area, where the Church's and the Congress of Magic's power reached a stalemate, Segru became a place that was neither under the control of the former nor the latter. Lots of noble émigré from Schachran Empire and other convicts gradually gathered here and built up the city and the many manors around it. Thus, Segru was called by many people the East Haven.

Although the first people of this place had set up some rough rules and law here while they were fighting against monsters such as trolls and doing smuggling trades, power, which basically came from either magic or sword, was still the ultimate law in the far northland.

There was a saying here, "The law of magic and sword was the law of the far northland!"

Known for its smuggling trades, the city had been attracting countless money-longing merchants and adventures to come here in order to seek for great fortune, thus the city was busy and prosperous. Of course, most merchants here had their own experienced mercenaries, or they could be killed at any time and their bodies would be thrown into the forest to feed the beasts.

At that moment, Lucien was wondering at leisure on the major crossroads of Segru, and his destination was the wood cabin up ahead. According to the information given by the Congress, in the cabin Lucien could find the relatively good intelligence organization in this city.

Lucien was wearing white shirt, a black, double-breasted long suit, top hat and the monocle, which made him look elegant and handsome, but he did not look deterring enough here in this brutal East Haven. On the street, in many people's eyes, Lucien was a perfect target, and they were trying to figure out what kind of perfect chance they could get to kidnap him.

"Look at the way he's dressing… We probably can get a good fortune from him." Two bulky guys were talking, "Even if he's actually poor… Look at his face… We can still sell him to the nobles. They must love this perfect toy!"

"Don't rush. Don't do anything before you know more about the person." The other guy responded, "He dare come here alone, and he must be more or less confident. Lots of idiots have died here because they judge other people only by their appearance."

Those people who were still alive here in this place were not brainless. On the contrary, most of them were very cautious. However, as soon as they could make sure that the target was a really good one, they would show the darkest side of human nature.

Before Lucien left Allyn, he bought some magic potions, materials, gold and the spell, Sorcerer's Cabin, and he also got a bottle of potion called Blood Cleanser, which helped him cure from the soul damage caused by Crying Soul. Now, Lucien was about a real knight's level, so he could hear the conversation between the two guys without even using spiritual power. Lucien lightly shook his head with a smile, "What a place… the East Haven."

However, this was as far as the potions from the Congress could go so far in improving one's Blessing power, since after this level, one's faith as a knight would play a more important role, and that was not Lucien's direction.

Pretending that he did not hear anything, Lucien still walked on the street calmly. Soon, he came in front of the cabin drawn with camellias.

"No child here." When Lucien was about to walk in, a strong and bulky man beside the door reached out his right hand and stopped him.

As he was saying, the man purposefully showed his tanned muscle to reveal his power.

Lucien did not get pissed off but asked, "What kind of people can be here, then?"

The man snorted and then pointed at the doorplate. Beside the camellia patterns, the doorplate read, both in Schachran characters and in common tongue, "Money, or power."

Lucien smiled and nodded, "I see."

All of a sudden, this husky guy bowed deeply towards Lucien and said to him, "Sir, please come in… please come in… I was being stupid just now. Please forgive me."

At the same time, he kept slapping himself in his face.

Watching the guy reverently leading the young man into the cabin, the other guards around the cabin were more than shocked.

"Has… has Tony been possessed?" Another guy murmured, thinking that what he saw was very creepy. A few seconds later, he realized that the young man might be a real sorcerer, so he quickly turned around and ran into the cabin to report.

The two traffickers, who were following Lucien, also saw what happened. They swallowed with great difficulty, and felt lucky that they were not being stupidly reckless. They knew that a sorcerer who could cast spells without producing stirred magic waves was definitely not an ordinary sorcerer. Some ancient senior-rank sorcerers in the East Haven might not even be able to do this!

