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I know many mages who hide their identities and live next to dragons, then secretly rummage through trash cans at night to see if they can find a couple of dragon claws. I killed a dark mage once when he was engrossed in rummaging through trash cans.

"Now, what do we do?"

Someone asked me a question, and while I was still planning what to do after getting the materials from Xuefeng, I suddenly looked up and found that everyone was looking at me.

Why are you looking at me like that? I used to be a nobody mage who could skip work without anyone noticing. You guys are putting a lot of pressure on me!

"Ahem..." I could tell Reynold was extremely embarrassed when he spoke to me, even forcing himself to say it, "Because, among us, you're the only one with the most experience in tracking and finding people."

"... The internet says that 'Flame of Fury' has killed about two hundred dark mages in a year, almost to the point of extinction. You are now the great demon king feared by the villains of the Diana Continent!" Moli muttered softly.

... Where did this rumor come from? There can't possibly be more than two hundred dark mages! At most, there are forty or fifty... To be honest, I haven't counted them, but a year is an exaggeration. I've been killing them for three years!

"Teacher Field..." Anna said with admiration, "Even the most skilled assassin in our Dark Elf dungeons has never killed forty or fifty mages in his entire life. This isn't the legendary age anymore; this is a society governed by law!"

Even Goliath chimed in, "I was on vacation and I actually encountered the legendary 'Flame of Fury'? What an honor! Forty or fifty of them! May the God of Light illuminate your path! Your achievements surpass even the most dangerous criminal in Holy Light City Prison! That year, our Temple Knights were supposed to go on a campaign against the Annihilation Cult, but you single-handedly took them all down. The higher-ups donated the collected funds to build a school, and the remainder was given to us as welfare. You are truly a blessing from the God of Light! In all my years as a paladin, I've only ever received welfare that one time. The Temple has always been so poor and stingy!"

Xuefeng scoffed, poking his knight's lower back. "That's nothing! One sip of my ice can freeze four or five hundred to death!"

"... Are you talking about four or five hundred water beetles?" Goliath replied unmoved.

They made me very embarrassed, and I could only suppress my blush and reply, "I'll try my best. Previously, the targets I tracked were all dark mages who used evil magic, especially after they used soul spells or Necromancy Spells. Their magical pressure and soul fluctuations were vastly different from ordinary people, making them easy to track. But now we're not tracking dark mages; we're tracking some mechanical fanatics, which isn't really my area of expertise."

I don't have any special techniques for tracking. If Reynold hadn't run out, it would have been simpler because I recognize his mental energy and could cast spells specifically to track his location. But now, I'm like searching for a needle in a haystack, looking for a group of enemies whose appearance I have no idea what they look like.

After thinking for a moment, I placed my hand on the ground to assist with the gesture and recited a rather awkward incantation.

I learned this spell by chance in the bunker. I'd only used it once before, in that battle, and it became the final straw that killed my teacher. Even after all these years, this long, complex, and tongue-tied spell can still be fluently and clearly transformed from my memory into a spell. Looks like I really am suited to be a dark mage... sigh...

"Ten Thousand Trees Return to Spring?" As a paladin of the Light faction, Goliath recognized the spell immediately and took a few steps back to keep away from me, to prevent himself from being instinctively resisted by the strong undead attribute.

The power of the undead and the light attribute are mutually restraining, so Goliath should be very familiar with my spells—after all, their Temple's main enemies include evil black mages, and the most notorious of the black mages are the undead mages. The undead mages who have been trampled to death by the Temple Knights throughout history could fill a roster, since the vast majority of undead mages are far more likely to do bad things than ordinary mages.

"This was a forbidden necromancy even in the legendary age!" Goliath was surprisingly happy. He was watching me cast the spell, and anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was an excited magic apprentice.

"Even the Shadow Moon Temple in this era can hardly produce such advanced Necromancy Spells," he said. "I'm glad that Necromancy Spells still has successors."

The paladin calls this spell "Ten Thousand Trees Return to Spring," a rather misleading and friendly name, but it is indeed a very dangerous Necromancy Spells —summoning the dead back within a certain area. We necromancers generally call it Return to Spring Spell or Spirit Summoning Spell, and some, being lazy, might call it "Calling Ghosts," which is understandable (the ancient manuscript I received, in which the mage who wrote the notes, casually described this spell as: summoning two ghosts to run errands). I can use this spell to summon the remnant souls of those who died on this land and left behind strong emotions, to be at my command and fight for me for a certain period. The reason Necromancy Spells are so terrifying is that this world has existed for tens of thousands of years, and the number of dead beings far exceeds the number of living beings.

Soon, the purplish-black magic circle detached from my fingers and sank into the ground. The sky seemed to darken slightly, and tiny specks of blue light floated up from beneath our feet and then scattered in all directions.

"... That's it?" Reynold asked blankly.

"Is there anything else you'd like?" I straightened up, took out a bottle of Magic Power- replenishing potion, and drank it like a beverage.

Hmm... this flavor experiment failed again; it's a bit too sour.

"..." Reynold's expression flashed with embarrassment as he said, "Uh, I thought there would be something like the earth boiling, the ground cracking open, and the living dead crawling out of the soil..."

Mel frowned and corrected, "Those aren't called the living dead, they're called undead creatures! The living dead are something only post-apocalyptic movies like to feature. They're contagious if they bite you. Even if I don't watch movies, I still know that. How can you not even know that?"

... It's such a waste of talent that Reynold doesn't write novels or make movies.

I chuckled. "That's exactly right. We'll need to wait a bit while the undead relay the information they've gathered to me. The incantation for summoning undead is similar, but I've only summoned spirits for now."

Goliath seemed even more excited. He happily reached out to grab my arm, but his dragon pulled his hand back halfway. So Goliath could only express his feelings with his eyes. He asked me joyfully, "So, you can also do 'Withered Trees Return to Spring'?"

"Yes, but the range isn't as large as when only summoning undead."

"Incredible!" Goliath exclaimed. "I think you should consider joining the Shadow Moon Temple; perhaps you'll become the High Priest of the Moon in just a few years."

Why?

Join the temple?

I was stunned for a moment, but before I could even think of anything, Mel immediately grabbed my hand, dragged me away from Goliath, and said sternly, "The Shadow Moon Temple is nice, but clergy cannot enter into secular marriages. Xipei and I still need to get our marriage certificate!"

Goliath chuckled softly and shrugged.

"Xipei," Mel looked at me nervously and asked, "Let's go back and get our marriage certificate, okay?"

Ha ha...

This is Mel...

He's so cute! He's frowning, looking very serious, as if he's correcting a magic circle, rather than worrying that I won't marry him if I go to the temple... Speaking of which, Mel, you're worrying too much. Goliath was just saying it casually. He's the leader of the Temple, not the leader of Shadow Moon. Besides, I didn't agree to it.

But my silence seemed to be interpreted by Mel as... tacit agreement?

Haha, Mel is so funny! Since the spirits haven't returned yet, we might as well take this opportunity to tease Mel!

So I put on a stern face and pretended to be thinking seriously. Mel immediately grabbed my hands, looking panicked. "Xipei, don't you even want to give me a title! Do you want us to just live together from now on?"