Wizard Malon sounded excited when he pointed out that it was a stone giant that Abel possessed. Yes, Johnson was a stone giant, but he just wasn’t sure what Wizard Malon was so excited for.
Truth be told, the stone giants were technically sources of an endless supply of magic gemstones. Law-defying wizards needed these stones, so very naturally, Wizard Malon just thought that he had wandered across a walking mining pit. He considered it extremely fortunate since it was the reason he built the blizzard clan in the first place. Well, it was pretty much just for the sake of getting more resources. Now that there was no longer a need to go through all the work, there would be a whole heap more time for him to go through the other stuff.
On a side note, the stone giants were pretty much a myth to most wizards. It was different for Wizard Malon since he had lived a lot longer than them. He’s seen stone giants before. He knew about the strange powers that they possessed, but no one’s ever gained their loyalty. Yes, even if their own lives were threatened, the stone giants would never agree to sign contracts with humans.
As for Abel, he had no idea what Wizard Malon was thinking or what he was after. No, he didn’t know about Wizard Malon’s struggle with having not enough gemstones because he’s never really had this problem before. With the Horadric Cube on him, even the skeleton gemstones could be synthesized from stones from a lower tier. The same was for the fire element stones, the freezing element stones, the lightning stones, and everything else. As long as there were scrapes of the things he wanted to build, he could always make a top-level counterpart.
The other wizards, needless to say, were nowhere near as fortunate as Abel. If they wanted magic gemstones, the most common way was to fight each other for them. This was because there weren’t so many gemstones lying around.
Wizard Malon reached his left hand forward and placed it on Abel’s shoulders. From there, a streak of power of the Will shut down Abel’s wizard crystal body in an instance.
“Wait,” Wizard Malon paused for a bit before he suddenly laughed out loudly, “You are a master alchemist? Good! Very good!”
Wizard Malon could see everything that was concealed underneath Abel’s body. His wizard crystal body. His spell rune of a master alchemist. Yes, even his knight’s qi core. He didn’t care much for the knight’s qi core, though, because he’s never interested in such low-tier power in the first place. As far as he was concerned, all he needed to do was to shut down Abel’s wizard crystal body, and that’s what he did. Thus, even if Abel was to release all the power he contained within his qi core, he couldn’t even hurt Wizard Malon.
Wizard Malon laughed frantically, “You are a genius, haha! Wizard Abel! I’ve never thought that anyone can be an advanced alchemist, an advanced wizard, and a grandmaster blacksmith all in the same time on, what, a place like the Holy Continent? You know what? I think I’d like it very much if you were to become my servant!”
Abel could feel the power that restrained him from using the power he had inside his wizard crystal body. Actually, since he could not access his wizard crystal body at all, he’s no different from a normal human being now. He became panicked because of it. He didn’t listen to a word of what Wizard Malon was saying and instead tried to think for a response in case the worst was about to happen.
For better or worse, Wizard Malon knew that this wasn’t a place to stay. The lightning kin would come quickly, so he quickly grabbed Abel and disappeared under white light. He’s been very careful this whole time. Ever since he left the second row, he shut down every way Abel could detect the surroundings. It was all so that the lightning clan had no ways of tracking them down. Without using even one teleportation circle, he continued to use the “instantaneous movement’ to rush to his destination.
This went on for about half a day. Once Abel woke up from his coma, he realized he was inside a room with nothing but stone walls as the side.
Wizard Malon continued with his creepy laughter, “Frost City, Wizard Abel. Doesn’t it seem awfully, ja ja ja, familiar to you?”
Wizard Malon changed his mind about killing Abel when he found out that Abel was a master alchemist. His original plan was to kill Abel after forcing him to hand over the stone giant, who, in all fairness, was the safest way to go. The lightning clan would have no way of knowing who the kidnapper would be, and there was just no telling if Abel’s dead body could be found in the first place. Although it was just the Blizzard clan that was antagonizing Abel at this moment, no one was really going to target a law-defying wizard like him without any necessary evidence.
But, as things would have, Abel was also a master alchemist. That was a very precious thing even to a law-defying wizard, especially since they would have a greater demand for potions than any other types of wizards. To fulfill these demands, they would often make requests from the elves, who were a very difficult bunch to deal with. They would ask a lot of ingredients first, and many of the times, they would turn down the request of the law-defying wizards with an excuse like “this potion’s success rate just isn’t that high.”
When Wizard Malon saw the rune inside Abel’s body, he realized that he could fulfill a long-forgotten dream. It was the dream of having his own personal alchemist.
Wizard Malon tried to be tempting, “I won’t kill you here, WIzard Abel, not if you hand over the contract of your stone giant and swear a blood oath of loyalty to me. If you do, I’ll make sure that you’ll continue to live for a while longer. You know what? How about I also give you some materials for your training?”
Abel’s response was a cold, silent look at Wizard Malon. Such persuasion just didn’t sound right at all from a man whose face was as still as stone. He was finally starting to realize that he made a fatal mistake. He should’ve never come to the central continent when he was still so weak, so weak that everything he had could fall into the manipulative hands of others.
He wasn’t careful, either. He thought that it was safe enough after he found protection from the lightning clan, but he got caught by a powerful law-defying wizard when he revealed one of the most insignificant powers he considered Johnson to have. It really made him question himself. Perhaps he loosened his guard as soon as he arrived at the central continent because he had always been quite reserved in the Holy Continent.
To break through Abel’s last line of defense, Wizard Malon went over and snatched his last two portal bags. Abel could feel a sharp sting when he realized that his portal bags were snapped open.
Wizard Malon laughed when he opened the first bag, “Ten cubic meters, that’s really something, isn’t it? I can’t say I’m surprised, though. You were an emperor back on the subcontinent, after all.”
