Chapter 31- Master of the Mithril Fort, Tulman
In the Amber Sword, there had been a long standing rumor in the forums. A hidden sage that had a level of hundred and twenty was residing in the Needle Forest between Bruglas and Ankries. It was only after a long period into the game before a player finally discovered that legendary figure.
[Austein Tulman. Master of the Mithril Fort. Grand sage, as well as an intermediate wizard. The Silver leader of the Twelve Circles magic association. After the association disbanded, he left the air city Kanogi and retired in the Needle Forest. Users tried to garner goodwill from him and found that they could get the sub profession Sage from him, but the majority of them chose to pay a little money and get the profession from Bruglas’s library for nobles.]
Brendel did not know if there were any additional side quests or secrets from him as no users mentioned that they did. However, regardless of whether they succeeded or not, he was about to try out personally now.
[There’s no harm in trying anyway. I personally think it strange that a level 120 titled sage only offered a profession as a reward. Since I didn’t try it out in the game, I’ll do it now. If there’s a shortcut to success, I’ll definitely take it.]
He found out from Batum that Tulman did not live in the village, but a short distance away on a hill. Due to his small error, Batum took the entire morning before finding out the correct place.
[That’s a pretty big blunder that I made.]
The four of them slowly made their way to the Sage’s house. The path from Ankries to Bruglas was considerably used, so they did not see a rustic scenery like Bucce’s region had.
Every short distance or so, they found wooden fences line in a row, with fallen leaves covering the gravels. It was a place that made people relax, and Freya lost herself in the beautiful forest, while Romaine followed from behind and scampered everywhere, finding this place to be very interesting.
It was only Brendel who saw enough of this scenery to be irritated after walking for nearly an hour. He asked Batum who was in front of him: “Batum, are you certain that the person I’m looking for is living in this area?”
Batum wiped the sweat off from his face while he took off his hat. “I’m certain of that, my lord. If you’re looking for an old man with a long white beard and long grey robes, there’s only one person in this area. Please be assured of Batum’s search.”
Brendel nodded.
He mostly trusted in Batum. The mercenary had done a reasonable job in his tasks, and he had listened carefully to his orders without much issues.
Batum also found that Brendel had given him tasks within a mercenary’s capacity and did not overestimate his abilities, and the former was impressed with his leader’s eye for men.
The only thing that he did not understand was the relationship between his wizard squire and Brendel. The youth named Ciel kept appearing and disappearing out of nowhere, and he could only view it as the mysterious ways of a Highland Knight.
Freya exclaimed with surprise when they finally reached the end of the forest. There was a lone wooden house in the midst of a grassy hill, with a clear path leading to it.
It was quite a unique house, as it looked like half an overturned barrel on the ground. The door was located in the center of this ‘barrel’, while the two sides had windows decorated with pots of various silver and purple flowers. Even Brendel could not identity all of the flowers, but he noted that they might be rare magical plants.
They walked to the wooden fences surrounding the house and found a bell on the gate.
[If Tulman isn’t taking a nap or something, he has most likely discovered our presence with a magic spell. Anyone who rings this bell will most likely draw his ire. This is not used for alerting him that someone is in front of his house but alerting him that there’s an emergency or something, like a dragon invading the village, heh.]
He suddenly felt someone touching his shoulder, and he saw Freya’s troubled face when he turned around.
“Brendel, what is this place?”
She noticed that Brendel was here to meet someone, but she had no clue as to who it was.
“It’s an old man’s home.” Brendel’s gaze was back on the house’s wooden door.
“An old man?”
“Yup. He’s a wizard.”
Freya nearly knocked the sword off from her belt as she yelped in surprise. Not only her, even the veteran Batum straightened up when he heard that. They were meeting a real wizard that was unlike the flaky apprentice Ciel.
Many people in the entire continent and not just Aouine alone, viewed wizards as the most mysterious figures in bedtime stories, and listened to their rumors growing up, and even associated them with monsters and Gods.
But most of them did not know that it was a common sight to see wizards in the biggest cities, especially in the royal court or academies established by the royal families. The only rare variants were the Black Wizards or witches that were truly unique to be placed inside legendary stories.
But Brendel discovered that Romaine was looking a little tense.
“Why are you looking so anxious?”
“My aunt says we need to be polite when we greet wizards, otherwise there might be unncessary trouble.”
“Hmm?”
Before Brendel could answer, there was an elderly voice that came from within the house. The door opened with a creak.
“This isn’t something what commoners would say. Little girl, who’s your aunt?”
The old voice matched the person who spoke. An elderly man appeared before them with grey long robes and silvery hair, along with a pair of shell-rimmed spectacles. His white beard extended all the way to his waist and swayed as he approached the four.
Everyone saw the legendary Tulman for the first time, even Brendel.
“My aunt is my aunt.” Romaine did not appear shy at all.
