Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 175.1
Translator: Pai_
In the distant ancient times, there was an era when countless different races formed kingdoms among themselves and flaunted their power.
Among them, the most diversely branched and prosperous were the Elves.
Dark Elves, Forest Elves, Highland Elves, Snow Elves, and so on.......
The White Elves were among the relatively weaker groups, as their power was more difficult to utilize in warfare compared to necromancy that dealt with dead magical beasts or Spirit Magic that drew power from natural environments.
Later, when the Preah God Tribe arrived and swept away the various other races that had ruled the world, the White Elves, already close to being a minority, degenerated into little more than the pets of some curious gods who sought to explore the potential of Soul Manipulation Technique.
And after the gods' downfall, no one had seen their existence firsthand.
Not until now, when Turan faced them.
‘White Elves.......’
Looking at the elves before him, staring at him with flustered expressions, Turan realized why the half-elves of Ruvan had come to firmly establish their identity as White Elves, because of these individuals.
Unlike the Varaha side, who believed their kin to be completely extinct, these elves bore a sense of duty to care for their fallen brethren.
'These guys......should I take them to Lavitas?'
Back when he first met Rida, the elder of Lavitas, she had offered Turan a sacred relic of Lavitas in return for capturing a White Elf soul manipulator.
She said she would give him something that could completely stop physical aging, even if spiritual lifespan was inevitable.
If one of these was a soul manipulator and he handed them over, and if Lavitas then derived meaningful research results?
They might even be able to seize the path to immortality that they had once longed for.
“I came after hearing from Bartelessina.”
At Turan’s words, the attitudes of the White Elves noticeably softened.
Knowing that name, they concluded he was not some accidental intruder.
“So, what brings you here?”
Turan ignored the question from a White Elf woman with a slender face and scanned the interior.
The internal facility seemed to be home to about a dozen or so individuals.
From the strong signs of animals below, it seemed structured to survive without external support.
Had they continued to live here across generations?
With this number, inbreeding would have become a serious issue long ago.
Then again, elves lived much longer than ordinary humans, so perhaps to them, it wasn't such a serious matter.
He didn’t know their exact lifespan, but they were known to live longer than ordinary wizards. Even living just five hundred years would mean only five or six generations had passed since the descent of the Preah God Tribe.
“You! The princess is speaking, and you dare ignore her!”
One of the White Elves flared up at Turan’s dismissive attitude and stepped forward.
But as Turan lightly waved his hand without even looking at him, the White Elf collapsed flat on the ground as if crushed by an invisible hand.
The wheezing sound he made showed just how heavy the pressure he was feeling was.
‘Physically, they're a bit weaker than Dark Elves but stronger than humans, I suppose.’
Overpowering such ordinary races, who lacked magic power and thus had no resistance to direct magic attacks, wasn't difficult, even for someone not as strong a wizard as Turan.
More importantly, the woman referred to as "princess" seemed to be the only soul manipulator here.
At first, her aura was faint so he didn’t notice, but upon paying closer attention, he sensed a flow of power different from magic, just like Dark Elf necromancers.
“What... how dare you be so arrogant.......”
Committing that fact to memory, Turan passed by the frightened White Elves and found the Soul Stone positioned deep inside.
It resembled the one in the Varaha side, a vessel for containing souls and functioning as a base to return spirits from dead corpses.
“Let’s see.”
Through now-familiar Soul Magic, he immediately released his spirit form and entered, where he sensed the spirit form of a half-elf.
Perhaps it had not yet found a usable physical body and had been dormant.
Sensing Turan's presence, the being opened its eyes and cried out in surprise.
[No, you’re!?]
[Come out.]
With the Nagin Bloodline set, Turan's Spirit Form could now overpower most gods one-on-one, and so the spirit was helplessly dragged out and sealed into the Jewel Box.
After finishing the collection and then shattering the Soul Stone with the Light of Judgement, the White Elves who had followed behind cried out in anguish at the sight.
“Aaah......!”
“The resting place that held the souls of our ancestors!”
“Do you even know what you've done!”
To show such arrogance even after witnessing his power moments ago, were they that detached from reality?
Turan, puzzled, soon realized that they still misunderstood him as a subordinate of the half-elves from Ruvan.
He had made that vague claim just to keep them from panicking and fleeing, never expecting them to still believe it.
Well, perhaps it wasn’t too strange. These were people who had lived their entire lives in this cramped underground, after all. Such naivety was almost to be expected.
A person matures only by seeing and hearing more of the world.
“Silence. The ones who ruled over Ruvan are all now under my control. You all belong to me now, so behave.”
Declaring this, Turan glanced at the White Elf still being pressed to the ground and released the restraining force from their body.
In the underground space crowded with fourteen White Elves, only the sound of coughing and gasping could be heard.
“Ruvan.......”
“What’s that?”
“What?”
At their response, Turan involuntarily made a dumbfounded face.
To not even know the name of the group their protectors belonged to.
That might mean the half-elves of Ruvan had thoroughly isolated their descendants to protect them.
Frankly, that level of isolation felt more like imprisonment than protection.
At that moment, as if finally grasping the situation, the White Elf woman referred to as princess looked at him with eyes full of hostility and asked,
“Don’t tell me, you harmed our ancestors?”
“I fought and won. I exercised the victor’s right.”
The moment she heard that, the princess's eyes gleamed sharply.
Through his activated Spiritual Perception, Turan could tell that her spirit form was emerging from her head.
A technique that manipulated living souls meant one could also control their own.
Her spirit form resembled that of the half-elves but was even more grotesque. Her head was smooth, white, and featureless, and her body was elongated like a snake or centipede, with numerous human-like arms lined up like a centipede’s legs.
When Turan summoned his own spirit form in response, the princess exclaimed in shock.
[You! How can you use Soul Manipulation Technique......?]
[Go back while I’m still speaking nicely.]
If she were just an ordinary White Elf, Turan would’ve killed her to quell her rebelliousness, but she was a soul manipulator.
She was too valuable a resource to sacrifice, so Turan tried persuasion.
Unfortunately, she responded not with submission but by stretching her centipede-like body toward Turan’s spirit form to bind him.
Watching the attack calmly, Turan reached out and gripped the elongated body tightly.
[Aaagh!]
[Return. Or I’ll tear you in two.]
Since Soul Manipulation Technique no longer existed, the ignorant held all sorts of fantasies about it. But through the half-elves of Varaha, Turan knew well that its capabilities had clear limits.
If it had been powerful enough to harm someone like Turan, a powerful wizard, then the White Elves would have ruled the world long ago.
And having deeply trained in Soul Magic, Turan could handle even hundreds of soul manipulators like her without difficulty.
[Aaah, ancestors. Give us back our ancestors......!]
[I can't give them back, but if you want, I could let you see their faces later.]
[Re-Really?]
[Yes. So return to your body now. If not, I’ll kill one of your companions.]
Sensing that Turan’s words were not an idle threat, the soul manipulator soon retracted her spirit form back into her body.
Whether from the pressure or the brief restraint, her spirit seemed damaged, and she staggered, needing the support of another White Elf beside her.
“E-Everyone...... follow this human’s words.”
“But Princess.”
“That’s an order.”
Even with so few of them left, the authority of royalty still remained.
The White Elves bowed their heads and showed their willingness to obey.
Given Turan had considered killing a few of them, it was a fortunate result for both sides.
***
