The Wizard World

Victoria was also an oddity who was recruited by the Dark Wizard Tower, for he too was a genius.

Angele had already checked into Victoria’s data from the intel center of the organization.

Victoria gave up his original physical body and created a new one through the blood essence he had collected from more than ten thousand corpses on the battlefield. With his Blood Aura, he could harvest blood from any living beings that were weaker than him.

On top of that, his Blood Aura was a passive ability, ergo uncontrollable.

Like how fishes swam in the water and people breathed in the air.

In other words, people ought to stay away from Victoria as much as possible. The man was a plague, literally.

Turin licked his lips and glanced at the bandits.

Fear came to manifest on the faces of some bandits.

"Turin! It’s Turin...!" One wizard apprentice began to flee when he realized who the person was. He seemed to have heard about Turin’s tales.

The bandit leader’s face stiffened, and he put his right hand into the pouch tied to his belt He was about to activate an enchanted item. He might not know who Turin was, but he knew how dire the situation they were now in just by the look on the wizard apprentice’s face.

"Die!" Lifting up his hand, a green fireball materialized and darted toward Turin.

Chi!

Turin released a circle of red light, with him standing right in the middle.

The luminous circle expanded within seconds.

"Kill... him..." the bandit leader shouted as every movement of his slowed down. The man’s voice had started sounding older by the second, his skin was drying up, and wrinkles had now covered his face.

Pa!

A wisp of green flame exploded in the air, like a soap bubble.

The bandits raised their weapons up and rushed to the two wizards, but they immediately turned into dried-up zombies in several steps.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The corpses dropped to the ground, dying as their life energy was completely depleted. Some, killed by the weight of their own equipment.

All the bandits died in a split second. The scene was terrifying, and the women and children within the triangular blockade were frightened.

Turin stood beside Angele to see his face. He wanted to find the expression he wanted to see.

Angele only squinted his eyes and once again put on his hood, all the while showing a callous expression.

"Let’s go. There are people waiting for us."

"As you wish, master." Turin chuckled and glimpsed at the people who were in the blockade. While some thought that the two wizards were their saviors, Turin overturned it when he raised his hand and gripped the air.

Boooom!

A ball of flame exploded.

The children and woman began screaming, shouting, groaning in pain. All of them were instantly devoured amid the explosion.

The fervent conflagration devoured everything in its wake, burning the carriages into flames and the trees around.

The nearby vegetation was also caught up in the flames.

Not once did Angele turned to look back at the burning carriages, only heading to his carriage straightaway. The people being attacked by the bandits and the bandits themselves were nothing to him. Mortals were mere ants and their deaths meant nothing to Angele. People had all stepped onto ants at least once in their life, but no one would care about their deaths.

Turin was only silencing the witnesses. He turned and went after Angele without looking back.

When Angele returned to the carriage and was opening the door, he heard another carriage approaching from behind his.

He stopped for a second and turned to look to the side.

A silver-edged, black carriage was slowly drawing near, protected by a convoy of mercenaries wearing green leather armor.

"Hey! Friends, what’s going on there? What’s burning?" the leader of the mercenaries asked aloud when he saw Angele.

"There was a conflict between bandits and several merchants," Turin answered, now standing behind Angele.

"Is that so?" The leader lost interest. He asked several of his members to check up on the situation and put out the fire.

"The situation is worsening. Bandits are everywhere. We have already encountered five groups of bandits, but luck was upon us. None of them were strong." The leader sighed.

The two carriages began to move. Angele never said anything, knowing that those mercenaries thought that bandits would not attack them if they traveled together.

Angele and Turin had both gotten inside the carriage. They only wanted to reach their destination and thought it would be fine if and as long as those mercenaries did not bring them any trouble.

Riding a horse, the leader of the mercenaries moved near to Ham and began conversing with him.

Ham sighed in response.

"You’re right. I’ve fought on the Reindeer Battlefield. The deserters were much better than these bandits."

"You fought in the Reindeer War? Me too. Which unit were you in?" The leader found a new topic to get into.

"I was in Unit 13. What about you?" Ham was interested.

"I was in Unit 12. I didn’t expect to meet a comrade here." the leader of the mercenaries laughed and began to talk about the things that had happened during the war.

Several minutes later, they returned to their former topic.

"The mercenary group was the one that put an end to the war of the three organizations in the Tarry River region. Did you know that?" the mercenary leader started recounting the stories of the mercenaries.

"I know, actually. The White Sword Mercenary Group, right?" Ham knew the situation back then well. "The White Sword Mercenaries’ performance was impressive in the final battle."

"And their leader, Eagle of the White Sword, crushed the Storm Giant’s service troop with his two thousand mercenaries. The first elder of Elemental Hand even conferred him an honorary title for his great deeds for the organization. He’s a true legend among mercenaries..." the leader recounted with excitement.

"So, you’re saying the Eagle of the White Sword contributed to world peace?"

"That’s right," the leader nodded. "The Eagle of the White Sword, Master Augustin, is still fighting alongside his brother-in-arms in the central continent. His mercenary group has the potential to become one of the five biggest mercenary groups on this land."

Angele sat in the carriage, silently eavesdropping on their conversation.

Turin sat opposite him, smiling.

Angele knew Turin was trying to showcase his power when he killed all the bandits before he could do anything.

The two of them sat opposite to each other without uttering a word.

Angele discovered that Turin had a skill level rivaling a powerful rank 4 wizard and was much stronger than the Wizard Shozo. The man might be as powerful as Vivian without the Legacy Magic Circle supplying her power.

And without his True Form, Angele would have a difficult time overpowering Turin. The latter seemed to have realized Angele’s situation, hence the reason he acted with contempt upon Angele.

Even though Angele’s backing was more powerful than his, he might not obey Angele’s orders if the situation allowed it. Turin only joined Angele’s group for cordiality’s sake and might not do things as Angele would order.

This case was the same for the other people who joined his group. For example, Victoria and that particular elder of Elemental Hand.

Angele mused on the situation and understood the reason.

He took a glimpse at Turin, who was looking out the window with a bored face.

With the Dark Wizard Tower’s contract, while Turin’s stronger than me, there is nothing he can do. Angele reached this conclusion in his mind.

"Master, have you ever heard of a group of people who call themselves ’Pathfinders’?" Turin suddenly asked.

"Pathfinders?" Angele remained composed. "No. Who are they?"

Turin despised the thought of being controlled by someone weaker than him. But Angele possessed the Legacy Magic Circle set, so he still came here as a courtesy.

"These Pathfinders all wear gray robes. No one knows what they are planning."

"Huh?" Angele opened the window. "That’s the ’Pathfinder’ you’re talking about?" His eyes fell on a hill in the forest.

Turin smiled, not saying anything. He didn’t want to answer Angele.

Pathfinders were the observers of the world and would only appear around the people who would become someone with a leverage on the world in the future.

*****************************

In the forest, a man in a gray robe was standing atop a hill, looking at the carriage slowly moving along the narrow path.

The window of the carriage opened, and the man inside looked at him.

The gray robe was holding a long cane in his hand when he exchanged eye contact with the man.

The carriage slowly disappeared into the horizon.

The gray robe retrieved a small black scroll and started writing down something carefully with his finger.

He furled the scroll after he finished writing and tapped on the ground with his cane.

Tap!

The man transformed into an enormous gray eagle with the robe and the cane.

The eagle raised its wings and flew up into the sky, soon turning into a black dot and disappearing into the endless sky.