Source of Calamity

The sky gradually darkened.

Soren stood up and listened to the sounds outside. He could vaguely hear men screaming in agony. These Amazon women controlled more than half of the prostitutes in Port Tyler. Don't be fooled by their appearance; they were women too, but when it came to the Gray Zone, they were no less ruthless than men. They also secretly controlled certain taboo areas, such as those involving fair-skinned, handsome men, or Toughness, muscular men. These gray channels even extended to other cities near the South Coast.

Many aristocratic women, whether old and faded or lonely and empty, would certainly have a need for certain interesting activities. In the South Coast region, there were even aristocratic widows who directly kept male Slave. They selected men in the Slave Black Market as if choosing livestock, including their genitals. These Slave were tamed through Cruelty methods, possibly involving psychological manipulation, and the Slave they ultimately produced were very docile.

This custom is somewhat reminiscent of ancient Ancient Rome, which is why the nobles of the South Coast don't have a very good reputation.

The torture continued.

Soren's hearing was much better than before, so he could occasionally hear faint wails coming from the Basement. It seemed the Amazon Women had gotten into some kind of fight with the locals, and recently quite a few people had been captured and tortured. The bodies were being disposed of through special channels, so the inn appeared outwardly peaceful. Soren was a little worried about getting involved in their conflict with the local gangs, so he was considering whether to move to the Temple of the Sea.

It was undoubtedly very easy for the Naga Priestess to settle him and Vivian; the secular power of the Temple of the Sea was immense.

The scream paused for a moment.

Soren vaguely heard a woman cursing, seemingly because the target had died from excessive torture. Then he heard the sound of the Basement door opening. Immediately afterwards, three footsteps sounded, one of which was a woman's heavy footsteps, probably because she was wearing heavy armor. Amazon Warrior were standard Heavy Infantry; these women dared to clash head-on with heavy cavalry on the front lines. Soren still had a fairly deep impression of them.

He had no interest in other matters. As he closed the window, he glanced at the suspicious people watching him nearby and then began to study his Spell.

A row of documents appeared:

"Wizard class upgraded to level 7."

"Gain 25 Skill Point (Intelligence 20 + (Intelligence 20 - 10) * 0.5), and increase Hit Points by 10 points (Class Hit Points 4 + (Constitution 21 - 10) * 0.5)."

Soren undoubtedly invested his Skill Point into knowledge. His highest basic skill is currently knowledge, which has reached 185 points, most of which came from Skill Point and a small portion from reading. Soren already has a considerable understanding of human society's writing, customs, geography, and religion. Although he has not reached the level of Loremaster, he would undoubtedly be able to easily become a tutor in a noble family.

Currently, secular knowledge can only raise one's knowledge level to around 250 points. To go further, one needs knowledge of mysticism, Spell, the supernatural, and Plane to increase it.

To reach a Knowledge level of 350 or higher, one must possess a considerable amount of knowledge about Plane!

In other words, Cross-planar Travel is required.

Therefore, many Wizard enjoy traveling to other Plane, the most famous of whom are the Astral Traveler. They are the most learned masters, and their footprints have covered many Plane.

This is not a profession; [Astral Traveler] is a special background Feat.

It's somewhat like a title.

Soren calmed his mind, then took out a thick stack of white paper and began to analyze the Spell Formula of ' Greater Invisibility '. He had already obtained this Spell through the Temple of the Sea. His opponent assumed he needed to use Spell Scroll in battle, probably not realizing Soren was using them to memorize. Soren didn't actually trust the Naga Priestess completely, so he had secretly kept quite a few trump cards up his sleeve; his opponent still didn't know he possessed a considerable Wizard Level.

The Naga Priestess even thought he was Quasi-Legendary Assassin, because Soren liked to fight with poison.

This is the Assassin's favorite fighting style.

Part-time jobs are the easiest to fake; there have been Wizard who disguised themselves as Warrior, or Warrior who disguised themselves as Wizard. (For example, Gandalf, a classic Berserker who also worked as a grey Wizard.)

There was a non-native character in Soren's memory.

That guy was always mistaken for Wizard, but when he drew his sword, everyone realized that he was actually Swordmaster.

He's a very powerful and dangerous guy.

With the Swordmaster's explosive power combined with the Wizard's Stoneskin defense, and the enhancement of various Spell, his combat strength in some aspects is even more terrifying than Soren's current Change Shape!

It's a pity he died so young.

This guy fought against more than ten enemies of the same level, but was eventually killed by someone using Dimensional Anchor to seal off space.

He fought twelve opponents single-handedly and killed more than half of them.

