Chapter 48 - Manipulator

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The mournful scream had pretty much resounded throughout the entire camp.

As soon as the middle-aged man felt the sweetness in his throat, he spurted out a mouthful of fresh blood. Then, fresh blood started to also flow out from his eyes, nose, and ears. Blood was coming out from the seven orifices of his body.

“How come… This is impossible!” The middle-aged man’s voice had become extremely hoarse. It was as if at this moment, his entire person, and even his soul, had been dug out. His confused eyes turned dull and bleary, “She is just an apprentice… an apprentice…”

Sean had a bit of sympathy at this moment for the magician.

Mind Invasion was a type of magic that was easy to learn but difficult to master. However, this magic could not control the thoughts of the target. It could only pour a trace of the caster’s thoughts into the thoughts of the target. Affected by the caster’s thoughts, the target would regard the caster as their comrade. The same as the standard for all mind-related magic, this mind control magic could be learned at an early stage and could only be cast to a target whose will and wisdom attributes were lower than the caster’s.

This was exactly how the middle-aged man had cast the spell ‘Mind Invasion’ onto Sean earlier.

But what would happen if the wisdom and will attributes of the target were higher than the caster? If the target was like Sean, who had no magical powers, then the worst-case scenario that could occur would be that the target would be stunned on the spot. This way, they could dodge a bullet because they were feeling pain.

But if the target was also a magician, then to be living was no better than dying.

This was because both the caster and the target had a spellcaster profession. Therefore, the target could use the mental stimulation passed to them to deal damage back to the caster. The damage caused to the caster would not be as simple as having a splitting headache or spurting out blood. Their will attribute would be reduced.

Therefore, even if the middle-aged man did not die right now, he would become useless.

“I told you earlier that you have picked the wrong target.” Sean grimaced as he killed another dog-headed guard.

At this time, there were only five to six dog-headed guards left who were still able to protect the middle-aged man. The rest of the dog-headed guards no longer had weapons they could use, therefore they could only cheer on the side.

Sean was a little surprised that these dog-headed guards had not yet dispersed. Under normal circumstances, when the dog-headed people realized that their opponents were far stronger than themselves, the group would scatter. Only when there was a commander or a chief present would the dog-headed people be able to gather together again. However, right now, there was neither a commander nor a chief present, so why had these dog-headed people not scattered yet?

However, Sean did not want to think about these things. His goal was to kill the middle-aged man and seize the magic ring from his hand. This time, Sean believed that he could get the ring because this was the real world. There was no such thing as an item drop rate like in the game.

Therefore, Sean continued to wait patiently. He was waiting for the Air Barrier on the middle-aged man to expire.

As for the rest of the dog-headed guards, they were not worth mentioning at all.

The middle-aged man knew that if he continued on this way, he would eventually die. But right now, he was suffering from the strong magic backlash, therefore he was not able to use any magic. He was not even able to cast the simplest magic shock. He wanted to escape, but he did not think that a weak body like his was stronger than a warrior who had obviously been exercising regularly.

“Go up and attack!” With the last of his mental strength, the middle-aged man forcefully endured the severe pain he was feeling and turned it into a simple conscious command, giving the order to the dog-headed people.

Sean was also able to feel this command from the middle-aged man’s consciousness. Sean would find it very difficult to deal with these dog-headed people if they were to all attack at the same time. Although Cecilia might not be killed here, getting injured would be inevitable. Therefore, Sean immediately moved so that he could put a little bit of distance between them while keeping his guard up. He could no longer count on Cecilia. She had been a little bit affected by the mental confrontation just now. Sean was afraid that she might be dizzy.

However, it seemed as if all the dog-headed guards had not received the order from the middle-aged man, as they remained grouped together and were not attacking.

The middle-aged man and Sean were both stunned. Then, they realized at the same time that the reason why these dog-headed guards had not fled was that the middle-aged man was still able to give them a small sense of security. Therefore, they had gathered around the middle-aged man. But at the same time, they were very scared of Sean. Even if they had weapons, they would not dare to provoke Sean, not to mention that there were only a few armed dog-headed guards left. The other dozen or so dog-headed guards no longer had any weapons they could use.

At that moment, the sound of quick footsteps could be heard.

Sean and Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the steady and powerful footsteps, while the middle-aged man’s face became even uglier. This was because the footsteps clearly belonged to humans and not to the dog-headed people. It was easy to tell whose reinforcements these other humans belonged to without even thinking about it much.

It was Anyers, Jim, and the others who rushed to where Sean and Cecilia were currently located.

Except, what was supposed to be a group of seven people had now turned into only four people. Apart from Anyers and Jim, there was also a swordsman and a spearman.

