The sun left the horizon, and calm darkness enveloped the Anderium Forest. Underneath the blanket of gloom, many figures were busy at work.
These figures were the Deep Water Organization’s mages. Including young and old mages, and warriors specifically hired for close-range defense, all were engrossed in building wooden and stone defenses around the Underbroom Cave.
Several groups were patrolling the vicinity as well, and the number per group had now increased to six mages per group.
Earlier in the day, 50 mages met their demise at Nick’s hands. Now, there are 450 mages more including the leaders stationed around the Underbroom Cave.
The Deep Water Organization comprised a total of 1500-2000 mages but only 500 were appointed for this mission.
Elic thought.
“If things get out of hand, I must send a message to Blue Tear City for support.”
Every mage organization followed some form of hierarchy. It changed according to the continent and the power level of the mages. In some cases, bloodline too was a deciding factor.
The Deep Mage Organization’s system was according to levels.
Elic herself was a Provec Level Mage.
Usually, organization leaders in Arkvial Continent were Provec Level Mages, and the specific positions of these mages depended on the levels they were at.
Leaders – Provec Level Mages – ‘Level 16-30’
Captains – Prive Level Mages – ‘Level 6-15’
Regular Members – Imper Level Mages – ‘Level 1-5’
—
Nick stayed on the same tree throughout and inspected their activities. He could tell that the mages’ deaths intel had already reached Deep Water Organization leaders and they were preparing by paying more attention to defense and security.
This alone was an indicator that the organization’s leader was no fool. She or he did not respond in a fit of rage due to the loss of their members but instead strategically utilized their forces to defend.
“If I had an Area-Damage spell, that would be good.”
Nick did not have any spell for the mass destruction of an area or groups of beings. He counted this as a shortcoming. Sonic Bullet was effective but ultimately, it was a single-target spell. If he wanted to kill more than one target, he needed to cast more Sonic Bullets, which in turn took a toll on his body.
He did not have the magical energy pool like others. His spells were differentiated but that did not mean he could use spells indiscriminately.
—
Five seconds later, Nick noticed a target of six people. Without waiting for another moment, six bullets manifested in front of him and shot towards the enemies.
The result was predictable. The heads of six mages exploded. None of them had a chance to fight back or survive.
Nick was still on the lookout when suddenly a strange, unshakeable feeling Nick crept up his senses. As he was observing other targets, something unexpected caught his eyes.
It was a weird creature, standing on two legs, holding his head, and whispering some words that Nick could not understand.
The creature looked like a rat. Compared to ordinary rats though, this creature’s height was around that of a 10-12-year-old human kid. The rat-human, as Nick called it for the moment, had unusual blue eyes that seemed to shine in the darkness.
Within seconds, System displayed an alert to Nick.
‘Void Hunter Rat’
‘Level – ???????’
‘Attention’
‘User needs to escape.’
‘User needs to escape.’
Nick took a deep breath. He took his eyes away from the Void Hunter Rat for just a second to change his location, but as soon as he did that, he heard the low voice of a mouse.
“It seems you were looking at me.”
Nick turned his head to his side and noticed that the Void Hunter Rat had flown right next to him and was now staring at him.
When Nick had seen the creature just now, the distance between the two was more than 2 KM. In the blink of an eye, how could this weird rat creature, with a weird name like Void Hunter Rat, possibly come to his side and speak to him?
Void Hunter Rat was amused by Nick’s silence and spoke again.
“Hey, you primitive monkey! Did you lose your tongue? Speak when I ask you a question. I did not expect that these primitive monkeys are really primitive and could not use their head”
This time Nick did not hesitate and answered. The words of the rat creature have no effect on himself. What could possibly he can do about it anyway. The thought of attacking this rat did not even remotely cross his mind. System’s words of caution were clear. While Nick could not sense this creature’s power himself but given its speed and system’s warning, it was apparent that this creature could kill him in less than a second.
“Yes, I was looking at you after I noticed you earlier.”
Void Hunter Rat nodded and started talking.
“I do not like talking to primitive monkeys, but it seems you use magical energy and classify as a mage, right?”
Nick answered simply and truthfully. Lying was too much of a risk.
“Yes, I am an Imper Level Mage, and I use magic.”
Rat nodded again. He looked around and asked a question.
“Do you know any kind of curing spells by any chance? I was inspecting some corpses of primitive monkeys like you. I was interested because their cause of death was unique. But I did not expect to contract a poison from the corpses. Now, it is slowly killing me off.”
Nick was not sure what kind of poison this rat was referring to but disagreeing with it was out of the question. In the end Nick knew that with one move from this rat, he would lose his life and every chance that he will have the improve himself in the future. He inhaled slowly and answered.
“May I look at the wound or the poison?”
Void Hunter Rat nodded. Without saying anything, right before Nick’s eyes, a wound that was hidden so far appeared on the rat’s right hand.
Nick gulped after seeing the wounded area. He did not expect this at all. He thought to himself.
“This is caused by the cyanide from my Poison Sonic Bullet. How come he touched the corpses of the necromancers that I killed earlier!?”
