Chapter 141: Thieves’ Order

Edward couldn’t understand what was going on.

He looked at the young man before him in horror, his pupils shrinking.

Instinctively, he wanted to run away! To escape!

Yet when his brain sent that command, his body refused to listen.

Edward looked down at his own body. A large gash ran across his abdomen, surrounded by countless smaller wounds and scratches.

Just the thought of moving made him hiss in pain. There was no way he could go anywhere in such a state.

Worst of all, the culprit behind everything was currently standing right in front of him.

"You... You..." Edward weakly pointed at Aurelius.

"Don’t come any closer! I... I’ll summon my Lord!" he shouted threateningly, though the trembling in his voice did not make it sound very convincing.

Aurelius didn’t care about his thoughts. He didn’t even care enough to give an answer.

After going through the man’s belongings and taking everything that could be used as a weapon or a means of escape, he turned around and stared at the two towering figures still engaged in a battle.

With the fight on this side having come to an end, the outcome of the battle between the two Divine Phantoms had long since been decided.

It didn’t take long.

Only a few minutes later, just when Aurelius felt his Spirit becoming dangerously low, the sacred figure could no longer hold on.

With a bang, it shattered into countless streams of light like a firework. Its aura disappeared.

Aurelius intended to deactivate Ocean’s Wrath and consume a few Potions to recover.

But just then, he noticed something. He raised his eyebrows.

Controlling the Divine Phantom, he made it reach toward the place where the sacred figure had just stood. Then, he let it disperse into azure light that fused back into his body.

Surprisingly, another light accompanied its return.

It was golden.

Unlike the Divine Phantom, it didn’t merge with him but simply landed on his outstretched palm.

Aurelius looked down at it.

He discovered the golden light’s identity. It was a golden cube.

An unfathomable aura spread from it—an aura that every Awakener would instinctively recognize.

It was Divinity!

Combined with the peculiar revolving patterns squirming along its surface, the golden cube looked both holy and majestic.

The only flaw was the tiny crack on one of its faces. Faint light leaked from within, like air escaping from a punctured tire.

Its appearance, though, was hardly what attracted Aurelius’ attention the most.

The moment he touched the golden cube, he felt an intense yearning emanating from the depths of his body.

Instinctively, he felt a need... to swallow it?

Yes! That was Aurelius’ first thought.

He wanted to absorb the object in his hand.

Fortunately, his self-control had always been amazing.

Although everything inside him screamed to devour the golden cube and that doing so would grant him great benefits, he ultimately managed to restrain himself.

Without even having time to pull up its description, he hurriedly threw it into the System Inventory.

The moment the cube disappeared, Aurelius breathed a sigh of relief.

That intense feeling had suddenly faded away. Everything returned to normal.

’What was that? What could possibly cause me to have such an intense reaction?’ he couldn’t help but wonder, though he already had a faint guess.

Divinity! Taboo Arcanist!

These two terms briefly clashed inside his mind as a thought took root inside his mind.

Soon, however, he organized his thoughts.

He turned toward the Thief, who was still staring at him with an open mouth.

Without any intention of having a long-winded conversation, he got straight to the point.

"Who are you? What are you doing in the Dryad Forest?"

The man before him was a Rank 2 Thief whom Aurelius had never heard of before.

Although he didn’t claim to be knowledgeable about Blood Sun City’s Awakeners, his interactions with Selene and Professor Anna had given him a rough understanding of the city’s organizations.

None of them had the ability to raise a Thief. After all, doing so required one to possess the relevant Class Item or Class Ritual.

Most likely, the person in front of him had come from outside the city!

Sure enough, having been defeated and seeing his greatest trump card captured with ease, Edward did not put up a tough front.

Faced with Aurelius’ question, he answered straightforwardly.

"I’m Edward! A Thief from the Thieves’ Order!"

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"As long as you’re willing to let me go, I can forget what happened today! Otherwise, my Lord..."

Aurelius ignored the latter part of his words. He focused on the former instead.

Thieves’ Order.

This was a name he had never heard of before.

It was not related to the Seven Righteous Gods, nor was it on the list of infamous cults and organizations like the Sunless Sect and Demoness Cult.

For him to have never heard of it before, this Order was bound not to be very strong. At the very least, it was weaker than the Blood Temple Selene belonged to.

Aurelius breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, the other party did not have a strong background. He didn’t have to offend another powerful organization for seemingly no reason.

Sunless Sect. Sol family. Even the organization behind Amanda.

These were the forces Aurelius had already offended, each inexplicably strong.

In comparison, the so-called Thieves’ Order seemed like nothing.

With that thought, Aurelius no longer took Edward seriously.

He grabbed one of the daggers from the ground and approached him, placing its sharp edge right before Edward’s face.

"Speak! Why did you come to the Dryad Forest?"

No longer as concerned, Aurelius moved on to the second most important point—the man’s reason for coming to the forest.

Under normal circumstances, it didn’t seem strange for an Awakener to venture into a monster habitat. Whether it was to search for extraordinary materials or to enrich their combat methods, it was normal.

Yet Aurelius’ intuition told him that things were not that simple in this case.

And Edward’s response—or rather, his lack of one—further confirmed this.