Chapter 16: Chapter 16: A Visitor to Shadow Street
"Don’t underestimate him."
Isabella lifted her wine glass and took a small sip.
"That kid... is a monster who can cast a 9th-Level Forbidden Spell."
The moment he heard the words "9th-Level Forbidden Spell," Night Owl’s body clearly went stiff.
But he quickly calmed down again.
"Don’t worry, boss."
"Even if he’s the reincarnation of an Archmage Saint, in this black night, he still won’t be able to catch my shadow."
As soon as he finished speaking, Night Owl’s body turned into a cloud of black mist again and completely melted into the shadows of the room.
Isabella leaned back on the sofa and quietly watched the spot where Night Owl had disappeared.
"I hope you can really bring me a little surprise, little guy."
...
Late at night.
The streets of the Kingdom of Oran were already completely empty.
Now and then, a squad of royal knights in silver armor rode past on horseback, patrolling the area, their hoofbeats ringing sharply across the stone road.
The towering Lancelot Royal Academy of Magic looked like a giant beast sleeping in the dark.
Tall walls surrounded the academy, and the surface of those walls was carved with dense defensive runes.
At this moment, outside a section of the western wall of the academy—
A small, unnoticeable shadow was climbing quickly up along the cracks in the wall, like a lizard.
It was Night Owl.
He had activated the shadow-type 3rd-Level spell, "Shadow Climb," and his whole body had almost become one with the night.
This spell could not only hide his form, but also perfectly cover his heartbeat and breathing.
Even a hunting dog with strict training would never be able to smell even the slightest trace of him.
"So this is the defense of the Royal Academy of Magic?"
"That’s all?"
Crouching on top of the wall, Night Owl looked at the quiet academy buildings ahead and let out a cold laugh in his heart.
He pulled out a shadow dagger coated with deadly poison from his waist, ready to jump down from the wall and sneak into the dorm area of the Inner Academy.
According to the intel, that monster named Arthur had just moved into the Dawn Class dorm of the Inner Academy today.
However—
At the exact moment Night Owl’s right foot stepped past the edge of the wall—
Something suddenly changed!!
Bzzzz...!
A sharp buzzing of magic power suddenly rang through the air.
In the empty space in front of Night Owl, a blinding golden light suddenly burst out!!
A half-transparent golden barrier appeared out of nowhere, like a giant upside-down bowl, tightly covering the entire Inner Academy inside it.
"What the hell is this?!"
Night Owl’s face changed in shock. He wanted to pull his foot back, but it was already too late.
The moment the tip of his foot touched that layer of golden barrier—
A terrifying wave of magic power, like a raging flood, rushed through his whole body from his toe in an instant!!
Szzzt...!
It was like throwing raw meat into a pot of burning hot oil.
The leather boot on Night Owl’s foot turned to ash in an instant, and even the flesh at the tip of his toe was burned away on the spot.
"Ahhh...!!!"
Night Owl let out a shrill scream.
But before he could step back, that golden wall of light suddenly began to flicker like crazy.
Right after that, countless magic runes appeared across the barrier.
Those runes moved fast like living tadpoles, and in the end, they came together into one huge golden eye made of pure arcane energy.
An 8th-Level defensive barrier... "Arcane Arts True Sight Eye"!!
This was a defensive magic formation personally set up by Grand Archmagus Alberto!!
Most of the time, it stayed asleep. It would only activate in an instant when it sensed a strong hostile wave of Magic Power, or when someone tried to break in without permission.
At that moment, the golden eye was staring hard at the Night Owl on top of the wall.
There was no emotion in it.
Only the coldness of total destruction.
"Shit!!"
Every hair on Night Owl’s body stood on end.
He could smell death.
Without even a second of hesitation, he bit down on the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"4th-Level · Shadow Blood Escape!!"
Boom...!
A golden beam as thick as a bucket shot out from that golden eye and tore straight through the spot where Night Owl had been!!
The top of the wall was blasted open on the spot, leaving a huge hole nearly two meters wide.
Broken stones flew everywhere.
And just 0.1 seconds before the beam hit, Night Owl’s body turned into a pool of foul-smelling blood, barely avoiding that fatal strike.
