Aetius returned to the third floor of the Greg's Tavern, where he booked a room there .
After a finishing his bath he went down to the first floor to eat . Now the tavern was full of peoples. He found a empty chair and ordered his food showing by his room doors opener ring .
Aetius first though to keep wearing all the rings . They had both beauty and rich vibes around but I decided to throw them at the system space storages. They were quite heavy and left light bruises in his fingers.
" Well I have danger premonition type ability, so if I sense any danger , I can bring them out instantly. Regrettably I do not have any anti-prophesying artefact."
Aetius search at other prop shops but still failed to found a artefact that can resist divination.
"Now I wonder how the battle at Waterkoo ongoing !"
"I can't wait to receive the news . If our kingdom wins , I will let you drink for free ."
"The food price is very in cities, I will go back to my village with my wife and kids . Gohresei , wanna come with us ?"
"Yeah , my wife keep asking for money nowadays. Everything at market is now sold at at least for double the price. I am also thinking of going back to a countryside. I will come with you ."
2 men at Aetius tables are talking about the rising price at the market which made many people feel distressed.
Aetius suddenly thought something and jolted in realization.
'Now we are in a war against another country. That has caused supply chain shortages and made the cunning businessman to raise the price high even more higher .
Now people are also starting to stock food at a huge amount . So there will be food shortage soon . War has just started but the food prices are going up at a terrific rate . That will cause crime rate surge .
This city may not be much affected but the outside ones will definitely feel the burnt . This city is protected by a lot magi so here it will be safe but the outside of this city will become more dangerous. I must not leave this city easily or I may face trouble. '
Colos city is a situated on the important busy road of the nort-east of this kingdom . So it will have food supply all the time . Although price will be high but it will not easily run out of food .
But those cities which are not close to the busy roads will face a great food shortage. People will not only become hungry but they will also start robbing, lotting, murdering for food and gold .
'In the future I must stay cautious while going out . Hunger can turn a man into an animal that is far dangerous then normal brainless monsters.'
While I was eating and trying to hear something important, suddenly I saw something that made not only mine but everyone present become stunned.
Two big elves entered into the tavern. One is male and other one is a female both from moon elves . They both have long pointed ears like a normal elves . They are both slender and beautiful. Both the elves had arrow and bow in their back . The male one looks a bit muscular and cheerful . He has long silver hairs and a big crescent mark in their foreheads. He is 6 ft. tall .
The female one is very slim and a little smaller than the male one. She had a crescent mark in her forehead too . She had a arrogant expression on her face .
As soon as they both entered all of the people of this tavern stopped whatever they are doing and started to watch the elves including Aetius.
The female one had a disgusting expression on but the male on was completely opposite. He seemed to be happy to be here . Quickly, the owner of the shop came running at the door at invited them to get in . The owner of this shop took them to the second floors VIP rooms while talking in elvish language to them .
'Can I learn elvish?' Seeing that they gone to the second floor , I thought about that .
At that moment I heard something that made me stunned,
"Yeah , looks like Novgord empire has asked their allies elves to send help . So in near future you will see a lot of elves in this kingdom. Although they will not join the war directly but they will send a lot of materialistic support." A beard men gulped a glass full of wine and said in happiness.
" Why would elves got themselves involved in our humans affairs? Gaharoga, tell me , I will let you drink free today . "
" Okay , listen carefully, We humans lives between the elves of the south and dwarves in the north . Elves and Dwarves are each other's nemesis. The reason our human ancestors can settle in this middle Illariyan subcontinent has a lot to do with this hatred. Auspice empire is in the northern half of the human setting in this middle subcontinent. So they have always been with close relationship with the dwarves. Our ally Novgord is in the southern half of this middle subcontinent, so they have a lot of connection with the elves of the south . We human work as a border between this mortal enemies."
Aetius became interested hearing this. If you think about it, this notions really has a strong probability.
Humans in this middle subcontinent have a lot of neighbors surrounding them . In the east of this subcontinent is the place where dragon , giant, draconic beasts roams .
In the north , it is ruled by the dwarves who loves to live under mountains and hills . They love mining a lot . There are also a lot of different beasts lives there .
