《Heights of Magic》


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 Prologue

    One could say that the evening was beautiful in the mountain valley village. The sky had turned from evening pink to blood red while the sun was still simmering behind the mountain.


    Darius, a skinny black-haired boy, had been gathering firewood. Finally, he had been trusted not only to go pick wood, but he had been given an old axe. The axe hilt had, of course, broken in the forest, and Darius wondered if it was a good idea to go back home.


    *How can it even be, this rotten hilt.* Thought Darius while kicking rocks on the slow way home.


    Rocky village had its customs, and leniency for children was not among them. On an average day, people would have walked back to the village but somehow, near the village, nobody could be seen. Darius hunched his shoulders and continued dragging the hefty woodpile behind him. He had learned to gather piles of wood halfway to the village and, at the end of the day, gather bigger bundles to carry as much back home.


    He was proud of it. As for twelve-year-old boys, the wood haul was almost as much as adults would carry back. ¡°*Why work hard when you can work smarter.*¡± His thoughts returned to the axe, and he felt the usual alienation from other village folks again.


    Darius felt older anger that had very little to do with the personal differences in the village or even with beatings at home. All of this could have been justified. But he did not understand why he was laughed at when he tried to leave for a school outside the village. He gathered frustrating memory of being denied one of the most essential things, knowledge. First, he had been praised for learning to read very quickly and remember what he read. He even learned some mathematics until old Grant could not teach him anymore. When he asked did negative numbers exist, old Grant was frustrated and forced him out of the class. Darius shouted, "you can keep your smelly barn" while he rubbed his hurting face.


    A sudden jolt of pain in his foot woke Darius from his murky thoughts about the village and potential beating at home. He sat on the woodpile and took his other boot off his leg. While leaning and pouring little rocks from the boot, Darius thought about when he would get new boots.


    It had been a year and a half since his family had gotten these boots from a travelling merchant. Last year had been difficult for poor families, and most of the local trade had been made by exchanging products without money. Only the local emperor''s guards had money to buy anything. Otherwise, everyone else had to save money for taxes, merchants and a healer.


    The emperor¡¯s guards were mismanaged punch of self-important local folk that had been lifted from poverty to less poverty with the expense of losing the rest of the dignity that they might have possessed. The guards'' captain was a well-known lazy drunkard who had not hit any rabbit with his bow since he was appointed to the village.


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    Darius hated the guards above all. Sometimes they stole things from him for gate toll or otherwise harassed people.


    They were the necessary evil against occasional monsters lurking in deeper parts of the forest but evil, nonetheless.


    In addition to guards, the village was separated from the forest by a large canyon. The great thing was that a local healer, Forest witch, had built a large bridge with earth magic so that people could earn a living. Less enticing detail about it was that the healer also taxed three copper coins each month for each person who went to the forest, covering nearly everybody in the village. Nobody dared avoid paying since not paying would end up in an unfortunate fall to the bottom of the deep canyon.


    The people feared forest witch. Even guards had to pay her for the occasional healing of wounds. Once they didn''t pay, the witch decapitated the captain of the guard and threw his body into the canyon. Even the old captain''s skull was still hanging on the wall of the witch¡¯s house.


    *The new drunkard captain of the guard did all manner of things wrong, but he was just smart enough not to piss off Forest witch.*, thought Darius. Albeit Darius knew that he had barely been able to survive alive from sneaking into the witch¡¯s house and reading some of her books. That guilty pleasure of stealing real knowledge, anything that could get rid of the feeling of being in a cage while living in the village without a chance to leave.


    Darius eventually neared the dreadful house of the witch. The day had been pretty bad already, and all bad memories plagued his mind. He took careful half steps towards the whitewashed house that cast a shadow on the bridge.


    Forest witch had built a house on the forest side of the canyon, claiming the right for the forest to live in peace from the village people. Everyone hated the tall place nearly as much as they despised witch, but it was always forgotten when someone needed healing. Witch was the judge of life and death in the village. If you could not afford healing, you were shit out of luck. She was also the only person in the village who did not need to pay emperor¡¯s taxes because mages of the Leiden Empire were exempted from paying taxes. Even very early in life, Darius faced the reality that magic ruled the empire, even in the home village.


    Grandmother Aisla, whom Darius never got to meet, had died because she could not receive help from the Forest witch¡ªpoisoned by a snake without enough money to save herself. Darius and his family did not dare to say or do anything to the forest witch. It didn¡¯t stop Darius from spotting the wall of the house every time he walked past after carefully seeing that nobody was watching.


    As Darius neared the house of the Forest witch, he tried to see if the witch would have been at home. There could be another chance to get into the house. Before Darius touched the black doorknob of witch¡¯s house, he noticed the state of the village down below. Large parts of the village were on fire. Dark smoke flew in the air from multiple parts of the village, and the petrifying smell of burning tar and the abundant stench of blood carried over with the warm evening wind.

 Chapter 1

    Darius stood next to the dark bridge, almost gleaming in reddish sunlight. The witch''s house lost his interest while he started slow tumbling steps towards the Sarus village huddled between mountains. The petrifying smell of burning tar and the abundant stench of blood carried over with the wind.


    Darius recognized the clonking sound of a woodpile that he had left behind. His hands stopped carrying it while he was in awe of horror, looking at the burning home village. He could have left right there, but he could not. Darius had to look inside the village. In some tangible way, it felt like the right thing to do while his brains were in a storm of confusion. Deep inside, he knew from the first glance that his old life was over, and the promise of new life was not yet manifested.


    Darius started running, avoiding sharp rocks on the village road while gathering speed. His thoughts were plank and muddled, and he only woke from it to dwell back into a worse nightmare. The poor excuse of a village gatehouse had collapsed for some reason. The rock foundation of the gatehouse had been punctured with some holes and wood plank walls had severe cracks on them, punctured as vicious monsters would do. The upper parts had collapsed on the pathway, and Darius had to climb on the gate remains.


    Several parts of the wooden rubble were burning, and stale smoke covered his eyes with burning pain and smoke. While trying to avoid small fires Darius stumbled and fell from the rubble pile and his left hand took a vicious scar, probably from the nail of a random plank. He only noticed it while trying to rise on his feet at the entrance yard of the village. Minor wound with blood oozing on his tainted shirt lost its purpose while he looked in utter disbelief at the carnage of locals and guards in the yard.


    Crushed old armours were full of bloody gore holes, and gushing and dripping blood pooled underneath once glorified guards of the village. It seemed that some beasts had ripped through all the guards in minutes. Weapons were broken, and bent some of the gears spoiled with the acid of tendrilgolems.


    Usually, there was only one on rare occasions, met in deep dungeons of the mountains or in deeper parts of the forest where only a few could step on.


    Darius looked around and felt an eerie feeling that a lot of things would change now, and otherwise, he could not comprehend what he was seeing. Darius snapped out of it and continued running the dark and dingy alleyway path towards home. The village was partially filled with smoke, and the bitter taste of tar in the air with the smoke sometimes made it difficult to see correctly with watery eyes.


    His rampant running stopped nearby home, and he saw his father trying to rise from the ground while wounds on his throat and chest pulsated blood with every movement. Everything snapped back to focus, and Darius hurriedly ran next to father to help.


    Darius saw his father lumping back to the ground and croaking with a quiet dry voice.


    "Darius, take anything you need to survive and leave the village NOW!", Father started to cough blood and lost consciousness for the lack of breath. Darius tried to help but didn''t know how. He lifted his father to sit on the wall, maybe helping with the throat, but he hunched back on the street cobblestones while blood pooled underneath him and stained his brown tunic with growing darker spots. His efforts only yielded gruesome bloody hands and growing despair for his father dying while he could not do anything.


    *What did he say? Yes, leave, take everything, take.. Everything.. To. Survive.*, Darius thought in a muddled way. He looked around and didn''t see anything moving about. Only a quiet echo of footsteps was his companion while Darius ran inside our old hut house made with grey planks and timber. Nobody was inside the house and Darius started rummaging all the places for useful items and money. There was not much of it, only a few Tranguils that rang in the sound of copper while he stuffed them inside his belt purse. Darius went to the kitchen to seek food, preferably dry food, for a long trip to come.


    Dark shadows inside the house were moving while Darius moved from place to place to look for a pot, flint and steel. He could not do anything else than leave the village. He hadn''t heard from any single soul within the village. The food shelf was too damn high. Darius had to push the coffer and clime on it to reach the upper shelves. His hands found some common medical herbs, dark violet Navarroroots for wounds and old glimmering crystal grass for all manner of ill. Darius tucked them into the green fabric purse he had found and added it to his belt. Darius threw a blanket with the improvised old potato sack and stuffed several potatoes into it. That wasn''t much, but it had to do.


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    While Darius was moving back to the main room, he heard noises of huffing and occasional crunching of bones outside. Standing still, Darius averted his eyes from the window. He couldn''t see anything outside, but Darius stopped moving and started thinking about the situation while the back of his shirt dampened. The ugly feeling returned to him, and it began to lift every hair of his body.


    *They are eating my father outside¡­ Where can I get a weapon¡­ I can''t defeat these monsters¡­*, His forehead started sweating while his anxious heart was beating too fast. Darius was trying to regulate his breathing, not to avert whatever entity was eating his father''s body on the street to come inside. He slowly sat on the old wooden floor while taking his time to make sense of things while hiding from monsters.


    Darius hoped, no, he probably prayed for the first time in his life that the monster would not be interested in coming inside the house.


    *Okay, I am in deep shit now. Everybody seems to be dead. I have to leave the place, but if I don''t find enough food, I will die in the forest, and if I don''t find anything to defend myself, I will die even sooner.*


    While checking on the door for any uninvited shadow, Darius almost bit his lip for not ever learning to use the bow. He only knew how to hit things with an axe or blade, and he did not have any experience with a spear either. Well, there was none of these things available.


    *I have to keep focus now. Otherwise, I will die.*


    After waiting that felt like an eternity, the voices outside ended, and the huffing sound furthered away, muffling ever so slightly. Darius waited a solid minute before even looking outside of the window carefully. Regret came fast when he saw the gore of his father''s body in bits and pieces on the ground, and Darius started puking on his home floor.


    *Well, at least I don''t have to clean this floor anymore*, Darius tried to chuckle quietly to gather the courage to go outside. While slowly walking outside, the sky had turned very crimson red, and the daylight was nearing its end. Darius knew he had one hour at best. Better make it count. There could be more monsters at night attracted by the smell of blood. He had a limited time to get inside the forest to one of his favourite locations, the old bear den. Darius used it to disappear from time to time and store a scattering of items he had stolen from the Forest witch.


    Darius walks past his neighbour''s half-destroyed old wooden house. First, he didn''t find his neighbour, the geezer Malbus anywhere, and Darius started to rummage through his apple barrels for additional food. While Darius was stuffing apples into the potato sack, he heard faint yelling coming behind. Darius slowly turned his back while standing up and saw Malbus nailed on the wall by some monster''s large piece of broken horn. His bowels hung outside from the open-cut stomach while he hissed curses at Darius.


    "Boy! I knew you were thieving on my property, goddamn rubble folk. I should have hit your face, you deviant stupid kid!"


    Darius did not share pleasant memories with his neighbour. Malbus was the epitome of an abusive cranky geezer who only worked to down everything later down his throat. He had repeatedly promised Darius money for firewood, but he rarely paid. It was like a chance of hit or miss to bring him firewood, but Darius had to do it every week anyway for the possibility of acquiring money for his family.


    "Hey Malbus, Malbus, my old business friend, eh! How is it hanging?" Darius said bitterly while the sore feeling of my father''s death weighed on him.


    "Oi, you focking little turd rattle! If I could, I would kill you now with my own hands, stealing my apples!", Malbus retorted incoherently. Darius knew why Malbus was angry. The apples were an important source of cider and, therefore, almost a treasure to him in this forsaken poor village.


    "Oi, shut up, old goof. Where is your axe? I need it to survive in the forest!" Darius yelled back at him without getting his turn while he seemed perfectly happy to give the rest of his life to curse Darius.


    "Hahaha, you can go die a miserable death, kid. I don''t care to be honest. You reap what you sow fo stealing!" Malbus sneered, pointing his crooked nose at him to highlight his disdain.


    Dark anger numbed Darius, and he slowly took hold of his neighbour''s hanging bowels and jolted down while Malbus started to scream.


    "I don''t have time for this shit, old goof. Tell me where your axe is, or I will continue this until you die!"


    ¡°AAAAK AAAAK!!  Okay OKAY! Piece of shit, you can have my bloody axe. It''s inside the house. I don''t have the key, though." Malbus yell in pain and fear.


    "Ahaa.. Well, have a fun time hanging there, goof, keep in touch."


    As the door was closed, Darius had to break the window to get inside. After a bit of struggle and final curses from hunching Malbus, Darius got inside the house. The old rusty axe was leaning on the corner of the room. Darius took it and felt the comfort of having something to wield. Then his eyes averted to the kitchen door.

 Chapter 2

    As Darius was poor and didn¡¯t have much means to go about it, loaning the items was not a very big deal for him. Definitely so if someone was rude to him. The sudden realization woke his voracious hunger.


    *Now that everybody is dead, I can take whatever I can.*


    His earlier hesitation at home ended here, and Darius took his sweet time to rummage through the greasy kitchen of Malbus. After finding some dry meat, Darius went outside, seeing that the gurgling of Malbus had awakened a tendrilgolem, and it was slowly heaving itself in this direction. Darius adverted his greedy eye from the nearby houses and started running as fast as he could back to the alleyway and outside the village. Only screaming and curses of Malbus greeted his back while he ran like a rabbit out of danger,


    ¡°HEY YOU!! A son of whore, come back to die you idiot.. MILK DRINKER COWARD!¡±


    Determined to survive, Darius ate his pride and continued running. He only stopped running when again jolt of pain hit him in the leg in the alleyway. *Damn, boots are doing their best to hinder his running.* Darius slowed down a bit and came to the gatehouse next to him he saw the legs of the guard half buried in the rubble.


    Darius whistled, ¡°nice boots you have there¡±.


    After a fast exchange of nothing, Darius had a new additional layer of socks and adult-size boots on top of it, comforting his legs considerably while he walked from one remains of a guard to another. Everything was in measly condition, and nearby houses were downed on the ground. What Darius could gather was only three purses of coins and miscellaneous items. No luck, no weapons. *Well, I probably could not even wield the weight of military gear on me even if I wanted to.* Darius had to focus on anything else that would help him to survive in the world.


    Darius took a short knife with the holster from one soldier¡¯s boots. He started eyeing where he could borrow more useful stuff but suddenly building collapsing nearby directed his attention. On the other side of the building, three giant golems bashed the building while screaking lumber went to splinters. A punch of broken wood planks flies in all directions, and Darius gets solid hit on his torso by something. While gasping in pain, Darius started slowly climbing on the wreckage of gatehouse remains, hoping that tendrilgolems wouldn¡¯t see him under the billowing black smoke.


    After passing the wreckage outside his home village, Darius started limping run while holding a potato sack on his back with his right arm and holding a painful broken chest bone with the other arm. Darius stopped finally after painful jogging after going over the witch¡¯s bridge. While leaning on the door of the witch¡¯s house, he stumbled on the entrance hall of the witch while dropping the potato sack on the fine red wool carpet.


    His hand was burning from the earlier wound, and his chest rose only with wheezing pain with every breath taken. After lying down on the carpet for a while, Darius rose up and started looking where the witch might be. Darius saw some half-empty bookshelves and a fireplace in the Livingroom still with red coals inside of it. But Darius could not hear the witch of the forest anywhere in the building.


    *Well, it would have been only half a chance to gain medical help anyway.* He thought while rummaging the house for anything meaningful before leaving the village forever. His eyes focused on the bookshelf that he had seen two years ago.


    Back then, he started reading a magic book while the witch was not around the house. Or he had assumed so, but the witch had been in the cellar. Alarmed by the sound downstairs, he had left the book on the floor and slowly disappeared through the open window. Darius had managed to read some lines on the meditation practices and basics of magic. He wanted to know more, but he did not get another chance. After his first visit, the house door and windows were always locked when the witch wasn¡¯t there, so he didn¡¯t get any other option. Sometimes Darius tried to lurk in the house while the witch was in different rooms, but it was too difficult. Darius followed the introduction to meditation. He had imagined how he could do all manner of things with magic, but meditation didn¡¯t work as intended. He had to stay in the forest longer in a cave to meditate and could not do magic based on this. The only benefit of the meditation had been calming and clearing effect on his mind. Darius had viewed the meditation as a challenge and continued it in secrecy despite the difficulties.


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    *Finally, I am back*, Darius thought. Curiosity drove him near the fine oak shelf, and Darius saw some instruments that were finer than his aunt¡¯s mortar. On the same shelf was a book on the basics of alchemy that he had barely read from the beginning. After thinking for two seconds, Darius ripped off the bulky covers of the book and stuffed the pages into the potato sack.


    *Better lose the dead weight.*


    After repeating ripping the hard book covers three times, he glanced and took several fine-looking alchemy tools from the same shelf for the chance of curing himself later. Maybe some of the items could be sold in towns. Then his eyes noticed a weird rise on the carpet. Darius lifted it away and saw a cellar hatch with a sturdy iron handle that could be lifted from the carved wood. Without hesitation, he lifted the hatch and climbed into the dark cellar.


    *Maybe there is food in here or some forbidden artifacts that will save me.*


    With minimal light from upstairs, Darius could focus his eyes on a small cobblestone cellar with sturdy wood beams supporting the floor on top of it. After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw a labyrinth of shelves full of potions, faunas, dried monster parts, tons of different coloured rocks and some shining rocks that he put in his purse immediately. Potions he didn¡¯t even move because there were no writings on them.


    *Okay, lets not touch something weird and get killed..*, he thought while venturing further into the cellar.


    He noticed a large coffer in the corner. It had old blacker iron hinges and corner metals, and the wood was more refined than Darius had ever seen in his life. He tried to lift the coffer, but it was very heavy for some reason. After trying to open the coffer, Darius hit the axe between the lid and the coffer and used the axe to leverage the coffer lid up.


    After struggling with the lid, Darius finally got it turned around. Sadly, the coffer was half empty. There were purses, papers, old parchments, and pergaments, some even with the sealed vax. Darius took several papers with seals and threw others on the floor. Next, he saw a small box that did not open, but after hitting it on to the wall box cracked open, and a rain of coins flew everywhere.


    ¡°Wohoo, so much money! I''ve never been so rich in my life!!¡±, Darius shouted while feverously picking the coins up. After stuffing coins in his belt purse, he noticed how heavy it was. With a sad sigh, Darius had to throw half of the copper coins away, but he kept half of them and several silvers.


    The next town was far away, and he could not eat metal. Also, reckoning that the witch''s items would be far more valuable than the coppers on the floor. Darius took last glances at the cellar.


    *I guess forest witch wasn¡¯t as rich as I believed*


    After lifting himself with hefty purses but lighter feet and mood, Darius returned to his potato sack and stuffed some items into it. While glancing at the village from the window, he noticed some monsters nearing the bridge. There were several golems but also blue-skinned goblins that he had never seen before, even in the forest. Darius had only heard that they came from the mountains, but the last time had been decades ago. Hulking grey-looking golems and almost nothing compared to tattered goblins with brown rusty weapons and gears were already half a way to the house from the village.


    ¡°Damn it! I have to run now!.¡±


    Darius took his sack of loot and started yet another jogging marathon to the forest while the last minutes of daylight reached the village. When he finally got to the woods, Darius saw the house of the forest witch on fire already. He didn¡¯t look back anymore and started walking longer toward his hidden cave.


    Darius had to go across a small river but did not go through the usual route. He picked a more narrow part of the river and threw his purses and the potato sack on the other side. Then he hoped that this trick would fool goblins'' sense of smell.


    Darius did not know much about goblins, but if they were like monsters or animals, he presumed they would have a better sense of smell than golems. Darius walked to a different location of the river and walked on the sand and mud bed of the river until he returned to the sack of items on the riverside.


    While gripping the lush grass, Darius lifted himself from the riverside, and with a bit of pain, he finally got to the other side of the river. While repeatedly watching behind him, Darius continued up the river. He sometimes returned to the river while raising the items in shallower water.


    After zig-zagging into the river and out, Darius returned to the other side. He had finally gotten to the foot of the mountain. From there, it was a shorter trip through bushes and sharp rock boulders, and Darius could see one specific familiar boulder. Behind the boulder was the entrance of a small old cave, and he finally could rest.


    After sitting on the ground and putting his sack next to other stuff in the cave, Darius leaned on the rocky cave wall and rested his eyes for a bit. After a while, he jolted a bit and opened his eyes to ensure nobody was there. The aching body, dull pain in his left arm and chest, and mental fatigue finally overtook and lulled him into a restless sleep.

 Chapter 3

    Darius woke up by some random bird sound outside of the cave. *Oh yea, the cave*.. His mood took intense dive into the dark while remembering what had happened. He had lost everything other than the items and materials looted yesterday.


    *Hmm, looted. I guess I didn¡¯t technically steal anything because the owners of the items had died.*


    Darius felt no regret for stealing, but he regretted the most that he could have carried his father inside the house. Maybe he would not have been eaten by monsters. Perhaps if he had come sooner back to the village. What. What anything other could have possibly happened other than immediate death? No. There was no second-guessing about it. But Darius still felt a hint of regret that he could not even carry his father¡¯s body to safety or treat his wounds, for that matter. And where was his mother, or anyone for that matter? Darius had not met a single soul, not even Forest witch.


    While Darius stood up, he had a dull aching body. Mindlessly and numbly, he circled around the crooked cave floor while trying to make sense of things. He cried. Then he tried to think positively that he had finally found so much material and something to read. He cried again. Darius tried to pick up a random letter but could not focus his eyes on the papers. After a few minutes, a letter got thrown on the ground with force. The vast unknown anxiety loomed on Darius. He didn¡¯t fear being alone. In essence, he had always somewhat been alone most of the time. But he had still lost his family and future in the village. It was an agonizing parody that he had first wanted so badly to get away from the village, and now that he had the chance, instead of celebrating, he was wallowing in regrets and fear. Regrets hurt, but the fear came from within him, suffocating with a cruelling hug of cold iron strangling on his hearth.


    After a while of madness, Darius snapped back to focus. My body had started to hurt more than yesterday. He looked at his left arm, and there was an angry red wound on it. The bleeding had stopped, but it did not look good. Despite washing it with river water yesterday and cleaning the grim and dirt from the wound in the best possible manner, it didn¡¯t seem to heal that well. With some difficulty, Darius lifted his ragged shirt, and the jolt of pain from his chest stopped the movement. Shakily he forced the shirt over his head and looked at the chest area. The right side, next to his heart, had all manner of red, violet, and blue bruises. While touching these parts, some parts resulted in more pain than others, and one part felt loose inside but also buffy and swollen.


    Since Darius couldn¡¯t do anything to it, he put the shirt back on. Something had to be done to the wounds, though. In the shadowy cave, Darius once more looked around the items he had looted and laid them all over the sizeable flat table of rocks. The table was the production of boredom that he had built a long time ago. It had cracks everywhere, but Darius had managed to select stones so that the surface had only a few minor cracks and differences in elevation.


    After sorting out the items, Darius took Navarroroot from the small pile and added water to the pot. After mixing the root with water, he carefully moved outside and walked to his campfire place between large boulders near the cave entrance. Darius leaned and put the pot over the fireplace built with hundreds of medium size rocks. He had had far too much time for these things, but now he felt more urgency because of infected wounds. His body had already started to heat while moving around the cave. Just before starting the fire, Darius remembered monsters. The wood he had put into the fireplace was not suitable for this purpose. Darius needed highly flammable tar woods to keep black smoke from damp firewood away for a hotter flame. When Darius had collected some wood nearby, he returned and boiled water for half an hour while changing water little by little a few times. Navarroroot was not just medicine. It also had poison and had to be boiled before medical use. The challenge was to keep the medical part of it in the pot while pouring out poison foam gathering on the surface.


    While the fire was crackling, Darius searched his belongings and found a tattered, ripped-off alchemy book from yesterday. It was a significant relief that the book was written with letters and language that he could speak. Darius had imagined that there might be some impossible ancient languages in it. But some words were new to him, like pro-se-du-rality? Darius assumed it had something to do with process but could not know how. Similar problems plagued him while he was trying to read the damn book. While reading, adding firewood, and cooking, reading got easier little by little. Some weird words started to make more sense in their relation to the topics, and from detailed explanations, Darius could know if he had been correct in his assumptions. It was not perfect, but he could memorize parts at a time.


    Topics of the book ranged from the basics of magical plants to alchemy processes. Apparently, magical plants were only available in nature, and sometimes incantations were needed to make potions. The basic form of potion was to take one or more ingredients and use them according to the findings of some studies to make some potion that was desired. Potions were handled with the concentration of magic value of the plants, but nothing really told Darius in the book how magic would work in alchemy. It seemed that magic plants could only be found in the wilderness, and there was no way of growing them.


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    After gazing through the minuscule pictures and reading basic introductions of several hundred plants, Darius had to compare some of them. Every plant had either unique or combination effects. Some names of the plants were written with different colours, but Darius could not make any sense of them. There had to be some reason to use such an expensive way of writing.


    The fire crackled. With sluggish movements, Darius stewed the water until its colour changed to white and collected white floating foam carefully with sticks. He could have collected the poison, but it would have been far more tedious in this worsening condition. Still, reading the book kept him awake, and he could finally focus on something else.


    Much later, by the sun''s direction, Darius could tell that the boiling had taken several hours already. He kept adding water, but there was always a bit of floating white foam forming on top of the water.