The blood slid down the wall at high speed, slipped into a crack in the sewer, and fled in a miserable rush.
...
Half an hour later.
Shadow Street, the information house.
Bang!
The door to the information house was shoved open.
Covered in blood and in a miserable state, Night Owl stumbled and rolled inside.
The black cloak on his body was already torn to pieces, and half of his right foot was gone. The wound had a strange charred look to it.
If he had been any slower, there wouldn’t even be anything left of him now.
Isabella was still half-lying on the sofa, not even lifting her eyelids.
"It failed?"
Her voice was calm, as if she had already expected this result.
Kneeling on the floor, Night Owl gasped for breath, his eyes full of the fear of someone who had barely escaped with his life.
"Le... Leader..."
"The academy’s defense level... has been raised to the highest level."
"It’s Grand Archmagus Alberto’s personal barrier, the 8th-Level ’Arcane Arts True Sight Eye’..."
"The Inner Academy is like an iron fortress right now. Not even a mosquito could get in."
"And also..."
Night Owl swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva, his voice shaking.
"The core point of that barrier... is set in the direction of Starspire Spire."
"And there... just happens to be Arthur Voss’s private research room."
After hearing Night Owl’s report, Isabella slowly sat up straight.
She did not get angry, and she did not blame Night Owl.
On the contrary, the amused smile at the corner of her lips only grew stronger.
"To protect one useless new student with a double-F grade, Grand Archmagus actually used an 8th-Level barrier?"
"And he even placed the core of the formation above that boy’s research room?"
"That old fox Alberto is no great saint."
Isabella waved her hand.
"Go treat your wounds. Go to the storeroom and get two bottles of mid-grade healing potion."
Night Owl felt like he had just been pardoned. He hurriedly bowed and thanked her again and again, then dragged his broken body back out.
The room fell into that deathly silence again.
Isabella rose to her feet and walked to the desk.
On the desktop lay a thick stack of parchment files, neatly arranged.
This was everything she had managed to gather on "Arthur Voss" in just half a day, using the highest-level intelligence network of Shadow Street.
She reached out and flipped through the pages, one by one.
The dim light fell across the side of her face, tracing a deadly, icy beauty.
"Arthur Voss."
"Male. Eighteen years old."
"Born on a remote farm near the border of the Kingdom of Oran."
"His father, Rex, is an ordinary farmer who can’t even read."
"His mother died young."
"He was dull and quiet since childhood. Other than staring at the sky for no reason, there was nothing special about him."
"No famous bloodline. No mysterious Archmagus guiding him. At the village’s basic test when he was ten, he didn’t even qualify to become a magic apprentice."
As Isabella read through those plain and ordinary details, the light in her eyes only grew brighter.
"Until yesterday."
"At the freshman awakening ceremony at Lancelot Academy, he tested with F-rank Magic Power Affinity and F-rank Mental Power."
"And then..."
Her breathing started to quicken.
"Just when everyone thought he was a complete and utter waste."
"He cast a complex spell model with his mind alone, with no chant and no wand."
"He created something that had never once appeared in the recorded history of the entire continent... the 9th-Level Forbidden Spell, ’Meteor Blast’!!"
"In one strike, it wiped out all matter within a five-hundred-meter radius."
"It even triggered an echo of the Grand Prophecy!!"
Isabella suddenly snapped the file shut, and the heavy parchment made a sharp smack in her hand.
"This makes no sense."
She paced back and forth across the room, her high heels hitting the wooden floor in a quick, sharp rhythm.
"Even if the Archmage Saint of the Holy Empire were reborn, it would still be impossible to cast a Forbidden Spell out of nowhere without any Magic Power at all."
"The core of magic is equal exchange."
"Without a huge supply of Magic Power behind it, how did he keep up the world-destroying energy output of something like ’Meteor Blast’??"
"What’s even crazier is that in combat class today, he actually used pure Mental Power to rebuild Obsidian at the molecular level??"
"This is no longer magic."
Isabella stopped walking. A feverish light flickered in her amber eyes.
"This is a miracle."
"Or rather... he has mastered a completely new power system, something our world has no way of understanding at all!!"
