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Chapter 317: Taking Action

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The mirror was black, and there was nothing in it. However, the voice from the mirror said to the witch in a flattering way, "Eudora, you've always been the most beautiful woman in the world."

Feeling satisfied, the old witch put down the mirror, "Good, very good, Trius. You're the most honest mirror in this world, not like those I've destroyed before… They were all liars."

The mirror started to sing joyfully, "Ah… Eudora's hair is as glossy and shiny as the sun; her eyes are as green as the jade-like lake; Her red lips were like rose petals…."

The old witch's voice was also damaged by the curse and sounded very harsh, "Good boy, Trius. After we leave this bloody place, I'll decorate you with all the most precious gems you like."

Laughing hard, the witch put down the mirror and turned to Lucien. Then, she started to scream. Her voice was so sharp that it even gave Lucien a headache. Lucien took a few steps backward due to the dizziness.

"Close your eyes! Close your bloody eyes!" screamed the witch.

Lucien had no idea what was going on here. But he knew that he had better follow the witch's command. He heard the witch walking back and forth and cursed, "Are you bloody blind? You damned blind bastard! In your eyes, I look so ugly… I'm gonna cut out your…"

Lucien did not let the witch finish her words, "Ms. Eudora, you were looking for me, right?"

Lucien would not give the witch the chance of making up her mind to cut out his eyes! Dealing with a lunatic could be very dangerous!

Eudora was distracted by Lucien's question, "… I need your blood… to mix with the blood of the girl."

Lucien was a bit relieved, feeling lucky that the witch could still calm down a bit when talking about her experiments. Then, he asked a bit confusedly, "She's a level two knight, and her Blessing is no inferior to mine. Why do you want to mix our blood together?"

Simply mixing two kinds of blood together was not like giving birth to a baby, so the baby that inherited two top Blessings could have some even greater power, such as what Natasha's family did.

Talking about the specific experiment, Eudora became passionate, "When you passed out, I got some of your blood. It turns out that your Moonlight Blessing is more powerful than it should be at your level, and it seems that this improvement comes from the power of a senior-rank vampire. The power can also help overcome the rejection reaction when two Blessings are mixed. Hopefully, this level two knight can get your lovely self-healing power, so she would have this honor to be my new body!"

The level two knight, Ophelia, who was right now tied to the dissecting table, felt beyond desperate. All her tears had been drained.

Although Lucien totally understood Ophelia's feeling, right now there was nothing really he could do for her. So he could only walk submissively to the other dissecting table and lay down.

The metal shackles kept Lucien in place on the table, and then a thick needle like a venomous snake's fang stuck into Lucien's skin. The sharp pain seized Lucien's nerves instantly, and then the needle started to draw his blood. The blood went directly into the body of Ophelia drop by drop through the tube.

Her body was entangled with many thin tubes like tentacles. The blood that went into her body had been mixed with assorted gem powders and magic plant powders.

Ophelia's lifeless eyes now had great pain in them. The blue veins in her neck stood out like they were going to explode at any time.

The old witch pointed at Ophelia with her black, snake-like staff, and the magic circles underneath Ophelia's body started to shine in six different colors: blue, gold, silvery-white, dark green, black and red. The two types of blood started to blend.

The pain and suffering were intolerable to Ophelia. She wished that she could die right now.

When the six kinds of colors started to join together into a weird hexagram, Ophelia's bulgy veins suddenly sucked in and her skin was covered with a layer of silver moonlight.

"Is it working?" The old witch's voice sounded very excited.

However, at this time, the veins in Ophelia's body exploded. Her blood spread everywhere, like a blood rain.

The last second before Ophelia was gone, there was a peaceful smile on her face. Finally, she did not have to suffer anymore.

Lucien was shocked, and he could never forget this moment. He saw a living life being tortured to death because of a person's greed and desire.

Lucien finally realized that it was an irresistible trend that most of the ancient sorcerers had been washed away by the progress of the time. He had to admit that he once sympathized with the ancient sorcerers, but now he understood why the ancient magic empire completely collapsed within such a short period of time. Those ancient sorcerers who refused to follow the path of arcana but stuck to conducting this kind of cruel experiments should be erased by history, as they did not deserve to be saved.

"No!" The old witch screamed. She hurriedly rushed to a magic circle placed with lots of gems and led great energy from the tower to the magic circle.

The magic circle started to burst out milk-white light, as pure as life.

At the same time, the last magic circle under Ophelia's body was also activated. However, it was pure black.

Gradually, the milk-white light was infused into the black.

Lucien believed that it was a great chance for him to kill the old witch. He tried his best to get rid of the shackles, however, unfortunately, he failed, despite the fact that both of his wrists were now bleeding from his attempt.

When the light slowly disappeared, all the wounds on Ophelia's body had already healed. Her veins had all recovered from the power. Now, her skin had this healthy glow.

Ophelia started to cast the spell to free herself from the table. Jumping down from the table swiftly like a young deer, she hurriedly picked up the mirror and asked, "Mirror, mirror, tell me now—who in this land is fairest of all?"

"It's you, Eudora!" The mirror answered directly. It was not completely black anymore, instead, this time, the mirror showed the witch Ophelia's beautiful face.

Touching her blond hair, the old witch was very satisfied with her new look.

Lucien felt it very creepy when he heard the conversation again.

The witch could not lay the mirror down, as she was so obsessed with her new look—the blond hair, the nice-curved eyebrows, the straight and delicate nose, the fair skin and red lips… Her heart was filled with ecstasy.

However, all of a sudden, her skin lost the gloss and her green eyes quickly became cloudy. Wrinkles soon covered her entire face.

Within a minute, the old witch had returned to her original look. Her straight back bent forward again.

The witch's bitter scream broke the glass tubes in the lab one by one, and there was even a crack in the magic mirror.

Lucien's head buzzed again. He felt that the witch's scream was like the real Banshee's howling.

After a long time, the old witch finally calmed down. She looked at Lucien in a very cold way, as if she was planning on something. Then, she removed the shackles on Lucien and let the servant bring Lucien back to his cell.

The witch did not leave Lucien any chances to lure her with arcana to bring her youth back. She drove away Lucien like whisking the flies off.

After Lucien left, the old witch murmured, "… I can't rebuild and use his body… He's for the soul-dividing experiment…"

…

On his way back to the cell, Lucien silently paid special attention to the several flesh-golems holding huge axes and swords again. The wounds on his wrists, although had already started to recover, made Lucien frown. He knew that he had to find a way to get out of this place as soon as possible, as no one knew what a crazy person would do next!

That night, when the rest of the prisoners were sent to the patio, as usual, they all got the horrible news that Ophelia had been killed by the old witch. It took Ophelia's teammates quite a long time to accept the fact. They even talked to each other during the breakfast time!

This was not a night for conversation. All the prisoners remained silent for most of the night.

Getting back to his cell, Lucien knocked at the wall on the right.

"Mr. Lucien?" asked Carina. Her voice sounded weak.

Lucien pulled out the brick in the wall and asked, "You wanna leave this place, Carina?"

"What?" Carina suddenly kneeled down and looked into Lucien's eyes through the hole in the wall, "Mr. Lucien, you've got any plans? I don't want to stay here for even a second longer!"

Ophelia's death was a great shock to her.

Lucien said to her seriously, "It's risky but better than we just sit here waiting to die. If you want to follow me to leave this place, I need you to do one thing for me. But it's gonna be very painful. Are you okay with it?"

Seeing Lucien's attitude, Carina took some time to consider. After a while, she nodded firmly, "Yes, Mr. Lucien. As long as we can get out of this place, I'm willing to do anything."

"Bring your neck closer, then." Lucien said to her in a gentle voice, to comfort her.

Carina did as Lucien asked, and then she realized what Lucien was trying to do, "Are you trying to analyze the collar preventing us from using magic?"

"That's right. I cannot see mine," answered Lucien honestly. "Hang in there."

"I will." Carina nodded.

Lucien reached out his right hand through the hole and touched the collar on Carina's neck. Based on his understanding, Lucien turned a special part of the collar. At the same, he knocked on the wall with the other hand to create some unique vibration of a certain frequency, which sounded like a weird spell.

Under turning and vibrating, the collar started to burst out electric sparks, underneath which there were flowing magic symbols and runes.

Carina's body started to tremble from the electric shock. She bit her lips hard without letting out a single groan.

Although the capability of calculation in Lucien's soul was still there, without the help of his Blessing, Lucien could not control the vibration frequency very well.

So Lucien had to take it slowly. The vibration frequency could help to reduce the efficiency of the collar to some degree, so Carina could hang in there longer. Or the collar could very possibly directly damage Carina's vertebra, as she was just a junior-rank sorcerer with no Blessing power.

After the first try, Lucien left Carina with some time to recover. At the same time, he made sure that he remembered the runes and symbols that he saw.

"Can we do it again, Carina?" asked Lucien.

"Yes… I can!" answered Carina decisively. Although it was very painful, the pain brought her hope!

"Good for you," said Lucien sincerely.

It took Lucien a week to completely figure out the complete structure of the collar. Now, they were waiting for the end of the month.

…

Lucien did not take any actions until the last day of the month. He slept well and ate well, in order to make sure that his physical and mental condition were the best.

On the night of the last day of the month, the dim silver moon was fully covered by the clouds.

Lucien suddenly sat up in bed.

Chapter 318: Power Released

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Cool wind sneaked into the place. There was no moonlight outside at all that night.