In the south, there lives many races of elves . They mostly lives in the jungle area unlike their enemy dwarves who lives in underground.
The west of this subcontinent is the place where there are also humans settlements.
That means we are sandwiched from all sides . It is a blessing that humans survived in this middle subcontinent.
'So that means the scope of this war in not gonna stay between only humans . Other races will also indirectly get involved in it !
Dark times are ahead .I must become stronger quickly or I will perish in this great war .
I can easily finish the system upgrade by buying the remaining 998 gallbladder's but it is not ideal .
Like last time , I can use this as a trump card of mine to hunt 998 magic beasts ! I must not waste this chance by simply buying them .
That's why , Yesterday, I gave experienced old hunter Prosores a job to give me a detailed information about the monsters around this city.
If I can have the knowledge of the magic monsters around this city I can easily prepare and hunt them down . That way I can turn them into gold coins , hehehe . '
...
After eating his lunch , he decided to buy some language books . His goal is to save elvish, and dwarves language books into his system .
In this middle subcontinent, humans speak almost same language with some slight variation from kingdom to kingdom, so he is not gonna waste time learning those .
So he went to a book shop and pretend to see a elvish language book , but he actually started to save them in the system. Within a minute, he saved a full book in his head .
Aetius pretended to asked about the books price . The shopkeeper answered to him . Aetius pretended to not have the amount and left with a sad expression.
He did the same acting while saving other elvish and dwarves language learning books . He saved a dozens of books just by pretending to check them .
'Hehehe , I saved a lot of money just by saving the language learning books in my head . Now all there is left is to learn them . It will not gonna be a easy task . Both elves and dwarves languages are hard to learn . This will take a lot of time and effort.'
Aetius spend a lot of time to go one store after another to copy the books which took a lot of time and now it is getting dark outside. So he decided to go back to his room in the Greg's Tavern.
'I wonder how the war at Waterkoo is ongoing!' Aetius looked west and thought seeing the blood red sun stubbornly resisting but still falling down to the west .
....
5: 55 PM ,Waterkoo
Panthrou was now looking at the falling sun in the west with a pained expression.
He was doing well in the beginning of the war . He killed 15 enemies with a little difficultly. It's all thanks to the fact that he luckily received a great buff at the very beginning of the war . He used this to the fullest and cut down 15 enemies successfully, who are happen to be newly joined peasants .
But the problem happened when he faced a good enemy soldier . That soldiers destroyed his shield with a single strikes of a big flails from a horseback.
He was hit hard by that full of spikes flail in his chest . Which caused many of his ribs to broke instantly. He could easily heard his own bones breaking sound with his ears . He cried in pain and fall to the ground coughing blood and guts .
Panthrou thought that it is his ending. He was thinking about his mother and father at that point . But suddenly a heavy armoured soldier from his side got there and skillfully cut the enemies horse and killed that enemy later .
Then he lost consciousness there . When he woke up he was lying in a hospital tent full of wounded soldiers like him . There some were crying in pain , some where shouting for lost limbs and so on .
Panthrou saw a bandage wrapped around his torsos. He looked around the tent and saw a huge Healing stone set on the top of the tent .
This is a healing stone ! Except lost limbs Regeneration it can heal all kinds of wounds and broken bones . This is a very expressive stone .
He can feel that his broken bones in the ribs are fixing at a slow rate and the pain also starting to lowing down ! But is still a long way to go . He is seeing that a lot of patients are dying in this tent , he heaved a sigh of relief thinking that he survived and didn't died like them .
"Maybe lord mages and priest are now fighting. Shit I can't see it because of the wound . Maybe our mages busting the ass of the moon bitches now ."
Panthrou is feeling sad to be unable to witness the mages, holy knights and priest's ongoing battle . He tried to up himself from his hospital bed , but felt pain and lay down in agony .
He saw a skinny young men close to his bed , who was now resting after bringing a wounded soldiers from the battlefield to here in this hospital tent . His whole bodies tunic is now full of blood and dirt .
"Hey brother, do you have a moment? I would like to talk with you ."
