Chapter 5

Ventex's power had greatly expanded, but he couldn't start using it however he pleased. Order needed to be maintained. If his power was used indiscriminately, he could find himself gaining many more enemies than just the alliance.

Ventex could use his magic to generate precious metals and gems, but doing so would alert the world to his presence. He would eventually need to identify a source of the new materials, or smart people would connect it to his identity as a magician. Once they began investigating him, there was no telling how much they could unearth or to which lengths they would go to put an end to him.

Plants were safe to grow in large quantities and sell. As long as he only magically created an amount that could logistically fit inside the forest of Millou, Ventex could create as much as he wanted. Animal products were also acceptable to farm with magic, but they typically kept for less time than plants. In the future, of Ventex acquired a mine, he could begin selling minerals.

For the time being, Ventex thought less about making money and more about expanding his knowledge of the world. Divination could only give Ventex vague feelings about his queries, such as if his idea was correct or in which direction something was located. He used divination to try to find out how much time had passed since the death of Venarius, but he only received a feeling that a long time had passed.

Using divination, Ventex discovered his empire from his previous life had reached a terrible state. Almost certainly, it was completely destroyed. He felt pain, knowing that, after his death, decades of work had dissolved into nothing.

To a lesser degree than his empire, the alliance that killed him was also in a bad condition. The original alliance members were all dead and gone, but the alliance still existed as an entity. Over time, its members had been swapped out, but it still existed. They were a thorn in Ventex's side, always plaguing his thoughts, but they were hardly the superpower they were at the time of their founding. They would still need to be dealt with, but they fell to the back of Ventex's concern.

As the final piece of assurance for himself, Ventex checked if anyone was searching for him. Besides his own family members, nobody was looking for a man named Ventex, or Venarius.

A week after Ventex demonstrated his ability to grow plants from magic, Lindette returned to the forest. She, Karugh, and Yanette had taken a week-long vacation, just doing whatever they wanted, and then they went back to working during the morning and afternoon. A week of not worrying about money hadn't made any of them lazy. Karugh still worked hard, and Yanette attention span still lasted only about thirty seconds.

One day, while Lindette and the rest were away from the house, Ventex took the little black orb he had taken from the tree to the village general store, to have it appraised by Dyon. Divination told him it was worth a large amount, but the results were not conclusive.

Ventex walked from his home to the general store with a regular human pace. He still didn't want his identity as a magician to reach too many people, and thus he refrained from using magic while in places where others might see him. Walking without the aid of magic felt slow, but he made a conscious effort to not increase his speed.

At the store, Ventex opened the door and greeted Dyon, who was alone in his shop, "Good morning, Mr. Dyon."

"Good morning, Mr. Ventex," Dyon greeted, slightly nodding.

"I'm here for something a little different," Ventex began, and he fished the orb out of his pocket, holding it between his fingers for Dyon to see. "I was wondering if you could tell me what this is and how much it's worth."

"Well, let me take a closer look at it," Dyon said, and Ventex handed it him. A few seconds later, Dyon spoke, "I don't really know what this is. Where'd you find it?"

"I found it in the stump of a tree that had fallen down," Ventex answered. He tried to be as accurate as possible without revealing his use of magic.

Dyon looked closely at the orb, searching for imperfections. He felt it in his hand, tested its firmness, and only had one guess, "It might be something arcane. When my son came back from Thiosille, he told me about magicians who would pay high prices for special plants."

Dyon waited for Ventex to feel some kind of amazement, but Ventex's expression never changed from its ordinary calm. Slightly disappointed, Dyon continued, "I can pass this on to a friend of mine in a caravan, and he'll try to sell it in a city. If it really is an arcane plant and it's worth something, he'll sell it and bring the coins back here. How does that sound?"

Ventex didn't immediately reply. He had come to the store to find out the use of the orb, but Dyon's knowledge was no larger than his own. Dyon's son, Verline, might know something more, and asking him came more in line with Ventex's objective than giving the orb to Dyon to sell. Ventex wasn't in any need of money, so he wanted to collect oddities rather than sell them. Furthermore, if the orb had something to do with a way a magician could increase their power, Ventex needed to know. Power was always in short supply, and Ventex could never get enough of it.

"Where is Verline? I'll try asking if he knows what it is," Ventex replied, subtly rejecting Dyon's offer.

"He said he was going to the guard outpost. If he's not there, you might be able to find him patrolling the fields," Dyon answered. He hadn't lost hope that Ventex would sell the orb. As far as Dyon knew, nobody in Millou was a magician or magician ancestor. Since he didn't think Ventex had any use for an arcane plant, he expected him to sell it.

