Immortal Mage - Chapter 10 Goodbye

“W-What is this place?” Fen has brought Iledoya to the place that he asked for, a place with a lot of dying plants.

“Isn’t this exactly like you asked for? A place with a lot of dying plants.” Fen questioned with a confused look.

“Well, i was expecting a place with dying plants dotted here and there but this… this is a dead greenhouse…”

The place where Fen brought Iledoya was a patch of dead land, not a single green leaf to be seen. Iledoya doesn’t expect to see something like this in the Great Alfer forest. However, Iledoya realized that this is a good situation for what Iledoya wanted to try.

“So why do you want to look for dying plants?”

“I just want to try revive them”

“Wait what?”

“Anywaaaaaay… How did they die?”

Fen wasn’t quite happy how Iledoya changed the topic. But he explained anyway “A Higher Death Mage came here a few days ago. He casted his spell and then the plants died. Blaise and Blaine then chased him away. That damn spell he casted left some Death magic in the plants and the land. Because of that, even His Majesty would take some time to revive them. I’m sorry, unless you have Life magic I don’t think you would be able to revive them”

“Oh so i see… That explains the Death magic i sense… Well now I could test two things. Perfect!”

“Wait, you’re actually going to revive them?”

“Yep. Just watch me”

Iledoya walked to the center of the dead land and lifted up his hand towards the sky. After which, he thought ‘Gather’, then black-coloured magic started to come out of the plants as if they are evaporating. They gathered and formed a black ball above Iledoya. Once it was all gathered, the ball descended into Iledoya’s hands. From his hands, grey strings appeared as it connected itself to the black magic ball. Iledoya started focus. The black ball soon starts to become grey. And after a while, the grey ball became completely white. After the ball became white, Iledoya slammed the ball into the ground where it vanished.

From the moment the black magic left the plants until Iledoya slammed the white ball to the ground, Fen had had his mouth opened wide. If not because of the physical limitation of a jaw, his lower jaw might have crashed onto the ground.

“What… what did you do? And that white magic… isn’t that Life magic? And the black magic that came out of the plant… the black magic you used to kill Veria… was Death magic? And that grey magic and taking out the Death magic without touching the plants… I ha-” Fen who was shocked and questioning everything he saw, was cut off by Iledoya.

“You have too many questions” Iledoya sighed

“Yes, i can use Life and Death magic. I won’t tell you about the grey one though. Due to a certain someone, I trained my magic control like crazy. Controlling some Death magic to leave a plant is child play to me.”

What Iledoya didn’t told Fen was, after he got the black ball of magic, he tried to absorb it, changing it into his Immortal magic. That is the first thing he wanted to try. He just wanted confirm he can still do this and was just secondary compared to his primary target.

The second thing he wanted to try, which is his primary target, was to focus his Immortal Attribute into taking the form of its composition. He has already done it with Death magic when he formed the giant cloaked skeleton to strangle Veria. Now he wanted to try turning it into Life magic, which he has successfully done.

“Okay fine. I won’t ask how you changed the attribute of the magic ball. But why did you slammed the Life magic into the ground instead of sharing it to each plant?” Fen asked in confusion.

“That’s what I’m doing right now”

“Huh?”

“You can’t see it, but I’m spreading the Life magic into the plants through the roots underground” As he Iledoya said that, the plants started to show signs of getting greener.

Fen’s mouth twitched as he thought ‘Does this boy even know how absurd his level of magic control is? To spread the life magic in the ground without focusing on the ground and talked to me instead!’ If only the word Monster wasn’t used to describe Beasts with low intellect, Fen would definitely be calling Iledoya a Monster by now.

“Oh It has spread all the way to edge. Now then… Grow!” Iledoya said with a motion of raising both his hands.

Instantly, what used to be a dead land became green. The trees regained their leaves, the grass became green, flowers bloomed like never before, even fruits started appearing. Oh but they were just apples, which disappointed Iledoya a little bit when he saw the fruits.

“Forgive me for saying this Iledoya but…” Fen looked like he was hesitant.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Iledoya”

“Yes?”

“You’re a freak”

“…” Iledoya didn’t know how to respond.

“If you could raise the dead, i wouldn’t know what to call you anymore.” Fen added.

“Actually, i can–”

“Don’t. Just don’t.” Fen cut him off. Fen doesn’t know if Iledoya was going to say he can or cannot but, his heart couldn’t stand the shock anymore. Everything he knew about magic as a Magical Beast seems to be wrong in front of Iledoya.

After Fen was able to calm his heart down and Iledoya finished looking around the area to make sure he had revived everything, Fen asked “So is there anything else you want to try?”

“Let’s see…”

This soon became Fen’s daily routine. Ask Iledoya, Take Iledoya, Iledoya tries, Fen gets a heart attack from being shocked, Fen calms down, and the cycle repeats.