The young boy came close to his bed and sat beside him . He looked at the Panthrou's bandaged chest and said ,
" Did you got hit by a hammer ? "
I shook my head and replied,
" No , a horseman holding a big flails got me . That bastard destroyed my left hands iron shield into pieces with a single strike and succeeded in hitting my chest . I was prepared to die then . Luckily a heavy soldiers got their and killed that motherfuker . Or I would be dead by now ."
He replied to the skinny boy while remembering that horrible moment.
"You are really lucky to survive. I am tired carrying wounded and dead soldiers from the battlefield since morning . I just came after seeing the lord magi and churches holy priests fighting." The young boy replied with both tired and excited voice .
Panthrou quickly asked, " Brother please can you tell me how lord mages fought ? I lost consciousness after receiving this damn injury and just woken up a few minutes ago. I don't know how lord mages beat those bitch fuckers ."
The skinny boy leaned on a tents Piller and started to describe what he saw ,
" Lord mages and churches powerhouses started to enter the battle after the sun started to tilt to the west side . I never saw that kind of battle in my whole life . This was on a whole another level.
Fire, ice , water, lava, earth , iron and many many kinds of spells shrouded the whole battlefield. For the safety of us normal peoples, we could only saw it from a very far away , but I can still feel the monstrosity of them .
Even now while I am thinking about that , I am having goosebumps in my whole body . Our side had more magi then the other side . The enemies have a lot of priest and holy nights . I was very far away , so I didn't see clearly but this fight is definitely not for us ordinary people's.
Tomorrow morning will be the second day of the battle. More soldiers are entering in this battlefield every second. Looks like it will go on for a long time .
After the battle was over an hour ago , I saw whole grasslands was now gone and it is now look like a hell on this world ! If you get healed up , you will be surprised to see that battlefield. "
" Thanks brother . By the way I am Panthrou. What is your name ? "
" Lersoul. "
....
7:00 PM , Greg's Tavern 3rd floor .
Aetius just finished a quick shower and sat down at his bed . He is now completely naked. He stays naked while he is in this hotel room .
There are no one except him and the windows always remain closed . There are a special stone in every room which will keep the air fresh . They will send toiletries in every week if you order them . But Aetius is now flowing on gold's , so he didn't bother in that and brought a lot of daily necessities from the market before entering in his hotel room yesterday and today . Thank to that , he has almost everything needed here already. It will take a long time for them to finish and force him to buy them again .
' Yesterday I had around 310,000 gold coins. Today , I have brought a lot of defensive and offensive alchemy props ; Which costs me 120k .Now I have less then 190 k gold coins.
Regardless, I have no regret, money is always meant to be spent . If it can't be of any help to it's bearer, then it is just a damn weight but else . In the face of my own safety, I will do whatever I can to strengthen myself ."
Then Aetius bring out the big math book given to him by Julie. This math book in very thick and robust. It is very old book . He saw the date of it's publication.
30th December, 38th year of king Roggiest era .
Seeing this , Aetius started thinking about this .
'King Roggiest, isn't that's the name of the king of this kingdom who committed suicide out of shame? King Roggiest's stubborn and blind believe in his kingdoms strength cost this kingdom to lose 1/3rd of it's original land to the Hussar kingdom.
King Roggiest back then thought that he can easily handle Hussar kingdom just by himself. So he didn't took the aid from the Novgord or it's allies. But Hussar kingdom received a lot of material support from it's ally Auspice empire and it's allies. So this kingdom meet lost tragically back then . Luckily the new king after him immediately sought help from the Novgord empire , or this kingdom would be curved by half by the Hussar kingdom back then .
It's more than 100 years since king Roggiest committed suicide , so this math book is more than 100 years old! This book has more then 3 thousands pages , it will take a while to save it ."
Aetius opened this math book and started to flip it's pages one after another . He will save it in his brain for kingdoms math championship.
....
7:00 PM , Colos school , girls dormitories .
"That handheld mirror that Aetius gifted to Julie was so beautiful ! It was sparkling so beautifully under the sun that I was stunned ! "
" Really ? I asked Julie to let me see it , but she denied saying that she didn't have anything like that ."
