Blue Shell Street, Siwo Inn.
The setting sun was slowly sinking into the distant sea.
Rich orange hues slanted across the threshold of the Siwo Inn's grey and gold European-style door.
At that moment, a middle-aged man in a white shirt and brown vest slowly stepped out.
He glanced indifferently towards the shadows not far to the left.
There, an ordinary-looking young man was observing the wizards coming and going from the Siwo Inn.
Upon seeing the middle-aged man emerge, the young man's face displayed an evident look of confusion.
He looked down and carefully flipped through a small, brown-covered notebook he pulled from his person.
Disguised as the middle-aged man, Colin subtly withdrew his gaze.
"It seems that this must be the Haiya Gang's lookout."
Realizing that the Haiya Gang might come knocking because of those two gang wizards he had dealt with,
he obviously wouldn't continue to foolishly stay at the current Siwo Inn.
Quietly moving his place of residence and delaying the time until the Haiya Gang found him was the wisest course of action.
The sun continued to sink.
Colin walked briskly.
He didn't move to an inn too far away.
The newly chosen Blue Rose Inn was just over two hundred meters away from the original Siwo Inn, separated only by a single street.
He donned a wizard robe in an alley along the way, removed his goatee and, controlling the muscles of his face, changed his appearance again.
As an ordinary-looking, fair-haired wizard, Colin finally stepped towards the entrance of the Blue Rose Inn.
As was customary, he opened a two-bedroom suite.
Only after entering his new room did he let out a slight sigh of relief.
Although he didn't hold much hope of keeping the Haiya Gang's wizards fooled for long.
But he could drag it out as long as possible. Maybe after ten days or half a month, he would have left Bananka Island.
After all, the Golden Four-leaf Clover would be auctioned in a week.
Night fell.
The disguised Renee and Demi arrived one after another.
Colin patted the head of Demi, who with his help, had disguised herself to come alone as a young girl, and he sincerely praised her.
As a child of six or seven, Demi's independence was much stronger than he had imagined.
But then again… maybe that's how all the children in this world are.
Either way, he was somewhat surprised when Renee actively suggested Demi come on her own.
Now, it seemed, he had worried too much.
...
Time stealthily passed.
Soon, another three days had gone by.
That day,
in a suite on the second floor of Blue Rose Inn,
Colin summoned the Golden Paper and took out the Magic Stone.
No matter how many trivial matters there were, on ordinary days, he still tried to maintain his time practicing witchcraft.
Now, the Limit Breaking of the Steel Armor, the Hope Defense, and Arrow Shooting Skill had once again reached their limits.
He was now preparing to break the limit for these witchcrafts which had reached their limit again.
As the Magic Stone continually transformed into Limit Breaking Points, ↑ symbols lit up one after another behind the witchcraft on the Golden Paper.
First was the Steel Armor, which lit up when the Limit Breaking Points reached 10.
After that were the Hope Defense Field and Arrow Shooting Skill.
These two lit up when the Limit Breaking Points reached 20.
Colin sighed softly to himself.
He wasn't concerned about the consumption of the Magic Stone.
After all, breaking the limit of three witchcrafts only required a total of 50 Limit Breaking Points,
which equated to 50 Magic Stones.
For him now, that was nothing.
His sigh was because the ↑ symbols lighting up behind these three witchcrafts were all a shining gold color.
Gold represented that the witchcraft had reached their current ultimate limit and could no longer be improved.
The numbers behind the Limit Breaking Points continued to jump.
Soon, they reached 50 points.
Colin halted his action of switching the Limit Breaking Points, tucked away the Magic Stone, and focused his Spirit with practiced ease toward the ↑ symbol behind the witchcraft, pressing it emphatically.
First was the Arrow Shooting Skill.
As the 20 Limit Breaking Points disappeared, the Arrow Shooting Skill slowly turned gold.
The symbol Ⅰ behind it also vanished, replaced with the word "gold" in gold color, indicating it had reached its limit.
He didn't rush to test the might of Arrow Shooting Skill (Gold).
Colin continued to upgrade the other two forms of witchcraft.
Steel Armor Ⅰ——Steel Armor (Gold)
Hope Defense Field Ⅰ——Hope Defense Field (Gold)
Having done all this, Colin stood up, ready to test out the effects of the upgraded witchcraft.
But just then, an unexpected transformation occurred!
On the Golden Paper.
Steel Armor (Gold) and Hope Defense Field (Gold) began to blur and then merged together, shedding their gold color to reform into a row of black characters——
[Zeroth Rank Top Unnamed Defensive Witchcraft]
A shock that he couldn't conceal spread across Colin's face; he hadn't expected witchcraft of the same type to fuse together when both broke their limits to gold!
He instinctively used the newly fused Defensive Witchcraft.
Hum——
An invisible Spiritual Light enveloped his entire body.
Colin carefully felt the effects of the newly fused defensive witchcraft.
Steel Armor was primarily for physical defense, its effect almost like wearing a weightless layer of armor.
While the Hope Defense Field was a more balanced Defensive Witchcraft.
It offered a certain level of defense not just against physical, but also elemental and spirit-based attacks.
Now the new defensive witchcraft, in terms of effect, was almost like a simple and crude addition of the two.
But the consumption of Magic Power and Spirit when casting, had not increased by much.
There was none of the tearing sensation that came with casting two Defensive Witchcrafts at the same time.
It felt more like a perfectly fused whole, a complete and new witchcraft!
And more importantly——
After Steel Armor and Hope Defense Field fused, they went from the limit-reaching gold back to the original black.
The gold words behind them changed back to the familiar progress indicator!
Clearly, this meant that the newly obtained defensive witchcraft could continue to be upgraded!
Colin put away the Golden Paper, his heart leaping with joy.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
At the entrance of Siwo Inn, where he had been staying.
The tall figure of Mark emerged from the doorway with a sullen expression.
He addressed the young gang member responsible for recording the entries to Siwo Inn, speaking coldly:
"So you don't even know when he left?"
"…I'm sorry, sir."
Mark said nothing, his expression growing darker.
At first, he thought Sande and Rice had just gone off to enjoy themselves without a care.
But after a day without seeing them, he became suspicious.
Two days later, he had all but confirmed that Sande and Rice were dead.
Now it was the third day.
From yesterday to now, he had checked every target Sande and Rice were responsible for, one by one.
And now Siwo Inn was the last one.
There had been no abnormalities discovered in the previous four, but the target at Siwo Inn had quietly slipped out of their sight, and it was unknown where they had moved to.
This was clearly suspicious.
But Bananka Island was so vast, finding a Wizard intentionally hiding their tracks at this moment was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
However——
No matter what, the disappearance of Sande and Rice must be investigated further!
He needed to explain to the other gang members; he needed to show them!
Only now, with no clues, he truly didn't know where to begin.
Just as he furrowed his brows.
The young gang member beside him suddenly said:
"Sir, I've just remembered something!"