The Secret Dungeon

Back to the present time

After having drilled level seven of Qi accumulation, Merlin headed back to his residence right away.

Days later, his level-seven Qi accumulation began to stabilize and work to its full potential. The vital essence in Merlin’s body was flowing like a river, getting him acquainted.

During these last few months Merlin still regularly went back to Matin’s shop. The first time they sold the magical-power boosting potions, lots of people were interested. And one of those was the Church of Light. They offered four hundred thousand zenis as soon as they tried them and got a satisfying result.

They used the potions to shorten the time for a high-spell-casting. Previously, it took them an hour to cast those spells. But after they tried the goods, the time was reduced to forty minutes only. It abbreviated the spell-casting duration to a third of the normal just like the claim said.

After the news about the test of these potions’ property spread out, the whole world was shaken. Everyone was talking about this topic; the rumor about the potions that could shorten the spell-casting time was a matter of the moment throughout the world. Royal courts, whether from big or small kingdoms, were in awe hearing it.

But with Merlin’s order warning Matin to sell them in a small number to increase their values, Matin followed the order strictly; he only sold a limited number of power-boosting potions.

That greatly raised the market’s demand. Some families even bought them and raised the selling price. And in the end, they were sold in a black market.

Royal courts were as enthusiastic; they immediately reached out to Matin to buy them in a large number. However, they were disappointed because Matin listened to Merlin’s order religiously with his mention saying the alphabet user who produced these potions could not make tons of them at a time, they compromised and then gave up.

And for that reason, they tried to hunt down as many of these products as they could.

For they were rare, the price of these power-boosting protons was increased in a short period of time. They were sold at one diamond or one million zenis.

Not only did this topic interest normal wizards but it also got the alphabet users thinking. Before this, they did not even care about potion-making but after hearing the news, they started to pay more attention.

They had no idea that potion-making could make this much profit and so much influence on the world like this. Even more so, other than the wealth the merchant gained, he also earned the power to bargain with the royal courts and all the kingdoms.

As for the merchants that had made monopoly deals with the alphabet users, they started to convince their alphabet users to produce potions. But they did not know that it was not such an easy thing to do. So, they failed over and over.

And until now, there was not a single user that was able to make a potion with a latent property.

Every alphabet user could only make normal potions; what they lacked was the alphabet formula to apply in the process.

Anyway, normally, the alphabet users had to work hard to create the formulas by themselves or else they had to inherit them.

To use each alphabet in potion-making, they had to put in a lot of effort. It also depended on their alphabet-controlling skills.

If the control was unstable, it might turn out to be a failure. The science of potion-making using magical alphabets was very complicated and considered a high technique.

The rumor also had it that these power-restoring potions were made by a green-alphabet user. Due to the number of alphabet users who failed, they assumed that in order to make potions with excellent quality like these, there had to be a green-alphabet user behind. Moreover, a blue-alphabet user would be too weak to make any of these.

Therefore, the marvelous outcome pointed out the difference between the blue and green-alphabet users. The wider the rumor was spread, the more famous Matin’s medicine store became.

A few months had passed and Matin’s shop was already looking so prosperous. It could even be said that his shop was one of the most famous medicine stores at the time.

There were high-ranking people visiting his place all the time.

That was because of the rule that he set. He would sell only the potions at a certain time, and they were limited.

So, the kingdoms always sent their representatives to make the purchases. The more potions they could buy, the better for their kingdoms.

Merlin continued to produce batches of potions. He had more than a hundred thousand of them stored. The more he made potions, the better of an alphabet user he became.

Merlin had earned his cuts every month; so now he had so much savings, probably much more than he needed.

Nevertheless, Merlin did not desert his place as Arthur’s servant. He would do it until he had reached the stem-building stage. Because then, he would be able to learn magic and protect himself. And being a servant would be no longer necessary for him,

In the future, Merlin intended to use his special status as an alphabet user to hide his Xian-practitioner identity. He believed that if he used Xian vital essence but told everyone he was an alphabet user, nobody would doubt him.

As long as Merlin’s Xian-essence-using did not catch the attention of the blooming-stage practitioner, he believed that people in this realm would think that it was the power of an alphabet user. He wanted to mislead those people completely.

Today was another boring day for Merlin. It was a weekend day that he had to do his job as a servant. Arthur dragged him out to carry the stuff while he was flirting with a girl.

Today, Arthur’s girl was no longer Judy. This boy had the ability to change girls very often. And today’s girl was Windson Mary, a daughter of Duke Joseph of Dutchie kingdom.

Arthur was infatuated with this girl while she seemed to be only slightly interested in him. Unlike everybody in the past, with the beauty like that of a goddess, and her face looking like a statue in the church, while Mary was walking side by side with Arthur, they were such a perfect match.

Merlin followed the two while leaving some space in between. He was walking with a girl named Fran on his side. She was Mary’s personal help; so, her status was not different from Merlin’s.

Fran was a tanned-skin girl; and with her face, racially speaking, she was beautiful.

The four were heading out of Waldecian city because Mary wanted to see the flower field next to the pine forest outside the city.

Arthur was determined to steal her heart, so he did as she desired.

Merlin was now a carriage driver.

As the carriage arrived at the city gate, Merlin showed the guards the Aragon family’s coat of arms.

After checking, they immediately opened the gate for Arthur’s expedition to set out of the city.

Traveling past the pine forest, finally, they finally arrived at Mary’s flower field.

As the girls adored beautiful things, they were extremely happy when they saw the field. Their faces were suddenly painted with big smiles.

They got out of the carriage and then headed to the field with Arthur following closely at their backs.

