Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Abel decided to spend his new year with Lord Marshall. Instead of attending the evening banquet at the Bakong City Palace, he decided to have Lord Bennett to represent him.
To celebrate the last day of the year, the chefs prepared a lot of exquisite dishes. Some of them were made by Bartoli herself, and she was trying out something new she invented.
There weren’t a lot of people at this particular meal. There were the four sphinx head knight commanders. While Bartoli was still a butler, Abel permitted her to make attendance as a family. For rewarding his service to help train the knights at the Harry Castle, Head Commander Bodley also received an invitation.
Lord Marshall raised his cup and announced, “I’m so glad that we are here tonight. I remember when I first adopted Abel. He was still a boy, and he was wearing a, haha, a very simple outfit he received from his father.”
Abel remembered, too. He just began his knight training when he first arrived at Harry Castle. Lord Marshall saw him as a son as soon as he came into the house, and he’s been putting all his efforts into raising him there onward.
Lord Marshall looked towards Abel, “When I see you, son, I thank heaven for giving me such a pleasant weapon. You have no idea how proud I was when I heard that you’d become king.”
As someone who’s been striving to become a high-classed nobleman his entire life, having a son as the king was probably more pleasing than having a son who’s a wizard or a blacksmith. Of course, Abel wasn’t going to argue about which one he should be more proud of.
“Cheers to you all!” Lord Marshall raised his cup higher as he finished his speech.
“Cheer!” Everyone followed.
Abel felt like he was inside a restaurant right now. He also felt like he was at home. This was his home in this world. As for the home he had back on Earth, he’s been actively trying to forget about it for a while now. His father was with him here. The bond between him and his family was like the fine wine that he was drinking. It made him feel relaxed. All the troubling things were put behind him.
Bartoli was the first in the group to sense that her master was about to be promoted. When she was thinking about talking about it, a white light suddenly appeared in the room. Wizard Morton was here. It was weird. He was invited tonight, but as someone who’s been losing contact with regular people for a long time, he did turn down the offer as he had for the last several years.
“Abel?”
Wizard Morton felt a headache when he saw Abel. He teleported here as soon as he sensed the promotion, but he would’ve never expected that it was from his disciple again.
While they worried that Abel wasn’t in a manfilled environment right now, Abel was already switching into his druid spirit. His druid spirit activated the “instantaneous movement” skill on his Horadric Cube, and in front of everyone’s eyes, he disappeared from where he was sitting.
After teleporting for a few more times, he went to the top of the magic tower. It was the best place for training. He left Wizard Morton and Bartli behind, and they were both very confused with what he did. Usually, if his mana was enough to make him promoted, it wouldn’t make sense for him to use that mana to perform a spell like the “instantaneous movement.”
Lord Marshall asked, “So what’s with Abel?”
Wizard Morton smiled, “Don’t worry, Marshall. It’s something good.”
Unlike Lord Marshall, the four sphinx head knight commanders and Head Commander Bodley were focused on something else. They noticed that Abel was using the “instantaneous movement” spell, which meant that he was an intermediate wizard. Abel was sixteen, and for someone in his sixteen to become an intermediate wizard… That was simply just too terrifying to know.
Thankfully, Abel was on their side. If he kept making progress like this, it wouldn’t be long before the duchy of Carmel, and the Harry Family would have a wizard that they could rely on for the next one thousand years.
There were reasons that the three human kingdoms could last to this day. Apart from the countless nights they had under command, there was a much more important reason. All of the ruling families had members that continued to serve the state as advanced wizards. Soon, Abel might just become that advanced wizard that could protect the duchy of Carmel for a very long time.
When Abel’s promotion qi disappeared, his wizard level was now twelve. He was on the same stage as Wizard Morton. When he was done, the castle bell rang to mark the coming of the new year.
The east side of the duchy of Carmel was the most dangerous location at the Earth-Dividing Mountain Range. There were no roads. The whole area belonged to the dwarves, and no one else dared to enter.
Of course, some adventures would try to sneak in to hunt the spiritual beasts that resided here. Sometimes, they might even come to smuggle the elves that lived in the Double Moon Forest. They had to be very careful of the dwarves when they tried to come here. Death was the only outcome if they were found.