    *Shit, the water is too cold for separation!*


    Darius started adding more medium size sticks into the fire to make it hotter and kept reading the book.


    After some time liquid had turned from light red to yellow with a hint of orange, and foam had stopped forming. Darius stopped adding water and boiled the rest of the water away. While this lazy part of the task was going on, Darius started going through the pictures of each plant. Maybe he could find out if he ever had seen any of them. He found some plants but didn¡¯t remember where they grew. There was no telling whether the plants were the same as in the pictures. After his frustration with the basics of alchemy, the water had boiled out of the pot. Carefully, Darius gathered yellowish crumbs from the pot and collected them into the folded first page of the book he had ripped for this purpose alone. He would not be able to bring these books with him, so he might as well use them somehow. After gathering crumbs left of Navarroroots, Darius went inside the cave. He started pulverizing them with stones until he had a very fine powder mixed with some crushed coal and a pit of water to create a medical paste. The coal was necessary for the chance that there was still poison within the powder. After a bit of struggle of undressing and cleaning every part of his body wounded arm was hurting even more. For his left hand, Darius put Navarro paste into the wound and closed it with ripped and boiled rags. After storing the rest of the rags into a medical purse, Darius noticed that his clothing was filthy, and he went hesitantly outside to wash them next to a nearby spring. The chilly water was not best for washing, but it did something for his rags of clothes. Darius managed to put them to dry next to the fire, opened the sack, and took handfuls of letters and papers out that he had gotten earlier.


    From the letters, Darius could tell that the forest witch had a grudge against not as local lord Novast. There were 35 letters only arguing about resources and threats to the village. It was baffling how the witch had seemed to clash with officials of the province on medicines, iron, and some more rare materials for magic, maybe. One argument was about local corpses that needed to be cremated and sent to the city. It seemed that the witch had taken the corpses, but the cremated corpses never arrived in the city of Novast. Darius found it peculiar, but then his gaze found something exceedingly fascinating in the pile of papers. Old-looking parchment scroll with red stamps. Darius had only seen such a scroll twice and could tell it to be an official document of some sort.


    While opening the scroll carefully and glancing, Darius started to laugh. In all madness of it, he was now officially the owner of the witch¡¯s house and lands attached to it. He continued laughing and shouted


    ¡±Welcome, welcome every noble of the country. We are now gathered here to auction a pile of the broken building built in the land middle of nowhere. Count your offers! Did I hear one stone, ok two rocks, that¡¯s better oh no, no takers. Oh well, the land and building go to Duke Scamworth.¡±


    Darius laughed so hard that he almost rolled on top of the fire.


    While glancing at the fire, Darius almost threw the scroll into the fire. But he decided to keep it. The scroll wasn¡¯t nearly as heavy as a book; if he could sell the land, it could be worth something. Maybe someone would buy the land to build a lamb farm on top of the witch¡¯s house. Darius smirked at the thought of it and put the scroll inside the bag.


    While the fire was running out of wood, Darius did not feel as cold. That only meant that he already had a fever. With a hint of resignation, Darius hunched his shoulders and went back inside the cave. After trying to glance at another book, he could not focus anymore. Instead, he ate and admired the sweet taste of stolen apples. After downing some water, Darius huddled on the bed made of branches and leaves in the last corner of the cave. Darius noticed that his blanket had holes in it but could not really do much for it now.


    Darkness came slowly, and fever overtook him. Darius knew he had to leave the cave, but he was not ready yet. But not only because of normal flesh wounds but because of mental ones.

 Chapter 4

    Darius rested awkwardly, huddled in a broken blanket while trying to keep the holes of the blanket closed. The bed was not as comfortable as he remembered, but still, Darius drifted to sleep, half awake, back to nightmares and back to salvation of reality from them. He saw blood on his hands despite washing them in the river. He saw dead neighbours arguing and bickering about pointless things in life. A life that had already left them. He sometimes found himself in odd corners of the cave eating apples and potatoes with worrying speed and, at some point, lying outside in the sun and trying to drink water at night to get rid of his dry thirst. Darius tried to redo the wound healing with medical paste, but half of it went on the ground. Needless to say, Darius was totally screwed.


    There weren¡¯t many options. Food was ending too early before Darius could hunt or scavenge anything. His body hurt more the more as he stayed awake. Delirium of fever had passed to the more mundane phase of feeling so sick that even the basic movements were difficult. After eating the last apple and looking over his items on the floor, Darius fixed his eyes on the magic book.


    *Well, in all honesty I didn¡¯t immediately become an alchemy god by opening the book. How about.. Yes, there is this other book on magic.*


    In a sluggish crawling position, Darius knelt towards the book and collapsed on it without strength. After a while, he somehow managed to drag himself back under the blanket with another book without covers. The second half crumbling page had glimmering golden letters. He wondered why someone had wasted so much money on the ink for a while. The dedication text at the beginning of the book was marked not only in gold. Somehow the text seemed to be alive with lush gold, all the light dangling and gliding on the surface of it. Darius started reading it with the expectations and eerie feeling that he might sell his soul if he read further.


    ¡®This book is dedicated to my peerless friend who sacrificed his whole career and life to study higher mathematics of magical equations. Refounding the ninth circle, the daring mastery of the gravitation magnified by a factor of five. Beautiful modular theorems of magic in multiple fields, I dare say not understood by anyone. Alas, my dear friend magus Vindel Percival Frost, the archmagister of the empire. I regret you had to leave us in the dark.


    For the heights of magic and Leiden empire!


    <ol>


    <li>T.¡¯</li>


    </ol>


    Maybe it was the loss of parents, perhaps it was the situation, but Darius teared a bit by the valour shown by the author to his friend. He reached his eye by reflex. With the back of his hand and took off the teardrop from the corner of his eye. After continuing reading, Darius noticed that it was exactly this book that he had the chance to glance at a few pages years ago. Still wondering why he didn¡¯t see the golden letters before, his fingers started franticly turning the pages to the part where he had been interrupted.


    *Finally, I might understand more of the practice that had kept me going in harder times in the village for two years.*


    Darius had followed a few pieces of advises on meditation that were supposed to help something with magic, but he only remembered a few parts and nothing else.


    After reading and figuring out the details for an hour, Darius knew that he had done partially correct things but not everything needed for meditation to succeed. The book introduced different particles that had something to do with meditation. The book mentioned that it would be good to have only certain types of particles and not all of them to form a better foundation for magic. The following pages were an introduction to the particle knowledge and magical tools to measure and use these particles, but further Darius read, he could not continue because words and content became almost unreadable. He knew how to read, but there weren¡¯t enough explanations for each word used within the book. Darius did not know what particles were. There were supposed to be several main ones, many unknown variants, and mixed particles constituted magic.


    Darius could understand the underlying general idea. A typical mage started with several main types of particles, and the struggle of mage was to hone their body through meditation to circulate these particles for years. The results, however, would depend on the individual, and it seemed that the body, mind, control, and something called apprehension had something to do with how it would go. Darius did not have the luxury to know much more about it, but for meditation, he could read a few pages that he could not read two years ago at the entrance hall of the witch¡¯s house. Darius had succeeded in calming himself with the meditation, and sometimes it had felt that it had benefitted his mind and body, but he could not place the feeling to anything other he knew. The book explained what he had lacked: the knowledge of the control and targets and half of the meditation practice. It seemed that by doing it wrongly, the body would be harmed by different particles fighting or colliding, resulting in painful deaths in some cases. As Darius was alive, he assumed he had not done anything terribly wrong either. Though the hair back of his head rose and cold sweat dribbled on his forehead, Darius thought about what could have happened if something had gone wrong in two years. It was a clear first reminder of the dangers of practising magic.


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    *Not that my life so far had been a cakewalk either with the village ruined, me dying here sick without food. Enough of this uselessness. This might be my only shot to stay alive at this point. I cannot move so well anymore, so the only thing I have left is half of the pot of water that will go bad in a few days and meditation and some dry herbs that I cannot use for anything.*


    Darius glanced at the items scattered everywhere one last time, and he raised his shoulders to give several deep breaths to clear his mind. He had to focus despite the fever. Darius put his back on the rocky wall of the cave and slid down on the stick and hay bed. With slow reoccurring rhythmic breathing and thinking of symbols that Darius had read in the book, the meditation started to feel first time difficult. It felt tense, and there was an invisible wall or force that he had to go against while doing more rhythmical meditation. After a moment, Darius started shaking and sweating more, and shivers went over him. He felt something bad in his mouth and spit on the ground blood, and something black mixed in the blood. It made him almost lose focus, but somehow, Darius managed to regain it. Darius kept pushing, and his heart was running and drumming, and he could even hear the wind¡¯s hollow echoes outside and the rustle of leaves carried within it.


    Darius woke up. His face was full of dry blood and dark spots, almost like tar. Assumably, he had passed out in the middle of the meditation. The earlier meditation had been just lazy, but this was the real deal.


    *Progress or death, I must continue.*


    This time it was easier. The feeling of pressure was lesser, but his body was already exhausted and mind drifty at best. Sometimes Darius hit his face to stay focused and awake. Or he tried, but he almost tumbled down from the bed. Darius felt like he had a million hooks in his lungs while trying to breathe rhythmically, and when he pushed everything out, sometimes it felt like something else was being released too with the breathing. Darius could not put his head around this feeling. At first, it seemed that his condition kept worsening every hour. But after waking up several times, he could sense that strength of his body was returning in a very vague manner. It felt impossible since Darius had not eaten anything, and at the same time, it felt like the body had been harmed in every imaginable way. Still, the heart kept pumping, and Darius felt more awake than ever. Clear even, but he kept focus on the practice. Only the dimming of light told him that the third night was coming. Darius sipped the last gulps of water from the pot and continued meditation.


    On the following day, he noticed how those signs that he had to memorize kept changing their shape on their own. It felt like something was planting them into his mind, but these symbols were not dead entities.


    *Symbols seem alive, or are they only alive because I am a living being?*


    Darius could not tell what the truth of the practice was. He planted each symbol in the arrangement of a large triangle, and when he was done, he folded the triangle open multiple times, repeating the symbols while meditating. The folding of this symbol triangle got slower and slower and more painful with every folding. When Darius had five folded triangles open, he vomited black blood on the ground and had to wait a while before continuing. Sixth fold, seventh fold, eight. Darius passed out again.


    While waking up again, he felt like he had been repeatedly beaten and his flesh minced like meat. His throat was dryer than ever, like a piece of leather parchment scroll on the floor mixed with stone dust from the cave and lack of cleaning. His eyes hurt, and he felt like he had cried, but there were no tears, only dry blood. Darius drew a triangle on the floor''s dust to reassure himself and continued meditating.


    Darius passed out after each new folding of the symbol triangle was ready. Repeating and growing pain woke him up. Darius forced himself not to think of anything else than the symbols, almost fearing that they would somehow disappear if he spent any second on anything else. After the eleventh folding, he was getting desperate.


    *How many would there be?*


    Darius tried to check the book, but it did not mention how many times folding had to happen. He kept losing consciousness and waking up the next moment in an increasing manner. His clothes were in old blood, tar-like black substance, and maybe vomit if he would have had anything to eat. After the twelfth fold, Darius lost consciousness for a longer time, and it seemed that he had skipped a day entirely. The light was dimming once again when he woke up or tried, but he was just lying down in wrenching pain while desperately trying to continue meditation.


    There was no memory or remembering of how Darius had managed to do it, but somehow, he woke up and could even rise from the bed. In his mind, Darius could see the thirteenth fold opening, and as a whole, the colour of the symbols had changed from golden to dark. No, dark was the wrong word. It felt like nothing or less where the symbols should have been.


    ¡°Fucking thirteen and not a fold before.¡± Darius sight in tired mockery.


    Then he realized that he had been standing on the dry black sticky pool of smelly tar-like liquid on the floor, but he could not focus on it because he could move again. After opening and closing his hands, Darius watched his almost skeletal arms, but the wounds had almost fully healed, and his mind felt clear. The body felt stronger than in days despite lack of food and fever. After a hesitant start, Darius went outside to drink water. After slow drinking of cold water, he felt better than in days. Darius did not know how many days it had been. According to his vague memories and aching body, it had been almost too long. Darius continued feasting on grassy plants and clear water while lying on the ground in the moonlight.

 Chapter 5

    After resting his head for a while, Darius returned to drink water after collecting all the items in an improvised travel sack. Darius looked around the quiet forest and weighed his odds of survival. Getting better gear and more food from the ruins of the village was a good idea, but in his current condition, a partially monster-infested village seemed risky. His other option was to leave the forest and start the journey back to the provincial city or even any other town or village.


    *That would be damn suicide.*


    Darius knew that there would not be anything for hundreds of kilometres that he could depend on. It might be all just rocks and uneatable grass plains, and he would need to survive for at least a month or two travelling by foot in these conditions. The third option was to stay in the forest for a while and gather meat, herbs, plant food, and roots for the travel. In the forest, you could easily hide and hide your tracks than outside, where vast seas of grassy nothingness awaited Darius. The biggest priority was finding food and collecting everything he could carry and eat during the trip. It was better to walk slowly and keep attention to plants and the environment rather than run around the forest and get the attention of monsters and predatory animals. For this purpose, Darius harvested several tens of leaves from sulktrees, the leaves were not only big, but these leaves also had an unusual smell that covered the smell of fresh meat. The villagers'' hunters had taught this trick to Darius while he had been collecting wood and sometimes herbs to sell in the village. At some point, he would need to dry the meat because these leaves did not help to keep the meat fresh.


    Darius barely found anything sensible in the forest to eat. And what little he saw, he just ate. He felt better, but the urgency to take control of his situation urged him to do something. But Darius was not in a hurry. *Hurrying just kills people.* Darius thought and was amused by his whims. He made some poor traps around the forest and fishing traps nearby the river and returned to gather his strength at the cave. At least monsters had not found the place, and Darius had a perfect source of clear water next to him and a cave to sleep and meditate. Although after the first day, Darius noticed that he did not need to sleep anymore if he meditated the whole night. He felt much more invigorated by meditating than sleeping. Also, his wounds continued healing at a slightly abnormal rate, so Darius gave his body some weeks to rest while gathering food. While preparing, he made some ceramic bottles from river clay to carry water for long distances. It might be that Darius could not find a water source for a week or two. He had to leave his trapped animals only a few times because there were monsters nearby. Darius noticed that any trap with sharp sticks was way worse than string straps for rabbits because they created the smell of blood and attracted monsters. For the same reason, he smoked all the meat he could get. Darius did not have the luxury of waiting for the meat to dry on its own, and the smell of meat would attract monsters.


    The day came when Darius had food for a very lousy month of travel. The village had gotten his attention again. It might be that monsters would have left the village by now to look for other prey. At least they could not stay in one place as long as humans could with all inventions and food storage. His loaned boots were already almost torn to pieces, and there would be a need for more items on his journey. Darius had enough medical herbs but not needle and thread. He had water bottles but not alcohol for treating wounds, and he needed more shoes to travel far and a better blanket. It would also be nice to have proper clothes and not just bloody stained rags of clothing for long travel. With everything mentally listed in his mind, Darius thought going to the village was worth it. At least he could now run if the need arose. Darius left all the items in the cave and took only the empty travel sack. It was time to go on a very quiet raid. Darius left the cave while the sun was rising because most of the monsters were creatures of the night. For his security, Darius only had the axe in his right hand and a travel sack covering his back.


    Return to the village was uneventful. The house of forest witch had burned to cinders like many other buildings in the village. There was nothing left from the witch now, and collapsed house did not permit Darius to go to the cellar underground. Luckily, he had taken those books earlier.


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    *I could be dead by now without knowledge of meditation.*


    While leaning on the burned wall, Darius watched the village in rumbles for a while. He noticed his eyesight had improved while watching the village from a distance. While


    wondering what the mediation had done to his body, Darius walked into the village.


    There was no time for sorrow. In eerie quiet, Darius could hear broken doors creaking on their hinges. Sometimes something collapsed far away. Otherwise, Darius only listened to the wind. After climbing back inside the wrecked home village, he avoided places where he had earlier been to find the maximum number of items and food. Darius found a bottle of strong liquor in a broken, half-burned tavern. In one blackened barrel, he found vinegar apples stored next to the remains of the tavern counter. They did not look very nice, but Darius ate half the apples and put half in bottles with vinegar.


    Most of the food items were rotten, burned or half-eaten. Darius saw half moulded bread and took the mould part away, and ate the rest of it. Since he did not see any monsters nearby and it was mid-day sun shining in a blue sky, Darius ate ferociously whenever he found something edible. After eating, Darius carefully collected clothing and a new blanket from the merchant''s house. The shirt was better than Darius had ever dressed in his life. Otherwise, the house was badly crushed, but he managed to squeeze himself into a partially collapsed house. Inside the ruins of a wooden house, Darius found some medical equipment, scissors, and a long knife without a sheath. After putting everything into his sack, Darius found a few smaller bags that he could tie to the robe belt. The best find was from the guardhouse, a proper grey cloak that covered Darius entirely. However, scissors had to be used to cut the extra length because the cloak was adult size. Otherwise, being inside the village was nerve-wracking. Darius stared at everything nervously, listening to any sounds. He didn''t find much else than occasional food that got eaten immediately. Darius already had a flint and steel, but he chanced on a better one in the middle of a small market opening, presumably dropped by someone during the monster attack.


    After a few scratches and a lot of nervous work, Darius heard the first noises that sounded growling. It was probably some houses down the street, but he didn''t stop to listen. Slowly Darius started backing away with increasing speed to leave the place. In the last opening, he took some extra shoes from his legs. It seemed that the owner of the legs had been eaten already. Darius almost vomited right there but managed to keep precious food in his stomach. It was gruesome to get the brown leather boots swollen and half-rotten broken legs. After changing boots Darius absentmindedly cleaned his bloody hands into his fine new linen shirt and started running back to the forest. In the cave, he could rest his nerves again.


    "haha, what a raid. I might even survive the trip now."


    Darius was unsure how many monsters there had been in the village, but he decided to continue packing. Darius had to throw away all manner of dead weight. The old blanket had to go, and the magic book and alchemy book reduced their weight once more. He also cut all the book pages that he had memorized. Life was more important as the ability to carry food than pieces of paper. Darius also left all the letters and other miscellaneous items behind. But he still took the signature page with gold letters from the magic book and put it in his new cloak pocket. In the pocket, Darius found a small number of silver coins.


    *lucky me* Darius was amused ironically but still stored the coins in his purse.


    With teetering slow walk Darius started to go around the village in the forest. It took almost half a day to look for items. When Darius went to the other side of the large hill after the forest, the sun was already setting. He sometimes looked back, and finally, the hill swallowed the rest of the view into the woods. Now Darius was truly on his own.


    He walked the whole day to use the better part of the food he had already eaten. Wearily Darius knew that it would last as a sumptuous meal for the rest of the month or longer. Occasionally he only stopped to refill his most used water bottle whenever he saw running clear water. It was a wonder why his stomach was not upset by different waters, thorny raw plants, and randomly picked old food.


    *It might be part of my new meditated body.* Darius even tried to meditate while walking, but he did not succeed. Once, he had to stop because he heard metallic clanking noise from behind him. The sheetless dagger had fallen on the rocky ground. Darius sighed, patched it back onto his travel sack, and continued monotonous walking until his legs started to hurt in the evening.

 Chapter 6

    After a few days, Darius threw some items away, including the axe. He put the dagger in the sack surrounded by a blanket to save the effort. In case of need, Darius could use a dagger for many things, but the axe was too heavy to carry around for the whole trip, and after he had entered the open grass fields, there were no threes in sight.


    Darius walked further away from his old life for two weeks with daily tedium. He read and reread what was left of two books, but he didn¡¯t throw the pages away anymore since the subjects were harder and he might be wrong about something. Darius could assume particles to be something of energy or small objects of magic but could not know more based on his books. Alchemy was easier because he had some tools of forest witch, and he could learn the basics of these instruments from the tattered alchemy book. Darius wished to test these items, but there were just not enough herbs and materials to do anything. It also seemed that those rocks Darius had left in the cellar were needed catalysts for alchemy.


    After regretting his decision not to take a risk with the stones, Darius assumed that at least magic tools would be costly, and he could later use them or sell them for money. Every night Darius meditated, and his wounds started to heal completely. His vigour returned despite he ate less food every day to make it last. There was barely anything else than wind and rocky ground with occasional patches of grass. He had already covered a large portion of the trip or at least hoped that that would be the case. The monotonous sea of grass and rocks without anything else in sight for weeks. Not even a hill or one three, just nothing. Sometimes he could see animals far away, larger eagles eating their prey.


    On one occasion, Darius had tried to get the bird with a thrown rock, but his semi-clumsy movements didn¡¯t help him. The eagle flew away, only leaving half of the rotten rat behind. In some evenings, Darius could have hunted rats, but there was nothing that could have been used for the fire. Therefore, his only option was to make meat cuttings and attach them to his travel sack to keep them drying in the sun while he walked during the days. At least in two weeks or more, he would have something to eat when all the other food would end.


    It happened on a sunny day when he could see far away. Humans. Darius could see tiny black dots on the horizon. He started yelling and waving his hands immediately, and after a while, he saw that, oddly, some of the people left the group with fast horses and started to come close in a very wide formation. When Darius figured it out, he was already trapped inside an encirclement. His saviours were not what he had wished for. They were no merchants, and as Darius could feel from their greedy gazes and shouting, they were thugs at best or even worse. Dirty and armoured in all manner of cheap and patchy items and poor-looking rusty weapons, they closed the circle. One man with a black hood deep enough that Darius could not see his face stated coldly,


    ¡°Hey boy, you look to be in trouble. Do you mind coming with us to our caravan?¡±


    Darius knew from the lack of emotion and suspended gazes from men used to violence that he did not have any other option.


    ¡°Gladly, I have been travelling for weeks already.¡± Darius retorted.


    Some men laughed at his words, but some were worryingly displeased with him not giving a fight. It seemed that some of them wanted more activity in these boring grass fields. He walked inside the encirclement back to their caravan to not give them any chance. When he could see closer, there were three wagons with cages. Inside were people of all ages, men, women, and children. Everybody seemed to be starving and quietly lying inside and leaning on the rusted iron bars trapping them inside. Darius was freed from all his possessions. They even took his linen shirt and gave him a rough potato sack with three holes as a shirt. While laughing at how he looked, they secured him neatly in a less occupied cage.


    The whole transaction was smooth and professional. No yelling, no hitting, no empty threats. Despite their appearances, these people were professional slavers. Despite five other people being in the cage, nobody spoke anything to Darius, and after looking at everyone, he didn¡¯t talk either. Inside the cage was a yellow-haired, stronger build man without teeth, snoring with sunken cheeks at the back of the cage. Next to him were two females with empty looks in their eyes, not recognizing anything. They were all dressed in rags and potato sacks. In the middle, Darius saw a presumably shared toilet that was a pot with a lid on it. The lid, however, did not cover the petrifying smell underneath. Only one kid smirked to his face when he saw the toilet pot, but after, the kid huddled himself into the arms of an older man with long steel grey hair. He seemed to be ill. His face was almost as white as linen could be, and he was hunched on the left corner of the cage with the red-haired nosy small kid.


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    Darius sat on the not-as-favourable position in the middle of the long bench. Regrettably, he was almost next to the pot. He leaned on the cage bars and closed his eyes to hide that he would not sleep but meditate.


    He was only disturbed by sudden yelling. The sun was already setting, and the caravan had stopped. It seemed that there was a campfire with better food than what had been offered to captured people.


    ¡°Hey boy, yes you, come out chief wants to talk to you.¡±


    Darius nodded, and he was delivered to the largest tent occupying one side of the encampment. Inside the tent, he saw a large table with decent chairs around it and a fat, bald man sitting behind the table. The man commanded others out of the tent with a highly shimming voice. After staring at Darius for a while, and Darius was looking down not to cause trouble, the man in the black robe started questioning him.


    ¡°Where have you gotten these items, boy? Did you run away from home?¡±


    As Darius looked at the table first time, he noticed some of his belongings there, the dry meat and alchemical apparatuses. All the letters were laid open. In his hands, the man kept the deed for the land lot of the witch.


    ¡°Answer me now. Who are you.¡± The man sneered at him.


    ¡°No sir, my village was destroyed, and here I am.¡±


    ¡°Yes, here you are with the alchemical tools, some questionable letters, the goddamn deed for a land lot and some meat that even I don¡¯t recognize. There are a lot of questions about you and your items.¡±


    First, Darius tried to think of fast excuses, but he just told the truth and the end of the village. He explained that some of the papers might be important, so he had kept them and other items to survive. Some of the things seemed expensive, so he took them.


    ¡°Well, you are not wrong either. Now my next question is can you read boy?¡± The bald man barked suddenly.


    Darius saw his chance and hurriedly denied knowing how to read. After all, he was just a farm boy cutting firewood for the village. As he had given the whole story of the village, the bald man didn¡¯t suspect him of lying about this small detail.


    ¡°Okay, since you told me everything, you can eat this suspicious meat. That will be your meal for today.¡± Said the man with blatant greed in his blue eyes. Darius was led back to the cage, only to find that two females were not there anymore. He looked questioningly at the man at the back and received only a dark knowing look back. After gulping, Darius sat on the bench. Then he started eating the rat meat strips but was interrupted by the man.


    ¡°Boy, what meat is that?¡±


    ¡°Sun-dried rat meat, sir, not the best but can¡¯t be picky. They only gave me this to eat today.¡±


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t get ill, boy. We are already in enough trouble.¡±


    After saying that, one slaver yelled from outside, ¡°NO SPEAKING!¡± and they quieted themselves. After eating, Darius meditated the whole night and for several days, only waking up when the meal was served. The meal was always the same watered-down oath meal with big chunks of jelly-like glibs.


