Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai-Chapter 100 - Nothing Better Than Loot and Magic

Despite her teasing, Tamrie told me that scribing the rest of my spells was the best use of my time for the rest of the day. She also reminded me to take some free time in the evening, before going off to check on Banya and Soap Bottle.

Taking her advice to heart, I settled down in the galleon-turned-office-turned-home and class area for Bevel.

Not that Bevel was around.

Brushing the thought away, I returned to my scribing. Even knowing it wasn't what Tamrie had in mind, once I reached the end of my ‘work day’, I used some of said free time to finish scribing the last of the spells.

She hadn't been wrong about how much I enjoyed magic.

As I finished, I felt out my Astral-form. I was well on my way towards my fourth slot. Not quite halfway, but still, if I kept it up, there was a chance I could beat Nexxa's record for getting to Pegasus soul. Assuming I didn't completely flub the final steps, anyway.

And that… that definitely wasn’t guaranteed.

With that done, I slipped into Memory Palace. First, I brought up the replica of Kallum's ring. It seemed like the logical place to start looking for more answers. And since Copy Object 2 could only hold a single 'recipe' at a time, I wanted to get each ring right before cycling out and starting on the next.

It was easy enough to decipher, following Keeper’s instructions. It still took me an hour to crack the code, so to speak. Most of that time was spent figuring out the right 'pressure' for each of the keys. Something that would become impossible to do in a reasonable timeframe with higher level spatial storage as the codes increased in complexity. Not without even more powerful spells.

When all three rings were done, I opened the map from the crystal chamber.

It flickered into place, rolling smoothly out from Mount Aeternia to display the entire territory. As I looked at the mountain that sat in the center of my domain, a thought struck me. I didn’t need to come up with my own name for the territory. I’d just use an existing landmark.

Cape Aeternia… I’d put it to the others, but I liked it. Mostly cause it kept my name off it and wasn’t named after a monster’s bodypart, but hey, had to start somewhere.

Pacing around the map, I started reading each of the notes next to the highlighted areas. Several of them showed especially high density mineral concentrations. There were over twenty indicators for Waygates, each of them labeled with the coordinate system we’d deciphered, as well as what I was pretty sure were names of flowers, such as the Orphan’s Bloom.

Three were different though.

The first was in the ocean, almost on top of the malfunctioning Waygate. It was labeled as the Golden Halls.

Whether they were the Golden Halls of Ascension would have to wait for later. As much as I wanted to investigate, first we had to prepare for the Howling season. I’d ask Xoth if we could spare a ship to at least poke around though.

Another of the unique markers was surprisingly close to Mount Aeternia. The Final Rest, as it was labeled, seemed to be located at the bottom of the lake that lay on the west end of the vale. Another location that wouldn’t be easy to get to. The name also wasn’t the most inviting.

For all I knew, it was a mass graveyard. Or something even more ominous.

The final marker was located in the wyvern peaks, not far from where Calbern and Inertia brought down the awakened wyvern. Less than ten miles.

“The Infinite Furnace,” I said, stopping as I read the label. The fact it was above ground meant it’d be much easier to get to. And the fact we’d just taken out the awakened wyvern meant it was less likely that there’d be any threats in the immediate area. Other than the regular wyverns, but we knew how to handle those.

Couldn’t say the same about the lake or the coast. Not yet at least.

Honestly, there was something about the Infinite Furnace that called to me. Not anything magical. Just… it held promise. Even if the name was overblown, which I suspected it had to be, any sort of industrial equipment was incredibly valuable.

Too bad it was so far off the existing Waygate network. The Waygate in the chamber that used to link to the area was barely a mark on the floor.

As I studied the map, I couldn’t help but notice what was missing.

I brought up a version of Nexxa’s map, and noted the lines of monster migrations and waterfall patterns. Neither of which had shown up on mine. Hers also had far more information on mineral deposits.

Still, it was enough to get started.

Much as I wanted to investigate it myself, I knew it’d be wiser to let Selvi and her new aerial scouts check out the area around the Infinite Furnace first.

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With the map investigated, and my decision made, I slipped out of Memory Palace.

Tamrie was waiting, though she was writing in three different journals when I looked over. I must’ve made some sort of noise, cause she glanced up almost immediately, setting her pencil to the side.

“You were supposed to be taking it easy,” she said, shaking her head.

“Uh… I was having fun. Nothing better than loot and magic, except magical loot, to blow off steam,” I said. “Speaking of which, could you get Xoth? Oh, and there’s a location I’d like Selvi to scout out in the next couple days.”

Tamrie huffed out a long sigh, but she did as I asked, though not without shoving dinner in my face and reminding me to eat.

Accepting her meal, I looked at the collected rings. Had to wait for Xoth anyway. If I was going to open potentially trapped rings with experimental methods, I'd rather have a healer on standby.

I glanced around the room, making sure Bevel wasn't there. Despite the fact it was almost time for her lessons, she was still out. Not too surprising. Her and her sister were probably still catching up.