" That handheld mirror was oval shaped and had a small handle which was full of beautiful gems ! It's back frame had a beautiful rose painting. I really envy her a lot . Aetius gifted such expensive hand mirror to her . If I had it ....! "
" Aetius really no longer loves Celine , did he ? I think he is teasing Celine by gifting Julie such an expensive gift . If my boyfriend gifted me such a luxurious gift , I would cry in joy !"
" Julie is so mean , just let us hold it for a second at least! It's not like we will steal it or break it !"
Before going to bed , many girls would gossip each other . Today was not an exception to this . Tonight's main topic was Aetius's gift to Julie . A lot of students saw while Julie received a beautiful handheld mirror from Aetius Infront of the girls dormitories entrance.
4 girlfriend's are also gossiping with each other in a room .
Sina ,the beautiful pink haired girl, said as if she was seeing that beautiful mirror with her own eyes like she saw today at noon .
"You three had already returned to your rooms , so you didn't saw that . I was happen to be there , Aetius gifted such a beautiful handheld mirror to Julie .
That hand mirrors was decorated with so many rare gems that I was shocked! It was gleaming so beautifully under the sun that I was really mesmerized! I never saw such a beautiful handheld mirror!
Even Cassandra, of class 3B , who's father is an antique businessmen, said that she never saw so beautiful handheld mirror in her father's shop !"
Rosa , the white haired girl said angrily,
" Celine , I am sure that bastard has some dark intention. He wants you to regretting for leaving him . Don't think about that Aetius."
Maria, the black haired girl said in a thoughtful manner,
" Aetius no longer lives in his school dormitories. Many boys saying that he won a big lottery and now living in city. He wears expensive clothes and also has a space bag . Did he brought that handheld mirror after spending his lottery money ?"
Rosa said in disdain, " Hmph , I think he is doing something illegal. He will soon be caught by the lord mages of this city . I am 100 percent sure about that ."
Sina quickly said , "But if he is doing something bad , shouldn't he look cautious and scared? But he looks like more healthy and calm then before !"
Rosa said with a laugh ,
" That bastard is just acting to be calm , I can guarantee you that he is doing something henious and sinful to earn his wealth. Let's bet , shall we ?"
Sina said while taking deep breath and said loudly,
" Okay , Aetius is not doing anything bad , 100 gold coins !"
" That bastard is up to no good , 100 gold coins."
Celine , unlike other days, didn't join their discussion. Celine had a mixed feeling that she can't identify which was her real feeling.
She wanted to severe her bond with Aetius after successfully becoming a mana awakener. Celine knew that she will embark in a great journey after finishing her school life , so she mentally prepared herself to kick Aetius out of her life .
Aetius is still a mortal with no mana tip-off event. So she is destined not to stay with Aetius. She tried her best to force Aetius to forgot her , but Aetius would always try to get close to her .She hated this very much and insulted him for the past 3 years of her school life .
All suddenly changed, 6 day's ago . Celine with her few class boyfriend's beat him like they usually do occasionally. But the problem was that those boys then forced him to take an oath in the name of a sacred name like 'Eternal Flames'.
'Eternal Flames' is believed to be the reason humans can use mana powered abilities. It is very scared and powerful name . Any misuse of it will have a sever consequences. No one dares to take an oath in this name casually. If they do son, they will instantly die ! Even if the one who vowed in this sacred name is innocent, he will die for using this sacred name . So even the criminals are not forced to take an oath in this name .
Celine wanted to stop the boys from forcing Aetius to take a vow in this sacred name . But she thought something and didn't stopped them but encouraged them to do so .
Celine , wanted to see Aetius dead .
She believed that Aetius is the sign of her past lowly self . She grew up with him in that orphanage. They once promised to grow old with holding each other's hand .
Celine believed that she needs to see Aetius dead to start her new life as a mage . So she just silently watched Aetius to take a vow in this name .
She saw Aetius lost consciousness after taking the oath , so she thought that Aetius will die . Even though she was feeling sad but she told her that it was necessary for Aetius to die for her .
Now , hearing that Aetius gifted Julie an expensive gift, she was feeling a deep jealousy and anger .
Celine's one mind was telling her that Aetius's matters had nothing to do with her . Whether he lives or dies is not her matter . She just needs to focus on her life . Aetius forgot her , she should also do the same and forget about him .
