Luge's heart was in his throat. Of course, he admitted frankly to himself that it wasn't only worry over the little chrysalis worm-person. Even though he still had four spells left unmastered, Demonic Form among them, he wanted to go into the city and look for that legendary magical spring. Even if there were no more spells for him to learn, he could still practice the Demonic Mark Meditation Method, and his progress there would surely be quick. Back when he used Clear Mind Potions, he had already felt that they worked wonders for training and mastering the runes of the meditation method.
Go, Baonte! Let's see your resolve!
Be a man and be fearless! Hit him! Hit that handsome, hairless face of his!
As if he had heard Luge shouting in his heart, Baonte, who had not said a word all this time, flashed with several ripples of spell power in quick succession and shot forward. At some point a longsword had appeared in his hand; this was the first time Luge had seen him use a sword. The two heavily armored guards were no slower, but in a single flicker they were cut diagonally in two, and the apprentice wizard in the fine robe, wooden staff in hand, used the opening to pull back out of reach of the blade.
Still retreating, as though some force were dragging at him from behind, the robed apprentice wizard swung his staff, and in an instant countless fire bolts twisted into being in midair, all aimed straight at the charging burly man.
In a moment they swallowed him whole.
Luge was the most unusual of the apprentices around him. He wasn't watching those strangely shaped fire bolts at all; he was watching the longsword in Baonte's hand, and the two corpses that had been cleanly split apart on the diagonal.
His thoughts turned over and over, but there was always something that didn't fit, something he couldn't reason his way through.
"Hahaha! After all these decades, you still think like a knight—and knights are only fit to be guards," the robed apprentice said, though the spellwork in his hands never stopped. "You racked your brains to unravel a first-ring spell, and you chose Stone Fist. Wasting time and resources. A coarse man like you will never get far on this path."
The chance was rare, and Luge stared hard, watching closely. It was just as he had thought: a fight between apprentice wizards came down mainly to fixed spells, which could be unleashed wildly and freely without fear of interruption—quick to cast and low in cost. They could be paired with other spells for support, or one could pursue alterations to the spells themselves. And that apprentice's staff and robe were obviously not there merely to look good.
Suddenly the robed apprentice's body jerked to a halt, as if a force had caught at him from the side rather than meeting him head-on.
Baonte burst out of the smoke and dust, fast as lightning. In that moment the fire bolts closing on him slowed as they came near; with his skill he flickered past them, and not one in ten found its mark—and these were originally extremely fast bolts. Had they been ordinary fire bolts, they might as well have been snails crawling. His snow-bright silver longsword swept toward the robed apprentice like a ghost.
The obviously expensive staff snapped at once. The robed apprentice dodged another strike, his expression very grim.
Luge inwardly lamented the waste. He glanced left and right, wanting to move farther off, but seeing that the fire man and the elf were still here at the campfire, he didn't shift his feet; he only edged a little closer to the elf.
"You actually succeeded?"
The robed apprentice wizard reined in his feelings and looked calmly at Baonte's hands where they gripped the sword.
"Not yet. But it's enough. Unraveling a first-ring spell isn't that easy—and it isn't as hard as I imagined," Baonte said.
"So if you had gone all out in that first burst, you would already have been able to kill me..." The robed apprentice seemed not to have heard the second half of that; very much concerned, he confirmed the guess in his heart once again.
Baonte said nothing. His legs bent slightly, and then—bang!
The apprentices around them all cried out in shock.
The arm of the robed apprentice wizard that held the broken staff was already tumbling through the air, and layer after layer of spells Luge didn't recognize—spells that made him harder to beat—all shattered, their light scattering and fading away.
At the same moment, a fire bolt drawn out long and thin was easily dodged by Baonte.
The robed apprentice stared at Baonte with a calm face for a long while, then suddenly bowed, picked up his own arm, and turned to leave. At the same time, the black claw high above that had been holding the little crybaby worm-person also vanished without a trace.
Luge looked up but could not make out the little chrysalis worm-person's expression; he only saw the little chrysalis worm-person seize the chance to go into hiding again.
While he was still staring blankly, Baonte had already walked slowly back to the campfire. The fire man stirred his ladle and once again handed Baonte a bowl filled with chunks of meat and mushrooms in thick soup; Baonte took it, sat down by the fire, and drank silently.
By now no one present tried any longer to stop the little chrysalis worm-person, who kept pushing on toward the faintly glowing illusory city with the stubbornness of a moth flying into a flame.
Those who lacked courage to begin with were naturally cowed into silence.
Luge looked around, ran over, picked up the broken length of staff with the big chunk of black crystal set in it, and brought it back to the campfire for Baonte. The burly man gave a nod and quietly put the thing away.
Even as they spoke, the city grew larger by several degrees.
Luge looked, and could already make out some magnificent buildings. Most of the city's buildings were white, with black accents here and there; the arrangement of houses and streets was orderly without losing beauty, and it was easy to tell that different districts served different purposes—some, at a glance, looked like tree-lined paths and gardens.
"Legends say that everyone living in this city is a servant who serves that wizard for a whole lifetime. That wizard happened to need some people for his experiments, so he granted the ones who had served him all their lives deathless life in another strange form..." Gannaya the elf said beside Luge.
"My guess is they can't enjoy fine food," the fire man said without looking up.
Luge thought: my guess is they didn't necessarily volunteer!
How could ordinary people gain deathless life so easily?
He watched the distant city, his heart still hanging in his throat, afraid the little crybaby worm-person would, like those aunts of his, truly fly into the flame and turn to ash—and then he would probably have to make up a kind lie to deal with the little worm in the egg. This little one in the egg was said never to have lit up with the light of spiritual wisdom, yet he was growing cleverer and cleverer. A strange worm indeed.
The wait dragged on. Everyone seemed to be holding their hearts in suspense; all around was utterly quiet, and even the lizardfolk carefully slowed their breathing. One whose nose itched got a slap from a companion.
Suddenly the whole space trembled.
The enigmatic city was like a lock into which a key that had waited a thousand years had been fitted.
It began to swell rapidly before everyone's eyes. Luge strained to gaze into the distance, searching for the little chrysalis worm-person, until at the end of one street he saw a small blurred figure dart past, apparently entering some building. As Mystery City grew, he could even roughly see figures moving inside some of the buildings—people turning and spinning, as if holding a ball amid laughter and chatter.
He looked on. The scene, which ought to have seemed happy, felt eerie and impossible to make sense of.
As the city grew, flight after flight of brilliant golden stairs came down from the sky.
Luge looked at the people around him.
The fire man had already put away his pot; everyone was on full alert, and the wild wizard apprentices in the distance were already bright-eyed, excitement hidden under their calm.
He stuck to his own rule, keeping a close eye on what the elf and the others did. Only when he saw them move did he start walking. The golden stairs were beyond beautiful; the very moment they came down, an apprentice wizard stepped onto them, and his figure vanished before everyone's eyes. Luge and the others walked behind. With Baonte and his group around him, he very much had the feeling of a fox borrowing a tiger's might; no one dared come close along the way, and a whole empty stairway was left to them.
The instant he stepped up, dazzling golden light swallowed him.
Then he was standing in a plaza. Blinking, he looked at the beautiful fountain in the distance, then at the few unfamiliar apprentice wizards beside him. The elf and the fire man, who had been nearer to him, were gone, but fortunately Baonte was still at his side.
Chapter 71