Assassin's Chronicle

Anfey, Suzanna and a few others had quietly left Moramatch before the dawn, while Christian led the rest of the legion into the underground tunnels. The experiences in the magic world had made Anfey realize how hard it could be just to survive. Almost everyone in the legion, and every legion, had to experience difficulties as they grew. In addition to their experiences after the Sacred City, they had encountered many difficulties since they came to the Country of Mercenaries. Of course, there were legions that made their names quickly with their supreme battle powers, which was also because they had perfect timing. Most people had to stumble through the difficulties.

Anfey’s legion had the best people among all of the mercenary groups. In addition to Anfey and Suzanna, Riska and Christian were junior magisters. They carried six senior magic scrolls in case of any danger. That meant they could become senior magisters or even archmages in a very short time with the release of magic scrolls. Black Eleven had lived in the Country of Mercenaries for a long time, so he was familiar with everything in the Country of Mercenaries. He could report to the spies in other departments to ask for help if they were in any danger.

Anfey did not ask too much from them, but their jobs were not easy either. They needed to fight and flee as needed. These few people met Anfey’s requirements.

Anfey and his small group of companions travelled 50 miles while it was still dark. They did not stop walking until the sun sent shimmering rays. They were already deep in the Hengduan Valley, where different mercenary groups came often. They decided to take a break in case they ran into other mercenary groups.

Black Eleven took out the bread he brought with him and passed it around to everyone. The bread was so dry that it was far from being delicious. Luckily Anfey and his group were tough people. They took the breads and ate them quickly.

"Anfey, what is your plan?" Black Eleven said in a low voice.

"We will travel to the west to look for Shansa Empire’s army. We will see what happens when we find them," Anfey said.

"If that union of mercenary groups found out no one is in Moramatch, would they want to do something to the underground tunnels?" Riska asked.

"I don’t think so," Black Eleven spoke for Anfey. "The news that Shansa Empire has retreated is out. How much stuff can they confiscate from us? How much supplies does Shansa Empire’s military have? If they decide to rob only once, they would rob Shansa Empire’s military, since it should be enough for their whole lives."

"They have thirty thousand elite soldiers. Unless all the mercenary groups in the Country of Mercenaries unite together, they are just asking to be killed" Riska said.

"Shansa Empire asked the main force of thirty thousand soldiers to withdraw for a reason. Shansa Empire wanted those thirty thousand soldiers to ensure the safety of Hengduan Valley. It means that those thirty thousand soldiers would not always stick together all the time, which would give mercenaries an opportunity to make a surprise attack on them," Black Eleven said.

"Someone is coming." Anfey suddenly stopped their conversation. A few birds flew out of the trees at the foot of the hill. They flew a good distance away without any thought of staying.

Anfey waved his hand. Suzanna and the others jumped into the trees and hid themselves in the tree crowns to quietly watch their surroundings.

Before long, two people stumbled outside the forest. They had to pass a grassland no matter whether they wanted to walk along the valley floor or climb up on the hill. The two people hesitated for a second. Obviously, they did not want to walk over that grassland. One of them suddenly screamed in pain and fell on the ground, while the other one rushed forward without even thinking about which route to choose or looking after his companion.

He was only able to run a dozen steps before a black ball-like object flew out of the forest and hit the guy right on the back. A mage in a black gown slowly walked out of the forest as the guy was falling on the ground. Anfey and his companions could not see the mage’s face, since his head was fully covered by the black hood. The mage tucked his hands into his sleeves. From a distance, he looked like a black phantom.

The mage looked like he was afraid of sunlight. He raised his arm to cover his face with the sleeves. He slowly walked to the guy who had fallen on the grass. He did a rough search of the guy and hurriedly retreated to the forest.

Homicide usually happened and ended very quickly. Before Anfey could decide whether he should help, everything went back to normal.

"He looked like a necromancer," Black Eleven said quietly.

"I think so too," Riska added.

Everyone laid their eyes on Anfey. Necromancers were hated by everyone. When educated people saw something like this happen, their first reaction would be to chase after the necromancer and kill him. Anfey was the leader of the legion, so they had to listen to Anfey’s instruction before they could take action.

"Black Eleven, which mercenary group has necromancers?" Anfey asked quietly.

"No mercenary group would like to take a necromancer into their legion," Black Eleven said, shaking his head.

