Dark Fantasy Normalized

31 – The Sorcerers (Completely Revised)

This chapter is a complete revision of the previous Chapter 32.

I’ve removed the old flavor.

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“What do you mean, what did I do-“

Glyia was flustered. She wanted to ask the same thing. What had they done?

The reagent contained the power of Glyia, a sorcerer who aspired to the 5th rank.

That power- had vanished without a trace.

From the hands of a mere b*stard at the 3rd rank.

“How dare you!”

Meltas’s voice burst out in anger.

Meltas, a wizard of the Kaig Tower, had already had a not-so-short conversation with Glyia.

Through the conversation, he realized that Glyia possessed an elegance and mysterious knowledge unbefitting of a barbarian.

As a human, he was impressed, and as a scholar, he was intrigued. The b*stard had no right to be so disrespectful.

Meltas drew upon his mana.

He intended to retrieve the reagent stolen from the sorcerer and instill some manners into the b*stard.

“Sir Meltas.”

It was Salana’s chilling voice that stopped Meltas.

“I believe I mentioned it. Rishir is my guest. I’d appreciate it if you stopped treating him like a lost b*stard.”

The characteristic cheerful atmosphere was still there. But those eyes. That arrogant attitude.

“…”

Meltas was a 6th rank adept. An elite wizard who commanded the respect of the Kaig Tower.

He was not someone that a mere 5th rank adventurer could treat carelessly.

But why? Now, he couldn’t say a word to the woman in front of him.

Meltas unconsciously put his hand to his neck.

In Salana’s fury, he felt for a moment as if a blade was pointed at his throat.

But only for a moment.

“Ahem!”

Meltas stood up.

“I understand your intention. It seems that your relationship with that b*stard is more important than your relationship with me.”

“Is that important right now?”

“What?”

“Didn’t you hear what Lysir just said? What did they do to the potion – isn’t it fascinating? I want to keep hearing this story, but it seems you two think differently?”

“…”

Meltas’s braided beard trembled.

“Fine. Let’s hear it. What nonsense are you spouting?”

Meltas sat down again and looked at Lysir with eyes full of the peculiar malice of an old man.

“What do you mean, what did they do to the potion?”

“…”

Lysir examined the potion for a moment and then spoke.

“Actually, I have a special power.”

“A special power?”

“My master called it the power of… normalization.”

“Normalization?”

“The power to return an abnormal state of an object or target to its normal state. In my experience, this power of normalization mainly reacts to forces that have a negative impact on the surroundings. It has notably reacted to the powers of demons and dark wizards.”

“That’s quite a convenient power.”

Naturally, Meltas did not believe Lysir’s words.

Not only had he never heard of such an absurd power in his life, but it was also hard to believe that a mere 3rd rank b*stard possessed such an incredible power.

“…”

Lysir, as if expecting Meltas’s reaction, took out an item he had kept close to his chest.

“That is…?”

Meltas strained his eyes and leaned forward. He immediately recognized the item Lysir had taken out.

“…Could it be the emblem of Durayeg?”

It was a document that Dares had given to Lisir as a token of gratitude for his help.

The document bore the emblem of Durayeg, and its contents, written in Dares’ archaic script, vouched for Lisir.

“Why do you have a document bearing the emblem of Durayeg?”

Durayeg. They were one of the pillars of flame.

No wizard dared to speak their name lightly.

Meltas’ eyes glinted as he looked at Lisir.

“It’s related to the power I mentioned earlier.”

“The… power of normalization?”

“I used my power to personally assist Sir Dares of Durayeg. This is what I received in return.”

“…”

Meltas knew about Dares.

He didn’t have a personal acquaintance with him, but stories about a family as prominent as Durayeg were always the talk of the town.

‘They say Dares of Durayeg’s fiancée was stricken with an incurable disease-‘

Meltas wondered.

Does this b*stard want to claim that he cured that incurable disease?

A disease so incurable that even the most renowned healers couldn’t cure it?

It was an unrealistic story.

However- Durayeg vouching for a b*stard in the name of their family was equally unrealistic.

“Are you saying that the power of normalization reacted to the reagent, indicating that the reagent contained unholy power?”

“Yes. Ms. Salana trusts me because of that power. With that power, I healed Ms. Salana’s skin.”

“Ah. So that’s what happened?”

Salana nodded and showed her scar to Meltas.

“…”

Meltas, observing Salana’s scar more closely, also nodded.

