A Wizard’s Secret

On the rugged mountain road, Merlin was still seated in a carriage. He often stretched his head out from the window to look at the fallen leaves that had gradually yellowed. It was late autumn now, but he could not feel a single hint of cold. Instead, there was a surging heat hanging about in the air.

“I heard the Fire City sits at a place that has an extremely high temperature. Its surroundings look as if it was encompassed by flames, thus giving it the name Fire City. I must visit the place if I have the chance.”

Merlin muttered in a low voice in the carriage. He knew that he had entered the influential area of Fire City. The obvious soaring temperature was the most obvious characteristic of Fire City.

Merlin even sensed that the Spell Models of Fireball and Furious Flame in his Awareness had quickened their speed in absorbing Fire Elements. Moreover, the increase of their Magic Power had an obvious development as well.

The Fire Elements were even richer within Fire City than any other region.

Merlin’s finger slid across the map and finally halted at a place called Tolle City.

“It seems that I’ll probably reach Tolle City in half a day’s time!”

From the time Merlin had left Floating City, he had actually been traveling for nearly twenty days. He had initially thought that it would take him only a couple of days to reach Tolle City.

However, there were too many tough mountainous roads along the journey. On top of that, he could only travel during the day; he had to find a place to rest at night. Thus, he had wasted quite a bit of time on his journey.

Fortunately, Merlin was not rushing for time. During this period, he had used up the few Phantasmal Magic Potions on him. The rate of increase of Mind Power was less effective than when he had first taken the potion.

This proved that the potion was slowly losing its effect on Merlin. Fortunately, he had obtained the Bell Space which allowed Merlin’s Mind Power to meditate in the space without a moment of rest. The Mind Power that Merlin had displaced into the Bell Space had increased by a factor of ten.

“Let’s wait for a bit more before merging the Mind Power in the Bell Space with my own Mind Power. Then I may be able to reach the conditions needed to construct the Second-level spell, Darkness Tide!”

Merlin had chosen the most complex and powerful Darkness-type spells in Abyss Fort. Initially, Merlin did not want to construct Darkness Tide as his first Second-level spell because he would use up a lot of his Mind Power in the process of doing so. Moreover, even if he had constructed it successfully, its Spell Model would take up a lot of his Mind Power.

However, since Merlin had not exchanged other Second-level spells from Dark Magic Region, he only had a Darkness-type Second-level spell with him now. As such, the decision was made that If his Mind Power was sufficient later on, he would choose to construct Darkness Tide without a moment of hesitation.

Soon, half a day had gone past. The carriage slowly approached a city that was surrounded by high walls. This was Tolle City; Merlin could clearly sense that there were numerous Spell Casters and Normies walking about busily in the city.

Such a scenario was new to Merlin as he knew that Spell Casters were generally arrogant and proud. There was a distinct sense of pride that came from Spell Casters as they believed that they were completely different from Normies. Hence, in the case of Tolle City, where Spell Casters and Normies did not distinguish themselves from each other was extremely rare.

There were still some forms of distinction though. Take for example, when some Normies met Spell Casters who wore Wizard’s robes, they would smile and bow respectfully, showing their respect towards the Spell Caster.

“Interesting. Normies and Spell Casters living as equals. Tolle City is indeed interesting!”

Merlin’s interest was piqued by Tolle City as the carriage slowly entered pass the walls of Tolle City.

Tolle City was bustling with people. Many peddlers and Spell Casters were loudly promoting their goods on offer; none of the Spell Casters appeared to be arrogant at this place. Having seen such a scene, Merlin felt as if he had returned to Blackwater City.

However, the fluctuations of Elements that seeped out from some of the Spell Casters made Merlin realize that Tolle City was a very special place. It was completely different from Floating City which required that one be a Spell Caster to enter the city; there was almost no Normies in the Floating city.

Even Merlin’s carriage driver was hired from outside of Floating City by the Delman clan.

There were no Normies in Floating City at all. In comparison, Tolle City had many Normies around who only displayed basic respect towards Spell Casters. They treated Spell Casters like any other person; without fear and anxiety. Some of the peddlers could even bargain with the Spell Casters.

Merlin had never seen anything like this before. Moreover, the peaceful interaction between Spell Casters and Normies was exactly what Merlin had hoped to have in his life. Spell Casters and Normies were fundamentally the same. The Spell Casters might be more powerful, but they were still humans by nature.

“After meeting Laurinka, I could stay for a bit in Tolle City.”

