Chapter 40: The Midnight Visitor

  Seeking Sanjiang tickets, each person can receive one per day.

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  Lucien judged from the grammatical structure of the cat owl's speech that it was not a transformed magician, but a magical pet. Every apprentice who starts learning magic can summon and establish a magical contract with a magical pet as long as they have casting materials.

  The materials used for the spell are different, and the summoned magical pets are also different. There are ordinary creatures such as cat owls, cats, crows, etc., as well as magical creatures like "dragon" fairies. After a magical contract is established, each magical pet and its master will form a close and mysterious bond, allowing the master to acquire some of the pet's abilities, while the pet can also borrow some of the master's magic that suits itself.

  For example, if a magic apprentice summons a cat as a magical pet, the agility of the magic apprentice will be improved to the level of a high-ranking knight attendant, and they will also gain night vision ability. The cat can then borrow spells from the apprentice-level magic such as "Seal Light" and "Organ Preservation", as well as undead system magic, and can also gain the ability to speak and have simple thoughts.

  However, the number and frequency of magic that a Familiar can borrow depend on the master's mental strength to continuously cast spells. When the mental strength is insufficient to release two consecutive spells, the Familiar will be unable to borrow magic. Moreover, the abilities obtained by the master from the Familiar will not increase with the Familiar's level, and if the Familiar dies or the magical contract is lifted, the acquired abilities will disappear, and there may even be a certain degree of recoverable decline.

  So Lucien had never made up his mind to summon a demonic pet, although in the long run it was equivalent to having another self, and in the short term it could enhance his own strength, but he was in a special situation, establishing this mysterious connection would likely expose his greatest secret.

  Looking at that strange cat owl Dororo, Lucien pretended to be very afraid and replied: "No, really no magician has come to find the witch, at least I haven't seen one."

  The owl flapped its wings: "Very good, you didn't lie. According to Mr. Doruo's observation, indeed no other magician has come to find the witch. Next, the second question, when you and the church guardian went to find the witch's magic laboratory, what did you see? What happened?"

  "A cat can also learn to deceive people with what it knows...” Lucien cursed in his heart, then recounted the events that had occurred at that time, except he changed the part where his soul broke through its limits to Galen accidentally triggering the Truth Emblem. As for the Soul Library recording everything down along with the destruction of the magic books and notes, he didn’t mention it, and nobody could have thought of it anyway.

  "What a tragedy!" Doro exclaimed emotionally, then flapped his wings twice. "Alright, your answer satisfies me, Doro-sama. Goodnight, young man."

  Then it flew out of the open wooden window quickly.

  Watching the owl leave, Lucien's face immediately lost its fear and panic, directly blowing out the candle, then quickly putting on his own newly sewn black linen robe with a hood, silently opening the door, going out, and closing it.

  Outside, the night was pitch black, and Adel had already extinguished the lights in this poor district. Lucien extended his spiritual power, and soon sensed a faint, almost imperceptible spiritual imprint that he had secretly left on Owl Doro.

  This is the recent situation where Lucien can't practice magic, combining his previous knowledge of frequency, fluctuation and radar to use a variation of spiritual force imprint. It would definitely have no effect on formal magicians, but for magical apprentices or magical pets, as long as they are slightly careless, it's very difficult to notice that they have been left with a spiritual force imprint.

  "It's okay, this owl isn't flying too fast, and it's still within my spiritual sense range. Judging from its level, its master should still be a magic apprentice." Lucien let out a slight sigh of relief as he quickly ran through the darkness. Once he exceeded 500 meters, Lucien's spiritual sense could no longer detect that spiritually fluctuating frequency mark.

  Although the master of the owl is only a magic apprentice, it's still somewhat dangerous to follow him like this, after all, what's the situation over there, and whether there are other magic apprentices or even magicians present, he himself isn't clear.

  But for Lucien, who was eager to get in touch with the circle of magicians and find a place where he could study magic openly, this certain danger was still worth taking. He would observe carefully first and then decide on his actions. Moreover, he still had the "Ice Snow Avenger" second-level magic ring on him.

  The owl, Dorro, didn't know that Lucien had left a spiritual mark on him and didn't fly with all his might. On the contrary, he flew very carefully and stealthily in order not to draw attention to himself in Alto, which was under church control.

  Even so, its flight speed still surpassed Lucien's speed when he didn't dare to run at full strength.

  After tracking for ten minutes, Lucien was already opened by Dora the owl at a distance of nearly four hundred meters, which was occasionally stopped and hidden or disguised as an ordinary owl flying.

  But just then, Dororo's owl silently slipped in through a window into the darkness.

