Revolution of the 8th Class Mage - Chapter 105

Chapter 105

The Tracks of an Artisan (3)

Just as Ian had expected, the village of Bordon wasn’t a normal village at all .

It had been a long time since the village was taken in the hands of the middle-aged man Jackson and twenty-something other swindlers, constantly exploiting the villagers who had originally lived there . Of course, the villagers weren’t aware that they were being cheated on by their young chief and his men . Jackson and his crew were quite a convincing cult group .

“The stew tastes really good . ” Ian said .

“Haha…ha . . that is . . quite a relief . Really . ”

Today was one of the few days travelers passed by since Jackson and his men had taken over the village and started living like royalty . Jackson was planning to revive his old skills .

However, things were not going as he expected from the start . Even though he had used up a whole bottle of sleeping pills, the light-brown haired traveler Lian didn’t even seem to be planning on passing out any time soon .

‘Why?’ Jackson thought to himself .

Was it because it was cheap? No, that wasn’t it . The reason for anything to be cheap would be because of its toxicity . That meant the pills itself should work perfectly .

‘Is it expired?’

Jackson’s logic only seemed to stop there . It was impossible for him to think beyond that . It was impossible for him to suspect the fault was with the traveler himself, not the medicine . He was already eating his third bowl .

‘This really tastes good . ’ Ian thought .

He was truly enjoying the stew . Looking back, he hadn’t had a normal meal like this since the age of twelve in his previous life .

It was a special meal he was enjoying in in thirty six years . In his hunger, however, it only seemed like a side dish .

‘It would have been a lot better if he hadn’t mixed in the pills . ’ Ian thought .

He was a magician .

Not just any magician . He was a Great Wizard .

He could stop pretty much any potion from having effect . But that was different from the taste and smell the pills had effect on the food .

‘By the way…’

Ian peered over at Jackson, the middle-aged chief . As Ian was clearing his bowls of stew, Jackson was doing his best not to show that he was perplexed . Jackson would never be able to trick Ian, but he was quite an actor .

‘Should I let him be . ’ Ian thought to himself .

There was a lot for him to keep an eye on . The statue that worked like an Artifact, and claiming the statue to be the symbol of the dragon cult . He could use force to get the information he wanted, but decided to see how things went along .

“By the way… about the statue . ” Ian started .

“Yes? Ah, the dragon statue . What about it?”

“It didn’t seem like any dragon statue . Did you make it yourself? Or did you bring it in from somewhere else?”

Jackson pondered on how he could answer this question .

What could be the best way to answer? He had to be convincing .

“It was… a few years ago . We brought in the statue when the drought went on longer than we expected . Things got better since then . The dragon statue is like a god to us . ”

It wasn’t a lie at all, although the details were a little different from reality .

He was telling the overall truth . It was a fact that there had been a drought, and it was also a fact that the dragon statue had been brought in around that time .

“Does the dragon truly respond to prayers?” Ian asked .

It was he who was fooling Jackson in this situation . Ian blinked with wonder, as if completely clueless . Even if Jackson was quite the actor himself, he couldn’t win Ian, who had all the wisdom after living two lives . One was not to speak of acting if they had never pretended to have the innocence, tone and shaking of a twelve year-old when they are actually forty-two .

“That iswhat we believe . ”

“Then would he answer to mine?”

“If you pray sincerely, I’m sure he would . ”

“Ohh . . “ Ian said in awe . It was a perfectly fake shout of wonder . “I would like to lift up a prayer as well, if that is possible for outsiders . As you probably know, it’s not everyday outsiders like myself get rare chances like this…”

“Of course,” Jackson said, “We can do that immediately . ”

He led Ian to the statue without hesitating . The villagers who had been doing their morning service were nowhere to be found . Perhaps the morning service was over .

“There is no particular rule in doing this . Just make yourself comfortable, and pray with all your heart . As long as you mean it, the dragon will definitely answer your prayers . ” Jackson said, pointing at the statue .

