Chapter 58: Land of the Merchant.
Chapter 58: Land of the Merchant.
Levi continues their journey by land after crossing the Leston Kingdom. There is a problem along the way, but nothing can stop them. They also manage to increase the Horn Bear Mercenary rank from E to C by doing missions and destroying bandit lairs.
The arrival of spring and the blooming of flowers mean the end of the monster tide. They are now close to the Brusan Kingdom border.
Brusan Kingdom, the land of commerce The reason people called it that is because the founder of the kingdom is a merchant, not a warlord. Because of that, many top merchants come from the Brusan kingdom.
When the mass revolt happened centuries ago, the Brusan kingdom was one of the kingdoms that was least affected. Because of that, the federation had less influence in the kingdom.
Levi needs to pass the Brusan kingdom and the red sand desert to reach the Mage nation.
Four humans on horseback and a horned bear are traveling on the road.
Let us rest here before crossing the border." Levi order.
Finally, my back hurt." Otis comes down from the horses.
"I think I am sick." Jason's face was pale before he puked.
"You will get used to it," Clara said.
Levi tried teaching Jason the warrior path to strengthen his body. But he doesn’t have the talent to be a warrior. On their journey, Jason advanced to apprentice mage.
The problem now is that he only knows a few spells related to dark magic from the Vampirism book to teach Jason. Most of the magic inside the book requires a vampire bloodline to be used, and there is no other necromancy magic. While the basic and advanced magic element manuals don’t have any spells related to dark, poison, blood, lightning, light, or necromancy magic,
Most knowledge about dark magic in this world is forbidden and has been destroyed. But Levi is sure there must be people who learn dark, or necromancy, magic. The reason is simple: humans are greedy and selfish by nature. They want power and to live forever. Even some kingdoms had a necromancer and undead army in secret.
Jason, after feeling fine, remembers something. "Master Levi, once we reach the Brusan Kingdom, can we go to the Grosea Kingdom to meet my parents?" Jason's reaction suggests that he does not despise his family, despite the fact that they sold him.
"Fine." Levi agreed that it’s not like he is in a rush; the information he seeks is also not easily obtained.
"Thank you, master." Jason smiles; he can finally see his family again.
-
In the Brusan Kingdom, caravans can be seen entering and leaving the city. Since the monster tide is over, the merchants begin to move. In the sky, several large flying merchant ships flew into the horizon.
Levi, after showing his mercenary identification, enters the city. The people in the city are not afraid of the horned bear since they are already used to seeing monsters. There are many types of monsters being sold in the city. Some merchants even used monsters as mounts. Different from other kingdoms, here there are monster tamers that work for the merchant.
"Where are we going?" Clara asked.
"Gryphon Merchant." Since this is the land of commerce, they must have a magic shop. He is also a member envoy of Gryphon Merchant and can get a discount.
After asking around, they found a Gryphon magic shop. Inside the shop, there are many potions and magic items in a display case lined up in an organized manner.
"Welcome; do you need anything?" A beautiful female receptionist greeted Levi while the others waited outside.
"Do you sell a magic book?"
"Yes, what type of magic book do you want? We have almost all the magic books on the market."
"Do you have a book related to dark magic?"
The receptionist doesn’t show any reaction; there are many customers who asked the same question, and she has experience dealing with this situation. Once in a while, she even gets an enquiry that is so ominous that she calls the authority secretly. "I am sorry; we can’t sell anything related to dark magic."
"I understand; can you show me the list of the magic book?"
"Yes, follow me." The receptionist goes behind the counter, takes out a crystal ball, and puts it on the counter. "Please touch the crystal ball to see the list and price. If there is no book you are interested in, you can make a request and I will try to find it." The receptionist smiled.
When Levi touches it, he can see many types of magic and miscellaneous books. However, compared to the advanced magic element manual, the magic book here is basic. The kingdoms must have control over the advanced magic book to prevent it from circulating. While looking at the list, he found something interesting: the first book is about alchemy.
Apothecaries and alchemists, the former dealing with sickness and injury and the latter creating potions to heal any wound instantly, can create various types of potions with different effects.