Wizard Malon didn’t seem as happy when he checked the content of the postal bag. There just wasn’t enough inside as he expected. They were more than what any regular rank sixteen wizards could have, of course, but it was nowhere near to someone who was an emperor could hold.
Wizard Malon scanned with his power of the WIll, “What other portal items are you hiding, Wizard Abel?”
Luckily for Abel, the Horadric Cube was just too great a tool for any sort of detection ability to work.
Wizard Malon spoke, “You’re lucky that my mediation session has come, Wizard Abel. Here. I would strongly suggest you consider my proposals. I’ll give you three days to give up the items you’ve hidden. If you don’t agree after three days, I’ll have to resort to drastic measures. Do you understand that?”
After reaching his hands over to see that the restraint on Abel was still tight, he disappeared again under white light. Abel finally let out a long sigh of relief after that. He was not afraid to be captured. What he was afraid of was that Wizard Malon would start an interrogation session right here. Now that he was alone, he was certain that he had a way of running out of here.
And the work began. He began by checking the room that imprisoned him. There was no door here. Not a single item, either. It was empty. After slamming towards the wall behind him, he could feel that the wall’s thickness here was at least one meter. He was not going to consider breaking it without any sort of external help. That being said, the only possible way of getting out was probably with an “instantaneous movement.”
The problem was apparent. He couldn’t activate his own wizard crystal body, so he couldn’t teleport himself out of here. It’s why Wizard Malon was so confident of getting him locked up here.
Anyways, he crossed his legs and began to sit. He didn’t know if Wizard Malon was watching him at this very moment. Whatever the case was, now was not a good time to move at all. Instead, he focused on his own thoughts. More specifically, he looked towards the inside secrets he’s been hiding inside his own body. The world stone fragment and the “crystal angel statue,” luckily, were not found out at all. The same was for the dragon essence inside of his body. With that, he could at least guarantee that Wizard Malon would not want more from him.
With that came the next step. He would have to regain his strength first before getting out of here. The problem was that the energy trapping him was just too powerful. There was not a lot of strength he could muster to break through it. The energy contained inside his qi core was just not enough to break through these restraints. To find an alternative, he opened the power of his world stone fragment to search for something creative. It wasn’t enough, though. The world stone fragment’s power was meant to be supportive, not something to be used directly for something like breaking through restraints.
It was the same for his giant dragon power. Unless he could breed himself through his young dragon phase, the dragon essence inside him would be nowhere enough to break through the things around him.
Suddenly, he came up with a way to resolve all this. He could enter into the dark world here. If he did his training in the Rogue’s Encampment, maybe the world stone fragment could elevate his powers to the equivalent of a divine being. It wasn’t like the world stone fragment could hold up for too long, but he believed that the time was enough to get the job done.
“Just now,” he whispered to himself. Meanwhile, Wizard Malon was inspecting Abel in the other room. He wanted to use his power of the WIll to see any hidden tricks Able might have up his sleeve. This was pretty much a game of cat and mouse. Wizard Malon was feeling like he was an experienced cat playing against a child-like mouse. He had every right to think so, actually. Whether it was from the perspective of his career or his experience through combat, there was just no way that Abel could be worthy enough to be of comparison. It’s all the more apparent when he saw the expression on Abel’s face. It indicated that he was about to run, so there he was, waiting for the moment for Abel to make his move.
Abel’s brain never stopped running when he was in his entrapped state. He had no way to be sure that Wizard Malon wasn’t watching him, but he knew how strong his opponent was. Even if Wizard Malon decided to spy on him non-stop, there was simply no way for him to even be sure of it. With that, the only real option was to wait. He wanted to wait for a chance, a chance for him to enter into the dark world.
Instead of Abel’s pineal gland, the “crystal angel statue” had golden light that was almost covering its entire body. From there, a strand of power was constantly being filled inside. A day went by without Abel actually doing anything. Same for Wizard Malon. The two of them were trying to wait this out.
When two days were about to pass, Abel still had a solid plan inside his mind. He became more agitated because he knew that Wizard Malon would not be a patient man forever. If Wizard Malon came here right away, he would never have the chance of entering into the dark world anymore.
With not much time to spare, he connected his power of the Will to the Horadric Cube on his right arm. From there, he took out a town teleportation scroll. It was this action that made Wizard Malon think that it was the time to come.
Wizard Malon murmured to himself, “I knew it! He got his own portal item on him! To think that it can bypass my power of the Will detection… it must be a divine level item!”
It was definitely a eureka moment for Wizard Malon. No humans had really owned any divine level item. They were pretty much only found from the elves and dwarves. That, or just from the ancient ruins. Whatever the case was, divine-level items were very rare. The only ones that were commonly known on the central continent, two were owned by the elves, four by the dwarves, and that was that. There were just a total of six divine level portal items on the entire central continent. To own just one was like owning an entire treasure keep for himself.
While Wizard Malon was dreaming about what to do with Abel’s precious item, Abel used his power of the Will to open up the “town teleportation scroll” he had on him and opened up an aqua blue teleportation portal in the closed room. He didn’t hesitate to step right inside.
Wizard Malon was shocked to see this, needless to say. He was very familiar with this teleportation portal. It’s what the sky devils of the nation of evil used to get over to their land. However, there wasn’t much time to contemplate, so he immediately disappeared and reappeared next to the teleportation portal and stepped inside as well.
Abel stepped right into the Rogue’s Encampment. As soon as he did so, he felt a familiar power coming from all directions and coming all over him.
Abel spoke, “I said, release me!”
From that, an even more frightening power emerged and destroyed the energy that was restraining his wizard crystal body this whole time. The power he possessed was finally starting to come back to him. He’s never really missed being himself this much, mainly because of how helplessly he felt back then.