Witch Training Manual: My Water Magic Is Wrong

Wayne did not speak immediately.

The panel appeared silently in front of him.

[The Headless Gang: A List of Sins]

[Bandit Leader: Feru, late-stage Tier 4 warrior, age 34. Born into a bandit's den, his mother was a kidnapped refugee who was tortured to death shortly after giving birth to him. Feru never saw his father, rumored to be the previous bandit leader, but no one has confirmed this. He grew up amidst blades and bloodshed.]

[A True Account of His Evil: Feru had a peculiar fetish. He enjoyed eating the ears of women and children. Not metaphorically, not as a figure of speech, but literally. Raw.]

[Gang Size: The Headless Gang currently has approximately 120 members. Including the three smaller gangs that recently joined forces, the total number is about 230. Among them are four members with Tier 4 combat power, including Feru himself and three leaders. There are approximately 15 members with Tier 3 combat power, and the rest are ordinary bandits of Tier 1, Tier 2, and no rank. Every member has blood on their hands; none have escaped.]

[Note: The gang practices a "blood sacrifice" system. Every month on the night of the full moon, they select a "sacrifice" from among the captured civilians and torture and kill them in the central square of the camp to "please the Abyss." Feru claims to be a messenger of the Abyss, and his blade is the Abyss's fangs. In reality, the Abyss doesn't know him at all.]

[Note 2: Beneath that mine lie dozens of unidentified skeletons. Among them are passing merchants, villagers from nearby areas, and abducted women and children. No one knows their names, no one knows where they came from, and no one knows what they were thinking in their last moments.]

[Note: They were acting on Dalton's orders, and their primary objective is to kill you during the raid. I believe the goddess is willing to punish them.]

Meanwhile, Wayne looked at the panel, took off the storage bag at his waist, and took out a bottle from it.

Diaz's gaze fell on the bottle.

"Sir, what is this?"

"Invisibility Potion"

Diaz's pupils contracted sharply. He took a step forward, carefully examining the potion before him.

"Sir, a Tier 3 invisibility potion? This must be... this must be something only a high-level potion master can concoct. It's practically unavailable on the market, priceless. Where did you get it?"

"I composed it myself."

Wayne didn't explain much. He took the porcelain bottle back and took out seven more identical dark green porcelain bottles from his storage bag, making a total of eight, which he arranged in his palm.

"Stealth duration: 30 minutes."

Diaz's gaze swept over the eight bottles.

"Eight bottles?"

Is that enough?

Diaz nodded quickly: "Enough, enough! My lord, with these eight bottles of invisibility potion, we can strike at the heart of the enemy and take Feru's head off."

Wayne handed over the porcelain bottle.

"Distribute these to the high-level combatants in the team. One bottle for each person above level three, and the rest of you outside to provide support."

Diaz took the porcelain bottle, turned around, and walked to the middle of the group.

The mercenaries automatically gathered around, and Diaz called out a few names, handing over the porcelain bottles one by one.

Marco took the bottle, glanced at it, uncorked it, smelled it, put the cork back in, and put it in his pocket.

Emma squeezed her way up from the back of the line.

"Master, what about us?"

Wayne glanced at her sideways.

"You two follow me. But remember, do not act rashly."

The group continued their journey into the night.

The moonlight cast a hazy, gray glow on the mountain path. Wayne walked in front, with Emma and Ella following half a step behind him.

Diaz caught up from the back of the group.

"Sir, the entrance to the Kur Mine is just ahead. The mountain path is on the left; it's very narrow, only wide enough for two people to walk side by side."

Wayne stopped and looked up.

The mountain path was hidden in the darkness and shadows of the trees.

"Marco."

Marco walked up from the back of the group.

"exist."

"Take three men and go along the mountain path. Find out their sentry positions, do it quietly if possible, and ideally, kill them in one strike."

"clear."

Marco selected three people, who, after taking an invisibility potion, crept up the mountain path.

