NOTE: AL WRIGHT’S NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED TO ELLIOT AFTER MUCH CONSIDERATION.

-Chapter 59, DGM-

Within half an hour of receiving the syndicate's message, Link and the others galloped their way to the entrance of red leaf valley with horses.

It was late autumn, and the maple leaves in the valley blanketed the ground in a fiery carpet. Various weeds and shrubs had grown into a thick hedges. Other than the thin stream in the brook, the place was dark. Any thick bush, large tree, or perhaps the back of a boulder; anything could have a robber hiding behind it, waiting to ambush them.

If they walked into the valley defenselessly, they would meet their end.1or walk into another trap

There was a narrow and rugged alley in the thickets of red leaf valley. The horses could not enter here. Dismounting their horses, four people prepared to go on foot.

Hank carried his s.h.i.+eld, standing at the front of the formation. Annie stood on Link's left and Greedin was positioned behind Link. The formation was one where they protected the magician – Link – in the centre.

Within a moment of entering the valley, a notification popped out in Link's vision.

Serial mission triggered: The viper of Gwinnett forest!

First part: Rescue

Mission description: Rescue follower Lucy who has been taken captive by the syndicate.

Mission reward: 20 free points

Link accepted the mission without a flicker of hesitation. Currently, he had 14 free points, and 96 mana. His 'gla.s.s pearl' only required 1 mana and his level 1 magic 'whistle', 4 mana. If anything, Link had powerful fighting capability, provided he used his spells wisely.

The woods was dark, To prevent ambushes, Link casted a ‘beginner detection’. His vision dimmed. Plants would have steady and peaceful light, while animals would have lively and pulsing light. This allowed him to differentiate between them easily.

The three people by his side had very strong light pulsing from them. Hank’s light was earth-yellow, and the densest. This represented his warrior qi was the largest out of all them. Annie’s light was dark, an effect of her warrior qi breathing method, ‘concealed shadow’. What surprised Link was that Greedin’s light was green. This was the effect of the wind element.

The green radiance was much denser than when Link had first saw it. It seemed that although although Link had not casted ‘mysterious strength’ on him and given him the tempering method yet, he had already achieved impressive progress.

They walked for around 5-6 minutes.2typos in raws, it said it’s three people but it’s supposed to be four Suddenly, Link spotted a boulder 50 meters away with fast, pulsing light. It was the syndicate’s men.

This person was still pretty far from the four of them, and he had hidden himself well. Annie and the others had not noticed him, but he could not escape Link’s magic!

Currently, they had no idea of the situation inside red leaf valley. This robber was just in time…Link began to take action.

His magic wand quivered as mana surged into it. A dim blue gla.s.s pearl condensed quickly.

“Go!”

Link stabbed his magic wand at the boulder. The gla.s.s pearl shot out with a hiss, zipping over 50 meters in a flash. Just when it seemed like it would collide with the boulder, it curved around the boulder and reached the back of it.

“Bang!” A painful shriek came from behind the boulder. The gla.s.s pearl had hit its target.

Hank and Greedin were well-acquainted with this spell of Link’s, and were not surprised. However, it was Annie’s first time seeing it. She whispered to Link curiously, “Link, what magic is this? Why is the range of it so far?”

She was much more informed about magic than Hank and the mercenaries. She knew that simple elemental magic spells’ ranges were typically around 30-40 meters. However, she estimated the spell Link had just casted to be around 60 meters.

Link motioned for everyone towards the rock while explaining, “It’s the same old fireball spell, but I made some changes. Still remember that night when the dark elf magician used his magic skill? I added something similar to my spell.”

“Oh, a magic skill.” Annie caught on.

Then the weight of her statement struck her. For Link to produce a magic skill was a direct testament to Link’s profound understanding towards magic. Furthermore, the process of altering spells was a laborious one. Even if it was a level 0 magic spell, it required countless experiments. It was not something that could be simply accomplished within a few moments. Even if a prestigious level 6 magician took a shot at it, he would need several months to muster a stable magic skill.

(Tler’s note: Magic skill is also known as magic technique, super magic technique, super magic skill, whatever.)

Annie clearly remembered that in Glaston city, Link did not have this magic skill. How much time had it pa.s.sed since then? With a little over a month, Link had already leaps of improvement in his magic. What kind of talent in magic did he have?

If only Annie knew about Link’s whistle…she would have been absolutely dumbfounded.

Link did not have much time to explain, so he simply nodded.

The four of them circled around the boulder, and spotted a robber fitted in brown leather armour thras.h.i.+ng about on the floor. The fireball had taken off his left arm. The burnt smell of scorched flesh permeated the area. His arm, from the wrist to his shoulder-socket, had been fried.

Although there had been many movies and televisions about superheroes who could still leap and frisk about even if their arms had been snapped, it was much different in reality. The pain from a broken or fractured arm was near unbearable. The robber’s face was deathly pale, howling from anguish as he foamed at his mouth. Forget escaping, for him to maintain consciousness was already quite the feat.

Hank crouched beside the robber, roughly tearing apart a strip of cloth from the robber’s clothes. He tightly bound the robber’s injured arm before suspending it to prevent excessive blood loss. Then he sharply hit the robber in the stomach, forcing back the robber’s screaming down.

