The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

While waiting for the others, Anser controlled Arcane Eye to continue searching for traces of werewolves.

The Arcane Eye moved between the various buildings at the speed of an ordinary person running. It only swept briefly through each room, preferring to miss something rather than waste too much time.

He searched the civilian district, inns, and refugee camps first. Places like those were easy for people to get into.

After searching half of the southern city, he found another group—still five young adult werewolves.

Anser was already starting to lose his composure. The werewolf’s Challenge Rating was 3. A few dozen werewolves could already cause large-scale chaos. If there were several hundred, then all of Durlag’s Tower would descend into turmoil.

By this time, noon was approaching. It should have been a relaxed lunchtime, but the atmosphere in the Union was somewhat tense.

From time to time, teams of warriors arrived at the Union headquarters, some familiar faces, and quite a few strangers as well.

Quentin led a group upstairs in haste, and their heavy footsteps interrupted Anser’s search.

The door was not closed. Quentin knocked lightly, afraid of disturbing Anser’s spellcasting.

Anser stood up and beckoned to them. ”Please, come in.”

There were five people in the group. Aside from Quentin, he had only met the wood elf druid Karisha before. The other three were all strangers.

Standing at Anser’s side, Quentin raised a hand and introduced him, ”Everyone, this is Mr. Anser Holrewen, president of our Union.”

”What a truly... eye-opening sight.” The speaker was a tall tiefling. She wore a full suit of metal armor and carried a specially made helmet in one hand. Her features were sharply defined, her skin was rather pale, and metal ornaments hung from her curved horns.

”My name is Makaria, captain of the Flamerule Mercenary Company.” As she spoke, she extended her right hand toward Anser.

Flamerule referred to the seventh month. The name was not especially imposing, nor did it sound very aggressive, but mercenary companies that dared to use a name like that were generally quite capable.

Anser raised his hand and lightly touched hers. ”We’ve met before. Has your cooperation with Sarberg ended?”

Makaria gave a brisk smile. ”Of course. Tyron didn’t notify me in advance about what happened that day. We had an argument and parted on bad terms.”

She pointed to the two people behind her as she introduced them. ”These two are both captains in the mercenary company, Amnon and Modai.”

The two men bowed slightly, their eyes full of curiosity, but neither spoke.

Anser nodded in acknowledgment. Both were male tieflings, with reddish skin. One look was enough to tell that their bloodlines were very pure.

”President, Karisha said she had important information to tell us, so I brought her along as well.” Quentin signaled Anser with his eyes. He felt that the Emerald Enclave ought to know something.

”Anser, we’ve discovered that large numbers of werewolves are leaving the deep forest in batches. They may slip into the city, so make your preparations.” Karisha addressed Anser directly by name, and she spoke very casually, even though the two of them had only met once.

”They’re already here, lurking throughout the urban district, and their numbers are unknown. I’m using Arcane Eye to search for them right now. So far, I’ve found five groups—twenty-five werewolves.” Anser raised a hand, signaling everyone to sit down.

The Emerald Enclave and werewolves were mortal enemies, while mercenary companies depended on human society to survive, so the possibility of collusion with werewolves was extremely low. They were basically all trustworthy.

Conversely, werewolves were almost incapable of coexisting with any intelligent race. Evil by nature, their bloodthirsty beastly instincts could only be suppressed temporarily.

”This goes against common sense.” Karisha frowned, clasping her hands behind her back as she paced to and fro. Her face looked youthful, but her bearing was old-fashioned, making her seem rather strange.

Makaria and the others exchanged glances, and a trace of excitement appeared on their faces. They did not care whether the city fell into chaos or not. They only knew that this was definitely going to be a big job.

”How many people does the Emerald Enclave have? Can they come help?” Anser did not beat around the bush. He asked directly.

”Today?”

”Today!”

”At most, a little over twenty professionals.” Karisha pondered for a moment. ”Including me, there are three elite professionals.”

That strength definitely was not weak. Even on the surface, the Union only had three elite professionals and one high-level professional.

