The Lich’s Severed Finger

'Damn it! Weren't those slaves gossiping about Morris staying the night in his lab?'

When Marvin saw that pair of common cloth shoes from under the bed, he couldn't help but silently curse.

In all of Boknin, the only one that could freely enter this room was certainly the city lord Morris.

A 2nd rank Evil Spirit Sorcerer and an Evil Spirit Envoy, quite problematic.

If this old man was a cautious person...

Even if Marvin kept being cautious, he still had to deal with this turn of events. It would be hard to guarantee no mistakes occurred during the night.

He could only pray that the Evil Spirit Sorcerer would be unable to find his hiding spot.

The only thing that made him feel better was that Evil Spirit Sorcerers' perception was the same as that of ordinary people, not that great. He would be unable to find him unless he used a detection magic.

...

Morris the Evil Spirit Sorcerer was holding onto a candle and pacing back and forth in the room for a moment.

He suddenly opened one curtain.

From his position, Marvin could only see that behind the curtain was a closet.

The should be a mirror in the closet.

The old man suddenly knelt down, putting the candle on top of his head and loudly chanting something.

The surface of the mirror rippled just like the surface of a lake.

Drops of sweat appeared on Marvin's forehead.

'Which Lower Plane Lord is he trying to contact?'

'Damn it! Right at the time when he was going to contact an Lower Plane Lord?'

He was still calm, having quickly thought of three escape plans, but they were dependent on the fact that the evil spirit lord couldn't enter Boknin as he wished.

Because of many god seals, evil spirit lords were unable to set foot on Feinan Continent. But this was a painting world!

This was Boknin!

A level 4 ranger facing a superior legendary evil spirit lord… His rich experience wouldn't even matter!

He could only pray that neither the evil spirit lord nor the evil spirit envoy would find his hiding spot under the bed.

...

"Great [Nefarious Devil], your servant awaits your instructions."

The old man's respectful voice echoed in the room.

"Morris, you have stayed in this painting world for a long time," spoke a gloomy voice from the painting. "I have something that need to be done. Swiftly take care of it! Boknin has four exits linked to Feinan world, and there are two among those that you can use. You may look for the [Avenger] Fegan. He will give you some assistance."

"I have seen parts of an interesting future. All of heaven's gods would inevitably be unwilling to be left out. Yet they didn't expect that it would be the evil spirits' era, our era."

"I need you to spread some seeds…"

Marvin was unable to understand the words that followed.

They were talking in an lower plane language, each sentence able to evoke humanity's deepest evils and fears.

But it made Marvin somewhat happy and surprised that during the entire process, the two didn't even notice him.

It might be good luck that they didn't notice that there was another person hidden inside the city lord's room.

...

They finished their discussion ten minutes later. The mirror was once again covered by thick cloth.

Evil spirit envoy Morris left the room in a hurry.

Marvin wiped his sweat and let out a long sigh of relief. He didn't dare to stay. He used Stealth and quickly left the city lord castle.

Getting in was difficult, but leaving was much easier, especially under the cover of the night as the effect of his Stealth would be quite outstanding.

He soon got out of the castle and finally onto a small path.

However, he suddenly felt like he was being observed by something.

A large amount of red-eyed crows suddenly flew out from inside the castle. He could faintly hear a bellowing cry afterwards.

'Not good! I was discovered!'

'The head most certainly had an imprint that would trigger once brought out of the castle and it would alert Morris!'

Marvin had one thing in mind.

He had to quickly leave this world now.

Fortunately, he wasn't far from that strange locust tree.

As he thought of it, he began sprinting.

...

In the castle laboratory, the evil spirit envoy's angry roar echoed through the entire room.

"Damn thief! Send the crow patrol and the dark horsemen! Kill him and return me my most beloved slave's head!"

Deep in the castle, countless crows flew out from the top of a crucifix. As they flew out, the shape of a badly mangled human could be seen tied up on the crucifix.

Horses stomping on the ground could be heard echoing, as each and every dark horseman rushed out from the darkness to kill.

...

Marvin's shadow was quickly skimming between the wheat fields.

There were so many patrol crows in the sky, he couldn't even hide himself!

So he simply stopped hiding, directly exposing himself and sprinted at maximum speed toward the location of the tree he remembered.

Those patrol crows were frantically diving down, trying to slow Marvin down.

"Drop dead!"

Marvin was also angry.

He quickly swung the curved dagger in his hand as if weaving a net made of slashes.

In the blink of an eye, five or six crows died under his blade.

But more and more crows would group up and dive down, so Marvin could only roll away, cutting a sorry figure, to avoid them and then get back up once again.

His skills were refined through countless amounts of PKing. This kind of dodge looked as if he was in dire straits, but it was actually a pretty useful fighting skill.

However, the patrol crows still managed to reduce Marvin's speed and delay him.

When he rushed into the forest, blood all over his body, a dark horseman was already coming to attack from the side.

