Warlock of the Magus World – Redux

'Aralis, bring out the map.'

At Leylin's command, a map came into view. It was more detailed than the one he had gotten from the Quest Hall receptionist yesterday and had a route carefully marked out.

'Now, compute the most optimal travel route. It has to approach as many Magi assembly points as possible.'

[Understood, Doctor. Processing task...]

Heeding Leylin's voice, a red line showing the route surfaced on the map. It was a little different than the one he got from the old man. There were several more turns, and they were all in the vicinity of Magi gathering places.

'Let's go.' -Leylin followed the route that was given to him by his A.I. assistant and drove the horse carriage forward.

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Hours had quickly gone by, and the sun was now setting on the horizon.

'Danger is the scantiest when in the regions that are closest to the academy. As I stray further from the area cleared by Harosi, more and more creatures will start to appear. The Magi protecting the academy were too lazy to pursue any fleeing enemies, so it is likely that the next part of my journey will be littered with danger.' -Leylin thought with a smile.

[I have extended my security perimeter to its full extent of 15 km. Nothing outside my range will be hidden to you, Doctor. Unless their camouflage is above my systems' detection, of course.]

Leylin's horse carriage rapidly dashed on the road and the bird cries on either side of the road decreased in comparison to how it was before. He was seemingly nearing dangerous territory.

As the distance between Leylin and the academy grew, he became more and more relaxed. His mask began slipping, and if someone was to provoke him now, all hell would break loose.

[Doctor, I've detected a high-energy living organism ahead. Estimated threat scale: peak B-Class. Do you want me to retrace a path around it?] -Aralis informed with a rigid tone.

As her voice sounded out within Leylin's ears, a red tree-like object was projected onto the holo screen. There were huge branches spread across the area, with many red spots of lights also floating above it.

'No. I will stay my course.' -Leylin immediately reduced the speed of the carriage.

With the horse carriage drawing nearer, the approaching scene entered Leylin's sight. He promptly got down and proceeded on foot.

In the middle of the road, there stood a huge ancient tree. Its green branches seemed to extend endlessly in all directions, forming a very large canopy with numerous vines hanging down.

On the enormous trunk was a pair of glowing green eyes, a bulgy nose, and a mouth. It looked like the human face of an old bearded man.

Surrounding the tree, a few winged creatures were continuously flying around. Their skin was of a blueish green and they were shaped like tiny women, about the size of a 10-year-old. Despite their size, however, their features showed a maturity that contrasted with their apparent age. They were also stark naked.

'If it isn't a Giant Tree Demon... Apparently, that Harosi did an even worse job than what I had imagined at first.' -Leylin was not fazed by this creature standing in the middle of the road, and since he had no intention of deceiving the tree, his outward bearing reflected this.

"An acolyte of Abyssal Bone Forest Academy? Leave now or face the consequences." -The huge tree spoke in a deep mystical voice, and the winged creatures that were now sat on its branches also turned their eyes to Leylin. They surely were not expecting a teenage boy to react impassively to their presence.

"I am nothing if not a generous man. I will give you one chance to surrender your heart to me. Do so, and your children will be spared." -Leylin said matter-of-factly, as if he weren't issuing a threat to a mighty arcane being.

The heart of a Giant Tree Demon was an extremely valuable ingredient. It was so polyvalent that it was part of over 100 different types of potions recipes. It also had many uses in enchanting and magical crafting. Naturally, coming across the opportunity of harvesting a fresh heart out of one of these specimens was not something that Leylin would pass on.

"You lack wisdom, young human. Only death awaits to any organism who tries to take my heart." -The giant tree let off a reverberating noise that made every nearby animal run for their lives. At the same time, a green vine was gradually lowered from its branches. Hanging from it was a human corpse. Its whole body was decayed, and it was wearing the trademark grey robes of an Abyssal Bone Forest Academy acolyte.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me? Managing to eliminate a piece of trash is hardly enough for me to cower in fear." -Leylin just chuckled as he placed a hand on his blade's pommel.

