Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2562: Chapter 2563: The Real Clue

Dox squinted and said in an amused tone, "That’s quite interesting."

Kaier looked at Dox puzzledly, "What do you mean?"

Dox twitched at the corner of his mouth. How was he supposed to know what it meant? The reason he said that was just because the answer given by the Black Earl seemed to be hiding some clues within its contradictions. At this moment, he decided to say something to set the mood, so he spoke.

But the result was that he encountered the earnest Kaier.

Dox gave Kaier a meaningful smile, saying nothing, appearing as if he understood something inexpressible.

At this time, Angel said, "The lord only asked whether this Ghosteye Witch came from the Underground Labyrinth?"

Black Earl: "That’s right."

Angel: "A Ghosteye Witch cannot be born out of thin air; there must be kinship involved. So would it be possible that this Ghosteye Witch was born outside, making the answer no? However, its kin, like its progenitors, might be from underground. Therefore, by tracing it, we might find other Ghosteye Witches, leading us to the entrance of the Underground Labyrinth."

Before the Black Earl could speak, Dox stroked his chin and nodded, "What you say makes a lot of sense."

Angel ignored Dox and continued to look at the stone slab, waiting for the Black Earl’s response.

The Black Earl pondered for a few seconds before saying, "That is possible, but what is related to it may not just be kinship; it could also be other things, or even other people."

As soon as the Black Earl finished speaking, everyone seemed to think of something at the same time and turned their heads toward a specific corner of the ruins.

A short-haired woman in a leather jacket was sitting on the ground, trying hard to escape this area shrouded in a terrifying atmosphere.

Transcendents are too frightening, even more terrifying than that monster. With a wave of the hand, numerous arrows pierced the monster’s eyes. Such a terrifying scene, when had she ever seen anything like it? Remembering how she had tried to shift the blame earlier, she only felt two legs go limp and trembling, able only to retreat by supporting herself with her hands.

But she hadn’t retreated far when the eyes of the team with the Transcendents turned toward her.

The short-haired woman was immediately too frightened to move.

"Vay, I told you not to wear that black cloak all day like a ghost. Look, you’ve scared someone so much their lips have turned white." Dox tutted and said.

Vay couldn’t speak, but he managed to use magic power to make words appear on the ground: She was clearly scared by you. Who carries around a sword that long?

Dox lazily said, "But she was looking at you."

While the two spoke, Angel had already walked over to the short-haired woman.

Although Angel’s image at that moment wasn’t as radiant as his True Body, he appeared better in the woman’s eyes than Vay did. After all, Angel had been standing at the back the whole time, and he seemed to be just an ordinary person like her.

Angel: "Are you alright? Can you stand up?"

Perhaps it was Angel’s gentle tone, or maybe it was that peaceful aura, but it alleviated the short-haired woman’s tension. Her legs finally stopped trembling enough for her to grab onto the crumbling wall and shakily stand up.

"Hello, can we talk?"

Angel spoke while using the Power of Nightmare Illusion to continually soothe her fluctuating emotions, helping her regain peace.

Recovering her rationality and calmness, the short-haired woman still didn’t speak, remaining cautious as she looked at Angel and the others.

"Won’t a life-saving grace even make you speak? I don’t like using coercive methods, but if you still refuse, that’s what I’ll have to do."

Angel spoke as he slightly raised his hand, a searing flame hovering in his palm.

Seeing that flame, the short-haired woman immediately realized, this must be another Transcendent!

The flame flickered non-stop, and within the flame was an illusion—a woman being burned by the fire... No, that woman was her!

Perhaps the calming effect of the Power of Nightmare Illusion helped her; although shocked and threatened, she maintained her composure, understanding what she needed to do.

To confront a team with at least two Transcendents was undoubtedly courting death.

"I, I am Mia, from the White Crocodile Adventure Group... but now it’s just me alone..."

The short-haired woman, Mia, began to speak to herself.

