'She looked like a pitiful child in that vision. Damn, if I'm in Aliza's position, I will definitely release her from the prison cell.' Abium wiped his cold sweats on his forehead and fell into deep thoughts.
'Don't fret about this. Whether the death mage survives from the evil child or dies, it's all up to that girl's decision.' Azolla said in his mind.
'It would be great if she didn't release that child.' Abium said inwardly and soon started to walk out of the Inn
After Abium bid his farewell to the Inn lady, he directly walked towards the northern gate.
"Greetings, My Lord!" Hook, who stood on the watch, greeted him with a polite smile. Rylan also stood up and bowed towards Abium while remembering new rules.
'It's not a bad thing to stay here as a citizen of the Peral kingdom.' Rylan thought to himself. Both had been gatekeepers for almost ten years and hadn't gone out like other pirates. After Abium took control of the pirate town, both decided to stay here and continue their job.
"Do you know where I can find wild goats?" Abium asked.
Rylan froze for a second and answered with a stiff tone.
"M-My lord, there are a few herds that reside in the northern mountain range area. I think it will take five hours to get there by walk."
"Good, then I will be on my way." With a nod, Abium was about to go but stopped as he noticed Rylan was standing there with some hesitation.
"What is it? Speak to your mind." Abium said while turning his face towards Rylan.
"My lord, we both are familiar with these places. If it is okay, we will catch and bring the goats to you," Rylan said nervously.
Abium smiled and asked with an approving nod. "Okay. So, can you catch twelve goats before nightfall?"
"Yes, my lord," Rylan said confidently.
"Then, I will be waiting for you guys in the manor." Abium nodded his head and stood near the gate while folding his arms.
Meanwhile, Hook and Rylan asked a few slaves to guard the northern gate and walked into the Alastall woods.
Watching them entering the dense woods, Abium shook his head and returned to the manor. Once he arrived, he sat in the main hall and asked Azolla in curiosity.
'Do I have to create any ritual circles?' He had heard a lot about the ritual circles from priests and high priests during the beginning of the Chaos Era and got more curious.
'But the problem is the incantation. I heard that a single misspelling could cost one's life sometimes.'
'You are right, but I'll help you with that. But before that, you have to buy the list of materials I've given you earlier. Only then will we start performing the ritual.' Azolla replied.
Meanwhile, Abium closed his eyes and recalled the list of materials.
'Hmm, 12 high tier magic stones, twelve Night Sunflowers, twelve drops of Thief's Blood, 12 Purple Poison herbs, a bottle of Clary Sage oil, 12 candles, Agarwood, and blood of twelve different goats.' As he was muttering, he slowly opened his eyes, took out an empty scroll, and decided to write the list of materials on the scroll.
'What's with the twelve drops of Thief's blood? From whom I should ask?' Abium asked with a startled tone.
'Just ask Lily in your gang.' Azolla's answer made Abium stumble a bit.
'Nah. I will ask other pirates. After all, they are also thieves, right?' Abium mumbled. In truth, he didn't know what kind of effect the Thief would receive after the sacrificial ceremony and decided to act cautiously.
He again walked out of the manor and soon saw Claude was giving out some orders to the freed slaves.
Meanwhile, Claude also noticed Abium's arrival, turned around and greeted him with a bow.
'Should I ask him to collect the materials?' Abium thought.
After slightly hesitating, he moved closer to Claude and asked while passing a brown scroll.
"Uncle, I'm in a dire need of some materials, can you arrange them for me before this weekend? I think you can get them in Duke Adhemar's territory."
Upon hearing his words, Claude pondered for a moment and nodded.
"As long as the materials are sold in Bloodbath City, I can get them for you," Claude replied solemnly and took the scroll from Abium's hand. After taking a glance, he read the content in the scroll and soon knitted his brows. At that moment, he noticed a few materials on the list, like Thief's blood, Blood of twelve Goats, etc., and asked with a forced smile.
"You aren't going to do some Blood sacrificial ritual, are you?" Claude's question made Abium's eyes widen a little.
'How did he know that I'm going to perform a sacrificial ritual?' After a second, he calmed himself down and answered with a chuckle.
"Well, I'm indeed going to do some blood sacrificial ceremony, but it's not an evil one, uncle. It's an animal blood sacrificial ceremony."
Phew!
