Chapter 162 Meeting Varine

Learning about Ovelon's visit here, Zick was left in a session of deep consideration.

Right now, he had already changed to new leather armor knowing Levienel and Varine were nearing. The old armor was smeared with black blood while he absorbed the coffin doll.

'Visiting the organization isn't safe anymore. I have to find another route to collect information.' Zick didn't take a risk by visiting the organization's headquarters.

Actually, with his current grandmaster potential, Zick felt the need of collecting talented people diminishing.

But he still decided to do it anyway.

Zick had gotten a lot more vigilant compared to before.

He didn't want to risk it one bit.

So what if he had to put some effort into this matter?

It was a hundred times better than regretting not doing so in the future.

'It's just a matter of some effort and acting, this is not hard for me.' Zick's horizon had broadened. He looked at things from a broader perspective.

For a while now, Zick felt like some kind of restriction had been lifted from his head.

This feeling made him speculate: 'Did the thing influencing my thought before vanish or became ineffective after my soul was strengthened?'

This seems like the most likely situation. This made Zick joyful and sigh in relief.

Soon the sun rose from the horizon, flooding its warm glow into the barren land. There were some dunes made up of boulders around the place Zick and the rest were in.

"It's about time, Please follow through with how I instructed you," Zick said in a relaxed manner, he had been training in mana and felt it to be a lot easier to absorb mana.

This showed his immense talent! The efficiency was more than ten times compared to before.

"Human, You want talented people to fight the demon lord, I get that but how long do we have?" The cat asked a crucial question.

Time.

Zick had informed them of some of the information about the demon lord while chatting before.

Zick himself was not certain about this regard.

How much time did he have before the demon lord's army attacked? No idea!

Zick spoke not hiding things: "Truthfully, I am not sure myself. At most, we might have a few years on our hands. We can't defeat him with our current strength so we can only do this." His voice was solemn.

Levienel interjected from the side: "The chances of dragon participating seem low. But you want to force them to participate, right?"

"Yes, and The demon lord's army cannot be looked down upon. There are grandmaster-rank people in it too." Zick didn't speak of the specifics.

They all got up from the table as they talked to each other. With a snap of Levienel's finger, The table vanished in thin air.

Before Zick thought that Levienel had a storage-type item in which she stored this table.

But after getting the weird black eyes, Zick was able to see that the table was actually made of Levienel's higher form of energy!

This left him speechless. Even in the novel, no one was able to create stuff out of thin air.

It was almost like that table jumped out of the ground!

Zick took out an eye patch which he made crudely by patching up some of the useless materials he had.

"Hm, It looks quite neat I have to say." Zick put on the black eye patch on his right eye which had turned into a demonic pupil.

The cat jumped to Zick's shoulder from the ground.

A gold light enveloped them and they flew towards Varine and Seveleen with a flash.

Just like how Seveleen appeared in front of them in their first meeting. She landed in front of the wooden carriage along with Zick and The cat.

Bam! Like a shooting star, they landed a few meters in front of the carriage — creating a huge crater and dust cloud.

Varine who drove the carriage looked at the familiar situation, realizing what had happened. She looked at the silver-haired girl, Levienel with a wary gaze.

Seveleen on the other hand had also felt the familiar kind of trepidation, so she knew that it was the same enemy who appeared and took away Zick.

But when the dust cloud fully dispersed and Zick was visible to Varine, suddenly the air between them froze.

"Sir Zick...?" Varine was caught off guard having a frozen expression.

Zick looked at Varine's blank expression, Before speaking: "What are you doing here? You should have headed towards Chartel city by now, sigh...Don't you know we have limited time?"

Zick added another line pointing at Levienel: "She needed my right eye which was strengthened by a special potion for personal reasons so she sought after me. I just made a deal with her and was heading toward you." he had an expressionless face the whole time saying this.

Hearing this, Varine looked at Zick's right eye with an eye patch and his complexion which looked even paler than before.

Zick walked forward leisurely with the cat on his shoulder.

THUD~

At that moment, Varine got down the carriage with an emotionless face. It was hard to know what she was thinking at this moment. She walked toward Zick slowly.

Even Zick couldn't grasp her intentions.

Arriving in front of Zick, Varine stopped with her head looking at the ground.

"What...." Before Zick could finish his word, Varine lightly hugged him.

Zick was left speechless but he didn't show it on his face.

'Even in the novel, Varine had never shown such a weak side to Aeiron.' Zick knew what this action indicated.

Zick had become someone irreplaceable to Varine.

This made Zick feel his prior effort was worth it.

".....ct you." Varine softly mumbled something.

But Zick was clearly able to hear her words.

