Chapter 62: The Scum

Daina watched the old man walk away. Am I being too suspicious? I should quickly ask around about this shop’s reputation, she thought.

“That’s Old Parker’s shop. Good products and fair prices. It’s worth checking out.”

“It’s a good place to find bargains, but you need a good eye.”

“Just a place that deals in junk. Nothing worth going for.”

Daina asked several passersby and stall owners, and the answers were all different. She walked around once more but found nothing.

I might as well go look. If it’s bad, I’ll leave immediately, Daina decided.

She walked to the east end of the camp. The area was sparsely populated. It was past 5:00 PM, and the sun was about to set. Daring to venture deep into the east end, Daina saw a dilapidated small shop with a red flag hoisted up. The color of the flag looked like dried blood.

On the other side, Ace quietly approached the dilapidated small shop, transformed into a flying insect, and cast the Lesser Airiness Spell on himself, sticking to the roof beam. (Note: The Lesser Transformation Spell here cannot transform into something too large or too small relative to the original body. The mass remains unchanged during transformation and requires other spells to reduce weight; this will not be explained again later!)

She knocked hard on the door. Squeak!

“You’re here! Come in quickly, we just got new merchandise!”

Parker grabbed Daina’s hand and pulled her into the room. Unprepared, Daina stumbled inside.

The entire shop was lit by candlelight. Screech, clang!

The door was closed and bolted.

“Welcome to Parker’s shop, our new merchandise! A pretty little girl.”

The old man grinned menacingly, and several strong men with unkind expressions gathered around.

“You, what are you doing?” Daina cried out sharply. She was surrounded by people. In the darkness, she tightened her grip on the dagger in her pocket.

A man-high iron cage dropped from the gray roof, covering Daina like a bowl.

Daina knew her dagger was insufficient to help her escape. Her mind raced. With her current mental power, she could cast at most two Lesser Magic Missiles, which was not enough to break free from the cage and escape.

The Magic Missile could be shaped according to the Spellcaster’s guidance. She recalled the boomerang her younger brother played with as a child. Perhaps the missile could be reshaped into a boomerang. Calculating from the point of exertion, this required using a quadratic function to calculate the trajectory. A rotating missile should inflict greater damage.

Daina suddenly sat down, calculating the trajectory parabola in her mind.

“Little girl, aren’t you curious why no one you asked told you this was a black market shop?”

Old Parker looked at Daina sitting in the cage, not crying, fussing, or struggling. He was somewhat surprised. He tried to provoke her and get her to talk.

Daina needed time, so she casually asked, “Why?”

“Because the people you saw were all our men. We are the Hungry Wolf Mutual Aid Society. Even Monster Hunters dare not provoke us lightly. Don’t you want to know what your future will be?”

Hearing the lewd laughter around her, Daina kept her mouth shut.

“You will be trained into an excellent slave and sold to the market in a foreign land. Of course, we will hehehe…”

“Hehe!”

The men burst into vulgar laughter. Daina felt a mix of shame and anger. She had indeed been careless after gaining supernatural power. She had been too bold coming to such a chaotic place without figuring things out first.

She must learn from this!

Her eyes flashed with indignation. The trajectory calculation was complete. In her mental perception, two more people were hidden in the darkness. Seven people in total. They would all be dealt with at once!

As the vulgar laughter grew louder, Daina stood up. She extended her left hand, which wore the nail tip. Mana began to pulse! The rune was successfully traced. The Spell Model was successfully combined. The Mana Crystals were reshaped. A small boomerang-shaped missile was complete!

The men’s vulgar laughter came to an abrupt halt. They watched the mysterious pattern forming in the air in front of Daina’s left hand, and the light growing brighter within the pattern. They exchanged glances, showing confusion and ruthlessness.

Parker’s hand turned over, and he curled two fingers. He signaled the two hidden men that the situation had changed and they must immediately activate the mechanism beneath the cage, which was a deep pit 7-8 meters deep.

Daina was still too naive, and her use of mental perception was too crude. Ace had already detected the mechanism with his Perception Spell. He quietly flew in front of the two hidden men and cast a Lesser Spell: Stun!

The two men instantly collapsed unconscious. With no one to operate it, the mechanism could not be activated.

To Parker’s surprised eyes, Daina stood firmly on the ground. The boomerang-shaped Magic Missile launched. It spun twice, successfully hitting all seven people. Three died instantly. Parker and the others fell to the ground severely injured.

Daina activated the spell again, forming a saw-toothed missile in her hand and she controlled it without launching. Instead, she slowly cut a round hole in the cage, then climbed out.

She was exhausted and disheveled as she emerged. The missile then launched, hitting Parker directly in the head!

She then used her dagger to kill the remaining incapacitated enemies one by one.

Having finished all this, Daina slumped to the ground, panting heavily. Her mental power was severely depleted. After recovering slightly, she searched the corpses for keys, unlocked the door, and fled, covered in blood and disheveled.

Ace looked at Daina. This sudden danger should make her grow a lot. However, her method was still too immature, and her considerations were insufficient.

Ace transformed back to his original appearance. With his increasing proficiency in the Transformation Spell and Localized Transformation Spell, he could now transform his clothes along with himself without using Casting Materials. At least he didn’t have to be naked anymore.

He expertly used the Acid Conversion spell to corrode the corpses in the black market shop into a viscous liquid.

Daina’s battle had also greatly inspired Ace. Using mathematical knowledge, she managed to create so many variations of a simple Lesser Magic Missile, such as trajectory calculations. More specific experimental data was needed.

When he reached the Northern Border, once he started distributing the Grimoire, he would have more guinea pigs, and perhaps they would give him even more surprises.

Ace smiled faintly, and by combining his perception spell with the partial Retrieval Soul Rune he had learned from the Spirit of the Book, his perception spell was greatly enhanced.

Daina had just stumbled away a short while ago when the “rats” came out.

The Illusion Barrier unfolded. The “rat,” dressed in black short clothes and quietly following Daina, was caught red-handed by Ace. In one minute, Ace figured out what the Hungry Wolf Mutual Aid Society was.

A criminal organization composed of degenerate, down-on-their-luck Monster Hunters, thugs, and rogue veterans. They couldn’t survive inside Medimus City-State. They lingered outside the city like jackals, occasionally getting beaten up by the city-state Inspectors and running for cover.

Ace felt he could easily destroy this scum. He leaped into the air, transformed into an eagle, and flew a short distance. With a pulse of Mana energy, Flash Teleportation activated. The eagle quickly darted forward in the sky. After several flashes, it disappeared.

It was evening. Three kilometers south of the camp was a cave. Campfire light, foul smells, crying women and children, and a group of menacing scum. Ace’s eyes flickered as he watched everything. The Illusion Barrier silently unfolded. Before long, the scum began to kill each other, leaving behind a dirty mess on the ground.

Except for their leader. A strange black fog emanated from him. Black scales grew on his skin, and his physique expanded. He yelled an incomprehensible language and charged toward Ace.

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