"Even if you scare me away now, it won’t be long before others come, as this is a village situated on a commercial route."
The shadow in the mist actually reacted, drifting in front of Gaven, opening and closing its mouth as if it wanted to say something.
But when the sounds reached Gaven’s ears, they turned into inconsolable cries of varying pitches.
Seeing this, Gaven couldn’t help but make a bold guess.
Perhaps The Weeping Witch never intended to cry from the beginning, rather she wanted to communicate and express herself, but was restricted.
The sounds she made turned into unmistakable crying when they reached others’ ears.
The more he thought about it, the more he believed his guess was correct.
Gaven hurriedly asked, "What exactly do you want to say? I can’t understand, to me it all sounds like crying. Can you hear me speaking? If so, we can find another way to communicate.
I can see you, so you can fully resort to writing."
The sound of crying stopped immediately, and the shadow in the mist changed abruptly as delicate, small characters made of mist appeared out of nowhere in front of it.
The characters resembled Magic Runes, ancient and unique.
If Gaven hadn’t been equipped with the Insight Gemstone, it would have been much harder to decipher.
These characters were the script of the arcane Empire of Nesserel.
"Leave this place, leave forever, this is not where you belong, this is cursed land, harboring dangers you know not of, ignorant exploration will cost you your life. Leave, and warn others, do not let them come near."
A string of warnings, threatening words, all with one purpose—to drive Gaven away.
Gaven bluntly asked, "Are you Philancy?"
This question made all the misty characters burst apart, and then in the next second, new misty characters formed and appeared even more rapidly.
"Who are you? Who told you that name? What do you plan to do here?"
Gaven’s lips curled into a smile he could not suppress.
Although she did not respond to his question directly, her reaction provided an indirect answer.
This wisp of mist was indeed the cursed Witch Philancy, and her current form was very likely due to the curse she had suffered.
Gaven addressed her questions directly: "My name is Gaven, Gaven Nort, the new owner of this inn. I am going to have people renovate and reopen the place, and I came to let you know in advance."
"I disagree, I do not allow anyone to disturb this land, it harbors dangers you are unaware of, leave this place, keeping it as it is now is for everyone’s good."
Even through mere written words, one could feel the vehemence and agitation in the owner’s speech.
"Don’t try to fob me off with these evasive arguments, they are useless to me. Give me something concrete, like where the danger actually comes from? If I judge it to be real, I will naturally stop my actions, otherwise, I can only assume you are pretending to be a deity, intentionally frightening others, not wanting them to come near, to come close to the secret you’re hiding here." Gaven’s retort went straight to the heart of the issue.
The secret she was hiding was most likely her Spellbook.
That is to say, the very Spellbook Gaven sought was likely concealed within the ruins of this inn.
As for whether the Spellbook was destroyed in the original fire, Gaven had no such concerns.
Spellbooks are not ordinary books, they are usually protected by Magic Force.
Not to mention a Spellbook dating back to the era of Nesserel, which would undoubtedly possess even more miraculous abilities.
"Leave or you will die..." Leaving behind an incomplete sentence, the shadow in the mist completely vanished.
The misty characters used up the mist constituting its body, and were now utterly depleted.
This showed just how weakened The Weeping Witch was.
Gaven sighed helplessly; communicating with her felt almost as fruitless as not having communicated at all, he garnered hardly any useful information from her.
Well, that was incorrect.
There were still two pieces of useful information.
One was the confirmation that she really was Philancy, the owner of Gaven’s target.
The other was the near certainty that his target indeed resided within this inn.
That was a considerable gain, especially since this was only their first contact.
Of course, she had not dissipated and died; the shadowy figure just now was not her actual body, but something akin to a remote consciousness projection.
Given some time to gather strength, she would definitely be able to create a new one.
Next, he would proceed on two fronts, continue to interact with The Weeping Witch whenever possible,
and keep on with the inn’s renovation, turning the place upside down while repairing it.
As long as he found that Spellbook, all other problems would be easily resolved.
Gaven was the epitome of action-oriented, they started moving while the rest of Anfield Village was still asleep.
"Let’s follow the principle of tackling the easy parts before the difficult ones, bottom before top; we begin with those well-preserved parts that serve as the foundation. Do not move the rubble lightly, keep it in its original place. Once we’ve made a rough pass over the area, we will come back and fix it slowly."
Gaven and his team were no strangers to repair work, but this was their first time rehabilitating such a large and severely damaged structure.
But it wasn’t too tough for them, after a brief discussion, they laid out a basic repair plan.
Reinforcing the foundation to prevent collapse was of prime importance.
That’s where the Gnolls came in as experts,
Most Gnolls could tell at a glance whether a cave or stone structure posed a large-scale collapse risk and identify where the main Continue reading more chapters on NovelHub for the best experience. It was an innate survival skill for them, just as birds can tell from afar whether they can fly through a gap or not.