Chapter Forty-Four: My Mentally Unstable Boss

Blackhorn Alley, a night of utter darkness. The entire sky seemed shrouded by something, and faintly, a shadow shaped like a giant hat could be seen overhead.

A quiet little alley.

An elderly dark wizard appeared out of thin air, frantically attempting to teleport again. Before he could make a move, he stood frozen, stunned as a black serpent emerged suddenly from midair and burrowed into his body.

Immediately, his whole form was covered in dense runes. He rolled on the ground in agony. “This—this is impossible! What kind of magic is this? Why can I feel pain… And, we clearly sealed off eight surrounding blocks—how did magic break through the wards and catch up with me…”

“Hmm… Sir, strictly speaking, everyone feels pain,” Louis replied. “Also, Mr. Ross, that thing you created can’t really be called a seal. In fact, even a sphere isn’t truly closed.”

When these words suddenly sounded by Ross’s side, he widened his eyes and looked up at Louis as if he’d seen a ghost.

When had this Faceless One appeared?!

More bizarre still, in the corner behind the Faceless One, lay a plump girl sprawled on the ground, along with four others crouching, clutching their heads—obviously, those who had scattered and tried to flee had been gathered up by Louis with a single sweep.

Yet to Ross, it felt surreal. He suspected he must have been hit by a nightmare curse—but with his mastery of Mind Lock, even the Witch Queen’s magic mirror couldn't invade his mind!

Everything was too fantastical.

To ambush this Faceless One, the whole Voodoo Gang had spent over half a month meticulously planning and constructing a massive labyrinth—the Venom Maze!

It was said that, except for the terrifying magician who recently arrived in Blackhorn Alley, anyone who fell into their hands today would suffer dearly.

And yet, the confrontation ended in a single moment.

When everyone saw countless black serpents writhing from that man’s robes and filling the sky, they were dumbstruck.

What a joke!

There were more serpents than people in all eight blocks!

Ross and his companions immediately realized what they were facing—they regretted not waiting for “Magician Harold.” This Faceless One, perhaps only the magician could handle!

Clearly, this mysterious figure was likely a Red King or a fearsome Black Jack.

At that moment, all Ross could hope for was that the labyrinth would stall him, even for a little while.

But to this Faceless One, the maze was as good as non-existent. What baffled Ross more was that he felt no magical ripple from Phantom Shift!

It was as if the man had stepped across several blocks in a single stride, effortlessly bypassing the maze and appearing by his side.

“Hmm… Perhaps I’m not making myself clear.” As rumored, this eccentric Faceless One stroked his chin, eager to lecture. “You may need to learn some mathematics. These tools will give you new eyes to understand spatial structures. Simply put, it works like this…”

Mathematics?

What does accounting have to do with magic?

This lunatic!

Soon, the already writhing Ross, overwhelmed by the endless rambling, rolled his eyes and fainted.

“So, as long as… cough, cough, wake up.” Seeing his student “fall asleep,” the Faceless One’s cheeks twitched, evidently displeased.

And deeply disappointed.

“Utterly ignorant!”

He turned, glancing at the four dark wizards crouched behind him, mouths agape. “Did you understand any of it?”

Despair flickered in their eyes.

Louis rubbed his face—these people were utterly anti-intellectual! He was too disappointed!

He drew a hat from his sleeve, seized at the wizards from afar, and suddenly had several bewildered little figures in his hand.

After tossing the squealing little people into the hat, Louis waved his sleeve, and the dark wizard leader and the unconscious plump girl vanished as well.

Then, Louis flipped his palm toward the sky. The dim magical array overhead disappeared; moonlight returned, and he held a large top hat in his hand.

“Seems the Voodoo Gang has a fondness for hats, and they all look like they were made by the same person.” Louis shook his head, pulling out a stack of tall hats from his sleeve and placing the tallest one atop the pile.

…

Once Ross and the others entered the hat, they realized with a start that several people who had disappeared recently—“Gray Glove” Eagle, the Undying Jason, and others—were sitting inside, playing cards, their faces plastered with little slips of paper.

Four played, two watched.

Clearly, this group had tried every method to escape this seemingly simple magical hat, but in the hands of the Faceless One, it became something else entirely…

This sudden influx left Gray Glove and his companions momentarily stunned; the two sides stared at each other.

