17 Chapter 17: Old K

'Detecting high-level alchemical compound, analyzing...The item is called 'Legendary Item · Perfect Recovery Potion,' with the effect of immediately healing all injuries except for [death] and purifying all curses and negative conditions upon consumption.'

'Alchemy branch: high-level creations.'

'Drinkable usage count: [1/3].'

'The complete formula requires Alchemy Level 7 to analyze. The formula for 'Recovery Potion · Beginner' has been recorded.'

The system appeared in front of Mason, and his eyes reflected the rainbow glow of the amber liquid refracting from the crystal bottle.

Perhaps this thing represented the foundation of the C-class members of the Star Society, but the trump card that Old K used to turn the tables had already fallen into the hands of the Mason.

"Hagrid? Who is that?" Old K, who was kneeling in front of him, weakened and disarmed, gritted his teeth and asked.

His crossbow and hand crossbow were both damaged in the battle, his giant-hunting knife was still stuck in the head of the eight-eyed spider, and his one-handed sword was now held in Mason's hand.

He knew he was finished but wanted to know why they attacked him.

"You just used Hagrid's knife to kill Hagrid's family, and you're still asking who Hagrid is? You're a real cold-blooded person." Mason said, putting away the crystal bottle.

In that moment, Old K finally understood. He coughed and struggled to cover his chest, pierced by a venomous spider's leg, and said in a hoarse voice. "The giant zombie on the magic platform. So, you knew Hagrid! You knew it when you gave me this knife. You came here with a plan to achieve this step. You know them, Professor McGonagall, who can turn into a cat, Mr. Potter, who has an invisibility cloak. Hagrid, who keeps monsters but died far from home, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. You knew this world before you came here. You understand this world better than the Star Society does."

Old Hunter coughed up black blood, staring at Mason, who picked up his golden sword and said in a hoarse voice. 'Who are you, Mason Cooper? You disguise yourself as a 17-year-old high school student and hide in Gotham. What are you doing? Starting a new life?"

"I'm not the person you claim I am. I know all of this is just a beautiful blessing that comes with my new life," Mason said as he lifted his sword.

"We really have no grudges, but I must kill you. Honestly, taking a life is not something that brings me pleasure," he told old K.

"Then go ahead and kill me. This is how it should be for a loser," old K replied, lowering his head and letting out a low laugh. Mason's eyes narrowed as he watched him grasp something hanging from his chest with his bloodstained hand, and he stepped forward to press down on the old hunter's shoulder.

The single-handed sword, with a golden eagle handle, sliced through the blurred light, piercing the old hunter's heart with a thud, then shattering the weak, pulsating object with a wrist flip.

But in the next instant, his hand was gripped by old K's fingers, holding him down and preventing him from pulling out his sword.

"You're not bad," Old K whispered like a returning light. "But piercing the heart won't kill a Witcher who has survived the Trial of the Grasses. Maybe you should be more ruthless next time, so you can go further down this path."

Mason felt the old man was going to drag him to his death, so he gritted his teeth, pulled out the dual-barreled pistol from his waist, and pointed it at old K's abdomen, firing two shots quickly, nearly tearing the old hunter's body apart.

However, Old K did not fight back. Instead, he pulled something out of his clothes with his other hand and handed it to Mason tremblingly. His fingers opened, revealing a bloody black pendant strung together by a delicate chain.

It was not a bomb or any kind of killing tool that could destroy everything, just a mysterious symbol.

That thing swung back and forth between Old K and Mason, letting Mason see patterns carved on it, which were illustrated with a carving of a black panther.

"It's a cat." said Old K, blood gushing from the corner of his mouth.

He held onto Mason's sword hand tightly, coughing as he said, "I am the last cat. After I die, those stories will be forgotten, and one more person will be lost from the homeland. Take it with you, Mason Cooper."

"When they come looking for you, help them. You defeated me, you are stronger than me, and they need you more than they need me. Mason! Forever. Never trust anyone from the Star Society. Don't trust those hounds. Don't become a hound. Remember my failure. This is the end of a hound."

The old hunter's face, covered in blood and twisted by poison, showed an indescribable smile to Mason before he lowered his head, and his breath stopped completely.

"Successfully killed a special humanoid creature, and fighting skills proficiency improved," the cold system appeared on Mason's screen, confirming the death of the old hunter.

