After negotiating with the innkeeper and securing a suitable room, Turan walked to Banipel City's commercial district to aid digestion.
This place belonged to the major trade route connecting the east and west of the world, where merchants from both directions met and spread all kinds of culture.
Black sugar from the southern seas, silk and medicinal herbs from the east...
Though the items in the market were only a fraction of what existed, just looking at them made time fly by unnoticed.
As Turan was asking about and buying handfuls of new items, his eyes fell on something that looked like a white stone.
"What is this?"
"This? It's called soda ash. It only comes from islands in the southern sea, and they say it extends life when eaten as powder."
While self-proclaimed elixirs of immortality were sold everywhere in the world and not particularly special, the unfamiliar name stirred his memory.
Soda ash, he had definitely seen that name somewhere...
'Ah.'
Having realized something, he pulled out an old notebook from his bag.
Something he had obtained about a month ago after killing Obil the Burner.
There were several unknown formulas written in the back, and at the time, Turan had tried to find some ingredients for the formulas in Abacha but was disappointed when nothing turned up.
'Spirit of Fire formula: Mix 75 parts soda ash powder, 15 parts charcoal powder, 10 parts sulfur, then magically combine the three.'
Though he didn't know what Spirit of Fire was, considering its likely connection to the 'god' that had influenced Obil, he thought it might be worth attempting to make.
Looking at similar formats in other formulas, the units probably indicated ratios.
After buying two or three lumps of soda ash, Turan asked the merchant.
"Do you perhaps have something called sulfur?"
"Sulfur? Never heard of it."
After asking around various parts of the market about sulfur's existence, he finally got an answer from a merchant who imported goods from the east.
It was mainly found in volcanic regions, and while used for disinfection, there weren't many merchants who distributed it due to low demand.
Naturally, it was nearly impossible to find among the caravans traveling the Enril Desert.
'If I'd known this, I should have looked in Komad too. They would have more eastern goods there.'
Thinking about it, since there must be volcanoes even outside the eastern continent, it probably wasn't necessary to try so hard to find it.
Obil probably hadn't gone all the way to the eastern continent to get sulfur either.
"So, won't you buy this black sugar?"
"Sweet things aren't really to my taste."
After looking around the market a bit more, Turan went outside the city at sunset and called the black eagle through their soul string.
After a few minutes, a pitch-black shadow landed beside him.
The black eagle glared at Turan before scratching letters into the ground.
[Late!]
"Sorry. There was a lot to see in the market. I brought something tasty too."
When he gave it dried pork jerky seasoned with peculiar spices that were hard even to pronounce, the black eagle sniffed it for a moment before tearing and eating it using its beak and claws.
[Delicious!]
"I'm glad. Nothing unusual happened?"
After swallowing all the pork jerky, the black eagle began writing letters in the sandy ground one after another.
The speed was so fast that half of it had to be inferred rather than read.
That families of black eagles like itself lived in the mountains opposite that huge building, that there were foxes on the hill next to the city and rabbit burrows right beside them...
While none of this was particularly fascinating to Turan, each fact seemed to be an interesting topic for this creature.
"I'm glad you had fun. Do you think you could spend the next few days around here?"
[Why?]
"I probably won't be able to find good lodging. I'll come meet you every day. We can go sightseeing in other cities together too."
Turan didn't tell the black eagle that its presence would make it difficult to disguise himself as a commoner because it was too eye-catching.
It was not only hard to explain properly, but the creature might think it was being a hindrance.
Fortunately, living in the wild seemed to suit the creature's taste as well, so the black eagle readily agreed.
Though with one condition:
[More delicious food!]
"Alright."
==
Several days passed as Turan spent his time leisurely.
Usually, he stayed cooped up in the inn reading books or went near the city to practice magic, and sometimes called the black eagle to play or rode it to visit other relatively nearby cities to search for formula ingredients like sulfur.
Among these activities, magic practice mainly involved handling sand, given that they were in a desert.
'This is pretty good.'
In front of the nodding Turan, a large hollow had been carved into a standing rock face.
His current experiment was throwing sand loaded in a sling instead of stones.
He concentrated sand that would normally scatter into a round shape like a stone to use as bullets.
These sand bullets had several advantages.
He could change them into cone shapes mid-flight to inflict penetrating wounds, or split them into several smaller masses for area attacks.
Though it consumed slightly more magical power than throwing stones since he had to use power to compress the sand, it wasn't much difference unless in a prolonged battle.
'This means I should save the stones. Don't have many of them either.'
The carved stones he favored couldn't be carried in large quantities due to weight and volume issues.
The number he usually carried varied but was generally around five or six.
Against someone tough like Dolf from before, he would run out of bullets and have to rely on other magic like fireballs.
Of course, that was also because fire magic was highly efficient in the desert.
There were quite a few other things he could do with sand as well.
From binding ankles to blocking vision by mixing it with wind magic to scatter it, or moving through it as if swimming.
It was quite fun utilizing its intermediate properties - much more fluid than earth but heavier than liquid.
'That aside... I wonder what those noble lords are doing in the tomb all this time. It's been how many days now.'
Even though it was getting close to six or seven days since he'd started staying here, there was no sign of the seal on the Gods' Tomb being lifted.
Should he just look around other cities more since he didn't absolutely need to see it anyway?
After contemplating, Turan concluded it would be better to sneak in and take a look.
'Whatever, I can just run if I'm caught.'
He had gained such boldness thanks to the black eagle.
