Wizard Earl

Chapter 19 A Moment of Terror

"I hope you remember what you just said, or I will curse you with my soul!" Suppressing the pain in his abdomen, the weakened Vidal gritted his teeth and said hatefully.

"Wizards are divided into black and white. Theoretically, white wizards represent some kind of justice, while we black wizards are the embodiment of evil. In reality, within the Empire, apart from the Church of Storms, the Church of Earth, and the official wizards of the Empire, everyone else is considered a black wizard. The Church of Earth and the Imperial authorities are less aggressive in their treatment of black wizards than the Church of Storms; as long as they don't violate Imperial law, they turn a blind eye. However, once a black wizard is discovered by the Church of Storms, they will be hunted down by the Church!"

"I'm just a junior apprentice right now. The organization hasn't told me much about wizards. All I know is that to become a wizard, you have to become a wizard apprentice first, and to become a wizard apprentice, you need talent, and only one in ten thousand people has that talent on average!" Vidal's pale face was full of pride as he finished speaking, clearly very proud that he had the talent to become a wizard apprentice.

"On average, only one in ten thousand people possesses wizarding talent?" Connor maintained a smile on his face, but inwardly he was shocked by Vidal's words. Even as an important commercial city on the Storm Ocean of the Kaman Empire, Luen City only had a population of about one million. By that calculation, only a little over a hundred people had wizarding talent? No wonder news about wizards was so scarce; it turned out that there were so few people with wizarding talent.

"Vidal, you said you're a beginner wizarding apprentice, so it seems there are intermediate and advanced levels too? Also, what methods can be used to test if someone has wizarding talent?" After a moment's thought, Connor continued to ask:

"You guessed right. Wizarding apprenticeship is divided into three stages: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The level of apprentice is determined by the runes during meditation. Being able to meditate on three runes at once qualifies you as a beginner apprentice, and meditating on six runes qualifies you as an intermediate apprentice. As for the standards to become an advanced apprentice, I don't know. As for testing whether someone has wizarding talent, it relies on a specially made crystal ball." Perhaps because it was all common knowledge, Vidal told Connor without any hesitation.

"Very good! Mr. Vidal, I am very satisfied with your attitude of cooperation. Now, can you tell me if the crystal ball and the ancient Byzantine book in your suitcase are the crystal ball and meditation manual you just mentioned?" Connor took out a suitcase and showed Vidal a crystal ball and a book from it.

Seeing these two items in Connor's hands, Vidal became somewhat agitated. "Damn it, get your filthy claws off those...!"

Vidal's fierce reaction pleased Connor more than angered him. Judging from Vidal's performance, it seemed that these spoils could be the key to unlocking the door to wizardry for him.

"One last question, Mr. Vidal, please hand over the methods for practicing the spells Corrosive Acid and Shadow Hand!" Connor's lips curled into a faint smile. Corrosive Acid and Shadow Hand were the names of the dark green corrosive liquid and the gray hand that Vidal used to cast the spells. While Vidal was unconscious, Connor searched the castle and found Vidal's suitcase.

At first, Connor didn't know the purpose of the crystal ball in the suitcase, so he didn't act rashly. However, he did briefly scan the meditation manual. Although the text used to record the meditation method was the obscure and difficult ancient Byzantine script, the common script of the Tertiary period, Connor studied history and had received systematic and detailed study of ancient Byzantine at Green University, so understanding the Byzantine text was not difficult at all!

The meditation manuals contain many things, but the practice methods for the only recorded spells in the meditation arts, Acid Corrosion and Shadow Hand, have been deliberately torn out.

"You actually understood the basic meditation technique?" This time, Vidal's face was filled with shock. He clearly couldn't accept this fact. After a long while, Vidal's expression calmed down, but a trace of pain appeared on his face. "No... I can't tell you about these two spells... I swore to the organization not to reveal them... No!"

"You swore an oath to the Church of the Spirits?" Connor frowned, then hesitated for a moment before deciding to offer Vidal a reward. "Mr. Vidal, I hope you will consider this carefully. If you tell me the methods for practicing these two spells, I can spare Miss Rebecca's life. Miss Rebecca's life or death is now in your hands!"

Upon hearing Connor mention Rebecca's name, Vidal's pupils contracted sharply, his face contorted in pain. He struggled to speak, saying, "The method of practicing acid corrosion is..."

With a satisfied smile on his face, Connor quickly and carefully wrote down what Vidal had said.

"No! A curse...!"

Just as Vidal finished explaining the method of acid corrosion and was about to continue explaining the method of Shadow Hand, Vidal suddenly screamed. His skin turned a strange dark green color, and his entire body began to rot at a visible speed. In just a few seconds, except for his head, which still retained its shape, Vidal's other limbs had turned into a thick liquid.

Just as Connor stared in disbelief at the scene unfolding before him, Vidal's head suddenly exploded. It was an explosion, but instead of blood, flesh, and brain matter, countless green specks of light splattered everywhere.

Although he didn't know what those green dots bursting from Vidal's head were, they were clearly not good things. Connor was determined to avoid them, but he was a little too slow, and one of the green dots entered his body.

Seeing the green light enter his body, Connor felt uneasy, fearing that he might die a bizarre death like Vidal. But it seemed he was lucky; after the green light entered his body, there were no abnormalities.

Taking a deep breath, Connor suppressed his fear and summoned the auxiliary chip in his mind:

"Chip! Scan my entire body, find the location of the green dot that just entered my body?"

"Beep, scan complete. Green dot appears on the subject's arm." The chip gave Connor the scan results in an instant.

"Determine whether that green light spot is harmful to the subject, and analyze its function!" Connor shouted sternly.

"Beep, analysis complete!"

"Analysis shows that the green dots emit weak radiation, with a level of harm equivalent to that of a mobile phone. Based on the current data, the main function of the green dots is as a marker!"

(End of this chapter)