A Wizard’s Secret

“My Master, I’ve been in the Flame Prison for more than four hundred years.”

Wizard Bammou answered deferentially. He was conscious that he was now a slave and kept his tone respectful.

“Oh? More than four hundred years? You were able to survive in the Flame Prison for over four hundred years?”

Merlin was rather curious as to the true extent of Wizard Bammou’s current power. It was surely a difficult feat to stay in the Flame Prison for more than four hundred years and survive the terrifying flames.

Wizard Bammou looked at Merlin with a complicated expression, following which he said softly, “Wizard Merlin, although I had no way of absorbing any other Elements during the four hundred years or so that I’ve been in the Flame Prison, and couldn’t construct Spell Models of other Elements, I gradually came to understand the Essence of Fire within the Flame Prison, and gained a deeper comprehension of the flames. Thus, by myself, I created a unique Eight-level Flame Spell Model. It was by relying on this new Eighth-level Flame spell that I could temporarily withstand the terrifying blaze of the Flame Prison for so many years.”

Wizard Bammou glanced at the Flame Prison behind him, feeling a lingering sense of fear.

Merlin nodded. It turned out that Wizard Bammou had relied upon constructing a brand-new Eighth-level Flame spell to survive. It might be that his profound understanding of the flames in the Flame Prison allowed the layer of flames over Wizard Bammou’s body to withstand the cruel scorching heat of the Flame Prison.

Merlin gave Wizard Bammou a deep look. Based on the power of just this one Eighth-level Flame spell, Wizard Bammou might have far surpassed most Eighth-level Spell Casters. After all, the flames in the Flame Prison were created by the Legend Nikola himself. They contained a trace of the Maxim’s strength, and the mere feat of persevering in the Flame Prison for so many years was not an easy one.

Of course, Wizard Bammou could only resist the flames of the Flame Prison. It was completely impossible for him to break out of the Flame Prison. The Flame Being had said before that if anyone was able to escape from the Flame Prison, they would likewise obtain the Flame Maxim.

However, breaking out of the Flame Prison was much more difficult than completing the third obstacle, so naturally, Wizard Bammou was unable to do it.

“Bammou, besides you, how many others had been thrown into the Flame Prison?”

Merlin eyed the Flame Prison and remembered his purpose for coming here. Mainly, he wanted to obtain the ring which belonged to the prodigious freak who possessed five Pandora Demon Abilities as mentioned by the Flame Being, and see if there were any Pandora Demon Abilities inside the ring.

After all, this prodigious freak might have Pandora Demon Abilities which could be combined with spells. Even now, Merlin himself did not even have five such Pandora Demon Abilities.

Currently, Merlin only had Darkness Heart and the Pandora Demon Ability, Fuse Earth. In addition to Fiery Collapse which he had recently combined forcibly with spells using the Flame Maxim, it totaled to three. Even if he counted Glacial Finger, which could not be combined with spells, he merely had four types of Pandora Demon Abilities.

He was far inferior compared to the genius freak the Flame Being had spoken about who had five types of Pandora Demon Ability. If Merlin did not have the bracelet sealed with a portion of Darkness Eye’s strength and given to him by Wizard Leo, he would have no way of clearing the third obstacle and obtaining the Flame Maxim as well.

Hearing Merlin’s question, Wizard Bammou replied respectfully, “Master, other than myself, there were two other Spell Casters who were cast into the Flame Prison.”

“Oh, where are they?”

Merlin asked impatiently.

Wizard Bammou shook his head helplessly in response. “Master, they could not withstand the burning of the Prison’s flames and died a long time ago.”

“What? Both of them are dead?”

Merlin frowned. In fact, he had somewhat expected to hear this, since he did not discover any traces of any other Spell Caster when he was in the Flame Prison.

Furthermore, after he had gained control over the Flame Prison, no movement in there could be concealed from Merlin. Other than the lack of any traces of other Spell Casters, the rings which Merlin so desperately wanted were also absent.

Spatial Rings might be marvelous enough to withstand the majority of spells, but under the flames which contained a trace of the Maxim’s powers, Spatial Rings could not be kept intact without the protection of some energy.

Upon seeing Merlin’s pensive look, Wizard Bammou grumbled silently beside him. He felt Merlin entering his thoughts directly. Through the slave contract paper, Merlin could even know Wizard Bammou’s thoughts.

At this point, Wizard Bammou had no way of hiding things from Merlin, and could only smile bitterly. “Master, it’s true that there were two Spell Casters who were thrown into the Flame Prison before me, but one of them had long been turned to ashes. The other Fifth-level Spell Caster had five types of Pandora Demon Abilities. After he died, I took his Spatial Ring and kept it with me. Now, I present it to Master!”

With that, Wizard Bammou deferentially handed a ring to Merlin.

Merlin bobbed his head in satisfaction and took the ring from Wizard Bammou. What he had signed with Wizard Bammou was the most one-sided slave contract. Wizard Bammou had no way of hiding anything from Merlin, so even if he had gotten the Spatial Ring, he had to hand it over to Merlin.

