"You think... magic stones are for giants?"
The old hag glanced up at the giant still droning on above them and muttered to Leilin.
"Are they not?" Leilin asked, somewhat surprised.
"Of course not. Giants are strong enough, sure, but he's no Second-rank Wizard. At most, he'll get forty percent of this haul!" The old hag pointed toward the small mountain of goods in the center.
"As for the rest — it all goes to the 'Lord' behind us!" She said this in a mysterious tone.
"'Lord'?!" The word immediately set Leilin's mind racing.
Wizards valued power above all else. For the old hag to address someone so respectfully as "Lord," that person had to be at least a Second-rank Wizard.
"Who else do you think is shielding us from the White Wizard divination arts?"
The old hag cackled and shot back the question.
"As far as I know, dark wizard organizations like ours number at least two or three in Sleepless City alone. And behind each of them, there are shadowy hands pulling the strings..."
Thanks to the alliance formed over their potion dealings, the old hag clearly trusted Leilin quite a bit, and she spoke openly about certain secrets.
"Robbing White Wizard secret realms — that's no whim of the dark wizards. It's an organized, premeditated, coordinated operation!"
A thought flashed through Leilin's mind and took root.
"For all I know, several superpowers from the Dark Wizard Domain might be involved behind the scenes!" A faint smile tugged at the corner of Leilin's lips.
"This is getting more and more interesting..."
Still, none of this had much to do with Leilin right now. His only goal was to rack up a massive haul of resources by joining in on the dark wizards' raids.
And just tonight's single job had brought him nearly five to six hundred thousand magic stones in income! That was obviously far more convenient and efficient than taking quests through the Four Seasons Garden.
Of course, the risk was nothing to sneeze at either. If anyone traced it back to him, they'd hunt him down to the bitter end.
That was exactly why every member who joined hid their identity — even the heads of these organizations didn't know the true identities of everyone beneath them.
"Alright! Take your share! And remember — don't splurge right away. Wait a while before spending any of it!"
"After tonight's job, the mad dogs of the Nine-Ring White Tower will be sniffing around everywhere, trying to track us down. Keep a low profile for the time being..."
The giant, wreathed in green smoke, kept rattling off warnings while waving his hand. "You're free to go now. Our exchange meetings will be on hiatus for a while — I'll notify you when they resume..."
...
A bald wizard whose face looked as though it had melted away, leaving only the faintest suggestion of a facial contour with hollows and ridges, was making his way through a black forest.
A massive black python was coiled around his body, giving him a deeply unsettling appearance.
BOOM!
Without warning, the bald wizard's expression twisted in alarm and he threw himself to the side.
At the spot where he'd been standing, the ground cratered inward as a violent explosion erupted. Purple flames surged outward, scorching an area of several hundred square meters into a blackened wasteland.
"Bloodhand! It has to be you! Get out here, damn it!" the bald Viper roared.
Black bristles erupted across his skin, making him look something like a great ape.
His answer came in the form of countless fireballs that materialized from the shadows.
BANG!!!
The black fireballs moved with terrifying speed, reaching him before he could even react and detonating right in front of his face.
The Viper's chest went pitch-black. His coarse black hair fell away in clumps, his ribcage caved in, and the sickening crack of shattering bone rang out. His body was blasted backward as though struck by a speeding locomotive.
The massive python coiled around him was incinerated in the flames, crumbling into white ash that drifted to the ground.
"A spell of this magnitude?!" The Viper didn't even have time to mourn his precious familiar. Leilin's Shadow Fireball had completely stunned him.
"This kind of spell has to be a refined First-level Spell Model from one of the major wizard organizations — and a reinforced version at that. Who the hell are you?!"
The Viper stared at Leilin as he emerged slowly from the shadows, his face flickering between suspicion and alarm.
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you die here today!" Having already used his Shadow Fireball, Leilin had fully committed to killing the Viper on the spot.
"You're not afraid the organization will come after you?!"
The Viper lay crumpled on the ground, seemingly unable to move, struggling to even push himself up.
"I signed a contract not to leak the secrets of the gatherings — but there was nothing about members settling personal grudges!"