Chapter 86 Divination
After the first circular pattern was found, Magus Karl cast his spell several more times to follow the trail. Adam had dropped many stones, it seemed, to make it convenient for his team to follow.
Edward, who was following right behind Magus Karl, curiously looked at the floating hand hovering above the old Magus and muttered, "What an interesting spell! I wonder which school it belongs to?"
Lisa, who was walking beside him, habitually nudged her round glasses and replied, "School of Divination."
"Really?!" Edward was amazed. "I've never seen a divination spell before."
"Spells from the School of Divination are hard to come by," Lisa began, "and Magi who major in this school are even rarer."
Edward raised his eyebrow in surprise but then nodded in understanding. "You're right. Come to think of it, I haven't met a single Magus who specializes in divination."
He then looked at old Magus ahead of him and asked, "Magus Karl, do you specialize in divination?"
The old magus, who was drenched in sweat from constantly having expended his mana, replied weakly, "I'm not. I was just fortunate enough to find this spell during one of my adventures."
"I see." Edward nodded. He decided not to disturb the old man anymore.
As everyone continued to follow after the old Magus, Edward came closer to Lisa and whispered, "By the way, I'm curious. How does this spell work?"
Lisa looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Did you not pay attention to anything when we were going over the plan?"
Edward replied with a slight blush, "Did I need to? I have you, don't I?"
"Hmph, idiot!" Lisa pouted in annoyance. "Do you remember the small stones that Magus Karl gave Adam yesterday?"
Edward nodded. "Yeah, what about it?"
Lisa replied, "Those stones were personally marked by Magus Karl. And right now, he's divining the location of those stones."
"Oh!" Edward came to a realization. "So that's how it works. I couldn't stop wondering if Magus Karl already knew how to divine someone's location, why didn't he divine the vampire's hideout in the first place? So this was the reason."
"Divination isn't omniscient. The caster needs to have some sort of connection with the target to divine their whereabouts. The stronger the connection, the easier the divination. In this case, the target is the stone." Lisa explained.
The group continued to follow Magus Karl for a long time. They had almost covered half the city, but the trail still didn't seem to end.
"Those vampire spawns were very careful." Count Hannes muttered in a low voice. It was obvious because the group had taken many detours and roundabouts.
He then looked at Magus Karl who was so tired that he seemed to be on his last breath, and asked, "Are you okay? Do you need to rest?"
Magus Karl immediately shook his head. "No! Magus Adam is still waiting for us."
Seeing such determination, the Count sighed and didn't speak further. The group silently followed after the Old Magus, hoping they'd find the entrance to the vampire's hideout sooner.
…
In the dark cavern, at the center, the vampire spawns were busy drawing a large diagram on the floor. The total number of spawns had reached more than twenty!
All of them were diligently carving rune-like patterns on the floor under the guidance of the Vampire Magus. The latter walked around the diagram with his hands clasped behind his back, nodding from time to time.
The preparations were almost ready. He only needed a few more human sacrifices to initiate the ritual that he'd been wholeheartedly preparing for months. He figured that another night or two of kidnapping humans would be enough to complete all preparations.
From an aerial view, the diagram that the spawns were carving out resembled a pentagram enclosed by a pentagon. Furthermore, the pentagon itself was enclosed in a circle. The entire diagram was very similar to an advanced magic circle!
While the Magus and his vampire spawns were busy with the diagram, on the other end of the cavern, inside the large cage, Adam was sitting with his back against the cold cavern wall.
He was surrounded by close to a hundred people, all of them residents of the city, who were in a state of comatose.
Adam was also in this state for a while, but thanks to a potion that he'd taken before being abducted, he was now fully conscious.
Cautious as he was, how could he not prepare beforehand? From all the people he had saved from the vampire spawns, he had learned that they were heavily drugged after the spawns had caught hold of them.
So Adam naturally took their blood samples to study the effects of the drug that the vampire spawns had injected in them. Subsequently, he was able to come up with an antidote for it.
Seeing the current situation he was in, Adam was extremely grateful that he was able to acquire the memories of the expert Herbalist in his first go inside the white lotus.
Throwing all these things to the back of his mind, the youth slightly opened his eyes and looked into the distance where the Vampire Magus and his spawns had gathered.
Seeing what they were up to, Adam involuntarily frowned. Ritual Magic?
He then looked at all the people around him and instantly connected the dots. So he's planning to sacrifice all these people for the ritual! But what is the ritual for exactly?
A great sense of foreboding welled up in his heart and his intuition was sending him warning signals of the great danger ahead.
Adam subconsciously clenched his fists.
Things are not looking good.
…
Magus Karl retreated his palm and gazed at the circular pattern that had just emerged on the ground. "This is the last one."
The moment he said those words, everyone around him lost hope. After all, currently, the group was standing in an alley, and in front of the circular pattern that Magus Karl had just found was nothing but a wall.
They had reached a dead end!
Count Hannes asked with furrowed eyebrows, "Are you sure?"
Magus Karl nodded weakly. "Yes."
"Then…" Magus Emory came forth and spoke in a disheartened manner, "Does that mean Magus Adam made a mistake?"
"Of course not!" Edward blurted out. But he didn't have any proof to back it up. He subconsciously said those words due to his utmost faith and confidence in his friend.
The atmosphere turned silent.
Did we fail? This thought echoed in everyone's mind.
Suddenly…
"Look!" Lisa's voice brought everyone out of their state of dismay.
Everyone looked at the wall she was pointing to in confusion.
"I can sense faint mana fluctuations from the wall." She stated while slowly walking toward it.
In ordinary circumstances, she might have never realized this, but now that she paid close attention to the wall, she noticed something different.
As everyone looked on with hopeful eyes, Lisa stood next to the wall and pressed her hand against it. And what happened next caused everyone to be dumbstruck.
Lisa's hand went through!
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