Equipment Printing School Mage

The black-haired young man named Mars slowly raised his head and sneered: "--boring interrogation trick."

Emilia's smile remained unchanged as she swung the dagger, slicing off a small piece of flesh from Mars' shoulder. She then thrust the rusty blade into the flesh and stirred it slightly, "Yes, it was a trick."

The extremely intense pain made Mars' face turn red in an instant, but he still stared at Emilia's face coldly without saying a word.

Only the shackles rattled.

As if enjoying his hostility, Emilia patted his head with a smile: "—I really like the anger of prey. This kind of strength that refuses to give up even though it is powerless gives me an extra sense of conquest."

"Tell the truth now, and you'll die with less pain—rust is more deadly than steel."

"Don't even think about running away. I, Emya of Friendly Arms, have never let a prey escape in all these years."

Emilia turned her head and sarcastically said to Leon, who was once again furious, "—Is there really anyone who believes such ridiculous legends as shapeshifters? Face the reality, you have just walked into the enemy's lair."

Leon roared: "Emiya, you f—"

At this moment, several quiet knocks were heard from the stone door of the dungeon.

Emiya was stunned for a moment, then quickly walked out of the cage and came to the stone gate.

It was Emiya's own voice that rang out from outside the stone gate: "Have you had enough of making trouble? We are short of manpower right now."

Emiya was stunned for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to open the stone door: "Lord Lorian, please don't joke with me..."

The stone door opened, revealing the figure of another Emiya.

However, his expression was calm and cold, far less lively than the jailer in the dungeon.

Emiya, who had just arrived, was holding a steel half-sword in her hand, with electric light dancing on the sword's spine.

The tip of the sword was pointed at the fake Emilia's chest.

Emiya looked at the identical self in front of him, gripped his sword tightly, and said coldly: "Who are you kidding?"

The next moment, electric sparks jumped out of the sword edge, and blazing white thunder roared out from the tip of the sword.

"Lightning beam!"

Five Inhuman Courages

The flying sparks lit up the entire cellar in an instant.

The whistling magic power turned into a path for lightning, and the deafening explosion was instantly reflected back and forth several times in the narrow cellar, and all the echoes exploded in the tunnel almost at the same time.

The surging electric current easily penetrated the entire underground space, and all the torture instruments on both sides of the corridor were melted into scrap iron in an instant. The cage, which was already severely aged, was completely vulnerable to this thunder, and the rusted steel slowly melted and collapsed in the face of the huge heat brought by the lightning.

With just one strike, a torrent of lightning turned the dungeon into history.

"...?"

The fake Emiya's figure slowly fell down in the blazing electric light, while the real Emiya's brows frowned slightly.

The lightning bolt could easily kill a huge brown bear, but it failed to kill the impostor.

This is enough to show that this fake is unusual.

Of course, this fake has a more obvious flaw: even steel melted in the high temperature brought by this blow, but the white cloth robe on his body remained the same, without any signs of damage.

But it doesn't matter, the truth will soon come out.

Emiya stretched out her free left hand, pointed it at the fake's heart, and whispered a spell.

“…Death’s Knell.”

The magic power of a wizard is limited, and only a few of the most concise spells can be released at will. Among them, the Death Knell is the most beloved one.

Its greatest characteristic is that it can cause greater damage to injured enemies. The dark devouring aura brought by this necromancy spell can also more easily penetrate the bodies of living beings.

As the mournful bell rang, the last remaining vitality in the fake Emilia's body dissipated.

His tall figure quickly flexed and shrank, becoming slender and powerful. His loose white robe collapsed into wrinkled gray skin, and his red hair disappeared, leaving only a bald scalp.

His true form is a hairless monster. His so-called appearance and clothing are nothing more than mimicry achieved through his supernatural powers.

“…It’s a shapeshifter indeed.”

Emiya snorted coldly, placed the longsword in his left hand, and closed the secret door with his right hand. Then, he grabbed the shapeshifter's feet and threw the heavy corpse in front of the cell, making its flesh and blood sizzle against the red steel.

This scene was obviously beyond the two prisoners' expectations. Leon's mouth was already wide open, unable to utter a word.