    One month went past, and the environment changed. Now slaver caravan travelled on busy roads, and the cages were covered not to let other people see the circumstances of the slaves. It made the air damp inside, and the toilet pot smelling it did not improve the mood for concentration. The old man had died a week ago, and the kid had been put into a different wagon. The wagon air smelled of piss, diarrhea, sweat, and glooming poor misery. But it only took about two weeks until they were at the city gates. The city gates seemed very large, and Darius assumed that the long travel of three months had led them to a bigger city to increase slave profits. After a coin purse changed its owner at the gate caravan continued into the city. Now Darius would have to wait for any chance to escape and disappear into the city. Or be a slave for his whole life. With these thoughts, Darius looked at the gate disappearing after a turn into narrow streets.

 Chapter 7

    After receiving the coldest bath water, Darius had to clean himself in a dingy prison dungeon. His eyes had adjusted to dim lighting only provided by oil lamps on the wall. It seemed that everyone had to wash themselves before slavers put them into dark cells. There was only one little oil lamp at the far end of the hallway. Darius didn¡¯t mind. He was used to the darkness, which seemed similar to his home cave. The cell seemed very small, and the rock walls of it didn¡¯t budge at all. Darius carefully tried the door because it did not seem to have a lock on it but the clonking sound outside told him that he had been barred in with a metal bar on the other side of the door. Even the windows, if you could call them, were just very narrow cracks with iron rods. He could have barely fit his hand outside if he could have climbed to the height of the wall. His only options were the floor and the door of the cell. He did not have any tool to lift the door bar from the other side and the door was shut tight.


    Darius phased around the tiny cell and weighed his minuscule options while trying a bit of this and that. The rest of the evening, he tried every stone on the wall and the floor. No loose rocks. There was not even a bed inside, only hay on top of the stone floor as a makeshift bed. No cracks on any stone, not even a stick or small loose rock to be used as a tool to scrape mortar. With frustration, Darius side-kicked the corner of the wall. Nothing else happened than pain since he didn¡¯t have any shoes or socks to cover the impact. While cursing the dark realization came to his mind. It was the only option left, although a painful one. He could try to hit corner stone repeatedly and meditate his wounds away. If he could get a piece of mortar or rock, he could splinter it and use these as a tool to slowly dig a crack in the door frame and somehow lift the bar behind the door. Since he had no better idea, he commenced the task at hand. After several tens of hits, his hands and legs were a mess, and no seeming results had come about. Darrius didn¡¯t worry about it he was too tired and hurt.


    After meditating he continued this gruesome effort. The meditation helped not only ease the pain but to heal him, and it felt like he had more strength than he would have had in that situation. During the mealtimes, he only received a wood bowl of porridge but no spoon or anything else and he had to give even the bowl back every day after eating. He attempted to discuss something or misdirect the guards but only got curses for the effort. The small but sturdy metal reinforced hatch was the only means to the outside world from the cell. The door itself was always kept closed. Some slaves tried to yell or act to be sick, but nobody ever opened the doors and when they did the slave was taken away completely. Darius continued with the door corner rock. He could already see some minor cracks forming on the side of the stone¡¯s mortar.


    ¡°That¡¯s progress, you know, maybe a week or two and it gets loose.¡± Darius was amused by the dreadful prospects of his time in the cell. His hands were gruesome sight at best, and his legs did not fare better. Even the meditation did not heal the scars completely although all of the cuts kept healing despite repeatedly opening wounds. Since the meal was delivered to the whole hallway of cells nobody saw the condition of his hands, only the empty meal bowl with an unnoticeable fragrance of blood covered by all the other smells in the prison dungeon.


    Night came again one day, and Darius was just beginning the good old kicking and beating of the rock when he heard screams and running noises. He could smell burning flesh outside when the voices went quiet. After a while, he heard loud, bellowing words outside.


    ¡°Hey Mathias, I have come to collect your final debt!¡±


    Then the building shook almost entirely.


    ¡°You should have paid when you had your last chance!!¡±


    Darius heard noises that he had never heard. The splintering of the support wood logs stonewalls crumbling down, large booming sounds exploding and shaking the whole entirety of the cells. It was too much for the structures, and the cell door wall ruptured badly, and only half cracked open door tilted to keep the rest of the wall from coming down. Darius immediately started getting himself through the narrow crack. He was overjoyed now by the lack of food for months because otherwise, he might not have fit through. Even in this skeletal condition, he had to give some hard treatment to his shoulder to get through the narrow cap. Nobody was seen, some wood logs were burning, and the smoke and dusty air covered the half-collapsed hallway. Slaves were screaming, and some ran in full panic into the hallway leading to the stairs. Darius waited a bit and went after them slowly.


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    When he got to the final door after the stairs, he kept listening to what was happening in nearby rooms. He heard screams, fighting and thudding sounds of bodies or body parts going down on the floor. Someone was yelling


    ¡°We need to get out of here, Mathias. This time they send a fucking contract mage. Stop looting the money! We will die if they get to us! We have to leave NOW!¡±


    Darius heard a laconic mumbling reply. He could not hear the words, but he knew that it was the black hooded bald guy who he had met earlier. It seemed that Mathias was in deep and not in a good way. *Let¡¯s see if your greed will kill you, Mathias* Darius smiled and waited for hurried voices to go further. He waited behind the door in case of them heading underground to some secret passages. Nobody came after all, and he ventured into half-broken rooms full of corpses and blood in the next silent minute. Some of the rooms were on fire, and Darius could see large burning holes in the outer wall of the building. Even stone walls were half melted, and hot support irons had started minor fires here and there in the building. All the window glasses were smashed as some immense explosion had happened.


    Darius didn¡¯t have the time. He had to take what he could and get the hell out of where he was. He went in the direction of the room where Mathias and his criminal friend had been a moment earlier. While going about, Darius took a tablecloth from one table and went inside the room. There he saw all manner of coins and items on the floor, an open safe and papers everywhere, some of the papers burning on the floor. *Okay, time for the payment for my troubles.* Darius smirked, put the table cloth on the table, and started throwing small copper and bigger silver coins and papers and valuable items, anything on the cloth. He even threw some books from the bookshelf and luckily found the alchemy tools from one box hidden behind the crashed shelf.


    After one minute of ferocious item throwing, Darius gathered the knotted tablecloth, lifted the heavy clinking bundle on his shoulder, and started looking for any window to hop out without anyone noticing. Even in some rooms, he could hear screams and fighting going on without an evident need to participate. Darius didn¡¯t take any chances and just went to one nearby room in the opposite direction where the front yard and big-holed wall were. Was it an explosion or magic that made the holes in the wall, he didn¡¯t want to find out. Darius bolted into one corner room with a smashed window, looked down, cursed, and jumped on the stable roof from the second floor. He crashed on the roof with a loud thud, almost losing a grip on the bundle. Darius took a wincing, pain-filled breath and went again down the cobblestone street. Albeit his side hurt a bit, he started limping to run from the burning and broken building in a dark alleyway.


    Darius ran through half-empty dark streets while trying to find anywhere to hide. He turned a few streets while running and came into a more quiet part of what seemed like slum buildings. Dirty huts built with mixed materials were everywhere as far as he could see them. He started walking more slowly and looking for any movements and people. He managed to enter the slum without anyone seeing what he was carrying. Maybe he had saved some luck on the miserable trip. Finally, he found a narrow corner in the side of the alley where people had thrown all garbage. Soon he noticed that the corner was lower than other parts of the street, and there was a sewer hatch half covered by a thrown-out broken barrel. Darius moved the remains of the barrel quietly and looked around. When he could be sure nobody had seen anything, he lifted the hatch and climbed into the sewer. When Darius got underground, he dropped the bundle of items on the stone floor and knelt next to it to meditate. Despite the stench, Darius kept thinking he was lucky to escape his slave life. He released a sigh of relief, and in the dim darkness of the sewer, he meditated first time in a long time as a free man.

 Chapter 8

    *What is this smell* Darius coughed. Then he remembered *Oh yea it was only yesterday when I became a free man again.*


    Then his attention turned towards voices outside. Carts rattling on cobblestone roads. Traders were shouting about their wares, and the sounds of walking shoes and children like him yelling and playing around in the morning light. Darius almost started climbing up from the sewer, but he froze after the first step.


    *It¡¯s a slum. I only have this bloody potato sack on me, and anyone can steal the items that I have.*


    After thinking, Darius decided to sit on the floor and use daylight seeping into the sewer to quietly look at the items he had gathered hastily. He gathered coins into one pile and items, alchemy tools and books into other. Sadly, Darius had lost the land deed, but he had made it up by acquiring more silver coins than originally. He might not be able to buy a house, but he could stay in some tavern room at least. However, Darius had many unexplainable items, and his clothing condition and blood everywhere weren¡¯t what he could show to people on the streets. Only his pants were somewhat representable, but without shoes and a shirt, he looked just like any slum dweller, and he would have difficulty getting any services. He would need somewhat okay clothing from local rag sellers, change and buy the next better clothing from the clothing store. In addition, it would be nice to find a place to stay and something to eat. He could only take coins with him when he would leave to do these tasks.


    While there was some light available, Darius looked around nearby to find any place where to hide items. He wasn¡¯t lucky because every wall was covered with ancient-looking bricks and moss, and the tunnel was otherwise just barely big enough to walk with hunched back. Well, not that there would be people coming here any time soon, he thought. There were no signs of anyone. Apart from dirt, murky water in the channel and violet moss that sucked all the sunlight away, there wasn¡¯t anything else. Darius started planning his rise from the sewers. He meditated the rest of the day and night, only coming out with a ripped tablecloth as a makeshift shirt and coin purse cut from the same material. The morning sun hadn¡¯t yet risen, and with minor difficulties, Darius managed to heave himself up from the sewer, lift the hatch quietly and wait a while in a kneeling position behind the broken barrel to see if there was anyone. Then he put the barrel back in its original place and left his wealth to wait for a better moment.


    While walking around the streets, he found market square and proper stores. He could not yet buy anything from them in this clothing of his. Otherwise, guards might take him away. He returned to the slums, and after walking around the places, he sat on a pile of rocks, waiting.


    When morning came and the first kid went by, Darius asked him where the rag sellers were. Kid mentioned a few hut houses not too far away, and Darius gave him a copper. The first one was not apparently awake, but the second rag seller was. One could tell by the wooden burned sign that this was supposed to be a rag seller hut. Darius heard noises inside, and he knocked on the door.


    ¡°Who is knocking there? I just woke up.¡± Said an angry voice.


    ¡°Hello, I am Trevon, and I wanted to buy some clothes. I¡¯m willing to pay for them.¡±


    The door opened immediately, and a more pleasant-looking face greeted Darius. He had faked his name because he didn¡¯t want to be known in the slums by his real name.


    ¡°Welcome to my clothing store,¡± said a black-haired man in his mid-fifties. His mannerism was polite but only for the money.


    ¡°Thanks for the invitation. Do you happen to have a cloak, pants, shoes, and a decent shirt.?¡±


    ¡°Trevon, I think I do.¡± Said the man and led Darius inside.


    In dim oil lamp light, Darius could see varied clothes, some more like rags than others. ¡°How much for these leather boots with a hole in them?¡± Asked Darius.


    ¡°These fine boots are almost new, and despite this hole in them, they look proper young man. I ask for 40 coppers for them.¡±


    ¡°40 is a bit tough call, maybe 25?¡±


    ¡°31 is as low as I can get.¡± Rag seller stated.


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    After a considerable back and forth with the item prices, Darius bought boots, almost new brown pants just three times patched green shirt and a grey cloak that had seen a lot of better days. The total cost was two silvers and 20 coppers that Darius fished from underneath his clothing. He didn¡¯t keep the coin purse outside not to show how much he had money. After changing his clothes, he gave them to the seller and advised him to burn them as soon as possible, and the rag seller readily agreed. There was no value in selling potato sack with holes. Then Darius noticed an old travel sack and bought it for ten coppers. It was just the kind of sack he would need for transferring items from the sewer. After getting rid of the rag seller trying to sell him even more, Darius went into the market square. There he bought noticed a food stall selling food and drinks.


    ¡°Hey kid are you sure you can eat all that?¡± asked a smiling old woman who was grilling dumplings.


    ¡°Yea, thank you, it''s fine, two coppers for each, so it is 18? Can you also give me one cider?¡±


    After getting the food, Darius sat on a nearby bench to enjoy his food. There were not yet too many people in the market square, and the sun was just rising nearing the roofs. While eating, some scrawny-looking kid came closer and tried to pickpocket him. He grabbed the hand in midway and just stared at the kid. After a bit of struggle and a face of resignation, Darius let the kid go. The kid ran away immediately. Then Darius started to think about what had happened. The postures and easiness of it all were somewhat baffling to him. He barely ate some of the food and could have as much strength. Then he realized that his body was not entirely normal anymore, and he hunched his shoulders and continued eating. Darius ended his eating in a rush to avoid the gazes of others. He wasn¡¯t yet adjusted to seeing this many people. After downing the watered cheap cider, Darius felt alive again and went into a nearby clothing store. In the store, Darius saw a sign of no haggling on quality work and set prices on each piece of clothing on display. Hurriedly the owner of the store came to look at him.


    ¡°Hello boy, are you here to buy clothing, eh?¡±


    Darius looked at him for a second and understood what the seller meant ¡°That¡¯s quite right sir, I would want better clothing than I am wearing now. I need proper pants with pockets, a good sturdy belt, shirt, and jacket.¡±


    ¡°What colours would you like?¡± sneered the store owner level-headedly, watching every movement of Darius as he would steal everything if he just would avert his eyes from him. Darius didn¡¯t mind this. He smelled terrible, he could not clean himself properly, and despite his new clothes, they were just above the rags in the slum.


    ¡°Darker, the better I prefer grey and black.¡± Answered Darius.


    ¡°I don¡¯t usually sell shoes, but these boots are nice, and your size, but they cost 15 silvers.¡±


    Darius looked at the man without emotion while sweating a little after hearing the price.


    ¡°That¡¯s okay. How about other clothing I requested?¡±


    After noticing that the boy presumably had enough money or even more than needed, the owner started still guardedly but more friendly, showing different clothing. After a while, Darius had all his new clothes and put them into his travel sack. He thanked the seller, who probably assumed Darius had some master who wanted this clothing. Afterwards, Darius hurried into the bathing house, and after securing his items to the counter, he received four large hot water buckets. Darius had to use almost an hour to clean himself from all the dirt, blood, and sweat.


    Afterwards, he got his clothing from the counter and dressed in new clothing. After cutting his hair a bit with a knife, he seemed a typical subject of the empire. *Well, not just some poor beggar underneath the sewers anymore.* Darius sighed. Although his coins were ending rapidly, he asked a few people for suggestions and went to a cheaper but still proper tavern.


    The tavern Green lantern was situated almost at the border of the slum area. For Darrius, it was the perfect price. He didn¡¯t care where the tavern was. When he went inside, he met the owner of the Green Lantern at the counter, cleaning plates after midday dinner. The floors were bare wood, and the walls looked rough but sturdy.


    ¡°Oi boy! What can I get for you?¡±


    Darius had been told to order one month of the private room instead of days because it would give a discount. After making sure he knew the difference. If Darius had paid a silver daily, he could spend 30 silvers a month. But because he was paying for the whole month, the price was 20, and with the dinners, it came to 22 silvers. It was a decent deal for a hungry person who didn¡¯t know almost anything about the surroundings. Darius took 20 silvers and 200 coppers to cover the 22 silver price. That left his money pouch almost empty, but one month of ensured peace of mind was more valuable to Darius.


    ¡°Oh, you had one too many Tranguil here boy.¡± Noted the tavern owner. Darius glanced at the man, thanked him, and took the copper back. He assumed the owner wanted to do him a favour or test him.


    ¡°Thanks for your honesty. I am Darius.¡± Darius said and pocketed the coin. ¡°Do you happen to know where there are any vendors for books or herb stores?¡±


    ¡°Good to meet Darius. I am Edwin, owner of this establishment. You can find booksellers at the church corner of the market square, and other booksellers are further down Grieg street.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for the help¡±


    ¡°Anytime, boy¡±


    Darius went upstairs and unlocked the door of his room. It only had one window bed rough looking table and a small furnace in the corner. For Darius, it still was like a luxurious getaway from his past life in the village.


    He decided to rest for the day and get his late meal into the room, albeit bringing the food cost him one copper Tranguil. The maid thanked him and left Darius to his meal.

 Chapter 9

    After several days of meals and resting in a tavern, Darius started to feel relaxed and well. It would take him months to get all the strength back, but with his current lifestyle, he could make it happen. The only problem was that he lacked money. The problem was that the sewer where he had been blocked with some broken caravan wagon that was too big to lift. Darius had tried to find other hatches and a way to get to his loot, but it would take more time to find the exact location with the ancient sewer system. Currently, he had waited that someone would do something to the wagon, but nothing had happened for days. He had not been lazy either. Mapping Ardon city sewers and different junctions had given him a large picture of the sewers in the city, but it seemed that some parts were remotely built at other times. It was apparent that there was no city-wide sewer but only semi-connected or not connected at all parts, depending on the elevation of the land. It seemed that different parts of the city also contributed to this difference. Slums had the worst sewers. It seemed that the city had grown at some point extensively, and sewers had been made, but in the area of slum, these works had been halted, and the materials were worse. Some parts had even caved in.


    Underneath the market square and merchant district, the tunnels were more functional and cleaner. There was no connection from there to the slum sewer, but Darius had found one tunnel that connected the merchant district sewers to the nobility area. This area was in the deeper part of the city where also city lord lived. But it was still within the scope of the sewer because the land didn¡¯t have as high elevation. The biggest difference was the Black Arch Academy area for mages. This area was like a city within a city, enclosing almost as large area within it as the rest of the city combined. Academy was also built from more expensive materials. Stones of its walls were a black stone gleaming in the moonlight, and large portions of the academy were constructed with red bricks, the kind of material Darius did not find anywhere else in the city.


    In comparison to the stone walls of the city and the whitewashed walls of the nobility area, the academy area looked like aristocrats would live there. Academy area was a close neighbour to the Nobility area, but there did not seem to be a connection with the sewers or at least Darius had not found it within several days. Although he had been collecting information on Ardon city, he had heard that the nobility area was forbidden to go without permission and even more so in the case of Black Arch Academy. Still, Darius viewed sewers as an excellent practice to avoid these limitations. After being stuck in his home village for years, he did not like any artificial limitations.


    One of these limitations was money, which Darius wasn¡¯t as custom to handling. At this rate, Darius had only one month to get more money to keep himself in the tavern. There was no work he could be hired for that would pay well. He could try to make potions, but the materials also cost, and he did not have money for even alchemical tests and failures, not to talk about actually making potions. Also, those alchemy tools he even had were locked underground by the damn heavy, broken wagon. Making money with potions was an excellent choice in the long term, but Darius did not have the luxury of time or resources to achieve this goal. His other options were to do dangerous work for guilds with meagre payments, pickpocketing, making some busywork in the city, distributing newspapers, doing chimney cleaning, and other tedious works without proper payments. Pickpocketing was risky, as he could see first-hand when he grabbed one thief''s arm. No, it was dangerous and stupid. At the same time, there had to be better ways to make money.


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    No proper work would have paid well, and some of the shady works were more dangerous than others. While in the slaver cage, Darius had turned 13 years old. It did not help much in a city full of people ready to work on any work. Also, living in the city seemed to cost more money than everywhere else. Darius started to become sceptical about his chances in the city. Still, despite this, he knew he had many other things going for him if he could somehow get enough tools and materials for alchemy. That was his best bet since woodcutters didn¡¯t really have work here. Instead, most of the wood was bought from elsewhere. Pickpocketing was easy but too dangerous. But he could go back to the hideout of those slavers to loot more stuff. Maybe there was something worth the coin. But during the day, he would need far more information on the city and different works, people and stores.


    After washing himself once more after going to sewers, Darius went to eat at the main hall of Green lantern. Edwin was there but not alone. A scattering of people was eating late meals after work in the main hall, road workers, one rich guy with two slaves, and a quiet girl in the corner. After glancing at everyone in the room, Darius went to the counter and smiled at Edwin.


    ¡°Larger crowd, hu? Can I get my meal Edwin?¡±


    ¡°Hehe, yes Darius, it has been a good day now. It seems that some road work was finished.¡±


    ¡°That is great, almost double the usual crowd. Do you happen to know how much they are paid for it?¡±


    ¡°Well, it''s hard work boy, around 10 coppers per day, and half of it is spent here on food,¡± Edwin smirked. ¡°Are you trying to find some work? I know some houses that would need servants for 15 silvers a month.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for the offer, Edwin, but I am too occupied with alchemy. I have been trying to get all the materials for potion making and all manner of tools.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know that you are into potioneering, boy, but now I know how you can afford the room¡± Edwin smiled almost in a relieved manner, ¡°Just tell me when you need a bigger room or storage room for rent.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Edwin. I will come to do business with you when I can.¡±


    Darius had given a broad excuse for having money, his occupation, and why he had to wash himself all the time. It''s important to give people something to consider instead of not telling them anything to avoid questions. It was better than leaving his manners and money unexplained. It was a half-truth, after all. Darius would just have to conquer many problems before he could make potioneering profitable.


    In the evening Darius did not have any better ideas. He went past the street with the hidden loot. Sadly he was met again with the unfortunate sight of the broken wagon on the sewer hatch. He even asked some questions about the wagon, but the shopkeeper just said that the wagon was broken. It had taken almost a whole day to get the wagon where it now was. The store owner needed some weeks to be able to fix the wagon. Also, it would require several men to lift it back up. Darius did not have a few weeks to wait. While stores were closing, and the sun could not be seen, Darius took a hooded grey cloak from his travel sack and put it on in a deserted alley. Then he walked slowly to nearby remains of the slaver building. Darius only saw collapsed roofs and walls burned to cinders in various parts of the building. While waiting a while without hearing any noises, he walked inside.

 Chapter 10

    Wind gathered dark dust here and there, and broken, and dirty half-burned furniture stood in the building. Some occasional rains had already formed dirty venues of ash, mud, and tar stains.


    *Fuck, just like at home* Thought Darius with a laconic stare at the half-burned walls.


    Roofs had all collapsed but somewhere more partially. Darius had to squeeze himself through in harder parts or break some blanks loose to be able to continue going about in the remains of the slaver¡¯s old hideout. The fire had destroyed many valuable items, and some parts were inaccessible. Everything was a mess. Some people had already been there, and they had taken already quite a lot. Some even building materials, it seemed. *Slum will have new houses I guess*. Darius continued the maze of dreadful half-collapsed rooms seeking anything worth the effort. Five first rooms were half empty. There was only half-broken trash. Then he started more methodically lifting shelves up with a bit of struggle and found some coins. Only one silver though. Darius contemplated taking some ceramics with him, but he left them on the floor. Most of the papers had burned sadly. One hallway mat could be cut in half and reused, but it would need a lot of work, which Darius mainly tried to avoid.


    Two hours of digging up items from ash had resulted in a few more Tranguil coins, only one silver coin from earlier, some random clothing he could use for items not to break, daggers and one extra short sword. There were some polearms and axes but badly damaged and already rusting from rain and low maintenance. The night was turning darker, but Darius had surprisingly good sight. He mentally added it to the list of mage body modifications while absentmindedly trying to see if anything was underneath a crashed desk. The ash and dirt seemed to impersonalize everything broken and left to the mercy of the elements. Darius walked to the old cosy part of the building, but it was even more heavily blocked. He had to spend 15 minutes heaving several blanks from the wall with the rusty axe so that he could get deeper into the building.


    *There might be still items worth the money here. Nobody had been here before* Darius amused and started crawling in narrow spaces. Occasionally he could even lift his head a bit, but it seemed that the maze had gotten much narrower. Despite the narrowness, Darius started to find all manner of interesting items. It appeared that he was in the office part of the building since the tables were expensive polished wood. However, some of the fallen roof parts were supported by them. Underneath one of these tables were drawers that he had to break open. There were a lot of useless account books and other documents that he just put on the floor while exploring all the drawers, boxes and shelves. In one drawer, he found a pouch full of coins, mostly copper Tranguils again, but money is money. There were some loan papers that Darius also pocketed. In the last drawer, he found a large document box that he had to crack open with the axe. Considering that he didn¡¯t have much space to do that, he had to put the box next to the actual wall not to let the roof fall on him. Then he stabbed the box a few times with the axe, and the lid lock broke.


    *It seems some of these walls are still more sturdy than this lid*


    At first, the box seemed half empty, but then Darius saw something oddly familiar. The pergament with red stamps. In the intense moment, Darius had become a landowner again. He laughed a bit, just a silent chuckling not to alert anyone about his location. It felt good, though. The land is always worth something. *Maybe I can make it in alchemy after all* The calming thoughts came to Darius like rain after the dry season. With every coin, dagger, and illegal document, he was closer to his goal of being able to keep himself fed. He could even dare to think about advancing in magic if he had enough money for it. But it was all still hope and dreams, but as of this moment, everything he could find now could make or break his progress. With renewed motivation, Darius started going through boxes and found some of his old alchemy pots and glasses. These glasses were not typical medical instruments. The glass in alchemy tools was, in fact, so sturdy it would be difficult to break it by any normal means. While wondering what experiments really needed this kind of equipment, Darius came to the corner where the open safe was. The only thing at this spot kept the roof from collapsing. Darius had emptied it in the first raid while freeing himself, but some items had dropped in a hurry or rolled over. There was a lot of ash everywhere, presumably from all the papers. Still, the floor was mostly fine, and Darius could find some writing items and jewels here and there. Underneath the empty boxes and tables. Still crawling, he reached his hand behind the shelves finding nothing. He did the same thing at the safe and almost thought there was nothing. But there was one burned coin in the middle. It was standing in the crack on the floor underneath the safe. It seemed that the papers had burned it entirely black. Darius just threw it into the purse with other coins and started looking at other items.


