Nathanial got down from the wyvern. He had planned to enter the fort but the magical defense seems to be too powerful. The tracking spears flying all over the sky was a 7 start artifact. He doubted how Lord Dominic got it which was hard for the empire to get his hands on. Unlike the dwarves born to forge, humanity needed to use magical runes to refine and define an artifact unlike a dwarf who just needed to refine one.
He sighed as he looked at large gates. It was full of energy of 10 star order. Was he full of energy? Was he a fool to just fill the gate with this much energy? He had to forcibly pull his hands away, recheck his dress and walk straight as he had an impulse to steal the gate.
Energy was one of the harshest resources for him and all other mages. Normal men only needed food to live and when they get even the lowest of the mana stone, they can live for months by wearing it around their neck, without eating any food. But that changes when it comes to knight as their body which was forged to higher strength needed as much food as their strength had increased. There was a reason why most of the knights walked on the path of energy knight who increased their energy in the body rather than pure physical strength by refining the body using energy. This problem increases when it comes to a mage as they need to constantly use mana as unlike knights who could live like a human and just use mana to fight and hence could increase the mana conductivity of the body rather than strength, mages were living beings in the form of mana. There was a reason why archmages are not considered humans as their very thought process was run by mana, giving them the possibility of changing their body into a new one. But just eating food and digesting it into physical energy stored in the form of chemical compounds and then using mystery of the self to convert it into a controllable energy by the body takes time. The concentration of mana in the air was too low and mana stones were hard to find.
There was a reason why the evil mages are killed on sight as they suck the blood of commoners, mana of knights and mana, attributes and knowledge of mages. Every mana stone was costly. There was a reason why only the mages with strong bloodline like him could live a life of debauchery while those born from commoners who can hardly break through 1-star strength can only work hard for other lords.
Nathaniel sighed as he commanded his beast to try to absorb some energy from the gate. As long as it is not he who does it, he can say that the beast was not well trained.
How much energy should one need to just refine in the most primitive manner by infusing energy and attributes. He was sure that Dominic knew good forging, refining, runes and defining methods as he saw those spears. Not anyone could do it.
He sighed as he saw the magical items that were managing the grass and flowers. What a waste of energy and resources. Was this the same man who wrote the article that humans should focus research on battleships than build trains for transport?
He looked at the castle. He used the calming spell. He kept using the calming spell and took a potion from the space ring to drink the calming potion. Was anyone a fool to refine the whole castle from the very basic brick into a magical item. He kept reading the runes written on the walls and had to doubt if he had gone to the demon realm or diving realm.
He sighed and entered. He looked at the maids passing by and was scared as every one of the servants was stronger than him. He was a hidden archmage and how strong should they all be. This should explain how he forged this castle as the maids alone are enough to forge the castle as long as they have enough energy.
He had to doubt if it was wise of the emperor to send him here alone. But the fact that he had come here to talk rather than announce was good enough to not be killed by the slayer.
He had heard of how Queen Valentine had sent her son to Dominic more than once even before he had left his kingdom to have an affair. She was a poor one but it seems that he dislikes her. He had no plan to send women to Dominic but that fact remained true that most men would care for their wives before taking action as long as she was of near equal status to him.
He sighed as he saw the door. He could feel terror inside emanating mystery. He had heard about such beings who had mastered the mystery of the body and had created mystery of self and expanded it to the world. They were known as sages. Only dragons, demons and gods were naturally born with an emanating mystery. He had to drink another potion as he could feel his attributes overrunning to protect his body. No wonder he had felt that this castle was forged. It was not that the castle was forged, but the mystery emanating from this man had forged the castle. The maids should have just written runes onto the castle. This should be the reason why the gate remains as such as no one had written runes onto it.
He activated his innate artifact granted to him upon his birth as a blessing by a fairy. He had to face this man this day.