”Can you assemble at the guard training ground next door at three in the afternoon?” Anser’s tone was rather polite, since he was asking for help.

”No problem. I’ll gather everyone immediately.” Karisha did not press for more details. She turned and left at once, acting with crisp decisiveness.

Werewolves were a grave threat to the Emerald Enclave, so there was no way they would miss an opportunity like this.

Anser turned to look at Makaria.

Meeting his gaze, the female tiefling decisively spoke first. ”The Flamerule Mercenary Company has more than sixty people, but you know how things have been lately. After falling out with Sarberg, even the final payment...”

Anser understood instantly. He pulled out two bottles of holy water from the Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch and set them on the table with a bang. ”One bottle of holy water for each ordinary werewolf.”

In the past, one bottle of holy water was only worth a few dozen to a hundred gold coins, but times were different now. This stuff was not easy to buy anymore.

Makaria’s eyes lit up. Without ceremony, she grabbed the two bottles of holy water, leaned in to inspect them for a few moments, then opened the caps and sniffed them. After that, she tucked both into her pouch. ”Deal. This counts as the deposit.”

Her worldly yet unpretentious manner amused Anser, and he chuckled lightly. ”How many groups of werewolves can you handle?”

”To play it safe, three groups. After dealing with them, we’ll support your side, and the payment will be calculated according to contribution.” Makaria pondered for quite a while, but she did not overpromise.

”Mm, that works too.” Anser felt that being conservative was better.

If they had underestimated the werewolves too much, he would have found them unreliable instead.

”Please gather your members. Leave two people at the Union so they can wait for combat orders at any time. Be careful not to leak anything,” he instructed.

”I’ll stay behind,” Makaria said with a smile. ”Before the operation begins, the other members won’t know who the enemy is. Please trust our professional standards.”

Anser only smiled without speaking. Mercenaries simply could not keep their mouths shut, and their reputation was generally not very good either. Otherwise, Makaria would not have had to notify them at the last minute.

After seeing Makaria and the other two off, he teleported Salian and Colin out, then called in Finn as well. After explaining the situation, he had them use telescopes and magical pets to keep watch on the civilian houses where the werewolves were hiding, to prevent any unexpected developments.

He continued controlling Arcane Eye to search for traces of werewolves, while Quentin assisted by recording everything at his side.

This task had to be done by him. Others could scout as well, but it would be difficult for them to do it completely silently.

Group after group of werewolves was found one after another, and the rough map marked with street lines grew denser and denser, leaving Quentin alarmed.

He could not help sighing inwardly that it really did have to be a spellcaster. They always had some way to deal with things. If it were someone else, they could only conduct a massive search, and chaos across the whole city would almost be a foregone conclusion.

If too many people were bitten by werewolves, the consequences would be unthinkable.

After a while, Iris quietly entered the room and stood to one side, studying the rough map.

The Fort Jacqueline Knights had arrived. They had not come on horseback, instead entering the city from the east gate in several separate groups, and had already assembled at the guard garrison, ready to depart for battle at any time.

By the time the second Extended Spell Arcane Eye ended, it was already close to three o’clock.

Anser let out a light breath. After drinking half a cup of water, he picked up the rough map. On it were no fewer than nineteen thick circles, distributed throughout the city.

Some were very scattered, while several completely overlapped with one another.

”There are way too many.” Quentin’s voice was trembling slightly. It was not that he had never seen the world; he had just never seen this many werewolves.

These were not newly cursed werewolves, but fully developed ones. Even as an elite hunter, he would find three to five of them very troublesome. Yet now there were nearly a hundred.

”Not all of them.” Anser shook his head slightly. Time had been short, and he had only searched most of the urban district. He had not had time to scout the wealthy district or the central district.

Still, since the werewolves had disguised themselves to enter the city, there were many places they could not get into. They also had to compete with refugees for rooms, so several groups of werewolves had no choice but to crowd together. Even if there were more elsewhere, their numbers should not be too high.

”There’s movement at the Amn military camp.” Salian walked in, his expression grave. ”Roughly more than two thousand men are heading straight this way.”

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