Chapter 545: A Big Sewing Needle
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Glen Heights
A day pa.s.sed quickly. The next morning, the people of Glen Heights woke up as usual. They started up their stoves to make breakfast. Soon, plumes of smoke mixed with the white fog of the mountain air.
Woof, woof! Some dogs barked from town entrance, meaning that strangers had entered again. But the barking quickly died down, which meant that the strangers were ordinary. There wasn"t anything abnormal on the surface.
This seemed to be the case.
At the entrance, an ox-driven cart carried seven or eight foreigners into Glen Heights. There were both men and women with worn clothing and tired faces. They also had some very crude metal weapons at their waists.
This type of group was extremely common in Glen Heights. They were mercenaries who wanted to change their lives. They would enter the southern jungle to try their luck at collecting valuable goods like rare and pretty birds, valuable herbs, furs, and more.
On average, 30 in every 100 mercenaries would die in the jungle. Of the other 70, more than 60 would only make enough to survive. The remaining few would earn much more in comparison. There would also be one lucky guy who could make a fortune.
These mercenaries were dressed poorly. The people and dogs of the village were used to people like them and didn"t even spare them an extra glance.
After entering Glen Heights, the mercenaries got off the cart. They would usually find somewhere in the village to rest, eat a meal, and enter the forest after refres.h.i.+ng themselves.
There was a woman amongst this group; she looked to be around 30 years old. Her features were plain, her body was fat, and her greasy long hair was piled carelessly on her head. She held two axes and wore ragged leather armor. She joked around with the mercenaries, vulgar words streaming out of her mouth.
The woman walked with the mercenaries down the road. When she pa.s.sed a small building, she glanced over casually and then continued walking.
Everything looked normal.
The small building they"d pa.s.sed by had a large yard. This was where Ethereal Prince Haromed hid. Link"s group was observing the mercenaries in the yard.
"This is the third group of mercenaries this morning," Link whispered. "Evelina, do you think that woman looks like Ariel?"
Evelina shook her head without thinking. "No way. Arial is a n.o.ble elfin princess. She would never make herself look that ugly. Look at her hair. It looks as disgusting as a piece of t.u.r.d."
Celine shook her head too. "I don"t think so either. She"s probably just a regular mercenary."
"Should we test her?" Eliard asked.
As soon as he finished, Evelina pointed at the female mercenary and uttered, "Go!"
A thumb-sized pebble flew up from the ground and whooshed toward the back of the woman"s head. It was as fast as lightning. If the woman was. .h.i.t, her head would explode, and she would die.
Half a second later, the pebble had crossed 1000 feet and was at the mercenary"s head, but she was still clueless. She was joking with a man beside her and even reached out to hit him. The man laughed and jumped to the side with a sleazy expression.
In the last instant, Evelina stopped the pebble. By that time, it almost touched the woman"s hair. Without the power"s support, the pebble dropped the ground. Hearing the sound, the woman finally realized something. She turned around in confusion. Seeing that nothing was wrong, she hurried to catch up with her friends.
"A regular person," Evelina said.
During this entire process, Link didn"t see any sign of pretense either. The woman had acted naturally. She was just a low-cla.s.s female mercenary.
"Indeed," Link replied a bit belatedly. He wasn"t suspecting the woman. He just felt that something was wrong, but when he thought carefully, he couldn"t pinpoint it.
After thinking some more, he could only say, "Alright, no need to keep looking. Ariel has most likely already gotten here. We just can"t find her right now… No need to purposely look for her. Let"s just be prepared."
Ariel was at Level-10 while Link was Level-11. He had the upper hand in terms of power. Paired with Evelina"s help, if they were prepared enough, Ariel wouldn"t be able to change things even if she tried.
The four nodded and returned to the wooden building.
There was a very wide bas.e.m.e.nt in this building with a long-distance portal seal. Link believed that Haromed would most likely come out of that.
Before, they wanted to keep Haromed from escaping, so they only had to guard against a one-sided attack. Now, they also had to guard against Ariel"s sneak attacks from the outside. Thus, they had to add a powerful outer defensive spell too.
They got to work immediately.
