"He went upstairs..." Augusta looked towards the stairs. "The top is my study... Is it the same as last time, his goal is my research notes?"
"Didn't you say that the notes are encrypted, and the ciphertext on them can only be deciphered if you have the password book?" Kefir asked, "What the thief wants to steal is the password book?"
Augusta grinned: "Hmph, I was on guard. You stay here to prevent that little thief from having accomplices. I'll go upstairs and have a look."
"How can you do it alone? He might be dangerous!" Kefir shouted, "I want to go with you."
Augusta cast a disgusted glance at him: "Just you? Forget it! Stay here!"
Kefir's wolf ears drooped in grievance.
Augusta rushed up the stairs and found a rolled up Persian flying carpet at the door of the study, which should be what the unicorn said. It seems that the thief has been planning for a long time, and even prepared the means of transportation for escape. The magician grinned ferociously, snapped his fingers, and a cluster of flames appeared on the flying carpet. Hehe, dare to play with the property of the Archmage Augusta's family, let you fly in and roll out.
Do you want to kick open the study door to make your appearance more majestic and courageous? Augusta considered for a second and gave up. Why can't we get through the door of our own house? He rather liked the mahogany door. He opened the door calmly. The study room was turned into a mess, the books that were neatly arranged on the bookshelves fell to the floor, every cabinet and drawer was opened, and the files and scrolls were lying on the ground like torn toilet paper. Other than that, the study was quiet and there was no one there, as if the daring thief had already left, leaving the room in a mess.
But things are far from that simple. Dare to steal the research notes of an archmage, and this archmage is already alert, and wants to get out? Augusta looked towards the center of the room. There is a magical vortex floating there that ordinary people cannot see. In the eyes of Augusta, it is a dark hole. The magician carefully pushed aside the pile of manuscript documents on the ground with his toes, and picked up a thin notebook buried underneath. This is his password book. Touching the codebook without casting the correct spell would suck anyone into an unknown dimension, even Augusta himself. Since the last time his home was stolen, he had been careful, not only strengthened the magic barrier around the house, but also added spell traps to the decoding book. Now that the trap has been triggered, it seems that the thief really came after the code book.
"I want to see who this guest who visited my house twice is!"
Augusta dropped the codebook and jumped into the magic vortex.
In an instant, he fell from his study into a dark space without sky and ground. This space is vast and boundless, without knowing where the end is, as if there is no limit to the universe. A road made of suspended rocks is paved from the foot of Augusta to the distance. Looking down from the edge of the road, you can only see a bottomless darkness. More rocky islands drift around. Overhead, another flying rock road hangs in the sky, opposite to the one below. Augusta kicked hard and jumped into the air, the gravity suddenly reversed, he was sucked straight to the stone road above his head, and then fell to the ground with a "bang". The space was turned upside down, and now, the stone road that was originally "above" was stepped under his feet, while the original stone road was hanging upside down above his head.
Augusta raised his hand and made a gesture, closing the magic vortex that sent him into this space. If he turned back and walked into that vortex, then instead of returning to the study, he would be transported to another place in a different space. In this eerie and wondrous space, the entrance you came from doesn't necessarily return you to where you came from. The magician patted the clothes, dusted them off, and looked around. It's dead silent here. Where's the little thief? Let's hope he doesn't run too far from being overly frightened. Although Augusta hated thieves, he didn't hate them enough to get rid of them quickly.
A flame suddenly hit from behind! Augusta was looking around, never expecting to be attacked! After feeling the high heat of the flames, he instinctively raised a barrier to protect himself—when he and Cavodian participated in the Magic Dao Challenge, they had practiced such spells day and night, so that they had formed a conditioned reflex, and after so many years, their bodies still did not forget. This can be regarded as one of the few benefits he gained from getting acquainted with Cavodian.
The flame was bounced off by the barrier and turned into hot wind that scattered and flowed away. Augusta turned around. A man in black and a white mask stood above him on the stone path, hanging upside down like a bat to Augusta. It seems that he is the little thief who knows nothing about the sky and the earth. Not to mention breaking into his house and stealing, how dare he attack him!
The magician pouted. Has he lived in the countryside for so long that people have underestimated the reputation of "Archmage Augusta"
The masked thief took out a bottle from his arms and threw it at Augusta. Due to the different gravity of the stone road on both sides, the bottle flew towards the position where Augusta was standing in a strange arc. Generally speaking, Augusta would use the barrier to pop open the bottle, but according to his experience in the Magic Dao Challenge, since the other party knew that he would use the barrier to protect himself, there must be something weird in this bottle. The same attack method cannot be used a second time, and the defense method is also the same.
