Abium waited in his room for the next two hours and soon heard a knock.
He quietly stood up from his bed, walked near the wooden door, and opened it with a click. A lady with bluish hair stood outside nervously and held the wood chest with her hands. He didn't remember her name, but he knew she was one of the maids working in this building before. She had a few scars on her hands, which indicates that she was once a pirate and later became a maid.
At first, Abium thought of keeping a Valet, but he quickly shook off that idea.
'Valet is not suitable for a mage like me. That luxury life is only for tycoons and the noblemen in the capital.'
Letting out a sigh, he took the wooden chest from her hands and sent her off.
After that, he locked the door from inside and placed the wooden chest on the concrete floor. He then opened the chest and noticed a small leather pouch and hundreds of silver rings. He hurriedly checked the pouch and soon grinned as he saw ten tiny black crystals stored inside.
After thinking for a moment, he took a silver ring and tried to create a minute magic rune circle inside the gap.
But after a few hours of trying, he began to sweat all over.
'How the hell did the mages create tiny magic rune circles in the space rings? Damn it… As expected, it's not an easy job at all. From the looks of it, I think it must be the same for potioneering. It seems I have to put some time into this work for the next two-three weeks.' With a sigh, he started to continue the work.
Alas, even after dusk, he didn't make any progress. At that moment, the rain also stopped completely.
'Tsk, I'll stop here.' Abium muttered in annoyance.
He then absorbed the spirit power from the divine fragment for the next few minutes and went to sleep.
The next day, Abium woke up earlier and joined the Subjugation team after absorbing the spirit power. The group started clearing the monsters and moved towards the western side while making a pathway to the abandoned tunnel. During the evening time, Abium spent his time studying more about the rune artifact creation and even tried to create it.
Abium followed the schedule for the next two weeks.
May 22nd, early morning.
After a lot of hard work, he finally succeeded in creating the first low-tier artifact.
He quietly picked up the silver ring, which had a black gem embedded at the center, and put it on his finger. After that, he sent a small amount of mana into the silver ring and activated the spell using his spirit power. A second later, he felt that the dark elemental appeared from the black crystal and entered the silver ring's spell model.
The next instant, he noticed that his face started to twist in a weird shape and change into his former appearance.
'Finally! It took me two weeks to engrave one zero-tier 'Mirage' spell in this ring. I now understand why the magic artifacts are so rare.' He inhaled the fresh air while moving towards the open window and watched the sunrise from the sea.
'Now, I don't have to create any more artifacts. But I need to create spell scrolls for Helena. She will be the one who is going to attend the Grand Nobles' Gathering in my stead after all. But before that, I need to deal with Baron Harry.' Abium muttered to himself and frowned as he thought of the troublesome guy.
'Spoiled brats are always a troublesome bunch.'
As he was in deep thought, a maid knocked on his room door and informed him that Helena and others were waiting for him in the reception hall.
'Why did they come so soon? There is still time for work, right?' He got confused.
Furrowing his brows, he changed his clothes from a nightgown to a regular gray shirt and black pants and went downstairs.
A few seconds later, he walked into the reception hall and soon frowned as he noticed the serious expression on everyone's faces.
"What happened?" Abium felt something was off and asked hurriedly.
Meanwhile, Helena, who sat on the wooden chair, looked at his face and started to speak in a gloomy tone.
"It has something to do with Baron Harry. Yesterday, we received a request from adventurer guild official members. They said they reached Moondale town yesterday morning and asked us to send some guide through a puppet raven." She paused for a second as she glanced at Claude and then continued,
"Upon hearing the request from the guild, Sir Claude asked his companion Edward to go there along with a few newly recruited soldiers. But when they reached the other side of the underground tunnel, Baron Harry's soldiers caught them as prisoners and took them back to their territory. Now, Baron is asking for ransom." Once she finished her words, the whole room fell into utter silence.
Abium's eyes went bloodshot as he heard such idiotic news. But he didn't lose his calm and sighed heavily.
'That Baron is provoking me. He must be planning to cause problems for us. Is count Tibal behind this?... Hmm, possible.' As he pondered about Baron Harry's motive, he noticed an unfamiliar face standing at the reception hall corner and furrowed his eyebrows.
