Chapter 1 Crisis

A few minutes earlier.

Lin En hid in the shadows of the alley, occasionally peeking out to carefully observe if any bandits were approaching.

His face was slightly pale, his mental state was poor, and his body, only slightly better than an ordinary person's, was already exhausted after running for a long time. He had been hiding and resting in this inconspicuous dark alley for a while, but he was still sweating profusely, both from exhaustion and the scorching heat.

"Fortunately, I know a little bit of sorcery, or I would have been killed by this group of thugs."

Lin En couldn't help but press his temples to relieve the stinging sensation in his brain, a sequela of using magic.

He had been living in seclusion in Deep Rock City for two years, living like an ordinary person, doing simple handicrafts to earn money, never showing his special side. He kept a low profile, and even his neighbors were not very familiar with him.

He never expected that such turmoil would erupt in safe Deep Rock City, and he had to use this accidentally learned power to protect himself.

He had never used it to fight anyone since he mastered it. Fortunately, he had secretly imagined what to do in battle before, so when he encountered a lone bandit, he successfully ambushed him with that magical ability.

Lin En's face was unsightly as his thoughts returned to the shocking changes a few hours ago.

It was just past dusk, and night was just beginning to fall. As always, he closed the door and studied the incomplete book that he had read hundreds of times at home. It recorded a kind of unheard-of magical power, which the book called "sorcery."

Since accidentally obtaining this book, Lin En had read it almost every day, pondering the magical content, never letting anyone know of its existence, and therefore never revealing the power he had obtained after nine deaths and one life according to the instructions in the book.

While he was reading carefully, a noisy and chaotic sound suddenly came from outside, as if a crowd was running away. Feeling uneasy, he went outside and found that many civilians were looking in one direction in horror. There, seven or eight people who did not look like good people were slaughtering guards.

These bandits were obviously strengthened Isoblood Warriors. With a casual slash, they cut the guards in two. With a body slam, they broke the guards' bones. In a short while, they slaughtered dozens of guards. Not satisfied, they laughed and began to slaughter civilians.

A large number of civilians fled in panic, and Lin En was caught up in the crowd. The bandits chased for a while, then seemed to have had enough fun, turned back to loot houses, and the crowd quickly ran away in different directions.

Lin En did not know the specific situation, only that the entire Deep Rock City was in chaos, as if someone was looting in the city. Screams and shouts of killing came from afar. He could only hide everywhere.

As he ran, he discovered that the town was on fire, and the fire was spreading rapidly. He also occasionally encountered the bodies of guards on the road, as if all the troops in the city were dead, making him more and more frightened.

The power of Isoblood Warriors was deeply rooted in people's hearts. Although he possessed magical power, his body was still similar to that of ordinary people. If he was hit by an Isoblood Warrior, he would be seriously injured even if he didn't die. Lin En had no intention of fighting back at all, completely feeling that he was no match for this group of bandits.

He just wanted to find a place to hide and pray that this group of bandits would not find him and would leave after looting.

Unfortunately, the more he didn't want something to happen, the more likely it was to happen. While running away, he ran into a lone bandit, and his heart almost stopped.

As soon as the bandit spotted him, he strode closer, intending to swing his knife and kill him.

Lin En was almost scared silly on the spot. In the end, the instinct to survive prevailed. With the thought of risking it all, he activated the so-called magic. Unexpectedly, the other party was completely unprepared and was directly shot to death by earth spikes. A powerful Isoblood Warrior died in front of him.

For the first time, Lin En killed a powerful enemy with sorcery. In addition to shock, he also felt excitement in his heart.

But he was still sober, knowing that the enemy had never seen this kind of power and was contemptuous, so he was caught off guard and ambushed. Therefore, he did not swell with arrogance and fantasize about stopping all the bandits, but quickly changed direction and ran away.

However, his luck was terrible. He encountered a second lone bandit on the road. This time, Lin En had experience and launched a preemptive ambush, using the other party's ignorance to use sorcery to instantly kill another Isoblood bandit, escaping another calamity.

After running for another distance, he found his current hiding place, where he had been resting until now.

"I don't know if my house has burned down. Fortunately, I brought the book out. I hope I don't encounter any more enemies... I don't know when this group of thugs will be satisfied and leave. It would be best to hide here and wait for them to leave."

Lin En withdrew his thoughts from his memories, lowered his voice, took a breath, patted the book hidden in his chest, and looked worried.

Just then, a burst of chaotic footsteps sounded in the distance of the street.

Lin En was immediately alert. He quietly poked his head out and saw a dozen civilians running away in panic. Each of them had several wounds cut open by sharp weapons, and blood flowed all the way with their violent running.

Behind this group of civilians, a bandit held a short knife, with a morbidly excited smile on his face, following the crowd unhurriedly. As soon as someone ran slowly, he would directly cut the civilian with a knife, stimulating them to speed up.

He didn't kill people, just drove them to torture them, as if he was playing for fun.

"Help! Save me!"

