Rudolf listened to the report and watched the recording of the battle in deep thought.
It turned out that the escape and survival abilities of this Mage were quite impressive, which means that a lot of resources would have to be used to capture. In addition, it was not known whether all the tricks were demonstrated by Sam.
Considering the current tense situation in the Central Continent and the fact that Rudolph did not plan to use the figurine in the coming decades, he decided that it would not make sense to pay too much attention to this issue now. You can postpone it for a while.
Thus, he gave his approval to Steel, who in turn would send someone with the promised information to Orion. Although there was a lot of information and only the Mages of the organization usually received full access, but in general it was not considered top secret, but rather used as one of the bargaining chips.
-
A month later.
The invisibility spell proved extremely useful to me. Although it could not hide steps, vibrations, and the like, other means could be used for these purposes, which in combination made this spell extremely useful.
Wine Grapes of Life I chose because I didn't want to kill Melrose unless absolutely necessary. Although he gave me the knowledge that I needed, it took a lot of time and resources to study and create the appropriate formation. It would be much easier if the old man could be persuaded to cooperate, and life extension grapes could play a key role in this.
Initially, I planned to go to the Reserve on my own to look for Stephanie's footprints and at the same time grapes, maybe find something else of interest. But I never managed to catch on to some useful tip in a conversation with Creston, and I already received the grapes. Thus, the issue of the Reserve could be postponed for the future.
The recipe for the artifact was quite simple and did not have too high protection. But it was a classic recipe using magic crystals as an energy source and there were no strict requirements for materials, and it was much easier and cheaper to recreate such an artifact than the same smoking pipe.
This pipe was too difficult to recreate so far and I put it aside for a while. Most likely it was created by a True Magician or someone stronger, perhaps as an experiment.
I was already planning to train my people and give them equipment from subspace to try and establish mass production given the number of sky crystals in stock. I also planned to create a special sky crystal armor for my people, so that I could immediately add magical protection to the design.
Although the barrier from the recipe was not strong, it protected not only from actual damage, but also from mental attacks. The armor of the heavenly crystal will protect against physical and magical attacks, and the water barrier will protect against mental attacks and internal damage when wearing the armor if configured properly. Thus, you can create a group of warriors who will be practically invulnerable to everyone below the True Mage. Moreover, it was enough for them to have good physical characteristics.
Sallinger's only son was only three years old and Sam visited him, making sure he was well taken care of and given a proper upbringing. In the future, he would try to help him become a Mage and a Knight, that was all he could do for the late Sellinger at the moment.
His death was a sad event, but everyone who went with me knew the risks. In the future, many of them may perish one way or another, rather, my people are quite lucky that so far almost all of them have remained alive and prospered.
I ordered a small banquet to be organized and the most powerful nobles of the Erinz Kingdom to be invited. Of course, this invitation was formal and polite, there was no need to accept it. But in the end, more than fifty high rank nobles gathered.
In addition to gifts, each of the nobles tried to get me more prisoners guilty of certain serious crimes for my research. It was not easy to do this, since such prisoners were most often quickly sent to the mine for the extraction of magic stones, but considering my request, they still found a couple of hundred criminals total.
Right now, I was sitting in a place of honor in the hall using my old dark iron armor. Communicating with people while sitting in a three-meter battle golem was not very convenient. The dark iron golem no longer matched my current strength, so I opted to mold it again into knightly armor of human height and build.
Given the cloak and other decorative elements, this armor did not cause rejection from people and even looked quite attractive, while my movements looked quite natural and human-like.
Although Mages could look different and every noble knew that my body resembled some kind of walking armor, it would be rather awkward to communicate if I were in the form of a three-meter giant.
The nobles approached me one by one, exchanging pleasantries with me and assuring me that they were ready to help in everything if I needed anything, and so on.
I paid attention to each of them without feeling impatient, answering respectfully and accurately. True Magicians rarely sought out meetings with the nobles, much less openly communicated with them in this way, however, I was in no hurry and was ready to pay due attention to this issue.
Another viscount approached me and, after greetings and presenting a gift, made an interesting request.
- Lord Tarrister, forgive me for being rude, but I wanted to ask if you have healing skills?
This Viscount looked quite young, in his thirties. Even when he was approaching, I heard what he was going to ask, and many in the hall fell silent, paying attention to us.
Almost no one possessed healing skills among Mages. The element of light was precisely the element of light, this element did not have any ability to magically heal people. At best, some Magicians used the same blood element or other elements and could handle wounds to some degree, but usually no one was bothered to do that.
Therefore, alchemy and herbalism in this matter came to the fore. The same ointment used by the Knights in Outland was one option. There were also healing and life-saving potions, a couple of which I got from the corpses of my victims. But it was extremely difficult to find potions suitable for the treatment of certain specific diseases.
