Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

From the timber business to the lumberjacks, everyone was watching him. If this were misunderstood as a compromise with the crude druids and a betrayal of the loyal wood-loving people, the impact would be huge.

The surrounding lords began to get involved in the war between the emperor and the grand duke. Although he repeatedly sat on the fence and watched on the grounds that the timber resources of Xinmu City could not be damaged, everyone knew that this was not a long-term solution.

Even after repeatedly compromising with the druids in the wilderness, Xinmu City still produced a large amount of timber, which in turn brought him a large amount of gold income. What both sides of the war needed most, besides people, was money.

However, Earl Xinmu did not intend to throw the savings accumulated by generations of the Wood family into the vortex of war - at least he could make some noise for the chickens and ducks that climbed into his bed!

"You don't like these? You have a big appetite." Seeing that Reslaufer was still not speaking, Earl Xinmu couldn't help but feel unhappy. "By the way, you even alarmed those masters. Why? Do you want a place as a magic apprentice?"

"This thing is indeed precious, but it's not impossible to select one for you. But let me tell you, you're not young anymore. Even if you start learning magic now, how much can you achieve? And it's not something I can decide on my own. Whether those masters are willing to accept you is another matter. You—"

Before Earl Xinmu could finish his rambling, he saw the robed guard named Thomson suddenly knock open the door of the reception room and rushed in rashly. Earl Xinmu was about to scold him when he heard the apprentice shouting breathlessly:

"My lord! Master Jonata is at the door!"

Earl Xinmu suddenly stood up and was about to come out from behind the table to greet him, but he heard a hoarse middle-aged man's voice approaching from outside the door:

"Please rest, my Lord. I smell the scent of heather. It would be better not to overwork your waist."

Leslaufer turned his head and saw a bald man who was about the same height as him but thinner walked in. He was wearing a black cloth robe that was washed to a pale color and had dark circles under his eyes that were even darker than the earl's.

"I heard someone killed a jackal outside the city. Can someone explain this to me in detail?" The visitor's sharp eyes scanned the room, finally landing on Reslaufer. "Also, where is the body now?"

Chapter 52 Master Jonata

The jackal's body was quickly dragged in, but Angelita had no intention of holding back. It was difficult to find a mouth to speak on the monster's head. Even the master of arcane had to give up the idea of making the dead speak and instead listened to Leslaufer's narration of the whole process.

"Thank you for your contribution to Xinmu City, sir." After Reslaufer finished his narration, the magician's expression softened considerably and he nodded at the mercenary. "You can call me Master Jonata. I have been studying necromancy for over forty years."

"what's your name?"

"Racelaufer."

Facing a magician, Reslaufer wasn't overly afraid. At this distance, if the other party wasn't adequately prepared in a clash, they probably wouldn't escape death at the hands of the mercenaries. He was simply curious; even among magicians, there seemed to be very few who called themselves "masters."

It sounds a bit boastful, but maybe this means that he... doesn't live up to his reputation?

Reslaufer noticed that the other party's eyes seemed to change slightly at this moment, as if they had overheard his inner thoughts, but he did not say anything more. Instead, he looked over the mercenary's shoulder and directly at the ears of the pack of gnolls:

"Those are your spoils? Have you handed them over to the Count?"

"Not yet, it's just a proof," Earl Xinmu said quickly. "Although this package isn't as visually appealing as the materials from the other chambers of commerce, the quantity is comparable. The four of you should discuss and decide together—by the way, why haven't the other three arrived yet?"

The Mage Tower in Xinmu City is not close to his residence, but this distance actually doesn't mean much to a mage. Logically speaking, they should have come here at about the same time, but now only Jonata is here.

"They won't come," Master Jonata stated calmly, stating a fact. "I didn't ask Thomson to notify them."

"Uh, you..."

"My recent research happens to require a large number of gnoll ears, and even hyena ears," the black-robed wizard said, waving his hand forward. The bloody package fell into his hands. "I will pay this gentleman double the purchase price in gold coins under your notarization. This will be considered a private purchase. I don't need to report anything I do to them, right?"

