Chapter 209: Getting His Just Desserts
Fabian’s method was very reminiscent of European fantasy novels. He started chanting some strange words and two magic circles floated up from the bodies of the old timer and the newbie. These two magic circles were joined by a cloudy white light.
Fabian’s hands gave off a white light as well. He sent the white light in his hands into the light between the magic circles. The light joining the circles was agitated by the additional light and started shaking. A minute later, the light shattered.
The shattering of this light made Fabian vomit a mouthful of blood. This process was clearly not easy for him either.
Wu Chen quickly ran forward to support Fabian as he complimented the young man, “You actually managed to do such an incredible thing! You’re amazing!”
“I… I’m a student at the Empire Magic Academy. I escaped the tragedy in my village because I was at school. I didn’t expect to find that my entire village had been wiped out by the evil dragon after I returned.” Fabian had a saddened look on his face as he clenched his palms together tightly.
Su Jin had removed his coat and passed it to the newbie. He dug a hole and buried the unconscious old timer inside, leaving only his head above the soil.
When he turned to talk to Wu Chen, he noticed that Wu Chen was pestering Fabian. After listening to their conversation for a while, he realized that Wu Chen was trying to get Fabian to teach him the magic spell he had just used.
“Are you even able to learn it?” asked Su Jin doubtfully as he tapped on Wu Chen’s shoulder.
Wu Chen looked excited as he said, “It’s possible! The incantations he uttered just now are actually a very rare language that I’ve learned before. And when I just repeated what he said, I did sense an energy within me, except that it seems to be missing a little something.”
Su Jin was surprised, but he guessed that this had something to do with all the major changes that had occurred. So, besides attaining Spirit Power, the owners were now also allowed to learn other powers that existed within Challenges. That would be a way of compensating the owners after reducing all their other powers.
Fabian seemed very unwilling to teach Wu Chen any magic, but he couldn’t outtalk Wu Chen, so he finally sighed and said, “Magic is a power that only the elites in the Empire are able to have. We hold students of magic to a very high standard and not everyone has the aptitude for it either. There are some people who are simply never going to be able to sense magic power.”
.
“You don’t have to worry about that. I sensed magic power just now already.”
“Tell you what. If we manage to slay a dragon this time, I’ll teach you magic. How about that?” Fabian didn’t know how else to shake Wu Chen off.
Wu Chen frowned and said, “Fabian! You don’t know this, but actually, Su Jin and I used to belong to a very large family that has been slaying dragons for years. But because of this, almost everyone in our family has died. Do you know why?”
Fabian gasped because he was filled with admiration and respect for this family that had sacrificed so much for the sake of slaying these evil dragons. At the same time, he didn’t seem to think that two men with different surnames coming from the same family sounded weird at all.
“Why?” asked Fabian.
Wu Chen continued his little story, “Because almost everyone in the family is an ordinary person and we have had to use our physical bodies to fight these dragons. Everyone says that the descendants of the Winchester family are unafraid of these evil dragons, fighting these forces of evil with great bravery. Their blood and lives will go down in history forever.”
“The Winchesters?”
“That’s right! Wu Chen and Su Jin are our first names, while Winchester is our last name. I am Wuchen Winchester, and he is Sujin Winchester. I’m the older brother and he’s my younger brother,” Wu Chen continued with his nonsensical story. He looked at Su Jin and said in an emotional voice, “My dearest younger brother!”
Su Jin felt grossed out and didn’t want to respond, but Wu Chen glared so fiercely at him, as if he was telling Su Jin that he had better cooperate and ruin things for him.
“My… my dearest older brother!” replied Su Jin reluctantly.
Fabian’s eyes were brimming with tears, as though he were greatly touched by the bravery and self-sacrificing spirit of the Winchesters. He took Wu Chen’s hand and said, “Mr. Winchester, I’ll teach you magic! I can’t guarantee that you will be able to pick it up well, but I will do my best to teach you.”
Wu Chen’s eyes were also brimming with tears as he patted Fabian’s hand and said, “Thank you! Thank you so much! The Winchester family thanks you! Every person who has been slaying dragons alongside us in this world will thank you too!”
Su Jin shook his head. Fabian had clearly fallen for it. But if Wu Chen could actually learn magic from Fabian here, that was also a good thing for the team.
He turned back to look at the old timer to see that he was still unconscious. There was no time to waste, so he used his psychokinesis to agitate the old timer and forced him to regain consciousness.
The old timer immediately panicked when he saw that his entire body was buried except for his head. He said to Su Jin, “Uh… my friend, you don’t actually have to be so angry, you know? We’re in the Handbook universe and every owner has to find their own way to survive the Challenges. You know we don’t have a choice.”
