Arcane Lord

However, Xia Duo's sudden appearance made the two people in the small workshop quiet down immediately. Before Xia Duo could speak, the old man pulled the middle-aged man to kneel on the ground and begged for mercy:

"Please spare my life, sir. This kid was confused and deceived you. I am willing to offer all my property, just begging you to spare his life!"

As he said that, he pulled the necklace from his neck and handed it to Xia Duo with both hands, "Sir, this is a treasure I got in the ruins when I was young. Please let us go!"

"..."

Xia Duo was a little confused. He hadn't even spoken yet, and he was offering his property and treasures again. Does he look so unkind?

In the end, both the buyer and the seller were willing. He bought it even though he knew it was fake. He had some intention of fishing for law enforcement, but he also cleared the mines for this family. If it were other mages, they might really want both money and life.

Of course, other mages may not be able to find the other party as easily as Xia Duo. [Detection] is a 4th-level spell. It is not worth wasting a 4th-level spell just for a fake that only cost 10 gold coins.

However, since Xia Duo came, he would definitely not go in vain.

He first picked up the necklace and carefully observed the round bead pendant on it. He found that it was indeed a magic item that could detect the detection spell as he had guessed before.

Although Xia Duo did not cast [Identification], the magic on this pendant was not encrypted at all, and it was added through [Magic Constancy].

This discovery greatly reduced the value of this pendant to Xia Duo. Although [Magic Constancy] seems to be much more flexible in making magic items, and can even add spell effects to the human body, its stability is much worse than that made with mithril components.

Moreover, the threshold for casting is very high. Basically, no matter how many levels of magic effects need to be added, the difficulty of casting must be at least one level higher. This involves the cycle of elements, because this [Magic Constancy] is not a specific spell, but a technology.

This was not in line with the research direction chosen by Xia Duo. What he needed was a manufacturing method with a lower threshold, so as to expand the range of spellcasters who were able to participate in the manufacturing, and also promote the iteration and update of various spells.

After a careful inspection, Xia Duo threw the necklace back into the old man's palm, and said calmly: "Get up first!"

When throwing the necklace, Xia Duo was indeed reluctant to give it up. He could get this magic item worth more than ten thousand without paying any price, and it was completely in line with the standards of the Nether Mage. No one would blame him for it.

But——

Almost not needing does not mean completely not needing. What he needs to pay is actually a little belief and principle in his heart. He does not completely agree with the current environment of Netheril.

He and the Nether Mage have different views. Although he has been here for so long and has been more or less affected, some principled things cannot be changed.

Fishing law enforcement, and then coming to kill people and rob money, ask yourself, Xia Duo can't do it. Even if he doesn't kill people and only robs money, Xia Duo feels a little disgraceful.

If it was an enemy, it wouldn't matter. Just like the arcanist Aquilaine in Hawke's territory, it was natural for Shado to sneak attack. Even if there was a more "strange" method, he wouldn't mind trying it.

But if the two sides were not enemies, there was no need to do such tricks.

Although the Nether Mage did not advocate justice, he also rejected evil. Even the evil ones did not necessarily like to associate with the evil ones.

If it was the protagonist of a novel written by Shado before he crossed over, perhaps the first sentence he would say would be - "How dare you use such a vulgar thing to mess with my mind!", and then he would kill or chop, and finally touch the corpse.

This seems to be more pretentious or second-year, but if it were Shado himself, whether from a realistic perspective or from his own mind, he would still be unwilling to accept this magic item.

However, not wanting magic items does not mean not wanting people.

Of course, there are still some questions that need to be asked clearly before that.

Seeing that the two were still kneeling on the ground trembling, Xia Duo said again, "Stand up! I don't want to say it for the third time!"

In fact, Xia Duo was very disgusted with this form of kneeling at every turn. Although it seemed a little cool and high, from another perspective, would he encounter someone who needed him to kowtow one day?

It doesn't matter if others kneel to me, but it will be uncomfortable when it's my turn to kneel to others.

This bad habit must be resolutely banned. You and I are both great arcane masters, or even seeds of high-level gods. Why should I kneel to you? If everyone has such a belief, perhaps this is a world suitable for the development of civilization.

So far, Xia Duo has not been asked to kneel by others, but he knows that if a great arcane master asks him to kneel and salute, he has no room to refuse.

Although the caster can be regarded as a great power belonging to himself, he does not need to highlight his authority through various complicated rituals like ordinary people in power, but it is not guaranteed that someone will like this.

Every time Xia Duo thinks of this possibility, he is annoyed.

You are not as strong as others, so you can only sigh helplessly.

…

The old man and the middle-aged adventurer in the small workshop finally stood up after two orders from Xia Duo, but they were still trembling and cautious, fearing that the wizard in front of them would cast a spell.

"Tell me, how many people have you deceived like this?" When asking, Xia Duo used the trial spell and inquiry learned from [Projection Plane Arcane Empire] without leaving any trace.

In fact, it is psychic magic.

[Inquiry] is similar to the [Realm of Honesty] that Leiden once used. It can determine whether the target in the spell field is lying, but there is no holy power involved. It is pure arcane magic and is quite easy to use.

"Sir, we just brought it from Shiboden to Seventon yesterday, and we only shipped one item, and it was bought by your lord." The middle-aged man seemed a little aggrieved in his tone.

It was the truth, but not lying does not mean that he did not conceal anything. Sha Duo continued to ask: "Then did you lie to other people before coming to Severton?"

"..." The expression on the middle-aged man's face began to struggle, and finally his face collapsed. Just as he was about to speak, the old man said first, "Sir, we only sold a few before, and we made it clear in advance that they were just ordinary silver jewelry. They think it’s Mithril themselves.”

"Oh? Why did you become more courageous after arriving in Severton?"

When Xia Duo bought it, the middle-aged man had agreed that it was a mithril jewelry. He didn't dare to say that in other places, but he said so in Severon. Did he think that the mages in Severnton were more stupid than those in other places? Or are you planning to do just one job and not come to Severington?

He glanced at the clump of silver-white metal threads that had fallen to the ground. The appearance of silver and mithril was still very obvious. The clump of metal threads looked the same as mithril threads in appearance.

If Xia Duo hadn't come into contact with mithril often, he would have been deceived by them. The skills of these two people are really not bad.

"Where did you know the style of this kind of jewelry?" After two ordinary questions, Xia Duo finally asked the real question.

The middle-aged man looked confused and just looked at the old man. The old man didn't hide anything, "Sir, when I was young, I found a damaged ancient magic weapon in the ruins. It had many complicated mithril structures. I took it apart and sold it. Yes, later, later——"

"Later, you felt that selling just one item was not enough, so you started to fake it?" Xia Duo helped him to say the following words.

"yes."

"..."