In the darkness, Lucien was sitting in the bed and listening carefully. He quickly went through his whole plan again in his mind. Making sure that there was no major mistake in it, Lucien took a deep breath and got off the bed. Slowly, he put on his shoes, bent forward and tied his shoelaces. Then, he slightly adjusted the sleeves of his linen shirt. He did these things slowly but carefully, in order to mentally prepare himself for the rest of the night.

This was the night when Lucien was going to get out of this place!

After failing again to obtaining a new body, the witch would definitely work even harder on removing the seal. Therefore, right now it was the best time for Lucien to carry out his plan!

Although Adam's and his own reasoning could be wrong—the witch could be in fact not working on cracking the seal underground every month when the silver moon's power declined—, Lucien decided to take the risk, since he knew that the longer he stayed here, the more likely he was going to die here. Adam, the prisoner who had spent several decades here, was most likely just an exception.

Warming his body up a bit, Lucien walked to the wall on the right and gently knocked at it.

The brick was pulled out from the other side. Carina, although still feeling a bit sleepy, was quite excited, "Yes, Mr. Lucien? Are we leaving now?"

She had been waiting for that day for quite a long time. From the conversations, Alva, Bullard as well as Carina had all known that the end and the beginning of every month was the best time for them to get out of this place. In the past several days, Carina saw Lucien sleep and eat well as usual, so she felt quite anxious. She also dared not to ask, since after all, Lucien was the one who had the plan and the power to carry out the escape.

"Yes, get yourself prepared. If I fail, you have to be the one getting the servants in here," said Lucien in a very calm way, as if they were just having a casual conversation.

Before tonight, Lucien had never told anyone his plan.

Carina suddenly felt nervous, "Got it. I'm at your command, sir."

Lucien nodded. And then he walked to the iron door and started to hit the door with his right palm. The noise was loud. The two servants on the night shift tonight exchanged a confused look, and then the red-faced servant scolded Lucien, "Bastard! What are you doing? You want the taste of my whip?"

It was late. The servants had never experienced a jailbreak there before. As the prisoners had all lost their power, their major duty was to make sure that their master's experiment materials were physically and mentally fine, or the job could directly be given to those flesh-golems who did not have any consciousness and thinking ability.

They were about to fall asleep when Lucien started to make the noise. They were both pissed.

Lucien seemed to be quite pissed as well, as he responded angrily, "The dinner I've just eaten sucked! I'm hungry now! I need food!"

"Jerk! Who do you think you are? Are you out of your mind?" The red-faced servant cursed, "You're just a fu*king prisoner! You want food? I've got some whips for you! Shut the fu*k up!"

Lucien did not care. He continued to kick the iron door. And the rest of the prisoners were wakened up.

Lucien shouted to them, "You two disgusting things! I said I want food! Right now! Keep this in mind! I'm a prisoner, but I'm also the most valuable experiment material your master has ever got! If my body becomes weaker from starving, the witch is gonna really teach you some lessons! You guys are like her dogs! No, not even close to her dogs! I command you to bring me food right now!"

The red-faced servant now was totally furious. His eyes squinted and roared to the guy on the other side of the iron door, "You bloody bastard! Let me teach you… who is the dog here!"

He picked up the thick whip and was about to rush into the cell.

At this time, the taller servant stopped him. He said to the red-faced in low voice, "Wait… It's not like him. He is probably playing some tricks…"

"Remember what he said on the patio? He said he was gonna kill the master like an ant! He's always been an arrogant lunatic bastard. He was just pretending to be elegant and polite!" The red-faced servant had found Lucien rather annoying for some time, especially when seeing Lucien acting like a well-mannered gentleman even after becoming the prisoner of the witch.

He lowered his voice, too, in case Lucien could hear their conversation. And then the red-faced servant added, "He's wearing the collar and the shackles. Even if he's got some tricks or plans, there's nothing to worry about. You stay here, and we've still got the flesh-golems on the way out. What can he do? This bastard needs to learn some manners here."

Since the red-faced man had become a servant here in the magic tower, no prisoners who had lost his or her power dared to challenge them or try to escape. Besides, his power was also of the level of a high-level squire. Facing the young sorcerer who always looked humble and elegant, the red-faced servant had never seen him as a threat.

"That makes sense." The taller servant nodded and put down his hand that was grabbing the other servant's arm. "He's a sorcerer. Although he's also a knight, the power must come from some certain potions. He can't be physically really strong. I'll stay here. You go and teach him how to be a good boy!"

Holding the whip, the red-faced servant took out a big chain of keys and said to Lucien with his teeth grinding, "I've got some food here. If you need anything else, you can tell me later."

"Good. You're a dog, so you'd better be a good dog!" Lucien was still being rather rampant.

The red-faced servant inserted the key into the iron door and opened it.

Hearing the sound, Lucien swiftly dodged to the corner behind the door and stood there with his back against the wall.

The red-faced servant fiercely pushed the door open and snapped his whip, "Come and get your food, boy!"

The whip had lots of barbs on it. The end of the whip directly went to the messy blanket on the bed.

At this time, a strong hand suddenly reached out from aside and grabbed the servant's face. The hand firmly held the servant's head and directly bumped his head against the iron door using all of its strength!

Bang!

Like a bell ringing, the red-faced servant collapsed onto the floor with blood covering his face.

Although Lucien's Blessing power was blocked, he was still a way more experienced fighter than the servant.

Without even taking a look at the servant on the floor, Lucien rushed out of the cell like a cheetah and targeted the taller servant.

The taller servant was even slower than the red-faced one. He had no idea what was going on there until Lucien was right in front of his face.

When he hurriedly lifted the whip, it was too late. Lucien directly punched him in the face. The taller servant's head instantly buzzed, as if there were many stars circling around in front of his eyes. In the next second, Lucien pulled him closer with his left hand and kneed the servant fiercely in his soft stomach.

The taller servant instantly bent forward from the great pain. He couldn't even release a moan because of the acid in his throat.

However, this was not the end. Lucien's right elbow dropped directly at the center of his spine. After a crispy crack, the servant died right on the spot with his eyes open wide.

Lucien did not have time to celebrate. Hurriedly picking up the red-faced servant's keys, Lucien did not forget to break his neck at the same time.

Then, he opened the rest of the cells and let out Adam and the adventurers.

"What shall we do now?" Carina was both excite and scared.

Before Lucien answered, Alva quickly said, "We go to the patio. There's only one golem guarding the door and we can distract him easily without directly fighting against it. We can just jump down from the patio. It's not tall enough to kill us."

"I agree." nodded Bullard.

Carina slightly frowned. Jumping down from the patio might not be a big problem to the knights, but as a sorcerer, Carina was not very confident. Still, they had a grand knight there. Adam should be able to help her.

Adam did not say anything but looked at Lucien with a meaningful smile.

Lucien slightly shook his head and turned around. He directly walked to the core of the magic tower and said to them without looking back, "We can't just leave like this. As long as the magic tower's here, we can never leave this place. You guys want to spend the rest of your lives in the Black Forest?"

"We're gonna die!" shouted Alva. He was not determined to fight against the witch. He said to Lucien aloud, "With the shackles and the collar, how can you destroy the core of the magic tower? Let's go! We'll have some future plan!"

At this time, a flesh-golem ran toward them. The heavy armor it was wearing clanked from its great moving momentum. It must have heard the noise from here.

A flesh golem's power was of the level of a knight. Building them was expensive, therefore, the whole magic tower only got some.

"Watch out, Mr. Lucien! We will split up to distract it! It's not smart at all!" Carina hurriedly yelled at Lucien.

Lucien was now right in the path of the golem.

Adam also said to Lucien aloud, "I'll go with you, man! But you have to survive first! Let's find a way to get rid of the shackles!"

However, to their great surprise, Lucien did not listen but started to run toward the golem!

They all wondered if Lucien was crazy.

The big and tall golem wielded a huge axe, aiming right at Lucien. With such speed and strength, there was no way that Lucien could handle this hacking right now!

Lucien slightly took a step aside and calmly lifted his left hand against the huge axe.

No miracle happened.

The huge axe easily cut off most of Lucien's left arm. Blood gushed out. Lucien's left arm, as well as the shackle on it, dropped on the floor. Seizing the chance, Lucien quickly concentrated his Blessing power, which was temporarily free, and then hit a special part of the shackle on his right hand using the power.

Weird light shone on the shackle on Lucien's right hand. Silver moonlight burst out. The shackle broke into two halves and fell from Lucien's right wrist.

Now, Lucien's Blessing power was completely free. Lucien's right foot thrust against the floor and turned into a moonlight shadow. In the blood rain, he avoided the following strike of the huge axe.

Adam and the adventurers were all shocked.

Chapter 319: The Energy Core

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The horrible pain from losing an arm made Lucien feel extremely dizzy. Every single one of his nerves twitched. However, the painful feeling did not affect his actions. Clenching his teeth tightly, Lucien ran toward the golem at his highest speed. He avoided the huge axe and came right in front of the golem.

Lucien punched the golem in its iron face mask. With a big bang, the black iron mask became sunken. Lucien's right hand thus bled badly.

The golem fiercely wielded the axe again. Lucien squatted quickly and avoided the attack. Once more, he accelerated and quickly ran around the golem, like a shadow. Again and again, Lucien seized every chance to punch in the golem's mask with his right fist.

One time, two times, three times…

The mask was severely damaged. However, Lucien's right hand also had become a mass of bleeding flesh. The sharp pain brought by every punch was beyond horrible.

The fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time…

Lucien managed to come right in front of the golem's chest. Using its heavy armor as the fulcrum, he turned his waist and punched again with all his strength.

Bang! The bones in Lucien's right hand were instantly revealed. And the iron mask directly broke into countless pieces!

