Lost Goods

The casting requirement for Prayer Incantation is 2 mana, plus one basic prayer.

The duration of a basic prayer is generally fixed at three seconds, encompassing the corresponding movements and prayer words.

Li Wen's voluminous cloak concealed her praying movements, while the prayer words were completed in the form of silent recitation under focused concentration.

This led to the current situation: Li Wen simply sat there ordinarily, appearing to do nothing, while the person who was about to strike her suddenly collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

The shock and eeriness of it undoubtedly sent chills down the spines of everyone in the tavern.

Someone couldn't handle the stimulation and immediately collapsed to the floor:

"Witch... witchcraft!"

With that cry, most of those who could still walk rushed for the door. In no time, the large tavern was left with only the mercenaries of Black Wind Fang and a few drunkards passed out.

The remaining mercenaries looked at their still-twitching comrade on the ground, feeling a chill in their hearts and their legs trembling.

Scared? Good. Fear was the right response.

The gap between a Spectrum-classed professional and an ordinary person was impossible to bridge. Ordinary people had no Spectrum and could never break past level ten in their entire lives.

Li Wen knew these scum all too well. If she didn't completely shatter their courage and mindset from the very first moment, they would soon, driven by greed, anger, and other emotions, come up with some reckless ideas.

Witchcraft? This was no witchcraft at all!

Perhaps only the mercenaries' leader among those present knew what had just happened. He had once seen with his own eyes how those foreigners—their eyes covered with white cloth, their bodies painted with all kinds of patterns and script—commanded shadows to slaughter a group of goblins and cruelly dismember them.

They communicated in the ancient language of the Jabah people, their behavior making people deeply uncomfortable. They usually fiddled with eerie skulls and animal limbs, and sometimes kept crows and black cats—but those were actually demons they raised.

Agents of the devil, spellcasters serving the night—that was what they called themselves.

Most of the time, the mercenary leader would rather return to the battlefield than deal with those people.

And the mysterious woman before him, her body hidden beneath a robe, exuding a hair-raising aura from every inch, was clearly one of their kind.

The mercenary leader considered surrendering on the spot, just to get out of this place of trouble as quickly as possible.

Then he saw the gleaming gold coin in Li Wen's hand.

On that gold coin was a pattern of Twin Moons—a symbol he had glimpsed from afar on those foreigners.

What kind of mess was this?

He glanced again at his comrade lying on the ground, life unknown, and once more doubted whether cooperating with these people was like courting a tiger for its skin. But what did it have to do with him? He wasn't the one making the decisions.

"This is a misunderstanding..." His Adam's apple bobbed as he said hoarsely.

"A misunderstanding?" Li Wen let out a scornful laugh. "Then let's call it a misunderstanding."

She wasn't the type to dwell on details. After all, she was here because of the priest Mog's commission. While completing the task to gain experience, she was also keeping an eye on him—and on what Dark Dawn and the Moon Worshippers behind him were plotting.

"They... didn't tell us who would be coming to make contact."

This was just passing the buck. After all, it was the Black Wind Fang mercenaries who had made the first move.

"Then what did they say?" Li Wen countered.

This so-called "they" must be the Moon Worshippers. It seemed the Black Wind Fang people hadn't dealt with Mog before. That meant the Moon Worshippers and Dark Dawn communicated directly—that letter was probably delivered by the Moon Worshippers themselves.

But if they could communicate directly, why would they bring in Black Wind Fang?

"We lost a batch of goods, near Streamstone Rift." The mercenary leader's face was grim. "Those people told us to wait here, that someone would come to help retrieve the goods."

Streamstone Rift?

Li Wen's mind sharpened. That place was exactly her intended destination. There was something there that was crucial to her—one could even say that all her efforts since her rebirth were aimed at obtaining that thing.

This was too much of a coincidence. But it was fine; it saved her an extra trip.

"Is that all?"

Li Wen's tone rose slightly, as if she were about to lose her temper.

The mercenary leader was indeed startled, and stammered, "There's more, there's more. They also said the one who made the move was a mage from the Secret College..."

This was something he shouldn't have said—he had overheard it from those foreigners. But the problem now was that if he didn't speak up, he feared he would be the next one lying on the ground.

Secret College? Sunday Secret College?

Li Wen's expression turned serious. If that were truly the case, she would have to consider abandoning this mission.

As Arthur's largest Magic Society, Sunday Secret College was renowned for producing mages of Origin Essence and the Aether Spectrum. Any mage who could graduate from the Secret College was undoubtedly among the talented.

Mages from other societies and mages from the Secret College—these were two completely different concepts.

Frankly speaking, even Li Wen, at the same level, wouldn't want to provoke a Secret College mage. It wasn't that she couldn't beat them, but that any mage who could enter the Secret College for advanced study was either wealthy or noble, stuffed to the brim with magical tools and equipment. They could crush Li Wen just by throwing money at her.

"I understand. You may leave." Li Wen said coldly. "I'm not some bloodthirsty killer. Your comrade should still have some breath left. As for how to deal with him, that's your business."

Of course, these were all lies. Li Wen's Prayer Incantation was only level one. The power of the Dark Word Curse was just enough to scare ordinary people, at most reducing a mortal's life to below 30%—just enough to be severely injured and incapacitated.

If she could kill, Li Wen wouldn't mind getting a little blood on her hands. These mercenaries were basically scum who stopped at nothing. Rather than letting them live to trouble others, they might as well become her experience points.

The mercenaries exchanged glances. In the end, they lifted their fallen comrade and fled the tavern in a flash, moving so fast that even the onlookers at the door didn't have time to react.

Li Wen didn't think that guy would receive proper treatment. These mercenaries were capable of anything. Even so-called comrades, once they lost their value, were only fit to be abandoned, their possessions devoured clean.

"Secret College..."

Li Wen frowned slightly.

She understood now why the Moon Worshippers hadn't taken the so-called goods back by force themselves, and why Priest Mog had handed the matter over to her.

So they all just didn't want to deal with the Arcane Academy mages.

She had to check the Streamstone Rift regardless. As for whether that mage was friend or foe—that would depend on the other party's luck.

If a conflict really broke out, then as a player with the advantage of infinite respawns, Li Wen could certainly kill them.

Of course, this assumption only held if the other party was still in Stage One.