The only advantage of staying in Lady Marianne's underground shelter is not bothering to distinguish between day and night.

In the stone chamber, Ian, Zandar, and Mister each chose a bed. Mister chose the innermost corner.

"Mister, so far away from us?" asked Zandar. To make it easier to get in and out, both he and Ian chose a bed near the door.

"......" was as quiet as ever.

Zandar sat down, then looked at Ian and asked, "Are you really going to stay here and receive her knowledge?" he added, "That's the experiments from the Empire......

Ian smiled, "Look at me, Zandar. He moved the candlestick near his face, "Look at me, the test subject." Marianne wasn't lying, I had met a falcon, and he had called me a test subject—and a numerical codename. ”

Under the reflection of the firelight, Ian's angular face had a complicated expression, but there was no innocence that a young man should have.

"As she said," Ian took the menorah back, "and let the damned people, die at the hands of their own works, it's good." And you look here—"

Ian's tone was relaxed again, and with a flick of his hands, he made a gesture for Zandar to look around.

"Skylark, in the southern part of the empire, is surrounded by barren lands infested with demonic beasts. And we are beneath the ground of the city, in a secret shelter. No dark mercenaries, no falcons, no monsters. How rare is it to finally have a place where you can learn your psychic powers without being disturbed and at the same time know your enemies?"

"You just believe in her like that?"

"No, but a dying man, why would he trick me into going the way I was supposed to go?"

Zandar couldn't answer, he might just be a little jealous of Lady Marianne's obsession with revenge.

Perhaps Ian noticed this, and said solemnly to Zandar, as if to himself, "At least I don't think there's any shame in the will for revenge, but it's my own path, and you can choose not to go with me - in fact, maybe you'll be a flying dragon when you leave here." He laughed, "Don't worry, I won't hunt you, we'll go our separate ways." ”

At the mention of the dragon, Zandar also smiled.

The concept of underground shelter time is very light. As long as Marianne is in good health, Ian can ask her for spiritual knowledge anytime, anywhere. However, it seems that Marianne is more eager to impart knowledge to him than Ian, and she is unusually impatient with Ian's ignorance. Zandar, on the other hand, became a lizardman who loved to read, burying himself in the stack of books every day. Mister first stayed in the corner of the stone chamber, but later joined Zandar's book club—better than snuggling up in the stone chamber and staring wide.

"No," Marianne whispered, frowning, "your concentration is so poor that the slightest distraction will distract you." This will not work, then you will not be able to withstand the liberation of the psychic power......"

"Psychic liberation?" Ian stopped training, and the spirit flame in his hand dissipated instantly.

"It's a method that the Empire has been trying to achieve, but

To liberate people's spiritual power and imprison. Marianne casually explained, "And I secretly mastered their methods." Since coming here, I've been exploring ways to reduce risk, but not much progress. ”

"What will happen after liberation?" Ian asked, looking at her.

"Your psychic power will be greatly enhanced, both in terms of quality and quantity...... "Marianne suddenly stopped, "Forget it, it's more convenient for me to show you than to use your mouth." ”

As she spoke, she embodied a flame. Tiny flames danced lightly at her fingertips, swaying restlessly.

"It's a flame of psychic power," she said, "and you know, all of our psychic products come from association. If you practice repeatedly and increase the familiarity of the embodied object, it will work like this......"

As he spoke, the shape of the psionic flame gradually changed. The center of the flame began to expand outward, and soon the head, torso, and limbs could be distinguished. That's what the mythical fire elves look like.

"No one has ever seen a fire elf, but you can take on a similar appearance from your own descriptions and accounts of the mythical fire elves. ”

Ian nodded.

Marianne continued: "But if your psychic power is liberated, it will be strengthened by the magic element, making your associative abilities extremely rich and active. In other words, things that you have not seen before can be manifested in the plane of reality through your associations. Of course, you need to be focused enough......"

As soon as she finished speaking, Ian saw the fire elf fall to the ground on all fours. Its fiery spirit became more solid, and its limbs and torso took on dark red skin. The faint reflective texture and hair of the skin were clearly visible, replacing the translucent flames. Starting from one or two places, gradually the whole body was covered in dark red skin, except for the flames above his head.