In fact, the spell, Charm Person, which was improved by Lucien, was known for producing only very limited amount of magic waves. As a third-circle sorcerer, Lucien could cast the spell perfectly, and those people whose power was not even close to that of a real knight had absolutely no way to sense the minor magic waves, not to mention that they did not even have any magic or divine items!

…

The cabin was actually of decent size, and it was divided into many small booths. There were different people selling information in those booths, and the overall environment was quiet and nice.

Tony led Lucien to the stairs in an absent-minded way, and in front of the stairs, there were two beefy guys with long sword.

"Tony, who's this?" The guards stopped Tony with their swords.

Tony's back was still bent. After taking a quick glance at Lucien respectfully, he said to the guards, "This is Mr. Guzon's important guest. Don't stand in his way."

Lucien simply smiled, but did not say anything.

"I never heard of this before. I need to talk to Mr. Guzon first," the guard said to them and was about to walk upstairs.

As soon as he turned around, Tony directly punched the other guard out with his right fist.

When the guard on the stairs was about to hack at Tony with his sword, suddenly he felt great dizziness, and then a big smile appeared on his face, "I'm so sorry sir. He's an idiot. How dare he try to stop you. Please, please, sir, follow me this way. Let me guide you to Mr. Guzon."

Lucien sightly pushed up his monocle and nodded. He knew that his current spiritual power could only control three people at the same time.

"Mr. Guzon, attack!" exclaimed another guard upstairs, who saw what was going on there.

Guzon walked out of his room with a thick cigar in his mouth. Wearing a black long jacket, he looked down with great sense of stateliness, followed by a guard covered in a complete set of black armour.

"Mr. Guzon, I'm here for the intelligence." Lucien looked up and smiled.

"You're not welcome here. You broke into this place." Guzon looked pissed, "Take him!"

Although Guzon had Blessing from the magic potion and he also had a pretty useful magic item, he decided to use the two dark knights that he hired with good money.

Also, the young man downstairs looked skinny and not aggressive at all. He even thought that the young man was probably sent by his competitors to kill him, so he should not let the young man walk any closer to him.

In the corner, a shadow suddenly shot out from the corner and jumped on Lucien. At the same time, the body of the black-armored knight bulged fast, then the knight rushed downstairs toward Lucien with a flaming great hammer.

Other guards also quickly besieged Lucien.

Guzon watched what was going on downstairs with the big cigar in his mouth. However, after a surge of magic waves, his level two knight was now on the floor, trying his best to escape from the young man. The other knight was not doing any better. In fact, he directly ran into the wall to run away and left a big hole on it.

Those guards were all right now on the floor. Around their crotches, it was all suspiciously wet.

The big cigar in Guzon's mouth fell on the ground, but he didn't even notice. Staring at Lucien, he started to step backwards.

After casting the second-circle spell, Scare, Lucien slowly walked upstairs with his hands in the pockets, and he smiled, "Can we talk now, Mr. Guzon?"

"S… sure." Guzon's teeth were chattering.

In the East Haven, Lucien followed their rules—money, or power. It was the best solution.

Although Lucien's magic power was nothing in Allyn, in fact, a middle-rank sorcerer could easily rule a whole small city. Even in a messy place like the East Haven, most of the scoundrels here were still ordinary people.

Lucien's leather shoes were making crisp sounds on the stairs, and he said slowly, "Mr. Guzon, I need a guide. A guide who can lead me to travel through Schachran Empire."

Although it was not hard to fly across the border, flying over the entire empire was of course time-consuming and tough, and if Lucien was not careful enough, the North Church would easily notice and chase after him. Therefore, Lucien needed a fake identity and a guide who played the role of his butler.

Chapter 257: A "Good" Introduction

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Guzon repeated in a confused way, "Through Schachran Empire?"

Lucien stopped walking closer to Guzon but just stood on the stairs, where those guards were still lying on the floor, with his hands in his pockets. Those guests who came here to buy information were all hiding in the booths, feeling terrified.

