25th December, Gerian Kingdom, Zistedel Empire.
Magford
It was a remote town in the northwestern part of the Gerian Kingdom and was governed by a second-tier mage named Hider. Even though it was a small town, hundreds of Holy knights and warriors were stationed there at that moment, making it a mighty stronghold.
It was early Morning.
At that moment, a messy blonde-haired warrior around 40 entered the town, showing his identity, and went towards Nobles' Street. He wore standard black armor, brown linen clothes, and old boots. His deep-set hazel eyes wandered everywhere, and his stern face looked more solemn. He had thin eyebrows, a hawk nose, and a pear-shaped face.
He didn't stop anywhere and soon arrived in front of the city lord's six-layer Magic Tower. Afterward, he went in while showing his identity card at the entrance.
Within a second, multiple harmless spells scanned his body, and soon a soulless voice asked coldly.
"Welcome back, Oliver Magford. Please choose your destination."
"Send me to Section 0." He spoke in a cold tone. He felt the space around his body distort a moment later and soon disappear from there.
He reappeared in a dark underground tunnel and quietly observed the surroundings. Fire torches were placed on the tunnel walls' sides, giving off a dim yellow light everywhere. Oliver Magford went forward in the dark tunnel without any fear in his eyes and soon arrived in front of a five-meter-tall black door, which two holy knights guarded.
Noticing his presence, the two holy knights gave a polite nod and opened the gate without any inquiry.
Meanwhile, Oliver stepped in and went inside the long dark chamber filled with countless prison cells. In those prison cells, some appeared in a crazy state, while others stood with half-dazed faces. He didn't glance at those prisoners and went deeper into the chamber.
Although he could hear curses, cries, angry yells, and swears from those half-crazed prisoners, he wasn't affected much. After a long walk, he arrived in front of a large prison cell and sighed deeply.
At that moment, he saw a bloody figure pinned on the wall, and most of that figure's skin was removed using blades. Because of some unknown person's constant torture, the prison cell was painted dark red and looked scarier. The humanoid figure wore a torn blue robe at that moment and only had a few long blonde hairs remaining on the humanoid figure's head.
"It's been a while, Oliver." A cold female voice filled with a hint of sarcasm and mockery came out from the bloody figure.
Even though her whole body was pinned by nullifying metals, she spoke like she wasn't affected by any pain.
"Good to see you again, Lady Thea." Oliver smiled wryly and greeted her.
"So, how is my son? Has he grown up already?" Thea asked in an exciting tone.
Upon hearing her question, a weak smile appeared on Oliver's face.
He stood there silently for two seconds and replied with a solemn voice.
"I failed this mission, My Lady. With that chaos ring, I managed to control goblins and attacked Viscount's son's group. But your son somehow managed to kill most of the goblins and spoiled my whole plan. After that, he moved into the woods and disappeared. I tried to track his footsteps, but he somehow erased his footprints. I searched for him all over at the Baxborn woods but couldn't find a clue about him."
"Are you saying that he had already chosen the Warrior path?" Thea asked in a confused tone.
"No. Back then, Abium was just a normal mortal." Oliver shook his head firmly and continued,
"He somehow... I felt like some higher being was guiding him in the dark."
"Impossible!" Thea instantly thundered and added,
"Although he has my Elven bloodline, he has no excellent affinity. Hmm, something seems off."
Oliver also nodded his head, suddenly thought of something and began to hesitate.
Noticing his hesitation, Thea waved his pinned bloody hand and asked curiously.
"Why are you hesitating? Do you have any other information?"
Without any other choice, Oliver nodded his head helplessly and spoke.
"Although I couldn't find anything about your son, I heard a rumor when I went to Dewsummit city." He deliberated for a moment and continued,
"I heard that a mage named Abium became an official mage of the Academy and even became close to the Royal Family. Peral Kingdom's late King even granted him a noble title and territory."
Although Thea became interested when she heard the name, she soon sighed in disappointment.
"Abium is a common name all over the Easica continent, Oliver. It's not strange for a mage to have that same name."