The Raymond adventure was a small team that consisted of seven members. There were two knight commanders, one beginner wizard, and four advanced warriors. They weren’t strong in their overall strength, but with their experience at teamwork, they had pretty much no problem with hunting down regular spiritual beasts.
If they had to pick, they always preferred hunting in the Earth-Dividing Mountain Range than the Budapest Mountain Range. Things tended to be more simple. Over at the Budapest Mountain Range, there were just too many things that they had to be worried about. Humans. Other adventurers. Spiritual beasts. The orcs, even. In the Earth-Dividing Mountain Range, all they had to look out for were the dwarves, and made things a lot safe for them.
Actually, the main reason was still because of how weak they were. Any spiritual beats from the Budapest Mountain Range would’ve torn them into shreds, whereas the ones from the Earth-Dividing Mountain Range were tamer.
The Raymond Adventure Team had a good hunt today. They found one crystal core from a wind spirit deer. They decided to give it to the beginner wizard right away. After that, they all guarded the beginner wizard as he tried to absorb it through meditation. Being able to do something like this was one of the many reasons that wizards would agree to join in quests.
One of the warriors shrieked as the wizard was meditating, “What is that?!”
When the rest of them raised their heads, they saw three giant ship-shaped objects flying in their direction. They were about several hundred meters from the ground. Even the captain had no idea what they were. They couldn’t leave because one of their members was in the middle of his meditation session.
“Shield!” the captain screamed. Quickly, two knight shields and four warrior round shields were raised to cover every single member. While covering themselves, the members watched the sky as it appeared between the gaps.
A dwarf reported, “Master Bernie, we have discovered some adventurers down below. Please give us your orders!”
Bernie didn’t even bother to look, “Why are you asking me? This area belongs to us. Kill the thieves when you see them.”
The same dwarf called towards a messaging device, “This is to the operation team: take your aim.”
“This is the operation team—Roger that. The aim is clear. You can give your signal now.”
“Attack,” the dwarf commanded.
There were about ten windows on the giant boat in the sky, and each of them had a consecutive ballistas. However, they were only using the first window.
It was too late when the seven-men team realized what’s coming at them. The arrows pierced them through before they could even scream. They died without knowing what killed them. Most of them just guessed that the dwarves got themselves some new weapons. As for the beginner wizard, he wasn’t even aware of the fact that he got killed.
“Target eliminated.”
Bernie smiled as he took out a bottle of the grandmaster’s wine, “Abel’s gonna love his new toy.”
These three airships were something that was built just recently. The “skyships,” they were called. The Goff Family decided to give out the three they’ve made to Abel. Of course, Abel didn’t know about it. It was supposed to be a surprise, something to celebrate the friendship between Bernie and Abel.
The sky ships would continue to fly around the Earth-Dividing Mountain range. Once it reached the route’s end, it would go straight towards Harvest City and immediately arrive at Harry Castle.
After one day, the sky ships finally left the Earth-Dividing Mountain Range. The ground below was starting to turn golden. Bernie could see a lot of wheat grown below.
“I think I’m being stupid,” he said to himself. He did hear about how Abel decided to shut down the entire city, but he never expected it to look like this. It was Winter, but the crops were so rich and plentiful that the entire Holy Continent would go mad over them. So this was why Abel offered to provide food to the Goff Family.
Bernie turned to his subordinate, “Tell all of them to shut their mouths. Everything here is a secret. Kick out anyone who doesn’t listen.”
“Yes, Master,” the same dwarf replied and left the operation room.
As it turned out, there really wasn’t a reason for Bernie to come all the way here, but nevertheless, he still planned on giving the three sky ships out.
When the three sky ships were about ten miles away from Harry Castle, only then were they spotted.
The sphinx knights came immediately, “You! Identify yourselves, or we’ll neutralize you!”
Abel did tell the sphinx knights to attack on sight, but the sky ships simply looked too strange. Also, judging from how these trespassers just came, there was a high possibility that they weren’t hostile.
A dwarf requested for order, “Young Master, they’re pointing weapons at us. Please give us your command.”
Bernie slapped his head, “Just what are you thinking? No! Obviously, no! What do you think Abel will do if I accidentally killed one of his sphinxes?”
