"Such 'help' is not only unreliable, but could also become a hidden threat."
At this point, Karl paused and fell silent, trusting that Hen would understand.
He truly did not want everyone to know about this.
Fighting evil gods from another world is a risk full of unexpected twists and dangers.
The more people who know, the more uncertainty there is, and the higher the risk of leaks.
Once information leaks, it can attract unwanted attention, investigation, or even interference.
Finally, and most importantly... He was not afraid of sorcerers with other intentions uniting against him.
With his current abilities, even if these people united, it was unlikely they could do anything to him.
But Geralt, Triss, Yennefer, Ciri... The people around him were not at the same level.
Among spells, curses, poisonings, mind control... There were too many insidious tricks that were difficult to defend against.
He could protect them from direct attacks, but he could not stay by their side all the time, guarding against all possible intrigues.
As for Zaydel's Protection, although it was divine power, it was limited; without replenishment, it would eventually be exhausted.
Hen frowned slightly, quietly staring at Karl, his eyes flickering with a complex light.
There was comfort, admiration, and a slight hint of indescribable weight.
He understood Karl's choice and recognized the responsibility and concerns he carried.
"I understand," Hen said, his voice soft.
He stood up, walked around the table, approached Karl, and gently patted him on the shoulder.
"I respect your decision, Karl. Without revealing your identity, we will solve the problem in another way."
"I will find someone I can trust to help. The number may be small, but it is enough to be confidential."
Karl also stood up and bowed to Hen: "Thank you, Teacher."
Hen shook his head, sighed softly, and looked at the night outside.
"It's late, you should rest too. I need time to contact and arrange everything."
"By no later than noon tomorrow, I will bring the people."
Karl nodded, said nothing more, and turned to leave the study.
Hen stood by the window, watching Karl's figure disappear into the shadows of the corridor, and only after a long moment did he look away.
He returned to his desk and took out a specially made sheet of parchment from inside.
Then, without using a brush and ink, he raised his hand and extended his finger, writing several messages on the floating parchment.
......…
Leaving Hen's room, Karl did not return to his bedroom. Instead, he turned and walked deeper into the area guarded by many knights.
Here is his treasury, or more precisely, where these trophies are stored.
The heavy door silently opened under the bio-field, revealing a spacious secret room behind it.
Inside, there are no windows; several glowing magical stones are attached to the walls, providing stable lighting.
In the center of the secret room, dozens of wooden and metal boxes of various sizes are neatly stacked.
Different colors and varying degrees of magical light faintly seeped through the cracks in the boxes, illuminating most of the room with an explosion of colors.
Here were stored over three hundred various magical artifacts, staves, talismans, rings, and more, all gifted by Myrgtabrakke after the previous "Dragon Hunt Operation"...
Each of them possesses significant magical power and is a treasure that ordinary sorcerers dream of.
But for Karl, they had a more important use at this moment.
He stood in the center of the secret room, his gaze sweeping over the boxes, his mind awakening.
Immediately, part of the lids rose on their own, and a dazzling, intense magical light burst from inside, instantly filling the entire room.
Various colors of magical radiance intertwined, forming a dazzling sea of light, completely overwhelming and drowning out the glow of the gemstones on the walls.
Karl's gaze pierced through the dazzling light, clearly seeing the various magical artifacts of different shapes inside the box.
As his thoughts turned, the system panel he had not called up for a long time quietly appeared in his eyes.
The semi-transparent interface floated before his field of vision, with clear reminder messages flickering across it.
[Detected ... energy sources that can be absorbed]
[Detected ... energy sources that can be absorbed]
......
The next moment, the magical artifacts inside the box began to fly out one by one, forming neat lines and hovering before Karl.
He extended his right hand and gently tapped his index finger on the first magical artifact.
A purple crystal staff, completely carved from oak, with a pigeon-egg-sized blue light inside, like flashing lightning, mounted on top.
The moment his fingertips touched the surface of the staff: HUMM!!
A notification immediately appeared on the system panel.
[Absorption complete, energy received: 4327 points]
Almost simultaneously, the magical luster on the surface of the staff, which had radiated and conveyed power, noticeably dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The lightning inside the amethyst on top nearly went out, and the entire staff became grayish.
The staff that had absorbed it automatically returned to its original chest and gently descended.
Karl's fingers did not pause for a second, moving to the second magical artifact.
A silver ring with a ruby, inside which seemed to flow with flame.
[Absorption complete, 1895 energy points received]
The flame inside the ruby almost disappeared, and the ring became much more ordinary.
The third item – a blue-gray amulet engraved with a storm pattern...
[Absorption complete, 3041 energy points received]
The fourth item – a scroll, tanned from animal hides and written in blood...
[Absorption complete, 5612 energy points received]
The fifth, sixth, seventh...
Karl's fingers quickly tapped each hovering artifact, touching and absorbing them.
Energy flowed into the system's reserve, the magic inside the artifact nearly exhausted, and it returned to the box.
The entire process was quiet and fast, with only the system panel constantly updating the prompts.
And this rapidly growing energy reserve indicator recorded it all.
[Current energy reserve: 19234171...]
[Current energy reserve: 19287446...]
[Current energy reserve: 19342058...]
Then he raised his superpower only from 0 to level 1.
It directly absorbed a full two million energy, instantly draining all reserves at that time.
Since then, he had never allocated points casually, partly because he needed a lot of energy.
For example, the recently introduced teleportation function, on the contrary, is used as a trump card for stat allocation.
And now... When the last artifact – a ritual dagger inlaid with three stones – had fully absorbed the energy and fallen back into the box,
Karl's gaze fell on the energy reserve indicator on the system panel.
[Current energy reserve: 20798415]
The energy reserve had already exceeded the twenty million mark, and Karl's gaze lingered on the numbers for a few seconds.
Then he moved to another area of the system panel. Since its appearance, a gray [World Shuttle] button had been present.
At this moment, the button had changed from gray to a bright, dark red.