As he heard a horse rushing toward him, he saw a tall and impressive figure in front of the tree, blocking his path.

Clang!

The dark horseman unsheathed his heavy sword. He wore a helmet while lifting his sword with one hand, and holding the reins with the other.

The horse was crazily rushing over.

If they were on a difficult terrain they would fight as infantry, but either way they dominated over their opponents. With the mount's charging power, aside from barbarians, no adventurers would dare to stand in front of them.

Marvin's pupils dilated. There was only one horseman!

'I still have a chance!'

He suddenly took two curved daggers from his waist and began to run toward the forest, taking a roundabout route.

The dark horseman was relentless in his pursuit.

Marvin abruptly took a big stride forward, and went around a huge tree.

The dark horseman pulled on the reins, cleverly controlling his mount to move past the tree.

But during that time, he had a blind spot appear in his line of sight!

At the split second when he got his horse to go around the tree, Marvin appeared in front of him.

"Get lost for me!"

He jumped high and grabbed a branch with both hands, and firmly kicked the dark knight's body.

At that time, the horse running at such high speed unexpectedly became an inconvenience to the dark horseman.

His body couldn't help but fall backward, awkwardly tumbling on his back on the ground.

Marvin's body adjusted itself with incredible flexibility, unexpectedly seating him on the horse's back.

[Getting on a horse in motion… Check in progress (Dexterity 19)...]

[Horsemanship (30) used… Skill successfully used!]

...

'Fortunately this body knew [Horsemanship]!'

Marvin felt he needed to take back what he said about that good-for-nothing. One of the advantages of being a noble was that they could learn impressive horsemanship.

Civilians couldn't afford the costs to learn horsemanship, and in fact, they couldn't even afford to raise a horse.

His body was leaning quite low while he made the horse charge toward the tree.

He could hear more and more horses on both sides of the forest.

Even more dark horsemen were surrounding him.

Marvin held his breath, and used all his strength to force the horse to dash toward that tree!

The dark horsemen on both sides were closing in, and one of them raised his longsword and ruthlessly slashed down.

'Now!'

Marvin stepped on the stirrup and flipped, not only dodging the dark horseman's longsword, but also throwing himself at him.

"Fall down for me!"

He pulled at the steady dark horseman's waist, and taking advantage of the split second where he lost his balance, he managed to make him fall from the horse.

But the horse unexpectedly neighed during that moment, and fell down to the side due to the loss of balance.

Marvin also stumbled and fell to the ground.

And he was only ten steps away from the tree!

But another dark horseman on the side came slashing at him.

Marvin took a deep breath and raised his right hand:

"Vs'bon!"

Rainbow Jet!

Frightening rainbow rays interweaved together, forming a net, and blocked the advance of the dark horsemen.

Marvin took advantage of the situation and got up from the floor before hurriedly rushing toward the tree.

...

'That was close!'

Marvin's body fell in the ghost hallway.

And surprisingly, that headless girl's painting disappeared from the wall.

"Thank you. I already shut this exit, so monsters from Boknin shouldn't be able to come out for the time being."

The pleasant sounding voice echoed behind him.

"This is your head…"

Marvin softly put the parcel on the ground.

"Thank you, thank you a lot. I finally have… Freedom."

The parcel opened on its own, a gray flickering light coming from it.

Marvin's heart skipped a beat and he turned around.

Behind his back stood a beautiful girl. She should be in a soul state. Since her head was retrieved, she should be a regular ghost now.

"I want to leave, this is an ominous place. You shouldn't linger either," Vanessa said gently. "While you were helping me get my head back, I helped you open the magic lock on that chest. Consider it to be a small token of my appreciation. Still, thank you…"

Her voice sounded softer and softer as her body began to gradually dissipate, and finally, only her bright smile remained.

Marvin bowed slightly, his right hand placed on his heart, paying respects to that cute and noble girl.

Her soul was extremely pure. An evil spirit transformed from this kind of soul would often be very strong. This was the most important reason why evil spirit envoy Morris had an eye on her.

Marvin heard of the evil spirits' tricks. The average person would be unable to resist them, but Vanessa did.

Her head was separated from her body, suffering all kinds of torture day and night, but she still did not yield to the evil.

In this world, such people were rare.

In the end, mankind is weak.

But, as a sage once said, mankind is also great. It wasn't because their potential surpassed all other races, but because even in the darkest times, light would appear in the form of pure-hearted people. These people were not polluted by the mortal life and would stop mankind from slipping into the abyss.

...

After the headless girl's soul departed, a platycodon flower was left behind, in the shape of an accessory. This was Marvin's quest reward.

As for that magic treasure chest, it should have been a gift.

Marvin found the chest and opened it, but the thing inside exceeded Marvin expectations.

He was shocked to find a severed finger inside!

This wasn't just anyone's severed finger.

[You obtained the severed finger of a half-god lich…]

[Knowledge – Gods +8]