Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 222

Translator: Pai_

Though the weather had somewhat warmed with the deaths of the Yetis, the nights in Doslak City remained bitterly cold.

However, when slicing through the fur pelts soaked and frozen with blood, the innards inside were still lukewarm, indicating that these creatures had died not long ago.

Thanks to this, Turan and Meisa confirmed that they still had some time and decided not to rush, choosing instead to further explore the stronghold of the House Nagin.

Their movement to Earth had been entirely unintended, and their original purpose was to search for traces of Monarch here.

So passed several hours.

The two’s full-scale exploration was far more extensive and aggressive than that of ordinary people.

Having concluded that most of the buildings were merely residences of common wizards, they began large-scale destruction.

“How’s it over there?”

“Nothing in sight.”

“As expected, nothing here either......”

With each wave of the hand, the ground was deeply gouged out.

When the two exerted their full power, the underground of the massive residence, spanning hundreds of meters in diameter, began to be physically devastated.

Of course, they left untouched only the secret space beneath the family head's mansion created by Monarch.

If nothing else, the “passage” located there could later be used to cross over to Earth.

What they were searching for through such extremes was, naturally, the soul base of Monarch and his minions, but it seemed that there was none to be found here.

It could have been built far from the main estate, like the House Ruvan, or a secret passage sealed with magic could have been made somewhere within the base, like with the House Varaha.

Otherwise, like the House Zahar, they might have anticipated an attack and moved the original location altogether.

‘Now that I think about it, it’d be nice if I could use spatial magic more properly.’

During the old empire era, among the gods whose names were not passed down to modern times, there was one who could use magic that handled space.

The underground hideout of the House Varaha and the labyrinth passage in the desert were all legacies of that god.

Turan planned to see if he could reproduce that job again using the data he had received from Soo-ho this time.

Of course, he knew well that all previous job change experiments had ended in failure, but still, compared to other gods, this one had relatively well-preserved data, so it should be a bit more promising.

After exploring again until daybreak, they finally agreed that staying here any longer would be pointless.

On the way back, Turan and Meisa, riding on Bije’s back, slumped over from the fatigue of having wrung out their magic power after a long time.

“Ugh, I’m dying.......”

“Same here.”

Excavating the ground over several kilometers was a difficult task, even for powerful wizards like them working together.

After all, if it had been easy, why would people spend so long reclaiming land in the southern regions?

Bije, carrying the two of them, spoke in a displeased voice.

-You two had fun without me again.

“I’ll find you a place where you can have fun next time we go. Though I’m not sure if you’d be satisfied in a place without people.”

Unlike the two, Bije had never been able to show herself on Earth due to the risk of standing out too much.

Even at Soo-ho’s house, she had been told to mostly stay hidden, so all she could do was stare longingly at all the curious objects.

Understanding her frustration, Turan patted her feather-covered back to soothe her.

Later, while flying through the biting wind, Turan frowned as he looked down below.

“What is it?”

“Too many Yetis.”

Even though they had wiped out the largest group in Doslak, the distinctive scent of Yetis still lingered over the snowy fields.

Using Tracking Magic with his recovered magic power during a rest, he confirmed that there were still an overwhelming number of them.

It took exactly a day and a half to solve this mystery.

When they returned to Morgen City, the city was once again in chaos due to an unexpected situation.

“More Birdmen have appeared?”

“Yes, Family Head. For now, we’re cooperating with the existing Birdmen to establish a hunting system, but......”

One of the Aravion nobles bowed his head deeply, apologetically saying that without the Family Head's command, the tamed Birdmen were not actively participating in the hunt.

Considering they had only been gone for about four days, just as they had warned beforehand, it was truly an absurd situation.

But after hearing more, it did seem to be a problem difficult to handle at their level.

To make matters worse, Yetis were now poking around from the west, and the Dark Elves, once swept away from the south, were raising their heads again. The numbers seemed to be increasing and spreading outward.

“In that case, there’s no helping it. We’ll have to head out for the hunt.”

Rather than reproaching him, Meisa declared it in a calm tone.

