Chapter 9: The Source of Chaos
2015-01-16
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
The sky gradually darkened.
Soren stood up and listened to the noises outside, faintly hearing the screams of men. This group of Amazon women had taken control of more than half of the brothels in Taro Port. Although they appeared to be women, when they ventured into the gray areas, they were no less ruthless than any man. Furthermore, they were secretly manipulating certain taboo domains, such as handsome male figures and strong male physiques, with these gray channels potentially reaching other cities near the Southern Coast.
Many noblewomen, either aging or lonely, undoubtedly found themselves in need of some interesting activities, with even some noble widows in the Southern Coast directly keeping male slaves. They selected men as if they were choosing livestock in the slave market, including their intimate parts in the selection process. These slaves were brutalized and conditioned, often involving psychological manipulation, resulting in extremely submissive slaves.
This custom resembles that of ancient Rome, thus, the reputation of the nobles in the Southern Coast was not very good.
The severe torture downstairs continued.
Soren’s hearing had significantly improved, so he occasionally heard faint wails from the basement. It seemed that the Amazon women had some conflict with the locals, and many people had been captured and subjected to severe torture recently. The bodies were processed through special channels, so the inn appeared calm on the surface. Soren worried about getting caught up in their conflict with the local gang, considering whether to move to the Ocean Temple.
It was undoubtedly easy for the Naga Priestess to arrange for him and Vivian, as the secular power of the Ocean Temple was quite strong.
The screams paused for a moment.
Soren vaguely heard a woman cursing, seemingly because the punishment had killed the target. Then he heard the sound of the basement door opening. Soon, three footsteps approached, one of which was heavy, likely due to the woman wearing cumbersome armor. The standard configuration of Amazon Female Warriors was as heavy infantry, and these women dared to confront heavily armored cavalry head-on on the battlefield. Soren had a deep impression of them.
He had no interest in other matters and glanced at a nearby shadowy watcher while closing the window, then began studying his spells.
A row of data appeared:
“Wizard profession upgraded to Level 7.”
“Gained 25 (Intelligence 20 + (Intelligence 20-10) * 0.5) skill points; health increased by 10 points (profession health 4 points + (Constitution 21-10) * 0.5).”
Soren undoubtedly invested the skill points into Knowledge. His highest basic skill was Knowledge, now reaching one hundred eighty-five points, with most coming from skill point enhancements, and a small part from reading. Soren had a substantial understanding of human society’s written language, customs, geography, and religion. Though he had not reached the level of a Scholar, he could easily serve as a teacher in a noble household.
Currently, secular knowledge could only bring Knowledge up to about 250 points; further improvement required knowledge of mysticism, spell knowledge, supernatural knowledge, and planar knowledge.
To reach over 350 points in Knowledge, one must possess a rich understanding of planar knowledge!
This meant that interplanar travel was necessary.
Many wizards enjoyed traveling to other planes, the most famous being the “Astral Traveler,” who were top-level masters of knowledge, having left footprints in many planes.
This is not a profession; “Astral Traveler” is a special background specialty.
It’s akin to a certain title.
……………….
Soren settled his thoughts and pulled out a thick stack of white paper, starting to analyze the ‘Greater Invisibility Spell’ model. He had obtained the spell through the Ocean Temple. The other party thought he needed it for battle using spell scrolls, likely unaware that Soren intended to memorize it. Soren still didn’t fully trust the Naga Priestess, so he secretly kept many trump cards; the other party didn’t even know he had a fairly high wizard level.
The Naga Priestess even thought he was a quasi-legendary-level assassin because Soren preferred poison in combat.
This was the favorite fighting style of assassins.
Part-time classes were the easiest to disguise; there had been instances where wizards disguised themselves as warriors or warriors disguised themselves as wizards. (For example, Gandalf, a standard berserker part-time gray-robed wizard.)
Soren remembered a non-native character.
That guy had always been thought to be a wizard, only for others to discover when he drew his sword that he was also a Sword Saint.
A powerful and dangerous individual.
With the explosive power of a Sword Saint combined with the wizard’s Stone Skin Spell defense, along with composite-type spells, his combat power in certain aspects was even more terrifying than Soren’s transformation!
Unfortunately, he died a bit too early.
This guy single-handedly faced over a dozen opponents of the same rank and was ultimately killed when someone used a dimensional anchor to seal off the space.
One against twelve, having slain more than half.