Celine's other mind was completely opposite of this. That part of mind was feeling sad that Aetius didn't gifted her that beautiful handheld mirror which become the talk of the girls dormitories. If she received that gift , she would be the matter of envy and jealousy of other girls like Julie !
....
Filp ... flap .... flop...
In a quit room , Aetius is flipping a big books pages one after another. He has been flipping this big math book and saving it's data into his mind for 2 hours now .
Aetius simply crossing over the books evey pages just after taking a look at them . He not even wasting a second on a single page . He already finished saving one-third of the whole big math book .
Aetius decided to take a break and go up from his bed . He is now completely naked . Aetius doesn't like to wear anything when he is alone . He loves to stay naked whenever he sleeps .
He drank a glass of water and saw the big wall clock in the drawing room . It is now 9:01 PM .
'Lets wear my clothes and go eat something."
Eventually, Aetius finished wearing his clothes and wore the black robes to hide his teenager appearance. Then he opened the rooms door using his key ring and got out.
Now , the third floors corridor was full of people's. A lot of people's are going in and out of their respective rooms . Aetius saw the elves couple he saw today during lunchtime in the tavern!
The male elf was energetic and was ahead of the female elf . Like most of the people, Aetius was also watching them .
The female elf saw Aetius and said something in elvish language making a contempt facial expressions.
Aetius didn't understand what she said looking at him and started to check an elvish language book to find about the meaning .
'gufto' means 'child' in the elves of the southern part of the Illariyan subcontinent.
'ljgjkoyty' means 'wear' , 'gijjalshie' means 'crime' and 'lkjhhkjgffoc' means ' clothes '.
What does that mean ? Child wear crime clothes..... Don't tell me!!!
I was stunned and shocked. She see through my black robes and knew that I am a teen !!!
I started to sweat heavily and saw the walking away elves back while gulping a mouthful of saliva .
'Is that her ability to see through object or something else? No No No , it is a warning! Powerful people's may easily see behind this robes ! I need to be careful from now on . This female elf has no interest in me , so she just walk away . But if this is an enemy, he will take this chance to harm me !
I must never came before a ranked people wearing this robes because they may easily see through it ! Looks like the world is more dangerous then I expected! You never know what mistake you make which will cost you a lot .
Thankfully, the female elf revealed it and I also happen to save an elf language book today , which came in handy just now . This means wearing this robes , I can only fool ordinary people , not powerful people's !
Thinking this , Aetius gone down to the first floor and started to eat his dinner .
.....
In a dark big laboratory, there are a lot of miscellaneous things scattered around . Books, glass jars full of different kinds of animals organs , glass bottles full of many colored liquid and a dead body of a magic monster kobolds women corpse.
Mage Fasimeiu ,is now with his dozens of disciples busy cutting the kobolds corpse.
Fasimeiu ,won this speed type rank 1 magic monster kobolds corpse in the magic monster auction house. He spent 70 thousands gold coins for this monster corpse.
But he had no regret but only happiness . If he wanted to collect this magic monster corpse from a magi gathering places, then he had to exchange with valuable things with other mages . Anyway, gold coins are useless to him . So he would have no regret even if he had to spend 100 thousands of gold coins.
Fasimeiu, like many mages has his own disciples .He has 14 disciples who obey his commands and help him with many chores .
They are the young men and women's who failed to awaked mana but still are very passionate about magi path . Working under an official magi is a great honor in society. There are many competition for becoming a mages subordinate. These 14 men and women's are from rich family's who wanted to follow a mage .
Fasimeiu receive a lot of request from many people to make themselves his disciples. In this 4 years of his station in this city , he now has 14 disciples. Some are responsible for cleaning his big mansion, some help him in laboratory and some are responsible for myriad of matter.
Fasimeiu has almost no use of gold coins. Colos city gave him this huge mansion to stay . Gold just piled up without much use .
These subordinate stayed with him to keep in touch with an magi to learn the magi mysteries. Fasimeiu pay them 10 thousands gold coins each which is a astronomical amount for these 14 young mans but for him it's nothing. He receives 350,000 gold coins every month from colos family for monitoring the city .
