Chapter 3: Chapter 3 The Origin of Magic_1
The old witch cast a spell on the oxen pulling the wagon, enabling them to travel thousands of miles overnight.
At first, Ivita was a little worried that the knights from the Wild Boar Knights Group would catch up.
But as they got further and further away, she found herself wondering where they were.
By the time they stopped, they had left the main road and were deep in the winding paths of the forest. Even the ox cart had fallen apart from the long run.
The Black Wolf and Ivita disembarked from the cart.
Ivita looked around the Black Forest in confusion, "Where are we? Why are there Black Forests everywhere?"
"It's because the Black Forest's environment, is particularly suited for witches, magic, and magical creatures." The Demon Hunter Black Wolf unfastened his pack from his back and began to check his weapons and gear. Unfortunately, most of the weapons and equipment had been lost in the process of their escape. This undoubtedly added more to Ivita's tab.
He explained to Ivita, "The Black Forest stretches across dozens of duchies, kingdoms, and empires. It hides many unknown wizard towers, witch schools, and griffon knight training camps."
"It is said that in the Black Forest, one's magic gets a boost."
"We seem to be at the southernmost edge of the Black Forest. Your highness, see that mountain in front?"
Ivita looked in the direction indicated by Black Wolf, only to see a soaring mountain range in the distance.
"That's the Alps, the legendary Holy Mountain. So, we must be in the Viscount Ambros' Country, a very unique, independent viscountcy," The Demon Hunter Black Wolf said.
"We're quite close to the Papal Country."
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" He looked over at the old witch.
The implication was, are you really okay being this near the hub of the church as a witch?
The old witch let out a sharp, awkward laugh. "No problem, I can even go to the church to buy indulgences."
"I came here because one of my beloved apprentices is in Viscount Ambros' Country."
"I heard she recently did something big, a very big deal, but it's also caused big trouble, so she wrote to ask for my help."
"So here I am."
Of course, the old witch's words couldn't all be trusted.
Truth be told, she never planned to help the apprentice who asked for her assistance.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have had time to scheme and take over Ivita's estate.
But who could blame her, deeply embroiled in trouble with the Subspace Demon God as she was?
Now, she recalls her apprentice.
Embrace beauty in good times, share troubles in hardship.
It was her life motto, after all.
While Ivita looked around, unsure of her next move, the old witch went up to her. "Your highness, you previously requested magic lessons from me, and of course, I must comply."
"We have temporarily escaped danger, so let's find a quiet place where I can teach you magic."
"First, let me assess your magical talent."
The old witch cautiously took Ivita's right arm, massaging it, before moving to Ivita's back. Her fingers rested on Ivita's shoulder blades, revealing a puzzled expression and muttering to herself, "You're still burning up. But that doesn't make sense. A body possessed by an Outer God from Subspace should have magical talent."
"But you have absolutely no magical talent."
"According to the history I know, mortals who were possessed by entities summoned by magic that caused great calamities would all become natural spellcasters."
"If I killed this body with plague, and then allowed the Demon God to enter..."
The Old Witch had a look of doubt and malice in her eyes.
Ivita, standing nearby, heard her mumbling and felt a chill run down his spine.
Damn, I thought the Wild Boar Knights were already bad enough.
But it turns out, it's you.
The original owner was actually killed by you.
You're over here playing a game of Werewolf.
Damn it.
Ivita didn't expect that he would escape from the Wild Boar Knights only to fall into danger because of this witch.
Subspace, the Demon God, he really had no clue about any of it.
'This old witch is a suspicious, cowardly, and malicious person. She wouldn't do anything unless she was absolutely sure of success,' Ivita thought, 'As long as I don't show any fear, she definitely won't dare to harm me.'
Ivita snorted coldly. "Just because I don't have a magical talent, does it mean I can't learn magic?"
The Old Witch was startled by this snort.
She realized that Ivita's 'resurrection' must be real, and the historical knowledge she had might not be without errors.
However, this also prompted her to continue probing Ivita's intentions.
The Old Witch shook her head, saying, "That's not entirely true, you might still have a chance to learn magic."
"In those low-level worlds, people often cannot learn magic due to a lack of wizard talent, but this is the Magic Black Forest, where anything can happen."
"Those who aren't natural spellcasters but wish to learn magic need to undergo a Magic Talent Enlightenment ritual, which requires expensive materials."
Ivita was curious about these 'low-level world' people she mentioned. "Low-level world?"
"Yes," the Old Witch said, "When I used to use summoning magic, I often encountered lower beings from low-level worlds."
"The most interesting case was when I summoned a Ninth Ring Wizard who claimed he was from the 'Great World of Wizards'. He boasted that he would immediately summon all the rulers of our world to provide him with experimental materials."
"The result was that he snarled at one of my servants—a farmer—and ended up getting knocked out with one punch by that farmer, dying on the spot."
"It was then that I realized the strength of our world far exceeds that of other worlds. Even an average person from our world could possibly cause drastic changes in another world, even bringing about the apocalypse."
The Old Witch said, "For a while, I was really interested in summoning creatures from other worlds to use as my experimental materials."
"I learned that they seem to refer to our world as—the origin of magical power."
"But it doesn't matter. In our world, ordinary people are just that—ordinary people. I don't understand why in some worlds the wizards can browbeat legally recognized kings."
"They claim to rule."
"Perhaps lower beings are all like this."
The Old Witch seemed to be lost in her memories, "But our world itself is like a book, and each plane is a page of our world. From what I know, the subspace and outer space of our world are the most terrifying pages."
With that, she sneaked a glance at Ivita, as if implying that he should know more about this than her.
Black Wolf, the Demon Hunter, couldn't help but ask, "Old witch, with all your experiences, how many years have you lived?"
The Old Witch gave Black Wolf a displeased look, but she begrudged Ivita and didn't dare go too far. She forced out a few words. "I am already over two hundred years old."
"The experiences I was talking about earlier were from my youthful years in Hearthstone Castle, when I was a witch."