Chapter 82: Survival Is of the Utmost Importance

After a few moments, Sante and Zubin led a group of thirty orcs and lined them up on the raised platform. The group was mostly the old, the young, and the females. There were a few young males, but they were all captured due to their injuries.

“Listen. Until I get a satisfying answer, I will keeping counting. Every time I add a number I will kill one of them here,” Anfey said coldly, then turned. “Suzanna, I trust you with this.”

Suzanna hesitated, but then nodded and jumped down from the platform, unsheathing her sword.

The orcs erupted into chaos. Anfey called out, “Christian, kill everyone that is causing the commotion.”

Christian drew in a breath and began whispering a spell. The air was filled with magical surges, which effectively silenced all the orcs.

Christian was, in fact, against the idea of harming their captives. If it wasn’t Anfey’s order, he would have objected, but now his hands were tied. No matter what he thought, he didn’t want to call Anfey out publicly for it. It was not in his best interest to ruin his relationship with him. He figured he would find Anfey privately afterwards and talk about it.

“Sir!” one of the elders to the left cried out, “why are you doing this? We really did come from the south.”

“One,” Anfey said coldly.

Suzanna raised her sword, and one of the injured orcs was dead before he could even scream, his blood splattering all over the ground. The orcs let out a scream, but then quickly covered their mouths with their hands to stifle the scream. Anfey had said anyone who caused commotion would be killed as well.

“Sir! We are innocent, we don’t know anything!”

“Two!” Anfey, in the end, was a cold person and cared not for pleas. Suzanna cut down another orc, the metallic scent of blood intensified.

“Sir!”

“Three!”

Suzanna waved her sword and ended another orc’s life. So far, all she had killed were men, since she couldn’t bring herself to kill any of the women or children.

“You demon!” the elder cursed, lurching towards him.

Anfey kicked the elder and the latter grunted and fell to the ground. “Four,” he called.

“Five.”

“Six.”

“Seven.”

Anfey counted all the way to ten, and the elder’s eyes were already glassed over. He stared at the roof of the cave blankly, but he didn’t show signs of telling the truth, either. The other elder had appeared stubborn from the beginning, and so Anfey didn’t pay him much attention.

There were already ten orcs lying on the ground, dead. Suzanna was not a good executioner. She was not systematic, and the way she killed the orcs varied from orc to orc. If she had killed them in battle, no one would have paid any attention, but now her targets were orcs waiting for death, and the message she conveyed was completely different.

Anfey thought about the situation for a moment, and stood up slowly. “You see,” he said, “your elders have abandoned you, they want to trade your lives for their secrets!”

The orcs exchanged looks, and the despair spreaded out in the room, some even began sobbing.

“But, I realize how unfair it is for them alone to decide your fates,” Anfey said, smiling. “I am giving you all a chance.”

All the eyes were suddenly on Anfey. He waited for a moment before continuing. “I will ask you some questions. Whoever answers can leave, and my men will not stop him. Of course, whoever has lied will die, and the one exposing him will live. I only have a few questions.”

“The first one: Where were you three years ago?”

A female orc stood up before he even finished. “I know, I know,” she screamed. “We were in the Stone Forest in the Forest of Death.”

“Good. You’re free to go. Second one: Where were you a year ago?”

“I know!” another woman with a child screamed. “We were in the same place.”

“Good. You’re free too.”

“Sir,” she said timidly. “Can I give the chance to my child?”

“Be my guest,” Anfey said amicably.

The woman walked over to the first woman, and handed her child to her. She looked at her child for a few moments before whispering a few words to the first woman and returning.

“The third question: Six months ago…”

“I know, sir! You’re asking where we were then, right?” the woman jumped up and asked.

Anfey hesitated before smiling, and said, “Yes. Do you have an answer?”

“We were here six months ago,” the woman said.

“Great. You are free to go,” Anfey nodded.

The woman cheered and dashed towards the first woman. She held her child to her chest and embraced him tightly, tears streaming down her face. They had only separated for a few moments, but her joy was enough to put all the rest of the orcs on high alert. They stared at Anfey, waiting for his next question. Sure, their chance of living would mean their friends’ deaths, but by then no one cared much.

“The next one: Why did you come here?”

“For a sanctuary, a safe place!”

“I know, sir! For a safe place!”

“A sanctuary! Sir, I answered first, I did!”

An old orc and two women stood up simultaneously and shouted out.

“Bastards!” the elder screamed in anger. “You’re betraying your ancestors? The mighty Beast God will not forgive you! Do you want your soul to toil…”

Before he could finish, Anfey kicked him across his chest, and he fell to the ground and was silent.

The three orcs hesitated, and dashed to the front, screaming, “Sir, I answered first!”

At first they argued in human language, then slowly they regressed into their native tongue.

“Silent!” Anfey called. “You all answered correctly, but one answer can only redeem one person. I will give you another question.” The three orcs stared at him, nervous.

“Where is the sanctuary?”

“With them!” the older orc said.

The two women jumped up, agitated, staring at the old orc with hatred and anger. Had Anfey allowed infighting, surely they would be fighting each other by now.

“On the elders?” Anfey asked, surprised. He had expected their sanctuary to be a place.

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright, you may go.” He turned towards the two women and said, “You may answer the next question. Can you find it?”

“Yes!” the women called out at the same time.

“Alright,” Anfey said, smiling, and pointed to the elders. “Go find it. Whoever finds it first can go.”

The two rushed onto the platform, and each picked one of the elders.

“Bastards! You…” the elder cursed angrily.

The woman was angry as well, and did not hesitate as she struck the old man in the face. Seeing their people slowly slaughtered and the elders’ stubbornness, the orcs had came to resent the elders. They didn’t dare to fight with Anfey, so the weaker elders became their targets of rage.

“You…” the elder stared, his eyes filled with anger and disbelief.

The woman struck him again, the elder fell backwards and passed out on the ground.

The women began searching carefully. After a few minutes, one of the woman stood up and handed a piece of red stone with strange carving to Anfey. “I found it,” she cried. “I found it, sir!”

The other woman sank to the ground and began sobbing. She had missed two chances at life, and was devastated.

Anfey took the red stone. “Alright,” he said after a few moments. “Since you both tried, I will spare both of you.” Anfey had killed many people, but that was because he needed to survive. Killing without reason would make him a butcher. He wasn’t a good man, but he was far from that. He had received what he wanted, and he decided to show mercy.

The woman on the ground stopped her tears in shock. After a few moments, she stood up and ran down the platform, smiling, glad that she had earn a chance at life.

“One more question,” Anfey said. He picked up the elder’s staff from the ground and tossed it down. “The first person to grab this has the right to answer. Now, how many orcs were present at the Stone Forest?”

The rest of the orcs rushed forward, and a young woman was the one to pick up the staff. Before she could run up the stairs, the other orcs dragged her down. It was so chaotic Suzanna had to step in and organize them. After the orcs were driven back, the woman was bleeding, but her mind was still intact. “I got it,” she cried. “I did.”

“Alright. You may answer.”

“Umm, there were…” the woman lowered her head and began counting. After a few moments, however, she was still struggling to grasp the exact number.

“A thousand?” Anfey realized that she may be lacking in the mathematics, and wanted to help her.

“No, sir, not that many.”

“A hundred?”

“No, sir, no, not that many,” the woman said.

“Really?” Anfey asked. “What about twenty?”

“Um…” the woman began counting again.

“Fine, fine,” Anfey sighed. “You may go.” He would save more time if he just let her go. Who knew how long it would take if he had waited for her to finish. “One last question. What is the usage of this?”

As the orcs dove for the staff, Christian turned to Anfey. “There’s no use asking them that,” he said. “I don’t think they would know. Let me see that.”

Anfey glanced at Christian and handed him the red stone.

Chapter 83: My Rights

Christian was knowledgeable in terms of magic, but no one knew about everything, including Christian. Judging from the magic surges from Christian, he had tried various ways to test the reaction of the red stone with the strange carving, but the result was disappointing. Anfey had waited long for Christian, then finally he smiled. He did not sneer at Christian. It was just a smile.

“It is different than what I thought.” Christian felt awkward and passed the red stone back to Anfey. “As far as I know, shelter is a treasure bestowed by Beast God to immediate relatives of ancient orcs. There were seven shelters. Most of them were with wolf orcs, bear orcs, and leopard orcs. I do not know how these orcs got one. In other words, shelter is a portable magic transmission portal and has a fixed coordinate in the magic world.

“Fixed coordinate in the magic world? Does it mean we will be sent to the same place every time we use the shelter?” Anfey asked.

“You are right.” Christian nodded. “It is said that all the shelters are connected. If one shelter can help transport someone to the Stone Forest in the Forest of Death, then there must be another shelter that starts from Stone Forest.”

“According to what you said, another shelter’s destination should be here. Am I right?” Anfey asked.

“Something like that.” Christian thought for a while and said, “But, all of these are legends. Maybe the truth will be slightly different than legends.”

“You do not know how to use this shelter, do you?” Anfey asked.

“I could not find the magic conjunction point. The shelters were bestowed by Beast God to orcs. I am not an alchemist. I do not know what tricks this shelter can do.” Christian smiled bitterly.

