It was dark.
Dusk is approaching.
Amidst the sound of increasing rain, the wheels of the carriage broke through the accumulated water on the ground, making a rattling sound and galloping forward.
Finally, the carriage stopped in front of the Viscount's Mansion.
"It's really troublesome for you."
A young man with an ordinary appearance and a gentle smile always opened the car door and thanked him softly: "Such heavy rain has come to see me off."
"It's all right, Sir Gerald."
The coachman laughed loudly: "Am I waiting for you here?"
"No need, I'll let the Viscount's coachman take me back."
Doctor Gerald responded politely: "The rain is getting heavier and heavier. You may catch a cold if you wait here. Please go back."
"It's all right, Sir Gerald. For such a small matter, I will definitely help even if I don't pay... Besides, you have given so much money, who is not to blame."
The coachman didn't take it seriously: "You are such a kind and good neighbor, there are not many troubles in this world."
Gerald just smiled and got out of the car under the umbrella.
He replied in a slow and warm voice: "Then I'm leaving, sir. I also pay tribute to the silver coins tonight."
"Salute to the silver coin, sir."
After seeing off the neighbor's coachman, Doctor Gerald still had that gentle smile on his lips, and walked to the front of the courtyard.
Four guards were hiding under the eaves, guarding the door with guns on their backs.
Seeing Doctor Gerald coming alone, one of the guards hesitated a little and walked over.
The other guards immediately held their guns vigilantly.
The guard asked immediately, "Excuse me, are you Sir David Gerald?"
As he said this, he held up a square, very flat emerald tablet in his hand, and aimed it at Dr. Gerald.
Dr. Gerald was not at all bothered by it.
He just replied in a gentle and correct tone: "Yes, I am David Gerald."
After saying this, the jade tablet shone bright white.
The guard nodded slightly, and the other guards also put away their weapons.
"Come in, sir."
Another guard came over and bowed to Dr. Gerald: "I'll take you in."
Gerald followed him, laughing and making a joke: "I thought it was Justin coming to receive me."
"... sorry, sir."
The guard was silent for a while, then replied in a low voice.
His voice trembled slightly.
Gerald paused slightly, then continued walking forward as if nothing had happened.
But there were already transparent ripples in his pupils, like waves in a lake spreading out in circles.
The world in front of my eyes instantly turned into the black and white of an old TV, and everyone exudes colorful brilliance with different tones and proportions.
— [Consciousness Judgment]
Gerald watched him quietly.
Such a strong vigilance? Fear is not very strong... Sure enough, is there a backup? This subtle killing intent... Hehe, if I hadn't expected it, I might have regarded it as hostility.
He was more certain about his previous speculation.
David Gerald, as a fugitive wizard, has been removed from the Black Tower and is no longer directly under the official kingdom. Instead, he was soft wanted.
Also known as the "Dark Wizard" mark.
The so-called soft wanted means not really sending someone to arrest him. Just hang his name on the wanted warrant and make a formality. And Gerald himself can't cross the border, can't borrow money, can't marry and have children... At the same time, he doesn't enjoy the protection of the law.
In other words, it is not illegal for a curse hunter to kill him or rob him. But that's all.
After all, he just stole the cursed object, and he has not held any illegal sacrifices, nor killed anyone, so he can only tentatively judge it as "may cause harm". Naturally, no one will be assigned to catch him.
In particular, he is also a wizard of the Soul Seizing School. It belongs to the type that one can't fight, but a group can run, and I don't want to waste precious manpower on him.
But Gerald must be wary of those curse hunters.
As long as their wizards keep using spells while maintaining the balance of mana, they can continuously increase their strength. It is undoubtedly very difficult for hunters to quickly improve their strength in peaceful times.
Because they want to hunt other extraordinary people.
These wanted notices were actually written specifically for hunters. It was almost like telling them clearly, "You can only kill these people, and only killing these people is not a crime of homicide, and a bounty will be given."
Even Gerald is afraid of hunters.
The ghost knows what strange abilities the hunter can combine.
Transcendents of this era are usually well-educated. Before they enter the advanced level, they will try to plan a set of ability systems that can form a cycle by themselves. And after getting the Bronze Rank curse, you will basically start to decide the path you want to take.
In this way, the most perfect or extreme personal ability can be achieved under the limitation of the limited "self-curse capacity"—that is, the number of skill slots that come with the upgrade.
But in any case, these skills are traceable.
If you want to get other abilities, you can only rely on temporary spells, or spell objects, or get random extra abilities by inheriting someone else's spells.