Now Fasimeiu is instructing his subordinates to how to cut the kobolds women's corpse. He gave his subordinates number as names.
" number 10 , be careful, do not damage the liver ."
Fasimeiu was sitting in a chair and instructing one of his disciples to not damage the liver .
"Lord mage, the liver area has a lot of dry blood .Is it normal ?"
"Number 6 , stop in the leg section and help the no. 10."
A beautiful women was peeling of the kobolds legs skin . She heard the mages comand and stood up immediately.
" Yes lord mage ." She replied energetically.
A men who's name was number 4 , said while looking at the missing gallbladder.
"Lord mage, are kobolds do not have gallbladder?"
Mage Fasimeiu, who was observing from a distance away to not dirty his clothes , immediately came close to the kobolds corpses chest and focused.
Mage become a little strange seeing this and started to fiddle that area with his own hands .
Number 6 woman become curious and asked mage Fasimeiu,
"Lord , how this kobold womens corpse doesn't have a gallbladder? Is that possible?"
Mage Fasimeiu shut his eyes to think about this . All 4 of his disciples also stopped cutting the kobolds corpse and waiting for mages reply .
After a few seconds he opened his eyes and said in uncertainty,
" Did this kobold womens was born without a gallbladder? or there are another reason?" mages said and started to give command.
"Number 4 ,6 ,10 and 11 quickly cut this corpses liver and stomach."
" Yes lord mage." the four of them said together and started to work in that area .
" number 1" mage Fasimeiu called for a disciple.
Soon , a young men quickly came and give a vow . "Yes lord mage , I am here ."
"Go bring the book named ' asarianaoi's thousands mana beasts' book. " Mage ordered his no. 1 disciple to bring a book to him .
Number 1 quickly ran away to bring the book . Soon , the number 1 disciple brought a thick book .
" Go to the magic kobolds chapter and search for kobolds gallbladder. Tell me what is written there about the magic kobolds gallbladder."
Number 1 nodded and started to search and a minute later he replied.
" Lord , kobolds gallbladder has no special importance or value . Some alchemist use its gallbladder for making cheap medicine's only . It's price is only 4 gold coins in market as of 30th king Ronald era ."
" Hmm , if it is not important then why the seller took it . But more importantly how he took it ? What kind of ability or skill is this , which can target a gallbladder inside a magic monsters body ? This is one of the stranger things I have witnessed so far !"
" Sir we have separated the liver and the stomach."
Mage Fasimeiu left the book to no. 1 and go to the table where the organs were . He carefully checked it with his own hands.
All of the 14 disciples of his are also waiting for mages reply. They never saw thier master so serious before . They know their mage master for four years as a lazy person who would let his subordinates do the small tasks. Except reading and research he never likes to do anything.
But today this carefree lord of their is very focused on the issue of the kobolds missing gallbladder. So they are also curious why this matter attracted a rank 1 mages attention. Like ordinary people, they wants to know about the mystery . they joined as a mage disciples because they have a lot of curiosity about the magic and magic users. So they are eagerly waiting for mages reply.
" What time it is ?" Fasimeiu asked his disciples while checking the empty place where the gallbladder should be ."
" 10:34 PM"
All of the disciples quickly replied. It is as if they are competing amongst themselves who can answer faster.
"Okay I am going out , prepare some fruits and wine . I may bring lord salvo with me , so quickly clean the drawing room . Do not touch the kobolds corpse."
Mage Fasimeiu left after giving the tasks.
" Quick, lord salvo will come soon in our mansion! hurry up and start cleaning and prepare !" Number 1 ,who act as a leader of this 14 disciples quickly issued the orders .
....
"Hmm , I think it is a mage ability to target a specific organ in a body . That mage is very powerful and mysterious. It will be best not to enrage such experts."
Rank 3 mage , who was on his duty came in Fasimeiu's mansion after hearing this strange things.
"Lord what may be the skills name ?" Fasimeiu asked curiously.
"Maybe astral claw or shadow harpoons. But it is quite odd , so I am not sure . Anyway a gallbladder of kobold is just fart . I will suggest you not to to go deep into this lest call for a danger ." Rank 3 mage Salvo warned Fasimeiu and left to go back to his job .