It was fine. It wasn’t like I missed giving her lessons or anything. I was… I was fine.

Thankfully, Xoth showed up almost immediately. Which meant I got to crack open Kallum's ring. We did move into the enchanting workshop first, just in case.

It was entirely unnecessary.

"I must admit to some curiosity," Xoth said, leaning forward. "I was under the impression that even a tier 1 ring would be safe from an Astral-souled Worlds user."

"Maybe if they don't have the full suite of spells," I replied, as I started pulling things out of the ring. Even beyond its smaller storage space, it was inferior to both the pendant and the ring Perth’s father had given us. There was no ability to preview or sort items at all.

"Not the tidiest of Shapers, was he?" Tamrie asked as I set what seemed to be half eaten food to the side.

"The ring's kinda trash," I said, flicking an unpleasant sludge off my fingers before relaying what I'd found about its limitations.

"I suspect he made up for those with a more advanced spell," Xoth said, taking a step back while crinkling his brow. "You will likely find such in his grimoire."

"Think I saw something like that, now that you mention it," I said, deciding to just fire up my Air Shield to serve as a sort of glove.

The rest of the process went rather smooth, and I was pleased to discover that between the three mages, in addition to their grimoires and numerous refined essence materials, I now had an extra twenty thousand Waves in hard currency. There was also a Magit that had broken down while in storage that Kallum's accomplice had been carrying. It was a statuette of an elf, though one without any facial features. It had several rings that had spun around it, if I was understanding the design correctly. The runes had already broken down, though there were enough left that Xoth and I were able to discern it had once been a communication device.

He said that such temporary devices were both cheap and common, though they generally lacked range.

More important than the wealth though, Kallum had kept journals.

His latest entry was… honestly, I found it a little heartbreaking.

They refuse to release her. I have done all they ask and yet they still hold my daughter at the end of the blade, dangling the cure just out of reach. Tonight we shall make an attempt to take the mountain. The Magus has been distracted by the wolf-bonded barbarians, and their primitive clash for dominance.

Martone has commanded me to secure the Keeper for him. If I can convince it to speak to me instead, to just give me a chance… hopefully with the Magus distracted, the monster will tell me what I need. If we fail, I shall throw myself on the Magus’s mercy. From all I have learned, he is a soft man. Too soft to stand against the likes of Martone.

Still, I cannot hope that he will have a way to save her…

My dear Avalina… not even thirteen Summers old, and already, you have known far too much suffering. I hope you never learn what your foolish father has done. If I survive this attempt, I suspect I shall strike this page from my journal.

If not…

I ask only that whoever may read these pages never allows my daughter to see them.

Lucky for Kallum, I didn't plan to let anyone outside of my council read his journal. I did, however, consider asking Keeper if there were any spells that would help his daughter. Long as it wasn't too rare, I might need it anyway, and…

And despite the fact I'd never even met the girl, I did feel bad about having killed her father. I felt worse about taking a loving father from a child than I did about the killing itself. Might not've appreciated him trying to take over, but at least he'd cared about his daughter.

I… I had a soft spot for people like that.

Forcing my attention back to his journal, I flipped through it. Didn't take me long to see other references to the elf Martone. A figure in Spellford's underworld. Tamrie had sort of hinted that there was a criminal element in Spellford, but from what Kallum had written, it seemed they were much more organized than anything Tamrie knew about. To my amusement, there was even a mention of Alister. Kallum was considering hiring him to find some sort of blackmail material on Martone.

Surprising amount of useful information for such a casual skim. I scanned all the journals with Review Scroll, then handed them off to Tamrie so she could take a look later.

"This would be perfect for the new lifts," Xoth said, picking up one of the tier one essence materials I'd set to the side. It was an essence I'd seen before, but hadn't been able to identify.

"You know what that is?"

"It's a floater's lifting ring," Xoth said, holding up the bumpy oval of bone and stretched skin. "An advanced affinity that allows the manipulation of gravity, as I understand it. Granitas, I believe."

"Huh, that… I think I have more of that affinity," I said, checking my storage ring. Sure enough, the 'rare' tier-3 obsidian femur I'd found in the workshop a couple weeks ago was Granitas. As was the unfamiliar material of the runes on Mount Aeternia's peak. Why they'd used a gravity based essence material in runes that seemed to be there to protect its integrity, I didn't know. But it was another clue.

"It will be most helpful in getting a heavy duty lift running. We might not have the infrastructure for proper waterways, but this will allow us to offer the barest of services our captains are used to," Xoth said, nodding to himself.

"Right spoiled, those captains are," Tamrie said, shaking her head. "Hand winches work well enough, with naught but a good strong arm and a few pulleys."

"They may be spoiled, but if we want to conduct trade with them, it behooves us to accommodate them," Xoth said. He tapped the oval of bone. "May I take this, Magus?"

"Of course. Let me know if you need any help with the enchantments," I said, turning my attention to the grimoires.

The real magical loot still awaited me.