Chapter 151: Rather Generous Loot

Chapter 151: Rather Generous Loot



As Rain flipped through the pages, his facial expressions alternated between furrowing his brows and relaxing.

Finally, Rain let out a long sigh and began to ponder deeply.

It turned out that Adams wasn't just some wandering, self-taught wizard apprentice like Endry, but rather, he had a relatively orthodox background.

According to the records in his diary, years ago, Adams was a wizard apprentice to Solin Bergman, the advisor to Duke Louis of the Dragonean Empire.

However, in his youth, Adams had an affair with the Duke's wife, Catherine, but this secret was soon exposed by one of Catherine's maids, who reported it to Duke Louis.

Fortunately, Adams had sensed something amiss and discovered the squad of knights sent to capture him.

Adams believed that if he were caught by the furious Duke Louis, his life would be in grave danger. Additionally, he harbored resentment towards his mentor, Solin, for not protecting him.

Consequently, Adams stole a significant amount of casting materials and wizardry scrolls from his mentor, Solin, and quickly fled the imperial capital.

"Wow, this story is even worthy of being sung by bards! Tsk tsk, indeed, one must live a life of passion and romance in their youth!"

"I didn't expect Adams to be such a romantic figure in his youth."

"Sleeping with the Duchess. That's impressive."

"Yeah, he's way better than Endry the bard, who only managed to seduce a countess. Adams went for the Duchess!"

"But, are all wizard apprentices so romantic?"

"And he prefers married women, filling up his womanizer attribute." Rain stroked his chin, pondering.

"Also, that advisor of Duke Louis, Solin, according to Adams' description, seems to be a formal wizard from a place called the 'Ignis Academy'."

Although Adams only mentioned his mentor Solin in passing, Rain felt that it revealed quite a bit.

Firstly, in this world, some wizard apprentices or wizards are affiliated with academies, indicating a complete system of inheritance and cultivation.

If there's an 'Ignis Academy', then it's highly likely that there are other academies as well.

This was undoubtedly good news for Rain, who sought to uncover the mysteries of wizardry but had been feeling his way through the dark.

Secondly, the fact that a formal wizard serves as an advisor to an imperial duke implies that the empire's upper echelons view wizards not as a threat but as a beneficial force.

This instantly reminded Rain of the strategists who served under lords in ancient times.

Connecting these dots, Rain felt that if he leaned on the empire and continued to climb the ladder, he would gradually gain access to a systematic body of wizardry knowledge.

Additionally, there was another piece of information in the diary that caught Rain's attention. In the eyes of a third-level wizard apprentice, the power of a Great Knight and below, whether a veteran knight or a peak knight, was akin to that of a pushover.

In Adams' opinion, at his level of strength, only other mystics could pose a threat to him, implying that 'only wizardry can counter wizardry' in his mind.

Knights, who relied purely on physical attacks, were not held in high regard by Adams.

No wonder Adams had looked down on Rain and Hamilton's joint attack, believing he could easily handle them.

Rain carefully recalled and rationally analyzed the battle scenario. Indeed, Adams had no chance of losing.

With the strength Adams had displayed, he could effortlessly defeat a combined assault from a peak knight and a veteran knight.

However, he had the misfortune of encountering Rain, a powerhouse with extraordinary abilities!

After a single burst of power, Rain had surpassed the strength of a peak knight and even possessed a bit of wizardry, making him a 'little monster' in Adams' eyes.

Thus, Adams had the misfortune of capsizing in the gutter.

Of course, Rain's focus was on Adams' perception and judgment, where he, as a third-level wizard apprentice, was at least on par with a Great Knight, if not slightly superior.

Does this imply that, in terms of combat strength, a third-level wizard apprentice is equivalent to a Great Knight in this world?

Rain thought about it carefully and felt that he needed to add a couple of conditions.

These conditions were that the wizard apprentice must be 'academically trained' and possess multiple killer spell scrolls to be considered stronger than a Great Knight. Those who were self-taught or 'poor' wizard apprentices might not fit this description.

'The availability of external resources directly determines the strength of a wizard apprentice!'