The young man opposite Leon stared at Emilia's figure without saying a word.

He clapped his hands and looked around. "Good evening, my two guests. I must state that what you have experienced tonight is not the normal guest service of Friendly Arms. I just escaped by chance."

The blond Leon still looked incredulous: "...You...you are really the receptionist of the Friendly Arm...the one named Emiya?"

Emilia replied calmly, "Indeed, you must have suffered a lot during this period... I must declare that it has nothing to do with me - I just escaped from this predicament."

Leon's voice became louder: "--You just used Lightning Bolt! That's a third-level spell! Third-level! The youngest third-level wizard I've ever seen must be at least thirty years old! You even look about the same age as me...!"

Hearing this, Emiya shrugged and said, "I have no idea about the talent of a mage. After all, my teacher always disliked me for not being sharp and even a little stupid."

Having said that, Emiya turned around and cast a glance towards the cage on the other side: "Also, I didn't expect that your friend's age is similar to yours."

Leon was certainly shocked by Emilia's youth. But Mars's appearance was also beyond Emilia's expectations - he had thought that the tall and strong man would be a man with a face full of flesh and a beard covering most of his face.

In short, he would be someone who would remind people of the traditional strongman or barbarian.

But in fact, it was just the opposite: Mars looked to be the same age as him and Leon, without any beard, only with short black hair, and looked to be only in his early twenties.

And no matter what standard you look at, Mars is extremely handsome. If he were walking around the banquet instead of brandishing a sword, he would probably easily attract the attention of all the participants.

But Mars's strong body is enough to prove that he does not intend to mingle with the nobles, but would rather plunge into the world of blood and steel.

...According to his common sense, there is precisely a group of people...or rather, a "small group of people" who would tend to act in this way.

Emilia glanced at the rusty shackles in the cage and said sternly, "Mr. Mars, if you still need to prove your identity, then I will point out one more thing."

"Your shackles are in very poor condition. They are not really capable of restraining someone like you."

"With your strength, you could have escaped long ago. You've been staying here probably just to gather information and wait for the best opportunity."

Mars was silent for a moment, then said, "This sense that goes beyond common sense should be difficult to fake... You must be real."

Then he pursed his lips, and his already strong muscles suddenly bulged high.

These shackles were supposed to be deeply embedded in the rock wall to restrain the prisoners, making them extremely difficult to open unless one encountered a master locksmith.

But at this moment, they encountered the most terrifying external force.

Mars stomped his feet heavily on the wall, concentrated the strength of his core, and swung his hands forward heavily.

The steel and rust immediately let out a shrill scream under the twisting force. With a low roar from Mars, he forcibly pulled the iron nails embedded in the wall out of the rock. The friction between the metal and the rock produced eye-catching sparks and a sharp explosion.

The flying iron nails hit the stone wall and fell to the ground with a clang.

Mars did the same thing, freeing his legs again, and then gripped the shackles on his limbs.

“Bang!” “Bang!”

“Bang!” “Bang!”

With the simplest and most brutal way of unlocking, the shackles were forcibly removed by brute force and fell to the ground.

...Although Emilia had already anticipated how Mars would escape, this horrific manifestation was still far beyond his imagination.

Emiya thought for a moment and said sincerely, "Mr. Mars, have you ever considered verifying your race?"

Six Shapeshifters

Although humans are considered to be of medium or even above average strength among common humanoid races, Mars's power is clearly approaching that of ogres or even giants, which makes it difficult not to imagine.

If he were to wrestle a brown bear, this guy would probably be able to wrestle the bear around like a toy.

"I am 100 percent human."

I don't know how serious the question was, but the answer contained 100% affirmation.

It was obviously not a serious question, but Mars answered it with an extremely serious attitude, as if he had answered it countless times.

During this gap, Mars had already walked to Leon's side, reached out and grabbed Leon's shackles.

"Boom!"

With a loud crisp sound, the last prisoner successfully escaped.

Leon's condition was clearly much worse than Mars'. Once he was free, almost all his strength was drained from his body, and he nearly fell to the ground as soon as his feet touched the ground.

Emiya looked at the bloodstains all over Leon's body and shook her head.

