Raelin showed no restraint as he looted through the enormous resource vault, tucking the smallest yet most valuable items into his own possession.
The Rat trailing behind him, emboldened by Raelin's authority, managed to snag quite a few goodies as well.
Only after he had looted to his satisfaction did Raelin return to the entrance and address the line of dark wizards who were practically burning with anticipation: "The rest… is all yours."
"Thank you, Lord Bloodhand!!!"
The dark wizards present bowed to Raelin, then let out a cheer and rushed eagerly into the treasury, seizing everything in sight.
"What a waste! If I had a spatial storage Magical Item, I certainly wouldn't be leaving such a windfall for you lot…"
Raelin watched the vast resource vault being ravaged, a faint sense of regret welling up inside him.
Even if he couldn't use most of these items himself, he could have traded them for Magic Stones and such.
But time was pressing, and he could only carry so much — he had to let them have it.
"Rat! Come here!"
Raelin said flatly.
"My lord! What are your orders!" Having witnessed Raelin's exploits today, the Rat Wizard was thoroughly impressed to the point of absolute devotion, practically ready to pledge his life in service.
"You have a talent for searching, don't you? I recall that last time, when we were looking for the entrance to the secret realm, you were the first to find it…"
Raelin's tone was perfectly calm, but a sharp light blazed in his eyes, as though he had already seen through the Rat from the inside out.
"It's just a side effect of the Perpetual Transformation spell…" The Rat felt a sudden chill in his heart and forced a dry laugh.
"Good! Find the location of this aura for me!"
Raelin extended his index finger. Wisps of black energy seeped out, coalescing into a tiny black serpent that shot forward to the Rat in an instant and latched onto its nose.
"Aagh…" The Rat let out a miserable shriek, but the expected searing pain never came. Instead, a Wizard's aura had been firmly imprinted into its mind and memory.
"That's the one! Take me to him!" Raelin's voice was perfectly even, betraying not the slightest hint of emotion — yet this very composure only made the Rat more terrified.
"Yes! Yes, my lord! I'll take you there right now!"
The Rat dropped flat to the ground, pressing its nose to the floor and sniffing furiously.
After a few minutes, it locked onto a direction: "This way, my lord — please follow me!"
Behind the blood-red mask, Raelin's lips curved into a faint smile. What he had slipped to the Rat earlier was none other than the aura of Bill, the one in charge of this merit trading outpost.
As the first Wizard Raelin had extorted, Bill's aura had naturally been retained as a backup.
He had heard it straight from Bill's mouth — what he had stripped earlier was only a secondary storehouse. The real warehouse was something even Bill had no clearance to bring anyone into.
Now, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Raelin estimated that inside the true vault, there had to be stored every last top-grade rare material the Four Seasons Garden had harvested from the Ganges Secret Realm!
If he could get his hands on all of it! It would surely be enough to fuel his cultivation all the way to second-rank Wizard and beyond...
The moment that thought crossed his mind, his breathing grew irrepressibly heavy.
This wizard who looked like a giant rat had no talent for combat, yet had still earned the Hand of Thousand Leaves' attention — all because of this tracking gift.
Raelin followed the big rat through several hidden passages in succession. Along the way there were naturally all manner of alarm mechanisms and magic traps, but Raelin smashed through them all by brute force.
In principle, these traps served primarily as alarms. The moment a wizard intrusion was detected, they would immediately summon a large force of Four Seasons Garden wizards.
Eventually, even Leonor would be alerted, and with a second-rank Wizard on site, the place would be as secure as a mountain.
But things were different now. The entire Four Seasons Garden headquarters within the Ganges Secret Realm had descended into chaos, and Leonor — the second-rank Wizard stationed there — had been lured away by the Hand of Thousand Leaves' own second-rank Dark Wizard.
With every mobile combatant gone, relying on a handful of rigid traps and spells to stop Raelin was nothing but a joke!
"We're here, my lord! If my senses aren't deceiving me, the source of that aura is inside this passage..."
After working their way through a labyrinth riddled with traps and forked paths, the big rat pointed at a green-lit corridor ahead and spoke with absolute certainty.
The passage looked extremely narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. And before its entrance stood a massive green wall woven from countless entangled vines. From it pulsed powerful waves of energy — an aura that felt faintly familiar. Raelin had seen it not long ago. It belonged to Leonor, that second-rank Wizard!
"That's right! This is the place!"
Raelin studied the magical ward before him, his heartbeat quickening ever so slightly.