"Maybe he got kidnapped!"
Pavian stood up and said to Kale.
"Kidnapped?"
Kale couldn't understand Pavian's words for a while. Kidnapped? What did he mean?
"Yes! Kidnapped! He got kidnapped on the way!"
Being kidnapped, it was a perfectly plausible explanation. After all, wasn't he a once-in-a-century immeasurable talent?
"...That's definitely possible."
Kale nodded to Pavian after considering his words.
"I should have gone myself!"
Now fully convinced that Soo Hyuk had been kidnapped, Pavian grinded his teeth as he muttered. If Pavian had been there, then the safety of the new talent would've been guaranteed!
After all, who would dare to kidnap someone under a Spire Lord's care? Even other Spire Lords wouldn't be able to.
"Kale!"
Pavian yelled.
"Yes!"
Kale answered.
"Find him!"
Pavian yelled again.
"Yes, sir!"
Kale rushed out of the room as soon as he answered. After Kale left, Pavian sat down again and thought.
'Who is it?'
Who would dare to kidnap the immeasurable talent?
'I don't know for sure, but.'
Pavian pulled out a bunch of vials from his sleeves.
'I'll kill him.' (TL: I like him.)
He wouldn't kill them straight away. He would slowly torture them with poison until they begged to be killed. Pavian would then finally kill them with the most painful method he knew. Pavian finished pulling out all sorts of vials from his clothes and started double-checking all his personal poison for the upcoming torture.
* * *
"What, really?"
Kale asked again.
"Ye-"
"This isn't time for jokes. He's seriously angry this time."
"I'm really not joking sir."
Kale was speechless at the Magician's words. Like Pavian, he had also been fully convinced that the immeasurable was kidnapped, but the Magician's words changed everything.
Kale had sent teams of Magicians varying from Rank 1 to Rank 6 to investigate. They were finally able to locate the talent. He wasn't kidnapped, or in any sort of trouble.
"He went to the library?"
The immeasurable talent had gone to the Matab Library.
"Why did he go there? Why didn't he come straight here? Why would he do that?"
Kale felt like he was going crazy. Why didn't he go straight to the Tower of Poison?
"I'll continue my work then."
Kale's subordinate, Rank 1 Magician Peru said.
"Okay, but it's true, right?"
Kale asked again as he held up a piece of paper.
"...It's true."
Peru answered. He then said goodbye and and exited the room. Kale stared at Peru's back as he exited and turned his head towards the piece of paper.
"Eheww..."
Kale sighed deeply and also went out of the room.
"They wouldn't deceive me like that."
After coming out of Peru's room with the paper in hand, he headed to Spire Lord Pavian's room.
But when he arrived outside the room, his face crumbled.
'What is this...'
There was a fishy smell coming from the room.
'Is he concocting a new kind of poison?'
Kale couldn't recognise the smell even though he was the Vice Lord. Just in case, Kale wrapped his mana around him to protect himself and knocked on the door.
"Wait a bit!"
Kale heard Pavian's voice from inside the room.
"You can come in now!"
Kale opened the door at Pavian's words. As soon as he entered, his mana cloak changed colour.
"...Woah."
Kale was shocked at the phenomena.
'What did he make?'
If Pavian told Kale to wait, then it was definitely dangerous. It looked like Pavian couldn't fully get rid of the poison, but that tiny bit of poison managed to change the colour of Kale's mana. It was definitely an extremely dangerous poison. Pavian was sitting inside with a dignified expression.
"Did you find him?"
"Yes, please look at this."
Kale handed the sheet of paper to Pavian. Pavian received the paper and looked at the information.
"..."
Pavian's dignified expression turned into a confused one as he kept reading.
"What?"
Pavian exclaimed. Kale opened his mouth to explain to Pavian.
"It's exactly as it's written."
"...Then he wasn't kidnapped?"
"Yes."
Kale nodded.
Kale then tiled his head. Pavian wasn't saying anything.
"Haa..."
Pavian sighed deeply.
"What a relief."
He had thought that the immeasurable talent was kidnapped, but it seemed like this wasn't the case. It was truly a relief for Pavian.
"Okay. But why did he go to the library?!"
The paper said that he had gone to the library, but not why.
"I think we have to ask that ourselves."
Kale also didn't know the reason.
"Okay!"
Pavian stood up energetically.
"I'll bring him here now."
"...Really?"
Kale couldn't help but do a double take.
"Will you be going personally?"
"Yep. I want to move my body around a bit."
"...I understand. Then I'll go prepare..."
"No, you don't have to prepare anything. I'll just go now."
As Pavian said that, the staff on the corner of the room flew over to his hand.
'Now, where exactly is the library?'
Pavian tried to recall where the library was. But since he had visited the library a long time ago, he couldn't remember fully. In the end, he just chose a warp circle near the library.
Whoosh!
Pavian looked around him when he arrived at his first destination.
'It's been a while.'
Pavian could see the library towering near him. He started to walk to the library.
"Hmm?"
Pavian suddenly stopped, and a massive amount of mana erupted from him.
'Who dares?'
To fire a spell in Matab, you needed to be at least a Rank 1 Magician and you also had to be registered in the Spire. Pavian felt a magical fluctuation that wasn't of like Rank 1 Magician. Pavian turned towards where he felt the magic fluctuation and rushed there.
