“Forget it. Just a bunch of apprentices. You can’t help with anything.” The prisoner lowered his head. “You must be very lucky to survive the parasites.”
Angor’s group remained silent.
“And I do believe that luck will continue.” The wizard looked at them again, causing a giant wound on his neck to bleed out.
He slowly inspected everyone. After briefly showing a disappointed look at Angor, he set his gaze upon Nausica.
“Name’s Gragg. Does that ring a bell? Well, never mind. I’m a dying fool who’ll go to hell sooner or later. You don’t have to remember me.
“Let’s be quick. I’m a Bloodline Wizard. As I said, I’m dying and nobody’s gonna save me...” Gragg continued in sadness, “These goddamn wires and the insects that kept gnawing at me... I know my body. I’m at my limit. Maybe one or two minutes, and I’ll stop breathing.
“But before I die, I want to pass on my legacy to someone. You, that lady in armor. What’s your name?”
Nausica wondered whether she should reply, but Gragg didn’t give her time to think about it.
“Nah, it doesn’t matter. Just another passerby I saw in my troubled life...” Gragg shook his head. “The important thing is, this is your lucky day. I will give you everything I’ve acquired so that they don’t go to waste. This includes my bloodline. Mine, Gragg’s bloodline, the bloodline of Nether Demons!
“Come closer, lady. Welcome this brilliant destiny I present to you!”
Gragg did his speech in a passionate and intoxicating manner, but when he finished, he realized nobody was making any response.
“Be quick, lady. I’ll expire any moment now, after which no one’s going to find my treasures ever again!” Gragg urged.
Nausica took a step forward and was dragged back by Shan. She saw Shan had replaced her carefree look with a serious frown.
Don’t. It’s a trap. Shan spoke using lip language.
Nausica gave Shan a reassuring smile and told Shan to relax.
Angor was floating in the air while observing Gragg’s show. He already noticed something fishy in the deal, but he chose not to warn Nausica because he believed that Nausica was way more experienced than him when it came to dealing with shady business. The former pirate captain of Blackberry Waters was bound to be perceptive enough to discover such problems.
“Mister Gragg, my name is Angela, a Bloodline apprentice in training. I truly thank you for your generosity, yet I cannot go to you because I feared these dragonflies will turn me to pieces the moment I draw near.” Nausica bowed politely.
Gragg’s expression froze. Then he forced a smile while bearing the great pain inflicted on his body.
“The path of wizardry is always full of crises and threats. If you always step down in the face of such challenges, you will have no hope of pursuing the ultimate truth. Didn’t you see that these dragonflies never minded your presence? This is because they only meant to keep an eye on me. Besides, you don’t have to get close to me. Move under this nest and below my position. It will be fine.”
Heh. Nausica scoffed in her mind. She already knew that the dragonflies were peaceful thanks to Angor, but she didn’t show her true mind. On the outside, Nausica maintained that “eager but fearful” attitude.
While watching, Angor silently admired how Nausica was so masterful while putting up shows even though she spent most of her time training. He tried to observe Nausica’s details as much as he could, for this might help him later, when he had to fake his attitude in front of different figures again.
Gragg was getting convinced by Nausica’s “performance”, so he believed he just needed to throw another bait to lure the lady to him.
“Sigh. Are you really going to give up on this great treasure of mine? Fine. I do not care what is bothering your mind. It’s just the unjust will of a dying man anyway... I thank you for coming and letting me enjoy a few words with someone before I perish. Here, just take this.”
By using what remained of his spirit power, Gragg pulled a small glass vial from his personal storage and tossed it at Nausica, which landed at her feet.
Using Shan’s light source, they saw the ordinary-looking potion vial had expansion runes drawn on the inside, which allowed it to contain more liquid than it appeared to be.
This was usually referred to as a “Bloodline Vial”. As the name suggested, such vials were designed to hold bloodlines. As they were quite costly to make, wizards usually used them to contain relatively valuable bloodlines only.
The vial had some red liquid inside.
“Angela, is it? Take it away. That’s the watered-down bloodline of a Nether Demon, consider it a gift from me. Too bad, the knowledge in my mind will have no successors.”
Nausica, Angor, and Shan looked at each other in surprise.
They knew how valuable this bloodline was. Even if it was a “watered-down” version of a demon bloodline or something else despite Gragg’s words, anything that required a bloodline vial to contain must be rather precious.
Which meant something worth becoming the highlight lots at auctions.
Nausica always had a shortage of money because she had been working hard on saving money for a decent bloodline. It was likely that Gragg just showed her a real bloodline vial in order to set her up, and this was such a good chance to acquire her bloodline at last.
Even if she could not use it for some reason, she could always sell it and use the money to buy something that would be more proper.
Shan already changed her attitude by urging Nausica to accept the trade, while keeping an eye out for potential traps.
Nausica made a thumbs-up behind her. I got this.
Then she used that same hesitant look to glance between Gragg and the vial beneath her.
She then moved to pick it up.
Gragg smirked.
But Nausica stopped her movement before touching the vial, which confused Gragg greatly. He had left a spell on the item, which would be triggered when someone touched it.
Nausica pretended that she was taking her time to make the final decision. She then secretly winked at Angor.
Angor saw her hint and slowly nodded.
Nausica straightened up and spoke to Gragg while mimicking Gragg’s tone, “I know you wish someone to take over your great legacy, sir. But to me, such a fortuitous gift bestowed by a stranger will never be my true strength, nor will I have enough strength to bear with it. Using it might hinder my steps and even prevent me from becoming a wizard. I think I will not disgrace your name by putting your power to waste, sir.”
Nausica turned back and called at Angor and Shan. “Go!”
Immediately, Angor and Shan pushed the room’s door open and bolted outside. At the same time, Angor created a string out of gravity power that pulled the bloodline vial away.
Gragg was stunned for a second. He quickly realized that these lowly apprentices were simply tricking him, especially that woman.
“Accursed morons!” Gragg’s rage caused several of his blood vessels to pop open under the strings. “You can run, but you aren’t going to take my stuff for free! EXPLOSION!”
When Gragg’s bellow was heard, Angor quickly noticed a strange energy affecting the vial being dragged by his gravity power.
“Damn! He put a spell on this thing, and it’s going to get out of control.”
Nausica briefly showed a sorrowful look before she yelled at Angor, “Throw it away. Don’t mind me!”
Angor wasn’t sure about this. Discarding the vial meant giving up something that could potentially be valued at a million crystals, but he found no other choice when the energy on the vial became so violent and dangerous. In the end, he complied and hurled the item as far as he could.
A hand that was wearing a white glove suddenly materialized in the air and caught the vial. The hand glowed and easily dispelled the raging aura on the vial, leaving the item intact.
“Since when did you learn how to trick helpless apprentices, Gragg?”
When Angor heard the familiar voice of his professor, he immediately stopped running. So did Nausica and Shan, who all turned around to look at the gentleman who was somehow standing behind them.
“Professor? Thank goodness you’re here.”
“Are you blind, Angor? He’s not your only savior.” Greya’s voice came from above them.
Angor looked up, but he immediately lowered his head as fast as he could.
“Lady... Lady Greya.”
“What? You won’t even look at me properly now?” Greya spat.
Sunders assisted Angor by saying, “That dress of yours... Sure, you can get lower and let everyone have a good view of what’s UNDER you, if you don’t mind.”
Greya was a little surprised to realize what Sunders meant, but she didn’t seem to be ashamed at all.
“Oh... Mister Phantom, did you enjoy the view? Your opinion would be nice.”
“A little better than your old self, I must say. At least that purple undergarment does not strain too badly this time.”