Anfey laid his eyes on the orcs below. “I’ll ask one last question. Who knows how to use this shelter?”

Orcs used to zealously answer Anfey’s questions, but they hesitated to answer when they heard this one. They looked each other, but no one was willing to answer it.

Anfey thought to himself, “If these orc did not know how to use the shelter, shouldn’t they have looked confused or disappointed instead of hesitating?” Anfey raised his voice and asked, “This is the last question. If anyone can answer it, you will have freedom. If no one can answer it, besides the few who already earned their freedom, the rest will be killed. It’s your choice.”

“Master, would you really give us freedom?” A female orc asked timidly.

“I have said that I have a good reputation for keeping my word,” Anfey said.

“Master, to start using the shelter, you have to dedicate sacrificial offerings on the full moon, then the Beast God would come down for his blessings,” the female orc said.

“Sacrificial offerings? What kind of sacrificial offerings?” Anfey asked.

The female orc answered, “You have to dig out a girl’s, oh, no, I meant an unmarried female orc’s heart, and put this red stone back into her body. This ritual has to start three days before the full moon. You need change a female orc every day until the full moon. As long as the shelter can absorb enough blood, it will start on its own.”

Hui Wei suddenly interrupted. “Do you want go to the Forest of Death? I suggest you do not.”

“Why not?” Anfey asked flatly.

“Because it took almost everything for me to escape from there. I do not want to go back there ever again. It was not a good place to be,” Hui Wei said.

“Anfey, Forest of Death was not a good place indeed.” Christian shook his head. “Do you…Do you really want to go there?”

“It is a magic beast forest, right? It should be similar to Forest Clarm, isn’t it?” Anfey asked.

“Definitely not similar. Forest Clarm is just over a thousand miles wide, while Forest of Death is…I am not sure since no one has measured it, but it should be over ten times the size of Forest Clarm. We only met a few wyverns, manticores and unicorns in Forest Clarm. In Forest of Death, these senior magic beasts are everywhere. There are supreme magic beasts as well. I do not mean the ones evolved from senior magic beasts. I mean the real supreme magic beasts. I would not be surprised to see a couple or even more than ten manticores that had died in their cave. It is common in the Forest of Death,” Christian said seriously.

“Forest of Death, Wild Prairie and White Bone Mountain are the most dangerous places on the Pan Continent. Forest of Death shares a border with Wild Prairie, while White Bone Mountain is in the north of Pan Continent.”

Suzanna jump back onto the stage. She looked as serious as Christian. She said, “Anfey, if we go to Forest of Death, there will be too many unpredictable dangers; hundreds of Magic Wolves, packs of Flash Leopards, and waves of Magic Ants and junior and senior magic Killer Wasps with natural immune systems, a furious mammoth that can crush magic beasts and humans with one stomp, and other supreme magic beats. No matter which one we encounter, it would kill all of us.”

“Anfey, do you know about Entos? He is also a student of the professor, just older than us. The professor asked him to get training in Forest of Death after he became a senior magister. Well, I am not qualified to go there for training.”

“Are you students of Archmage Saul?” Hui Wei suddenly interrupted. It was obvious he had heard the name Entos. “It is ridiculous that you could not see humans as dangerous, but only see the danger from magic beasts?”

“Can you tell us what we were ignorant about?” Anfey sounded like he did not see Hui Wei’s sarcasm and wanted to learn from him with patience.

“Forest of Death is a place without laws. As long as you are strong, you can rob and kill anyone you like. Besides some powerful mercenaries who have been digging gold in the Forest of Death and some powerful men wandering in it, you will never be able to know the identities of others in the Forest of Death. A bloody, evil slaughterer who robbed others could be a polite archmage or an honorable master swordsman outside the forest. Only in the Forest of Death will you see their dark side that they’ve been trying to cover. It’s a pity that you will only be able to see their true colors when you are about to die; by then it will be too late.” Hui Wei sneered. “It looks like you are pretty good, a senior swordsman, a junior magister, hmmm, not bad. However, I bet you would not live more than ten days in the Forest of Death.”

“Are you trying to scare me?” Anfey smiled. It was believable that powerful men robbed and killed others in the Forest of Death. It was also possible that some humans had killed others for their own benefit. However, Hui Wei exaggerated how dangerous Forest of Death was. He made it sound like it was a tomb for humankind. If it was really as Hui Wei said, why would Saul send Entos to get training there? Wouldn’t that be like sending him to die? Hui Wei also said there were some mercenaries searching for gold in the Forest of Death, which obviously showed that the Forest of Death gave them more benefits than dangers, otherwise no one would be willing to stay in the dangerous forest.

“You…Fine. If you want to die over there, then you can take your people and go. I am not going to that damn place.” Hui Wei’s face was purple.

“Don’t talk bulls#*t. You are our captive. No matter where we go, you have to go with us, unless you can tell us how to start the Antimagic Terra.”

Hui Wei turned his head to the side. He did not want to look at Anfey anymore.

“Anfey, what he said makes some sense. Forest of Death is located right among Ellisen Empire, Shansa Empire and Mercenary Empire. There has not been any law over there. It was not like Forest Clarm, which belongs to Maho Empire. It was almost burned to the ground in the Hundred Year Saint Battle, so there are neither many magic beasts left nor many people going there for training,” Christian said.

“Do you know why these orcs came here? Because they wanted to leave Forest of Death,” Hui Wei interrupted again. It looked like he really did not want to go back to Forest of Death.

“Anfey.” Suzanna wanted to say something as well.

“There are a couple of days before the full moon. We do not have to worry yet. We have time to talk about it.” Anfey waved his hand and said, “We have to think about what to do with these orcs.”

“What to do with these orcs? Anfey, didn’t you promise to free them?” Christian asked in surprise.

“Hahaha, don’t worry. I am not going to hurt them. I just need them do something for me.” Anfey thought a little bit and asked quietly, “Christian, would orcs like gold coins?”

“Of course.” Christian smiled.

“Humans are so hostile towards orcs that I thought they would have no way to spend them,” Anfey said.

“They can trade gold coins with other orc tribes. Gold coins are the currency on Pan Continent. They would work any place on the Pan Continent. Even if humans do not sell them goods, they still can find agents to shop for them. When those wolf orcs and bear orcs reach a certain level, they can transform into humans to wander in the human world. They need gold coins as well. Even those spirits want to accumulate gold coins. Gold coins will not be unhelpful at any time,” Christian answered.

Anfey now had some idea how gold coins work. He stood on the stage and glanced at the orcs below him. Anfey had agreed to free them, but Zubin and Sante still blocked the exit of the cave. No orc was trying to test Anfey to see if they could leave. They curled up against the cave, tensely whispering to each other.

“You have your freedom now. You are going to have two options. One is to leave and the other one is to stay and work for me. If you want to leave now, I will not stop you.” Anfey took out a handful of gold coins from his dimensional ring and tossed them underneath the stage. “If you are willing to work for me, you can get a gold coin. It’s just a deposit. You will be paid more later on.”

Orcs were all shocked, since they were considered the lowest level among other living beings on Pan Continent. Even female elf slaves had a higher position than orcs. People could at least appreciate their beauty, while nobody liked the orcs’ ugly face. In other words, no one even wanted to have them as slaves. They had never had any experience of working for anyone.

Christian walked quietly to Anfey and whispered, “Anfey, are you trying to win them over to your side with gold coins? It is not going to happen. Don’t forget how many orcs we have killed.”

“I know. I only need them work for me for a few days,” Anfey said with a smile.

“Master, are you really giving these gold coins to us?” A female orc shouted out.

“Of course, but I need you think carefully before you agree to work for me. It is not going to be an easy job. You have to work very hard, but at the same time I will pay you very highly as well. You will be happy with the pay,” Anfey said.

“Master, I do not mind hard work.” The female orc actually felt relaxed when she heard she only needed to work hard. She ran to the gold coins, picked up one immediately and put it carefully in her pocket.

“God, for the sake of Beast God, please look at them. They have given up their beliefs and self-esteem to work for a killer. My greatest Beast God, please come down…” Suzanna kicked on the orc chief’s chest before he could finish his words. Blood sprayed out from his mouth. It looked like he had died.

The orcs had wanted to come forward to get gold coins. After they heard the orc chief’s comment, they just stood there and looked at each other. They even showed Anfey a look of mixed feelings. The female orc took out the gold coin from her pocket and tossed it on the ground.

“We came here for a reason. As some of you know, you attacked us yesterday, but failed. I swear to the great Bright God, I have never looked down upon orcs. I think all living things should live happily together. I have my own principles though. No matter who tries to hurt me or my friends, I would give them no quarter,” Anfey said.

“Was it my fault?” Anfey continued. “No! You attacked me first. I have every right to take revenge. I know I am a killer in your eyes. Those soldiers in your tribe are killers as well. They attacked us in surprise without any legitimate reason. It was their fault, not mine.”

“Ok, I have said enough. If you want to work for me, you can stay. If not, you can leave now,” Anfey said flatly.

The orcs looked less tense. Anfey’s reasoning was easy to understand for the orcs who have struggled to fight for food with other magic beasts. It was like they were attacking magic beasts for food. Some of them had died in the fight. This was the rule of nature.