Su Jin snorted. “If this was about survival, then I wouldn’t care what tactic you used. Even if I got killed in a fight because I just wasn’t as strong as my opponent, I wouldn’t get angry. But the fact that you’ve attacked a defenseless woman in such a disgusting manner… I will not stand by and do nothing. So… you’re in deep trouble.”
“What do you want?” asked the old timer quietly.
“What do I want? I’m not the victim. You have to ask HER what she wants,” said Su Jin as he pointed to the newbie. After he reassured her earlier, she was feeling much better now. She still looked scared, but at least she wasn’t scared of Su Jin anymore.
Su Jin said gently to her, “You decide what you want to do with him.” He retrieved his Boning Knife from the Handbook and handed it to her.
She took the knife from him with shaky hands and her gaze kept moving between the knife and the old timer. The old timer started to get scared and yelled at her, “Look, I agree that I’ve done something to you that I shouldn’t have, but even if this had happened in the real world, I’d only be put behind bars for a few years at most, so… so… don’t do anything crazy, you hear me?”
“You… you are a demon! You were the one who killed Uncle Yang! An eye for an eye, a life… for another!” Her voice suddenly became shrill as she swung the knife toward the old timer’s neck.
The old timer immediately activated his Spirit Power to block her attack, but Su Jin was already prepared for that to happen, so he used his psychokinesis to break through the old timer’s Spirit Power. The incredibly sharp Boning Knife sliced right through the old timer’s neck.
The old timer’s eyes widened in horror as his head tilted to one side and he breathed his last. Until the moment he died, he was probably in disbelief that he would die at the hands of a woman, and worse still, at the hands of a newbie.
The newbie was trembling all over after she had sliced the old timer’s neck, as though she could hardly believe that she had just killed this demon of a man herself. Su Jin quickly walked over and took the knife away from her. He was afraid that she would accidentally hurt herself, since she seemed so shaken.
“The guilty has gotten his just desserts, so it’s all over now,” said Su Jin as he just patted her shoulder. He really didn’t know how to console others.
“What… what do I do now?” She looked at Su Jin, her eyes filled with confusion, terror and despair. The fact that she hadn’t suffered a mental breakdown despite being a young woman who had been newly selected by the Handbook and had to go through such a traumatic experience showed that she was a really resilient person.
But Su Jin didn’t really know what to do with her either. He sighed and said, “You can follow us for the time being. I will try my best to ensure your safety, but you have to be strong too. After all, nobody can protect you forever in this universe.”
She froze and looked a little fearfully at Su Jin as she hesitated. The previous person who promised to protect her ended up leaving her with a nightmare she could never erase from her memories.
Su Jin noticed her reaction and shook his head. “Forget it. The aim of this Challenge is just to slay a dragon. Once we manage to slay one, the whole thing will end. You can try to find a safe place to hide and just wait.”
He then turned to walk toward Wu Chen and Fabian. She suddenly called out, “I… I’ll go with you guys.”
“What’s your name?” asked Su Jin.
“Xinyu. Zhou Xinyu,” she replied softly.
He frowned slightly, then waved to her to come over. Fabian and Wu Chen were done talking about the earlier spell after a short while, so the trio turned foursome continued hunting down the dragon.
Just like what Su Jin and Wu Chen had guessed, the old timer had been running after a dragon, and it was the same frost dragon that had tried to attack them earlier. That dragon had been moving around on its own, but they had done something while tailing the dragon that made the dragon notice them, which was how the other newbie whom Zhou Xinyu called Uncle Yang had died so tragically.
They were now not too far from that frost dragon. Zhou Xinyu said that the old timer had chosen to stop here because he seemed to have discovered that the frost dragon had stopped nearby.
Wu Chen’s tracking skills were better than that old timer’s, so it didn’t take long for him to find the frost dragon’s tracks. But because Zhou Xinyu couldn’t move as quickly as the rest of them, they moved very slowly. Su Jin ended up carrying her on his back instead. His physical strength had been reduced by 40%, but carrying a small-sized young lady wasn’t a problem for him.
They followed the tracks for an entire day, passing by more villages that had been destroyed. Just like Fabian’s village, all these villages were also covered entirely in frost. Fabian was very sure that this was the same dragon that destroyed his village.
The next afternoon, the four of them finally caught up with the frost dragon in a valley. The frost dragon was more than 10 meters long, and could create wind by flapping its wings, quickly freezing everything inside the valley. The dragon kept making noises that sounded more like sad howls.
“All of you, stay here. I’ll go in and take a look.” Su Jin walked into the valley by himself and found that everything around him was covered in frost. The deeper in he went, the colder it became.
“This might be a Level C Challenge, but if I can kill a dragon just like that, wouldn’t that seem too simple?” Su Jin was puzzled. But when he reached the middle of the valley, he was completely stunned. That frost dragon had disappeared.
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