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Return of The 8th Class Mage (Web Novel) - Chapter 148 Need for Chance (2)
Chapter 148 Need for Chance (2)
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
There was the sound of a hammer battering away at steel. Ian had stepped into Halia’s smithy, and he heard more than hammering noises.
“What do you think? It’s lighter, right?”
“All of them are amazing items. I never knew that equipment like these existed in this world…”
“You do have an eye for items. You really are the best swordsman in the human race. Right, how about trying on these? They are long boots made with the best of my skills recently. If you wear them…”
One of the voices was the blacksmith Halia’s voice, but the other was a familiar one, albeit strange in this place.
“Sir Oliver?”
The voice belonged to Oliver, the Crown Prince’s escort knight. Excitement laced his deep baritone.
“It will be an honor to have that chance.”
“Come over here. It’s a bit heavy to hold with your hands, but when you get them on your feet! They become weightless like a feather, but they also have all the functions you need. Even if that magician, the owner of this villa bombarded you with magic, these boots, and your feet will remain unscathed. I assure it.”
“Amazing!”
The blacksmith Halia and the knight Oliver were deep in animated conversation regarding weaponry and protective equipment, which was a field of common interest for them.
Perhaps because of the shared camaraderie, they seemed to be on the best of terms after only a few days.
‘Well, if Sir Oliver is properly armed with artifacts…’
He will become an incredible monster with a sword in his hands. If Ian had not existed, Oliver would become a legendary warrior who would bring doom to all magicians.
‘Come to think of it, he does not say much after that day, and is friendly to the artisans.’
Oliver helped Ian rescue Evantus and met creatures who are not human such as fairies, dragonians, and even immortal artisans. In other words, Oliver had set a foot outside human history.
However, he did not question Ian or perhaps was just not saying anything out loud.
‘He would have to be curious.’
Ian thought that despite the fact he had explained to an extent before rescuing Evantus, Oliver was showing great restraint. He really was noble.
‘Where is the Crown Prince?’
Oliver never left the Crown Prince’s side, except for emergencies, official duties, and rare personal training time.
Therefore, with Oliver’s personality factored in, he would not be alone to discuss and try out weaponry with Halia.
At that moment, Ian heard a page turn. Even though Ian had strengthened his hearing, the page was being loudly turned, as if the person who was doing it wanted to announce that he or she was reading a book.
Ian looked where the sound was coming from and understood what was going on since he saw the reason Oliver could stay here for a while turning the pages with some force.
‘There’s the Crown Prince.’
The crown prince, Hayden Greenriver sat under a large tree and looked like a statue with platinum blond hair in the front gardens of Halia’s smithy. The 2nd Royal Guards were protecting the crown prince from a distance, and he was reading a thick book as they surrounded him.
He looked like he was waiting for Oliver to come out, and Ian was sure he was not mistaken.
The crown prince was really waiting. Ian was looking at a master waiting for his guard and not the other way around.
‘I’m seeing some strange things this time around.’
Ian was shocked by the book the crown prince was reading. It was About Rulership by Mauro Greenriver. Ian had been observing the book cover with reinforced eyesight, and his eyes widened at seeing Hayden read a political treatise that contained the essence of Mauro Greenriver, who was one of the five great rulers of the Greenriver Empire. Ian made sure he was seeing the crown prince with the book, and he was not someone else.
‘I thought it would be a novel, or at the most a rudimentary book.’
Ian’s shock came from underestimating the crown prince’s abilities.
‘Is he really the crown prince I know?’
He had been told that the dimensions split at the moment someone rewound time, but Hayden seemed to be a completely different person from the one Ian had known in his past life.
‘There’s no need to interrupt him.’
Hayden would make a fuss if he saw Ian, and the best course of action would be to go to another place quietly.
Ian resumed his walk, and he stayed on the path inside the villa. As he strolled along the open road that surrounded the villa, he saw a small cultivation plot near Halia’s smithy. Ledio and Douglas grew medicinal herbs here.
“Oh? Master Ian?’’
Ian met Ledio, who was going back to his house with a basket of herbs. Douglas had been following his father, and they hurried to Ian’s side.
“I heard that you had been in the library for the last few days. So, did you solve the problem?”
Ian had not been planning to be in the library all day, but his actions seemed to have aroused worry under the current situation.
“I’m managing the situation. Where were you going with all those herbs?”
Ian could not talk much about that issue and changed the subject. Ledio understood Ian’s intentions since he had quick wits.
“I am preparing medicine for Evantus, and these are the ingredients.”
“They’re all for him? Is his condition that serious? The last time I saw him…”
“No, no, he is alright and just wants to get better as quickly as possible.”
“Is there a special reason?”
“I’m not sure, but he is saying that he has no time to lie down and had much work to do. He seemed anxious.”
Ian nodded because he knew that Evantus’s top priority was his descendant’s life span. He would find each day much more precious than ordinary people, and desire to chase after the dragon.
‘I do need to talk to him.’
Ian found Evantus’s ultimate goal, the whereabouts of the dragon. The problem was when he should do so, and the problem required some time to think through. The kin might become Ian’s enemies, and Ian wanted to delay that outcome as much as possible.
“Alright, please take care of him.”
Ian bowed courteously, and Ledio did the same. It was almost instinctual since while they had known each other intimately for a long time, Ian was the second-in-command of the Empire.
“Leader!”
Douglas approached Ian as he was passing by them and gave him a bottle of medicine.
“Try this out. It’s a restorative drink I developed, and I named it Buzz Drink. I drank it yesterday, and the effects were instantaneous in waking me up and making me feel energized!”