Chapter 84: From the Age of Chaos

Perhaps because they had lived in isolation for years, the orcs tended be lacking in wit and were easy to convince. Anfey’s words had stunned them and made them speechless. After a few moments of hesitation, they walked up and began picking the gold coins off of the ground.

“Sante, you still have coins in your ring, right?” Anfey asked.

“Of course.” Everyone had a certain amount of coins and food in their rings. Anfey wanted to make sure that if any of them got lost or separated, the person would have the means to survive.

“Come up here. Remember what I just said?”

“Yes?” Sante blinked. He used levitation and lifted himself onto the platform.

“Go outside and tell all the prisoners what I just said. Give the coins to those who want to stay and work. Those who don’t want to stay can go.”

“Alright.”

“You know what I mean by going, don’t you?”

“You mean…” Sante lowered his voice. “You promised them freedom!”

“Only to the ones in here. The ones outside are our prisoners, after all. If anyone is stubborn enough to leave, you know what to do.”

“Fine,” Sante said, nodding.

“Alright. Tell Blavi and Riska to come in,” Anfey said, smiling. “Zubin, go with Sante, won’t you?”

Zubin nodded and left the cave. The orcs, seeing that the one that guarded the exit had left, felt a sense of relief. They were promised work and money and freedom, all things they didn’t even dare to dream about in the past.

“Suzanna, come with me,” Anfey said. He jumped onto the stone ridge across from the platform. He descended the stairs and entered the orcs’ storage cavern.

Suzanna didn’t know what Anfey wanted with her, but she knew it was important, or else Anfey would not have avoided Christian. She followed him nervously.

“Suzanna, I have to talk to you about something.” Just as Suzanna had expected, Anfey did not even try to prepare her for the talk and instead cut straight to the chase.

“Go ahead.”

“I feel the need to tell everyone about the map you are carrying. Don’t misunderstand me. The treasure is still yours, and none of us would ask you for any of it. You are part of the team, and we have the responsibility to help you. I think everyone else would feel the same way.”

According to map, the treasure should be buried somewhere near these mountain ranges. Anfey hired those orcs for the purpose of finding whatever was buried here as well. A search this scale would not escape everyone’s eyes, and would sooner or later be noticed by somebody. If they waited until someone found out, it would create a sense of mistrust among the group.

“You didn’t need to explain yourself,” Suzanna said, smiling. “I trust everyone.”

“You agree, then?”

“If you can really find it…I just need that sword. Everything else you can take.”

“Stop, stop,” Anfey said, shaking his head. “You sound like we are dividing up contraband.”

Suzanna chuckled. “I do not have the spell, though,” she said. “It was written under the map, but was already missing when I found it.”

“Let’s wait until we find it. Perhaps we don’t need a spell for it.” Anfey smiled and began walking out of the cavern. Blavi and Riska were already outside and speaking with Christian.

“Christian, come here. Sanchez, why don’t you…” Anfey ordered, but after a moment he changed he mind. “Christian, bring him over anyway.” Hui Wei had already given up struggling, but no one knew when he could use the antimagic area again. What if he tried to escape and harm the people outside, while their strongest fighters were all inside the cave?

The group used levitation and gathered around Anfey. Hui Wei looked like he had lost all will to fight, and quietly allowed himself to be carried by Christian.

“Anfey, what happened? Why the secrecy?” Christian asked.

Anfey glanced at Suzanna, and said, “There is something important you need to know.”

“Why do you want me here if you are just talking? Let me go!” Hui Wei said suddenly, and began thrusting against his captor. He was much stronger than Christian, and could have easily escaped.

“You better behave,” Anfey said coldly.

“I’m not interesting in your secrets,” Hui Wei said nervously. “Let me go. I’m just outside, I can’t escape. You have so many mages here, there is no way I can get out.”

“No, you have to stay here,” Anfey said sternly.

Hui Wei stared at him, and suddenly he dashed towards the wall. He was fast, and caught everyone off guard. He wasn’t going to escape or hurt anyone. By the time everyone realized what he was doing, he had already crashed into the wall and fell to the ground unconscious.

Everyone stared at him wide eyed and confused.

Anfey talked over slowly and silently and checked his wounds and his breathing. “He’s smart,” he said, “he didn’t hurt himself much. Just enough to knock himself out.”

“Why did he do this?” Christian asked.

Anfey picked Hui Wei up off the ground and placed him on the stone ridge above. He jumped off the ridge and landed in front of Christian. “Say, Christian. If you become a prisoner, and your captors speak about secrets right in front of you, how would you feel?”

“You’re saying he was afraid we would kill him?”

“Of course. He was afraid that after we learn the secret to the antimagic area, we would kill him. Otherwise, he would have told us about it long ago. Had he known our secrets, his chance of survival would be even lower.” Anfey grinned. “He is braver than I thought.”

“He is,” Blavi said. “Who would bet with their own heads?”

“Now, let’s talk about our own secrets,” Anfey said. “Suzanna holds a treasure map.”

“Treasure map?” The group’s gaze fell onto Suzanna, then turned to Anfey. “What kind of treasure map?” Christian asked.

Suzanna retrieved it from her sheath and handed it to them. “See for yourself.”

Christian accepted it gingerly. Blavi and Riska gathered around to look at the map.

“This is old,” Riska said, touching the surface of the map.

“It was new when I got it, but during the fight we destroyed the magic on it. I think it will be a pile of dust in no more than six months.”

“Why don’t you make a copy?”

“No need. I already memorized the entire map.”

“Suzanna,” Anfey said, “why didn’t you destroy it once you memorized it?”

“I couldn’t bring myself to do it,” Suzanna shrugged. “Every time I see it…it is like seeing my mentor again.”

“Your mentor? Who is it?” Anfey wasn’t the only one that cared about the question. Anyone who could train a twenty-year-old girl to be a master swordsman must be one of the best.

“Sorry, I promised him I would never give out his name to anyone.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Anfey said, smiling.

“Thanks,” Suzanna whispered.

“Suzanna, how long have you had this map?” Christian asked.

“About three months.”

“Time is constant. It doesn’t matter if you are alive or not, time will affect you one way or another. If Suzanna is right, and this map has deteriorated this much in three months without that magic barrier, it should at least be six centuries old, if not seven.”

“What does that mean?” Blavi asked.

“That means we are in for a surprise,” Christian said.

Christian continued: “After the Hundred Year War, all the sentient beings in the world retreated into their own territories and rested. The magicked beings had brought severe damage to all the races. Only two hundred years later, however, another war erupted. Although it was only between the humans and the savages, it had been just as intense as the Hundred Year War, and in the end every race was affected.

“After the Hundred Year War, humans divided into three kingdoms, and after the war with the savages, they divided into a dozen nations. When faced with increasing threats from their enemy, the nations banded together into one nation in order to fend off their common threat.

“After the war with the savages and the orcs, the unified nation fell apart within two decades, and evolved into the world we know today. Of course, no one could stop the constantly changing politics of nations.

“In a chaotic era such as the wars, many noble families and powerful men found themselves staring their doom in the face. Some were able to rebound after the war, but many were instead buried by history. Treasures from that era must have something to do with those fallen nobilities.” Christian knew this map would bring them a great surprise.

“I only know there is a sword in there. You might know it. It is called Song of Red Moon,” Suzanna told them.

“Song of Red Moon? That is a sword of the devil! It is a holy relic of the orcs. Why would it be here?” Christian asked.

“That I do not know.”

“What? Is it a powerful sword?” Anfey asked.

“I do not know exactly how powerful it is. Legend has it that it was forged by a great alchemist after a necromancer placed a spell on him. After the sword was forged, the alchemist was killed and his soul imprisoned in the sword. After that the sword became cursed, with the alchemist placing a curse on everyone that wields it,” Christian said uneasily. “Suzanna, that sword is not for common people. The first user was captured by the magic beasts, and they tortured him to death. None of the other users fared well, either. You are powerful enough, you don’t need to rely on weapons to increase your ability.”

“I promised my mentor that I would find it,” Suzanna said, patting her longsword. “I won’t actually use it. I just need it in my hands.”

“That’s good, as long as you don’t use it. ” Christian sighed in relief. “I mean, your mentor shouldn’t, either,” Christian added hurriedly.

“He won’t use it, either,” Suzanna said, shaking her head.

“Alright, let’s talk about that later. First we need to find it. Starting tomorrow, we will have the orcs start searching the surrounding areas until we find clues,” Anfey said. “You’ve seen the map. What do you think about that dot? I have a feeling that it is this very cave.”

“You’re right!” Blavi said, staring at the black dot. “Look at it. The black dot is under the mountain, and if this is where the treasures are located, then it is this cave!”

Chapter 85: Visions

Christian grabbed treasure map and studied it for a while, his head nodding. “I also think it is here.”

“Let’s ask the orcs to start digging on the hill tomorrow. I heard they are very skilled. This hill is not huge. We will find the treasure no matter what, even if we have to dig the whole hill flat.” Anfey smiled.

“Anfey, I…” Suzanna hesitated a little bit and said, “I have told you that the other half of the treasure map had been robbed. Without the spells on the other half of the map, we may not be able to open the treasure.”

“What kind of spells?” Christian asked, worried.

“It’s an ancient rune. I do not understand it,” Suzanna answered.

