Wizards: Starting with Fairy Crests

031: Dark Element Potentialist

Lin Qi looked at Lucy, who was kneeling on the ground, crying so hard she was almost passing out, and his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

The crying and incoherent pleas were so loud.

"Quiet." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable penetrating power.

Lucy's crying stopped abruptly, as if she had been choked, leaving only suppressed, intermittent sobs.

She raised her tear-filled face, looking at Lin Qi with a blank and terrified expression, as if awaiting the final verdict.

"I have no intention of kicking you out," Lin Qi continued, his tone flat, revealing neither joy nor anger.

Lucy froze, tears still clinging to her eyelashes, her light gray eyes filled with disbelief and confusion.

Are you trying to get rid of her?

that…

"Then, sir, why did you call me here..." she asked cautiously.

"There's something I need you to do," Lin Qi replied directly.

At this point, he changed the subject: "However, before that, there are some things I need you to understand in advance."

At this point, he leaned back slightly, his gaze calmly settling on Lucy's face, and posed his first question: "What do you think I am?"

Lucy was a little stunned by his question. She raised her hand and wiped the tears off her face haphazardly. After thinking hard for a moment, she answered cautiously, "Everyone in the manor... is guessing that you are a noble young master of noble status."

Although he had been living in the manor for more than half a month, Lynch had kept a low profile and rarely went out. Apart from the old butler Martin, who was in charge of communication, he had almost no direct contact with the other slaves and servants in the manor.

Martin, however, clearly kept to himself and did not reveal a single detail, so much so that no one in the manor except Martin knew his true identity.

"A young nobleman?" Lin Qi chuckled softly. "Does my demeanor resemble that of a pampered young master?"

He paused, then shook his head, denying her guess: "I am not a nobleman."

"As for my identity..."

He didn't offer any further explanation, but instead raised his right hand, palm up, fingers slightly bent.

The next moment, the soft candlelight in the study seemed to dim for a split second.

A dense mass of dark energy, seemingly capable of absorbing all light, gathered and spun out of thin air above his palm without warning.

The darkness was not nothingness, but rather rolled as if it were tangible, with deeper patterns flashing within it, emanating a cold, ominous, yet powerfully oppressive aura.

"what!"

Lucy gasped sharply, her body involuntarily shrinking back. Her eyes widened as she stared intently at the supernatural dark energy, her face drained of color, leaving only extreme shock and horror.

Her lips trembled, and she could barely utter a complete sentence: "You...you are...!"

Lin Qi clenched his fist, and the ball of dark energy vanished instantly like a phantom, as if it had never existed. The light in the study returned to normal.

He nodded, his tone still calm, yet it struck Lucy's heart like a hammer blow: "As you can see, I am a wizard."

"Wizard..." Lucy took a deep breath, her eyes instantly filled with fear.

Lucy had certainly heard of the group associated with this legend; they were said to turn lost children into fish soup and eat them, transform humans into strange creatures, and spread plagues and calamities...

It's basically a synonym for fear and nightmares.

A pot used to boil children in a cabin in the woods, a twisted monster stitched together, a deadly plague that spread overnight…

Various cruel and terrifying images instantly filled Lucy's mind.

Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, her light gray pupils constricted, as if she could see the fate she was about to face, a fate a thousand times worse than that of the slave market or the brothel.

Lynch sensed her fear. His tone remained calm, even casual: "Relax. I'm not exactly a benevolent person, but... I'm not the kind of wizard who enjoys tormenting mortals in the traditional sense either."

Lucy's trembling subsided slightly, and she swallowed hard, her throat dry.

Lin Qi stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point: "The main reason I called you here is to verify some of my suspicions about you."

"Guess?" Lucy repeated blankly.

Lin Qi nodded, his gaze sweeping over her like a scalpel, and asked, "Have you ever suspected that the series of 'unlucky events' that have happened to you might not just be coincidences or simply bad luck?"

"Not a coincidence?" Lucy was even more confused. What else could it be? Was it a deliberate trick of fate?

"I suspect..." Lynch said slowly, "that you possess the constitution of a wizard. In other words, you and I might be of the same kind."

"What...?!" Lucy's eyes widened suddenly, her lips parted slightly, and she froze on the spot.

This conjecture was completely beyond her comprehension, like a thunderclap in her ears.

She is... a wizard?

Like the mysterious and terrifying master before him?

How is that possible?

She's clearly a jinx who brings misfortune!

Lynch didn't give her any more time to process the shock. He said nothing more and reached into his desk drawer to take out the second-hand detection crystal he had bought in Tree Town.

The fist-sized crystal ball looked a bit old, but the silver patterns inside would slowly flow when energy was injected.

He embedded the two magic stones into specific grooves in the crystal base—

This is the price that must be paid to activate this lowest level of identification; more accurate testing requires even more magic stones.

"Place your hands on it, palms pressed against the crystal surface, and then concentrate as much as possible, don't think about anything, but don't fall asleep either." Lin Qi's instructions were concise and clear, with an unquestionable tone.

Lucy quickly got up and walked over. Her trembling hand, cold with nervousness, reached out and gently placed it on the smooth, cool surface of the crystal ball, as instructed.

Then, she closed her eyes tightly, trying to banish all the distracting thoughts from her mind, even though the fear and chaotic thoughts were like a tidal wave that was hard to calm.

At first, the silver patterns inside the crystal ball flowed slowly, as usual.

But soon, things changed!

Wisps of dark smoke seemed to seep into the crystal from where Lucy's palm touched it, or perhaps they were awakened and sprouted from the deepest part of the crystal.

The black mist rapidly condensed and swirled, growing increasingly dense, gradually engulfing the silver patterns, and finally forming a swirling, pitch-black cloud at the center of the crystal ball.

The black was pure and deep, faintly exuding a chilling aura that drew in light and made people uneasy.

Sure enough!

Lynch's gaze was fixed on the crystal ball.

A potential Dark Elementalist!