Abe the Wizard

Just when Abel was about to start drawing the runes in his study, his military tag started ringing.

A voice immediately cried out as he picked up the tag, “Great news, K3516!”

“What news, K3308?”

“About that hunting quest you were talking about before,” K3308 said ecstatically, “A lot of people were interested, I tell you! So far, I’ve got K3305 and Head Commander Bodley with me, and we’re all going to bring our own friends to form a team together.”

After knowing how strong Abel was, K3308 had been dying to get him into doing an Orc Empire hunting quest. It was dangerous, yes, but it was also one of the fastest ways to gain war glory in Miracle City. For every orc that was killed within a fifty mile radius from the Miracle City walls, the corresponding amount of war glory would go to the one who did it.

Before, Head Commander Markham forbade K3308 from doing a hunting quest. Now, with Abel promised to his team, there wasn’t really the risk of dying by the orcs’ hands. Now, it was a low-risk, high-profit mission. K3308 had no reason not to do this.

Abel inquired, “So, when are we doing this? I do have some other missions that I’m doing, you know.”

K3308 got a little nervous after hearing that, “Wha-what? Uh, no, not yet. We haven’t decided on an exact time yet. You, um, you busy with that mission? Like, the one you’re doing?”

If Abel couldn’t show up, this low-risk, high-profit opportunity would’ve just turned into a highway ticket to hell.

Abel replied after a bit of thought, “I got two missions I’m doing now. If I take this mission, can I come back to Miracle City before it’s finished?”

K3308 replied, “You can once every ten days. Don’t worry about that, though. If you’re not free, I’ll just tell my friends and do this another time.”

“I don’t know, hmm,” Abel said skeptically, “Are you sure about the once every ten days part?”

K3308 was a bit hurt, “You doubt me? Oh, come on! Markham told me this! There’s no way this is wrong!”

Abel nodded, “Sure, sure. Well, alright. I guess I’ll be free to be on this mission, then. Just make sure you’ve arranged everything with your friends. I’ll be there after I’ve done the work for today.”

“Great, great! I’ll confirm the time again with them.”

After saying that, K3308 immediately hung up the call. Abel was left alone to resume his work. It was about ten in the morning now. While he had only got five days worth of crystal cores, he did have 600 spare ones that were left from last month. It was more than enough to finish the quota for this month.

300 runes. After less than three hours, all of it was done. After that, Abel just needed to bring them to the retrieval point to receive his reward. He did have to use his own inks to get this done in time (his ink was much better than what the Miracle City provided, by the way), but he was much more interested in doing the hunting request.

As soon as he had his lunch, he went to the blacksmith department to return all 15 magic weapons that were repaired. A few men were blocking his way to the warehouse, strangely. They all had broken magic weapons in their hands.

A knight said in a pleading voice, “Please, mister wizard! This is a magic knight’s sword that’s been passed down my family for three hundred years! I didn’t expect it to be broken at my hands!”

Another knight cried out, “Sir, could you please have an inspection of my magic knight’s lance? I need to know if it’s repairable or not.”

One after the next, all these people started asking all sorts of questions. They were all trying to speak to an apprentice wizard, but even he had no idea what’s going on. He only came here because of his admiration for Blacksmith Abel. He came here to finish his mission. Actually, he didn’t even know about what happened here over the last month.

“Please, stop! I’ve come here to learn! You got the wrong person!”

The wizard tried to tell the knights to stop, but his body was too frail to make way. Abel knew that the knights were waiting for him. Since he wanted to get his mission done in time, he just walked faster and rushed into the blacksmith department.

The wizard apprentice saw this. Just when he was about to call him out, Abel made a shushing gesture with his finger. The wizard apprentice understood right away. Before, he wanted no part in this, but after seeing that Abel, a respected figure, was asking a favor from him, he decided to go ahead to block the entrance with his body.

One of the knights was just starting to notice Abel, but the wizard apprentice was already blocking the door. It’s not like he could use violence to make a forced entry, too. With the miracle city watching, any use of violence would’ve led to very dire consequences.

Master Bismuth greeted Abel as soon as he saw him, “Welcome. Please, use the furnace here.”

After following the direction that Master Bismuth was taking him, Abel came to an empty room that had a furnace in it. It was a weird feeling. Before, he used to work at furnaces that were out in the open. He didn’t think that he’d received special attention like this.

Still, it’d be rude if he refused this. After bowing to Master Bismuth, Abel went inside the room to start working. Master Bismuth walked in with him, of course. While he didn’t really improve his skills by just watching, he did feel that he could learn a bit more if Abel was doing more demonstrations in front of him.

And there. One. Two. Sometimes three. All the blacksmiths that were in the building dropped what they were doing. They knew what the sound was. While they didn’t have permission to go to the special forging room, they knew that the rumored man had come to do his work.

It wasn’t just them. The few knights that were outside the building also heard this noise. They, too, started looking towards where the sound was. It was the moment that a rumor became a living legend.