"Then you will need to pay an additional compensation to the Empire, Master," the Earl said, seemingly accustomed to this. He simply reminded him, "His Majesty did not confer the title upon you so that you could profit from it."

Jonata snorted, obviously dissatisfied with the words coming from the earl's mouth, but rules are rules.

Like Count Xinmu, it would be best if he could avoid being dragged into the Empire's internal wars. There was no need to give him a reason to be criticized over such a trivial matter. If he were to be captured and inducted into the Emperor's mage corps, he would have to face off against the Grand Duke's spellcasters. Whether Jonata would continue to be a necromancer or a mage's undead spirit would be beyond his control.

"I don't have that much cash."

The wizard first handed over the compensation to Earl Xinmu, but when he took out more gold coins from the same palm-sized cloth bag again, his face became embarrassed.

In the empire more than half a century after the implementation of the "Magic Flow Decree", the vast majority of magic items were uniformly prepared by the emperor and several great nobles. Even these magicians who were known among ordinary people for their ability to "turn stones into gold" would inevitably encounter such difficulties when faced with rare magic materials.

"You can take only a portion of them," Reslaufer stared at the gold coins the other party took out. Only a small amount of them were old imperial gold coins, while the majority were new coins. "I heard that spellcasters have their own specialized organization. Perhaps you can still buy them all?"

"Not worth it," Ionata snorted. The black-robed mage was a little curious about how the other party knew all this, but considering those ice-blue eyes, perhaps this mercenary knew another mage somewhere. "Explaining the purpose to those misers..."

Taking his own money and explaining the purpose? Reslaufer was a little surprised. So how did 'he'...

The mercenary interrupted his thoughts in time, and he saw the necromancer looking at him curiously again.

Go on, go on, could your acquaintance actually get around this?! Jonata roared inwardly, but no matter what, after the warrior became alert, he couldn't overhear a single word of his inner thoughts.

A tough guy, Jonata silently judged. He hadn't delved deeper into his mind, so logically, this little trick shouldn't have gone unnoticed. But this mercenary, Reslaufer, not only noticed something was amiss, but even managed to stop it. This was something Jonata had rarely encountered in his forty-plus years dealing with all manner of living and undead creatures. And none of his previous targets had been easy to deal with.

"In that case, I can only say I'm sorry." Having caught the opponent's tail twice, Reslaufer's patience was quickly running out. He pushed the opponent's gold coins back and put away his ears again. "I think I should go through the formal procedures, Lord Count, Master Jonata."

"Don't!"

Jonata was really anxious this time. He had already paid the money to Count Xinmu! It was not easy to get the money back after a noble had taken it! "Mr. Leslaufer, I apologize for my behavior just now! We can think of other ways!"

"Gold is always a good thing, Master," Leslaufer said with an apologetic smile. He didn't intend to expose the other party. Provoking him with words would only make him more alert, and making a wizard prepared would be disadvantageous to him. "I'm afraid those magic props of yours are of no use to me."

He now has two scrolls in his hand, but they are not as useful to him as papyrus.

"I know. I wanted to use another method." Jonata interrupted him. The wizard reached out to grab Leslaufer's injured right hand, which was still swollen. The latter was shocked by this unguarded opportunity and did not stop Jonata's action.

His right hand was injured now and not as flexible as his left hand, but it could still be used to break a few fragile joints and bones.

"Your hand is injured. What happened?" The wizard, who spent most of his life in books and laboratories, was completely oblivious to the murderous intent that was constantly waiting for an opportunity to be unleashed. He simply looked at the mercenary with anticipation. "Your hand seems to have some weak curse and potential poison on it. Although neither is serious, going to the church will definitely cost a lot of money."

"I can heal it for you, and in return I'd like your bag of Gnoll ears. What do you think?"

