Witch Redemption

But Li Lan, whose mind was almost blank, ignored all that and directly slapped the dark red core of wisdom onto the magic book!

This was the only way he could rely on to kill this guy.

Either we succeed in eliminating it, or we fail completely and perish – that's Li Lan's current understanding!

Fortunately, Li Lan's gamble paid off. The grimoire only flashed a faint light, and then the dark red intelligence core, which exuded a strong sense of danger, disappeared without a trace, leaving an icon of the intelligence core on the right side of the grimoire.

"Obtaining the Spark of the End"

Unwavering belief achieved

"Priest subclass Life Creator unlocks skill tree upon completion of conditions"

Just before Li Lan lost consciousness, his magic book suddenly went blank, and then many words appeared one after another. Unfortunately, before he could see the strangeness of the magic book clearly, his vision was plunged into darkness due to his serious injuries.

Li Lan never expected that this terrifying monster, which had nearly killed him, would actually provide him with a full thousand experience points, allowing him to advance to the next level. At this moment, he was unaware that the monster he had killed today was about to enter the ranks of "Abyss Species." If it hadn't been in a weakened state and hadn't been restrained by his "Revelation" by chance, he would have undoubtedly died today.

………………

At 11 a.m., after a quick lunch, Ryan continued his journey with his brother, Leonard, toward the Mori Border Forest.

Due to the torrent of the crimson night two days ago, the area where monsters live has become lively again. Ryan naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity to make a lot of money, and he made preparations early on, planning to show off his skills today.

For these lowest-ranking bronze-level adventurers, the only way to survive is by hunting down the lowest-level mimicry chaos.

Of course, since the newly replenished pseudo-chaos have not yet truly dispersed, they will act with extreme caution to avoid being caught off guard.

"Hurry up! Stop dawdling!"

Ryan glared at his yawning, lazy younger brother, then walked along the outer edge of the border protection barrier.

There were only two of them, so they dared not venture deep into the forest, unlike other large groups of adventurers with dozens of members who could pull off a big heist. Therefore, they could only wander around the outskirts for now and see if they could find any scraps to earn enough for a day's food.

"Okay, bro."

Reiner perked up a bit. After all, this was a territory inhabited by monsters, fraught with danger. One wrong move and he could meet his end.

Even this usually carefree guy wouldn't dare to joke about his life now.

Ryan probably remembered that this kid had caused him to lose an arm, so he added, still inexplicably angry, "Your gun should have eyes, or I'll stab you to death if you mess around again."

"Is this how you act as an older brother?" Although Reiner was indignant, he still meekly agreed. After all, he had almost killed this older brother in the past, so he could only accept being scolded.

So the two of them walked cautiously for a while, and the journey was perfectly safe, which made Ryan curse inwardly a few times.

"Damn! What's going on? We've been walking for so long and haven't seen a single monster. This is way too quiet!"

"So it's all that lazy bastard's fault. He should have come out earlier. Otherwise, we simply couldn't compete with our competitors."

The competition among adventurers is equally fierce. Everyone is dancing on the edge of a knife just to earn a living. Everyone knows that hunting monsters is extremely dangerous, but no one is willing to live an ordinary life. Everyone wants to prove their strength.

It must be said that most adventurers work as hard as Ryan, and some even work harder than Ryan.

After walking for nearly an hour, just as Ryan was slightly distracted, his younger brother Reiner suddenly exclaimed, "Big brother, look over there..."

"Ok?"

Ryan looked in the direction of Ryan's voice and saw a large patch of purplish-black corroded ground not far away. Not far from the corroded ground, he could see the figure of a woman lying on the ground.

"Witch?"

And this guy looks kind of familiar.

Ryan was startled and quickly walked over, because the guy looked like he was dead.

He suddenly remembered that four witches had died during the Crimson Night Torrent the night before. It was said that the four who died were all experienced veterans. With their deaths, only two new witches who had recently arrived were left in Mori City.

