Versatile Mage (Web Novel)
chapter-946

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The team had finally made some progress, but the question was… who could the thief that stole the eye-catching treasure gem be?

“Can you recall if you saw any person when you were here?” asked Mo Fan.

If the gem was stolen around the time when the team was here, anyone that showed up in the area could be the thief.

“I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, I can only remember an uncle reminding us that this place is forbidden, and who warned us not to wander around, but we didn’t listen to him. We then figured out that no one dared to come here, and we didn’t see anyone at all,” said Zhao Manyan.

“An uncle? What kind of uncle? This whole area is deserted, and there’s no town nearby, either. Why would you meet an uncle here?” asked Mo Fan.

Zhao Manyan immediately gaped. That’s right, why didn’t he think of that?

“What did the man look like? Do any of you remember?” asked Mo Fan.

“He looked ordinary, tanned skin, and he didn’t look like a Magician,” replied Zhao Manyan.

The man had a face that would be difficult to stand out in a group of Peruvians. Additionally, most Asians had trouble distinguishing Westerners.

“I only remember he had a strong smell of saltpeter!” exclaimed Jiang Shaoxu. She was fairly sensitive to odors. She remembered trying to keep a distance away when she picked up the strong smell from the man.

“Saltpeter? Apart from people working in factories that manufacture fireworks, the only possibility is…” Mo Fan suddenly realized something.

“The mines!” “The mines!” both Jiang Shaoxu and Nanyu blurted out simultaneously.

Saltpeter was commonly used in the explosives in mines. Otherwise, how were miners going to extract ores from the rock!

(Ed. Note: Saltpeter crystals harvested from under piles of guano are one of the primary ingredients of gunpowder and basic explosives)

No wonder the Nazca Monsters were attacking the southwest mines. The attacks basically hinted at where the thief was!

“Damn it, a Peruvian stole something from their god, and not only did we end up taking the blame, we have to save the Peruvians trapped in the mines, too? What kind of nonsense is this? Just let the monster apes kill the thief among the miners, so we can end this curse as quickly as possible!” snapped Zhao Manyan furiously.

“Nanyu, will finding the eye put an end to this?” asked Ai Jiangtu in a serious voice.

“I believe so, but we aren’t able to understand the origin of the Nazca Lines with our current strength. Its power is simply too overwhelming for us. Our best bet is to return the eye and get out of here as quickly as possible!” answered Nanyu.

“Then let’s go to the Ariel Mines right away and find who that goddamned thief is. That son of a b**ch, he almost got us killed!” cursed Zhao Manyan.

Zhao Manyan had finally had the chance to visit South America. As a man who was keen to enjoy the company of South American ladies, he was already in a bad mood. Not only was he being chased around by some strange birds, he also met an asshole general. Now they found out that it was actually a local that infuriated Nazca, but they somehow ended up taking the blame!

If it weren’t for the fact that the Nazca Monster Birds would continue to trouble them, they all simply had the urge to turn around and leave. They had no intention to take care of the country’s own business!

“We only have two days left, and I’m assuming we have to bring the eye back. Either way, let’s hurry up!” said Nanyu.

“Then let’s hurry up and board the helicopter. We’re leaving,” Ai Jiangtu hopped into the pilot seat.

The others quickly entered the helicopter. The helicopter shook wildly as it ascended into the sky. Zhao Manyan felt like vomiting complained with a grim look, “Can I fly there myself?”

“Do you know how to navigate there?” Mo Fan’s reply immediately eliminated Zhao Manyan’s urge to use his Magic Wings…

—-

By the time they arrived at the Ariel Mines, the vein of ore spread across two mountains had turned into a nest of monster apes. Their numbers were comparable to the number of rocks on the ground. General Mott, who was observing the situation from another mountain, almost had a straight line across his forehead from frowning too much.

General Mott temporarily held his position, as he was responsible for saving the miners that were trapped in the Ariel Mines.

However, he had lost a lot of subordinates in the fight against the monster apes, yet he still could not find a way to drive them away.

The number of monster apes kept on growing. They only blocked off the entrance of the mines at the start, but they were now crowding the whole mountain. General Mott needed an army at least six times bigger than what he currently had to completely annihilate the monster apes.

However, General Mott clearly knew that if he asked for more reinforcements, the number of monster apes would increase, too. The Nazca God was not afraid to compete with numbers!

“What can we do now? The Magicians in the mines can’t hold on for much longer. Once the barrier collapses, they are all going to be buried inside the mines. The monster apes won’t stop until they raze the mines to the ground!” swore his dark-skinned female advisor, Ciely.

General Mott had a gloomy look. The army of monster apes was always bigger than his army. Trying to force their way through was simply placing the lives of his soldiers at risk. He could not afford to do so!

