Anton continued telling everyone what he had learned from the elder vampire.

“The Undead Coalition was still currently at war with the Holy City of Tiande but the fact that the Holy City was on the defensive did not bode well for the living. Leminthor was also defending itself from the undead attack but according to the vampire, it would not take long before Leminthor was defeated. The Undead Coalition also began attacking Ruandelle but the merchant city was more powerful than the other cities except for Tiande so that undead endeavor would last long and since the merchant city is very rich, their coffers and granaries are full and they would be able to withstand a long siege.”

“Did you learn why an undead army reached that last village? We’re already two weeks away from Ruandelle,” Anders asked.

While they were talking, the food that the caravan cooks arrived so they paused their talk to eat but most of the people at the table had very little appetite. Anders had to scold Anna to eat more since the following days would be busy for they needed to run as fast and as far as they could each day to reach Zalnothel as soon as possible. Anders scolded his daughter but everyone heard the message so they started to eat heartily to make sure that everyone would be full of energy.

After dinner, Anton answered his father’s question regarding the undead army that attacked the last village.

“According to that elder vampire, the Undead Coalition sent several small armies to attack the towns and villages before the wizard city of Zalnothel as a sort of threat and warning for the wizard city to not join Tiande and Ruandelle in defending their cities. The vampire mentioned that the Undead Coalition sent several armies near Zalnothel. By the way, a thousand undead minions, thirty elite undead, ten powerful vampires, and three liches are considered a small army.”

Everyone had worried looks on their faces upon learning that there were several armies of undead nearby.

“We need to rest now so we can leave early. The next few days would truly be tiresome since we will not truly rest until we reach the wizard city of Zalnothel,” Anders told everyone so they went to their carriages to rest. The guard leaders would still be busy since they would need to make sure that the guards that would be on shift would be aware of the situation and would be extra vigilant.

Anton asked his father, Lucas, Nemina, and Frederick to remain since he needed to talk to them about something.

“What do you want to tell us, Anton?” Anders asked his son.

“The elder vampire that I captured isn’t dead. It cast what it called a Blood Oath magic that was supposed to destroy it and its progenies if it attacked me and in return, it asked to be released. It gave its storage ring that was supposed to be full of treasure that it accumulated in its lifetime. I saw the vampire cast the spell and some sort of red magic enveloped him and then threads of magic were scattered away from it. When I asked the vampire, it said that those were the magic that would go to its progenies that would destroy them if it or any of his progeny attacked us even accidentally. I was wary of its blood oath magic so I released it. It also said that it wouldn’t be able to return to the coalition since they would treat it as a traitor due to the information it shared with me. Did I make a mistake?”

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Everyone looked at Frederick since he was the only mage among them.

“The blood oath was real according to the old mage who taught me magic but only powerful beings could cast it. But of course, we wouldn’t know for sure if what the vampire said was true and you didn’t have any choice during that time. You were right to be wary of killing the vampire. I know you could protect yourself from any sort of curse but it could have targeted your family. The only thing that we can do right now is to rush to Zalnothel and have the city protect us.”

“I don’t know if what you did was right or wrong but if any of us here encountered that vampire, we would have been destroyed by its fingers movement alone,” Lucas said.

Anton then gave the storage ring to his father.

“Its dimensional space is incredibly huge and it has countless amounts of gold coins. I took away the spellbooks and magical items so I could examine them later but for now, the ring is safe. I already removed the curse that the vampire cast over it.”

Everyone was staring at the ring and when Anders checked its inside, Anton’s father gasped.

“Anton, do you know that with the amount of coins that we have, we can be considered as somewhat rich but all the gold coins that we have is only a tenth of the gold coins inside this ring!” Anders exclaimed.

When Nemina, Lucas, and Frederick heard what Anders had said, they gasped, which looked very funny to Anton so he laughed and everyone glared at him.

“You can use the ring then as your personal storage space, Father. I suggest that you don’t wear it since even that vampire kept it in a chain and then wore it around his neck.”

“May I ask which spells are in the vampire’s collection?” Frederick timidly asked.

Anton shrugged and told the mage that he hadn’t had the chance to check them out yet but he saw a single seventh-level spell among the spellbooks.

Frederick gaped when he heard what Anton had said. Anders, Lucas, and Nemina looked curiously at the mage.

“What does it mean? A seventh-level spell?” Lucas asked Frederick.

“A wizard could be considered an archmage if they began learning an eight-level spell so a seventh-level spell is the tier before an archmage. That spellbook alone would allow a normal person to purchase a huge manor in any city and live extravagantly for the rest of his life!”

Anders, Nemina, and Lucas’s eyes grew bigger when they learned what a seventh-level spellbook signified. That meant that the vampire was telling the truth that the ring contained a magical being’s lifetime worth of treasure.

Anton retrieved the seventh-level spellbook from his inventory and examined it. It did feel a bit magical but was the only thing that he could discern without actually opening the spellbook but when he looked at the others, he saw that they backed up a bit and looked like they were in pain. Frederick was even kneeling on the ground and he looked like he was about to pass out.

“The book! It felt like it's freezing our very core and not only that, it felt like it's conscious and aware that it was surrounded by normal beings and was pressuring those beings to leave,” Anders told his son.

Anton was startled and immediately stored the book in his inventory and saw the relief on everyone’s faces.

“Didn’t you feel anything?” Frederick asked Anton.

Anton shrugged and told the mage that he felt the book was a bit magical and that was it. Frederick just sighed and told Anton that he should have expected something like that since he was already powerful beyond the mage’s understanding already.

Anton then asked his Father if he wanted to sell the spellbook so they could purchase a manor in Zalnothel since the spellbook said that it was a Blizzard spell and more than likely, it was similar to his Blizzard spell but Anders scolded his son saying how could they sell something they couldn’t hold.