Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3029: Chapter 3030: Joining the Battle

The most important thing is that all of the suit-wearing man’s actions from his appearance until now, despite having elements of madness, all indicate in detail that he is a master of insight into human hearts.

Madness isn’t frightening, it’s the combination of madness and sanity that’s terrifying.

Although madness and sanity seem impossible to coexist within the same person, the term "madness" is defined by people based on their own understanding of the suit-wearing man. If he possesses a coherent logic yet holds a worldview entirely different from common people, then perhaps madness and sanity can exist within one person.

The former is the evaluation of others, while the latter is self-definition.

There is no doubt, the suit-wearing man is precisely this kind of person.

If he can see through human hearts, then if the Black Earl joins the battle, he will certainly identify Vay as a weak point at the first opportunity.

Once they have a weakness, and the Black Earl’s avatar cannot dominate, it will lead to great uncertainty.

Naturally, Shayina realizes this.

However, after weighing the situation, Shayina still decides to continue seeking help from the Black Earl.

Or rather, she simply has no other choice. Previously she had considered joining the battle herself, but under contract constraints, the opponent may not necessarily agree to her joining the battle.

But Vay is different; he can surely enter the battle. So, she has no other option but to seek help to save Elder Shu and the others.

This time, Shayina looks towards Vay with a pleading expression.

From the Black Earl’s stance, clearly, only if Vay agrees will the Black Earl take action.

Vay didn’t expect that after all the twists and turns, he would find himself at the center of the stage... Facing Shayina’s request, Vay hesitates.

Vay also doesn’t know whether he should agree.

From the perspective of the interests of the Noah Family, Shayina’s offer is already very sincere.

As a member of the Noah Family, Vay morally shouldn’t refuse.

But this matter is closely related to his own life, leaving Vay very hesitant. If he truly joins the battle, it would be difficult for the Black Earl to protect him while saving Elder Shu and the others.

By then, his safety would rely solely on himself, or rather, a gamble on whether the opponent would dread the Noah Clan.

Vay knows his own limits; relying solely on himself wouldn’t be dependable. Therefore, his final outcome depends on whether the opponent is merciful.

On one side is family duty, on the other side is personal interest.

If it were just him, he would certainly choose the latter. But now, with the Black Earl nearby, choosing the latter might land him on the Black Earl’s "hunting list."

Vay feels highly conflicted; he hesitates quite a while and still cannot decide. Seeing the other side’s battle situation worsening, if he continues to stall until the senior members of the Birlos Family are all dead, he’d not only lose his choice but might also face a mixed double attack. Vay knows he must decide.

He thought for a moment, trying to throw this problem back to the Black Earl.

In his heart, he asks the Black Earl: "Should I agree?"

The Black Earl long saw the conflict in Vay’s heart; he also wished to use this opportunity to see Vay’s internal inclinations, so how could he help Vay make a choice?

After a moment of silence, Vay sighs and lightly nods to Shayina: "Okay."

Vay’s decision is derived from the Black Earl’s non-response.

He can guess that the Black Earl wants to observe him through this, and the Black Earl’s evaluation undoubtedly aims to see whether Vay chooses duty or selfishness. From this perspective, the Black Earl clearly hopes Vay chooses duty.

Since that’s the case, what else could Vay say? He could only choose duty.

However, Vay actually thinks too superficially.

The Black Earl’s avatar followed the younger generation for many years, can he not discern the younger generation’s stance?

Of course, this choice indeed may involve duty versus selfishness, but it also cannot be ruled out that the Black Earl is assessing whether, when faced with choices threatening life, the younger generation would make a "reckless" or "cautious" choice.

Vay clearly did not consider this aspect.

Nonetheless, this exposure to Vay is actually a stroke of luck; if he had truly considered this, the decision-making would have been even more fraught.

At least now, he has made a clear choice.

Upon Vay’s nod of agreement, Shayina shows a delighted expression. She looks to the Black Earl, her meaning clear.

The Black Earl speaks plainly: "Since Vay agrees, I can help you."

As soon as the words are spoken, the Black Earl’s nose returns to Vay’s face, merging as one. The Black Earl says: "Just head over, and when you feel a force resisting your advance, declare ’I agree to join the game.’"

Vay knows the Black Earl is speaking to him. He nods: "Understood."