Angel did not interrupt her, but listened quietly.

There were now two hypotheses: one being that the Ghosteye Witch’s kin would be the breakthrough, and the second being that people or events related to the Ghosteye Witch were the key. At least in their knowledge, Mia was currently the most relevant to the Ghosteye Witch. Even if they were hunter and prey, this still fell within the scope of the prophecy.

Because Mia might be the key, Angel didn’t overly influence Mia with Extraordinary Power. After all, prophecies are the threads of fate, constantly subject to change, especially under the interference of Extraordinary Power where changes are most likely.

As for Mia’s rambling, even in that there could be key clues, so Angel listened intently.

But so far, Angel hadn’t heard anything useful.

Angel had the patience to listen, but Dox didn’t have the patience for such trivial matters. He stepped forward directly and said to Mia, "Don’t go on about irrelevant things. Tell us everything about how you encountered that Ghosteye Witch, including where it happened."

Angel wouldn’t interrupt himself, but he wouldn’t stop Dox from doing so. Maybe Dox’s spiritual sense was at work.

Angel obviously intended to interpret all of Dox’s actions as spiritually inspired insights.

Mia was a bit afraid of Dox, but the Power of Nightmare Illusion controlled by Angel maintained her emotions within a reasonable degree of calmness.

"We encountered that Ghosteye Witch in the bottom left third area of the ruins."

"At that time, the Ghosteye Witch had its back to us. Our leader had poor eyesight, and mistook it for a person in purple clothing, and called out to it from a distance. As a result, the Ghosteye Witch noticed us."

Dox murmured, "...This eyesight is terrible, isn’t it? It’s not even the middle of the night, can’t you see the scales reflecting light?"

Mia continued to recount the ensuing events. Basically, they faced total defeat. Their squad originally had three people; two were killed, and only Mia escaped.

As for why Mia, a woman, could escape, Mia dared not lie. She frankly said she betrayed her teammates.

"I just wanted...to stay alive."

Dox raised an eyebrow, "Wanting to stay alive is nothing to feel ashamed of... continue."

Mia was silent for a moment: "There’s nothing more, then I encountered the lord."

Mia’s silence clearly meant she had more to say. But no one asked further; they could guess her little scheme. She remained silent because she dared not admit that her reason for coming here was to redirect the trouble.

Just like when she sold out her teammates, it would be best to "sell" them to the Ghosteye Witch too, to buy some time for her own escape.

The unspoken that everyone knew, they couldn’t be bothered to ask.

Dox: "Is that all, are there any other details? Especially when encountering the Ghosteye Witch and being chased by it, did it have any peculiarities? Or were there other companions around it?"

Mia thought for a moment but couldn’t remember any oddities and was about to shake her head.

At this moment, Dox muttered again: "Is your adventure group stupid, or is it the captain, with no sense of crisis at all, still going to greet an unknown entity?"

Listening to Dox’s words, Mia was struck with a thought and said, "I remembered something, not sure if it has anything to do with the Ghosteye Witch."

"Then go ahead and say it." The speaker was Angel.

After speaking, Angel cast a meaningful glance at Dox. He had read many detective mystery novels, where the key clue provider always said a bunch of useless things and then, suddenly enlightened, offered what they thought was an unimportant add-on. Generally speaking, these supplements turned out to be crucial clues.

Now, the person who enlightened Mia was undoubtedly Dox.

Sure enough, someone with inspiration is just different.

Angel admired for a moment and continued listening to Mia’s account.

"This matter might have to be traced back to the beginning of the White Crocodile Adventure Group. Initially, the earliest members were six, then it slowly grew, even reaching twelve people. But, during the prime of our adventure group, we encountered a group of despicable guys."

"They called themselves the Hero Squad, but they didn’t do anything heroic. The third district at the lower left of the ruins had already been taken by our adventure group, yet they forcibly intervened under the banner of justice, seizing a lot of treasures."

"They even brought members from other adventure groups to our third district to search for treasures."