On a side note, Bernie only came with researchers this time. The sky ship was a new product, and without the right engineers, it would be impossible to pilot them to the Harry Castle. Of course, the researchers weren’t sure what their exact task was. They only did as they were told, which was why they were so confused when they saw the sphinx knights.
Bernie was starting to notice something. He did remember seeing a report, which stated that ten sphinxes were imprisoned at Niyan City of the Orc Empire. Shortly afterward, six advanced orc priests, tens of head commander level orc warriors, and about several tens of thousands of orcs were turned into mummies over there. Some did guess that Abel was the culprit, but there was simply no concrete proof to support that claim.
Until now, with so many sphinx knights in his sight, Bernie knew what gave the Orc Empire yet another devastating blow.
Bernie screamed to 24 as he went to the deck, “This is Bernie of the dwarven Goff Family! Is Grandmaster Abel available?”
24 knew who Bernie was. After knowing that it was a friend that’s visiting Abel, he immediately withdrew the Harry Bow in his hands. After that, he made a hand gesture that made the others do the same.
24 gave a bow after he docked the sphinxes at the deck, “Welcome, Master Bernie. Many apologies, but for the sake of security, you’ll have to explain the reason for your visit in person with his Majesty. Please leave the three, um, these vehicles here before you are granted access.”
After saying that, 24 had Bernie riding the sphinx with him. The sphinx was about the size of a war horse. Since Bernie wasn’t that heavy, to begin with, there was no problem in carrying the two of them.
For Bernie, he knew how brash he was being during this visit. It made sense that the sphinx knights were so alert when they saw him, so he complied with the necessary procedures to explain to Abel his reason for coming here.
During the daytime, Abel was mostly busy sorting out all sorts of affairs at Harry Castle. That was no to say that he didn’t know that the three sky ships just came. Air defense had always been what he excelled at. He had planned on creating airships that could hold their own fleet, but he was still in awe when he saw something from the blueprints coming into reality.
The air balloons were making the ships themselves look a bit too small. They were like tiny clouds that were floating about. Still, when one could see the ten windows that were in line, they could really tell how big the vessel was.
24 bowed obediently, “Master Bernie has arrived, your Majesty.”
Abel nodded his head, “Thank you. You can leave now.”
Bernie went closer after 24 left, “Don’t blame me for this, alright? I was trying to surprise you.”
Abel shook his head, “I’ve got nothing to say, friend. Just try to keep this a secret yourself.”
“Don’t worry,” Bernie slapped his own chest, “I’ve only brought the most members of the family. If anyone of them dares to speak about what’s going on here, you know.”
Abel changed the subject, “So how did you build the sky ships? I thought they were a bit harder to build than that.”
“Of course, it was hard. We used everything we have to make three for you. We have ten in total, and three is about the most we can give out.”
The Goff Family was always impressed with Abel’s craftsmanship. He managed to forge ten portions of raw ingredients into ten portions of forging materials. This meant that he had a 100% success rate, and he would always produce such high quality with such perfect consistency. Still, the ingredients for forging the sky ship weren’t all that easy to find. Even after countless, the dwarves only found enough to make a total of ten.
2
Needless to say, the sky ship took a ridiculous amount of money to build. It was something that only the dwarves could make. Giving three out to Abel was a very important decision. In the public’s eyes, it was a trade between a king and a very affluent family, but only the top members of the Goff Family knew the truth, which was that Master Bennett and Abel were the exact same person.
That’s right. Abel’s the one who’s been supplying the master’s wine and the grandmaster’s wine to the dwarves. Also, he was a grandmaster blacksmith, which earned him the respect that only a handful of humans could receive. Added with that, his irrigation system worked wonders for the dwarves as an entire race. The drastic climate change did bring a lot of challenges to maintaining food subsistence. Still, with the irrigation system Abel shared, the dwarves were now capable of securing a basic supply of food source.
Abel thanked Bernie for the gifts, “Thanks. Actually, can you let these three ships land? I’ve only seen the blueprints so far.”
The duchy of Carmel was under a great threat now. Now that there were three sky ships, Abel was thinking about using them to threaten any possible invaders. He had wanted to do something like this for a while now. Sometimes, when he was challenged by those far weaker than him, he would think that he’s been lying too low for too long. He was an intermediate wizard, a grandmaster blacksmith, a master alchemist, and a head knight’s commander. Still, even so, the state that he ruled continued to be challenged by neighboring states.
