Shepherd Wizard Chapter 59

Translator: Pai_

As he moved eastward, Turan first used most of the sulfur he had newly acquired and the saltpeter he had on hand to combine them into Spirit of Fire.

He left a small amount behind to show others what materials were needed when securing more.

The Spirit of Fire he obtained amounted to a little more than three fistfuls, only slightly more than the saltpeter he had used, as saltpeter was the primary ingredient in the production ratio.

It was unfortunate that charcoal powder and sulfur, despite being required in small amounts, were readily available.

Continuing eastward, Turan experinted with the Spirit of Fire in various ways.

As a result, he found that the most practical uses were either dispersing it forcefully with the power of wind to create a wide-area explosion or detonating it beside his body to gain propulsion.

‘Gaining propulsion is a bit painful, but...’

Logically speaking, it made sense, it was like being struck by an invisible force to move his body forcibly.

Detonating it beneath his feet was slightly less painful, but while experinting with this, he accidentally destroyed his shoes when he forgot that they had flammable coating on them.

After spending several days traveling and experinting, Turan once again grabbed Bije by the legs and took to the skies.

While Bije was eager to fly after shaking off the remaining fatigue through the hot spring bath's power, the main reason was that traveling through this wetland had been far more exhausting than expected.

The first issue was the constant rain.

After it stopped, he could simply evaporate the water from his body, but while it was raining, he had no choice but to endure getting soaked.

It wasn’t feasible to cast telekinetic magic on every single raindrop, so he needed to put up a barrier, but moving forward ant he had to continuously create a new barrier ahead of him.

Ever since he lost his waterproof boots during an experint, his shoes had been filled with water, which was endlessly uncomfortable.

The second issue was the unbearable nuisance of mosquitoes and other insects at night.

Such pests existed in other regions as well, but in this wetland, their presence was excessive.

Whether he camped outdoors or stayed in a village, the mont he lay down and closed his eyes, bugs sward him, making his entire body itch.

Although their teeth or stingers couldn’t penetrate his skin, just having them crawl over him was utterly disgusting.

Even Turan, who was originally a shepherd accustod to traveling and sleeping outdoors, found it unbearable, if soone like Ashiz had been in this place, he would have panicked after just one night and gone looking for a Barrier Master.

If there had been any worthwhile discoveries to justify enduring such hardships, it might have been different.

However, despite visiting several villages and towns nearby to gather information on saltpeter, he found nothing of value.

As for information on the White Elves, if there had been any clues here, Rida would have secured them long ago, making the search pointless.

Determined to escape all these inconveniences, Turan soared high into the sky and shot eastward for an entire day.

In an instant, he covered a distance several tis greater than what he had walked over the past few days.

Before long, a vast blue horizon unfolded before his eyes.

It was the South Sea.

*

The South Sea slled entirely different from the North Sea, where Turan had previously been.

While the North Sea carried a cool, fishy scent, the South Sea had a warm aroma, blended with the slls of various marine creatures.

After taking a mont to enjoy the sight of the ocean for the first ti in a long while, Turan headed further south, passing by several fishing villages before arriving at a port city.

It was a small town with only a few thousand residents at most, not a major trade hub like Abacha or Komad.

Instead, it seed to sustain itself by catching and selling local fish.

Upon entering the city, the first thing he did was find a fish vendor and purchase dozens of horse mackerels.

Then, he headed to a quiet, secluded beach and fed them all to Bije.

He had recalled and followed the advice of the House Dirmin lady whose na he could barely rember, and it turned out to be quite effective.

Bije found the horse mackerel far tastier than any land animal at she had eaten during their travels.

“You like this, huh? How about southern horse mackerel?”

[Yes! Delicious!]

After treating Bije to a special al for her hard work, Turan returned to the market to search for saltpeter. As expected, he found so for sale.

However, as always, money was the issue.

"…This costs five gold coins?"

"It's the elixir of immortality! Your life is on the line, how could it be cheap!? Do you want to watch your father and mother grow old and die!?"

"They have both already passed away."

"Uh, no… I an, it’s just a figure of speech."

Co to think of it, the rchant selling saltpeter in Vanipel had said the exact sa thing. It seed to be a common sales tactic among saltpeter dealers.

Of course, if this were truly an elixir of immortality, then nobles of Lavitas, including Rida, wouldn’t have been searching desperately for the White Elves.

Turan could have bought out all the saltpeter available here if he spent all his money, but that would have been a waste. More importantly, even if he purchased all of it, the amount wouldn’t match the quantity of sulfur he had.

