Equipment Printing School Mage

Unfortunately, the first Grand Master of the Flaming Fist, Grand Duke Iltan, was poisoned in his own headquarters. Even the people around him were transformed and infiltrated by shapeshifters, so that he almost lost his life in bed for unknown reasons.

The one who will help Grand Duke Iltan escape is one of Baldur's Gate's most famous heroes, one of the most famous paladins on the continent of Faerun, Son of Bhaal, Apodel Adrian.

While this crisis was a well-known event, still recounted in the verses of bards and the city's theaters, it was a profound humiliation for the Flaming Fist. Since then, the Flaming Fist has been planning its reconstruction—which is why its headquarters are now located in a strategic area far from the city center, yet controlling the city's transportation hub.

The current supreme commander of the Flame Fist was looking at the Supreme Hall at this moment, and the corners of his eyes were twitching constantly.

He had seen reports on the former Flaming Fist fortress before. Sadly, that report, which was so detailed it even included diagrams of the fortress's exterior and surroundings, was clearly completely outdated, reduced to historical material suitable for donation to a library.

——The current Supreme Hall has been transformed into a completely magnificent landmark thanks to the efforts of successive Supreme Hall staff, and any military functions can no longer be seen.

The fortress's doors and walls had been significantly expanded to facilitate access. The smooth, previously impenetrable outer edges had been lavishly decorated—including, of course, advertisements for the city's businesses. Now, let alone preventing anyone from climbing into the city, even the petty thieves of the Thieves' Guild could easily climb into the Supreme Hall, even with one hand tied and a blindfold on.

However, the staff at the Supreme Hall clearly didn't care. It was still morning, and the Flaming Fist's current commander, Elios de Karkoros, and the Flaming Fist's logistics officer, Carl Ola, were walking towards the current Supreme Hall, surrounded by the Flaming Fist team.

At this moment, Karl Ola was giving Karkoros, who was visiting the High Hall for the first time, an urgent make-up lesson: "This is now the political center of Baldur's Gate. Decision-making, legislation, diplomacy, and everything else are discussed here, and the Council of Four makes the final decision and implements it."

"That's all?" Karkoros looked uncomfortably at the Supreme Hall, devoid of any magical protection. "Then why did the other Burning Flames make excuses, leaving only you and me to come?"

“Because it’s a tough job.”

Carl Oula replied muffledly, "When this system was first designed, it was hoped to balance power and efficiency to a certain extent. But the current four-member council is a double torture, both mentally and physically.

Every time the council begins work, it's faced with an overwhelming amount of trivial, though not entirely useless, tasks, exhausting the energy of every participant. Once one participant shows clear signs of fatigue and impatience, the council officially begins: their political opponents begin presenting complex and error-prone questions, attempting to wear down the participants' concentration. Only when everyone's patience is completely exhausted will they begin to offer solutions that are extremely beneficial to them.

"...I'm no longer at the age where I can compete with young people in energy." Karkoros suddenly stopped.

"You can relax today." Carl Ola smiled slightly. "We are the ones responsible for the final appearance and the final blow to the Council of Four."

"Ah, it seems that I am not too old to walk." Karkoros, who was originally still hesitating to retreat, took another step forward.

The reconvening of the Council of Four is certainly a major event.

In the Supreme Hall, Ola lowered his voice and said, "...Did that group of young people contact you again last night? They were the adventurers led by the young mage named Emiya."

Then, Karkoros remained expressionless and quietly replied with a spell: "Do you regret it? Young people are always easy to appease, especially those with good personalities. If someone of your age is willing to admit their mistake, they will probably just pretend that last night's argument never happened."

[Do you really want to admit your mistake? I still don't think he can fill the gap in Flame Fist's equipment by himself. I still have to have some dignity.]

[I don't know either. After all, he's not some helpless mercenary, and his words are always more reliable than those of drunks in the tavern—although my intuition tells me that if a mage of twenty years old had such extraordinary talent, his reputation would have spread long ago, and he wouldn't be unknown.]

Ola was silent for a moment: "What do you think the probability is that we will become his first stepping stone to fame?"

Karkoros pondered for a moment, patted Ola's shoulder sympathetically, and sighed.

"Hey?"

The old wizard then spoke: "His Common accent is very strange, I've never heard it before. And his behavior doesn't bear any resemblance to that of a Waterdeep or Silvermoon academy... It's not surprising that a wizard like this, who emerged from some unknown wizard tower, would have learned some secret techniques from his teacher."

Karl Kros paused for a moment: [—From now on, it depends on whether you think your dignity is more important or the interests that may exist.]

Ola gritted his teeth and took a deep breath: [—I need money! If Flame Fist goes bankrupt in my hands, how will I still have the face to live?! How am I supposed to find them?]

Just as the two high-ranking members of the Flame Fist, who were over a hundred years old in total, were whispering to each other, they finally arrived in front of the Supreme Hall.

The Council of Four naturally couldn't come to work every day. In reality, unless there were emergencies like war, the Council of Four would be in the Supreme Hall about half of the days every ten days. In fact, the Grand Duke was often absent.

The Flaming Fist's banner flew high behind them, and the staff of the Supreme Hall naturally came out to greet them early. Although the Flaming Fist no longer had a seat on the Council of Four, that was all. No one could deny the Flaming Fist's lofty status in Baldur's Gate.

A young man in his twenties, dressed in the uniform of a Supreme Hall staff member, greeted them with a polite and unassuming manner. "Welcome, Elios de Karkros Burning Flame, Carl Ola Burning Flame, and all the loyal and brave Lords of the Flaming Fist. The Supreme Hall has prepared a room for you, the same one that Grand Duke Slani usually uses. While the formal meeting of the Four-Man Council will not take place until a few hours later, the topics expected to be raised this afternoon have already been prepared in the room."

