At noon, the sun shines on the mountains, bringing warmth to the earth.
Walking in the barren mountains and sitting in a carriage, Athir soon arrived at the town ahead.
Similar to the information seen before, this place looks very desolate, the surrounding buildings are very dilapidated, and the residents' clothes are very shabby. It seems that they are not living well.
Arriving here, under the guidance of the coachman, Athir walked to the only hotel in the town.
"What? The room on the middle floor has been reserved?"
At the hotel counter, Athir's driver stood at the counter, arguing with a bald middle-aged man: "Is there not even one room left?"
"I'm really sorry about this."
Standing in front of the counter, the bald man in coarse cloth looked at the driver with an awkward expression, "We don't know what's going on. Recently, more and more people have come to our place. Just two days ago, a gentleman booked all the rooms."
"Or, you can stay in the room on the top floor. I promise it will be just as suitable as the one in the middle."
"Come on, it gets cold here at night. How can living on the top floor be the same as living in the middle?"
Looking at the bald man, the coachman was about to argue with him, but suddenly he heard the voice of Athir beside him.
"Stu, forget it, we'll just stay on the top floor."
Looking at the driver in front, Athir spoke directly to stop their quarrel.
For him, there was no difference between living on the top floor and living in the middle. A little bit of cold was nothing for a formal wizard.
At this moment, footsteps suddenly came from the distance.
Looking casually in that direction, Athir was suddenly stunned.
On the stairs ahead, a figure suddenly appeared.
She was a tall girl wearing a black and red robe. She looked very young and had long red hair, which was very eye-catching.
But her appearance was very familiar to Athir. It was Sisti, who had left the Bal Islands with him.
Five or six years have passed, and she has changed a lot. Although her face still looks a bit childish, she is much more mature than before.
Athir could also sense faint fluctuations of energy particles in her body, and it seemed that she had reached the level of a second-class apprentice.
"What is she doing here?"
Standing there, looking at Sisti walking down the stairs in the distance, Athir frowned slightly, feeling something was wrong.
He sensed a strange aura from the other person, and the other person's movements at this moment also seemed very stiff.
"Chip, detect the other party's physical data!"
Looking at the other person, Atier spoke to the chip in his mind.
"Name: Xisti. Strength: 2.7. Agility: 3.3. Constitution: 3.1."
"An unknown aura was detected. After comparison with the database... Mora's parasitism 84.1%, advanced control 78.4%, and crazy demon potion 75.6%..." In his mind, the mechanical prompt of the chip sounded again.
"They are not good things…"
Listening to the prompts from the chip in his mind, Athir couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Whether it is advanced control techniques or Mora parasites, they are both more difficult means of control in the wizarding world, and can forcibly control others to a certain extent.
If a formal wizard casts a spell when the opponent has no ability to resist, even a third-class apprentice will be controlled.
However, both of these spells are difficult to use. Mora's parasitism requires the cultivation of a rare parasite, while the use of advanced control requires carving complex magic arrays on the opponent's body to ensure control. Neither of these spells are spells that regular wizards would use.
The look of Sisti in front of him clearly showed that she was being controlled by someone, which was why she exuded that unique aura.
Standing there, watching Sisti walking out the door in the distance, after hesitating for a while, Athir did not walk forward, but turned around with his back to her and glanced at the corner with his peripheral vision.
Under Athir's gaze, Sisti, wearing a red dress, walked straight out the door.
Outside the door, a group of people were walking in. Leading them was a female apprentice in a black robe and with black hair. Her eyes looked eerie and cold, like the eyes of a snake.
The aura on her body was very strong, already reaching the level of a third-class apprentice. Behind him, several apprentices with similarly stiff movements followed him silently.
At the very end of the team, a handsome young man wearing leather armor and with shiny blond hair followed silently behind, his movements also looking very stiff.
This is Andrew, also an acquaintance of Arthur. Like Sisti, he was one of Arthur's few friends.
At this moment, his movements looked very stiff, and he seemed to be under control as well. There was no expression on his face. He just nodded at Sisti who was waiting in front of him.
"Where is Lord Raman?" a sharp voice sounded on the spot.
In front of Andrew, the black-haired female apprentice had a blank expression on her face. She looked at Sisti and asked.
"Lord Raman is with Lord Miledo, and they are discussing upstairs..."
Looking at the female apprentice in front of her, Sisti spoke softly with a blank expression.
They talked there for a few words, and then the black-haired female apprentice went straight up the stairs, leaving the rest of the apprentices here.
"What are you looking at?"
Finally, after the other apprentices had left, Andrew looked at Sisti and asked.
"That person's back...seems a little familiar."
Staring blankly at a corner, watching the back of a figure in a black robe, Sisti whispered, "It looks a bit like Athir."
As she was watching, the thin man in black robe in the distance suddenly turned around, revealing a broad, bearded middle-aged face.
"Uh... okay."
Looking at this scene, Andrew shrugged his shoulders and smiled with some difficulty: "Come to think of it, I don't know how Athir is doing now... Since he accepted the mission to investigate the mutant orcs, we have rarely received news from him."
"But with his talent, he should have been promoted to a third-class apprentice by now, unlike us..."
At this point, Andrew's eyes darkened and he looked a little decadent.
Time has changed a lot of things. In Athir's past impression, Andrew has always been a confident and proud person, but now he looks very decadent, even a little numb.
The same thing happened to Sisti who was standing by. As she thought about the past and her current situation, her eyes dimmed.
However, they did not notice that in the corner they were looking at before, when their eyes were no longer on it, taking advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention, the appearance of the middle-aged man in black robe suddenly changed and turned into a handsome young man.
Walking silently to the corner, observing the situation of Andrew and the other person through the chip, Athir couldn't help but frown.
Obviously, not only Sisti, but also Andrew and the group of apprentices before, have been controlled by someone. Even this person's strength is not low, and he may have reached the level of a formal wizard.
This discovery immediately made Athir feel a little troubled.
He would never think that a formal wizard would come to this remote corner with such a large group of apprentices just to travel and relax.
The other party should have his own purpose, and it is very likely that his goal this time is the same as Athir's.
Thinking this in his mind, after a while, Athir went upstairs and headed towards his room.
It was not until several hours later that he went downstairs and sat alone in a corner of the hotel, having his dinner.
The dinner looked very rich. It not only had local green bread, but also some local game, which tasted very good.
However, sitting at the wooden table, Athir's attention was not on dinner.
Beside him, a man in black robe and a man in red robe were sitting there, emitting bursts of aura.
(End of this chapter)