I Am The Only Witch Hunter-Chapter 325: Quinlan the Truth-Seeker

In the dark basement under Quinlan’s merchant guild.

Quinlan sliced the knife, carving an X onto his rough hand.

"I swear to guard at the gate of men.

I swear to strike all evil dares crossing the kingdom of men.

I swear to stand with my brothers and sisters even in the face of death.

I swear to stay in the dark to protect the light. I swear to never betray the guild, humanity and my honor."

"Stand, my brother. From now on, we are one!"

Siderius pulled Quinlan up and patted his shoulder.

Quinlan controlled his trembling hands and forced a smile. "I hope I made the right choice."

Siderius smiled faintly, "You did. We can begin the mutation process at any time. Which one do you want first?"

"Can I graft a skin mutation right away?"

Siderius shook his head, "Skin is the largest organ on your body. It will cause you to immediately break down because of the psychosis."

"What’s the worst that could happen?"

"You turn into a mindless monster and kill everyone you love." Siderius smiled deeply.

Quinlan trembled lightly, "I guess it’s a really bad idea then."

"You bear this weight for a long time, Quinlan. From the day you were born. Do you really want to destroy everything just because of a little impatience?"

Quinlan sighed, "You’re right, Siderius. I shouldn’t be this careless."

"To be able to reach skin mutation, you need to get through eyes, ears, and nose first. They would familiarize your body with the process and prepare it for the skin mutation. That is why it is arranged this way.

But before that. I will teach you a technique to raise the resilience of your mind first."

"Isn’t that just a Spirit Art?"

"Not entirely."

Siderius intended to teach Quinlan part of the Truth-Seeking Path. But he wasn’t going to teach him Alchemy. Alchemy was the backbone of a witch hunter power and only his apprentices could learn that. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Without the practice of Alchemy, one could still raise the level of his soul. This would ensure the secret of Siderius’ Alchemical knowledge.

Truth-Seeking Path raised the power of the soul. The soul was tied directly to the spirit. If one thing was raised, the other would too. However, Siderius theorized that Spirit Art would be able to raise Psychosis Maximum Level much better than Truth-Seeking Path.

"You know. I haven’t learned any Spirit Art but I think that it could help speed up the process of strengthening your mind."

"Really?" Quinlan raised his eyebrow.

"My technique focuses on the soul. In turn, it will empower your spirit to battle the psychosis of the mutation. But what if you can raise your spirit directly?"

Quinlan rubbed his chin in deep thoughts. He knew that Siderius was telling him this to get him on the boat of finding a Spirit Art for Siderius and Jude. It’s purely a coincidence that Quinlan could benefit from that too.

Quinlan knew Siderius’ true purpose for telling him this. Siderius also knew that Quinpan would figure it out.

"You made a hard bargain, Siderius." Quinlan smiled. "You’re scary, do you know that?"

"What? My big size frightens you?" Siderius chuckled.

Quinlan shook his head, "No. It would be more precise to say that your big head frightens me."

Quinlan was familiar with being the smartest guy in the room. He knew politics well and he was well-versed in manipulating people. The hardest thing was to manipulate them and they voluntarily walked into it. Just like how Siderius did it just now.

Quinlan couldn’t believe that this was coming from a 17 years old mind.

"You’re not some kind of reincarnator, are you? Your brain makes me shiver."

Quinlan was around 25 at this point. He was young but he was raised in hardship and that forced him to gather wisdom long before any ordinary people should. He also was a genius.

Siderius, on the other hand, was an actor before this.

Siderius shrugged at Quinlan’s comment, "Maybe I am."

"Haha." Quinlan laughed wryly.

The next few days, Siderius taught Quinlan how to transfer his knowledge into True Aether and used it to empower his soul. As a sly merchant, he had quite a lot of knowledge.

Knowledge as True Aether didn’t stop at how the world operated. Any kind of intelligence and wisdom could do the trick. Quinlan didn’t know much about the fabric of reality but he knew people extremely well. That wisdom got converted into True Aether.

Bas didn’t join the guild like Quinlan. He liked to be a free bird, in his own words, rather than be tied to an organization. Even now, he wasn’t really tied to Quinlan either. He was simply a free sellsword.

The morning of the seventh day, Quinlan was sitting in his bedroom when something cracked within him. His soul showed the first sign of enlightenment. The colorless soul of Quinlan pierced out a single silver line.

It was not total enlightenment but that single line had made his mind much clearer than ever before.

"So this is the Truth-Seeking Path. No wonder that sly motherfucker is so smart." Quinlan opened his eyes.

He could detect the clear difference between himself now and him before. Truth-Seeking Path was truly the path of wisdom.

"Better start picking up my reading habit again." Quinlan clenched his fist.

For a long time, he actually felt powerful.

"Siderius really gave me all of this for free. I don’t know if he’s naive or incredibly secure about his strategy. I would bet it’s the latter one."

If Quinlan had the enlightened level of Siderius, he thought he would be the same as well.

"I really am indebted to him. I should pay this off gracefully. I can feel there is an invisible web underneath our world. A web... of fate. So fate actually exists.

If I betray him, fate wouldn’t be kind to me. That sly bastard knew this as well. That’s why he is so generous."

Quinlan chuckled to himself.

Bas knocked on the door of Quinlan.

"Yes, please come in."

The bodyguard entered the room. He froze for a moment. He could feel something different about Quinlan. That living mummy seemed more calm, more confident, and more at ease with himself.

"Shit. I really am curious about what did Siderius teach you." Bas said.

"It’s not too late for you to join." Quinlan smiled.

"Spare me that. I’d rather be free. By the way, I’ll come to tell you that some of our agents have returned with good news."

"Spirit Arts?"

Bas nodded.