    After a while, there was no place to go in the building. At least one-third and the whole underground cells were barred with stone and wood beams and iron supports. Darius estimated that he could at least pay for a month of tavern living and maybe more after selling some items. He had also taken some antique collection items. Several old miniature onyx stone statues, some odd-looking stones, and one shiny rock with smooth flat surfaces and sharp edges. Darius didn¡¯t know what these items could be, but since he had never seen them, he took everything for the chance that these would have value.


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    A sudden loud creaking sound alerted Darius awake from his thoughts. It was the broken inner door of the first room. Darius started slowly crawling into a better position away from the dead end where he had crawled before. When he returned to the opening where he could stand, he heard people arguing several rooms away.


    ¡°Hey, look at this someone has been here. This thing was not broken before!¡± A rough-voiced man spoke.


    ¡°Are you sure? Nobody in the slum would go against the orders of Lars.¡± Someone with a higher voice responded hurriedly.


    ¡°Someone has been stealing in our fucking turf! Damn, continue finding something to sell to Mr Trader! We have to get money, or Lars will get angry! Hurry up!¡±


    Darius heard people breaking walls and walking around all over the place. When he was squeezing himself into one room, that was the original direction where he had escaped the last time someone saw him from another room.


    ¡°HEY HEY Look, there is someone here! GET HIM!¡± a loud voice cried in the dark. Hurriedly Darius got on the other side while the first three men started to clear the pathway to him. He did not have much time anymore. After orienting himself to where he was, Darius busted one door open and saw a completely collapsed roof blocking his way. He darted back to the hallway with broken wood beams all over the place. Then someone tried to grab his hand, and he saw a person with a red beard holding a dagger on the other side of the logs in one of the rooms. Darius slashed with his axe, but there was not enough space. The man dodged and started yelling at others. Darius leapt to the hallway''s other side and met with one boy. He threw the axe at his face while continuing past him. The boy tried to dodge but got hit on his shoulder.


    ¡°AAAggh, he has weapons kill him!! Help, I am hurt!¡±


    First, Darius went to one room too far and only saw a stone wall. Then he went back, and another man holding a torch almost stumbled on him. Darius tried to stab him, and the man dodged while Darius ran past him into the next room. Then he closed the door on the hooded man¡¯s face according to agonizing voices behind the door. Darius didn¡¯t have much time. He looked at some wood beams and rubble in the room and saw the window without glass on the other side. He started running towards it, and while passing the first wood beam, he heard the door opening and a loud thud on the wood beak.


    ¡°Fucking sly bastard! Kill him!¡± an angry voice bellowed behind Darius.


    A second thud came closer to him on the window frame. Darius did not stop there to look at what weapon it had been. He threw himself out of the window as painfully as it was the first time. When he crashed again on the stable roof, he heard the rough voice giving orders. One roof tile splintered this time, and Darius got a minor flesh wound to his leg. With his heart pumping, Darius jumped down while hearing someone shouting near the window. Then he heard a crash from the roof and a loud thud next to him. It was a yellow-haired boy, face leaking blood on the cobblestone with unmoving brown, dark eyes. It seemed that someone had made the uncoordinated long jump and killed himself while trying to get to him. Darius darted away from the body and started running around the streets. He heard angry sounds and muffled cries but didn¡¯t look back even once before he was four and a half streets away. Then he jogged to the nearby street end, lifted the sewer hatch, and climbed into the tunnels. Just when he had closed the hatch and climbed down, he heard people running past on the street high up. He panted heavily and tried to keep it quiet. The petrifying stench of sewers didn¡¯t help, and he almost started coughing. He lifted his travel sack and buried his head in it to avoid making loud sounds. After a while, he adjusted his eyes to the dark and started walking the sewer tunnel slowly, touching the wall with his hand. When he got past the first corner, he lighted his makeshift lamp with a ceramic cup and a small vax candle. This was the same light that he had previously used in the tunnels. He didn¡¯t exactly know where he was, but he knew that if he went downwards, it would lead to the slums, and higher would lead to the store district.


    While venturing into the dark and smelly tunnels, Darius started to reflect on his choice of work and how easy money would not always be easily gained. After an hour of walking in sewers, regularly stopping at the street hatches and waiting for a quiet opening to surface on the streets, Darius heard a noise. But this time, in the tunnels. It was the footsteps of one person. Darius closed the light and took several tens of quiet steps to reach the turning point in the tunnel. Despite this, he was noticed.


    ¡°Who goes there? Are you here for the goods!¡±


    Darius stepped into the light and said, ¡°I am not.¡±


    He stared at the nervous robe-hooded man with a torch and backpack to say or do something. Then the man came to the realization.


    ¡°You are in the wrong parts of the tunnels. You should not have seen me.¡±


    In horror, Darius saw the man lift his hand and start a minor flame just above his palm that lighted the lower part of the man¡¯s pale face with an ugly smirk. Then the man started running towards him while laughing manically. Darius turned and ran behind the corner just when he was almost getting caught. He didn¡¯t continue running. Darius went down on his knees and took his dagger. Next, with not as smooth movement, he rose with his legs, lifting the dagger into the chest of the running maniac with fire on his arm. The fire went off immediately, and the man gasped air sharply. The dagger was stuck, so Darius took another and cut the man¡¯s throat with it, leaning next to him. After five fast heartbeats, Darius leaned on the wall and slid down on the floor while gathering his wit. He had almost died twice today, but this time by a mage.

 Chapter 11

    ¡°Well, that was new¡­ Thanks for the donation. Much appreciated.¡± Darius took the mage''s backpack and went over the mage''s pockets. After taking the belt and rope from the corpse and scattering of coins from the pockets again. He found one shiny stone in one pocket and also put that into his travel sack. In the next corner, Darius surfaced onto the streets with two sacks on his back. After orientating to where he was, Darius started light jogging with minimal sound towards the tavern. He was nervous and did not want to meet anyone else. To his surprise, he met no one but then again, midnight had passed already. Before entering the tavern, he took the robe off him only to notice several bloody spots on his arms and legs. He sighed and put the robe back on. It had blood on it too, but it was not as noticeable as other colours. Then he walked into the tavern, rushed to the stairs, and into his room. After a while, Darius heard light footsteps nearing his door. He took his bloody dagger in his other hand and waited until he heard a soft knock on the door.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Darius asked in a tight voice in an attempt to use his normal voice.


    ¡°Umm sorry, but do you want any food? You missed the meal.¡± said the maid behind the door.


    ¡°Thanks, I am exhausted now. Can you get me a bucket of water instead?¡±


    While he heard the maid departing, Darius sighed and put the dagger away with shaky hands. He removed the robe and shirt and cleaned the blood and sweat. The maid opened the door and hurriedly left after noticing Darius half naked.


    *Just as planned* Darius smiled with the comfort of secured solitude. He cleaned himself with increasing speed and treated his wounds. There were only minor scratches here and there, mostly from running into wood beams and crawling for hours rather than from fighting. After patching himself for a while, Darius greedily eyed two backpacks on top of the bed. He would have to get a chest with a decent lock for his room. Darius started going through the mage¡¯s travel sack because he was curious. He had taken other items and decided himself, but mage items were different. These were very hard to come by and would cost a fortune. With similar greedy eyes as the slaver had when looking at his alchemy equipment, Darius took items from the bag individually.


    There were several books. The books were definitely worth a lot, and now that he could keep them, he could memorize them and maybe exchange or sell them. The covers of each of the books were unique. Poison green, black, fiery red, and brown but not the kind of normal brown. Even this book cover was heavily dyed. Darius noticed this book was very similar to what he had seen before. It seemed that brown covers might be for alchemy for unknown reasons. The acolyte reader of alchemy was its name. From the other basic book Darius had read, he knew that there were acolytes and mages. Still, there needed to be more telling information on how these differed. But judging from how this mage had acted in the sewer he was probably an acolyte beginner of magic.


    *It would be nice to know when one becomes even acolyte. * Thought Darius.


    He knew that his body had changed, but he could not measure by what degree. He didn¡¯t even know if he was going in the right direction. The body felt, and mind felt better and sharper than ever but what he didn¡¯t know was how to go forward on the road of mages. Other books were on meditation, summoning and fire magic. Meditation would be the most needed now since Darius had already used all the knowledge from the first book. But while leafing through the green book from the first chapter, he could tell that it was nothing he could use. It seems there were limitations on what meditation method to use based on the particles. This book only said that with wrong particles, the meditation would not just fail, but the practitioner could die easily. Darius felt foolish but, at the same time, tired. How many of these kinds of books would he have to chance upon to find out that he could not use them? Similar frustration rose from the fire magic book. Technically anyone who was an acolyte could make some simple fire spells. Still, only those with abundant red particles within their body could do advanced fire magic successfully. Other than a very simple campfire or candle lighting, most of the fire magic would be useless or just too inefficient for anyone else. Darius didn¡¯t like these limitations, but this information also heightened his curiosity towards what particles he might have. After examining the two books he couldn¡¯t use, he still gained a lot for a beginner in magic without a mentor. Darius could see that spells required symbols, particles, numbers, and calculations. He would have to learn all manner of symbols and calculate different things to be able to cast magic. It all came to creating a spell model in a sea of consciousness, whatever that might mean, and the list of requirements differed by every spell. Darius would need many more books and general knowledge to advance in magic. He sighed.


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    Sun was rising already when Darius started reading the third black book on summoning spells. He faced similar problems there than with the fire magic, but summoning seemed more versatile to some degree. Summoning was easier for those with negative particles because they could use more readily corpses and dead spirits more as a corpus for their familiar spells. Therefore, there was already some substance to build the familiar. In all the other cases, the familiar could be built with each elemental magic or even a rarer kind. Still, any other type of magic would need considerable effort and particles to build familiarity. One of the by-passing methods was to create an object that would be turned familiar later, like in cases of iron golems. Everything depended on the willpower, particle consistency, amount, and power of particles. Therefore, enchanting and rune magic also had advantages in summoning. With this book, Darius didn¡¯t get much else than a similar arrangement of increasingly complex spells with numbers and symbols on the pages.


    Darius sighed again and dropped the black book on top of the others. His most significant benefit would be if he knew how to measure particles within his body.


    *Maybe the fourth time is the charm* he wished.


    While the sun rose in the sky to midday, Darius read a lot of details from Acolyte reader on alchemy. He did not find what he otherwise wanted, but the whole book was, on the other hand, excellent. There were more described alchemical processes, all manner of tools, how to measure substances and a bigger collection of herbs and alchemy metals than in the previous book. Also, each colouring was explained at the beginning as an alchemy particle system. If he could learn how to control certain particles, he could infuse them into the potions and improve them. This also increased potion prices. However, the book didn¡¯t tell Darius how much and how infusion was made. The recipe section of the book started with easier healing potions without infusion. Darius was exhilarated. Maybe he could start with alchemy earlier if he had all the tools, herbs, and other ingredients for the potioneering.


    Darius had made notes and plans for hours until he felt hungry. Outside the daylight was already waning.


    ¡°Oh yea, there was money too,¡± Darius laughed, amused by himself forgetting all other things than magic books. He put the burned coin as a book marker and started counting coins and putting them in different purses. Coppers Tranguils were the size of a child''s thumb finger, picturing wheat and sun and an emperor¡¯s face like silver Tranguils that were the size of an adult thumb. Silver coins were much sturdier, weighing at least eight or ten times more than the coppers. However, the price of gold was huge, as 100 coppers equalled only one silver, same with silver and gold. One gold coin would be worth ten thousand coppers if anyone would want to make that trade. Although copper coins were very thin, you could bend them with your teeth if you wanted to. Darius thought about how much it would still weigh to have a large sack of ten thousand coppers for one gold coin. The idea just felt funny to him. Darius had heard that gold Tranguils were smaller than silver Tranguils, but still, he had never seen any gold coins.


    Darius counted that he had half of his old coins still in the sewer, at least several tens of silver worth of coins. He currently had 251 coppers and 14 silvers left but many extra items to sell for a proper buyer. He could make ends meet before the month ended. Darius still had nearly three weeks. Calculating coins soothed his mind. Maybe he could get somehow to the sewers later to find other items. Darius left half of the coppers in his purse underneath the table and went downstairs to eat, but this time he ate at the counter. He got lucky because the tavern owner was serving the food this time.


    ¡°Greetings Edwin, can I have the meal now?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a bit cold, but cold soup is still soup, eh.¡± Smiled Edwin


    With practised movements, Edwin acquired a spoon and glass of cider for Darius with the small bowl of lukewarm mushroom potato soup with herbs and garlic. Although it didn¡¯t seem much, it was better than most places offered for this price.


    ¡°Aahh, that is good. Second please, and can you give me three bread puns? Was it for a copper?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there you go, Darius. Do you need anything else?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, I do, I have been thinking of selling potions, and I need all manner of items and ingredients. Where could I find good traders that don¡¯t cheat me blind?¡±


    ¡°Well, boy, you have few good options and whole a lot worse ones. You know, the red house at the merchant district, that place is owned by a guy I wouldn¡¯t do business with. He sells overpriced stuff. Then you have Yul¡¯s son trading all herbs and potions at the other side of the district.¡±


    ¡°Is there anyone who can buy wholesales or something more special?¡± Asked Darius hesitantly.


    ¡°Well, uh, there are stores and eh..¡± While Edwin was stalled and hesitated, Darius lifted silver between his fingers and put it underneath the napkin. Edwin smiled and continued, this time with a low whisper while cleaning the napkin away from the table.


    ¡°I see you have special needs for your wares. One guy in the slums sells and buys almost anything, including people and souls, if he can get them. His name is Mr Trader. You can find him at the back wall of the slums. He doesn¡¯t give full price on anything you sell him, and he overprices everything, but no questions are asked. Remember to go there at midnight only and remember not to anger him. If you go into trouble with him, we don¡¯t know each other.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for the food, Edwin,¡± Darius said louder, leaving Edwin to clean the bar.

 Chapter 12

    While some of the stores were still open, Darius hurriedly went to order a chest and lock and key from the smithy for it. Since Darius lived in the city, the delivery only cost one or two coppers in most cases. Alchemy tools were more expensive, though. They were so expensive that currently Darius could not buy even used or half-broken ones. Even on the lower side, these instruments cost tens of silvers. The only thing he could buy was a box of empty potions with the delivery fee amounting to two silvers and two coppers for presumably mass-produced 40 small glass potions. The potion size was told to be empire-wide standard otherwise, potions would cost even more. Despite Darius being glad about it after buying medical herbs, he had spent half his money. Still, it was a better deal for Darius to buy herbs than try to go into far away wilderness to chance upon them. Frankly, he didn¡¯t have time for it or the gear and chances to take risks.


    The rest of his money went on paper, ink, quells, miscellaneous items and buying kitchen wares but not for cooking. Although it would be insufficient, Darius could start making healing potions with kitchenware while gaining enough money to spend on alchemy equipment. He could someday get his items back and have several alchemy tools back at once. It would be a nice day indeed. While Darius had been in the alchemy store, he noticed that even the low-priced new alchemy tools looked shabbier than what he had stolen from Forest witch but still not the kind of top quality as the best items in the store selection. Darius also presumed that some of the items might not even be displayed. Alchemy was expensive, but so were the potions. Even the most basic healing potions were sold for over tens of silvers each depending on the effect. In the potion store, infused potions were not even shown in the selection. When Darius asked about it, he replied that these mage potions were too costly, and you could only buy them from academia, but only mages could go there. These potions got Darius captivated because infused potions were priced very highly by tens of thousands of gold coins, and they were otherwise only sold in the actions during major events by auction halls. However, bigger auction halls did not sell any normal potions. It was easier to sell these potions in bulk to some large buyers.


    A week went by with Darius trying to perform alchemy. Almost nothing worked. The fire was too uneven in the furnace, and even when he replaced firewood with coal, the effect was slightly better. Then one of the kitchenware he had gotten, a copper pan, reacted too much with the herbs and caused the mixture to fail all the time, so he couldn¡¯t use it for anything. Then there were problems with boiling clear enough water for the potions. Darius had to use the lid of the pot to slowly gather the water he needed for potions, and at the beginning, he was using the wrong copper lid again. After countless errors, tool malfunctioning and achieving even basic standards for potion making, the result of the week was two minor healing potions according to the dim blue colour of their content. After selling the potions, he had just enough money to repurchase herbs and have a bit of coinage for side expenses. It looked like he really had to get better fire, equipment, tools and maybe materials to perform alchemy better. He basically lacked in all aspects of alchemy other than stubbornness.


    *Great business* Thought Darius tiredly.


    If he could get better, literally everything, the potioneering would be easier, and the results could support his costly life in the city. While slowly eating his evening meal, Darius went through the lists of improvements and wrote a list of items that he would need and some questions to inquire from storekeepers. When one of the moons rose high enough, Darius took his travel sack and put half of his items into it, leaving the deed, several jewels and books in the locked chest. He also set the black hooded cloak on top of the items and closed the sack. While entering the slum area, Darius entered one corner and put the robe on. Although he was nervous, nobody seemed interested in him, and he passed a small market area with tens of small wooden tables. Then he looked at the signs and went past several narrow streets of stone, wood huts, and broken old buildings fixed for living use or even minor business. A lot of buildings were so unkept that moss and vines grew everywhere. Only dim lights here and there told Darius that people were living inside these half-own abandoned buildings. He went across the small river with a collapsed old stone bridge. The new bridge had been built with rough timber to permit wagons to go on the other side. All the streets were just mud and dirt roads and tiny pathways mixed with chicken feces, and nearby every makeshift bar, there were corners marked with decades of piss and shit.


    *Lovely rustic place indeed* Thought Darius and promised himself to keep earning money and not end up living here. In some parts, even living in the sewer seemed a better idea. Passing one bar was nerve-racking, but Darius only got drunken incoherent yelling from the customers sitting on the empty wooden boxes. He could also hear the sudden voice of a kid screaming far behind several buildings, but otherwise, the streets were quiet. Finally, Darius got to the front of the building, which looked like an abandoned tavern. The right side of the building had a stone wall being built, and it seemed that these stones were being carried from buildings behind the main building. At the front of the building, he saw one large man half-dozing with a large axe next to him. However, the rusty metal sign of the smiling moon dangling from the iron rod told Darius that he had come to the right place. When Darius walked next to the stairs man woke up. He lifted his hood and had his hand on the axe. Darius could also see that on the man¡¯s neck, he had a metal token with a similar symbol of a smiling half-moon.


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    ¡°Are you here on business or in trouble?¡± asked the man with a rough voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m here to trade,¡± smiled Darius.


    ¡°Okay, right answer, remember not to fuck things up, or you get your face in by the axe. Welcome inside.¡±


    With the sturdy security greeting, Darius was led inside the building. Several men sat and ate their meal while a maid cleaned the table. The frontman knocked several times on the sturdy side door, and Darius could hear heavy, rusty scraping sounds inside. The door opened, and another guard invited him in. Nobody in the hall looked at him even though the door opening had made a lot of noise. It seemed that these people had been trained for these kinds of things. Darius walked inside the room full of shelves, items, and boxes on the floor. At the end of this room, he saw a table nearby the back door and a man sitting behind the table. The man was dressed in an expensive-looking lush black robe with some shining symbols on its sleeves. The man had eyes the colour of steel, and he gave a sharp expressionless gaze towards Darius almost in a calculative manner before smiling.


    ¡°Welcome in, new customer. How can I help?¡±


    ¡°Greetings, mister Trader. I would have some items that I would like to sell. Can you assess their exact value?¡±


    ¡°I believe I can, young man. Since you are new here, there are few trade rules here. I assure total confidentiality to my customers and fair prices without questions asked. But because confidentiality costs money, the price is 50 % at the beginning. I will give you real values so you will not lose more money on any item. Later we might form additional agreements based on the items you bring me or buy. There is no haggling here, and I sell my wares at a reasonable price. I buy and sell anything worth selling. You can also look at the request list at the bar. Just remember to ask for it if you are interested.¡± Said the man with a practised firm tone.


    ¡°Right, so you act as a whole seller at the same time as the general store with services and trade deals,¡± Darius smirked.


    ¡°Exactly, young man,¡± mister Trader smiled with sharp calculative eyes.


    ¡°Well, I have these items for sale. I would like to trade also for alchemy tools if you would have any or magic books.¡±


    Mister Trader smiled more broadly ¡°a quality customer, I see. These items, however, are not as valuable as magic books. I currently don¡¯t have any of them in my collection, but even these items surface at some point. I will tell you next time if I have acquired magic books. Do you practice alchemy? I can offer a better deal on potions. There are even several requests for potions with great rewards included.¡±


    ¡°I will have to look at that later. I have to get better alchemy tools before I can take on requests.¡± Answered Darius.


    ¡°Good, we can discuss that when you can produce potions, great news, nonetheless. Now, these items seem to be weapons and antique collectables. I can give you 40 silvers for the short sword and 30 silvers for two daggers since these weapons seem to be in demand. That leaves us these collectables and relic statues. These others are barely worth of, let¡¯s say, three silvers, so I can give you around silver and 30 coppers, but these relic statues are from the eastern countries, presumably from the kingdom of Mabia. Procuring these statues is not an easy task. Albeit these statues form 12 statue collection of heroes of Mabia, you have five of them in decent condition. The whole collection could be sold to nobles for, let¡¯s say, 15 to 20 gold coins. But I would give the five statues two golds and 80 silvers.¡±


    Darius calculated his odds and answered, ¡°Sounds reasonable. Do you happen to have medical herbs, alchemy tools, sturdy hook and robe or other climbing equipment? I would also need decent light for fast travel use.¡±


    After a while of back and forth, Darius had what he needed. With a new larger and heavier travel sack and around 90 silvers richer, he carried alchemy tools, materials and other tools and a robe back to the Green lantern tavern. Mister trader had also given him a similar smiling half-moon token to ensure his safety in the slums for future trading.


    While Darius had left, mister Trader looked at the statues. He had gotten them cheaply, but he wanted to collect all of them before selling them. If those slum thugs had known, they would be angry. Trader asked his intel guard for details on Mathias, but there were no new ones.


    ¡°I gave that boy our token, so if any men see him in trouble, go help him, he will earn us money.¡±


    After the guard nodded, Trader went back inside his office. He had wanted to get these statues for a longer time, but Mathias did not want to sell them. Trader smiled with the comfort of having one of his rivals outmanoeuvred from the markets. Everything was going splendidly with a new alchemist contact that seemed capable of acquiring items. *Very promising profits indeed* thought Trader while watching the black onyx statues in the candlelight.

 Chapter 13

    Three months had passed, and Darius was living quite well. He had rented in addition to his room storage room downstairs and had an alchemy lab up and running there. He had finally gotten the hidden items back from the sewer and managed to buy more alchemy tools. Now his whole potioneering was done with only alchemical tools. The main difference was that he could make around five boxes of potions per week, most minor healing potions but also a few medium potions. To this day, he has no access to extra magic books. These items seemed to be very rare indeed.


    Despite lacking advances in magic, Darius was still happy about how his potioneering had solved his major money problems. Also, he had made few requests for mister Trader, and he had been paid relatively well. But these missions had left him with an empty feeling. The typical mission was about harming some local competitor businesses, ruining evidence, and blackmailing officials, with some arson on the side. The problem with this was the immense risk without enough payment for it. The risk also cumulated, so if he did these jobs for years, officials might take notice of it, jail him, and close his makeshift laboratory. The risk was not the biggest problem, but the returns could not justify it. It was one of those occasions when he was selling the potions and looking at items at mister Trader when he was given the new option.


    ¡°Thanks for the potions again Darius, I will raise your sell prices to 70% if you continue producing potions for me.¡±


    ¡°It is acceptable Mr. Trader if I can make it on my own time. Sometimes I cannot keep the set times.¡±


    ¡°I might have a solution for this, but it will cost you around 2000 gold coins. You see, we are also occasionally trading slaves, and I have just gotten the old alchemy experiment slave from the academia that nobody wanted to buy there. Since then, the price has been cut. I am afraid that this slave might not be able to survive long without constant alchemical care, but she could be an asset in alchemy production. What do you think Darius?¡±


    ¡°What experience she has?¡± Darius stalled and started thinking about how he could get extra 800 gold. He had made a fortune with medium-quality healing potions, and his earnings would rise, but it was months of saving to get to the 2000 golds.


    ¡°She is 63 years old, but she also is a rank two acolyte, and her contract is bound by curse magic that needs at least one acolyte to handle the contract. I have a contact who can reassign the ownership of the curses. She could live for several decades if she gets enough medical treatment, but she has at least a decade''s worth of experience in alchemy labs and acolyte life.¡±


    Shit. Darius had to take this chance, but by doing so, he would also reveal some of his cards. Albeit Mr. Trader seemed trustworthy, at least because he was making him considerable money. Darius thought for a while and answered hesitantly,


    ¡°That won¡¯t be a problem. I can take her in, but I need some time to gather enough money.¡±


    ¡°Excellent, excellent. I figured that such potioneering talent would at least dabble on magic. I had assumed so since you were asking for magic books months ago.¡± But seeing Darius¡¯s face, he continued hurriedly,


    ¡°But it is okay. Confidentiality still binds us. I would be run out of business decades ago if I didn¡¯t hold my standards.¡±


    ¡°Glad to see you have decent standards.¡± Answered Darius while looking at Trader¡¯s unreadable face. He felt that if he was at odds with Trader he might as well leave the town at this rate. But he didn¡¯t have a plan to ruin his life, for that matter.