With a wave of his hand, he flipped the gravity of the bottle. The bottle that was flying towards him just now was summoned by gravity, flew to the stone road above, and smashed against the rock. A current shot out from the shattered glass vial. If Augusta had just used the barrier to block the bottle, then the moment the bottle was broken, the current would penetrate his barrier.
Seeing that this trick failed, the masked thief took out another bottle and threw it at his feet. A thick puff of smoke suddenly rose. Augusta realized he was trying to escape. How could a magician give the enemy such a chance! He waved his hand casually, and the thief who hadn't escaped from the maze of smoke seemed to be caught by a huge hand, and he left the ground with a "boom" and fell on the stone road where Augusta was. Before he could react to what happened, Augusta waved his hand casually again, and the thief fell back to the stone road above with a "boom". He bounced like a bouncing tennis ball between two stone paths.
"Stop, stop!" the thief yelled, "I surrender! Spare me!"
Augusta threw him again. "It is too late to surrender, Mr. Herbert Gunther."
The thief tried to get up from the ground. Augusta made a gesture of pressing down, and he immediately had to lie down as if a heavy burden had been placed on his back.
"How do you know it was me?!"
"One, your bottle. It's full of alchemy potions, so I'm guessing, you're an alchemist, or at least have an accomplice who is proficient in alchemy. Second, you broke the magic barrier I cast around the house. I Although I am not the world's number one archmage, I am confident that my spells are not bad. There are very few people in the world who can break my barrier from the outside, and I can't think of any of them who will be my enemy. However, the barrier It would be much easier to crack from the inside. The burglar must have been to my house, and while I wasn't looking, put an anchor that could break the barrier somewhere in my house, and I was confident that no one would I will find this anchor. I'm not so stupid that I don't even know that I have an extra magic anchor in my house. Even if I ignore it, Kefir and Quentina will definitely find it when they clean the house often. But no one found that Anchor. So I guess, the anchor must be a thing in our psychological blind spot, we let it exist, and don’t care about it, maybe I even allowed it to be placed in my home majestically.”
Augusta raised her chin, "That Shiva Linga. You and Liliana were guests at the time, and you gave me that thing as a gift. Of course, because it was so embarrassing, I asked Kefir to throw it away." In the attic, I didn’t bother with it after that. I just kept your anchor in my own home. Realizing this, your identity is ready to be revealed. Also, you once asked me about the kefir change I told you back then that when he transforms, I will send him to the nearby forest. In other words, I will definitely leave home on the night of the full moon—that is the perfect time for you to invade."
The magician looked at Herbert, who was immobilized by the invisible gravity, "Does Liliana know your purpose? Has she participated in your conspiracy? No, I don't think so. The fact that you and Liliana are dating is very important. Suspicious. The timing is too coincidental. Not long after my house was stolen, you hooked up with Liliana. You just used her as a springboard, looking for opportunities to enter my house and inquire about my situation? Otherwise, you would not be completely sure: That Linga is a gift from a friend, so I won't throw it away; but with my personality, I can't take it out to watch it out of boredom, so I can't find the magic anchor on it."
Herbert snorted: "What if I say she is my accomplice?"
"impossible."
"How can you be sure?"
"If Liliana wants my research notes, just come and ask for them. It's not like she hasn't asked for them before. Of course, whether I give them to her is another matter, but if she really wants them, she will definitely ask. rather than stealing."
"That bitch...!"
"It's really unlucky for Liliana to meet someone like you. She probably thought you were her true son, and dreamed of growing old with you, right?"
Augusta snapped his fingers. The heavy burden on Herbert's back disappeared, and a magical vortex appeared above his head, sucking him up.
"You're worse off, though. Haven't you heard the saying—"
Herbert was sucked into the vortex. "You'll regret it, oh..."
"—would you rather annoy ten-headed dragons than a witch?"
Kefir sat on the stairs with his arms folded, shivering from the cold. Why don't I go find something to wear? he thinks. But Lord Augusta asked me to stay here and wait for him. What if he can't find me when he comes back? Just bear with it.
He hung his head in frustration, completely unaware that a magical vortex appeared above his head at some point.
"... Gusta!" A broken voice came from the vortex.
"Huh?" Kefir looked up suspiciously.
Then he was hit in the face impartially by a man in black who fell from the sky! He didn't even have time to scream, and passed out directly.
When Augusta walked out of the study, what she saw was this scene: Herbert took off his mask cursingly and tried to get up, while Kefir fell to the ground, unconscious and naked, foaming at the mouth. The scene was very indecent.