Chapter 724 - Got You (1/2)

At first, Roland felt the simplicity in this town.

But now, he felt that something was wrong. People often came to dig things up from that sealed land, and now and then they found something.

For example, pottery. For example, copper coins and other valuable things.

This wasn’t normal.

According to Roland’s mental probing, the sealed land did indeed have these things. However, the sealed land seemed to have been excavated starting decades ago, and it was reasonable to say that the contents within had been fully uncovered. Even the biggest tomb, if it had been excavated for over thirty years, would be empty.

But… this place still had things left.

Moreover, some of the pits in the sealed land appeared to be relatively new!

It seemed that someone had been “maintaining” this place, throwing something down now and then.

Roland felt that this conjecture was unreasonable.

Besides, an elf ran out of here, so it seemed even more unusual.

Had the elf been locked up for so long without anyone noticing?

It was over two months.

But come to think of it, there are ways for a Mage to lock someone up and make it impossible for normal people to find them.

Roland just couldn’t figure out that if this place was where Jabezo was sealedshouldn’t the first thing Jabezo did after he got out be to run away?

What the hell is he trying to do here by throwing things in and capturing elves for longevity medicine?

Is he not afraid that Mystra will come after him?

Or is it that he has no fear?

The more Roland thought about it, the more he felt that something was amiss.

He took out the small stick in his Backpack and stuck it into the ground again.

When in trouble, use Lesser Benediction!

This was an old Mage routine.

Now he finally understood why many books said that high-level, high mental resistance divination Mages didn’t bother to play any mind games. They simply used Greater and Lesser Benediction.

If you weren’t as strong as them, then you’d never be able to beat them.

It was a good thing that there were very few divination Mages, and up till now, the Divination Magic Tower only existed in name.

There weren’t many people who practiced it, only a dozen or so pre-Master level divination Mages.

It was quite pathetic.

But still, few Mages wanted to mess with them and look for trouble.

Once the small stick was inserted into the muddy ground, Roland mobilized his mental power.

“I wish to point out the direction where Mystra’s nemesis Jabezo is.”

Half a second later, the stick suddenly snapped into several parts.

Roland groaned, then spat bloodied spittle very uncivilly to the side.

He bit his tongue.

The backfire from the negative effect of Lesser Benediction.

But it was evident that indeed, as Mystra had said, Jabezo’s strength had been greatly reduced.

Otherwise, the negative effect of Lesser Benediction would not be as simple as biting his tongue.

He was presumably slightly stronger than Roland in mental power.

After all, this was someone who could compete with Mystra for the Divine Spark back then. Even after being sealed for centuries, it was normal to still have that strength.

Just how do I find this guy?

Was he sealed in this place or not?

If not, then who was it that was using Plane Shift before?

That particular spatial spell, even Roland didn’t know how to use it.

The more Roland thought about it, the more his headache grew.

He watched over the sealed land for another night, with no luck.

The next day, he spoke to his guide, Beckrum, about visiting the big towns around the area.

As a guide, Beckrum naturally had to follow Roland and set off.

Before leaving the courtyard, Roland saw the old woman holding a cup of red fruit wine and drinking it joyfully.

What a way to spoil your woman.

Roland was somewhat impressed.

The wine was quite expensive for the average person.

Beckrum didn’t drink it himself but gave it to his old wife.

The two set off again in a carriage.

After nearly seven hours of traveling along the road in a sea of pink flowers, they finally reached a nearby town.

A much larger town than the previous, one that could almost count as a city.

Roland arrived in the middle of town and found an inn to stay in, then he asked old Beckrum to help inquire who had the best information in the city.

He went to the Guild of Mercenaries in this town.

After all, it was a large town with a population of over 100,000 people, and while there was no Guild of Rogues, no branch of the Association of Mages, and no Magic Tower, there was the Guild of Mercenaries, which was the most popular and commonplace among these organizations.

Roland went to the chairman of the guild and was able to read the quest records in the city after paying several gold coins.

Then he asked the clerk to pick out all the quests relating to the nearby towns.

This was a big job, impossible to do within a few days.

For this, Roland paid an additional ten gold coins.

When he returned to the tavern, he found two men with oily-looking faces inside.

Old Beckrum said, “Master Mage, can I go home first? It looks like you’re going to be here for a while, but I’m worried about the old lady at home.”

“All right.” Roland nodded.

When Beckrum left, Roland gave each of them a silver coin and asked them about the neighboring town.

These two men were not young, both over forty, and they answered every question.

Of course… they wouldn’t dare lie to Roland.

Ordinary people wouldn’t dare lie in front of a Mage. For in the folklore of all nations, Mages were able to screen lies.

Both of these men had information that was mostly gossip.

For example, the town’s so-and-so and the neighboring town’s woman had some kind of adulterous affair or something like that.

Or some unusual ghost stories.

But what one of the men said caught Roland’s attention.

“I used to hear when I was a kid that every year there were always a few outsiders who disappeared in the neighboring towns, and the legend was that there were vampires there. But, there hasn’t been any sign of that in the last few years.”

After listening to this, Roland looked pensive. “Oh, how many years ago exactly?”

“Seems like there’s been a similar rumor since I lost my wisdom teeth.” After that, the two people talked about some nonsensical rumors, and although he didn’t get any more important clues, Roland still gave the two people another silver coin as a reward.

After that, Roland stayed here for two days.

On the third day, the Guild of Mercenaries sent someone to invite him over.

It turned out that the quest records about the neighboring towns had been picked out.

Roland thanked the hardworking staff, then turned page after page of these newly copied records.

He found that the quests related to the neighboring town, who were looking for people. There were three or four orders every year.

The number didn’t match with the one provided by the intelligence peddler from before.

The intelligence peddler said that there were at least ten people every year.

Perhaps there were many relatives of the missing that didn’t have enough money to hire the Guild of Mercenaries.

None of these search missions were ever completed.