Chapter 556 - Things Were Becoming Complicated (2/2)

“Master, what should we do now?”

“Let’s not mess with the traveling merchants for now. Gudo and the others have been poisoning the Green Stone Creek for five days. A lot of the people in Mara City downstream have already been poisoned. It’s time we head over to Mara City.”

“Understood.”

Hearing this, Link’s brows furrowed. The poison being carried by the Beastmen was certainly unique. Not only was it difficult to concoct an antidote for the poison, but it was also extremely infectious. They simply needed to poison a hundredth of a city’s population to bring the whole city to its knees. If the water had already been poisoned, it was only a matter of time before the people of Mara City were transformed into these poisoned Beastmen. If these Beastmen were under the Magician’s control, the Magician would bring about a mass poisoning across the Golden Plains never before seen in history.

This was a catastrophe.

Link decided to take matters into his own hands. He pressed a hand against the window. A rush of Realm Essence boiled up from his body.

Space, time, seal!

With a soft hum, Link sealed up both space and time within the grass hut completely with those three words. The hut inside had gone silent.

Link marched straight towards the hut. As he walked, he silently activated a spell that he had recently acquired, Permeate.

Permeate

Support-type Legendary Spell

Description: Gaps exist in everything. The caster is able to phase through these gaps once the spell is activated.

(Note: Permeate through everything.)

Link had mastered the spell to such a degree that one could not even tell exactly when he had cast the spell. His body passed through the wall of the grass hut like air and into the hut’s interior.

Inside the grass hut, there was an ordinary oil lamp. Under its faint flickering light, a human Magician with a mat of white hair was sitting on a chair. There was a magic book beside him. The tall Beastman from before stood before the Magician as he reported on the situation.

Space-time had been frozen by Link inside the hut. The only thing that was still able to move was the teardrop-shaped candlelight in the oil lamp that flickered in the darkness.

Link’s eyes swept the inside of the hut. He then spotted a wooden shelf behind the Magician. Ten crystal bottles were arranged on it, and they contained various kinds of liquids.

Link walked towards it and began examining each bottle. The last bottle he tested contained a pale red liquid. Link soon realized that the liquid was able to neutralize the poison in the air.

“So there is an antidote after all!” exclaimed Link.

He quickly extracted a few drops of the red liquid into a crystal bottle of his own. When he was done, he put everything back where it belonged. Finally, he walked to the human Magician and gave a few taps on him. Realm Essence flowed out from Link and onto the Magician’s skin, forming a well-hidden curse on it.

With this curse in place, Link was able to tell where the Magician was at any given point in time. He could even end the Magician with just a thought if he felt like it.

When he was finished, Link exited the hut and whispered, “Release!”

Space and time inside the hut returned back to their original states. None of its occupants realized what had just happened. They resumed their discussions on Mara City.

Link continued eavesdropping on their discussions outside the hut. He was now aware of all the arrangements they had made across Mara City. Without alerting anyone to his presence, he quietly departed from the hut.

He could feel that there was much more to this than what met the eye. The real mastermind was still out there somewhere. But Link had already gotten what he had come for: the antidote’s recipe. There was no real rush to smoke the mastermind out right now.

Who exactly was pulling the strings behind all this? The thought lingered still in Link’s head.

When Link left the poisoned valley, a mission message appeared across his vision.

Mission: Strange Beastmen completed.

Player has received 50 Omni Points.

New mission triggered: Mara City

Description: Stop the poisoning of Mara City.

Mission Reward: 100 Omni Points.

The reward offered was low as before. The mission did not seem to present a challenge to Link, so he accepted it. After thinking for a bit, he decided to head back to where the caravans were.

Mara City was just 40 miles away, and the caravans were heading there as well. He decided to enter the city as a merchant himself.