Chapter 82 – Grimbletto in the Shadows

Early in the morning, Jess arrived at Marin’s study early.

Since he was allowed to become an apprentice, he felt as if the flowers and plants, the bricks and tiles of the Mage Quarter were that much prettier than they were before, and the conversations of the brats in the Mage Quarter who idly talked and laughed about things were not as harsh as they should have been.

Pushing the door open, he even tried to whistle a little tune.

Her mouth was just pouting when she saw Amy Marin cleaning.

“Amy …… Ms. Marin?”

Amy looked back and was surprised to see Jace saying, “I didn’t think you were going to be here, that’s why I offered to come over and help my father clean up a bit, you know he would never do it on his own.”

Jace raised an eyebrow, he hadn’t realized that his change from assistant to apprentice meant that he wouldn’t have to do any of the work here.

It turns out that the distinction between assistants and apprentices in the Mage District is really strict.

“But your father still pays me for my work, and that pay certainly includes coming here in the morning to clean, right?” Jace said, “Did you forget that I still need help with the Red Dragon problem. Since I don’t have much to do, I’ll help him clean.”

“That’s great, thank you Jess, I thought I was going to have to be his cleaner again for free from now on.” Amy leaned the mop against the table and said, “I have an enchanting class coming up later, now I can get ready for it without being in such a hurry.”

It wasn’t long after Amy left that her father entered, and he was just as curious to see Jace still working.

“I didn’t think you were going to come, and I made a point of asking Amy to come over and check on me last night.”

“I’ll at least finish the month.” Jace stood up and made a show of exertion, bending over and making a point of tilting his head to break his cervical vertebrae into clicks.

Marin smiled and sat down at the table and said, “Technically you’re not an apprentice yet, and it’s only right that you continue to complete your tasks as an assistant, but I’m going to Master Andromas at noon today to finish the paperwork to make you an official apprentice, so you can stop coming in tomorrow morning to do these chores.”

Jace nodded and the old mage continued, “But if you would still like to continue to help of course I would welcome it, and I won’t be shortchanging you for this month’s wages, and the ones after that as well, I’m not short of the money to hire another dedicated helper, Mr. Jace Sesso. Even if you’re not an apprentice, I expect far more from you than an assistant’s job.”

“By the way, you know Master Morgans is back, right? He was switched with another mage to fill the vacancy at Stoneforge, and Master Andromas wanted him to return to Stormwind to confer on a special project, an expedition to the Great Wetlands north of Kazmodan.”

“Grimbletto?” Jace asked.

“Do you think the orcs are hiding in Grimbalto?” Marin asked in a casual tone.

Jace says, “Isn’t it rumored that the old capital of the Barbarian Hammer Dwarves, Grimbator, is in the midst of the highlands northeast of Kazmodan, and I’m just guessing ……”

Marin thought for a moment and said, “It’s hard to say which really worries the orcs a bit more, the horrors in Grimbatori or the Alliance’s pursuit. I assume you’ve heard the old stories about Grimbalto?”

“I’ve heard a bit about it, the ancient magical artifacts and the dwarven witches.” Jace said.

Jace knows more about this than Grid or Marin, and that the magic weapon wielded by the Dwarf Witch, Mordgud, wife of the Witch-King Sorenson, is an ancient weapon known as the Saratas.

Legend has it that the dagger is a leftover limb of a dead ancient evil god, passed from one to the next over an unknown number of thousands of years in time power between an unknown number of ancient tribes, empires of old and mystical groups.

Every time it’s taken over by a new power, it’s quickly followed by a gruesome extermination and massacre, the most recent of which was the Grimbato disaster 200 years ago.

Marin said, “Finding the exact location of Grimbato is only an alternate goal at this point. If we find traces or small caches of Dragon-throated orcs deep in the wetlands, and are convinced that the Dragon-throated Clan has other, larger bases, then we will set our sights on the Highlands region further east, or, as you say, target the fabled Grimbato.”

“Dragon-throated orcs have the ability to manipulate red dragons, there must be warlocks present as well, and they work with black dragons ……” Jace muttered to himself, then looked to Marin, “If they are so numerous that they are like the beasts of the Blackstone Clan Men stand and occupy Grimbato like the Black Stone Tower, wouldn’t we need a whole legion of them to go to be safe?”

“You’re right.” Marin said, “So if we have to go there, it would be the worst case scenario. We’ll definitely have to notify Kenrito when the time comes, because this kind of mission can never be accomplished by the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary alone, and may require the joint assistance of multiple forces. Not to mention that if the Dragon-throated Orcs are capable of occupying Grimbalto, then they must possess a solution to the contamination of Grimbalto, and it’s not unlikely that they have powers that we can’t predict, perhaps related to their ability to be assisted by the Black Dragon, or to manipulate the Red Dragon as well.”

Although the basis for his guess was less than accurate, Jace admired the old mage’s acumen.

Speaking of which, Marin twitched his eyebrows and said, “However, the wetlands north of Kazmodan are a vast area more than you or I can imagine, and even the local dwarves can’t claim to know much about the place, so the investigative mission could last for a couple of years, and things might change by then, and we don’t need to overthink things so early on.”

So, when did the Grimbator rescue operation start with Ronin and Windrexa Windrunner, as well as Frostad of the Brute Hammer?

Jace couldn’t remember, but if it hadn’t happened by now, it hadn’t been for years.

Perhaps it was the fact that the Witch Temple’s wetland search mission yielded little result that caused the Red Dragon Mage Crassus to locate the most likely location for the orcs to hide in the legendary Grim Batteau, thus launching the rescue mission.

Now that no nation in the entire alliance could organize a legion that could go and attack a fortress metropolis like Grimbalto, a frontal attack on the Dragonthroat Clan was definitely not realistic, and it was probably why Crassus wanted to urge Kenrito to form an elite squad to conduct a sneak attack on the Dragonthroat Orcs.

No wonder Ronin thought it was a total suicide mission; in a previous life Jace hadn’t had much of a solid sense of the story, and had focused solely on the spark of love between Ronin and Walesa.

However, after experiencing the orc shaman battle in the Red Ridge Mountains, then listening to Grid’s recounting of the dark history of Grimbletto, and then seeing the way these mages avoided the matter of searching for Grimbletto and kept it a secret, they probably understood why Ronin had immediately leapt from a somewhat tainted ordinary mage to one of the highest status archmages in Kenrieto after the mission of rescuing the Queen of the Red Dragons.

It was indeed a great feat that was enough to shake the entire continent.