Delighted by my handsomeness and new abilities, I left the room and went downstairs to the Inn’s restaurant.
I sat on a table and stopped a passing waitress to ask for two portions of beef and a bottle of wine.
The waitress bowed and went towards the kitchen, the other people in the restaurant all looked at her with obscene expressions on their faces. Everyone on the inn was either a noble or a merchant with a lot of money, this world's upper class.
After a while, the waitress came back with my orders, and as she placed my food on the table, I noticed something when I looked at her bowing figure.
Surprisingly, it wasn't her big breasts, but a collar on her neck that caught my attention. It wasn't a magic collar like those of novels, but using a collar meant that a person is a slave.
Slavery wasn't banished here, nor would it be in the near future, as it is commonplace for a noble to have many slaves. They are used as a workforce for general tasks like growing crops or as soldiers. A war slave has no rights and can even be killed on a whim, but a slave that was native couldn't be abused or killed, unless they have been judged and stripped of their rights.
In this world the people didn't hold power, a knight can easily kill a hundred people, much less a noble. If a duke wants, he can just cast a spell and kill everyone in a big city without much effort. People were little more than convenient tools for the nobles, a way to not have to use mana for everything.
While commoners are unable to be as strong as a duke and even many of them can do little to one, if a hundred thousand people with good equipment charge, a hundred initiate Magus may be killed after having their mana depleted. Commoners made themselves useful in how easy it is to mass produce them.
After the waitress left the food on the table, she bowed again and went to another table to continue her job.
I ate for a couple of minutes before I saw Artmer entering the inn along with his entourage.
"Sir Artmer, come sit with me." I said, waving towards him.
When Artmer saw me, who looked like a handsome stranger, he still walked towards me with a polite smile on his face despite his confusion.
"Hello, sir. Please forgive me for my bad memory, but who might you be?" He asked after a short bow.
"Who am I?" I said, with my usual poker face mode activated again. "We just met two days ago, how could you forget me?"
When Artmer heard that, he was shocked.
"Sir Vrygewig? Is that you?"
Seeing Artmer's shocked expression, I laughed in my mind.
"Yes. But there's no need to call me Sir Vrygewig. Just call me Vry, since it's shorter." I said, looking at him with my red eyes.
In response to my statement, he gave me a wry smile before sitting.
"Sir Vry… Vry, is it proper for you to come out without your mask?" He asked, not mentioning that I am a Dread Lord.
"It's okay. I advanced to Initiate Magus today after you gave me the Crystal Fiber Flower, I cast a Lesser Disguise spell on myself." I said, explaining the situation to him.
Artmer was startled by the sudden revelation.
"Vry… How old are you?" He asked with a slightly envious smile.
"I am twenty-one years old."
His envious smile became one of resignation after my nonchalant answer.
"I thought you said you didn't have talent as a Magus…"
When he said that, I made two small gestures underneath the table, casting Lesser Create Telepathic Connection.
“I actually used to have only a Yellow Magus Soul…” I said in his head. “But I used a spell called Polar Dread Cores to divide my Dread Core into two, one of which can produce mana. My talent as a Magus will go as far as my talent as a Necromancer now.” I explained.
"I do have a talent as a Magus, but it's really not worth mentioning." I said out loud with a humble tone.
The people around us heard my answer, and all became envious. An initiate magus at the age of twenty-one? That would require at least an Indigo Magus Soul! Someone that one day can become a count doesn’t have a talent ‘not worth mentioning’.
Artmer, who heard both what I said out loud and my telepathic messages, smiled wryly.
"I see... So, you chose Illusion as one of your affinities?"
"Yes, It's my major affinity. Ice is my core affinity and enhancement is my minor affinity."
Artmer smiled and nodded, seemingly unaffected by that new piece of information, but his thoughts were flowing in a completely different direction, not at all calm.
Ice magic was known not for attack power, but for its detrimental abilities. While Illusion magic was known for a wide array of mysterious effects. Enhancement magic could turn even a commoner into a martial artist temporarily, and grant them various boons such as resistance to elements and rock-hard skin.
It is hard to imagine who could fight an army of super undead while in a blizzard surrounded by illusions.
Usually, Dread Lords are either insane people or insane monsters, their scheming was shallow, and many would simply go on a rampage, diminishing the effect of their undead. Those were the most common Dread Lords, and the easiest to deal with.
However, there were the Dread Magi that also practiced traditional magic, which made them incredibly terrifying. Not only because of their magical abilities, but as well because they are able to infiltrate among the nobles and not be recognized as a necromancer. Aside from them, there were two other special existences among Dark Artists: The Doom Lords that practice both dark arts, and the most terrifying Doom Magi that practice the dark arts and traditional magic.
In the western continent that is riddled with practitioners of the dark arts, aside from the Dread King, there are other two terrifying beings on the same level.
Demon King, that is also of the fourth level but practices Demonic Arts.
And the Doom King, that is a hundred times more vicious and scheming than the simple-minded Dread King and Demon King, even if he is only a third level Doom Magus.
The Demon King and the Dread King are powerful, but they are insane monsters that attack viciously with overbearing power, the Dread King has lost his dread trial to the fifth level, turning him into a undead with little to no sanity, while the Demon King isn't too intelligent even though he’s still sane.
But both were much weaker than the Doom King.
He possessed a triple elemental Magus Soul, whose one of the attuned elements is ice, and has troops of various kinds. Magi, Warlocks and even Daoists are his loyal subordinates, as well as his great Army of Undead.
The Doom King was the living proof that when someone has both, brains and brawl, they are much more terrifying than common musclemen that are physically stronger. These were Artmer thoughts at that moment.
And right now…
He was eating with one of these feared existences!