"He must not be a mercenary, right?" Anfey asked.

"No, he is not a mercenary," Black Eleven said.

"Look, those two dead bodies moved," Suzanna muttered urgently.

Everybody turned to look. The two dead bodies did move, but their moves looked quite different. The one laying on the grass screamed, but that screaming did not sound like a human scream. Clouds of black smog arose from his body and got darker and darker.

There was smog rising from the other dead body as well. However, when he crawled back to the forest and got away from the sunlight, the smog disappeared.

The screaming sounded horrifying and it got louder, then gradually quieted down. He could not even struggle any more at the end. Only smog kept rising up from him. His companion walked to the forest like a robot.

"It’s a zombie. Bastard! That evil necromancer turns humans into zombies in broad daylight," Riska yelled in anger.

"A zombie?" Anfey was shocked. He had never seen a zombie in real life before. He had only seen zombies in the movies. "Let’s go and take a look."

They jumped out of the trees and rushed towards the dead body on the grass. Flying in the air could be easily noticed by that necromancer. Riska had learned to be cautious. He did not use levitation magic. He just followed behind everyone.

By the time Anfey had reached to the dead body, it already had been burned into ashes by the sunlight. The black smog was actually the clouds of ashes. The ashes fell back to the ground after they rose up high in the air. Anfey did not want to walk under the ashes, so he stepped back to observer the dead body.

"Anfey, I suspect that necromancer is with Evil Mist," Black Eleven said sadly.

"Evil Mist?" Suzanna did not understand.

"Evil Mist?" Anfey was shocked. After he came to Pan Continent, he had few contacts with the people from Evil Mist. Although he had beat all of them, Professor Saul thought it was because Anfey had the advantage that his opponents underestimated him. They could not be nobodies if Archmage Saul thought they were hard to deal with. If Evil Mist sent the good ones from their organization to fight with Anfey, he should be concerned. Right now, they had not taken care of the threats from Shansa Empire’s military. They were surrounded by mercenaries with evil intentions towards them. Anfey did not want to have any other enemies. However, things could just happen in a way they did not want. Anfey felt really helpless.

"Weird. Why would the people from Evil Mist be here?" Black Eleven asked with a confused look.

"I am not from Evil Mist. Why are you asking me?" Anfey heaved a slight sigh. "Are you sure?"

"Necromancers are loners. They could not survive on Pan Continent. No matter if they are willing or not, they have to rely on others." Black Eleven smiled bitterly. "Necromancers were cursed by gods. As far as I know, only Evil Mist would take necromancers without any concerns. I heard two of the leaders in Evil Mist are senior necromancers."

"Anfey, let’s follow him and kill him," Riska surprised everyone and said worriedly. "I can sense that zombie. As long as we follow that zombie, we surely could find that necromancer."

"It would not be that easy." Anfey shook his head. "Is there any mercenary group in the Country of Mercenaries with only two people in it?"

"Anfey, are you saying their whole mercenary group was killed by that necromancer? Only two of them got the chance to escape?" Black Eleven had the fastest response.

"Yes, they must have been fleet of foot," Anfey said.

"There are not many magic beasts in the Hengduan Valley. Not many mercenaries want to come here for their assignments. The mercenary groups who gathered in Hengduan Valley were all from the union. Could a necromancer kill the whole union?" Black Eleven said. His smile was getting rigid. "It could not be like that, could it? That union has at least five or six hundred mercenaries. What kind of necromancers could ambush them? I had a few contacts with necromancers. That one was not that powerful."

"What if it was not just one necromancer, what if there were a group of them?" Anfey asked.

"A group..." Black Eleven murmured to himself. The smile on his face looked more fake.

"When did necromancers get the guts?" Suzanna asked with a bitter smile. She had never seen a necromancer before, but she knew how powerful those necromancers could be. Hearing the possibility that a group of necromancers were in the Hengduan Valley had her nervous.

"Anfey, should we let the union of those mercenaries know about it?" Riska asked.

"Would they believe what we tell them? Necromancers would not pose too much of a threat, to us but to other mercenary groups they would. I think they would fight us if we tell them we are from Alibaba mercenary group." Anfey shook his head. He hesitated for a second and said, "We’d better go with your suggestion for now."

"My suggestion? To notify other mercenary groups?" Riska asked.

"No, to follow the zombie to see what that necromancer would do?"