"Thank you," Ventex said, took his orb back, and exited the store.

He walked southeast, away from the village center. The guard outpost was known to almost everyone in Millou, and Ventex had been there on three occasions. The first time he went, Randric had wanted to show off the outpost's architecture. Nobody was sure who had built the outpost, and it existed for even longer than the village.

At the present time, it was used by the town guard as a headquarters building, but some people thought it was once used by a magician to perform evil experiments. Ventex didn't know why a magician would want to perform experiments in a small, two-floor tower, or even what kind of experiments they could be doing. If it were him, he would rather be in a crowded city, where he could easily escape into a crowd of people if magic investigators found him.

On the second and third times Ventex had been to the outpost, Karugh or Yanette were being shown around. At the time, after Randric had told a few stories about the magician that supposedly lived in the outpost, Yanette had stated a firm desire to become a magician. Then, a few hours later, she forgot about it. To the villagers of Millou, magicians were mysterious entities that couldn't be reached. To Ventex's family members, magicians were even more unfathomable.

A dirt walking path led to the outpost. On either side of the path, large fields spread out in all directions. The fall harvest was approaching, and crops were fully grown. Within the next month, the golden fields would return to their unplanted condition, and the storage houses inside the village would be packed with alfwyn and praut. After three months of work, the farmers of Millou would've finally produced what Ventex could create in five minutes with a few spells.

Magicians needed to control themselves. If Ventex simply generated a few tons of praut with magic and sold it to the village for less than it cost the villagers to farm it, there would be several negative consequences. Firstly, he would be putting the farmers out of a job. Their praut would be worth less than prior to Ventex's interference, and their livelihood would be at risk. Obviously, in such a situation, the farmers would feel resentment for Ventex and his allies - family members.

However, if Ventex gave the praut to the farmers for free, and thus allowed them to still earn their money, the farmers would get lazy. Lazy workers would eventually cause society to stagnate, and vital skills would be lost. For the benefit of society, Ventex and other magicians needed to refrain from using their spells in ways that made the life of ordinary humans too easy.

Prime examples of magicians overusing their powers were magic cities. In magic cities, enchanted items were commonplace, and the standard of living far surpassed anywhere else on the continent. Food and entertainment were cheap, and luxury goods came in from all around the world. For the first century of a magic city's development, conditions were superior to all other cities.

Then, after the founding generation of magicians and their direct disciples passed away, conditions began to decline. The new leaders of the city coasted by on the groundwork laid by their predecessors, and they ignored the signs of deterioration in the city's infrastructure. When generous magicians stopped providing necessities for the city, the average citizens were unable to supply them for themselves. Enchanted items broke, food ran out, and the magic city fell apart.

Bypassing society's infrastructure and foundation came with disastrous consequences. To many magicians, prolonged charity was synonymous with catastrophe.

Ventex arrived at the guard outpost after about twenty minutes of walking. At the very top of the tower, two guards leaned on the battlement, staring across the fields and toward Millou. They saw Ventex, but they said no words to him. It wasn't strange to have a villager visiting the outpost.

Early, before Ventex set off for the outpost, he used a rank 13 divination spell to sense Verline's direction and confirm his presence at the outpost. When he arrived, he entered and looked for Verline on the ground floor. As hoped, Verline sat at a table with three other guards, playing a game of cards, with his sword and scabbard laid against the table.

"Hey Ventex, whatcha doing here?" Verline saw Ventex and said. "You come to reconsider becoming my squire?"

"No, not quite. Actually, I was hoping you could tell me what this is," Ventex said and took the orb out from his pocket. Like with Dyon, he handed the orb to Verline, and Verline carefully examined it.

After a few seconds of thinking, Verline said to him, "This is called a black magic seed." He stood up and fastened his scabbard belt to his waist, then continued, "It is found in the trunk of a tree that sprouted under the corpse of an arcane monster, and it can help magicians increase their rank. You're really lucky to have found this!"

The guards in the room were all interested. When they first heard magic, they knew Ventex had brought something interesting. They couldn't understand the concepts behind everything Verline said, but they knew the black orb in his hand had to be something extremely precious.

Ventex scanned the faces of the guards, then said, "Let's take a walk, outside." He could see the lecherous gazes of the guards, and he didn't want to ask the value of the orb while in their presence. Greed afflicted all men, and Ventex did what he could to protect himself.

"Yes," Verline said and then turned to the guards, "Sorry, but I'll have to forfeit this match. I won't be back for a while, so I donate my army to Chradel."