Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 62

Chapter 62

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The power and range of offensive magic are inherently inversely proportional.

Due to the limited amount of magical power available for spells, focusing on power reduces the range, and focusing on range reduces the power.

However, the magic unfolding on the shores of Parayan Island defied this principle.

The force that obliterated a radius of several tens of meters and crushed the pirates to the point where not even their corpses remained required only a level of magical power that could be recovered with a few breaths and a handful of black powder.

Turan, brushing off his soot-covered hands, once again realized just how powerful and dangerous the Fire Soul was.

‘This really shouldn’t be shared with other families.’

Although he had combined wind magic to dramatically expand the explosion’s range, even considering that, the power was absurd.

At this level, it was practically equivalent to a disposable magical weapon.

Of course, given the method of creation, the likelihood of someone accidentally making it was almost nonexistent.

The conditions—combining three substances in precise proportions and then having a mage expend magical power to mix them—were excessively stringent.

‘Besides me, the only ones who knew about this were the nobles of Kamain who killed Ovil together, right?’

Among them, the others weren’t particularly interested, and only Bisen, the leader, had copied the contents of the notebook out of curiosity.

They were more focused on the ritual to gain pyromancy abilities, and considering that saltpeter and sulfur weren’t easy resources to obtain, it was unlikely they had created the Fire Soul. Still, it was necessary to be cautious.

Turan comforted Bije, who was complaining of ear pain, and landed on the ground to systematically execute the surviving pirates.

There were about thirty of them who had stayed inside the buildings, either asleep or too lazy to come out.

“P-please, spare us—”

“Dieee—!”

“Please take us as your subordinates, we swear loyalty!”

The reactions of those holed up varied.

Some immediately begged for mercy upon seeing the devastation on the shore, others bravely resisted, and some quickly switched sides and surrendered.

Turan selected a few who seemed the most compliant and buried them alive using earth-shaping magic instead of killing them.

The ones who resisted the longest were two knights stationed to protect the island. Turan used a small amount of the Fire Soul, propelled by wind magic, to explode and incapacitate them.

He could have killed them without using it, but he wanted to gauge how much was needed to take down a knight-level mage.

“Ugh…”

The result was one instant death and the other in critical condition with all his internal organs ruptured.

This gave Turan a rough idea of the required power and distance.

The surviving knight, realizing he was about to die, spewed curses while bleeding profusely.

“Be prepared… our captain will… avenge us…!”

“I was planning to visit him soon anyway. Stop with this nonsense.”

Turan responded by kicking the knight’s head, severing his breath.

There was no doubt that Cobinus was a noble-level mage, but he couldn’t be stronger than Turan.

If he were that powerful, he wouldn’t be engaging in piracy.

While busy with his tasks, Turan sensed the presence of a dozen people gathered inside a building.

Amidst the acrid smell of the Fire Soul, a foul stench wafted out.

Breaking down the door of what seemed like a large warehouse, he found a group of disheveled women huddled together like livestock.

“P-please, save us. We’ll do anything, please…”

“Were you all kidnapped by pirates?”

“Yes!”

“Then come out and organize yourselves. You’re free.”

After saying this, Turan walked out without looking at them.

Many of them were in a state of disarray, and unless they were like Rida, they probably wouldn’t appreciate his gaze.

Shortly after, the women hesitantly stepped out of the warehouse, gasping or screaming at the sight of the pirates’ corpses scattered around.

Some, having been abused for a long time, couldn’t even stand properly and needed support.

“There’s a mine inside! There are men kidnapped there too—”

“I’ve already freed their shackles. How many pirates were here?”

“I’m not sure, but around sixty or seventy.”

Turan nodded after counting those obliterated by the wide-area explosion and those he had personally killed or buried.

The numbers roughly matched. Even if a few had gone out on errands and hadn’t returned, it would only be one or two.

With only one sailing ship in the village harbor, they couldn’t escape with that number.

“Then, wash up and rest for now. Don’t kill the ones I buried; they might be useful.”

* * *

After instructing the women to clean themselves and find clothes, Turan returned to the mine.

Next to the gruesomely torn corpse of the overseer, the miners huddled together with anxious expressions.

Their faces brightened upon seeing Turan.

“Ah, the mage is back!”

“You’re safe! How is the village?”

Their relieved expressions reminded Turan of the citizens of Kalamaf.

The image of weak sheep looking to him for stability.

Turan admitted to himself that he now enjoyed being revered and protected by such people.

Though he would never admit it out loud, even if his mouth were torn.

“The pirates are all dealt with.”

“Yes! Ah, we’ve prepared something for you!”

“Prepared?”

“You said you came for saltpeter… If you need anything else, we can transport it all to the village.”

It turned out that while Turan was dealing with the pirates, the miners had organized the mined minerals for easy retrieval.

“Handle this yourselves for now. Go wash up and rest. I’ve rescued the women; take care of them.”

“The women…? Ah!”

“Please, just be alive, Teya…”

Some of the men, having connections with the women in the village, immediately ran towards the village without even washing up.

After confirming everyone had left, Turan reached out towards the rocks and entangled ores.

The gold and silver mixed stones were melted with intense flames, separated using liquid manipulation, and the saltpeter was ground and divided using telekinesis.

Ironically, the magical power consumed here was hundreds of times more than what was used to obliterate the village and kill dozens of pirates.

The heat required to melt the gold and silver had to be meticulously controlled to prevent it from spreading elsewhere.

Once the molten gold and silver were solidified into lumps, they weighed several tens of kilograms each.

Refining them into coins or ingots would yield a considerable fortune.

