Shepherd Wizard Chapter 70

Translator: Pai_

As soon as Ashiz finished his explanation, Turan immediately brought the mask to his face.

At first, he felt a cold and hard texture, but as he infused magic power into it, it quickly transformed into something lukewarm and gelatinous, clinging tightly to his face.

Just as he had heard, he could feel a steady amount of magic power continuously being drained, but his natural recovery ability was sufficient to handle it.

“How is it?”

“I’ve suddenly aged overnight. It’s flawless.”

When he spoke while looking at Ashiz, his voice was much rougher than usual, as if metal were being scraped together, producing a deep, coarse tone.

Looking at the mirror beside him, he saw a middle-aged man with dark brown skin, tanned from years in the sun, and a thick black beard that left a strong impression.

However, upon closer inspection, below the neck, his relatively pale skin remained unchanged, making the transformation feel somewhat unnatural.

‘Well, now that I think about it, the scars remained the same too...’

If the mask had the ability to alter body shape as well, then even Solif would not have been able to detect anything unusual.

If it had such a function, it would not have been something tossed around merely for impersonating pirates.

At that moment, as he quietly observed, Ashiz asked Turan,

“I didn’t expect it to create a beard as well. That’s not real, is it?”

“Of course not.”

Just to be sure, Turan grabbed a strand and pulled it out, and the beard slipped off painlessly before crumbling away into dust.

Aside from that, when he brushed over it, there was no sense of unnaturalness in the texture, making it incredibly convincing.

“Whatever the matching item is, this alone is already quite useful.”

As he was saying that, Turan suddenly felt a peculiar vibration emanating from his chest.

The source of the vibration was none other than the item he always wore as a necklace, the Mimic Relic.

“Why is this...?”

“Could it be that this is the paired item?”

Now that he thought about it, the two did share some similarities.

The relic’s owner’s bloodline was literally called the Mimic, and its function was to absorb another’s magic power to replicate their bloodline ability. Similarly, the mask was also an item that imitated someone else’s face.

However, if it was truly a paired artifact with an object that had slumbered in the sea for thousands of years, then that would mean this mask was also a sacred relic. But its magic power and function seemed far too weak for that.

If it were truly such an artifact, House Varaha would never have foolishly let it circulate outside.

"Aren't the two items too mismatched in terms of grade?"

“Completely mismatched. It’s like comparing your Guardian magic artifact to a basic magic lamp hanging here.”

Before appraising the mask, Turan first asked Ashiz to assess the Mimic Relic.

Until now, he had been using it more by trial and error rather than with a proper understanding of its functions.

However, after attempting an appraisal, Ashiz admitted that it was impossible for him to analyze the item with his current skills.

If that was the case, then this relic was undoubtedly one of the highest-grade sacred relics.

To properly understand it, he would probably need to ask Ashiz’s mother or older brother for help.

“That aside, if they’re a pair, what should we do? Just stick them together?”

Turan removed the mask and tried bringing it into contact with the relic, but not only did nothing special happen, even the vibration from earlier completely disappeared.

It seemed that the lack of reaction was due to them not being used together.

“There’s no real response.”

“How about infusing magic power into them while they’re connected?”

Following Ashiz’s suggestion, Turan brought the two items together and infused magic power into each.

Immediately, a deep woong- sound echoed, and both the mask and the relic began to vibrate.

Even a fool could tell that there was some connection between the two.

Turan felt an immense amount of magic power draining from his fingertips and let out a gasp.

“Looks like this is the right method.”

Once they started resonating, the two artifacts greedily devoured Turan’s magic power at an alarming rate.

At first, he thought it would stop soon, but after one minute, then five, then ten, then twenty, he started feeling his magic reserves running low.

But if he stopped infusing magic power now and damaged the items in the process, it would be a huge waste.

In the end, he even called Solif, who had been idly lounging in his room, and the three nobles infused their magic power into the resonating artifacts together.

The sudden magic power absorption phenomenon ended only after the three of them had exhausted their magic power to near depletion.

Turan, Solif, and Ashiz all collapsed onto the large bed without a word, too drained to care about anything else.

“I feel like I’m going to pass out.”

“Hey, if we were going to do something like this, you should’ve called me earlier. I was in the middle of practicing levitation magic...”

“As if I knew this would happen.”

The three of them lay there, overwhelmed by exhaustion and dizziness, until they finally recovered their strength about an hour later.

Since he had been the last to join, Ashiz had retained more of his magic power compared to the others. He placed his fingers on the mask and then spoke to Turan.

“This mask... I can’t appraise it anymore. Just like your necklace.”

In other words, its status as a magic artifact had skyrocketed to an incredible level.

Struggling to sit up, Turan immediately grabbed the two transformed objects and observed them carefully.

The first noticeable change was in their appearance.

The previously semi-transparent mask was now engraved with wave patterns, while the sacred relic bore the image of a face wearing a hat adorned with bells.