Under the mask, there was a big, pale face imprinted with creepy black patterns, as if it was sewed together by several pieces of face skin. The momentum of Lucien's fist was so great that his punch did not stop when the mask broke, but instead directly hit the disgusting face made of rotten flesh!

Without the protection of the metal mask, the flesh-golem with no intelligence had no way to defend that vital part. The golem's head was its most vulnerable part!

This was Lucien's plan. He did not want to waste too much time on the golem. So, he directly targeted the golem's head!

In the spreading flesh and blood, the broken metal pieces fell onto the floor, as well as the huge axe in the golem's hand. When the golem knelt on the floor, his heavy head lowered. That was the end of it.

Carina's green eyes saw the bright red blood everywhere on the young sorcerer's linen clothes. Blood was still gushing from the cut of Lucien's missing left arm, although the flesh of the cut already started to wriggle and grow. Carina could see the white bones in his right hand, with blood dripping on the floor. However, as if he did not feel the pain, Lucien walked back toward them like a warrior who just went through a bitter war.

She wondered if he was really a sorcerer. Sorcerers did not fight like this.

She saw that Lucien picked up the heavy axe on the floor and walked toward her quickly.

The strong smell of blood rushed into Carina's nose and made her feel a bit dizzy. She saw that Lucien held the axe under his armpit and reached out his right hand to press on the collar on her neck.

The sorcerer started to cast some weird, incomprehensible spell. Now Lucien looked just like a devil from the abyss.

He kept focused. Like a knight using a magic item, Lucien used his willpower instead of spiritual power to activate the spell that was built based on the structure of the collar, and at the same time, the Blessing power in his right hand pierced into the key part of the collar.

Electric sparks burst out, and Carina twitched slightly. However, the collar clicked, and all the pain instantly disappeared.

Seizing the chance, Lucien grabbed the collar and threw it away.

In the air, the collar closed again!

Lucien could only open the collar shortly. He dared not to remove the spiritual imprint left by the old witch, or even in the underground remains she might know that something was not right here.

Carina's spiritual power instantly recovered, as if a barren river was nurtured by the rainy season.

"Thank you… Thank you, Mr. Lucien." Carina was very surprised, as her most precious thing had come back.

"Remember this spell." Lucien directly cut her off, and his voice became a bit hoarse from losing too much blood, "Then, use your spiritual power to stimulate the parts of the collar where the sunflower, Throne Tree, and the constellations patterns are."

Although Lucien could get rid of the collar on his own, the great pain and the dizziness from losing too much blood kept distracting him. Carina was also a sorcerer, so he did not have to take the risk.

Remembering spells quickly was a sorcerer's basic skill. After Lucien repeated the spell for three times, Carina already mastered it.

She focused and started to cast the spell in front of Lucien. Her spiritual power followed as she was casting and the power targeted the collar on Lucien's neck.

Several electric sparks burst out of the collar, but Lucien was already very used to it. After hearing the click, he quickly grabbed the collar with his right hand. His movement were way faster than Carina's!

Lucien felt that, instantly, his spiritual power had all come back. He also realized that both his soul and spiritual power had reached the fifth circle, which was probably not only because of the electric shock Lucien had received, but also some other reason.

Lucien did not have the time to think of the possible reasons. He instantly activated a third-circle necromantic spell, Healing, in his soul.

Since Felipe figured out the connection between the memory of cells and the healing power of grand knights based on the fundamental experiment contributed by Vicente Miranda, known as Thanatos, healing spells were not exclusively owned by the Church anymore. Each level of the school of Necromancy had some healing spells, however, when compared to the divine spells of the same level, necromantic healing spells were less effective, as if there was something important missing. Therefore, necromantic sorcerers sometimes also needed to use healing potions.

The milky white light covered the cut of Lucien's missing arm. The bones started to be repaired and the flesh started to grow. Soon, the horrible cut stopped bleeding and was covered with a thin layer of membrane.

Then, Lucien started to help Adam to get rid of his shackles. Carina copied his method to help Alva and Bullard out.

In Lucien's plan, ideally, he could have at least two assistants. The more assistants he had, the better it was.

As soon as the shackles on Adam's wrists were removed, his body suddenly blended in the darkness in the corner.

"Thanks, man!" Adam felt his power coming back to him after so many years, and he could not help laughing.

Lucien quickly turned to Alva to help him, while Carina helped Bullard out.

While keeping an eye around, Adam looked at the broken arm on the floor and said, "Man, you're really cruel to yourself. You got rid of the restraint at the cost of your arm, and you seem to keep so calm! Like… like this was not even your arm! There's no way I would do this…"

Lucien put on a smile but did not say anything. If it had been Adam, even though he was willing to lose an arm, he would still not be able to open the shackles.

Without understanding the entire structure of the shackles based on one's profound knowledge, one could never seize the chance to get rid of the shackles, even when his or her Blessing power was free for a very short time.

Also, for a knight, losing an arm was a horrible loss. For a long time, the knight would not be able to fight properly from losing his or her balance and speed. However, it was different for Lucien, a sorcerer. Losing a hand would not affect him too much.

After helping Bullard out, Carina turned around and said to Carina sincerely, "Mr. Lucien, thank you so much. We'll find a way for you to get your arm back later."

"We shall go to the energy core right now." Lucien could still feel the sharp pain in his cut, so he did not want to waste even a second. Turning around, he quickly ran toward the witch's lab. According to his observation, the energy core was close to the lab. However, neither Lucien nor Adam knew exactly where it was.

Lucien knew that the Congress was able to help him get his arm back, but he had to survive first. In order to survive, losing an arm was nothing to Lucien!

At the same time, to his surprise, after getting rid of the shackles and collar, Lucien was still not able to enter his spirit library or reach Rhine, as if there was some certain power in this place which blocked everything connected to the outside world.

After taking a few big steps, Lucien suddenly stopped and picked up his broken arm. Hanging the broken arm on his girdle, he continued to run toward the lab holding the huge axe under his armpit, and at the same time, cast defending spells on himself.

Carina and the rest of the adventurers felt what Lucien just did very creepy. However, knowing that they did not have much time to waste and the old witch might come back at any time, they followed Lucien quickly. Adam was the fastest one among them all.

…

The heavy sword in the flesh golem's hands fiercely struck downward, but Adam pounced on the golem directly with his body covered with a thick cluster of dark smoke.

As if the heavy sword just fell onto a pile of cotton, the hacking failed to do any damage. The darkness completely covered the edge.

A second later, when the darkness retreated. The golem's armor, as well as its body, became corroded by the dark smoke. Adam purposefully left the sword intact.

Alva knew that the sword was left for him. He quickly picked up the heavy sword on the ground. Adam probably did not need a weapon as he was very powerful, but Alva must have one.

On their way to the lab, because of Adam, the level five knight, and Lucien, the powerful sorcerer, all the golems guarding the key positions, as well as their leader, a level two flesh golem, had been easily killed by them. The magic item warehouse was not in this direction, so they did not have the time to find their items back first.

Right now they were very close to the core of the magic tower.

"The energy core was one of the forbidden areas in the tower, and it was protected by some very powerful magic circles. It's all on you now, man," Adam said to them cautiously. "If the witch notices what we are doing here, we're basically done."

Lucien slightly nodded. Although the magic tower of every senior-rank mage was more or less unique, their shared foundation was still The Guidebook to the Construction of Magic Towers and a Hundred and Seven Types of Magic Towers. Also, at that moment, the witch, which was the controller of the tower, was not in it, so Lucien was relatively confident that he could break the protecting magic circles, but he had no idea how long this was going to take.

He had to be very careful. One single mistake could alert the enemy or get himself killed by the senior-rank magic circles.

There was only one chance.

When Lucien was about to start, a strong wind blew from the other side.

Adam, in the darkness, instantly rushed in the direction. However, after a sharp cutting sound, Adam's figure appeared in the darkness again, but his face became pale.

In the corner to the right, a golem twice as tall as a man took a step forward with a huge hammer in its hand.

Its eyes were glowing in the red light, and its entire body was built with metal.

Chapter 320: The Contemporary Sorcerer VS. The Ancient Golem

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Steel golem, large construct, immune to bludgeoning and piercing from nonmagical weapons; immune to psychic attacks; immune to blessing, cursing, necromantic and death spells; immune to poison; immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form; Very high level of defence; immune to most elemental spells under the fifth circle; Can be damaged by strong acid; can be slowed down by electric shock or affected by strong magnetic field above the fifth circle. Dutiful, can understand commands; One of the most popular guards among sorcerers."

Lucien quickly retrieved the information in his mind to decide on his fighting plan.

The golem took a step backward and the floor slightly trembled due to its weight. The golem was so heavy that even itself was not able to maintain its balance all the time.

Carina did not waste a second hesitating. She summoned three dark green magic arrows and shot them directly at the golem.

The second circle spell, Acid Arrow!

The arrows did a little damage to the metal body of the golem, but it was nothing to the huge steel monster.

Dragging the heavy hammer, the golem started to run toward them. It was not very fast, but the floor was shaking.

Facing the steel monster, Lucien and the rest of them all felt nervous. The corridor was not very spacious, and the size of the golem made the whole space rather limited, thus they did not have much space to show their advantages as being swift and agile.

Lucien lifted his hand, and there were instantly countless colorful light spots surrounding the head of the golem. A second later, the piece of iron and steel covering the golem's head became thinner.

Carina was shocked seeing the effect of Lucien's spell. She could not believe that the power of Lucien's spell surpassed the golem's immunity and even dissolved part of the metal.

She had only read about something like this in legendary stories!