He seemed very convincing, as cults do .

“I’ll get out of the way for you . ” Jackson said, stepping away so ‘Lian’ could pray in peace . Ian, however, wasn’t thinking of praying . He wanted to see how the chief and the villagers would react if something out of the ordinary were to happen suddenly .

‘If this statue were to be broken…’ Ian thought, wondering what would happen if the foundation of this cult, this statue, that is, would lose its power . How would the villagers react?

‘Let me see your true identity . ’ Ian thought, smiling slightly to himself as he reeled in his powers .

His counterpart was a mere shoddy statue .

‘Spell Disorder . ’

The way the Artifact conjured up magic was the same way a magician did . That meant it was also weak against the strongest spell that could interrupt any operation of spell techniques – the Spell Disorder .

“Oh, Great Dragon . Light the way for me for my remaining journey . May I find the truth that I am looking for on this journey, and please help me get back home safely . ” Ian called out in a loud voice for everyone to hear .

‘How to rob of him?’ Jackson thought to himself as he listened to Ian’s ‘prayers’ .

Jackson had been keeping a close eye on this so-called traveler ‘Lian’, who was praying . If he was here all the way from Greenriver, it meant he had been on a long journey .

Even so, his robes were in good state, and his skin looked healthy . It was proof that he had been sleeping and eating well on his journey . He was certain ‘Lian’ had a fine budget he was traveling on .

‘He does seem capable of taking care of himself . ’

It seemed ‘Lian’ was traveling without any bodyguard despite the large amount of money he was carrying around . He had defended himself easily, despite Cleven’s stab with his blade . This meant he was confident in martial arts enough to protect himself .

‘I will gather my men in advance, and then we will distract him . ’ Jackson thought .

It shouldn’t be too difficult distracting him alone to a quiet place where no one was around . Soon, he would see the dragon respond to his prayer, and he would start getting interested .

Then, all Jackson would have to do was convince him . Tell him he was there was something better to show him . . anything would work . There was a lot to trick him with .

“…”

But things were going strange .

Jackson was sure the statue it would start soon .

The lighting up of the statue, that is .

‘What the…?’

Just that morning, during the morning service of the villagers, the statue had lit up just fine .

But why did it stop all of a sudden?

‘Is it broken? Is that even possible?’

All this time, ever sine ‘he’ had sculpted the statue, it had never gone wrong . He was sure of it . SO why was it breaking down now, after all this time?

‘Dang it! Not helpful at all . ’

This was a disaster . It wasn’t that Jackson could call him to fix the statue in front of that traveler ‘Lian’ and the villagers . He needed a solution .

“Hmm… I prayed with all my heart, but it looks like it’s not enough . He’s not responding…” Ian murmured, looking at the chief . He sounded a lot more disappointed than he looked .

“Of . . of course not . There are times when we do not get answers either . Especially after morning service . Why don’t you try attending another service later on?”

“Another worship service?”

“We constantly have services for the dragon in this village . If you are not in a hurry, how about staying at our town for the night? We will lend you a room to stay in, too . ”

“No need for that…” Ian started to refuse, but the chief Jackson waved his hand dismissively .

“It has always been rare for our village to have guests . Every single one of our guests are special to us . If you leave without being satisfied, we will not rest easy as well . ”

Jackson could be quite convincing . He had the dignity of a cult leader .

“Well… . If you say so… alright . ”

It wasn’t a bad offer for Ian as well . If he pretended to lodge in the room they offered, he might be able to find out how they would take care of the broken statue .

“Come right this way . Let me lead you to the room you will be staying . ”

Ian was led to a special room to the right side of Jackson’s cottage . In first impression, it seemed to be like a reception room for guests .

‘I will wait until he lets his guard down . Then, we hunt . ’ Jackson thought to himself as he left the room he had led ‘Lian’ to . Fixing the statue was his top priority . For the sake of fooling that rich traveler and taking his money . For the sake of exploiting all the foolish villagers .