“Ancient rune? Only alchemists like to study it,” Christian said.

“Yes, my master told me this treasure was kept by an element lock,” Suzanna said.

“Element lock? That does not sound good.” Christian could not help smiling bitterly.

“What is an element lock?” Anfey asked.

There were so many things Anfey did not know about, and he humbly asked about them every time when he encountered them; so no one was surprised when he asked about an element lock. Christian whispered to answer Anfey’s question, “It is a way to seal things. Only alchemists can create an element lock. After an element lock is created, it has to be unlocked with correct spells, otherwise the element lock will explode. It would be a huge explosion too. All the elements will be shuffled in chaotic order and turn the air into a vacuum.”

“Then we can unlock it in the wrong way on purpose to cause the explosion. As long as we are careful, we would not get hurt. Will the element lock come back after the explosion?” Anfey asked.

“But the treasure would be blow up as well. The power of element locks vary. Usually alchemists will adjust the power of an element lock based on the size of the item they try to seal. The only way to safely acquire the treasure is to find the spells,” Christian said.

“So I think we still have to find the treasure first. Don’t worry about other things. Maybe the element lock has already expired and lost its effectiveness.” Christian and others looked at each other, and then they all nodded. They knew no one would unlock the element lock without spells, not even archmages. Therefore, their discussion would not help anyway.

“Anfey!” Sante had already landed on the stairs when everyone heard his voice. He did not look too good.

“What happened?” Anfey frowned.

“I have told the orcs exactly what you have told me, but many orcs wanted to leave and did not want to work for us. What should I do?” Sante sighed.

“Didn’t I tell you to kill any orc who wants to leave?” Anfey said.

“Ah, Anfey, there are more than fifty orcs wanting to leave, and a lot of kids and…” Sante said.

“I will go and take a look,” Blavi interrupted.

Among Christian and others in the legion, Blavi acted on instinct the most. In modern language, he would be called very “feisty”. He cursed at Zeda at Saul’s house, and Zeda almost killed him with a kick. Besides Anfey and Suzanna, he killed the most on their journey to escape.

Personality usually developed little by little. Blavi had always liked to control others’ lives. However, he was nervous and scared at the beginning of their escape, but felt excited now. Blavi had changed. He did not think it was a big deal to kill dozens of orcs. Instead, he was not happy with Sante’s hesitation. Anfey had said clearly that any orc who wanted to leave needed to be killed. If it were him, he would not come back and asked Anfey again. He’d rather kill those orcs immediately when he knew they wanted to leave.

“Be careful.” Anfey nodded.

“I will,” Blavi answered quietly. He flew with levitation magic to the exit of the cave and sped up.

“Christian, an element lock has magic surges. Can you sense the location of the treasure?” Suzanna asked suddenly.

“I would not sense it, but I can set up a magic array to test it,” Christian said.

“Orcs will work during the day. You can set up the magic array at night when the orcs are resting. There are only seven or eight days left before the full moon. We need to hurry,” Anfey said.

Christian and others looked at each other, speechless. They had explained to Anfey how horrible the Forest of Death could be. They knew Anfey still wanted to go, otherwise he would not constantly emphasize the full moon. They understood Anfey was trying to prepare them for the trip, but did they have to go?

There was an intense magic surge outside the cave. Obviously, Blavi had started to kill orcs. Judging from the intensity of the magic surge, Blavi did not wait for the orcs to leave the village before starting to kill them. This was a warning for the rest of the orcs.

The look on everyone in the cave had changed, but Anfey looked like nothing had happened. Suzanna looked aloof. Riska was thinking with his head down. Christian looked a little sad. He did not want to see any killing, but he was smart enough to absolutely respect Anfey’s decision. Anfey had not made many mistakes during their escape. To him, it was wise to respect Anfey’s decision.

“Christian, can you take few people with you to pick up Niya and the others,” Anfey said slowly.

“Ok,” Christian nodded.

When Niya and the others reached the tribe of orcs, it was already dark. Orcs had cleaned up the messy tribe when Niya and the others were on the way. They even moved everything in the cave out to clear up the room for them to sleep.

Anfey had thought to have orcs rest in the cave with Niya and the others, which would make it easy to watch over the orcs, but Niya was against it. She hated the look of orcs and their body odor. Anfey asked Niya to rest in the orcs’ only surviving straw house. Niya was against that idea too. To be honest, the straw house smelled even worse than the cave. It was not because orcs did not want to be clean, but they never had the concept of hygiene. Hundreds of orcs lived in a village without any restroom facility. How could it be clean?

Anfey understood Niya’s concern, so he asked Christian to set up a magic array and sent orcs into it. Anfey also asked Blavi, whom orcs hated and were scared of the most, to watch over them at night. If any orc wanted to escape, it would have to take a lot of courage to flee under Balvi’s watch.

The problem of a shortage of food made Anfey’s head hurt. Anfey had thought they would have more food after they took over the orc tribe. He did not expect the orcs’ food to be so different than theirs. Orcs cut off ever-green trees with flowers and ground them into powder. They mixed the powder with some water and baked it under the sun. That was their bread.

Anfey tasted a little bit of the bread. To be honest, it was not horrible. It had a little bit of a bitter taste, but the texture was horrible. The orcs’ bread was so tough that it could be used as weapons, to use Anfey’s own words. When the bread was bitten into smaller pieces in the mouth, Anfey felt they were like small stones. He could not swallow them.

Orcs like to cut the magic beasts’ stomachs open and take out their organs. Then they cut the magic beasts up, left them in a big pot and cooked them into a soup dish. Without mentioning their cooking skills, the pots had already shocked everyone. The whole orc tribe only had three pots, and one of three orc chiefs in charge of each. When orcs showed Anfey where the pot was, Anfey stared at the pot in amazement, and his jaw dropped.

Orcs did not have the habit of washing pots. When they were kicked out of the human world, they had to try to just survive in the forest. Therefore, some good habits they had developed in the human world had gradually disappeared.

When Anfey was approaching the pot, he heard a huge humming sound and saw a cloud of smog rising in the air. There were millions of half-finger sized dark blue flies covered under the cloud of smog. A little bit of soup was left in the pot and a layer of flies were floating on it. There were bumps on the side of the pot, which must have been left by different magic beasts. A nasty smell rushed into Anfey’s nose. Luckily, Anfey kept his legs steady, otherwise he would have fallen by the wave of smell.

Anfey held his breath, turned around and walked away. If they were out of food, he would eat this kind of food. He still had other options, so he did not mention eating this kind of food, and he did not even want to look at it again.

Anfey was wondering how these orcs could have javelin throws, leather armor, and short-shaft sticks with wolf fangs when they were so short of basic items. He felt he should look for some clues from Hui Wei. He was not worried about this problem yet, since he had control of Hui Wei. Anfey had to pressure him to make him tell how to set up an Antimagic Terra first.

The second day, the orcs started to work on the heavy construction. Anfey kept his word and paid the orcs in gold coins at the end of day, which bolstered the orcs’ morale. Orcs did not need to go out and hunt, since there were many mages in Anfey’s legion who could hunt with magic. It was self-evident which was more efficient: hunting with magic or with spears. When several mages went out together, they always could bring back some junior magic beasts. Four days later, the magic array that Christian set up finally sensed some weak magic surges. This discovery was helpful in deciding the correct direction of their digging, instead of digging everywhere.

Anfey made a conservative estimate that they would need only two more days to find treasure. It was wise to estimate conservatively since thinking the worst could prepare him for surprises later on.

The second day at noon, a few orcs fell into an ancient tunnel when they were digging into the hill. The tunnel was slanted downwards so those few orcs rolled down the tunnel and dizzily fell on a pile. They tried to look around with the very weak element light. They were so shocked that they froze into statues.

They worked so hard to earn a gold coin a day. It had already made them quite happy. Right now they had gold coins everywhere at their feet, and countless jewelry shone under the dim element light.

Besides gold coins and jewelry, heavy armor and weapons piled up in the front and both sides of the cave wall. It was hard to see the texture of the weapons, since dirt had covered the whole stone chamber over time.

There was a silver box floating in the air. If these orcs had better eyes, they could tell it was not silver, but a rare mithril. Mithril was so rare that a palm size amount would make anyone wealthy.

A black arc and quiver and a 6-foot long giant axe were hung in the front of the cave wall, but the orcs’ eyes were fixed on the gold coins under their feet. They stared at the gold coins. Without knowing who started or whether they all started at the same time, the orcs started to pick gold coins up and put as many of them in their pockets as they could.

That day Riska was watching over the orcs. It was not long before Riska noticed something unusual. Anfey, Christian, and Suzanna all came over shortly. They passed the long alley and landed in the stone chamber. The orcs in the stone chamber did not notice their presence and kept putting gold coins in their pockets. What they did was stupid since it was easy to tell what had happened. They all looked like they were pregnant.

“Put the gold coins down and get out!” Anfey said flatly.

The orcs just noticed Anfey and the others with him. Their bodies were frigid for a second, and then they turned around to look at Anfey with fury in their eyes. The gold coins had made them even less intelligent. They did stupid things that even junior magic beasts would not do.

Suzanna snorted heavily. She and Shally had tried so hard to search for this treasure. Today they finally found it. How could she allow these orcs to take any of it?