Although Elemental Order worked, Lucien knew that this was far from being enough. It seemed that he had to cast the spell for at least ten times in order to do some real damage to the golem.

Also, due to the rather limited space, the options of using other kinds of spells such as Lightning had all become impractical. In Lucien's mind, taking the golem to an open place should be the best plan for now.

However, this would bring them a problem. A steel golem worked like a robot and it only followed the preset command. Therefore, very possibly, the golem would only patrol a certain area instead of following them to another place. If they could not finish the golem as soon as possible, it was very likely to send the alert message to the witch!

Lucien was in a dilemma right now.

He wished that he had constructed the fourth circle spell, Distorted Magnetic Field, in his soul, as strong magnetic field could interfere with the golem's inner operation and slow down its movement, which was the most useful spell when a sorcerer faced a steel golem. However, with a missing arm, Lucien could not cast the spell using hand gestures.

At this time, an idea came to his mind. If the golem's inner operation system could be affected by a strong magnetic field, that spell should also be able to work.

Since electro-magnetic induction was discovered, lots of magnetic field spells had been invented. So, when the sorcerers were building steel golems, most of them chose to add the parts for resisting a strong magnetic field. Although they did not expect the parts to work perfectly, as parts like this contradicted the fundamental mechanism of building a golem, the parts were still relatively useful. At least a level five or even more powerful golem would not be easily defeated by a fourth-circle spell anymore—when electromagnetic spells first came out, many sorcerers' steel golems were destroyed or damaged by very simple spells. At that time, only those very precious Adamantine Golems or Mythril Golems could have a good chance to survive.

This was the development of the magic, and, obviously, the old witch was an ancient sorcerer!

Adam saw that the golem was coming for them, he forced himself to stand out to confront the monster. The air surrounding Adam had become dark because of his Darkness Blessing.

This was called Dark Assimilation, the top power among all dark Blessings. The power could turn all nearby things into darkness and devour them. However, using it would exhaust the user for at least a few minutes. Adam knew the consequence well, and he wished that Lucien could seize the chance and finish the golem with him as soon as possible.

The steel golem, as well as its heavy hammer, were surrounded by the dark ripples. The darkness was like the stomach of a monster, wriggling.

Lucien lifted his right hand and his lips moved slightly. Slow and invisible waves spread out into the darkness.

As if the darkness was startled, it suddenly retreated. Many parts on the steel golem became sunken, and right now it was sitting on the floor, trying its best to stand up again with the heavy hammer.

Adam was exhausted, and his figure reappeared in the corner. He felt dizzy from the spell cast by Lucien, and it was quite surprising for him since most spells would not be able to do so when he was part of the darkness. However, in Adam's eyes, the spell seemed to be not that useful, being far below the one Lucien cast before.

Adam knew that Dark Assimilation could absorb many spells, and probably that was the reason why Lucien's spell did not work very well. He wondered why Lucien did not want to wait until his attack finished, but he believed that the sorcerer had his own reasons.

"It's your turn now," Adam hurriedly said to Lucien using Secondary Telepathic Bond when the steel golem stood up again. Adam believed that if Lucien could cast the elemental spell for another two or three times, the golem which had been damaged by Dark Assimilation would reach its limit, as long as Carina knew when to use electric spells to slow down the golem.

Facing the powerful golem, there was nothing much that Alva and Bullard could do there.

Carina did not let Adam down. She pointed at the golem with her hand and countless small electric balls instantly smashed into the metal body. The golem thus became a bit slower.

Lucien's buffering time for another round of casting was over. When the golem stood up again, Lucien raised his right hand again and concentrated the slow and invisible waves, making them move forward.

"You guys step back. Carina, slow the golem further to help Lucien," Adam said to the adventurers, giving commands through their telepathic bonds.

The rest of the team followed Adam's instruction, however, before Adam finished his words, the body of the golem started to crack fiercely as if inside there was a big hammer thumping around.

The red light in the golem's eyes flicked. Then its big and heavy body hit the floor hard, making the entire floor shake from it.

"What?"

"What was it?"

"What kind of spell is it?"

Through the bonds, Lucien could hear their exclamations.

It was the fourth-circle spell, Professor's Infrasound Resonance!

Lucien released a light sigh. When he first created the spell, he had taken record of the inner vibration frequency of some most common creatures and constructs. However, the frequency of the golem was a bit different, and that was why the spell failed the first time.

Fortunately, after some quick modification, the penetrating and powerful infrasonic waves finally led to the resonance of the precise parts inside of the steel golem, and the destructive power was quite considerable.

If the power of casting was enough, Lucien could completely break up this huge piece of steel!

Like when those magnetic field spells were first invented, Lucien's spell using the power of resonance was destructive to metal constructs, and Professor's Infrasound Resonance had an even wider application.

"Adam, you take some rest. Alva and Bullard, stay alert." Lucien did not answer their questions but quickly commanded, "Carina, you help me with analyzing the magic circles outside of the energy core."

…

Probably due to the lack of resources, the magic circles outside of the energy core were nothing special, which saved Lucien a lot of time and trouble.

For ancient sorcerers, analyzing the magic circles was not an easy job. However, this was not that challenging for sorcerers from the Congress of Magic, as they had all kinds of materials for references and all they needed to do was to copy the methods available.

The different organizational forms and ways of conveying knowledge formed a huge gap between a contemporary and an ancient sorcerer!

After more than ten minutes, the gate of the energy core silently opened.

Countless colorful light beams from the energy wells and gardens joined together and became an afflux to the energy pool, providing pure energy to the different zones of the magic tower.

After roughly estimating where the core of the magic tower was based on the flowing direction of the energy beams, Lucien said to the adventurers, "I'll build a magic circle here to restrain the flow of energy. You guys stay here, and when you see the energy pool starts to boil, activate the magic circle instantly. This will give me about ten seconds to control the core, and you guys must leave the energy core room within the ten seconds, or you'd be turned into ashes by the gushing power."

Although Alva and Bullard's original plan was to run away, after seeing the power of Lucien's magic and Adam's Blessing, they started to believe that it was possible to control the magic tower, so they nodded solemnly together.

Carina asked, "But Mr. Lucien, have you got any materials for setting up the magic circle? We don't have anything with us…"

Lucien smiled and pulled out his broken arm from his girdle, "I'm a level two knight. My blood and flesh can be quite useful materials when building a necromantic magic circle. But as for the core part of the magic circle, we need Mr. Adam's flesh and blood…"

Adam laughed, "No problem."

As a level five grand knight, as long as he was not going to lose an arm or leg, his blood and flesh that were going to be taken away could easily grow back again.

Seeing that Lucien was talking about how to use his own flesh in such a calm way, Carina saw the ruthless and hardheaded soul under his elegant and polite appearance.

Chapter 321: The Old Witch

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Lucien started to draw the mysterious patterns surrounded by many circles using the blood and flesh from his broken arm. The patterns looked very creepy and it seemed that they contained the ultimate myths of the human body, the world, and the whole universe.

Carina stared at the magic circle that Lucien was building and murmured, "The three symbols represent spirit, consciousness and their carrier… They are at the same level, probably stands for the soul. The five symbols in the outer ring are the traditional symbols in the school of Necromancy, representing blood, bone, flesh, organ and life force… They might stand for the body. And the rest of the four symbols… sun, silver moon, stars, and darkness represent the world where an individual lives in. Is this a magic circle combining Necromancy and Astrology? And it seems that the different positions and lines have different functions…"

This was a very precious chance for Carina to learn about an advanced magic circle.

When he finished drawing the basic patterns of the necromantic magic circle named Miranda 12 Circles, Lucien turned the rest of the bone, blood, and flesh into some thick liquid. He used the liquid as ink and drew several special lines for connecting the twelve circles, surrounding the mysterious symbols.

Then he used the rest of the liquid as the magic conductor in the power passage of the magic circle. Using the flesh and blood from Adam, Lucien rebuilt the symbols standing for darkness, blood, and consciousness.

Lucien's spiritual power lit up the lines in the magic circle, and it felt that the light was full of life force. Very quickly, the circles were all integrated together, and the light was suddenly restrained within the area of the magic circle.

The magic circle now looked more organized, and every part had connected to each other as if the magic circle was alive. From some angles, the magic circle looked like a three-dimensional structure.

Carina saw the magic circle as a piece of artwork.

At this time, Lucien said to her, "Carina, when the energy pool starts to boil, you use your spiritual power to activate the symbol representing darkness."

Carina suddenly pulled her thoughts back.

Lucien repeated his words, and Carina hurriedly nodded with her flushed cheeks, "I will, Mr. Lucien."

He nodded, as trusting Carina was his only option right now. He had not managed to learn simulacrum spells to use a duplicate.

He turned to the two knights, "Alva and Bullard, you two protect Carina. Don't let anything distract her."

"As you command, Mr. Lucien," Alva and Bullard responded seriously.

Lucien nodded. Finally, he said to Adam, "Let's go to the central section."

"Yes!" Adam was very excited, as he had been waiting for this moment for several decades!

…

Bang! Bang!

Two steel golems fell onto the ground. Their limbs were still twitching.

Looking at the golems, Adam said to Lucien sincerely, "If I was all by myself here, it would be very difficult for me to finish even one golem because of the limited space. I have to say that you sorcerers are really powerful."

"This is the power of knowledge," Lucien answered briefly. He stared at the patterns of the magic circles on one of the golems and slightly shook his head, "Most things usually have their advantages and disadvantages. Without the magic circles, building a stronger layer of a metal shell for resisting magnetic field interference would be possible, but if that was the case, on the other hand, pure steel could not handle the power of a grand knight or the elemental spells. The solution could only be provided by the next evolvement of knowledge."

