Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The rotors spun rapidly. The blue sky was above them, while the orange-red wilderness lay below. They could see strange lines and patterns scattering across the land, extending further into the distance.

“Look at that, what is it?” exclaimed Nanyu, pointing at the ground.

The group immediately glanced in the direction that Nanyu was pointing to and discovered a geoglyph formed with lines and patterns, resembling an ape on the ground!

The sight immediately stunned the group that was heading to Nazca. They had visited the area on foot before, but even though they had discovered some strange lines on the ground, they had no idea what they were. However, when they looked down from a thousand meters, they realized that the lines were actually part of a geoglyph portraying an ape!

“Do you remember the details of the creatures that are attacking the Ariel Mines? Don’t they sound the same as the ape portrayed by the geoglyph?” said Jiang Yu.

When they were flying from Lima to Nazca, Ariosto had updated them on the situation of the mines and let them read the information on the monster apes. To their surprise, there was a geoglyph of the same creature in the forbidden land of Nazca. Even though the drawing did not look alive, it was still stunning to see it drawn on the land with broad lines!

“Look ahead!” Nanyu yelled again when she discovered something else.

Ai Jiangtu was flying the helicopter in the direction that Nanyu pointed to. They discovered some spiraling patterns and straight lines on the spacious ground. The lines were perfectly straight, as if they had been drawn with the help of machinery.

The spiraling patterns and straight lines portrayed a monster bird. Even though it only showed the silhouette of the creature, everyone was certain that it was the same monster bird that had attacked them!

The geoglyph of the strange bird spread across the land. Part of it was covered by a wisp of cloud below them, yet the cloud could not cover up the whole geoglyph. It was bigger, and more spectacular than the geoglyph of the monster ape from before…

-Are…are these the Nazca Lines?

-It’s too visually stunning!-

Mo Fan had learned some information from Lingling, but when he witnessed the Nazca Lines with his own eyes, he was still astounded!

-How did they do it?-

Human vision was quite limited on the ground. It was impossible to draw a perfectly straight line covering a distance of a few hundred meters across the land. The team had visited the place before, yet they did not discover the secret of the lines. They only managed to notice them when flying more than a thousand meters high above them…

It was impossible for the geoglyphs to be made by humans. In addition, according to the information provided by Lingling, the geoglyphs had been around for a very long time!

“There, another one… it’s a spider!” said Jiang Shaoxu, pointing in a different direction.

A geoglyph of a spider!

As the helicopter changed direction, the geoglyph of a spider slowly entered everyone’s vision. The geoglyph was more detailed compared to the others. It felt like the creature was about to lunge out from the ground.

The geoglyphs were absolutely massive. The incredible lines were somewhat intimidating and mysterious, warning people from getting too close.

“If I knew the lines actually portrayed those monsters, I would never have entered this land!” said Jiang Yu in a terrified voice.

“Yeah, how careless were we…”

“The geoglyph of monster bird; we must have entered the land where that geoglyph is!” said Jiang Shaoxu.

Ai Jiangtu turned his head and asked, “Mo Fan, how did you learn about them?”

The team had suggested continuing the journey on foot when they approached Nazca, since most places filled with danger were strictly no-fly zones. It was common sense to those who wandered in the wild. However, Mo Fan insisted on flying over the place in the helicopter, saying that they would discover something surprising.

As he suggested, entering the land on foot and looking down at it from high above were completely different experiences. It felt like Nazca had never wanted humans to discover its secret. Only titans and deities could understand its meaning…

“No wonder the locals described the place as a forbidden land. These geoglyphs look like they were left behind by gods of ancient times. They are unbelievable!” exclaimed Nanyu.

“What do we do now? We know that we are being targeted by the monster birds, but how do we get rid of the curse?” Zhao Manyan did not really care if the geoglyphs were a miracle. His mind was fully focused on breaking free from the curse.

“Let’s go down to where the geoglyph of the monster bird is,” suggested Mo Fan.

Mo Fan had no clue what to do, either. The information that Lingling provided them was fairly limited. Speaking of which, Lingling had actually learned the information from Old Bao.

Mo Fan was pretty confused. Wasn’t Old Bao just a manager of a Hunter Agency? Since when was he so knowledgeable about strange wonders in foreign countries?

-Did that old man use to have some shocking identity?-

With a loud thump, the black helicopter landed heavily on the ground.