“Suzanna!” Anfey called her name quietly and then turned to thoe orcs. “Didn’t you hear me? Put the gold coins down and get out!”

The orcs shook a little bit out of fear. They just realized the huge difference in power between them. If Anfey’s legion were composed of regular people, they would have torn them up. The people in front of the orcs had killed soldiers in their tribe, captured their leader, and had power hundreds of times stronger than theirs. They hesitated a little bit and unwillingly tossed the gold coins on the floor. Every orc could be considered smart since they each kept a few coins in their pockets.

“These bastards!” Christian cursed after the orcs climbed back to the alley. This time even the generous Christian thought orcs were too much.

“Don’t worry about them. Let’s take a look at what we got today.” Anfey smiled.

They all looked at the box in the air. This was the difference in perspective. Anfey and the others did not even care about the gold coins and jewelry at all.

Chapter 86: Greed

Anfey only glanced at the chest before moving his gaze to the longbow. He walked over slowly and lifted it off the wall. Everyone else stared at the chest with wide eyes. They had all felt something, but did not want to believe. Anfey did not know much about magic silver. He had only read about it in books, and had quickly forgotten about it.

He brushed away the dust on the longbow. The bow was about four feet long and very heavy. There were no carvings or decorations on it, and the bow appeared very plain. Under the dim light, the bow’s body appeared to be dark grey, and the string appeared to be dark gold. Anfey wasn’t one to appreciate ancient artifacts, but he knew this bow was nothing short of extraordinary.

He slowly began pulling the string back, and even though he used his full strength, he was experiencing difficulties. He tried to draw the string back a bit more, and felt a sharp pain in his fingers. He released the string.

The string bounced back, making a sharp whistling sound that turned into a low buzzing. Anfey stared at it in amazement.

He put the bow back and turned to the great axe. The axe was about as tall as a man, the handle was as thick as a baby’s forearm, and the axe itself was almost as big as a wheel. The axe was shaped strangely. The lower part of the axe was flat and smooth, the upper part turned abruptly vertical. Like the bow, the axe appeared old. It was black, and only the edge of the axe appeared white.

The axe probably weighed considerably more than a hundred and fifty pounds. Anfey reached over and picked it off of the wall. As he held the axe in his hand, he stumbled and almost dropped the axe. Anfey was caught off guard. He knew how strong he was. Holding this axe was completely beyond his ability.

He grasped the axe with his left hand, and before he could study it closely, he felt his legs shaking and sinking. He was standing on a pile of jewelry, which had supported him well before, but with the axe in his hands he was falling through the pile.

He hurriedly returned the axe to where it was before. He had tried his best to control it, but it still bounced off the wall and made a loud noise that startled the others in the cave.

“What are you doing?” Christian asked, looking away from the chest.

“Nothing,” Anfey said. “Can you open the chest?”

“It’s an element lock,” Christian said, shaking his head. “It’s impossible.”

“Say, do you guys think this is magic silver?” Riska asked.

“Magic silver?” It had been too long, and well past Anfey’s memory limits. He thought the name sounded familiar, but could not remember what it was.

“I feel like it is, but I do not know for sure,” Blavi said, shaking his head.

“I’ve seen it,” Christian said, “but that’s not something you can tell by just looking at it.”

“If we attack it, maybe we can tell.”

“No, that way we will trigger the element lock,” Christian shook his head.

“Christian, do you know how to undo the lock?”

“No, unless we have the right spell.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m certain. Unless we can find an alchemist. There is no way we can manage that by ourselves.”

“Alright,” Anfey said, nodding. “Suzanna, look at this,” he added, lifting the bow off of the wall.

Suzanna walked over and took the bow. It was too big for Anfey to use, and Suzanna was even shorter than him. The way she held the bow looked slightly awkward, but her power was undeniable. She was able to draw it almost full despite being more petite than Anfey. However, she could barely draw it open fully, and let go hurriedly. The bow vibrated and an arrow of air shot forward. It hit a wall and made a large hole on it. Anfey stared at the hole, and was glad the bow was not aimed at him.

“Do you know its name?” Anfey turned to Christian, who was the most knowledgeable of all of them.

“I don’t know,” Christian shook his head. “It can shoot out an air arrow, though. I have never heard of anything like this.”

“Does anyone know?” Anfey’s question was met with head shakes and low murmurs. “Suzanna, do you know?”

“No,” Suzanna said, stroking the bow. Clearly she liked it, but it was not her weapon. Using a longbow like this was very draining, and she was, after all, a swordsman, not an archer.

“Nevermind. Suzanna, take the bow and axe.”

“Me? No. I only need the sword.”

“That’s yours. You are the rightful owner.”

“There, why don’t you put it in your ring? My ring is full, and I can’t carry around an axe all day.”

“Alright,” Anfey said. He didn’t want to argue with Suzanna about pointless things. “Suzanna, there is only one thing left to do, if we can’t figure out the spell.”

“What is it?”

“Tell us who took the map, and we will get it back together.”

Suzanna frowned and appeared hesitant.

“We still do not know where you two came from and what your pasts were. We know you will tell us when you are ready to do so. I think now is one of those times. We need to analyze where the map came from, and what kind of people we will be facing.”

“Alright,” Suzanna sighed.

“You don’t need to tell us right away. We have plenty of time for you to think,” Anfey interrupted her. “Christian, come. We need to seal off the passages. I don’t think the orcs will easily give up.”

Christian sighed, remembering the orcs. “Alright,” he said.

When they returned to the cavern, the orcs were not working, and were instead chatting amongst themselves. Seeing the group emerging from the site of the accident, the orcs all turned their gaze.

Greed was limitless. There were very few people who could avoid the influence of greed, and Anfey was no different. When he had just arrived here, all he wanted to do was to kill Yagor and survive. After meeting Saul and Ernest and learning more about the world, he wanted to be one of the best. He felt that he should do something, instead of living alone, spending the rest of his life in absolute boredom. Sure it would be safe, but…

Like him, the orcs were ecstatic over earning one gold coin a day. After hearing their friends had discovered the treasure and seeing them returning with many gold coins, they felt Anfey was selfish. They were the ones who had discovered the treasure; shouldn’t they get some of it as well? If it weren’t for the difference in power and strength, they would have rioted long ago.

“Sanchez, get them out of here. Tell them to take three days off and give them each three coins,” Anfey commanded, looking around the cavern.

“Alright,” Sanchez said. He turned to the orcs and called, “All of you, out, out.”

The orcs, hearing his orders, glanced at each other but did not move. Clearly they wanted to stay there. Greed could grant people strength sometimes, and it had helped them forget the slaughter that happened there only a few days ago. All they could think of was the treasure.

“Did you not hear me?” Sanchez called angrily. “Out with all of you!” He knew that after the accident, the orcs had become restless and would often disregard orders. They would often look at them with shifty eyes and resist orders passively.

The orcs slowly stood up and began shuffling out of the cavern. Some were muttering something in their own language, as if cursing the humans.

Anfey snorted, his eyes flickering with anger.

Chapter 87: Blackwater City

“What do you think?” Anfey looked around. Besides two people who were watching over the orcs, everyone, including Hui Wei, gathered in the cave. Anfey talked about going to the Forest of Death again in front of everyone.

“Anfey, why do you have to go to such a dangerous place?” Christian smiled bitterly.

Anfey pointed at Riska with a finger but did not say anything. Everyone looked at Riska, which had made Riska quite confused. “Me? I did not say anything. I will follow Anfey and everyone else. You say where we go, and I will follow you.”

“I used to think Zubin could be a magister after Christian. Did you get any insight from Riska? Why do you think you will be sent out for training when you reach a certain level. It usually could trigger your potential at a very dangerous moment. This potential is a key to help you break through the bottleneck. Riska is a good example of it. If we continue to stay here, it would not necessarily guarantee our safety. They will find us sooner or later. What do we do then? I know it is hard to search for people in the forest, but what if they do find us?” Anfey continued his talk: “If we go to Forest of Death, it looks dangerous, but quite safe for us. The biggest threat would be gone. As long as we are careful and cautious, I think we can handle the dangers in the Forest of Death. In addition, if we stay here, our practice will be no different. Facing the dangers in the Forest of Death will allow us to improve at a much quicker pace. In my opinion, you all have decent understanding of magic. What you lack of is real battle experience. It’s time for us to practice it.”

Anfey’s talk made everybody quiet. Seven or eight of them were senior mages who had been experiencing difficulty moving to a higher level. With previous experience, regular practice would take them five to ten years, or even their whole lives, to break through the bottlenecks. Riska was a good example in front of them, which made their decisions difficult.

“I want to say something,” Zubin interrupted.

“Go ahead,” Anfey nodded.

“If these orcs can live in the Stone Forest in Forest of Death, so can we,” Zubin said.

Zubin’s talk enlightened everyone. He was right. If those orcs with low power could live in the Forest of Death, why couldn’t they live there? If it was too dangerous in the Forest of Death, they could always retreat to the Stone Forest.

Anfey gave Zubin an appreciative look. “Zubin is right. Even if we cannot survive in the Forest of Death, as long as we can hold on there for a month, we still could come back at the next full moon. What else do we have to worry about?”

