CHAPTER 173: THE DOG’S MASTER

Alex waited for a few seconds after the Archmage was sucked into the vortex, it turned and revealed its other side where the spells that went in usually came from.

Alex stared to see what the result would be, would the Archmage come out stronger, like what happens to spells that are sucked in, or would something happen to him?

He was expecting the other party to come out with a missing limb or have a body covered in injuries after getting sucked in.

But what came out instead was a gust of moist air that carried a thick stench of blood with it.

Alex "..."

Not even a drop of blood had survived after he threw the man into the vortex.

At least now he knew what would happen if a living being were to enter one of these vortexes: inevitably, death!

"Hmm, I wonder what’s inside," Alex muttered to himself as he stared at the vortex, not that he had any intentions of investigating though.

He ended the spell and the six vortexes disappeared. Alex glanced to the side and saw the dog making weak sounds at the entrance of the cave, it was too small for its large body to fit through.

’Its master should be inside.’ Alex thought to himself as he approached the dog.

"Move," he voiced out after reaching the dog, the beast was blocking the entrance with its huge body so Alex had to make it move out of the way.

The dog jumped to the side immediately after it heard Alex’s voice behind it, its tail folded between its legs and it lowered its head in submission.

"Wait here," Alex said again before walking into the cave.

The inside of the cave was well lit despite it being nighttime, with tiny glowing stones etched on the walls and lining the inside of the cave.

Alex walked for a few seconds before reaching a clear space where a big round table and several seats could be found. From here, he could see three other tunnel openings that led deeper into the cave.

Alex didn’t pick a side immediately, silver white stars appeared around him, and he cast Warden of the Rift.

His eyes turned silver white before he glanced around. After using the spell, he got a complete understanding of the cave.

It was like a base and the inside was most likely constructed manually instead of a naturally formed cave.

There were prison rooms, storage, and sleeping areas located deeper inside the cave.

Currently, there was one other person inside this cave besides himself. A woman locked up in one of the prison rooms, her hair was covering her face, so Alex wasn’t able to see what she looked like, but he could clearly see the injuries on her body from here.

Another thing that Alex discovered was that he couldn’t feel any mana from the woman’s body; it was as if she were an ordinary person. Yet, the chains that were used to bind her had traces of mana.

He concluded that this woman was most likely the dog’s master. Alex then ended the spell and used Blink to directly appear in the prison room.

He appeared in front of the woman with a flicker of silver light but the woman didn’t react, as if she wasn’t conscious.

Alex knew that she wasn’t asleep because of how she was breathing and he had seen her move her body earlier while he was using Warden of the Rift.

Besides, how could someone fall asleep under such a condition?

He stood in front of her for a few seconds, thinking of what to say first. In the end, nothing meaningful came to his mind and he just opened his mouth.

"Your dog is waiting for you outside."

The woman still didn’t react and ignored Alex.

Alex raised an eyebrow at this, and he decided to just take her out instead of saying anything else.

"Aren’t you done? I can feel my connection with it outside, did you bring it back just to kill it in front of me?"

A calm voice sounded as Alex approached the woman, his feet paused and he stared down at her. Her head was still lowered and her long hair dropped over her face like a long towel.

"Are you talking about the dog? Yes, I brought it back, but I don’t plan to kill it. Didn’t you send it to look for help?" Alex responded.

The woman finally lifted her head at this moment and looked at him. Alex found a pair of green, beautiful eyes glaring at him with murderous intent, yet he couldn’t help being frozen in place.

He didn’t just freeze in place, he stopped breathing for a moment as well as he stared at the woman with wide eyes; he was in shock.

’So...beautiful!’

The thought exploded in Alex’s mind as he found himself unable to think of anything else, the woman in front of him was so beautiful that Alex didn’t know which other word to describe her.

Even in her current state, she was a captivating beauty.

The most stunning part was that she looked no older than 25 years old.

Thankfully, his face was covered by his mask so the woman wasn’t able to see his expression. She assumed that this masked person was just staring back at her so she proceeded to speak.

"Is this a new way of having fun for you bastards of the Dark Union? Role-playing? If you want to kill me, just get it over with already." The woman said with a decisive tone, her glare was fearless.

Alex "..."

’Kill? Who wants to kill you?! Show me that person, I swear to push them into my vortex and whip them with a lightning chain after they come out!’

But he quickly came back to his senses after a bit and realised that the beautiful woman was talking about him, Alex was now perplexed.

Why would he kill her when he was here to save her?!

"I think you’re misunderstanding, I’m not a member of the Dark Union," Alex explained, trying to maintain a calm tone.

The woman stared at him with an unimpressed gaze, she thought that he was lying.

But after taking another look at his robe, she realised that it was indeed of a different style from those scumbags who attacked her.

"If you aren’t a member of the Dark Union, how did you get here?" She asked, still suspicious of Alex.

After all, she couldn’t sense this person’s rank; she wouldn’t be easily deceived.

"Like I said, I came with your contracted beast and have come to save you, I found it roaming near a town," Alex explained.

The look in the woman’s eyes changed when she heard Alex’s words, but she quickly composed herself. Alex had already seen it; it was the look of hope.

"If you really aren’t a member of the Dark Union...can you free me from these chains?" She asked with a probing tone.

"Sure," Alex replied and reached out towards the chains around her wrists.

"Wait!" The woman suddenly called out, and Alex’s hands paused mid-air. He stared down at her and asked what the issue was.

The woman looked up at him and said with a confused face.

"These chains are mana absorbing chains that can suck even a Grand Archmage dry of all their mana in an instant, are you planning to touch them with your bare hands?"

The words of the woman entered Alex’s ears, but he didn’t understand anything she said; instead, he was lost in how pretty she looked from this angle.

Her staring up at him like this felt really nice!

"Don’t worry," he said casually the next moment before proceeding to grab the chains.

Immediately his hands made contact with the chains, Alex felt his mana being absorbed from his body at a crazy speed.

’Oh, so this is what she was talking about. But even at this speed, I’ll still have more than enough mana after a week.’ Alex thought to himself. His current soul sea was just so huge and the amount of mana inside was unimaginable.

He proceeded to squeeze the chains after grabbing them. With cracking sounds, the chains shattered into tiny bits before dropping to the ground.

The woman "..."

She stared at Alex in shock, startled by what she had just witnessed. Even a Grand Archmage wouldn’t destroy mana-absorbing chains so easily with their bare hands. How strong was this person?

Her arms were no longer being suspended in the air by the chains and her body wasn’t being drained of every mana it generated anymore, yet she didn’t stand up immediately and kept staring at Alex’s mask.

Alex felt awkward with her staring at him like that.

"What?" He asked.

The woman thought that Alex was annoyed with her staring at him like that and quickly retracted her gaze; she didn’t dare say that she was wondering what his rank was, since that would be rude since he just helped her.

"Nothing," she replied.

Alex was puzzled but didn’t ask any further, he was now able to sense the woman’s rank after he removed the chains; she was an Archmage!

The woman finally stood up with some effort after some seconds and glanced around, she then asked Alex where the members of the Dark Union were.

"They’re dead."