Chapter 86: Powerless

Mage Kenni's greatest hope right now was to be discovered by Xia Duo and the others in time, so that he could get a good sleep; once he recovered his spellcasting ability, he would become that powerful necromancer once again.

Of course, the premise for all of this was that he could bluff his way through and obtain shelter before his pursuers arrived.

……

At Xia Duo's Temporary Camp, under purposeful observation, Xia Duo peered through the gaps in the forest and could already see a stumbling figure walking in their direction.

Closer still, Xia Duo could roughly distinguish that it was a middle-aged man, wearing the attire of an ordinary Merchant from Savile Town; he truly seemed to be just an ordinary person.

"Captain Jibu, go and meet him, and find out the other party's identity."

"Yes."

The others also let out a sigh of relief and, without waiting for Xia Duo's orders, began to put away their weapons one after another; however, Xia Duo did not, only using his cloak to cover his Hand Crossbow, the arrowhead still pointed steadily at the middle-aged Merchant.

Over there, Jibu had already met the man, and after the two exchanged a few words, Jibu shouted loudly, "Someone come help, he's about to collapse!"

The group turned their gazes toward Xia Duo, waiting for his Indication; Xia Duo nodded, and two team members rushed out, supporting the man on both sides and bringing him to the campfire.

Xia Duo carefully observed this middle-aged man who looked like a Merchant, comparing him to the Merchants of Savile Town in his memory; the moment he saw this person, Xia Duo's attention focused on his fingers and neck.

His skin was fair; this was not something an ordinary Merchant could possess.

The Merchants Xia Duo had seen only lived slightly better than ordinary people; when it came to luxury, they hadn't reached that level yet! It was impossible for them to have such fair skin.

Looking at his face, although he appeared honest and sincere, Xia Duo always felt something was wrong.

From the conversation between this middle-aged man and Jibu's group, Xia Duo learned that this person claimed to be a leather Merchant from Savile Town, who had encountered Orcs in the forest with his companions and gotten separated!

This made Xia Duo even more suspicious; setting aside how many Orcs were in the forest and how they just happened to run into them, how could an ordinary person escape from the hands of Orcs!

There were no details, just a vague "got separated," yet Jibu actually believed it, even taking out his own rations for the man to eat.

The people around did not show any signs of vigilance either; they had just lifted their guard—were they really that careless?

Xia Duo suddenly thought of Aiwa and was about to look for her, but to his surprise, Aiwa had suddenly disappeared; almost subconsciously, Xia Duo entered a state of Spellcasting Focus.

The image of the middle-aged man appearing in the Magic Net was no different from the others, and there was no Magic Aura on his body; Xia Duo even began to doubt if he was being overly suspicious.

Just then, a mosquito-like voice came from behind, "This person might be a Mage; look at the inside of his right wrist, there is a Magic Rune."

It was Aiwa!

Xia Duo's heart tightened, but his expression remained normal; his gaze inadvertently swept over the man's wrist, but Xia Duo did not find the Magic Rune Aiwa spoke of.

If it were truly as Aiwa said and this person was a Mage, then he definitely had some ulterior motive; a Mage wearing ordinary Merchant clothes in the freezing cold, playing at hiking in the forest—just thinking about it, there was a problem.

Xia Duo had the mind to shoot him dead with an arrow, but he worried that this person might have some unknown means; he tentatively tugged at the Magic Net under his cloak, not intending to produce any Magic Effect, just simply "tugging" at the strands of the Magic Net.

At such a close distance, if the other party were a Mage and happened to be in a state of Spellcasting, then even an Apprentice would be able to detect the movement on Xia Duo's side.

But this person did nothing, still chatting with Jibu and the others; of course, it was also possible he had discovered it and was pretending not to.

But as long as the other party made no move, Xia Duo still had to continue testing; this time, he operated the Mage Hand to add the remaining paralytic poison used for coating arrows into the water bag.

Xia Duo put away the Hand Crossbow under his cloak, lifted the cloak to pull off the water bag at his waist, and handed it to the middle-aged man suspected of being a Mage, "Drink some water; I've kept it close to my body, it's warm."

The only ones here who could have warm water were probably Xia Duo and Dien, but at this moment, Dien also seemed to have been reminded, untying his water bag from his waist.

Xia Duo saw this and hurriedly handed the water bag in his hand to the middle-aged man.

This middle-aged man was none other than the desperate Mage Kenni; seeing two Apprentices vying to offer warm water, he thought of the necklace on his chest and couldn't help but feel smug, deciding that after he returned and obtained the location of the ruins, he would definitely give Lao Nier a quick death.

Kenni pulled out the stopper and took a deep drink; it was a bit sweet, as if sugar had been added, just right for him to recover his strength, but the next second, Kenni's hand loosened, and his body fell backward.

Xia Duo cast Mage Hand to support the water bag and shouted, "Aiwa, check him!"

"Mage Xia Duo, what is going on?" Jibu felt his head wasn't quite enough; they were just laughing and talking a moment ago, how did things suddenly turn hostile?

Seeing that Jibu only raised a question and did not stop him, Xia Duo breathed a sigh of relief; he did not answer the question, but instead signaled for Aiwa to hurry and check.

"Xia Duo, what's wrong with him?" Dien was also a bit confused; if he thought this person was problematic, he shouldn't have brought him back just now.

"Look—"

Xia Duo pointed at Aiwa, who was busy; by this time, Aiwa had already skillfully unbuttoned the middle-aged man's clothes, and at this point, Kenni could no longer keep up the act.

His eyes were filled with rage, and he questioned in a slurred voice: "What do you want to do!"

But with most of his body paralyzed, he could do nothing, let alone cast a Spell; he could only watch helplessly as Aiwa searched a palm-sized small cloth bag from his person.

Xia Duo had seen such a small cloth bag in the hands of that Golden-robed Mage when he was selecting the mission area; at that time, it was just such a small bag, and a whole pile of Badges was poured out from inside.

Dimensional Bag!

Xia Duo entered a state of Spellcasting Focus, and he saw that the small bag in her hand was emitting a strong Magic Aura, yet he hadn't noticed it at all before.

He took another look at the other items Aiwa had searched out—

A necklace with an Elf statue as a pendant, with an extremely weak Magic Aura; if carried on one's person, it would even be masked by the body's own aura;

A metal Scroll Case, but it was already empty inside;

Two rings with unique designs, one of which possessed a strong Magic Aura, while the other had none at all, appearing to be just an ordinary ring.

But since a Dimensional Bag had appeared, how could this ring truly be that ordinary!

Besides these items, there were also some bone fragments, Gold Coins, Gemstones, pins, and other miscellaneous items.

Looking at the middle-aged man who was almost stripped bare and shivering incessantly in the cold wind, Xia Duo felt no pity, only covering him with his original clothes, pouring another mouthful of paralytic poison water, and asking:

"Who are you? Are you a Mage? What is your purpose in deliberately approaching us?"