NOVPUB“Is this an illusion or not?” An followed Saul’s line of sight and saw the tear in her clothes. She gasped sharply.
Just now, aside from that strange voice, she hadn’t seen any shadow of a person, merely guessed that she had been attacked.
But when she turned around, she saw nothing again and thought Saul and the others were seeing hallucinations once more.
Yet now, looking at the tear on the back of her robe, An was clearly confused.
“Calm down. There’s no need to overthink. You were attacked.” Sensing something off with An’s state, Saul placed one hand on her shoulder and tapped her brow with the other.
He didn’t use any magic—just relied on the intensely aggressive gesture to snap her attention back.
The finger pointing at her made An’s heart skip a beat. Looking at her master, she inexplicably felt a bit numb, but it helped stabilize her faltering emotions.
“When weirdness becomes routine, it loses its power. Just treat this as facing a powerful enemy. Don’t bother analyzing their attack patterns.”
“Yes,” Agu responded.
He appeared very calm—clearly a man of wide experience.
Then Saul crouched down, gently rubbing the torn part of An’s robe, carefully inspecting the damage.
“The outermost tear is cleanly severed. Must’ve been an extremely sharp arrow.”
He walked over to where An had just stood, but his feet didn’t touch any solid object.
Judging by the ground and the condition of the grass and vegetation, one could already guess nothing had been left behind, but Saul still checked, just in case.
“No one split up for now. We’ll form a triangle formation—each of us guarding one direction. We’ll circle once around and then return.”
Saul’s main purpose in coming here was to confirm what had happened to Kongsha. Searching for the missing Leon was secondary.
“If the shadow can disappear and the arrows can disappear, then a missing corpse wouldn’t be strange either.”
After circling the area, the three of them weren’t attacked again. Saul now prepared to return and, with a calm mindset, find out what Kongsha had encountered here.
“Master, look over there!” An suddenly pointed into the distance.
Saul looked and immediately narrowed his eyes.
Behind a tree, a piece of black robe peeked out—its style almost identical to the apprentice uniform of the Wizard Tower.
The three of them cautiously moved in that direction, but when they arrived, the black robe was gone.
Lifting their heads again, they saw the robe now peeking from behind a tree farther off.
“You two wait here. Stay alert.”
Saul said, then rushed off alone before the other two could respond.
As he got close, the robe vanished once again—this time appearing farther away, away from An and Agu’s location. Without hesitation, Saul kept chasing.
But again, he failed to catch up, and the black robe appeared even farther off.
Saul looked around, mentally mapping the robe’s appearance points.
“Like cheese laid out on the floor, luring me into a trap?”
Even so, he only paused for ten or so seconds before dashing forward once more.
The robe vanished again just before he arrived and reappearing behind a tree farther from the grassland, farther from the soul bodies, directly ahead of him.
Saul took another step, but before he could run more than two meters, a black tendril burst out from the soil beneath the tree.
At the tip of the tendril was a gaping shark-toothed maw that lunged toward the robe with a vicious snap!
“Ah—!”
A short, sharp scream was abruptly cut off.
Saul snorted coldly and sped to Little Algae’s side.
He had just mapped out the robe’s appearances, then quickly had Little Algae lie in ambush beneath a few trees up ahead. As soon as the robe appeared, it would strike from underground.
Now, Saul saw that Little Algae’s mouth was clamped tightly on something—it couldn’t close its jaws.
“Just as I thought. These phantom-like things can’t be explained by hallucinations, nor are they simply invisible.”
But in the next second, Saul’s momentary satisfaction turned to alarm as he saw the tip of Little Algae’s tendril start to twist and deform.
“Sever the connection!” Saul shouted immediately.
Little Algae reacted fast. It quickly severed the above-ground portion and withdrew the rest swiftly back into the deeper soil.
A moment later, the severed black tendril looked like it was sucked into a swirling vortex, collapsing inward with the surrounding air and landscape.
Plop—something fell to the ground.
“Veiled Crystal Essence?” Saul rushed forward, searching through the grass.
Once out of sight or no longer in contact with a body, Veiled Crystal Essence was prone to vanishing.
But before he had to transform his arm into a semi-transparent soul tendril, Saul spotted a particularly conspicuous piece of essence.
Because this one wasn’t fully transparent.
It looked like a chunk of white putty mixed with black streaks, twisted and pulled until the black lines curled through the white in a warped pattern.
Had it merged with Little Algae.
“Little Algae!” Saul summoned it again and held the essence up to it. “Can you touch this?”
Little Algae approached, nodded, and bumped its chin against the essence in Saul’s palm with a series of soft clinks.
Saul raised his arm, looking at the center of his forearm. Though he couldn’t see anything, he could feel something embedded in his muscle tissue.
He hadn’t followed Monroe’s habit of storing the essence in a vital area. Even if he briefly forgot about it, Penny would occasionally land on his arm to help remind him.
Over time, he’d instinctively memorized its presence inside him.
But this time, Saul didn’t store the corrupted Veiled Crystal Essence in his body. Instead, he held it in front of Little Algae.
“Little Algae, try storing this, if you can.”
Little Algae leaned its head in.
As Saul’s parasite, Little Algae had seen Veiled Crystal Essence before. Tilting its head with curiosity, it stuck out its black tongue and gave it a lick.
Whatever it tasted or felt, the tiny tongue snapped back instantly.
Before Saul could even voice a question, Little Algae suddenly opened its mouth wide and swallowed the entire essence whole.
Crunching, bone-cracking sounds followed—then a deep gulp.
Saul’s heart skipped. This definitely didn’t feel like storage.
“Are you sure that’s storing? Can you even spit it back out?” Saul asked urgently.
Little Algae slowly turned its tendrils around without replying and lazily retreated back into Saul’s nape.
“Did it just eat the Veiled Crystal Essence? As in, actually digest it?”
Saul was concerned, but judging by Little Algae’s behavior, it wouldn’t be coming back out any time soon.
It was usually quite clever—why had it completely misunderstood his intention this time?
Or… was it just acting on instinct?
“Penny also eats the essence. If Little Algae really did eat it, should I call Penny back?”
Saul pondered this as he walked back toward An.
“Master!”
Hearing the two call out in the distance, Saul thought something was wrong and hurried over.
But when he was still over ten meters away, the two black-robed, black-blindfolded soul bodies ahead of him suddenly transformed—into pale figures, arms drooping at their sides.
Saul skidded to a stop—just then, he felt something slam into his back.
Two pale hands reached in from both sides of his neck and wrapped around—trying to embrace him.
Little Algae, dizzy from earlier, couldn’t come out. Saul didn’t hesitate anymore. He activated his soul body, circulated his magic, and summoned a translucent Soul Armor barrier around him.
But the next second, he felt a chill pierce his bones.
The pale hands behind him hadn’t been pushed away by Soul Armor. Instead, they were enclosed within it along with him!
Two arms rested on his shoulders. The cold spread through every point of contact, freezing his whole body.
Saul gritted his teeth, pulled his arms in, gripped the one clinging to his right shoulder, then hurled his body forward with a strong twist!
“Return the stolen treasure—gah!”
A pale figure was flung over Saul’s shoulder and slammed viciously to the ground!
Saul straightened, face grim—his back, shoulders, and hands were all frozen stiff with cold.
But in the next instant—a second pair of hands, then a third, a fourth...
A dozen pale arms reached out from behind him, grasping for his head, his neck, his shoulders…
At the same time, accompanied by resentful weeping.
“Give me back the treasure!”
“Give me back the treasure!”
“Give me back the treasure!”
Woof.
(End of Chapter)
