Chapter 17

Seeing the concern in Gorden's expression, the battle priest Jude comforted him, "You don't need to worry too much. The demon lord's avatar that appeared just now, well, it might not even be an avatar, just an illusion formed by a wisp of Akatu Te's soul energy. So we can easily dispel it back to the Abyss."

"Of course, I know what you're saying," Gorden thought to himself. If the demon lord had truly used his own power to tear through the planar barrier and project an avatar into the Material Plane, it would have been a formidable enemy that only a legendary-level expert could handle. He, a mere mage, might have been dead long ago.

However, since Jude was trying to comfort him out of kindness, Gorden didn't want to say too much.

The charming and always amiable battle priest was comforting Gorden, but the paladin Reina was not optimistic. Her long eyebrows furrowed, and her expression was serious, "Recently, the activities of demon followers in the North have become more frequent. Behind this necromancer, there is likely a grand conspiracy. Mage Gorden, since you have disrupted Akatu Te's plan, given the demon lord's vengeful nature, he will not let you off easily."

Although it is difficult for demons, filled with chaotic energy, to manifest in the Material Plane, with Akatu Te's abilities, he could easily issue a command, and countless fanatical followers would come to hunt Gorden down.

Gorden felt increasingly uneasy. His plan to work hard, pay off his debts, and live a good life seemed to be about to burst like a balloon.

"Don't worry, Mr. Gorden," the battle priest Jude gave Gorden a bright smile, "As a follower of Lady Dawn, we will not stand by and let innocent citizens be threatened by demon followers."

He pulled out a light purple crystal from his pocket and handed it to Gorden, "If you are attacked by followers of the Abyss, please invoke the name of Lady Dawn and shatter this amethyst. You will receive a shield that absorbs damage, and a portal to the Dawn Temple will immediately open. Knight Reina will come to your rescue in time."

This amethyst was a fairly high-level magical item. It stored two spells and could be triggered by a specific command. However, Gorden knew that Jude's generous gift of the amethyst was probably not just out of kindness or a sense of justice.

Perhaps the Dawn Temple, knowing that he had provoked the demon lord Akatu Te, wanted to use him as bait to lure in demon followers and capture them all, while also investigating the hidden conspiracy.

But that didn't matter. No pain, no gain. While good things do happen from time to time, they are not the norm. If someone really helped him without expecting anything in return, Gorden would find it strange.

Gorden took the amethyst, "I will be vigilant. If anything unusual happens, I will inform you immediately. After all, this concerns my life."

"That's the best approach."

After the members of the Meridia Church left with the necromancer's body, Gorden also quickly left the cemetery. Since his small wooden house had been burned down and would take three days to rebuild, the church gave him a temporary leave. This was good news for him, who was always short on time.

After a night of battle, Gorden was a bit tired, but he didn't plan to rest. He called out the system to check and found that his mana was still fairly abundant. Gorden decided to do something.

He went to the store and bought a scroll of Melf's Acid Arrow, returned home, and immediately began to learn it.

By killing four wanderers and a necromancer, Gorden gained a total of 430 experience points in battle. However, a third of this experience was quickly spent on learning the new spell, Melf's Acid Arrow.

There were 347 experience points left in his experience pool, and he needed 3000 to level up. Gorden felt he couldn't afford to waste valuable experience points so extravagantly anymore. He needed to reach level five as soon as possible and master third-level spells to truly be considered a qualified mage.

After learning Melf's Acid Arrow, Gorden went to his small study and stood before the familiar magic workbench. He first took out the wand he had obtained from Mendoza, which was now empty. Then he took out the earth elemental essence and water elemental essence.

Gorden planned to enhance this wand.

In this crystal system, the four major elements—wind, fire, water, and earth—along with the two fundamental energies of positive and negative, form the basis of the world. These six elements can be combined in different ways to form new secondary energies.

Fire and earth combine to form flame; wind and water condense into ice; water and earth create strong acid; fire and wind form lightning. The opposing elements of water and fire interact to form a force field, while the opposing elements of wind and earth oscillate to produce sound waves.

Gorden could use the earth elemental essence and water elemental essence to enhance the power of the Melf's Acid Arrow cast by the wand.

