It was around 6 P.M, 14th June, Sycamore Woods outside the Royal Capital.
At that moment, Abium stealthily entered this woodland, located two miles away from the city wall, and erased his tracks first.
After checking no one was nearby, he breathed out a sigh of relief and started to take out two scrolls from his spatial ring.
He then took out two intermediate magic stones and placed them in his hands. After that, he quickly tore those two spell scrolls and threw the two intermediate magic stones into the area where two runic circles appeared.
'Hmm, that receptionist told me the duration of these two spells is 32 hours. So, I have to leave their hideout before the timing ends; otherwise, I might die there.' He muttered to himself and soon frowned as he felt pain all over his body.
Cracking sounds began to echo as his body muscles and bones began to modify.
'The body changing spell is activated, so hurry up and think of how tall you want.' Azolla said in his mind.
He quickly thought of Baxter's appearance and soon noticed his height gradually reduced mysteriously.
He also activated the face-changing artifact and transformed himself into Baxter.
After that, he changed his voice into Baxter's and his cloth into a grey robe.
A few moments later, an old figure walked out of the Sycamore woods while wearing an emerald gem-embedded pendant on his neck and looked at the surroundings cautiously. He looked like an older man, around 70 years old, with long grey hair. A few wrinkles appeared on his pale face, and the green emerald eyes gave off a mysterious aura. Moreover, his half ear on the right side was nowhere to be seen.
A three-star symbol was stitched on his grey robe, and he looked more like a mysterious mage.
Abium mimicked Baxter's walking style from the memories as he moved towards the Royal Capital and soon arrived in front of the city gate.
He didn't show any identification to the gatekeepers, though. Instead, he threw a white gold coin to the gatekeeper on his right side and walked in.
"Don't tell a soul about my arrival." He ordered arrogantly.
Truthfully, Abium was a little anxious as he did that.
But to his surprise, the two gatekeepers gave him a slight bow and backed away in fear. They knew that the one who wore these types of robes was not simple and decided to turn a blind eye.
After all, they didn't want to get themselves killed for no reason.
'The power of mage status, huh.' Abium muttered to himself and quietly moved towards Commoners' Borough.
After a while, he reached Commoners' Borough's main street and entered Tupac Lane on the right side.
Although Tupac Lane appeared calm on the outside, Abium knew that the whole street was a den of powerful people.
But Abium knew what was going on here.
'Many illegal underground death games are held here regularly.' Even he participated in such events in his past life and once earned a fortune of 20 white gold coins!
'Whenever I think of that life, I can't help but feel bitterness inside.'
"I thought you would skip this meeting, Baxter. Why didn't you send me a reply letter?" A deep old-aged voice came from his right side as he was in deep thoughts.
A second later, Abium glanced at his right side and soon saw a lean old man walking in his direction. He had short black hair, deep brown eyes, an oval-shaped face, and was around 60 years old. He also wore a similar grey robe and gave off a dangerous aura.
"Yozis? Tsk, you know I hate writing letters, right? So, where are the others?" Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Abium asked while mimicking Baxter's original expression.
"Hmm, you look different today. Anyway, let's go." Yozis commented while sizing him up and down and quickly walking forward on the dirt road.
Meanwhile, Abium's heart skipped a beat.
'As expected, he is not to be fooled easily. I've to be careful with words.'
While thinking, he gave a cold dissatisfied snort and followed after him.
A few minutes later, both arrived in front of a four-storied building, guarded by four muscular guards with broad swords on their backs, and glanced at the surroundings.
Simultaneously, Yozis took out the devil-shaped mask, which had a skull symbol on the mask's forehead, and wore it on his face. Abium also followed his action and stepped into the building with light footsteps.
"So, did you manage to get your hands on Novak's diary paper from your friend?" Yozis asked while glancing at him and then entered the building.
"Yes. Did teacher Rilos find out anything about Lord Nezad?" Abium also quietly followed in his footsteps and quickly changed the topic.
"I don't know. I think Master Rilos will ask for the cursed pendant once the meeting is over." Yozis added calmly and fastened his footsteps towards the counter.
Within a few seconds, he arrived in front of a male receptionist and asked a few questions about the meeting.
Afterward, the receptionist invited them to an ordinary room and moved towards the right side wall. Then, the receptionist raised his right hand and pressed his hand on a particular area.
A second later, the stone wall began to move and revealed a hidden staircase leading to the underground.
Lamps were attached on both sides of the pathway and illuminated brightly.
Abium and Yozis climbed the staircase and soon saw a grand hall in their sights. The grand hall's sides were filled with magic lamps, and the hall covered around 20x22ft. A large throne-like chair was placed at the farther end of the hall, while more than thirty wooden chairs were arranged in rows at the center.
Abium also noticed that a few grey-robed figures were already seated on the wooden seats and emitting cold auras. Noticing their arrival, they all turned their heads in their direction and gave a swift glance. But after seeing that the ones who entered the hall were just some grey-robed necromancers, they shook their heads and retracted their cold gazes towards the front.
Meanwhile, Abium and Yozis also moved towards the center of the grand hall, found their seats, and sat down quietly.
After some time, more grey-robed figures entered the hall and started occupying other seats.
It was around 8. P.M.
Suddenly, a cold aura appeared inside the grand hall, giving a chill atmosphere to the surroundings.
Abium felt suffocated inside and got nervous. His heart began to beat faster, and his hands started turning sweaty for odd reasons. At that moment, he knew that the one who entered the grand hall was not some official necromancer but a second-tier necromancer!
Last night before he went to sleep, Abium activated the Seer Intuition spell and checked for dangers in this mission. He got a positive result and became relaxed.
But Azolla told him that if a person like the Fate divinity holder appeared during the meeting, there would be a situation where his Seer's intuition spell would become useless.
Because of that, he felt more nervous than ever.
As he was in deep thought, Yozis leaned towards his ears and muttered in a low tone.
"I forgot to tell you one thing in the letter. For the next twenty days, I'm planning to search for something in Royal Street. Do you want to work together?" Upon hearing his words, Abium's expression froze under his mask.
'Working together? No way!' He paused for a second and calmed down. He maintained his cold attitude on the outside and shook his head.
Simultaneously, he saw a black robe figure entering the grand hall with a loud footstep and showed a stern expression on his face. He was a middle-aged man around forty years old with Russel brown eyes and short brown hair.
'He must be the second-tier necromancer Rilos Morte.' Abium thought.
Rilos walked past them and finally sat on the large throne-like chair while looking sternly at everyone.
"It seems there are few people who failed to attend this meeting." He glanced at the five empty seats on the left corner and muttered. He then shifted his gaze towards the seat at the front and waved his hand.
Meanwhile, a masked feminine figure with short silvery hair stood up from her seat, gave a bow to Rilos, and muttered with a regretful tone.
"I heard that they were killed by an academic mage a few days ago outside the city wall." As she finished those words, the atmosphere suddenly got chilly.
Meanwhile, Rilos tapped his finger on the metallic throne and asked in a deep low voice.
"Who did it?" That feminine figure hesitated for a moment and soon gave a reply.
"It was Zivior."
The whole room began to tremble due to spiritual pressure from Rilos the next second and soon returned to normal.
Meanwhile, Abium also got startled deeply and realized that he had already influenced the future.