Chapter 492: The Pioneer

After the previous several rounds of outbursts, it seemed that Alterna had temporarily come into control of the situation. It’s been more than half a day since the last time the creepy colors crept out. Therefore, Lucien and Natasha had a relatively easy morning, which was a quite good thing to them as they were both injured.

Now it was already afternoon, and it was very hot. The sun was hanging up high above in the sky. Streams of sunlight fell through the leaves, casting bright light spots on the ground.

Natasha looked around and grinned, “I thought our injured looks would attract robbers, especially after you showed off the coins you have in front of the villagers. But the morning was quieter than I thought. That was much less fun.”

“This is a world with no knights and sorcerers, remember? Although you’re injured, the set of armor you’re wearing is definitely a great threat to those who are interested in us. In their eyes, only the Divine-blooded and the Blessed can afford such a set of armor. They’re not out of their mind…” Lucien grinned, and then he added casually, “also, compared to wealth, your beauty is for sure more appealing to them. I saw a couple of guys secretly tracking you in the town.”

Natasha shot a glance at Lucien and said, “how could you be so sure that their target was me? By the way, look at the castle. It isn’t bad, is it? I wonder if the guy named Nika had stepped onto the path of the ancient sorcerers.”

In the front, where the black willows grew the thickest, there was a castle in the shape of a fortress covered with green vines and withered leaves. Although the color of the construction was hard to tell through the layers of plants, the pointy end of it had much resembled that of an orthodox sorcerer’s magic tower. To the earliest generations of sorcerers, the pointy ends pulled them closer to the sky, as well as the truth of the world.

When they heard the anecdotes about Nika, both Lucien and Natasha related them to the origin of sorcerers.

Perhaps in the Age of Mythology and the Age of Steam, when dragons, elves, and werewolves ruled the land, it was because of the efforts of those lunatics like Nika that human beings were able to ascend to the power throne. However, because those ancient sorcerers had later gone down too far along the crazy and cruel path, they finally got their karma.

While in this world which was still ruled by divine right, magic had sprouted inevitably. Maybe Nika was not alone here in this world. Maybe in other places, there were more “lunatics” studying and researching just like Nika.

“Nika never learned meditation, nor is he able to cast any spells. But simply by using the incidental surges of his spiritual power, he could already move things and light things on fire. This means that his spiritual power had reached the third or fourth circle, and he’s for sure much more talented in magic than I am. I’m afraid only a few sorcerers in the Congress such as Mr. Brook could rival him before learning magic systematically. He’s such a genius. With so many years of hard work, it’s sensible that he has made such an achievement.” Lucien commented objectively.

However, being talented in magic did not necessarily mean being successful. Among the several geniuses that Lucien that mentioned, only Brook managed to reach the legendary level. In the history of magic, there were pioneers who were probably even more gifted than Nika, but none of them ascended to the senior-rank. However, it was because of the foundation they laid that the following generations could go further and further.

Talking, Lucien and Natasha approached the lonely castle.

A white, unusual-looking bird landed on the stone pillar in front of the castle.

“This’s Nika’s castle. Mr. Nika, the Wise, does not welcome any visitors.” Chirped the little bird with its head held up high proudly.

Lucien smiled. “We wish to visit Mr. Nika the Wise, because we were told that he is an expert in plants and monster patterns. I’m also studying those, so I’d like to exchange some ideas with Mr. Nika.”

“Umm? You’re not another mocker?” Said the bird surprisedly, “you said you’re also studying the secrets of the gods, but how could there be two lunatics? I don’t know if you’re lying or not. Hmm, I gotta test you first. Do you know what I am?”

“You’re the only white crow in the world, Mr. Nika’s pet, and you’re intelligent,” said Lucien smilingly.

The bird flapped its wings, content. “Great answer. But I gotta ask Nika first to see if he agrees to see you, another lunatic!”

After the bird flew into the window above, Natasha asked Lucien, “it’s white because it’s feathers have been dyed, right? There’s no white crow according to Creature Encyclopedia.”

“So it’s the only white crow in the world. Other crows don’t dye themselves.” Lucien grinned.

Natasha realized and shook her head, smiling. “Alright.”

A few minutes later, the castle gate squeaked and slowly opened. Behind the gate, a blond boy in a short, white robe said to them politely, “my teacher wants to meet you in his research room.”

“Teacher? Are you Mr. Nika’s student?” Lucien asked. He was having a difficult time believing that such a well-known lunatic would have a student, a boy who was only around eight or nine! Lucien wondered if the boy was kidnapped by Nika to use for human experiments.

The little boy was very familiar with the look on Lucien’s face, as he had seen it many times before. “I AM Mr. Nika’s student! Mr. Nika is not crazy, but a truly wise man! He knows those gods’ secrets and has extraordinary powers. People say bad things about him because they are afraid of him!”

Then the little boy turned around angrily before Natasha and Lucien could say anything.

Lucien first checked around as usual and made sure that there were no magic defense circles, then he held Natasha by her right arm and walked in with her together, as Natasha’s left arm had become completely paralytic.

