Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 90

Chapter 90

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At Turan’s response, a bewildered expression crossed Armani’s hopeful face.

As the relaxed atmosphere tensed once more, the mermaid boy asked in confusion, “Why…?”

“There are several reasons, but primarily because I do not trust you. How can I know if you are just making excuses to take it? Besides, something equivalent to this would be like the mirrors you use underwater, and I doubt you would part with those.”

“That is true, but—”

“Armani!”

It was his sister, Rowina, who sharply grabbed the back of Armani’s neck as he tried to respond.

Subduing her brother, she frowned at Turan and said, “So, what do you intend to do? Surely you do not mean to let that monster roam the seas unchecked? It would not benefit us, nor you humans. Even if luck has held so far, if that thing keeps swimming through these waters, it will eventually raze your coastal cities to the ground. Should it cross beyond the mirror, the South Sea will not remain safe either.”

That was indeed an unwelcome prospect for Turan.

If the Mimic holy relic had effectively sealed the Great Sea Serpent, he could not entirely absolve himself of responsibility for the disaster caused by taking it.

However, he was displeased with the proposed solution: a unilateral demand for sacrifice that offered no certainty of success.

Moreover, losing the holy relic would drastically weaken his power, a potentially fatal blow when considering the need to eventually confront mighty gods.

In contrast, another approach, if successful, could not only avoid such a loss but even promise a tremendous gain in strength.

“How strong is this revived Great Sea Serpent?”

“What?”

“You said earlier it has not fully revived. So, I am asking how strong it is right now.”

“…Why do you ask? Do you intend to hunt it or something?”

“If I think it is manageable. As you said, sealing it again would be temporary, so eliminating it entirely would be safer.”

Hearing Turan’s words, Solif let out an impressed, “Wow.”

“Are you seriously going to do it?”

“If it is not overwhelmingly strong. If you are scared, I will not blame you for sitting it out.”

“Talk sense. Have you ever seen me back out of something like this?”

Replying thus, Solif glanced at Meisa, who nodded without hesitation, signaling her respect for Turan’s decision.

Rowina, staring at them as if they were mad, asked, “Do you even… know what the Great Sea Serpent is? A being that once stood equal to your gods?”

“I know enough. It was a corpse, but I have seen it myself. If you are not going to answer my question, we will be on our way. We will handle it ourselves.”

Of course, if the Great Sea Serpent’s power truly proved that immense, he was prepared to retreat, build his strength, and challenge it later.

Thanks to the holy relic’s senses, he could roughly gauge how formidable an opponent’s power was.

There might be more casualties from storms in the meantime, but he could not justify risking a massive loss of power and the accompanying dangers for their sake.

His primary responsibility now was not to faceless coastal dwellers but to his friends.

As he cut the conversation short, Rowina’s expression turned icy.

With her seeming ready to pounce, Turan inwardly debated how much he should rough up this mermaid princess to drive her off.

He intended to avoid killing her if possible.

Unlike in the past when he knew nothing, he now understood that the mermaids were linked to the god behind Kamain.

Having already made enemies of the Arabion-Nagin alliance and the Zahar-Baraha alliance by taking their possessed heirs, he had no desire to add another formidable faction to the list.

Of course, if they stubbornly kept coming for the holy relic, that would change things…

Yet, contrary to expectations, Rowina did not lash out in anger. Instead, she stared at them intently before posing a question.

“How strong are you?”

“Hm?”

“I am asking how strong you must be to act so arrogantly. Are you perhaps on par with the heads of the great families you worship on land?”

“I can hold my own well enough.”

If the mermaids attacked to seize the holy relic, they would become enemies, so there was no reason to openly reveal his strength.

Understanding this, Rowina raised both palms upward and shrugged, signaling she had no hostile intent.

“If you are strong enough, I will speak to my father myself. How about hunting the Great Sea Serpent together?”

“You all?”

“Yes. You must know there is a significant difference depending on whether we assist or not. Our combat strength goes without saying, and without us, you would struggle even to track the Great Sea Serpent.”

On the surface, it was a tempting offer.

Hunting the Great Sea Serpent, which operated mainly underwater, would indeed be meaningfully different with or without the aid of mermaids, who called the sea their home.

After all, they currently had no clue where their quarry even was.

The only catch was…

“Your attitude has shifted quite a bit from moments ago. You were acting like you would take it by force.”

“If you are bold enough to talk about hunting the Great Sea Serpent, you are no middling weakling. If your companions are of similar caliber, neither I alone nor our entire race combined could easily take it from you. Many might be injured or die in the process, and that is not what I want.”

Turan slightly raised his estimation of the mermaid princess at her unexpectedly candid response.

His first impression had been of an insufferably arrogant fool, but she at least had the discernment to assess ability.

Or perhaps her initial haughty demeanor was meant to intimidate him into handing over the holy relic, and this was her true nature.

“So, you are in a position to convince the mermaid king?”

“More than enough.”

