Wizards: Starting with Fairy Crests

010: Marker

On the 13th of the second month, the Wizarding Market arrived as scheduled.

At dawn, just as the evil-eyed witch's traveling hut landed in the market, a voice rang out from behind—

"Lord Dulis!"

Dulis turned her head and saw Lin Qi walking over.

Dulis's withered lips twitched almost imperceptibly, and her hoarse voice rang out: "It seems... you've returned safely from Silent Manor."

Lin Qi didn't reply, but stepped forward, took out the moss-covered wooden box from his pocket, and gently opened it in front of Dulis.

Inside the box, a section of tender twig, about three inches long, dark purple to black in color, with fine, closed-eye-like patterns on its surface, lay quietly on the damp moss. The broken end remained sticky and active, emitting that unique, sweet and rotten smell.

"Hmm." Dulis made an ambiguous nasal sound, stepping aside to open the door a crack. "Come in."

Upon entering the main house, Dulis closed the heavy wooden door behind her.

She then went directly to the center of the relatively open floor in the room. Her thin, bony fingers brushed against an inconspicuous gray cloth bag at her waist—

"Buzz..."

A slight tremor ran through the air. A heavy crucible, about half a person's height and requiring two people to hug, appeared out of thin air on the floor.

The crucible is a dark brass color, with dense, constantly moving eerie runes etched on its surface. Three animal feet grip the ground firmly, and the edges are covered with scorch marks and crystals of various colors left over from years of boiling.

Dulis walked slowly around the cauldron, her withered, claw-like hands once again brushing against her spatial pocket. One by one, the "materials" were taken out and placed on the floor around the cauldron:

Several unidentified creature hearts, constantly pulsating, enveloped in swirling black mist;

A bottle of dark red liquid, thick and sticky, with countless tiny human faces floating and churning inside;

Several kinds of withered and twisted plant roots and stems, yet still radiating strong spiritual energy;

Finally, there was a ceramic jar tightly sealed with black wax, its body icy cold and its surface covered with a layer of white frost.

Her movements were unhurried, with a ritualistic precision and indifference, as if what was about to take place was not a transactional potion-making, but a sacrifice preparation that had been repeated countless times.

Immediately, Dulis pointed her withered finger, and a cold, eerie green flame silently shot up, enveloping the bottom of the crucible. The firelight cast her shadow dancing wildly on the wall.

She tossed the pulsating black heart, the churning crimson liquid resembling human faces, and the hissing roots into the cauldron one by one. The potion transformed into a murky, dark brown liquid within the cauldron, silently boiling and emitting a cloying, maddening aroma.

Finally, she poured in a whole jar of gelatinous substance that seemed to concentrate the night. The potion instantly turned a thick, dark purple, with eye-shaped bubbles constantly appearing and disappearing on its surface.

Dulis stirred the potion slowly with a black bone spoon, producing a low, dreamlike hum. As she stirred, the boiling subsided, and the potion settled into an ominous calm, as deep as a midnight pool.

Just as she stopped stirring—

The smooth, mirror-like surface of the potion suddenly cracked open.

The slit opened, transforming into a huge, murky, bloodshot purple eye. The eyeball moved stiffly for a moment, the pupil contracted, and it coldly "stared" at Lin Qi beside the crucible, its gaze filled with inhuman greed and scrutiny.

A moment later, its eyes slowly closed, disappearing from the surface of the potion as if it had never existed. Only a seemingly calm, purplish-black potion remained, quietly radiating an alluring yet deadly aura.

Dulis said hoarsely, "Okay, it's done."

Then, she took a rough, chipped earthenware bowl from the shelf and used the black bone spoon to scoop out a thick, purplish-black potion from the crucible. The potion fell into the bowl without causing a ripple, remaining as still as a solid.

She handed the bowl to Lynch, her cloudy eyes fixed on him, her hoarse voice carrying an undeniable command: "Drink it. Right now, in front of me."

