Assassin's Chronicle

"There is no hope of fixing it?" Suzanna asked quickly after learning that it was magic armor. She already had armor, but Anfey did not. Anfey’s magic badge was only for show, and whenever he was in danger, he relied on hand-to-hand combat. Her armor was custom made for her and was too small for Anfey, or else she would have been bugging him about wearing it long ago. Hearing that there was a suit of armor, she got excited.

"Magic armor is living armor. You cannot bring back the dead. My hands are tied," Hagan shook his head and told Suzanna.

"There is no way?" Suzanna did not want to give up.

"No." Hagan glanced at Suzanna and frowned. "Suzanna, you already have magic armor. Do you not like it? Do you want me to make you a new one? We don’t have any materials right now, though. I will keep an eye out."

"No, no. I really like the armor you made," Suzanna explained hurriedly.

"Suzanna, you don’t have to hold back. I know I am just a normal alchemist, and I can’t add powerful spells to your armor, but I am doing my best. Trust me, one day I will be more than just a normal alchemist. One day I will make armor better than any other."

"I really do like your armor, Hagan, trust me." Suzanna did not know what to say, but she did not want to tell everyone what she was really thinking about.

"I think," Hagan said with a smile. He did not believe Suzanna’s explanation, and believed that she was trying to make the situation less awkward for him. Hagan was determined to work harder and improve himself. This way, he could help the team more.

"Can you fix the books?" Anfey asked.

"Books?" Hagan glanced at the other chest. He ran his hand over the paper and said, "I can try, but I promise nothing."

"Good. I will send the chest to your place. I’m worried that moving it could damage it, though."

"Leave it to me," Hagan promised.

"What kind of book is it?" Hui Wei asked.

"Are you a paladin or a minstrel?" Anfey smiled and joked. "What can you tell?"

"The decoration is clearly werewolf style."

"Obviously."

"If Hagan could fix them, I could tell you what it is."

"Nobody move and everyone hold your breath," Hagan said. He pulled out a bottle of potion and dropped some onto the books. The light blue potion turned into thousands of blue sparks and enveloped the books. After the blue sparks disappeared, the books were a light grey color. Hagan tapped the books and smiled. "It’s petrified," he explained. "I will clean away the potion after it’s at my place."

"It’s a petrifying potion?" Anfey asked, shocked. He knew about petrifying magic from books, but the spell was lost during the Holy War. Petrifying magic was the most powerful spell behind earth magic’s forbidden spells, but it was much more dangerous than the forbidden spell. If one side of the fight was turned to stone, then the outcome would obvious.

"Yes."

"Why didn’t you tell me? If we have petrifying potion, can’t we just turn all of our opponents into stone?"

Hui Wei chuckled. He knew he shouldn’t, but every time he heard Anfey talking about magic, he could not control his laughter.

"Is that possible?" Hagan asked.

"Is it not?" Anfey asked. He already knew that he had proposed a stupid plan when he heard Hui Wei’s laugh, but he was not embarrassed. He needed to find out why. If he was embarrassed whenever someone laugh at him, he would not achieve anything.

"Living things are different from nonliving things. It could turn a person into stone, but you have to trick them into drinking at least a dozen bottles. For someone who is resistant to magic, a whole barrel might not work."

"They will have a killer stomachache," Hui Wei said.

"Stop it," Anfey said. "Hagan, let’s go look at the other things."

Hagan glanced around and found the magic beast bones. He walked over slowly. Hui Wei got to make a jab at Anfey, and was already satisfied. He looked up and stopped suddenly. He hurried to the exit and climbed up.

The stone that covered the exit was a stone slab that looked like stone and gold at the same time. Christian and Anfey did not notice, but Hui Wei saw a corner of the stone and thought there were some runes carved into the back.

Hui Wei poked his head out and lifted the stone slab. He was right. There was a very complicated magic array carved into the back of the slab. A piece of dull magic crystal was inserted into the middle of the array. There were no more magical surges, and as Hui Wei touched the crystal, it fell to the ground and shattered.

Hui Wei climbed out and observed the stone slab carefully. "Guys!" He called as he began pushing the slab into the cave.

"Is that an array?" Anfey asked as he saw the carvings on the slab.

"It is, but I don’t know what it is. Christian, do you know?" Hui Wei jumped down.

Christian walked over and stared at the carving. "I have never seen one like this. Where did you find it?"

"Flip it over," Hui Wei said, frowning. "I didn’t know werewolves knew how to use arrays like this."

Christian flipped the slab over and immediately recognized it and what the array was used for.

"This is where the crystal was, right?" Anfey asked.

"Where is the crystal?" Christian asked as he placed the stone slab on the ground.

"It fell and broke."

"Guess what part of the body this came from." Hagan walked over holding a piece of bone about a foot long and as thick as a child’s forearm.

"Let me see," Anfey said. Hagan handed the bone over.

"Is it a femur?" Christian asked. He had never heard Hagan so excited, and looked over to see what had happened. Hui Wei, on the other hand, was still observing the array. Hui Wei was like a grave robber. He was interested in things that had historical value, not bones.

"No. Look here, it’s sharp." Hagan pointed to the tip of the bone and said. "If I’m not mistaken, this is a creature’s phalanx."

"Phalanx?" Anfey asked in shock. If one of the fingers or toes was over a foot long, how big was the creature?

"Can you tell what it was from?" Christian asked.

"Not right now," Hagan said, shaking his head. "We have to keep these bones. I feel like we are onto something here. This can’t be a normal magic beast."

"I can’t feel any magic surges on this bone, though."

"Human sensation can often fool you," Hagan said confidently. "Trust me. I will surprise you in no time."

"Hagan, come here. Look at what I found," Hui Wei said slowly.

Hagan turned and one glance was all it took for him to jump up. "Is this a gangstone?"

"You’re right."

"This big? It’s impossible." Christian crouched down and began observing the stone slab again.

Anfey stood there and waited for the other’s comments. He only knew about the existence of these precious minerals, but he did not know the exact value. He had no place in this conversation.

Christian looked like he wasn’t familiar with the stone, either. "If this is really gangstone, then we will have..."

"A portable transmission portal," Hui Wei finished his sentence. "As long as we have enough crystals, we can use the portal anytime."

"But we don’t know what kind of portal this is," Christian said with a sigh.

"It’s easy. We just need an experiment. Anfey gave me a lot of crystals a few days ago," Hagan said.

"We can’t do anything before we find ways to turn it on and off," Hui Wei said and shook his head. "What if it attacks when we try to use it? What would we do then? Wait a few hundred years for the crystal’s power to dry up? Or activate it so the crystal dries up faster?"