Chapter 50: Assault!
Chapter 50: Assault!
The Cain Family Mansion
Returning from Jason's place, William went straight to the underground laboratory upon entering the house.
Locking the door behind him, William needed a quiet space to organize the important information he had just acquired.
Listing down all the names, positions, and demands on paper, William tapped his index finger on the wooden table, silently calculating in his mind.
What Jason said indeed shed light on many things.
It seemed inevitable that this war would happen; the only difference was when it would erupt and what the catalyst would be.
Looking at the information Jason provided on paper, William felt a headache coming on; there were just too many people involved.
Duke Ram of the Eastern Territory did have enough power to covertly push things forward, but at most, he could only stir trouble at the border. To control everything in the capital, the power of Duke Ram alone was insufficient.
As for the numerous court nobles, their demands did carry considerable influence. However, William knew that the leader of the court nobles was Duke Harold.
If Duke Harold wanted to arrange this matter, Jason wouldn't have disclosed this information to him.
Headache, oh headache!
Since it wouldn't be the people Jason mentioned, then who would it be?
Who has the capability to plot an assassination during the Kingdom's Annual Holy Festival, and enough power and wealth to manipulate the prices of the Kingdom's food and weapons commodities?
Who could it be?
Where else could I gather intelligence from?
William shook his head in frustration, feeling like he was missing something.
Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his mind, and William slapped his thigh.
Yes, how could he forget about this person?
Camus from the Academy!
He had always found this person suspicious, and now, thinking about it, he should be able to get information about the mastermind behind the scenes from him.
What should he do?
Should he have Welf bring Camus back by force?
That would be too exaggerated. What if it alerted the person behind him and got himself killed prematurely?
Take it slow, take it slow.
He still had time; there were two months left until the Annual Holy Festival.
He needed to plan carefully.
As William pondered how to extract the information he needed from Camus, little did he know that Camus was about to come to him willingly.
---
A few days passed.
William spent several days studying arcane arts at home, not stepping out at all, as if he had returned to the time in his past life of grinding games.
That's why people like William, who are adept at grinding, are very suitable to become wizards.
Both are homebodies, able to sit still, and can grind all night without feeling anything.
But today, William did come out. Jason had someone notify William to visit the villa on Gedo Street.
Perhaps there was more news about the previous matter?
After changing out of his colorful clothes, which had been stained by the experiments in the arcane arts, and tidying up, William prepared to go out.
As usual, after having Welf check around the mansion to ensure no one was watching, he waved his hand, indicating Welf didn't need to follow, and confidently slipped out from the back door.
After days of continuous rain, the entire Fis Street had been cleaned anew, with a lingering dampness in the air.
Should he research an arcane art to avoid rain next time? Last time, in his haste to find Jason, even with a raincoat, he couldn't withstand the heavy rain, and by the time he returned, he was practically soaked through.
These past few days, he had developed several new arcane arts. Feeling quite pleased with himself, William's confidence soared. He even thought about finding Jason again to practice.
Heh heh~
Just as William reached the corner of the alley, preparing to turn towards Gedo Street, suddenly, a figure in a black cloak flashed from the adjacent alley, sprinting to a spot five meters in front of William.
The person clasped their hands together, then slammed their right hand onto the ground, conjuring a complex magic array emitting a white light that enveloped William and the figure in black.
The figure in black rejoiced inwardly, finally caught you alone, William!
'To avoid being detected by that golden warrior, I've been lurking in this alley far from the mansion for several days!'
Seeing the familiar formation on the ground, William's expression changed abruptly.
"Damn, a short-range directional magic teleportation circle?"
Although he was willing to give potential enemies a chance, he didn't expect the other party to go straight for the kill.
William didn't even glance at the prompt from the system that popped up at this moment, not daring to waste any time. Being teleported to an unknown location wouldn't bode well.
And there was no way to escape either. Once the circle locked onto you upon activation, even if you ran out of the radiant city now, you'd be immediately pulled back to complete the teleportation.
With a flash of green light, the emerald wand appeared in William's hand, and a gust of wind blade struck towards the figure in black.
Immediately, without caring whether the wind blade was effective, three clusters of blue bombs, emitting dangerous auras, gathered around William and were hurled towards the figure in black.
Then, without a second thought, William tossed aside the emerald wand, and with another flash of light, a longsword gleaming with an eerie coldness appeared in his hand.
This was the longsword William obtained after acquiring the proficiency in various weapons skill, specially prepared by Welf for himself. Although it wasn't enchanted, it was sharp and sturdy enough for William to use now.
William raised the longsword and fiercely slashed at the white magic circle on the ground.
Rubble flew, and the centimeter-thick magic circle was cut open by the longsword in William's hand, leaving a small gap.
There's hope!
William's eyes lit up. It seemed that this teleportation circle only had the most basic magic circle protection attached to it. He had a chance to break it before it activated!
It seemed that this was a low-level teleportation circle, with an activation time of at least fifteen breaths. There should be enough time!
Just as William attempted to destroy the magic circle, the pre-released spell attacks also reached the figure in black.
The foremost wind blade directly collided with the defensive spell the figure in black had cast in advance, shattering without causing any ripples.
But William didn't expect a single wind blade to disrupt the opponent. The most important thing was to see the following three blue bombs.
The first blue bomb collided with the defensive spell the figure in black had cast, exploding, and the blue flames spread along the edge of the spell shield, quickly breaking through the first defensive spell with blue flames.
What's going on? Isn't he just a novice mage?
How could a blue bomb easily break the defensive spell I, a mid-level mage, cast?
Something's wrong! It's not right!
But the figure in black didn't have time to think carefully.
There was still one layer of elemental shield in front of him, which couldn't withstand the remaining two blue bombs!
Unfortunately, he still needed to maintain the activation of the teleportation circle and couldn't spare any magic.
With a grimace, the figure in black took out two magic scrolls from the storage ring on his left hand, enduring the pain and directly infused magic into them to activate the spells recorded in advance.
"Fourth-circle spell: Advanced Elemental Shield!"
"Fourth-circle spell: Advanced Force Field!"
In fact, the Advanced Force Field had very poor protection against magical attacks, but the figure in black didn't care about that much. The expensive cost of the directional teleportation circle had been brought out. If the mission wasn't completed, he would truly have no way out!
A fourth-circle spell scroll was nothing.
Under the tense gaze of the figure in black, the second blue bomb collided with the remaining elemental shield, and this low-level spell didn't have much effect before it shattered.
The blue bomb, carrying its remaining momentum, smashed onto the just-formed advanced elemental shield.
Boom!