A few minutes later, a black-haired young man entered Moondale town and asked about what had happened in the town. He mounted on a beautiful white horse and looked more like a knight. He had deep blue eyes, thick eyebrows, pale skin, an oval face, and broad shoulders and looked around 18 years old.
He was none other than Nicolaus.
After returning to Bare Keep town, he explained everything that happened in the pocket dimension to his father. But once he noticed his father didn't believe his words, he just kept his mouth shut and calmly started gathering information about what had happened during his absence. He soon learned about King's assassination and received a piece of news that a royal elf became a Baron.
Upon hearing this news, he was startled inside and soon found out that Abium was the one who became a Baron of Alastall Woodland. At first, he thought of contacting him. But after some thought, he rejected that idea. Although Abium and he had been together for a while and even faced dangers in the undead plane, he still felt that guy was a little untrustworthy.
But a few days ago, he received a letter from Fennelis and learned about their situation. Although Nicolaus had grown powerful, he knew he was not strong enough to protect Fennelis or Umi.
Without any choice, he left Bare Keep town and started his journey to the Alastall Woodland.
'Haah, Baron Harry decided to ally himself with Abium, huh? It's a good thing.' He quietly roamed inside the market street and started to purchase some rations, a wooden coat, and a few other things in the shops.
After purchasing, he hopped on his horse and moved towards the vast Frozen Mountain range.
Around evening, Nicolaus arrived at Amaryllis town.
Once he entered the town, he met the blonde-haired Helena in the mansion house and told her about the purpose of his visit. After hearing his explanation, Helena nodded her head and told him about where Abium had gone.
Nicolaus's expression worsened as he heard her words.
'He went to the Royal Capital already? Ha! I have no other choice then.' He smiled helplessly and left Amaryllis town without staying for the night.
'I have to find him sooner and tell him about their situation.'
…
Meanwhile, Abium didn't waste his time anywhere during the journey and only stopped for rest.
On 10th June, around eight 'o'clock, Abium finally reached the Royal Capital. At that moment, he wore an ordinary black linen shirt and pants and looked like an ordinary citizen.
After paying the right amount to the gatekeeper, he walked inside the city along with the brown garron. Unlike the elven face, Abium's face now looked more like his original self. He used a disguise spell at that moment and maintained this facial appearance. He had black hair, an oval face, deep blue eyes, thin eyebrows, and a high nose bridge.
'If I walk around wearing the red mask, I will only attract unwanted attention. Hmm, what should I do next? I can't go to Baron Auguinare's mansion. Should I go and buy a small house in the Commoner's Borough and make a fake identity? Yeah, that's a good idea. But before that, I need to meet Lady Tabitha and get one face-changing artifact.' Abium remembered prince Raollet's other identity Hemarc and thought of following the same method.
'Also, I have to attract some of those second-tier mages' attention. If possible, I must do something extraordinary and make the second-tier mages acknowledge me. Otherwise, they wouldn't even listen to my words.'
'I know someone from the academy must have already started keeping some tab on the necromancers, so it's better to be careful. Haa, I have to take action step by step. Also, I need to find a remote place and construct my next first-tier spell after a week or two.' He heaved a deep sigh.
'But If I construct my next spell somewhere near the capital, many roaming mages will notice my presence and might try to harm me. Moreover, that hooded elven guy will also learn about me, which is the last thing I want to happen.' Abium frowned as he searched for a suitable location to construct his next first-tier spell and soon widened his eyes.
'Creepers' forest! Yes, that's the best option. That forest is just a half-day away from the capital and is the safest place for construction spell models. But the problem is the strange rumors about it. I heard that whoever went inside the forest would come back after a few days, but they won't remember a thing except for some image of a lady wearing an emerald gem embedded coin necklace.' But Abium wasn't bothered by such rumors.
'Even I heard that a few roaming mages used that place to construct their spell model in the past.' Abium nodded and soon realized that he had arrived near a familiar Inn in Commoners' Borough.
After paying some amount to the Innkeeper, he booked the room and tied the mount near the Inn before moving towards the Merchant's Borough.
After a few minutes of walking, he arrived in front of the Orchid auction house and entered.
But before he could take two steps inside, a spearhead appeared in front of his face. At that moment, a muscular warrior stood before him, blocking his path with a cold expression on his face. He had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Abium guessed this guy must be around 35 years old from his outer look.
'He is a fourth tier warrior!' He halted his footsteps and looked at the warrior while raising his eyebrows.
"This is not a place where a commoner could step in, kid. Leave before anyone sees you." The muscular warrior's tone was cold. Upon hearing his stern words, Abium was stunned for a moment and soon widened his eyes. Only then did Abium realize that his face was completely changed due to the [Mirage] spell.
'Tsk, I shouldn't forget such simple things.'
He then removed his noble seal ring from his spatial ring and presented it to the warrior.