"Yes, I want to take the way through the empire and get to the countries following other gods northeast of the Dark Mountain Range." Lucien nodded, "I'm sure that you can tell I'm a sorcerer, Mr. Guzon. I need a guide who really knows well about the country's geography, custom, and powers to help me get to my final destination without being chased after by the North Church."

From Gaston, Lucien knew that the church was tightening their control over Storm Strait, so he decided to take the magic train and to later get to the famous city in the north called Deep Sea Port through the Kingdoms of Holm and Colette. Then Lucien spent another two months traveling through the forests where lived trolls and orcs and finally got to the East Haven, whose primeval forest was right beside the empire's Flame Fortress in its northeast.

During that time, Lucien had constructed another very important third-circle spell, Dispel Magic.

The reason why Lucien wanted to take this way was that the empire bordered the Duchy of Violet in southwest.

After Lucien's half-true explanation, Guzon got a rough idea of Lucien's request. He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to gain his leader's manner back, "Sir, because of the Church, you don't want to fly across the empire, but want to take the land route with the help of a local guide, is that right?"

"Exactly, Mr. Guzon." Although Lucien was smiling, he really wished that he could just fly to the duchy, which would only cost him three to four days, and that was way faster than taking the land route.

Guzon saw that Lucien was not that kind of vicious sorcerer, and after a short pause, he said, "Sir, I'd recommend you Leo, who was the assistant of the biggest smuggler in Schachran Empire, and their business once extended all the way to those countries northeast of the mountains and even Violet, but later he pissed off the smuggler, and the smuggler killed Leo's family. Leo was the only one who survived and escaped here to Segru with a precious magic scroll of his. His strong will of taking revenge and his power that's close to that of a real knight made him survive until here, although in a hard way. Now he's accepting any tasks he can take to save money to buy magic potions in order to be stronger for his revenge. Also, Leo was very good at changing one's appearance using non-magic methods, and he knows the empire very well."

Lucien responded, with the smile still on his face, "He might not be the one I'm looking for. After we get to the empire, if he encounters the smuggler, he might get too emotional."

"No worries, sir. Leo has his knight belief. As long as you two have signed the contract, I'm sure he would not break his words and he would do his best to complete the task," insisted Guzon. "Maybe this was why he pissed of the guy. Sir, Leo is your best choice."

Lucien thought about it for a while and nodded, "Then I should see him first."

"You won't be disappointed," said Guzon. "The only thing is that he's not showing up regularly as usual for some reason. What we know is that, most recently, someone saw him in a bar called Taran."

At this time, Guzon noticed that both of the young man's eyes, the one with the monocle and the bare one, had fast spinning swirls in them, and then his mind got lost.

Lucien cast Charm Person on Guzon and verified all the information he provided. Then, he also cast Hypnotism on Guzon to remove the key parts of his memory about himself. Although Lucien was not able to rewrite his target's memory, and neither completely remove all the person's memory, removing part of the key information was not that difficult, so Guzon would not be able to provide any useful information about Lucien if someone was going to chase after him.

Also, even his memory about Lucien's appearance was not accurate, because Lucien carefully disguised himself before setting off.

As the winner of Holm Crown prize, Lucien was not sure whether the Church, either in the north or south, knew what he looked like. Because cardinals and night watchers could easily tell the first circle spell, Disguise, and also because Lucien was not good at Transformation, he used some physical ways to change his appearance: insoles for increasing height, brown eye contacts made of the pupils of a magic creature to change his eye colour, and even a decent, well-trimmed moustache, together with the monocle. With those gears, Lucien looked quite elegant.

After a long time, Guzon finally slowly came back to his senses, like just waking up from a nightmare.

"Where are the knights?" Guzon tried to recall what happened, but as soon as he tried, his head hurt badly. As the leader of an intelligence organization, he immediately realized what just happened—a powerful man was here, and the man must altered his memory, so he directly gave up thinking about it.

