14 Bountiful Reward

As soon as they entered the castle, they were met with remains of the assassins and guards lying on the ground, the smell of air inside the castle didn't have difference from the air outside.

"The ones with the real ability went straight in the castle.", Lord Levine said, as if knowing their thoughts.

"Your Lordship, are the assigned guards in the castle were even enough?", Melissa asked.

"No, but luckily, somebody helped us.", Lord Levine took a peek at the three kids behind him then to the dead guards.

He let out a sad frown and said, "Melissa, please prepare the compensation for the families of the fallen guards."

"Yes mi'lord.", Melissa bowed and walked away.

The trio and Lord Levine continued walking up to the second floor until they reached what seemed to be like the study room.

The study room was just like the office room of the tavern owner; however, there were bookshelves and has more chairs.

"Let's enter.", Lord Levine entered the room followed by the three kids and saw Mr. Sanchez looking out the window towards the starry sky.

"Thank you again for helping, old friend.", Lord Levine said to Mr. Sanchez.

"Don't mention it, these are the kids that I'm talking about.", Mr. Sanchez pointed at the three.

Allen, Drake, and Kate made confused expressions. They looked like innocent kids who don't know anything.

"Let me introduce to you, Lord Levine, he's an... you can say an independent wizard.", Mr. Sanchez presented.

Kate didn't understand what was that and her expression became blank, while Drake looked like he was trying to remember something.

"Wizard?! You're a level higher than a Mage?!", Allen suddenly lost courtesy and blurted out.

Kate and Drake made curious expressions at Allen.

"Whoops.", Allen covered up his mouth.

"Haha, it's okay.", Lord Levine waved his hands, signaling that it's alright. "Though you're wrong, you skipped Adept, kid. Wizard is two levels above Mage."

Seeing the curious gaze of Kate and Drake, Lord Levine further explained, "You see, there are levels that separate us what they call, 'magicians', the first is Mage Apprentice, then Mage, then Adept, and then Wizard."

"They can also call us, for example, as 'mages' if their at the Mage level, or like me, a wizard at the Wizard level." He added.

"Oh...", the trio nodded in understanding.

Lord Levine changed the subject, "For helping in the defense earlier, I will reward you three for your efforts."

The three kids showed an excited expression on their faces. What kind of reward would a powerful wizard give them?! It's most likely not just some simple objects.

Lord Levine approached his desk and pulled an amulet out of the drawer, after which, he went to a bookshelf and pulled out a book.

The wizard lord then asked, "Who's Kate?"

"Me.", Kate said.

"Here, I give you this book.", Lord Levine passed the book to Kate.

Kate was stunned and cursed herself inwardly for her bad luck. She has always disliked reading books; even though she tried to read books again after the battle in the woods of Crescent Town when she saw how Allen used his intelligence against the enemy, she gave up afterwards.

Ironically, now, she got a book as a reward!

Seeing Kate's reaction, Lord Levine said, "Read the book's title, and you'll like it."

The girl then saw that book's title, it was 'Flicker Encyclopedia Vol. 1'.

Kate grinned and said, "Thank you!"

"Don't mention it, that book is useless to me.", Lord Levine said. The book was useless to somebody at the level of Wizard; however, to an assassin who could use flicker, it was in fact, a treasure!

"Who's Drake?", Lord Levine asked.

"Me."

"Your master said you like to be fast. So, I'll give you this Major-Inferior grade Speed Amulet.", Lord Levine handed over an amulet to Drake.

Magical treasures and enchanted equipments were splitted into four categories, which were inferior, medial, superior and supreme, further sub-categorized into minor, major, superb, and peak.

"Thank you.", Drake bowed in courtesy. The amulet might sound like it's low leveled, but were they always using magical treasures? No! In fact, most of the time, mages don't even have an inferior magical treasure, except for their magic staffs.

"You two, you can go out now.", Mr. Sanchez said towards Kate and Drake. Then the two of them happily went out of the room while still in glee, examining their rewards; afterwards, Lord Levine casted a sound sealing spell in the room.