Adam did not really understand Lucien's words. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You probably want to crack the protection magic circle first. The old witch might come back at any time."

The magic circle at the center of the tower was way more complicated than the one in the energy core. Fortunately, it still followed the mechanism of most senior-rank magic circles. It took Lucien about an hour and a half to crack it.

This an hour and a half were beyond torturing to the prison breakers. Even Adam, the determined level five grand knight, could not avoid walking back and forth, feeling extremely anxious.

Lucien knew that Carina, Alva, and Bullard might also have reached their limit. At this time, even a common flesh golem could break their nerves.

However, because they were too far away from each other, Lucien could not contact them using Telepathic Bond. He had to trust them.

Seeing that Lucien opened the black gate, Adam released a long sigh and said, "This is the longest half an hour in my whole life. We're lucky that the old witch hasn't come back."

"Let's go. This isn't the end." Lucien stepped on the stairs behind the gate.

Having no idea what was waiting for them in the front, and also when the old witch would come back, Lucien too felt very nervous and anxious.

Adam's body was again covered by the dark mist, and he carefully followed Lucien to the stairs.

Suddenly, the stairs started to wriggle!

The gray wall and stairs quickly became as red as blood and flesh and they started to produce white and green acid. As soon as the acid touched the absorbing wall protecting Lucien, it made very disturbing sizzling noises.

Adam, although having turned himself into part of the darkness, was still slightly hurt by the acid, which was totally out of his expectation.

"Damn it!" swore Adam, "The acid shouldn't be able to hurt me!"

Lucien answered him through the telepathic bond, "It's the witch's special spell, not some common acid! It can corrode and digest one's soul!"

As he was saying, Lucien started to run as fast as he could. There was no way to deactivate the magic circle. Every time the old witch came back, the magic circle would work, but she must be always prepared for this.

This was one of the most effective ways for many sorcerers to protect the places that were important to them. Fortunately, both Lucien and Adam did not lower their guards, instead, they had equipped themselves with all kinds of protections very well.

The red stairs were wriggling like crazy, like a human being's intestine digesting food.

Struggling, Lucien and Adam climbed toward the way out crazily.

Like an open mouth, close to the exit, there were lips and teeth. However, right now the mouth was closing, as if there was a time limit for one to leave this place!

Using the spell Speed, Lucien and Adam moved very fast. The exit was closer and closer to them!

However, at this time, the absorbing wall had reached its limit and in the next second, it collapsed into shining pieces.

Lucien did not waste his time on casting Douglas' Absorbing Wall again, instead, he grabbed Adam's arm and used Short Distance Teleportation.

Following the flashing, Lucien and Adam appeared on the stairs a few steps away from the exit!

The spell could not move them far enough!

Lucien knew this well. Regardless of the sharp pain in his skin, he shot out like an arrow. Rushing through the teeth, he fell onto the thick carpet. He quickly dodged to the other side as Adam followed right behind him. Lucien felt a bit relieved and then started to look around.

That place should be the old witch's study. On one side, there were several rows of bookshelves. On the opposite side, a couple of beautiful statues of women were placed there. In the middle, there was a fancy desk, on which center there was a crystal ball. Inside the crystal ball, the mini model of the whole magic tower was displayed!

However, the old witch wearing the red robe was sitting right behind the desk!

Her skin sagged horribly and wrinkles covered her whole face.

Both Lucien and Adam were startled when seeing the witch!

When Lucien was about to cast spells, he realized that something was wrong here. So he hurriedly stopped Adam and said, "It's okay. It's just a mirrored reflection."

Adam was still very nervous, "Reflection?!"

"This is a sixth-circle spell that produces a mirrored reflection of the caster. The reflection could move and speak under the control of the caster as well, however, it cannot use magic. If we attack it, the witch will know," said Lucien, trying his best to slow down his own beating heart.

Then, Lucien started to cast spells to cure the wounds on himself and Adam left by the strong acid.

Adam complained, "The bloody witch looks crazy, but she's still very insidious."

After that, Lucien cast a few defensive spells on himself and then walked to the crystal ball, trying to analyze the controlling hub.

About almost an hour later, when it was already close to midnight, Lucien finally finished his analysis. He put his right hand on the crystal ball and started to cast the spell. He pierced his spiritual power into the crystal ball like a needle.

In order to control the crystal ball. Lucien must not only crack it but also remove the spiritual imprint in it left by the old witch!

His spiritual power swam around in the crystal ball through many obstacles and finally reached the core part, where the old witch's spiritual imprint was in.

Feeling the threat, the crystal ball suddenly lit up like a shining sun.

All the magic patterns and symbols in the crystal ball were shining, concentrating the power of the entire magic tower to kill the intruder.

In the energy core, Carina saw that the energy pool started to boil. She instantly activated the magic circle left by Lucien.

The twelve circles lit up at the same time, and the darkness from the magic circle suddenly filled up the whole space. Everything seemed to have been frozen.

Being very decisive, Carina, Alva, and Bullard hurriedly turned around and ran toward the gate in the darkness.

The energy flow had been cut off. The crystal ball lost the protection!

If Lucien failed to remove the spiritual imprint, he would die from the great energy that would bounce back.

Ten seconds… That was all Lucien had.

At this time, the mirrored reflection behind the desk suddenly started to become alive. The angry voice came from afar, "You two nasty flies! I'll turn you two into dried bodies!"

The life force in the reflection was getting stronger and stronger. Within a second, the old witch had come back!

The sixth-circle spell, Position Exchange!

After using this spell, the two preset targets within the range of five hundred meters could be connected together. Within a second, the two targets could switch their positions! This was probably this old witch's unique magic!

No one could ever look down upon a sorcerer, even if he or she was an ancient sorcerer!

Chapter 322: The Beholder

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

It was totally out of Lucien and Adam's expectation that the old witch would come back so fast.

Before trying to control the crystal ball, Lucien had carefully checked around to make sure that there was no teleportation circle in the core section. However, he did not expect that the witch could directly cast Position Exchange on her mirrored reflection!

If Lucien and Adam chose not to destroy the reflection, she could come back as soon as she sensed that the core section was being invaded; If they chose to attack the reflection, she would immediately be able to get the message and use other ways to come back in time.

Despite the craziness of the witch, she was also a very smart sorcerer!

However, right now Lucien was still working on removing the spiritual imprint in the crystal ball left by the old witch and could not let himself be distracted, so he wouldn't. Once he lost the chance to control the core, Lucien would never have any opportunities again to fight against the witch, a sorcerer at least of the seventh-circle!

Lucien had made up his mind. He did not even take a look at the old witch. Instead, he focused on the flow of his spiritual power in the crystal ball, regardless of whether or not Adam would run away and leave him alone here or whether or not his defense spells could handle any single attack from the old witch. He had decided to stay focused and seize the slightest hope!

When the old witch started to cast Position Exchange, Adam had to admit that the fear that had been piling up in the past so many years made him take a step backward. His body shook slightly and he felt that he probably would kneel down or run away at any time. However, he felt Lucien's great determination from the mind bond, and that gave him great courage as well.

Adam clenched his fists tight. He knew that he did not have a way to go back. If he was going to die, he would rather die in a bitter fight as a hero instead of a coward!

As a level five grand knight, his willpower in fighting was never absent, as it was the foundation of being a knight!

With a low growl, Adam turned himself into a cluster of black mist and jumped directly onto the old witch behind the desk, who just finished casting the position exchanging spell. As long as he could handle the first round of the witch's attack, Lucien would be able to have a few seconds during the witch's buffering time! That was their only hope!

Seeing the dark mist, the old witch started to scream. The sharp scream brought invisible magic waves that suddenly froze the mist. Like a piece of glass, the dark ripples collapsed and disappeared.

When Adam's figure appeared again, his head and the left side of his chest had been vitrified.

The sixth-circle spell, Dulag's Glass!

The spell could turn a creature or an item within a certain size into glass!

A single spell had disabled Adam. Thanks to his powerful life force as a grand knight, Adam did not directly pass out.

However, the two seconds that Adam earned for Lucien were precious. Lucien's spiritual power inside of the crystal ball started to spread and vibrate in a strange way all of a sudden. As the spiritual power produced the invisible waves and the waves extended, the whole space started to shake fiercely.

Spirit Swing, the relatively new research outcome of the Congress in the past fifty years, could help junior or middle-rank sorcerers remove the spiritual imprint in a magic item, and it worked especially well with ancient magic items!

This was why Lucien wanted to try to control the magic tower!

In the core of the crystal ball, the old witch's spiritual imprints started to break down. However, it was still an imprint left by a senior-rank sorcerer, so Lucien could not completely remove it within those two seconds.

This was a life-and-death fight between the modern magic system and an ancient sorcerer!

The old witch lifted her left hand on which there were two rings. One had a big, purple gem on it. It was Lucien's ring, Element. The other was a dark blue ring in a unique shape, decorated with many small precious stones.

Surprisingly, the old witch did not choose to cast Elemental Swirl on Lucien. She was probably concerned that the spell would hurt herself and damage her desk and all her precious collections in this room.

The dark blue ring lit up. Countless chains made of flesh and blood howled and lashed out at Lucien.

The sixth-circle spell, Howling Chain, was mainly for interfering with spell casting by constricting and cursing its victim!

The unearthly howl tried to sneak into Lucien's soul to distract him. However, Douglas' Absorbing Wall could handle the power of most spells under the fifth circle. Therefore, when the howling chain lashed on Lucien, although his Flame Shield instantly went out, the Absorbing Wall did not break into pieces until a second later.

