26 Elemental mastery
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Name: Winston Folghs
Race: Human
Profession: none (Subsector manager)
Rank: 1
Level: 9
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HP: 135/135
MP: 181/181
Strength: 12 (+50) Stamina: 13(+50)
Defense: 14(+50) Intelligence: 18
Vitality: 13 Wisdom: 50
Agility: 17(+50)
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Skills:
{[Igneous Manipulation][Sixth Sense lv:2]
[Evaluate lv:3] }
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'A magic-user?... It looks like he's only in the zero realm, but judging by his stats he must have some magic item with him.'
Marcus looked at the black-suited young man's stats and while they weren't too high they were still quite impressive. Especially his wisdom which was far superior to that of a normal human.
The fat man with a mustache hurried to the center of the room and sat down in the white armchair on the other side of the table.
"Good morning. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting Mr. Wizard. My name is Paul Gerson and I will be your appraiser. The young man next to me is Winstons, anything you need you can ask him."
'Mr. Wizard?.... Is that why everyone was treating me like a VIP?!'
As someone who had transmigrated only six months ago, Marcus was not yet familiar with the common sense or hierarchy of this world.
Therefore, he did not know that in this world people capable of using magic were rare and therefore treated as nobles. Although this could vary depending on the country and continent one was in.
The port city of Neima had a population of over 200,000, but the number of magic users within that population was less than 0.5%.
Moreover, most of these magic users were found only in the zero Rehi realm, those in the 1st Rehi realm barely numbered a hundred and those in the 2nd realm numbered a few dozen.
As for the magic users of the 3rd realm, there were only four in the entire city including the city governor himself.
Even though he had currently been weakened by the solar energy, Marcus still radiated certain magical energy that gave him away as a wizard of the 1st Rehi realm, so he could easily be considered someone of noble status.
'I have to figure out how to hide the fact that I can use magic or they might find out that I'm undead.'
"Excuse me, but how should I address you, sir...?"
"Just call me Edevane."
"Very well. So, Mr. Edevane, as I understand it you wish to sell some items of great value, is that not so."
The obese appraiser didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that Marcus was communicating via telepathy and focused his attention on the bundles Marcus had pulled from his inventory a few moments earlier.
"That's right."
Marcus picked up one of the bundles and began emptying its contents onto the living room table. Soon the table was cluttered with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and fancy jewelry such as pearl necklaces, gold rings, silverware, and other valuable items.
At the sight of all these valuable objects, the eyes of the obese appraiser reflected certain greed. Paul took a small magnifying loupe out of his pockets, picked up a large ruby from the table, and very calmly began to inspect.
When he finished inspecting the gem, the appraiser placed it on the table and picked up a silver plate. When he finished inspecting it he placed it back on the table and picked up another item.
This process had continued for a few minutes until Paul picked up a gold bracelet that had several jewels embedded in it and strange patterns engraved on it.
When Paul looked at the bracelet more closely, his eyes widened like saucers and he began to breathe with slight difficulty.
"By the gods...These patterns...These engravings...This is Guerrmanic craftsmanship!!"
Paul was shocked, even Winston who hadn't said a word since he came in couldn't hide the surprise on his face.
"Excuse me Mr. Edevane, but if you don't mind me asking...But how did you get this?"
Marcus pondered for a moment before answering.
"I got them in some ruins a few weeks ago." Marcus replied with complete indifference.
"A ruins? Have you ever been to the dark lands?!"
At that moment, Marcus noticed that both de Paul and Winston had an expression of amazement and fear on their faces as if he had discovered something that was both truly incredible, yet terrifying.
'The dark lands?.... What the f**k is that?! ... I better get some information about the geography of this world once I get out of here.'
"The dark lands? Do I really look like a suicide? No, I simply found some ancient Guerrmanic ruins on a floating island. These treasures are the result of said exploration."
Although Marcus had no idea what the dark lands were, one could deduce from the name alone that it was an incredibly dangerous place. In that case, it would prove to be very strange for someone who was only a wizard of the 1st Rehi realm to go and come out of there alive.
Therefore, Marcus acted as if he knew what Paul was talking about and simply told the truth. Although he left out the fact that there were undead on the island.
After all, Marcus had already made a mistake by revealing his identity as a magic-user. If he had said that he had faced a horde of undead on his own, it would surely draw a lot of people's attention, which would increase the likelihood of being discovered.
"Oh... I see."
After that, Paul seemed to lose interest, stopped asking questions, and continued going through the rest of the objects and relics.
But just when the obese appraiser thought he had seen it all, Marcus emptied the other bundles which were full of jewelry and ornamental pieces. There were even some daggers whose blades were made of silver and the hilt was covered with gems.
"This... This may take longer than I thought."
****
"Then I'll be on my way out. It was a pleasure doing business with the T.M.S Company."
After saying this, the hooded wizard left the room accompanied by a female employee of the auction house. In the room, only the appraiser Paul Gerson and the young black-haired Winston remained.