After pondering this, Rain continued to flip through the diary, reading further.

A quarter of an hour later, Rain picked up the crystal ball, slightly smaller than an infant's head, and examined it carefully.

"I didn't expect this crystal ball to be a testing crystal, capable of assessing one's affinity for various mystic energy particles." Rain muttered to himself.

In simpler terms, each person has a different level of attraction to various mystic energy particles.

For an apprentice sorcerer, the innate affinity is the attraction to stronger energy particles, and naturally, manipulating them would require less effort and yield greater power. This is why it's crucial for a traditional sorcerer apprentice to test their affinity before learning wizardry, as Adams meticulously documented in his diary.

This revelation greatly benefited Rain, the 'wild' sorcerer apprentice.

Soon, Rain figured out how to use the 'testing crystal'.

The method was simple; all he needed to do was infuse his mental power into the crystal ball and concentrate on sensing the surrounding mystic energy particles.

After a moment's thought, Rain decided to test it out. He held the crystal ball in both hands, closed his eyes, and focused his mind.

As Rain's mental power flowed into the crystal ball, it soon emitted a soft white light, and within the initially transparent crystal, different-colored lights began to swirl.

After a few seconds, the lights stabilized.

Rain opened his eyes and saw that the top layer of the crystal ball was filled with a red mist, while the middle layer was a pale silver mist. Both seemed to occupy almost the same volume, with a slight difference that wasn't significant.

The pale silver mist was only slightly less than the red, and together, they occupied nearly eight-ninths of the crystal ball's volume.

The remaining space was filled with various other colors, almost like a mix of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

According to Adams's notes, the red mist represented the affinity for flame energy particles, and the larger the volume it occupied in the crystal ball, the stronger the tester's affinity for that energy particle.

Rain nodded slightly, thinking to himself that this made sense.

This also explained why he could only manipulate flame energy particles when he first entered the level of a first-level sorcerer apprentice.

As his mental power grew and he was about to reach the second level, he could barely influence other energy particles around him, and even then, the power was significantly weaker.

However, the testing crystal could only provide a general measure of the tester's affinity direction and not a precise quantitative test.

To simplify, it's like taking an exam with scores in language, mathematics, and English as 60, 60, and 10, respectively, resulting in a ratio of 6:6:1. Similarly, if the scores were 120, 120, and 20, the ratio would still be 6:6:1.

The crystal displayed these ratios rather than specific values.

Rain's pale silver mist wasn't mentioned in Adams's diary, causing Rain to furrow his brows.

If he could figure out what energy particle the pale silver mist represented, he could consciously collect wizardry and related knowledge in that direction, and the spells he cast would be significantly more powerful than those in directions with weaker affinities.

However, since he couldn't determine it right away, Rain decided to continue reading.

An hour later, Rain finished reading Adams's entire diary.

As Rain looked at the crystal ball on the table again, a smile appeared on his face.

According to the diary, the short staff was made from a special tree called Graywood, which had a subtle effect of enhancing negative energy wizardry.

For Rain, it wasn't of much use.

Only sorcerer apprentices who specialized in negative energy would find it appealing.

The thin, white finger bone wasn't mentioned in the diary, so he skipped it for now.

As for the other two arcane language books, one detailed the creation of a potion called the Secret Potion, which could slightly increase mental power. However, most of the ingredients required were unfamiliar to Rain.

After a brief glance, Rain decided to move on, as for most sorcerer apprentices, increasing mental power could only be achieved through Basic Meditation Technique.

Some resource-rich apprentices had a second method, which was to consume rare potions that could slightly increase mental power.

But Rain had a third method that was far more effective than the previous two.

And that was—merit points!

So, for Rain, the value of the Secret Potion that could slightly increase mental power was far less than that of the same potion for other sorcerer apprentices.

Rain considered this because he knew that if he chose to make this potion, he would have to search for these rare ingredients himself.

The time spent on this process could allow Rain to level up several times in his various profession panels.

Therefore, Rain decided that it would be best to search for these ingredients later when he had leveled up his various profession panels. Then, he could make the potion at that time.