    ¡°I will contact you later when I have the money. Do you have any information requests or item retrievals?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think we had several, one higher paying job in the nobility area. Would that be a problem?¡±


    ¡°No, I will take it.¡± Answered Darius with his plans.


    ¡°Good, this is the special mission, and I only give it. It would help if you procured the family seal of the Lumbert family or any copy of it. It is the wax seal ring, and here you can see the symbol of a lion on it inside of the square.¡±


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    ¡°Does it need to be done in a fancy way,¡± Asked Darius


    ¡°No, you can go all out. The cruder and messy, the better.¡±


    ¡°Olrait, I¡¯ll remember it. See you later when it''s done.¡± Darius answered and left.


    While Darius was walking, he could barely notice people around him. He was too focused on the possibilities. He would be closer if he could get the mission done with 200 golds. But that wasn¡¯t enough. He would have to also blunder the nobility family for all the money''s worth. This mission wasn¡¯t easy, even with all the other mission experience he had gained previously.


    Next week was difficult and full of odd things to prepare himself for the task. Darius had made several different potions and gotten food oil, robes and other equipment for the task. After sightseeing one night and finding exact locations from the sewers, Darius had to get parts for the robe slinger. Everything had cost him several golds, but security was more important. The evening came, and Darius ate in his work room. He heard a knock on the door and almost dropped his spoon for the suspense. The door opened, and Edwin walked in.


    ¡°Hello Darius, I have been wondering if you would want also to rent the opposite room to this current room. I could make some extra money from it, lets say 15 silvers per month. Would it be good?¡±


    ¡°Yea, sure I need storage for my resources and such.¡±


    ¡°Thanks boy. Here is the key. The place needs a bit of cleaning but it is dry, and the room doesn¡¯t have any windows.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s perfect. Thanks a lot Edwin.¡±


    ¡°Just making business when I can,¡± smirked Edwin. Darius saw that the innkeeper seemed very tired for some reason. It might be something to do with the hooded men group coming in occasionally and demanding money from Edwin for security. Darius didn¡¯t know who they were, but he hadn¡¯t asked.


    Darius saw Edwin leave, and he looked at a new key in his hand. *Well, I have more important things to do now lets see the room tomorrow.*


    Absentmindedly he left the key in one box of bottles and left the room to go upstairs. In his room, Darius found all the items underneath the blanket ready. It was time to leave and do the task again. After checking all the items and the condition of the weapons, Darius attached several pouches to his chest belts and pants belt. He stuffed them full of ordered daggers and other items he had bought from Trader to avoid messing up with the evidence. Darius would have to create a lot of mess during this task, and he wanted that nothing could be traced back to him. He left all the items that identified him in any slightest manner. Then Darius wore a new dark robe with a hood on it. Before walking out of the building, he hooded himself and went straight into the sewers.


    He was at the location after many odd corners in the sewers in an hour. Darius had to spend some time mixing certain ingredients to create more potent fluids for rapid fire. After everything was done, Darius heaved himself up from the Sewers and opened a few barrels residing next to a street crossing. Next, he climbed onto the rooftops. The night was perfectly cloudy, leaving no openings for stars or moonlight. The whole day had been like that, and it was the biggest reason for Darius to be here.


    Several streets later, Darius came into a narrower part where the roof was next to the Lumbert family mansions'' outer wall. Darius listened for a while, and everything seemed quiet. Then he dipped a bolthead with some cloth into food oil and lit it on fire. Darius shot the bolt with a crossbow and lighted the second one. After shooting four bolts, of course, one had missed, Darius was ready. He launched the robe slinger and started moving on the mansion''s yard wall. He had only about two minutes to do that. The timing was important because he had previously moved several food oil barrels next to the other side of the street at the corner of the building. After lighting three of the open barrels, the rest would also start to burn, and fire hazards would happen in a few minutes to distract the whole household.


    The climbing on the robe was tedious at best, but Darius managed to get on the wall. Next, he loosened the hook away and continued down the wall into the garden. While hiding in an empty garden, Darius heard a roar of fire engulfing the nearby house. He climbed near the mansion wall with the hooks on one corner window without light. When Darius noticed it was presumably a food storage room, he broke his way in and started waiting inside while the fire grew in height.


    After the first screams, guards rushed from every building, and servants carried water buckets everywhere onto the wall next to the fire. Darius could see everything and waited for the moment when the first water buckets were emptied into the flames. A sudden roar of flame intensified, and before anyone could stop the servants, they had downed even more water into the food oil fire. Now even the next building in a row was on fire, and the wall was starting to fill with servants and Lumbert family members. Darius chuckled quietly to his creations. He started moving with measured steps towards the inner parts of the mansion with a large empty travel sack as his only companion.

 Chapter 14

    After the increasingly finer hallways were largely quiet, Darius started walking into the heart of the Lumbert mansion. He didn¡¯t know the layout of the building but increasing riches on the wall and change of the furniture and expensive statues told him that he was heading in the right direction. He managed to avoid people because they were too occupied by the fire and rambling about it in loud tones. Darius could hear anyone distance away before having to go around them. On one occasion, two guards were at the section with double doors. Darius opened a pink-coloured liquid bottle and sneakily threw it on the soft chair.


    ¡°What was that? I heard a soft voice like a cat jumping?¡± Another soldier said to the other.


    ¡°Naa, it is probably some rat. The cats are way too well kept for rat hunting nowadays.¡±


    While guards were talking, the first one suddenly fell to the floor. The other guard hurriedly went over, but it was too late. At the same time, Darius had run silently and stabbed the other guard¡¯s throat. While silently dying on the floor, Darius took the key from the guard and moved both guards behind the chairs without taking a breath. Then he opened and closed the door immediately, and he breathed again with heavy panting while continuing to walk inside. He came into the office of Lord Lumbert. Darius did the same good old trick and put the travel sack on the table. Next, he started breaking locked boxes and drawers. Darius left the papers as they were only collecting money and other weird-looking items and locked in items. He didn¡¯t have much time to check everything. After noticing that the books on the shelves were just normal, he lost interest. Still, he knocked few places to find any hidden locations. He only found one metal safe with big hinges.


    ¡°Perfect,¡± Darius mumbled while downing first some liquid on the hinges. The rapid fire started to burn in intense white light. After a while, Darius downed black frost liquid on the hinges and kicked the safe hard several times. The hinges broke like they were made of glass, and the one-meter-long heavy door crashed on the floor. Darius managed to dodge it just in time not to get scratched by it.


    And there it was, a signet ring lying on the middle shelf. Darius put it into his pocket and started going back and forth with many bundles and purses. He even found two gold bars! Without even thinking anything else, Darius just methodically cleaned the whole room of carriable items, downed a lot of papers on the floor and lit them on fire. While at it, he dipped several books into the fire and threw them in all manner of corners with other books.


    Then Darius said goodbye to the office and opened the double door again. Without seeing anyone, he went past a few sections of the hallway, opening doors here and there. When he noticed that he had presumably opened the bedroom of Lord Lumbert, he went inside. After breaking into some drawers, he found some extra money, and in one dark oak dressing cabinet, he found three swords that he stuffed scabbard first into the travel sack. Next, he went through drawers and took all the jewel ornaments, medals, and rings. There were also boxes of jewels for females, presumably Lady Lumbert¡¯s possessions. Darius hunched his shoulders and emptied all the boxes inside his increasingly larger travel sack. Necklaces with embedded diamond rings, blood-red rubies, and poison-green jade tokens go into the bag like a river of wealth. He thanked himself for putting several wood blanks inside the sack for support. Otherwise, some items might break in this heavy load.


    After two minutes of breaking into the bedroom, Darius returned to his original position and climbed downstairs to be at ground level. He didn¡¯t want to throw his heavy backpack outside and cause tons of noises while retreating from the manor. While climbing down, he saw a quiet butler cleaning shoes at this hour. Darius couldn¡¯t do anything since he was surprised. He dropped the sack on the ground and threw two daggers at the butler. The first one missed, but the second hit the butler¡¯s stomach, and he winced himself down on his old knees. Without further hesitation, Darius slid butler¡¯s throat, left the daggers on the ground while lifting the sack again, and continued his way out. In one bedroom, he was met by an angry sleeping guard who gave some rough treatment before jumping with the sack from the window.


    Even if the jump was not very long, Darius could feel the weight on his knees, but he jogged back into the garden. He cursed when two guards noticed him entering the gardens, and they ran to him. Darius hid inside the bush, and while the guards were running, he threw one dagger, jumped on one of the guards, and stabbed him in the chest. The other guard had blocked the throw, but Darius was already on him before he could do anything. Guard blocked his attack with a dagger with sword and was just about to overpower him when Darius drew a second dagger with his other hand and stabbed the guard on his side before continuing with the earlier sword-locked dagger on the guard¡¯s throat. He heard some questioning shouts outside the garden, but Darius didn¡¯t have time for inconvenient conversation. He ran to the wall and started lifting himself with the robe on the wall. When he was nearing the top, he saw several guards running towards the nearby tower to get to him on the wall. Darius sighed, took two potions from one purse, and threw them near the tower door that connected him to the guards. While he knotted the robe to the wall''s outer side, the door opened just when he started climbing down. The guard shouted in terrifying agony, and Darius presumed that some guards were now on fire. Without further due, he dropped himself in several jumps with the robe on the streets and started running. There were many people in the streets at this point. But this street part was quiet because it was the opposite part of the fire. Darius jogged with his noisy luggage into the next alleyway and went into the sewers. After lighting the small oil lamp Darius did not check if he was followed, but he continued to run at least a few blocks down the sewer before stopping for a while. After not hearing anyone entering the sewers, he continued walking.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    The rest of the trip was an uneventful one. However, Darius contemplated how, at every point, he could have been caught if he had stopped at all. He wasn¡¯t that too clever to his own good farm boy anymore. The everyday survival game in the city had proven otherwise. His one choice could have been to serve at some house, but Darius wanted to be master of his own faith and not in a situation solely depending on his betters'' whims. Or so he told himself. Deep down, he still questioned his choices but could do nothing. At least this time, he could save someone else from worse slavery. With this thought in mind, Darius continued in a better mood.


    While resurfacing back to the streets nearby the slums, Darius decided to meet Mr. Trader. He threw a hidden blanket from the sewers on top of his loot and started walking back to the tavern. At the counter, he asked for his workroom key back and went inside. He hid most of the pouches and gold in miscellaneous boxes and put some alchemy apparatuses and containers on top. When he looked at the room, he saw a messy and almost full alchemy lab with sprinkled papers and tools everywhere.


    With a much lighter travel sack, Darius told the maid that he would look at what was happening at the border of the nobility area since everyone knew there was a massive fire. Darius had also taken in one potion pouch for minor healing potions. Albeit it was large, it still fit into his travel sack after a few adjustments.


    ¡°Hello Melinda, any news from the fire?¡±


    ¡°Not only thing I know that nobody died in the fire, but there might be a few injured people.¡±


    ¡°I see what I can do.¡± Told Darius and went back outside.


    At least the news of a few deaths in the nobility area was not spreading. It only meant that lord Lumbert had at least part of the issues still in control. Darius didn¡¯t wait for longer and walked briskly in the slums with the token on his robe like he knew what he was doing. *Sometimes, the bluff is the father of security.* grinned Darius at the front door of Mr. Trader. This time the security guards just nodded in a friendly manner, the frontman even going so far as to salute him while giving him a pass into the office of Mr. Trader.


    ¡°Greetings young man, I have been expecting you,¡± leered smiling Mr. Trader in half shady office. ¡°I happen to have heard that the rapid-fire overtook the whole block owned by what was his name? Oh yea, the lord Lumbert.¡±


    ¡°I see, what a shame indeed, what a shame,¡± Darius answered while putting the signet ring on the office table.


    Mr. Trader watched the ring for a while, and they waited for a bit until both of them started laughing.


    ¡°I also heard there were some mishaps, and even the manor was partially on fire. Lumbert''s family had to buy the services of mages to end the fire more quickly. This will offset their finances this year quite a bit. It is now in my interest to give you 50% more for this mission. I cannot tell you the details, but your mission has been conducted with the utmost satisfactory results.¡±


    ¡°Thank you mister Trader. Would you mind also trading some jewellery and prime swords with me?¡± Said Darius while laying items one by one on the table.


    ¡°Oh, I see. I was thinking of receiving money from you for the slave, but it looks like I have to give you money or something else back instead. You see, this sword with the lion hand guard is an imperial weapon strengthened with at least intermediate acolyte magic. It is not the highest end of the magic swords, but still, it is quite expensive. We can negotiate this later separately. These two swords are alone worthy of the slave by a factor of four. That leaves a dent in my coffers, but it is still a win for me. You see, these are probably heirlooms of the Lumbert family.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see you might be profiting from the very willing buyer.¡±


    ¡°Indeed I will.¡±

 Chapter 15

    The whole transaction took almost half an hour. It was still very fast in comparison to the number of individual items. After receiving 200 gold coins and 100 extra gold, Darius was receiving much more.


    ¡°Okey, so, 35 gold rings and necklaces with weight and let¡¯s say factor 4,5 for the weight its about 140 golds. Then you have Jewels with medium clarity gems and diamonds. Let¡¯s say medium ones are worth 6000 gold together, and the last 15 clearer gemmed jewels are worth 7500 gold. That leaves us with the two swords total of 21640 golds. Would you like additional security, and we round it up to twenty thousand?¡±


    Darius understood that he was already on receiving end and nobody in the city could buy this much from a non-noble at this hour. Still, Trader would take these hot items from him with a colossal risk. However, this guy knew his risks and had probably been aware of them by now.


    ¡°Mister Trader, as much as I like the money, security is more important. You have a deal.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. I will give bribes accordingly if anything happens to you. With this much gold, I would say you are pretty much set for a year or two of mission security, depending on how high-profile requests you will fill.¡± Trader answered smartly.


    ¡°Now that I think of it, how will I carry that amount of gold?¡±


    Mr Trader laughed a bit at this remark, ¡°you don¡¯t. Well, after buying the slave, you will still have 18 thousand gold. Are you familiar with these magic stones?¡±


    Darius saw similar stones that he had been wondering about what they were, ¡°ah, these, yes, I have seen few, but how much do they cost.¡±


    ¡°Aha, this might be a bit unbelievable to hear, but the normal price of the magic stone is around ten thousand gold coins. Typically, these are sold for even more money in nobility auctions and very seldomly, maybe two or three times per year, you can see a magic stone in the stage of a normal merchant district auction house. Still, its price is around 11 to even 14 thousand gold. But now we have special additional support for my information in the form of a curse-contracted slave that cannot lie to you after the contract.¡±


    ¡°I see that is a decent arrangement. I assume we do the deals accordingly.¡±


    After mister Trader rang the clear bell, slave called Elvira was brought to the office, and the door was closed again. She had a decent grey hooded robe and was hunching her back a bit while not staring with a dry, tired face in any direction too long and avoiding gazes until spoken to. After a few questions before and after the transfer of ownership, Darius now knew how poor he actually was compared to mages.


    ¡°Yes, it is the ugly reality of things. These coins are merely dust in the wind for the mages. They are the ones who almost solely trade their resources with these stones and higher ones.¡± Retorted Trader at the end of their discussion about the currencies.


    ¡°Now, back to the business with the sword. As I stated, this weapon is at least a low-medium-tier magic weapon. This means that sword is worth at least several hundred magic stones. I have these 95 magic stones for your troubles, but I will add the magic books on the lot. The book prices vary, but you are probably trying to find acolyte magic books?¡±


    ¡°Yes, also do you have higher quality alchemy tools,¡± asked Darius eagerly.


    After a few more transactions, Darius had a lovely two thousand gold coins and many times more left to Mr. Trader after a few bank notes. Also, Elvira was carrying a frighteningly large bulk of magic books. Darius understood that Trader had probably kept them hidden because Darius could not afford them before.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Still being one of the wealthiest non-mage in the city felt nice, and despite the weight of gold and platinum coins, Darius felt giddy about everything. While travelling back from the slums, Darius also had two guards helping them carry some items safely back to the tavern. After a short introduction to the barmaid and Elvira, Darius told her to develop a proper hideout for his wealth while he was gone. Next, Darius ran towards the nobility area with his other travel sack.


    While walking to the disaster area, Darius wore a sorrowful face. Everything was a mess. Wounded people had been gathered at the street crossing, and some knights were raising tents for them on the street for immediate treatment. Every move seemed practised, and several tents went up in minutes with wagons bringing medicines. Darius yelled at the captain in command.


    ¡°Hey, I have minor healing potions. Can I help!¡±


    ¡°Yes, in fact, you can, but not here, follow me¡± captain of the guards turned and walked with Darius back inside the walls of Lumbert mansion. While Darius was thinking his odds and looking casually around captain stopped him at the barrack where wounded soldiers, guards and servants were lying.


    ¡°Okay, start with this room and give potions in room order. These are more severe cases.¡±


    Darius started giving the potions, and several servants helped him with the task. While his potions were ending in the third room, the grisly bearded large man in armour bolted inside, shouting where the captain was.


    ¡°Lord Lumbert, I am here, I had to fill in some details, and one young alchemist came to provide healing potions.¡±


    ¡°Did you check his credentials or permit?¡±


    ¡°Ah, I forgot. You see, he had a lot of options, and we had to get people..¡±


    Darius walked outside the room into the bright corridor and bent his neck a bit, saying, ¡°My apologies, sir. I heard the news and packed my bag full of healing potions, I do not have a permit, but I had good reason I will leave immediately when the potions are administered.¡± He continued hunching his head until the man spoke to him.


    ¡°Thanks for your effort, alchemist, and no permit needed. Take this token. How many potions did you spend?¡±


    ¡°Thank you, kind sir. It was a total of 45 potions, sir.¡±


    ¡°Olrait, here are a few gold coins that should cover it. The token permits you to walk in the nobility area, and you answer to me for the use of the token. When this mess is handled, come back, let¡¯s say, after one week. I must leave now.¡± The man left, and after a while, the captain and Darius raised their heads, and their gazes met.


    ¡°Now you have met the lord of the house Lumbert. May I have your name?¡± The captain said while standing between the door and Darius.


    ¡°Ah yes, my name is Darius. I am starting alchemist. You see, these healing potions are the most that I do. These are only minor potions, and it takes some time to make them.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for coming to us. You did us big favour today. I can see by the face of the lord that he was impressed too, but he is too busy today to receive anyone.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I understand this street fire perfectly and all.¡±


    ¡°Yes¡±, the captain answered slower, hesitantly to say anything else.


    ¡°It seems that the potions are administered now. That was my last one. I will be seeing you maybe in a week,¡± said Darius curtly.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said captain, this time with more certainty in his voice, ¡°I assume you know the way out. There is still a lot to do here.¡±


    After seeing the silver token guards, Darius left the mansion area and let him through the gates. Oddly Darius did not see any smoke coming from the manor despite the outer building being still partially on fire inside. *I guess this is the security that money can buy*


    After leaving the nobility area, Darius grinned again and felt relieved. His gamble had paid off, and now he had permission to move around the nobility area. In future, he might be able to do interesting deals. He eyed his new five gold coins. How strange it felt. Just a half day ago, he would have screamed and run back to the tavern with that kind of money, but now he felt almost mundane about the amount. *Nah, maybe I am just getting poorer* Darius amused. While walking, he made a mental note of the shops nearby the nobility area. These were not part of the merchant district. These were finer establishments next to the vast main road to the nobility area.


    After a bit of a shopping spree, Darius stepped out of the last clothing store. His clothing had changed from practical to a finer robe and a decent black hat that some more affluent merchants tend to wear. He also had paid solid one gold for the fine cape with a silver chained locking mechanism. He had also bought a silver chain for the silver token and felt comfortable in his new outfit. Now nobody would question him walking in the nobility area.


    *I have to give my deepest regards to lord Lumbert for my new clothing* Thought Darius with a slight smirk in his eyes while he walked back to the tavern with empty pockets.

 Chapter 16

    While Darius opened the front door of Green Lantern, Edwin exclaimed, ¡°Where in the name of chicken, you have gotten those!¡±


    Darius chuckled, ¡°these are a thanks gift provided by lord Lumbert, I guess. I helped a bit with wounded people.¡±


    ¡°Climbing up the ladder, eh? That¡¯s great news, Darius. You seem to have received a silver token. Also, not many commoners have it. Are you thinking of expanding your business?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, I am, although I have to rely on you for a while longer since my alchemy lab is kind of unmovable for many reasons. Some of the tools are hard to pack.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. I am relieved you are still renting them. You have always paid before due time, boy,¡± grinned Edwin with bright eyes still eying Darius and his new clothing.


    ¡°Do you happen to know where I could buy a house nearby the nobility area? I would also need a storage room and other rooms for an alchemy store. If I can expand a bit, I can get more workers. Maybe I even ask you for more rental rooms for it.¡±


    Edwin took the hint and told Darius about several three-storey high buildings being sold nearby the same street where Darius had bought his clothing earlier.


    ¡°Thanks, Edwin. I will see what I can do.¡±


    Darius continued to the lab room and knocked on the door.


    ¡°It¡¯s me, Darius.¡±


    The door opened, and Elvira greeted him. She had cleaned the alchemy lab nicely, and after Darius closed the door, she showed some hiding places that she had made. Darius nodded and started looking at the books.


    ¡°Elvira, bring me the backpack from upstairs. Here is the key, don¡¯t let anyone see what is inside. Tell Edwin or the maid to bring our meals and extra food to this room for several days.¡±


    After glancing at his new books, Elvira came back with the luggage. While the door closed, Darius locked the door and put a plank underneath the doorknob. Elvira¡¯s eyes were slightly alarmed by it, so Darius said, ¡°Elvira, it is all right. We just have to hide a few items so that nobody finds them. Elvira opened some floor planks and showed that underneath the gravel, she had buried a box for this kind of purpose. Darius could only imagine what kind of undertaking it must have been while seeing one box full of gravel in the room.


    ¡°This is work, Elvira. Here is the money for the next task. Go buy yourself anything practical, several weeks'' worth of food and drinks for us and order someone to deliver this gravel box to a nearby village. After all, we have to hide these things well.¡± Darius threw a closed purse to Elvira, and she cached it from the air.


    ¡°Thank you, master.¡±


    ¡°Just go all out. We have enough money. Efficiency is the most important thing now.¡±


    Elvira left the room, and Darius sighed and started reviewing what magic books he had gotten. This time there were a lot of them. Topics ranged from different particle magic to meditation and general books on the theory of magic. He would have to go through them with Elvira. She might know a thing or two about them. Several books were spell model collections of some sort. Darius could only read descriptions of the spells because symbols and calculations were unreadable to him.


    While Darius was leafling the books, Elvira returned with ten sacks and other minor boxes. Despite her age, she seemed in perfect physical condition.


    ¡°You can put them there. Elvira, can you tell me how acolytes differ and do you know how to measure the body¡¯s particles? I have survived this long without the basic knowledge of magic. I have been extremely lucky and unlucky.¡±


    ¡°Yes, master, I can see you are first rank acolyte. The particles act a bit differently than with non-mages or secular people, as mages would say. I can¡¯t perform any detection magic capable of measuring your particles, and all the instruments are costly. You could join academia but its also very expensive. Entry to this magic academy, what we have in this city is around 120 magic stones. It can be cheaper elsewhere, but before joining, they will measure your particles for free.¡±


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Ah yes, I can cheat this information from them for free and just continue with the books and materials.¡±


    ¡°In essence, yes, at least until you face a more complicated bottleneck for your advancement. There are countless masters and ways to go about it, but it always costs a lot of magic stones. Also, starting acolytes are treated like gutter slaves, and they have to do dangerous missions at the peril of their lives, and they receive scrapings of what they gather and what they have achieved. But you can still measure it on any day they are continuously accepting people in because Ardon city is so vast, and people come here miles around.¡±


    After a lengthy discussion, they ate and started to do potioneering. Elvira thought aloud how he could have survived with kitchenware and odd equipment. There seemed to be differences in the standards and quality of alchemy tools. During the evening, the output of the alchemy lab had not only doubled. They had worked out a new way with some of the tools used more precisely, and this has already resulted in ten intermediate healing potions, not just two or three like usual. And this was just the beginning. While they had been working on processes of alchemy, Elvira had talked about her huge debt trap as an acolyte that she couldn¡¯t recover. Finally, she had to sign a slave contract, and she had been used as an alchemy slave for several years before her body was so messed up that the experiments on her were gone wrong. She had been sold a few times until mister Trader had bought her. Since her condition made her too imprecise to be used in alchemy experiments, so she was worthless for mages.


    The next day, Darius walked alone into the registry office building and went inside to acquire information about buildings that Edwin had told him. First, he was greeted by a young-looking female secretary, and she led Darius to meet a city official. The man was a heavy-looking fellow with a too tiny official coat on him. The official also had fashionable starched neckbands that seemed almost to strangle him.


    ¡°Greetings, young man. My name is Orlond. How can I help you?¡± the registry officer greeted Darius with a swindler look about him.


    ¡°My business is to buy a large enough building from the main square leading to nobility area for potioneering store. Do you have anything for me for this purpose?¡±


    ¡°Indeed I do, but it will cost you around 8000 gold coins with the fees. Shall we have a look?¡±


    ¡°Yes, money is not the problem. We can go have a look.¡±


    While they were slowly walking towards the main street, Orlond talked without stopping, sometimes spewing his saliva on Darius'' face while reporting all manner of stores and conditions of the buildings when they passed them. Finally, they got on the large street crossing, and Orlond showed him a massive three-story building with a taverna outlook. The location was exceedingly good. It was just less than two hundred meters away from the main gate to the nobility area, and this street crossing was where two important roads met the main road to the nobility area and merchant district. Darius heard that if he wanted to buy a similar building in the merchant district, it would cost him only three thousand gold to little over five thousand.


