Shepherd Wizard Chapter 67

Translator: Pai_

The beam magic that Solif had shown, created by mixing light and fire, was originally a secret technique passed down to the head of House Varaha and their successor.

Just like how Meisa had secretly taught Turan House Arabion’s Thought Acceleration magic in the past.

The difference between the two was that the former could only be used by those born with the Sun Bloodline, whereas the latter could be used even without the Storm Bloodline.

This was also the reason why Solif had been puzzled when Turan asked him to teach this technique in prison.

‘Even if you understand the principle, you won’t be able to use it without the Sun Bloodline, right?’

‘There’s a way, so just teach me first.’

‘…Well, if you say so. You know that fire can have various colors, right?’

The color of flames varied depending on what they were burning as fuel, and wizards, when using Ignition Magic, could manipulate the properties of magic power to control this to some extent.

These colors changed depending on what wavelength of light was emitted, and by precisely adjusting the colors of fire and light to match, they could be fused into one.

For this, the most ideal color was the golden hue that Solif had created.

Though Turan did not fully understand what exactly a wavelength was or why matching the wavelengths of light and fire allowed them to merge, it did not really matter, Solif himself was not using magic with a complete understanding of the concept either. Knowing this much was enough for the theory.

‘Let’s see.’

From the halo spread out behind his back, Turan drew out a whip of light and gave it a light swing.

Perhaps due to a lack of proficiency, its movement felt crude and clumsy compared to Solif’s.

Of course, the mere fact that he could use it to this extent after just a few short practice sessions in prison was, to ordinary wizards, nothing short of an outrageous display of talent.

"W-what? How can you use Light of Judgment?”

Countless thoughts raced through the mind of Ray, the noble from House Varaha, upon witnessing this scene.

Could it be that, in the few years since the heir ran away from the family, he had a child of that age?

Of course, that was nonsense.

If not that, was the enemy before him not actually from House Zahar, but instead an illegitimate child of House Varaha merely using a Concealment magic artifact?

It was impossible to determine whose child he might be, and even then, what was the Earthmover Bloodline ability he had displayed earlier?

Ray’s thoughts were thrown into complete disarray by his confusion, and he only came to his senses the moment Turan’s whip lashed toward him.

“Kh!”

The sword of light extending from his hand struck against the whip, attempting to deflect it, but it could not withstand the heat and was instantly severed.

Had he been in peak condition, it might have been a different story. However, with the total amount of magic power between him and Turan now reversed, this outcome was inevitable.

The Green Shield managed to block another attack, barely keeping him alive, but the impact drained away a significant chunk of his remaining magic power.

The only fortunate thing was that his opponent did not yet wield Light of Judgment, the secret technique of House Varaha, with great proficiency.

At the speed of the previous attack, as long as he stayed alert, he might still be able to dodge.

That is, if his legs and feet were not injured, in which case he could have avoided it with ease.

The moment he thought this, Turan’s light whips suddenly multiplied into four.

“I’m still not used to this, so I can only manage four for now.”

With those chilling words, the rapidly multiplying whips shot toward Ray.

They were moving at exactly twice the speed of the previous attack.

By the time Turan returned to the garden after dealing with Ray, Solif was on the verge of being overpowered, nearly out of strength.

Of course, the wizards of House Varaha, who were pressing him, were not in great condition either.

This was because they had wasted magic power keeping the area brightly illuminated, fearing the sudden reappearance of a noble from House Zahar.

“You… You…”

“How in the world…!”

Just like Ray earlier, the nobles of House Varaha were stunned at the sight of Turan appearing, his halo glowing behind him.

And when they saw him skillfully wielding a dozen whips of light in an instant, half of them seemed completely dazed.

Despite the sudden shift in the battle, the Varaha nobles put up a decent fight, but the outcome had already been decided.

While Turan, even after subduing Ray, still retained just under half of his magic power, the Varaha nobles had exhausted nearly all of their strength trying to overpower Solif.

To make matters worse, even in his exhausted state, Solif managed to burn his last remaining strength to take down a high-ranking noble with him. With that, Turan leisurely flew above the garden using Flight Magic, taking down enemies one by one.

First, he scattered Spirit of Fire and detonated it, temporarily blinding and deafening three relatively weaker nobles.

