Fire Mage

Chapter 481: More Clues

Charles then took out a bunch of sealed letters from his space ring and was about to read them one by one but suddenly stopped.

At that moment, he noticed that the green pendant on his neck flickered in green light and soon received a message from the Will of the pocket dimension.

"Oh? Melody returned to the pocket dimension using the fixed teleportation ring?" He muttered in surprise.

He then leaned on the wooden chair and waved his hand.

A second later, the space behind him started to distort and soon formed into a one-meter tall bluish portal.

The next instant, an emerald-haired young lady walked out of the portal, arrived near the wooden table, and bowed her head.

"Good morning, Your Majesty!" Melody greeted him politely and was about to tell him about her mission but suddenly froze.

At that moment, she saw his closed left eye and got confused.

"W-What happened to your eye, My Lord!?" She asked in an anxious tone.

Meanwhile, Charles glanced at her, activated [Eyes of the Runes] skill, and checked her status.

At the same time, he noticed the anxiety on her face and answered with a smile.

"It's nothing serious. But I'll be like this for most of the time from now on."

While answering, he noticed peculiar energy filled with some nature essence power appeared in her left hand.

It looked more like a claw mark and appeared almost minute.

If not for his keen sense and [Eyes of the Runes] skill, he wouldn't have noticed it.

'Someone cast a tracking spell on her body?' He furrowed his brows before conjuring a ball of [Rebirth Flame] and tossed it towards her hand.

Although Melody got started by his action, she didn't try blocking it. Instead, she showed a stiff smile and waited for the ball of rebirth flame to hit her hand.

Meanwhile, the flame appeared near her hand and enveloped the area where the claw-like mark appeared before sealing it.

Then, Charles probed for any other anomaly in her body and breathed out a sigh of relief.

"They won't be able to track your location now." In truth, tracking her would be an impossible task for anyone from that organization. Currently, she was more than 1000 km away from the Eastern Forest and even used a different transportation method to come here.

Still, he thought it would be safer to seal that mark for a while.

Then, Charles took a deep breath, placed the letters on the table, and spoke solemnly.

"You haven't returned to the pocket dimension for the past one month. Did something happen?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Melody nodded her head and answered.

"After joining the Druid's Guild, the official members didn't allow me to roam outside. But thanks to [Trickster's Mask] skill and my identity, I managed to fool the higher-ups and even became an elite member."

"Your identity?" Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I was Lady Laura's student back then, and she was the one who taught me everything and even helped me multiple times during our escape from the Magewind city. So, when the old Druids heard about my request to join the Guild, they directly promoted me to an Elite member and even requested me to stay there permanently."

"Oh? How is this new organization? Care to tell more about them?" Charles's interest piqued as he heard those words.

'Even if they were affected by her skill, no one would allow a stranger that easily. Although Melody has some history with the founders, something feels fishy here.' He thought to himself.

In the meantime, Melody showed a solemn look on her face and spoke.

"The organization has grown to an unimaginable level, Your Majesty. More than thousands of druids are staying in the Guild's headquarters, and almost all of them are newly recruited humans. As for the organization's location, it resides in the deepest part of the Eastern Forest and difficult for anyone to locate it." She deliberated for a moment and then added.

"Also, they seemed to find a way to turn a normal human into a Druid using some unique golden leaf. They called it 'Divine Leaf,' and it enchanted a normal human's nature affinity by one level! Although they only use that leaf for the awakening process, its ability to boost one's Nature affinity exceeded common sense."

"Leaf?" Charles widened his eyes in surprise, hurriedly touched his chest area, and took out the [Nature's Leaf] before showing it to her.

"Did it look like this? I mean, did that leaf have any star-like symbol like this one?"

At that moment, a surprise flashed on Melody's face as she stared at the star-like symbol imprinted [Nature's Leaf] and soon showed a puzzled look on her face.

Meanwhile, Charles shook his head and added.

"It's called 'Nature's Leaf.' Unlike the other leaf, this one can't boost one's Nature affinity. But I didn't expect that a small group of refugees would possess such an extraordinary item."

On the other hand, Melody also showed an impressed look on her face and asked.

"What are your orders, Your Majesty? Should I steal it?" Her voice contained a trace of excitement.

"Nah, you can take that yourself when you took full control over that organization." Charles waved his hand and asked.

"What about the 'Nightmare' Box? Did you get some clue about it?"

As she heard those words, the trace of excitement on Melody's face soon disappeared without even a trace and was replaced with a hint of anxiety.

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty. As you have guessed earlier, the one who took the 'Nightmare' Box from Bryson was indeed a Druid's Guild member. His name was Wade, and he was the leader of the group who brought the 40 plus Druids out of Magewind city to this faraway land. After that, Wade, Laura, and a few other druids created this Nature's Guild and started expanding it to a large organization."

"Where is he now?" Charles raised his eyebrows and asked.

"He died, Your Majesty. From what I've heard from an elite member, the Nature's Guild and Deceivers' organizations seemed to have cooperated to steal the Nightmare box from the Holy See 210 years ago. Although that guy doesn't know the relationship between these two groups and their original goal, he said that the Druid's Guild betrayed Deceivers' organization by sacrificing Lady Laura's life for that artifact-"

"Artifact?" Charles raised his eyebrows and interrupted her all of a sudden.

"Yes, Your Majesty. They called that sealed 'Nightmare' Box a terrifying cursed artifact. From what I learned from him, anyone who stays in the Druid's Guild for more than a month started having nightmares in their dream. There are even cases where some druids went to sleep during the nighttime but never woke up. That's why every Druid must leave the organization's headquarters once in a month to neutralize the nightmare effect." Melody said in a gloomy tone.

Meanwhile, Charles nodded his head in understanding and asked further.

"What about Wade? How did he die?"

"After stealing the Nightmare Box from Bryson, Wade returned to Druid's Guild headquarters and tried to open the box with all elite Druids, Your Majesty. From what I heard from an Elite Druid, they appeared to have planned to turn the Nightmare Creature into an artifact. Unfortunately, they underestimated that thing. When Wade tried to open the box, he seemed to have entered a coma stage and started losing his lifespan. Within three minutes, he died of old age, and even his body and soul were erased from existence itself." Melody paused for a moment and then added in a grim tone.

"Not only him, but those who touched that metallic box also affected by the 'Nightmare' being and turned into ashes."