    ¡°Money is not a problem. This location is already good enough for my purposes.¡±


    ¡°Well then, let''s go inside. We can¡¯t sell you an unshown establishment now, can we.¡±


    The new level of redundancy commenced. They spent the next hour going through all the rooms and floors, and they even went to the attic hatch that led to the roof of the building. The whole interior was whitewashed clay with sturdy-looking wood beams supporting everything. The place would need renovation, but the street-level hall was perfect for the alchemy store. Darius would have to buy more slaves, though, to be able to handle the large area and expand the range of sold potions.


    Eventually, everything was done, and Darius gave the bank notes and gold and received the building papers. After paying some extra, the man promised to use his contacts to get the outside of the building fixed with new paint, decorations, and signs for the alchemy store.


    Darius went back inside the building. The first actual building he owned now. It didn¡¯t matter that it was dirty and full of dust, and the furniture seemed rough and broken. What mattered was that he finally had a place in the city where he could not be thrown out. Downstairs hall had a large fireplace, and regular taverna chairs and tables filled the hall with a counter on the wall on the right side from the door. Darrius accidentally dropped a large chandelier while trying to lift the linen from it. He laughed. *Buy a building and die* even that felt funny to him.


    After checking the building with more care and making plans for the establishment, Darius started walking towards the nobility area. After seeing him carry the silver token, the guards greeted him, and Darius continued the main street to turn left towards the Black Arc Academy. Afternoon busy hours were hectic, and the streets were full of people. But still, nobody tried to steal anything from him. It felt as the rules in this area were more civilized, at least at the surface.

 Chapter 17

    Darius walked towards the grand Academy gate wearing his hooded brown robe. After making sure he had hidden all identifications and taken the silver token away, he walked out from the dead-end corner into the direction of the academy. The sheer size of it was even bigger than the city''s main gate and it had much more metal used to strengthen it. The supporting metal structures were almost like they had grown into the place encasing black stone and blood-red brick buildings.


    When Darius came closer to the gate, mages in black uniforms greeted him, and one of the servants was ordered to show Darius where the academy registry was. The servant was bored and did not say anything to him. While walking in large parks, Darius saw countless plantations for medical herbs and a lot of people wearing grey robes harvesting, cleaning, and guarding these places. Occasionally some black hooded-robed men and women came fast with the horses or left by similar means, and from the bowing head of the servant Darius knew that these were the mages. They came next to the more modest long building that was made of wood and whitewashed walls. The support wood beams were again natural, almost as grown on place. The servant showed him the registry entrance and left the main gate without saying a word. Darius had not even seen the servant¡¯s face under the hood.


    The registry looked inside like an expensive tavern with all manner of information notice boards and people coming and going. He noticed the mission board that was more grounded than any other board. Several people were even arguing there. Darius went past them to the registry desk.


    ¡°Hello there, I would like to register for the academia. How does it work?¡±


    Tired looking grey robed woman with a big nose answered him in a surprisingly low voice,


    ¡°Yes, here is the registry paper, but before you write on it, follow me here.¡±


    They left the registry area to one side room, only lit by two balls of light that glowed in the air. These balls seem to circulate one another. After watching these balls for a while, Darius saw some symbols on the ground at the corner.


    ¡°Here, take this stone and go on top of this formation. I will see to the results. This enchantment circle will show what particles you have and by what amounts and portions you have been gifted.¡±


    Darius felt like he was an experiment but reluctantly shook that feeling off. It was just the particle test. The stone on his hand was one he had gotten earlier. A magic stone worth ten thousand gold was just used for this measurement. Mages truly were in a different world. After a short incantation, multiple colours surfaced on the formation. Slowly these colours made a mixed spiral around him, and the stone on his hand glowed very brightly for one second and then suddenly, almost all the colours disappeared. Only darkness did not evaporate, and Darius could see some hint of red and green around as tiny dots in the middle of the air.


    ¡°You have come to the right place,¡± the register official said.


    With a bit of hesitation, Darius asked, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Look boy, you have exceedingly a lot of negative particles. One of the highest saturations I have witnessed among acolytes. You still seem to be at the very beginning. However, your concentration is nearing 89 percent negative particles, red particles six, green particles four and a very minuscule number of light particles. To put this into perspective, even with over 60 percent supremacy of one particle colour is considered quite good for an acolyte.¡±


    ¡°I see, so I would be better at negative particle magic?¡±


    ¡°Essentially, yes, but you will still need high particle comprehension. Your sea of consciousness must be broad enough to carry the spell models you want to learn, not forgetting the memorization of a whole model eventually. With your skills, you might be able to cast some minor spells with negative energy when you go past the rank two or three acolyte requirements depending on your aptitude.¡±


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    ¡°Right, thanks for the explanation.¡±


    ¡°You are welcome. Here is the paper. Finish your details and come back tomorrow. Then we will give you the academy token. Remember to bring 220 magic stones with you for the registry fee.¡±


    Darius was already writing the paper. ¡°Yes, sure.. Okay, here it is my name and details. I will come back tomorrow.¡±


    Darius left hurriedly while keeping his hood on to avoid anyone seeing his face. While Darius was already at the gate, the registry official looked at the paper.


    Name: Ensil


    Occupation: Servant


    Address:


    Still wondering why the address was left off next person asked for something else from her, and she put the paper into the big pile.


    Meanwhile, Darius walked past the guards. It seemed that they were not interested in who went out but only looked at the people who went inside. *This might be interesting detail* he chuckled in his thoughts. He walked with fast phasing to a nearby tavern corner and went inside the public toilet. While lifting the lid, he undressed the robe, and after checking that he didn¡¯t have anything in the pockets, he threw the robe down into the sewer and watched the robe bubbling and submerging with shit and piss. After the robe was gone, Darius straightened his clothing and walked outside while putting the silver token back on his neck. He walked more hastily, but after he came out from the nobility area, he slowed to strolling and started thinking about his choices. After absentminded walking, Darius was already at his new building. But he was not alone. There were two people, strong people waiting outside the door.


    ¡°Hey you, do you own this place?¡±


    ¡°Yes, how can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Leave your rat ass alchemy place while you can or pay us 2000 golds.¡±


    Darius stopped walking and answered, ¡°What can I do for you gentlemen?¡±


    ¡°This is how the stores operate. We collect money for Mathias, and you od to pay in time.¡±


    ¡°I see. Well, we will discuss this tomorrow then.¡±


    Finally, two men left, and Darius could go inside. After closing the door and lock again, he sighed.


    ¡°Fuck, always some stupid shit.. I just got the damn building.¡±


    After almost destroying one wood beam on the wall, Darius started to think. He didn¡¯t know how serious these people were, but the name Mathias still disgusted him. Despite the disappearance of the thug boss, it seemed that his men were, either operating on his command, or they had started to operate privately. Luckily Elvira was still in the tavern storage room making potions. Darius weighed his options. He could scare them away or kill them, or they were just playing around without doing anything but idle threats.


    Darius continued going through orders and supplies for the building. Despite the nice scenery and merchant district, he wasn¡¯t happy about it. Deep down, Darius knew how precarious the situation was. He would need guards or hired servants. *No. None of these could be trusted.* While ordering new shelves and tables from the carpenter, Darius figured out the solution to his problems. Simply put, his only option would be slaves.


    The light of the day was disappearing again when Darius returned to the Green Lantern. After discussing with Elvira, they ate and planned the building decorations and potion sections. After realizing something, Darius asked,


    ¡°Elvira, do you happen to know any good potions for corpse removal?¡±


    ¡°Yes, several potions can do that, but we have ingredients for just one of them.¡±


    ¡°What are the properties of this potion?¡±


    ¡°Well, it is not so potent. You will need around two potions to melt a corpse into liquid, but it will also melt clothing but not metal.¡±


    ¡°That will be enough. Can you brew me several of them? I''ll go back to take measurements at the alchemy store. No worries, I am not using them on you,¡± Darius joked.


    ¡°Yes master,¡± answered Elvira with a grim smirk.


    It felt good to say alchemy store. And even better while owning one. Darius bought one apple cider and drank it while walking slowly towards his store. The starlights were getting brighter in the sky. Darius started thinking about what kind of slaves he would need and how to acquire them. Maybe he could give a request to mister Trader. Now that Mathias was gone, barely anyone else than mister Trader handled the slave sales. Auction houses were tedious and public in most cases, he could not access nobility auctions with private rooms, and academia was out of the question because he didn¡¯t want to pay for the lucrative entrance fee.


    Darius noticed soon noticed something that he had almost forgotten about. It was something familiar nagging in his mind. While walking, he turned around the corner and saw his building on fire.

 Chapter 18

    While watching the building on fire, one floor was already collapsing. A countless number of people hurried water in, but it was too late, and water was thrown on the nearby buildings. Darius looked at the building with a frozen gaze. An unpleasantly familiar voice woke him up.


    ¡°Hello, it is terrible news indeed. Your house seems to be destroyed by the fire as we speak.¡±


    Darius looked to his left and saw Orlond leering at him.


    ¡°You see, this document you signed stipulates that your ownership is now voided since the building needs to be demolished.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean! I bought the building from you just this very day!¡± shouted Darius.


    Four guards came closer to them with spears raised.


    ¡°Well yes, you bought the house, but I still own the land lot, and as an owner of the land, I say that this deal for the house is voided because the house doesn¡¯t exist anymore. You see this section here?¡±


    Darius took the paper, and he only saw the word building how he could have been this stupid.


    ¡°It will be all right, boy, just buy another building. There are few available for a similar price,¡± smiled Orlond.


    Darius looked at Orlond, and while watching his eyes, he slowly ripped the paper in half while gazing coldly at Orlond.


    ¡°Hoho, this is just a mere copy, boy, relax. You weren¡¯t in the fire luckily, you can still get a store up and running elsewhere. It is not all bad.¡±


    Darius didn¡¯t say anything. He just watched with stale eyes Orlond and the guards and left back to the tavern. While thinking about every conceivable way of killing Orlond, Darius went inside the slum area instead. He had to talk with mister Trader about what had happened.


    While he was passing one bar, one guy came out and tried to start a fight with Darius. The guy was lanky, and he stumbled back several meters and went down after receiving one bunch right to his face from Darius while Darius continued walking past him. He only heard incoherent yelling and mumbling from the ground behind him, but he didn¡¯t care.


    At mister Trader, after the guard had left the room, Darius went straight into the business.


    ¡°You might have heard by now my building was destroyed, and not only that, but the land registry official stole my property. It''s my fault for not noticing the land part missing from the writing.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, you see, this is not the first time Orlond does this.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean!¡± Shouted Darius angrily.


    ¡°I understand this is frustrating, but some officials are not happy with what they have, so instead of working properly, they regularly scam people. They only get away with it because they pay cuts to local nobility whoever happens to oversee the district.¡±


    ¡°I see. This also covers the blackmailing of storekeepers?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and many other business ventures.¡±


    Darius sighed. ¡°Okay, here is the thing. Do you happen to have any proper fighter slaves?¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, I suspected you of asking something of that sort. Naturally, I am more than willing to sell.¡±


    The slaves were hidden inside of large dungeon hall underneath the building. Despite the place, everything was clean and well-kept. The food that slaves ate was also the same food offered upstairs to others.


    ¡°I believe in a well-kept slave business. Nobody wants to buy ragged, dirty slaves for a high enough price to run this business.¡± Smiled, mister Trader.


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    ¡°Let''s see, here are Trewan and Jurid. The latter one has a wounded leg because of a deep dagger wound. Both are fine with the tasks of severe violence, and Jurid has long combat experience. Price is 5500 gold for them. They are both knights, rank one and two. The cost is a bit higher with knights; they both have the regular curse and the mark of obedience. With your potions, I am sure that Jurid¡¯s wound can be recovered.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I am in a hurry now so we can clear the money debt with these. Can you provide them with decent weapons and gears, anything they want?¡±


    ¡°Thanks for the extra Darius. I won¡¯t let your guards down. Let us proceed with the incantation again.¡± A familiar mage came again from the corner and transferred the ownership of the slaves.


    Then they were led into a storage room. At the end of the room, there was a whole wall covered by weapons retainers. Trewan took two swords and asked for a shield for his back and reinforced leather armour for maximum movement. Jurid looked at the wall and said, ¡°This biggest steel club and 20 daggers with three dagger belts and leather armour. Keep it light I will kill people faster.¡±


    Mister Trader looked hesitantly at the equipment after hearing that and said, ¡°olrait, anything else?¡±


    ¡°Can you both use crossbows?¡± Asked Darius. After both said yes, Trader started gathering items for them to wear.


    Guards dressed in dark robes with useful openings to access daggers, Darius left the building while Mr. Trader happily led his guest to the main entrance.


    At Green Lanter, Edwin¡¯s eyes almost popped out of their sockets while he looked at the men Darius brought in.


    ¡°Good heavens boy, you frightened me for a second. I thought the collectors were here again.¡±


    ¡°Oh, are those thugs still asking for security money?¡±


    ¡°Yes, despite nobody having seen Mathias for months, his lackeys are still extorting stores.¡±


    ¡°Well, we''ll see about that later,¡± answered Darius while leading the men to the storage room.


    Elvira¡¯s reaction was much milder. She just lifted her gaze and raised her eyebrow at the men. After explaining everything necessary and Elvira ordering them two beds room, Darius started to gather potions and items for the next day. After forcing his evening meal down his throat, Darius headed into a restless sleep.


    He woke up later in the day with a dry mouth and an aching neck. The breakfast in the hall didn¡¯t interest Darius. He wasn¡¯t feeling hungry, and the sight of smiling and laughing people sickened him. After getting something to eat, he carried cold cider, apple and bread inside his lab room. Elvira was already there making potions.


    ¡°Good morning. Do you already have what I asked for?¡± Asked Darius casually.


    ¡°Yes, I managed to make them last night. You seemed to be in a hurry because of the,¡± Elvira¡¯s gaze froze, and she hesitatingly stopped talking after seeing the look in Darius¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°It''s fine. We will get everything back. It''s only a matter of time.¡±


    Elvira left the topic and asked, ¡°Did you enter the academy registry? How was it?¡±


    ¡°Well, it looked like a palace in comparison to anything else. I actually wanted to ask you, is the high concentration of single particles okay for an acolyte?¡±


    ¡°It''s great!. It dictates the whole power of the spells. The mage needs to order the particles. You will need concentration and the ability to see their movements, but that is more about aptitude. Some aspects can be enchanted with potions, even the particle concentration, but those potions cost lucrative amounts of magic stones.¡±


    ¡°Oh, how much?¡±


    ¡°Depends on the potion and its recipe, but more used concentration liquid silver water cost around twenty thousand magic stones. But it only works on acolytes, and the results are always different. It can also kill you.¡±


    Darius nodded silently. Being a mage did not seem very safe to him, and he wasn¡¯t surprised by the lucrative price. Strength and advancement always seemed to have their cost. After eating the lousy meal with more appetite, Darius continued discussion and potion making with Elvira. When the afternoon was nearing its end, Trewan knocked on the door.


    ¡°Target is still at the office, but others are leaving for the day.¡±


    ¡°Good, let''s begin,¡± said Darius and lifted his sack of items.


    While walking nearby the city office building, Darius saw a familiar man inside the dingy old carriage. Jurid was sitting by the window and sharpening a knife by reflex while looking at the office building. While Darius and Trewan came inside the carriage, Jurid started whispering.


    ¡°Target is still inside. We have been waiting for him to come out or him to be alone. There are at least seven people left inside.¡±


    ¡°Good, and now we wait,¡± answered Darius.


    It wasn¡¯t a long wait until Orlond exited the registry office.


    Orlond strolled down in the direction of the merchant district where he lived. While he looked down the street, he heard a horse carriage coming by. Orlond reflexively walked nearby the building until something jumped and hooded him, and he felt a sudden pain on his face. While disoriented, he tried to yell, but something large was covering his face, and no sound came through. Despite struggling fiercely, he was lifted in the air and hurled on the street. But it was not a cobblestone street but a wooden floor that hurt all the same. Then his head was hit with more force, and after a stale moment, Orlond blacked out.

 Chapter 19

    The pain was the first thing that woke Orlond up. In the smelly darkness of sewers, he saw a candle on the table with several familiar-looking papers and a short hooded fellow with a dagger in his hand. On his right and left were two large hooded men.


    ¡°Orlond, I am very disappointed in you.¡± Said a cold snarling voice.


    Orlond tried to speak, but his mouth had been gagged. While furiously trying to lift himself from the chair, another man hit his swollen face again.


    ¡°UUMPH!¡±


    ¡°Quiet, you bag of shit. Now look, you are going to write us a paper, and then you are going to sign this document. Easy eh?


    Orlond was shaking his head, but then one man lifted his leg on a tree trunk, and the other man started sharpening a rusty-looking old axe.


    ¡°Do you understand that you might lose your entire leg with this axe? Hey, dip that into the sewer.¡± Said the hooded figure with a hollow voice. The men did what was asked, and the smelly, dirty, stained axe was lifted.


    ¡°Care of writing now what we ask. Ah, I see. Well now, I hope you will remember after that. It was your call.¡±


    After a loud thud and almost blacking out Orlond saw his half-cut mangled leg and tried to scream, but the voice didn¡¯t come out. His face was full of tears and snot from his nose while he attempted to gasp air while feeling all the pain.


    ¡°Sorry boss, my hand slipped a bit, better luck next time¡± laughed the axe man with a not convincing voice.


    ¡°You see, my suggestion is very simple. Either you are repeatedly hit and healed until you write, or you think your options more clearly and write down what I say.¡±


    Orlond was having none of it. He would not bend to the will of these men, and he stared with a deadly gaze towards the hooded man while huffing and crying.


    ¡°Okay, this is not going anywhere, cut his face open and break his teeth.¡± Said the hollow voice echoing a bit in the sewers.


    The axe man took his head in between his arms suddenly. While Orlond tried to shake his head without succeeding, the other man on his right side slowly took a dull, rusty knife and started roughly to cut a hole on Orlond¡¯s face. Orlond screamed through his opened cheek, and he felt splintering pain on his face while something foreign entered into his mouth in wrong angle and wrong place.


    Suddenly Orlond woke up again, this time howling in pain because dirty sewer water had been thrown on his face and wounds. To his horror, he felt his teeth were shattered while trying to couch dirty sewer water from his mouth.


    ¡°Are you done?¡± Said the cold voice sharply.


    Orlond squirmed in pain and kept nodding vigorously.


    ¡°Good, bring him here. Now Orlond, write the following clearly. Note to everybody.. ¡®Hey, write it more clearly, or you lose your third leg.¡¯ Note to everybody. I will be going to the Sarus village to make a business deal. Do the duties in planned order.¡¯ Nice, now sign it here aaand signature here. Wonderful, it was agreeable to do business with you.¡±


    ¡°Kill him,¡± Orlond heard and started screaming and crying while his bowel released itself. After a loud thud, everything went black.


    Darius lifted his hood, snatched two potions, and downed their content on the body.


    ¡°Hey kick his head here, thank you. We will melt this fucker. He burned our home and stole my land lot.¡±


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    Two guards next to him shivered at Darius''s ferocity despite having been busy on their own moments before. They would not dare to think what their master would do when he took things more personally. But then again, Elvira had told them that her master was reasonable compared to many others, but now they weren¡¯t sure what to think about it.


    Darius watched happily while the body disappeared completely, and all that was left was yellow glimmering sludge that would wash away into the sewer gutters. It was for Orlond fitting place to go. *One obstacle less.*


    ¡°Okey, we still have time before sunrise. We are on the clock. Let''s see how the registry coffers are.¡± Darius smirked at bewildered knights. Trewan was a bit hesitant, but Jurid even laughed.


    They parked the carriage block away from the registry building and waited for guards to stroll away before entering. Entering was easy because the keys even had name tags. *Luckily Orlond seemed to have poor memory,* Darius laughed for himself. While they unlocked the door, one scared guard yelled at them in the entrance hall, but Jurid threw the club on the guard¡¯s face and went down relatively silently. Next, Jurid ran and stabbed the guard¡¯s throat while Darius killed two more guards that had appeared in the entrance hall. After six guards and six melted bodies, everything quieted down.


    Darius nodded, and they continued inside. While passing the customer section, Darius ordered Jurid and Trewan to sweep each room without letting anybody leave. Meanwhile, Darius was busy at Orlond¡¯s office. After cleaning the obvious places out of money and leaving the letter on the office desk, he checked the locked drawers and saw a scattering of money purses and official documents. These seemed to be for the city since the accounting book was among the items. Darius looked at the registry cabinet under the street of his building and replaced one document with a newly signed contract stating that Darius owned the land lot.


    Next, Darius turned his attention to the large wall safe. It was equally easy to open with a larger steel key. The safe had considerably more money and several gold bars. Darius left the coppers and silvers and took the gold bars, coins, and platinum coins from the safe. He also saw and collected three large keys chained with weirdly long silver key chain.


    Darius continued looking around and found one small safe inside the cabinet next to the trash bin. Separate safe with corrupted officials meant only one thing. Darius smiled and put the smaller key into the lock. He saw even more gold bars and money in the safe, and he took everything. Then he saw a pile of papers that seemed to be land lot ownership papers. Darius looked at a few of them and noticed that these papers gave ownership rights to the contract holder. Then he started leafing through the specific corner of the papers where plot addresses were written. The land lots were all situated in the merchant district and at the main road section nearby his building. Darius took the whole pile of papers with him and checked the next pile. These seemed to be land lease contracts similarly arranged. After seeing two papers of this sort, he took the whole pile again into the bag.


    He also took an accounting book that seemed to be unofficial. By taking it, he could hide what Orlond had done to ensure that his own dealings were not found out. While he was snatching the items and papers into his bag on the floor to avoid messing with the desk papers, he heard footsteps coming closer. After a short panic, he saw Trewan poking his face through the entrance.


    ¡°Damn Trewan, you almost got me a heart attack,¡± laughed Darius silently.


    ¡°Master, we have found a large vault in the cellar. It has three large keyholes on it.¡±


    ¡°You might be looking for these,¡± Darius dangled the newly acquired keychain with odd keys.


    Trewan smiled and took the key chain while Darius finished packing the items.


    ¡°My bag is full now. Luckily we have the carriage lets go see the vault.¡±


    Trewan led Darius downstairs, and though the unlocked door and several melted corpses later, they went underground through the circular stone stairs. Jurid was waiting with the oil lamp next to the massive door. The door was made of iron, with steel reinforcements and three keyholes in the middle. After a bit of struggle, they got the order of the keys correctly, and Jurid swung the door open. Albeit the sturdy door, the vault was very minimal, with floor to fit ten people. The walls were covered with wooden boxes and chests.


    ¡°Check them out properly. We still have time.¡±


    They started opening the chests, and after a while, Darius asked his guards to carry money and other valuables to the entrance hall. There were only ten boxes worth taking. Everything else was just registry papers, account books and copies of licenses. Darius left everything else as it was and went to return the keys to the office. He left all the other keys but kept the official safe key. In all likelihood, they would have more keys for it, and in good luck, he could come again for decent cash.


    Darius heard the horse carriage nearing and ran back to the entrance. His guards were already lifting boxes and sacks into the carriage. In less than a minute, they were heading to the slums. The streets were empty, and only occasional guards or other people strolled at night. Nobody seemed interested in this shabby-looking carriage. Jurid had made an excellent choice of carriage.

 Chapter 20

    Mr. Trader looked almost bewildered when Darius and his guards started to unload the carriage into his deal room. Hurriedly Trader¡¯s guards helped the boxes.


    ¡°Darius, you really did something big today.¡± Darius understood the meaning behind his words.


    ¡°Everything settled. Just demolish this carriage and skin the horse, and your men can have a feast. Here are four corpse eater potions. Use it for horse carcases. It will result into a yellow liquid.¡±


    ¡°If anyone else said that, I would have to recheck everything, but as for your past actions, I know this to be likely true. Thanks for handling your share of things properly.¡±


    Mr. Trader turned around and opened his office door, ¡°Listen up. You have to break the carriage and burn it under one hour. Use all means necessary. Lui, you can butcher the horse, and we can wrap things up in the back yard. Let the men know we will have a feast today.¡±


    Lui nodded, and the whole hall emptied of people.


    Darius nodded to Trader. ¡°Thanks. I will make this one worthwhile for you.¡±


    ¡°No problem, Darius. I haven¡¯t heard a thing yet, so whatever you did probably succeed. I presume that you wanted a deal?¡± mister Trader smiled wickedly. Darius nodded, and they returned to the office with the floor filled with boxes.


    Darius slapped one box, ¡°I would like to put my money in the safe keeping of your bank service. Would a 10% cut be satisfactory for you?¡±


    Mister trader opened one box, smiling with sparkling eyes. He smiled, ¡°That would be a decent cut for me Darius. I¡¯ll accept your offer. We will have to weigh the coins. Nobody is going to calculate these.¡±


    ¡°Yes please, we don¡¯t want to get that old anyways,¡± laughed Darius.


    Trader smiled and used the small bell again. A servant came in. ¡°Count the money in these boxes and bags, and ask at least four other people to help you. Use the scale and calculate the odds for the customer''s benefit.¡±


    The servant nodded, and soon few men were carrying the loot downstairs.


    ¡°Great, while we wait, I have another business deal.¡± Darius continued.


    ¡°If it''s this profitable, I¡¯m barely holding my head from rolling.¡±


    Darius opened the bag and put the papers on the desk in two piles.


