Chapter 3
Virgil handed over a bag of gold coins and the staff stamped on the form, pointing inside and saying, "Add a seal in there."
Virgil walked into the yard from the back door, in front of him was a pitiful magic wolf cub whimpering. Unfortunately, all four limbs were tied down and a sealed cloth was wrapped around its sharp mouth. After a while, it was pulled into that small room. The room closed and there was a banging sound inside, ending with the magic wolf cub's painful cries.
The door opened, and there was a fresh line of words on its shoulder blade. Virgil thought for a moment, then walked in with the cage.
Inside, it was quite bright, but it couldn't be described as clean. The person holding the branding iron inside was a skinny old man. He looked up and smiled when he saw Virgil coming in, saying, "Welcome, Mr. Virgil, please give him the form."
He was referring to the young man sitting in front of the table next to him. The young man, with his lovely smile, took the form from him, looked at it for a while, and furrowed his brow as he asked, "What kind?"
"Um… Humanoid." Virgil opened the cage, and the little girl curled up inside, her limbs bound with rune cloth and her mouth sealed with a spell.
The young man stood up and exclaimed, "Isn't this a child, Mr. Virgil? This is not allowed…"
The old man also said, "Mr. Virgil, if you don't explain clearly…"
"Got it, got it. I'm Virgil, how could I have a problem with a child? You know what? On the black market, you can buy a child like this who can't do any work for just five gold coins, but this time, I paid a bloody thirty gold coins in fees!"
"Prove it, sir." The old man's hand was already on the alarm.
"Oh my goodness, I've never seen anyone as straightforward and uncompromising as you, Mr. Angell," Virgil raised his hands, "Let's talk again, but I promise you, you'll regret it a little bit."
Virgil woke her up and removed the seal from her mouth, quickly burning a scroll. The girl screamed again when she saw his face.
At the same time, pale flames burst into flames, blown into a cone shape by unseen sharp winds. Objects in the room as high as the waist were severed by sharp blades. Virgil took advantage of the moment when the girl hadn't opened her eyes yet and resealed her mouth.
The old man and the young man stared in amazement at the mess on the ground and the deep cuts on the stone wall, unable to say a word. Virgil brushed off the dirt from his hands and said, "This is the power of an A-grade demon beast. That little puppy earlier, at most, was a C-grade."
The young man picked up a form from the ground that had a corner cut off by a wind blade. He wrote "Humanoid A-grade" in the blank space.
Meanwhile, the old man held two mithril blocks with a pair of fire tongs and turned away to tinker with them. The young man asked Virgil for help, and together, they secured the little girl to the stone platform.
When the old man turned back, the mithril was already glowing red hot. The girl started whimpering, and the old man comforted her, saying, "It will only hurt for a moment… Hold her down!"
The old man couldn't aim properly, so he gave Virgil a signal. Virgil, understanding the signal as a Demon Hunter would, took out a tranquilizer arrow and shot it into her. As her struggles grew weaker, he said, "Go ahead, Angell, she will soon stop feeling the pain."
The young man brushed aside her pretty little face and tore open her ragged clothes, revealing her collarbone. The old man pushed the red-hot mithril block onto it, and there was a sizzling sound, filling the air with a burnt smell. The girl twitched slightly and furrowed her brows, but still didn't wake up.
The three of them let out a sigh of relief at the same time. Virgil grabbed the rune cloth rope from her hand and tossed her back into the cage. He took a certificate from the old man's hand and put it in his pocket, saying, "Thank you, I still have to deliver some goods, so I'll leave first."
"Mr. Virgil!" the young man called after him.
"What's the matter?"
"Don't…won't you change her clothes? Aren't you going to sell them to Archmage Xerath?"
"You have to…" the young man seemed to be searching for the right words, "…clean it, right?"
"It's alright, Xerath will wash it." Virgil put the black cloth on top of the cage down and carried the cage away from here.
Virgil's ride was a Pegasus that he caught himself. This type of demon beast was born with the ability to summon the assistance of the wind element and had an incredibly fast running speed. But even so, it took Virgil two days to reach the mage tower of the Elemental Archmage Xerath.
The mage tower stood in the center of a barren plain, surrounded by either desert or storms. Various types of elements raged on the vast land, and sometimes elemental creatures would come out from rifts in space to wander around.
The scorching sun was suddenly covered by storm clouds. A huge mass of clouds appeared in the sky, with lightning jumping through the black clouds. The rotation of the clouds turned them into a vortex, and the center of the vortex was a darker void. It was rumored that there were several cracks of elements here. Virgil urged his mount to run faster, afraid that if the storm raged later, there would be no place for him to be buried.
In the cage behind him was the little elemental envoy. If he were to release her in this place, her cries could sink the entire continent. He couldn't help but pat the box behind him and say softly, "This place is perfect for you. Good days are coming when you leave Uncle Virgil."
The box shook a bit, perhaps the little girl kicking the cage.
The air was filled with restless wind and sand, causing Pegasus to run even faster. In the gray-yellow dust, Aimekotes - Elemental Archmage Xerath's mage tower gradually emerged as a lonely figure. A bolt of lightning tore through the sky, raindrops fell, and rolling thunder came from the horizon. Before long, Virgil was completely soaked, and the strong wind ran mercilessly past him, freezing his lips until they turned purple. Luckily, Pegasus became more and more excited, and they arrived at the mage tower in less than half an hour of an hourglass.
From this distance, the mage tower looked even taller. Surrounding the tower was a barely visible whirlwind, protecting the mage tower inside.
In front of the tower was a field of stone tablets, each with symbols on them. Virgil took out three arrows from his quiver and shot them all into the empty space. The arrows were caught by unseen hands in the strong wind, curved sharply, and landed in the center of three stone tablets.
The symbols on those three tablets lit up, and Virgil disappeared into the tablets. After a while, he reappeared below the tower.
Pegasus stopped, Virgil got off the horse, and the door of the mage tower slowly opened. A tall figure in sky-blue appeared at the door and gracefully bowed, "Mr. Virgil, it's a pleasure to see you again. My master is changing clothes upstairs. Please wait in the reception room."