However, becoming an alchemist is harder because you need to have the talent to become a mage, and it requires a lot of resources to become an alchemist. With this factor, only a rich family or organization can support an alchemist. But once you succeed, alchemy is a lucrative occupation.
Another book is about magic formation. After reading the information, Levi decided to buy several books related to alchemy and magic formation. It will take time before he reaches the fourth-tier mage. Alchemy and magic formation can help him advance faster.
After getting the books and buy some magic potions, he pretended to put them inside a bag before transferring them to the spatial storage. If people find out he can use space-element magic, there will be a problem. Rather than becoming a chess piece for someone else, it’s better to be a chess player. Because of that, he needs to get stronger.
-
"I want to go out of the city." A beautiful woman with blonde hair and gorgeous clothes is complaining inside the carriage.
"Miss Ember, the master has ordered you to stay here, or you can stay in the capital city." The middle-aged woman servant spoke.
"No, that is even worse." The capital city is the headquarters of Gryphon Merchant. She doesn’t want to be lectured by her grandfather. The beautiful woman is Ember, or Sir Kevin, who disguised himself as a man and followed the Austin caravan, the slave trader, to the Cirean Kingdom without permission. Because of the assassination attempt, she had been ordered to return and had been grounded as punishment.
"Stop the carriage." The horse carriage stops. Outside the window, Ember sees a horned bear that looks familiar, but it has three horns rather than one. After that, she saw another familiar person come out of the magic shop; it was Levi.
Ember suddenly had a mischievous idea.
"Mr. Levi, do you know who I am?" A beautiful woman walks in front of them.
Jason and Otis are stunned to see the beautiful woman. While Clara, wearing a mask, ignored her and thought about what food she should eat later.
Ben is lying down and standing up because he recognizes the smell. Someone who gives him honey
"Sir Kevin." Levi at first doesn’t recognize the woman, but the face resembles someone, and the smell of the perfume reminds him of a man with feminine features when he is hired as an escort in the Cirean Kingdom. He already suspected that Kevin was a woman but kept quiet about it.
"How do you know?" Ember is in shock because she never told Levi she was a woman.
"Your perfume."
"Hahaha, I can’t trick you. Let me introduce myself again. My real name is Ember. Let's come to my mansion and have lunch at my place." Ember is bored and has finally found someone she knows who doesn’t have any other intentions.
"Your friend can also come." Ember recognizes Clara, although she is wearing a mask. During the assassination investigation, everyone is under suspicion. Fortunately, there is no traitor, and she found out that Clara is the blood witch. Nonetheless, she doesn’t care because Levi's team saved her life. The culprit was the federation after the mayor exposed why he cooperated with them.
Levi agreed Ember's mansion is large, and before lunch is ready, they talk about what happened after they separated.
-
Jason's parents feel guilty after they sold him to the slave trader. Nevertheless, they had no choice. When they thought everything was over, a few days later they found out there was a problem with the loan agreement. The amount they needed to pay for the loan had tripled.
Because of that, they are required to work to pay off the debt. But when they thought things couldn’t get worse, they were mistaken. Every month, the interest starts to snowball, and now it's already impossible to pay.
In the city slum, the debt collector is threatening a family.
"Sir, it was impossible to pay the amount you wanted." The middle-aged man is Jason's father. The whole winter, he had worked hard, but it was still not enough to pay off the debt.
"Don’t worry, I understand. Give me one of your children; I will take care of your problem." A skinny man who looked like a drug addict spoke. He gazes at the little boy and girl beside the middle-aged woman, particularly the little girl, and smiles.
The little girl senses the man's gaze and hides behind her mother, scared.
"Please give me more time." The middle-aged man grovels on the ground.
"I will give you until next month if you don’t pay; you should know the consequence." The skinny man and his group leave.
Father, let's run away." A man in the twenty spoke; he is the eldest of the children. He already told his parents to give up on Jason and not take any loans, but now it was too late.
"Where can we run? The Black Roses gang is one of the biggest criminal groups in the Grosea Kingdom." The middle-aged man looks weary. His only hope is to work hard.