The old man looked at the others with clouded eyes. They swept past Brendel and Batum, but they paused for a while when he looked at Freya.
Finally, they went back to Romaine and he smacked his lips. “I know who your aunt is when I look at you. Hmph, you definitely got her personality right. “
[What, this wizard knows Romaine’s aunt? But he’s a real wizard from those rumored stories!] Freya could not believe her ears.
[Tulman actually knows Romaine’s aunt as a witch.] Brendel was surprised that Tulman seemed to know Romaine’s aunt personally.
“You know Aune Jennie? “Have you seen Romaine’s aunt before?”” Both of them talked at the same time.
Tulman wanted to go back into the house, but he stopped when he heard them. He looked at Freya first without saying anything, but when he looked at Brendel, he asked.
“Young man, do you know the meaning of courtesy?”
Brendel coughed as he realized his mistake. He could only smile and act like nothing had happened.
“Wasting time is an embarrassing act, Ser Tulman. I’m only trying to save time—“
Tulman narrowed eyes widened slightly: “Do you know me?”
“Certainly,” Brendel did not mince his words: “The Master of the Mithril Fort, Silver Leader of the Twelve Circle Association. I certainly know of Ser Tulman.”
The hat in Batum’s hands dropped when he heard that. There was a famous legend where a group comprised of brigands and mercenaries that numbered nearly five hundred, along with two ogres, had their eyes on the legendary Mithril items.
They were all turned into stone by the Master of the Mithril Fort..
They were still placed on a desolate beach where seafarers could see them from time to time.
That legendary figure was now in front of him and what shocked him was Brendel’s casual attitude towards him. He could not help but feel this lord knight was insane.
But he was even more shocked to find out what happened later on.
Tulman turned around and looked at the young man again when he heard his words. He carefully observed him as if to make sure that there was no one like him in his memories, before he spoke again.
“Young man, it seems like you’re prepared when you came here. But who exactly are you, I don’t recall someone like you in my memories. Whose son are you?”
Brendel thought that was something suspicious when Tulman recognized Romaine’s aunt.
[One of the famous witches? Perhaps the legendary Blue Witch who abandoned her title as the ruler of witches to live in the world of mortals? Hmm. Well I can think about it later on.]
Brendel shook his head. “I’m not a son of any of your acquaintances. I came here because I have a question.”
“Question?”
Brendel cleared his throat and spoke with an accent: “Stam—“
The old man looked as if he understood something, but his eyebrows knitted together soon enough.
“What is the meaning of that word?”
Brendel’s eyebrow went up. He just spoke a word from Kirrlutz’s poem of world creation, the text in the original Blue Poem. In the later era, every original document in the game literally sparked a war between wizards each time they were discovered. Cold perspiration formed on his head when he thought there were no ‘Nature Slates’ in this world.
[W-wait. It’s because the era isn’t right. The main quest isn’t about Madara conquering Aouine, the real primary quest started when the Nature Slates started showing up. The ‘World Wizard War 1’…. Or something. Cough. I don’t intend to spark the war but this word should be enough to spark the interest of Tulman. It’s meaningless if one doesn’t have the entire text, but it’s a word from the ‘Creation of the World’…]
Brendel believed that Tulman was able to recognize the research value in it.
“Ser Tulman, have you heard of the Blue Poem, the poem of creation from Kirrlutz?”
Tulman stroked his beard. He had indeed felt the ancient magic and meaning from that word. It was not powerful, but it seemed to encompass the origin of magic. He thought that it was an ancient dragon word, or a variant of wizard or druid languages, but he did not manage to find anything close to it after carefully searching his memories.
Tulman did not suspect the youth was lying to him, and quite frankly as a sage who had spent a century researching such things, he would be impressed with the people who managed to lie to him.
“You mean the very first historic poem that Kirrlutz translated as the Holy Elven song?”
Brendel knew that the Silver Citizens were biased against humans. The residents of Buga were humans of ancient blood and despised the humans who lived on the surface. However, the lineage of Kirrlutz extended deeply into history and made the Silver Citizens jealous and certainly something they were unwilling to admit.
Brendel simply nodded as all these had nothing to do with him.
“What does it have anything to do with what you said?”
The discussion had gone beyond the limit as to what the other three people could accept. They did not understand anything what Brendel and Tulman were saying. Freya could only watch as Brendel’s shadow grew bigger in her heart, while Batum’s jaws were completely opened.
[Ahem. Indeed, I certainly don’t know what exactly it has to do with what I said…] Only the Gods know that Brendel was trying to pull a false one.
“It’s a word from the Blue Poem, describing how Mother Marsha created this world with kind intentions, Ser Tulman. I believe you are able to experience the magic for yourself on the word itself.”
Tulman’s expression changed and he hurriedly went back into his house. There was a series of noises where books were opened and pages being turned.
Brendel knew that his plan had half succeeded, and he gestured to the others to come along with him. All four of them went into Tulman’s home.
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