A glorious record, Soren questioned whether he could achieve that now. Only formidable individuals could advance to Sword Saint, but regrettably, they all died too early. Soren seemed to have few memories of living Sword Saints. Even the legendary Sword Saint worshiped by many during the Golem War was ultimately beaten to d*ath by a mob.
Perhaps legendary wizards could not tolerate the existence of those who could pierce through their high-tier protective fields with a single sword.
If Soren’s enemies had a Sword Saint, they would probably be the first to eliminate them.
The presence of a Sword Saint is a threat!
The white papers were filled with dense symbols as Soren immersed himself in analyzing the spell model. The fourth-circle spell was more challenging than any other spells he had learned before. If he hadn’t initially learned the Invisibility Spell, he might not have had even a clue now. The Greater Invisibility Spell was a highly complex spell model, differing from the Invisibility Spell chiefly in that after attacking, the Invisibility Spell would reveal the caster, meaning the spell effect would disappear.
However, the Greater Invisibility Spell remained effective even after an attack, with the caster still being invisible.
This made it quite difficult to learn, significantly harder than other fourth-circle spells at the same tier. Soren could only slowly deconstruct it, compiling independent spell models for analysis. After the initial stages of spell model analysis, Soren’s progress began to accelerate because the Greater Invisibility Spell model was developed from the Invisibility Spell; only that the Invisibility Spell was a single-target spell model, while the Greater Invisibility Spell is a layered composite type, effectively reactivating the invisibility effect post-attack.
This is a highly advanced spell circuit system.
The difficulty benchmark for high-level spells starts here; the learning difficulty for fourth-circle spells will increase sharply, ultimately extending into fields such as astronomy, planar studies, and spatial theories.
A night quickly passed.
Soren rubbed his forehead and stood up; it was almost dawn outside.
He flipped through the thick stack of white paper, then destroyed part of it. His progress on the spell model analysis was only about 10%, and although it would surely speed up with deeper research, he didn’t have much time left. Soren glanced at Vivian beside him, gently stroking her cheek, then rose and walked downstairs.
There was a faint smell of bl**d in the air.
Soren noticed a new wound on the arm of the Amazon female guard at the door, which hadn’t been there the previous night.
A battle had taken place.
Having focused on studying the spell models, Soren lowered his perception of the surroundings. It seemed these women had clashed with some local faction last night.
The adult entertainment industry is always the primary beneficiary in gray areas.
Since the Amazon women had taken such a large slice of the cake, it was natural for someone to trouble them now and then.
Soren grabbed a simple meal and returned to his room; he wasn’t interested in meddling. After eating a bit, he cautiously offered Vivian some water before returning to his spell model research. The little girl basically didn’t need to eat; initially, Soren had tried to feed her, but she seemed to require nothing but the occasional drink of water. Her little face remained rosy, showing no signs of hunger.
In this regard, Vivian seemed even stronger than he was now!
Being able to maintain oneself solely on energy consumption was a signature mark of the Legendary Domain.
Time passed bit by bit.
Soren busied himself in his study of the Greater Invisibility Spell, occasionally receiving messages from the Naga Priestess. He went out a few times during this period. The Amazon women seemed to have engaged in battle with some local forces; at night, the sounds of bloodshed echoed in the streets. Soren’s actions against the Rosad Merchant Association seemed to have triggered a new round of upheaval in Taro Port.
The territory of the Amazon women grew, and they eliminated many, obtaining a larger share.
It seemed some predicted that the Rosad Merchant Association would be severely weakened and thus, many factions were sharpening their claws to swallow up their trade shares. Even factions sharing faith in the Storm Church showed no mercy at this time, as they had never truly respected those who betrayed their beliefs. Such betrayals, born of the quest for greater profit, breed resentment.
Although Soren killed many that night,
his massacre led to casualties in Taro Port increasing tenfold over the next week.
Even small-scale naval battles broke out in the nearby sea.
Chaos ensued.
The guard squad finally couldn’t stand to watch anymore and began intervening in the interests of various factions, trying to maintain superficial order, leading to more bloodshed during the nights.
Ultimately, how many people died was of little concern to Soren.
He was pleased that he learned the “Greater Invisibility Spell” within a week and the next day received news of the Rosad Merchant Association’s fleet preparing to return.
The ghost ship was ready to set sail!
Soren planned to intercept them on their return and send them all to a watery grave!
…………… (To be continued ~^~)