“Oi, Collin!” Ian called one of his servants .

It was the same villager who had asked him how the morning service should be carried on .

He was a bulky, vicious-looking fellow .

“Were you looking for me, brother- I mean, Chief?”

“Bring that boy to me immediately . ”

“It seemed like his mental illness was relapsing again earlier . ”

Jackson took out a vial . It was a vial filled with dark purple liquid .

“This is a tranquilizer . Feed this to him and bring him to me . Quickly!”

“Yes . . yes sir . I’ll be right back . ”

“And Estavan!”

Another servant came rushing in .

Unlike Collin, he had a small figure .

“You take the boys and keep the villagers at bay . Do not let them come anywhere near the statue, am I clear? Also, keep an eye on our guest – do you understand?”

“Yes chief . ”

Time went by and soon, the vicious-looking servant Collin brought someone .

No – he was dragging someone over .  Maybe he did have his tranquilizer, because he appeared to be dazed, drunk with the medicine .

It was Cleven . It was the crazed child who had tried to attack and frame Ian as an assassin after teleporting out of thin air .

“Sorry about earlier . Did we not have a guest present? I hope you understand, for you are such a nice child . ” Jackson said, patting Cleven on the head .

The boy seemed to have calmed from having a fit earlier .

The purple tranquilizer seemed to be working .

“So . . the reason we summoned you is because of . . the statue . Thanks to your statue, we’ve been able to . . Ehem! Anyways, we seem to have a problem . Would you mind taking a look for us?”

The boy Cleven walked over to the stone statue . He still seemed dazed, drunk in the medicine, but he glared at the statue with bright eyes .

“…”

Cleven quietly held up his tools and hammer . He then started to hit the dragon statue all over . He seemed to be overdoing it when Chief Jackson had specifically asked him to fix it . It was as if he were destroying the statue .

“Well, do you think you can fix it?”

Jackson didn’t seem to be bothered by Cleven’s actions .

BAM! BAAM! BANG! BAM!

Of course, Cleven didn’t answer . He simply went on waving his tools and hammer around, hitting the statue . The statue that was already shoddy looking looked shoddier than before .

“Be more careful . It needs to keep its form of a dragon!”

Cleven went on with his hammering, not bothered by what anyone was saying to him . On some parts, he went full force, while seeming to engrave something on the bottom of the statue . Just when his unique fixer-upper process was coming to an end, Jackson spoke up .

“Are you done? Did you fix it?”

“…”

“That’s the problem with this medicine . ” Jackson muttered, clicking his tongue .

He walked up to the statue and started muttering whatever came to mind .

“Please help us to keep doing this . . and uhm . . also . . ”

Just then, a stream of light burst from the statue . The Spell Disorder Ian had cast over the statue was broken . The crazy boy had broken the spell with his hammer .

“Yes!” Jackson shouted in triumph and gestured over to his servant, signaling him to take Cleven back .

He didn’t bother to award Cleven, let alone give him a compliment .

“Come with me . ” Collin grunted . The vicious-looking servant grabbed Cleven by the neck and took him back home . Cleven’s house was a storage in an isolated part of Bordon Village, with a lock on the door .

“Stay in here until you get back to your senses,” Collin ordered . He shut the door with a BANG .

The door was locked with a clicking sound, but Cleven remained quiet . He simply stared into space .

“I… don’t remember…” Cleven muttered for the first time since he had his medicine . His voice was a different from when he was yelling at Ian earlier, calling him an assassin . His voice seemed much more mature .

“Who… am I?”

Nobody would be able to hear his question .

The moment the question slipped from his mouth, a man’s soft voice answered in reply .

“I’m wondering that, too . ”

At the same time, a body slowly appeared out of thin air .

“Who are you, that you are capable of handling Artifacts?”

It was the light brown-haired traveler .

Ian had stepped out of his Transparency Spell .