Although Ryan didn't know the cause of death of the four old witches, he still felt a strange sadness when he witnessed their bodies being carried across the Land of Protection to the Holy See's pilgrimage area with a solemn ceremony.

Humans aren't plants or trees, especially since he had been saved by three witches. Ryan considered himself a fairly upright person, so it was only natural for him to sympathize with them.

Just as Ryan bent down to check if the witch was alive or dead, Ryan had already strode over to the patch of purplish-black corroded ground and began to search carefully.

Isn't it obvious?

This witch failed in her witch hunt and died here, so the monster she killed must have gotten away with it.

Sure enough, Reiner immediately found a rhomboid magic core on the purplish-black corroded ground. Unlike the pseudo-chaos magic cores he had seen before, this magic core was the size of two fists and was a rare deep purple.

"Big...Big Brother! Come here quickly!"

Reiner's voice was filled with intense surprise.

"Fuck away!"

"Come here! Come here!" Reiner was so excited he couldn't speak.

Realizing that Ryan was unusually excited, Ryan decided to ignore the witch's life or death on the ground for the time being and went over to her.

"what happened?"

"Quick, look at this!"

The younger brother, Reiner, handed the peculiar magic core to Ryan. Ryan felt a chill on his hand. "This doesn't seem like a magic core from the Mimicry Chaos. What's going on?"

Generally speaking, the magical core of a Mimicry Chaos is less than a quarter of this, and its color is usually just green. How can this be so strange? But there don't seem to be any other monsters besides Mimicry Chaos in this Mori Border Forest.

As he was deep in thought, someone behind him heard Reiner's exclamation and quickly approached, accompanied by a series of light footsteps.

Almost instinctively, Ryan stuffed the magic core into his satchel, then turned around and saw six fully armed men following him. They were also colleagues, and some of them looked familiar.

The six adventurers, clearly harboring ill intentions, first fixed their gaze on the "corpse" on the ground that resembled a witch, then moved to the exaggeratedly large, blackish-purple corroded ground in the distance, before finally staring coldly at Ryan's somewhat rugged face.

"Hey buddy, you've made a pretty good fortune off the dead!"

One of the men, a bald man with a somewhat fierce appearance, seemed to be the leader of the group. He forced an ugly smile and then greeted Ryan and Reiner.

All adventurers and witches who enter the monster habitat have a significant chance of dying there. As newcomers, they have no intention of collecting their corpses; they will only plunder anything of value from the bodies and then leave.

This is known among adventurers as "profiting from the dead," a chilling and terrifying practice that is tacitly accepted and long taken for granted by them.

Seeing Ryan's unfriendly expression and the other's somewhat timid demeanor, the bald man mustered his courage and said, "I don't think it's safe for you two to be here. How about this: hand over whatever you've obtained here, and if we're in a good mood, we can even escort you back later."

"Isn't it just robbery? Why are you making it sound so nice? Do you think I'm stupid?" Ryan retorted without any politeness. The other party was probably not expected Ryan to be so blunt and leave no room for tact. They were stunned for a moment.

"Don't think I don't know the rules outside, first come, first served! If you want to snatch something from me, you can follow behind us and wait for us to be killed by the monsters, then you can take whatever you want. Hmph, if you want to openly rob me," Ryan sneered, "you're welcome to try the rules of this world!"

Upon hearing this, the bald man's anger immediately flared up.

Chapter 26 There are good people in this world too.

As an adult, the bald man quickly suppressed his anger and did not choose to attack Ryan and his companion.

As Ryan said, there are rules among adventurers, and even the most skilled adventurers can capsize at times. No one knows whether they will be devoured by monsters at any moment.

Therefore, in areas teeming with monsters, the unwritten rule that adventurers must not kill each other is an ironclad agreement, and no one is allowed to break this rule. One can stand by and watch someone die, but one absolutely cannot stab them in the back, even if one party gains a huge benefit.

To this day, there have indeed been those who defied the law and thought they could act with impunity outside, but they all met extremely terrible ends, and the rumors surrounding them have sent shivers down the spines of adventurers who have heard of them.