He was a fair-skinned muscular warrior with 6 feet tall height and wore brown leather armor. He had monolid brown eyes, short bluish-black color hair, and a round face.
"He is Baron Harry's soldier. He is the one who brought the news." As Viper noticed Abium's gaze, he spoke while leaning on the wooden chair.
"What is your name?" Abium nodded and asked while fixing his sharp gaze on the soldier.
"Page." Meanwhile, the tall soldier replied with a hint of arrogance in his tone.
'Quite an arrogant tongue he has.' He glanced at Helena and continued to ask.
"How much is the ransom?"
"2000 white gold coins." Without even a slight hint of nervousness, Page said motionlessly.
"Why not just rob us, bastard?!" Helena instantly unsheathed the weapon and got ready to attack him. Meanwhile, all of them got dumbfounded. Even Abium got stunned by the Baron's absurd demand.
As they started arguing one by one, Viper suddenly noticed a change in Abium's facial expression and got startled.
'Heh, it seems even this young baron himself got a headache.' As he was about to ask if everything was okay, Viper saw Abium calming down.
"Okay. I agree to your request." Abium's deep voice echoed inside.
Simultaneously, everyone saw Abium nodding his head with a serious expression on his face, which made them stunned. As he noticed their gazes, he shook his head helplessly and spoke.
"First, we need to bring them safely." After that, he shifted his gaze towards Page and replied while taking out two crystalline bank cards from his spatial ring. "Take these two cards to your master. These crystalline cards hold a total of 2000 white gold coins inside. If Baron needs cash in hand, I can arrange it for you."
This time, Page got stunned. Before he came here, Baron Harry's grandfather Randolph told him that Baron of Alastall must be a poor mage and wouldn't have much money to pay the ransom.
Page thought Elder Randolph must be planning to use that reason to make Baron Abium a joker in the upcoming Grand Nobles' gathering.
'What should I do now?... Ha! I will take the money and give it back to Lord Randolph. After that, it's up to them.' He nodded rapidly, quickly went near Abium, and took the two crystalline cards from his hand.
"Lord Harry will release them once I give the money back to my lord." Page said while walking out of the reception house.
"Stop! I don't trust you on this matter. Wait for 30 minutes here. I will come along with you." Abium said as he walked closer to Claude and asked in a low voice.
"Uncle, can you get Sir Edward's dress or some important things like jewels?"
Claude got startled by Abium's strange request and gave him a strange look before nodding.
Then, Claude walked out of the reception hall and returned after two minutes while holding a ring and a linen shirt in his hand.
"Why do you need these for?" Claude asked in puzzlement. But Abium shrugged his shoulders.
After that, he took the things from Claude and walked out of the reception hall. Then, he went to the second floor through the straight staircase and arrived in front of his room's wooden door.
After inserting his room key into the keyhole, he opened the door with a click and walked in.
Following that, he locked it from the inside and sat on his bed while turning his face colder.
'When I activated the Seer's Intuition spell earlier, I felt a dangerous premonition. Something dangerous is hiding in that town. Someone is waiting for me.' Abium hurriedly informed Azolla.
'Oh? Are you planning to enter the mysterious space to confirm that?' Azolla asked curiously.
'Yeah, I also want to try and find out about Edward's current situation.' Abium said with a grim tone.
'Hmm, do it then.' Azolla agreed. Abium took Edward's bronze ring with a nod and covered it with his spirit power. Then, he focused on the mysterious connection attached to his soul and closed his eyes.
The next instant, he felt that his soul got pulled by some mysterious force and soon found himself standing in front of the strange, mysterious fountain. Lowering his gaze, Abium saw the same bronze ring in his left palm and breathed a sigh of relief.
'It worked. But I can feel there is a weight on my soul.' With an understanding nod, Abium quickly turned his attention to the white petal and touched it casually using his right hand. A heartbeat later, a rectangular mirror-like void appeared in front of his face. Abium threw the bronze ring into the mirror-like void and started thinking about the current whereabouts of this ring's owner.
Hum!
After a sudden vibration, the mirror-like void began to distort and showed him an image of an execution platform. It was the same execution platform near Moondale Town's town square!
At that moment, five decapitated heads were arranged in a line on the execution platform!