The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

At first, he thought he was hearing things, but the voice was too loud and clear to be dismissed as such.

Above all, along with that sound, his body's ability to absorb magical power began to weaken rapidly.

It was like knowing you'll throw up if you eat just one more bite after gorging yourself until your stomach is about to burst.

He could sense that he had reached his limit as a wizard.

Just as he felt a dizzying sense of despair at this realization, as if mocking Turan, his power to absorb magic returned to normal.

Instead, the growth limit he had felt came to one of the nobles standing nearby.

"Oh."

In front of the noble who let out a short exclamation, a pale green light scattered into the air.

It was the same phenomenon he had seen when hunting with the wizards of House Baltas in the past.

Seeing this, Kadram clicked his tongue lightly and asked.

"A limit, huh? Is this your first time reaching it?"

"Yes..."

The noble's face contorted.

Any wizard who had reached their growth limit would feel such emotions without exception.

He could empathize with that noble's feelings.

Especially since even Turan himself had felt an immense sense of frustration just moments ago, despite being much stronger than that noble.

"It's okay, Biken."

"Cheer up, man. You're still better than me at least!"

While his companions were making a racket trying to comfort their discouraged friend, Turan realized that something had changed in his body.

Should he say that all his tactile senses had become several times more sensitive?

No, it felt somewhat different from that.

While the sensation of fabric brushing against his body or his hands rubbing together remained the same as usual, he could feel the flow of wind against his skin much more acutely.

He could even sense the subtle disturbances created by people walking around and the fierce turbulence whipping about at the top of the ravine.

All of these sensations that he couldn't perceive until just moments ago were now flooding his awareness.

'Could it be...'

Though he wanted to verify the nature of this sensation right away, there were too many people in this ravine.

Especially the nobles of Arabion.

If his thoughts were correct, testing it here would be too dangerous.

Turan postponed his confirmation for later and went to find Meisa after retrieving the holy relic he had buried with earth manipulation magic.

She was in the middle of examining some stone tablet.

"Ah, Turan. Were there any problems with the magic absorption?"

"It was a great help, thanks to you. But... could I know the reason?"

Worried that others might hear, Turan asked in slightly vague terms why she had distributed magic to him even at such risk to herself.

Of course, he knew that Meisa didn't think too highly of her family members, but this seemed excessive.

Moreover, since Turan had already received a large capacity pouch in advance, he wouldn't have had any right to complain even if she hadn't left him his share.

"That's a bit difficult to explain right now, but for now, I'd like you to think of it as my personal favor. Not from Arabion."

Meisa avoided his gaze slightly as she answered Turan's question.

Her somewhat peculiar tone made him wonder if she might have romantic feelings for him, but even when he focused his sense of smell, he couldn't detect that kind of scent.

"Alright. If it's a friend's favor."

Hearing those words, Meisa gave a faint smile.

Turan quickly changed the subject, pointing to the stone tablet she was holding.

"By the way, what's that?"

"This? It's a magical artifact that can detect sentient beings in the area. I'm checking if there are any survivors left... well, it seems there aren't any now."

True to her words, over a hundred blue dots were moving around on the stone tablet.

Two dots were close together in the center, which seemed to be Turan and Meisa.

"That's a nice item."

At a rough guess, the detection range seemed to be several hundred meters, making it comparable to the functionality of his Mimicker holy relic.

Of course, there were several differences between this indirect display and direct detection ability, as well as in terms of portability and ease of use.

Hearing Turan's praise, Meisa smiled and replied.

"I heard it was made using a captured Zahar noble during the last war."

Knowing how difficult it was to capture a noble, Turan could imagine that the manufacturing process was far more complex and horrific than what she described.

Suddenly, he recalled what Keorn had told him.

The story about there being a few top-tier magical artifacts that could penetrate Zahar's concealment abilities.

Perhaps this was one of them.

During their conversation, a knight approached Meisa and reported.

"My lady, the prisoners are ready."

"Lead the way. Would you like to come along?"

"Sure."

When Meisa turned her head slightly to ask, Turan immediately agreed.

After all, he too was quite interested in the dwarves' artifacts.

==

At their destination, several dwarves and dark elves were huddled together under guard, their bodies in terrible condition.

Judging by the blood flowing from their bodies, they seemed to have been tortured for quite some time.

"Please... masters... hurts..."

Turan felt a strange discomfort at the sight of the dwarves begging in broken speech.

Even though they were nothing more than man-eating cannibals...

Perhaps it was because he recalled Prince Arma, the merman he had met in the Northern Sea, who was also a different species like them.

"Listen well, I'm going to ask questions again, and if you answer honestly like before, we won't hurt you. But if you lie or keep your mouth shut, you'll suffer even more horribly than before. Understand?"

"Under... stand, stand!"

The dwarves nodded their heads and answered in broken speech at the noble's harsh words.

"Good. Now then, what is this object first?"

"Ancestors'... black ones found... taught us use..."

"By 'black ones,' you mean the Undead King? The dark elves' leader... their boss?"

The dwarf who had been tilting his head at the difficult word 'leader' finally nodded.

They had specifically asked for a smart one earlier, so perhaps this was considered intelligent among dwarves.

After slapping the cheek of a nearby dark elf to confirm the same answer, the noble thrust forward the dwarves' magical device.

"Right, when you pull this, metal pieces come out. But when we use it, nothing happens. Why is that?"

"That ours... black ones can't use... masters can't use... use all, can't use again..."

While listening to the dwarf's testimony, Turan picked up one of the dwarven artifacts-magical devices lying around.

When he shook it lightly, he could feel liquid sloshing around in the attached round tube.

Come to think of it, when they had destroyed a similar large device earlier, hadn't a massive amount of steam burst out?

Just in case, he pointed the metal-ejecting part skyward and pulled the attached lever, but nothing happened.

"Will it fire if just the handle is pulled by a dwarf?"

"Let's check. You there."