Meanwhile, Fen wasn’t the only one who had to deal with a bad-for-the-heart human.

After a game of shadow tag, Blaine was the one who had to stay with Eleanor to wait for the void backpack. After a bit of persuasion, Blaine became Eleanor’s assistant every now and then.

Blaine was just supposed to keep a watch on her. It was supposed to be simple, just stay in the shadows and follow Eleanor. But Eleanor was a Space mage. A Grand Space Mage. Whenever she wanted to go anywhere in or out of her tower, she would just make a portal in the air. Blaine had to look for her every time she moved and sometimes, when he finally found her, she has already made a portal to go somewhere else.

Not to mention sometimes, while Eleanor is working on the void backpack, she would order Blaine to fetch some food. Which for a panther with 4 legs and 0 arms in the tower of a Space mage… Let’s just say that Blaine had plans to go to The Great Alfer forest’s healing hot springs for Beasts after this job.

And so, a painful 3 weeks passed for Fen and Blaine.

“Oh? Sir Blaine? you’re here too?”

“Ah? You’re Fen right? What are you doing here?”

Blaine and Fen was in the healing hot springs. There is a hot springs area in the Heart area of the forest. There are many hot springs in it and all of them have different effects. One of them, The healing hot springs, can heal wounds but the most effective effect it has is calming and refreshing the mind and heart. Due to the peaceful environment the forest has under Serion’s reign, the healing hot springs rarely had any visitors. So only Blaine and Fen was there.

“Iledoya heard about the hot springs area and wanted to check it out. I took the chance to come here… what about you Sir Blaine?” Fen said while entering the hot spring.

“Haish… I can’t tell you the details but… Let me just say that dealing with powerful humans can be tiring…” Blaine answered. Blaine knew that his majesty would like to keep the secrecy of the deal he made.

“Ah… I understand your feelings…” Fen said.

“Could it be?”

“Yes.”

“I see…”

“Haaaa…” They sighed at the same time.

Meanwhile, Iledoya was doing a hot spring marathon. He went from one hot spring to another, checking its effect and how the effects are made.

“Oh this one uses a Water attribute magic stone to give the effects of boosting Water magic absorbance.”

“Oh this one is the same but for Fire magic. Works the same way.”

“I see… this one uses a combination of herbs that strengthen muscles. The herbs are then grown next to the hot springs and watered with the water in it.”

This is how Iledoya has been doing his hot springs marathon. Sometimes he would startle Beasts that are soaking in them by suddenly appearing. Some of the Beasts even run away when they saw Iledoya.

“Serion needs to give them a trauma healing or I won’t be able to come back here again without everyone running away from me…” Iledoya said with a twitching mouth.

He jumped off a hill landing in the last hot spring of his marathon

SPLASH

“Oh? This one seems to be able to heal wounds… But it’s speciality lies in calming and refreshing the mind and heart… Hmm… Wait… The water was created using a magic spell! So someone made this… HOLY BREAD WHAT THE- Oh it’s just Blaine and Fen…” Iledoya splashed into the hot spring and immediately began analyzing the effects. When he turned around, the figure of the soaked Blaine and Fen shocked him a little.

“…” While Iledoya was having his marathon, Fen told Blaine about what he had experienced the past 3 weeks and Blaine actually felt Fen had it worse. When they saw Iledoya in the pool, they just stay silent.

“This hot spring is pretty good and since it’s the last one, I might as well enjoy it” Iledoya called back his magic clothes and soaked in the hot spring.

“Haaa this really is relaxing…”

“It sure is… A Grand Water Mage made it as an offering of peace to Blaine and Blaise.” said a deep and majestic voice.

“Serion!?” Iledoya was shocked. Serion was already soaking in the hot spring as well. Blaine and Fen reacted slower than Iledoya “Your Majesty!” they were actually scared. They don’t know how long Serion has been there. What if he heard what Fen said about Iledoya? But then Serion said “I’ll pretend like I did not hear anything”

Blaine and Fen wanted to swear in their hearts ‘Damn Veria’s stinky finger. Shouldn’t have talked about it.’ when actually, Serion didn’t mind Fen talking about Iledoya. As the Guardian Beast, he could sense what Iledoya has been doing and he too, felt quite bad for Fen.

With a bit of Wind magic so no one would hear them, Serion started chatting with Iledoya “So what do you think about the forest after you left for 10,000 years?”

“It’s amazing. I could tell from the knowledge of some people, even when compared with a country, this forest might actually be better. It’s magical, It’s peaceful, and everyone is happy. And don’t get me started on the roasted chicken flavoured fruit” Iledoya said while almost drooling to the last sentence.

Serion nodded “But are you still going to go on your adventure?”

Iledoya put on a solemn face “Yeah. I’m planning to leave tomorrow. All I would need are the fruits for food on the way. I’ve memorized where to get them on the way out of the forest.”