More than a dozen civilians were forced to run, tired and in pain, their faces full of fear. They could only shout for help, but they had been hoarse for a long time, and their voices could not travel far.

Lin En hurriedly pressed himself against the wall, trying his best to shrink into the shadows of the alley to reduce his presence.

Soon, this group of civilians ran past this fork in the road. The bandit chasing after them for fun did not notice Lin En in the alley and was still leisurely driving the crowd.

The sounds of calls for help and screams gradually faded away.

Lin En breathed a sigh of relief and got up to quietly leave along the alley.

But after walking a few steps, listening to the increasingly distant cries for help, Lin En's footsteps slowed down.

His face changed, and he was caught in a dilemma.

"Continue to ambush this time, maybe I can kill this evildoer. As long as I hide and use sorcery, even if I fail, I shouldn't be discovered...

No, it's still dangerous! People haven't found me, don't go out and cause trouble. Although these people being chased live in the same city as me, I don't know any of them. Why should I risk it for strangers..."

Lin En hesitated and struggled in his heart. Reason told him again and again that he should not take risks, and running away was the best option.

But for some reason, he just couldn't move his feet.

Having such power... can I only watch like this?

A second seemed to be extended tenfold or a hundredfold. Lin En didn't know how long he hesitated, but his eyes gradually became firm.

"I succeeded in killing two bandits before, I will definitely be able to do it this time!"

Lin En made up his mind and was about to turn back to save people.

But when he came back to his senses, he realized that the cries for help had disappeared.

Outside the alley was quiet, only the firelight from the burning street shone diagonally on the ground at the entrance of the alley, reflecting the jumping light and shadows.

I hesitated for too long, they have already gone far, am I too late...

Lin En was stunned in place, and the courage he had finally mustered seemed to have been泄掉了.

Deciding to ambush is one thing, but actively chasing after them is another... This shouldn't be within my ability, right?

Lin En couldn't tell whether it was disappointment or luck.

He slowly walked to the entrance of the alley, wanting to take one last peek at the direction they left.

But before his head could poke out...

Without any psychological preparation, a face suddenly stretched out from the side of the wall, with fresh blood stains on its face, face to face with him, less than two palms apart, occupying Lin En's entire field of vision!

This face was exactly the bandit who had just passed by, with a morbid smile, staring straight at him.

"There's another one hiding here~"

Lin En's heart almost stopped beating.

He instinctively retreated in panic, without saying a word, he activated the earth in front of him, and more than a dozen earth spikes shot out.

Pa pa pa—

The earth spikes missed and hit the opposite house, like crossbow arrows, blasting open pieces of brick.

The bandit retracted his head to dodge, then stepped out and blocked the entrance of the alley, looking at Lin En in surprise.

"What kind of ability is this?"

He did not expect this kind of weird attack. Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough to avoid it urgently, and he had lingering fears.

He had discovered Lin En early on, thinking he was just a civilian hiding in the shadows and dare not speak. He pretended not to see him, just planning to give a surprise attack, giving despair when others thought they had escaped. It was full of fun for him.

So he no longer tortured the previous "toys", but killed them all like cutting melons and vegetables, then quietly returned to this alley, preparing to give this terrified and hiding "new toy" a surprise.

Unexpectedly, this was not an ordinary person who could only beg for mercy and help, but possessed some kind of ability he couldn't understand.

The bandit was stunned for a while, and found that Lin En had already turned around and ran for a distance. He suddenly came back to his senses, and his curiosity rose sharply, and he immediately followed.

Ta ta ta—

The two chased and fled in the alley.

The difference in physical fitness was too great, and the distance was quickly shortened.

Lin En didn't care about consumption, and used sorcery one after another. The ground constantly turned into earth spikes, stone pillars, and earth walls, desperately blocking.

But without the surprise of the ambush, the lethality was not strong. All these attacks were resolved one by one by the vigilant bandit without any danger.

Even if it could delay the enemy's footsteps, it could not make up for the difference in speed.

Once he was approached by an Isoblood Warrior... Lin En felt that he could think of a more dignified way to die in advance.

As he released earth spikes and earth walls like they were free, Lin En only felt as if hundreds of needles were piercing his brain, causing unbearable pain, and his vision began to see stars, gradually blurring.

"Damn, I can't hold on any longer!"

Lin En was anxious, panicked, and could only stare as the bandit smashed through the earth wall. His large hand covered with calluses grabbed towards his face, unavoidable.

At this moment, time seemed to slow down, and a series of thoughts flashed through Lin En's mind, with regret, unwillingness, and ultimately everything turned into fear, causing his brain to go blank.

But at this moment, the bandit who had already approached, the grinning face suddenly changed color, and he suddenly retracted his large hand that was grabbing towards Lin En, and held the short knife in both hands and slashed towards the sky.

"What's going o..."

Before Lin En could react, suddenly a strange strong figure fell from the sky, bringing a flash of lightning-like sword light.

Puff!

The bandit who had been chasing him to the point of desperation a second ago was instantly cut in two.