“Have you reached someone on the inside?” asked General Mott.

“No, the signal couldn’t reach them.”

“General, a helicopter is landing without our permission. It belongs to the Royal Felipe Castle.”

“Who are they?”

As soon as General Mott asked the question, he immediately heard a loud crash coming from the helipad. The loud explosion urged General Mott to rush his way over.

General Mott saw a half-destroyed helicopter, which Mo Fan and his team were falling out from. His expression got even darker.

“It’s you!” harrumphed General Mott coldly.

“Now isn’t the time to talk nonsense to you; can you contact someone inside the mines? We went to the peak of Nazca Mountain and discovered that a middle-aged man from Ariel Mines has stolen the eye of one of the geoglyphs of the Nazca Lines. It was his action that infuriated the Nazca Monsters. If we can return the gem, it will put an end to the curse!” declared Nanyu.

“Nonsense, how could you possibly reach the peak of Nazca Mountain!?” scoffed the female advisor, Ciely.

“Here is the picture we took, see it for yourself!” Nanyu handed General Mott her phone.

General Mott glanced at it. He quickly noticed the eye was missing from the slightly glowing geoglyph after zooming in on the picture.

“The thief is most likely inside the mine, and should be among the three thousand people that are trapped inside it. It’s also why the mine is surrounded by the Nazca Monsters. Everyone that went to the forbidden land of Nazca around the same time as the thief is being targeted by the Nazca Monsters… it’s the reason why the cities in the southwest are under attack,” said Nanyu.

“We are unable to contact the people inside, and we are having trouble breaking through the surrounding monster apes too! Everything that you said is meaningless!” declared General Mott.

“Then find a way to get inside, and find the thief!”

“Yeah, don’t forget that we encountered a horde of monster birds on the fourth wave. The cities are only at the first or second wave. Once the third and fourth waves strike, countless lives will be lost!”

General Mott was aware of how serious the situation was. He glanced at the young Magicians who had discovered the reason behind the attacks and interrupted the female advisor who was trying to rebuke them. He said grimly, “We are trying to find a way to get in there too, but it’s impossible to kill all the monster apes. Do you seriously think we’ve been standing here and watching all this time? You have no idea how many monster apes we’ve killed over the past few days!”

Everyone immediately fell silent!

Looking around them, the black monster apes were crawling all over the two mountains. They did not eat or drink, nor did they sleep. They simply held their ground, preventing anyone from going into the mines, and anyone inside from leaving. Even if the thief was willing to hand the Nazca Gem over, it would not make any difference. The only way to calm the wrath of the Nazca Monsters was by sacrificing the three thousand lives trapped in the mines.

—-

At night, Mo Fan was trying to figure out a way to enter the mines when he received an international call from Lingling.

“Mo Fan, I’ve analyzed the colorful crest you’ve sent me five days ago, and I’ve found something!” Lingling had an excited smile, looking like a genius who had solved a math problem that the entire school was having trouble with, her intelligent smile brimming with passion!

“You managed to solve it?” Mo Fan asked in surprise. Lingling’s intelligence was out of this world!

Back at Lima, Mo Fan had decided to send the colorful crests he obtained from the monster birds to Lingling. The express postage only took two days to arrive, meaning that Lingling had found useful information from the colorful crests in just three days. It was quite a surprise for him.

“Mmm, this kind of monsters has an origin, but it’s going to be a long story if I explain it to you now. Anyway, you just need to know that they are not endless and unbeatable…” said Lingling.

“Why do I feel like I can’t agree with you? The way I look at it, the next wave of attack will have ten times the number of monster birds we fought during the last wave. I’m pretty sure we don’t stand a chance,” said Mo Fan.

Even with the help of the Demon Element, he was not confident enough to fend off the fifth wave!

“There’s a pattern to it. The Nazca Monster Birds actually exposed the pattern. It’s the colorful crests! Are you familiar with Sun Wukong? He can summon up to ten thousand clones to fight for him with a pinch of his hair… it’s the same as the monster birds! The colorful crest is the symbol for the Nazca Monster Birds, meaning that if you can kill the bird that has the colorful crest, the other birds that it summoned will disappear, too!” declared Lingling.

Mo Fan immediately dropped his jaw after hearing the words.

The colorful crests… yeah, why did the monster birds not have any soul, but dropped the colorful crests when they were dead?

It was the secret to why they could show up unendingly!

“Lingling, you’re a genius1” Mo Fan moved closer to the camera and gave Lingling a big kiss.

What the heck did Lingling have inside her brain? She managed to solve the problem with only limited information!

“To be honest, it’s thanks to the Time Liquid you brought up before. Otherwise, I could never have found the answer.” Lingling ignored Mo Fan’s disgusting act, keeping her confident smile.