Another book caught Rain's attention, as it recorded three sorceries, or more accurately, two curses and a sorcery.

The first curse was called 'Mental Exhaustion'. Its casting conditions were somewhat troublesome. Firstly, one had to draw a ritual diagram of an inverted pentagram and also needed an intimate object of the cursed target. Ideally, having the target's hair or blood would make the curse more effective.

Upon reading the description of the 'Mental Exhaustion' curse, Rain suddenly understood why he had felt so inexplicably tired in his sleep the night before, almost unable to keep his eyes open. It was clear that this curse was the reason.

Rain carefully studied this curse-type sorcery, and his brows furrowed. The casting of the 'Mental Exhaustion' curse required the knowledge of certain prerequisite subjects, such as 'Basic Principles of Negative Energy' and 'Human Neurology'. Additionally, the key to casting it involved manipulating negative energy particles.

The strength of the negative energy particles the caster could manipulate directly affected the power of the curse. Of course, the strength of one's mental power was almost always linked to the potency of sorceries, so it was not worth mentioning here.

In other words, if Rain were to cast this sorcery with the same mental power strength as Adams, his curse might be significantly weaker.

The second curse was called 'Spirit Bind'. It also required a personal item of the cursed target, such as hair or blood, and a ready-made vengeful spirit or other spiritual being. If none were available, the curse's effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

The effect of the 'Spirit Bind' curse was to alter the cursed target's magnetic field, making them highly susceptible to attacks from vengeful spirits, malevolent ghosts, and other spiritual beings.

Upon reading the effect of this curse, Rain understood why Adams was known as the Ghost Manipulator. It seemed that only the name was wrong, not the nickname.

For the vast majority of people, even formal knights, encountering such an unusual curse without external aid would be challenging to resist.

Rain contemplated that although these two sorceries were curse-based and might be challenging for him to learn, and their effectiveness might be somewhat mediocre, he still decided to give it a try.

However, in terms of learning sequence, these two curse-based sorceries should be learned after the third sorcery.

The third sorcery was one that even Adams hadn't mastered, named 'Heat Field'. As the name suggested, it was a fire-based sorcery and a rare field-type spell.

According to the book's annotations, Adams had stolen this sorcery because it was a unique field-type spell, and he found it valuable for reference, despite being a fire-based sorcery.

But later, Adams discovered that the 'Heat Field' sorcery had a complex model structure, making it challenging to master. More importantly, it didn't align with his combat philosophy.

Adams preferred to build himself as a 'turret', focusing on long-range attack sorceries, while the 'Heat Field' had a limited range of only a few meters. This discrepancy diminished his desire to learn it.

However, when Rain saw this sorcery, his thoughts differed significantly from Adams.

A significant portion of Rain's combat power came from his Knight (Extraordinary) profession, which meant he relied heavily on close-quarters combat.

The 'Heat Field' sorcery seemed to have an uncanny resonance with him. Imagine a scorching heat akin to the Sahara Desert's sun within a few meters, causing enemies to exhibit symptoms similar to heatstroke, such as nausea, vomiting, and dehydration. The visualization was simply captivating! Of course, this was merely Rain's imagination, as the actual power would only be known after mastering the spell.

Moreover, the 'Heat Field' being a fire-based sorcery aligned perfectly with Rain's affinity, which was a significant advantage.

In other words, once Rain mastered this sorcery, its power could be slightly enhanced.

Additionally, this elemental sorcery seemed to have no prerequisite learning content and could be learned directly, quickly translating into combat prowess once mastered.

Therefore, Rain decided to learn the fire-based sorcery 'Heat Field' first, and then move on to the two curses.

Finally, there were two remaining sorcery scrolls. Casting these scrolls was extremely simple, requiring only a small input of mental power to activate them. There was no need to consider spell models, affinity, or any other intricacies, making them the quickest way to enhance a sorcerer apprentice's combat capabilities.

The only drawback was the price!

Just as Rain was about to examine the wizardry scroll, he heard Matteo's knock on the door.

