Woking City
“Mister Ley!” The rest of the Wooks celebrated upon Leylin’s return, worship in their eyes. There was a respect for power that was imprinted into their very bloodlines, and now it had shown itself.
“It’s all settled, let’s continue!” Leylin returned to the seat in the giant snail shell, looking calm.
Indeed, the two rank 1 Magi did not warrant Leylin’s attention. However, it had surprised Leylin how much the A.I. Chip had advanced after deriving the energy transformation formulas of the rank 1 Magi.
[Beep! Decoding of 15 rank 1 Fire element spells, 7 rank 2 spells and 3 rank 3 spells has been completed.]
Leylin’s face broke into a smile after hearing the notice from the A. I. Chip.
Due to the difference in the rules of the Lava World, spell models of the Magus world could not directly be used in it, and had to be slightly altered.
For other Magi to do such a thing would require a lot of research; something that was potentially troublesome. The spells had to each be studied and analysed individually.
However, Leylin had the ability to analyse the spells in batches and instantly managed to understand many of the spells.
‘In this case, I can recover most of my strength before we reach Woking…’ A streak of light flashed and he slowly closed his eyes.
The giant caravan started to move slowly after the short pause, the Wook clansmen at ease.
After all, with the almighty Mister Ley overseeing them, there was not much to worry about during the journey, be it the bandits of the wilderness or disasters of nature and beasts.
As a matter of fact, with Leylin around, they were rarely affected by natural disaster, and even avoided huge crises many times.
After some time, The one-horned race eventually worshipped Leylin like a god. They had never been at such ease before, usually losing more than half their merchants and consuming large amounts of supplies for every trip.
Their parting with Leylin was full of reluctance. The chief of the caravan tried his best to persuade Leylin not to leave, even hinting that he could stay even if the Intellectual One refused.
But how would Leylin agree? He left with a smile.
Woking City, the largest city in the Blazing Thorn Land.
The entire city was built in a huge barren desert, with raging winds roaring every once in a while. The place appeared desolate.
But Leylin knew that such living conditions were considered exemplary in the Lava World. In the Lava World, the intelligent creatures thrived best in the areas where there was no lava flow. Other than the pure fire elemental creatures, few species would enjoy living near the edge of the lava. In here, other than the shortcoming that the temperature was slightly higher, it wasn’t very much different from that of the deserts in the Magus World, and hence was considered conditions that were good enough.
“Nevertheless, these non-human species are really…”
The dress code and appearances of the Magi in Woking City differed greatly from what he was used to. Leylin was a little speechless at the unique structure of the buildings and the large crowd of passersby, who were predominantly non-human.
To Leylin’s surprise, the one-horned race whom he had encountered early were actually more human than most, at least they looked similar to normal humans.
With non-humans who had numerous eyes and limbs were barely considered normal, Leylin was completely shocked when he saw a humongous green caterpillar, with hat and stick, in a store. It, ignorant of his gaze, was in a heated argument with the store’s owner.
Despite his adventure experience in the Magus world, Leylin had mostly only been exposed to humans. Although the central continent held many non-humans, humans were still the majority while the rest eked out an existence in the shadows, even if they were mixed bloods who looked human.
However, in this place, Leylin felt like he was the odd one out. This feeling of isolation was new to him, and interesting.
“No wonder the antique books say that the process of conquering a foreign world is actually a great challenge for Magi. It’s extremely difficult to even think of such a thing now, especially the act of going against the whole world by oneself. Truly, insane…”
Flames fumed in Leylin’s eyes as he mumbled under his breath, his eyes flashing with excitement. “I really wish to give it a try… The feeling of conquering a world…”
His exclamation was well and good, but time had arrived that he settle serious matters.
Leylin stopped a long-haired, two headed green being that was drooling out some unknown liquid.
“I need to get some information, is there any place can fulfil my needs? If u can bring me there, this will be yours!” Leylin took out a pinkish crystal and tossed it in front of the non-human, making his eyes brighten up.
“I– I’ll bring you there!” The sturdy man by the side of the two-headed being hemmed and hawed, as if he had to invest a lot of energy in speaking each and every word.
“Great! After you!” Leylin’s eyes flashed with a trace of a smile.
……
Clearly, the two headed being was pretty familiar with streets of Woking, every step of his long legs taking him a few meters ahead. He was originally worried that Leylin could not keep up with him, but after seeing Leylin at ease he sped up.
When they reached a remote alley, the two-headed fellow turned around and stammered, “Right– right here!”
“Is it?” Leylin looked around. The huge shadow of the building covered the region, blotting out the sun and leaving the entire place in darkness.
A tinge of a sombre mood was felt, and there was not a single person around.
“Hehehe, look, what Strap brought us!” A green, multi-limbed being who looked like a grasshopper climbed along the side of the wall. The pair of crimson eyes on top of its triangular head stared at Leylin with a malicious intent.
“Ant Tribe? Or Winged Tribe? Whatever, Old Hawk will surely pay a high price for his meat anyway… ”
In concert with his voice, many other non-humans climbed out of the corners, all looking bloodthirsty and ferocious.
“I knew it… I just knew it would turn out this way…” Leylin sighed helplessly, “Why do you want to force me to use violence when we can resolve this peacefully?”
Leylin’s puzzled look made the nonhumans tremble, feeling as if they had done something wrong.
“Just as well! In any case, I’m short on quite a few foreign specimens!”
Leylin played with the ring on his finger, gracefully taking out a silver surgical knife. He looked focused and devoted.
……
“Oh no! Please let me go! I don’t know anything, they forced me…”
Half an hour later, the alley was filled with the reek of blood. All the non-humans had disappeared, leaving behind only the two headed being kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy.
However, it was a high-pitched female voice this time, coming from the other head.
“Really?” Leylin wiped the silvery surgical knife, mirth in his eyes. It terrified the two-headed being, whose hair stood on ends.
“I can help! I know the best information broker in the city, it’s Old Jake. I’m telling the truth! He even knows things about other worlds! I can bring you there right now!” The being revealed its intelligence at the boundary between life and death, finally securing its life from the surgical knife Leylin had placed in front of it.
“Good! Bring me to him now!” The surgical knife stopped right before the being’s eyes, only a millimetre away.
“Yes, Master! I will bring you there now…” The creature wept, even wanting to die. If not for the fact that it was in its resting period and if it had let its younger brother go out instead, it would never have come near a malefic like Leylin.
It was useless to say anything now, though. It knew very well that it would end up like the scattered piles of flesh and bones if it did not bring Leylin to his destination and help him get what he wanted.
It was no doubt that he was the local tyrant. In a short while, he had brought Leylin to an extensive basement area.
Leylin got excited upon entering the place. This atmosphere of this place was pervaded with feelings of passion, madness, and death, causing the darkness elemental particles to be very concentrated here.
‘It wouldn’t take too long for this kind of place to give normal humans a mental disorder…’ Leylin stroked his chin, followed after the two-headed being.
“What brings you here Strap? Do you wanna play some games?” A creature with the head of an ox patted the two headed creature’s shoulder with great strength. His right leg was missing, instead replaced with a giant metal limb.
Leylin smelled an odour similar to that of marijuana from the ox-head, coming from the crimson drink in his hand. It seemed to be an alcoholic drink of this world.
“No, I’m here for Old Jake! You see…” The two headed being pointed at Leylin and started to whisper to the ox-head with flattery.
“Off you go!” The Ox-head took another look at Leylin, perhaps it was the attractive thin figure of Leylin that set him off guard.