“Uncle Toby, can you help me look into the disappearance of one of my followers? I’m worried this might be aimed at me. You know I usually stay in seclusion and rarely go out, so for something like this to happen suddenly makes me anxious,” Lynn said.
Toby shook his head. “I knew you were up to something.”
Toby rang a small bell on his desk, and soon a pink-haired demon entered the room.
Lynn glanced at the newcomer and immediately recognized the familiar face of Fura.
Fura maintained her usual stern expression. Only when her service was over and she needed a rating would she offer a radiant smile to her customers. Lynn was long accustomed to her demeanor.
Fura led Lynn to a building behind the service hall.
Lynn had never been here before, but Fura seemed very familiar with the place. She took him straight to the second floor.
The entire building was empty, except for a central district where four sun-corona-like compasses were placed. In the center of each purple compass was a small round mirror. Lynn found the corona-like appearance of the compasses somewhat familiar…
Suddenly, he remembered. This was exactly what he had seen floating outside the window of the airship he had once traveled on, but those were giant versions, while these were miniature replicas.
After Fura inquired about the time and place of the incident, she activated one of the mirrors. The mirror displayed dynamic scenes from a bird’s-eye view. Fura tapped a few runes beside the mirror, and the figures in the scene began to rewind.The scene finally paused at the image of a hunched goblin moving in the shadow of a building.
“Is this the one?” Fura asked.
“It is,” Lynn replied, touching the smooth surface of the mirror. He hadn’t expected that the mirror could record all the events happening within Demon City.
Fura operated the mirror again, zooming in and even rotating the image.
This was simply like an enormous, all-seeing surveillance camera.
This meant that nothing happening in Demon City could escape surveillance and recording. Lynn glanced at the other three inactive mirrors, guessing they might monitor the surrounding wilderness…
This was the depth of the Abyss’ demon academies’ resources.
Such magical alchemical devices, even placed right in front of him, were beyond Lynn’s understanding.
In the scene displayed within the mirror, a masked wizard apprentice was shown attacking the goblin. He used a prepared magical scroll and had a spell ready to cast.
“We’ve found him,” Fura announced, then continued to track the wizard apprentice. The pursuit led them to an inconspicuous house in the outskirts of Demon City. She quickly fast-forwarded to the present, confirming that no one had left the house, indicating that the wizard apprentice was still inside.
Fura operated the corona device a few more times, and some text appeared on the mirror’s surface, providing information about the wizard apprentice.
He was not a registered resident of Demon City and had arrived there 367 days ago. His identity was not recorded in the wizard network, leaving three possibilities:
One; the wizard had never used the wizard network, making him an extremely low-profile individual.
Two; the wizard’s clearance level in the wizard network was higher than that of the creator of the Demon Eye.
Three; he was too weak, merely an apprentice unqualified to use the wizard network.
Fura quickly dismissed the second possibility. If he was a wizard of such high caliber, he wouldn’t go to such lengths to kill Lynn’s goblin follower—it would be too absurd. 𝘳₳𐌽ôBЕꞨ
The first possibility was also unlikely, as very few wizards had never used the wizard network. The wizard network offered many convenient features, accessible primarily to official wizards within the main wizarding world. Just like in a modern city, finding people who had never used any internet device was rare. Even if there were, they were definitely rare.
As for apprentices, they did have access to the wizard network, but those eligible were typically affiliated with major factions. Once their information was recorded at their academy, it was backed up in the wizard network. In specific circumstances, like when traveling to other planes, the wizard network would automatically activate.
Lynn learned of this function from Fura. “It actually has that capability,” he remarked, quite surprised.
“The Demon Eye connects to the wizard network, granting it a portion of its creator’s privileges within the network. It can query and record data,” Fura explained.
“I don’t know the specifics. I only know this much,” she added quickly, noticing Lynn’s confusion.
Lynn gazed thoughtfully at the Demon Eye. Could his finished product connect to the wizard network? Reflecting on how his followers’ transformation rituals required spells from the wizard network, he began to understand its significance.
In Lynn’s mind, he envisioned the wizard network as a colossal super-server from which wizards could draw “computational power”. Access to this power required permissions—the higher the clearance, the more power one could utilize.
Pointing at the mirror, Lynn asked, “Do many people know about its existence?”
“I don’t know,” Fura replied, shaking her head.
Turning his gaze to the window, Lynn contemplated the four colossal coronas suspended in the sky, obscured by clouds and too distant to see clearly. He surmised that wizard apprentices likely wouldn’t be aware of their presence. Even Lynn himself only knew of them due to his connection with Toby.
He thanked Fura, who eagerly produced a rating form from her pocket. Lynn took the form and, with practiced ease, gave her a perfect score.
Back at his residence, Lynn summoned Lauren and handed him the address of the wizard apprentice they had identified. Given Lauren’s resistance to spells, dealing with a wizard apprentice should pose no problem for him, as long as no official wizards or wizard towers were involved.
Lauren donned a cloak and left the house.
In the outskirts of Demon City, a house was rigged with various magical traps. Two wizard apprentices waited in a second-floor room, keeping vigil.
“Why isn’t he here yet?” one asked.
“He should be here soon,” the other replied.
“Do you think he might have guessed it was a trap?”
“Even if he suspects something, what difference does it make? If he doesn’t show up, we’ll just attack more of his followers. It’s a lucrative venture,” one of the apprentices wrote on a piece of paper.
“The reward for this task is substantial. How will we split it?” the other replied in writing.
“The spot for becoming an official wizard student goes to me, and I’ll give you an additional 2,000 magic stones.”
“2,000 isn’t enough. Make it 3,000.”
As they communicated silently, footsteps echoed from outside the door. They exchanged a glance, instinctively putting away their notebook and readying their spells.
Bang!
A towering figure burst through the door.
Immediately, the frost trap at the entrance was triggered, exploding in a shower of icy shards that struck the intruder with a chorus of metallic clinks. On the staircase, a swift light blade and a deathly bone arrow shot out simultaneously, hitting the figure with pinpoint accuracy. Yet, the intruder did not falter. Moving as if unopposed, the figure leaped onto the second floor.
Another trap was triggered mid-leap, sending fiery explosions across the intruder’s scales. A massive hand emerged through the flames, grabbing one apprentice’s head and crushing it like a watermelon.
“Weak.”
With a sharp, whiplike crack, the intruder’s thick tail swung out, sending the other apprentice flying into a wall.
“Too weak.”
Lauren, half-squatting on the ground, straightened up. The tail that had been swaying behind him coiled around his waist. His arms crossed over his chest, the emerald-green scales on his body catching the flickering firelight from the room and shimmering with a dazzling brilliance.
Lauren lifted his head, and his golden, slit-pupiled eyes gleamed with delight and fervor. This was the power his master had bestowed upon him!
——
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