"What Tower of Thorns? I don't understand what you're talking about!" Noticing the smirking glance the young Demon Hunter was tossing his way, Evan's jealousy-addled brain finally started to clear. He turned to the Calvary Captain and insisted, "Alice, you have to believe me…"
Alice looked at Evan with a new eye. Even though she had chosen to believe Evan due to his injury, the panic shown on Evan's face when Ye Qi mentioned Tower of Thorns did give her second thoughts.
Tower of Thorns was a place whose mention could send chills down one's spine, but its fairness was never questioned—or at least that was how it appeared to those who didn't have access to the headquarters' secret files. Ye Qi had once heard this mentioned by Old Walter and knew of the place's hidden underpinning, but there was no reason for him to share it with the rest simply because of one Evan.
A crisp sound of galloping shattered the heightened tension. As Noah appeared at the camp, the truth soon surfaced—Ye Qi didn't know Noah's powers could be used in such a manner, but they proved to be efficient interrogation tools. After applying his Inhibition of the Five Sense on Evan, the man started to sing like a bird.
"I'm so sorry for what happened earlier…"
Alice bowed in apology to Ye Qi—the cold-faced guy had managed to squeeze more than the scheme against Ye Qi out of Evan; he even gave up the other soldiers who collaborated with him as well as exposed his own romantic interest in the Cavalry Captain. Realizing she was the reason for the tragedy that befell the young Demon Hunter, guilt weighed down on her and she didn't know how to face him anymore.
"It's okay! You, in a way, are also a victim of Evan's deception!" Realizing Alice's frown at the word "victim", Ye Qi immediately changed the subject. "By the way, where is my camp? It has been my childhood dream to spend a night under the stars and be one with nature!"
In a newly erected tent, and after sending away a huffing Alice who rejected his offer to share the same tent, Ye Qi lit the oil lamp with a smile. Using the weak light, Ye Qi started to read his Gorgon's Eyes—after 6 months of studying, the young Demon Hunter believed he had finally gained some understanding of the book. However, with that understanding came the knowledge that it was impossible for him to use any spells in the book. After all, Gorgon's Eyes was written to serve a Demon Servant; unless Ye Qi surrendered his soul to a Demon, he wouldn't be able to use this piece of literature!
However, the young Demon Hunter didn't give up studying Gorgon's Eyes because just as Ye Qi planned to put the book away, the weird wolf appeared once more to reveal to him a half-joyous, half-sad piece of news—since Ye Qi had signed a contract with him, even though his true form was still in a sealed state, it didn't take away from the fact that he was in some capacity a Demon, and a powerful one at that. Therefore, even if Ye Qi didn't surrender his soul, he could still use the spells inside Gorgon's Eyes! However, since he shared a Partner Contract and not Soul Contract with the weird wolf, the power of the spell cast by Ye Qi would be weakened or could even fail. Furthermore, due to this contract with weird wolf, the Church's healing spell would be useless or wasted on Ye Qi.
Ye Qi frowned when he was given the knowledge, but he soon relaxed—Demon Hunters didn't share a good relationship with the Church to begin with anyway. Other than that, the payment of the Church's healing services was not something a poor Demon Hunter like Ye Qi could support. Even though he had earned some from Marley, those were quickly scammed by Frank, the blacksmith. There was still a constant income from the Black Market Dealer, but it was definitely not enough to gain the aid from the Church. Furthermore, Ye Qi believed it would be a better investment to use his money to buy better equipment instead! He, like many other Demon Hunters, viewed the charitable front put forth by the Church as some sort of falsity and thus had a bad impression of the Church.
Realizing Ye Qi didn't get as angry as he expected, the weird wolf made use of the opportunity to lure the young Demon Hunter to sign a Soul Contract with him by offering him power strong enough to completely utilize the spells inside Gorgon's Eyes! Ye Qi, with access to the system, of course wouldn't fall for his tricks! Even if the weird wolf was going to give him a Sun-grade Hallowed Artefact, he wouldn't have sold his soul literally to the Devil!
Ye Qi closed the book with a deep breath—he had mastered the basic spell of summoning a Shadow Warrior and Skeletal Warrior. Shadow Warrior was useful but had obvious weakness while Skeletal Warrior was much too fragile. Zombie Summoning that was one level stronger was a spell he hadn't mastered yet.
Then again, all was not lost. When Ye Qi scanned the character screen, his eyes shone—Darkness.
Darkness: A spell to cover the surrounding with darkness. Effect: Create a supernatural zone of darkness that spread for 40 feet. The darkness cannot be broken by natural light. Effective time: 5 minutes per level.
Ye Qi jumped from his cot when he saw the spell description. Normally, he would only focus on spells that would be helpful to increase his Stat and scanned over these other spells. However, this accidental find was something impressive!
The supernatural darkness would help his Shadow Warrior whose weakness was light! This combined with the restrictive power of Web could create the perfect killing zone!
The excited Ye Qi spun around his own tent twice. If not for the lack of spell slots, he would add Darkness to his usable spells instantly and start collecting Shadow Warriors!
Even though Ye Qi had not seen a Moon Apostle, in fact, his lecturers, Titan and Noah were merely Star Apostles, he was confident he would be able to defeat one with a combination of Darkness, Web, and Shadow Warriors. He would use Darkness to take away his opponent's sight, then Web to incapacitate them, opening his victims to slaughtering from an army of Shadow Warriors.
"Enemy assault!"
Just as Ye Qi was figuring out ways to complement his many spells, silver bells started to chime all over the camp. He put away Gorgon's Eyes, grabbed Agni, and rushed out of his tent.
He ran towards the chaos. Ye Qi was shocked as he saw a monster more than 12 feet tall with a balding head and grey skin swiping at his surrounding with a mace that was thicker than a grown man's waist!
An ogre!
The monster's unique feature as well as the unsightly smell that drifted into the young Demon Hunter's nose even though he was standing so far away made him come to this conclusion instantly. However, one second later, the young Demon Hunter started to frown.
PSA: I’m going to stop working on weekends cause i need to focus on my studies. Much apologies.