Two strange events occurred less than an hour after White Shadow left his tower. The first was that Rafael's system announced a small tremor within a less than 4 km radius. This type of tremor had happened before, and Rafael always suspected that it was an explosion in the tower's alchemy labs, a fight, or even the practice of high-level spells.
Therefore, he ignored it and continued the experiments with Natasha until, not long after, another strange event occurred. The lab assistant on this floor was a shadow golem, and for no reason at all, he stopped working and became immobile. At the same time, half of the lights on the floor stopped working. Something had happened to the tower, and they both had to stop their experiments.
Rafael knew that he had achieved all he could do at that point. He gave Natasha final instructions to collect the eggs and the entire reproductive system of the female before she died. He returned to the Tower of the Sages, where, without taking any rest, he continued his experiments, this time with the tubers and the fruit of immortality.
Despite the flashy name, its effect described in the documents was an incredible blessing. It could easily revert the appearance and youth of a person from 60-70 years old to their 20s. Despite the limitation of being consumed only once, its effect was better than the process of the Bloodmages which could rejuvenate someone by 10-20 years for a small fortune, but many did not dare to accept such a method because they did not trust putting themselves in the hands of such Masters.
You never knew what could be done to you besides rejuvenation, the same went for the Alteration market, but it could still be less dangerous since those who used this type of "surgery" were only normal humans or young apprentices, and these two types had nothing of value to go through such a frightening thing with ulterior motives. In both natural treasures, I found what was missing to reproduce them. In the tuber was a type of rare fertilizer that had not yet been discovered. It needed to be applied to the soil from time to time, and inside its tower of origin there must be something that was applying it naturally.
For me, recreating this fertilizer would be nothing. I just needed to invest a few coins in alchemical materials and soon we would have our potion to speed up our spell learning. As for the fruit of immortality, what was affecting its cultivation was not the soil, but a type of magical particle that was within the air of the tower. It was of magical origin and its effects reminded me of one of the experiments I saw Jhon do in his laboratory. Could I call it an effect of his special physique? It was something close to the affinity of the plant and poison that was said to be the combination for life…
Without much to do until Jhon returned, I finally decided to rest while reading the benefits of a Vice-Leader of the Adventurers' Alliance, and I ended up falling asleep with a smile on my face after seeing the details of two of the group's rituals. But my sleep was interrupted in the middle of the night by an apprentice. I had a visitor, it was Salim.
As soon as I heard his name, and the fact that he came in the middle of the night, I knew something important had happened. When I arrived, he greeted me and gave me a paper with a value in soul stones. I knew what it was, something big had happened and I needed to pay a high price for the information. Luckily, my discount was still valid and I didn't have to pay a very high price. Salim then said:
"Boss, earlier today there was a huge battle on an island outside Asshai, the battle involved nearly a dozen Masters and several of them died."
When he finished speaking the first part of the message I already felt a sort of premonition and asked: "One of them was White Shadow?" As soon as I spoke, Salim's mouth fell open before he calmed down and continued:
"Yes, how do you know? Do you know the reason for this battle? If you have more information we can pay you. The Masters who lost their lives were: Master White Shadow, Master Golden, Master Greed, Master Sahar, and Master Yarial. The survivors are Master Blood Armor, Pope of Bacalon, an unknown Master named Kalindor, and Pope Henfrey of the Black Goat cult. There were 3 more dead who have not been identified, these 3 probably survived the fight using special methods."
This was huge, not only did the person I was looking for appear, but it also caused a huge commotion. The Trade and Aristocratic Alliances are completely weakened, someone could use this to take control of them or even assimilate their businesses. I don't know the last two Masters, but I have a note about them in the system library. Of course, the survivors know something, and I bet one of these popes could be the one who organized such a battle…
"Master White Shadow said he was going to help an old friend with an experiment, he said something about it being dangerous, less than 1 hour later I felt a certain tremor caused by an explosion or high-level spell inside the city… I think the battle or fight might have started inside Asshai, besides, I bet one of these popes had something to do with it, but it's just a hunch."
I purposely avoided the location of the explosion, maybe I could investigate later, the system could help me. Also, Master Blood Armor is a VIP in my store, I can contact him to help me answer some questions, I hope he doesn't make things difficult for me.
"I'll take this information back, as soon as it's evaluated I'll send you your compensation, if you find out anything else let me know. Be careful with who you ask your questions, or you could put your organization in danger, this was a warning our King sent to you."
"Master of Whispers didn't need to worry, but I appreciate the gesture, before you go, I need you to deliver a message to Natasha…"
"No need, the Master personally went to the tower to see if she was okay and investigate the reasons for the battle, and also to make sure no one caused her any trouble, they had some agreement between the Masters about students and disciples…"
"We're not powerful, but we can take care of each other, I'll make sure she doesn't seek revenge until she understands everything that happened, thank your King again for the gesture."
As soon as Salim left I went back to my room and wrote a letter to Master Blood Armor, sending it directly to him through the hateful creature that everyone disliked in Asshai. But something strange happened, the creature returned a few minutes later and the message could not be delivered. That same night I received another message from Salim saying that Blood Armor had locked the entire Tower of Ritual and not even his students could leave, he had closed himself off from the world probably expecting retaliation.
My eyes turned to the city that seemed calm, I knew that this was the calm before the storm, until now I had only seen the "peaceful" side of Asshai in these almost 2 years, all I had to do now was focus on the well-being and safety of my Order and my people, I should avoid all these conflicts that were to come as much as possible and just maintain the current growth we had.
As time passed we would all become stronger. I had my dream when I arrived in this world, which was my quest for knowledge, and now it had been altered by my thirst for magic and power. There was still much to study and many places I wanted to explore. In the midst of all this, we would have the events of the Conquest, the Dance of the Dragons, and the Game of Thrones…
As my thoughts wandered, my eyes turned from the city to my Firewyrm, which still didn't have a name. With its new diet of parasites, it would grow larger and larger until it reached its maximum size. It wasn't a dragon that could fly, but it was the best I had so far. I decided after some thought that its name would be Vulcan.
"What do you think of the name Vulcan?" I asked aloud, looking at the little fireworm. It just opened its eyes a little, looked at me, and went back to sleep. I smiled and then said with certainty:
"Vulcan it will be then!"
***
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