Shepherd Wizard

Chapter 110

Translator: Pai_

Two days had passed since leaving Bigen City.

Turan flew south with Bije and returned to the Reclaimed Land, where land reclamation was actively underway.

While he had been away, the Reclaimed Land seemed to have undergone yet another transformation.

Not only had numerous unfamiliar buildings sprung up, but the number of people had also noticeably increased.

After landing at an suitable spot, Turan entered with Bije perched at his side. Upon seeing him, the settlers immediately prostrated themselves.

"O, divine one."

"You have returned..."

Watching the people who worshiped him, Turan was reminded of the citizens of Kalamaf who had praised him - or rather, his impostor, not long ago.

It had been a rather infuriating sight.

Most likely, the House Zahar nobles had hoped that Turan would be unable to resist such emotions and would charge in immediately.

What they had not anticipated was that their true target would see through their identities and schemes in an unusual way and turn the tables on them.

After first informing Yoz, who was overseeing the Reclaimed Land, of his return, Turan set off to find Solif and Meisa, who were currently engaged in reclamation efforts in the east.

The two happened to be taking a break after finishing their work.

"You’re back?"

"Yeah. The reclamation hasn't progressed as much as I expected."

"You need to be here. How much do you think we can do on our own?"

Even though it had been nearly two months since they last saw each other, Turan and Solif spoke as if they had only been apart for a few days.

Meisa, sitting beside them, watched their exchange with a pleased smile before dusting off Turan’s shoulder.

"You made it back safely."

"I promised."

Their conversation was dry, almost emotionless, yet both had gentle smiles on their faces.

A moment later, Turan sat down and recounted the events that had taken place in the Gray Zone a few days prior.

Since their last communication via the hand mirror had been just before he arrived in Kalamaf, they were unaware of what had transpired.

"Wait, so you really threatened House Zahar?"

"Yeah."

"You crazy bastard."

Solif spat out a rough curse, clutching his stomach as he burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Ah, seriously! This is exactly why I have to stick with you. How could you do something this entertaining on your own? That’s just unfair!"

Unlike Solif, Meisa’s expression was a mix of concern and reproach.

She looked at Turan as if he were a child wandering dangerously close to the water’s edge.

At this, Turan unconsciously recalled the times his mother had scolded him during his childhood and couldn’t help but laugh.

Meisa let out a deep sigh and said,

"I’m being serious."

"Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you... But still, I don’t say or do things I can’t take responsibility for."

"Do you really plan to retaliate?"

"Yeah. If I have to."

Perhaps sensing the weight of his words, even Solif, who had been laughing moments ago, stopped and wiped the tears from his eyes.

Looking at his two companions, Turan explained the reason behind his actions.

"It’s not like House Zahar is overflowing with powerful nobles. Keeping a task force stationed in Kalamaf indefinitely just to capture me wouldn’t be easy for them."

Using a high-ranking noble to recruit another of similar status, along with keeping two mid-ranking nobles idle for years, was an excessively inefficient move.

Thus, if he continued to remain elusive, they would likely resort to more 'drastic' measures, such as squeezing Kalamaf even harder.

To counter this, Turan had drawn a much clearer line for House Zahar.

If they simply focused on governing their city properly, he would come for them in as soon as ten years, or at the latest, fifty years.

By the standards of ordinary people, it was an outrageous statement, essentially implying that he would never come for them in their lifetime. However, for high-ranking nobles like them, it was actually quite a realistic condition.

"There’s no need for them to maintain such an excessive force unless their sole purpose is to capture me. Sending a mid-ranking noble to govern a city the size of Kalamaf isn't a bad deal for them either. It would be like planting an eye in the Gray Zone."

"And over time, they might even be able to recruit you, who they suspect to be a high-ranking noble?"

"Exactly. On the other hand, if they let their pride take over, they'll turn a potential recruit into an enemy and lose their city in the process. Since they govern a great noble house, they should be able to figure out which choice is more rational."

Waiting patiently while reaping the benefits and keeping the promise versus letting pride take over and engaging in a fight that would yield no real gains.

Anyone who wasn’t a fool would know which option was better.

Hearing Turan’s reasoning, Solif and Meisa nodded in understanding.

Now that they had heard the full explanation, it was clear that this wasn’t just an emotional threat but a calculated decision that took many factors into account.

"For now, let’s leave that topic here… Has anything special happened around here?"

"Nothing major. Just a few dangerous magical beasts wandering past the perimeter, and we found some strange stones here and there."

"So, just the usual things."

After chatting for a while, Turan, along with Solif and Meisa, who had recovered some of their magic power and stamina, resumed their reclamation work.

The settlers, watching a large amount of water rise into the sky for the first time in a while, lit up with excitement once again.