Lin Qi stared at the dark purple liquid in the bowl, which seemed to draw in his gaze, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

Without hesitation, he took the earthenware bowl, tilted his head back, and drank the potion in one gulp.

The sensation of the liquid sliding down my throat was strangely intense—first, an extreme cold, as if I had swallowed a mouthful of silt from the depths of a frigid pool, followed by a burst of scorching heat that exploded from my stomach and instantly swept through my limbs and bones!

"Well--!"

Lin Qi grunted, and the ceramic bowl in his hand fell to the ground and shattered. He staggered, clutching his throat and chest tightly with both hands, feeling something throbbing and swelling wildly beneath his skin, trying to burst out of his body!

The excruciating pain did not come from his flesh and blood, but from the depths of his soul, as if countless cold needles were simultaneously piercing his spiritual core and tearing it outwards.

In the instant his vision blurred with pain, he saw in horror—

A thin crack silently appeared on the back of his hand, revealing a cold eyeball with bloodshot veins and dark purple pupils, turning emotionlessly as it stared back at him.

Immediately afterwards, wriggling lumps appeared one after another under the skin of the arms, neck, and even cheeks. Then the skin was forcibly torn open, and more eyeballs squeezed through the flesh and burrowed out!

They varied in size, some were murky and some were clear, but without exception they all emanated an eerie purple light, spinning around and scanning their surroundings in a chaotic yet greedy manner.

Lynch's consciousness was overwhelmed by this horrific scene beyond comprehension and the soul-tearing pain. He opened his mouth wide and let out a piercing scream that was not human, a mixture of extreme pain and fear: "Ah—!!!"

The cries echoed inside the small wooden hut.

However, at the very moment when the screams reached their peak—

Everything came to an abrupt end.

The cracks in the skin healed instantly as if they had never existed, and the protruding eyeballs shrank and disappeared like phantoms. The excruciating pain receded like a tide, leaving only a feeling of utter exhaustion and a lingering sense of unease, as if the soul had been slightly touched.

Lin Qi collapsed to his knees, panting heavily, his inner shirt soaked with cold sweat. He trembled as he raised his hand, repeatedly examining the back of his hand and arm.

The skin was intact, still pale, with only a few red marks left from the forceful grip.

The hellish scene just now seemed to be an extremely realistic, bone-chilling collective hallucination, a terrifying vision produced by the impact of the magic potion.

But Lynch knew it wasn't an illusion!

He could clearly feel that deep within his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness, there was a touch of cold, slippery, and voyeuristic "impurity," like a drop of ink falling into clear water, slowly and irreversibly spreading.

A tiny slit appeared on the back of my right hand, and I felt a pulsating sensation, as if another heart was sliding under my skin, which vanished in an instant.

Dulis looked down at him, the vertical lines on her forehead slightly relaxed, seemingly quite satisfied with the effect of her "performance" just now.

She gave a hoarse laugh, like the night wind whistling through withered bones: "Welcome... to taste the flavor of 'Thousand Eyes'. The seed has been planted, and it will follow you until... when you truly need it, or when it needs you."

Hearing Dulis's words, Lin Qi felt a chill run down his spine.

he knows.

From this moment on, he has been marked as an evil tyrant; what awaits him in the future is either enslavement or being devoured...

Dulis then warned, "Keep your mouth shut about what happened at Silent Manor, or those statues will be your end."

Lin Qi nodded quickly and said, "Yes."

Dulis nodded slightly: "Alright, if there's nothing else, you can go back now."

After a pause, she earnestly advised, "Here's a piece of advice: do nothing from now on. Use every spare moment to meditate. Once you've advanced to the intermediate apprentice level, immediately go and report to the Gray Tower."

She stared into Lynch's eyes: "This is a matter of life and death for you!"

The apprentices in the Gray Mist Forest were unaware of the existence of Nightmare Beasts, but this was no secret to a wizard like Dulis.