Like a bag full of blood exploding, the scarlet blood radiated out in a fan shape, the scene was extremely tragic!

Lin En stared blankly at Zhou Jing's back falling from the sky, his emotions were agitated, and he couldn't say a word for a while.

Zhou Jing casually shook off the blood beads on the knife, turned his head to look at Lin En, and raised his eyebrows: "Don't be afraid, I'm a good guy."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin En's eyes turned white, his body softened, and he fainted directly on the ground.

"Damn, are you really not giving me face?"

Zhou Jing was startled and quickly stepped forward to support Lin En, slapped him twice, and pinched his philtrum. He found that Lin En was fainting quite solidly and couldn't wake him up.

"It shouldn't be from being scared, it's probably kidney failure."

Zhou Jing's expression twitched.

He originally had a lot of questions to ask this mysterious person who seemed to be from a different power system, but seeing this, he could only swallow them back for the time being.

"I still want to see this person's attributes."

Zhou Jing had no choice but to open the panel and directly activate the detection.

[Attributes: Physique 7, Resistance 9, Perception 10, Spirit 18, Energy 20]

"His spirit is several times higher than mine, and he still faints when he says he will faint. Isn't he just a decoration?"

Zhou Jing muttered.

With such an attribute distribution and the previous combat performance, this was obviously a power system different from Isoblood Warriors, like the mage side.

'This may be a hidden power system, I didn't expect it to really exist!'

Zhou Jing's eyes lit up.

He happened to come to Deep Rock City and get involved in this turmoil, and he was able to discover the new power system he had been looking for... How could I run into this? My luck is getting better!

Of course, it could not be ruled out that this person was a life form from another dimension.

Just thinking about the scene where this person was chased and fled in embarrassment by the initial Isoblood enhancer, it was difficult for Zhou Jing to think in that direction.

——Life forms from other dimensions wouldn't be so weak... right?

"I can only wait for him to wake up and try to probe with words. I can't just chop him with a knife now to see if it can trigger a prompt from another dimension..."

Zhou Jing shook his head, and his big hands began to touch this person's body randomly.

Although the person was not dead yet, fainting was a good time to search the body. Searching corpses was an essential skill for traveling.

A few seconds later, his movements stopped, and he felt a thin thing on this person's chest.

He reached into his arms and took it out. It was a book, severely worn and torn in half.

Zhou Jing opened it and was shocked.

"It actually records knowledge of sorcery?"

There is still a magic-side power system in this world, and the world has never known it?

He roughly read it and found that the "sorcery" recorded in this book seemed to have many differences from the magic system in his impression of the main world.

This book does not record spells, but how to obtain the power of sorcery and how to exercise it. Strictly speaking, this seems to be something like an "introductory manual."

The way to obtain the power of sorcery is not through cultivation or meditation, but must be integrated with something called a "natural spirit" to give oneself the power of sorcery and release mental power.

The different natural spirits fused determine the elemental attributes of one's own sorcery power. No knowledge of spells or magic circuits is required. One only needs to use released mental power to soak materials of the same element to complete a series of changes such as shaping and energizing on the target material to achieve magic-like effects - in the book, this behavior is called "Nian He", which is the most fundamental ability of a wizard.

"This kind of sorcery feels quite different from the various branches of the magic side in the main world. It's more like some kind of primitive version... By the way, who discovered this system? Well, this book doesn't have an author's name, I don't know if it was written by this fainted guy, it doesn't feel like it. A small part is missing at the back, I don't know what the content is."

Zhou Jing frowned slightly, his thoughts racing.

Speaking of which, does this system exist in the Alien Beast World itself, or was it brought in by life forms from other dimensions? If it is the former, why is there only the existence of Isoblood Warriors in the history of the tribal era to the Terra Empire, but there is no mention of sorcery at all?

In the common sense of the natives of the Alien Beast World, there is only one path of Isoblood enhancement.

Could it be that these "wizards" are all hidden among the people and have never revealed their existence? Or is there another hidden reason?

Zhou Jing's mind suddenly flashed with the figure of Roman.

My big... cough, Bill's good big brother, could he be a wizard?

At this moment, he suddenly found that there was information flashing on the panel.

[You have triggered the achievement [Secrets of Sorcery]!]

[You have received 2000 Star Realm Points! [Talent Improvement - Magic (Small)]! [Talent Improvement - Affinity with Nature (Small)]]

"Just coming into contact with sorcery can trigger an achievement... In this world, the power of sorcery is not known to outsiders, and the so-called wizards should be extremely rare."

Zhou Jing pondered for a while, and put the incomplete book into his arms without blushing or panting.

Temporarily preserved!

"Now is not the time to study, solve the enemy and then savor it carefully. Anyway, this person will always wake up, and then it will be convenient to ask this person who has experienced it firsthand."

This book must not be missed, perhaps it can allow the Star Realm Apostle to obtain the current second power system.

And this insider can't be thrown here.

Zhou Jing carried Lin En and decided to go back to find his teammates, temporarily settling this fainted guy to avoid him dying and cutting off the clues.