The figure was quickly swallowed by the darkness.

Wayne turned around and faced the rest of the people.

"Everyone else, wait until the fire is lit before you charge."

He took out an invisibility potion from his storage bag and handed it to Emma and Ella. Emma took the porcelain bottle, glanced at it, and uncorked it.

Ella also uncorked the bottle.

The two tilted their heads back and drank it down.

The other high-ranking combatants who received the potion did the same, and after drinking the invisibility potion, they also began to lose their forms.

The invisibility potion worked even better than expected, and the invisible people could still see each other, so the potion's effect was not isolated.

Emma's voice came from the side.

"Master, my hand is gone!"

"Um."

"My feet are gone too!"

"I know."

Diaz stood beside Wayne, his figure already hidden, but Wayne could still see his transparent outline.

"Sir, let's go!"

"Um."

Without saying much, Wayne and his men quickly approached the bandit's hideout.

The mountain path became narrower and narrower as we walked.

"Owner."

"Um."

"Are all the people inside... bad people?"

Wayne didn't stop.

"Yes."

"Then...then should we kill them all?"

Wayne spoke seriously.

"Emma, ​​remember one thing."

Emma looked up.

"You can kill everyone inside."

Emma's breath hitched.

"Either you kill him, or he kills you," Wayne said, his tone unchanged. "There is no third option."

"Master, Emma understands."

Seven minutes later.

Marco's figure emerged from around the bend in the mountain path ahead. His form slowly materialized from the transparency, like a ghost rising from the water.

"Sir, the sentry positions have been identified. There are three in total, two at the entrance to the mountain path and one at the entrance to the mine. They've all been dealt with."

"What's going on inside?"

Marco's voice was very low.

"Feru is drinking with several leaders in the stone hall deep inside the cave. Three fourth-tier members are there, along with seven or eight third-tier members to keep him company. The other bandits are scattered in stone houses throughout the mine; most are already asleep, with only a few still drinking and gambling."

Are there many guards at the mine entrance?

"Not many, just two. But there are more than a dozen guards around the stone hall, four or five of them are third-tier, and the rest are second-tier."

Diaz's transparent silhouette flickered beside him, his voice low: "My lord, let's break in."

Wayne glanced at him, then tapped his helmet with his hand, making a soft sound.

Are you stupid?

Diaz covered his forehead and didn't dare to say a word.

Wayne unfastened his storage pouch from his waist, reached inside, and pulled out a grayish-white porcelain bottle. The bottle was larger than a regular potion bottle, and its mouth was sealed with gray wax without any markings.

"Demonic Wind Dispersion." His voice wasn't loud, but the people behind him heard it clearly. "It can paralyze a fourth-tier warrior's entire body, dull their senses, and weaken their limbs within three breaths. The effect lasts for about 15 minutes."

Diaz took a half step forward, his eyes, visible beneath the transparent outline, fixed on the porcelain bottle, his pupils slightly contracting.

"My lord, you even have this medicine? Isn't this a banned drug that the kingdom has explicitly prohibited? A few years ago, the province of Bellino conducted a strict crackdown and arrested several merchants who were reselling Magic Wind Powder. They were hanged in public, and their heads were displayed on the city gate for a whole month."

Wayne glanced at him sideways.

"What? You don't want to use it?"

Diaz immediately bent over, his body beneath the transparent outline folding into a respectful angle, his voice squeezed out from his throat with a self-righteous obsequiousness.

"Think about it. We use whatever the adults say we should use, and we shoot wherever the adults say we should shoot. Whether drugs are banned or not is the law of the kingdom. We're suppressing bandits now, why should we care about the law when we're suppressing bandits? Bandits don't listen to the law, why should we listen to the law? Wouldn't that be bullying our own people?"

Marco stood to the side, his right hand on the hilt of his sword, his lips twitching slightly, but he didn't say anything.