Claude breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded in understanding. Claude wasn't new to 'animal blood sacrificial ritual' and became reassured inside. In truth, the old generation people of the Peral Kingdom and some tribal people still follow the blood sacrificial ritual tradition and worship an ancestral spirit named 'Dream Spirit.'
'But there is something else bothering me.'
"How did you find out I'm going to perform a sacrificial ritual, uncle?" Abium knew these sacrificial rituals were rare even during the Chaos era and became startled.
'How did he find out after taking a single glance at those materials?' He stared at Claude in puzzlement.
Meanwhile, Claude took a deep breath and spoke in a solemn tone.
"In the last two years, I personally collected some similar materials for Lord Viscount Gauvain and have seen the Blood Sacrificial Ritual from afar."
"You mean!? Are you saying that Viscount Gauvain already did these Blood sacrificial rituals?" Abium asked with a shocked tone.
'Is he also a follower of Dream Spirit or something?'
"But they all are human blood sacrifices. Viscount mostly used slaves and criminals for sacrifices. So no one really cared about their deaths. Oh, I also saw the necromancer Bilet during the sacrificial ceremonies." Claude answered in a grave tone.
'Is the 'Orders of the Dead' Organization a cult organization?' A doubt appeared inside his mind.
"Uncle, do you remember a word or two when they are doing those sacrificial rituals?" Abium asked.
"No. I just watched the ritual ceremony from very afar through a window. But I did hear that apprentice necromancer often saying 'Valley of the Dead' 'Nurotl' in some unknown language. I memorized these two words because I found them very cool and thought of asking others later." Claude responded after a short pause.
'It's the Nether language! It is the first time I'm hearing some people speak the Nether language in the Easica continent. No! Maybe there are Nether language speakers in our continent, but I only now did I understand it.' Abium nodded in enlightenment and responded.
"If I find more information about those words, I will inform you."
Claude just waved his hand and quickly said.
"Nah, I don't care much about the meaning. I know knowing those strange words would only bring more trouble for me." He stopped for a moment and continued.
"Okay, I will go and collect the materials."
After finishing his words, Claude walked away from there along with other freed slaves, leaving Abium alone at the entrance.
'I should also go and do the other work then.'
Muttering, Abium returned to the main hall and waited for Claude to return with those materials.
'Okay, kid, before Claude returns with the materials, I will tell you how to do this ritual magic. First, take the elvish book from your spatial ring and place it at the center of the hall.' Azolla said in a solemn tone.
'Which book?' Abium knitted his eyebrows.
'It's the unique book you took from the Star tower library.' Azolla said.
'Oh! I almost forgot about it.'
Widening his eyes, Abium nodded and took out the ancient book with multiple runes inscribed on the front. Although it didn't have any lock, that ancient book appeared mysteriously protected by some invisible force.
He tried to open it but soon noticed that the book didn't even budge an inch like last time.
'It won't work like that. First, arrange an altar table at the center. Then, put this book and the goddess's sculpture on the table.' Azolla said with a chuckle.
Without any refusal, Abium did what she had told him.
Then, he took out white chalk from his spatial ring and drew a strange circle around the altar table.
Under Azolla's guidance, he started to inscribe a ritual magic circle in the runic language. Although he couldn't understand most of those characters, he inscribed them correctly with Azolla's help. From his knowledge, he guessed a few words like 'summon', 'plane law', 'night' etc. and sighed bitterly.
'I need to buy some advanced runic language book and decipher the words myself when I have some free time.' He had written a total of 20 runic words around the ritual circle and noticed that there were still hundreds of words remaining.
He would stop inscribing the ritual circle to take some rest and continue to inscribe. Hours went by, and then, one day, two days, three, four, and it went on. But Abium didn't stop working and finally noticed that he had almost completed the ritual circle. He carefully inscribed the last few characters and smiled with an exhausted expression.
It took him almost six days to completely inscribe those characters. He felt his spirit power had drained completely.
Phew!
After inscribing the last character, Abium threw the chalk away and breathed out a heavy sigh. Only then did he turn his head and notice Claude was standing at the entrance while watching the circle curiously.
"Did you get all those materials, Uncle?" Abium asked while yawning.
Claude smiled with a nod and spoke while taking out the materials from his leather bag.
"Yeah, I got all the materials from the underground market."
A smile crept on Abium's face as he heard Claude's words.
He then nodded with a pleasant smile and took them from Claude.
After that, Abium walked back to the mysterious altar table and began to check the materials.