Abe the Wizard

“I’ll leave, alright? Okay! I got it! I’ll leave! Aggh!”

The red-cloaked wizard started to behave when he saw the black-cloaked dwarven wizard’s badge. Not just that, though. From what he was being told, he very well might just be the reason that Wizard Cliff would be banned from the city. If that actually was the case, he was pretty much a dead man.

After bowing to the black-cloaked dwarven wizard, the red-cloaked wizard started running towards the Blacksmith Union headquarter. When he did, however, he ran into a wall of qi that blocked him from going forward.

As it turned out, he was already on the so-called “blacklist.” From this point onward, he was not allowed to use any teleportation circles located inside Cina City. Luckily for him, it only takes about several miles of journey to get to Moga City. He could still go back to the Kingdom of St. Ellis by going there.

As Abel watched the red-cloaked wizard fleeing, the corner of his lips started raising ever so slightly. Since he had the transformation necklace on him, it could hide all the murderous intent he had for that man. The black-cloaked dwarven wizard said as he bowed to Abel, “It’s an honor to see you here, Master Abel! My name is Valen.”

Abel returned the bow, “Greetings, Wizard Valen. Thank you so much for your help.”

Abel didn’t expect an advanced wizard to be so polite to him. They were among the best fighters throughout the whole continent, after all.

Valen continued to smile in an overly-kind way, “I’m so sorry what you went through, Master Abel. The city could’ve done so much better than that to protect the safety of travelers like you.”

“Don’t worry, though. From this point on, I guarantee you, sir, you will not be harassed like this again!”

After Valen said that, he bowed to Abel again and disappeared. A white light just took him away. He was going somewhere that Abel couldn’t see, and he was murmuring something to himself. “Oh sweet! Now that I’ve done something for him, I can ask a favor in return when I need it! You really outdid yourself back there, didn’t you Valen? You could’ve let the other wizards do the job, but you had to be a great little helper to Master Abel, didn’t you?” Obviously, Abel didn’t know about Valen’s schemes. He just thought that the guy was pretty nice to help him out. That being said, he had no idea why Rawl was so surprised to see him here. He had no idea about how strange it was for an advanced wizard to show for a little confrontation between a traveler and a novice wizard. That, and how different Valen was acting in contrast to his reputation as a super-aggressive wizard.

Rawl immediately became aware of something. Whatever reasons Valen had, he was trying to suck up to Abel. He wasn’t going to say that out loud, of course.

As soon as Abel walked into the giant castle, the first thing he noticed was how neat everything was. In contrast to the rough appearance of the area that was outside, the inside was laid with neat, flat black iron tiles. The floor was made completely out of black hematite, and it was all processed into black iron floor tiles.

There was a giant hallway inside. There was a fountain which, under the reflection of the sunlight, revealed a rainbow that poured on two beautiful stone statues. One of them was a depiction of Greygenni, of which Abel recognized. The other one, however, he did not know.

“Master Abel,” Rawl whispered, “That’s Varaya, the goddess of healing and protection. She’s the wife of the great Greygenni!”

When Abel looked towards the other side, he saw a garden with many humans, elves, and dwarves in it. As it turned out to be, race was not a particularly important factor in this place.

Rawl jumped down from his chocobo, “If you’ll allow me to, Master Abel, I’ll now guide your mount to a resting spot. From here onward, we are only allowed to move with our feet.”

“No, thank you. I’ll do it myself,” Abel replied, then put Black Wind into his portal beast ring. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if Black Wind would like being inside a resting spot. It might get uncomfortable and start howling at the other animals. With that mind, it’s for the best if he was taking care of it himself.

“A portal beast bag!” Rawl covered his mouth in awe. It was the first time he had seen one on a human. Like the portal bracelet (which belonged to dwarves), the elven portal beast bag was not meant to be accessed by any outsiders. They were meant to be wartime supplies, something that was owned entirely by the highest of the highest authorities.

Instead of putting Bartoli’s warhorse inside his portal beast ring, Abel decided to put it inside his portal beast bag. He didn’t want to frighten the horse with all his other summoned creatures, so it was for the best to make separate rooms.

After handing the chocobo to a servant on the side, Rawl brought Abel closer to the fountain. He then pointed towards a dark hole that was carved into the shape of a pouch.

“There, Master Abel. That’s where you’re supposed to make the offerings.”

While Abel didn’t share any of the same faith that the dwarves had, he had a lot of respect for those who have achieved great things in the past. He was perfectly willing to hand the black hematite piece over.

When he did, a teleportation spell was activated from inside the pouch. Then, suddenly, the giant Greygenni statue on top of the city started blasting out a golden light at him. It all happened so fast. He had no way to react to it. Luckily, it didn’t seem to pose any threat to him. All that it did was to make his body glisten in gold for a bit.

Rawl said ecstatically, “You are truly blessed by the spirits, Master Abel! Countless people have come here to make their offerings, but only a few could receive a direct blessing of the Great One! Actually, you are the only one who did this year!”

“What does this, uh, blessing do?” Abel asked in confusion.

Rawl responded, “Well, according to the legends, you’ll have a much higher success rate in whatever craft that you’ll be making.”

As good as that sounded, it wasn’t really of much use for Abel. He already had a very high success rate in crafting his weapons. That being said, this blessing didn’t really make much of a difference to him.

Apart from him, though, everyone else seemed to care so much about it. In the hallway alone, about ten dwarves, six humans, and two elves have all received a notification on their mast blacksmith badge. They were all told about how Master Abel had received a direct blessing from the Great Greygenni.

The wizards and knights also learned about it. The knights, especially, seemed to care a lot. If they could make Abel make a weapon for them, the quality of whatever product that he made was guaranteed to be good.

Abel didn’t know, though. Actually, nor did he care that much. He was more focused on the master blacksmith gathering event.

“How many master blacksmiths are there right now?”

Rawl replied after counting for a bit, “Well, sir, all the dwarven masters that could come are already here. There are also six human masters and two elven masters. If we are not counting on any more to come, you should be the last one here today.”

“Oh, no!” Abel’s eyes widened, “Hurry up and take me to the gathering place, then. I can’t have all those masters wait for me!”

As soon as Abel started walking, a grey-cloaked human wizard came up to him and bowed.

“Master Abel,” the grey-cloaked human wizard greeted, “The Wizard Union of the Kingdom of St. Pierrt sends their regards.”

As confused as Abel was, he decided to return the bow first. He had heard of the Kingdom of St. Pierrt before, but he literally had nothing to do with them. Were they going after him for the warrant as well?

The grey-cloaked wizard continued to speak, “Rest assured, Master Abel. While you are a wanted man by the Kingdom of St. Ellis, that has nothing to do with us. In the same way, they can’t interfere with what we do with you. If you are interested in going back to the human world, you are always welcomed to pay a visit to our nation.”

“Master Marian has told me about you before. He’s an advanced wizard himself, and he’s always told me that if I ever get to see you, I must invite you over the St. Pierrt Wizard Union.”