Oliver was stunned by her words but soon said, shaking his head.
"He is a Royal Elf-"
Just as he finished his words, an immeasurable pressure exited the prison cell and pushed him back.
"Are you sure?" A deep voice with an aura of dominance came out from the prison cell and thundered in his ears.
"Yes, My Lady." Oliver nodded and tried his best to stand steadily.
After that, both went silent for a whole minute.
After a long silence, Thea spoke with a weary tone.
"He is going to search for his origin sooner. But if he did that, Elder Seer will find out about his location."
Oliver also nodded and felt all their hard work had gone to dust.
"I don't want my son to be imprisoned near me." Thea's bloody amber eyes opened in the dark prison cell as she looked at Oliver with pleading eyes.
"Within a few decades, he will come to this place and might get caught by the Elder Seer. Oliver, can you tell him not to come and look for me?"
"That will ruin the fun, Thea." But before Oliver could speak, another voice came from the prison depth.
Soon, a figure with a white mask walked out of the darkness and looked at them icily. A smiling face was drawn on the mask, and that person almost looked like a clown.
"Elder Seer!" Both Thea and Oliver shouted in alarm!
Thea felt uncontrollable fear and helplessness as she stared at the masked figure and tried to move her pinned hands and legs.
'Why? How?' She couldn't understand anything about the current situation and became confused.
'Did my son find a clue about me already?' An absurd thought appeared in her mind!
But she instantly denied that possibility.
'No, Elder Seer is here meant Abium must have found some clue about me! But how?' Thea felt that something had gone wrong with their plan and got panicked. In the meantime, Elder Seer arrived beside Oliver and turned his head towards Thea.
"Heh, so your son's name is Abium, huh? I want to meet him badly now." He said coldly.
Elder Seer looked at Thea's bloody figure for a second and walked out of the dark underground chamber like nothing had happened.
Meanwhile, Thea and Oliver felt struck by a bolt of lightning and lost their composure.
…
30th December, Blackrock Port, Wadel kingdom.
It was around 6 A.M.
Abium, in black-haired human appearance, stood at the entrance of Blackrock port town and waited for gatekeepers to open the gate. At that moment, he wore a soft, narrow-sleeved black linen cloth, the same color pants, and shoes without heels and looked like a young warrior. Behind him stood a long queue, most of whom were slave merchants, slaves, and adventurers. Everyone had tired expressions as they looked at the gate and looked impatiently.
Abium also saw a few thugs mingled in the crowd and furrowed his brows.
'Are these guys bandits? Or pirates?' Abium thought to himself and soon widened his eyes as he saw a tattoo on their wrist.
'Violet Rose! They are the men of Violet Admiral.'
In the last ten days, Abium collected more information about the Evil Eye organization using various methods and finally found out about those responsible for transporting the Mermaids to the Holy See.
'Well, I didn't expect Rain Merchant Company and Violet Admiral would be collaborating with the Light Church.' He heaved a deep sigh and looked abruptly at the three-layered Magic Tower at the town's center.
'Hmm, something is not right.' Abium frowned momentarily and soon sensed a powerful figure scanning his body.
'Is it a second-tier mage? Or a Bishop of Light Church?' Abium creased his brows and soon noticed the guards opening the gate.
'So, they were waiting for that figure's approval, huh?'
'It seems a second-tier powerhouse is constantly guarding this Blackrock port town. I must meet Nadine and Smith quickly and gather information about this town first.' Abium became more careful and entered the town without alerting anyone.
'I thought it would be easy for me to get a bottle of Elite Rank Mermaid blood. But it seems I need to act carefully.' He thought to himself and moved towards Adventurers' guild. On his way to the guild, he saw many humans, beastkins, and even some elven slaves and became startled.
'It seems half of this town's population are only slaves!' His amber eyes constantly flickered as he scanned everyone's status while walking. All those slaves' faces looked pale and appeared devoid of emotions due to the strange runes on their foreheads. But what made him frown was that there were many dead slaves thrown near the dark alley like garbage and rotting.
