Night Ranger

Marvin had gotten quite a rich harvest from the trip to the Rotten Mushroom Swamp, so his previous fight with the Snake Witch wasn’t in vain.

When Marvin left the cabin and made his way out of the swamp, his injuries were still aching. This made him sigh at the Snake Witch’s vindictiveness and the power of the God Restraining Seal.

But although he didn’t take the time to look through them, he still noticed that some of the books in the Snake Witch’s library were about God Restraining Seals.

These things were very valuable, and although the current White River Valley had no suitable people to use them, Marvin had a feeling that soon, *that* person would come back.

He had a feeling that when Wayne returned from the Wilds, as a powerful Seer who managed to survive his early years, he should be able to walk a path of Magic that his predecessors could never have imagined.

Marvin had already prepared everything for him in White River Valley. It was all only awaiting his return.

And that feeling was getting stronger, he felt sure that it would happen soon.

And once the brothers were reunited, Marvin’s workload would become a lot lighter.

Madeline and that other Legend Wizard were puppets of the Book of Nalu, so they could hardly take care of the most important matters.

Thinking of this, Marvin couldn’t help but sigh again. The Book of Nalu’s power was frightening, able to even take away the mind of a Legend powerhouse. If Marvin didn’t have the Wisdom Chapter, then he might not have dared to use the Book of Nalu even now.

...

Marvin already accomplished most of his goals in his trip to this part of the Underdark.

Sodom’s Blades were in his hands and he’d found the Ghost Barrier scrolls, so even if they didn’t manage to kill the Final Ghost Mother, they should still be able to escape unscathed.

A Boss like the Final Ghost Mother was basically world-class. It would be a very difficult proposition to eliminate her with the current power available to the Underdark.

Even with the help of Marvin and Jessica, it would be very difficult for the Underdark’s denizens to prevail. But Marvin had to try, because the invasion of the Dark Specters not only affected the Underdark, but was also linked inextricably to Rocky Mountain, and even the rest of Feinan. If they let the Dark Specters flood out unchecked, this plague would become a bigger threat to Feinan than the Evil Spirits!

Naturally, there was still one more destination in this trip to the southern reaches of the Underdark.

Not far from the courtyard was a quiet ravine.

Within the ravine was a powerful hermit, that hardly anyone had ever seen.

But Marvin knew of his origins.

He had an Oddity which was called the [Demon Subduing Sword]. It had to be known that this was translated directly from Ancient Common, which meant that this weapon’s origins were very old.

In fact, that hermit was closely related to the Dark Specters.

They had come to Feinan from the same world.

The Dark Specter clan was like a swarm of locusts wandering throughout the Universe. After finding an untouched plane, they would dig in and start unbridledly infecting, invading, and plundering, before finally swallowing the entire plane whole.

And the previous plane that they had swallowed was that hermit’s world.

The name of that plane had already been lost to oblivion, but as the only surviving powerhouse from that world, that hermit must have led his people to fight the Dark Specters again and again.

He knew the Dark Specters like the back of his hand, and moreover, it was rumored that he once fought the Final Ghost Mother hand to hand.

After the collapse of that world, the Dark Specters set their eyes on Feinan.

But they ran into some trouble when they tried to invade Feinan. The Night Monarch, who was at his peak at the time, led the people to seal the Final Ghost Mother. It was said that the hermit had come to this world at the same time as the Dark Specters and had given some nice tips to the Night Monarch, as well as his aid.

And in the battle to finally seal them away, he slashed the Final Ghost Mother with the Demon Subduing Sword and greatly injured the Final Ghost Mother, giving the Night Monarch and the other talented people the opening to complete the seal.

Thus, after several wipes at the [Eternal Frozen Spring] instance, someone speculated that the hermit was the key to complete the task.

They secured the hermit’s help through a series of clues and finally solved the enigma of the Eternal Frozen Spring instance, killing the Final Ghost Mother.

But it had been done by a team consisting of 25 Legend powerhouses, along with the specialized Demon Subduing Sword.

This was also why Marvin didn’t believe that the Rosen Strongholds’ Legend team could pull it off.

In his eyes, although the Legends in the Underdark were generally a bit better than their surface counterparts, they were far from being able to compare with the game’s players.

But regardless, he had to give it a try.

...

After passing through the pitch-black tunnel, Marvin soon reached the quiet ravine.

This ravine was only separated from the neighbouring courtyard area by a few kilometers. The Snake Witch had once invaded this place, and since then, no one had ever set foot here again.

Marvin stood at the entrance of the ravine for a bit, feeling some hesitation, but eventually started walking straight in.

He’d never heard anything strange about the hermit. Even if he didn’t like seeing others, just going in to see him shouldn’t be a problem, right?

But just as he took a step inside, a huge toad suddenly appeared in front of him and ordered in shaky Common, "Trespasser, stop."

Marvin smiled, "I came to find Mister Hermit."

The toad looked closely at him as if it were a Human. "He doesn’t see any visitors."

"I need to borrow something," Marvin explained, unconcerned with the less-than-warm reception, while discreetly checking the depths of the ravine from the corner of his eye.

Unfortunately, the quiet ravine was rather strange. There wasn’t any fog, but there was a dense layer of earthy particles floating in the air that blocked his sight.

"He doesn’t know you," the toad stiffly insisted. "This is private property. Don’t try to snoop in, this wouldn’t work out well for you, Mister."

"I’m not looking for trouble," Marvin assured grimly. "If I’m not wrong, Mister Hermit should always be looking at the condition of the Eternal Frozen Spring. Well, how about now? What does he see?"

The toad immediately went silent.

After a long time, an exhausted voice came from the depths of the ravine:

"I saw destruction."

...

In the depths of the ravine, next to a simple wooden house, that legendary hermit who had always been hidden was now in front of Marvin.

He felt a twinge of surprise.

But soon, he understood why the hermit was willing to meet him.

The players didn’t get to meet him because in the hermit’s eyes, their existence was normal.

But Marvin was different.

The hermit observed in a mysterious voice, "You are like me, not someone from this world."

Marvin froze.

He wasn’t sure how that middle-aged man using crutches could see through his identity, but when he thought about how the other side wasn’t someone from Feinan either, he supposed it had something to do with that.

"That isn’t something important," Marvin said seriously. "Mister Hermit, the Eternal Frozen Spring has loosened to a point never seen before..."

"Yeah, because your Gods chose to destroy a layer of painfully established Order."

The Hermit’s expression was dark and gloomy as he mockingly spat, "I already saw the destruction that will ensue."

"The tragedy that befell my homeland is going to repeat itself here."