“Right!” Blavi nodded energetically. “It’s not that we could not come back ever again. What are we scared of?”

The atmosphere seemed to lighten up, and everyone was either conversing quietly or thinking quietly by themselves. The atmosphere did not seem as depressing as before.

“I have other concerns, but I would like to go with Anfey’s decision,” Christian said slowly.

“How about you, Suzanna?” Anfey looked at Suzanna.

“I will follow you too,” Suzanna said with a smile. Actually, Forest of Death was a perfect place for training for Suzanna. She was never against Anfey’s decision. She explained so much about Death of Forest to Anfey in order to remind him to make the decision carefully.

“Nuts! Nuts! You are going nuts!” Hui Wei lost himself and stood up. “What is wrong with staying in a safe place. I am telling you, you will regret when you see some of your group dead in the Forest of Death.”

“Don’t worry about it. If anyone dies, I am sure you would be the first one. This place is not safe for us. You know we are students of Saul. Have you ever considered why we came here?” Anfey sneered.

“Why?” Hui Wei asked.

“Because we killed a person.” Sanchez smiled. No one felt nervous any more when they recalled what happened. So what if he was the grandson of Phillip? They killed him but they were still alive.

“Killed whom?” Hui Wei asked.

“The only grandson of Grand Swordsman Phillip, the only direct heir of Phillip’s, Zeda,” Sanchez answered.

Hui Wei felt helpless and could not help sitting down. Phillip’s hot temper was well-known. Now he understood why these people fled to Forest of Clarm, but the problem is he really did not want to go back to Forest of Death.

“Since everyone has agreed on it, we will get ready for the ritual offerings tonight. Today is exactly three days away from the full moon,” Anfey said slowly.

“Shelter could only be started by orcs. Do you think they would help us do it?” Sante asked.

“I can be honest with them and let them know we are going to Forest of Death. Do you really think they want us to stay?” Anfey smiled. The treasure was not a secret any more. The greediness showed in the orcs’ eyes. Asking them to help with ritual offerings would not be a problem. They could even fight to control it. In their opinion, those treasures would be theirs if Anfey’s legion left.

“Do you have to go to the Forest of Death?” Hui Wei murmured.

No one paid attention to him. How could a captive have any say in this discussion?

“Can I see my dimensional ring for a second?” Hui Wei looked at Anfey in a way that he was asking Anfey for a favor. His dimensional ring had been confiscated by Anfey. Every dimensional ring had a special mark on it. Besides the master of the ring, no one could open it. After its master died, the magic mark would disappear over time. However, it would take a long time for the ring to change its master. No one could change the magic mark on the ring, not even grand magisters or grand alchemists. Therefore, Anfey could only take Hui Wei’s dimensional ring away. Anfey could neither figure out what was in it, nor own it.

Anfey took out the dimensional ring and tossed it to Hui Wei without any hesitation.

Hui Wei looked like he was suffering. He hesitated a long time and finally took out a magic scroll from his dimensional ring and passed it to Anfey.

“What is this?” Anfey felt a wave of strong surges. He reached his hand out as he asked. It took Hui Wei a while before he unwillingly let the scroll go. He had a very complicated look on his face. He looked like he had just given up his whole world.

“Don’t go to Forest of Death. This is a scroll of temporal teleportation to Blackwater City.” Hui Wei heaved a long sigh. He finally pulled back his hand from the scroll.

“Teleport scroll!” Christian stood up in surprise, and walked to Anfey in a few strides. He took the scroll from Anfey and looked at it closely.

“Where is Blackwater City?” Anfey asked. Anfey did not need check whether the scroll was real. Christian could take care of that. Anfey only needed to make sure of other things.

“Blackwater City and White Mountain City are the two biggest cities in the Country of Mercenaries. Blackwater City is close to Wild Prairie, while White Mountain City is near Forest of Death. They both have the most complicated environments on Pan Continent as well. You will see a lot of things in Blackwater City,” Suzanna said.

“Have you been to Blackwater City?” Anfey asked.

“Only when I was little,” Suzanna answered.

“This is a Teleport scroll.” Christian carefully passed the scroll back to Anfey. He looked at Hui Wei up and down. “I could not tell you are rich.”

Hui Wei heaved a long sigh and tucked his hands back into the sleeves. He curled up and looked helpless, which made people feel bad for him.

“Give me the dimensional ring back first,” Anfey said flatly, holding out one hand. His memory was good.

“Christian, is a teleport scroll rare?” Anfey asked.

“Not really, but it is expensive. Professor used to make teleport scrolls when he had free time. Usually a teleport scroll can sell for five hundred gold coins. If it was a special order to request a certain destination, then professor had to change the magic coordinate and the price would double,” Christian said, smiling.

“That expensive?” Anfey was a little surprised. No wonder Saul spent a lot. Anfey thought Saul did some side jobs to make extra money with his status as an archmage in the palace court. He just learned that Saul himself was valuable. Mages seemed to have bright futures.

“Expensive?” Niya puffed out her chest with pride. “Unless the buyers were friends of my father, then yes. Otherwise he would not even make a scroll for them, even if they offered money.”

Anfey smiled, “Christian, can you release this scroll?”

“Riska and I both can,” Christian answered.

“I got it.” Anfey turned to Hui Wei. “You cannot release this scroll since you have both magic and combat powers, can you?”

Hui Wei closed his eyes and refused to answer Anfey’s question.

“Christian, how long will it take for the time space door to open after the scroll is released?” Anfey needed to know more details.

“Very quickly,” Christian answered.

“How long would it take for the door to shut?” Anfey asked again.

“It depends on the person who released it. If magic power permits, a time space door can stay open forever.” Christian said.

“Ok, everybody get ready soon so we can leave later tonight.” Anfey stood up. “Christian, are the laws in Blackwater City as messy as in Forest of Death?”

“No, in Country of Mercenaries, the Union of Mercenaries has the authority. The Union of Mercenaries is the leader of the county,” Christian answered.

“So…” Anfey was thinking quietly for a second. “Others can go and get some rest. Christian and Suzanna, can you stay and explain to me how Union of Mercenaries works?”

Chapter 88: Transport

“I want to make sure where the magical coordinates are. You are sure it is in Blackwater?” Anfey stared at Hui Wei and asked slowly.

“Didn’t you want to go to Forest of Death? Why give up now?” Hui Wei replied lazily.

“Answer my question.”

“It is Blackwater. Why would I lie to you?” Hui Wei shook his head positively. “Normally, the mages would choose a lesser populated area when making a scroll of temporal teleportation in order to avoid portals overlaps and accidents. We can still see Blackwater from here, though.”

“Riska, prepare to begin,” Anfey said, handing the scroll over to him.

Riska took the scroll and moved to the side.

“Anfey, the tunnel is sealed,” Zubin walked over and said. “The orcs are all working and you can’t tell if anything is off from the outside.”

“Great. Tell them to gather in the cave. Is everyone ready?” Anfey asked.

“Ready,” the group replied. Niya and Shally looked the most excited. When Shally heard they were going to Blackwater City, she had asked the group to buy her food as soon as they got there. They had treasured Shally the way they had treasured the young unicorn, and would of course grant her wish.

After a few moments, the orcs gathered in the cave. They knew the mages were leaving and were beyond happy, their eyes glittering with joy. They had closed the tunnel and had worked efficiently, but they would open it again as soon as the mages left.

Anfey’s eyes swept across the cave. Everyone was accounted for and they had brought everything they needed. After he made sure nothing was amiss, Anfey turned to Sante. “You can start,” he said.

“Alright.” Sante walked over to the mouth of the cave, and whispered a spell. He then called, as loud as he could, “We’re leaving, goodbye, goodbye, see you all later.”

His voice was amplified through his magic, and his voice washed over the forest like a tsunami wave. The forest hummed with the vibration caused by the magic. His magic was limited, and his voice could only spread for a dozen miles, but it was enough.

“Riska,” Anfey called.

Riska tossed the scroll. A wave of blue light appeared, and it opened slowly like a large eye. After it opened into a full circle, the gate stopped wavering and the ring of light became more stable.

This was Anfey’s first experience with a portal, and he thought the bright blue was beautiful. There were some faint white streaks surrounding the portal, which appeared mysterious and beautiful.

“Suzanna,” Anfey said.

Suzanna glanced at him and walked towards the gate along with Zubin and Sante. The three of them stepped into the portal and disappeared. Christian, supporting Riska with his shoulder, crossed with his team. Niya, Shally, and Feller followed. Soon, the only ones left were Anfey and Blavi.

Seeing they were the only ones, Anfey nodded, and Blavi began whispering a spell. The orcs around them were waiting for their departure, and didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until Blavi finished his spell that they realized something was off.

A wave of flame appeared and swept across the orcs. The orcs were standing in rank, and it was almost impossible to avoid the attack. The flame washed across the orcs. Some screamed and were rolling on the floor, but others simply fell down without a sound. When the flame swept their ranks, some of the orcs were breathing in and the heat incinerated their lungs. Even if it didn’t kill them instantly, they still would not be able to make a sound.

Only about a dozen orcs survived the flame. Unfortunately for them, Anfey was on the move as well. While they were looking for anything that could be used as weapons, Anfey was already in front of them. A female orc encountered him first. She flailed around like a madman, but Anfey stepped around her and stabbed her in the neck with his sword.

