Chapter 154.1

"Huu..."

In the early evening, Turan let out a groan as he soaked his body in the hot bath prepared inside his residence after returning from training.

Originally, being from the water-scarce western wasteland, he was not accustomed to immersing himself like this. However, after experiencing the hot spring area of the Siraf Wetland, he had since come to enjoy such baths whenever he could.

In fact, this was not even considered a great luxury for the head of a wizard house.

Moreover, he was so frugal that he didn't want to waste firewood and instead heated the water himself using Ignition Magic.

'I am tired.'

Managing the internal affairs of the family, adjusting relationships with surrounding forces, and maintaining his personal training.

The position of being the head of the great noble house Parsha came with a tremendous burden.

Although Turan possessed a superior body befitting a wizard of the family head level and had exceptional recovery ability thanks to the Sacred Relic set to the Lavitas Bloodline, even he was beginning to feel exhausted from his current schedule.

Of course, not every family head of a great noble house lived such a busy life.

It was simply because he was the head of a newly established house, having too many systems to reorganize and surrounded by numerous powerful enemies.

Even this rest in the hot spring was not simply a time to let go of everything and relax.

With his eyes closed, Turan began to awaken his Spiritual Perception and started blending his internal Symbols one by one.

'Airbender, Thunder Lord, Hunter, Chaser.'

He had already learned how to combine two out of the four Symbols. What he needed to know next was how to combine the remaining two.

And ultimately, he would have to find a way to combine all four Symbols together.

That was the true path to approach the power wielded by the true gods, the ancient Preah God Tribe.

'I do not know if there is even a way, though.'

Turan recalled the secrets of Symbol combination he had heard from the half-elves.

Originally, the noble families' Bloodlines started from the 'Jobs' they enjoyed in their games.

Or as the Librarian had previously mentioned, they were also called types.

At the beginning, one was given a basic one, and could open up another job by performing certain missions.

Like burning a creature and covering oneself in its ashes, or riding waves as Turan had seen in the past.

The total number of Types or Jobs one could possess was four.

The problem was that even in combining them, there was a set formula to follow.

According to them, the four bloodline abilities Turan currently possessed weren't a combination in any of those formulas.

In other words, he was a failed character without a "final job" like the completed gods.

[Have there been any cases where combinations that didn't exist in that game succeeded?]

[As far as I know, none. From the moment we mixed with the White Elves, we lost the ability to handle souls at a higher dimension.]

Letting Reshion's voice drift away into the depths of his consciousness, Turan once again focused inward.

Wind and lightning tangled together, black mist spread around, and snow,

"Ah..."

Once again, the black mist was driven away by the light of the lightning.

Could it really be that they were fundamentally incompatible?

Or should he first find a way to combine the two Bloodlines of Hunter and Chaser from House Zahar?

Soaking his body in the hot water, Turan practiced several more times, but eventually had to pause his training as he felt dizzy.

If he pushed ahead with training while his Spiritual Energy was depleted, he would suffer from all sorts of side effects warned about in the Soul Magic Book.

At that moment, a gentle female voice tickled his ears from behind.

"When you rest, it is better to focus only on resting."

Meisa, who had entered the bath beside Turan, said in a calm tone as if soothing a child.

Turan, who had already sensed her presence, was not surprised.

"You got back quickly? You said it might take a few days."

"I was lucky. A dwarf just happened to get caught in the Tracking Magic Device while coming out of a den."

A few days ago, Meisa had departed to eradicate dwarves that had reportedly been appearing in several small towns northeast of Kalamaf.

She said that in the den she tracked by following several dwarves, there were swarms of hundreds, just like before.

However, since they were not carrying any special Magic Artifacts this time, it was not difficult to incinerate them all.

Turan now understood that those objects, called steam rifles and steam cannons, were relics left behind by the scientific civilization of the ancient dwarves, which had flourished before the manipulation of the Biologist.

'Would it be better to weaponize those things, or...'

While powerful nobles might withstand them, lower-ranking nobles and knights would inevitably suffer heavy damage from the mass deployment of firearms and artillery.

As could already be seen from how the steam rifles and steam cannons had inflicted harm upon them.

Additionally, considering that the gods had forbidden such development, Zahar and Carmine who wished for the mutual destruction of Parsha and Aravion might officially get involved...

"Hmm?"

His thoughts swirling in complexity were interrupted when a wet hand gently covered his eyes.

"I told you, when you are resting, focus only on resting."

The voice was like that of someone admonishing a child, yet soft and tender, not stern.

At the sound of her voice tickling his ears and the soft embrace wrapping around him, Turan smiled and closed his eyes.