Improving a magical item is more difficult than creating a new one. However, for Gorden, a former master enchanter, this was not a problem. After ten hours of work at the workbench, spending two bottles of elemental essence, a sapphire, and an amber, Gorden completed the enhancement of the wand.

Finally, he cast a Melf's Acid Arrow on the wand placed on the workbench to complete the charging process.

The modified wand not only increased the number of stored spells to 15 but also gained the equivalent of the Metamagic feat "Empower Spell."

When combined with the "Empower Spell" feat, all variable values of the spell increase by 50%. For example, attack spells deal 50% more damage, and area-of-effect spells affect 50% more targets.

If the wand was previously a small .38 caliber revolver, after Gorden's enhancement, it had transformed into a powerful and well-stocked Desert Eagle.

Melf's Acid Arrow is a second-level conjuration spell, and a spell enhanced with "Empower Spell" requires a spell slot two levels higher. Therefore, this modified wand by Gorden is equivalent to a fourth-level magical item.

Unlike trinkets like the Ring of Heroism, this was a truly significant magical item. Gorden felt he had finally lived up to his title as a master enchanter in the "Ancient Era."

After a long and intense enchanting session, the mentally exhausted Gorden washed up and soon fell asleep in bed. Despite it being daytime, the old Freeman residence was silent.

However, in another luxurious mansion in the noble district, a storm was brewing.

"You damn fool! Idiot! Brainless zombie! The lowest slave among goblins! How could I have a son like you!"

Ronge Ritter raised his short, fat hands and then slammed them down. The elven vase, worth 500 gold coins and brought from the south, shattered.

Denvir Ritter stood nearby, head bowed, trembling under his father's wrath.

Ronge Ritter was short and fat, bald, and his face, covered in fat, always had a layer of disgusting grease. His speech was muffled, and he often made meaningless grunts. As a result, every noble lady who saw him would cover her mouth with a feather fan and disdainfully call him a "rude boar."

But if anyone underestimated him because of his appearance, they would be in for a world of trouble.

In Denvir's heart, his father was not a boar but a lion.

A few days ago, Denvir had planned to force Siona into marriage while she was in a vulnerable position, but she had flatly refused, embarrassing him greatly. He harbored a grudge and planned to take revenge on Gorden.

However, as the eldest son of the Ritter family, Denvir had some sense. Although he wanted to take revenge on Gorden, he decided to wait three months until the Freeman family could not repay their debts, lose their home, and be in a desperate situation before crushing them underfoot!

But soon, a shocking piece of news reached his ears: Gorden had actually created a magical item!

This meant that Gorden had become a qualified enchanter, capable of earning a large amount of gold. It was even possible that he could repay all his debts within three months.

This made Denvir panic.

Originally, he was a spectator on the shore, happily watching Gorden struggle in the water. But suddenly, the situation changed. Not only did Gorden not drown, but he was swimming happily in the water. How could Denvir accept this?

So Denvir decided to solve the problem once and for all. He hired four wanderers through an intermediary and spent a lot of money to assassinate Gorden. To ensure success, he also brought in the necromancer Mendoza.

Mendoza came from the Three Saints Baptist Church. Denvir didn't know the true origins of this mysterious organization, but he knew that without the support of the Three Saints Baptist Church, the Ritter family would never have grown from a small iron merchant to a major weapons dealer in the North.

But this small precaution backfired.

The assassination failed, and not only did the four wanderers, including Donien, die, but Mendoza also lost his life!

"My foolish son, do you know how much trouble your actions have brought to the Ritter family?" Ronge panted heavily.

"This... the assassination failed, but the City Watch and the Dawn Church have not suspected me..."

"You're still trying to downplay it! What if the assassination failed? Even if Gorden knew you were behind the murder, so what? With my connections and the wealth of the Ritter family, we could easily clear our names! But why did you involve Mendoza? Do you know that he had an important mission from the Three Saints Baptist Church and was supposed to go to the far North?"

Ronge paused and continued, "If the higher-ups of the Three Saints Baptist Church find out that you used money to lure Mendoza into assassinating a mage, which led to his death, what do you think they will think? This has disrupted their plans and indirectly caused the death of a promising member... If this isn't resolved, the Ritter family is finished! And have you forgotten what kind of person Mendoza's sister is?"

A crazed, bloodthirsty, and twisted woman's image appeared in Denvir's mind. He shivered and said hoarsely, "Father, what should we do?"

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