Regardless of the power’s potency, it was clear that Lisir possessed a special power.

Meltas, who had been pondering deeply, changed his posture.

His body, which had been tense as if he was about to jump out of his seat, now leaned back against the chair, arms crossed.

“Let me make it clear. I did nothing to the reagent. In the first place, it was something Glia prepared personally.”

Meltas’ gaze turned to Glia.

Until just before, he had been defending Glia, but now he was interrogating her.

“You two. How can you trust that person more than me? Sir Meltas, I understand since you are meeting me for the first time, but Salana. Shouldn’t you, at least, be different? How much help have I given you over the past few months?”

The shaman did not lose her composure even in this situation.

That, combined with her mysterious aura, lent weight to her words, but Salana’s reaction was lukewarm. No, it was cold.

“The conversation has strayed from the point. Let’s talk about our reagent first, shall we?”

“It’s not an unholy power. It’s just that this person has arbitrarily judged my shamanistic power. Tell me, Rishir. What do you know about shamanism? How much do you know about magic and mana?”

The shaman’s eyes were clear and unwavering.

That gaze, as if piercing through the opponent, was like a kind of shamanism itself.

“…”

“…”

Even Meltas and Salana, who were listening to the conversation, were unconsciously swayed by her words.

“May I check what’s in there for a moment?”

But Rishir didn’t care. His gaze casually moved away from Glia’s and fixed on the bag strapped to her waist.

The shaman’s eyes trembled slightly.

“I refuse. I have no obligation to share the state of my belongings with you.”

Rishir continued speaking to Salana without concern.

“Ms. Salana. If I were to tell you the impression I got while using the power of normalization on your skin disease, I felt that the disease was like a container connected by a pipe.”

“A container connected by a pipe?”

“Even if you empty the contents of the container, new contents are eventually supplied through the pipe.”

Ah, a good analogy.

Unlike Rishir, who understood it immediately, Salana and Meltas showed ambiguous reactions.

It was because they lacked the knowledge that Rishir had.

Specifically, knowledge about shamanism.

Shamanism was the knowledge of barbarians – in other words, lowly knowledge.

Generally, there was no opportunity to encounter it, and even if there was, no one bothered to learn it.

It was better to memorize one more history of a noble family than to learn about shamanism.

Even Meltas, a scholar of the Magic Tower, knew almost nothing about shamanism until he met Glia.

Because of his pride as an intellectual, he had kept lowly knowledge at a distance.

And if he hadn’t heard that Glia’s shamanism was useful to Salana, he would never have taken an interest in shamanism.

On the other hand, Rishir.

He was a man who wandered around a warehouse called the library annex, where books dealing with low-grade knowledge were piled up.

Rishir devoured the discarded knowledge there with the sole intention of escaping his life as a b*stard.

Among them were books dealing with the ecology of barbarians, and some of the contents of those books dealt with sorcery.

It wasn’t profound knowledge, but for now, it was enough.

“Sir Meltas? Is there any magic that works in such a way? One that continuously exerts influence on a specific target while its foundation is external.”

“As far as I know, such magic does not exist. Even if it did, it would be passed down in the form of arcane knowledge to specific wizards.”

“Then what about sorcery?”

“Sorcery?”

“There is something called the ‘Doppelgänger Curse’ in sorcery. It is a curse that creates a doppelgänger using a part of the target’s body and continuously exerts influence on the target through that doppelgänger.”

Rishir felt quite frustrated about this part.

In his previous life, it would have been explained with a single phrase, ‘You know, a voodoo doll.’

“…Does such sorcery really exist? In the first place, you-“

“Rishir? Do you know about sorcery?”

“I’m a b*stard, aren’t I? I often read books that matched my status.”

“…”

“…”

The two of them fell into an awkward silence.

“That’s why I wanted to check the sorcerer’s luggage. From the sorcerer’s bag, I felt the same kind of energy that I felt from Ms. Salana’s skin. I think the ‘doppelgänger’ I mentioned is in there.”

Salana and Meltas’ gazes simultaneously fixed on Glia’s bag.

“…”

At this point, Glia’s calm demeanor had completely lost its shape.

Her transparent eyes were trembling uncontrollably.

It was entirely possible for a wizard to guess that a skin disease was sorcery.

However, to pinpoint that it was the Doppelgänger Curse was another matter.