Even one second was very precious for Lucien. As his spiritual power was vibrating more and more fiercely, more and more cracks appeared in the old witch's spiritual imprint.

The absorbing wall had disappeared. Stone Skin failed as well. The howling chain winded around Lucien's body and ulcerated his skin.

The howling definitely affected Lucien's brain and soul. Fortunately, the spell Mechanized Mind helped Lucien a little. Lucien felt that his soul was being pulled in different directions by countless crying ghosts. He felt piercing pain in his soul, that was becoming torpid.

However, Lucien's soul had become much stronger under the old witch's electric shock treatment. Right now, the power of his soul had reached the fifth circle. Also, because the power of Howling Chain had been reduced by the layers of protection Lucien cast on himself, he managed to stay focused despite the very uncomfortable feelings in his soul. When the vibration of his spiritual power peaked, the old witch's spiritual imprint was completely removed!

The old witch's experiment, in the end, helped Lucien!

In the next second, Lucien condensed his spiritual power and left his own imprint in the crystal ball.

The crystal ball burst out bright light and rose up in the air. In its center, all of the magic circles and symbols in the magic tower were very obvious.

Lucien cast a simple spell with the crystal ball, and instantly a beam of light surrounded by many magic symbols shot out from the wall on the left side. The light beam hit the red-blood chains and the chains immediately disappeared.

The sixth-circle spell, Advanced Dispel Magic!

As soon as the chains disappeared, Lucien cast another spell whose target was the old witch.

The seventh-circle spell, Antimagic Ray. It could remove the magic effects on its target and also produce a small antimagic field, in which the target could not cast any spells!

Although Lucien could only use the powerful spells built in the magic tower by the magic circles, for the first time, he genuinely felt the great power of being a senior-rank sorcerer.

The old witch just recovered from her casting buffering time. When she saw the ray, she angrily screamed again. And a big mirror drawn with many mysterious symbols appeared in front of her. The ray hit the mirror, and when it broke, the ray reflected back and hit Lucien. All of Lucien's magic effects for protecting himself were removed!

The mirror was the seventh-circle spell, Spell Turning!

Based on the caster's level and knowledge, the spell could even turn back a ninth-circle spell!

Lucien tried to extend his spiritual power, but it did not work. Fortunately, right now he could control the whole magic tower. He did not have to rely on himself to cast the spells.

Lucien used the seventh-circle spell, Forcecage, and trapped the old witch in the invisible force walls. The cage could only be broken by several special spells, such as Dissociation.

A magic tower did not have to wait for buffering!

When Lucien continued to cast spells, the old witch's left eyeball suddenly bulged out and became a yellowish-brown, wriggling sphere.

Like a newly-born cub, the sphere was covered with blood. In the center of it, there was a big, yellowish-brown eye. Small eyestalks crowned the sphere and extended out, connecting to the veins in the old witch's left eye socket!

It was a beholder! It was one of the most famous monsters in the Dark Mountain Range!

There was a seventh-circle spell that could turn the caster into a beholder temporarily. However, the old witch chose to turn her left eyeball into a beholder, as ancient sorcerers were very good at it! Thus, they did not have to wait for the bothering casting buffering time anymore.

Several green rays of the spell, Dissociation, were shot out from the small eyestalks, and at the same time, the big eye in the center released the antimagic ray.

Chapter 323: The Surprising Change

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The invisible force field was wiped out by the dissociation rays. Furthermore, the antimagic ray targeted the crystal ball in Lucien's right hand, trying to hit it and thus build a small antimagic field inside the crystal ball in order to cut off its connection to the magic tower.

Since Lucien had been hit by the antimagic ray, he could not cast any spells on his own for now. He slightly turned around and blocked the antimagic ray with his own right arm. At the same time, he continued casting the creepy spells with the magic tower. Since he was using the great power of the magic tower, hurriedly interrupting the chanting process would bring horrible damage to Lucien's soul from the backlash!

Several powerful flashes of lightning were summoned from the ceiling, turning the whole space into an ocean of lightning and thunder. Except for the desk and the floor carved with reinforcing magic symbols, the rest of the things in the study were destroyed completely.

The seventh-circle spell, Lightning Storm!

A piece of shadow embedded with complicated patterns instantly surrounded the old witch, safely protecting her from all the bolts of lightning.

The seventh-circle spell, Energy Immunity—Lightning!

Then the old witch's yellowish-brown eyeball launched colorful light rays again. Some could charm people; some could make them fall asleep; other could slow people down or turn people into stone. The eyeball in the center released the strong smell of death.

The seventh-circle spell, Finger of Death!

After this fierce round of attacks, the old witch's left eye now looked dim. The eyeball had to wait for a while before launching the next round.

In most cases, no beholder would fight like this. The different eyestalks would cooperate with each other and fight using strategies to make sure that they would not run out of their spells. However, right now it seemed that the old witch had lost her mind, or maybe there were other reasons.

Lucien put his hand on the crystal ball and summoned Forcecage again to protect himself.

The colorful rays hit the force field cage but could not go through it, until the green dissociation ray quickly broke the cage down.

If the witch had not lost her mind, she could have launched the dissociation ray in the first place. If that was the case, Lucien would have been in great trouble!

After this round of attack, Lucien saw that the old witch quickly took a glance at the several statues of beauties in the corner to her right.

Lucien was very surprised. He did not notice the fact that the statues remained completely intact from the flashes of lightning. Why did the old witch choose to protect them so well?! Were they even more important than her magic books?!

However, right now he did not want to waste any time on thinking about it. Lucien quickly cast another spell and a huge hand with sharp nails broke out from the floor. The hand tried to grab the statues in the corner.

The seventh-circle spell, Sajeman's Ice Hand Prison!

The magic tower's power also had its limit. Including the spells that Lucien had used, there were nine kinds of spells altogether. Lucien wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible, as once he used up all the magic tower's spells, the old witch could easily kill him.

Therefore, as soon as he noticed that there was something wrong with the statues. Lucien decisively switched his target.

The old witch screamed angrily, and black miasma spread out. Adam, who just recovered from the witch's spell and was climbing to his feet on the corner suddenly felt completely exhausted.

The seventh-circle spell, Dying Waves. This was a spell enchanted in her magic robe, as she was still waiting for the buffering time.

Lucien did not panic. He calmly finished chanting a spell. Then, a dark ray shot out from the wall and the ray instantly built up a small antimagic field around Lucien.

When the waves died out before reaching Lucien, the statues in the corner burst out bright light and countered the power of the hand.

Within Lucien's expectation, they were not just common statues.

As soon as Lucien entered the study, he felt it very strange that the old witch would want to put some statues of beauties there to make herself upset. Also, if the witch's body and soul had been cursed so badly, why was she still alive?!

Lucien believed that the old witch would put all of her most important things in the core section of the magic tower!

Lots of thoughts filled his mind. The crystal ball rose into the air and a red light ray shot out at the statues!

The seventh-circle spell, Ruby Reversion Ray, could remove the strongest defending effect of the target!

After the several rounds of attack, some of the defending magic circles on the statues had been worn out. When the ruby ray hit them, one of them lost all its protections and the original color of the statue was revealed.

The old witch went crazy. She immediately gave up attacking Lucien and instead turned her force field into a huge palm. The palm grabbed the statue and brought it back to the old witch.

Obviously, these statues were the weakness of the old witch. Lucien seized the chance and summoned a powerful lightning again.

At this time, a beauty statue was struck into pieces. A piece of soul disappeared together with the lightning.

The old witch suddenly aged. Her back bent forward even further, and her left eye instantly became sunken.

The old witch put part of her life in the statues!

Lucien continued casting. More and more bolts of lightning were summoned. And the statues were broken into pieces one by one.

The old witch's flesh started to rot. She could not use magic anymore.

Lucien saw victory, but at the same time, he could not help doubting himself. How come he could just kill a senior-rank mage like this?

The old witch had been making mistakes choosing what spells to use from the very beginning. Fortunately, Lucien's guess with the statues was correct…

At this time, he heard Adam's voice in his mind, "Good for you, man! You killed the witch! We're free now!"

"I'm not sure about it, Adam…" Lucien murmured.

Then he saw a creepy smile on the old witch's face.

"…?!"

When Lucien was just about to take actions, the magic tower started to shake fiercely. Chunks of bricks and stones started to fall down…

Lucien's vision became blurry. He passed out in the darkness.

…

Lucien saw light again. However, when he instantly tried to sit up, he found that both of his arms and legs were tied up by something.

"Good, very good. Your foundation to learn magic is very solid." The old witch giggled, "The development of magic in the recent several hundred years is really impressive…"

Lucien was shocked. He saw the old witch, wearing the red magic robe as usual, walking back and forth in the lab. Lucien was lying on the table as if he had just received another round of the electric shock treatment.

"What…" He was confused.

The old witch was quite proud of herself and said, "Dream Casting, sixth-circle. I've seen the spells you know and how developed the current magic system is."

Lucien was still confused when knowing that the escape adventure was just a dream. However, this explained the many questions that he had had in his mind: why he could not use his spirit library after getting rid of the collar; why he failed to contact Rhine; and why the witch made so many mistakes during the fight…

"I have to say that your so-called Arcana has impressed me." The old witch seemed to be in a pretty good mood, "I'll take you to the underground remain, where there's a maze in it. I hope that you can surprise me."

Lucien quickly calmed down and bargained, "Ms. Eudora, I think I can do a better job for you without the collar."

"No problem. I'll free you before entering the maze." As she was a powerful sorcerer, Lucien was not a threat to her.