Meanwhile, the muscular warrior didn't glance at the symbol and shook his head before raising his right hand.
He was about to push him out of the gate but stopped as he saw a symbol of the sun with two wings spreading outwards on the silver ring.
Although he couldn't remember which household symbol this was, he didn't dare take it lightly and retracted his hand. Then, the muscular warrior also pulled back his spear and thought that this skinny kid must be a servant of some noble house.
"I'm truly sorry for my earlier rude words, lad. You should have shown that seal to me first." Muscular warrior said with a chuckle.
Meanwhile, Abium was at a loss for how to respond and soon said with a light bow.
"It was my mistake, sir. Forgive me."
Saying so, Abium stored the noble seal into his space ring and walked into the Orchid auction house.
After a few minutes, he finally managed to get an appointment with Lady Tabitha using his noble seal and waited for her reply in the reception hall.
After a full hour of waiting, an officer with round eyeglasses invited him to meet Lady Tabitha.
Abium stood up from the row seat and followed in the officer's footsteps.
Once they reached the second floor, both moved towards the left side corridor and soon arrived in front of a wooden door.
After that, the round-eyeglass officer raised his right hand and knocked on the door thrice.
"Come in!" A familiar pleasant voice echoed from inside. The round-eyeglass officer pushed the door open and invited Abium in. Inside, an old-looking woman with silvery hair sat on an executive chair and stared intently at Abium.
"Sit down, mister," Tabitha said with a warm smile and pointed her finger towards the wooden chair on the opposite side of the table. After that, she shifted her monolid blue eyes towards the glassy officer and added,
"You can go back now."
With a puzzled look, the officer turned around and left the room hurriedly, leaving the room to an abrupt silence.
In the meantime, Abium dispelled his zero-tier magic spell and sat on the chair.
"What are you doing here, Mage Abium? Does someone try to assassinate you? Why are you acting sneakily?" Tabitha turned her gaze towards him and asked with a frown.
Meanwhile, Abium nodded his head and went straight to the point.
"Although I hadn't faced any life-threatening assassination, it might happen in the future. So, I thought of playing safe. Anyway, I want an artifact similar to what prince Raollet is using to disguise himself. Can you arrange it for me?"
"Hmm, are you talking about the Nature artifact? That's quite a rare artifact, Mage Abium. You won't find it here." Tabitha said with disappointment and shook her head.
"Well, I already expected this result. Still, it would be good if I get some similar artifact," Abium said with a helpless sign, took out the Abyssal Locust plant root from his space ring, and then placed it on the table.
At that moment, a confused expression appeared on Tabitha's face as she couldn't identify the item.
'It's the same plant root from the loot.'
Meanwhile, Abium smiled lightly and gave her a short explanation.
"It's the Abyssal Locust Plant root and can only be found in the 564th layer of the Abyss and is highly toxic. Also, it can be used for concocting chaotic-type potions and is a very precious material."
"Are you auctioning this?" Tabitha asked without showing any surprised expression on her face.
"Yes, my lady. It won't be useful to me anyway." He suddenly paused as he thought of something and asked curiously,
"Did you successfully extract the Dragon's blood essence from the bronze scale?"
"Well, I did manage to extract a drop of bronze dragon's blood essence with your teacher's help. But I don't have a potion formula for cleansing the chaotic substance from it, so I've no choice but to refrain myself from injecting the blood essence into my body." A weak smile appeared on her face.
Meanwhile, Abium raised his eyebrows and showed a puzzled look.
Upon noticing his puzzled expression, she let out a chuckle and started to speak,
"From the looks on your face, I can see you are clueless about the restrictions. Well, I will tell you now."
"You do know about the shackles, right?" She asked while picking up the Abyssal Locust root.
"Yes, My Lady." Abium nodded.
"Thn, do you know who put those shackles on the mages?" Tabitha continued to ask with a smile on her face.
Meanwhile, Abium got more clueless and asked Azolla in a hurry.
'Azolla, do you have any clue?'
'There were no shackles during the Ancient Era, lad. But something extraordinary did happen at the end of the Ancient war and caused humans, elves, dwarves, and other lawful races to be in a bitter position. All the mages got stuck in the same realm for a century and couldn't improve their strength. Even small kids faced difficulty in constructing spell models and ranking up. At that time, Mother Nature Goddess also got deeply injured by an evil god and was forced to seclude herself inside the World Tree. Not only that, but the whole continent was split into two by a Mysterious God. One became the mainland while the other one became the Forgotten Lands. After that being's intervention, the ancient planar war ended abruptly. I was also left along in the Tower and got isolated from the mainland.' Her words left Abium shocked inside.
After a short silence, Abium shook his head and asked.
"Do you know who put the shackles on mages, Lady Tabitha?"
"There are many elves who denied this news. But the Light Church always informed the masses that the one who put those shackles on mages was a legendary mage from the ancient era. His name is Runeth." Tabitha's words made Abium frown deeper.