- Tell me more about what happened, maybe I can help you with something. - I replied to the viscount.
- My daughter has a strange illness. Initially, she was a healthy child, but over time, her limbs began to tremble involuntarily, and soon she completely stopped moving or responding to the outside world. I bought various potions and invited many doctors, but no one could help...
I didn't have any actual experience with healing, however my experiments with prisoners started a little earlier and I've already got some interesting results. One result was healing, if you can call it that.
I knew that many nobles were now watching closely. You won’t see a true Magician every day, and even more so if he listens, it’s even less likely that he will help.
But I was glad that this viscount approached me. Although I had no idea if I could help his daughter or not, it was the message that mattered. I'd rather leave the nobles with a positive impression of myself. People were an important resource and I did not want to kill them unless absolutely necessary.
The structure of Erinz's kingdom remained similar to that of Outland, except that the actual central authority was not in the king himself and his family, but in the True Mage family behind them.
Most of the nobles and their descendants were either Knights or acolytes in one way or another. Many influential nobles of the kingdom were essentially their own masters and owned personal armies. But this did not in the least harm in this case and did not threaten the centralized power, since everyone perfectly understood that any attempts to muddy the waters were completely useless.
At best, there were conflicts between the nobles themselves over certain interests, but no one was brave enough to inflate these conflicts into something too serious that could harm the kingdom as a whole.
Although I promoted my guild Tarrister, but unlike Outland, I did not try to coerce or pressure anyone. Gold at the moment did not have much value for me, and what I have is enough for my people. Such a soft expansion will take much longer, but there will be less resistance. Rather, on the contrary, gradually the benefits for cooperation will begin to exceed the disadvantages, of course, as long as I stay alive.
Initially, in addition to my people in the city, the majority of the population were slaves, but now various merchants, builders and workers regularly came to the city in search of work and a better life. Various types of shops were opened, there were many markets.
There were few dangerous animals in the immediate vicinity of the high forest, nevertheless, on the outskirts and beyond the borders of the high forest, a human foot rarely appeared and the Mages did not find anything interesting for themselves there. Therefore, the mercenaries still had something to do in and around my city.
Recently, my Knights have had to devote more and more time to the security of the city, so many of them, being now noble, have been hiring and raising their own fighters for some time.
In general, everything went quite smoothly, and I wanted to make sure that even in my absence, the city and the guild would develop rapidly. There is nothing wrong with lending a helping hand to the nobles of the kingdom.
- I can't promise anything, but if you don't mind, I'd like to see your daughter in person. - I replied.
The viscount was obviously pleasantly surprised, it seemed that he himself did not hope too much for a positive outcome. Nevertheless, he still managed to bring his daughter with him, explaining in advance that she had no actual injuries and she liked to travel.
In any case, a young girl was soon brought into the hall who was sitting in what looked like a fancy wheelchair. Outwardly, she seemed quite normal, except for the fact that she was sitting absolutely still and her gaze was directed to one point. She did not react in any way to what was happening around her.
I approached the patient and examined her. The body was pretty healthy. Touching her head with my palm, began to read the vibrations of her brain. Apparently the problem was there. However, I only started experimenting with prisoners yesterday and have not yet figured out how to fix the problem.
If I used my sound vibration technique to heal here and now, it could affect her both positively and negatively. It would be extremely embarrassing if I suddenly killed a girl in front of everyone, so I removed my hand and thought for a bit.
- The problem is in the brain, but I'm not sure yet if I can help her. However, if you know someone with similar symptoms and can bring them to me, then I can first try the treatment on them, then I will give you an answer.
In this world, children with such diseases had an unenviable fate. Many commoners immediately killed their children if they found certain defects in them. Finding other children with these symptoms will not be easy, but I have not yet seen other options.
The fact that the problem was in his daughters brain was not surprising for the viscount, for sure, many other doctors confirmed this long ago, and perhaps much more, detailed reports can be asked from him later. But apparently he loved his daughter and was ready to cling to any hope.
Thank you Lord Tarrister.
The viscount's eyes lit up with fire, obviously he was going to search the entire kingdom, and maybe go beyond it.
- No reason to thank me yet. I'm sure other nobles will lend you a helping hand in this matter. But do not create confusion among people or target someone's children, try to use more delicate means. You can send such patients here along with their relatives.
I wouldn't want to have someone's children taken away in the name of a True Mage Tarrister, it certainly wouldn't help my image. So I had to give a transparent hint.
The more test subjects, the better. Even if some of the patients die in the process of treatment, as long as we are talking about commoners, this will not be a problem. In extreme cases parents will disappear along with their children.