    ¡°Let''s read.¡±


    After a while both confirmed the papers and in midway Trader came with the city map to mark all the land lots. Then he whistled. ¡°This is a goddamn gold mine. Untraceable paper holding ownerships, are there any copies?¡±


    ¡°I highly doubt it. These are Orlond¡¯s private papers from another safe at the office.¡±


    ¡°Oh hahaha, these are Orlond¡¯s papers! Yes, I think so too Orlond is the laziest among the bureaucrats. Do you know where he went, or is he sleeping at home?¡±


    Darius smiled. ¡°Orlond has left the signed notice stating that he is going to the Sarus village.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it is quite far away. I have barely heard about it one or two times.¡±


    ¡°Yes, this trip might be permanent in nature. It also might be that the city officials will hunt him for the lack of funds after all the doors are closed with Orlond¡¯s keys.¡±


    Mister Trader leaned a bit forward and started scratching his forehead while moving his eyes from one side to another. It seemed like he was calculating the odds and problems in his immense bald head.


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    ¡°That is what, in all likelihood, will happen. Even if it doesn¡¯t, I silence the opposition. It will be easier. What do you suggest with these papers?¡±


    ¡°Well, as you can see, there are papers for 38 business land lots. I will take these seven lots for my businesses and have to count on you for the slaves.¡± Trader nodded in agreeance.


    ¡°Would you like to have a lot or two? I would like all official problems to disappear.¡±


    Mister trader stared at the map and said hesitatingly, ¡°It would be better to have at least one alias, let''s say, Gary, to own the lots. The reason is that the land costs are huge in this city, and it is deeply guarded property. If some land is sold and definitely in these amounts, that will raise many questions, and you might be indicated in the end. These papers are for land leasing, as this other pile of paper says. You must hold both of these papers to acquire yearly payments. This date is typically the last day of the year. The lots are free to use if someone moves out from these, but you must have the papers.¡±


    ¡°Alias seems a good idea in this city. How about your lots?¡±


    ¡°This is a big thing, Darius. You know it''s impossible to gain a secure location in any part of the city because the land is always rented, not sold. This is one of the main reasons why I have been operating in the slums. But your suggestion could potentially help us reallocate to a more established place. Maybe we can even conduct private guard services for lords at this rate. It is impossible to say there are so many options.¡±


    ¡°What locations would you need?¡±


    ¡°These two are in the merchant district, and they are next to these three lots you were thinking of keeping for your businesses. Would that be suitable?¡±


    ¡°Actually, yes. You don¡¯t have to pay any rent on the land. When the registry operates normally, we can submit a new rent under the name Gary.¡±


    ¡°Thank gods, Gary is a very benevolent person indeed.¡±


    ¡°You took my words,¡± laughed Darius.


    After over an hour of chatting and looking at a large number of new alchemy tools, ingredients, an assortment of weapons and new slave contracts, Darius had already compiled quite a heavy price ticket. While Darius and mister Trader were having tea, the servant returned with a bewildered white face and numbly gave the numbers to mister Trader.


    ¡°This is almost like king''s ransom, Darius, 28 gold bars each with the weight of 12 kilos, valued around 3000 gold coins worth times 28 equals 84 thousand gold coins. Then the coins themselves totalled nearly 30.600 gold coins in two boxes, 146 platinum coins converted to 146.000 gold coins, and the rest converted into 540 gold coins. The total value is 261 thousand and 140 gold coins. Minus ten percent bank service fee, that is.¡± Mister Trader chuckled.


    Still, Darius thought that it would still be only near 23 magic stones. Still, for slaves and businesses, this was great. He could have afforded to rebuild all the land lots two times, at least with stupid spending, but he still would have at least several tens of thousands.


    ¡°Hmm, you seem displeased?¡±


    ¡°Ah, sorry, I was just thinking how these pieces of metal don¡¯t really offer a lot in terms of magical knowledge and resources. But otherwise, we can start all the businesses almost same time. Albeit, making them work will take years. But in essence, I think my mission times are gone, and I have to start funding magic material acquisition.¡±


    ¡°For the maximum profit,¡± said mister Trader and lifted his tea mug. ¡°The trade orders total will be 85 thousand golds only, so that I will write you a considerable amount of banknotes for the rest. Don¡¯t cash them all immediately. It will take several months to put the money of this scale into the bank without anyone becoming suspicious.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all right. Oh, I had one thing to tell you about, almost forgot,¡± Darius leaned closer to the table. ¡°I have been conducting potion business with lord Lumbert that you might know already. Their economic situation seems to need some help, so they are trading with non-noble adversaries. ¡°


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear. Maybe they can afford the swords after a year or two.¡±


    ¡°Let''s see what will happen. Remember the slave orders, and we will need a lot of workers after this to fill all the locations.¡± Said Darius lastly while he was leaving.


    While Darius was gone, Mr. Trader sat at his office and ate salted horse meat with buttered roasted potatoes. It seemed that his hunger had grown larger during the deals. Then absent-mindedly Mr. Trader almost poured expensive wine over. The glimmering leaf gold in the wine circled inside the small silver cup. The deals today would require a lot more attention this time. In front of Trader Lui waited for his master to come to a conclusion.


    After a while, Mr. Trader sipped from his wine and continued sharply, ¡°Today¡¯s dealings were rough, but benefits greatly exceeded the trouble and risk. Hide the money underneath the cellar floor and make sure to dirty the new mortar in between stones. Also, burn all the boxes and ensure no single item is left from the carriage and its luggage. Don¡¯t go asking questions. Just put a few ears listening to lords connected to land registry and city finances. Make sure no one has seen anything.¡±


    ¡°Yes master.¡±


    Lui walked outside the office, leaving Mr. Trader to enjoy his meal.

 Chapter 21

    Darius had received a pile of bank notes neatly organized and backed in a brown letter folding. While walking out, he saw his guards waiting outside after grilling. Daylight was nearing while the last remains of the night lingered in shadows. Darius walked to them while Trader¡¯s guard bowed to him slightly.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go back to get rested. Tomorrow we will have a lot of projects with the buildings.¡±


    Guards nodded, and they left back to the Green Lantern. The tavern was eery quiet in the early morning, and Darius went to the bathroom to clean himself and head for the rest. While Darius was cleaning himself with several buckets of water, Elvira walked in.


    ¡°Master, do you want me to wash your back?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I won¡¯t reach it anyway.¡±


    Elvira started scratching his shoulders with a rough cloth.


    ¡°Master, was it difficult today? Other men were a bit on the edge when they came back.¡±


    ¡°Well, yes and no, we had to torture that official, he stole our land, but we got it back now.¡±


    ¡°Okey, then everything should be fine now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they will have only one lead, and it will lead them to the burned village. They will first assume that Orlond died there, not here.¡±


    The moment of silence was relaxing. Darius was tired and dozed off a bit. Elvira gave him a warm bucket of water, and he stood up and downed the bucket slowly on himself.


    ¡°We must make plans for rebuilding. This time I want it to have at least five floors and a cellar.¡±


    ¡°Your will be done, my master,¡± answered Elvira. She had seen the immense amount of money Darius had, but at the same time, Darius lacked magic stones.


    ¡°Also, I need to develop as a mage. I have been putting it off too long. The meditation I used is not doing anything other than maybe healing the body.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it can happen easily. Typically, magical aptitude, comprehension and many other things are needed to rank up as a mage. It will require different meditation techniques. But when meditation ceases to be useful, you will always need a better one or some ways to modify your body for magic. The typical strategy is to raise the amount of the singular particles to replace others; this is usually done with meditation. Or you can use enchantments, potions, blessings, or any other form of magic suitable for you to broaden your sea of consciousness."


    It all made much more sense than months before. Darius could later choose some spell models for negative particles to practice, but now he needed to grow his mentality and particle control to do magic. Darius had not wasted time for a single day. Most days, he made potions and discussed with Elvira on magic.


    ¡°Elvira, you can go check the new equipment and resources. Maybe we can do something about my bottleneck and your body balance. After all, it would be better if you could rank up too in future.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, master. I will do whatever it takes,¡± said teary-eyed Elvira.


    Darius watched after her and started thinking about his current situation. What he lacked most were resources and magical plants. There were only two solutions to get them. The first one was obviously to buy them with magic stones. The second chance was to run around all the forests, mines, mountains, and jungles to find resources himself. Both of these options did not appeal to Darius. The first one was too expensive, and even if he could make a business empire within this city, it would only mean a very meagre income for a mage. The second option was even worse. Why would he want to spend all his time travelling in random locations for large risk and only a slight chance of actually acquiring something valuable. But Darius had more options now with the acquired wealth. He could buy larger groups of slaves and make them do his bidding with the resources. All that Darius would have to do would be to provide enough equipment, training, and resources with money for them and order them to seek materials in groups to avoid risks in the wilderness. This undertaking would cost him tons of money, but it was still very little compared to the magical plants and resources he could gain from this. Darius would need to buy someone to take care of these details, herbalists, guards, and several people to sew and smith all the clothing. He could buy everything at the beginning, but when these groups'' scale grew, he would have to produce and provide everything to cut losses.


    The bath water was getting cold, and Darius returned to the tavern hall for breakfast. While munching on bread and onion soup, a street kid came in and yelled.


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    ¡°Big news on investigation of city office! Paper for two coppers!¡±


    Darius looked while several people bought the paper. He fished two coins from his pocket and waved the kid to the table where Darius was eating. After a fast exchange, Darius read the short notice of inquiries and investigations. It seems that the city officials were looking for any leads, particularly those on missing Orlond. Darius sighed in his mind. It had only taken seven hours for city officials to find out about the lack of money, organise a public statement, and start an investigation.


    Darius decided to head back upstairs to meditate the whole day. He gave orders to Elvira to forward to the guards when they woke up.


    Elvira¡¯s words followed Darius to his room and meditation. While he was meditating, Darius finally noticed some differences. It was hard to point out. The mind is not a place, but to use it as a room, the folding triangles seemed to use less space than previously. This might be because he had meditated every night for almost half a year. But it seemed that this expansion was nearing its borders. It had barely grown in the last month. Darius would have to investigate better methods and potions to advance as a mage.


    After meditation for the whole day and night morning, the sun rose again. Darius stopped meditating and decided to go back to the building. He ordered his guards to oversee demolishing and rebuilding of the burned remains. Tens of helpers were hired for the task, and the work started. Huge loads of half-burned wood beams and logs had to be delivered to the slum dump. It was not all bad. The slum people could now start to renovate their huts and broken houses. Some even came to ask for the materials at the building site.


    After everything was dealt with, Darius straightened his robe and walked back to the nobility area, this time to Lumbert¡¯s family mansion. The greetings were more eager this time, and he was being thanked for healing three times before he even met the lord of the house. A new butler hurriedly came to greet him and led Darius into the large dining area.


    ¡°Darius, good, give him a plate and silvers. We are feasting today. The chef has outdone himself today. You have to taste this roasted chicken with honey,¡± Bellowed lord Lumbert. He didn¡¯t seem to be concerned at all and just ate happily. Instead, Lumbert¡¯s wife seemed furious and nit-picked the food in front of her. They seemed an odd couple. His wife was at least one head longer than the lord was. Otherwise, they were opposites of each other. Lord Lumbert had unruly black hair, and he dressed in the newest bright colour clothing like a clown, while his wife had well-kept, almost white-yellow hair and her violet dress was very modest.


    Darius greeted them with a courtesy nod and sat on the chair given to him.


    ¡°I heard your building burned too. What was it about?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sadly, there were some thugs extorting money, and they went too far. But everything is in control now. I will build a new building and have hired knights to make things go smoother.¡±


    ¡°That sound very capable, indeed. At your age, I was just drinking and womanizing with my daily allowance until my father¡¯s retina leader kicked me into sword education.¡± Darius could see this comment causing lord¡¯s wife to roll her eyes, but she didn¡¯t say anything, only smiled a bit at the end of her mouth.


    ¡°Well, Lord Lumbert, there will be a bit of delay with the alchemy store, but we still produce potions daily. With additional workers, it could be done even faster. I was going to ask you, can I just build whatever I want on the land lot for the building, or are there any limitations?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, well, some tight-ass neighbours might complain about it, but it is not a problem that money can¡¯t solve. You will be fine if you are not building a castle on the plot,¡± lord laughed giddily.


    ¡°Seriously speaking, Darius, I wanted to offer you a deal.¡±


    ¡°By all means, you have my ears and attention lord.¡±


    ¡°Well, I see you are starting a large business, and you have money to back it up. I would want to cut into the profit by providing you with more slaves and handling all unnecessary things that might happen in this city.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand there have been some ordeals, even with the officials. Luckily everything is solved and clear.¡±


    ¡°What I want of you, Darius, is that you prosper with your store and sell potions to me in bulks. This fire next to our house was not the only one. We have suffered some damages, and there have been countless expenses with it. So, if you are willing to sell potions to us, we can take better of them and raise money in the nobility area auction house. You would not be permitted to do it, but I can loan my lot. If you want, you can also get access to it and buy through my items and slaves at your leisure.¡±


    ¡°It is an interesting offer, lord Lumbert. What I mostly think is how this will be a fair deal to you?¡±


    ¡°Hehe, don¡¯t worry about that, Darius. You see, some nobles have more money that is good for them, and they have wars over items in auction houses. We can sometimes make a killing with medium and high-quality healing potions.¡±


    ¡°I have been thinking of expanding the potion selection quite a bit, lord Lumbert.¡±


    ¡°Good, that is even better! So, you can put your price on the highest potions and special potions you are not selling in the store openly, and I can, with a 20% cut, sell your medium and high-quality potions at the nobility auction house.¡± Darius made some fast calculations, and with over-the-top prices on medium and high-quality potions, he still would be on receiving end of this bargain.


    ¡°Okay, that will be an agreeable deal, my lord.¡±


    ¡°Capital capital! Just name your price, and I will set the starting limit accordingly and share the results of 80/20. In return, I ensure nobody ever touches your business again in this city.¡± Darius knew lord Lumbert was not the highest lord in the town. But support by any lord, even the one he had stolen from, was generally a good deal. It would help straighten the bureaucratic problems, blackmailing and other issues. Now he would be backed up from the shadows by mister Trader and at daylight by Lord Lumbert. It was a nice happy ending. But Darius didn¡¯t believe in it. To him, everything could collapse at any minute. He was just buying time to amass enough slaves, influence, magic books, and items.


    After chatting and eating an entire meal course, the lord of the house left to sleep the feast off, so to speak. Darius used this moment also to leave the mansion.

 Chapter 22

    Months went by fast. Darius had holed himself in the lab with Elvira, and they had developed a routine of doing alchemy and discussing different topics on magic. Darius had already sorted through many magic books, and Elvira had helped him understand magic theories. They had spent half of the time on the spell equations, albeit it was too early for Darius to think about spell models. He needed to learn the basics first. This included learning rune symbols, mathematics, and basic equations used in spells. Elvira was shocked by the speed at that Darius drank the information, like it would be fitted into an existing logical place in his mind. He made mistakes but always needed only minor corrections to know what to change and fix. They also made considerable advances in the quality of potion production. Now that Darius had spent even more magic stones for alchemy tools and had access to more information, they could attempt all potions. Lord Lumbert was deliriously happy about the potions'' quality but constantly asked for more.


    Despite Darius giving Lord Lumbert only a few higher-grade potions per week, Darius got hundreds of gold from it, sometimes even nearly two thousand gold. But the problem was the gold itself. What Darius wanted most was to trade with magic stones and be able to supply mages. But for that end, he would have to invest even more magic stones for magically enchanted alchemy tools.


    To make more potions Darius was renovating a new lab in the merchant district, but it would need a considerable amount of time to build enough furnaces and buy, order, and transport all the needed equipment. He would need to fish out more alchemy slaves during the build-up of the lab, but there seemed to be always new slaves available. When Darius had asked Mr. Trader about the slaves, he had been told that making slaves was illegal. Still, mages could slave other mages based on debts, or the academies could wage private wars and slave people from other academies during these wars. The bigger academies were sometimes at war with foreign academies or kingdoms. Still, proper mage slaves would cost fortunes of magic stones, and only what Darius could get was the failures and lab experiments that were thrown out from the academy to the mercy of other slavers. Still, to raise potion amount and quality, Darius needed more acolyte slaves, but only seldom were these slaves offered for gold.


    The building projects were doing fine, and he had bought over fifty more slaves and organized them into groups by professions and skills. The biggest groups of ten slaves went for weeklong material gathering trips. Despite all equipment and horses having costed several fortunes worth, these assignments were starting to provide Darius with more materials. Things were working well, and he could regain the investment in a few months. But Darius was low on magic stones, so there was no chance to buy acolyte slaves or magic books. Also, the building wasn¡¯t even nearly finished, and he could not do all the experiments in the storage room of the tavern. He had to find a better place for his experiments and meditation. After talking with Elvira about meditation, it seemed that the place and drawn spell formations could help, but the place would have to be saturated with the primary particles. For Darius, that would be negative particles. From descriptions of varied places, he could gather that sewer was one of those places. But he did not like the idea, and anyone could try to kill him again in the sewers.


    While Darius was meditating, he opened his eyes at midnight and watched his tavern room lighted by the moonlight. The nervous feeling lingered even still because fighting an acolyte had been more stressful than facing guards in battle. But Darius knew he was not an average human anymore. He did not need sleep for months, being able to use the body effectively in combat. Even his months of training for all things would not explain his strength because Darius was not mainly training with his body. The only thing he had done was to destroy his body muscles in dangerous missions and cover all flesh wounds with healing potions. Repeating these difficult moments made him realize the biggest benefit of mages, the basic body effects of meditation. For knights, perhaps their meditations and practices were even more impactful for the body, but for mages, it seemed to be more extensive. As Elvira had explained how the body of the mage was the holder of particles, and therefore, mages had much more control over their bodies through saturation of the particles. It explained at least partially how Darius had survived despite taking many risks and not knowing the proper ways to use weaponry. The meditation affected the speed of thinking, planning, body reflexes, healing, and taking advantage of fast situations. Sometimes, it felt like everyone was hitting with slow sluggish movements in combat. But not with the acolyte at sewers. That had been pure dumbass luck, and this aspect frightened Darius the most. Despite being able to use his body as an advantage and as a surprise in normal combat, he could not rely on it to work with mages or real knights. The only possibility was to grow his capabilities in magic.


    While sighing, Darius glanced again outside and saw the moon. Then he thought about the light''s whiteness glowing in a bone colour against whitewashed walls.


    *Dead unhappy people. Cemetery.*


    Darius started to smirk at the pale moon and thanked it. Next, he packed his back bag full and left towards the nobility area. Sometimes he had to wait for guards to go elsewhere, and he continued towards the nobility area cemetery. He had few choices. The city was so large that it had several cemeteries, but only the nobility area had a complete sewer system. This meant that he could learn the ways of that location and travel underground from his new building at night to meditate in the cemetery. He could also avoid all the guards and hassle by accessing this place through sewers and hiding his activities from others.


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    After a while of searching, Darius noticed large stone garden walls and relic symbols all over the place dedicated to hundreds of gods. After several jumps and coordinated drops, he was in the cemetery. After wandering about, Darius noticed several larger sewer hatches in the middle parts of the cemetery, but he needed the old recluse part where nobody went anymore. The cemetery was like a small city inside of the city made of varied stone materials. There were typical graves and various parts where increasingly majestic mausoleums reached the skies to compete on the importance scale. Darius chuckled at the thought. To him, life was all that mattered when people died; they went back into the mud. That was all. No amount of polished stone structures could change this certainty of human life.


    Darius noticed that the district where he was walking had only smashed and partially replaced flagstones. It was the perfect start. He went longer all the way, almost to the outer wall. There were countless mausoleums, half broken and forgotten by time. Some wines were outgrowing them. Darius stopped at the sight of large three covering the old white polished mausoleum''s entrance with broken statues and signs. The three had grown at the entrance, almost blocking it by its sheer size. Darius squeezed behind the three and started working on the stone slab door. After a few minutes, Darius broke the hinges and made it look natural. He tilted the door slab and managed to force an opening. Carefully ensuring he didn¡¯t hear anyone nearby, Darius opened the slab further and went inside.


    The air was dry and a bit cold. The mausoleum was cramped with several tens of broken-in coffins, and it looked like the mortal graves were already robbed hundred years ago. Only white bones greeted the passer while going forward inside. It seemed that the mausoleum was not finished in time. The back wall was just partially collapsed earth without any bricks. Also, the floor seemed to be half full of sand and rocks on top of the flagstones. Only the lack of water had kept the place from outgrowing. After several rows of stone shelves and broken coffins and bones, bricks just ended, and stones and dirt started. At the very end stood a grey stone statue without a head, and the head had rolled on the far right corner of the cave-like end of the mausoleum. Darius removed one coffin and put his bulky bag on the stone shelve. He had a lot of work to do.


    First, Darius cleaned the floor and patched all the holes with some slabs taken from the coffin shelves. He dug a sizeable hole in the middle of the ending part of the mausoleum and fitted some stone slabs on top of it. Then he meditated for a while to get a feel of the place. The difference was noticeable. Darius could not measure it by any means, but the effects of the meditation started to loosen the halted progress that had ended in the home cave. It seemed that the right place and right setting could work wonders. But Darius was not done quite yet.


    He started dragging the loose and broken coffins one by one and downed the remains of the corpses into the hole in the ground. He followed basic guidelines expressed in a black magic book on the formation. The centre of the formation had to be agitated dead human remains. Darius did not have much in terms of options. Still, he figured that maybe generally unhappy proud noble family remains could generate even more negative particles if he just dumped them into the same hole from the privacy that the corpses had enjoyed for decades or centuries. After placing most of the bones, he had to stomp them a bit to make room for more. In the darkness, he saw his boots crushing dry human bones while wondering if the formation would work. After finishing all 17 coffins'' skeleton remains, Darius didn¡¯t sadly find anything valuable. But he did not let this bother him. He lifted stone slabs on top of the crushed and mangled bones and formed a stone square on the floor. After breaking a few more stone shelves, the surface was big enough. He carefully brushed all the dust and dirt away and ensured every crack was fixed with sand and the whole surface was as stable as possible. Then he opened the bag and ate one sandwich while drawing chalk symbols on the slabs while following the basic negative particle formation model. He had to make precise adjustments with chalk to add lines that would otherwise be uneven. After covering all the sand parts and cracks, he focused on the central line and activated it by releasing himself on the remains underneath the formation. Albeit very questionable formation, it seemed the do the trick. *Agitation of mangled remains, eh*


    The chalk first glowed on the floor marking each symbol separately, and when each corner symbol glowed, the sudden fire started to burn in the central line of the formation. Darius cut his palm open and leaked blood while retaining contact with the cornerstone connected to the formation. While his blood was running into the formation, each part of the symbols, one by one, caught on fire. Darius felt something exiting his body. He was losing the particles at a rapid rate. Darius opened the first green bottle and drank the entire content. Next, he opened the red bottle and downed its content to renew healing while keeping his wound open. The blood was the makeshift catalyst because he could not do formal magic yet. His only option was to use blood with the formation and keep his particle balance by drinking continuously negative particle potions or shadow-suffering potions, as Elvira had told him. The usual cold sweat and pain started, and Darius felt more pain with each potion. After six potions, the flames turned into a green glow and disappeared completely.

 Chapter 23

    Darius heaved air nervously inside and started stretching. He had been doing hours of manual work to finish the formation to gather negative particles for meditation. He hesitated. The formation seemed to work, but he had certain limitations on meditation. Albeit he had a very nice concentration of particles, his problem was the insufficient meditation technique. Basic technique learned from the basic book was not really the highest art. The only good thing about this was that the symbol triangles amount was important. As he had discussed with Elvira, he had done spectacularly, beginning with thirteen opened symbol triangles with meditation. The amount needed was something to do with the general aptitude and mind strength. Seven was an average number, ten good, but thirteen was up to the bar with elites. But here was the problem. Symbols had to be gained for each rank three-fold at least to support enough particle infusion to the acolyte body. In the beginning, an acolyte was supposed to be a terrible conductor and capacitor of particles. The more symbol folds meditation entailed more was the number of particles that the body could use in tandem with the proficiency of the body with said particles.


    There was just one problem. The meditation was just too basic. With a higher meditation manual, the efficiency was far greater. The problem was that every rank up as a mage was built on the foundations made in acolyte phases. If Darius would only use the most basic meditation at some point, even his proficiency in negative particles would not suffice. He would become mediocre at best. At worst, he would get stuck with the meditation and never receive a chance to find a better one despite his proficiencies and aptitudes. The highest manuals were greedily guarded secrets of mage family lines and royalties. One could build the whole strength of the mage family on superior meditation techniques alone.


    Darius looked bitterly at the formation. He didn¡¯t have the luxury of choice. Darius just had to continue and hope to grow as powerful as the need to be. He sat down next to the formation and regained his motivation after feeling the effects of the formation. It was not just a warm, comfortable feeling like in the gave or healing feeling. This was at least tens of times better! Darius chuckled, *wonder how the better formations will be*.


    Despite of high density of particles, Darius could not see or otherwise feel them. These senses would come far later depending on the aptitude of the acolyte. But the roaring feeling of power was already a decent indicator. This time Darius had prepared well. He had potions, formation and a quiet place where nobody would disturb his meditation. Or so he believed. Darius glanced at the makeshift stone slab door with a tiny crack opening to let air flow. As morning first sunlight beamed on the entrance floor, Darius was already meditating.


    With the help of formation, the making of symbols was easier, but the feeling of weight and pain got worse. After every symbol triangle, Darius sipped more medium-grade body invigoration potion. Darius lost the focus of time completely. The real struggle began after the twentieth fold. He had already used over half of medium-quality potions at this point. He would have to continue forward. The familiar symbols danced in his mind while he felt like every symbol was sucking up tiny pits of his blood and soul. While sweating, he downed a bit of water and continued.