As soon as the unknown monster approached, Ian felt a scorching breath rushing across his face, as if it was gushing out from the monster's body. The flame-conjured monster has no eyes, and its head is covered in wrinkles on its dark red or even purple skin. It has no lips, and its teeth and gums are bare and slightly elongated. The flame on the head burns continuously, and the color and temperature will make people have no doubt that this is the real fire, even more blazing than the real one.

"This is ......" Marianne's voice suddenly cut off and coughed violently. The monster slowly dissipated like ashes.

"That strange monster that you sent an anonymous commission for me to find was also created by you through this association?" Ian asked, "so that I could see what you are capable of?"

"No......" Marianne wrung her eyebrows in pain and shook her head, still coughing and speechless, until Sherman fed her the unknown potion and water.

After a while, she finally calmed down.

"That monster is not a psychic. "It was one of the products of the Empire's countless failed experiments. Many of their experiments were uncontrollable and unpredictable, but they still foolishly and recklessly used elimination

Perform the checks. ”

"And the monster I asked you to find by commissioning it is one of the failures, codenamed Devourer. After a certain subject conducted an experiment, he mutated into this appearance, and went on a rampage on the spot, devouring more than a dozen researchers. ”

There was not a hint of sympathy in Marianne's sarcastic tone, "A bunch of crazy idiots. ”

Sitting at his desk with his head propped up, Mister reached out to touch the ashes that flew over, but the ashes split as they drifted away, and there was nothing left in front of him.

Marianne seemed to look at him and continued, "Don't worry, the method I have found is much safer, at least safer than what the Empire is doing now. ”

"They're still experimenting?"

Marianne looked surprised: "You don't know? Hekati Academy of Magic, what a name, ha!"

When Ian heard the name, he remembered what he had heard when he came. The Empire defined psionism as magic, and the completion of two magic academies.

"I have found from the Guild's sources that the Empire is right, at least in some directions. It is true that our spirituality is artificially imprisoned, not the result of divine punishment as preached by the Twelve Divine See. It's just that this kind of imprisonment comes from our ancestors, it is sealed in the blood, and it is very difficult to lift it from the outside. ”

"Have you completely succeeded in breaking the seal?" Zandar had been listening with his ears pricked up, and he couldn't help but interject at this point.

Marianne ignored him, didn't even turn her head, just looked at Ian coldly: "If I hadn't been mortally wounded, I'm afraid Daimler and the damned emperor would have fallen to the ground." ”

"Would you kill someone?" Ian asked her suddenly.

Marianne was stunned for a moment, then raised her head slightly: "Of course, I will." ”

"Although I am a mercenary, I have yet to kill anyone. Ian looked at her and admitted.

"You will too, when you face them. ”

Ian didn't answer. He knew that although it had been some time since the incident, he had traveled to many places and met many people, as if he had lived a new life. But...... But when he remembered everything that had happened in that woodland, every detail was still vivid. The panic and anger in his heart still made him tremble. But will he kill ......?

"Focus!" he ordered himself not to think about it anymore.

Without the guidance of the sun, Ian, Zandar, and Mister felt increasingly blurred about the concept of time. They couldn't figure out how many days they'd been here. Although there are a few scratches carved into the stone wall that mark the date calculation, it doesn't seem to make much sense now. Not long after they arrived, they slept well. And how long I slept this night, no one knows.

Under Marianne's tutelage, Ian learns a lot of knowledge that he has never been exposed to.

For example, the object of spiritual power can even be something that I have never seen before. This was unimaginable in the past, but after mastering the law of association, Ian slowly learned how to manifest what was in his mind

Thing.

"Let that thing live in your mind, live in your spiritual world. "Otherwise, what will be embodied is something fragile and meaningless." ”

Also listening intently to Marianne's explanation was Mister. He didn't say a word, he was a good listener, and Marianne was not shy about letting him learn something as well. Instead, she always consciously or unconsciously persuaded Mister to join her revenge plans. However, she is obviously not good at lobbying, and each time she starts with the miserable life of the poor at the bottom, trying to resonate with him and resentment against the imperial aristocracy.

Mister wasn't interested. He was originally an active and stubborn person, and in whatever class he lived, he only cared about whether he was happy or not. But what Marianne said always made him doubt that he was in a cursed state: was the culprit the psychics, was it the Empire's experiments, was it the flood of magic?

He also hoped to find some tricks in it, but all of Marianne's efforts were aimed at breaking the psionic seal, and Mister's wish was the opposite.

(End of chapter)