Everyone looked at each other, as Sean saw hatred, anger, and sadness in their eyes. He immediately knew what had happened to the other three members. Sean had never expected three people to die, especially when Anyers, Jim, and the others had fought following the strategy Sean had given to them. Just how useless were these guys?

“We encountered eight dog-headed bodyguards,” Anyers whispered. “Sisborne could have lived, but he was sneak attacked by a dog-headed scout…”

Sean knew that Sisborne was another swordsman. However, these people were very unlucky. They had encountered the standard group of nine members, which included a dog-headed magician and dog-headed guards. Sean did not know what to say.

“As I have promised, your chance for revenge has come.” Sean pointed to the middle-aged man with his sword. “He is the mastermind behind all of this. If it was not for him, there would be no such thing as a dog-headed people’s camp.”

Hearing what Sean said, everyone’s expressions suddenly became ferocious, and their aura increased rather than decreased. Such a strong burst of murderous intent finally caused the psychological line of defense of the dog-headed guards to collapse completely. They let out the ear-piercing howling sound of frightened dogs. Then, these dog-headed guards scattered like a flock of headless chickens. They did not dare to stay here any longer.

“Wait a minute.” Seeing that everyone was about to make a move towards the middle-aged man, Sean opened his mouth to stop them. “He still has an Air Barrier on his body. This magic can make him invincible. Wait another 20 seconds. The magic effect will disappear soon.”

The middle-aged man’s heart suddenly began to beat faster. He finally realized that his life was about to end. However, what had puzzled him was why Sean knew everything about him like the back of his hand. He was not even a magician, yet he was so knowledgeable about the duration of the effect this Air Barrier magic had.

Everyone surrounded the middle-aged man, waiting for the effect to disappear so that they could put an end to his life. Originally, everyone was worried that the middle-aged man would make a final counterattack before his death. However, Sean had guaranteed that he was no longer able to fight back. Due to the image and reputation that Sean had built previously, no one doubted him.

As soon as the last twenty seconds were up, a burst of airflow was suddenly emitted. It was as if a breeze was blowing.

Without Sean’s reminder, everyone understood what was going on. In an instant, all kinds of weapons were pierced into the middle-aged man’s body.

As soon as the middle-aged man had died, there were no longer any enemies left in the dog-headed people’s camp. All that was left for them to do was to clean and sweep the battlefield. Sean knew where the Square Tipped Crystals were stored. Earlier, he had deliberately set a fire so that everyone would avoid that area. Therefore, he was in no hurry to get those right now.

What happened next was, of course, the moment for people to rejoice and cry.

However, whether it was rejoicing or crying, they were always expressing their inner joy. For these people, this was probably what so-called “real revenge” looked like.

Except for Sean and Cecilia, whose delight and joy were a little bit different from the other members. The reason why Cecilia was delighted was that she could finally go back and have a good rest. She wanted to get some sleep now, as she was extremely tired. But on the other hand, she had indeed received a lot of benefits from this battle, which had allowed her to get a better understanding of what being an official magician was all about. She was confident that she would be able to reach this point in a few days.

As for Sean, he felt happy because he was able to get another piece of good equipment.

Back in the game, magic items were more precious than magic equipment.

“Huh? What is this?” However, among this group of people, there was one person who was not happy or sad. Instead, that person seemed to be at a loss. This person was Jim. Right at this moment, with his sharp eyes, he had noticed at a glance that the ring on the middle-aged man’s finger was not an ordinary ring. After all, as a thief, he had very keen intuition about some treasures.

“Oh, this…” Sean saw the curiosity in Jim’s eyes, and he was in a good mood, so he was going to explain what the ring was to Jim. However, before he could, Jim had unexpectedly reached for the ring without waiting for Sean’s explanation. “No! Don’t touch it!”

“What?” Jim took off the ring with his fingers.

In an instant, a magic wave poured out of the ring in Jim’s hand. Then, it released a force that was similar to a magic explosion. However, it had not injured anyone.

“Magic drain!” Cecilia uttered a low cry with surprise on her face, “This is a magic ring!”

Sean quickly snatched the ring from Jim’s hand and immediately activated his [Eye of Truth]. In the next second, his expression turned extremely dark, “Shit! It’s useless!… Damn it, as a manipulator, can’t you have a bit of awareness to stay away from corpses?”

Jim’s expression became a bit embarrassed. As for the others, when they heard the words ‘magic ring’, they knew that it was worth a lot of money. At first, they wanted to say something. However, they were all wise to stay silent when they saw Sean’s ugly expression. After all, neither Jim nor Sean were members of the Black Cat Business Guild.

At this moment, Sean finally realized something. It would be more difficult to get the best equipment in this world than in the game.

This was because, in this world, there was a phenomenon called ‘magic drain’.

In addition, there was also a particular type of person who existed in this world.

A manipulator.