“My Lord, I have information regarding Wei Bai to report.”
Across the long sandalwood table, a man dressed in black knelt on the floor, reporting to Count Arny, who sat on a sofa.
“Oh? Let’s hear it.”
Count Arny was dismissive; he simply felt that group of thugs was far too useless to be unable to handle a mere boy.
“According to my observations, the boy named Wei Bai can use magic. Moreover, he is not a novice; he is quite proficient.”
“Impossible! That brat is just an adventurer. Although we haven’t determined his rank yet, he absolutely has nothing to do with magic.”
Hearing this, Count Arny grew somewhat incensed.
He hadn’t received any intelligence whatsoever regarding Wei Bai and magic.
“Please calm your anger, my Lord. This subordinate has captured proof. I ask my Lord to take a look.”
The man in black trembled and spoke hurriedly, pulling a Memory Stone from his pocket.
This type of Memory Stone was inexpensive, featuring a built-in, one-time Magic Engraving.
Once activated, it could record, but a single Memory Stone could only store one sequence of footage.
As he watched the screen within the Memory Stone, Count Arny’s expression gradually turned grim.
He never expected that the Wei Bai he considered unremarkable would actually know magic.
The footage faded, leaving only Count Arny’s hostile face.
At the same time, he made a more aggressive decision.
“Send the assassins.”
“By your command.”
—
Upon waking up, Wei Bai felt refreshed.
He got up, dressed himself, and after washing up, went to the room adjacent to his bedroom.
Glancing at the Glorious Throne on the wall, Wei Bai didn’t want to take it with him.
Although there had been many troubles lately, some low-tier thugs weren’t worth the old guy’s appearance.
Picking up the Silver Longsword he had exchanged at the Adventurer’s Association, Wei Bai looked at his other belongings.
His gaze swept over the magic scrolls.
Wei Bai decided he didn’t need them for the time being.
After all, he could now learn magic himself; he was no longer the Hero who could only rely on techniques.
Closing the door, he touched the pendant on his chest with his right hand and stepped out of his house.
The mark inside the crystal had dimmed slightly, likely because he had previously released a fire spell.
At the same time, Wei Bai noticed that six leaf-shaped small dots had appeared on the mark after releasing a Tier 3 spell.
‘What is this? Is it my maximum spell level? Or is it the number of spells I can release?’
Wei Bai was puzzled.
He didn’t have a single clue about the dots; it was all pure guesswork.
‘Forget it, I’ll think about that later. Time for work…’
—
As the sun set, the sea of Carven City was reflected in a brilliant golden light.
The trees on both sides of the road seemed to be draped in gold in the afterglow, and the clouds in the sky at this moment looked like waves of flame, burning through the heavens.
Pedestrians passed by on the street one after another—some in a hurry, others looking exhausted.
Among them, two figures stood out.
Wei Bai and Mida walked leisurely, completely unlike the corporate drones surrounding them.
Soon, night fell, and the pedestrians gradually thinned out.
The dim yellow lights on the street flickered to life.
The few scattered passersby had no heart to linger, wanting only to return home as quickly as possible.
Having just eaten his fill with Mida, Wei Bai walked out of the restaurant.
He glanced at the full moon in the sky with a sense of melancholy and let out a sigh.
Mida followed contentedly by Wei Bai’s side, happily reminiscing about the feast they just had.
Unknowingly, the two arrived at the entrance of Mida’s home.
Unlike Wei Bai, Mida lived in a small, detached house with a little garden.
“We’re here. Go on inside. See you tomorrow,” Wei Bai said, waving a hand in farewell.
Mida was somewhat reluctant to leave, but eventually said goodbye and returned to his house.
Watching Mida close the door, the smile on Wei Bai’s face vanished.
With a flick of his right hand, the Silver Longsword was unsheathed.
The moment Wei Bai moved, two flying knives shot out from the shadow of a distant streetlight, piercing straight toward the space between his eyebrows.
Wei Bai dodged the two flying knives relying on muscle memory.
Then, longsword in hand, he closed the distance, charging straight for the shadow of the streetlight.
Since the Count was playing for keeps now, he had to show that he was no pushover.
He would let these people know they had picked the wrong man.
As the longsword plunged into the darkness, two black figures suddenly rushed out, daggers in hand, lunging at Wei Bai from the left and right.
Because he was still in the recovery frame of his longsword strike, Wei Bai had no choice but to crouch down, narrowly avoiding the two daggers.