Chapter 53: Evil Weapons

"If you want to buy it privately, it'll cost you twice as much," Reslaufer warned. "That doesn't sound like a good deal to me, does it?"

"But if you get these materials through regular channels, you won't get even half of it, let alone double it!" Jonata couldn't help but raise his voice. At a certain moment, his impression of Reslaufer was completely overturned - this was not a tough guy at all, he was just an insatiable mercenary!

However, the next words from Reslaufer extinguished the black-robed wizard's anger:

"What if I go peddle outside the other three wizard towers? What are you going to do?"

Count Xinmu, who had been happily watching the show from the side, flushed crimson, his shoulders shaking unconsciously. "Mr. Leslaufer, I must remind you that the imperial law forbids the private sale of magical materials."

But those three arcane masters would "purchase it from private individuals" at a high price, and in the presence of him, an orthodox noble of the empire.

"But I have nothing more to give you!" Master Jonata argued angrily, "What else do you want? My Mage Tower?!"

It was just a bag of gnoll ears! If it weren't for the sheer volume of these things, he wouldn't have endured this humiliation! The last time he held his breath like this was when he was a mage apprentice!

"I have something to show you," Leslough slowly untied his backpack with his left hand and took out a few things. "You said before that you couldn't risk getting the money. Can you do that now?"

"A scroll of Thunder Wave and Blade Protection, plus a potion of Fire Resistance. Not much to look at," Jonata said after a quick glance. He knew what these "gadgets" were for. "Wherever you got them from, their previous owner might have treasured them, but in my opinion, they're nothing special."

"What about this?" With a "click", a crudely made three-headed flail was placed on the earl's desk by the mercenary. The evil aura emanating from it almost immediately triggered an alarm device under the earl's desk. Within just a few seconds, a large group of guards rushed out like hornets and blocked the inside and outside of the house.

"Go back! Go back!" Count Xinmu waved his hands to block the guards outside his bedroom door, refusing to let them in to search. "There's only a confiscated flail here! It's all a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!"

"Even I didn't expect your alarm system to be so sensitive." When the guards who had just made a false alarm dispersed, Yonata looked at the master of Xinmu City with a hint of surprise. "Why did you...?"

"The Emperor said the Archduke was instigated by the devil, and the Archduke said His Majesty sold his soul to the devil. What can I do? I'm just a small count." The count, who finally avoided a public death in front of his men, slumped in his chair like a dead dog. "Alright, Master, my little trick is not worthy of your attention. Why don't you take a look at this weapon? Is it from the devil or the devil?"

"A demon, without a doubt." Ionatha carefully used a layer of magic to form a thin film, completely covering his palm before daring to pick up the weapon belonging to the werewolf. "A typical werewolf weapon, modeled after the 'Butcher' in the hands of the evil, bloodthirsty beast, the demon lord Yeenoghu. However, most of these things are just poor imitations, and this one..."

"Is this the real one?" Count Xinmu waited for the black-robed wizard to nod, then he immediately crawled under the table and blocked his retreat with a chair.

"How is that possible?" Jonata glared at the man with disdain. "This is still a replica, only slightly more realistic. It's infected with an extremely thin trace of the abyss's aura, giving this weapon the power of poison and curse."

"It seems that your hand was injured because of fighting this, Mr. Reslaufer."

"Such an evil weapon should be immediately sent to the church for disposal!" Earl Xinmu quickly stated, "It would be best to send it to the temple of Aston, the god of fire and light. Their priests hate evil just as much as their god does, and they will surely be able to properly dispose of this evil object!"

"Let me remind you that the current Archbishop Aston stands on the side of the Grand Duke's imperial faction." Jonata glanced at the earl.

"Then send it to Lady Suni's temple. She... never mind. They're on the Emperor's side." Count Xinmu sighed and waved his hand as if exhausted. "There's nothing we can do. For the sake of peace in Xinmu City, and to prevent its people from being dragged into the flames of war, Master Jonata, I authorize you to dispose of this evil weapon."

"You won't let me down, right?"

"It will be as you wish."