Then, while they were incapacitated, he swiftly cut down two of them before using his slingshot to kill the last one, who had panicked and tried to flee.

Worried about being counterattacked like before, he only used Spirit of Fire once. As for the remaining leader of the Varaha nobles, he systematically subdued him with his whips of light, just as he had done with Ray.

The man fought back quite fiercely, wielding a magic artifact in the form of a cloth that swallowed light. However, with his magic power nearly depleted, it was only a matter of time before he lost. Eventually, his arms and legs were severed, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Perhaps it was fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate, that the intense heat cauterized his wounds, preventing excessive blood loss.

“Just… what the hell are you? Concealment, Light of Judgment, Flight, and even Explosion Magic, you use them all freely….”

The Varaha leader’s eyes held the fear of someone witnessing an unfathomable being.

If this was not the descent of a god of magic, how else could it be explained?

Even if the head of some great noble family had invaded, it would not have been this shocking.

Turan could understand the sentiment, but what he needed now was not to answer questions, but to ask them. He pulled out a chain magic artifact from his large-capacity pouch.

He planned to restrain the man to ensure he could not resist even after recovering some magic power, then extract information step by step.

However, the leader’s expression changed the moment he saw the chains. Suddenly, his head burst into flames.

All of his remaining magic power had been concentrated into a final, overwhelming burst of heat.

“…Ah.”

Normally, if a wizard cast magic on their own body without proper causality, it would trigger a powerful backlash. The only exception to this rule was when the magic was cast directly upon oneself.

Just like the noble before him, who had now ignited his own head with Ignition Magic.

Before Turan could react, the man’s head burned black, and he was dead.

Turan looked down at the charred corpse, then clicked his tongue and put the chains back into his pouch.

Someone of this rank would have surely known something about the forces behind the manipulation of Solif’s life.

In the end, subduing a noble who was prepared to die was never easy.

Even with the appropriate magic artifacts at hand.

‘Nothing I can do about it now.’

Dwelling on what was already done was pointless.

Turan left the leader’s corpse behind and carefully lifted Solif, who was lying on the ground.

His body was in a terrible state, one arm severed at the elbow, a chunk of flesh torn from his side, and wounds covering him all over.

“You look awful.”

“Heh, well… I held out pretty well, didn’t I…?”

Solif’s unfocused eyes made it clear that he would soon lose consciousness.

And naturally, in his current state, losing consciousness meant death.

A high-ranking noble’s vitality might allow him to last a few more hours, but natural recovery was out of the question.

Extending his senses toward the corpses of the fallen nobles, Turan found and retrieved an object shaped like a glass bottle.

During his earlier strategy meeting with Solif, he had learned about the functions of the magic artifacts these nobles carried. Thanks to that, he recognized this as a healing magic artifact.

‘He had said if I inject magic power, it dispenses a healing potion.’

Most likely, it was a crude imitation of a Sacred Relic, one that could even bring back the dead.

When he injected magic power, liquid could be seen sloshing in the empty bottle, so Turan fed it to Solif.

Before long, the deathly pale color of his face began to fade, and a healthy flush returned.

However, a single dose was not enough for a full recovery. Given Solif’s immense strength, the potion’s effect was too weak. Turan continued converting his magic power into healing potion and feeding it to him repeatedly.

As he rapidly depleted his already scarce magic power, a dizzying sense of exhaustion washed over him.

‘Tch, I guess this is far less efficient than the Healer Bloodline….’

Well, if a magic artifact could replicate a bloodline ability with the same efficiency, it would be on par with a Sacred Relic in value.

Turan’s Guardian Magic Artifact also replicated the power of the Guardian Bloodline, but its magic efficiency was poor.

After several breaks to recover his magic power and continue making more potions, Solif shuddered all over and pushed himself up.

Though his severed arm had not regenerated, his strength seemed to have returned considerably.

“Revived!”

“Yeah, since you’ve revived, make some of this for me….”

Solif had shot up enthusiastically, but when Turan, looking half-dead, held out an empty glass bottle, he awkwardly complied and made more healing potion.

As Turan drank it, he felt the burns on his back, which had been constantly stinging, ease a little.