After all, the amount of saltpeter required to create the Spirit of Fire was over seven tis that of sulfur.

Thus, as he had done when acquiring sulfur previously, Turan purchased only a small amount of saltpeter and asked where it ca from.

However, this ti, unlike before, he didn’t get an easy answer.

"Hey, why are you asking about that?"

"It's a secret, a secret!"

"Listen, outsider. If you keep asking questions like that, it won’t be fun for you."

Even after questioning several saltpeter rchants, he received similar responses. Eventually, they even started issuing veiled threats.

It seed like there was a group actively keeping the origin of the saltpeter a secret.

'If it's being kept secret, that ans it can't be easily obtained.'

If it were sothing as accessible as sulfur, which he could acquire by traveling a few days on foot, then no amount of secrecy would keep it hidden.

It also wouldn’t be considered rare.

Considering the information that it ca from the South Sea, there was a good chance that saltpeter was produced on an island sowhere out in the ocean.

As he was deep in thought, he suddenly sensed soone approaching him stealthily from behind.

When he felt the person's hand reaching toward his pocket, he prepared to break their wrist imdiately, but unexpectedly, the hand landed on his shoulder instead.

"Hey there, young man."

Turning around, he found an older man dressed in shabby clothing, missing several teeth.

He had the typical appearance of a vagrant.

With a sly grin, the man wasted no ti getting to the point.

"You're looking for the place where saltpeter is mined?"

"Yes."

"Seeing as you've already bought so but still want more, you're probably planning to sell it elsewhere, aren't you?"

The fact that he knew Turan had purchased saltpeter suggested that he had been watching him secretly.

Realizing this wasn’t all that surprising, after all, he hadn't been paying close attention to every single presence in the bustling market.

Turan thought for a mont before nodding.

"Sothing like that."

"Well then, I can take you to where saltpeter is mined."

"What do you want in return?"

Only a fool would believe that a stranger would guide him to a saltpeter source for free.

As if expecting the question, the man imdiately responded.

"It's nothing big, just money. The saltpeter is on an island. If you take a boat, you need to pay the fare, don’t you?"

This fit perfectly with the conclusion Turan had just reached.

After briefly glancing around, Turan asked the man.

"How much?"

"Fifteen gold coins. Not too expensive, right? If you mine the saltpeter and sell it elsewhere, you’ll make several tis that amount."

"Alright. But I’d like to confirm the saltpeter source before I hand over the money."

"Oh my, of course. How could you trust with such a large sum now? Tomorrow, about an hour after sunset... you see that mountain over there?"

"Yes."

The man then pointed toward a mountain rising along the edge of the city.

It wasn't very high, just about the height of a local hill.

"If you go straight behind that mountain, there's a small village. A ship will co there. You can pay when you board."

"Thank you for the information."

Hearing Turan’s gratitude, the man chuckled.

"I'm the one who should be thankful."

After the man left, Turan picked a random inn nearby and rented a room.

As soon as he entered, Bije wriggled and swiped her claws through the air. Seeing this, Turan imdiately pulled out a sand-covered slate from his Large-Capacity Pouch.

[That person liar!]

Since the slate had limited space, Bije's writing was always short and concise.

But after having many such conversations before, Turan had no trouble interpreting it.

"The guy who said he'd tell us where saltpeter cos from?"

[Yes!]

"Why do you think so?"

At Turan’s question, Bije hesitated for a mont as if contemplating, then wrote again.

[Saltpeter expensive, if known would mine himself!]

"That's true. Wow, you’re really smart. Even people get tricked because they don't think about that."

Turan burst into laughter at Bije’s sharp analysis, which was astonishingly perceptive for a Golden Eagle, and patted her head.

[Did Turan know too?]

"Roughly."

Mixed with the usual stench of soone who hadn't bathed in days, Turan detected another scent, the excitent of a predator just before a hunt.

The only ti he had ever slled that from a person was in one situation.

Right before bandits were about to strike.

"It’s probably a smuggler’s ship or a pirate ship. If I go, they might take my money and force into slavery on board."

Back when he had traveled on the Blue Marlin, he had heard plenty of stories from the sailors about how things worked at sea.

[Then why go?]

"When friends who can provide information gather by themselves, why wouldn't I go?"

If he had simply captured the rchants here, demonstrated so magic, and pressured or tortured them, he probably could have learned where saltpeter was sourced.

But the reason he hadn't done so was that the rchants had every right to keep it a secret.

