Chapter 2: Purification
The Direwolf rcenary Squad consisted of four mbers: the assassin and captain Bloodfang, the knight Wolffang, and the troll warriors Ironfang and Shatterfang.
A few days ago, while hunting together in the Misty Forest, they had mistakenly wandered into a small altar of the Darksun Church.
Fortunately, the altar was an abandoned and derelict one, with no Darksun Church mbers around.
So the four of them rely explored it briefly and left, without any particular incidents occurring.
However, given Wolffang’s strange condition and the apothecary’s diagnosis, they began to associate the two events, suspecting that Wolffang had been contaminated by Darksun.
“If he really had been contaminated by Darksun, he would’ve already started mutating by now.”
“Witch-sama, you an Wolffang hasn’t been contaminated by Darksun? Then what’s the cause of his condition?”
Janna did not rush to answer Bloodfang’s question.
Instead, she motioned for them to step back, then walked alone to Wolffang’s bedside.
She put on a pair of thin enchanted gloves and gently touched Wolffang’s chest, which was covered in gray scales, with her fingertips.
“Shhh—”
The mont Janna’s fingers made contact with the gray scales, a vibrant erald green light filled with life energy slowly flowed from her hand.
Like fine spider silk, it spread across Wolffang’s chest and then throughout his body in just a few monts.
The technique was so wondrous that the others, who rarely had the chance to witness a witch casting spells firsthand, couldn’t help but hold their breath.
“It’s a Gray Scale Curse. Fortunately, it was caught early. If it had been a few days later, you could’ve started preparing his coffin.”
The erald light gradually faded.
Having identified the cause of the illness, Janna carefully removed her enchanted gloves and placed them beside the bed.
Before Bloodfang and the others could speak, she stood up straight and quickly ford a casting gesture, chanting a spell:
“By my will, I command you—Summon, Celestial Finch.”
Crack—
A complex summoning circle rapidly ford before Janna.
As the incantation ended, a milky white light filled with a holy aura instantly engulfed her.
Accompanied by the sound of space being torn apart, a spirit realm creature appeared at the center of the summoning circle—its head adorned with a white jade crest, its feathers pure white, with blush-like red patches on its cheeks. It resembled a parrot.
“By your will, my dear master, Aph is at your service.”
…
The Celestial Finch, a spirit realm creature, true na Aph, possessed the attributes of holiness and light.
It was the first contract creature of Janna’s witching career and currently her only summoned beast.
“Thud—”
As the light slowly faded, the summoned Celestial Finch flapped its wings and skillfully landed on Janna’s shoulder.
“Aph, purify him.”
“As you command.”
Gently stroking the Celestial Finch’s head feathers, Janna gave her command through telepathic communication, a natural ability afforded by the contract bond between summoner and summon.
Receiving the command, the Celestial Finch obediently took flight from Janna’s shoulder and hovered above the wooden bed.
In an instant, light burst forth.
Countless magical threads poured out from the bird’s feathers like a gentle spring rain, cascading densely over Wolffang, who lay on the bed.
As the light grew more intense, the gray scales covering Wolffang’s body rapidly shed. His pallid gray skin gradually regained a healthy flush.
The cold curse energy, under the glow of purification, transford into gray dust and vanished without a trace.
“Cough, cough—”
A sudden bout of violent coughing erupted.
Wolffang, who had been lying unconscious on the wooden bed for two days and one night, abruptly sat up, turned sideways, and spat out a mouthful of at-mixed phlegm with gray scales. His chest heaved intensely, but he was finally awake.
“Quick, get water!”
“Throw out that filth and burn it!”
Seeing that Wolffang had awakened, Bloodfang, the captain of the Direwolf rcenary Squad, let out a sigh of relief.
He imdiately ordered the two dazed troll warriors to start cleaning up the ss in the room.
“Well done, Aph.”
The light of purification receded.
The Celestial Finch, noticeably more fatigued than before, wobbled as it landed back on Janna’s shoulder.
Seeing this, Janna dismissed the contract magic and returned the Celestial Finch to the spirit realm.
She also tucked the now-clean enchanted gloves back into her witch’s robe.
“This way, Witch-sama.”
Bloodfang and Luke, who had been closely watching Janna, were now even more respectful after witnessing the incredible spirit realm creature vanish. Though the extraordinarily beautiful young witch apprentice had not demonstrated any combat spells, her ability to summon an otherworldly being to purify a curse made them realize just how important it was to be acquainted with a purification witch for the sake of future survival.
After all, in this mysterious and supernatural world, contamination and curses were impossible to guard against, while those who possessed purification or healing abilities were exceedingly rare.
Take the city of Turin, a hub for Tier-3 witches: aside from White Coral Academy, most witches from Blackbone Grove and the Mist Tower practiced dark energy particle elents.
Finding a witch skilled in purification and healing was extrely difficult.
Even within White Coral Academy, only a few who specialized in light-based positive energy particles had purification capabilities—let alone low-level witch apprentices.
So, most transcendent individuals who were contaminated or cursed, if unable to find a purification-capable witch in ti, had no choice but to resort to buying purification potions.
However, these potions were expensive and always in short supply.
The Direwolf rcenary Squad had no luck this ti, having gone through almost every potion shop in Turin, only to be told that purification potions were out of stock.
In the end, clinging to their final hope, they sent a mission request to White Coral Academy via the ravens, waiting for a reply they knew was unlikely to co.
If they didn’t receive a response within two days, Bloodfang had planned to take the squad on a magical steam train to another witch settlent in search of treatnt.
Seeing Luke and Bloodfang’s overly enthusiastic deanor, Janna simply nodded calmly and followed them downstairs.
“Witch-sama, this is your task receipt. And this… is a small token of appreciation from and the Direwolf rcenary Squad.”
Janna accepted the task receipt from Luke and found several gold surrels inside the envelope.
“Mm, understood.”
She tucked the envelope into her robe, pulled up her hood again, and accepted their “gesture” in stride.
She then drew a paper card from her robe and handed it to Luke and Bloodfang.
“If you can’t reach through the raven next ti, you can submit the task form to the Spark Sprite inside the Dwarven Furnace at this address. If I’m available, I don’t mind taking on a few designated tasks.”
“Thank you for your kindness, esteed Witch-sama.”
Having completed the task, Janna didn’t linger.
After leaving the Antler Alley Tavern, she cast a Featherlight spell on herself.
Riding the early spring chill, she leapt over alley after alley and vanished into the increasingly lively morning crowd…
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