Night Ranger

Marvin felt intense pain in his lower abdomen. He didn’t expect that Hathaway had already regained her mobility.

Moreover, the first thing she did after recovering was to ruthlessly attack him!

Even though Azuk Fist was a formless spell, it could be condensed for a long time and used repeatedly.

Marvin ate a direct hit from this fist and was sent flying down from the peak, crashing into the ground below.

Fortunately, he was a Legend now and his body was a lot stronger. Otherwise, he could have ended up on the verge of death from this.

Still, the impact left Marvin feeling dizzy.

He doubled over in pain as he gasped for air, unable to say anything.

His interface let him know that he had three broken ribs and was suffering from some internal bleeding!

Thankfully, his Constitution was quite decent and with his Resistances, it wouldn’t be a lasting injury.

Someone with another rogue class, like Shadow Thief or Pale Hand, might have ended up near death after receiving this fist.

Marvin was completely caught off guard by Hathaway’s merciless attack.

”Woosh!”

A silhouette suddenly appeared in front of Marvin.

Hathaway had an indifferent expression as she swung her Azuk Fist at him once more.

Marvin gritted his teeth and wanted to say something, but he was punched before he could!

This time, Marvin braced himself in a defensive stance and tried to forcibly withstand the punch!

”Bang! Bang!”

His arms fractured!

Marvin spit up blood and tumbled through the air like a broken kite!

On the way, he knocked against two unlucky trees.

Marvin felt painful all over. If not for his Endurance and Major Tenacity specialties, he might have already fainted.

Even so, he wasn’t having an easy time.

Although he had used his arm to block, this fist hit him in the chest quite hard.

[Serious Injury]!

The crimson characters appeared on the interface.

Marvin smiled bitterly as blood seeped from his mouth. ’Isn’t this laughable?’

Never would he have guessed that after dealing with Dark Phoenix, he might actually be killed by Hathaway.

”Woosh.”

Hathaway was very fast and appeared in front of Marvin once again.

But she didn’t act immediately this time, instead asking him while frowning, ”Why aren’t you resisting?”

Marvin gasped painfully for air and couldn’t even speak.

Facing Hathaway’s question, he only forced a smile and shook his head.

Killing intent flashed through Hathaway’s eyes. ”Good, then die!”

Marvin sighed, he couldn’t dodge this one. He might truly die this time.

He considered escaping to the Shadow Realm.

But the Azuk Fist suddenly collapsed on its own.

Hathaway stood there in a daze, with tears appearing at the corner of her eyes.

A tear dropped and remained on Marvin’s palm.

The tear surprisingly condensed and turned into what seemed to be a pearl.

”Why… Why am I crying?”

Hathaway was at a loss.

Marvin relaxed slightly, but he still couldn’t quite get any words out, so he only forced himself to raise his head to look at Hathaway.

”You glib-tongued guy, you snatched my Plane Will and took advantage of me. Don’t tell me you still hope to survive?”

Even though Hathaway only looked like she was twelve years old, her tone was extremely despotic. She seemed like a Queen overlooking the land before her.

At this time, Marvin finally managed to open his mouth and speak out. ”You can kill me. Because this life... has been saved by you, and belongs to you. However, saving me first, then killing me, isn’t that a contradiction?”

Hathaway felt even more muddled after hearing this.

”I saved you?”

Marvin nodded.

She started walking in circles for two revolutions before suddenly turning and punching Marvin in the face!

”I won’t believe a smooth-talker like you!” She coldly snorted.

Marvin was caught off guard and had no time to dodge or escape to the Shadow Plane. He passed out from the punch!

...

When he opened his eyes, he saw a bunch of green leaves in front of him.

He looked around silently and was able to tell that this was a very common Elven room.

It was filled with common furniture used by Wood Elves. A silhouette was writing something while sitting on the window ledge.

Marvin checked his body and found that he was in a very miserable state.

With the Serious Injury, his overall capability was at less than a tenth of its usual.

If something happened now, he wouldn’t be able to escape even if he wanted to.

After advancing to Ruler of the Night, his body had been substantially improved, so he would be able to slowly recover even in this state.

The problem was that natural recovery needed a lot of time. Especially his broken ribs. Without restorative spells, it would be very troublesome.

Marvin forced himself up and turned toward the Elf on the window ledge.

Marvin was surprised when he realized that the person who saved him was actually the messenger, Butterfly.

Butterfly looked at Marvin serenely as she commented, ”You are really hard to kill.”