"Fine, fine!" The bald man laughed angrily. "Remember my name, Rune Hazan. When we get back to the city, I'll treat you to a drink!"

Originally hoping to extort some money, the bald man ran into a brick wall. Unable to retaliate, he could only swallow his anger. But that didn't mean the matter would end so quickly. He wanted these two guys to pay the price for what happened today.

"Thanks for your kindness, Ryan Little. Remember my name. Who's buying whom a drink is still up for us!"

Ryan replied irritably, seemingly unafraid of the other party coming to his door.

As a seasoned veteran, he had long known that the nature of humans is to bully the weak and fear the strong. Sometimes, it is only by appropriately intimidating the other party that they will be wary. Moreover, Ryan was not joking. His intelligence network in the entire border region was not to be underestimated.

So the six menacing adventurers quickly moved to the side and disappeared into the jungle in no time.

Ryan then glared fiercely at Leiner. It was that damned brother of his who had ruined things again. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Finally, he couldn't help but curse Leiner's mother, "You good-for-nothing!"

"Brother, what's wrong now?" Reiner was utterly aggrieved.

"You idiot, do you want the whole world to know what good stuff you got? It was because of your fuss and shouting that you attracted some bad guys passing by. If you had been alone, you would have been extorted for this stuff!"

Most adventurers abide by the rules of this world, but there are always a few extremists. There are quite a few examples of those who, driven by greed, end up killing. This makes Ryan a little worried; if he were to leave his brother one day, he doesn't know what kind of pathetic life his brother would lead.

Upon hearing this, Reiner's face turned pale and then red, and he finally managed to squeeze out a few syllables, "I know..."

The biggest flaw of this older brother is that, just like his deceased mother, he loves to nag and lecture, which annoys and frightens him.

Seeing that Rainer had calmed down, Ryan didn't bother with him. Instead, he went to the witch lying on the ground and began to check on her injuries.

"..." Upon seeing this, Ryan felt a rare sense of fear.

The grayish-white bodysuit was covered in blackish-purple corrosion marks and was tattered. Through the tattered clothes, one could see the rotting skin behind the numerous corrosive holes. Even more horrifying was the witch's right hand. It was unclear what had happened to it, but the tips of her five fingers were in a state of severe decay, and the exposed black finger bones were clearly visible, a truly shocking sight.

"She's not dead yet..."

Ryan suddenly noticed that her heartbeat was still going and her breathing was quite steady. He was almost startled. This girl's life was really unbelievably tough.

"B-Big brother, what should we do?"

Reiner's idea was to leave this guy here. After all, it wouldn't be a loss for them if she died, and they even stole her loot. If they let her come back to life, things would get complicated later.

"What else can we do? How much recovery medicine do you have left?"

“Ah,” Leiner was taken aback, not understanding what Ryan meant by the question, “Three bottles, I only brought three bottles…”

Give them all to me!

The stern voice, leaving no room for argument, startled Reiner, who instinctively reached for his handbag as he came to his senses…

Ryan ignored his brother's strange expression. As soon as he took the healing medicine, he splashed the dark brown liquid from the bottle onto the witch's wounds. Then he roughly turned her over and splashed the healing medicine on her face as well.

"Whether you live or die is up to fate."

Ryan muttered a few words and stepped aside.

With his help, the witch's many wounds began to heal slowly but noticeably, and even her right hand, which Ryan had not been optimistic about, began to gradually regain flesh and blood and began to heal.

"Strange, is this recovery medicine really that effective? I remember it couldn't treat this kind of injury, it's amazing!"

………………

Startled awake, Li Lan stared at the reddish sky and gradually remembered what had happened before she lost consciousness.

"I……"

I'm still alive?

Subconsciously, I raised my somewhat weak right hand, only to find that most of the flesh and blood in my right hand had been restored, but there were still many rotten wounds attached to it, which brought waves of itchy pain.

Combined with previous memories, it's as if everything that happened before was just a dream.

"Hey, get up now if you're awake! It'll be dark soon if we keep dragging this on, and we don't want to sit here like idiots with you!"