Looking at his men lying on the floor higgledy-piggledy, Guzon was pissed, "Damn, you useless jerks! Get up and change your fu*king pants! And get the stupid knights back!"

…

The board outside of the bar wrote, "Taran, the East Haven's Taran".

Lucien pushed the bar gate open and entered the place. As soon as he stepped into it, he attracted all the people's eyes in the bar, but very quickly, in the next second, all the eyes drew back and the laughing, talking and shouting continued as if they had never stopped.

When Lucien mentally controlled the cabin guard, Tony, right in public, he did it on purpose to show those East Haven people his power. Some guys in the bar knew what kind of power Lucien had, so they tried to stay away from him. Seeing that, the other people who did not know Lucien's power also wanted to be cautious first.

This was how they survived here in the East Haven! Outcomers who came here without power or relationship could only expect one ending: death.

Most people here did not want to spend their whole life here at all. They wanted to make a fortune here and move out. Of course, some of them did enjoy this place. They enjoyed the excitement and freedom here very much.

Obviously, Lucien's calm and elegant manner revealed the fact that he did not belong here. Walking through the chairs, Lucien came to the bar counter, "Hello, I'm looking for someone."

Wiping the cups, the blonde bartender responded without even lifting his head, "You need to buy something first."

"A glass of Lesse, please." This was the first kind of alcoholic drink that Lucien knew in this world.

The blonde young man finally looked up. He was a good-looking young guy, and he had this kind of unruly manner gained from this wild place.

After pulling Lucien a cup of golden drink, he asked, "Looking for who?"

"Leo." Lucien stared at the golden liquor like he was appreciating a piece of artwork, "I'm looking for Leo."

"You're not alone there." The bartender gave Lucien an ambiguous answer.

"I'm here to hire him." Lucien looked at the bartender.

"So were they," said the bartender a bit sarcastically.

Hearing their conversation, several strong, armored men sprang up from the chairs. Their armors were making clacking noises.

Their leader was a man in his thirties. His left eyeball was missing.

Dragging a great sword on the floor, his armoured shoes clacking, the tall and bulky man came in front of Lucien. He slightly bent forward and asked Lucien in a threatening way, "How did you know Leo? When was the last time you saw him? I'm asking you this for a big man here in the East Haven. You'd better not bullshit, or you won't see tomorrow's sunrise."

"I don't know Leo. I just want to hire him to protect me here," Lucien answered calmly. In his mind, he started to feel that looking for Leo might not have been a good idea, since clearly right now he was in some kind of trouble.

The man missing his left eye did not leave Lucien alone, but continued to push him, "Who introduced Leo to you! Protect you for what?"

As soon as he finished his last word, Lucien's left, glove-wearing hand quickly left the cup and grabbed the man's throat.

It was fast, very fast. The man only saw shadows.

Lucien smiled, "Did your mother ever tell you curiosity kills the cat?"

"You… you'd better let go of me, if you want to leave the East Haven alive!! The big man behind me…" The man was still threatening Lucien, however, in the next second, he was chocked because Lucien tightened his grabbing on his neck.

"You know what? I'm not sure if I can leave the East Haven alive, but if you continue being stupid, I'm sure you cannot leave the bar alive. And to tell you a secret—I'm a big man, too."

The man's face flushed bright red out of anger, but he could not say a single word. When his people finally realized what was happening here and were about to pull out their swords to save him, a man wearing black armor in the same style as the others yelled at them from the bar's back door,

"Leo's here! In the bar's chamber!"

The bartender's face suddenly turned white. As soon as he was about to rush out from behind the counter, he was stopped by a swordman. Other guys all rushed towards the back of the bar, as if they had all forgotten the existence of their leader.

On the other side of the hall, two guys whose power was close to that of a real knight also jumped up from their chairs and ran toward the back door.

