This Lich Requests More Remuneration
Chapter 235 - 216: The Life in Which Harvey Was Deceived

Chapter 235: Chapter 216: The Life in Which Harvey Was Deceived

The life of William Harvey could be condensed into a single uppercase word: TRAGEDY.

Since birth, Harvey had been an orphan, and although he was picked up and raised, it wasn’t out of kindness, but to use him as livestock. There were a dozen or so orphans who grew up alongside Harvey, but in the end, he was the only one who survived.

Harvey didn’t survive by his own ability to fight back, but because that old beast drank himself to death.

Locked in a cage, Harvey stripped off all his clothes to make a rope, pulled the key off the corpse of that old beast, and thus he survived. Unfortunately, his speed was still too slow, and so no other children survived.

It seemed that from this point on, Harvey embarked on a rocky path, and the main reason he survived was luck rather than being smarter than others.

After escaping the human trafficker’s cage, what followed was a long period of wandering.

Harvey didn’t even know how he had managed to survive, relying on begging, stealing, and other means to stubbornly make it to twelve years old. Then, he quietly hid in a monastery, pretending to worship the deity.

Harvey thought he was going to meet kind people. The priest was really good to him, not only providing him with food and clothing but also teaching him to read.

Harvey was eager to learn, studying each word with unwavering seriousness until he began to have nightmares, dreaming of the demon with two baboon heads.

Harvey knew he had been tricked again.

This monastery was a sham, and the doctrines Harvey saw were actually hymns to Dimogorgen.

Upon reflection, the monastery was eerie in every aspect, with believers who only entered and never left, a storage room with a strange odor, and the crows that perpetually circled overhead.

As for being deceived by others, Harvey always realized it too late. But it wasn’t too late; Harvey pretended not to know and tricked the priest, then fled the monastery.

However, Harvey didn’t know that the demon had already become inseparable from him.

Wandering in the wild, he occasionally thought about the writing he had learned, scribbling his name in the dirt.

Harvey didn’t realize that the characters the priest had taught him were not the common script of the continent, but the script of demons.

A pack of bloodthirsty jackalwolf people were drawn to his name, filled with evil magical power, and nearly devoured him to the bone.

In the most critical moment, evil energy coalesced in Harvey’s palm, obliterating the nearest jackalwolf to smithereens.

At that time, Harvey was sixteen years old, and he had cast his first spell, a Mana Burst full of evil aura, which only an Evil Sorcerer blessed by the dark lord could perform.

After so many years of adventure, Harvey understood what it meant to be an Evil Sorcerer, and he knew he was doomed. How had he managed to draw the attention of the demon by repeating a few praises to Dimogorgen?

Humans marked by demons always met very tragic ends, let alone this prince of demons.

That very night, Harvey once again dreamed of Dimogorgen.

But perhaps due to the numerous life-threatening crises he had experienced, Harvey remained calm when he saw Dimogorgen again, even thinking of having a chat with the prince of demons to see if there was any way he might be spared.

But all he received was the prince demon’s merciless mockery, amplified by the two heads.

After this, Harvey had no choice but to spend some time as an Evil Sorcerer.

Though unwilling, Harvey had to admit that this time as an Evil Sorcerer was the most relaxed period of his life.

Power could bring wealth, and wealth could solve most problems. As an Evil Sorcerer, Harvey was well-fed and clothed, and he could learn a new language and writing. This brought him a lot of knowledge.

Harvey had thought that maybe this was not so bad after all, a significant improvement over his earlier days, which were like those of a stray dog.

But deep inside, Harvey could not accept his fate. Was he ultimately going to become a rotting lump of flesh falling into hell? He would rather have died at birth, at least saving himself from so much torment in between.

Few could maintain such a sense of discontent under the influence of Dimogorgen.

Of course, few people could recite a few prayers and attract a second glance from Dimogorgen.

Harvey was a special person, so when he made up his mind to get rid of Dimogorgen, he threw himself into it wholeheartedly.

Abandoning the power of an Evil Sorcerer and having a mage erase all his memories related to Dimogorgen with an Oblivion Spell, that was his plan.

It was difficult to find a mage capable of casting the Oblivion Spell, and it took an unknown amount of time before he encountered a benevolent-looking elderly mage who was willing to help him.

Then, Harvey was deceived once again.

The kindly old mage was actually a Necromancer. Not all Necromancers are bad, but the proportion of good among them was pitifully small.

Harvey, spotted by Dimogorgen as an Evil Sorcerer, was prime material, easily converted into a High-order Undead.

The Necromancer had his eye on this advantage, attempting to lure Harvey to become material for him.

Harvey possessed a high talent for casting spells, much stronger than Amberser, but when it came to understanding people, he was far inferior to Amberser.

He was just lucky.

As the Necromancer prepared the ritual, Harvey casually picked up a book, an introduction to necromancy spells. And then, Harvey noticed something was wrong; this old man’s planned ritual had nothing to do with the Oblivion Spell.

The Necromancer never imagined that someone could spot his disguised High-order Undead conversion ritual after merely glancing at a beginner’s guide to necromancy spells. Harvey was only lacking systematic education, so he had a rudimentary understanding of many things. But as long as he learned the basics, he could always see the essence of a spell and deduce from it.

Harvey knew he’d been deceived again and was planning to make a run for it, but he found the Mage’s Tower had long been sealed off and there was no escape, unless he could kill the Necromancer.