Vay takes a deep breath, ready to step forward.

However, Shayina calls him at this moment, and under Vay’s questioning gaze, Shayina retrieves a pale blue, female cloak from a spatial artifact and hands it to Vay.

"This is a cloak equipped with Rain Melting Technique. Although I cannot participate in the battle, I will attempt to use Rainfall Technique to change weather within range."

Once it starts raining, Vay can use the Rain Melting Technique to conceal himself.

Though Rain Melting Technique is a low-level trick, the cloak’s Rain Melting Technique was attached by Shayina herself, sufficient to reach spell technique level.

With external heavy rain, at least a Wizard Level presence would have a tough time sensing Vay hidden within the rain.

Furthermore, the cloak’s material comes from Mix-Drum Beast and Rain Mouse, both possessing strong defensive capacities, though they may not withstand the full force of an isolated Strongman’s strike. If just affected by the aftermath, the cloak can at least ensure Vay doesn’t suffer severe injury.

Overall, this is quite a valuable treasure; the singular drawback is that it is a ladies’ cloak.

However, Vay doesn’t mind, as it might save his life, who cares if it’s ladies’ or not. As long as it’s effective, he’d use it even if it’s a dog’s cloak.

Moreover, this ladies’ cloak is colored and styled quite plainly, aside from its design being somewhat feminine, it’s hard to identify features suggesting it’s exclusive for women. Therefore, wearing it doesn’t feel incongruous.

Vay enthusiastically dons the cloak and then receives a defensive spell from Shayina, satisfying his conditions to leave.

Although this defensive spell skill can also be cast by the Black Earl, Shayina’s defensive spell is Water System-oriented, similar in nature to the cloak. When truly blended with the rain later, it need not worry about energy leaks.

The battle occurring thousands of meters away atop a tall building doesn’t count as far for a Transcendent.

Moreover, Vay is now in "auto-pilot mode," allowing the Black Earl to control his body’s advance. In merely a blink, Vay arrives at the battlefield.

As the Black Earl anticipated, upon reaching here, Vay immediately feels a special repelling force, as though heaven and earth are obstructing his advance.

Faced with such a situation, Vay exhibits no hesitation, directly declaring: "I want to join this game."

With his words, the power of constraint from the heavens disappears instantly without a trace.

After the constraint force disappeared, Vay turned into a beam of radiant light and plunged straight into the chaotic battlefield.

The arrival of Vay and the Black Earl was immediately noticed by everyone in the battle.

At this moment, Xingye’s injuries had slightly eased under Elder Shu’s treatment, but his Spirit Sea was severely damaged, and he had not yet woken up, so he did not see the Black Earl and others.

Gailuo, although fully engaged with the Strongman of the deserted island, still caught a glimpse of the Black Earl and Vay out of the corner of his eye.

He didn’t know why the Black Earl would participate in the battle, but the appearance of the Black Earl indeed gave him a reassuring feeling.

This sense of having a backbone caused Gailuo’s fighting spirit to start soaring.

It could be said that even if the Black Earl hadn’t fought yet, his presence alone had already brought a positive change to the situation.

The only one who knew the Black Earl might join the battle was Elder Shu, who understood that asking the Black Earl to intervene would definitely cause a major loss for the Birlos Family. However, considering the current situation, without the Black Earl in the fight, the Birlos Family wouldn’t even have a chance to suffer losses; they would be wiped out by the man in the suit in one swoop.

So, even though Elder Shu understood that everything was a transaction, he was still very grateful that the Black Earl was willing to stand out at this moment.

Meanwhile, the man in the suit who stood at the highest point also saw the Black Earl and Vay.

Faced with the new "guests" joining the game, he only showed a flicker in his eyes, but quickly regained his composure. In fact, the smile at the corner of his mouth grew bigger and bigger.

As if everything was under his control.

The expressions of the man in the suit were also noted by the Black Earl and Vay. Vay thought the man in the suit had discovered "his" weakness and thus appeared to be in control.

However, the Black Earl felt something was amiss as he watched the man in the suit’s expression.

But precisely what was wrong, the Black Earl couldn’t put his finger on for the time being. However, because of the man in the suit’s expression, his previously laid-back demeanor turned somewhat serious.

