7 Gain and Temptation (1/2)

Chapter 7: Gain and Temptation

Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion

Surrounded by the red mist, Lucien felt his limbs melting, and the nerves in his brain swelling and jerking. In his eyes, Corella and Howson changed from human bodies to giant rats and continued switching back and forth.

“It’s… an illusion…?!” Lucien was quite sure. So, he concentrated and spread his spirit again like waves. Then, everything became stable. No changes or contortion happened.

Lucien saw Corella and Howson lying on the ground, with wounds all over their bodies, dying.

“This is a well-designed magic trap… Did the illusion originate from the blood of the rats, or the peculiar plant?” Lucien thought to himself. He finally understood that from the very beginning, when they killed the first rat, they were already trapped in the illusion. Lucien was protected by the light shield, and his spiritual power was a little bit stronger than common people, so he was unaffected by the illusion.

The Holy Strike that shot out of the badge not only evaporated Gary’s right hand and shoulder, but also the stone ceiling of the chamber. There was a wide hole there, from which chunks of stone were falling like rain, as if the chamber would cave in at any time.

Dust and small stones dispersed the red mist. Lucien felt his strength gradually recovering.

Having no idea what would happen next, his brain started quickly functioning again: Except for two more Light spells, Lucien got nothing useful left. And his muscles were still weak from the paralyzing red mist.

Then his attention was drawn to the plant in the corner, which was shaking and wobbling due to the falling stones.

“The plant cannot protect itself aside from creating an illusion?” Lucien wondered. He tried his best to stand up again and then dragged his body towards the plant. He moved very slowly and faltered several times. Sharp stones kept falling on him, leaving painful wounds all over his body.

Lucien took a deep breath and kept moving. After so much experience, he became calm and decisive. Reaching out his right hand, he firmly grabbed the main stem of the plant.

The plant had a pulse like that of a living being! Lucien felt like he was grabbing veins of a creature, beating with blood. He pulled the stem with all his strength.

Suddenly, the plant shrank and burst out an extremely bitter and sharp scream.

Lucien did not succeed on his first try. So, he kept twisting it with all his strength. Like a dying man struggling for survival, the plant screamed, stretched out its branches and entangled them around Lucien’s arm.

The plant was moist, slimy, and cold, and its tentacles had countless tiny burrs which kept burying themselves into Lucien’s skin. Fighting back his fear, Lucien pulled hard again.

“Crack!”

The plant suddenly stopped screaming. Red liquid spurted out of it and spattered all over Lucien’s chest, leaving a strong bloody smell in the air. Feeling limp, Lucien hurriedly leaned against the wall to maintain his balance.

After the plant was snapped in half, the red mist became much denser and almost turned into liquid. As soon as the blood mist from the plant reached the three books on the desk, they instantly started corroding. It only took a couple of seconds to completely corrode all the books. Lucien didn’t get any time to read anything.

“It must be another magic trap”, Lucien thought. In case the chamber got discovered, these sorcerer’s notes would destroy themselves automatically when the mist reached a certain density.

“Argh!” It was such a pity for Lucien. He was hoping to find some mighty magic spells in the notes.

Just then, he noticed something shining in his spirit library.

Out of curiosity, Lucien let his spirit enter the library. Then, his eyes opened wide with great surprise: A new bookshelf appeared! And there was a small tag which read “Magic (Arcana)”. Under the tag there were three books. They were the same ones which got destroyed.

“The library can collect books as well?!… Wait, what about the content, then? I didn’t have a chance to read them at all.” Lucien was trying to understand how the library worked. “As the corrosion happened really fast, the whole books were still destroyed page after page. Probably the library can copy the content… then the projections of the books can be stored here…”

Lucien was just guessing. He needed more proof.

Staring at the three labels, a strong hesitant feeling rose in Lucien’s mind: Wouldn’t it be too dangerous to learn magic in a world where divine power dominated everything and sorcerers were hated by the public?

Lucien knew he could not waste too much time down here. What was more surprising was that after the mist completely disappeared, both Corella and Howson twitched a little bit. They were still alive! Lucien knew that he really had to hurry up and get all of them out of this terrible place.

……

Benjamin suddenly groaned when he felt Lucien activated Holy Strike. At that moment, their spirits were somehow connected. He was more than surprised.

“Lord Benjamin?” Pawl asked with concern.

Under the silver moon, Benjamin’s face did not look well. He said in a low voice: “Something unexpected happened down there. Damn it! She was just an apprentice. These guys are useless… Paul, you wait here. If I don’t come back in five minutes, ask the bishop for help.”

Because there was a spirit imprint on the badge, Benjamin could feel it. Or he would not have lent the badge to a young guy he had just met. He did not expect that his own imprint could be activated by someone else.

Misfortune always comes with arrogance and prejudice.

For Benjamin, knights were just a bunch of vulgar and ignorant guys, who knew nothing more than how to fight with just their physical strength. So, without giving any thought to whether the guards were actually more suitable, Benjamin directly gave the badge to Lucien, a young boy whose spirit was stronger than common people.

Benjamin’s perspective came from his past experiences.

The family he came from, the Rafati family, was one of the most powerful families in the Duchy of Orvarit. Rafati family was known for producing gifted divines. While knights had to learn spells, offsprings of Rafati family were born with Blessing in their blood.

Benjamin was no way close to being the most talented child in his family. But after entering the monastery, he stood out among his peers and soon became a formal pastor and a divine caster.

But now, as a formal pastor, he was having trouble dealing with a trap left behind by a sorcerer’s apprentice. It would definitely affect his reputation and position in the church. So he had no choice but to rush over there and solve the trouble himself.

Paul was surprised as well, “They had the badge… Is there a real sorcerer present there?”