Release that Witch

Thankfully, driving lessons were all the rage during his university days, and he, too, had signed up for them together with his friends. But he had never thought that the first time he would touch a steering wheel after receiving his license would be in the realm of dreams.

”Your Majesty, what exactly was that monster?” Faldi asked faintly. ”Can a Fallen Evil also possess such strength? It seems theoretically unjustifiable that they can obtain so much magic power in such a short time.”

While evading the first round of magical attacks, it was Duncan and her who received the greatest damage. Half of her beautiful violet curls had fallen off as a result. Fortunately, none of her wounds were fatal, and her head (except for her hair) and torso were practically unblemished. In other words, she had chosen the optimal form of evasion against the sharp yet unpredictable attacks. It, therefore, has to be said that all of the Taquila survivors were highly-experienced warriors, as evident by the fact that even a witch who was mainly not combat-type could perform this well.

Because of this, the pioneering operation did not end in failure. Although Roland did not know what would happen if one died in dreamland, he hoped that there would never come a day when this doubt would be addressed.

”Did the Union never have a similar ability?”

”Of course they did... what we call biting, is precisely caused by the damage inflicted by magic power on a body.” Faldi gasped as she spoke. ”As a witch increases her capacity for magic through continuous practice, her body will become more used to this kind of damage, and her recovery speed will also improve. Whether it be for us, demons, or hybrid demonic beasts, our levels of magic power can only be slowly cultivated.”

”I get it now,” Roland thought, ”this is the first time she has seen a living thing that’s purely formed by magic power. In other words, she was only cognizant of life that’s formed of flesh and bone. Therefore, it was natural that she couldn’t understand an enemy she had never seen before.”

He did not have such doubts himself. From the moment the monster revealed its translucent body, he had already regarded it as a spirit or an elemental, and he believed that because it was formed by magic, it was certainly not going to be affected by magic.

However, this was not an easy problem to explain, and his conjecture was not necessarily accurate. He recalled that when the blue light in the monster’s body held the upper hand, the monster’s visibly declining mood and consciousness could have caused it to revert to a more conventional living form. At last, Roland could only shake his head and reply, ”I don’t know what it is either. But I can confirm that it’s not a Fallen Evil.”

”Are there many more monsters like this in the Dream World?” Ling asked, still in a state of shock. ”When the shadows in the room were covered by the black and red void, I felt my body freeze, as if there was something extremely frightening that was observing me all the time. I swear, even facing the Senior Demons wasn’t as scary as this.”

”I believe there aren’t that many, or else the Dream World would have been seized by them long ago,” said Roland reassuringly. The Martialist Association could handle the Corruptors, which were not affected by conventional force, but against this type of monster, even 12 martialists might not be sufficient to win. If there were many of them, the Association would probably have been destroyed by now.

In retrospect, he realized that he could finally confirm Garcia’s assertion that the corruption of the outside world was inseparably related to the Bloody Moon. The tentacles which protruded from the void was similar to the scene in the Divine Domain.

Yet, why would the Bloody Moon corrupt the dreamland? Isn’t this world a part of it? Who’s the Lord that the monster spoke about? Is it a real deity or a source of magic power? If it truly detests the Dream World, why did it remain silent when he touched the divine relics?

Roland also took extra note of the ”Bottomless Land” which the monster mentioned last. It was perhaps due to linguistic assimilation that the structure of this term was similar to that found in the Land of Dawn. It was only when referring to an entire continent that it would be phrased this way. For example, although the meaning of ”Divine Land” was similar, it was expressed in a different way.

Supposing that the Bloody Moon is perpetually observing the real world because of the Battle of Divine Will, does that mean that what it reveals is an actual continent, just as I’ve understood?

These questions were best left to an explorer to solve.

Of course, not every witch was still contemplating the events of the battle that just happened. Phyllis, who sat in the front passenger seat, had already cast aside the heavy emotions she felt during the battle, and was much more interested in understanding the operation of this limousine. When she was seated in a taxi previously, she was instructed to remain silent due to the presence of an outsider. This time, she could no longer control her wild curiosity, and stared unblinkingly at Roland, as if she was trying to memorize every action that he made.

”You want to learn driving?” Roland asked jokingly, having also relegated his thoughts to the back of his mind.

Phyllis immediately nodded.

”We’ll have to perform a few more tasks first.” He took the opportunity to entice her. ”When the time comes, we’ll be able to enjoy different cuisine every day, and having your own room and private car won’t be a problem.”

”Will the food taste better than KFC and hotpot?” Faldi added.

”Those are entry-level stuff. Once we have money, you’ll find out that even if you ate something different every day, you’ll never be able to taste all the different types of cuisine in the world.”

Though Roland did not turn his head back, he could sense the glowing gazes from the witches behind him.

”When Duncan’s fine, let’s move on to the next house. I’ve already marked its location.” Faldi’s voice remained soft, but it was not as faint as previously.

”I’m okay. We can set off tomorrow once our magic powers have recovered.” The petite Duncan replied in a positive manner. ”This bit of injury won’t be a hindrance.”

Even Ling, who had been traumatized, was moved by Roland’s alluring words. Though she did not echo the others’ words, her eyes were glimmering, as Roland saw through the rearview mirror.

Roland felt deeply touched. It turned out that boosting the team’s morale was truly a simple thing to do.

...

In order to prevent policemen from popping by their place, he decided not to drive into Tongzi Street, and instead parked the car next to the neighboring Clover Association’s construction site, which was still under demolition and hence was a surveillance blind spot. From there was a nice little pathway which led to the rented warehouse.

Subsequently, it was time to examine the spoils.

Regrettably, there was not much cash in the safe, amounting to only 100000 dollars or so. However, there was a considerable amount of jewelry, consisting of jades and pearls. It was not possible to place a fixed valuation on them. To his surprise, he also discovered several solidified Forces of Nature. It was these small yet exceptionally heavy things which gave him the false perception that the trip was indeed fruitful.

Are cash transactions already out of vogue for these people? Forces of Nature are now a currency?

By the time Roland returned to 0827, it was already half past 11. He gently opened the door and discovered that the lights were lit in the parlor. Zero was lying by the tea table with her back arched and slightly undulating, as if she had already entered dreamland. In front of her were a stack of textbooks and a pencil box. It was evident that she had been revising her homework while waiting for his return.

There was only supposed to be a tenant-landlord relationship between them, but there seemed to be a sense of family now. Roland’s heart softened as he gazed at this sight.

He walked up and gently carried Zero to her bed. After taking off her shoes, he covered her in the warm quilt.

Oh right, the textbooks.

If she forgets about them tomorrow, she’ll blame me again.

Roland shook his head and laughed. He brought the textbooks on the tea table to her room and stacked them neatly on Zero’s desk. At this moment, the bold print on a textbook cover caught his attention.

Junior High Math Olympiad.

This was an extracurricular subject which appeared impressive but was thoroughly impractical. He recalled that he was uninterested in math when he was in junior high, and, thinking that Math Olympiad was simply a higher level of math, he kept his distance from it, and would rather spend his summers learning sketching and calligraphy than attend Math Olympiad lessons. Therefore, at present, he had not the slightest idea what the course was about.

Strangely, he began to take interest in its content, if only for a moment.

He could feel his breath becoming shorter.

He took a deep breath and slowly flipped open the first page of the textbook.

The neatly-arranged examples, together with Zero’s elegant handwriting, caught his eye at once.