Nevertheless, Merlin did not check the ring immediately but instead noticed Wizard Bammou’s state of being. Wizard Bammou’s face was currently white. Evidently, he was enduring a great pressure in the Flame Prison.

Therefore, Merlin said to Wizard Bammou, “Wizard Bammou, let’s go, we’ll leave this Flame Prison first!”

Wizard Bammou was overjoyed. He had finally reached this day. For over four hundred years, he had painstaking suffered who knew how much hardship, and at last, he had arrived at the day when he would leave the Flame Prison.

“Open!”

With a quick point at the sixteen runic pillars of the Flame Prison, Merlin gained control over all of them instantly. The numerous runes were retracted immediately, allowing Wizard Bammou to exit the Flame Prison safe and sound.

“Gasp…”

After Wizard Bammou had walked out of the Flame Prison, he drew in a deep breath. He seemed delirious with joy and a smile spread across his face as he mumbled, “I’m finally free. It’s been four hundred years, I, Bammou, am finally free, haha!”

Wizard Bammou appeared to be quite excited. It was likely that any Spell Caster, after being locked up in such a stifling Flame Prison for four hundred years, would be as excited as Wizard Bammou.

Merlin paid no mind to Wizard Bammou’s excitement but immediately looked through the Fifth-level freak’s Spatial Ring, hoping to find some Pandora Demon Ability left behind that could be merged with spells.

“Whoosh!”

Merlin searched through the Spatial Ring with his Mind Power but found that there were no elemental crystals stones left as they had been used up. Now that he thought about it, they must have been taken by Wizard Bammou. Since he was suffering bitterly in the Flame Prison, he surely would have needed some Magic Power to bolster himself. The elemental crystal stones were naturally the best resource for Wizard Bammou to replenish the Magic Power in the Spell Models of his Awareness.

Other than the absent elemental crystal stones, there were some potion materials and alchemy materials. There were even some spells, some of which were exceptional, being spells that were derived by that prodigious freak, the Fifth-level Wizard.

Nonetheless, Merlin was not interested in any of these. He had the Matrix, and no matter how good that Fifth-level prodigious freak was at deriving Spell Models, it certainly could not compare to the Spell Models which were analyzed from scratch by the Matrix.

Merlin’s priority was any Pandora Demon Ability that the Fifth-level genius freak might have likely left behind, yet after searching through the ring, he only found a thick book, and no Pandora Demon Ability that was left behind.

Merlin furrowed his brow, and could only retrieve the thick book. He discovered that although the book did not contain Pandora Demon Ability, it was somewhat connected to Pandora Demon Ability as it consisted of some introductions about Pandora Demon Ability.

The introductions regarding Pandora Demon Ability in the book were comprehensive and excellent. Merlin realized that there were many details and general information which he was reading for the first time, so he became interested and began to read it carefully.

“For Pandora Demon Ability, one can usually only construct one spell for each type because every type of Pandora Demon Ability would need to occupy a spell! Some spells of Pandora Demon Ability with only one stage would only occupy some First-level spell. As for Pandora Demon Abilities with two stages, they would need to occupy some Fourth-level Spell Model.”

Merlin gave the matter careful thought. It seemed like that was the case, and it was the same with his Pandora Demon Abilities which would occupy some Spell Models. Each spell could only cultivate one Pandora Demon Ability, and once it was occupied, it could not be used to cultivate another Pandora Demon Ability.

Of course, it might be possible to remove some Pandora Demon Abilities, but a huge price must be required to do so. At least, for now, Merlin did not know how to remove a Pandora Demon Ability that had been cultivated.

Many Pandora Demon Abilities had only two stages, and some others had a third form or third stage. Those would need to be combined with a Seventh-level spell in order for their terrifying powers to be unleashed.

Other than this sort of Pandora Demon Ability which needed to occupy a spell, there was, in truth, a more special type of Pandora Demon Ability. These were outlined in eye-catching, red words in the book that belonged to that freak Wizard.

One of those special Pandora Demon Abilities was something that Merlin was very familiar with.

“Darkness Eye… It’s actually a special Pandora Demon Ability, and has seven forms!”

Merlin was astounded to see that the Darkness Eye recorded in this book was a Pandora Demon Ability created by the Great Legend of Darkness, Oflas of the legends. Once the seven forms of this Pandora Demon Ability were cultivated, one would reach the peak of one’s powers.

It was likely that only Oflas was able to cultivate the seventh form of Darkness Eye. The Pandora Demon Abilities that were marked out in striking red words by that freak Wizard were all very complex.

“Darkness Eye, seven forms… It appears that Darkness Eye obtained by Wizard Leo wasn’t perfected by Wizard Leo himself as he claimed…”

Merlin quickly guessed that Darkness Eye that Wizard Leo had obtained was truly the genuine, complete Darkness Eye passed down by the Legend of Darkness, Wizard Oflas!