No matter who he was fighting, Anfey would always attack three points on the body: the neck, the head, and left chest. The neck was the most vulnerable part of the body, and every time Anfey aimed there, he would succeed.

An old orc found a piece of rock, but before he could do anything with it, Blavi’s fireball hit him. He was thrown into the air, slammed into a wall, and fell to the ground.

“Anfey!” Blavi called.

Anfey jumped off of the ground, and a wave of lightning spread across the ground.

Anfey landed and struck an old orc on the back of his head. He became a blurred shadow as he sped through the remaining orcs, his sword splitting the air.

If Suzanna was here and saw his moves, she would receive new inspirations for her own sword skills.

Anfey’s sword struck out towards air, but he would step aside and slash at an orc’s throat. For a normal swordsman, moving and attacking were two separate movements. For Anfey, however, moving was attacking. He could hit his target no matter from which angle he struck.

His movements were fluid and strange, and none of the orcs had any time to react before falling to the ground.

At first Blavi tried to cooperate with him and attack with magic, but by the end he was just watching his companion move.

“Blavi,” Anfey said when he cut down the last orc. Blavi nodded and began a spell. The cave shook violently, and the roof began caving in. Rocks fell down into the cave. Before the cave collapsed completely, Blavi and Anfey had already crossed through the portal.

Anfey felt a flash of coldness when he crossed. He heard Christian’s voice as his feet hit solid ground. “What took you so long?”

“Had to tell the orcs something,” Anfey said, smiling. He was a cold person, but he had no prejudice. He would not classify a person as an enemy because of the person’s appearance. In his mind, there were only three kinds of people. Enemies that would threaten him, friends that deserved his assistance, and the rest, who were irrelevant to him. Before the orcs attacked them, he did not dislike them. After he had conquered them, he still did not dislike them. After he had seen their greed, however, he knew he had to do something.

It wouldn’t matter what he told them. The orcs would still try to take treasures after he left. He didn’t care much about the gold, but what if the orcs tried to tamper with the chest and triggered the element lock? Surely they would not heed any of his warnings.

“I thought Phillip was mad. You’re even more so,” an old man standing on a tree branch said.

“I’m always like this.” Ernest shrugged and said, “Thanks for saving me.”

“You swordsmen are so headstrong,” Steger said. “Retreating this way. So reckless. If I’m right, Niya went the other way.”

“You mages are so smart,” Ernest smiled. Steger did not kill him and did not try to track down Niya because he had already picked sides.

“By god I hate this forest, but at least we have an explanation,” Steger said, shaking his head. He was too old for the trials of the Magic Beast Forest.

“An explanation for Yolanthe or Saul?”

“His Majesty? He’s already…” Steger said, trying to find the right words.

Just then, they heard the faint sound of yelling from the other side of the forest, “We’re leaving…”

“Amplifying magic?” Steger frowned and asked.

“They’re leaving? To where?” Ernest frowned as well.

Chapter 89: Country of Mercenaries

Country of Mercenaries was the only country without a military on the Pan Continent. However, its defensive ability could not be neglected. When Ellisen Empire was at its peak, Ellisen Empire wanted to take over some territories in Country of Mercenaries. The Ellisen Empire test attacked Country of Mercenaries.The soldiers in Ellisen Empire had an excellent record on the battlefield against the mercenaries. Mercenaries did not dare to confront them on the battlefield. They neither seemed to be organized nor had a united military force. In the first month, Ellisen Empire took over one-third of the territory in the Country of Mercenaries.

Soldiers in Ellisen Empire were excited. They wrote an oath to the king, swearing to take over the whole Country of Mercenaries in three months. However, they found they were surrounded by “War Marsh” before the oath even reached to the desk of the king of Ellison Empire.

Mercenaries were everywhere in the Country of Mercenaries. Some of them were natives while others were immigrants. They were civilians in the country and became mercenaries as needed. Sometimes if knocking on a door in the Country of Mercenaries, it was easy to find that there were a few swordsmen or magisters in the family. It was nothing surprising.

Mercenaries could be organized in different ways. It could be friends who shared the same interests, a family, neighbors, even a village itself as a large size mercenary group. No matter how the mercenaries were organized, their sense of morality, loyalty, and responsibility were far better than militaries.

Although different sized mercenaries fought on their own, they still brought huge trouble to Ellisen Empire militaries. Logistics, small-scale rangers and scouts in Ellisen Empire suffered constant attacks. In other words, unless the soldiers in Ellisen Empire stayed together in their camp, any group of soldiers sent out on a mission, no matter whether a group of several, more than ten, or even hundreds, they all suffered fatal attacks from mercenaries. When the main force came to help, they would only see the dead bodies of their soldiers. When they did investigations in the villages, they could not find anything. Those civilians, or people who appeared to be civilians, were hostile towards the soldiers in Ellisen Empire and refused to cooperate.

Logistics suffered the most. In order to take territory in the Country of Mercenaries quickly, the military in Ellisen Empire usually only left hundreds or a few thousand soldiers as guards after they took over an area while, the main force would keep advancing. Mercenaries fought back and annihilated forces of guards one after another. Ellisen Empire’s military found they fell into a situation where they were surrounded by opponents.

Soldiers in Ellisen Empire could not tell apart a peaceful civilian and a killer who killed their peers. They could not control the situation. The word “slaughter” was taboo. In the battles of humans against other races, slaughterers had always become heroes of humans, but slaughterers could be spurned by all human beings in the civil wars. Of course, it was still possible to slaughter the Country of Mercenaries. It depended on the determinations of the upper class in Ellisen Empire.

First of all, Country of Mercenaries was a country with a fighting history. Death would not scare them since they had a history of fighting off the grim reaper. Slaughter would only make mercenaries indulge in extravagant acts of revenge. Ellisen Empire militaries needed to prepare for fighting alone, since other countries on Pan Continent might unite together to fight against Ellisen Empire. The delivery of metals, magic crystals and other military supplies would be blockaded. Then it would be hard to get any supplies from other countries, while local goods in Ellisen Empire would become less available. They also would experience political and economic isolation and attacks. If Country of Mercenaries tried to call for other countries to fight together against Ellisen Empire in the name of justice, then Ellisen Empire would be at a military disadvantage.

These disastrous possibilities made the upper class in Ellisen Empire finally decide, after lengthy deliberations, to recall their armies. Their offensive plan of moving forward in three branches was foiled. Armies in those three branches gathered together and retreated to Ellisen Empire as fast as they could.

A couple of soldiers died here and over ten soldiers died over there. It did not seem like a big number of fatalities. However, it happened so frequently that when the fatalities were added up, plus the lost guards, the upper class in Ellisen Empire found the fatality total had reached 40,000.

The war ended by the loss of the aggressor, Ellisen Empire. Since then, the other countries would always consider the military strategy of the Country of Mercenaries by involving everyone in the war. Country of Mercenaries and Tumen Commercial Union were two special governments in the south and north of Pan Continent, respectively. Compared with Tumen Commercial Union, Country of Mercenaries had full autonomy, while Tumen Commercial Union was dependent on Maho Empire. Tumen Commercial Union could develop to this extent so far due to the open policy of the Maho Empire. If the king of Maho Empire were cruel and greedy, Tumen Commercial Union would not be in such a good position.

Blackwater City was one of the two most important cities in the Country of Mercenaries. It was also one of the biggest distribution centers of magic crystals on Pan Continent. In the magic world, the demands and wear and tear on magic crystals was huge. Whoever had control of magic crystals would have control of the lifeblood of Pan Continent. Ellisen Empire used to be very powerful, but went into decline later on. Ellisen Empire was overtaken by Maho Empire. The policy of refusing businessmen from Ellisen Empire into Country of Mercenaries played an important role in it. After the invasion by Ellisen Empire, this policy had been carried out for a hundred years, which damaged Ellisen Empire’s economy greatly. Ellisen Empire had to buy magic crystals at a high price from the countries which had amicable relations with it. The lost in the past hundred years could not be calculated. This was a classic example of karma on Pan Continent.

A hundred years later, the revenge did not stop until a beautiful princess of Ellisen Empire married a regimental commander from a super mercenary group in the Country of Mercenaries. The age difference between them was huge. Whether the marriage was the result of political concerns was not possible to trace back.

Two sons of that regimental commander passed away from accidents, and the two-year-old grandson died from disease a year later. The son of that beautiful princess inherited the position of regimental commander. Whether what happened in this family was by accident or planned was going to be a myth. It was not worth looking into it anyway, since people knew Ellisen Empire was rebounding to recover its past strength.

Other kings on Pan Continent learned from Ellisen Empire about the potential threat from the Country of Mercenaries. They tried to keep a good relationship with the Country of Mercenaries as they kept an eye on it. They could bear to have their main resources under the control of an unorganized country, but could not allow a powerful authoritarian government to appear because it would become a huge threat to all the countries.

The upper class in the Country of Mercenaries seemed to understand this principle. Four super mercenary groups had been in power by turns. Every term was only one year long. No matter which mercenary group developed quickly, other mercenary groups would work together to reduce its power. There was much internal dissension among mercenaries. They knew they had to have internal dissension to reduce their power in order to avoid being the target of other countries.