The hunter is completely different.
As long as the hunter kills the extraordinary and performs a simple ceremony, he can plunder part of the opponent's ability, which can be temporarily activated.
Therefore, the abilities of hunters are very messy. Although every hunter has a very fatal flaw-that is, their own methods of killing are limited.
But hunters have always used darkness to confront light. Only hunters investigate extraordinary people. There is no reason to investigate killers in advance.
Gerald's way of coping, in addition to the curse "I am not here" that has been protecting him, is to briefly activate a simple spell every hour or so:
—[Consciousness Capture: Killing Intent]
The water in Gerald's eyes condensed, and the crimson light in his pupils flashed away, only lasting for a short second.
And in this second, he clearly saw an extremely thin thread pointing out from the Viscount's mansion, and another thread was tied to himself.
... Oh, sure enough.
Gerald pursed his lips slightly, his eyes turned cold.
This is the pre-spell of the soul-snatching spell.
"Consciousness Capture: Killing Intent" allows Gerald to immediately find out where the person with the clear killing intent is.
It's like a mind detector.
Whenever someone tried to point a gun at Gerald, a guide line would appear in his mind and point back to the person pointing at him.
Even outside the spell range of "Consciousness Replacement" and "Consciousness Loss", you can roughly know where the enemy is coming from; as long as it appears within the range of vision, you can lock it immediately.
Their main way of fighting in the bronze stage is to capture a certain consciousness emerging from the opponent, and then capture and transfer it to another person, or shrink it or detonate it.
It is not until they reach the silver level that they can have the ability to directly kill.
But if it only captures and does not interfere, and is only limited to killing intent... then as long as it is turned on and off in seconds, it means that it will hardly consume order mana, and it is unlikely to be affected by other people's anti-detection spells or Ability to perceive.
He had just arrived at the Viscount's Mansion, and he saw a killing intent in the Viscount's Mansion, which was very clearly directed at him.
Does the Viscount really want to make a move...
Gerald looked in that direction, the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
That person should be Viscount Barber.
He could feel that the other party didn't have many curses on him, so he should be an ordinary person.
And Gerald was quite sure that he had not offended other ordinary people at all.
—In normal life, he will be very careful in dealing with things.
He never became an enemy, alienated his relationship with others, and always remained kind, even to the point of being almost humble. Ordinary people who might be his enemies and have killing intent towards him will be killed silently by him.
In this way, the search error can be minimized.
Of all the people in the entire Viscount's mansion, Gerald had never dated at all.
This was a strategy he had already thought up since he arrived in Roseburg—he only associates with extraordinary people, so that he can clearly realize when the Viscount has murderous intentions towards him.
Whenever there is a killing intent, he is ready to run away.
Four hours ago, he detected a killing intent from ordinary people coming from the direction of the Viscount's Mansion. It could only have come from Viscount Barbour... because no one else had a chance to know him.
Yes, everything is as expected.
Gerald had a bright, confident smile on his face.
"Master Viscount has been waiting for a long time."
He spoke softly, his eyebrows lowered.
He was already ready to use [Manipulate Mind] the moment the door was opened to completely deprive the viscount of his consciousness.
But the guard beside him suddenly froze.
Fear and panic suddenly surged in his heart, and then he replied calmly: "Lord Viscount is not here for the time being. He will be back soon, please wait."
"… What?"
Gerald was stunned for a moment, and he stopped in place when he was three or four steps away from the main entrance.
He didn't use spells, and he only needed professional common sense to judge that what the guard said was indeed true.
If so, the Viscount is not at home.
So who is the person behind the door who intends to kill him...
Immediately, Gerald turned his head and whispered the key words he had set to the guards around him:
"Look at me... [Patient]."
The moment he said the key word [patient], Gerald's eyes burst into a burst of colorful light.
The guard didn't respond at all.
"Tell me, what exactly is your Lord Viscount planning?"
"Master Viscount intends to trick you and Lord Geraint here, and then light a black fire to burn you all to death in the house."
The guard replied smoothly: "And he and the butler have already gone to the winery in the suburbs—"
"Shoot that door in five seconds!"
Gerald interrupted the guard without hesitation, pointed to the other end of the line of killing intent just now, and ordered the guard: "Kill everyone who comes out of the door!"
At the same time, he immediately evacuated and ran away, preparing to go to the door to control a group of armed guards to cover himself from escaping.
And the guard whose consciousness was captured by him did not hesitate to pull out his rifle—