The Giant Tree visibly frowned. Even the level 3 acolytes he had killed in the past had not been as arrogant.

"Big brother, you should learn some respect. Why don't you come over, and let me teach you..." -At this moment, a little sprite that had been flitting around the Giant Tree Demon hovered close to Leylin in erratic patterns.

Her words matched the pleasant and soothing voice of a girl. Nonetheless and despite it being a very intoxicating sound that few men could resist, they had not met with a normal acolyte tonight. Leylin had fortified his psyche to a level that was not even funny. Same as with Jayden's truth-detecting spell, this magnitude of power could simply not break through his resistance.

The brown-haired teen suddenly raised his right hand and took out his advanced crossbow as he pulled the trigger.

A black line streaked across the air and flew directly into the forest sprite from earlier, piercing her skull in between her eyebrows.

Some kind of green fluid that appeared to be juice from a tree was flowing out of her forehead, as she fell onto the ground lifeless.

"Trying to charm me, sweetheart? Not going to work." -Leylin smirked, as he was already aiming at another sprite.

"Dyrisse! That human killed our beautiful sister Dyrisse!" -The enraged and shocked voices of the other green forest sprites came from the treetops.

"You truly dared to kill my daughter!" -The Giant Tree Demon let out a furious roar, its huge vines racing towards Leylin.

Leylin knew perfectly how the Tree Demons and the forest sprites had a symbiotic relationship. The sprites lured their prey and shared their energy with the Tree, and in return, it granted them protection from the outside world. Sometimes, more often than not, the Tree would 'adopt' the sprites. Given how the Tree Demons maintained a deep connection to the green, they tended to conceive themselves as the guardians of such mystical creatures inhabiting the woodlands.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure that your other precious daughters only bleed slowly to death. Killing you without any witnesses would just be a waste, wouldn't it?" -Leylin met the Demon's roar with his calm statement, letting out his evil aura that could make any man shiver.

[These vines' attack range is only 20 meters, Doctor! Their movements are also extremely slow, making it the tree's greatest weakness!] -Aralis provided her Master with feedback on the opponent.

'Good. That means I'll just have to take my time.' -Leylin was happy that he would get to kill something so early in his journey.

Leylin drew his cross blade and immediately activated the ESP Matrix, along with the Secret Skill he had stolen from Neela. It granted him 2 more AGI at the cost of 2 STR. Since his Black Cobra Style relied on speed, this skill was perfectly suited for him.

Two sprites wanted to take him by surprise, but he was too fast. In a single move, he was able to slice their wings and legs, causing them to cry in pain.

Their voices sounded like little girls but with a mystical echo attached. This only made Leylin's smile grow wider.

"How dare you hurt my daughters! I am going to turn you into a shriveled corpse and hang you on my body for a hundred years!" -The giant tree demon's roots emerged from the ground and stood up like a human before chasing Leylin.

"Such pitiful attempts will only end up boring me. Put some effort into it, Demon. Your daughters are getting diced up here." -Leylin taunted as he dodged the vines.

He kept inflicting the same dose of violence on the remaining 5 forest sprites, removing their legs and wings to prevent them from escaping. Without their charming spells, they were practically useless in combat.

The 7 sprites constantly yelled out as they wiggled on the ground, their blood and tears moistening the soil below. Instead of being annoyed by it, Leylin was elated. Mostly because of the reaction he was getting out of the Tree Demon. Its face contorted in anger every time Leylin evaded its attacks, and its wooden eyebrows twitched whenever the sprites cried.

Just then, a dark green tree vine whipped at Leylin. He rolled away, easily evading the attack.

The green vine was like a giant whip, and as it smashed onto the ground it left a deep hole.

Leylin slashed with the cross blade and chopped the vines that came at him nonstop. The silvery-white blade had made contact with the surface of one vine several shades darker than the rest, and it ended up leaving no more than a dent on it. This vine's composition was comparable to steel.

