Fire Mage

Chapter 415: Sorcerers

Potters Street, Darkwell Town, Aetas Kingdom, Faith Realm.

At that moment, Charles and Irzoch stepped down on the wooden stairs while holding a candle in their hands and soon reached the basement.

The basement was around 20*20 ft. Although it was a basement in name, only some cotton bags and a few wheat bags appeared inside. Charles even saw some strange engravings on the opposite wall and frowned.

"The production of wheat and paddy are reduced to half due to heavy rainfall, My Lord. Moreover, the water level of the Well River also increased during that time and flooded most of the agricultural lands." Noticing his frown, Irzoch misunderstood him and then gave him a short explanation.

As he heard her explanation, Charles suddenly thought of something and asked.

"Do you know of any special item that has a mysterious power? Like an artifact or armor?"

"Mysterious power?" Irzoch tilted her head in confusion and soon fell into deep thoughts.

"I indeed heard of some materials that has extraordinary powers, My Lord. If I'm not wrong, even our Duke Michel posses a strange artifact called Shield of Faith. I also heard him saying that artifact as a Goddess's Shield."

'Oh? Goddess's Shield, huh. Let's see if I can steal it from him.' But he decided to act cautiously.

'First, I'll focus on opening this Ancestral Hall and then think of a plan to steal that artifact.'

While thinking, Charles stepped forward continuously and soon arrived in front of the wall.

But just as he tried to touch it, some invisible layer appeared around it and blocked his hand from moving further!

As Irzoch saw this scene, she couldn't help but let out a surprised gasp.

All this time, she was confused by her new master's action but didn't question him.

She thought that her master came here for another purpose. But the sudden appearance of an invisible shield in some random house startled her greatly.

'W-What is this magical layer? A high-level sorcery?' She also took a few steps forward and got closer to the invisible layer.

On the other hand, Charles activated the [Arcane Eyes] skill, looked at the soul barrier, and started analyzing it.

Fifteen minutes passed in a blink, but still, he made no progress.

'The Pioneer Knight was definitely a sorcerer who excelled in Nature Magic, Wisdom Skill, and sword arts.' Yes, Charles also saw the presence of the strange golden sword aura in the soul barrier and felt like he was facing a high-level spell full of essences.

'I can break this layer if I spent enough time... No, what I need is to hack these essences using Daniel's blood and force my way into the Ancestral Hall.' At that moment, he suddenly thought of another thing and asked.

"Irzoch, can you tell me more about the Knights? How to become a Knight? What are those Awaken stones?"

Indeed, he had no information regarding those Awaken Stones and the Awaken process. Although Daniel indeed attended the awakening ceremony, most of his memories appeared vague. It was as if some mysterious fog was blocking him from learning more about this stone.

Upon hearing his words, Irzoch got startled a little and responded with a nod.

"Awaken stones are mostly found in famous churches, My Lord. As for their origin, I once read in a history book that these stones were creations of our Goddess. Before she left, she passed down the Knight techniques, sword art books and these Awaken stones as protections for the humans."

"What can these Awaken Stones do?" Charles asked while continuing to analyze the soul barrier.

Irzoch went silent for a moment and then answered politely.

"They awaken your physical body's full potential, My Lord. For example, increasing one's body strength without any magical techniques or other creature's blood essence is an impossible task. But when you go through the awaken process, this awaken stone will break the limitations of your physical body and also increase your body connection with the elemental affinity. That's how the auras are formed. But there are also many restrictions there. For example, if you have a good 'earth' elemental affinity, you've to find Earth Awaken stone to complete the awaken process. Also, if you have only an average earth elemental affinity, you will face physical limitations after becoming an Expert Knight."

'Oh? This stone seems to be similar function as potions. But can it help my body to go through any changes?' He felt it was worth a try.

"Then, what about sorcerers? How did they appear here? Are they all bloodline Warlocks?" Charles asked the following question. In truth, he was very eager to know about this group. Compared to the Knights, Sorcerers were the most dangerous people in his eyes.

"There are three types of sorcerers out there, My Lord. First one is Elemental Shamans. But unlike you, they need to recite chant if they want to cast powerful spells. Although they were weak when it compares to everyone, their role in battles are very huge. As long as they had given enough time, they would cast their magic spells endlessly and cause destructions to the enemy nation. That's why they face continuous assassination threats from enemy nations. But as long as they managed to deepen their link with the nature elements, they won't need to chant and they could cast the high-level spells instantaneously. As for their origin, they only appeared after the fall of the Fallen Empire." She deliberated for a moment, took a deep breath, and then continued.

"The second one is the Demon Sorcerers or Evil Sorcerers. Like the name suggest, we use evil means to gather citizens' souls and sacrifice them to our respective High-Rank Demon to obtain strength. As long as we sacrifice enough souls, we'll receive a permanent boost in our strength. As for when the Demon Sorcerers appear in this plane, I actually don't know much about it. Some says that these demonic organizations are there even before the arrival of our Goddess. Unfortunately, there are no valid proofs to their claims."

"Then, the final one is called 'Druids.' Among the three, they are the mysterious group of people and their origin is still unknown to us. In my 400 plus years of lifetime, I still haven't seen any of them and only heard about them from others. But from what I heard from others, they seemed to control nature and even talk to animals. Among the three, these Druids are the peace loving people and rarely come out from the Eastern Hills."

'Interesting. So, that Pioneer Knight was a Druid, huh.' Charles subconsciously turned his gaze towards the invisible layer and nodded his head in understanding.

'From the looks of it, it will take some time for me to study this soul barrier. Hmm, it's better to go back and complete the funeral ceremony.' He muttered inwardly and then spoke.

"Irzoch, you are responsible for guarding this basement from now on. Whether you buy this house using all of Baron's savings or rent this house for a year, I want you to get complete control over this house. Find a better house for the old man and his family members and send them there."

"I'll take care of this matter, My Lord." An instant response came out of Irzoch's mouth.

After staying in the basement for another hour, Charles went upstairs and soon left the old house. Then, he moved towards the town's entrance and saw more than 100 people gathered there. Some held shovels, some held picks, and some carried spears, and so on.

To his surprise, even those Foreign Knights stood outside the gate and appeared to be holding different kinds of equipment for digging. Without their leaders, they looked more like clueless people.

Charles didn't waste his time over talking and hurriedly mounted on the nearby horse. Then, he whipped the horse and rode it deep into the darkness. In the meantime, other soldiers and Foreign Knights also followed after him and reached the Grime Plains' border after two hours of horse riding.

Once they reached the bloody battlefield, all of them climbed down from their horses and started searching for their relatives or family members' bodies. In the meantime, the foreign Knights lit the fire torches and placed them in different parts of the battlefield.

After that, everyone gathered together under the order of Charles and started digging a large graveyard at the center.

After four hours of hard work, they dug a large graveyard, placed all those corpses together, and buried them. Although some people buried their relatives or family members separately, most chose to bury all the bodies together.

Then, a few retired soldiers came forward, lit multiple candles at the center, and started singing a mourning song. Meanwhile, young men and foreign soldiers came forward, knelt beside the old knights, and joined them.

Only Charles stood a few meters away from them and watched their funeral ritual in silence.

They continued to sing till the arrival of dawn light, completed the funeral ceremony, and finally returned to the Darkwell Town.

After that, Charles stayed in the old house in Potters Street for the next few days and analyzed the entrance path to the Ancestral Hall.