*

Thanks to Turan’s contribution, the land reclamation project picked up speed again and progressed smoothly.

Previously, more than half of the expected area had already been reclaimed, but now it had exceeded eighty percent. There were so many tasks that even after gathering every idle person in the area, there were still not enough workers.

At some point, even burning the forest no longer caused magical beasts to emerge. The ones capable of freely moving within their own territory had long since fled beyond the forest, avoiding the fire that had started in the south.

While expanding the vast reclaimed land, Turan also continued to refine the new technique he had learned from his past battle with the Great Sea Serpent.

It was a technique that enhanced the power of his slingshot using the Spirit of Fire.

His first goal was to use it not only with his large slingshot but also with the smaller one he normally used. His second goal was to ensure the slingshot itself wouldn’t get damaged in the process.

Unlike the miraculous success he had achieved back then, now he had to precisely control the timing of the explosion; otherwise, the projectile wouldn’t fly properly. It took considerable time to master.

"Ugh. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that sound."

Bang-! A loud explosion rang out, and Solif, who had been resting, let out a low groan as he turned his head.

In the distance, the launched projectile had crashed through dozens of trees before flying past the undeveloped area.

"How much magic power did you put into that one?"

"Less than one percent."

"You're insane."

"If he used full power, even the highest-tier magic artifacts wouldn’t stand a chance."

Hearing their amazement, Turan gave an embarrassed smile as he retrieved the projectile he had launched.

Instead of the smoothly carved, egg-shaped stones he had used before, these were round metal objects.

The front end was shaped into an elongated oval, while the opposite end had a hollow indentation, designed to hold a large amount of the Spirit of Fire.

"That seems like a hassle to retrieve every time."

"But I can’t just discard magic artifacts. Using tracking magic makes it easy enough. I can also sense them with my magic perception."

As he said, these metal projectiles were enchanted artifacts created by Meisa herself.

Their functions were simple: hardening and amplifying the impact force upon collision.

If Turan were to fully utilize the Spirit of Fire to launch his projectiles now, it would likely be powerful enough to pierce straight through the body of the Great Sea Serpent from his past battle.

Of course, since the quantity was somewhat limited, he had to be more careful with its use compared to simply throwing ordinary stones.

"Don’t worry. I’ll make more whenever you need them."

At the reassuring words of the dependable enchanter, Turan smiled.

Having a powerful enchanter in their group was proving to be incredibly useful.

Of course, the problem was that they were not in a completely safe location, meaning they always had to be prepared for battle. Because of this, they couldn't afford to spend too much time crafting high-tier magic artifacts.

While they were busy with reclamation, researching new tactics, and reinforcing their equipment, a message arrived from the Librarian.

It was news that it had successfully extracted the necessary information from the fragment of the Mimic God's soul.

"First, let me say this, I don’t know if this information is true. It’s merely what was left in the soul fragment."

"That's fine. I'll take it with a grain of salt."

"Hmm, the way you say that makes it sound irritating in its own way... But fine. Listen carefully and take note."

The Librarian provided Turan with two major pieces of knowledge.

First was how to obtain the ability of what was presumably the 'Wave Rider' bloodline.

This required two conditions.

Riding a natural wave for a distance of 10,000 kilometers while standing on something, and killing ten Leviathans to drink their blood.

"...That’s more normal than I expected."

"Right? Considering that last time, that required burning people alive and covering yourself in their ashes, I thought this time it would involve drowning people."

Turan's thoughts were similar to those of his companions.

However, what concerned him was, what exactly was a Leviathan?

"It seems to be a type of marine magical beast, but I don’t know for sure. This method isn’t exactly the most detailed."

Either way, it was something they couldn’t attempt in the Reclaimed Land at the moment.

They decided that if they ever had a reason to visit the coast in the future, they would try fulfilling the first condition together and investigate what a Leviathan actually was.

The second piece of information was a method suspected to be related to acquiring the bloodline ability of a Mimic.

"Take the corresponding type of equipment to four ‘Advancement Supervisors’ and complete their respective ‘Advancement Missions’."

Turan didn’t bother asking the Librarian what ‘Advancement Supervisors’ or ‘Advancement Missions’ were.

The expression on Librarian's face already made it clear that it didn’t know the answer.

Both terms felt somewhat similar yet different from the terminology often used by fallen gods. Unfortunately, neither Meisa nor Solif had any meaningful insight on the matter either.

Though disappointed that both pieces of information turned out to be useless for now, they were soon relieved to find that the third and final piece of information was quite valuable.

"Water of Death…?"

"Yes. It appears to be a recipe. Much like that Spirit of Fire you spoke of."

Turan didn’t miss the way Meisa’s face twisted at the mention of ‘Water of Death’.