"Taking me seriously now does not help your cause. Your fate is sealed." -Leylin said with his dark smirk not disappearing, as he started to use his full strength to wield his weapon.

Leylin was now capable of cutting up dozens of those stronger vines at a time, making it seem like he was fighting a sea of them.

"Great Father! We will help you!" -Eight more green tree sprites swooped down, and they even carried small bows in their hands that looked like toys. However, when Leylin saw the dark green liquid on the arrowhead, his expression changed.

Not into one of fear, but into a more deranged face that could belong to a psycho killer.

"You lack wisdom, Demon. Bringing out your last surviving daughters to fight me? And with poisoned arrows, no less... Let me show you what happens when you try to put out a fire with a glass of water!" -Leylin withdrew a purple potion from his waist pouch and viciously flung it at the forest sprites.

Before the sprites could even take proper aim at Leylin, the test tube broke and a gust of purple misty smoke rose, turning into the shape of a harpy. The harpy opened its mouth and let out an ear-piercing scream that targeted the group of sprites.

The focused sonic boom caused by the mist harpy was enough to directly blow the sprites' heads off, their brain matter splattering all over the Tree.

'The Howling Witch potion. Such a piece of art. Definitely worth the 20 crystals I spent on it.' -Leylin's expression made it seem as if he was appreciating a painting in a gallery, whilst the greenish blood still rained all over.

Using potions to mimic the effects of a magic spell was the standard fighting technique used by a Potioneering Master. With Leylin's current knowledge, he could not brew the Howling Witch potion yet, so this potion had been bought from Kroft. But he would get there eventually.

Taking advantage of the fact that even the Giant Tree Demon was struck by the Howling Witch potion, Leylin began to torture some of the agonizing sprites by cutting off their fingers, one phalanx at a time.

"Hurry up and save them, Papa Tree! Look at how much they're suffering! Hahahaha!" -Leylin was simply enjoying himself. It resembled as if he had his guard down.

"Oh, no... Julie, Delia..." -The Tree lamented, as its vines slowly began to rise again from the ground after being stunned by the mist harpy.

The Vitality of the Giant Tree Demon was extremely high. It quickly recovered from the shock caused by the Howling Witch potion.

Staring at Leylin torturing its daughters to death, it could not help but howl loudly. More of the vines came snaking over, and they carefully moved the limp bodies of the yet-alive sprites to the crown of the tree.

Believing that Leylin had dropped his guard altogether, the Tree launched its biggest and oldest vines at him. These vines were brown in color and could pierce through even some enchanted armor.

The Giant Tree Demon roared louder than ever, and countless vines interweaved forming a huge wooden palm, making a grab at Leylin.

Abruptly, the Farlier heir blinked in a series of speed bursts, getting up close and personal to the Tree and bypassing its offense. The huge vine palm could not make it in time to counterattack.

At that moment, Leylin's eyes flashed, and he hurriedly chanted an incantation: "Acidic Aqua Shot!"

A green-colored sphere appeared in front of him, and with Leylin's control, it avoided the inferior green vines trying to stop it and hit the nose of the Tree spot-on.

White mist rose continuously, and green thick fluid flowed out along with the cries of the Giant Tree Demon accompanying it.

After the white mist dissipated, the left side of its face was gone, leaving only a charred hole. The effect had not stopped though, and it was continuously melting its face.

"Such was your hurry to crush me, that you left yourself without any defense. This could hardly be called a fight. A dance is more like it." -Leylin mocked, his impassive look once again on his features.

"You won't get to my heart! I won't let you!" -The Giant Tree Demon trembled and the brown vines continuously weaved around its face, forming a tightly-packed shield.

"Alas, I am bored now." -At this moment, Leylin had already arrived at the bottom of the Tree. Its crown completely blocked the moonlight, creating a penumbra under it.

"Pathetic formation. Here, take this." -Leylin scoffed as he threw a bag filled with explosive potions at the brown vine shield, creating an immense fiery blast that utterly incinerated it.