The people on the helicopter screamed out in surprise. They thought they were under attack as soon as they landed. They were about to go into combat mode when Ai Jiangtu’s deep voice came from the pilot’s seat, “Sorry, I’ve only spent a bit more than ten hours flying a helicopter. I’m not familiar with landing and taking off yet.”

Ai Jiangtu was a Magician, thus he did not really spend much time learning how to fly a helicopter.

The team had lines on their foreheads after the rough landing. -If you’re not familiar with flying a helicopter, why did you dismiss the pilot with a strong sense of righteousness? They were given the order to fly us here, even though the place is seen as a forbidden land by the Peruvians!-

“Will we offend the god of monster birds if we land a helicopter on it?” Jiang Yu asked softly.

“We’ve already offended it. Come, let’s see what we can find,” said Mo Fan.

The team walked out onto the geoglyph as the sunlight shone upon the land. The lines glistened under the sunlight…

There was nothing special about the lines when they were walking on the ground. They simply looked like the most common ravines. No one would ever imagine they could combine into a such stunning motif!

“I didn’t find anything.”

“We didn’t find anything when we were here last time, either, and then we were ambushed by the strange birds,” said Jiang Shaoxu.

“Yeah, we never thought this place would be a forbidden land. We only came to search for treasure,” said Zhao Manyan.

The team did not find anything after searching around the geoglyph. They could not help but feel uneasy about it.

They only had a week’s time. They had rested for a day at Lima, and the journey here took around a day. They did not have much time left. They would be in great trouble if they did not make some progress soon!

——

The Nazca Lines lay silently on the mystical land lit up by the rotation of the Sun and Moon. They were exposed to strong wind, lightning, and heavy rains… but their outline had never blurred.

As a matter of fact, historical records also mentioned similar disastrous attacks of demon creatures. However, most of the information was lost as the places continued to change. There was no definite explanation of the Nazca incidents.

How was it possible to solve the mystery of Nazca in just a few days?

Mo Fan and the others spent three days in the wilderness, yet they did not make any progress.

During this period, they saw the geoglyph of the monster ape emit a strange, white glow. The geoglyph of a spider also emitted a bright-red glow. They could vaguely see lots of spiders moving into a certain direction in the mist at night.

After witnessing the unbelievable sight, Mo Fan and the others realized that the forbidden land could not be explained with magic. They also believed that if they did not find the reason why the Nazca Monster Birds were angry at them, they would soon be punished by the Nazca God!

——

The next morning, Mo Fan stumbled out of his tent half-conscious. Jiang Yu and Nanyu had woken everyone up in excitement.

“Hurry up to the mountain, head to the top of Nazca Mountain. I believe I’ve sorted it out!” exclaimed Nanyu.

The team immediately headed to Nazca Mountain. They could see the stunning geoglyphs while standing on top of the mountain, too. The sunlight at dawn added a hint of sacredness to the geoglyphs, as if they were guarding something for eternity.

With the help of the sunlight, the team realized that the part at the monster bird’s eye was dim!

“Do you remember how we found a socket close to the eye when we were on the geoglyph? Look, all the parts of the strange bird are lit up, except the eye. It’s very likely that someone stole the thing that was located at the eye!” said Nanyu.

The geoglyph was obviously a whole under the sunlight, and thus the only missing part was strongly implying that Nanyu’s speculation was right.

The question is, who would steal the geoglyph’s eye?

“Was it someone on our team?” said Jiang Shaoxu.

“Perhaps it’s the others? Is that why they weren’t willing to come?” suggested Zhao Manyan.

Nanyu shook her head and said, “I don’t think so. Considering how close to death we were at the castle, they would be out of their mind if they still weren’t willing to share the secret with us. I believe the eye was stolen around the time we entered the place. Therefore, the Nazca Monster Birds are targeting everyone that entered the forbidden land recently. Have you all forgotten? Many cities in Peru’s southwest are under attack, and the mines are surrounded by the monsters, too. The strange birds are after us, but the apes and the spiders are attacking other places… to be more precise, they are attacking where the suspects are!”

“So that means the Nazca Creatures have no idea who the thief is, so they have no choice but to attack everyone that came here recently?” said Jiang Yu.

“That must be it! If we can find the thief, everything will come to an end. Do you remember the words carved on the wall at the bottom of the mountain? It’s saying the same thing! It basically means: you must return everything, or the curse will never end!” declared Nanyu.