Even if he got caught by some security measures, what could they do if he ran away...
Though he was concerned about possibly offending the spirits in the tomb, he couldn't just dawdle around here forever either.
That night, Turan got a good night's sleep to maximize his physical and magical condition before heading to the Gods' Tomb.
The dark night meant it didn't consume much magical power to conceal himself.
Just as the entrance came into view, he saw two knights dragging someone.
[Mmph-mph-]
"Damn, why so noisy?"
"Keep them quiet. Don't kill them though."
The knights struck whoever was in the sack once before dragging them into the ruins.
Turan narrowed his eyes as he followed them while maintaining invisibility.
When he extended his senses, he detected as many as three nobles inside the ruins.
Were these the important people who had occupied the ruins?
Upon entering the tomb, Turan first observed his surroundings.
Stone walls fitted so tightly from ceiling to floor that not even a needle could pass through.
They were all made of an unnaturally white material that gave Turan a feeling similar to the old empire's roads.
Inside were old imperial relics preserved in glass, each with such unique shapes that their purposes were difficult to determine.
A large black rectangular box with glass attached to the front, a rod connecting two circular rings, even an iron plate with dozens of small buttons attached.
As he quickly scanned these while going inside, he saw the two knights from earlier and three nobles.
And one shabby-looking man who had been in the sack.
'This is strange.'
Anxiety, fear, and something else.
The same scent wafted from both the noble lords and the shabby man.
While it made sense for someone who appeared to have been kidnapped, why from the nobles?
The oldest among them gestured to the shabby man and spoke.
"Good, you brought him well. You! Take those loads and go inside there."
Turan's eyes widened in surprise when he saw where the noble was pointing.
There was a space with black whirlpools swirling in one part of the white brick floor.
A clearly unnatural space, definitely involving magical power...
Next to it were over a dozen large containers.
"W-what is that?"
"I did not permit questions. Enter."
The shabby man's brave question was instantly suppressed.
With one command from the noble, the body of the one who had asked creaked as it moved, picking up two containers before immediately disappearing into the whirlpool.
Magic that controls animals.
Though it was a technique Turan could use familiarly as well, this was his first time seeing it used on humans.
Turan quietly looked around.
What was that unknown space, and what were they putting inside it?
Given the unclear situation, withdrawing would be the wise choice.
However...
He looked at the black space at one side of the ruins.
For some reason, that mysterious whirlpool seemed to be calling to him.
Saying to come here quickly, that it was waiting for him.
At that moment, the nobles spoke.
"Will Lord Ferga be alright?"
"We have to hope so. We keep sending in food and water..."
"Should we not contact the main house?"
"Have you imagined what would happen if Lord Ferga's competitors heard that news?"
Ferga - it was a name he had heard before.
Hadn't that woman from the Zahar branch mentioned he was one of the candidates to be House Zahar's next heir?
So he had come here as a guest and fallen into that unknown space.
'That could be dangerous.'
If he was an heir candidate, though perhaps not as strong as Meisa, he would be an incredible powerhouse, so a space that could trap such a person could be sufficiently threatening to him as well.
Just as he was about to withdraw slightly, a thought suddenly occurred to Turan.
'This might be an opportunity.'
If Ferga was in trouble, perhaps he could earn some favor by saving him.
Just as he had naturally infiltrated House Berk by saving Asiz before, if he could naturally infiltrate House Zahar, he might be able to get information about his parents.
No, actually, that didn't matter.
An irrational impulse had taken hold of him.
Whatever the reason, it was telling him to go inside right now, that everything he wanted was in there...
Turan, maintaining his invisibility, moved to quietly pick up two containers like the shabby man had carried.
Being completely invisible, the nobles didn't even notice this action.
In that state, he slipped inside the whirlpool.
==
'It's dark.'
That was Turan's first impression inside the whirlpool.
Though he had half-forgotten the concept of darkness since awakening his magical power and gaining the Zahar bloodline ability, this place was dark enough to cause visual discomfort even for him.
'Damn it.'
Once inside, his head instantly cooled, and he became aware of how stupid his earlier logic had been.
Earning favor to infiltrate?
What guarantee was there that Ferga would be someone who knew to repay what he received like Asiz?
What could Turan do if he survived and reversed his attitude?
Above all, what if House Zahar's people found traces of Tallis in his face?
Should he make excuses that he just happened to look similar?
While that might work with an outsider like Karl, it would never convince main house people who would have frequently faced Tallis.
In the midst of such worries, an ear-splitting scream came from ahead.
"Aaaaargh!"
"Good, another one came in."
"It seems his people outside keep sending them in."
Beyond the dark vision, he could see the shabby man from earlier sprawled on the floor.
In front of him, whose hands were broken, were about ten nobles in practically beggar-like conditions.
Given the circumstances, they were clearly the ones who had harmed the man.
While gathering food and water, one of them pointed at the man rolling on the floor.
"Ah, that bastard's too noisy. Someone deal with him. We need to save food anyway."
"Yes, Lord Ferga."
At that order, another noble responded respectfully before immediately breaking the shabby man's neck.
Turan quietly watched them gather food and water and disappear while maintaining his invisibility.
'So that's Ferga Zahar...'
Even while killing people to steal food and water, he showed not even a hint of guilt.
At least he didn't look like someone who would know to repay favors received.
Just as he was frowning at this sight, voices entered Turan's mind.
[No]
[You]
[Are wrong]
[Night Hunter]
[No]