At this point, they had done as much as they could, and above all, he was part of the family of the hero who had once attempted to assassinate Badal.

After sending him off, Turan finally expressed his intention to leave.

Just a moment ago, he had exchanged a short conversation with Ashiz through the hand mirror and heard that new Dwarves had appeared in Kalamaf as well.

“You’re going back?”

“I have to.”

Whether it was more Dwarves appearing in the Gray Zone or more Dark Elves showing up in the western forest, it would be difficult to handle without Turan.

Not only was his own combat power considerable, but someone was needed to make proper decisions.

Not to mention the fact that Giants had begun to appear in the south as well.

“More importantly, the appearance of other races is no longer just a one-time thing. That means it could happen three or four more times.”

“Probably.”

Just imagining it was exhausting no, horrifying.

In the end, to resolve all of this, they had to capture Monarch. And unfortunately, even after devastating his old base, they had not found a single clue about his true body, which made it all the more frustrating.

But, on second thought, it wasn’t entirely a disappointment.

After all, just the fact that they confirmed he had secured a passage to Earth early on was a tremendous achievement.

Not to mention, the knowledge they had obtained through Kim Soo-ho, the first Earthling they had grown close to there, would surely come in handy.

Of course, all of that was only possible if the human community of this world remained intact.

“I wish we had a hand mirror so we could contact each other anytime.”

“If we have time later, we can make another one.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Meisa muttered quietly and let out a sigh.

If it were something simple like a light orb, maybe. But the more powerful and high-level a magic artifact was, the harder it was to craft as intended.

At most, one could only suggest a direction like, “It would be nice if such a thing existed.”

Among the items brought from Earth, there were a few cell phones that Soo-ho had previously used before replacing them with new ones, but communication through them was impossible.

That was because, to use a cell phone, there had to be satellites up in the sky to relay signals.

And in this world, that sky was not an empty outer space but led to somewhere called the “boundary”.

At the very least, there had been no word of an Aravion wizard who flew high enough to reach outer space.

Of course, given the nature of flight magic that utilized wind, it probably became difficult to ascend beyond a certain height.

Before they finally parted ways, Turan and Meisa shared a kiss, long and yet short.

If they had wished, they could have kept the moment going for hours with deep breathing, but it lasted only about ten minutes, which could be considered relatively restrained.

***

After leaving Morgen City, Turan didn’t move by land as he had before but instead had Bije fly southeast immediately.

It was part of his plan to return to Kalamaf via the fastest route.

Looking down at the ground, he saw something he hadn’t noticed when flying from Doslak to Morgen earlier.

The vast Takein Plains, and beyond that, the terrain turning gray starting from the mountain range.

‘Back then I guessed that such clearly divided terrain was evidence of a game world being superimposed.’

In the original world, geography didn’t divide climate by region so sharply.

It would gradually shift from tropical to temperate, and from temperate to polar, subtly blending together.

However, in the distant ancient past, long before the descent of the Preah God Tribe, a mysterious environmental change swept over this world.

Specifically, the environment of the game world “Song of the Sun, Moon, and Stars” was overlaid onto this world.

It wasn't that the shapes of continents and seas or the number of islands had changed.

Even before then, boundaries of the world such as the Sky Mountain Range or the Endless Sea already existed.

What changed was that the continent was now divided into eleven large regions, and depending on the altered regions, the distribution of certain resources had shifted slightly.

While traveling, Turan repeatedly read through the printed story of the game world and sorted out several useful pieces of information.

If, within the game, the “Empire” and “Kingdom” fought over certain resources, then when a similarly shaped border area was found in this world, there was a high possibility that such materials could be discovered there too.

‘Just in time, we’re running low on sulfur and saltpeter.’

Originally, Turan used to source sulfur from the hot spring region of Lavitas and saltpeter from Palayan Island in the South Sea.

But unlike before, when he was acting alone, now as the leader of a great noble house commanding an army of hundreds of wizards, he could no longer manage resources in a haphazard way.

Sulfur could still be imported periodically from Lavitas, but a new source for saltpeter was urgently needed.