Merlin muttered. Following that, he sent the carriage driver to collect information about the Shadison clan which Laurinka belonged to.

“Sir Merlin, I found it! Shadison clan is just right ahead here.”

The carriage driver had obtained the information and now knew the exact location of Shadison clan. Merlin nodded with a hint of a smile. “Let’s go to Shadison clan!”

Then, Merlin let down the curtains and the carriage slowly began to advance forward.

…

In front of a small yard in Tolle City, a man and a woman, who had long black hair, seemed a little exhausted. However, they both heaved a sigh of relief after seeing the yard.

“It should be here. The place we promised to meet at. Haya, go knock.”

These two figures were non-other than Shireen and Haya. They came to Tolle City as well, but they seemed to have made a promise to meet someone.

Haya nodded, so he knocked and loudly called out, “Tafel, Emily, quickly come to the door. It’s Haya and Shireen!”

Movements could soon be heard from this seemingly-empty house after Haya banged on the wooden door. A few young girls dashed out of the house cheerfully; they seemed to be Spell Casters as well.

“Haya, Shireen, why are you so late? We were just discussing whether to go back or stay for the disclosure of Neverending Book by Shadison clan if you didn’t come.”

A brown-haired female Spell Caster quickly opened the wooden door and welcomed Haya and Shireen.

Shireen was the most mature amongst the few Spell Casters, so she scanned the three young female Spell Casters as soon as she entered the house. Her expression slowly darkened.

“Tafel, Emily, didn’t I tell you that only both of you should come? We won’t know how many Spell Casters are attracted by the disclosure of Neverending Book this time. If there’s any trouble during that time, I won’t be able to protect so many people.”

Shireen pointed to the tall beautiful female Spell Casters.

After sensing Shireen’s frustrated tone, the cheerful Emily stepped forward and explained to Shireen while holding the unfamiliar female Spell Caster’s hands. “We met her along our journey here. She’s Emma and a Spell Caster. On top of that, she’s really great and has already constructed three Zero-level spells.”

“Roaming Wizard?”

Shireen frowned. Her gaze scanned the unfamiliar Spell Caster named “Emma” piercingly. They were all from the Spell Caster clan, so they knew each other very well. Since they heard that the Shadison clan of Tolle City would disclose the legendary Neverending Book publicly, they sneaked out of the clan to have a look at it.

However, with the addition of Emma, the cautious Shireen would not trust her as easily as Emily and Tafel did.

Hearing Shireen’s response, Emma shook her head. “Wizard Shireen, I’m not a roaming Wizard. I have a teacher and he’s a Spell Caster of the Dark Magic Region! I came to Tolle City because I heard many Spell Casters would be attracted to the disclosure of the Neverending Book at Tolle City. So I thought I may find my teacher here.”

“Spell Caster of the Dark Magic Region?”

After hearing Emma’s explanation, she glanced at Emma with added curiosity.

In fact, the Wizards from many Spell Caster organizations would often give spells to some people who had the potential to become Spell Casters for them to learn it on their own.

Some Spell Casters were able to become one just with these spells, but the majority could not successfully become Spell Casters.

Moreover, the Wizards of Spell Caster organizations were mostly doing things on a whim. They would not actually bring their ‘student’ to their Spell Caster organizations. Shireen had encountered many similar cases in the past.

Thus, she did not find Emma’s words hard to believe after hearing her explanation.

Shireen heaved a long sigh. “Wizard Emma, please don’t have such a high hope. The Dark Magic Region is known to be mysterious. You must have a token such as the Dark Magic ring to enter it. Even the strongest Spell Caster cannot bring other Spell Casters into Dark Magic Region without having the ring.”

After Shireen said that, Emma’s expression changed as she bit her lips tightly. “Thank you Wizard Shireen, for telling me this. But I still want to try finding my teacher. It’s more than enough to find him!”

Emma could still recall clearly the young Spell Caster who had saved her whole family back then. Before he left, he promised that he would take her as a student should she successfully construct three Zero-level spells successfully after three years.

It was almost the three-year limit now and she had constructed the Zero-level spells successfully. However, the young Spell Caster had never visited Ditas town again. Due to that, Emma decided to leave Ditas town in search of her teacher on her own.

Having seen Emma’s determined expression, Shireen did not advise her further. Instead, her tone became troubled. “Let’s go in first. The situation at Tolle City is a little complicated this time; we must discuss this carefully.”

After that, Shireen entered the house with the young Spell Casters.