'Heh, so that's the reason Necromancer Rilos got himself killed by an Archbishop before his first rebirth, huh?' Abium instantly linked all those incidents and was convinced that the mysterious necromancer must be Undying Rilos.
'But where can I find him? Even if I find him, what should be my next action?' He suddenly stopped thinking and soon remembered the familiar face he saw when he walked out of the Red Meat Inn.
'Damn!... I didn't expect to meet him so soon here in this city. Well, Rilos hiding in that inn made my job easier. Hehe, let's see if he really has the strength to kill that Bishop Piers.' A bold scheme started to form in his head.
At the same time, Abium shifted his gaze towards Nicolaus and spoke while giving him a crystalline card.
''Nicolaus, I have a job for you. Take this money card after dusk and bring them to this city's Nature Temple. After that, donate this to Nature Temple and ask Silverland City's Nature Priest to cure both. Although those Nature followers are a little difficult to talk to, those guys will help. Also, bring these four guys along with you. Your strength should be enough to beat the Holy knights who stealthily monitor us, right?'' Abium asked.
"I'll take care of it." Nicolaus nodded his head and took the crystalline card from his hand.
At that moment, Abium also thought of the upcoming Expedition and continued while giving him a thumb-sized green crystal.
"Also, ask Nature priest to give us one Life Potion. As for the payment, give this to him."
Meanwhile, Nicolaus stared at the crystal in puzzlement and quickly realized it looked different from a magic crystal.
Indeed, it was a nature-elemental crystal, which Abium got from the Fex Dimension!
Without minding Nicolaus's puzzled gaze, Abium turned towards Fennelis and asked.
"Lady Fennelis, can you tell me who gave you the information about your husband? How did they know that he would go to the Taiga sloth woods? The Taiga sloth woods are not a place where one could randomly walk in."
"Well, I heard from a servant of the Royal family that our Beast Emperor sent the Assassin Squad to take back something hidden in this Tiaga Sloth woods." Fennelis paused for a second and then continued grimly,
"But later, I found out that Beast Emperor just used it as an excuse to send everyone from that squad to their own death. It's most possibly a trap set up by the Emperor himself to eliminate the future threat. That's the reason we came here to warn them."
Abium looked at her in surprise and asked with confusion.
''What can Beast Emperor achieve by sending your husband here?''
Fennelis's face turned sour as she made a bitter smile and replied.
''Emperor's target is not my husband but the leader of that squad. Sending a group of beast kin to other kingdoms is like sending goats to a slaughterhouse. Emperor must have planned to kill everyone, including the Assassin leader Edith, from the Assassin squad, using this Expedition as an excuse. Moreover, Edith is our previous Beast Emperor's granddaughter. Although she is the current Beast Emperor's niece, he doesn't want her to become the next legendary powerhouse. I even heard from the foxkin chief that the current Beast Emperor has hidden ties with the Light Church and always told us to be wary of him.'' Her words left Abium to fall into deep thoughts.
'Corruption and schemes are rooted everywhere. But the problem is how to get them out of the current situation.'
'If my guess isn't wrong, she must have already planned on joining the Expedition to the Taiga Sloth woods. Although the possibility of her husband still alive is almost none, I know she will never back down.' Abium knew how firm her will was and decided not to interfere much.
He then breathed out a deep sigh and shifted his attention to Umi.
'The most surprising thing is her growth. It's too terrifying. In the span of a few months, she had already advanced to the Royal Rank and became more mature. Her spirit power also reached 220 points!'
At that moment, he knew she could go toe-to-toe with any peak-level official-tier mage like him and even defeat him!
'As long as she continues to increase her spirit power, it will only be a matter of time before she reaches the true Royal Rank Beastkin.' It means that she might become a Third-Tier Powerhouse one day!
What was more impressive was that her shackles were already nullified, and she had great potential up ahead!
After a brief scan, Abium turned his gaze towards Fennelis and checked her status.
'Except for two first-tier bloodline spells, the rest four appear to be in a sealed state. Although her body got strengthened up to Noble Rank, her battle strength can be barely equal to a beginner-level official mage.' He couldn't help but shake his head.
"I have got an idea, My Lady. I will participate in the upcoming expenditure and look for your husband in the Taiga sloth woods. If I found them, I will definitely bring them back."
But Fennelis instantly shook her head and spoke firmly.
''No, kid. I also want to enter the Taiga Sloth woods. It's not that I don't trust you but I want to find him myself."
'As I thought, she won't back down at any cost. Bringing them might be a good idea.'
"Then, please make some preparations for the next week's expedition,'' Abium said solemnly.
After that, he was about to go back to gather more information but stopped as he saw a strange scroll on the corner.
He quickly walked closer to it and picked it up in confusion. Although he didn't sense any danger, he felt a trace of magic in it and got curious.
"Whose scroll is this?" Abium asked casually.
Meanwhile, Fennelis gave him a puzzled look and answered honestly.
"It's Lady Roysia's scroll, kid. She gave that scroll to me before she faints. I thought it must be something important to her, so I kept it safely here."
'Should I open it without her permission?' Abium pondered for a while and decided to open it.
Although it looked more like a spell scroll on the outside, it wasn't!
The scroll was filled with runic letters and appeared infused with pure light magic, creating a strange illusion around the scroll. But what made Abium feel helpless was that they inscribed those rune characters randomly, and the scroll had no meaning.
'Wait!... What if someone used a secret method to send a secret message through this scroll?' Abium stopped for a second and began to remember something from his past life. While on an escorting mission for a scholar group, he learned a few tricks to decipher secret codes from a famous scholar. That guy had taught him that many secret messages could be easily deciphered if one uses mathematics.
As he recalled those methods, Abium memorized the characters in the scroll and began changing the rune characters' order. He didn't move an inch and stood there motionlessly for a while, changing the characters' order to decipher the runes.
In truth, he learned ten methods from that scholar and used those to decipher many secret letters in the past.
For the next few minutes, Abium tried all the methods and soon frowned as he couldn't decipher the strange rune characters.