Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Before long, the group had reached the same place where Skullius had been ‘invited’ to when he came here before. The only difference was that there were no students – Apprentice Mages – around.

Skullius had been expecting the taunt of the students once again, but thankfully, he’d get to not have several people trying to prove he was ignorant simply because he wasn’t a Mage.

Arch-Mage Ryte picked up on the hints of relief on the Hybrid Luman’s face.

“Your friends are out there helping rebuild the destroyed structures in this city. It’s good for them to have a more practical use of the Elemental Patch. In fact, doing such tasks that most Mages view as beneath them is a great way to humble those fools! They’ve grown too used to my valuable, benevolent instruction!” the man said to Skullius who was surprised that he was figured out so easily.

But friends though?

He was not friends with those fools!

Skullius smiled sheepishly at the Arch-Mage, approving of whatever he said.

‘At least it’s someone I know who I’m talking to about all this. He seems to be softer than the last time we met. I could be horribly wrong though,’ he thought. The tendrils of white hair saturated with mana over the robed man’s head made him think that he was probably wrong.

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“Isn’t it? I arranged everything splendidly. State of the art apparatus, the finest benches, exotic plants… Ah, what else would an Energy Former want?” Ryte said with a bit of pride.

Aurolio nodded before glancing at Skullius with a cheap smile.

Gillewart stepped in to disperse the casual atmosphere.

“These two say they want to help destroy those monstrosities. Efficiently,” he said.

“Oh, I see. Is that so?” Ryte asked while alternating his gaze between Skullius and Aurolio.

“It sure is. In fact, we are actually willing to do it right now, without wasting anymore time,” Aurolio said while swinging his arm.

Arch-Mage Ryte was amused.

He took a seat on a chair nearby and gave a soft hum while doing so.

“I feel that’s too rapid a progression of events. Why don’t we have a relaxing chat first?” he said with a big smile.

Skullius turned to Aurolio who rolled his eyes.

The duo sat down.

It seemed like there was no escaping offering up an explanation concerning their endeavour here. Both had known it was inevitable anyway.

“So I hear one of you managed to kill one of the beasts with a single physical blow while another was actually conversing with one of them. Their leader perhaps? Care to explain? I’m a reasonable man. Well, reasonable within the bounds of my skill, that is. Thankfully! If it were any other Arch-Mage, they’d have imprisoned you in their tower and forced the answers out of you,” Ryte said.

Suddenly, in his hand, from out of nowhere, a glass carrying a sparkling, silver wine could be seen.

The trio could have sworn there wasn’t such a thing splits of a second ago.

“It seems to me you’re doing the exact same thing to us, no? We wouldn’t be able to escape this tower even if we wanted to, right?” Aurolio pointed out with a toothy smile.

A Mage’s tower was practically their limb. This was a fact. For an Arch-Mage, especially an accomplished one, escaping their territory would be impossible without godly outside factors.

“Of course you can! Once I’m satisfied with your answers that is,” Ryte said, first turning to Skullius with a glow in his eyes. “Ah, first let me ask. How is your mana already bordering on that of a Prime Mage? It’s so controlled and refined. Has your skill in fondling mana increased that much?”

‘Fondling?’ Skullius wondered before answering the man’s question.

“I wasn’t lying when I told you I’m very interested in Energy Forming. I’ve always been talented in controlling mana so I just kept on practicing.”

None of what Skullius said was a lie despite it being a shallow response. Ryte gave him a keen inspection and nodded.

“I can believe that. It’s not unheard of. There are many out there who do not want to risk choosing Mage as their class. After all, being stuck for life with a class you have no talent is disastrous. I feel that you made a mistake in choosing anything other than this.”

Skullius strained, but inwardly he was smirking cheerfully.

“Maybe,” he said with a sullen outward appearance.

“Maybe indeed. Perhaps I didn’t give your act of resisting spatial trans-positioning that day with just your mana control enough credit. I might not be opposed to entertaining sporadic visits from you after all…”

Skullius’ eyes beamed.

