Saul was a bit confused.
But Byron stepped forward, pulling Saul out and quickly securing the pouch. "Go back, there are enemies. Get moving."
Saul still didn't quite understand what was happening, but instinctively followed Byron.
Their original camp had been near the cave, but most of their belongings were destroyed in the earlier bombardnt.
Saul pointed to an entrance, telling them that he'd hidden all the valuables there.
But when Wright ran over, he found the place was completely empty.
"It must have been found by the Land Drifters," Nick said. "The wooden spiders are also gone."
Wright gritted his teeth and glared at the Land Drifters. "I'll go kill them all! These bastards have been trying to kill us from the start, wanting to silence us. There's definitely sothing going on here."
"Kill them quickly, then get out of here," Byron agreed.
The two Third Rank apprentices marched over, their posture intimidating.
A few of the Land Drifters realized sothing was wrong and imdiately tried to flee.
"Stop!" a loud shout rang out.
Everyone turned to look at the source of the voice.
It was Saul.
One of his hands was pressed against his temple, his face slightly contorted in pain, while the other pointed toward the cliff. "Can that ship still be started?"
The Land Drifters imdiately beca nervous at the sound of Saul's voice, but once they realized what he was asking, one of them gathered the courage to respond, "A three-masted sailing ship can be started with just five people. We can sail it for you, please spare our lives."
Nick imdiately said, "If we take their ship, we might be tracked."
But Wright said, "Don't be ridiculous, we can't outrun them even on foot. If it's a true wizard chasing us, we have no place to hide. As long as we get out of the Hanging Hand Valley, I don’t believe they’ll dare chase us into the Wizard Tower’s territory!"
Saul agreed with Wright's viewpoint. The idea of escaping by boat was the sa as their original plan.
Ti was tight, and Byron made the final decision to take the boat and run, no matter if the ship had a tracking signal. They would sail as far as they could.
Byron and Wright seed energetic, but in reality, both were exhausted.
Saul, however, clearly wasn’t in a good state. His face looked normal, but no one knew if the earlier full-body lting effect had any lingering consequences.
They still needed to get back to the Wizard Tower as quickly as possible!
The four of them, holding the remaining Land Drifter captives, hurriedly boarded the three-masted ship.
Once they stepped onto the deck, they were pleased to find that most of their equipnt and the wooden spiders had been brought aboard.
But they didn’t have ti to inspect everything and imdiately began escorting the prisoners to prepare the ship.
There were still five living Land Drifters.
As a sick patient, Saul didn’t have to do any work.
He casually sat next to their recovered luggage while rubbing his head.
Soon, the ship began to rise, hovering one ter above the ground.
Then, all three sails dropped. Even though there was no wind, the sails sohow filled as if blown by sothing.
The ship quickly began moving.
"We’ve finally got it moving," Saul sighed in relief. "Damn, my head hurts. Is this a side effect of the battle in my head?"
A sharp pain struck, and Saul involuntarily staggered, bumping into the nearby Soul Wave Detector.
While he was fighting through the pain, he noticed sothing in his peripheral vision.
He quickly turned around and was shocked to see a smooth black shadow in the detector’s mirror.
The shadow stood behind Saul, slightly lowered, as if it had been watching him all along.
"Huh!"
Saul imdiately stood up and looked behind him.
Naturally, he saw nothing.
He glanced back at the detector, and the shadow remained standing behind him as he moved.
Saul slowly turned his head to look at the detector’s switch.
Sure enough, the detector hadn’t been activated!
Saul rembered. The shadow behind him had appeared in the detector when they were at the entrance of Hanging Hand Valley.
"Could it have been a wraith that latched onto the mont I entered Hanging Hand Valley?"
This spirit was solid and different from the blurry wraith they’d seen later.
Since it hadn't appeared again, Saul had gradually forgotten about it.
But now, it had followed him all along.
"One true wizard wraith has already nearly tortured to death. If this spirit is also a true wizard wraith, then I might as well give up on resisting. I’ll just lie down and wait for death."
Saul forced a self-deprecating smile and slowly sat back down.
However, his biggest comfort was the journal quietly floating on his left shoulder.
"Since I can't die just yet, I might as well rest for a bit."
Another wave of pain hit, and Saul leaned against the detector’s mirror.
In the warped mirror, the shadow behind Saul gradually faded.
The Land Drifter ship was fast, and they gradually sailed away from Hanging Hand Valley, moving between plains and forests.
This ship could rise up to five ters above the ground to avoid tree branches scraping the hull.
But it consud more energy, and they could only keep it up for a limited ti.
By now, no pursuers had caught up, and the tense group finally began to relax.
The captives were initially disappointed, but after so private discussion, they started showing signs of relief.
Still, the group remained cautious. After all, they weren’t familiar with the ship. Who knew if these prisoners were up to sothing?
The next morning, Byron was checking Saul’s condition, while Nick recorded the information.
Wright suddenly ran up, cursing.
"These guys dared to deceive !"
Nick imdiately stood up. "What happened?"
"It doesn’t take five people to sail the ship," Wright fud. "Especially once the ship’s started, only one person is needed to adjust the direction."
Nick thought for a mont and said, "Maybe they were afraid of saying the truth, fearing the extra people would be killed."
Byron didn’t participate in the discussion, as he finished adjusting Saul’s sleeve. "It seems your hands are recovering, but there could be hidden issues I haven’t detected."
"Your headaches are likely a side effect of the wraith’s attachnt. It absorbed many soul fragnts while it was inside you. Most of them have dissipated after its death, but there may still be so residual fragnts. In any case..."
"In any case, I’ll need to find soone more professional to check and treat once we return."
Nick covered his forehead, seemingly recalling sothing. "At that ti, I really thought you'd lt completely and turn into a skeleton. This mission has really opened my eyes to how you and Byron operate."
Saul smiled but said to Byron, "When did you get such great acting skills? You had that wraith fooled completely."
Byron answered seriously, "I learned it from you."
Saul: "..."
Wright let out a short laugh, then stopped, trying not to laugh while looking at Byron with admiration.
Byron stood up, resting a hand on Wright’s shoulder. "Next ti, let take over the shift."
Wright lowered his head. "Oh, I’ve tied up the other four. I told the guy steering the ship that if he doesn’t behave, we’ll kill him and replace him with another."
Byron nodded and walked off the deck.
The deck fell quiet for a mont.
Nick, who had been organizing the materials, noticed Wright standing awkwardly, neither resting nor ditating.
Opposite him, Saul was again rubbing his head with his bony hand.
Nick stood up, cleared his throat, and said, "I’ll go to the lookout to see if there are any pursuers."
After Nick left, Wright seed to gather his courage and took a step toward Saul.
Saul, who was still battling the headache, opened his eyes cautiously and looked at Wright with a neutral expression.
"Uh... I’m sorry!" Wright suddenly bowed deeply to Saul. "But I wasn’t the one who attacked you in the cave."
Wright quickly explained his actions after Saul had fallen behind.
When he saw Saul still staring at him expressionlessly, Wright’s unease grew. He quickly apologized again.
"I’m really sorry, please forgive . I’m willing to make up for my mistakes!"
Saul propped his chin with his hand. "Then write a loan contract."
Wright: "?"
"Write that Wright owes Saul one hundred credits, and stamp it with your na seal. Two copies."
(End of Chapter)
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