The rotten smell assaulted him whenever he walked near those areas, and he became more dissatisfied.
'Terrible!' Abium muttered under his breath and continued to walk.
After a few minutes, he arrived at the Adventurers' guild entrance and walked inside.
Unlike the one in Silverland City, this Adventurers' guild was small. He used his Jeeves identity to register his name and began to search for Nadine and Smith.
After asking a few adventurers, Abium soon found out where they were staying and became stunned.
'Why did they choose an Inn next to the Harbor?' Abium furrowed his brows and quietly walked out of the Adventurers' Guild. After that, he moved to the main Street and soon entered Harbor Street after fifteen minutes of walking.
Unlike the other streets, Harbor Street was filled with wooden huts and tiny houses made of palm trees and appeared more like slums. Fishing nets, small boats, and dried fish were placed everywhere, giving off a unique atmosphere.
Although some slaves worked here and there, all of them looked healthier!
Abium also heard wave sounds from the other side of Harbor Street and thought that place must be seashore. His arrival also attracted others' attraction, and some gave him malicious stares. But Abium responded to them sternly and went towards the only inn at the farther end of the Street.
Within five minutes, he arrived in front of a two-storied inn and walked in quietly. After booking one room, he moved towards the second floor and knocked the room number 202 thrice.
A second later, a black-haired young woman, around 20 years old, opened the wooden door and instantly smiled while bowing her head.
She was none other than Nadine!
"We were waiting for your arrival, My Lord."
Abium was pleased to see her in good health and nodded in response. In truth, he was more pleased by their honesty and dedication.
If he had asked other adventurers to do this same job, they wouldn't take this mission very seriously like these guys.
"Come in, My Lord." Nadine invited him. Meanwhile, Abium walked in and soon noticed Smith sitting on the concrete floor.
Noticing Abium's arrival, Smith instantly stood up and greeted him respectfully. Abium, on the other hand, waved his hand and turned his attention to the balcony. He arrived at the balcony's edge and peered at the deep sea, filled with multiple boats and a few ships.
After that, he calmly looked at the jetty, then towards the entrance channel, and finally focused on the Anchorage area. But the next instant, his eyes widened.
At that moment, three pirate ships, two naval ships of Holy Light, four Wadel Kingdom's naval ships, and one large cargo ship were already docked at the Harbour.
'All of those ships are heavily guarded.' He furrowed his brows.
But what startled him more was that he even saw a few first-tier mages standing on guard. He also noticed some merchants were shipping slaves, weapons, and other goods from the town and got stunned.
'Wadel Kingdom started preparing for war from the beginning of the Chaos Era, huh?' He couldn't help but take a deep breath.
"My lord, they are transporting 25 mermaids this time. I heard from a soldier that these ships will depart tomorrow morning." Noticing his gaze, Nadine gave crucial information.
'There is still some time. Evil Eye organization has the Royal family's backing. Tsk, I will get a bottle of Mermaid Blood and flee from this town for now. An uneasy feeling has also appeared in my heart in the past few days. l have to rank up to a second-tier mage before going to Zistedel Empire.'
Abium made up his mind and soon curled his lips upward as he stared at the slaves' appearance.
'Blue skin, glittering scales, and fish-like bodies… No doubt about it. They are transporting mermaids through this cargo ship. It seems I came at the right time!' He let out a sigh of relief. But he knew that if he made a move to kidnap any Elite Rank Mermaid, it would be like courting his death.
But if he missed this chance, he had to wait another six months to get a bottle of Mermaid's Blood.
'Should I assassinate the second-tier powerhouse first and threaten others to free those slaves?' A bold thought came to his mind.
'No... That's too dangerous! I don't have any information about that second-tier powerhouse hidden in the Magic Tower.' Instantly his expression froze as he completely forgot about the magic tower!
'The second-tier powerhouse will be invincible as long as he stays in the range of the Magic Tower.' He muttered solemnly.
Without any other choice, he quietly began to think of a plan while watching those soldiers and merchants transporting those goods. At the same time, Nadine asked.
"My lord, do you need any other information?"