Chapter 100: Information

“Is this over? Well, the power of the Otherworld—with enough equipment and strength, one could easily take on a hundred.” Zheng Yichen watched the man standing before the altar. The evil Blood Essence swirling around the man was extremely dense. Even after the summoning of the Magic Sword had been undone, it did not disappear. He stood there motionless. After a full ten minutes, the evil Blood Essence around him slowly faded away due to the lack of a supporting source. The lingering effects of the Bloodthirst Curse on his body also vanished.

The man swayed and weakly sat down on the ground. Even though the Blood Essence absorbed by the Magic Sword had continuously healed his body during the fight, these brutes who gained power through evil rituals were not simple opponents. Moreover, there were plenty of them. How could one not get injured when being swarmed?

“Hmm, this will do.” Zheng Yichen took out a pair of parts from his bag, quickly assembled them into a simple three-proportion Alchemical Puppet, and tossed it onto the ground.

The man, who was resting on the ground, looked up at the sky. A black dot was quickly falling toward him.

“…Hey, good evening.”

The man stared silently at the Alchemical Puppet with its mechanical skeleton in front of him. This dropped thing was probably connected to whatever had dropped the ice explosion attack earlier.

“Who are you?”

“That’s not important. I’m here to ask you something.” Zheng Yichen controlled the three-proportion Alchemical Puppet as it examined the man. “With your current strength, you shouldn’t be able to summon High-Level Magic Soldiers, right? Can you tell me about your opportunity?”

“…” The man looked at Zheng Yichen with an indifferent expression. Zheng Yichen didn’t mind and just waved his hand.

“Don’t look at me like that. Just think of me as the overseer of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, responsible for handling a particular set of special cases.”

“Like dealing with the consequences caused by someone losing control while wielding a Magic Sword?” The man spoke slowly after a moment, his voice dry as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time.

“Oh, we don’t handle that.” Zheng Yichen waved his hand dismissively. “There are so many choices in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. Picking the Magic Sword is just asking for trouble. Why should we take responsibility for the consequences of one’s own choices?”

“I met a woman. She made me speed up my summoning of Magic Arms.” The man fell silent for a moment before speaking. The woman he met hadn’t asked him to keep the matter secret. Besides, his encounter with her hadn’t ended well.

“A woman? Not a girl?” Zheng Yichen felt a bit disappointed. If it was a woman, then it probably wasn’t Loris. But who else besides them would have extra permissions for the Magic Weapon Summoning Book?

The man looked at Zheng Yichen with a strange expression.

“Ahem, where did you encounter her?” Zheng Yichen cleared his throat and continued asking. Regardless of any possible connection, it would be better to find her and confirm things first.

The man glanced again at the three-proportion puppet in front of him. This thing had no skin; at night, it could easily scare others. “You’d better not look for her… she’s a Witch.”

“I’ll be careful.” Zheng Yichen didn’t mind, slightly waving his hand again. It was exactly a Witch he was looking for. If it wasn’t a Witch, she wouldn’t be his target anyway. Wait, how did this man know about Witches? Zheng Yichen looked at him with slight surprise, then noticed a pendant hanging from the man’s neck and understood a bit… a member of the Sanctuary Church.

“I last encountered her near Kaja.”

Kaja… Zheng Yichen twitched at the corner of his mouth. Wow, so that meant he had overshot his mark and now had to run all the way back?

“Well, thanks for that. Consider this as payment. Use it carefully—if enemies come at you, just pull the ring and throw it.”

He retrieved a Hand Grenade sized for Human use from behind the three-proportion Alchemical Puppet and handed it to the man. The Alchemical Puppet then took small steps toward the edge of the village, leaving the dazed man behind, staring at the Hand Grenade in his hand… There was a snowflake mark carved on it… probably Ice Attribute. Thinking back to the attack from the sky earlier, this thing was likely the weapon that caused that attack.

Shaking his head, the man stored the item away. As for a reward for providing information, he hadn’t intended to ask for one. Answering Zheng Yichen’s question was an extra request from the woman he had encountered, as the price for being able to more widely use the new Magic Arms in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book.

If anyone asked how he could use so many Magic Arms, he was to tell them the reason. That was what the woman had asked at the time. Though there was no strict requirement, the man clearly understood that if he complied smoothly, nothing would happen. But if he ignored it, it would be like disregarding his own future fate…

“Really…” On the way back, after disassembling and packing away the retrieved Alchemical Puppet, Zheng Yichen rubbed his head and muttered. “It wasn’t a completely wasted trip. I’ll go back to Kaja and search. But as for Witches… are there really that many?”

Zheng Yichen hadn’t found much information about Witches in the Library, but he did find quite a bit in Kaja City’s Library. For ordinary people, encountering a Witch might not happen even once in a lifetime. Or perhaps Witches hid themselves too well—maybe one lived right next to you, but until their identity was revealed, who would know?

Anyway, the situation with Witches in this world… left Zheng Yichen somewhat confused. Why did it have to be Witches? Did those who possessed Witch Power have to be female?

Well~ maybe that was just how this world was. Zheng Yichen soon put the matter out of his mind. Regardless, he would try to search first and then make contact to test things. If she really was a Witch, she might know something about Loris. Witches were, after all, a kind of group.

Upon returning to Kaja City, Zheng Yichen headed straight toward the Mysterious Tavern. But just like last time, when he was still a street away, a green figure intercepted him. “What’s going on? Can’t I go directly to the Tavern?”

“The Tavern is under renovation right now. Going there is pointless. The Book House is better.” Qin smiled at Zheng Yichen. “You came back several days early. Have you gotten used to your power?”

“It’s fine for now. This time I mainly came to ask about something.” After a moment of thought, Zheng Yichen looked at Qin and said. The only Witch he had come into contact with was Loris. Other information came from books—in short, it was just theoretical with little real, practical understanding. “Witches… you know about them, right?”

“Yes, I know.” Qin nodded gently, looking at Zheng Yichen somewhat strangely. “Be careful talking about Witches—you might attract the attention of the Sanctuary Church.”

Sanctuary Church? Zheng Yichen curled his lip. I’ve already been on their radar, okay. “I’m not worried about that. I want to find the traces of a Witch…”