This young man had far more wounds on his body than Mars - it was obvious that in the eyes of those shapeshifters, Leon was a more suitable breakthrough point.

Leon leaned on Mars's help and managed to stand up. He looked at the corpse on the ground, his face still hesitant. "...That thing...is it really a shapeshifter? I've only heard of this creature in the legend of the Son of Bhaal."

The legend of the sons of Bhaal rampaging across Faerûn was a century ago, and by now, those bloody events have long since become the arias of bards and the historical records of Candlekeep.

"I'm afraid so." Mars replied, his eyes fixed on the side of the shapeshifter. "Every feature of this corpse is consistent with my knowledge."

"The bad news is, he's probably not the only changeling." Emya added calmly, "This morning, a caravan of thirty-two Vistani checked into the Friendly Arm."

"Now that I think about it, it's quite bizarre that a group of people with caravans were officially staying in a hotel. But the owner didn't want to pass on the money... and now he's going to lose everything."

Now, the three of them can finally communicate formally.

The ceiling above their heads was constantly vibrating, which meant that the entire Friendly Arm was moving people in and out.

Emiya spoke faster. "In short, the guests we at Friendly Arms welcomed this morning were actually shapeshifters in disguise."

"Now that I think about it, their number is almost equal to the number of employees at Friendly Arms. I'm afraid they were prepared to completely replace Friendly Arms from the very beginning."

"Ask your questions now. We don't have much time. We must decide now whether to run or fight."

Leon couldn't help but widen his eyes and screamed, "—More than 30 shapeshifters?! Are you serious? They can drown us by just flooding!"

Lightning bolts and fireballs are probably the most famous spells of mass destruction in the world, capable of burning dozens of brown bears to ashes at the same time.

However, the shapeshifters were able to forcibly swallow the lightning bolt that was so close to them. This shows that even if these shapeshifters give up their disguise, they still have astonishing lethality and vitality.

Dozens of shapeshifters and four druids.

Even if they only have to face dozens of hobgoblins, they have to consider how to escape unscathed.

Hobgoblins are actually nearly as physically fit as humans, while shapeshifters are complete monsters.

Compared with this terrible difference in combat power, the purpose of the shapeshifter itself seems insignificant.

Mars was silent for a moment. "Such a large-scale activity, just to occupy an inn? This is not in the interests of the shapeshifters. I'm afraid they are just pawns."

Emiya replied, "That's right. From what I heard, they belong to an organization called the Gods Not Gods Society. And this organization has connections with the Shadow Druids."

"In fact, four Shadow Druids have already arrived here. Unfortunately, I can only confirm that three of them are followers and one is a high-level druid. I have no way of judging their specific strength."

The term "Gods are not gods" is extremely outrageous on the continent of Faerun.

If there is any greatest feature of the continent of Faerun, it must be gods and magic.

Magic may not be found in every village, but it can be seen in forests and small towns, and priests and churches of gods are everywhere.

The miracles on Earth that cannot be seen with the naked eye have become a part of the lives of the people of Faerun.

In such a world, blaming the gods themselves does not reflect philosophical thinking, but rather seems like a foolish dream that ignores the facts.

Mars' expression had always been calm, but upon hearing this name, a slight change finally appeared on his face. "...Falsehoods and hypocrisy are rampant in the world, and only one omniscient being exists in the highest? Even though this continent is filled with evil, few would use such insane words as a doctrine."

Only the stupidest and craziest people would dare to do this.

The Gods and Non-Gods can actually organize a large number of shapeshifters and are involved with the Shadow Druids.

Then they are definitely not stupid.

"So, first question," Emiya said, "How are you now? Are you able to fight?"

"Both of us..." Mars was halfway through his words when he was suddenly pulled by Leon.

The blond young man shook his head at Mars.

Mars was silent for a moment, then sighed: "Just treat me as a full-fledged combat force, and ignore the minor injuries I have now. But I'm afraid Leon will need time to recover."

"I'm sorry for what you've been through, but I must make it clear," Emiya said bluntly. "You might think running away is the best option. However, I set aside my colleagues from the Friendly Arms to rescue you, not to help you escape."