However, the primary goal here was the saltpeter.

Turan frowned upon checking the amount of saltpeter secured.

‘It’s too little…’

Perhaps because it was a byproduct, the amount of saltpeter powder was only about ten kilograms.

Considering it was the most significant component of the Fire Soul, he needed at least several times more to feel secure.

Turan picked up a miner’s pickaxe and ventured deeper into the mine.

‘If there’s not enough, I’ll just dig it myself.’

Though he had never worked as a miner, with his immense power, skill was unnecessary.

Each swing of the pickaxe, infused with magical power, shattered the ground, and when the tunnel threatened to collapse, he used telekinesis and earth-shaping to forcibly maintain and repair the ceiling.

The labor of one transcendentally powerful mage miner far surpassed that of hundreds of ordinary miners.

Several hours later, Turan emerged from the mine with more than the targeted amount of saltpeter.

“Phew… This should be enough.”

[Is it done now?]

“Yeah.”

[I’m tired.]

“Alright, let’s go back and rest.”

Bije, who had been digging alongside him with claws and paws, wrote with a tired expression.

After securing a large amount of saltpeter and returning to the village, Turan found the kidnapped people busy with various tasks.

Those in poor condition were resting in relatively intact buildings, while the healthier ones were preparing food to nurse the sick.

‘They’re in better shape than I thought.’

He had expected them to sit idly, but it seemed their survival instincts had kept them active even while kidnapped.

After confirming that none of the buried pirates had escaped, Turan approached the kidnapped people.

They were in the middle of discussing something.

“Um, is this really okay? Strictly speaking, all this food is part of the spoils…”

“We need to save lives first, right? It’s not like we need corpses, and the sick will die if they don’t eat this… Oh, mage!”

A woman who had been scolding a burly man noticed Turan and bowed her head.

The others also stopped cooking and greeted him, some even kneeling.

“Stand up.”

The command, infused with animal control magic, forced everyone to comply.

While they were still bewildered by the phenomenon, Turan asked in a monotone voice,

“You’ve been taking care of the sick and preparing food.”

“Yes, yes…”

The woman leading them appeared to be in her mid-thirties, likely taking on the role of the eldest sister, which allowed her to take charge.

Turan spoke to her in a gentle tone,

“Well done. Continue to lead and organize everyone to prepare resting places and maintain daily life. If pirates appear again, call me.”

Expecting to be scolded, the woman’s legs gave way as Turan turned and left.

Entrusting tasks to someone who could take initiative meant there would be no issues for the time being.

After delegating, Turan dug up a few of the pirates buried near the shore.

Naturally, they didn’t dare resist the mage who had single-handedly annihilated an entire village in an instant.

“You want to live, right?”

“O-of course! If you spare us, we’ll be loyal to you!”

“Even if it costs our lives…”

As expected, only the most servile had been spared, and the competition for loyalty was fierce.

Turan raised his hand lightly to suppress them and asked,

“Among the pirates around here, who is the cleanest?”

“Clean, you mean…?”

“Do you mean who washes the most?”

The pirates’ level of thinking was predictably low.

“I mean who is the most honest and doesn’t harm civilians, at least not kidnapping people like you did.”

“Someone like that…”

“Is there?”

“The Red Whale crew?”

“Eh, they’re still pirates, what’s the difference?”

“No, I heard their captain doesn’t tolerate human trafficking.”

“And they still manage to operate?”

After some discussion among themselves, they concluded that the Red Whale pirate crew met Turan’s criteria.

They attacked merchant ships for tolls or plunder but didn’t engage in kidnapping and had strict rules against indiscriminate village raids.

After learning the location of their base, Turan buried the pirates again and went to ask the survivors.

Hearing similar answers, Turan informed the kidnapped people of his plan.

“I’ll ask the Red Whale pirate crew to help send you back to your homes. It’s too much to send each of you back individually since you’re from different places. The cost will be covered by part of the value of the minerals from the mine.”

The kidnapped people were from various places, from near the Siraf Marsh to small islands, the southern Enril Desert, and eastern fishing villages.

Sending all of them back would take months.

It was better to find a reliable pirate crew with multiple ships to handle it.

One man, looking terrified, asked,

“But… will the pirates keep their promise?”

“They will. Unless they want to end up like that Cobinus guy.”

Turan’s original plan was to secure the saltpeter and head straight to the Dakein Plains, but what happened here changed his mind.

He had seen the cruel treatment of kidnapped people, akin to wolves preying on sheep.

While Turan couldn’t hunt down every pirate in the southern seas, removing one thorn was easy.

He now had the power to do so.

This would serve as a sufficient warning to other cruel shepherds.

* * *

After finalizing his plans, Turan entered the largest house used by the knights and immediately began creating the Fire Soul.

With dozens of trees from the village as material and charcoal powder secured, the preparation was perfect.

Although the combination didn’t consume much magical power, creating several hundred kilograms took an entire day.

He had to stop and rest periodically to avoid depleting his magical power too much, in case Cobinus attacked immediately.

Upon finishing and emerging, Turan was greeted by the woman he had appointed as the leader.

She looked somewhat troubled as she spoke to him.

“M-mage. We’ve organized all the valuables in the village. Would you like to check them?”

“Valuables?”

“Yes. From the pirates’ corpses and the minerals mined but not yet delivered to the higher-ups.”

“Ah.”

Upon reflection, it was obvious that not all the mined minerals had been left in the mine.

Preoccupied with the Fire Soul, he hadn’t considered that some might still be stored and unrecovered.

Following her to the warehouse, Turan was greeted by several times the amount of precious metals he had refined the previous day.