When he put the sacred relic around his neck and donned the mask, activating them, he realized that not only their appearance but also their functionality had changed.

He could see the flow of magic power swirling around the bodies of the two nobles in front of him.

The flow of magic seemed to be forming small symbols from within.

‘Ashiz has a white anvil and a black hammer, while Solif... has two glowing white hands holding a mass of fire?’

They were unmistakably symbols representing each person’s bloodline.

Turan immediately turned his gaze inward and confirmed his suspicion.

A white cloud charged with lightning, surrounded by darkness, and within that darkness, a lone eye glaring fiercely.

These were undoubtedly the symbols of House Arabion and House Zahar.

At that moment, Ashiz pointed at Turan’s face and said,

“Huh? You’re wearing the mask, right? But your face hasn’t changed.”

Hearing those words, Turan quickly looked into the mirror again and realized that despite wearing the mask, his face remained unchanged.

Had the mask lost its transformation ability in exchange for gaining the power to perceive others’ bloodlines?

For a brief moment, he panicked, but then an idea struck him. He faced the mirror and imagined his face changing.

Moments later, his reflection shifted, first into Corvinus, then into Ashiz and Solif, and even into women like Meisa and Rida, effortlessly transforming at will.

Ashiz and Solif, watching from the side, widened their eyes in shock.

“No way...”

“You can change your face freely now?”

Turan continued experimenting to see just how far this artifact’s abilities extended.

He could adjust his height by about five to ten centimeters, slightly alter his skeletal structure and finger proportions, and even change his skin tone and voice almost exactly as he imagined.

Each transformation consumed magic power, but this level of functionality was undoubtedly that of a legendary, top-tier sacred relic.

“It seems this was a sacred relic all along. Our magic power acted as a catalyst for its growth or unlocking its full potential...”

To test further, he removed the mask, and as expected, he could no longer perceive others’ bloodlines.

Likewise, when he separated the Mimic Relic from the mask, he could only transform into Corvinus and no one else.

In other words, the two artifacts had to be used together to access the additional abilities.

Upon hearing Turan’s analysis, Ashiz and Solif examined the two objects multiple times before tilting their heads in confusion.

“This is strange.”

“Right?”

“It really is.”

How could a nameless top-tier sacred relic left behind by the Preah God Tribe be paired with a mere magic artifact that House Varaha had been treating so carelessly?

At that moment, Turan proposed a theory.

“What if this sacred relic wasn’t originally such an incredible item?”

“What do you mean?”

“One of the questions I had back when we first went there was why neither the god nor the great sea serpent had turned into undead spirits. Even if the god remained unaffected because of its divine nature, at the very least, their magic power should have lingered.”

If someone had come first and absorbed the magic power, there would have been no reason to leave the Mimic Relic behind.

If, like the merfolk prince Armania, they had been unable to take it because they were not chosen, then at the very least, they could have taken the entire corpse.

The wizard who absorbed the power of the two beings would not have been as powerless as that baby shark.

“Wait... are you saying that this sacred relic absorbed the magic power of those two beings?”

“It’s just a guess, but think about it. Originally, it was just a pair of moderately powerful magic artifacts. One absorbed the power of a dead god and a mythical magical beast, becoming a sacred relic, while the other remained an ordinary magic artifact, circulating around for thousands of years.”

Turan had considered this theory before but had never been certain. The reason was that, for something that had supposedly absorbed the power of two divine beings, the Mimic Relic did not seem particularly impressive as a sacred relic.

It was certainly useful in many ways, but it was not on the level of a potion that could revive the dead or armor that granted immortality.

However, if that power had been accumulating without being fully utilized, and if the magic power of the three nobles had served as a catalyst to enhance the mask, then the theory started to make more sense.

Even though Turan’s reasoning had several leaps, Ashiz and Solif could not come up with a more plausible explanation, so they accepted it.

At that moment, Ashiz pointed at the Mimic Relic and asked,

“But is identifying bloodlines really that useful?”

Unlike Turan, most nobles did not bother to hide their bloodlines.

After all, bloodline abilities played a massive role in battles, making them difficult to conceal.

Turan replied to the skeptical Ashiz,

“This is a good chance to find out if there really are Zahar assassins inside Arabion.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Ashiz realize the true potential of this artifact.

No spy would be able to escape the scrutiny of the newly transformed sacred relics.

After completing the appraisal of the magic artifacts, Turan wandered through the Berg family’s annex, observing the people passing by.

From servants to knights, and even the occasional noble.

Among the nobles and knights, all of them displayed the symbols of the Enchanter Bloodline, an anvil and a hammer. Some knights also bore the symbol of a cloud imbued with lightning.

Surprisingly, even among commoners, there were a fair number who carried these symbols.

‘Well, my mother wasn’t a knight, yet she still had the Arabion bloodline...’

As he continued observing, Turan arrived at the Berg family’s stables.