However, the Old K's last whispered words left Mason with a puzzled expression.

Mason pried open old K's fingers and removed the sword, then hesitated before taking the black iron pendant that he referred to as the cat from the old K's hand.

Old K clearly valued this item very much, and he had always kept it on his neck.

Mason placed the pendant in front of him, and a second later, an information label popped up.

Hunter, Cat School Inheritance Badge

Quality: Epic item, Supreme craftsmanship

Trait: Only viewable by those with the blood of a Hunter

Effect: Most of the item's effects are only available to official Hunters, but the special magical power infused into it during forging allows all wearers to sense extraordinary magical changes within 300 yards and immediately detect female spellcasters nearby.

Item description: Your badge is vibrating. I think you know what this means?

"Sure enough, it's this thing!" Mason's eye twitched slightly. In fact, when he first mentioned the Trial of the Grasses, Mason had a feeling. Now that he has obtained old K's legacy, he has confirmed his guess.

He couldn't help but glance at the dead old K.

This person never revealed his true name, which made Mason unable to determine whether he was one of the NPCs he was familiar with.

However, it was certain that the Star Society had also established in the world of witchers and sorcerers. Old K came from there, but his last words showed that although he was a member of the Star Society, he did not seem to be in line with them. He seemed to have another secret organization.

With this in mind, Mason squatted in front of old K, reached out to take his magic storage bag from his waist, and searched through it.

This guy was really poor. Besides his sword and leather armor, there was nothing else. It could be guessed that when his previous team was wiped out, he lost almost all of his collections.

The fact that he only had one use left of a perfect recovery potion showed how brutal that battle was.

"You only gave me the badge and the sword. What about your most important Gwent cards as a witcher?" Mason joked, and as he was about to stand up, he reached out and grabbed the spider leg that had pierced through old K's body, forcibly pulled it out, and threw it into his own backpack.

He planned to start modifying the armed umbrella when he got back. This thing was just the right size to replace the tip of the fighting spear and had a biotoxin that would kill upon touch.

Mason stood up and made a victorious gesture to the kite man who was flying back and forth in the sky, vigilant.

The latter laughed, and wolf howled in the air, but the next moment he was blown by the wind, his kite flew off course, and he fell diagonally towards the Forbidden Forest.

Mason watched silently as his foolish subordinate screamed and fell into the Forbidden Forest.

He sighed and decided to ride his motorcycle to pick him up, but before leaving, he walked over to the corpse of the giant spider and took Hagrid's hunting knife.

He also found two relatively intact poisons and a large mass of thickening spider silk in the badly burned belly of the spider. These things might come in handy later.

He put on his invisibility cloak and returned to his flying motorcycle. He looked at the golden eagle sword handle in his hand, which was also an artifact left by old K.

Mason placed it in front of him and wiped off the poison and blood with a piece of rag. The blade was still shining, emitting a gloomy aura. Its information tag popped up, allowing Mason to see its name and effects.

Eagle of Suger

Quality: Legendary Forged Item, Perfect Craftsmanship

Trait: Extraordinary Sharpness, Lightweight, Deadly Elegance, Hunter-Forge Steel Sword Modification [Toughness], Hunter-Enchantment Magic Strengthening [Broken]

Effect: A lightweight and deadly assassin's blade that ignores all armor when attacking and has a chance to refract light and cause all enemies around it to enter [Blindness] and [Dizziness] states with each swing.

Enchantment: [Break] extends the effective attack range of the Assassin's Blade and adds the [Limb Break] effect to the attack.

Creator: Abbot Suger

Item Description: Old K sacrificed six "teammates" to obtain this sword, which made him infamous within the organization. But it was all worth it, wasn't it?

Mason squinted as he read the description of the sword. He had a pretty good idea of how K's last team had been wiped out and where K had gone in his previous world.

If the world gate K used could be located, that meant that Mason could at least enter three different worlds, including the one he was currently in, by going back through it.

Don't forget that K was also a guest on the Queen Anne's Revenge led by Blackbeard.

"You really are a great traveler" Mason said. "I can't help but wonder about your marvelous story."

Mason took out the last of the fuel from his backpack and poured it onto K's body, which was kneeling on the ground, then poured some onto the body of the giant spider and lit it on fire.

As the flames rose, Mason climbed his flying motorcycle and flew towards the Forbidden Forest with his loot.