Having lost her family in the past to an unknown poison, she would naturally be unsettled by the idea of a substance that sounded just as lethal.

However, that didn’t mean they could simply ignore the formula.

Considering how useful the Spirit of Fire had proven to be, obtaining a similar resource could significantly strengthen their power.

Meisa, realizing that Turan was watching her closely, forced a smile and relaxed her expression.

Turan gave her a slight nod in gratitude before carefully writing down the formula.

The ingredients: Saltwater, graphite, lightning, and sunlight.

The method: Shape the graphite into two rods, place them in saltwater, strike them with lightning, and then let them ‘combine’ under sunlight.

"Graphite is a type of mineral. It’s black, crumbles easily, and leaves marks readily, so it’s often used for making inscriptions."

"Oh, I know what that is. In my hometown, we called it a marking stone."

Solif didn’t miss a beat and snapped his fingers.

"Where do you even get something like that?"

"It’s a type of rock, so it just comes from the ground. Since it’s not useful for much other than marking things, I doubt anyone would bother mining it specifically."

In short, it was in a similar situation to sulfur and saltpeter, the ingredients for the Spirit of Fire.

Why did all these combination materials always end up being such uncommon substances?

Fortunately, the other ingredients, saltwater, lightning, and sunlight, were much easier to obtain, making this process far simpler than creating the Spirit of Fire.

Clicking his tongue in frustration over the difficulty of finding graphite, Turan decided to ask Yoz just in case. To his surprise, he received an immediate answer.

"I have seen such rocks near coastal cities. Back when I was young and working on reclaiming a swamp near the shore."

"Is it far from here?"

"Not too far. At an average walking pace, about ten to fifteen days... Should I assume you’re heading out again?"

"I’ll be back soon."

After confirming the exact location, Turan flew east with Bije.

The city near the South Sea was over 200 kilometers away, but with Bije’s wings, they arrived in just an hour, even with Turan on board.

‘The southern regions seem to have a lot of useful materials... Well, maybe the north does too, if we searched thoroughly.’

Not long after, the farmers near Boronum City, located east of Lavitas, were approached by a young man with a strange request.

He was offering money in exchange for gathering the black, brittle stones they sometimes used for marking boundaries.

"Huh? You’ll pay us just to gather those?"

"Can you do it?"

"It’s not a problem, we’re in a slow season anyway... But you’re serious about paying us?"

"Here’s an advance payment. If you bring me what I need, you’ll get twice this amount."

Rather than wasting his own effort searching for graphite, Turan chose to mobilize the local idle workers by distributing twenty gold coins in two payments.

It only took half a day for them to collect over a hundred kilograms of graphite scattered throughout the area.

With the materials gathered, Turan immediately focused on producing the new substance.

The first obstacle was placing two graphite rods into saltwater and striking them with lightning.

For someone with the Storm Bloodline, summoning lightning was as easy as breathing, but the real challenge was controlling its intensity.

If he used even slightly too much power, the saltwater, the container, and even the graphite rods themselves would instantly vaporize.

Fortunately, after several trials and errors, he managed to find the right amount of electricity to channel into the mixture.

The next issue was one of the ingredients, ‘sunlight’,

Simply exposing the mixture to sunlight wasn’t enough, leaving Turan puzzled. Eventually, he realized that what was actually needed was ‘Light of Judgment’, a secret technique of the Sun Bloodline.

Although Turan could use it himself, since Solif was nearby, he decided to enlist his help.

As Solif activated his halo, he asked in confusion,

"But why does this recipe require the Sun Bloodline?"

"Who knows... Maybe the other two bloodlines he had were Pyromaniac and Illusionist."

Considering that the only known bloodlines of the Mimic God were Wave Rider and Mimic, it wasn’t impossible.

Alternatively, it could have been designed from the start to require someone else’s help to create.

After numerous trials and errors, they finally perfected the production process.

Channeling lightning through the graphite while bathing it in the Light of Judgment, they envisioned everything merging together, just as they had done when creating the Spirit of Fire.

A brilliant flash erupted, signaling that something had changed.

And what remained in the place where the saltwater and graphite rods had been,

"...It’s water?"

"It’s water."

Anyone looking at it would see nothing but clear, transparent water.

"Did we mess something up?"

"There was definitely a reaction... Wait a second."

A faint sizzling sound emerged, and then, before they knew it, the wooden bowl holding the liquid had a hole burned straight through it.

The entire contents spilled out, seeping into the ground.

What had appeared to be ordinary, clear water was, in fact, a lethal substance capable of dissolving anything it touched.

As they watched it eat through the dirt, leaving a deep hole in the ground, Solif murmured,

"Water of Death, huh... Well, that’s an incredibly fitting name. If you poured this on someone, not even their bones would remain."

Turan and Meisa silently nodded in agreement.