Chapter 54: The Storm City Kid’s Working History

I woke up the next day, sat up in bed, and the room was empty, nothing.

Jace rubbed his eyes and looked at the crumpled paper he had placed on the table noting the words related to summoning magic, but the brat in the room was gone.

The window was already clouded over, and he felt like he hadn’t slept for more than a few moments.

Did the brat escape? Or was it never here? Was it a dream last night?

He opened his mouth and tried, somewhat reluctantly, “Come out, Saeuno.”

Suddenly a flash of light erupted from his feet and Saeuno leapt out of it startling Jace.

“Master, I follow your orders and will remain invisible as long as a third party is present!”

“A third party?” Jess looked from side to side, then under the bed, rummaged through the cupboards, looked behind the door, and determined that it was unlikely that this 5 or 6 square meter house was hiding any living souls anymore before asking, “Where’s the third party?”

“Outside.” Sëanor said, “I hear too many people, will there be many priests among them, many paladins?”

“I guess so, you’re doing great.” Jace said, “That’s how careful you should be.”

Though he almost thought the house was haunted, he was still relieved that the little brat listened to his orders so well.

The little ghost jumped back and forth happily and said, “Any new orders, master?”

“Watch the house.” Jace grabbed his clothes and said, “Don’t leave here all day today, stay invisible and don’t open the door for anyone.”

“Got it!” The kid jumped toward the table and disappeared in a flash of light.

Jace was about to reach for his pants when he caught sight of the staff laying in the corner.

“Come out first, Saeuno.”

The Kid reappeared and asked, “Anything else, Master?”

“Do you recognize this staff?” Jace asked.

“Of course I don’t recognize it.” The Kid laughed and said, “Eredar makes so many things, how could I possibly recognize a random staff?!”

Jace felt his brain go haywire for a moment, “This is an Eredar staff?”

“A staff made by an Eredar, but not necessarily a staff used by an Eredar, right master?” The Kid said, “Look at the material this staff is made of, it’s something called Shadow Gold, the only place in the entire Twisted Void where you can find it is in Argus, where a beautiful metal called Celestial Gold is left behind after being transformed by Evil Energy and Shadow. And Argus …… is the home of the Aeridans na!”

Conversion? I’m afraid it’s not pollution ……

Saeuno touched the surface of the staff, shook his head, and said, “Those Eredar wizards like to give the spells they make to their slaves and servants as gifts to show off their prowess… the master wouldn’t be a servant of an Eredar, would he? Then I’m a servant of an Eredar’s servant, it’s too powerful.”

Jace froze for a moment, and Saeano’s words reminded him of the staff’s possible origin.

It was under the tutelage of Kilgardan, Sargeras’ second-in-command and leader of Eredar, that Gul’dan was initially instructed to follow the path of the Shadow from an outcast of his people to the Shadow Council, which he later founded.

This staff, probably one of the many magical artifacts he had acquired from the Eredar demons among them after working with the Burning Legion, he had turned to Talongor to gain his loyalty and gifted him with it.

“That’s a lot to know, Saeuno.” Jace nodded in satisfaction and said, “Don’t be idle at home today, do me some favors.”

“At your service, master!” The little ghost said excitedly.

Jess said, “Here’s the deal, take a look at this book.”

He took the thick bilingual book out of the cabinet, shoved it at the Kid, and said, “What language is in this.”

Sëanor took it and flipped through the pages and said, “There is demonic language, the language of the abyssal lords …… and …… and a rune language that I don’t understand.”

“That’s orcish.” Jace said.

It really was a so-called bilingual thesaurus, specifically for orc warlocks to watch and learn to read spells.

“Here’s the deal, you take all the demonic language up there, translate it all into common language for me, write down the cross-references, pronounce them, and copy them onto these sheets.” Jace carried out a stack of cheap straw paper that he had used as toilet paper and record books.

It was only when laying these papers out in front of him that he realized that the pen and ink he had previously prepared for copying the Blood Demon’s orders was nowhere near enough for this amount of work.

He handed the Kid ink and a quill and said, “Copy with these for now, and I’ll figure out how to get you some ink.”

The Kid stared with wide, smoldering eyes at the book and paper that had been handed to him, bigger than he was, and was speechless for a moment.

“Well, get to work, my good servant.” Jace rubbed his hands together and was just getting his clothes ready to go out the door when he looked back as if remembering something and said, “If anyone passes by the door, remember to pause your work at hand to make yourself invisible. But one of these days if anyone pries open the door and moves that staff, remember to blast him with all the magic you can muster, whoever it is!”

The little ghost called out, “Yes! Obey your master’s orders!”

“Great!” Jace ran wildly out the door and straight for the canal bridge.

There are many places in town that sell paper and ink, the cheapest being the Institute of Magic and Science, which is part of the University in the Mage District.

Following the canal all the way up and over the tower of the Storm City Prison to the Institute building, Jace took 10 silver coins, and after looking for a blacksmith to order a sword and buy a suit of clothes in the past two days, these were basically half of what he had left of his family.

Early in the morning, there were already a lot of people in the Institute for the Study of Magic and Science, which was the second largest library in Stormwind, but it tended to be more geared towards the commoners and students of the university than the library in the Wizard’s Sanctuary.

“I’d like to buy some ink.” Jess ran over to the librarian’s counter and said, “And get some paper, too, by the way.”

The janitor pulled out a bottle of ink, then brought up a large bag of papers and counted them one by one for Jace.

“Paper of ordinary texture, 1 silver and 18 copper for a dozen sheets and 5 silver for a bottle of ink.”

Halfway through the count he also looked at Jace and asked, “How many do you want?”

Jace was still digesting the outrageous price, having fought his way out of the wolf’s den to earn a bottle of ink.

But it’s money that can’t be saved anymore.

If it was a small amount of paper and ink, he might be able to ask his boss, Marin, for some, but if the amount was too large, it was bound to attract suspicion.

He wasn’t an apprentice now, either, and there was no need to consume this amount of paper and ink, even if he was taking courses in Orcish.

“I …… will get a bottle of ink first, and then, three dozen papers, I think.”

After selling the paper and ink, Jess flew all the way home to the house, where the Kid had finished writing some of it by this time.

Jace looked at the words on the piece of paper and said, “The words you guys wrote are too big too, make them smaller and denser, water the ink down a bit, just be able to read them! Save me some ……”

“Understood, Master.” Saeuno nodded in panic.

Jace fetched him another bucket of river water from downstairs and brought it up, wiping beads of sweat off his face as he said, “My future depends on you, there’s a reward for getting it right.”

“What reward?” Kid asked suddenly.

What a reward, that one still confuses Jace.

“Whatever you want.”

“I want the souls of mortals ……” said the brat as he licked his lips, “Wonderful fragments of souls, pleasing wails, delicious pain and sweetness, have you ever tasted them ah, master? “

“I’m not you.” Jace asked, “Do only mortals have the souls you want?”

“Even beasts have souls na, just not as interesting as intelligent creatures.” The little ghost said with a tilt of his head.

Jace thought that given that, the souls of the jackals in the Elwyn Forest would probably make do, after all, they were considered intelligent creatures when rounded up.

“Just wait, there’s no chance.”

The little ghost gave two shrill laughs and said, “Gee, my master is so good to me.”