“Tsk!” One of the black shadows was clearly caught off guard by Wei Bai’s rapid reaction speed.
Just as he pulled his hand back, a longsword slashed upward, severing three of his fingers.
Simultaneously, the dagger in the other shadow’s hand was knocked to the ground.
With only one strike, Wei Bai had cut off an assassin’s fingers and disarmed the other.
The shadow was clearly in pain and jerked his injured hand back.
Then, both shadows fled toward the distance in unison.
“Thinking of running?”
Seeing the black shadows turn to flee, Wei Bai frowned.
He lifted his longsword and followed in close pursuit.
Under the moonlit night, the three figures chased each other through the houses.
Observing the surroundings, Wei Bai realized these two shadows were planning to flee toward the City State Square of Carven City.
“Trying to reach an open space like the square? You two are truly failures as assassins.”
After Wei Bai spoke, he began to chant an incantation.
Because he was moving quickly, he couldn’t chant complex spells and could only drive lower-level magic.
“TIER 1: FIREBALL!”
Two fireballs formed in response to Wei Bai’s chant, hurtling toward the shadows ahead.
Just as they were about to hit, an ice-blue thin film flickered around both shadows.
‘So they came prepared.’
This Count obviously anticipated this, even preparing magic shields for these two assassins.
The moment the shields lit up, Wei Bai abandoned the idea of using magic.
He quickened his pace, constantly closing the distance.
Wei Bai intended to defeat these two assassins through close combat.
Since magic could be blocked, he would use a real blade to hack them down.
Seeing Wei Bai speed up, the two assassins clearly panicked and increased their own speed.
Upon reaching a nearby eave, the fleeing assassins leaped down from the roof.
Without a second thought, Wei Bai followed them down.
As he landed, Wei Bai saw the two assassins standing in the middle of the square, gasping for breath as if they were exhausted, standing motionless.
Wei Bai wasn’t about to let them rest so easily.
He charged forward with his longsword raised.
“Silly boy, you fell for it!” One of the assassins gave a sinister smile and began to chant.
‘This is bad!’ These two weren’t assassins skilled in close combat at all—they were mages! No wonder the previous assassination attempt seemed so easy to handle; they weren’t specialized in melee from the start.
At this thought, Wei Bai quickened his pace.
He had to kill these two mages before they finished their chant.
But before he could reach them, a quagmire appeared beneath his feet.
Suddenly, Wei Bai felt it was incredibly difficult to move.
Clearly, the other mage wasn’t going to let him get close.
While his companion was chanting and gathering power, he used a rapidly released low-tier spell to stall Wei Bai.
‘Damn it.’
Seeing that the mage was about to finish the chant, Wei Bai grew anxious.
He immediately used his pendant to release a FREEZING TECHNIQUE.
After freezing the quagmire, he smashed it with one strike of his sword.
“Quite clever, kid. If we weren’t enemies, I’d say you have talent,” the mage who released the quagmire said, slightly surprised.
He didn’t hesitate to offer praise.
“However, it’s a pity. You have to die here today.”
The mage raised an eyebrow, no longer paying attention to Wei Bai, who was rushing toward him.
At that moment, lines of incantations revealed themselves in the air.
The massive square was covered by circles of Magic Arrays, layered one upon another in a dense pattern.
Finally, they formed a complete Magic Array around Wei Bai.
“FOURTH-TIER ARRAY RELEASE: BLAZING ARRAY.”
The mage who had been chanting was finished now, guiding his mana into the Magic Array.
A Magic Array was awakened using a pre-deployed Magic Engraving.
After awakening, it required a mage to construct it.
The chant during this process could not be interrupted.
Once the awakening was complete, the Magic Array could be released, and mana could be poured in to activate it.
The spells released through a Magic Array would first consume the energy of the magic stones used to construct the array before consuming the caster’s own mana.
Furthermore, magic released by a Magic Array was much more powerful than ordinary chanted spells.
Watching the Magic Array light up as the mana flowed through it, Wei Bai’s expression gradually turned solemn.
It wasn’t that he had encountered opponents who used Magic Arrays before, but it would be very troublesome to solve alone.
Moreover, under normal circumstances, there was no guarantee the caster wouldn’t escape after he broke through the array.
Furthermore, he didn’t have the Glorious Throne with him right now.
Forcing a breakthrough at this moment would likely result in a pyrrhic victory.