"Drink, drink!"
Before long, the sound of clinking glasses echoed from behind the stone door.
"Darcy, I didn't expect you to have a magically expanded bag hidden away," said the first man with a clear accent. "Aren't you afraid the boss will lose his temper if he finds out?"
"If you're not afraid of sneaking drinks, why would I be afraid of hiding a bag?" Darcy replied smugly in his foreign accent. "Come on, I'm super brave, alright? I'm really good at hiding things!"
What followed was a string of increasingly strange remarks.
"Really good at hiding, huh. Pretty bold."
"Nice build too, quite sturdy."
"Ted, what are you doing?"
…
Just as Lewis began to suspect the drunken pair might take things in a very strange direction, the conversation suddenly shifted.
Darcy asked, "What if someone breaks in while we're drunk like this?"
Ted burst out laughing. "It's Christmas Eve! Even Aurors are at home with their families. Who the hell would be as unlucky as us, stuck out here in the middle of nowhere playing guard duty?"
Outside the door, Lewis felt personally called out.
But he suppressed his irritation and kept listening.
"But what about the Auror we caught today?" Darcy pointed out sharply. "Wasn't she causing trouble for us on Christmas Eve too?"
They caught an Auror today?
Lewis's expression turned serious instantly.
If they could capture an Auror and act so casually about it, this wasn't some amateur group. These were experienced criminals, likely accustomed to dealing with Aurors.
He immediately raised his assessment of their threat level.
Ted spat. "Tch! That woman just graduated this year. What kind of Auror is that supposed to be?"
Darcy still sounded uneasy. "Even if she's a rookie, we still captured her. What if someone comes looking for her?"
"Relax, relax," Ted said, clearly more informed. "The boss said the Ministry doesn't have any active operations right now. That girl finding us was pure coincidence. And—ugh!—even though we didn't interrogate her, I could tell she wasn't even in uniform when we caught her. That means she ran into us on a whim. Nothing's going to happen!"
"Even if those Auror brats notice she's missing, it'll take two or three days. By then, the boss will have found the treasure and we'll be long gone—ugh!"
"And before we leave, maybe we can have a little fun with that bitch—"
With Ted's drunken reassurance, Darcy finally relaxed.
Soon, the two of them returned to drinking merrily.
But Lewis's mind was already racing.
From their conversation, it was clear—they were here for treasure.
And the only thing here that could be called treasure was the Scholar's Moonstone.
That moonstone was indeed a powerful magical object. It contained lunar energy, capable of attracting and sustaining Mooncalves, and even amplifying the prophetic abilities of centaurs.
If he could obtain it, it might greatly aid his research into divination and natural magic.
At the very least, it could be used to befriend the centaurs of the Forbidden Forest, making future resource gathering easier.
Right now, these two guards were completely relaxed.
This was the perfect opportunity.
Moreover, based on their words, the captured Auror was likely still alive.
If luck was on his side, she could become a valuable ally.
After analyzing the situation, Lewis reached his conclusion.
Do it.
But a proper ambush required strategy.
With two drunk guards inside, the opportunity was obvious—but to ensure success, he needed to separate them.
His eyes flickered as a plan formed.
He pressed himself against the door again and quietly extended his psionic field, enveloping both men in his mental awareness.
Then, through that field, he cast Suggestion on one of them.
Suggestion—a 3rd-circle enchantment spell. It influences the target to take a course of action that appears reasonable. Self-harm invalidates the spell.
As he cast it through his psionic power, Lewis felt a sudden breakthrough.
He grasped the essence of enchantment magic—the manipulation of will.
He gained Enchantment Specialization.
He awakened the ability Mind Enchanter.
His psionic caster level increased by one.
Enchantment Specialization allowed him to gradually comprehend all core enchantment spells as he advanced.
Mind Enchanter meant his enchantment spells could function as psionic abilities—and his psionic powers could be treated as enchantment spells.
The implications were enormous.
It meant his enchantments could now be cast silently, invisibly, without any trace.
Even if the target resisted, they would simply think they had a strange thought—never realizing they had been manipulated.
Just like now.
Halfway through drinking, Ted suddenly felt a strong urge to urinate.
"Damn it… drinking always makes me piss…"
Muttering, he stood up unsteadily and staggered toward the door. "Don't drink it all! Save me some!"
"Relax!" Darcy replied.
With that, Ted pushed the door open.
Lewis had already stepped back, pressing himself against the wall.
The man who emerged was tall, dressed in black, with a thick Scottish plaid scarf. He staggered forward through the corridor.
Lewis followed silently.
They passed through the first chamber, then into the outer passage.
Clearly, Ted didn't want to foul the interior with the smell, so he intended to relieve himself outside.
Perfect.
Lewis followed him all the way to the illusion-covered entrance.
Ted stood in the snow and began to relieve himself.
Only after he finished did Lewis make his move.
Ted had just zipped up, feeling refreshed, when a young voice suddenly sounded behind him:
"Frost Nova."
In an instant, icy energy erupted around him.
His legs were frozen solid to the ground, trapped in place. The cold surged upward, and the exposed skin he hadn't quite put away yet reacted violently to the sudden chill.
He tried to reach for his wand—
But the freezing cold stiffened his arm, slowing his movements to a crawl.
His fingers barely brushed the wand before an unseen force yanked it away.
Then, in sheer terror, he watched as frost spread upward from his feet.
It crept closer and closer—
Only stopping just before reaching that most vulnerable area.
Finally, he saw his attacker.
A black-haired boy, no more than eleven or twelve years old, standing calmly before him.
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