After the lecture, the teacher had some private words. Apparently, he was “messing around when he was a proper mage already.” All he could do was shrug. He couldn’t explain either of the two reasons he was able to learn the skill so quickly, and, besides, Daniel had paid the full price.

When it was time for the next class, he could only sigh in disappointment. Deep inside of him was a pool of purified mana, and only through dedicated meditation and weeks of moving his mana could he increase its size. There went the hopes of mastering another skill just as easily.

Heading outside, he saw that the weather had turned for the worse. A soft rain fell from the sky, but before it could reach Daniel, it hit a translucent barrier and vanished. Like a child, he stared at the sky for a few brief moments, full of wonder and awe. Then, he realised he didn’t have an umbrella, and after asking around for one, he understood that there simply weren’t any around for common folk.

Still, he had the rest of the day ahead of him, so he drudged on and bought a thick water cloak, cutting deep into his finances. The noble’s cloak he was wearing right now was only for decoration, thin enough to make him not overheat in the summer. All said and done, he tried his best to enjoy the weather as he had a long walk ahead of him.

The further east he headed, the nicer the surroundings got. Guard presence multiplied several times, and unlike those working by the gates, these guards had polished and well-maintained armour along with weapons with wicked sharp edges. He gloated at them as he passed by. At least he had a cloak and didn’t have to wear stupid armour all day.

The previously dense city transformed the more he walked. Private mansions and villas were like behemoths, each consuming as much space as they could for flourishing gardens and man-made pools. Still, they were a wonder to observe. Magic allowed each building to be truly unique. The mansion to his right was blocked by a massive labyrinth, more than twice his height and bathed in shadows. Another was made entirely out of vines, trees arching and bending at unnatural angles, while the third floated high above the ground as griffons and pegasi lazily flew above.

And so, he was quite disappointed when the so-called Steelford mansion turned out to be just a castle. If he was being generous, he could call it very defensible and well-constructed, but it had clearly seen better days. The parapets were half-destroyed, the guardian gargoyles were missing their heads, and the gate leading into it was torn asunder as if a horrible beast had charged through it.

Walking through the gate, he observed the courtyard lined with deep claw marks, the stone beneath his feet a mixture of grey and faded red. ‘Whatever had caused this shouldn’t be inside the castle, right?’ So he hoped as he pushed open the door to the keep, nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw someone looking at him from the second floor.

“Go away, shoo. There’s nothing here left to steal,” an elderly woman shouted down at him, angrily shaking a broom.

Daniel took a few moments to observe her. She was old - more aged than anyone he had seen before. Even though Xaviar had lived for 140 years, he was incredibly high-level, and as a result, age didn’t affect him as much. Either she was much older, or she simply didn’t have the levels to weather the cruel effects of time. She had a hunched back, white hair, and a face full of wrinkles that scowled at him with righteous anger.

“Ma’am, I’m not here to steal anything. I just want to talk,” he moved to the side, only now noticing a wand in her left hand unassumingly pointing at him.

“We can talk from here. Noble or beggar, you lot are the same. Greedy vultures all of you,” she put down her broom, but the wand remained where it was.

“I heard this place belonged to the Steelfords. What happened?” he asked, looking around.

The hall was clean of dust despite the destruction outside. Statues of copper and steel lined the path a visitor might walk, every single one a warrior. Daniel even spotted Xaviar at the end of the hallway. He wasn’t nearly as good-looking in spirit form.

Stolen novel; please report.

“How would I know? I’m just a lowly housekeep,” she said, anger once again flaring in her voice.

“You served them then?”

“Oh yes, I’ve been cleaning this place for thirty years now. The wage was good, and it was always lively - the children especially. I’ve never seen anyone as rebellious as a Steelford child,” she said, lowering her wand. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief.

“What about now? Do they still pay you to clean this place up?”

“No, no. I haven’t seen them since the day they left the city. Gave me a very generous severance bonus, enough for me to still keep living off of it to this day. Said it was too dangerous for me to follow them.”

“Dangerous?”

“That’s what they said. I remember those days - a whole week prior, they told me to stop coming to the mansion. Savira, who had nerves of steel, looked so, so worried. I took her advice to heart, but I was a fool. Should have insisted on helping, on going with them,” her voice was frail, carrying a hurt that hadn’t healed for years.

“I’m sorry. Do you have any clue on where they went?” he asked.

“Somewhere west, across the plains. Saw them leave, dressed in heavy armour, their weapons drawn. To me, it felt like a funeral march,” she said, a tear running down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away.

“I’ve told you the story, but you’ll step no further. There needs to be something remaining if they decide to come back one day.”

In response, Daniel nodded and stepped away. If this place frequently got looters, she had a reason to behave like that. Still, his motives were pure, and there was still more to investigate. Thus, as he walked down the courtyard, he kneeled and placed a hand on the ground. A moment later, a shimmering blue rat appeared on the dirt, taking with it a part of his soul. Then, he continued walking like nothing had happened.

Upon leaving through the gates, he turned to the right and slumped against the walls, closing his eyes. He concentrated on a presence in the back of his mind and immediately shrank. He could never get used to how scary the world was when he was this small.

There was a slight problem - rats didn’t have good vision. He had never worn glasses, but he imagined this was what it felt like when taking them off. Instead, he navigated by touch and smell, carefully sneaking into the keep.

It took the better part of an hour for his investigation to produce any results, and even then, he couldn’t explore all of the keep - the link between his souls could only stretch so far. He had gotten chased around by the old lady for ten whole minutes when she spotted him, but when he escaped through a narrow hole in the wall, he noticed something strange.

Before him was a dungeon, one with solid iron bars that radiated a crazy amount of mana. Several torture instruments lined the walls, some still bearing dried blood. While that unnerved him, it was nothing compared to the destroyed cell, the iron rusted and the stone blackened. Tiny black leeches crawled around on the ground, and his rat nose picked up the stench of death and decay.

Lying in the middle of the cell was what once was a human. Only a small part of him was flesh, preserved even now, years later. The rest of his body was translucent, his limbs elongated into the shapes of tentacles, his veins black. On a closer look, instead of blood, the veins carried the same leeches that were crawling on the ground. The man’s face was even worse - twenty eyes had blossomed on his face, and his tongue had split into four. A circular maw of teeth grew where his mouth once was.

Daniel didn’t have words to describe how much the thing unnerved him. He wished for nothing more than to set fire to the entire keep, just to cremate the damn thing. Once in a while, the leeches would merge into an eldritch tentacle that lashed out at anything around it, spreading the rot further. Fortunately, he didn’t investigate further, or else his soul could’ve been injured.

He fled from the castle, reuniting with his main body. When he did, he spent a few minutes just breathing. The old woman didn’t seem like she was hiding anything, but if she had been living there for five years, she must have found the thing.

For now, he would keep the information to himself. He had no idea how this would affect Xaviar, and the last thing he needed was a hostile spirit. Still, a wonderful opportunity was right in front of him. In two days, they would be heading to the west, and if luck had it, he would find out more about what horrific thing had happened to the family.