*

In the early dawn, Turan, who had been sleeping deeply, woke to the sudden sound of an urgent call.

Since the family head's bedroom was thoroughly sealed during sleep, the signal could only have come from a Magic Artifact used by the servants to call him in case of true emergencies.

Unless it was truly serious, no one dared to use it.

As expected, when he opened the door, a knight with a pale face formally reported urgent news.

"Ophen City is under attack?"

"Yes! According to the beacon, it is an attack by large creatures and wizards!"

"Large creatures..."

What immediately came to mind was Armania's relatives, the Great Sea Serpent gang.

Everyone knew that House Parsha possessed Magic Artifacts capable of spatial transfer.

Connecting that fact with the existence of the Jade Mirror was not particularly surprising.

However,

'Even if it were another house, it is still unexpected that they noticed it this quickly.'

The common knowledge was only applicable to the upper class, specifically the wizard class.

At best, the methods for gathering information among the enemies involved relying on pirate underlings at a few ports or islands, so it was unlikely that they could access such high-level information.

Moreover, had they not been busy waging war against House Carmine recently?

'Someone who knew about the existence of the Jade Mirror informed the mermaids. Candidates? Carmine, Aravion, Zahar, Ruvan...'

Practically, all great noble houses except for his two allies were candidates, making any assumptions meaningless.

Anyway, the important thing was that the only port city of House Parsha was under attack.

Considering the distance between the two cities and the speed at which the beacon signal was delivered, the attack must have begun roughly one to two days ago.

Turan immediately reached out for the parchment and quill beside him, wrote an order, and handed it to the knight.

"Deliver this to Meisa."

"Yes!"

The contents he wrote were simple.

He would go ahead and handle the situation first, so she should gather the army properly and come to support him.

Since weak wizards would be useless against Great Sea Serpents, he also added instructions to gather only mid-level or higher nobles, especially those who could ride the family’s Tamed Magical Beasts, and come quickly.

After confirming that the knight had left for Meisa’s quarters, Turan immediately headed to Armania’s quarters and woke him up.

"Ugh, what, what is it... the sun is not even up yet..."

"Your relatives seem to be smashing up my city. I thought we should go together."

At Turan’s words, Armania’s face hardened.

"They know I am here?"

"Probably. If you are scared, I will not force you to come."

If they fought by the sea, Armania's presence would be a great help, but from the beginning, the reason he had pledged loyalty to Turan was for protection from them, so Turan could not force him to fight.

Moreover, Armania had already greatly helped him by providing the Jade Mirror.

At Turan’s words, Armania hesitated briefly but soon shook his head.

"No, no. I will go with you! If you die, I will have nowhere left to run anyway."

For this mermaid boy, giving up the protection of House Parsha was not an easy choice.

Even if he managed to escape from here and move inland, to avoid exposing his identity, he would not be able to blend into human society. In that case, he would have to live hiding in places like lakes or rivers.

Naturally, the luxurious treatment he enjoyed now would come to an end.

For Armania, who had grown up receiving exceptional treatment even in the Mermaid Kingdom, it was only natural that he did not want to endure such a life.

"Then let’s depart immediately. Bije!"

Responding to his call, Bije rose up from his body, glanced at Armania with a displeased look, and then promptly grew in size.

As Turan mounted her back, he heard Bije grumble in a voice only he could hear, 'Fishy-smelling fish, don't want to carry it.'

After several hours of travel...

As the dim sunlight announced the dawn while piercing through the damp morning mist, Turan arrived at Ophen, now completely reduced to ruins.

"It is already over."

Though he had expected this, seeing the destruction firsthand was deeply unpleasant.

The completely devastated port and buildings, and the occasional corpses scattered between them...

After all, even at its peak, Ophen only had a few dozen wizards, and among them only three or four nobles.

It would have been natural for the city to be devastated even if just one Great Sea Serpent had attacked, let alone a whole gang.

"Armania, lend me your hand."

"Why? Ack!"

Though questioning him, Armania obediently held out his hand, only to scream when Turan cut his finger with a knife.

Rubbing the handful of blood that flowed out, Turan immediately activated Tracking Magic.

'Target: mermaids, those with the same type of transformation ability as the owner of this blood. Or close blood relatives.'

This kind of conditional setting was vastly inefficient compared to using a direct body part as a medium, but with Turan’s immense magic power, he could manage it.

As all his senses blurred and the range of the Tracking Magic expanded, he could feel his magic power being consumed rapidly.

After a while, Turan opened his eyes and pointed to the northeast.

"Found them."

*