Starting with the sentries on the frontier

Chapter 36 Covering Up the Lie

"Traces of fire magic?"

Zag was startled again, but he maintained a perfectly appropriate look of confusion, as if he didn't understand what Liam was talking about at all.

"Right there, I sensed it. There was fire magic, much more powerful than the common [Fire Tongue] or [Fireball] spells. Sentinel, what happened there?"

Liam pointed to the spot where Rosa had cleaned up the table and chairs that had been burned by Zag with a dragon roar, leaving no trace of their previous destruction.

At this moment, Zag was extremely grateful that he had cleaned up the remains of those tables and chairs long ago, otherwise he would have been unable to explain himself.

"Ah, it's Flint. I asked Flint to demonstrate fire magic, a type of destruction spell. Hmm... although I might not be able to learn magic with my spirituality, I am indeed quite curious about these things..."

As he spoke, Zag deliberately put on an embarrassed expression.

Liam nodded. "Yes, I remember him. He is indeed skilled in fire magic. I didn't expect him to be on good terms with you. I thought he looked down on everyone."

Zag managed to say something nice about Flint: "Well, he's actually a pretty good guy."

"The relationship between the Golden Palace and the Tower of Solitude isn't exactly good." Liam didn't say anything more, finally glancing at all the furniture and items in the sentry post one last time before bidding farewell to Zag: "I have to go back to the post to deal with this case. I'm sorry to bother you so early, Sentinel."

Zag replied politely again, "It's alright, you're doing this for the safety of the town."

Goodbye.

Liam nodded and turned to leave.

Only after watching Liam walk away did Zag close the door, then his legs gave way and he slid to the ground, letting out a long sigh of relief.

"That scared me to death!" Snowball, who had been as quiet as a chicken, exclaimed. "That Northor was terrifying!"

Helford chimed in, "That's terrible!"

"Aren't you fairies protected by Agora, so ordinary people can't see you? Why are you so afraid?"

The sudden relaxation caused a layer of sweat to appear on Zag's forehead, and he even subconsciously started arguing with Snowball to relieve the tension from before.

"Who's scared!" Sure enough, Snowball shouted defiantly, "I'm not scared! It's just that we fairies speak using magic! Even though he's only a novice mage, who knows if he has some special way to detect magical fluctuations? If he senses the magical fluctuations caused by my words, you're doomed too! Great Lord Snowball is protecting you! Do you understand?!"

"Okay, okay, thank you so much, Snowball!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than there was another knock on the door outside the sentry post.

"Waaah—"

This time, Helford was so frightened that he turned around and crawled into the only wooden barrel in the house.

Unfortunately, it was too big to fit inside, and instead made a lot of banging noises, leaving the user dizzy.

Snowball fared slightly better, but still found a corner to hide himself and then warily watched the door.

Zag was the calmest—at least outwardly calm. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

Fortunately, it wasn't Liam who came.

The awkward thing was that the person who came was none other than Flint, whom Zag had just used as a shield.

Flint, oblivious to Zag's unease, said, "Sorry to bother you so early, this is an incident report."

He came to submit the completed request.

Zag took the report and glanced at it. Flint then explained, "It's definitely not a ghost. Classifying it as level 0 is perfectly reasonable. I checked all the surrounding areas myself. It's just a normal gregarious phenomenon of ghost butterflies. I've moved their nests to a more distant part of the forest so they won't scare ordinary people."

Zag put the report away and handed over 30 shillings: "Perfect solution. This is your reward. Remember to pay taxes and administrative fees at the association's office."

Flynn nodded: "It's what I should do. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now."

"Ah, actually, there's something I'd like to ask you for help with!"

Zag quickly stopped Flint, deciding to time his lie carefully and see if he could learn anything by observing others use spells.

He pointed to the emptier spot in the room and said, "I'm really curious about your fire magic. Could you perhaps enlighten me?"

Flint frowned. "Now? Here?"

"Yes, yes, any spell will do. I'm so curious about these things... Well, although I may never have the chance to actually come into contact with magic in my entire life, as a sentinel, I'm always lingering outside that magical door, watching great people like you come and go. My envy is beyond words."

Zag used the best oratory skills he could muster, simultaneously playing the victim and praising Flint, trying to evoke his pride and sympathy. He ended by deliberately emphasizing, "Of course, if you find this too offensive, I apologize and please pretend I didn't make this impolite request."

Flint swallowed awkwardly and said, "No, I'm not great. This is just... just a normal profession. Magic should never belong to a minority... uh, I mean, you can definitely try to learn it if you save up enough money."

Sure enough, Flint was a cold-faced but warm-hearted guy, which could be seen from his somewhat hesitant words.

So Zag pressed on, feigning disappointment, and said, "Okay, okay, I was too presumptuous, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's not presumptuous of me. I mean, I can demonstrate a spell for you, but please stay away from me. Fire spells are usually quite powerful."

As Flint spoke, he walked to an open space in the room—where Zag's office desk and chairs used to be, which he had accidentally burned down a few days ago with his Dragon Shout.

Zag's face lit up with just the right amount of surprise: "Thank you so much!"

Flint raised his staff high—

His staff was much smaller and simpler than Liam's, only about the length of an arm.

Of course, it's not as small as the wands in Harry Potter.

Then, Flint recited a long, obscure incantation, and a wall of fire rose from the ground and burst into flames.

The temperature inside the room rose instantly, distorting the air, but Zag clearly felt that this wall of fire was not as powerful as the flames he had spewed with the dragon's roar last time. At least the flames themselves did not have that feeling of being able to destroy everything; it was just a simple wall of fire.

"This is absolutely stunning! It's truly breathtaking!"

However, Zag still gave it a very high emotional value, displaying a dumbfounded expression as if he was completely shocked by Flint's magic.

Flint gave a reserved smile, then chanted a spell, carefully put away the fire wall, and said modestly, "It's just a very simple 'Fire Wall' spell, a mid-level destruction spell."

Zag, seizing the opportune moment, transformed into the ultimate flatterer: "A mid-level destruction spell? Doesn't that mean you already possess the strength of a mid-level mage?"

Flint replied, "No, no. Spells are only classified by difficulty and power, but there is no absolute threshold for what level of mage can use them."

"I see... Magic is truly amazing!" Zag said. "Thank you for opening my eyes today."

Flint put away his staff and nodded slightly, still maintaining his composure: "You're welcome, it was nothing."

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[Destruction Spells]: In the orthodox magic system inherited from the ancient elves, there are various spell categories such as destruction spells, healing spells, transformation spells, and summoning spells. Among them, most spells in the destruction spell category have destructive power, just like their names suggest, and are the spells with the greatest direct killing power.

Of course, there are many smaller subcategories within the Destruction spells category, such as Fire, Frost, and Lightning.