When Turan glanced at Armani, the boy nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Rowina is among the strongest and wisest of us, and Father favors her greatly!”

Turan had not rated her highly based on her power alone, but it seemed she was indeed a formidable mermaid.

He mentally adjusted his estimation of the mermaids’ combat strength downward.

‘Less worry about them stabbing us in the back, but that also means less help in the hunt. A trade-off, I suppose.’

In truth, the strength of most surviving nonhuman races in the modern era tended to be around this level.

Even the mightiest dark elf necromancer king had been weaker than Meisa when she was emaciated and unwell.

They could crush a few average mage families, but a determined great family would easily overwhelm them. Races like the dwarves, half-turned into beasts, were in an even sorrier state.

By comparison, Rowina was on par with the strongest dark elf necromancers he had fought, making her a top-tier powerhouse among nonhuman races.

That raised the question of how the mermaids maintained an equal partnership with Kamain’s god.

As his thoughts deepened, Rowina spoke to him.

“However, I need to confirm if you truly have the strength to back up such a request. There is no guarantee you are not just bluffing.”

“How?”

“There is an inconspicuous clearing on the north side of this island.”

It was not hard to guess she meant a spar to test each other’s mettle.

Turan glanced downward and asked, “Will it be fine on land instead of in water?”

Rowina gave a faint smile at his words.

“I was prepared to fight here if necessary.”

***

Walking north from the alley for about thirty minutes, Turan posed various minor questions to the mermaid siblings.

He asked about basic mermaid ecology and their societal structure.

Unlike Armani, Rowina, being an older mermaid, knew far more, making it a rather informative time.

“So, eating humans cannot be curbed through education?”

“Yes. If they are full enough, they will not bother with humans, but few prey in the sea or along the coast are as easy to catch. The lower classes lack the self-control of even average animals; unless you beat them right beside their prey, they cannot be restrained.”

“What about you?”

“It seems our royalty used to eat plenty in the past, but not since your god arrived. It is less about ethics and more about avoiding giving cause for retribution…”

Thus, he casually learned the secret behind the mermaids’ cannibalistic habits that Armani had not known.

During their lengthy conversation, Turan subtly shifted the topic.

“By the way, what happened to that corpse?”

“Which one?”

“Our god. Is it still there? If it revived too, it might have said something, but there has been no word.”

Back when Turan took the holy relic, the Drowned God had neither decayed nor collapsed, but he could not say if that remained true now.

Rowina replied calmly, “I only heard it is still intact in its place. Are you planning to visit it?”

“I do not mind, but there is someone who wants to see it.”

Hearing this piqued his curiosity anew.

Why had the Great Sea Serpent revived from death while the Drowned God had not?

What difference was there between them?

Shortly after, they arrived at the clearing Rowina had mentioned.

Surrounded by dense forest, it was a fine battleground where they need not worry about prying eyes.

Turan handed Bije, hanging at his side, to Meisa and loosened his hands.

“I alone should suffice as the representative, right? The two behind me are stronger anyway.”

At Turan’s words, Meisa and Solif exchanged glances and simultaneously gave wry smiles.

In truth, the three of them each had distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Turan excelled in combat sense and magical skill across the board, but his bloodline magic was non-combat-oriented, and his magical reserves were the weakest.

Solif boasted rich combat experience and powerful fusion magic but lagged in sensory ability.

Meisa had superior magic reserves, magical senses, and bloodline abilities but was less physically trained and lacked combat instincts.

Since magical reserves were generally the most critical factor in a mage’s prowess, Turan’s earlier statement was not entirely wrong, though in a real fight, it was hard to say who would win.

Of course, if Turan later awakened Arabion’s lightning bloodline, there would be no question of who would be the strongest among them.

“Fine, but just so you know, you should be able to subdue me easily. If you only barely win, you will not stand a chance against the Great Sea Serpent,” Rowina said.

“Naturally.”

“Your confidence is certainly solid. I hope your skill matches it.”

With a snort, the mermaid princess took a deep breath, and her body began to transform.

Like when Armani had turned into a baby shark, the change was instantaneous.

Her form blurred for a moment before a crunching sound rang out, and her body was soon encased in a hard shell.

Facing a giant crab over three meters tall, Turan let out a dry laugh.

“So this is what mermaids rely on to come ashore.”

Unlike sharks or fish, crabs could breathe and move just fine on land.

He had never imagined they could transform into something like this.

Then, Rowina opened her crab mouth wide and said, “You are not scared, are you?”

“No way—”

Before he could finish, Rowina thrust a massive pincer forward in an attack.

Its speed was startlingly fast for her bulky frame.

Turan dodged backward instantly, lightly stomping the ground to raise several sharp pillars.

“Ugh!”

The spiked pillars pierced the crab’s underbelly but shattered with a crunch. Still, her flinch suggested it had some effect.

Next, he sent a small burst of the Soul of Fire and detonated it, causing a loud explosion as the crab’s shell sizzled and burned.

“Did that kill her?”

“Nonsense!”