Link aimed the tip of his magic wand at the robber’s forehead. The icy light of magic peeked out of the wand’s end. “Speak, where did you hide the woman?”

This was only a level 1 robber, nothing much different from an ordinary person. The threat of magic on this robber was quite effective. Shuddering violently from the pain, the robber choked out, “A…At the whitebait3 a fish i think river, in a red…log cabin.”

“Whitebait river?” Link had no idea where that was.

“Senior, I know where that is.” Hank interjected.

Perfect. “About the abducting matter, specifically who did it?”

“I-It…It was Senior Ander. He’s a peak level 3 a.s.sa.s.sin…extremely powerful…” The bandit swallowed thickly, his face scrunched in agony. He did not want to reply, but he was terrified of the man’s magic.

Ander? Link blinked. He had heard of this guy before. In the later generations, to kill Morris, the villain behind the whole syndicate ordeal, Ander was the first gatekeeper. At that time, he was a level 5 a.s.sa.s.sin.

Who would’ve thought that Ander was only a tiny ringleader in Gwinnett forest now?

Ander did not have any flashy abilities. His trademark quirk was his nature. He was a cruel, apathetic psychopath, a deranged pervert through and through. If he was released on the earth, provided the circ.u.mstances allowed it, he would have become the living incarnation of Jason 2.4 you know, teh friday 13th dude with a chainsaw

The only worrisome thing was that the inside information of the syndicate surpa.s.sed the dark brotherhood by far. It had many, many cards to play. Even if Ander’s strength wasn’t anything big, it could not be said the same for his equipment, drugs, or perhaps potions.

After thinking, Link asked him again, “How many people have been deployed in the valley? How strong are they? Their equipments? Weapons?”

He was actually worried about Lucy’s condition now, because a maniac like Ander would definitely not play with the rules of common sense. Or even morals.

The robber paled even further. “I don’t know-ack-I’m only a small grunt, please spare me…”

He truly didn’t know anything. Without waiting for him to finish, Link released ‘master’s hand’5or magician’s hand and used it to snap the robber’s neck.

This was an issue, no, a war between the syndicate and them. Sparing someone? Allow him to return and report information about them? Bulls.h.i.+t.

“Move, we’ll go whitebait river!”

Hank knew whitebait river, so he led everyone else. As they continued forward, Link consistently casted ‘beginner’s detection’. Three more robbers were discovered. They were promptly crippled with a ‘gla.s.s pearl’, interrogated, then slain.

Another few minutes of walking saw them whitebank river. When they reached the whitebank river, they more or less grasped the situation.

Ander had clearly not taken Link’s offer to trade. He had gathered the most elite and experienced members of the syndicate to lie in ambush near the river, and had even changed into a special suit of equipment himself. They were all winded for battle.

As for the special equipment, Link did not even need to look at it to guess: it was a magic-resistant armour aimed against battle magicians.

The four of them followed a concealed path, and approached the river nearer. The log cabin finally came into view.

Their information was that the abducted woman had been locked inside the log cabin. However, when they reached the river, everyone saw a scene that made their bloods boil.

Lucy was not inside the log cabin. Wrists splayed, body bloodied, she had been hung suspended from a large tree outside the log cabin. Any visible flesh was full of criss-crossed wounds, and there seemed not to be any spot of flesh undamaged. Flesh blood seeped from her gaping skin, dripping from her motionless body. From their position, her head was drooping lifelessly and her thick, wavy red-hair had hidden her face. They were unable to make out whether she was still alive or not.

How cruel!

Hank's sun-weathered dark face was now dark red, almost purple, with fury. He gripped the shaft of his iron warhammer6is it supposed to be steel? so hard that his knuckles turned bony-white, his warhammer violently trembling. The sound of Greedin's grinding teeth was terribly loud as his eyes shot daggers at Ander's figure like a crazed murderer on a spree. Even Annie, an outsider, was appalled. "How savage! Brutal! We must let this beast in human skin pay his price in blood!"

Link's face was emotionless, his face frozen in place. But his eyes seemed to grow increasingly darker. His breathing slowed. He had already entered his battle state of mind.

Lucy was still alive. His 'beginner's detection' skill confirmed so, but Ander's actions had successfully roused something in him.

It burnt. It raged. It howled for release.

Red, hot, seething fire surged through Link's head. Ander's blood needed to be split to quench this fire in him.

'I'll give you a taste of my magic.' The air around Link began to fluctuate wildly.

He was angry.

-Chapter 59, end-

Had to conjure up the inner writer in me for the last part. Annie was outraged at Ander's actions, but she was a princess after all and couldn't just curse him with crude language. As for Link…well, I tried to make it the best I could while retaining the originality from raws. Raws was written poorly imo. "Taste my magic" really author? lol

Next chapter will come out soon enough since I myself can't wait for a.s.s whooping.

And I can't stress this enough but don't read this translation anywhere else but on Isohungry for aggregator users. For many obvious reasons, aggregator sites are normally looked down on by the novel community.

Tler’s notes: