The Current State of the Land of Wizards

Lynn swept his gaze over the crew awaiting his orders and spoke with ease.

"Since that's the case, then I'll have to ask you all to keep working hard. Until we've completely left these waters, none of us can be considered safe..."

Under Lynn's command, the sailors present temporarily reined in their excitement and returned to their posts. But unlike before, when facing the vast Sea of Mists, there was no longer any worry in their eyes.

"I never thought that in my lifetime, I'd escape the [Eye of Death] twice," Laud said with deep emotion.

"The first time, was it with the help of that Great Wizard?" Lynn asked curiously. When he had heard Laud mention the frozen great whirlpool before, he had already guessed that this was not the first time the man had faced such danger.

Laud nodded, then began recounting his experience from years ago with a wistful air.

That had happened more than ten years ago. Back then, he had merely been an ordinary pirate, living each day by killing and plundering at sea.

Because their hunting grounds were close to the Sea of Mists, they did not have to worry about being pursued by the Imperial fleet. At worst, they could hide in the mist. So long as they lingered around the outer edges and did not venture too deeply within, they would not completely lose their way back.

Until one day, the pirate crew he belonged to encountered a large ship sailing out of the Sea of Mists...

At first, they had assumed it was a merchant vessel that had mistakenly entered the Sea of Mists and luckily found a route home. Relying on their superior numbers, they had chosen it as their target. Who could have expected them to run headlong into an iron wall?

The ones who had acted back then were not Herlam, but merely two accompanying Official Wizards. Yet even so, their pirate crew of several hundred men had been utterly wiped out. Laud's right leg had also been blown off by the aftermath of a Fireball spell.

If they had not wanted to keep someone alive for questioning, he would have died long ago.

Yet it was precisely because of that opportunity that he had been able to completely change his fate, becoming Great Wizard Herlam's representative in Harbor Town...

Hearing this, Lynn could not help glancing at Laud. He found it strange that the man had somehow escaped his identity as a prisoner and even earned the favor of that Great Wizard.

He had already witnessed that old fox's sense of honor. It was not that he had none at all... but it was extremely limited. If it had been Lynn, he definitely would not have trusted such a person so readily.

Had Laud been caught by some sort of leverage?

Though he thought so, Lynn did not interrupt Laud.

"In short, after arranging Harbor Town's affairs, I was fortunate enough to accompany Master Herlam to the Land of Wizards. It was during that sea crossing that we encountered the great whirlpool," Laud said nostalgically.

Of course, that [Eye of Death] whirlpool had not been nearly as terrifying as this one. It had covered only about one kilometer, and Herlam's method of handling it had been very simple: he froze the entire whirlpool solid!

Even so, it was enough to astonish Lynn. It seemed the power possessed by a Great Wizard far exceeded what he had imagined.

"Oh, right. The destination of our voyage this time is Master Herlam's territory—Ieyeta Harbor!" Laud added.

Lynn nodded. It seemed that before long, he would have to deal with that Great Wizard.

But he still had no idea how he should respond to Herlam's accusations...

As the two spoke, the Sail Battleship beneath their feet finally sailed completely out of the great whirlpool's range, and the sailors aboard burst into loud cheers.

Though they had suffered heavy losses while breaking through the Eye of Death, Laud was uncharacteristically generous this time. He let everyone eat and drink freely, allowing them to celebrate properly that night!

However, life at sea was truly dull and tedious. Their so-called celebration was merely everyone sitting together, clutching barrels of beer and gulping it down, boasting about their heroic exploits from years past, and catching a few sea fish along the way.

Perhaps their luck had begun to turn. Over the next few days, they encountered no further troubles. The entire sea was nothing but white mist after white mist. If they had not continued following the compass needle, Lynn might even have thought they had never left their original position.

This was also the terrifying aspect of the Sea of Mists. Even a Great Wizard like Herlam, if unable to find the right direction, would become completely lost in these waters despite having a way to deal with the great whirlpools.

During those days at sea, Lynn did not idle away his time. Aside from his usual magic practice, he sought Joanne out every day to inquire about the Land of Wizards. Before long, he gained a general understanding of that holy land of wizards.

First was its attitude toward the outside world, which could roughly be divided into two factions.

One was the conservative faction that clung to isolation. This was the choice of most wizards in the Land of Wizards. They paid no heed to the outside world, focusing only on researching magic within their own territories. Some even believed that those outside the Land of Wizards, controlled by the Church, were utterly ignorant.

Wizards themselves pursued the mysteries of things through magic and sought the truth of the world. They did not fight for power and profit, nor seize territory like those so-called kings and nobles. Therefore, researching magic was the same anywhere.

In any case, the Land of Wizards possessed extremely abundant reserves of magic ore. Coupled with the blockade of the Sea of Mists, the Church could not break in, and leaving was no easy matter for them either. Rather than anything else, they might as well focus on developing various magical theories, then crush their enemies outright in the future.

The other was the progressive faction, which advocated displaying the power of wizardry to the outside world, like Great Wizard Herlam. They believed that although the Land of Wizards was an enormous island, many scarce resources could not be self-supplied. Its population was also too small, and it needed to continually absorb fresh blood from the outside world.

But the drawbacks were equally obvious. The more contact they had with the outside world, the greater the danger. The strength currently accumulated by the Land of Wizards was not enough to contend with the Church. Once its location was fully exposed, the Land of Wizards might face utter destruction. This was the fundamental reason why most wizards favored the conservative faction!

It was worth mentioning that their mentor, Coru, was a member of the progressive faction and belonged to the school founded by Great Wizard Herlam...

"So, information between the Land of Wizards and the outside world is very difficult to spread, right?" Lynn asked thoughtfully.

"Probably," Joanne nodded. Over the past four years, she had only been to the Land of Wizards once. Most of what she knew about it came from Coru's usual accounts.

"If that's really the case..." Lynn gazed thoughtfully through the porthole, as though he wanted to see through the endless white mist to the Land of Wizards standing in the depths of the sea.

He had already thought of how to deal with that Great Wizard's accusations.