"So, you're Allen?", Lord Levine examined the kid.

"Yes." Allen nodded in response. Inwardly, he was wondering why he was left behind.

"You are the one who got the treasure? You are younger than I thought.", the feudal lord commented.

"Yes.", Allen calmly replied. He kind of expected that Mr. Sanchez already told Lord Levine about the treasure when he saw they seemed to be close friends.

Lord Levine walked towards a bookshelf and retrieved a book; after which, he placed it on top of the table.

"Come, sit down kid.", the wizard lord pointed at the chair.

Allen sat down on the chair and looked at the book. The book was named 'The Kingdom of Hell'.

Unexpectedly, the devil inside of him became restless and kept shouting and shouting. Until... it frantically tried to take over Allen's body. In just a flash, the kid's eyes became red and his thoughts became blank and he lost consciousness, or probably... lost his body.

...

When Allen regained his consciousness, he saw the feudal lord's left index finger touching his forehead. He was covered in his own sweat.

"What... just... happened?", Allen asked drowsily. The feeling of fatigue and the urge to sleep began to take over his body.

"Good thing for you kid, being a wizard is just my second job.", Lord Levine smiled.

"What?", Allen then saw the index finger that was touching his forehead was glowing. "You're a holy priest?"

"You are a smart kid." The feudal lord pulled back his hand explained, "The devil incarnate in your consciousness tried to possess your body, but I stopped it in time and damaged it to the point that I sealed its power to take over a body. It can't take over your body ever again."

"Thank you. I guess that's my reward.", Allen laughed and felt a sense of security now that it was sealed.

"No, I got something else for you.", Lord Levine used the both of his hands to conjure a blue sphere. "This is a mana sphere, offer it to the devil to unlock more of the treasure's abilities.

Lord Levine gave Allen the mana sphere, the said object floated on the hands of the latter and he could feel some sort of refreshing energy enamating from the object.

"Won't the devil recover then?", Allen asked.

"Yes it would, but it can't take over your body again, plus, I inserted some holy energy into your body to protect from other forms of soul attacks.", the feudal lord said. "Come on, offer it."

Allen offered the mana sphere to the devil incarnate through his thoughts. After which, the sphere in his hands suddenly disappeared, and new information entered within his mind, causing him to feel a slight pain in his head.

When the pain finally subsided, Allen searched for the new information and saw that it was a movement technique! In his thoughts, it was written as...

Shadow Steps; movement technique:

Use a small amount of energy to activate the movement technique. Weaker at days, more powerful during the night.

"Thank you.", Allen stood up and bowed.

"Don't mention it kid, and oh, I almost forgot to tell you, the amount of energy of the body you can store has increased.", Lord Levine said. "And also, don't say to anyone else about the devil, alright? You can go out now." He patted the back of Allen.

"Okay, thank you again!", Allen nodded and left the room.

"I don't know if that kid's fortunate or unfortunate with that kind of power.", Lord Levine said.

"Time will tell.", Mr. Sanchez said.

Lord Levine then opened up the book 'The Kingdom of Hell', turned it to a certain page and read it.

"The Erchian Dagger, the weapon of the ninth Devil King, Erchian.", the feudal lord furrowed his brows.

Mr. Sanchez just sighed and tried to change the topic, "So, where all did those assassins came from?"

"They came from that organization that wants the treasure inside the kid.", Lord Levine said. 

"They thought I got it. That lowly organization thinks that I'm only a magician like me at the level of Adept, but if they found out that I'm a Wizard and a holy priest, they might even cower in fear.", the feudal lord laughed.

Mr. Sanchez smiled in response.

"You know, I never got to ask you why you are going to Riverboard City.", Lord Levine gave a curious look to Mr. Sanchez.

"I recently heard that there was a new criminal organization in the city, so I thought of teaching the kids how to eliminate one.", Mr. Sanchez casually smiled.

"Haha... just like the old times, I guess.", the feudal lord smiled.

"Just like the old times.", Mr. Sanchez nodded.