Staggering from the explosive impact, Rowina shouted and swiftly moved her multiple legs, charging toward Turan, who had retreated into the forest.

Her large bulk caught on nearby trees, but her thick crustacean limbs easily smashed through them, carving a path.

‘Strength, speed, durability… She is far stronger than a noble of her rank. On par with those specialized in close combat? Stronger than I thought.’

Assessing her abilities inwardly, Turan used wind magic to lift himself and widen the distance.

Rowina immediately tilted her head skyward, opened her mouth wide, and fired a brilliant blue beam.

“Oh.”

Since when could a crab look up at the sky?

And what was that beam?

Even as he marveled, the beam closed in on him rapidly.

Without thought acceleration, he might have been hit before he could react.

Activating a defensive artifact at once, a green shield emerged from his pocket and blocked it.

He gauged its power through the magic it consumed.

‘Her physical prowess alone rivals upper nobles specialized in melee, and she has ranged attacks too… Most nobles of her rank would not stand a chance. She is even stronger than I expected.’

Having roughly grasped her strength, he decided playtime was over.

He briefly toyed with the slingshot in his pocket but pocketed it and turned his gaze skyward.

If she took a direct hit from his specialty slingshot attack and that shell shattered, killing her instantly, things could get messy.

Instead, Turan opted to draw power from the sky.

Perhaps due to the Great Sea Serpent’s fusion with a storm spirit, the sky here was thick with clouds, perfect for lightning spells.

“Tell me if you think you are going to die.”

With that warning, Turan summoned lightning from the heavens and struck Rowina.

His lightning spell, not fully awakened due to his incomplete storm bloodline, lacked pinpoint accuracy, but hitting a three-meter-tall giant crab was no challenge.

One bolt, two, three.

Rowina endured stubbornly until the seventh bolt finally brought her to her knees.

“Urgh…”

“S-Stop! Stop! Please stop, kind demon! The fight is already over!” Armani cried.

As Armani hurriedly shielded his fallen sister, Rowina’s body shrank, reverting to her mermaid form.

Turan landed on the ground, looking at Armani with an exasperated expression.

“I do not know why you are acting like I bullied her. This was a mutually agreed spar.”

“That is true, but—”

“Enough, Armani. Do not make a fool of yourself. The more you do, the more you embarrass me,” Rowina said.

“S-Sorry, sister…”

Pushing Armani aside, Rowina stood, steadying her ragged breathing.

The barrage of lightning had clearly dealt significant damage, yet her swift recovery underscored her race’s superior resilience compared to humans.

“I have seen enough of your skill. With you, your two stronger companions, and our help, hunting the Great Sea Serpent might not be impossible.”

“That strong, huh?”

“I think so. We once revered them as lords of calamity and great gods, but the current Great Sea Serpent is just a shell.”

She would need her father’s approval, but she herself was willing to cooperate, Rowina said.

***

After a brief agreement, the mermaid siblings left to discuss matters with their father, the king, promising to return.

They came back exactly one week later, in the evening.

“Father has agreed.”

“Oh?”

“The terms are simple. The Great Sea Serpent’s magic is beyond our control anyway, so you can have it, but the corpse is ours. In return, we will fully cooperate—not just luring it to the battlefield but fighting alongside you.”

“Can you craft something from the corpse?”

From what he recalled, the Great Sea Serpent’s horns and scales had not exuded much mystical power, but that might differ now that it was an undead-spirit hybrid.

However, the reply—whether true or not—was underwhelming.

“It was once a being we worshipped as a god. We plan to use it as a palace decoration.”

He could not fathom why they would turn a once-revered god into decor, but trying to understand the culture of a nonhuman race seemed futile.

“Fine. So, where is the Great Sea Serpent?”

“At the heart of the storms circling this North Sea.”

That meant when Turan’s group was caught in the storm days ago, the Great Sea Serpent had not been far off.

Though it had not registered on the holy relic’s senses, suggesting it was at least kilometers away.

Rowina said that in about ten days, the Great Sea Serpent would move near an island roughly a thousand kilometers north of here.

With land nearby, Turan’s group could rest on solid ground.

The plan was to join forces with the mermaids there and hunt it together.

Cooperating with the mermaids was indeed convenient.

From the hunting ground to the timeline, everything was settled in an instant.

“But aside from you mermaids, there are no other allies? Like human mages, for instance?”

Naturally, Turan was subtly probing about the Karmain family.

He knew of their god’s alliance with the mermaids.

With coastal cities crumbling under storms, it would trouble them most, so their lack of presence was odd—suspicious, even.

Rowina answered his question nonchalantly.

“Well, to be honest, we had hoped for help from a few human families we secretly work with… but for some reason, those we were sure would assist gave negative responses.”

“Which ones?”

“That is something only my father knows. He is the only one who deals with them.”

Regardless, the conclusion was that, aside from Turan’s group, no other human mages could be counted on.

It seemed he would need to meet the mermaid king in person to get answers about that.