"How could the leader endure this humiliation, so we clashed with the Hero Squad... Their strength was stronger than we imagined, and even the leader perished in that battle. With the leader’s death, the members also left one by one, eventually leaving just the three of us."

At this point, Mia’s face was full of sorrow.

But Angel listened with a face full of speechlessness, "Taking over" something like this was wrong from the beginning. Besides, the initial Hero Squad only came to find treasures, not to conflict with you. Instead, your leader couldn’t stand the humiliation—which is hardly a humiliation—and took the initiative to pick a fight, only to lose.

Who can be blamed for this?

Of course, Angel looks at it from his standard, perhaps "taking over" is a rule here, and maybe Mia’s team stood on the moral high ground.

However, a long-abandoned ruin, not even transcendent people thought of claiming it, yet these ordinary people allocated regions for themselves. They were indeed bold and unafraid that Bilun Tree Court might come one day to clear them out.

"Since the leader died, with members leaving, we often encountered provocations from the Hero Squad and numerous traps, all man-made, definitely by the Hero Squad. This time, running into the Ghosteye Witch might also have been aided by them secretly, wanting to put us to death."

Mia reached the end of her story. But all Angel heard was Mia’s various speculations and casually blaming others; as for valuable clues, he did not hear any.

Could it be that the patterns of detective mystery novels don’t apply this time?

Or perhaps, the clue is actually the Hero Squad?

While Angel was pondering this, Dox asked, puzzled: "Since you claimed the so-called third district, how could you let other squads break in?"

Dox, as a wandering wizard, often encountered situations where treasures were claimed by witch organizations, the Wizards’ Alliance, or wizard families.

In Dox’s eyes, taking over implies being airtight, not even allowing a mosquito in. Because any variable could disrupt the balance.

However, Mia’s concept of taking over was far from what he envisioned.

Mia: "Because that Hero Squad is like a group of groundhogs. Our scout reported their tracks immediately upon discovery, but by the time we went looking for them, they had clearly never left the third district, yet they were nowhere to be found. Later, we accidentally found out that they actually hid underground, and even when they infiltrated initially, they tunneled in from underground, making it impossible to guard against."

As Mia spoke, everyone’s eyes suddenly brightened.

This was definitely it!

Underground, with channels connecting all places back to the surface, this must be a complete entrance!

In the Black Earl’s prophecy, Mia indeed played a key role in breaking the situation!

As they rejoiced at finding a clue, Angel silently looked at Dox: Indeed, Dox’s spiritual intuition came into play again.

From the start, the one who suggested checking what was happening was Dox.

The one who interrupted Mia’s rambling and pointed her to the key was Dox.

The one who encouraged her to provide supplementary information was also Dox.

Most importantly, the one who highlighted the inadequacy of the "takeover" that led Mia to reveal the ultimate answer was still Dox!

If this isn’t spiritual intuition, what is?

Angel suddenly felt very fortunate to bring Dox along on this exploration of the ruins. This guy’s premonition was so strong that he might not even realize it himself, thinking it’s just unconscious questioning.

But he always hit on the critical points.

At least, if it were Angel, he definitely wouldn’t ask about such a detailed matter like "taking over."

With a clue in hand, the next steps were simple and clear: the target was to find the Hero Squad and locate the true entrance to the Underground Labyrinth.

As for how to search? The answer was simple: wasn’t Mia here?

Mia would lead to where the Hero Squad was active, and Angel and Dox could release the Scout Puppet or Wizard’s Eye, overlooking from above to seek traces of people.

Once they identified people as part of the Hero Squad, the rest would be easy.

After informing Mia of the search for the Hero Squad, Mia initially thought that her "emotional performance" touched this group of transcendents, who decided to find the Hero Squad to avenge the White Crocodile Adventure Group.

With this beautiful vision in mind, Mia naturally did not refuse, suppressing her excitement and enthusiasm, and set off again toward the third district.