Lucien was a bit amused. Releasing the hand grabbing the man's throat, Lucien slightly shook his head out of sympathy, "Too bad… The big man you were talking about doesn't seem to care about you a lot. Even if I kill you, he would not care. Which suzerain sent you here?"

"How do you know he's a suzerain?" asked the man out of great surprise.

Lucien slightly patted his clothes and stood up from his chair.

Chapter 258: Warren, The Young Master

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Seeing that his guessing was correct, Lucien smiled confidently, "There're only thirty or forty people here in the East Haven who are qualified for being called 'big man', so it's not very difficult to guess. And there's no way that you work for one of the nine city lords, or you wouldn't need to hide his name."

The metal armors were banging against each other from the back of the bar. It seemed that the chamber was underground, since the whole floor of the bar was shaking slightly.

Seeing that, the guests started leaving the bar, not because they were afraid or nervous, but because they were really used to it and they did not want to bother to be part of this at all.

Lucien, with his hands in his pockets, also headed for the bar gate. In the East Haven, countless people were from Schachran Empire, and Leo definitely wasn't his only choice. Also, Lucien did not want any trouble at this time.

Seeing that Lucien was leaving as well, the man missing his left eye looked a bit confused, but he was smart enough to leave Lucien alone, since the young man had shown his great power. Instead, he turned around and ran toward the bar counter to stop the bar owner from getting out and rushing at the chamber.

If one without any backgrounds wanted to survive here in the East Haven, the person must know how to be patient and tolerant, since those who did not all ended up becoming food for the wild animals in the forest, or materials for necromancers…

Here, only the rule of sword and magic worked.

Lucien walked toward the gate casually, looking on the fight between the bar owner and the man missing the left eye. Their ways of using sword were all direct and simple, which was the typical Schachran style.

"How dare you people fight in Taran! The several city lords will make you pay!" shouted the owner. The bar owner had the power close to that of a real knight from the Blessing that he got from the potion many years ago. If he had been younger, he could have beaten the man quickly. However, now he was old, and the fight between them was intense.

In the East Haven, if a person wanted to run a bar like Taran, he or she must need to get the support from those big people.

The man missing the left eye hacked at the bar owner but the momentum of his greatsword was stopped by the bar owner's shield. Quickly, he shifted the position of his greatsword to shove aside the owner's sword. After a loud bang, the two of them took a few steps backwards, and seizing the chance, the left-eye-missing man sneered, "The young master doesn't like Leo, and you hid Leo right down in your bar's chamber! Leo pissed off our young master, and even the city lords cannot say too much about it!"

When most of the guests in the bar had already left, at this time, with a huge bang, the bar gate was broken into pieces by force and the pieces fell backwards. Several drunkards were hurt and their heads started bleeding.

Lucien slightly tilted his head and perfectly avoided a piece of wood from the broken gate. Through the broken gate, a bunch of guys walked in wearing black armors of the same style as the one that the one-eyed man was wearing. A young man with a gray cigar in his mouth looked like their leader, since he was not wearing any armor but, like Lucien, he was wearing a Holm-style white shirt, brown waistcoat, long jacket and a top hat. His face was featured, and his nose was tall and straight. In general, he was a good-looking guy, but he looked very gloomy and cold with his messy, black eyebrows.

Two guys stood beside him, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left was short, and he was also dressing in Holm style, while the other guy on the right was big and muscular.

The young man looked around at the hall and casually picked a chair that was close to the gate and sat down. As soon as he reached out his right hand, a beautiful blond girl went down on her knees to undo his sleeve buttons. When she was doing this, the girl had no facial expression on her face, and her bust was seductively half-revealed in her Tria-style blue dress.

"Sir Jarolim, please go and get Leo," the young man said to the short man standing beside him with a smile. Finally, they had found Leo, the guy who ruined their great plan. Right now the young man's anger was burning.

"Yes, young master," Jarolim answered in a plain tone.