According to the documents, hardened seabird droppings could be used to produce something similar to saltpeter, so he would need to check whether it could be synthesized properly.

Thus, while riding Bije and reviewing documents or flying on his own while Bije rested, Turan continued reviewing materials for about a day.

After wiping out two troublesome Birdmen villages and defeating a Dwarf army, Turan finally passed through the region where three territories met and returned to Kalamaf.

“You’ve returned, Family Head!”

“We’ve been waiting for you!”

Unlike Meisa, who had only been away for about four days, Turan had been absent for nearly fifteen days, so the reactions from key members of the house were all the more intense.

Had he not contacted Ashiz through the hand mirror ahead of time about his return, they might have already lost their minds.

Among those welcoming him, Turan realized that some of them were the ones who had parted with him in Axum, heading east with Solif.

It seemed the army he had led had successfully arrived in Helio City and returned using the Jade Mirror.

Heading straight to the conference room first, he received a detailed report on the current situation.

Because Ashiz’s magic power wasn’t strong enough to use the hand mirror from afar, the stories Turan had heard until now had only been superficial.

“First, the number of Dwarf nations currently allied with us is six in total.”

Thanks to the wizard families of the Gray Zone, with Kalamaf at their head, actively engaging in combat, the moderate Dwarf nations had all bowed to this side and agreed to guarantee mutual safety.

Although loyalty oaths hadn’t yet been sworn due to Turan’s absence over the past two weeks, just like the “Honorable Republic” which had been the first to submit, they had sent their engineers as hostages and accepted the wizard army.

As a result, although the forces protecting the main house had slightly weakened, they were still managing to repel external threats reasonably well thanks to the enhanced firepower from the Dwarves’ weapons.

“And this is a report on the weapons and technologies currently being developed with the help of the Dwarves.”

“Let me see.”

Receiving the parchment document, Turan couldn’t help but smack his lips inwardly.

The paper that Soo-ho had printed for him was far cleaner in writing, thinner, and smoother in texture.

If they could eventually adopt such technology and easily organize information, he couldn’t even imagine how much more efficient administrative work would become.

Of course, that would take an incredibly long time.

While receiving the reports, Turan came across one stating that Solif had come in person and taken the detection device production technology, and he asked Ashiz about it.

“Solif came in person to get the technology?”

“Yes. For some reason, we couldn’t get in touch via the hand mirror at that time, so I handled it on my own judgment.”

“Hmm.”

It seemed that coincidentally, it was during the few hours Turan had crossed over to Earth that they had lost contact.

When Turan nodded, a few other nobles from the House Parsha, witnessing the scene, let out exclamations.

“As expected, Steward Berk truly enjoys the full trust of the Family Head.”

“Even those of the same bloodline probably aren’t trusted that much.”

While it was publicly known that Ashiz was a founding member of the House Parsha and its first steward, the extent to which he was trusted by Turan was only known to a few.

After all, in the eyes of the public, he was nothing more than the second son of a family of Enchanters and a personal friend of Turan who happened to land a high position through that connection.

Having once again leaned on his friend’s authority, Turan then checked the list of Parsha wizards who had returned to Kalamaf via the Jade Mirror from Helio City.

Perhaps thanks to Solif’s excellent leadership, not a single person had died since the last report from Axum, and even the injuries of the wounded weren’t particularly severe.

“Looks like the injured won’t need my healing. Still, if I handle it myself, it’ll be faster, so I’ll take care of it after the meeting. Is there anything else to report?”

When everyone responded that there wasn’t, Turan nodded and declared the end of the meeting.

Once the room had cleared out, the last one remaining, Ashiz, let out a deep sigh.

“I feel like I’m dying, but look at you, face all refreshed. Was spending time with Meisa really that great?”

“Of course. You should go fall in love too.”

“I’ve got too much work for that.”

Just as Turan burst into laughter at his grumbling, he handed over some of the documents he had brought with him to Ashiz.

Since there was no point in Ashiz knowing details about the game world right away, the material focused mainly on “how Earthlings survive in fantasy worlds”.