After they took turns making and drinking the healing potion to stabilize themselves, Solif used Telekinesis Magic to unfasten the Guardian Magic Artifact from his arm and handed it over.

“This thing was really incredible. Without it, I would’ve been finished long ago.”

“It’s my treasure.”

In terms of pure functionality, the Mimic Relic was overwhelmingly superior, but Turan was more attached to this one.

After all, it was a gift from a friend.

Of course, the item Ashiz had personally made for him was the clothes he was now wearing, which had been torn to shreds during the battle.

"So... are we cleaning up right away?"

“First, I need to bring Bije.”

"We should start organizing then."

"I'll do it, you just rest."

Even if they had harbored sinister motives, these were still people who had once been his family and comrades.

Having already engaged in a bloody slaughter, Solif must have felt uneasy enough. Turan did not want to make him rummage through their corpses as well.

“I fought alongside you. Resting alone would feel a bit unfair.”

“If you were in better shape, I’d put you to work whether you liked it or not, so don’t refuse.”

“Well, if you say so.”

Seeing Solif give a sheepish smile before leaning against a tree, Turan immediately set off toward the place where he had hidden Bije.

As he passed through the fortress and the village, he encountered neither pirates nor island residents.

The pirates must have been terrified at the sight of the fortress burning and had fled on their ships, while the villagers seemed to have barricaded themselves inside their homes, waiting for the battle to end.

When he dug up the entrance of a small burrow, he found Bije curled up inside.

“Bije, I’m here.”

[Turan, hurt?]

As soon as she saw his face, Bije wrote those words.

In the dark burrow, an ordinary person would have seen nothing, but Turan’s eyes picked up the writing clearly.

“I’m not hurt, just a bit tired. It’s all over now, so you can come out. I even have a nice gift for you.”

[Gift?]

“Something delicious.”

Turan had left Bije out of this battle because she was far weaker than him.

Even though she was quite powerful for a Magical Beast, a single misplaced attack from a high-ranking noble’s magic could have been fatal.

Someone like Ray, whom Turan had fought directly, could have killed Bije in one strike.

However, things would be different once she absorbed the magic power from the corpses scattered across the fortress.

‘This is unbelievable.’

Returning to the fortress with Bije, Turan organized the bodies of the fallen Varaha nobles and gathered their magic artifacts.

Thanks to the Mimic Relic, he did not have to strip their corpses down to their undergarments to search for valuables.

In total, he recovered twenty-three magic artifacts.

Ten of them were relatively ordinary.

Seven were quite exceptional.

And the last five, these were treasures valuable enough to be highly prized even within great noble houses, rivaling Turan’s own Guardian Magic Artifact.

If word got out that a single individual possessed this many magic artifacts, dozens of noble families might rise up to hunt him down.

Turan first suggested that Solif reclaim the magic artifacts he originally owned.

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“The artifacts you originally had must be optimized for you. There's no point in me hoarding them all alone.”

Having two fire-based magic artifacts would not double a wizard’s firepower.

After all, exerting power required consuming one’s own magic power.

It was more efficient to distribute some of the artifacts to capable allies who could use them effectively.

With a somewhat sheepish expression, Solif retrieved about a dozen artifacts, including a backpack, a wooden rod with paper attached, and even some enchanted undergarments.

Afterward, Turan carefully sorted through the remaining magic artifacts, recalling their functions one by one or checking with Solif when uncertain.

Fortunately, since he had seen most of them in action during the battle, he had a rough idea of their uses.

‘This one belonged to Ray. An automatic defense function… The performance is excellent, but the magic consumption seems excessive. Still, I should hold onto it. This one seems to overlap with the Guardian Magic Artifact, so I’ll let Solif use it. Oh, and this, this is that cloth from earlier.’

Since the Varaha nobles were naturally gifted with the offensive powers of light and fire, they had not brought many attack-type magic artifacts.

The closest thing to an offensive artifact was the one Turan had just picked up, the cloth that swallowed light.

This was the item the Varaha noble leader had used earlier; when unfolded and infused with magic, it absorbed all the surrounding light.

It was practically a natural counter to the Sun Bloodline. They must have brought it specifically to hunt Solif.

And since it had the ability to eliminate light, it would also be highly useful for a wizard from House Zahar, like Turan.

‘This thing is seriously useful.’