As soon as Matteo entered, he began reporting his findings:

"Sir, we've verified the young man's identity. He wasn't lying; he did become an employee at Adams's shop about a month ago."

"Additionally, he shared some useful information. Two days ago, a middle-aged man visited the shop looking for his boss. He suspects that your attack might be related to that man."

Hearing this, Rain's eyebrows arched. That was highly plausible.

After all, he had no grudge against Adams, so the attacker must have been hired by someone else.

"Hmm, do you have any specific information about that middle-aged man?" Rain asked.

"Well, right after that man entered, Adams dismissed the young man. So, the young man isn't aware of the details of their conversation or the man's identity."

"But, sir, I just had someone draw a portrait based on the young man's description. You can take a look." As he spoke, Matteo took out a rolled-up parchment from his pocket and presented it to Rain.

Rain's heart leaped with joy. He nodded and said, "Good work, Matteo. You're becoming more meticulous."

After carefully examining the portrait, Rain confirmed that the man was neither Baron Alonso nor Viscount Hamadi.

Of course, this was assuming neither of them was wearing a well-crafted human skin mask.

Rain racked his brains but couldn't recall knowing this man.

However, Rain felt a vague sense of familiarity with the man's appearance, but he couldn't pinpoint the source of this familiarity.

Not even a minute after Matteo left, there was another knock on the door of the storage room.

Rain opened the door and saw Ragle outside.

"Rain, are you free? I'd like to talk to you about something."

"Sure, come in."

"Rain, has your strength reached the level of a Senior Knight?" Ragle asked, her deep blue eyes fixed on Rain, her expression filled with anticipation.

"Hmm? Ragle, why would you ask that?" Rain smiled.

"I heard it from the Night Watch. They all say your strength surpasses that of Sheriff Hamilton of Shangjin Town."

"Well, perhaps." Rain nodded, not denying it.

"That's great! Rain, can I ask you for a favor? I want to go to the Night Song Forest to retrieve the remains of my brother and teammates, as well as their weapons."

"I've been waiting for too long." As Ragle spoke of this, her eyes lost their light, and her face fell.

Rain pondered upon hearing this.

It wasn't that he was unwilling to go.

After all, the Tree Crown Knight had easily defeated Ragle's brother, a Barbarian Warrior who had reached 40% Ferocity. Clearly, the knight was powerful.

Although Rain had killed Adams, a Third-Level Apprentice Wizard, it didn't mean he could handle all the mysterious incidents in this world.

"Well, Ragle, I'll go to Sheriff Hamilton to inquire about the county and the church's plans. Logically, the church officials should be arriving soon."

"The delay from before, I heard, was because the Wind and Sea Goddess Church was assisting the empire in eradicating the heretics," Rain said after some thought.

At that moment, his sister, Mint, called from downstairs, "Brother, there's someone here to see you, and they're in a carriage!"

Rain's eyebrows arched. Could it be someone from the Crowley family?

"Thump, thump, thump!"

Mint ran upstairs, her face slightly flushed and excited. "Brother, the carriage doesn't have the Crowley family's rose emblem; it seems to have a dragon on it!"

Hmm?

A dragon?

Impossible!

This left Rain perplexed.

He quickly bid farewell to Ragle and headed downstairs.

As soon as he stepped out, he noticed a luxurious carriage parked by his door, different from the Crowley family's style, and the emblem on the carriage was entirely different.

This carriage had more curved designs, giving it a more delicate and noble appearance.

Additionally, the emblem on the upper right corner of the carriage was a dragon with flesh wings, roaring with its head raised.

Mint was right! Rain's pupils constricted!

Clearly, the visitor was someone of great importance.

Ordinary nobles or organizations wouldn't have the qualifications to use a dragon as their emblem; this was a traditional emblem design among the Dragonean Empire's nobility.

Rain had learned about this a few days ago during a conversation with Jenny about carriages.

As Rain stepped out, a middle-aged man in a fitted tailcoat emerged and asked, "Is this the residence of Deputy Sheriff Rain of Shangjin Town?"

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end