The black-robed wizard solemnly saluted the earl, then turned to look at Reslaufer. "Mr. Reslaufer, please wait a moment. I will make up the missing gold coins. This is to study the evil power of the gnolls and alleviate the urgent needs of Xinmu City."

As one of Xinmu City's four masters, Jonata naturally couldn't go personally to withdraw the money, so he dispatched his loyal apprentice, Thomson, to run the errand, even using the spells "Grease the Feet" and "Stride" to expedite the young man's return. Watching the young man dash out of the Earl's mansion like a whirlwind, even Reslaufer couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of magic.

It turned out that the wizard was not very afraid of being engaged in close combat with someone like him - if the opponent wanted to escape like this, how could he catch up with only two legs?

Jonata, still secretly performing a mind-detection on Reslaufer, rolled his eyes and nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. A barbarian is a barbarian! That can never be changed!

Just a second ago, I was marveling at the wonderful uses of magic. Is this all magic is used for?!

Because the mage had deliberately remained silent, Reslaufer was unable to catch his expression or eyes, and naturally, he was unaware of the eavesdropping. But Thomson had left and returned just as quickly. When Jonata took the large bag of coins from his apprentice and handed it to the mercenary, the mage ceased his fruitless spying.

"I'll buy your two scrolls and potion as well," Ionatha said, looking at Raslaufer who was counting the items. "And this flail. Although it's a magical weapon, due to its evil power, it won't do you any good to use it. And I see you don't seem to be used to it, are you?"

"I dare not keep such an evil weapon with me," Leslaufer smiled at the wizard, stretched out his right hand, and pushed the bag of ears over. "Then, Master, I'll trouble you from now on. In order to, uh... study the evil power of the gnolls."

"For Xinmu City." Jonata put away the magic materials with a solemn expression.

Chapter 54 The World After the Ceremony

Once again, it was Thomson, the young apprentice wizard, who took on the important task of running errands, quickly returning to his master's wizard tower to fetch all the spell materials Jonata needed. Removing curses was usually the job of priests and clerics, but as a scholar specializing in necromancy, Jonata could also achieve similar results through other means.

"Place a cat's eye in the northwest corner. Place an emerald between two pieces of blood wax. Opposite the emerald, we need an equal amount of obsidian. And we also need some bleached... Thomson!"

Jonata's menacing eyes glared accusingly at the apprentice who had done something wrong. "Didn't I tell you that what we need is the whitened moon salt? Why did you only give me the blackened version? Are you planning on having me make it right here?"

"I'm sorry, teacher..." The poor apprentice, who was frightened half to death, shrank his neck and stammered, "I don't know..."

"You really don't know!" Because there were outsiders present, Jonata suppressed his anger and pointed at the door. "I'll give you one more chance. If you disappoint me again, prepare to sleep with those skeleton zombies for a month!"

"Blackening, whitening?" Reslaufer stood at the center of the ritual array. At this moment, the array was already in a semi-activated state, waiting for the last thing to be ready before it could start working and remove the curse on Reslaufer's hand. However, due to the apprentice's carelessness, he had to wait a little longer.

Are black and white really that hard to tell apart? The mercenary was puzzled. He saw that the mage was holding a conical flask filled with black powder. So, literally speaking, the albino moon salt should be white... right?

"Blackening, whitening, yellowing, and redening—these are the four stages of alchemy," Ionatha said slowly, glancing at the mercenary. "In a narrow sense, alchemy refers to the process of transforming base metals like copper, iron, tin, and lead into precious metals, but it now applies to a wider range of fields."

"Blackening can free matter from its old state, returning it to its original chaotic state, while whitening is a further combination and condensation. In this ritual, we need the latter more, not just the product of blackening."

"As for color, unfortunately, most alchemical products don't adhere to these four colors. Therefore, after bleaching, the moon salt is still gray-black. However, if you understand alchemy, you can detect its internal changes."