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    After thirty-five folds, Darius felt that the folds would never end. He had no intermediate potions left. *This will start cost right about now* he thought and started using high-grade potions huddled at the very back of the bag. Every sip of these potions costs tens or even hundreds of gold. But he could always make more if he could get more ingredients from slaves. The bag next to him was emptied in the worrying phase. After forty-six folds, the potions were already ending, and Darius noticed blood running from his crying eyes. The immense pressure was not helped by the formation anymore, although he still could fold symbols increasingly slower rate. His mind went numb with the pain and lack of rest. His body could still hold it, but he was mentally exhausted. But he could not end the effort midway. The symbols might deteriorate in his mind while being unfinished, and he would have to start the whole suffering again. Darius was not done yet, not by half.


    The tremors and shaking began after fifty folds. Darius had to rip his shirt sleeve to cover his teeth from rattling. The salty-tasting sweaty fabric didn¡¯t help much, but at least it kept Darius from biting his tongue.


    After a while, Darius has lost himself in the task. The severe pain all over his body ached like a hammer hitting an anvil. His clothing was soaking wet and dirty, and the smell was far worse than sewer water. Tremors were worse, and now it even continued to his heart. Potions had also ended a few folds ago. Darius bit the fabric and continued, eyes open, but without seeing anything other than the symbols in his mind, slowly writing them into existence.


    Suddenly Darius jolted and woke up. The morning bird had woken him. Darius cursed and hesitantly began to meditate, only to find out that the folds had already been connected like a spiderweb, thus ending the second rank of cultivation.


    Darius laughed. ¡°Bloody hell, 57 folds total, I might have died.¡±


    He grunted and started eating dry meat and sipping the final slash of water left in the final bottle. Then he rested a bit more before meditating, this time only to heal his body.


    After the day ended and moonlight danced into the view from the entrance, Darius heaved himself up. He left an empty bag behind the stone shelf and started walking towards the sewers. After a long journey, he resurfaced nearby his new building. He was greeted joyously by his knight Trewan.


    ¡°Hello master, I lost to Jurid again, so here I am guarding at the front.¡± Smirked Trewan. Then he hesitantly looked closer to Darius and lost his composure. ¡°The holy mother of god, what has happened to you? You look like a skeleton now. Sit here!¡± Trewan hurriedly looked around and yelled guards of the house to help Darius in.


    Darius woke once again without remembering where he was. The brightness was too much, and he feared someone might have opened the damn stone slab door. He went up fast and tried to get his dagger, only to realize he was standing on his bed. Elvira entered the room immediately, ¡°Master, are you awake? How are you, don¡¯t move so much. You have to rest.¡± With scaled arms, Elvira forced Darius to go back to rest. While she was getting food, Darius looked at his hands. They were skeletal and white like a moon. Still, he felt somehow stronger, albeit tired.


    After receiving milk with onions and pieced bread with honey, Elvira started telling Darius the situation of each store and troops. ¡°While you were gone, we had to solve the issue of new slaves. Currently, Jurid has been in charge of guards and soldier slaves and mission groups while I have dealt with your stores and businesses with lord Lumbert.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Elvira; remember to give everyone money for the effort. How long was I out?¡±


    ¡°It has been over three weeks, Darius¡±, said Elvira hesitantly and ever so slightly terrifyingly.

 Chapter 24

    After a while, Darius woke again while hearing knocking on the door. The moon was already rising in the sky.


    ¡°Come in!¡±


    Elvira came in with meat stew and cheese and lighter apple cider. While downing the bowl''s content, Darius asked Elvira what she had been up to. She looked hesitant and nervous but also exhausted. Her usually clean clothing was full of dust.


    ¡°Darius, I mean master. Ah, there was no information on the folds. Just one line at the back of one book mentioned that, hypothetically, there were no limits with folds. The limitations only vary depending on the personal abilities.¡± Concluded Elvira shakingly.


    ¡°I see. So, what now? Do I need a thousand folds next time?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, and I fear I have never heard about this.¡± Answered Elvira meekly and quietly.


    Darius gave a long pass and thought on possibilities and hardships. The unknown made him restless despite of tiredness. What would become of him? Only one certainty he could rely on. He would need more information.


    ¡°Elvira, you said that the point when acolytes can do spells vary. What would I need to be able to form the first spell?¡±


    ¡°Well, master, you have a high concentration of particles, so it might even succeed now. Also, your sea of consciousness must be enough for the spell model to maintain the spell permanently; otherwise, you would have to reread the spell after each use for hours or even days. But I don¡¯t think that will be a problem because your folding amount in meditation determines the quality and broadness of your sea of consciousness.¡±


    ¡°yes, what about the particles?¡±


    ¡° I don¡¯t know, however, what the limitations are. My own particles were too separated. I have one-third of each basic element and earth element for less than 10 per cent. To be able to cast even the simplest spells, the rank two acolytes will need at least over 50 per cent concentration of particles within the body. I might not be able to cast magic even at rank three but maybe at four. But that is miles away from rank two that I currently have.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I hope we can fix your body a bit though these alchemical mixtures really messed things up.¡±


    Suddenly Elvira raised from the chair and exclaimed excitedly, ¡°I¡¯m happy that master tries to help me, it might still take years, but I do my best in all my tasks if I can ever cast magic.¡±


    ¡°Sure, although I have my selfish reasons for helping all the slaves to develop more. So that they don¡¯t die, and I don¡¯t have to buy new ones to replace them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, master.¡±


    ¡°But I am still glad; smiling faces are better than crying ones.¡±


    ¡°We are thankful we could have a far worse master; some slave owners even kill slaves for fun or torture them.¡±


    ¡°Ah, what a lovely idea¡±, answered Darius while Elvira¡¯s face changed completely.


    ¡°Eh, sorry, I was just joking, my dark humour.¡±


    ¡°I know, master, but some slaves might remember these things wrongly for years and decades and act on them. Despite the curse of obedience and training, very rarely, some slaves might be able to circumvent these limits. It is scarce and needs very costly resources, but some people could try to affect your troops from outside. In nobility, this happens all the time, and how they treat their slaves is so bad that it is a very easy ploy for their political opponents to abuse their slaves for schemes and spying.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we have also talked with Mr. Trader on this part. It seems possible, but the cost is around hundreds of thousands of gold coins, at least in some cases even millions. But yes, better not to anger nobility too much.¡±


    Darius stood and sat on the stool so Elvira could clean him and replace the already dirty linens on the bed. He understood that receiving better treatment than average, slaves would be more dedicated and less prone to accept bribes.


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    ¡°Elvira?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, this dark stuff on your body is like tar. It doesn¡¯t come off very easily.¡± Elvira snapped back to focus. ¡°Oh, what did you want to ask?¡±


    ¡°Make sure that all the slaves know that if someone is trying to bribe them, they have to come to tell me or you about it, and we will pay the bribe three times higher when we can make sure that the attempt happen.¡±


    ¡°Yes, master, I will tell them.¡±


    ¡°Good, we can never be sure with nobility or mages.¡±


    ¡°Yes, master, now that we are making only the gold trade, mages are not interested at all, but when we earn more magic stones, a lot of higher acolytes will be interested. We have to be careful in that case, master.¡±


    Darius sighed tiredly on the stool and watched dirty soap water on the floor. The dark circles waved whenever water ran from the scrubbing linen. He would need many more magic stones to continue improving as a mage or support mage slaves. It would also mean much higher profits, but the cost was a hundred or even a thousand times higher than he possessed now.


    After returning to bed, Darius asked Elvira to give them one book with a black cover. After Elvira left, Darius started leafing the pages of the book. Based on the folding amount of his meditation, he assumed that he could use negative particle spells, but to be on the safe side, it would have to be a rank two acolyte spell model. The gigantic book of 800 pages only had around 20 spells in it. After reading the requirements and using pages of each spell, Darius started thinking. There was the possibility of learning either defensive, damaging, body enchanting spells or even variance of different damage spells in order of the particle amount spent on each spell. The spell power differed by the number of particles. In addition, if Darius could see, feel, and lead the particles, he could make more powerful spells. But this would need a more significant amount of concentration of particles in his body to be able to use them readily. Albeit his sea of consciousness seemed to be big enough in comparison to normal acolytes at this rank, he would still need proper apprehension of particles and large enough willpower to be able to speed the particle process in spells. None of these things were sure. And because of this fact, Darius didn¡¯t pick up damage spells or any other spell that would need fast casting, which would only be used in close combat. Still, he had different choices of defensive and body-enchanting spells. The body enchanting was better than only a defensive spell because if the hit could not connect in the first place because of a faster body, then defensive measures would not be needed in the first place. Also, his fighting style was not open confrontation, and he usually used the environment in his favour. This meant he would benefit more from body enchantment than defensive spells.


    *Then again* Darius was amused and turned pages. He stopped on one page. *Then again, why fight if you can avoid it entirely* He read the description of the spell murky familiar. What Darius could gather from the spell, he could cast it, but it needed considerable space for the intricate spell model. The spell model was almost double long in the pages in comparison to combat spells. The familiar could complete simple tasks, and the user of the spell could use it to see and hear things, albeit the workable distance would vary depending on the caster''s conditions. Presumably, this additional connection to the familiar would drain even more negative particles so the familiar¡¯s view could not be used all the time.


    *Even if the familiar is not very powerful, even with these additional senses, I can use it to avoid combat and hear things that I should not hear.* Thought Darius. He smiled and started reading the spell formation details.


    After a while, tired, Darius lulled to sleep. Not even a book dropping on the floor could wake him. The door opened momentarily, and Elvira lifted the book back on the night table. She had a worrying expression, but only because things were going well. She had not gotten used to it, and it bothered her to no end. The slaves she had talked about were ecstatic that their master would pay them better than anyone else. It was not even common to receive money as a slave, not to talk about access to potions, magic books or other materials. Typically being a slave meant that slaves had to overwork every day and would not receive anything else but just food enough to survive or worse. Here slaves were treated better; people treated them better on the streets and in stores because they had proper clothing and gear. Only the nobility treated their best-educated slaves like this, so nobody complained. When Elvira had talked to Jurid and Trewan, they had both said that their men were mesmerised by the quality of the items and gold they would get whenever they completed master''s requests. Albeit they had to pay for their gear and food mostly themselves, they could have freedom of choice and spend money as they seemed fit. Despite the master being alone and very young, some of the slaves were becoming almost fanatics to make sure nothing would happen to Darius. Although it was a bit difficult to ensure his safety because Darius kept disappearing all the time, sometimes for weeks. One simple mistake could ruin their better-than-expected lives.


    Still, Elvira was scared. She hoped Jurid and Trewan didn¡¯t boast so openly about their benefits to slaves. If news would spread too much, even the nobility could complain about the too-good treatment of the slaves. Elvira sighed. ¡°One more thing to remember.¡± She collected the laundry and gave it to a household slave. She could hear slaves laughing downstairs like usual at this hour. *Maybe I am overthinking again* she thought and decided to go to sleep.

 Chapter 25

    A week passed fast for Darius despite being mostly in the bedroom and memorizing a spell model. The problem was not the model itself but its mathematical modifications. Every spell had to be fitted for personal use, resulting in Darius losing many of his saved magic stones to get enough meters and particle scales to get everything functioning properly. The memorization was the easiest part. Some of the calculations frustrated him to no end. Many variables could not be known or measured. In some cases, he had to estimate. Its applications complicated the spell, but the particle basis was fairly straightforward. When Darius finished the model, he felt like imaginary wheels burdened him. First, he got agitated and thought his sea of conspicuousness was almost full, but it wasn¡¯t. Darius was not happy about it, but he could not do much. To be on the safe side, he could not memorize more spell models. Nervously he imagined the spell model part and cast the familiar into existence. Something very vague came into being in the room. It was like a moving fist-size shape that constantly changed its form. Darius marvelled at how light went past it, barely blurring the view on the other side. He had imagined it would be like the shadow or darkness of a shadow tendril golem. Then he chuckled


    ¡°With that size, the spell would have killed me¡±.


    Darius focused and commanded familiar to go to a different room. Before he could do anything, the familiar flew through to door and went downstairs. This action was taxing to Darius. He could only think how harder it would be for the familiar to penetrate the stone wall. Then he focused again, and he could at the same time see his bedroom and large fireplace opening downstairs. At first, they felt very dizzy, and his head felt hot, but he got used to it. It seemed that he could keep it up for a while, maybe 10 minutes. Next, the familiar was commanded to go outside. But the familiar burst out of existence after the door and several steps outside. It seemed that the current limit was around 20 steps at most. Not the worst but not excellent either. Darius summoned the familiar again, and it appeared next to him. It seems that he could not summon it to another room. While going through the model and spell modifications, Elvira walked inside carrying lunch. After placing the food on the writing desk, she turned around and went white with shock.


    ¡°Master, what is that thing next to you¡± She pointed her finger next to Darius.


    ¡°Ah, it''s just my familiar. I¡¯m testing the spell model.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well, it''s good that it''s yours, but do you know how dangerous it is to test spells like this? How long have you been studying it?¡±


    ¡°Oh, about a week?¡± Darius glanced back at Elvira with a buzzed expression.


    First, Elvira could not speak, and she stepped two steps behind until her back hit the corner of the bookshelf, and she snapped back into focus. She just stopped and stared at Darius like she had seen a ghost.


    ¡°How long it normally takes?¡± Darius asked.


    ¡°Ehh, more than a week, that¡¯s for sure. Usually spell model is rechecked for at least one or more months not to make mistakes and get killed. You got lucky that you are alive now.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡±, Darius was taken aback. ¡°Well, I checked all the measurements and calculations were correct, and the model was fairly simple to memorize.¡±


    ¡°Yes, master, but even one symbol mistake or larger measurement error can ruin the spell model and kill its caster.¡± Elvira answered in a complete monotone, staring at him with bewildered eyes.


    Darius awkwardly scratched his head and looked at the floor while thinking. The world of magic seemed more complicated than he had assumed.


    ¡°I am sorry, master. It¡¯s just that I don¡¯t want that you to die for malfunctioning spell model, not to talk about your missions alone.¡±


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    Darius was still middle of thinking and gave only a slow nod. Elvira looked at him scaringly and hesitantly, but she knew Darius would consider her words.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try to remember that. I don¡¯t have to do most of the missions or do them alone anymore. How were the things when I was gone?¡±


    Elvira nodded and lifted her head. ¡°It seems that we are lacking food and some basic equipment sometimes. Slaves bought everything they needed, but we could make more dry food for missions. Most of the missions have been profitable with herbs, even more so after potion sales to Lord Lumbert.¡±


    Darius kept nodding on several issues and continued, ¡°We have sizeable storages of basic and even intermediate herbs and minerals; only weaponry metals would need more missions, or we would have to acquire a mine, but considering how much we need everything, it''s better to concentrate on our alchemy business and taverns rather than try to expand to too many businesses. It is just easier, requiring fewer people and time.¡±


    Elvira nodded and added, ¡°Yes, and we would need to double the number of slaves; we now lack food sometimes, and we have to buy them costly.¡±


    Darius thought awhile and answered, ¡°Okay, we now have 93 slaves. We will need to raise this amount considerably and find better-quality slaves. We also have to compensate the number of support people. It seems that to keep up 30 knights, we need around a bit more than the same amount to keep things working. Support people are easier to buy, and cheaper weaving and cooking don¡¯t cost much, but we would need more acolytes we could have for alchemy, which would raise our profits. It is just so damn expensive.¡±


    Elvira chuckled. ¡°It would be a hundred times more expensive if they were not slaves.¡±


    Darius smiled, but dark thoughts never subsided. What he wanted was more magical instruments, spell model books and a library of books on magic. Despite all his efforts, earning, and risk-taking, he could only buy basic gear and books. Every intermediate book and instrument would cost several hundred or more magic stones, which would be as difficult as reaching the moon at this rate. Even if he could double or even triple the income from potions, it would not make even a dent in these expenses.


    ¡°Being a mage is very costly. We have to figure out better ways and make higher-grade potions. Elvira, from now on, only dedicated attention to high-grade potions. Leave all the rest to your underlings.¡±


    ¡°Yes, master.¡±


    ¡°That being said, bring me all the magic stones we have.¡±


    Darius watched the busy street outside while Elvira left and the sturdy wood door closed. Then he closed the curtains and locked the door while leaving the key in the keyhole. He lifted the rug a bit and pushed one wood blank away. After digging a bit of sawdust, he found the safe box and opened it. He took a handful of banknotes and a small sack of magic stones with him and tidied everything back to its place. After opening the curtains again and unlocking the door, Darius returned to watch outside.


    His current home was a large six-story high whitewashed building on the main road of the merchant district. It had a sizeable underground cellar and two-story high stone walls supporting the whole building. The district mainly had stores and taverns with auction houses. Usually, the same building was dedicated to multiple stores and functions, and most of the wealthier merchants without nobility rank or with low nobility rank were living upstairs of each of these larger houses. Darius had to repair the whole building before moving into it. The sawdust in walls and floors had started leaking, and all the surfaces were old. Even now, there was much to be done, but noises on the busy streets were much quieter now that the house had multiple window frames and renewed sawdust inside the walls and floors. In essence, he lived already like a minor noble, but he had not been thinking about the rank yet. He had been trying to be unnoticeable while starting his businesses and gathering more slaves. But he could not continue like this for long without nobility rank. Even paid, one would raise his status enough to deter nobles from harassing his trades and slaves.


    Elvira knocked on the door and woke Darius from his thoughts. ¡°Here, we have acquired 32 magic stones during your time away. Most of these came from high-grade potions, but we also managed to sell several ores for additional profit. Rest is still gold.¡±


    ¡°Good, keep buying magic stones with all the cumulating money.¡±


    Elvira bowed and left while Darius counted magic stones. He had 46 magic stones, a small fortune, but not much to go by. He had to make the best of it. After dressing the dark cloak again and putting half moon token on his neck, Darius went downstairs after entering the enormous hall with a fireplace and tables and chairs here and there. Darius found a large man sharpening knives and sitting by the fire.


    ¡°Jurid, we are leaving; gather the men.¡± Jurid nodded, and in a moment, they walked outside on the bustling street of the merchant district.

 Chapter 26

    The evening was creeping, and the merchant district was showered with crystal lights. No ordinary roads or streets would be lighted like this. But it was still a far cry from the opulent variances. Even street stones were lighted with enchanted crystals in some parts of the nobility area. A carrier lulled through the half-empty evening streets. Occasionally people stared at it and the horsemen surrounding it. Darius stared outside while thinking. There were a lot of questions to be solved with Mr Trader, and his future would depend more heavily on the outcomes of each choice. The cartwheels rattled on flagstones, and horses heaved forwards towards the light of the market square. Albeit many traders were leaving already, some were only coming to trade. During the night, sale slots were free, but security was lacking. Or that was the official truth of the market. Lately, there have been changes. The never-ending thug war had subsided, and men with moon crests on them had appeared to guard the whole market. Mr Trader had expanded his security services, it seems. Darius could see the profits compiling. Still, he just smiled. Despite being profitable, security was very arduous and keen on surprising expenses. Even Darius had to do many storing and contracts to keep his slaves equipped and fed.


    At the corner of the market square, the carriage stopped, and Jurid hopped first outside while Darius jumped after him. They saw Mr. Trader¡¯s men nodding, and Darius left inside the larger whitewashed building. Its walls were full of wines and leafs overgrowing the wall almost completely, even dimming the windows high up.


    Mr. Trader came to the door and welcomed Darius in. While they exchanged new numbers and details, Darius could see the new face of the building. The renovation had done wonders, and even wool mats and statues had been put to their place in the hallway. Trader laughed, ¡°Yes, we are now in the proper security business, not just hiding and doing shady tasks. It''s all thanks to you. It''s safer and more profitable since I don¡¯t have to pay people silent for it.¡±


    Darius nodded and smiled. ¡°You are doing good here; look at these crystals and all; I''m still on the candles myself.¡±


    ¡°Well, your business is growing every day. The amount of money we are handling is increasing every month. The bank also relaxed some regulations while facing this much money.¡±


    ¡°They were okay with opening and closing account after every use?¡±


    ¡°Haha, yes, that was not even a problem for them. They only asked if the transaction fee was all right with us.¡±


    Darius smiled. Money could buy all manner of neat services. After climbing two sets of stairs, Mr. Trader opened a few locks, and they went inside. The large round window gave some evening lights on the worktable full of papers and books. Mr. Trader tapped on a few crystals, and the warm light lighted the room.


    ¡°So, how can I help this time, Darius?¡±


    Darius sighed and answered, ¡°Despite my potion and material businesses, it is still gold trading that we are talking about. I still lack proper access to the nobility trade to gain enough magic stones.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I see you are coming to the economic bottleneck, so to speak.¡± Nodded Mr. Trader while downing cider into two glasses.


    ¡°Well, currently only thing we can do is get access to the nobility auction house, ditch the middleman and start selling high-grade potions in bulks to receive all income in magic stones. But we need more slaves and preferably high enough nobility rank.¡±


    ¡°Well, both are not a problem currently. You can forget about the knights and lower baronets. What you need is the rights of a full-fledged baron. No less. The problem is that when you become noble with enough money, your rank also has certain demands for maintaining a large enough militia of several tens of men for the city lord¡¯s use if need to be. Also, during the first year, purchasing a manor from the nobility area would be advisable, organising the household at least at the surface and making an official sign for your household.¡±


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    ¡°Sounds tedious. Are there any benefits besides gaining access to the luxury trade venues?¡± Amused Darius.


    ¡°There are very few other than other nobility who might leave you be. The lower barons and knights are just mistreated and scammed all the time like the rest of us. But it would also benefit me if you hold the rank of a noble. There are quite costly items that cannot be sold very easily, and the largest profit would come from the nobility trade, which I am sure of. Also, raising the profile is not good for my business. What we have done now doesn¡¯t interest nobility whatsoever. But when you become one, you become either enemy or friend depending on your political alignment.¡±


    Darius heaved and stared at the papers while drinking offered cider. It tasted bitter like the situation. He heaved. ¡°How many buildings do I need to sell?¡±


    Trader looked few ledgers and answered, ¡°I can round it to fifteen if we take all the cumulated savings of 450 thousand rank of baron could be purchasable for two million gold Tranguils.¡±r.


    Darius lifted his gaze bewildered about the sum of money needed.¡± That¡¯s too much currently. We have to put the nobility idea on hold. How about slaves?¡±


    ¡°I made some enquiries last month. New ones arrived two weeks ago.¡±


    ¡°Any acolyte slaves?¡±


    ¡°Ah, for the alchemy, I presume, we currently have five, all rank one. Let¡¯s say 230 thousand or twenty-one magic stones.¡±


    Darius thought for a while, ¡°pay it from the savings. I need magic stones for alchemy tools and books anyway. How about militiamen, craftsmen or ordinary slaves?¡±


    ¡°You are indeed a large buyer¡±, chuckled Mr. Trader while leering happily from the other side of the desk. ¡°We have around 20 militiamen. Only three are knights, and all are first-rank knights. All the rest, 89 slaves, are uneducated. Let¡¯s see now, my offer is 5000 golds for three knights, and let''s round the 89 up to normal 200 times 89, so the total is 22 thousand 800 gold coins.¡±


    Darius felt weird how so many people cost so little compared to acolytes. ¡°I''ll take your offer. Do you happen to have more alchemy tools?¡±


    Mr.Trader looked expecting and smiled. ¡°Look at the side table; we have four enchanted table furnaces and a decent particle meter; that higher quality meter is 20 times more precise, but it costs around 220 magic stones.¡±


    Darius gulped down with widening eyes.


    ¡°It sounds expensive, but at least half of the value went into getting it. Some of the instruments change hands only in combat. Maybe some acolyte will eventually buy it.¡±


    Darius nodded. ¡°I see your item quality has risen leaps and bounds after reallocating here.¡±


    Mr. Trader didn¡¯t say anything, but he smirked back while gathering alchemy instruments. After a while, Darius had spent the savings, several new banknotes, and every magic stone.


    ¡°Have to spend money to earn money, I guess¡±, said Darius while looking at his savings, money depleting once again.


    Mr Trader laughed and smiled. ¡°It won¡¯t be too long after the turnout of profits.¡±


    After taking a while, branding each slave into the new ownership, the caravan had grown sizeably. After grouping slaves with militiamen, each group left for their destinations. It was already after midnight, so it was the best time for bulky transportation. Darius nodded to Jurid, and they climbed back into the carriage.


    ¡°Jurid, did you pay the bribes accordingly to old tenants?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir, everyone agreed to leave, and places have been empty for two weeks. Last week we transported all the equipment and food.¡±


    ¡°Good, continue the training and rise ranks of our veterans. We are almost doubling some of the groups that we currently have. Put at least ten for bread bakery and half for other rations manufacturing. The four strongest slaves can go to the smithy. Hopefully, we can arrange these new knights with militiamen for operations.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir, everything will be done.¡±


    ¡°That reminds me that now that you have to order so many men around, I will double your payment and name you as a captain of the troops.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± Said smiling Jurid while he sharpened his throwing axe.


    The carriage went quiet after. Darius stared outside through the carriage glass pane and tried to calculate food and payments, and other expenses. He had just about enough to get everything done, and potion sales kept him nicely in profits on a daily basis. But he lacked time. Even with all the new slaves, it would take months that everyone would be good at their tasks. Also, some of the slaves were pregnant.


    *Ah, well, at least I can leave these issues to someone else.* Thought Darius, smiling while wheels rattled on the flagstones.