“Hm. Let’s go to the cave for now. Come with me” Serion said as he left the hot spring. Iledoya summoned back his clothes and followed after Serion.

Blaine and Fen regained their peace and quiet. “Haaaa…”

[At the cave where Iledoya woke up]

“This time, I get to say goodbye. But not only that, I’ve prepared a gift for you.” After Serion said that, a peculiar backpack appeared in the middle of the cave. The backpack was made out of leather and a bonsai was growing all over it with the canopy being on the right side. The branches that held the canopy all varied with 4 different colors; blue, red, brown, and black.

“This is”

“It’s a void backpack.”

Iledoya’s eyes opened wide as Serion confirmed his guess. He knew what a void backpack is and how only a Space mage can make it.

He looked at Serion with an expression that seems to say ‘please explain what is happening’ and Serion understood that expression.

“Knowing that you would be going on an adventure, I asked a willing Space mage to make one. It’s made from Veria’s skin so it’s very tough and has a lot of space. Check it out.”

Iledoya looked at the backpack to see all it’s features. Though when he opened, his eye twitched. The inside of the backpack was huge. He estimates that the platform for fighting might fit inside. In fact, there was a platform inside. With a house on top of it.

While Iledoya was looking at backpack, Serion started explaining “I’ve placed some runes on it including the my specialty ‘traceless’ runes. So if in your adventure you happened to not have a place to stay in and you don’t want to sleep outside, you can just jump inside your bag and sleep in the house I made for you. Once you enter, the runes for ‘traceless’ will activate and no one will see the bag. Oh and only you and those you allow will be able to lift the bag. Anyone else would have to be able to lift a mountain to be able to lift it.”

While Iledoya was looking, he found the runes under the straps. “Then what about the tree?”

“Ah yes the tree. I just finished mutating it a few days ago. It was originally a Flying Tree. I mutated it so not only is it small and it is coiled around the backpack, each coloured branch gives a different fruit” Serion explained. A Flying Tree is a tree that can live without being rooted on the ground as it absorbs water from the air.

While Serion continue explaining, Iledoya tried giving it Life magic to see it’s fruit.

“The blue one gives a water fruit. So when you get thirsty you can just drink from the fruit. The red one gives bacon-flavoured fruit, the brown one gives roasted chicken-flavoured fruits, and the black one gives you a steak flavoured fruit.” Iledoya ate them one by one as Serion explained. Out of all the fruits of flavours that Serion gave him when he first woke up, those 3 food-taste fruits were his favourites. He doesn’t know how Serion knows but he doesn’t care.

“Thank you Serion!” Iledoya said as he hugged Serion’s paw. “You’re welcome” Serion said with a smile. “With this you will definitely be prepared for your adventure.” “Yeah”

The following day came and it is now the time Iledoya decided to go on his adventure. With his grey clothes on and his magical backpack with a bonsai on his back, he is now standing outside of The Great Alfer forest, facing it’s border in front of him. Serion is sitting there at the very edge of the forest.

“Serion. I’ll be going now. Don’t worry, I’ll try not get buried again!” Iledoya said with a smile. He knows that even if he tries to look strong, deep inside his heart, Serion doesn’t want to part with Iledoya. So he tried with all his strength to put up a smile to ease Serion’s heart.

Serion then said with a smile “I also put some gold coins in your backpack. Just in case you might need some money.” He took a deep breath and after a long breath, Serion is finally able to say the words he couldn’t say 10,000 years ago.

“Goodbye, My boy”

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—–[Bonus Story]—–

Due to the limitation of the vocabulary they learned, most Beasts do not have swear words. But the Beasts of The Great Alfer forest had their own swear words. This is how ‘Damn Veria’s stinky finger’ became one of the swear words of the Great Alfer Forest.

50 years ago when Veria first attacked, there was a small Beast that was luckier than the tree that tried to bring Iledoya’s fruit. Just a little bit luckier. When Veria landed, all the trees got blown away and that area now became the plain in which Serion created the platform for fighting. The small Beast somehow got stuck in the ground right between two claws of Veria. Rather than escaping due to fear, the small Beasts actually threw up before fainting on it’s own vomit.

Serion saw the small Beast and chased Veria off the ground and they soon started fighting. When the small Beast regain it’s consciousness, it told it’s friend about how it fainted due to Veria’s claws smelling really bad. The small Beast just happened to possess Aroma magic, a Branch magic of the Wind attribute which allowed it to imitate the smell. When its friends smelled it, they all fainted.

When they became conscious, they instantly said “Such a magnificently horrifying smell. It shouldn’t be kept to our self. EVERYONE should know the pain” and it became viral.

Ever since, whenever the Beasts felt something bad happened to them and they felt the urge to say something but they don’t know what, they will say “Veria’s stinky finger”

—–[End of Bonus Story]—–

[edited by ed]