Anfey learned about these from Christian and Suzanna. There was a saying that “you need to see it to believe it.” When Anfey entered Blackwater City, he sensed a total different feeling in Blackwater City than in Maho Empire and Tumen Commercial Union.

The city walls in Blackwater City were very low. The Country of Mercenaries was a country without defensive facilities, but with a strong defensive system. City walls were never helpful. Many pedestrians on the streets wore swordsman and mage signs. The swordsman and mage rates in Blackwater City were a lot higher than in Maho Empire. It seemed that the buildings on the street were very old. They were neither as tall and grand as the Maho Empire’s, nor as fancy as Tumen Commercial Union’s.

A pleasure-seeker on the street flipped a woman’s skirt and squeezed hard on her butt. That woman looked like she enjoyed it. The bars were so loud that waves of sound came the bars that seemed like they could have made people on the street deaf. All of these would not happen in Maho Empire or Tumen Commercial Union. Maho Empire and Tumen Commercial Union seemed to be civilized, while it was still wild here. These three cities usually left people with quite different impressions.

Anfey found people on the street did not seem to be interested in others. Every time they encountered a weird person on the street, Christian and others in Anfey’s legion would watch curiously for a while, but people in Blackwater City treated it like nothing had happened.

There was relatively more freedom in Blackwater City. The Mercenary Union would not interfere with personal lives unless they caused safety issues for others. No one would judge if a person was riding in a female elf slave’s carriage, or even killed a female elf slave on the street, since that person just destroyed his own property. However, he had to pay a cleaning fee for it. Of course, that person needed to be prepared for revenge from the proud elves.

“Female elf slave” sounded like a low status. It would be wrong to think that way. Female elf slaves only meant they had just entered the human society. Their status would change over time. Some of them would earn higher social status, while other would earn lower social status. The wife of the current regional commander of the Tiger of Tawau mercenaries used to be an elf slave, but she had thrown off her slavery and become an influential member of the upper class. She had nine children with her husband. Every child of hers was outstanding.

“Anfey, if the people in Blackwater City learned about the warrant sent by the Phillips, would our safety be an issue?” Blavi whispered as he watched the people on the street.

“No, mercenaries are not killers. Phillip was just a master swordsman. He did not have such influence,” Suzanna answered quietly.

“Let’s find a place to stay first. We should rent or even buy a house later,” Anfey said, looking at the sign for a hotel.

Chapter 90: Old Friends

“Suzanna!” a voice called from the other side of the street.

The group stopped in its tracks, and everyone turned to look for the source of the voice. A young man in his twenties with a longsword on his hip hurried across the street. It was evident from his badge that he was a junior swordsman. “Suzanna, oh god, it’s really you!” he said, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

“Vonmerg? What are you doing here?” Suzanna looked surprised, but happy.

“You were the best among all of us, but then you just disappeared. We couldn’t stay there anymore, so we came here,” the young man said, extending his arms. “It’s so good to see you again!”

Suzanna took a step back and avoided his embrace. “You haven’t changed at all,” she said.

Vonmerg laughed awkwardly and turned his gaze to Anfey, “And this is…?”

“This is Anfey, our leader, and Christian, our deputy,” Suzanna introduced.

“Greetings,” Anfey and Christian nodded.

“Greetings,” Vonmerg said, slightly shocked. “Suzanna, you joined the patrol? That doesn’t sound something you would do.”

“We’re definitely not the patrol,” Suzanna smiled and explained.

“It’s so good seeing you again,” Vonmerg said, nodding. “Our Angel Mercenary Band is finally together again.”

Regardless of what the others thought of the word “angel,” Suzanna found herself blushing. She was beautiful, and her personality more likable than girls like Niya. She had worked with the group for a while now, but no one had tried to flirt with her. After her first encounter with Anfey, she couldn’t really be an angel in front of him, anyway.

Plus, Suzanna’s exceptional skills shocked everyone in the group, and they all reckoned they were too weak to even try to flirt with her. Someone as daring as Vonmerg was an oddity.

“Ah, sorry, Vonmerg, we…we are starting a new mercenary group,” Suzanna said hurriedly.

“Ah…I mean…” Vonmerg froze.

“I mean, you can join us…” Suzanna didn’t want to see her old friend upset, but she remembered Anfey was in charge of the group, not she. She shouldn’t invite people without consulting him first. She turned and looked at him. Anfey thought about her offer to Vonmerg for a moment, and nodded.

“Vonmerg, why don’t you join us?” Suzanna asked again, this time more confident.

“Alright!” Vonmerg smiled at this unexpected offer. He turned to Anfey and said, “The name’s Vonmerg, junior swordsman. Glad to be working with you, sir.”

“No need to be polite,” Anfey said, extending his hand. “We are all friends here.”

Vonmerg noticed Anfey’s power, and had appeared surprised, but he quickly shook his hand.

Anfey had expected Vonmerg to start a fight or look for trouble. If he really was a shallow person, Anfey would not have hesitated to ask him to leave. Now, though, he was satisfied by Vonmerg’s actions.

“Oh, by the way, Suzanna, Hagan is here too. I’ll take you there.”

“Hagan? You guys are together?”

“Of course. He was the one keeping me alive.”

“Where is he?”

“In the inn, over there. Come on, I’ll take you.” Before anyone else could say anything, Vonmerg was already running towards the inn.

The group followed Vonmerg to the inn. Seeing so many people walking in at the same time, but inn owner happily walked over to greet them. He saw Anfey first, then he saw Christian and Niya, and for a split second he was shocked.

It was only a few seconds, but enough for Anfey to realize something was off. He sighed. He wanted to come to Blackwater because he wanted everyone to practice their craft in more complicated situations, so they could return to Maho Empire to look for Saul. He didn’t expect to be recognized their first day here. Was it because of Phillip’s extensive powers? Or was it just coincidence?

“Hey, I’m going to take the entire third floor,” Vonmerg called.

“Of course, of course,” the inn owner said. “Please give me a moment and I’ll take you to your rooms.”

“Looks like you’re living well nowadays,” Suzanna said, smiling.

“It’s better. You know, Suzanna, Hagan is only an elementary alchemist, but there are only so many in the city. We can more or less make a decent living.”

“What do you do, then?”

“Me? Trying to find business, of course. Hagan would never find work on his own without me.”

Suzanna smiled and shook her head, and wasn’t sure if she should comment on Vonmerg’s ability or his natural way with money.

“Are you ready for your rooms?” the inn owner asked. He walked from behind the counter with a string of keys.

“Alright,” Anfey nodded.

The inn was not busy. As they ascended the stairs, they did not see another patron. Vonmerg marched up to one of the doors and knocked on it. “Hagan!” he called. “Open the door! You’ll never guess who I found!”

“Vonmerg, how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t disturb me when I’m in the middle of an experiment!”

“Open the door, you idiot. You’re gonna regret it if you don’t,” Vonmerg called, raising his voice.

The door was slammed open and a young man appeared. He was thin and tall, and appeared very scholarly. He looked angry, but when he saw Suzanna he had the same expression as Vonmerg only a few minutes before. “Suzanna?” he asked.

“Hagan,” Suzanna smiled and said, “it’s been a while.”

“Come in, come in,” Hagan invited. “How did you know we are here?”

“I didn’t,” Suzanna said. “We ran into each other on the street.”

“It was a coincidence,” Vonmerg said. “Here, Hagan. This is our leader, Anfey.”

“Leader? Of what? Mercenaries?”

“Let’s go inside first,” Anfey said. “Give us the key. You can go now.”

The inn owner handed him the key and glanced at his face again before going downstairs.

Anfey looked at Blavi, who nodded and moved over to stand by the wall next to the stairway. They were the only ones occupying the rooms, and Anfey didn’t want any irrelevant people coming up there.

Then he gave the keys to Feller and placed him in charge of the living arrangements. The rest of the group all filed into Hagan’s room.

It was a small room, and with half a dozen people it became crowded. The furniture inside was simple as well. There was a desk and four chairs. In one of the corners was a bed, and there were some necessities scattered around the room. The only thing that was eye-catching were the bottles on the floor next to the bed. There were at least a dozen there, and each was filled with liquid of different colors.

“Suzanna, you’re a mercenary now?” Hagan asked. “What’s the name?”

“Haven’t decided yet,” Suzanna said.

“I take it that you haven’t register either?”

“We just arrived and haven’t found the time yet.”

Hagan looked at each person carefully, and when he saw Niya he froze and stared at her.

“What are you looking at?” Niya asked angrily.

Niya looked very plain. Anfey wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble, so made Niya and Suzanna were church clothes. He had told them to keep their hair messy and their faces makeup free. Because of that, Niya had felt ugly and extremely sensitive to other’s stares.

“That…that’s…” Hagan raised his hand and pointed a finger at Niya’s bag. The bag was small and occasionally moved. Clearly it contained some living creature.

“Niya, go,” Anfey frowned. Why was an alchemist so sensitive to the presence of magic beasts?

Niya glared at Hagan and left the room.

“Wait!” Hagan called, jumping up.

Zubin and Sante both took a step forward and blocked his path, staring at him as a silent warning.