'Which bastard is it?!'
Who was using magic so blatantly?
"It's that bastard! Who's he attacking…huh?"
When he saw who the magic was aimed at, he couldn't help but help panic greatly.
'Why...'
It was someone who should not be here. The individual he had seen countless times through pictures. Pavian's goal for coming here. It was the young man with immeasurable talent.
"Electro ball."
Pavian heard a voice and felt a great burst of magic at the same time. Pavian hastily made a poison fog inside his palm and unleashed it towards the spell.
'This retarded son of a b*tch!'
The electro ball was drowned in the poison fog and extinguished.
Pavian then pounced menacingly at the caster like a war god and howled,
"JUNIOR YOU DARE!!!"
* * *
[You are paralysed for 2 seconds.]
[You were attacked by user 'Adilo'.]
[Your relationship with user 'Adilo' is now 'hostile'.]
Soo Hyuk on his to buy some bread. But a message suddenly appeared as he lost feeling in his body.
'What?'
He panicked.
'Adilo?'
Soo Hyuk looked at the message. The attacker was called Adilo. He wanted to see what he looked like, but he couldn't move straight away as he was paralysed. But when he checked his stats, he was shocked.
'F*ck, this crazy bastard.'
Soo Hyuk couldn't help but swear at the attacker. His original 3000 health was reduced to a dangerous 500.
2500 were gone in one attack. 2 seconds passed agonizingly slowly. When he wasn't paralyed anymore, Soo Hyuk quickly rolled away to look at the attacker.
He had to know who this crazy 'Adilo' was. When Soo Hyuk rolled away and turned to look at the battlefield, he saw many things.
'That creepy stalker?'
First, Soo Hyuk could recognise the attacker. It was the creepy stalker that followed himto the library and threatened him.
'Am I going to die?'
Second, he could see the second electro ball cackling with electricity fly towards him. 500 health left, was he going to die like this?
"Hmm?"
Third, Soo Hyuk noticed a green fog that suddeny appeared in front of the electro ball. Soo Hyuk tilted his head in confusion at the sudden appearance of the fog.
'What's happening?'
When the green fog expanded, he couldn't see Adilo anymore. But the green fog had blocked the electro ball for him.
Soo Hyuk hurriedly looked around him to check who his saviour was, but he couldn't see anyone that might've fired the fog. Since Adilo hadn't fired it, it must have been someone else.
'Who was it?'
But then, he heard a crazy shout.
"JUNIOR YOU DARE!!!
Soo Hyuk finally found the person. He was angrily staring at where Adilo was with a look that could kill.
Although he couldn't see Adilo now, he was sure that the unfamiliar man was glaring at Adilo. Who was he?
'But...'
Soo Hyuk turned his head to stare at the mass of green fog again.
'This guy is insane.'
He didn't think that Adilo would try to kill him because he didn't answer his question. Soo Hyuk found this too absurd. What if the other man hadn't been able to save him?
He would've died.
'If only I was stronger than him.'
Soo Hyuk thought. What if he was stronger than Adilo? Adilo wouldn't even dare to make a move. This had all happened because he was too weak.
'I have to be an Archmage quicker.'
Originally, Soo Hyuk didn't have any plans for hunting yet. He was going to read all the books in Matab Library before he tried to become an Archmage. But it looked like he had to adjust his schedule.
This type of incident didn't happen often. In fact, it could never happen again. But it wasn't set in stone. There was always that possibility.
Soo Hyuk decided to level up to prepare for the future. And when Soo Hyuk just made the decision, the green fog dissipated.
When the fog disappeared fully, Soo Hyuk saw an unexpected scene. Adilo, who could casually fire an attack that almost killed him, was lying down on the ground, dead.
"Are you okay?"
Soo Hyuk turned away from the corpse to the mysterious man that saved him.
"Ah, yes. Thank you so much."
Soo Hyuk sincerely thanked the man for saving him.
"No, I'm the one that's thankful. You could have been hurt after all."
But when the mysterious man replied, Soo Hyuk couldn't understand what he meant.
'He knows me?'
He thought that the man had just saved him on a whim. But it seemed like there was more to the story.
"Do you perhaps, know me?"
Soo Hyuk asked.
In reply to his question, the man just smiled widely.
"...Do you know who I am?"
The man questioned back.
'Huh? Do I know him?'
But Soo Hyuk couldn't recognise his face no matter how hard he racked his brain.
"No, it's my first time meeting you..."
If there was one thing he was confident of, it was his memory. Soo Hyuk was sure that it was his first time seeing this man. Soo Hyuk spent most of his in the library, so he didn't even meet a lot of people.
"So, I don't know who you are..."
Soo Hyuk's voice trailed off as he continued speaking.
"Hahaha..."
The strange man laughed in response to his words.
"I didn't expect this. Aren't you too cut off from the world?"
The mysterious man then continued,
"My name is Pavian."
"Pavian?"
Pavian, he had heard that somewhere before. Soo Hyuk desperately tried to recall where he had heard it from. Then Soo Hyuk suddenly froze, and slowly looked up at the mysterious man.
"The Poison Spire Lord?"