Q: Why do most warlocks take ones with pure spirit energy to experiment on?

A: Because pure spirit energy is easiest to corrupt. The more one practises spirit arts and experiences life, the more complicated and harder it becomes to corrupt them the way the warlock wants, so that's why they prefer practitioners of younger age and with purer spirit energy.

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It took me far longer than I had assumed to copy all the scripts written on the wall. Well, I first assumed it would be like regular writing, but when I started, I learned, it was a lot harder to copy a language I don't know. Moreover, I needed to be precise with each mark, or it might get confusing.

I think it was not just the old tongue, but the ancient rune script. Or why else would it be that complicated?

I have copied everything, ignoring only the demon painting, however, my mind memorised some of its features, so I won’t have a problem making it out if I see it with my own eyes. Though I was sure, I would do more of running than staring if I came across something like that. I have no recollection of it in the book. This was surely not something bogus. After all, it was left behind by one of the twelve heroes.

After closing the entrance of the cave with the boulders, I strode on the way towards the camp, though those thoughts never left me. It took me a couple of hours longer than I’d assumed. Yeriel would be worried sick.

The outside was far colder than inside of the cavern, moreover, the swift icy wind and snowfall didn’t make it easier. Shaking up a little, I ran my spirit energy and brought out the honey container again. The False-ward would be a lot more useful in giving me fast results, but it was unhealthy, and I needed to save as much of the fuel as I could. Instead, I took in an extra bit of the honey, swirling along the warm energy.

However, even with the cold, I still could not get my head around what I encountered. The book didn’t go deep into the topic of the twelve heroes, even though it was one of the most important subjects. However, it did mention that some of the heroes did something that could not be depicted them as heroes.

Even on the endnote, Ayaan List mentioned he had not considered himself as a hero.

A Dreamer?

I took a mental note to research more on the twelve heroes and the twelve abilities more. The origin of these powers is still unknown, and I was not even sure of the exact twelve abilities. A couple of them didn’t even make an appearance in the latest chapter of the book. Questions after questions.

I could not help but shake my head. Surely, I won't get an answer in my pondering, but only get more questions.

Tap. Tap.

Abruptly, my attention was caught on something. I seemed to hear some tapping noise. It was not snowfall, then . . .

I was about to look around where it was coming from, and suddenly my instinct gave me goosebumps.

Without considering a thing, I flung myself a couple of metres away, dropping my bag. The nail sword appeared on my arm. In the light of the blue, luminescent lamp, I saw something coming at me, whirling.

Instinctively, I pulled a half-slash instantly at the incoming . . . something. It hit right against my sword, however, it actually did not break from being sliced in half with the stroke of my sword, but whirled around the sword, entangling like an alive rope.

An engulfing chain.

My mind rang, and I tried to run the flames of purgatory to disable the chain before it could paralyse me from the sword. But my effort turned futile, and the engulfing chain sucked all the spirit force from the sword before disconnecting any usage of spirit force in the nail sword.

That was not the only thing. The sword turned into a hundred kilograms within a second, and gravitational force pulled it downwards.

The only way for me to remove the engulfing chain was from the outside, working on the anchor with spirit force, but it would take at least a minute or two; perhaps more, as I did not have any experience in it. However, whoever attacked certainly had other plans in place, and would not give me that much time.

Surely, as I had guessed it, I sensed arrows and fast evocative spells coming at me from all directions. Balls of flames, stone splinters, ice and wind blades. Holy hell, how many men are there?

Are they from Dark Deer? I thought, but I did not have time to ponder. The only way for me to escape from here was to let go of the sword. And I did exactly that before triggering the steam releasers in the suit.

Remember when I said this suit was an old prototype and needs at least a second or two to start up?

"Damn it," I cursed, and coated my entire body with spirit energy. I lurched away, but still two-thirds of all the arrows and spells bombarded me at once.

I have learned two things in that short, painful moment. The first was whoever was after me. They had encircled me in a planned assault. The other thing was that they might not be Dark Deer, as none of the spells that hit me had any relation to dark arts. Well, I didn’t have any encounter with dark arts other than that Ghoul, however, I’m full of knowledge about them.

However, that did not mean they went easy on me.

Even with the spirit force coating on—coupling with the defence of the suit, they still hurt like hell. My coating of spirit force broke within a blink with the joint force of spell and arrows. The wind blades hit me all over my body like someone was pounding with a stick on my bare body. A couple of the arrows even dug into my flesh, as I protected my head with my arms.

Dakota would be pissed, however, that thought left the sooner the steam releaser startup. I forced everything off them, as my body lurched upwards ten metres in the instant.

My eyes narrowed at the people hiding in the trees, and with a swift motion of my leg, I pulled myself right at one of them. I could feel something burning inside me. My body lurched swiftly and before any other attack could land on me, I manoeuvred my hands backwards and legs forwards to produce a heavy dropkick to the person hiding in the trees.

The individual yelped in pain before falling from the trees, while I hurled away from the tree to another one on the adjacent right side. An arrow came at me again, but missed by a long shot.

I ignored the dull feeling in my head as well as the heat the suit was producing to collide with the person who was aiming his arrow at me. I held back nothing.

I did not let go of him, but shoved him against the trunk of the trees.

"Bastard," the attacker grunted in pain and cursed. "Pass out already."

I did not consider what that guy was saying, as my fist showered on his face, shattering his nose. The person groaned, shouting curses. From the figure and the voice of the one I was pounding against the tree, I could make out, he was not much older. In the dark, I could not see his face, but I was sure I was beating up a kid.

Abruptly, a bolt of pain assaulted my brain, and I felt dizzy. The pain was consuming me, and I let go of the attacker as he fell off.

I touched the side of my left chest and found something stuck there. A small bolt. Bloody hell, the arrows, they contained tranquillizer. And it appeared it was of some kind that rendered the usage of Spirit energy futile.

“Mother—" I cursed, and pulled out the bolt. It was not just one that penetrated my flesh, while the other didn’t stick, they did their job.

I need to escape immediately. My mind rang with that thought only.

I flew away from there immediately, but the tranquillizing drug was already in my system. I could not even go a couple of hundred metres before my body went limp as I collided against a tree and fell down to the snow-filled land.

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