Until now, he had either been forced to flee when exposed to bright light or had to dispel his Concealment Magic.

But with this cloth, he could swallow the light and remain hidden while fighting.

It was possible that House Zahar’s wizards had already developed similar artifacts.

The only time Turan had seen a Zahar wizard fight was during the battle in the underground labyrinth, but that place had rendered Concealment abilities meaningless.

After folding the cloth and storing it away, Turan continued sorting through the artifacts.

One particular item that caught his eye was a translucent mask.

“Is this… the mask that changes appearances?”

“Hm? Ah, yeah, probably. When I put it on my face, my appearance changed.”

“You don’t know its exact functions or potential side effects?”

“Nope.”

Turan examined the mask from various angles before storing it in his large-capacity pouch.

He planned to have Ashiz appraise it later.

Once the sorting was mostly complete, it was time for the main event, Magic Power Absorption.

Among the ten nobles who had died in this battle, one had already had his magic power absorbed by Turan back in the underground prison. That left a total of nine.

As they stood before the lined-up corpses, Solif spoke in a slightly unsteady voice.

“This feels… really strange. It’s not my first time handling a ‘funeral,’ but…”

He had probably never imagined a day would come when he would have to kill his own people and prepare their funeral.

When Turan positioned Bije beside him, Solif lowered his voice and asked,

“Are you going to have that thing eat the corpses?”

“No. Bije can absorb magic power the same way wizards do. I taught her how.”

“Oh? I heard that very few Magical Beasts can learn that ability….”

It seemed that Bije was not just unusually intelligent but also uniquely gifted in absorbing magic.

Realizing that the bodies would not be physically damaged, Solif looked somewhat relieved. His expression softened slightly as he stretched out his hand.

And thus, the Magic Power Absorption began.

The first targets were the six nobles with relatively weaker magic, the ones possessing power equivalent to that of ordinary family heads.

Of course, neither Solif nor Turan could expect any significant growth from absorbing the magic power of these nobles.

At best, Turan gained the benefit of storing Sun Bloodline magic power in the Mimic Relic.

Seeing this, Solif clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“No matter how many times I see it, I still can’t believe it. A Sacred Relic that absorbs magic power and replicates bloodline abilities actually exists….”

Since he had already seen the explanation and its results firsthand in the underground prison, he was no longer shocked, but it still seemed difficult for him to fully accept.

It was understandable, there was no existing record of any magic artifact, past or present, possessing such a function.

Unlike the two high-ranking nobles beside her, Bije was experiencing significant growth as she absorbed the magic power of the six nobles.

She had already been slightly stronger than an average noble, and now, after absorbing six family-head-level wizards, her power had naturally surged.

She fluttered around excitedly, unable to control her suddenly increased strength, until Turan calmed her down.

After that, they moved on to the final step, gradually absorbing the magic power of the three high-ranking nobles.

Solif did not gain much from it, but for Turan, absorbing the power of nobles who were slightly stronger than himself allowed him to experience the long-forgotten joy of growth.

A sensation beyond just strengthening his bones, muscles, magic, and mind, it was as if his very essence was evolving into something more transcendent.

That dizzying sense of euphoria washed over him, and after a few deep breaths, he opened his eyes to find the world around him appearing even clearer than before.

His increased magic power had enhanced his physical abilities, sharpening his senses as well.

‘At this level… I might be close to Ferga now.’

He was not certain since he could not recall Ferga’s exact strength, but it seemed roughly equivalent.

Compared to Solif standing beside him, he estimated himself to be about eighty percent as strong.

Considering that Ferga had once been regarded as one of the successor candidates for House Zahar, this meant Turan had now reached a level where he could be considered a contender among the successors of noble families, even if only among the weaker ones.

And factoring in his magic artifacts and mastery of spells, he was likely even stronger than that.

Placing a hand over his racing heart, Turan tried to steady himself when Bije let out a sharp chirp and suddenly soared into the sky.

It seemed she had experienced an even more dramatic surge in power and was overwhelmed with excitement.

“Bije, I know it feels great, but calm-”

Turan was about to call her back when his words caught in his throat at the sight unfolding before him.

In the pitch-black night sky, a golden eagle flapped its wings, and with each movement, swirling winds erupted into violent whirlwinds.