Chapter 250: Chapter 231: Harvey’s Return Chapter 250: Chapter 231: Harvey’s Return Time flew swiftly, days and months like the passing of a shuttle, five days had since Amberser and Katherine parted ways.

Amberser’s Underground City had opened up a large new area, and luckily, this area contained an abundance of gold, mostly in the form of household utensils.

“This underground civilization really knows luxury, even using gold bowls for eating,”

Amberser held a gold bowl larger than his head, thinking to himself that this must be a civilization created by Giants, as each utensil was of an astonishing size.

But giants are great, it’s because of the giants that there are such large bowls; the bigger, the better—the more gold to harvest.

Amberser commanded the Alien Skeletons to continue digging, enjoying the relentless unearthing of gold.

However, it wasn’t long before his enjoyment was interrupted.

In the darkness of the Underground City, three shadows were approaching.

Amberser sensed their presence and went to meet them.

Leading the way with a torch was the disheveled Harvey, followed by the Magipuppet Automatons Hasting, and the quicksilver-like Hales.

Harvey’s bruising around his eyes hadn’t entirely faded, but upon seeing Amberser, a smile spread across his face: “Teacher, I’m back.”

Hasting’s body trembled upon hearing this.

It was indeed his master’s student—he might have been too heavy-handed.

Amberser asked, puzzled, “You three, how did you end up together?”

Amberser knew that Harvey was able to survive, but he really didn’t know how these three had come together during these past several days.

Harvey said with an awkward expression, “Teacher, may I rest for a bit first?”

Harvey looked especially ragged at that moment, his mage’s robe covered with dirt and sand, and several wounds on his body, bandaged but clearly still weak.

Amberser cast a healing spell on Harvey, then said, “Follow me.”

He led the three back to his laboratory, handed several potion bottles to Harvey—some for healing, some for recovery. After gulping them down, Harvey’s complexion finally regained some color.

“Now, tell me what happened,” Amberser asked.

Before Harvey could speak, Hasting interjected, “Master, it’s like this, Hales and I were thinking of saving up to cross the ‘line of death’ to trouble the Paladins, when we met your student. Harvey was quite generous, knowing we were having some financial difficulties, he agreed to help us finish a high-reward assignment. Indeed, the assignment was completed, but he got a little injured.”

The quicksilver-like Hales chimed in quickly, “Right, right, when we saw he was injured, of course, we couldn’t just focus on our own mission—he’s your student, master. So, we prioritized bringing him back. Now that we’ve delivered him to you, it’s time for us to continue with our task. Bro, let’s go.”

The two brothers, playing good cop and bad cop, were ready to leave the laboratory.

Amberser said with a sneer, “You still need another five hundred years of practice to lie in front of me. Stand over there.”

The two brothers didn’t dare to speak; they quickly stood in the corner, motionless, they almost looked like part of the décor.

Harvey, looking at their docile behavior, wondered if he was seeing things. These two had not shown such an attitude towards him before. Indeed, it was the teacher who was formidable, solving problems with ease that the student couldn’t manage.

Amberser turned his skeletal face toward Harvey, the Soul Fire burning fiercely within, giving him a somewhat terrifying aspect.

But Harvey was used to it, so he went on to tell Amberser what had happened over the past few days in detail.

Harvey had been tricked by the brothers and had taken a beating. Luckily, in a critical moment, he mentioned another name of Amberser’s and revealed his Lich identity, which made the brothers relent.

Although still skeptical, as Harvey unfolded more information about Amberser, the brothers had to believe in his identity.

Hales and Hasting were High-order Undead created by Amberser, essentially Amberser’s slaves, while Harvey was Amberser’s student—the difference in their statuses was clear.

Harvey had resigned himself to the belief that everything was arranged by fate, and since he was a man marked for death, he did not quibble with the two brothers and thus let them take him to “complete” the mission to subdue the Sand Lizard.

The brothers couldn’t understand his interest in such a dangerous mission, but they dared not defy Harvey’s orders. The trio teamed up and headed to the cave where the Sand Lizard was known to lurk, and sure enough, they encountered the creature’s ambush.

The fearsome Sand Lizard swallowed Harvey whole and even chewed a few times for good measure.

Harvey thought his destined death was upon him, but after closing his eyes and awaiting his end for quite a while, he started hearing a crunching noise.

Upon opening his eyes, he saw Hasting had torn the Sand Lizard apart with his fists—it was nothing but a heap of bone shavings.

Harvey was indeed covered in wounds, but the damage inflicted by such a lowly undead creature was mild, nowhere near fatal.

Harvey couldn’t make sense of the unexpected turn of events that contradicted the prophecy of death.

“There was a time when I doubted whether fate could be changed,” Harvey said to Amberser.

“And now?” asked Amberser.

Harvey replied with a bitter smile, “I didn’t understand at first, but later I figured it out. Teacher, you saved me, didn’t you? Although I don’t know how you did it, I guess you must have gone back to the past and forged this prophecy, perfectly reenacting everything I had encountered. Only then could I avoid dying as foretold, because it was all fake from the start.”

Harvey indeed couldn’t figure it out at first, but when he took a closer look at the skeletal Sand Lizard and saw its strange composition of bones, he knew it was Amberser’s handiwork.

There surely wasn’t just one Lich on this continent, but to create such an Alien Skeleton, there had to be only Amberser.

Realizing this, Harvey understood everything.

Amberser had to admit, the boy’s talent in the School of Prophecy was truly exceptional; he had figured it out in just a few days? This bug-exploiting trick was something Amberser had pondered for decades.

“You’re too clever for your own good… *sigh* Once you understand this logic, there’s no saving you a second time,” Amberser confessed that he had never intended to tell Harvey. As long as Harvey remained unaware, Amberser could save him again and again.

Who would’ve thought the boy would figure it out on his own?

Harvey seemed to have anticipated this and comforted Amberser, “It’s alright. If fate truly leads me to face my death again, I believe you wouldn’t be able to save me a second time. After all, fate isn’t something to be bargained with.”

He was right; the Goddess of Fate probably wouldn’t allow Amberser to exploit the loophole twice, but what if? As long as it wasn’t one hundred percent certain, there was always hope.

And now, that hope was gone.

Harvey continued, “Don’t worry about it, Teacher. Maybe one day, my own students will face the same situation. If I hadn’t figured it out, I would’ve had to watch them die helplessly, right? But now, I have a way to save them. Thank you, Teacher. You didn’t just save my life, you gave me the power to save others.”

This was the conundrum with the School of Prophecy, only the less clever Diviner Mages could be saved, and the way to save them was by sacrificing a cleverer Diviner Mage.

Amberser disdainfully said, “You think you’re ready to take on students with your level?”

Harvey replied, undeterred, “That’s why I’ve come back, isn’t it? Teacher, I want to continue learning from you.”

Amberser chuckled, “That’s what I’ve been waiting for. From now on, you’ll be working for me for free until you’ve repaid the one hundred and eighty million Gold Coins you owe me.”

Harvey, who had been smiling only moments before, couldn’t help asking, “One hundred and eighty million? How did you come up with that number?”

Amberser replied coldly, “You think traveling to the past is free? It’s already been rounded down for you. Don’t think there are no consequences if you can’t pay it back—you’ll still owe me even after death!”