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Bathed in the silver moonlight filtering through the dense canopy, Lucian became a fleeting shadow as he dashed cautiously through the dimly lit Meltzer Forest. He chose a route along the boundary between the outer reaches, where ordinary adventurers tended to appear, and the deeper depths where powerful dark creatures lurked. Along the way, he occasionally glimpsed weak goblin tribes huddled around campfires and crude camps, as well as savage beasts like wild wolves and black bears.
Phyllis's estate lay in the opposite direction from the "Lanacca Gorge" and the "Masor River," quite far away, but after awakening his bloodline power, Lucian's speed was astonishing and his endurance more than adequate. After just over twenty minutes, he could already see the shimmering, dreamlike beauty of the Masor River in the distance, its surface rippling gently under a veil of moonlight.
Lucian slowed to a stop and became even more cautious.
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Just outside the eastern entrance of the Lanacca Gorge flowed the Masor River. It ran eastward throughout its course before finally merging into the River Belen, and here it formed a broad, stony riverbank strewn with smooth, colorful pebbles.
From the dark forest, a figure in black emerged — tall and imposing, with a deep hood that shrouded his face in an indistinct shadow. Perched on his shoulder was a peculiar featherless bird with vivid crimson skin.
"Fire Wolf" scanned the surroundings with alert caution while simultaneously casting a detection spell to sweep the area. Everything came back normal.
He walked forward one deliberate step at a time, his heart churning with unease, yet he dared not glance behind him. The Night Watch captain "
"Once this succeeds, I can get the 'Arcane Gate' potion from the Tribunal, become a proper mage, and join the Night Watch for good — no more of this dangerous, unsafe spy work."
Even while maintaining the focus required for spellcasting, Fire Wolf's heartbeat quickened involuntarily. He had always been on edge before, terrified that the exposure of his identity would lead to a joint pursuit by mages that would end in his death. Now he was about to face a powerful mage of at least the third rank head-on. True, the Night Watch captain was extremely fast and could reach his hiding spot in no more than thirty seconds, but could he survive the Professor's attack for even those thirty seconds?
Thinking of this, Fire Wolf touched the bracelet on his wrist — a third-tier magical artifact awarded by the Church called the "Weaver of Flames Bracelet." It was his only hope of holding the Professor for thirty seconds and keeping himself alive.
It was now ten forty. Fire Wolf had arrived before the gorge entrance, but the "Professor" had yet to appear. The only sound in the vicinity was the distant howling of wild beasts.
After waiting with mounting anxiety for a while and still seeing no sign of the Professor, Fire Wolf looked around — and suddenly noticed a faint glow flickering on a large boulder inside the gorge.
Clutching his spellcasting materials, Fire Wolf cautiously approached and found a line of words written on the boulder in glowing green powder:
"Change of location. Meet me in the dark forest south of the gorge…" Below was a corresponding set of celestial coordinates.
Although Fire Wolf was not proficient in astrology magic, he could still manage a rough position calculation from clear celestial coordinates, and he quickly worked out the exact location.
He was not surprised by the Professor's last-minute change — it was a common precaution against being followed or surveilled. In fact, if the Professor had NOT changed the meeting point when meeting with a relatively unfamiliar Magic Apprentice, Fire Wolf would have found the whole affair far more suspicious.
Using a series of perfectly ordinary calls from his Familiar, the "Fire Feather Bird," to relay the change of plans to the Night Watch captain, Fire Wolf made his way into the dark forest.
The location the Professor had given this time was farther away. It took more than ten minutes before Fire Wolf reached the designated spot. Towering black spruce trees surrounded him on all sides, completely blocking out the moonlight, plunging everything into total darkness.
From somewhere deeper in the dark forest came several more bestial howls — bone-chilling sounds that sent shivers down the spine.
Yet these howls actually put Fire Wolf slightly at ease, for they were the prearranged signal that the Night Watch had already arrived and taken up concealed positions.
Some of the Night Watch agents, skilled in stealth, spread out and silently began sweeping the nearby area, worried about walking into an ambush set by the "Professor."
Time ticked by with agonizing slowness, but the Professor still did not appear. Fire Wolf grew increasingly agitated, pacing back and forth in place: "Has the Professor discovered the trap?"
At eleven thirty, a full half hour had passed since the agreed-upon time. The pitch-black forest remained utterly still and silent.
Meanwhile, the Night Watch members lying in ambush in the distance were also losing patience, believing the Professor had likely sensed something was wrong. A Night Watch captain dressed in black leather armor, wearing black gloves and a clown mask, issued orders to the hidden operatives through a special method: "Using Fire Wolf's position as the center, everyone is to search the surrounding dark forest within a five-hundred-meter radius. The Professor has either already detected the anomaly and left, or is still hiding somewhere within this distance."
The Night Watch captain "Clown" was making one final effort.
The Night Watch agent Minsk, dressed in a white formal coat, immediately sprang into action, slipping into the darkness to conduct the search.
After searching one hundred meters into the dark forest to Fire Wolf's west, the pink-haired Minsk discovered an ordinary foreman's cabin. No light shone from within — it was dark and silent.
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In the forest on the other side of the foreman's cabin, a Night Watch agent lay motionless on the ground. His expression was frozen in shock and terror. Blood, mixed with white brain matter, gushed from a hole in the top of his skull, seeping into the dark earth and enriching the soil with its grim bounty.
Standing beside the dead agent was a tall, gaunt man wearing a black overcoat adorned with silver-white pointed horns. An aura of sinister dread radiated from his entire being. He was in the process of inserting his right index finger — coated in brain matter — into his mouth.
After sucking on it a few times, the gaunt man spoke to the crystal ball held in his left hand, his voice tinged with puzzlement: "Your Eminence the High Priest, they were pursuing a mage of their own. It's likely nothing more than a coincidence."
"Quite the coincidence. And if they continue searching like this, they'll soon discover the entrance to the ruins. So, Dragan — coordinate with the other Temple Knights and eliminate them all. We can simply blame it on that mage's ambush." From within the crystal ball came an ancient, decayed voice.