Really?!

That would actually be a big help! Arch-Mage Ryte had only entertained his presence and questions that one time when he used the letter from Stylla but now, if he was really going to allow him more chances to interact…

“…of course, that depends on how this current matter ends.”

The Hybrid Luman’s mood plummeted immediately.

It was foolish to get too excited before this whole incident and all its tie-ins was cleared.

“So. How were you able to converse with this creature? From what I’ve seen and heard, they speak in a different tongue. Was it targeting you specifically?” Ryte asked.

Skullius sighed.

He wore a serious face and hesitated a little before answering.

Unfortunately for everyone here except Aurolio, they were oblivious to the throngs of bullshit swelling in his skin.

“It wasn’t after me specifically. At least that’s what I think. It established a connection with me mentally and requested that I hand over something I had. Something that’s likely related to it,” he said.

“Oh,” Arch-Mage Ryte said. “What could that be?”

“This,” Skullius said as he summoned a shield from his storage.

Gillewart and Ryte closely observed the item, and for a moment, they were stricken with surprise.

The elaborate design on the item… and the sheer presence it radiated was horrific!

It was probably at the peak of the Legendary grade or slightly above, but its presence seemed to want to mimic that of a higher tier treasure!

What was this brass shield?

Skullius continued.

“I don’t know how it sensed that I had it, but… I couldn’t surrender this thing. If by some chance me giving it back caused problems within the city or elsewhere…” he said, pausing mid-sentence for dramatic effect.

Arch-Mage Ryte closely analysed Skullius’ face.

“Hmmm. This artefact…” he said as he sent a pulse of mana that encircled it and pulled it towards him through the air. His eyes gleamed and he looked to read something on the shield that no one else saw.

In the next moment, he chuckled.

“You may have been right. This shield is actually very offensive in nature. It’s packed only with extremely destructive abilities. I can understand if you also couldn’t give it up because its power is so alluring,” Ryte said while giving the Hybrid Luman a knowing smile.

Skullius pretended to be embarrassed.

In his mind though, he was wondering how Ryte could tell what the item’s abilities were.

Did all Mages possess such a power?

An appraisal ability maybe?

Well, that actually worked well for him!

After all, this was an elaborate plan he had crafted in the two hours he had been left alone. He had used [Unbound] on a Legendary shield he possessed, upgrading it significantly by expending 5,000 Null Life Essence points!

If push came to shove, he was ready to bullshit his way out of this.

And lookie lookie, push did come to shove

So far, it was working too!

Aurolio at the side was impressed by Skullius’ acting. With his guidance field, he saw the shield’s properties and the significant degree of intimidation it gave when powered by Null Life Essence. With this, it was possible to make his story believable.

The pale man held in a chuckle.

“Where did you find this?” Gillewart asked.

Skullius sighed with a sheepish smile.

“I ventured into a Sacred Forest a while back. I found an.. old, underground stone sanctum which happened to be a place holding within it a legacy. I think the dozens of traps and terrifying mystical creatures in it proved that. I tried to retrieve the legacy within in but… it was beyond me. I was too weak to attempt it. Somewhere along the way, I found some dried corpses, one of which had this shield and I considered it enough reward instead of risking my life by going further.”

…!

Gillewart and Ryte’s interest was piqued.

“A legacy, you say?” Gillewart in particular leaned in and asked.

“Yes. I could show you if you want? Well, maybe point it to you on a map or something. I’m not going back there,” Skullius said with a shiver.

Gillewart seemed truly taken by the idea while Ryte expressed mild enthusiasm.

Skullius grinned inwardly.

It was actually true that he found an underground fortress in a Sacred Forest he had gone to. He had done a lot of adventuring in the past six weeks after all.

However, the sanctum was nothing special. It was just an old structure upon which a Sacred Forest grew it seemed.

And Gillewart seemed to have completely fallen for it.

It might have even derailed his mind from the topic.

How gullible!