Chapter 1980: This Is Pure Talent
Mag looked at Merante, and calmly said, “We can work together, but I have three conditions.”
“Name them.” A gleam seemed to flash through Merante’s white eyes.
“Firstly, after we cooperate, I will lead all our actions. You must work with me, and cannot work on your own.
“Secondly, our cooperation has to be completely secret. No third party can know about this. I think this is what you guys want too.
“Thirdly, Annie can provide one drop of blood essence, but other than that, you guys cannot make any other requests. Otherwise, I will use my methods to end this cooperation,” Mag said calmly.
Merante pondered for a moment before he nodded seriously. “I agree to your conditions.”
Noah’s mouth was slightly agape. He didn’t expect Merante would agree to such harsh conditions.
“To happy cooperation.” Mag raised his teacup.
“To happy cooperation.” Merante and Noah raised their cups too, and then finished the tea in one gulp.
After ascertaining their cooperation, the ambiance became much more cordial.
Noah kept the tortoise shells, and smilingly asked, “When can we set off to catch the devil? Is that fellow really in Chaos City?”
“Chaos City is only so big, and you guys only found me here, so it means that fellow isn’t here at all.” Mag shook his head. Although the system’s detection ability couldn’t compare even to a rock, it wouldn’t have no reaction completely if the Great Old Ones appeared in Chaos City.
“Do you know where it is?” Merante asked Mag.
“I can only deduce. Yesterday, the Roth Empire started a war on the orcs and the elves. I saw a corpse in the Twilight Forest that was completely deprived of its blood essence, and I discovered a very thick and eerie devil’s presence. I think it definitely had something to do with the devil.” Mag took out the photostone, and showed Merante and Noah the horrible footage recorded in the Twilight Forest yesterday.
“This was a massacre after the battle.” Merante frowned slightly.
“However, this might be a battle that was caused by the devil. The second prince of the Roth Empire, Josh, might have already sold his soul to the devil. He then took the opportunity to start the war while the king and the first prince were taking part in the peace meeting in Chaos City, and he ordered the massacre of all the conquered tribes.” The footage stopped at the corpse that was drained of its blood essence.
“This is!” Merante suddenly stood up, and stared at that body with shock.
“Have you seen this before?” Mag asked.
“This is a corpse that was drained of its resentment and blood essence and left behind by someone who is controlled by the devil. I have met a demon who was controlled by the devil 500 years ago. He had massacred many small villages back then, and the corpses he left behind all looked like that.” Merante nodded his head gravely. “I didn’t expect it to reappear again now.”
Mag was thoughtful. This basically matched his deduction. He said, “I don’t know where to look for that escaped half of the devil now, either, but Josh might be our breakthrough point. We have to find him first. We have to catch or kill him to prevent him from getting stronger, and becoming the next devil.”
“He’s the devil’s spokesperson. The devil will look for him personally, and take his body when he is powerful enough. We indeed have to find him as soon as possible.” Merante nodded.
“Let’s set off tonight. I’ll bring you guys to the Twilight Forest. It was where he last appeared.” Mag set the time.
“That little maiden’s blood essence…”
“I will pass it to you tonight.”
“Alright, then we won’t hold you up any longer.” Merante nodded and left with Noah.
Mag didn’t get up to send them off. Instead, he poured a cup of tea for himself.
Unifying all the power to deal with the Great Old Ones was his primary policy now.
The Anti-Great-Old-Ones alliance on the Norland Continent was basically formed, but the enemy was in the dark, while they were in the open. They were all searching blindly. It didn’t matter how many people they had if they couldn’t ascertain the devil’s location.
Merante’s septaria oracle was mysterious and interesting. It could detect the devil’s presence. Even Annie who had already been successfully purified could be found by him. It was obvious that he indeed had some skills, and he had the style of an otherworldly expert.
Mag had to find Josh and kill him before the latter did something worse.
Amy poked her head out at the staircase’s turn, looking at Mag, who was drinking tea alone, and asked, “Father, are those two people bad eggs?”
“They are not really bad eggs.” Mag shook his head smilingly, and waved to the little one.