'I will protect you.' This line made Zick look at her closely who was hugging him right now.

Varine's height was only around Zick's chest level making her look quite small.

Zick showed a ridiculous expression, but he didn't push her away.

"Hmph, you say some interesting thing. Protect me? You can't even protect yourself and you want to protect someone else? Sigh..." Zick sighed deeply in the end.

Seveleen got out of the carriage slowly too, looking at their close relationship.

Seveleen couldn't help but ask: "What kind of relation do you exactly have?"

Her face was expressionless as she was controlling her body through mana.

Hearing this, Zick felt like he got a chance to strengthen his relationship with Varine.

He spoke with no hesitation: "She is kind of my niece." he narrowed his eyes.

When Zick said this, there was a sense of naturality in it.

Varine who was embracing him seemed to have frozen after hearing this.

Zick patted Varine's head: "Alright now, get off already."

Encouraging such behavior would only spoil Varine, thus Zick separated her from him.

Varine looked at Zick's eyes before looking at Levienel with hostility within her. That person had taken Zick's eyes away!

She had no good feelings toward Levienel, to begin with, her impression just grew poorer.

Seeing this, Zick spoke up: "Let's get going, stand near to me."

Everyone stood near Zick within a few seconds. Golden light enveloped them and they flew away.

After getting out of restraint from whoever influencing his thought, Zick started thinking about all his plans.

He found many flaws which made him feel grim. Going through what he planned before had a high chance of failing.

'It's clear that whoever influenced me wanted to kill me.' Zick felt the hostility of this unknown enemy.

As Zick had instructed priorly, Levienel took him to the place where the wolfmen tribe was located.

From Thevel's memory, Zick got to know that a few of the young wolfmen in this tribe survived. He didn't find it weird, the Everlor organization's aim was the regretful necklace on Zick's neck, not the annihilation of wolfmen.

In no time, they arrived above a vast forest.

It was the Curen forest located many kilometers away from the Wuirsec region.

Levienel sensed some wolfmen, taking them towards it with no hesitation.

Landing before the moving wolfmen, Everyone looked at the wolfmen.

They were all kids. The wolfmen ranged from 6 to 12 years old which made Zick realize the tribe leader's intention.

'He wanted to persevere some of these wolfmen so that they are not fully obliterated.' Zick walked to the front. There were only 13 of these wolfmen.

The wolfmen had horrified expressions. Some showed their fangs to Zick threateningly, some had despair-filled looks.

He had come here to pick them up, he had some use for them.

"I have come here at the request of the tribe leader's son, Thevel. You don't need to worry." Zick smiled with no bad intentions.

This made the wolfmen's expression relax a little.

Varine, Seveleen, and the others looked on from behind Zick.

A girl with long red hair and one who looked like the leader of the group spoke: "How can we believe a human like you?" There was clear hatred in her eyes.

She looked quite beutiful for her age, she had sharp brows and eyes, giving an impression of being glared at and her clothes quality was above the others, showing her prestige before the destruction of the tribe.

Zick smiled at the red-haired girl.

"Can't you see this necklace here? I got this from Thevel before....he died."

Hearing this the wolfmen looked at the necklace on Zick's neck in a daze. Hearing Zick's last words some even turned pale.

One even started crying.

Seeing all of them having sad looks, Zick also sympathized with them outwardly.

"His last wish was for me to take care of all who are alive in the Wolfmen tribe. That is the reason I came here." Zick got near them and even patted the head of the wolfmen who was crying. He seems to have a closer relationship with Thevel, though he had no idea who he was.

"You will take care of us?" The red-haired girl spoke while not hiding the sorrow in her tone.

"Yes, I will give you a place to live and provide food too." Zick was all smiles at this moment.

The red-haired girl introduced herself: "I am Gereel Oustel, daughter of the Oustel family..."

"My name is Hevish, so will you come with me?"

Zick looked at all of them, he was fully sure that they would decide to come with him.

Gereel knew that surviving alone is almost impossible with their current amount of strength. They were just kids, to begin with. If a monster appeared, they would all die.

Hence, Gereel nodded her head with still a wary look

"Well follow me." Zick led them to come near Levienel. They all followed him timidly.

'Some of them have master-level potential, they are not bad, and they can be nurtured in the future.' Zick ordered Levienel to take everyone to the place he told her before coming here.

Varine and Seveleen were quite surprised listening to Zick speak. From what he said, Thevel was dead and he almost had no relation with him.

But still, Zick decided to help him! This moved them greatly.

Seveleen thought: 'Even in a situation where he can't take care of himself, he is trying to take care of others. This...'

Varine: ' I was right...He should look at himself before talking about me, really...' She looked at him with a complex gaze.