Leylin had jumped back to safety beforehand, and just stood there and enjoyed the spectacle.

After one minute, the Tree has halfway burned down and its face showed a petrified expression of horror. Its eyes no longer shone. It was dead.

[It's over. You did it, Doctor!] -Aralis said in awe of what happened.

'Not quite. What comes next is the fun part.' -Leylin contradicted his assistant, much to her bewilderment.

Without saying anything else either mentally or out loud, the Farlier heir 'collected' 6 of the less-charred sprite bodies from the Tree's crown. They had been caught in the explosion as well.

Placing them in a circle position around the Tree stump, he began conjuring a shadow from the ground.

In seconds, the energies stored inside the sprites were absorbed by this shadow, as it began to glow a faint purple.

Leylin forthwith clasped his hands, and the shadow immediately bore into the ground. Soon enough, it returned with a piece of wood reminiscent of a heart. It was completely made out of ebony, and it had mystical green runes glowing all around it. There was also no visible damage done to it, regardless of the fight that had killed its owner.

Taking the wooden heart in his right hand, Leylin recalled the shadow, and as it wrapped around his left hand, he touched the heart with it.

The shadow dissipated almost instantly, and the heart's runes began to morph and rearrange themselves. Shifting and turning until their green glow was gone, only to return seconds later with ten times the brightness.

Now the heart vibrated with mystical energies, and even a faint hum could be heard from it.

[What is this, Doctor?] -Aralis had no idea what her Master had just done.

'A little gamble I took. An experiment, if you will... I used the emotional energies I brought out of these creatures with my torturing session to exalt their reactive potential. Usually, this would be a bad thing, but not for my purpose. Following that, I employed the spell Umbra's Hand primed with sprite energy as a safe method to extract the heart without damaging it or any of its properties. Finally, I combined the energies I extracted out of the sprites with the heart, refining it in the process.'

[Are you telling me you have just created a new ingredient?]

'Pretty much. I'd say that this is nothing less than a small treasure, and might even be priceless for all I know. Who knows when this could come in handy...'

[Then you have actually gotten a nice profit with this incident.] -Aralis said in a lively tone.

'Nothing do I like more than looting and massacring things. Anyway, time to beat it. Don't wanna draw any more attention than I already have...' -His face resembling a statue's, Leylin deposited his Giant Tree Demon heart inside one chest with the rest of his ingredients.

The Farlier heir got up on the carriage and rapidly drove away. Traveling as fast as the wind, he disappeared from the scene.

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Ten minutes later, a grey-colored owl swooped down and landed on top of a branch close to where the Giant Tree Demon had perished.

"Hancus is dead." -The owl let out a human's voice.

"I know, I know. It was a level 2 acolyte from Abyssal Bone Forest... Should we chase after him?" -Suddenly a human face appeared beside the tree branch.

"The plan has already been set in motion. Moreover, that stupid Tree Demon deserved what it got for staying here." -The owl pecked the feathers on its body.

"I'll be leaving first." -The owl spread its wings and flew up into the sky.

The face on the branch turned silent for a while, and then revealed a smile: "Although it was just a slave, that one must still pay the price for killing my subordinates."

The branch extended to where the dead Giant Tree Demon lay. At this moment, the fire had already been extinguished, only leaving behind some charred wood and green sprite corpses.

Suddenly, a corpse jerked. It was still alive, although barely.

This green sprite was missing every limb except for its head. This was one of the sprites left out of Leylin's ritual. Without any immediate treatment, it would definitely lose its life here.

The tree branch brought the green sprite right in front of the human face: "Tell me: do you want to seek revenge?"

"Yes... Doris is willing to pay any price..." -The green sprite struggled to speak.

The human face laughed loudly: "That is very good to hear! It just so happens that I have one potion from a previous experiment that ended up in failure. I'll use it on you, and then you can carry out your vengeance."

Suddenly, an opening emerged on the black-colored tree, and it enveloped the sprite whole…