Chapter 1468: Something Better

Yellow linen top, blue linen pants with leg bindings, paired with a pair of muddy-edged boots, carrying a small bag.

A whole outfit of cheap goods, with green stubble and a buzz cut, untidy.

Any small merchant or peddler in the city would probably have this kind of shabby look.

But such a shabby-looking peddler of a man was whistling and strolling nonchalantly, watching beside him the once high-ranking, powerful Great Mage crawling on the ground cruelly and painfully, without the slightest emotion.

“Gant…Odim!”

Viggo Fortez almost roared out the name from his painful throat.

But it seemed more like a kind of release of pain, he didn’t even glance at Gant Odim.

Instead, he stared intently and fiercely at the path he was about to crawl.

“I have always been at your service, dear Lord Viggo Fortez.”

[Mirror Master], or as Lann called him, [Glass Boy].

He was still smiling leisurely at this moment.

He even bowed and saluted towards the crawling Viggo Fortez like a clumsy court jester.

“You always knew that as long as you commanded…”

“Pa!”

He gave a brief snap of his fingers, and all the candles and fireplaces in the castle suddenly lit up.

“It’s just that simple, you could regrow all this flesh and bone.”

“Why? Why suffer?”

“Crawling like a maggot in a dung pit?”

“Your crystal cultivation technique, to cultivate that flesh and bone would at least take another day and a half, then perform magic, heal and stitch… Tsk tsk tsk, the suffering in hell must be just like this?”

Gant Odim spoke leisurely, but Viggo Fortez still ignored him.

Crystal cultivation technique, Viggo Fortez had a set of equipment as well.

He was a genius among warlocks, and previously had one of the highest levels of authority and status, so understanding this constantly expanding and recruiting project was really not difficult.

At most, a version or two behind someone like Lann who specializes in cutting-edge research.

After learning it, he could easily set up his own, relying on the Niflgaard Empire for potentially more abundant resources than the northern warlocks.

It’s just a pity that his assistant Lydia had already died at Airetusa, otherwise he would be much more at ease now.

“I know, I know.” Gant Odim chattered like a haggling merchant to the wretched and grim Viggo Fortez, “You don’t want to owe me a favor, you want to say you know what kind of existence I am.”

“But haven’t you already used that genie? There’s only one use left.”

The elemental sprite’s face, abstract within a whirlwind of light, became fearful and twisted when Gant Odim spoke of it.

The immortal elemental being seemed a bit like a frightened quail at this moment!

“I…don’t owe you! Get away!”

Viggo Fortez arduously maintained his logical thinking in immense pain.

“Of course, for now, of course.” Gant Odim was not angry, “After all, this was a benefit I offered voluntarily.”

But so-called early benefits are always capable of reclaiming costs together later.

The Mirror Master, recently having turned and played in other worlds, thought indifferently.

And with a flip of his hand, he already pulled out another bottle from his ragged little satchel.

This bottle still smelled of fresh seawater and seaweed, looking quite ordinary.

Only the metal lid of the bottle was identical to the pendant on Viggo Fortez’s waist—with carved symbols of a shattered cross and a nine-pointed star!

This was exactly the feature of the genie bottle collected by Geoffrey Monk!

A new one! An unopened, trapped genie!

Three new wishes, endless chaos magic power, all within this little bottle.

The Mirror Master took a few steps forward and placed the bottle on the ground where Viggo Fortez was about to crawl over.

As if teasing a donkey.

“You see, the Lamp God in fairy tales only grants three wishes. Yet I give you the Lamp God directly.”

The genie indeed was the prototype for the Lamp God in this magical Middle Ages fairy tale.

But to this, Viggo Fortez just stubbornly crawled on, watching as he was about to swipe the genie bottle aside.

“I don’t owe you, I don’t!”

He bit down and stuttered this with emphasis.

The bottle was knocked over, rolling to the side.

Gant Odim, like playing football, occasionally rolled the bottle casually, continuing to walk beside Viggo Fortez.

Seemingly unintentionally, he said, “Yes, you are very confident, and that’s a precious quality. But the question is: if you truly succeeded according to plan, Lord Viggo Fortez…why didn’t ‘you’ turn back to inform ‘you’?”

With cryptic words, the Mirror Master’s words caused the previously determined Viggo Fortez to halt.

“After all, if you truly succeeded, doing such a thing would be very simple, wouldn’t it?”

“…Nonsense.” After a silence, the warlock spoke with difficulty, “The rules of time and space, the constraints of causality and logic, the reasons why ‘I’ didn’t come to see ‘me’ are countless, I could give you ten more if you want to hear!”