After a while, Fran ducked down; she picked up a flower and smelled it. In Arthur’s eyes right now, Fran was not any less pretty than Mary.

And as for Mary, feeling so happy to come to this place, she ran all over the field. With her precious face and physique, she looked like a goddess dancing in heaven jumping up and down. She ran around jovially.

Arthur’s eyes followed her like he was under a spell. Then there appeared on his beautiful face a bright smile.

Looking at these kids, Merlin shook his head.

Then, an unexpected thing happened, they heard Mary’s scream.

Mary disappeared into a hole in the middle of the field out of nowhere. She fell down right in front of Arthur. He rushed to the hole right away.

Calculating from his eyes, this hole’s mouth was not very big, but he could not tell the dept.

“Mary, are you alright?” Arthur shouted to ask about her safety.

“...”

“I...I am alright. Arthur, please help me!” The girl responded in fear.

“Do not worry Mary. Stay there! I am going down to help you!”

Hearing Mary’s voice made the boy relieved. Mary was safe so he would be able to be a knight in shining armor and save her. Realizing that, Arthur jumped into the hole.

Arthur was a wizard. Both his sword art and magic skills were excellent. His strength now was equal to an Aragon warrior. So, he was not scared of the hole before him.

Shoooot!

THUD!

It took some time before Arthur got to the ground. It meant that that hole was relatively deep. With his skill, as his feet touched the ground, he only staggered a little but did not fall down.

But it seemed like luck was not on his side, there was not only one hero anymore….

When someone was yelling from above.

ARRRGGGGHHHH!

THUD!

It was Merlin.

He dropped perfectly on Arthur. Both of them fell down not so elegantly in front of Mary.

“The image I have built is now ruined.” Arthur could not help cursing in his head. A minute ago, he was still perfect in Mary’s eyes. But this freak fell down and put him in an embarrassing situation.

Arthur was mad at his follower.

“You idiot! Why did you have to come down!” Arthur said angrily.

“I just wanted to help you guys,” Merlin answered innocently, and that upset Arthur even more.

“I am a wizard, and you are just an ordinary. How could you help me!” Arthur scolded his help like he always did.

Because Merlin had been following him for years, he was used to scolding the boy. And it seemed like Merlin did not really mind.

No matter how harsh Arthur was damning Merlin, he was not affected at all.

Arthur threatened Merlin furiously.

“I told Fran that if we were not coming up, she had to go find some help immediately,” Merlin said naively.

“And are you not going to get out of me!” Arthur yelled loudly as Merlin was not moving and still sitting on him.

“I...I am sorry. Please forgive me, Lord Arthur.” Merlin pretended to be anxious. He was a bit happy to get a chance to hit the boy back.

“Hey, do not fight each other. Look.” Mary cast a spell and created a light in her hand.

When the light shined ahead, they found a pathway into a huge underground hole that had a magical-power aura.

Even a novice wizard would see that there had to be some kind of precious treasures deep in the hole.

As curious human beings, undoubtedly, these children could not help themselves.

Both Arthur and Mary's eyes were shining.

“I don’t think we should go inside….it seems...scary.” Merlin pretended to give a caution.

Arthur turned around with an annoyed face.

“None of your business. If you chicken out, then get back up there!”

Hearing that, Merlin was silent. But he was smirking at Arthur’s action in his head.

“Mary, do you want to go inside with me?” Arthur turned to ask Mary softly.

The girl did not answer but nodded approvingly. Surely, she also wanted to explore the path. The magical-power aura was intense; possibly, there might be valuable things in there. There were not so many chances to find fortune, so why would she let this one go?

Arthur showed his courage by grabbing Mary’s soft hand and bringing her inside immediately.

Merlin followed the two quietly; his acting as a coward was flawless. He was not scared of this hole even slightly.

The three walked into the pathway about one hundred meters. This hole was not different from normal underground holes. The only thing different was the magical-power aura tempting them.

After a while, they found out that this hole was endless. It was filled with darkness, but this darkness did not terrify them.

The two magical lights ignited by the two kids were unable to reveal the whole hole. But after they had been walking for around five hundred meters inside, they heard a strange noise.

Squech, Squelch, Squrnch

“Arthur” Startled, Mary called the boy’s name.

Arthur was born in a warrior-king family. He was trained to fight and had some experience fighting. So, he was cautious and calm and did not show any fear of hearing the noise.

The boy put his index finger on his lips telling Mary to be quiet. That made three of them stop moving.

They were in silence.

After carefully listening to that strange sound again, they realized that it was a footstep sound.

Footsteps?

There were other people in here apart from them?

That sound was getting closer and closer to them. And suddenly, red, glowing eyes shined out in the dark.

A pair...two...four...eight....sixteen

It turned out to be more and more. And when they got closer, the light from the magical glows revealed their identities.

They were...sixteen gigantic goblins armed with several kinds of weapons.

“Bloody hell! This is not a treasure hole. It is a dungeon!” Arthur said in shock.

The strange magical-power aura was not of a precious treasure but of the dungeon.

And if it was really the dungeon, there must not be only sixteen goblins.

Encountering enemies, Arthur and Mary instantly cast spells to prepare for the fight.

“Reveal yourself, magical cloak!” Suddenly their bodies glowed up and astonishingly, there appeared red cloaks wrapping around them. Red cloaks indicated wizards at a wizard level.

Wearing the magical cloaks, their bodies suddenly oozed strong magical-power auras.

Merlin standing behind observed the scene with anticipation. He wanted to know how strong Arthur had become after he had gone through the test and received the magical cloak.