"Later, I will leave you to fight alone; just remember not to stray more than five hundred meters away from me, otherwise the contract will deem us separate... Also, take care of yourself."

After the Black Earl finished speaking to Vay, he left Vay’s side.

Once the Black Earl left independently, the surrounding earth elements began to surge wildly. In just a flash, using the Black Earl’s nose as the center, the rocks and earth around him formed a twenty-meter-tall Earthstone Giant.

This Earthstone Giant, molded from elemental power, not only bore the Black Earl’s avatar but also emitted waves of elemental ripples.

These elemental ripples are a special ability that appears when one has mastered the power of earth to the extreme.

All levels of power below these elemental ripples would be naturally suppressed.

Just like now, the giant body of the Black Earl, using these elemental ripples, suppressed the Strongman of the deserted island.

This is a form of high-level suppression, or you could call it an upgraded variant of intimidation. Its suppression over other elements isn’t strong, but for beings that mastered the power of earth elements, it’s like a king’s presence.

Under the elemental ripples, the Strengthsman of the deserted island, although not immobilized, expended several times more strength and energy than normal.

The Black Earl used only this one move to cause a reversal in the battle!

It also gave Gailuo a chance to catch his breath.

However, the Strongman of the deserted island isn’t a magical creature that would easily yield. Faced with the elemental suppression brought by the Black Earl, it chose to disregard it once it confirmed that escaping the suppression was impossible. Doubling its consumption was inconsequential, as its internal energy and reserves were already greater than a wizard’s.

The Strongman of the desert island didn’t care and struggled wildly against it.

It must be said that this also brought some pressure to Gailuo and the Black Earl.

But the Earthstone Giant that the Black Earl created didn’t just have the ability of elemental ripples, its hardness and strength surpassed even the Strongman of the deserted island.

Plus, with the Black Earl’s manipulation from within, the Strongman of the deserted island was at a disadvantage in every aspect and quickly fell to the lower hand.

Watching the situation on the battlefield take an unexpected turn, Elder Shu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, when Elder Shu looked at the man in the suit, saw no change in his expression, and noticed his smile grow even larger, his heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

Could it be that the man in the suit still had some trump card?

Just as Elder Shu was secretly on guard, raindrops began falling from the sky.

Soon, the rain transformed from a trickle into a torrential downpour.

Elder Shu first sensed the familiar aura within the rain... Shayina was altering the surrounding weather.

Initially, Elder Shu didn’t understand why Shayina would create this heavy rain, but it dawned on him once he saw Vay merge into the rain.

It seems this was to help disguise Vay’s form and aura?

This is good too... If something happened to Vay, even the Black Earl would probably be unforgiving towards them. However, Elder Shu still wondered, why must Vay, just an apprentice, come here?

Elder Shu didn’t know the reason behind it, but he didn’t dwell on it further now, as the man in the suit at the high point finally had new movements amidst the heavy rain.

"What a timely rain," the man in the suit said in a gentle voice that reached everyone: "I was worried Libiya would be resolved by the new guests. But now that the rain has come, it gives me an opportunity."

Opportunity? Elder Shu didn’t understand what the man in the suit meant.

But soon, the man in the suit gave an explanation.

"This rain serves as external aid for you; this doesn’t conform to the rules," the man in the suit said softly: "Either stop the rain within ten seconds, or... I will have to add external aid in this game too, okay?"

"I’ll start the countdown now, ten, nine, eight..."

The man in the suit counted down slowly while glancing at everyone. As the countdown numbers got smaller, the smile at his mouth grew larger and his shoulders shook more violently.

"...Five, four, three..."

The man in the suit counted down slowly, seemingly giving Shayina the chance to stop the rain.

But there was no way Shayina would stop.

This rain concerned Vay’s safety.

"Three, two... one." As the man in the suit said the final countdown number, the corners of his lips nearly reached down towards his cheekbones.

"Since you’re unwilling to stop this heavy rain, according to the rules, I can add external aid too."

"Amit, you’ve waited a long time, haven’t you..."

"I had initially intended to let you on stage later, but they don’t adhere to the game’s rules. So, let it be you to maintain the balance of this game!"

As his words fell, the crocodile-head magical creature behind the man in the suit roared to the sky and then jumped into the battlefield amidst the pouring rain!