Amy approached Mag, looked into his eyes, and whispered, “Blink if you are being threatened.”
“No one is threatening me.” Mag stroked the little one’s head with a chuckle. It seemed like she had been worried about him upstairs. He couldn’t help feeling touched.
“I’m very formidable now. Father must tell me if there are bad eggs trying to hurt you. I will crush them for you.” Amy clenched her fists. “I am super fierce.”
“Mm-hmm. My little tiger is super fierce.” Mag nodded with a smile. However, the little one looked so adorable when she was trying to look fierce. She didn’t look threatening at all, and it made him want to pinch her little face.
“Hehe.” Amy pounced into Mag’s arms, and rubbed her face against his chest. “Then, can we have roast goose tonight?”
***
Noah followed Merante out of Mamy Restaurant, and softly asked, “Grandpa, is that chap trustworthy? Do we really have to listen to his instructions?”
“I heard that there was a very formidable youngster in the human race lately. He has defeated many people. Benson, Westin, and Bruno all died under his sword.” There was a hint of lament in Merante’s voice. They were all powerhouses of his era.
Noah’s eyes instantly widened as he said with shock, “You are saying that he is Alex!”
“A 30-year-old human who can give me such an oppressive feeling. There should be no one other than him.” Merante nodded slightly.
“But he is the number one knight on the Norland Continent, a dragon slayer who can fly up to the sky, a terrifying existence who can slaughter the king of the forest trolls… How did he become the boss of a restaurant and a stay-home-dad?” Noah still had a look of disbelief. They had been traveling around the Norland Continent for the past few years, and he had heard plenty of rumors and tales. Alex’s stories were his favorite.
Alex had already become a legend that crossed all the races. He had already become the legend of the entire Norland Continent.
A human with a longsword and a purple-striped griffin had made all the powerhouses terrified of him. Furthermore, he had won the heart of a beautiful elven princess. He was always deemed as an idol by Noah.
However, such a super powerhouse like him actually became the boss of the restaurant and a stay-at-home dad with three kids.
“Everyone has their own life and secrets. If you want to live longer, don’t attempt to probe others’ secrets,” Merante faintly said.
Noah had a bunch of questions, but he didn’t decide to voice them out. He turned to flick a glance at Mamy Restaurant, and inwardly said, I don’t care about the secrets, but I can build a good relationship with my idol. This is a rare opportunity.
***
“A crisis is imminent. I wonder if she can undertake the heavy burden of saving the world…” Outside the Chaos City’s city gate, a bishop in a long white robe put down his hat, and stared at the Chaos City’s towers in a daze.
The people lining up behind him urged him, “Sir, you should move now.”
“I’m sorry.” The bishop retracted his gaze. He nodded and entered Chaos City with the crowd.
***
“Put the entire city under the state of alert, and tighten the checks on those who enter the city. All the outposts will contact 24 hours surveillance to prevent enemies who could attack from anywhere.
“Assemble a rapid reaction force that can march out to assist the Peace Alliance at any time.
“The war can break out any time. You all must be on full alert,” Michael said gravely to the city lord’s castle’s officials in the meeting hall.
All of them left, and began to carry out their tasks.
The peace meeting halted suddenly as the Roth Empire started a war. The city lord’s castle also swiftly descended into busyness.
Dicus went up, and reported, “My lord, Louis has arrived in the hall.”
“I’ll go over right now.” Michael picked up his teacup, and gulped down all the water in it before he walked out, and said, “Is our document ready?”
“Yes. It’s ready. We have rewritten it according to your corrections yesterday. We were about to show you.” Dicus nodded.
“Put that aside. I will meet Louis first.” Michael nodded and hastened his steps.
Michael barely got any rest after the war started.
He thought the Roth Empire only wanted to add some bargaining chips for the negotiation, but judging from the outcome, this war had already gone way beyond all of their expectations. The Roth Empire’s methods were way crueler than the racial war back then. They had massacred dozens of orc tribes. Even the Aug Tribe was almost defeated. Over 50,000 innocent orcs were killed.
This had a huge impact on the orc race, and caused an indelible hatred.
The elves’ death toll was slightly better. The defensive battle of the City of Life was very successful as Irina managed to get there in time and stop the situation from deteriorating.