They weren’t obligated to reveal where their supplies ca from.

anwhile, these people were actively trying to rob him of his wealth and freedom, making them perfect targets for him to unleash his sadistic side without any guilt.

What could be more welco than that?

So when he had thanked that man earlier for the information, it hadn’t been empty words at all.

*

The next day, Turan stayed in his inn all day, training his magic. As the appointed ti approached, he finally stepped outside.

When he reached the city gates, a guard explained that the curfew was about to start, aning he wouldn’t be allowed back inside if he left now. Turan politely nodded in acknowledgnt and then made his way toward the place the vagrant had ntioned.

Eventually, he arrived at a small village.

A particularly rough-looking young man was sitting on the village's wooden fence, and he spoke in a lazy, mocking tone.

"Are you the guest here to board the boat?"

"Yes."

"Go on in."

As Turan stepped inside the village, he heard laughter and soone muttering, "Moron", behind him.

It was so blatantly a trap that he almost wanted to roll his eyes.

But just as he was thinking that, sothing ahead made him frown.

‘What the hell is this?’

A powerful flow of magic power, just like what he had felt back at the sulfur hot springs.

And this ti, it was even stronger than Rida or Aikul. Not as powerful as isa, but close.

Surely there couldn't be more than a hundred top-tier wizards from major houses in the whole world, so why did he keep running into them so often?

Unless he had so kind of gravitational pull that attracted incredibly strong Wizards like planets.

‘A high-ranking noble from Lavitas… Could it be the heir? But why would they be in a place like this?’

Though puzzled, Turan slowly continued walking.

If soone had laid a trap to capture him, they wouldn’t have asked him to co at night.

Besides, in this level of darkness, he was confident he could escape, even if isa herself were chasing him.

The smaller presences nearby… were they knights acting as bodyguards?

As Turan analyzed the situation and walked toward the ship anchored by the shore, a rowdy voice reached his ears.

"Hey, is that really true?"

"Would I make sothing like that up? I begged them, saying, ‘Please spare !’ And you know what they said? ‘Crawl between my legs, and I’ll let you live!’ So, I quickly rolled over and kicked that bastard right in the-"

Around a campfire in front of the sailing ship, a group of rough-looking n sat together, clearly sailors at a glance.

Among them, Turan sensed two knights, likely the highest-ranking individuals in the group.

And sitting casually among the sailors, talking with an easygoing attitude, was a young man.

Visually, he seed about five or six years older than Turan.

With his short silver hair, slightly shorter stature, yet broad shoulders and well-trained physique, he left a strong impression.

This was the unknown great Wizard Turan had sensed earlier.

"Co on, stop spewing nonsense, you bastard!"

One of the sailors smacked the back of the wizard’s head.

Surprisingly, instead of getting angry, the wizard just grinned and chuckled.

A Wizard of his caliber, likely a top-tier noble or even an heir, acting so casually around commoners?

Turan himself often disguised his identity as an ordinary person, but seeing soone else do it from an outsider's perspective was almost absurd.

It felt like watching a lion blending effortlessly into a pack of wolves.

At that mont, the silver-haired wizard’s gaze turned toward Turan, then shifted to Bije, who was sitting beside him.

"Huh…?"

The wizard showed a surprised expression while pointing at Bije.

It was the kind of reaction soone might have when unexpectedly running into a familiar face in an unlikely place.

But where would a noble of Lavitas have ever t Bije?

Just as Turan was wondering, one of the sailors suddenly clapped his hands.

"Alright, now that all the guests have arrived, it’s ti to set sail!"

"Whoa, is it that ti already?"

The silver-haired wizard blinked in confusion.

The sa sailor who had smacked him earlier smirked and said.

"The stories were fun to listen to, but now it's ti to board the ship. First, put down all your belongings. We'll load them for you."

"Uh… I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather carry them myself. I have so valuables inside."

In response, the sailor delivered a hard kick to the wizard’s shin.

"Are you dense? From now on, your job is scrubbing the deck, you bastard."

"What about the Preah God Tribe ruins you promised to take to?"

"How the hell would we know about that?"

At the sailor’s words, the silver-haired wizard burst into laughter.

To an outsider, it might have seed like a cheerful chuckle, but Turan could sense the thick, lingering killing intent hidden beneath it.

"Damn it, I got fooled again. You assholes. How many tis am I gonna get tricked in this damn region?"

Whoosh!

Flas erupted from the wizard’s entire body.

Not the usual yellowish-red fire that most Wizards conjured, but a brilliant platinum-colored fla, shining as brightly as the sun.