325 Talking All Night Long Part 1 (1/2)

”Of course, I would not do something so dangerous! But I have never heard of anyone dying as a result of absorbing too much energy from the death flames. In fact, I've never heard of these death flames until now. But like they always say… with danger comes opportunity. As a person from Sikenqinya, surely you understand where I'm coming from?” Aini said.

”How did you manage to do it?” Saleen asked.

”Pure luck. At that time, I spent less than a hundred gold coins. Thus, I'm not too bothered about this little loss. Being the mage that I am, I started to closely study the death flames. Somewhere along the way, I found out that these death flames already had death creatures roaming about inside of them. What was crazier was that this death creature actually reached out to communicate with me!” Aini recounted his experience.

”Really?!” Saleen exclaimed in disbelief. Even though Saleen was not a necromancer, he had started reading up on them after meeting the three kings. With the help of Daniel and the Sregl Island mages, Saleen had amassed nearly as much knowledge about the craft as ordinary necromancers. However, he had not expected the spirits of the dead to take the initiative to communicate with humans – especially before the contract was even signed. What blew Saleen's mind was the fact that this death creature was actually a plant.

”I could not really believe it either, so I…” Aini trailed off at the last sentence. However, Saleen already knew what Aini was implying. Aini had the ability to set a contractual trap. Thus, both parties had signed what seemed like a fair agreement.

”It's pretty simple actually… the death flames did not contain just one death creature. During the fusion process, this random dude that wanted to become a true necromancer did not have enough mental power to see the entire procedure through. Thus, instead of becoming the master of the magic, he became controlled by it. Thus, the death creatures contained within the death flames were implicated. Since they were scared of vanishing off the face of the dimension, they had no choice but to swallow the soul of that unlucky bloke. Don't be mistaken – that did not benefit them at all. Luckily, one of the two death creatures was a floral death creature. Thus, it could actually digest the human's soul slowly, preventing the two of them from being wiped out under the laws of this dimension,” Aini explained.

”What about the other one?” Saleen asked curiously. Aini had signed a contract with two death creatures in one go, with one of them being the floral death creature. Thus, Saleen expected the other death creature to be some rare creature he had never heard of.

”It's a fleshy death creature. Very rare. Very uncommonly seen. Sounds gross, I know. But it actually looks pretty similar to the living magic beasts you see everyday,” Aini rambled.

”You're too lucky!” Saleen exclaimed. Every single achievement that he had attained, be it a promotion, harvest, and so on, was almost always gained through pure hard work and grit. In fact, he had put his life on the line most of the time trying to achieve his goals. Aini, on the other hand, had not even needed to spend over a hundred gold coins to purchase such special death flames. They even came with two rare death creatures too.

He was not jealous of Aini though. In fact, Saleen was happy for him. Anyone who knew Aini would also know that he had endured far too many hardships in his life. He could only imagine how agonizing and heart-breaking it was for a talented young mage like Aini to end up cursed and forced to witness the gradual depletion of his magic chords. However, Saleen did not think that it was all that bad. All the hardships Aini had endured as a young adult were not for nothing. If anything, they had been to prepare him for the fruits that he would reap later in his life.

”Really? I always thought you were the lucky one. You were so unskilled when we last said our goodbyes. Now… you're already a grade-5 mage. That's insane… especially given that elemental mages have a harder time honing their magic to perfection compared to necromancers… well… at least before they get promoted to the rank of a sorcerer, of course,” Aini said.

Saleen smiled in response. How could Aini think that it had been pure luck? As a mage, Saleen had never believed in luck. All he knew was that he needed to depend on hard work to achieve what he wanted in life. If he left it all to fate, he would be no different from those ignorant adventurers. He recounted the story of how people had flocked to Kosan Prefecture upon hearing that a green dragon had been sighted. Quite a fair number of those people had only been junior swordsmen.

Even though the green dragon was considered one of the weakest members of the dragon family tree, one breath of fire alone was enough to wipe out dozens of junior swordsmen. The dragon's flame was not to be confused with the dragon's breath. The former was of a much higher level than the latter. In fact, one of the reasons why this was so was because of the fact that the dragon's flame did not use up a lot of the green dragon's energy. A dragon could spit out hundreds of dragon's flames during a battle and not be tired out.

Humans were strange like that, always trying to achieve the impossible when they knew that they were far from being able to do so. They were always so profit-minded. Just one green dragon alone was enough for hoards of people, who were apparently unafraid of death, to risk their lives in an attempt to capture and kill it.

”The weaponry shop over at Deep Forest Town… is it still yours?” Saleen asked.

”Yes. Is there something you need? I was given that shop by my clan as a form of compensation,” Aini replied.

”I'd like to build a stronghold there. Don't you feel weird about the sudden disappearance of all those black mages?” Saleen said.

Aini processed Saleen's words for a bit, but chose not to reply. Aini guessed that their sudden disappearance had something to do with the Holy See. He was not about to discuss anything related to the Holy See near the three kings… unless the contractual trap came into effect, forcing the three kings to become both him and Saleen's bonded creatures.

Saleen did not directly address the Holy See then, and he was not about to talk about the Holy See now. Seeing that Aini had already understood what he was implying, Saleen continued, ”This place looks very remote. However, we can actually make our way to Sikeqinya via the Chaotic Swamp. This is the fastest way I can think of.”

”How fast?” Aini asked, his eyes suddenly lighting up with interest. If there was a direct path from Deep Forest Town to Sikeqinya, even if he had to go through the Chaotic Swamp, it would be worth it.

”Very fast. There's a secret tunnel to the north of Didypus. That tunnel will allow us to bypass the mountains and enter the Chaotic Swamp immediately. If we can gain control over that tunnel, we will only have the magic beasts left to deal with. The magic beasts over at the Chaotic Swamp, of course. However, to powerful mages like us, they won't be a threat. What do you think?” Saleen said.

”The location of that secret tunnel… does it belong to Sikeqinya?” Aini asked.

”Of course not! Would I be blabbing for nothing if that were true?” Saleen scoffed.