Abe the Wizard

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Arlo was a scout in the Benton adventure team. The Benton adventure team was very famous because of the accurate information that they sold.

Arlo was just a novice warrior, but he did receive a lot of training in the art of disguising himself. He was very talented at being stealthy. This way, he managed to infiltrate into a lot of places without ever being detected. Like now, he was out in the Orc Empire’s wolf garden, and he was several hundred miles deep to do his scouting mission.

About ten miles from where he was, there was a hiding spot where his partner was waiting for him at. That partner was waiting for him with the mounts that he prepared, and once he was back, they could just leave the place without anyone noticing.

There was a city in front of where Arlo. The infrastructure was not very city-like, actually. The walls (built with clay) were only about three meters tall. It was enough to block away snakes, insects, and small animals, but if, say, a lion decided to run it over, there was pretty much nothing that could be done.

This was Niyan City where worgens lived in. Arlo came here to check on the circumstances. More specifically, he was here to check on how much military presence there was here. He was going to draw everything on a map, and once he was back, he was going to sell the map to other adventure teams.

For the past few days, human adventurers had been going on an onslaught of any orcs that they could find. The area was much wider than before. Now, about several tens of miles of radius outside the orc battlefield became the playground of these committed bounty hunters.

The Orc Empire had no choice but to take this. The worgens, especially. They were the ones that were hurt the most badly during the great war. With little to no ways to defend the wolf garden, their territories had been shrinking by the days. Because of this, the Benton adventure team had been able to do scouting at the deeper part of the area. They could get first-hand information faster than anyone else in the business, making them richer and more famous than ever before.

Arlo took out some potions and rubbed them carefully around his body. Ever since he came into the deeper part of the wolf garden, he had been relying on these to prevent the worgens from smelling his appearance. When he was done putting the potion on, he took off his camouflage outfit and lay flat on the ground. The outfit was the same color as the plain, so once he was going inside Niyan City, it would be of no use.

Again, Arlo was a novice warrior. That being said, it wasn’t hard for him to get past walls that were about three meters tall. With a simple leap, he grabbed the ledge of the wall and pointed his neck towards the top. As he would see it, there were barely any worgens within his sight. So it was true that the population had been on a massive decrease.

“Why does it feel like someone’s watching me?”

Arlo couldn’t help but murmur. He was confident in his senses. As an experienced scout, he had been in multiple situations where his very life was on the line. If he hadn’t been as careful as he was, he would’ve been a goner a long time ago.

While grabbing onto the ledge, Arlo turned behind him to check if anyone was watching over him. The feeling of being watched was suddenly gone. It was bizarre, and he couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Maybe it’s the booze I drank. It was a bit cold yesterday, so I drank a little more than I should.”

After flipping over the wall, Arlo concentrated on his sight and hearing. He dodged over several packs of worgens, and at the same time, he counted how many there were in total.

Suddenly, a howl came from the garden that was not very far away. It sounded strange. It was the kind of howling that Arlo hadn’t heard of before. From what he could tell, it belonged to some sort of fierce beast. He could also hear the sound of chains.

As he slowly approached the yard, he could see that the establishment belonged to an orc nobleman. The fences were even taller than the city walls. The city walls were three meters tall, and the ones he was looking at were about ten meters tall. Anyways, he could still find ways to climb it.

By finding a corner that was not out in the open, Arlo threw a flying flaw at the top of the fence. He was doing it all without making any sound. After securing the tightness of the rope, he quickly climbed his way towards the top. Once he was finally able to see what’s over inside, he was shocked by what he saw.

There were ten griffins that were locked up in chains. Most of them were too weak to even struggle. There was one that still had some strength in it, and it was hissing in anxiety. Needless to say, they all once belonged to the griffin knights, who were the heroes that prevented the sky sparrows from infiltrating into the human world. Griffin knights were supposed to the pride of mankind, and yet, they were put in conditions that were worse than even domestic animals.

Arlo thought that he must return to let the others know about this. He was already climbing down the wall. After retrieving his flying claw, he went back from the way he came. Fortunately, he managed to leave Niyan City without facing any danger on the way. Once he was completely out, he immediately put back his camouflage outfit and ran into the wolf garden.

Burbridge passed a pile of paperwork to Abel, “Please have a look at this, your Majesty. This is the information that the intelligence agency has been collecting.”

Right now, the duchy of Carmel had just managed to recover its intelligence agency. With more funding than ever before, its size managed to grow twice-fold. Abel knew how important information was. He wasn’t very experienced with managing his own nation, but his knowledge back on Earth did teach him a lot about the importance of information.

Also, when he was just a duke, he had already begun to take an interest in forming his own intelligence agency. He didn’t have the resources at the time, so there was no choice but to postpone that decision. Now, with so much at his disposal, he achieved his goal at an extremely smooth pace.

Since he knew that a massive decrease in food was going to happen within the next ten years, it was easy to assume that the entire world would be in disarray. With this in mind, information was crucial. Abel understood that much. If he could, he would even extend his information network outside the humans resided.

As Burbridge handed him the information, he started looking at them at a swift pace. It was about five seconds for him to finish looking at one. The higher-staff of his intelligence agency already filtered the information he was reading. Only the most important stuff was left. It was information about all the duchies, the three human kingdoms, and some major figures on the Holy Continent.

“What’s this? Ten griffins were found in Niyan City at wolf garden?”

Abel was confused by this news. He didn’t think that Niyan City was where the captured would go. He expected them to be taken to the plain of the beastly god, but the information he read must be true.

Abel called Burbridge, “I want Duke Dominic of the intelligence agency here.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” Burbridge complied.

From what Prince Derek told him, the griffin included both males and females. If he could get his hands on them, they would bring extraordinary benefits to both the Harry Family and the duchy of Carmel. For a huge part of his life, it had been his dream to form a mount wolf squad and a griffin knight squad for the Harry Family. If that dream came true, the duchy of Carmel would have a military that could even match a human empire.

While he was thinking to himself, Duke Dominic came in with Burbdrige.

Abel passed a piece of paper over, “Is this information true, Duke Dominic?”

All the information was already filtered. There wasn’t really any need to seek any further confirmation, but this was different. Once this particular information was reconfirmed, Abel would have to go to Niyan City himself.

Duke Dominic bowed, “Your Majesty, this information was provided by a very famous information organization in the adventurer business. The team consists of experienced adventurers who have spent years doing searches around the orc battlefield. This time, although they were only planning to sell this information to a few of their trusted clients, words got out because of how serious the matter stated is. Within a single day that they’ve got back from their investigation, all of Miracle City started hearing about this.”

“So someone saw the ten griffins with their own eyes?”

Duke Dominic replied, “That would be a positive, your Majesty. Still, large numbers of wolfriders were starting to appear in the wolf garden. A defensive line was set up about a hundred miles from the wolf garden, and so far, none of the human adventurers are able to breakthrough.”