It was possible because she not only had basic knowledge of sorcery but also had the extraordinary ability to instantly extinguish the evil energy created by sorcery.

From Glia’s perspective, it was like a bolt from the blue-

For Rishir, it was an unreasonable situation that could be defined with a two-word technical term.

“Glia.”

Salana reached out her hand to Glia.

As Rishir said, the source of the curse, the doppelgänger, was stored in Glia’s bag.

Normally, I would have kept it in a safe place, but-

Today was an extremely important day for Glia.

It was the day to reap the fruits of her labor.

The sudden intervention of a b*stard child had slightly disrupted her plans, but- it was fine.

The timing had just been moved up a bit.

“Sallana. Please know this one thing. I am not the sorcerer who cursed you.”

Glia took out her familiar from her luggage.

Made of straw, it was stained with blood and embedded with strands of dark red hair, presumably Sallana’s.

Glia placed it in Sallana’s hand and then-

Slash.

Glia slit the belly of the straw doll. Gurgle. Blood poured out from the split, and Glia greedily drank it.

Gulp.

Gulp.

After finishing her gruesome drink, Glia wiped her lips with the back of her hand and continued speaking.

“I didn’t approach you with that intention from the beginning. Originally, I planned to brew a potion for you, who was suffering from a skin disease, and receive a reward. And, by the way, build a connection with you, a promising adventurer.”

“Then why?”

“…I discovered the true nature of the skin disease. It was a curse cast by a powerful sorcerer who even sacrificed their own life.”

“…”

Sallana’s pupils subtly expanded and then contracted.

A powerful sorcerer. There was a clue.

A sorcerer who had tried to break the seal of a necromancer by using a foolish but immensely powerful noble.

As the master of the assassin guild, Sallana had executed the sorcerer.

The skin disease was the retribution-

She had never imagined.

No wonder, it had been more than five years since then.

The skin disease had only broken out a year ago.

“I was fascinated by the curse. If I could make that ownerless curse mine, I could also make you, who is dominated by the curse, mine. That’s why I used the pretext of healing to have regular meetings with you. I analyzed the curse, traced its roots, and finally reached its source.”

Glia slowly opened and closed her eyes.

Her transparent pupils turned a sinister black.

“Do you remember the sorcerer named Balaka? Assassin.”

“…!”

How.

Salana murmured blankly.

“I spoke with him at the place where I arrived, seeking the source of the curse.”

A sense of foreboding tightened around Salana’s intuition.

This cannot be left as it is.

Immediately, Salana activated the poison she had planted in Glia.

With a thudding sound, Glia’s breath stopped.

“He said-“

Nevertheless, Glia’s words continued.

“He promised to release you if you vowed not to interfere with the grand plan.”

“W-What is this- Salina! Glia! What on earth is happening!”

Meltas gasped for breath.

The evil aura emanating from Glia now was so intense that it instinctively evoked fear in a 6th-level mage.

“What will you do, assassin? Will you make a promise to him?”

“…Glia, do you know what you have involved yourself in?”

The master of the assassin guild, whose adventurer’s mask had been removed, faced her.

“…”

Glia closed her eyes once more.

And when she opened them again, they were as empty as deep pits.

From there, a viscous black liquid poured out.

“That’s something you need to know. Isn’t it? Dog of the rules.”

Salana realized. The being she was facing was no longer Glia.

The sorcerer had returned from death. As a servant of death, wielding death while longing for it.

Another necromancer was born at that moment.

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■Necromancer Balaka

Level: 63(2)

Race: Undead

Occupation: Necromancer

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…

…

…

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[There is a peculiar presence nearby]

[You are affected by the presence]

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[There is a peculiar presence nearby]

[You are affected by the presence]

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[The influence of the presence is too strong]

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…

…

…

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The overwhelming presence filled their world completely.

Meltas forgot about the other two and focused on the presence before him.

Sallana also forgot about the other two and focused on the presence before her.

…And Valaka.

It too forgot about the other two and focused on the presence before it.

“…”

Lishir.

He faced Valaka with a relaxed demeanor that did not match the place at all.

It was not a gesture of reverence towards the necromancer.

‘What is this now?’

It sounded like a dazed voice.

He slowly reached out his hand towards Balaka.

“!!!”

Screeeeech!!!

A scream that seemed to tear through space filled the place.

Thud.

Balaka collapsed on the spot.

No, Glia.

“?”

Suddenly regaining control of her body, she looked dazed.