Eagle tossed them a deck of cards.

…

A few minutes later, when Stewart received the hat from his boss, he excitedly rubbed his hands and peeked inside, then looked up blankly.

“Sir, are you planning to visit the Voodoo Gang again tomorrow?” Stewart asked, his expression odd, cautiously glancing at his employer.

“Of course. Let’s deal with these little rookies first,” Louis replied, sitting on the ground, counting his spoils. “Don’t forget, this time we’ll keep them a few days longer. I want to teach them some lessons.”

Stewart forced a pained smile. It seemed his boss intended to keep these wizards as pets. But there was something he needed to remind him.

“Sir, you may not be able to visit the Voodoo Gang anymore. They might have disbanded.”

“Disbanded? When did that happen? None of my spies mentioned it.”

“Officially, it should be today,” Stewart replied with a sycophantic grin.

There were quite a few members in the Blackhorn Alley branch of the Voodoo Gang, but most of the leaders were gone, so the rest would likely disperse—at least, the branch here was finished.

Louis paused, glanced at Stewart’s face, and fell into thought.

“A worthless little gang after all,” Louis said, disappointment showing. He tossed a few bags to Stewart for him to tally the loot, then moved over to the mirror to examine himself.

A note appeared in the mirror.

[Louis lv7 (55/100)]
[Strength: 13.19 Dexterity: 7.23 Magic: 28.89]
[Storybook Energy: 1]

‘Why is all the energy going into strength again…’

Louis’s expression soured.

Ossikris had made up about ten days of lessons, so another two weeks had passed. In these two weeks, Louis had eaten a Welsh Green Dragon (Strength +2, Magic +3)—he’d expected something huge, but it was barely ten meters long.

Ten meters was sizable, but compared to true giants, it was still a runt.

After that transformation, Louis discovered that the stronger his magic and strength, the larger and more powerful his transformed body became. And if he tossed Stewart into his shadow to transform together, he not only grew larger, but also sprouted a second head.

That little fire dragon was utterly helpless under his onslaught. Unfortunately, fire dragons were the most numerous in the Dragon District, while the true giants were few and named. Otherwise, he would have liked to play with them—they seemed formidable.

Aside from absorbing the dragon’s strength, Louis had completed two weekly challenges in these past weeks.

The storybook granted him two energies, but both were randomly allocated to his physique. If not for routinely exceeding his weekly tasks and grabbing an extra magic point, he wouldn’t have gained magic by defeating wizards.

Besides these boosts, his daily Nightmare Power increased his magic by about 0.6. Stewart had mostly recovered, though still weaker than before, and needed further training. Now, Stewart’s 8 strength, 21 dexterity, and 30 magic granted a 10% boost as his shadow, which wasn’t insignificant.

With 28 magic, he was still far from the Witch Queen’s triple digits. The J, Q, K ranks seemed to be around that level too.

Today’s Mr. Ross seemed to have much more magic than him. Unfortunately, the old man didn’t seem to understand much about magic. Otherwise, Louis might have enjoyed a little exchange for mutual improvement.

Louis shook his head, sighing in disappointment.

It seemed the Voodoo Gang, this newbie-level “bandit” challenge, had been thoroughly dismantled.

Recently, Stewart had been mapping the area based on his spies’ reports. Louis planned to mark the regions of Blackhorn Alley in red, yellow, and green, and see how many safe beginner areas he had yet to visit.

He’d heard that a remarkable group had recently arrived in Blackhorn Alley, so caution was best.

Reflecting on how it felt to use Four-Dimensional Flip lv7 in the alley today, Louis closed his eyes and pondered.

He then consumed storybook energy, seeking deeper dimension secrets.

This time, he finally saw more.

He reached out, and a nearby box flew into his hand, transforming into a sheet of paper.

Louis opened his eyes and saw a line of narration.

[You have mastered ‘Multidimensional Cube lv8’]

He intended to try this new ability.

A surge of magic erupted, and countless black serpents burst from Louis’s robes. In the blink of an eye, darkness enveloped everything, serpents everywhere.

Seeing his boss at it again, Stewart’s eye twitched violently. He hurriedly gathered the things on the ground into his arms, fleeing into the magic mirror as if for his life.

Stewart thought his boss was certifiably insane.