Marvin felt quite baffled. ”What’s with those words?”

Butterfly pointed outside and explained, ”I saw you getting violently beaten up by that woman.”

”But I am no match for her, so I didn’t dare to show myself.”

”I waited for her to go before checking if you were still alive.”

Marvin blushed with shame.

Turned out Butterfly was in the surroundings when Hathaway beat him up.

”What are you writing?” Marvin asked casually.

He figured that since Butterfly had saved him, Hathaway must have left already.

She didn’t kill him in the end.

Although he didn’t know what exactly had happened to her, Marvin vowed to restore her memories.

He owed her this much.

...

”Eh… A letter to ask White River Valley for help. I wrote that their Lord was paralyzed by a crazy woman… and that they should quickly come to get you.”

Butterfly bit her pen and blinked a few times. ”I am only a messenger, I can’t bring you back. Moreover, my Blackie can’t carry both of us.”

After she said this, a cry came from outside the wooden cabin.

A shadow flashed outside.

It was clearly that Golden Griffin. He seemed a bit dissatisfied with this name, or by Butterfly’s words.

With the Golden Griffin’s great strength, let alone just two people, carrying three, or even five adult men wouldn’t be an issue.

Butterfly was clearly talking nonsense.

Marvin forced a smile.

This Wood Elf was indeed a bit special.

Thus, he changed the subject and inquired, ”Did you see which direction she went?”

Butterfly wrote a few more words before answering, ”No. After she was done with you, she muttered for a bit before suddenly disappearing.”

”I’m rather timid, so I waited about half an hour before poking you with a twig and finding out that you weren’t dead.”

Butterfly suddenly realized something and turned to ask, ”Would you like to talk about this with His Highness Ivan?”

Marvin remained silent.

”No need… What does this have to do with Ivan?”

”Of course it’s related to him. All the Elves in Thousand Leaves Forest know that the person His Highness Ivan likes the most is you,” she said, seeming to think this was completely obvious.

”I’ve never seen anyone so close to him in the past. Oh, I’ll certainly be scolded for letting the future King’s spouse… Uh… I’ll certainly be scolded for letting you lie on the ground for so long!”

Marvin was stunned.

He stayed silent. He had no intention to continue this worthless discussion.

This woman had quite the ability to earnestly talk nonsense. Moreover, her expressions were very realistic and seemed to come naturally, making it hard to retort.

In any case, with Butterfly sending a letter to White River Valley, there should be someone coming to help him soon.

He leaned back in the simple wooden bed when he suddenly felt something burning in his palm.

It was that tear.

Marvin held the tear in front of him and a series of information flashed before his eyes:

[Witch Queen’s Tear (Treasure)]

[Property: Death or Power]

[Description: If taken by a person close to the Witch Queen, it will give substantial power. If taken by a stranger, it will cause death.]

...

Witch’s Tear?

Marvin’s heart moved.

This was Hathaway’s tear. He hadn’t expected it to become a Treasure.

Could she have truly gotten the legacy of the Ancient Anzed Witches and become the Witch Queen?

’Is this a test?’

Marvin couldn’t shake the feeling that two eyes were watching his every movement.

He smiled and put this tear in his mouth, biting it like a piece of candy.

It was bitter.

The next second, logs flashed in front of him:

[You have taken the Witch Queen’s Tear…]

[Willpower +3]

[You obtained the right to use Witchcraft]

[You gained the basic Witchcraft – Flight]

...

A smile appeared in the corner of Marvin’s mouth.

Hathaway’s tear had such a good effect.

Just the +3 Willpower was enough to be considered amazing. But he even obtained a Witchcraft that he could use once a day, [Flight]!

This was such a cheat.

”What are you giggling for?” Butterfly was looking at Marvin strangely.

Marvin thought of something and suddenly jumped out the window, leaving the Elven cabin!

Not far away, a delicate figure was standing on a mountain peak, staring into the distance.

Despite being in pain, he sped up and arrived in front of that shadow.

Hathaway still had a frigid expression. ”Didn’t get punched enough?”

Marvin asked with a happy smile, ”Do you believe me now?”

Hathaway sneered, ”What about believing you?”

”Maybe we had some sort of relationship before, but that is all. It ceased after I became the Witch Queen.”

”I didn’t kill you, but don’t think that I won’t do it next time.”

”Stay away from me!”

Marvin put away his smile and said, ”If that was true… then why are you standing here?”

”Why didn’t you leave after I fainted?”

”Or to be more exact, what are you looking forward to?”

Hathaway froze.