  Lucien ran close and slowed down, quietly circling to the side of the building, then looked at the sign on the building in great surprise:

  "Tongguan Tavern"

  "Could it be that among the mercenaries and adventurers, there are apprentices of magic?" Lucien thought to himself in doubt, noticing that the window was on the second floor of the Copper Crown Tavern, the farthest left room, a very convenient position for escape.

  After putting the Ice Snow Avenger on his left index finger, Lucien went around to the back door of the Copper Crown Tavern, muttering a strange monosyllabic word in a low voice, without using any spellcasting materials, and left a faint shadow on the door.

  "Silent Portal", an Illusion spell of the Apprentice level, can conceal the sound of opening and closing doors. The effect lasts for a maximum of one hour, but within this hour, it can be dispelled at Lucien's will.

  Then, Lucien waited for a few seconds before continuing to cast the "switching technique" that didn't require any spell materials. A transparent and invisible beam of light shot out from his hand and hit the door, causing this sturdy wooden door to open silently with a slight gap, allowing Lucien to slip in quietly.

  Lucien directly dispelled "Silent Portal" and closed the back door again, lest someone detect the fluctuations of magic.

  Even in a tavern, at this hour the Copper Crown was much quieter, especially near the back door, which allowed Lucien to slip past the occasional passerby and head up to the second floor.

  Lucien stood quietly in a room not far away, and through the faint spiritual mark, he barely heard the voices inside the house.

  After a while, Lucien smiled and pulled his hood down further, walking up to the door.

  …………

  In a cool room, Smiley leaned on a recliner that could swing back and forth, carefully listening to the report of his magical pet owl Dorro, holding a cup of amber-colored wine in his hand.

  "Dulang sweet wine", with low alcohol content, has a significant effect on helping sleep.

  Smael was already quite accustomed to Owl's peculiar narrative style and soon had things completely figured out.

  He closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and then asked about Lucien's reaction at the time. After listening to Dororo's description, he rubbed his forehead: "It seems that he really has nothing to do with the witch, but this way, we can't find that Mr. who claims to be from the mainland magic council headquarters... Ah, do we still have to continue hiding..."

  Just as he was sighing, suddenly, there came a knock at the door: dong dong dong, dong dong dong.

  Simail sprang up abruptly, his expression solemn, and asked in a deliberately calm tone: "Who?"

  While the cat owl Dororo flew onto the bed, hid under the quilt and whispered: "Who could it be, who could it be, is it someone coming to barbecue Master Dororo?"

  A strange, low, husky voice spoke from outside the door: "I'm looking for Mr. Smiley and Owl Doro."

  "What?!" cried Dororo the cat owl in the blanket, almost flying up with the blanket.

  Smael's magic was ready to be unleashed, but the mysterious and eerie aura of the person outside the door made him dare not act rashly: "I am Smael, I don't know what Cathead Doruo is, who are you?!"

  "I'm a magician, and I happened to know the witch." The low, hoarse voice said flatly, "I've been secretly observing the ruins of the witch, trying to find out what happened to that gentleman from the mainland magic council headquarters. Unfortunately, today I saw your magical pet Dorro and heard its question, so I followed you all the way here."

  "What?! It's because of Lord Dororo that I...?!" The owl, Dororo, let out a disbelieving cry and then exclaimed with intense emotion:

  "What a tragedy!"

  Since the other party didn't directly force their way in, Smiley slightly relaxed a bit. If it were people from the church who came, they wouldn't be so polite. Upon hearing that the other party was a magician, he naturally felt some familiarity, but he didn't relax his guard because of this: "Then you yourself cast the opening spell to come in."

  Although the popes who reformed the divine magic changed its foundation, the essence of the divine magic did not change and still came from "God's grace". The changes to the foundation made it possible for some divine magic that previously required a higher level to be obtained at a lower level, more new divine magic was bestowed, and some divine magic that took a long time to master became easier to grasp. Therefore, it can be clearly distinguished whether it is a magician or a priest from the casting.

  A wave of magical fluctuations arrived, and the door slowly opened. Smael was about to seize the opportunity when his opponent had just finished casting a spell and was still in the buffering period, cast a spell first to capture him, even if he was kind-hearted, he had to take the initiative himself.

  However, as the door creaked open, a wave of extremely cold and terrifying magical aura also seeped in, like an incredibly powerful magic was building up and intentionally released.

  "Formal magic?" Smyler obviously found that this magical aura far exceeded any apprentice-level magic he had ever learned, "Are you a formal magician?"

  The door opened wide, and Smeyer saw a mysterious man wearing a black robe with a hood that completely covered his face in the shadows. The terrifying, cold magical aura was emanating from him.

  And Lucien also saw clearly that the magical apprentice was the eagle-nosed, black tight-fitting long coat gloomy man he had seen before in the Copper Crown Tavern.