Abel’s confidence did not settle Burbridge’s worry. All he knew was that Abel was an extremely powerful and well-known wizard.
The Duchy of Carmel only had one Head Commander, and his family was not too wealthy. Even with Head Commander Bodley’s help, their power would only be equal to other duchies at best.
Burbridge didn’t know there were 4 griffin head commanders and countless knights developing at immense speed in Harvest City.
However, he knew one thing: as long as Abel was present, no one would mess with the Duchy of Carmel.
“Your Majesty, the Duchy of Thunder, the Duchy of Koror, and the Duchy of Larka offered large amounts of wealth to purchase our crops. Since you are the one in charge of the crops inventory, the deal still had not been settled!” Burbridge reported again.
“Cut off our connection to other duchies. Tell them I went to a retreat. In the next few years, we will not interact with any other Duchies.” Abel lowered his voice.
Although he had a bit of crops stored up, it was not enough to supply other duchies. If he sold them, it would give out the image that the Duchy of Carmel had large amounts of crops. Then they would look like a fat piece of meat.
Since the other duchies were going through a crisis, it would be possible that they decided to take a risk and make a move on the Duchy of Carmel.
“Yes, Your majesty!” Burbridge bowed.
The next few days, Abel met up with many Bakong City councilors and settled some instability created during his absence.
Soon, all the duchies that offered to buy crops from the Duchy of Carmel had been rejected, and their connections were cut off. They received a message saying their king was in a long term retreat, and he did not have time to care about the Duchy business.
Afterward, Abel teleported to the far oasis in Lut Gholein of the Dark World. His power had increased dramatically. With 3 months of using the rune word ‘insight,’ he had mastered every intermediate spell as well as maxing them out to the highest level.
Although he was still a rank 11 wizard, his skill level had already reached intermediate wizards’ pinnacle. Other intermediate wizards with a higher rank could only give him a bit of pressure through their rank differences at most.
This was the power of the rune word ‘insight’ aura. A Dark World rune word weapon with a spiritual aura played a massive role.
Even some rank 15 wizards had not leveled up all their spells to the max, but Abel had already done so as a rank 11 wizard.
This was also why he had asked Wizard Morton to allow the core members of the wizard circle to use the spell training room. Its benefits were too noticeable.
Since Abel had maxed out all his spells, he was shocked to see that his most powerful spell was the fire spell ‘firewall.’ Even without the rune word ‘leaf,’ he could give out 1300 points of fire damage per second.
If he had the rune word ‘leaf,’ he could have up to 1600 points of fire damage. Finally, one of his wizard skills was more powerful than his most powerful knight skill.
He also understood why most wizards in the Holy Continent were specialized in fire. First, the power of a fire attack was unmatched in comparison to lightning attacks and ice attacks. Second, wizards did not have endless energy. A new intermediate wizard could practice 2 different types of spells.
If a spell had reached the top level, the mana it consumed with each cast was huge. Also, if you wanted to further increase the power of a spell, you would need to level up all your other spells of the same kind as well.
This was why most elite Wizards only specialized in one type of spell. The others were only for backup. Wizards skilled in 2 types of spells were extremely rare.
Therefore, wizards who specialized in lighting spells were a special bunch. Many wizards had a love and hate relationship with lightning spells. They loved its speed and numbing effect, but you might only end up with 1 point of damage if you did not have the talent for it.
This 1 point of damage wouldn’t bring any numbing effect; therefore, if lighting spells cast by a Wizard without the talent for lightning spells might end up useless.
You could imagine what would happen if you cast a useless spell in a life or death battle.
Even though Abel allowed the core member of his Wizard circle to use the rune word ‘insight,’ most of them would only practice normal spells other than Wizard Morton.
Abel kept thinking as he moved in a flash alongside the far desert oasis. There were only some cactus in this dried up place. Other types of plants were nowhere to be seen.
He no longer needed Black Wind to help him move in a flash. Instead, he was the one helping Black Wind move in a flash. Black Wind could only move in a flash 5 times at the end of the day.
But it wouldn’t hurt having more lifesavers. It could carry Abel away from danger during the most critical times.
Abel stopped outside of the maggot lair. He had investigated this place before, so he made a marking on the entrance making it easier to find.
He smelled something horrific as soon as he entered the maggot lair. It was the special smell of hell creatures. He had not made contact with any hell creatures in a long time, so he wasn’t too used to the smell anymore.
He summoned his 8 spirit guardian knights. As he moved in a flash again, he realized it was a little different from Black Wind and the scrolls.
The ones from Black Wind and the scrolls were passive even if he could locate his target.
As for his own move in a flash, he could surround all his summons and contracted beasts with his power of the will and move together.
Just like at that moment. The spirit guardian knights did not use their own flashing ability. Instead, they moved alongside Abel’s power of the will and appeared at his targeted spot.
Abel’s power of the will had not only fully recovered, but it had gotten even more powerful since he had become an intermediate wizard. It had reached 350 points.
He could move in the range of 350 meters, which allowed him to move at an immense speed in the Maggot Lair.
Soon, he ran into his first hell creature: a death beetle. It was a type of hell beetle that could automatically reflect attacks with lightning.
The spirit guardian knights flashed in front of Abel as Abel replenished the fire enchantment on them. This allowed each of them to have fire attacks as well as increasing their damage to 140 points.
The environment of the maggot lair was quite special. Its holes were extremely tight: only a bug could pass through each time. Therefore, those spirit guardian knights could only fight one death beetle at a time.
This dramatically reduced their fighting speed. Also, sand maggots would often emerge from the ground. They attacked with poison. Even with Abel’s poison resistance, he could not fully avoid it.
This was why Abel had to learn to move in a flash before venturing into the underground tunnel. There were way too many unknown dangers. There was no second chance in the Dark World. He only had one life. Even if it slowed down his progress, he would not put his life at risk.
This confirmed his suspicions. After he ignited a hole with a ‘firewall,’ all the death beetles inside were burned to death. Even the ones who tried to retreat were burned left and right.