Walking through the shabby hall and then up the stairs, they came to a dark corridor. Just as they entered the corridor, the little boy who was still angry at them suddenly spoke. “Mr. Nika is not crazy, really. He’s been cutting up the plants and monsters because he wants to study them. Those hunters also kill, and they are used to blood, but they accuse Mr. Nika of being cruel. They just don’t like the scenes of the experiments.”

He was trying his best to defend Mr. Nika, hoping that the two visitors would agree with him.

“I understand.” Lucien nodded. As a sorcerer, he was also familiar with anatomy. Meanwhile, Lucien also appreciated the little boy; he is a good student.

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When he heard that Lucien said he understood, the little boy was encouraged, so he continued. “The patterns do hold the secrets of the gods. It’s true! Mr. Nika has figured out how the power works, so he can manipulate flame and ice. He can also put people asleep and slow down a fall from high up. He’s even more powerful than the Divine-blooded and the priests!”

“Really?” Natasha also tried to be supportive.

As the conversation went on well, the little boy became quite cheerful. “Really! I also know a little about it. Look!”

The little boy murmured some weird syllables, and his expression became rather serious. Some slight amount of magic waves emerged and formed an invisible hand. The hand then took down one of the candleholders from the left side of the corridor.

“It’s a primitive version of Mage’s Hand,” said Lucien to Natasha through the telepathic bond.

The spell had not been simplified yet, and the boy was mimicking the language of the monsters.

“It’s cool, right?” The little boy raised in the candleholder in pride. Seeing that the two visitors were nodding approvingly, his face glowed with excitement. “Mr. Nika is way, way more powerful than I am! We have neither the divine blood nor the power from gods. It all comes from hard work!”

“Mr. Nika said that we human beings have to rely on ourselves to get rid of the control of the false gods. Others don’t understand, but I do. He’s a truly wise man. He’s even smarter than the gods!” The little boy exclaimed full of admiration.

“Indeed, a great pioneer,” said Lucien seriously.

The little boy’s effort to persuade the visitors was adorable. After being encouraged, he kept talking and talking, unconsciously letting out many secrets of his teacher and the place.

Soon, the three of them came to a door covered with grey beast skin, on which were complicated magic patterns.

It was a Stoner’s skin. Lucien slightly frowned. It seemed that Nika was even more powerful than he thought. Although a Stoner was not as stout as a Stone Lizard, it was still a senior-rank creature as it was able to cast the sixth-circle spell, Petrification.

The little boy knocked at the specific section of the door and said, “Mr. Nika found it in a valley. But the patterns are too complicated, so he’s still trying to figure out their secrets. Mr. Nika uses the skin to protect the research room.”

Then the door opened. The smell of blood that came out from it was overwhelming. The entire room was like a showroom of organs.

In this world, glass had not been invented. The weird-looking hearts, eyeballs, guts, and chunks of flesh were randomly placed everywhere. The windows in the room were narrow, so the entire space was quite dark. It’s normal for someone to feel scared when staying in this room.

A middle-aged man whose black hair was all messy was concentrating on drawing something. On the operation desk in front of him lied a very terrifying monster. The upper part of the monster was a naked woman, and the lower part consisted of eight giant, black spider legs. The naked woman body was covered with mysterious patterns, and its mouth was protruding.

Lucien slightly nodded. It was a woman-spider.

The little boy felt a bit sorry as his teacher completely ignored the visitors. “Mr. Nika is always fully devoted to it when studying the patterns. He will ignore everything else, whether its eating, sleeping, or teaching me. It won’t take long, though.”

Lucien and Natasha exchanged a look, for they were in a hurry. Then Lucien turned to look at the parchment sheet in front of Nika.

There was a very complex pattern on the sheet and a rough coordinate system. Nika’s eyebrows was twisted together. It seemed that he was facing a serious problem.

“(25, 78, 39),” Lucien suddenly spoke.

Nika unconsciously followed Lucien’s instruction and traced his quill pen to the spot, then his eyes opened big and he turned around.

“You know this?”

The little boy was totally lost. Was this visitor teaching Mr. Nika?

“To analyze this kind of pattern, you must break it up. One of the coordinates is…” Lucien gave another pair of coordinates.

Following Lucien’s instruction, Nika finished the analysis of part of the pattern. He stared at the numbers for a couple of seconds, and then his expression changed to a mixture of excitement and mania. He suddenly strode to Lucien.

“How did you figure this out?” Nika’s voice was dry and hoarse.

Lucien did not answer him directly.

“When you’re studying the patterns, you also need to look out at the world. The patterns are indeed mysterious and full of secrets, but what about the world? The sun and moon rise and fall; water flows from a higher position to the lower. What are the secrets behind them? Why is it when we jump up, we always fall back to the ground? Why don’t we float up toward the sky?”

“What’s about it? It’s normal. We must fall back. It’s the ground.” The little boy chipped in.

Nika, however, was shocked.