“No, you don’t need to tell me,” Gant Odim casually shrugged his hands. “After all, these things are your deductions and guesses. I’m not very interested.”

Humans can only deduce logically, but Gant Odim can do them at will.

“I’m just recommending my services to you. If you feel a sense of crisis, I think it would be easier for me.”

Viggo Fortez sneered with blood and mud on his face, intending to treat the other’s words as a fly buzzing by his ear.

But the other’s services…

“Just let me see how Lann made you into this state, Mr. Viggo Fortez.”

The legendary Mirror Master said softly from above.

The warlock’s crawled body shook.

The Djinn bottle he had pushed away earlier, mysteriously stood silently and without trace in front of him again.

“I just want to know this, and then the bottle is yours.”

“You…” Viggo Fortez, despite the increasing pain in his body, managed to raise his head slightly from the ground to look up at his opponent. “You don’t know? You actually have something you don’t know? He’s in Gos Velen, and you don’t know?”

Gant Odim folded his hands in front of his chest and shook his head sincerely.

“The distance is never the key for us. The key is that he’s now… well, how should I say it? Shielded by some force. Of course, I’m not forcing you to understand the profound mystery of this; I’m just explaining the deal’s content to you.”

With that, the Mirror Master offered an inscrutable smile.

“Or, you can take this information as some kind of incentive? After all, if there are things I don’t know, there must also be a way to escape debt from my grasp, right?”

He said this almost in a tempting tone.

And Viggo Fortez, pressed by his massive wounds to the ground, looked up at him, until his wounds bled out again into a large pool, he finally sneered.

“I wish:…”

The Djinn’s magic power was forcibly mobilized by the wishing technique.

This was the last wishing technique on this Djinn, enough to create flesh out of nothing with its vast, unruly chaos magic!

Bringing the dead to life and restoring flesh!

After fulfilling this wish, the Djinn would regain its freedom and return to the plane of air elements.

But it no longer mattered.

Viggo Fortez tore the bottle cap pendant from his waist and discarded it like trash… he had found something better.

—————–

“Do you know what you’re asking of me?”

Already almost calm, Lann stood outside the dean’s bedroom in Airetusa, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, addressing Triss and Margaret seriously.

At this moment, the academy still wafted with the scent of blood, mostly from the Squirrel faction, with a small portion from the injured unable to use teleportation technique and left behind.

The apprentices initially settled in Gos Velen for room clearance had now returned to campus, terrified.

Airetusa continued to close its doors to the King and Town Hall, but the academy alone sufficed to tidy up the scene.

The corpses and blood were cleared away, using magic.

Only the occasional sword slash marks and arrowhead spur holes remained on the corridor’s spiral stairwell wooden handrails.

But a single magic would immediately hide these flaws beneath illusions, just like always.

In the Glorious Corridor, paintings documenting the warlock community’s glory and evolution continued to overlook everyone passing through the hall.

“This isn’t a request! This is a plea!” Margaret continued seriously, “I’m begging you to save my teacher and best friend! Save Tishaya!”

Lann turned to look at the red-haired female warlock.

Only to find Triss also looking at him seriously.

Tishaya was also her teacher.

“Make love to her, so her mind is filled with nothing but blissful emptiness, thinking nothing.”

Triss gently stroked Lann’s hand while speaking softly.

“She’s too obsessed, dear. I’m genuinely worried if this continues, Tishaya might harm herself, or even…”

Saying this, she found it hard to continue.

“Whether it’s due to personal feelings, or the interests of the academy and wizards, Tishaya can’t have any accidents.”

Margaret’s expression was unlike her usual frivolous, alluring demeanor.

Indeed, she was known for a lavish, casual, and lazy style, but there was no doubt, back then she dared to venture into Velen alone for a missing female student.

The academy and students ranked among the most important things in her life.

And the more vital the situation was, the more serious she became.

“Gedemitis had his heart cut out; although recovered now, he needs rest. His prestige has also diminished as a result. We can’t afford to lose Tishaya’s impact!”

“I can already predict, in a few days, kings will send news of distrust toward warlocks, but even more so, we need deterrence at this time! Tishaya and Gedemitis are our deterrence!”

Margaret grabbed Smaug’s collar, tiptoed while pulling Lann downward.

With almost fierce intensity, she bit the demon hunter’s lips, releasing only when she couldn’t catch her breath.

“Huh~” Margaret’s moist lips glistened, sticking close to Lann’s ear, “You’re just making love!”