Could he surprise him with a Mana Burst while he wasn’t paying attention?

That probably wouldn’t work, Harvey was well aware that he was no match for the Necromancer.

As clever as he was, magical power required time to accumulate, and casting spells required time to practice; in comparison to the old man, Harvey fell far too short.

In order not to draw the old man’s attention, Harvey could only continue to pretend to read a book. And this time, as if it were preordained, he got his hands on the beginner’s guide to Diviner Mages, written by the King of Alden.

He’d wandered for years and never seen a Diviner Mage, to say he’d never even heard of one. Once he started reading, Harvey fell deeply into the material. The power of destiny was mysterious yet formidable, the descriptions in the book arcane yet profound.

Harvey didn’t know how long he had been reading, but by the time he closed the book, he had mastered the power of destiny.

A Dice of Destiny emerged in the palm of his hand, and then Harvey threw the dice at the Necromancer.

The power of destiny was invisible and intangible, not even stirring a hair on the old man’s head, yet in the very next second, the Necromancer accidentally stepped on a greasy substance. It was human fat that hadn’t been fully cleaned up, so filthy it had blended into the floor, making it indiscernible.

The Necromancer became unsteady and crashed into a nearby potion cabinet.

A succession of glass shattering, various potions were smashed, engulfing him in smoke as he howled in pain.

This wouldn’t have been fatal, as the Necromancer always had some means to save himself. But Harvey appeared just in time, slashing open his throat.

The Necromancer thought Harvey was coming to help him up, never expecting the young man was there to plunge in a knife. Silent Casting was a highly sophisticated technique that the poor Necromancer hadn’t mastered; all of his magic items required incantations to activate, and Harvey’s blade had already cut off his escape.

After one slash at the throat, Harvey followed with a stab to the heart, another to the liver, and then one straight to the brain through the eye.

The Necromancer was killed just like that, and as his soul barely emerged, Harvey grabbed a potion and doused it, utterly obliterating even the soul.

With a single roll of the Dice of Destiny, Harvey eliminated the formidable Necromancer and successfully escaped the Mage’s Tower.

Whether it was a case of a narrow escape from death bringing later blessings, ever since Harvey left the Mage’s Tower, Dimogorgen seemed to have disappeared from his life.

In his dreams, he no longer saw that two-headed baboon, nor did he accidentally blow anything up with Mana Bursts.

Those evil energies were completely purged from his body, and Harvey transformed from an Evil Sorcerer into a Diviner Mage, and though only a novice apprentice, his life had changed entirely.

Harvey once again began to travel the continent, now only eighteen years old.

This time, he was smarter, divining before he dealt with uncertain matters. He finally got to experience what it meant to have everything go smoothly. Often he didn’t even need to detect lies; his intuition alone was enough to discern the truth from what others said.

This gave Harvey the sensation of reaching the pinnacle of life. He arrived at Alchemy City at the height of his success, eager to learn more at this place renowned for valuing knowledge above all else.

And there, he met that "King of Alden."

Harvey sighed, his life was always full of such ups and downs, to which he had almost become accustomed.

Having been captured too many times in his lifetime, Harvey found peace within the castle of Amberser, where he confirmed the identity of the other from his collection of books.

Whether intentional or not, Amberser’s beginner’s guide to Diviner Mages had indeed altered Harvey’s life.

Harvey’s feelings about Amberser were mixed, perhaps because he himself had once been an Evil Sorcerer, so he didn’t have much prejudice against Lich; instead, he felt a degree of gratitude.

Harvey once considered expressing his thanks to Amberser, but his teacher was simply too, too... the only adjective Harvey could find was "greedy."

After years of travel and visiting many places, Harvey considered himself quite experienced, but he had never encountered a Lich who loved money so much.

Amberser’s desire for money was so strong that Harvey didn’t know how to communicate with him; whatever he said seemed less effective than the Gold Coins in his pocket. Unless Harvey was willing to fork over millions of Gold Coins to his teacher, maybe then he could express the gratitude in his heart.

And when Amberser presented his Life Casket, Harvey was moved for a time, thinking it might be the mutual attraction between Diviner Mages. However, after leaving the castle for the desert, Harvey gradually realized something.

The Life Casket in his possession was probably a fake.

Given Amberser’s character, he shouldn’t have handed over a real Life Casket.

As a young man starved for affection, he was too touched to notice anything wrong at the time; it took several days after his departure to figure it out.

Amberser’s status as a Diviner Mage was far superior to Harvey’s, even clouding his intuition. Harvey could only figure it out after several days of contemplation.

But even after understanding the truth, Harvey still took care of the Life Casket diligently. What if he was wrong and Amberser did entrust him with the real thing?

Even with the smallest possibility, Harvey did not want to mess it up.

Because Amberser was his first teacher, who despite using him, had never deceived him; he laid out his intentions openly for Harvey. This sort of candor, which couldn’t even be called goodwill, was like a rare ray of sunshine in a life full of deception for Harvey.

That’s why a person’s childhood should not be too miserable, as it makes them easily susceptible to trickery.

Just like Harvey, so was Naomi.

Caring for Amberser’s Life Casket, Harvey embarked on a long journey to the desert, seeking to avoid the imminent chaos of Alchemy City.

But unexpectedly, Alchemy City was gone, and everyone who came from there became a subject of high interest.