Take the three human empires, for example. While Abel’s true strength remained a mystery, the rumors alone were enough to make the kingdoms not dare to truly antagonize him. As of now, the only ones that were troubling him were the duchies, and they only did so because they didn’t have the resources to figure out how strong he really was.
From Abel’s perspective, he just wanted time to train. A few years later, he might just become an advanced wizard. This meant that there was a possibility that he might just leave the Holy Continent eventually. Before doing so, he needed to make sure that the duchy of Carmel had a good image. If he didn’t want the neighboring states to threaten its safety, he had to be certain that the others would fear the state without him being there.
The sky ships were a good way of creating a strong image. Training an army of knights would take a decade at most, where training one wizard could take many decades or even many centuries. However, large vessels like these could immediately enhance the duchy of Carmel’s military might.
Bernie used a small-sized contact sign to call the sky ships to land. The Harry Castle wasn’t all that big, so docking them would take up most of the spaces at the knight’s training ground outside the castle. Of course, the knights and wizards were all very curious to look at these three giant vessels, but no one went close to take a look. Secrecy was the most important rule of the duchy of Carmel. Anything that was seen or heard must be kept as a secret.
Bernie did an inviting gesture with his hand, “Board, Abel.”
Bernie’s smile was full of pride. This was a machine that could fly. It was the greatest miracle that the dwarves had created. Right now, the sky ships were floating about one meter from the ground. Abel couldn’t believe how precise the dwarves made these out to be. In terms of maneuverability, these sky ships were even better than the ones back on planet Earth.
On one side, a door was opened with ladders coming out of it. The ladder was made of metal. It was the same type of material as the sky ship’s body. Abel was trying to think from the very complicated blueprints that he saw. He remembered seeing a list of the materials that were used. The body was made with an alloy that consisted of fine steel, another type of extremely light steel, and other precious metal. The color was a not-so-pretty type of black, but it was so durable that it could withstand multiple ballista shots. The ingredients weren’t so expensive in ancient times, but they were about several times more expensive than gold now.
Once Abel went in, the ladder and door closed by themselves.
“Who’s controlling those, Bernie?” Abel asked.
“Spirits, my friend,” Bernie explained, “Every sky ship had a spirit of its own. They were just regular spirits, but it was enough to take care of everything that needs to be taken care of. I’ll give you access to the three of them later.”
Abel said with curiosity, “Very generous of you, but I didn’t put them in my blueprints.”
Bernie smiled back, “Well, technically, the design wasn’t just yours. We’ve had our version of the blueprints for many years already. After doing some, you know, nit-picking of our previous designs, we decided to add in a few more things to boot the technology.”
Abel smiled and nodded, “That’s good, actually. There won’t be someone who’s going to hijack the sky ships now.”
With a spirit installed, there would be no one to steal the sky ships from him. Like, if he hired a crew to drive these for him, the spirit would make sure that no treachery would happen.
Abel continued to ask, “I thought the vessels were for transportation. Why do you keep so many consecutive ballistas here? Actually, aren’t they a bit too good? Those are the ones you can change angles with, aren’t they? They are taking way too much space if I’m loading cargoes.”
Bernie pointed to the side, “That’s my idea. Things can get very rough lately, so I had ten consecutive ballistas installed on each side and a few more at the front and back. There are twenty-eight in total. As long as you aren’t facing a giant dragon, you can pretty much shoot down anything in your sight.”
“Thank you so much, Bernie,” Abel said gratefully.
Bernie raised his nose, pridefully, “And cargo, you say? You think the dwarves don’t have that covered?”
As he said that, he brought Abel to the back storage of the sky ship. There was a room there. Once they went in, Abel saw a room that, when he got close to, he began to feel the power of the dimension from.
Once the room was opened, he saw a space that was about five times larger than the ship’s body. There were countless runes that were drawn on the walls and floor. These were portal circles. Portal ingredients were mixed when this room was built, and that’s what made it into a giant storage room that could fill up even a pod of whales.
“Amazing,” Abel watched in awe.
Bernie chuckled for a bit, “When we began this project, the order was that we must not consider the cost at all.”
They then went back to the deck. Abel saw the eight consecutive ballistas at the front and back. He also saw the operation room at the center of the deck.