I and Artmer talked and drunk until late at night and then departed on our caravan towards Golden State City on the heart of the duchy. Because of the roads, It would take little more than ten days to reach the city. I would be a little late when I go back to Red Stone Barony, but not enough to warrant punishment.

Everything was calm for six entire days. The roads were clear of bandits, but I knew that for Artmer to have hired me, there would definitely be problems.

And indeed, at noon on the sixth day, we were passing through a forest while still following the road.

Suddenly, we heard a loud yell.

"Young Master of the Black Gold family! Surrender and we may spare the lives of your escorts!"

When that loud yell was heard, twenty shadows appeared in front of the caravan coming from the trees above.

With a single gesture, I used a Detect Mana spell and discovered that eighteen of them were first level experts and two of them were of the second level. Because of their weapons and armor, they are probably Martial Artists.

When those twenty experts appeared, seven people came out from the second carriage with great speed and brandished their weapons guarding the frontmost wagon.

From the first wagon, came me and Artmer, I now donned fine clothes that befitted a noble instead of my old clothes, but they were simple and not nearly as embellished as Artmer's.

"Patrick and Rodney! You dogs of the Pica Merchant Guild will have to take the merchandise from my dying hands!"He said, with an imposing and overbearing tone, showing that his bearing wasn't one of a pushover.

It seems like the attackers are from another one of the four Merchant Guilds, but being only Second Level Martial Artists, they must be just small characters.

"Sir Artmer, are these people your friends?"I asked with an indifferent expression.

"No. They are from the enemy guild."He said, smiling at me in satisfaction.

I then looked at them again and said.

"Then, unfortunately, they will have to forfeit their lives here." I said calmly.

I had long since started taking lives lightly, and killing another twenty people would be nothing. I would be either a hypocrite or an idiot if I thought that taking lives is too evil.

With a few small gestures and some longer gestures, I summoned a vortex in front of my chest.

"Aybernard's Zone of Frost."

From the vortex on my chest, chilling air came out like a blizzard and covered an area of a hundred meters in front of me.

I made another few short gestures.

"Zolasc's Cloak of Frost Absorption. Resilient Hail Spears."

When these two spells were cast, two vortexes appeared on each of my hands, one became a beam of light that entered the bodies of the five ghouls and the two experts from our side.

When they swung their swords at the spears, their swords were repelled by a weird force and the spears pierced them, one of them had his chest pierced and died immediately while the other two managed to take the spears on their shoulders.

"He's a Magus!" Said Patrick with a terrified expression.

"Attack! Attack or we'll all die!" Screamed Rodney, going berserk out of fear.

Magi were in an entirely different level from Martial Artists, they had a great array of powers and an intricate control of mana, as well as great intelligence and wisdom. Even a hundred Apprentice Martial Artists were useless against one Magus, but with two Adept Martial Artists, they might be able to win against one Magus.

But I wouldn't let them win so easily.

"Triple Cast: Ape Strength. Triple Cast: Cat's Dexterity. Triple Cast: Avril's Leg Impulse."

Another three spells were cast in fast succession, I had long practiced casting these spells for when I finally became a Magus, and now the practice became Speed. I also used a Triple Cast to activate all of them thrice in a single cast, which spends more mana but is also more efficient.

Three other lights entered the bodies of the seven Martial Artists on our side. Their arms bulged and became monstrously big like an Ape's, a strange light of mana also glowed on their legs.

The seven of them jumped with breakneck speed, the danced through the air while battling the enemies. But their movements were slowed because of the frost air, and every wound caused by our allies caused Five times the pain on them because of the Illusion characteristics of Aybernard's Zone of Frost. The frost absorption effects on them also added frost to their damage and froze the enemies a little with each attack.

With just the first wave of their attack, five enemies were killed.

"Stand together! Assemble formation!" Shouted Patrick.

The enemies retreated and assembled in a formation with their peers. All of the fourteen warriors of Pica assembled in a formation, the ones in front took out shields from their backs, which were noticeably sturdy, the ones behind them were spearmen and the two leaders behind had javelins on their hands. A sturdy formation was assembled with the twelve remaining men.

Just as the ghouls were about to keep attacking, the two martial artists retreated.

When I noticed that they had retreated, I ordered my ghouls to retreat as well.

"Sir Artmer. Is there something wrong?"I asked.

Artmer had a grave expression on his face, he had eyes full of hatred when he told me.

"They are equipped with top-notch equipment. Those shields are made with fifth elemental alloy, It can block physical attacks from all elements with its body elements and non-physical attacks from any direction, it is also unbelievably sturdy and even a fourth level Martial Artist wouldn't be able to break one. With six shields, they are able to protect an area of two meters with its effects."He said, surprised at the powerful equipment.

"Aside from that, those spears are Fire-tip Inferno Spears. With a first level amount of mana, they can release fire with the power of the second level with each thrust. The Javelins are Thunderbolt Punishers. They can be thrown with the same speed and power of a first level thunder arrow spell. This equipment alone must be worth at least a hundred thousand gold coins."

Hearing Artmer's assessment of the equipment, I knew It wouldn't be so easy to kill them. And I can't use my necromancy spells, if they escape, many bad things could happen.

"Seems Like It's time to bring out the big guns."I turned to look at Artmer. "Hold them for ten minutes. I need to prepare a big spell."