Once they received the Kite-Man, they were supposed to go back to the ruins of Hogwarts and find the artifact left behind by Mr. Potter. Then they could say goodbye to this dangerous world and return to the warm and peaceful Gotham.

Mason never thought he'd one day use the words peaceful and friendly to describe Gotham, that haunted place.

Just as he was complaining and heading towards the Forbidden Forest, a miserable scream suddenly echoed from the forest ahead, causing Mason to frown and immediately twist the handlebars and speed up, roaring into the dark forest.

He quickly spotted the Kite Man.

That guy's green costume made him very noticeable here, but his condition was terrible, lying on a rock in a miserable posture of a falling person.

When Mason jumped out of the car and saw Kite Man's condition, he gasped in horror. Kite Man's abdomen and legs were almost completely torn apart by something like claws.

"Run! Mason!"

When he saw Mason rushing over, the dying Kite Man waved his bloodstained hand and shouted, "There's a dragon here. A fire-breathing dragon. It attacked me, and it's still nearby. Run, Tell my son that his dad loves him, and run"

Kite Man's shout made Mason's blood run cold.

He stopped and looked back, and sure enough, a huge and terrifying shadow was sweeping over the Forbidden Forest.

The zombie-like withered wings were still lethal, and the shadow cast by their spread wings almost covered the sky.

That was definitely not something Mason's three different-sized explosive hunting guns could handle. Mason turned and rushed to the motorcycle, leaving under Kite Man's relieved but regretful gaze.

Kite man lay on the bloodstained rock like a sacrifice to the zombie dragon. He must have had regrets that he had not been able to return to his hometown after fighting against old K.

But soon, the Kite Man, who had surrendered himself to his fate, heard the distant sound of an engine revving.

He opened his eyes with difficulty to see Mason, wearing an invisibility cloak, come and go, jump out of the car, and drag him into the vehicle's compartment.

"It's no use," Kite Man struggled to say. "Look at my wounds. I'm done for. Don't bother. Go, tell my son that I..."

Before he could finish his last words, something hard, long, and warm was shoved into his mouth, jamming down his throat and silencing him.

"You can tell your son whatever you want to say to him yourself. Don't escape your responsibility," Mason said, his eyes full of sympathy and regret.

He looked at the crystal bottle of the perfectly restored potion poured into Kite man's mouth. As he twisted the handlebars and sped away, he muttered under his breath, "I could have made myself as rich as Bruce Wayne with the liquid that I gave you to drink. So, you owe me more than just one life, Charles. Be prepared to work for the rest of your life to pay me back."

The zombie dragon was clearly angry when its food was taken away. It took a deep breath and then spat out a mixture of zombie venom and high-temperature flames toward the flying motorcycle, trying to escape.

Just before despair set in, Mason caught sight of a noticeable red button on the motorcycle dashboard.

Without hesitation, he pressed it.

"Boom!"

In the next instant, amid the screams of the two men, blue flames spewed out of the sky motorcycle's exhaust pipe, and its speed instantly increased several times the speed of sound as they flew out of the burning Forbidden Forest, disappearing without a trace.

.....

Two hours later, Kite Man, who had thought he was done for, woke up slowly. The first thing he did when he opened his eyes touched his crotch.

So in the next instant, Kite Man jumped up in excitement. Everything that happened before seemed like a nightmare.

But now that the dream was over, he not only felt full of energy throughout his body but even some old wounds on his body had been completely healed.

The whole person suddenly became several years younger, returning from a man in his thirties to his golden state in his twenties.

He danced around half-naked like a crazy person, shouting joyfully at the sky after escaping death. After going mad for a while, he calmed down, took his rough kite waste, and covered his lower body while checking it.

.....

He found that he had returned to the other side of the lake.

And now it was already dark. The blue flying motorcycle was quietly parked on the grass by the lake. Mason Cooper had set up a pile of bonfires, cooking dinner in a pot.

Beside him was an old-style black suitcase from World War II.

"I seem to have missed a lot," Kite Man walked over with a wry smile, sat down by the bonfire, and asked Mason, "Did you find the relic left by the savior, boss."

"Well, it was in the abandoned tower and wasn't hard to find. There weren't even any magical traps," Mason said, touching the Cat School badge hanging around his neck and patting the suitcase next to him. "Let's rest here for the night, and we'll go home early tomorrow."

.....

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