While waiting for the clumsy apprentice, Jonata was happy to show off his knowledge. After all, not only Reslaufer but also Earl Xinmu was listening.

Seeing that the black-robed wizard was gradually making the topic more and more obscure, Leslaufer wisely locked his mind, not allowing this soliloquist to continue prying into his thoughts.

When Thomson returned to the room again, he finally got the right materials. Under the control of Jonata's magic, the moon salt that looked no different from the blackened product was evenly sprinkled in the magic circle. An invisible flame suddenly ignited, evaporating the whitened moon salt into a ring of silver-white smoke, and at the same time igniting the blood-red candles and various gems around it.

Standing in the magic circle, Reslaufer could no longer hear Jonata's chanting outside. He subconsciously held his breath, trying to prevent the powder from being inhaled into his nose, but this did not seem to be very effective. As the numbness of the wound on his right hand gradually faded, the piercing pain pierced his brain. Reslaufer was surprised to find that his breathing became weaker and weaker, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not change this situation.

In his field of vision, the silver-white smoke around him gradually faded away, and the place outside was no longer Earl Xinmu's residence, but a completely unfamiliar and bizarre world that he had never seen before.

Huge rocks were floating upside down in the air, and under the mercenaries' feet there was only the vast starry sky. Reslaufer even felt light as if he was floating in the air.

"Master Jonata? Jonata!" Reslaufer began to shout, but there was no response except his own voice. "What have you done? Let me out!"

Then break the liar's neck!

"You can't get out, ever. Hehe."

Just as Reslaufer was trying to find a way out, a sinister voice suddenly floated into his ears. The mercenary turned around quickly and saw a half-jackal, half-human monster also floating in the air, looking at him with hatred.

That jackal? How did it appear here?

The twisted and evil creature seemed to be more adapted to this environment than Reslaufer himself. It floated leisurely in front of Reslaufer, but the moment the mercenary swung his fist, it flew dozens of meters away. "You killed me once, and you actually want to kill me a second time? Don't dream! This is my territory—my master's territory!"

"Where is this?"

"Where is this? Shouldn't you be very familiar with this place, Butcher?" The Jackal said sarcastically, "I can see it. I can see the phantoms of the victims you killed. They surround you and are reluctant to leave. But I guess you've never seen them, right?"

"Not anymore."

The jackal pretended to make gestures, and soon, one after another, phantoms that Reslaufer remembered or not remembered appeared from the surrounding starry sky and surrounded the mercenaries.

"This is what you get! How dare you kill me? I'm a demon! That big, stupid gnoll didn't know how to use the power of his flail, but I'm different!"

The phantom of the strong werewolf leader roared in dissatisfaction. At this moment, there was a sword stuck in its chest, but its ferocity remained undiminished.

"You have stepped into the realm of the power of the abyss. Face your fate, mortal!" The jackal excitedly raised his hands and shouted, "Go, go! Let us tear apart this mortal who killed us! He will pay for this! Now, it's our turn!"

More phantoms materialized, enveloping Reslaufer in layers. The jackal phantom wasn't among them. As cunning as in life, it forgoes the chance for personal revenge, eager to witness how the defenseless humans in this environment would be torn apart by the hateful phantoms. After all, armor and weapons were useless here.

But what the jackals had never expected was that the phantoms that they thought would riot if they added fuel to the fire were surprisingly silent. Even the jackal leader had no intention of taking a single step forward. On the contrary, when Reslaufer cast his gaze on the phantom of the jackal, all the other phantoms turned to this monster at the same time.

They surrounded Reslaufer, saying nothing, but their movements were remarkably consistent with those of the mercenaries. They didn't seem to be besieging him at all, but rather... protecting him!

Chapter 55 Illusion

"This... this is impossible!" Hua Chai screamed, "This is absolutely impossible! You are all killed by him just like me, why don't you tear him apart? You should take revenge!"

"Go, go! Kill him!" "I command you in the name of the Abyss! I command you in the name of my supreme master, the Demon Lord Graz'zt!"