Ian held Douglas’s restorative drink in his hand, which was a brown liquid in a bottle. The color was unappetizing.
“Douglas! I forbade you from testing new medicines on yourself! Why don’t you listen to me?”
“I should test them first, so the people who will drink them are reassured! Father, you don’t have the basic mindset of an alchemist!”
“What! You’re too cocky because the country’s praising you as a genius nowadays!”
“You know, it’s good to have a genius as your son! You’re nagging about nothing!”
“You’re going too far!”
Ledio chased after Douglas as his son ran as fast as he could. Ian thought they looked more like friends than father and son. It was a strange sight, something Ian could not imagine even in his dreams.
‘The man I have as a father…’
Ian did not want to think about him. Ian’s smile was bitter as he drank Douglas’s special restorative drink. While the taste was nasty, Ian found himself invigorated. The effects suited the name.
“Wow…!”
Ian drank up Douglas’s drink with the happiness felt from liquor or a standard refreshment. He moved on with a refreshed mind, and his head was clearing just by walking around his house.
‘This is nice.’
Ian walked with light footsteps and wondered who else he would meet. The encounter came soon, just not with an individual. Ian met a number of them, or perhaps ‘a herd of them’ would be a more accurate term.
Ian heard many thudding noises. Their footsteps were heavy and concise, and definitely not human. The individuals making those noises had to be at least ten times heavier than a human to be that loud.
“Are they golems?”
Golems or ‘massive statues made of a human shape’ moving in a row had been making those sounds. They were even carrying heavy and various materials with them.
“Hey! Descendant! Over here!”
The golem who was walking in the front row was not carrying any luggage, but a boy on its shoulder. He was Cleven, the sculptor whose memories and mentality were still unstable.
“What’s all this for?”
Ian knew what these golems were. They were Cleven’s carrier statues, the ‘Surging’ unit that had shown a fantastic performance in restoring the city and extending the villa. The golem Cleven was riding was No. 1 of the unit.
“They are for Siram’s bombarding aircraft! We have been evolving it for the last few days!”
“Evolve!”
“Hmm, did he say reinforcing instead of evolving!”
“Reinforcing would be the right word.”
“Yes! Reinforcing!”
It seemed that maintenance and reinforcement work on the ‘Dragon’s Heart,’ the massive aircraft built by Siram, which had rescued Ian and his comrades from the center of the gargoyle.
“Would you like to watch?”
“I’ll follow you slowly.”
“You have to follow me closely!”
Ian followed the row of golems and arrived at the widest clearing in the villa. However, the space was not large enough to do maintenance and reinforcement work on the aircraft.
“So, now we should do…”
Cleven opened a book and activated its artifact effect. It was the Book of Portals, and the portal it made was much larger than those Ian had seen before. The portal was made to fit the size of the golems.
“All units! Gather in a single file!”
(Grr…?)
“Ah! You guys are already in a row!”
Clodan tapped his head and changed his command.
“All units! Enter!”
(Grrr…?)
“Go into the portal!”
(Grr!)
The golems entered the portal, and Ian followed them.
“Where is this place…?”
The underground space was astonishingly wide but not dark, thanks to the magical technology used to light it up.
‘I did not know this was underneath us.’
The technician Siram had used this ‘secret workshop’ for hundreds of years. It was wide enough to house the Dragon’s Heart and still have some extra room.
“Hey, I’m here!”
“Cleven! You’ve come at the right moment.”
Siram was standing on the deck of the aircraft with Dennis, the jeweler, and Zerbio, the carpenter. A total of four artisans, including the sculptor Cleven, had joined forces to reinforce the aircraft.
“We should change the gun barrel length to strengthen the artillery fire…”
“What are you talking about! Just set the amplifying jewel I brought along on the detonator! It’s perfect, and you don’t need to change anything.”
“Hey, this is my work. Remember that I’m the one who makes the decisions!”
They were all artisans in their own fields, and this aircraft was the culmination of various studies. Everyone wanted a hand in this.
‘The results will be staggering.’
The power of the aircraft that Ian had seen in the mountainside was magical technology beyond human history, and if all those artisans went forward to develop it further, who knew what would happen? If they succeeded in applying the technology, culture as humankind knew it would change rapidly. Ian felt faint, just thinking about it.
‘Everyone’s living their lives intensely.”
The walk around the manor gave Ian more food for thought than he had expected. Intense moments unique to human history filled it. The world was not trivial nor only peaceful, and that power drove humankind to survive hundreds, thousands, and more years.
‘My thoughts were centered too much around me.’
Ian was burdened with managing ‘great evil’ and felt duress that he had to solve everything. Ian’s mind had been filled with these two emotions recently, and perhaps because of this, he had unconsciously underestimated human history.
Ian promised to himself that he would protect these potent lives. The motivation was important, and Ian’s motivation was enough to propel him forward.
‘However, we have to share our burdens if possible. Solving problems together leads to cooperation, and I’m only an assistant.’
Ian drew a line because he had to, as he was not the fixer nor the protector of humankind. Overusing the name of the protector was following in Fran Page’s footsteps towards losing one’s mind.
‘All right.’
Ian’s wish had been to rest for a day. His weary spirit and body miraculously woke up, and this boost uplifted his thoughts.
‘Let’s go back.’
Ian had been quietly observing the artisan’s discussion, which could be called a childish fight. Ian activated a teleport spell to return to the library and make a plan.
The light swallowed Ian and transported him to the library with a whirring noise. Ian found this room most comfortable in its silence before Fran Page appeared. However, now he had a guest.
The guest was not an unwelcome guest because she was not Fran Page.
“Princess?”