Once the wizard left, Paul let out a sigh of relief. Even Winston, who had remained serene for most of the appraisal process, seemed to relax a little and even a few beads of sweat could be seen on his face.
'That man... But what a terrifying aura.' Paul thought to himself. Just remembering what he had been through made his skin crawl.
The appraisal process had taken almost an hour. Normally the process wouldn't have taken this long, but the situation had gotten out of hand.
After a thorough appraisal, Paul had concluded that the items the masked wizard had brought were priceless heirlooms, so they could not be sold.
Upon hearing this, the wizard had become angry and ended up letting out a powerful wave of magical energy that made the whole room shudder. Fortunately, the wizard had calmed down very quickly and apologized for his behavior.
But since Paul was just a normal man, he had been quite affected by the magical power released by the wizard to the point that he almost fainted. As for Winston, he was a wizard of the zero realm, so the magical energy had not affected him as much.
After that, Paul had rushed to explain the situation better.
It turned out that many of the objects the wizard had brought were relics of a fallen civilization that had existed a hundred thousand years ago, so they were priceless. For this reason, Paul had not been able to estimate their price accurately and could not buy them.
So after discussing it for a while, Paul and the masked wizard had agreed.
The auction house bought most of the gems and other items of lesser value at a reasonable price. As for the items that possessed some artistic value or were considered priceless, the auction house would set a suitable price for them and then sell them at the next auction.
After this, the wizard seemed to be satisfied and after receiving his payment he had retired.
"So, what do you think about him, Mr. Winston?" Paul finally looked up and looked at the black-haired young man.
Although at first glance he looked like an ordinary employee, the truth was that, as a wizard, Winston held a position far superior to that of the obese appraiser.
As a reputable company, T.M.S Company had enough power and money to hire a few wizards. Even the branch manager was a wizard from the 2nd Rehi realm.
In a place like the port city of Neima, wizards and aura warriors represented the highest authority.
To a wizard, peasants or nobles were no different than ants. So if a wizard killed a person by accident, the most the authorities could do was to force the wizard to pay a fine.
Although situations like that were not that common, they still happened. So the T.M.S Company had begun to hire strong, trained people to ensure the safety of all its customers and employees.
Winston wiped the sweat from his brow and after a moment's hesitation replied. "He is strong. Just from his magical energy alone, I can determine that he's a wizard from the 1st Rehi realm and specializes in darkness magic...But I think his elemental mastery has already reached rank 2."
"What! Are you sure?.... No, if you say so I'm sure it's true. "Hearing this, Paul was completely dumbfounded.
Despite being a wizard of the zero realm, Winston had a skill that allowed him to gauge the strength and elemental specialty of other wizards just by sensing the magical energy they gave off.
Normally the strength of magic users was measured by the number of Rehi rings they had on their bodies. The more rings the thaumaturge had, the more mana he would be able to store and thus be able to cast more complex and powerful spells.
However, although Rehi rings indicate the amount of mana that magic users could store, a wizard's true strength was based mostly on the power of his spells.
In turn, the power of a wizard's magic spells and incantations was determined not only by the amount of mana they required but also by the rank of elemental mastery.
Elemental mastery rank could be described as the level of control a magic-user had over a particular element. As the elemental mastery rank would increase, the wizard would be able to use higher-level spells, and the overall power of his lower-level spells would also increase.
To put it in perspective, if two wizards of the 1st realm of Rehi were to have a duel, the wizard with the higher elemental mastery would win because the power of his spells would be stronger than those of his opponent.
Therefore, even though the masked wizard belonged to the first realm, his elemental mastery rank made the power of his spells similar to that of a wizard of the second Rehi realm.
However, for the elemental mastery rank of a 1st realm wizard to be so high, it could only mean that either the wizard was incredibly talented, or had the resources to achieve such a rank.
Therefore, it wasn't that Paul was suspicious of Winston's evaluation abilities, but that the case of the masked wizard was very rare.
"Do you think we should keep an eye on him, sir? "Asked the obese appraiser as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a silk handkerchief.
"For the time being I will report this to the superiors and then we will see. From the strength, this man has shown it is likely that he belongs to a powerful clan or organization. "
In this world where monsters and magic existed, power was everything. The strong were the ones who imposed the rules and those who ruled, while the weak submitted.
In these kinds of circumstances, it was normal that some organizations and powerful mercenary clans had even more power than many kingdoms and nations of the world.
If possible, the T.M.S. Company would cooperate with any person or organization as long as there was profit involved. And as far as possible, they would try not to offend any force that might be detrimental to the company.
Even if Winston was a wizard of the zero realm, he did not have the authority to make such decisions. Therefore this issue was really sensitive and required the top management of the branch to discuss it.
That day the T.M.S. Company's auction and pawnshop closed its doors at 10:00 A.M. Later, it was learned that the auction house had acquired a large number of antique relics for its next auction.
Obviously, this news did not take long to spread and before long all the major organizations and clans of the city were aware of the matter.
Everything indicated that the next auction was going to be something big.