Lucien followed the old witch to the ground floor of the magic tower. Then, they walked downstairs to the underground passage.

The passage paved with huge stone slabs had a height of five or six meters and a width of seven to eight people side by side. The slabs were carved with pictures of ancient people fighting against monsters from the underground world.

"Magnificent…" Lucien said sincerely.

The old witch did not say anything. Everything down here was more than familiar to her.

At the end of the passage, there were ten gates. Each gate had different, mysterious patterns on them.

Pointing at the gray gate in the middle, the old witch said, "Here, the maze."

Lucien saw that the patterns on the gate were quite familiar. They looked like mathematical symbols. So, he asked confusedly, "What is in the maze? I could be more prepared if you told me."

"There's no monster in there. Just… difficult questions." The old witch looked a bit upset. Then, she removed Lucien's collar and shackles and urged him to enter the maze.

Feeling that his spiritual power had recovered, Lucien pushed open the gate and slowly walked into the maze. If there were no monsters in there, it should be a pure intelligence maze.

As soon as he entered it, the gate behind him closed silently. Lucien, with his dark vision, saw himself standing on a bridge with no ends, in the middle of nowhere. He was confused once more. He took a couple of steps ahead and saw stars appearing in front of his eyes. Then, the stars connected to each other and formed a line of words.

"Prove that any even number larger than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers."

"What…?" The question was totally out of Lucien's expectation. Then the stars formed more mathematical questions.

The questions looked very familiar to Lucien. It seemed that they were all from the exercise book that Lucien once read before—Demidovich Problems in Mathematical Analysis.

The mathematical symbols, numbers, equations, and hypotheses moved around Lucien's head and made him feel dizzy. Suddenly, the darkness broke into pieces and light came in again.

Lucien opened his eyes and shook his head. When he looked around, he saw Elvis, who should have been dead in the Black Forest.

Elvis covered his nose and mouth with his hand, where blood was dripping down. He said to Lucien angrily:

"What the hell is it in your head?!"

Translator's Thoughts

Kris_Liu Kris_Liu

Many thanks to SRandom for correcting my translation on the math problem!

Chapter 324: The Reason for All of These (The End of Volume IV)

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Lucien looked around and realized that he was in the small cabin where he lived in when he found Elvis. Everything looked the same in the cabin, including the strong alcohol smell lingering in the air. Right now Lucien was sitting in a wooden armchair, while Elvis was sitting on his left side next to the fireplace. Lucien could still hear the noise outside, from the adventurers' campsite. The only difference was that the wooden ladle that should be in Elvis's hand was now on the floor, and the copper pot fell over in the fire. The tomato cream soup that spilled out from the pot made the fire sizzle.

Lucien realized what was going on here and the words escaped his lips, "Your Excellency… Nightmare King?"

Elvis did not deny, although his face looked gloomy, "Are you… really a middle-rank mage?"

Lucien recalled the mathematical exercises in the maze in his dream. He put on a slightly awkward smile and answered, "I've been working on my fundamental mathematics, so the questions should be mostly for senior-rank mages."

Pausing a little, Lucien switched the topic, "Your Excellency, may I ask why did you put me into the dream? And… am I still in another dream?"

Waking up from his dreams twice, everything felt so real and also not real. Lucien was confused with the difference between dream and reality. Although he had successfully entered his spirit library, Lucien was still not sure whether he had come back to reality.

This was the most creepy magic that Lucien had ever seen!

Elvis—no, Lucien should respect him as the Nightmare King—looked very serious. Stennis, the Nightmare King, said to him, "An old friend of mine requested my help. He thinks your level of magic cannot match your arcana level. So he asked me to put you into a dream constructed by me and let you go through things in the dream to fully develop the potential of your soul. You may feel it right now."

Hearing that, Lucien immediately entered his meditation world. He felt something real in this virtual world. Hurriedly opening his eyes, Lucien was very surprised, "It is stronger… Now the power of my soul is indeed at the fifth-circle level. Is it because of the electric shock from the old witch? No… it was a dream, but what I experienced in the dream helped me in reality…"

Lucien's soul was now as strong as a fifth-circle sorcerer, however, it would still take some time for his spiritual power to catch up.

The Nightmare King, slightly nodded, "All the dreams were built upon your own cognition foundation, mental activities, and your own memories. What you have experienced in your dream has also affected your body and soul. However, for most people, the power from their dreams was too weak for them to make any actual signs of progress. In this world, I am the only one who can make the full use of dreams and use them to develop the potential of one's soul. Of course, a person's potential is also based on his or her actual power. Using dreams cannot solve all the problems."

"I see…" Lucien finally realized why the dream about the old witch was a bit weird, for example, the part when the old witch asked the mirror who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Lucien asked subconsciously, "So, electric shock can improve the strength of my soul?"

Stennis put on a cold smile, "What do you think?"

"…Never mind," answered Lucien awkwardly. He had so many questions to ask, but finally, he chose the most bothering question in his mind, "Your Excellency, how can I tell the difference between dream and reality? How do I know if I'm still in a dream?"

Stennis was more than used to questions like this. He put on a vicious smile like the old witch and said, "Why is it so important? What is a dream? What is the reality? They are both your response to the outside stimuli. When my class reaches the highest level, maybe I will be able to create a dream of reality."

"So, that being said… if my certain response in my dream cannot be predicted or is mistakenly designed by the dream maker, that would be the time for me to know what is a dream and what is reality." Lucien murmured. At the same time, he thought to himself that he could also get out of a dream if his cognition world way surpassed the cognitive ability of the dream maker, and probably the dream maker's head would explode because of this. Lucien thus decided to try to think about something complicated later such as the wave-particle duality of light or quantum theories to testify if he was still in a dream.

Stennis was quite impressed with Lucien's answer, "Good. No wonder my friend appreciates your talent. In fact, in your dream, I was trying to avoid things related to arcana research. In the maze, I also purposefully chose the field of mathematical basis, but it turned out…"

The look on Stennis's face was a bit complicated.

"No wonder the old witch wasn't interested in arcana at all!" Lucien was suddenly enlightened, and then he laughed, "So you were playing the role of the old witch. I have to say that your playing was quite impressive."

Stennis said seriously, "Technically speaking, I'm only one part of the role of the old witch. The other part of the witch consisted of your own fear. By the way, I am also Adam, Carina, Alva, Ophelia, and Bullard."

Lucien was a bit embarrassed knowing that this dream was all about him, so he hurriedly asked another question, "So… bringing a letter to you isn't the true task. The task is an opportunity for me to be able to see you and get myself improved in your dream, is that right? Can I know who your friend is? I'd like to know who I should be grateful to…"

A friend of the Nightmare King… Lucien guessed that the person must be a legendary archmage.

Stennis was a bit gloomy, "This was also a test. If you failed to bring the letter here, you would not be the person that my friend is looking for. As for my friend… he probably appreciates your talent and potential and wants you to be his student. You should have already experienced something strange like a test for you before."

That reminded Lucien of his strange experience in the castle, but it seemed to be true that the legendary archmage, Viken, also had something to do with the missing legendary archmages including Maskelyne. Lucien was confused, having no idea whether what happened in the castle was just a pure test or a combination of things, so he asked again, "May I know…"

"You'll know when you get back to the Congress." It seemed that Nightmare King was very reluctant to mention his friend's name, "The letter you were bringing is actually a special magic scroll. A fatal attack can activate the scroll and bring you back to a certain Demiplane. If you want to save some time getting back to the Congress, you can activate it on your own."

Lucien guessed that the special scroll was at least of ninth circle, and he wondered how valuable it was. Lucien knew that he would feel really regretful if he had somehow lost the scroll.

At the same time, he also stopped blaming the Congress of Magic, because, after all, they never meant to put him in mortal danger.

Then, Stennis waved his hand to Lucien and said, "You may leave now. I'm going back to the magic tower now."

"Yes, Your Excellency." Lucien stood up.

The power of Lucien's soul had surpassed the fifth circle, and his arcana knowledge was never a problem, but the only problem was that his knowledge in illusion and transformation spells was still insufficient. Lucien at least should make sure that his fundamental knowledge in all fields was solid. He was deeply impressed by Nightmare King's power, and that made him want to know more about the magic in other fields.

Stepping out of the cabin, the strong smell of alcohol in the campsite sneaked into Lucien's nose. Feeling relaxed after completing the task, he walked casually in a good mood. However, a question suddenly jumped into his mind:

As an ancient sorcerer, why did Nightmare King suffer a recoil when seeing the mathematical questions in Lucien's brain? If he totally had no idea of what those questions were, he could just let Lucien himself complete the dream.

…

In the cabin, Stennis, Nightmare King, did not leave immediately. Instead, he murmured to himself,

"Enclosed devil's place… High tower as a prison… These are the things that he fears the most. It seems that these are the representatives of this world. But why does he feel imprisoned in this world…

"Staying calm in danger… it's a very good quality. But when Ophelia died, he accelerated his pace to escape the tower. This reveals the fact that his mindset has been greatly changed probably because his friends or family members were once hurt or even died before.

"As for Adam… Adam should be the collective reflection of the male friends who have helped him before. Someone once sincerely helped him, and once also tried to make use of him. Carina represented his female friends. There were things ambiguous and romantic in the dream. And that means he's still not sure about his inner feelings, or he feels very worried about these things.

"After becoming a prisoner, he had the hope that the Congress would send legendary archmages to save him. So he is more or less mentally dependant on the powerful people who once helped him.

"The old witch was smart, vicious and crazy, representing the enemies he has encountered so far. The Church, the ancient sorcerers, the arcanists… but why was the representative a female?