In the bas.e.m.e.nt, Link was responsible for the core construction. Evelina took care of the refinement while Eliard a.s.sisted, learning as he went. Celine was in charge of surveillance outside.
The three Magicians worked together and progressed quickly. Within two hours, they added a st.u.r.dy spatial defensive seal outside the imprisonment seal outside the portal seal.
Once this seal started running, it could block all attacks from spells under Level-12. With this insurance, they shouldn"t have to worry about Ariel. Despite this, Link"s anxiousness still wasn"t reduced. This time, he didn"t express it, but he kept his guard up.
After the seal was completed, everyone became free. They rested alone in the building, replenis.h.i.+ng their energy. After around three hours, Link"s eyes flew open.
"Get ready! He"s coming!" He could feel the s.p.a.ce vibrating in the bas.e.m.e.nt. The ground shook as well, with soft creaks. This was a sign of a long-distance spatial seal operating.
Everyone was shocked.
"Evelina, activate the spatial imprisonment seal when he appears."
"Got it."
"Eliard, get a good position. If anything happens, activate this runestone for an energy flood and kill him!"
This rune took a lot of work and resources. It was the product of many Ferde Magicians working together. There was only one currently. It could activate a Level-13 energy flood for emergencies.
"I understand." Eliard took the runestone and stood in the predetermined spot.
"Celine, stand here. When the magic seal is activated, a strong s.h.i.+eld will appear around you. The magic waves that appear after that might disturb your vision, but you must hold tight. Wait until the s.h.i.+eld stabilizes before shooting. You must hit the Ethereal prince!"
"Don"t worry. Leave it to me!" Celine"s expression was serious. Grasping the big fire gun, she stood in her spot. Link had specifically modified the s.p.a.ce here. She could see others, but others couldn"t see her. It was the safest place in the entire building.
They"d all practiced this many times before and they got into position within half a second now.
The spatial waves in the bas.e.m.e.nt strengthened. Link didn"t do anything in order to not alert Haromed. As soon as the man appeared, Link would make a fatal attack to his physical body!
Link also took out the Ethereal-catching weapon.
Nothing unexpected had happened up to now. After two seconds, there was a flash of silver-white light above the magic seal in the bas.e.m.e.nt. It expanded to around five feet wide, turning into a door.
They could see the scenery on the other side through the door. It seemed to be a big black castle. Link was shocked at this; he recognized it. It was Shadow Walker Morpheus" hideout—the Palace of Darkness.
The door remained for half a second, and a person walked out.
This guy was dressed in a gray-white robe and hood. His entire body was covered. As soon as he appeared, Evelina mouthed to Link, "It"s him."
This was Haromed, the Ethereal prince.
The moment he walked out, a message flashed past Link"s vision. He"d completed the mission of finding the Ethereal prince and received a Moon Stone.
Another mission appeared at the same time. He stole a glance and saw that it was to kill the Ethereal prince. He immediately accepted it.
On the other hand, Evelina had acted without hesitation. Her Dragon Power rushed into the magic seal. Countless magical runes overlapped under her foot and illuminated, spreading. Within one-hundredth of a second, the entire s.p.a.ce was filled with runes.
They were like anchors that nailed the s.p.a.ce down. Affected by the spell, the door behind the Ethereal prince flashed and went out like a candle in the wind. It abandoned Haromed in the death trap Link"s group had set for him.
At the same time, a Level-12 spatial barrier over three feet thick shot up outside the imprisonment seal. It blocked everything that happened inside this building.
Up to this point, everything had gone smoothly according to plan. But for some reason, the unrest in Link"s heart strengthened. It practically hindered him from casting spells normally. He couldn"t attack the Ethereal prince under this situation, so he walked to Celine"s side for protection.
Almost simultaneously, he saw a dark green wooden sword gradually appear in the air behind Celine. It was so secretive and subtle, hiding all murderous intent. It was like a shadow hunter hidden in the sea of s.p.a.ce.
The sword"s appearance was very unique. Its body was dark green and so thin it looked like a large sewing needle. If tossed onto the street, people would think it was a thin rusted rod.
Seeing this, Link"s heart jumped. Oh no, it"s a World Impaler!