Jarolim's leather shoes were shining. Taking a step forward, his figure turned into a shadow, rushing to the back of the bar. Clearly, he had a real knight's power. The power scared the remaining people in the bar, and they felt too nervous to move fast. Those people blocked Lucien's way as well.

When Lucien finally got right beside the gate, Jarolim had already come back, grabbing Leo's collar in his hand. Obviously, Leo's power was not even close to that of Jarolim, not to mention the fact that he was besieged by so many people.

Seeing that they had caught Leo, the bar owner and the bartender stopped fighting against the swordmen and started thinking what they should do next.

Lucien took a quick glance at Leo out of curiosity, who was still trying to get out of Jarolim's hand. Although he was only in his middle age, Leo's hair was black mixing with white. His face looked gaunt, and his eyes, which were tightly closed right now, were surrounded by wrinkles.

Jarolim threw Leo to the ground right in front of the young man, Warren.

Leo's body was covered with a layer of black flame, which had consumed all his strength to the point where he could not even stand up on his feet.

"Very nice to meet you, Mr. Leo." Warren leaned his body forward and slapped Leo's face with his right hand, "You wanna say anything to me?"

Warren's blue eyes were filled with violence.

Leo opened his eyes using great effort, and it looked like there was great pain in his green eyes but there was zero regret, "Warren, I just reminded the noble lady… I reminded her that you are a trafficker! Dare you say how many human beings, elves, dwarves and orcs have you sold to Schachran? I can't let you do this to her!"

Warren sat back and smiled, "What a nice guy you are, Mr. Leo."

Then he fiercely kicked Leo's stomach. Leo burst out a painful groan and was now writhing on the floor.

Then Warren sent his right foot in front of the blond beauty and made her clean his shoe carefully. He rubbed his chin a bit and said, "I'm confused, Leo. Why you always want to mess up with me? You don't even know the chick? You like her?"

Leo was coughing, and he tried his best to answer, "This is… my principle… You cannot do this… to anyone."

"Wow, wow… Mr. Leo, aren't you such a man with great knight spirit?" Warren suddenly took back his right foot and stepped on Leo's head, grinding it against the floor, "What a pity… You're not a real knight. You only deserve this… Your head being stepped on by a bad man's foot, ha.

"Oh, I forgot the other thing you deserve…" Warren added, "There must be a reason that your whole family was killed, isn't it?"

That really hurt Leo. His throat was making hoarse noise like a wild beast giving dying kicks. Seeing that, some other people present felt sympathetic, for Leo, and also for themselves.

Warren looked at the bar owner, "You don't say anything. This guy has been messing up with me, and I have to show people how I deal with guys like him, or they would forget who they were."

The bar owner could not say anything.

Then, Warren said to his men, "Beat him up, then cut off his arms and legs. Hang the remaining of him on the wood frame out of the city gate and let the coyotes finish him at night."

As he was saying, he kicked Leo toward the man missing one eye.

As soon as the guy got Leo, he and his men started punching Leo fiercely.

At this time, someone was stamping on the floor, making a door-knocking noise. When the people in the hall all stopped what they were doing and looked back, a young man stood out and smiled to them, "Good afternoon, every one."

All the people present were more than confused right now.

Although Warren was also confused, he asked cautiously, "Do I know you?"

Warren was not stupid, although basically his powerful father could take care of everything for him. He knew that he must be careful with a guy who decided to show up like this in this kind of situation.

Lucien pointed at Leo casually, and all of sudden, Leo floated in the air and came next to Lucien.

"Mr. Warren, I need to hire Leo right now for my mission. You two deal with your stuff when the mission is done," said Lucien in plain tone, as if he was giving a command.

What Leo had done revealed that he was a principled, righteous person, and that was the kind of person that Lucien needed for his trip through Schachran, not to mention how he would feel if Lucien saved his life.

Sometimes, people felt that a person's honorable characters and qualities were worth of nothing, but in fact, someday, they might save your life.