It was a glorious achievement, one that Soren himself doubted he could accomplish even now. Those who could advance to the level of Swordmaster were all incredibly powerful individuals, but unfortunately, they all died too young. Soren seemed to recall very few Swordmaster lived for a long time. Even the Legendary Swordmaster who was revered by many during the War of Golems was ultimately beaten to death by a group of enemies.

Perhaps the Legendary Wizard could not tolerate beings capable of piercing their advanced protective fields with a single sword strike.

If Soren's enemies include the Swordmaster, he'll probably eliminate them first.

The existence of the Swordmaster is a threat!

The sheets of white paper were covered with dense symbols as Soren buried himself in analyzing the Spell Formula. Fourth-circle Spell were more difficult than any Spell he had ever learned before. If he hadn't learned Invisibility at the beginning, he probably wouldn't even have a clue now. Greater Invisibility was a complex, multi-layered Spell Formula. Its biggest difference from Invisibility was that Invisibility would reveal the user after an attack, meaning the Spell's effect would disappear.

However, Greater Invisibility remain effective after an attack, and the user remains invisible.

This inherent difficulty makes it extremely challenging to learn, far more difficult than other fourth-circle Spell of the same rank. Soren could only slowly break it down, analyzing each individual Spell Formula. After analyzing the initial Spell Formula, Soren's progress gradually accelerated, because the model of Greater Invisibility was developed from Invisibility. However, while Invisibility is a single- Spell Formula, Greater Invisibility is a composite type, meaning that the effect of Invisibility is automatically activated after an attack.

This is a very high-level Spell Circuit system.

This is where the dividing line for high-difficulty Spell lies. Starting with fourth-circle Spell, the difficulty increases exponentially, eventually extending to areas such as astrology, Plane, and space.

The night passed quickly.

Soren rubbed his forehead and stood up; it was almost dawn outside.

He picked up a thick stack of white paper, flipped through it, and then destroyed some of it. He had only completed about 10% of the Spell Formula analysis in one night. Although it would definitely speed up as his research progressed, he didn't have much time left. Soren glanced at Vivian beside him, gently stroked her cheek, and then got up and walked downstairs.

There was a faint smell of blood in the air.

Soren noticed a new wound on the arm of the Amazon female Guard at the door, which wasn't there the night before.

A battle took place.

Because he was focused on studying the Spell Formula, Soren reduced his awareness of the surroundings; it seemed these women had fought with some force the night before.

The sex industry is always a major source of profit in the Gray Zone.

It's normal for Amazon Women to encounter trouble from time to time, given how big a piece of the pie they've taken.

Soren grabbed some food and returned to his room; he had no interest in meddling in other people's business. Soren ate a little, then carefully fed Vivian some water before resuming his study of the Spell Formula. The little girl barely needed to eat. Soren had initially tried feeding her, but she seemed to need nothing except the occasional water; her cheeks remained rosy, showing no sign of hunger.

In this respect, Vivian seems to be even stronger than him now!

Being able to sustain itself entirely on energy consumption is already a hallmark of the Legendary Domain.

Time passed little by little.

While Soren was busy researching Greater Invisibility, the Naga Priestess would occasionally deliver messages to him, and he also went out a few times during this period. It seemed that the Amazon Women were at war with a local power, and there were sounds of Slaughter and fighting in the streets at night. Soren's act of destroying the Rosard Chamber of Commerce seemed to have triggered a new round of reshuffling in the Port Tyler.

The Amazon Women had a larger territory; they slaughtered many people and gained a bigger share of the spoils.

It seems that some people foresaw the Rosard Chamber of Commerce's decline, so many forces are eager to seize their Trade share in various fields. Even forces that belong to the Storm Church show no mercy or sympathy at this time, because they may not have respected those who have abandoned their faith in the first place, and such betrayal for greater interests will only breed resentment.

Although Soren killed many people that night.

However, because of his Slaughter, Port Tyler suffered more than ten times the casualties of that night in the following week.

Even small-scale naval battles occurred in the coastal areas.

Chaos ensued.

The Guard Force finally couldn't stand it any longer and began to intervene in the power struggles between the various factions, forcing them to maintain a semblance of Order. As a result, the Slaughter began to spread at night.

The exact number of deaths had little to do with Soren.

He was delighted to have learned ' Greater Invisibility ' within a week, and the next day he received news that the Rosard Chamber of Commerce's fleet was beginning its return voyage.

It's time for the Ghost Ship to set sail!

Soren will intercept them on their return journey and then send them all to their deaths at sea!

...(To be continued~^~)