“What’s this?”

“Just read it.”

As expected, it didn’t take long before Ashiz, quietly reading through the material, let out a gasp.

“Where on earth did you get knowledge like this? If all of this is true, and we can actually implement it, then decorating this land with palaces of the gods wouldn’t be surprising at all... ah, that came out weird.”

“I get what you’re trying to say.”

Considering that the origins of the gods were Earthlings, and the origin of that document was also Earth, Ashiz’s train of thought wasn’t wrong.

It was quite the coincidence, truly.

Leaving Ashiz with the words to think about how best to utilize the material, Turan headed to the Jade Mirror in the underground of his residence.

The space where Armania was usually found was oddly empty, and for some reason, it made him feel a bit hollow.

‘I wonder when he’ll be back.’

He hoped it wouldn’t take too long for him to sort out his thoughts.

From what Turan knew, Armania was prone to loneliness, often going out of his way to interact with the maids who cared for him.

Perhaps it was because of the long time he had spent trapped on a pirate ship, waiting alone to be sold.

As he shook his head to clear his thoughts, just as he was about to cross through the Jade Mirror, he ended up colliding head-on with something that had been coming through from the other side.

Though Turan was taller, the other person had a sturdy build, so both of them stumbled back with a surprised grunt.

“What-?”

“What about you? What’s going on?”

It turned out to be Solif, who had just been about to cross over from the other side at the exact same moment.

After a moment of stunned silence and a scoffing laugh, they agreed to talk after Turan crossed over to the Varaha side.

While Turan had come to meet Solif and check on the Varaha territory, Solif had come solely to meet Turan.

“So, what’s the occasion?”

“I just wanted to check if my friend made it back safely.”

“You saying it like that makes it feel awkward.”

At Solif’s muttered complaint about how cringeworthy it sounded, Turan also agreed, it was a little much.

That moment passed, and then Solif’s jaw dropped at what Turan told him next.

“You went to Earth? Don’t tell me, by yourself!?”

“I went with Meisa.”

“You should’ve taken me too, damn it! A whole new world... just imagining it is thrilling!”

Hearing that, Turan was reminded once again that this guy was an adventure freak obsessed with ancient history and exploring mysterious places.

There was probably nothing that could excite him as much as the new world called Earth, so bringing him along next time might not be a bad idea.

Assuming they had the time for it.

“Next time, I won’t get in the way of you and Meisa having fun there, so just take me with you. Just imagining it is amazing.”

“You going with Berit?”

“I’d like to, but she probably won’t want to. She’s the type who’s extremely cautious about her own safety.”

At Solif’s surprisingly objective words for someone speaking about the woman he loved, Turan let out a quiet, dry chuckle.

True to his words, Berit did seem like someone who wouldn’t step forward if she thought even a bit of risk was involved in traveling to Earth.

Of course, if Solif were to be disappointed in her for it, she’d probably grit her teeth and go, but precisely because he knew how she felt, he wasn’t going to pressure her.

After exchanging some light conversation, Turan suddenly voiced a thought that had come to mind.

“Come to think of it, what was your reason for trying to cross over? You must’ve known I wasn’t in Kalamaf.”

At Turan’s question, Solif clicked his tongue as if suddenly remembering.

“I forgot. One of Parsha’s knights came to this side and said he had something to report to you. Looked like he came from far away, was pretty badly injured too.”

“My knight?”

Turan stood up, puzzled, wondering who would have come all the way from the Enril Desert.

Either way, if someone was looking for him, he had to at least meet them.

A short while later, Turan and Solif arrived at Varaha’s medical ward and found a knight with a pale face, still looking exhausted despite having already received treatment.

“Family Head.”

“So it was you, Badik.”

He was a knight from the Enril Desert, the one Turan had left behind to keep watch over Haime, a puppet of Monarch and a woman revered like a saint in the nearby region, whom they had encountered during the Zahar expedition.

*****

For more chapters, you can check out my Patreon here –>https://patreon.com/Pai_

If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