Chapter 263: Bigger Trouble?
The moment Hal laid his eyes upon the young man almost a decade older than him, all the worries in his heart suddenly vanished like it was a thing of the distant past, similar to how the young man suddenly disappeared without the tiniest ripple in the surrounding mana—just gone.
Hal was left dumbfounded for a moment before his wits returned.
He looked for the young man, and his eyes widened after finding the silver-haired dude in front of the now dried-up corpse of the Midnight Pixie.
Then, at a rate visible to his eyes, the nightmarish monster deteriorated and crumbled into mere ashes that scattered across the rocky ground surface, its core rolling and stopping a few centimeters away from his feet.
What just happened in front of him was nothing short of unsettling, but for some reason, it was difficult to fear the seemingly friendly silver-haired young man in front of him.
The guy seemed like a pretty chill dude, despite his overwhelming might.
Hal concluded that this guy in front of him could only be either a master wizard or a Magna, though the former seemed more likely, as he would’ve, in one way or another, already heard of this guy if he were one of the Magna Novem.
Furthermore, the Magnas are all busy as per Zephyron, likely even more so now that they are down a member and the empire is still deciding who would take Targon’s spot.
"Yo," the silver-haired young man greeted with a warm and friendly smile. "You good?"
"Y-Yeah, thanks for coming to help, though it’s a little weird meeting you here..." Hal probed, remembering that the fell race had always been good at disguises.
There was a fairly high chance this guy was one. If so, then he was only in bigger trouble.
As if confirming his suspicions, the smile on the silver-haired young man’s face vanished, replaced by a sinister, murderous smile.
"Hoh...you’re quite sharp, Hal Fennec."
Hal’s heart sank, and he couldn’t help but despair at the sudden storm-like mana fluctuations from his so-called savior, gritting his teeth in utter defiance.
He didn’t want to die here.
However, could he even last three seconds against the Fellkin in front of him when the bastard killed an S-ranked Midnight Pixie in the blink of an eye?
Was he truly destined to perish today?
The only words he could say in response were:
"You’re...a Seres, aren’t you?"
Even Khatu, the Fell Lord Zephyron had slain in the Eastern Battlefield, was never able to emit such mana fluctuations.
In fact, even Zephyron was considerably weaker than the Fellkin in disguise in front of him—at least from what he had seen on the battlefield—and the only one he could even compare to the bastard was the other bastard that killed Targon, the so-called Atrox Seres.
The silver-haired bastard was most certainly a Seres in disguise.
"Hahahaha!" The young man laughed maniacally. "It’s indeed a good thing that I personally came to take your life...now, be a good boy and hand over your bod–"
The "Seres" then suddenly stopped, his mouth quivering.
Another moment later, the bastard laughed again, this time even louder.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!! HOOOH! Sor– Pfft! Hahahaha! Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t hold my laughter in anymore. Aihh...what a bad actor I was, eh?"
Hal froze in utter bewilderment.
What the hell was happening?
He was already prepared to fight, almost nonexistent as his chances of escaping were, but now, the Seres was...dying from laughter?
Hal couldn’t do anything else but watch until the silver-haired dude recovered.
"Hoooh! You’re a funny dude...Aihh...but to answer your question, no. I’m not a Seres.
I only went to this place to improve my magic by studying this hag monster’s looping illusion spell. You just lucked out, and now that I’m done, I’ll be leaving.
I’m sure you’ll be able to return to Aeloria on your own. See you around, Hal Fennec."
Before Hal could even regather his wits, the young man had already vanished in the same way he appeared—silent, no spatial and void ripples, no mana fluctuations.
The guy simply ceased to exist without any transition whatsoever, like a badly edited video recording.
But then, just when Hal was about to move, he saw something through the sparrow’s eyes: the mysterious silver-haired dude.
The guy was sprinting like a normal human, even momentarily confused at the cave fork before choosing the correct way out in the end.
"W-Wha..."
He was left dumbfounded once more, unsure of how to feel.
Was the guy truly mysterious, or was he simply pretending to be?!
Why the hell would he disappear in a way Hal had never witnessed from either Isolde or Korvus, who were masters of void and spatial magic, yet still leave the cave like a normal human otherwise?
What kind of bullcrap magic did he use to disappear?
"Is he an illusion master?" Hal muttered to himself.
The silver-haired dude could indeed have used illusion magic, reinforced by the fact that he came here to study the Midnight Pixie’s spell.
Hal couldn’t think of any other type of spell that could’ve made such a disappearance and lame exit possible.
Taking one deep breath, he was finally able to recollect himself, glancing around and opening the last cocoon for good measure before heading back.
Hal planned to see what was on the other path and harvest whatever he could from the deadly situation he had just survived.
On his way, his left foot hit something on the ground, capturing Hal’s attention.
His eyes widened.
On the floor and free for the taking was a crimson-colored core, indicating that it was S-ranked.
’T-The Midnight Pixie’s core!’
Hal couldn’t believe he was obtaining something so valuable for free.
This thing would sell for probably at least a thousand gold, no?
He gulped, retrieving the core and storing it with slight guilt and embarrassment in the system’s inventory.
The mysterious silver-haired dude had already left.
Plus, it was a waste to leave such a valuable resource here, so Hal went ahead and took it for himself.