There, a massive horse and a golden eagle were playing together.

“Having fun, Bije?”

[Turan! She's so dumb!]

Bije flapped its wings and landed, furiously stamping the ground while scribbling letters in the dirt.

From past experience, Turan knew that Tilly was a fairly intelligent horse. But to Bije, who could freely write words and form sentences, Tilly probably seemed frustratingly slow-witted.

"Don't be like that, just have fun. And don’t bully her.”

[I’m not bullying!]

Bije then launched into a long-winded complaint about how she had tried all sorts of games with Tilly, but the horse was too stupid to understand anything, leaving Bije exasperated.

Judging by Tilly’s indifferent expression, it was hard to tell if the horse truly did not understand or if it simply could not be bothered.

As Turan comforted Bije, he used his enhanced sacred relic to peer into her inner self.

‘An Arabion symbol... but it’s translucent.’

"Can you try making some wind? Not too strong, just a gentle breeze."

Like a good child, Bije immediately created a gentle wind that swept through the stables.

As soon as she did, the translucent symbol activated, and Turan could see a faint yellow glow resonating within his own body.

‘So Bije has the potential for the Storm Bloodline, but she needs a bonded partner to fully wield that power...’

Looking at Tilly beside it, Turan noticed that the horse had no such markings, indicating that not all magical beasts possessed this kind of latent potential.

It was unlikely that one of Bije’s ancestors had been a human with the Arabion bloodline. So why had Bije inherited this potential?

That, too, was a question worth pondering.

Afterward, Turan returned to his room and continued researching how to make full use of the mask.

This time, Turan attempted something different, not shaping the face of an actual person, whether living or dead, but creating the face of someone who did not exist at all.

At first, he tried crafting an entirely new face from scratch. However, it gave off an unbearable sense of awkwardness and discomfort. So instead, he changed his approach by slightly modifying the features of real people.

There was no shortage of faces to use as a base, both inside and outside the palace.

Each day, Turan observed the people he encountered, carefully memorizing their features. Then, at night, he would alter or combine them to create faces that had never existed.

A broad-featured and hearty young farmer, a lanky and frail-looking scholar, an elderly merchant with a hooked nose...

Just in case it ever became necessary, he also gave Solif and Ashiz the two sacred relics and had them practice using them. However, unexpectedly, neither of them could use them at all.

The Mimic Relic did not even grant its most basic effects to anyone other than Turan.

Thus, he spent about a week training alone with the mask.

Then, Haram, who had gone hunting wolves, finally returned.

“It’s been a while.”

“It has, Master!”

“Don’t call me that.”

Haram briefly masked his embarrassment with his usual gruff demeanor, but his eyes lit up when he noticed Solif standing nearby.

“You’ve trained well. Are you perhaps from a major house?"

"Huh? Ah, no... How could I be..."

When Haram had first seen him, he had only thought Solif had a sturdy build. But to the eyes of a seasoned expert who had dedicated his life to this field, something must have stood out.

Haram examined Solif’s physique, feeling different parts of his body and exclaiming in admiration before repeatedly questioning him about his training methods.

Since Solif could not exactly reveal that he had been trained within House Varaha, he simply claimed that he had learned from a wandering noble.

For Solif, it was an awkward interrogation, but for everyone else, it was an amusing spectacle.

Afterward, Turan attempted to train with Haram as before, but they had to stop soon after.

There was no equipment available that could handle Turan’s current physical abilities.

“You’ve grown strong.”

“I was lucky.”

Haram did not know what Turan’s bloodline was, but he could tell that Turan’s strength did not come from any inherent physical specialization.

Yet, with this level of physical ability, it meant that Turan had accumulated magical power on par with the high-ranking nobles.

“Hm.”

Haram seemed puzzled about how Turan had gained so much power in such a short time but did not press the issue.

Perhaps he assumed that Turan had resorted to some less-than-honorable means.

Regardless, having excessive magic power was not always a good thing.

By the time three weeks had passed, Turan realized that Meisa’s reply should have arrived long ago.

“Ashiz, how long does it usually take for a letter to travel between here and Morgen City?”

“At most, a week is enough. And if it’s between noble families, it should be even faster...”

Just to be sure, he asked Ashiz, but there was nothing particularly slow about Arabion’s communication network.

In other words, if Meisa had received the letter and sent a reply, it should have already arrived.

There were three possible reasons why it had not.

First, Meisa had read the letter and deliberately ignored it.

Second, Meisa had read the letter but was unable to respond.

Third, the letter had not been delivered properly.

Whichever it was, simply waiting would not resolve anything.

“I think I’ll have to go to Morgen City myself.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait until Solif’s arm is fully healed and then go together?”

Turan shook his head and placed a finger on his face.

“Normally, traveling together would be safer. But now, I have this. If all I need to do is sneak in, check things out, and leave, it’s actually easier to go alone.”

It was finally time to put the skills he had been practicing for the past few weeks to the test.