"Furthermore, what does the electric shock stand for? Why did the old witch ask the mirror who was the most beautiful woman in the world?

"He's definitely got the side that was decisive and coldhearted, as he was willing to lose an arm to bring himself a chance to escape. But no one actually died in the fight when he tried to escape, which means he's still got a soft side in his mind, and he valued friendship and help a lot.

"As for the underground remains… This is a secret in his mind. Maybe it is the representation of real remains somewhere. Also, his unique magic is pretty interesting, and his ways of removing the magic circles and spiritual imprint were also quite smart."

Opposite Stennis, there was a wood armchair. A figure sitting in the armchair slowly appeared. An elder man wearing a bright red robe had mixed white and black hair but still looked hale and hearty. His red eyes stared at Nightmare King vigorously as he said, "The progress that arcana researches have made way surpassed the achievements of the ancient magic empire. Stennis, get real. Don't let yourself go too far in the wrong direction."

Stennis remained silent for a while and said, "Give me some more arcana books, then. But I don't want the books related to what appeared in the boy's dream. They're… a bit too much for me."

Translator's Thoughts

Kris_Liu Kris_Liu

Congratulations arcanists and ancient sorcerers!

We've completed this volume! And more great stories of Lucien's adventure are waiting for us ahead! Thank you for being with us!

Chapter 325: Decision (Volume Five: Crimson Moon)

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The ocean wind from Storm Strait drove away the dryness and heat in Allyn. The fine drizzling rain was very refreshing.

Standing beside the window in his own study and looking at the bright flowers in the garden outside, Lucien was lost in his thoughts.

…

Because the power of his soul had been greatly developed, Lucien had to consolidate the remaining part of his foundation. Also, he was eager to know who was waiting for him in the Congress. Therefore, Lucien activated the precious magic scroll and returned to Allyn together with Leo.

Before he left, Lucien found Natasha and told her what had happened.

On the previous night, in a manor outside of Aalto, after carefully listening to Lucien's narrative, Natasha smiled and nodded, "It makes sense. You're talented and full of potential, so no matter how terrible the inner conflict in the Congress is, those sorcerers should never send you out for such a dangerous task. By the way, who's gonna be your teacher?"

Natasha believed that Lucien would not say no to that mysterious legendary archmage. Since the archmage had been observing Lucien for a while, he must have already talked to and convinced those other important sorcerers who also intended to have Lucien to be their student. Also, his way of testing Lucien was not cruel or vicious, instead, it was rather proper and considerate, which meant that the archmage knew Lucien quite well. And becoming the student of a legendary archmage was definitely an honor.

Lucien put on a slightly awkward smile and said, "I don't even know who he is. I hope that what he specializes in is also what I am interested in."

Natasha was very happy for Lucien. She had a big smile on her face, "I can assure you that your teacher is not Hathaway. Her personality isn't like this. Don't worry, Lucien. Most legendary sorcerers in the Congress are not that horrible, as long as you don't have major conflicts with them. As a student, as long as you study hard, you would not be given a hard time. I believe in you, Lucien."

Natasha herself was also a student of a legendary knight—Bellia, known as God's Glory, the leader of Sword Brothers. So she knew quite a lot about it.

Then Natasha looked more serious, "You're going to be a legendary archmage's student, and you're also the winner of Holm Crown prize. I'm sure that you'll gather quite a lot of attention from the Church, including the cardinals and grand cardinals from those parishes. So… I'm afraid that I have to rush John's family to take actions now."

"You always know what is on my mind, Natasha." Lucien also looked more serious, "I didn't expect that something important like this would come to me so fast. I thought we still had time. You know how important this thing is to me, Natasha. Please, I owe it to you."

Natasha rubbed her chin slightly and smiled, "No worries. I'll take care of it. But you cannot stay in Aalto any longer. The Church can be crazy."

Then, they hugged each other to say goodbye. When she turned around and walked away, Lucien looked at her from behind with all kinds of emotions in his eyes. After finding Leo, who was waiting for him nearby, Lucien activated the precious magic scroll and went back to Allyn with Leo.

The hyperspace jump made Lucien's soul and brain feel extremely dizzy. He was not sure whether he was traveling at a very high speed or the space structure was being reorganized. Without the protection of the scroll, Lucien would have already been lost.

After reaching a demiplane where lightning and thunder were flashing and roaring in the air, Lucien started to reflect on how the magic scroll worked. However, his thinking was then interrupted by the second round of fast movement. The power of the magic scroll dragged Lucien and Leo shifting and jumping between the different dimensions until they arrived at a small hill near Allyn.

From the position of the silver moon and the stars, minus the time difference Lucien assumed, the space jump took them about half an hour—which was only about the time that a high tea in Holm would cost.

…

The window started to become a bit foggy, which was usually very rare to see in June. However, because of the special location of Allyn, Lucien was quite used to it.

He released a sigh when thinking of John and his family.

A while later, when his feeling of guilt slowly quieted down, something new started to bother him.

Lucien had finally decided to stop denying his feeling and lying to himself—he had confessed to himself that he admired Natasha. He had no idea when this affection started to accumulate, but he could feel it grow stronger and stronger especially after he had gone through those great dangers.

He wanted to take actions. Being practical as he always was, he started to analyze the current situation calmly and work on making a whole set of plans to win Natasha's heart.

Natasha was a knight believing in the God of Truth and Lucien was a sorcerer studying arcana, so there was the fundamental conflict between them. Fortunately, because of the love story between her mom and father, Lucien could still have a great chance to convince her if he was patient enough and could take it easy. However, the biggest problem was that Lucien could not give up studying arcana and move back to Aalto for Natasha, and it was also very unlikely to happen that Natasha would be willing to leave her father and give up the entire duchy for Lucien.

Also, Lucien was not sure whether Natasha only liked women. If she still liked maleness, Lucien also wondered what kind of man Natasha was fond of and what he should do…

…

Lucien had so many thoughts in his mind. Having zero experience in romantic relationships, he realized that, in his mind, he had already started to deal with the difficulties that he assumed Natasha and he would encounter after getting married. And he had to admit that this was not easy.

At this time, someone was knocking at the door and that brought Lucien back to the reality.

"Yes, Leo?" Lucien knew that it was his new butler outside.

Leo opened the door and said to Lucien respectfully, "My lord, the Will of Elements wants to see you."

Lucien wondered if his teacher was going to finally show up. Calming himself down, he put on his black top hat and said, "Get me a coach, Leo."

After Leo left, Lucien slightly clenched his fists and made a temporary plan for himself: he would write one more letter to Natasha every month! Although he knew that winning Natasha's heart was rather hard, he would not easily give up. Right now, he should first work on improving his magic and arcana level.

…

Late at night, outside of the Inquisition of Violet, a fat figure approached the inquisition very carefully. However, the figure looked rather hesitant, as it tried to walk in the building but had failed a few times.

"Alisa, what are you doing here?!"

The cold voice startled the figure, Alisa, and she hurriedly turned around.

It was Joel, who languished in the past few days.

Alisa shivered, but she still disputed, "I'm… I'm doing what Evans told us to do."

"But can you?!" Joel asked sternly in a low voice.

Alisa raised her voice pitch and answered in pain, "What else can I do? Waiting for the day to come when John and Iven are tied to the gallows?! There's nothing much to regret if we die! But… but they're still young… They should have a bright future!"

"It's not gonna happen… Don't scare yourself." Joel felt Alisa's pain, so he hugged her and gently patted on her back, "John's a knight, serving the Violet Family. The punishment of being deceived by a sorcerer isn't that horrible. The inquisition would carefully investigate it. They won't be put onto the gallows…"

Alisa hurriedly shook her head, "It's not true. I heard it from the several noble ladies earlier tonight that some knights ended up rather miserably because they failed to draw a clear line between themselves and the sorcerers, and then the inquisition found it out. Say… the family of Thistle in the War of Dawn. I know John can't do it. So… as his mother, I will do this for him. I'm willing to bear all the pain and sufferings."

Joel said to Alisa angrily but also helplessly, "Are you out of your mind, Alisa?"

"It's enough, mom, dad."

Joel and Alisa heard the familiar voice. It was John, followed by his younger brother, Iven.

He looked the same, but his blond hair looked a bit messy.

"Iven, you take care of mom and dad. I'll do the rest of it, as a knight." John slightly sighed and then walked toward the Inquisition in firm strides.

"John!" Alisa called his name from behind.

John did not stop. He slightly closed his eyes and murmured, "To make sure they are safe… To make sure you won't be threatened…"

…

The Will of Elements, Allyn branch.

Lucien met Gaston again and was about to return the monocle to him.

"Just keep it, as your reward for the mission." Gaston was being very generous. As long as Lucien could become the student of the legendary archmage, the archmage's connection to the Will of Elements would definitely get reinforced.

Lucien nodded and put the monocle back. Then he asked out of curiosity, "Isn't Mr. Raventi here today?"

"He isn't in a very good mood recently," answered Gaston, with a strange smile on his face. "Follow me. You know why you're here today, right?"

Lucien nodded, and then he followed Gaston into a small meeting room behind his office.

In the meeting room, there were three men and two women. One of the female sorcerers looked a bit like Natasha, but she seemed rather cold. Next to her sat a short elder man with red eyes. And a little farther away from them sat Morris, Florencia, and Thompson.

Lucien guessed that the female sorcerer who looked rather cold should be Hathaway. As for the short elder man sitting beside her… Wait! Wasn't he the creepy old guy in the library?

Lucien had a not very good foreboding.

The short elder man said to him with a meaningful smile on his face, "Lucien, I think you could have impressed me better."