However, after being attacked by their trusted neighbors suddenly, and having their core city almost conquered and the Tree of Life almost destroyed, the elves would most probably never trust the Roth Empire as an ally again.
All the races heightened their war readiness. All their powerhouses remained in their settlements to prevent any unforeseen circumstances from occurring.
There were no more hopes for resigning the peace treaty. The new racial war could break out any time, so now everyone was fretting for themselves.
Louis saw Michael come in, and got straight to the point. “Michael, the giant dragons have reached a consensus. If the Roth Empire doesn’t give an explanation that all the races can accept, we will send an expeditionary force to the Roth Empire.”
Michael sat down across from Louis. After a brief moment of hesitation, he nodded, and said, “Chaos City will send an elite force to attack the Roth Empire as a response to the giant dragons’ decision.”
“Alright, I will pass your message on.” Louis nodded, and said, “However, does Alex have any information regarding the devil?”
“I don’t receive much information from him now, either, but I trust that he is also investigating this matter.” Michael shook his head.
Louis got up, and said, “Alright, then. I need to go make a trip to the goblins and the dwarves. If there is any news regarding the devil, I hope you can let us know as soon as possible.”
“Sure.” Michael, too, got up to send him off.
***
The roast goose was a huge success. It became the foodies’ new favorite because its unique texture and exquisite taste were irresistible. Mag wasn’t surprised about that, as even he himself couldn’t resist the roast goose’s temptation.
After the dinner service, Mag bought a blood collection and preservation device from the system, and took a drop of fresh blood from Annie’s finger.
The two children were tired after playing for the whole day. They fell asleep before Mag could finish his story.
Mag walked out of the room. There, Irina was leaning against the doorframe. He told her, “I got to know two people from the Ghost Clan. They might be able to locate Josh and the Great Old One that has escaped from the seal. I will be making a trip to the Twilight Forest with them tonight.”
“That old man looks weird. Are you sure there are no problems?” Irina looked out of the window. Merante and Noah were already waiting under a tree in the park not too far away.
“They found me with a septaria oracle. They said they could sense the presence that I have seen on the Great Old Ones on me. I think he really has some skills.” Mag nodded. Such a live detector was hard to come by. Compared to searching around blindly like a headless chicken, using a radar scan with an 800-kilometer coverage was obviously more efficient.
“Be careful,” Irina reminded him gently.
“I will.” Mag nodded slightly, and went downstairs.
“The thing that you want.” Mag tossed the little crystal bottle to Merante.
Merante reached out to catch it. He raised the little crystal bottle, and looked at it in the moonlight. A drop of champagne-gold blood sparkled like a gemstone.
“She’s the purest one. Even her blood is so pure.” Merante was a little out of sorts.
“H-hello.” After knowing Mag’s identity, Noah had an obviously much humbler attitude. He was also looking at Mag with a different gaze. There was an additional hint of admiration.
“Hmm. Hello.” Mag nodded his head slightly. He had quite a good impression of this boy with the punk hairstyle. He then said, “It’s time to set off.”
“Alright, let’s set off now.” Merante kept that little crystal bottle carefully.
Soon after, a purple-striped griffin left Chaos City quietly, and flew towards the Twilight Forest.
Noah sat next to Mag, and nervously asked him, “Should I address you as Mr. Alex or Boss Mag?”
“Whatever you like,” Mag answered casually. Noah even went to have a meal at the restaurant that evening specially.
“Then I’ll call you Boss Mag. It feels friendlier.” Noah smiled and moved closer to Mag, as if changing the form of address had indeed made them closer. “I’m Noah.”
“The ark?”
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
“Ark… This nickname will do too. You can call me anything you like.” Noah chuckled, displaying his bootlicker characteristics.
“Hmm,” Mag answered. He was about to close his eyes to rest for a while.
“I didn’t expect that you would be such an excellent chef while being such a powerful knight. You must have worked very hard?” Noah asked him expectantly.
“No. This is pure talent. It has nothing to do with hard work. Just like you can never beat me no matter how hard you work,” Mag replied calmly.
“Errr…”