Passerby Villain In A Wizard World

"Damn it, that guy was ruthless. He separated a strand of his own soul to stop your attack."

While Ian was looking at Carl's disappearing figure in the distance, Ignysyl appeared on his shoulder, complaining about why his spectral vision didn't perfectly work on Ruther.

And as if he was afraid that Ian might think he was useless, he added a few more words,

"Although that guy escaped, he is still seriously injured. Soul injury is no joke, and in his case, he lost an entire fragment of it to stop your attack."

"Then why didn't you stop him from teleporting?"

Ian rolled his eyes at Ignysyl and pointed at Carl's figure, which was already blurred into the background.

"Uhum... Cough... Cough!"

Ignysyl was about to say something again when he heard Ian's question, causing him to cough awkwardly to ease his embarrassment.

"Come on, that's a Traveler's Charm. How can I stop it? Even if I have the Dimensional Mastery it will be hard to stop that item. If I was at my peak, it would be no problem but now, I'm too we—"

"Okay, stop complaining and go stay beside the two girls. They might be onto something. I have something to do, ask them to wait."

Ian didn't wait for Ignysyl to finish his banter and ordered him to go down, as the two girls might be anxious.

As for Ignysyl being weak, he already attributed everything to Carl's luck.

After all, as far as he knew, Traveler's Charm was a one-time consumable, uncommon artifact that was extremely rare even on the Calvora Continent.

And its main usage wasn't even the teleportation that Carl had just used it for, but to attend the largest Wizard Auction in the entire world of Aetherion.

He had also learned about it later in the Arcane Passage novel.

Making it one time consumable artifact capable of teleportation and saving life in a critical moment must be the sick joke of some Wizard in Ian's opinion.

After all, one must think twice before actually using it to run as it was too precious. And that period of time might cause one to lose your life just like Ian almost killed Carl before.

It wasn't without reason that Carl was surprised when Ruther asked him to use it to run away from the fight. It was too wasteful in every sense.

'But still, he already got that Traveler's Charm this early, and he is advancing a little too rapidly compared to what I remember.'

Ian wasn't a fool. He had already recognized that, due to his interference, both the so-called plot and the protagonist seemed to have changed somehow.

'But it doesn't matter. Let him run for a while. We will meet in Calvora anyway.'

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Ian didn't care about Carl running away at all.

As someone once said, you can run all you want, but can you run from your home?

Carl was also in the same situation.

As the protagonist, he couldn't be absent from the plot no matter what. All Ian had to do was wait for him at the right time and place.

"Okay, but believe me, if I wasn't exhausted from closing that portal, they definitely wouldn't be able to leave this place."

Ignysyl understood what Ian was thinking but still clamored, a little aggrieved before disappearing from his vision.

Ian also knew what he said was true, and he wasn't belittling him in any way.

But he realized that just a juvenile dragon wasn't enough, nor was his low strength and limited arsenal of spells. Both of them needed to grow—and fast—as incidents like this made it clear that time wasn't in their favor.

'Forget it. Let's see what I got from all this fighting besides that gift from that entity.'

'System, show me the reward!'

Ian ordered in his mind, causing the blue panel to appear in his vision again, followed by the prompt.

[Ding!]

[You successfully defeated the Wizard Ron and prevented him from completing the Blood-Sealed Ritual.]

[You stopped Carl from getting what he wanted, hoarding the benefit for yourself.]

[Although you failed to hide yourself from the interest of the Abyss, you still stopped the space channel in time.]

[Congratulations! You have completed the Intermediate Quest: Race Against Time!]

[Congratulations! You gained a reward: Active Skill – Potion Mastery.]

[Congratulations! You gained a reward: Luck Points: 50.]

[Potion Mastery] (Active Skill) – Grants instinctive knowledge of a vast array of herbs and potion ingredients even when you are unfamiliar. This skill allows for quick and efficient potion brewing as long as the necessary recipe is known.]

[Note: Instinctive knowledge is not exact knowledge and requires proficiency and time to be effective. Hence, it is recommended to use it in conjunction with the Analysis feature.]

[Ding!]

[Do you want to inherit this active skill?]

"Yes!"

"Swish!"

As soon as Ian replied positively, he felt a sudden rush of information in his mind, and his body felt lighter than ever before.

The most intriguing part was that his passive skill, Nature's Blessing, seemed to be resonating with his new active skill, making him more sensitive to Wood Elemental energy—though he found it extremely lacking in this place.

'Ha... so that guy was trying to brew a potion with that demon essence?'

Ian thought while breathing heavily, playing around with the Potion Mastery skill in his mind.

Unlike passive skills that operated on their own, active skills required his input to work.

So, while Potion Mastery was a good reward, it consumed just as much mental power—if not more—than his other active skills, Mind Control and Shape-Shifting, when in operation.

'But after such a big fight, severely injuring him, and causing him to flee mid-fight embarrassingly, I only got 50 luck points?'

Just as Ian was complaining about the disproportionate rewards, the system began sending prompts again, stalling his thoughts.

[Ding!]

[Your despicable attempt to kill Carl in a sneak attack failed, but you managed to sever his arm.]

[Due to your persistent attack, Wizard Ruther had to separate a strand of his soul to defend against it and save Carl.]

[Wizard Ruther lost his severed soul permanently due to Ignysyl's Spectral Vision.]

[Congratulations! Although you failed to kill the protagonist, Carl, you still managed to harm him severely, causing his destiny to falter.]

[Congratulations! Your Luck Points have increased by 150 points.]

[Your Current Luck Points: 650.]

"That's what I was saying."

Ian finally smiled after seeing his Luck increase by a whopping 150 points.

After all, he had indeed caused a lot of trouble for Carl this time, and this much was to be expected.

However, it seemed the system wasn't finished, as it once again began sending prompts, startling Ian.

[Ding!]

[Since your luck points have increased to 650, you get an Iron-rank Starwell Token.]

[Starwell Token (Iron): A mysterious token that grants access to the Starwell. Use your luck points to draw what you want and leave it to fate.]

[Do you want to use the Starwell Token?]

"No, not now."

Ian suddenly became ecstatic as he finally got another Starwell Token as a reward from the System, and fortunately, it seemed greater in rank than the Bronze one.

After all, as far as he remembered, the System had said that since his destiny was a "Passerby Villain," he couldn't enter the Starwell again with the same Bronze Token.

So, having an Iron-rank token was good, and he was even more looking forward to what he would gain this time.

'I need to think carefully this time before using it.'

Ian thought while taking out the Starwell Token that the System had just given him and looking at it carefully. Previously, he didn't know its use and had directly used it, causing him not to know what to wish for.

Although the increase in comprehension wasn't bad—as without it, he might not have been able to see the Cocoon and might not have been able to use the Ethereal Form this fast—knowing its use meant he could plan properly this time.

'All in all, this wave of rewards was a nice touch. This Potion Mastery skill also came at the right time.'

Ian was in a good mood, as Potion Mastery was a nice skill to have, and he already had the Ascension material with him.

'Now, all I need is the recipe, which shouldn't be hard.'

Ian thought while caressing the Starwell Token in his hand, which was pitch black with multiple stars in specific patterns.

Except for it being an Iron-rank, as the System had said, Ian didn't find anything different from the previous Bronze one.

"Ugh... what... what happened?"

Just when Ian was delighted by the rewards he got, Ron, who had been unconscious from Ian's heavy blow, finally woke up on the ground, mumbling incoherently.

'Well, only one last thing to do now.'

Hearing the sound, Ian turned around and looked at the disheveled old wizard in front of him, who had already suffered a backlash from the Abyss.