Chapter 10 - A kidnap

His face creased, he was dissatisfied and he answered.

"No."

The orb detected no strange deviation from his constant flow of Mana and came green.

Tiagon chose not to comply with the examination.

"Sir, like I said you cannot get a grimoire if you're not from the city. Only mages from the city can and you'll already disqualified for not knowing about the book of ethics"

Now Tiagon was aware of many artefacts back in the day, he even has a collection present in his subspace so they were not exactly new to him but they were still a strange existence to him. He knew they were created by artificers with powerful magic and that they trap their magic into objects but he had never been able to learn how to do so and later didn't feel the need to.

Now, he was having second thoughts.

"I misspoke, let's try again."

"Mister, you just can't…" The elf woman stopped in her reply and let out a sigh complying with his demand.

"Are aware of the mage's rulebook of ethics of Minastoma?"

He streamed an ample but concentrated Mana through the orb in an attempt to override its perception however; the orb of truth turned red telling that he had lied.

He looked at the orb feeling a little surprised by its verdict, it was certain that he lied but the orb was much too resilient In it's function. This was troublesome.

He slowly raised his head and he met the grimoire store owner glaring at him, she has had enough.

Now this grimoire owner was a middle-aged elf who had lived for a few millenniums, nothing to scoff at and so her Mana reserves were bound to be astronomical.

She had masked her magical power, reducing the appearance of the powerful energy flowing through her. Tiagon knew this however, he knew there was no way a middle-aged elven mage who also ran a grimoire store would have the Mana of just a slightly powerful adult human mage, he wasn't fooled.

So when she flared up her massive magical energy in an attempt to intimidate him, he wasn't surprised, he had expected that it would happen.

"You sir will leave!" She commanded, the sweet tone present in her voice previously now absent.

Tiagon backed away from the shelf and then out of his subspace–seemingly nowhere for the elf woman he brought out a large pouch of gold to sway her.

He shook it, if the size of the bag hadn't convinced her that it was large money, the clinking would but she made no favorable facial reaction.

His shameless act bore no fruit. He could take on the elf woman but it wouldn't be quick and silent and he would most likely attract other players, other players whose strength he's unaware of.

He placed his bag of gold in his dimensional subspace and walked slowly to the door, he opened it and then looked back–her murderous stare still present.

It was on to plan b, it was less dignified than he had wanted but anything for the grimoire.

Fortunately, Minastoma had quite a number of mages and they weren't afraid to show it as many flew about in brooms or just without anything.

It was time to pick someone for his deed.

He spotted a mage in an outfit he had seen on many others that he saw flying so it must belong to some organization, or perhaps a school uniform.

However, the young feeble human man with glasses on was but a magic knight–mages that police their designated areas and upload the law.

Tiagon skillfully crept behind him watching him move and ultimately stop at a pub, he intended to spend his break at it.

The pub was a little wooden building with so many folks present deterring Tiagon from taking bold steps thus, he stayed outside and leaned against the wall of a building passing as a jobless tall human.

Tiagon's nose caught a strange whiff in the air and he sneezed, he released quite a powerful one that his cover was almost blown as his body glowed in an angelic golden hue and his halo appeared above his head but quickly, he hid the features.

Fortunately, no one saw him. After about ten minutes, the human mage went to the side of the pub to pee, this was Tiagon's chance.

He swiftly thrust both hands, one willed the earthen wall of the building by the side to protrude creating a covering to prevent from the mage from escaping and the other created a black large portal beneath the mage's legs and he was swallowed.

Tiagon teleported in response and suddenly, they were outside Minastoma in the woods. The mage had fallen from the portal that appeared above and Tiagon appeared preventing him from falling and caught in his hands like he was a bride.

"Ahhh!" The mage cried.

Tiagon frowned, he grabbed the mage's mouth with his large hand and struck him hard against the ground and it was blacks out for him.

Almost an hour later, the mage regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes. He spotted his kidnapper and panicked once again.

"Ahhh!"

He also couldn't move, a bind of white light glued him to a large tree.

"Now be quiet." Tiagon said resoundingly.

The mage whimpered and nodded.

"Good, now I need your help with something."

The little mage made a muffled cry, tears running from his eyes.

"Oh, no need to react that way. It's just a little task. I'm not going to harm you as long as you prove useful to me. You get that?"

The human nodded in affirmation.

"You're going to get me a very special grimoire, a shapeshifting grimoire and you're going to be normal about it. You mustn't give away knowledge that you were forced or whatnot–you understand?"

He nodded again.

"You should know that I can easily kill you so no funny business, help me and you can continue with your life. Do you have money with you? Enough for a grimoire?"

For the first time since he was captured, he chose to speak.

"Yes I have money, I have enough money for a grimoire."

"Now what's your name?"

"Rein"

"Now Rein, we'll do this as we've planned. Do you get that?"

"Yes"