"Good day, Mr. Anta II. I am flattered that the eldest son of the Silver Shield family is willing to come out to greet me in person." Karkoros bowed slightly in return.

The person who came to greet them was Anta II Silver Shield, the eldest son of the Silver Shield family, the most important family in the Council of Four, and who was almost certain to succeed the throne of Grand Duke.

Anta II smiled and shook his head: "I am just one of the people working in the Supreme Hall now."

At this point, he lowered his voice. "Also, the two Burning Flames, as you know, the Supreme Hall is open to the public. Only when the Four-Man Council is about to be held will unauthorized visitors be cleared out of the hall. Right now, several guests specifically want to visit you two. They are waiting across from your room."

"?"

Karkoros and Ola looked at each other and asked, "How many guests? What kind of guests?"

Anta II pondered for a moment and replied, "Two men and two women. One of them seems to be a wizard, and then there's a warrior and a poet. The two wizards were constantly exchanging magic along the way. Oh, and what's even more strange is that the male wizard seems to be leading the group."

This is indeed uncommon, with warriors and priests being more common choices for captains. Two mages is also too much of a luxury for a small team.

Karkoros pursed his lips. "I see. Now, adventurer teams seeking quests are finding ways to go directly to the top level."

He also remembered that Emilia was a harpist, so if he wanted to get along with a harpist, he naturally had to learn a little bit of their ways.

********************************

"Failed."

Gin looked at Emmya's hands, which were already stained black by charcoal, and easily came to a conclusion, with a troubled look on his face: "...Why?"

However, Emiya didn't show any sign of being discouraged: "If you fail, then try again."

They had already arrived at the Supreme Hall. Although the Supreme Hall was the administrative center of Baldur's Gate, it was actually almost completely open to the public.

As long as you are willing to pay for the ticket, you can theoretically have dinner with the four major public figures - at least that's how the restaurant in the Supreme Hall is advertised.

But Emilia and Mars didn't want to go through another tragic night like the one in Friendly Arms.

Yin had little interest in eating and drinking. Although he was not anorexic, he also lacked the pursuit of delicious food. And Miss Sig, of course, could take advantage of the team to the fullest at this time. All the food that came with the room they ordered was disappearing into Sig's mouth like water.

Even so, she kept her mouth busy. Although she had been polite and careful in her words and actions during the few hours they'd been together, she soon realized that Emilia was quite generous in the details of life and didn't care about any offense to etiquette. So she almost immediately took advantage of the situation and said, "You've been busy all morning, and the progress doesn't seem to be obvious. Is there something wrong with your thinking?"

Emiya clapped her hands and reluctantly spread the charcoal powder on the container in front of her. "...Using the Divine Art to transform objects is how I used to do it. I'm becoming more and more proficient in using the Divine Art, but the effect seems to be getting worse."

Having said that, he himself was very clear about how difficult this matter was.

The original "magic work" was essentially just a special deformation. But Yin suddenly came up with the idea of ​​turning charcoal into diamonds.

In fact, Sig and Mars almost thought Yin was crazy at the time. Mars even swore that even if diamonds were flammable, it didn't mean that diamonds were the same as charcoal.

But he has not yet returned all the education he received on Earth. Diamonds and charcoal are both made up of carbon atoms, but their microscopic structures are different.

The word "only" is somewhat of an understatement - at least Emilia, who can knead steel as if it were clay, is at a loss at this moment.

"The results of the bidding for organizing the election conference... Compared to the proposed outcome, the price is truly fair." Mars flipped through the four-person meeting agenda they had spent hundreds of gold coins to obtain, and then said, "Actually, I think this matter is somewhat unusual... Unlike the divine spells of priests, the barriers between mages' arcane spells are much thinner. A ninth-level mage learning a sixth-level spell from a non-opposing school yet making no progress is truly strange."

Emiya sighed, "But I'm not particularly good at learning magic... I know it all very well."

At his current stage, even if he could learn the arcane arts, the process would involve a lot of gray box or even black box aspects. He also had no idea how special his own incredible skills were.

"Damn it, there's no similar situation to compare with..." At this point, Yin's voice became slower and slower, and his eyes suddenly began to flicker.

Finally, she cried out, her eyes lighting up. She reached out and grabbed Emiya's shoulders, shaking them violently. "—Wait a minute, psionics... psionics! It occurred to me that psionics can do something similar! Emiya, have you ever displayed a certain... vision that doesn't require any chanting or prayer, but simply relies on mental concentration?"

Emiya was a little stunned. Of course, psionics existed in Faerûn, but they were said to be extremely rare. Many people even associated psionics with the ominous monsters of the Underdark.

But what surprised him was that Yin's knowledge was so vast that it once again exceeded his imagination: "Yin, do you understand psychic powers?"

Mars complained bluntly: "This kind of thing is generally known as using your brain—"

"Hey!"

And Emilia couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

He looked at Silver, who was glaring at Mars, and whispered to her using magic: "...Actually, it's true. And I... developed manifestation abilities much earlier than I learned arcane magic, and I even had some...not-so-good practice. Because arcane magic grows much faster than that kind of power, I don't practice it much anymore."

Yin immediately put Mars out of his mind: "No, no, no, there is no need for special practice. Just understand what is so special about your amazing skills, and you will have a way to move forward! And it will be clear why other mages are at a loss - the creator of that spell intentionally or unintentionally added some psionic elements. Psionic power and arcane magic have a certain overlap, but they also have their own peculiarities. That's why other mages didn't notice the abnormality of this spell at the first time!

"So, Emiya, do you understand? You need to change the direction of your efforts. Even if you can't complete the leap immediately, maybe that sixth-ring spell will be easier for you. Maybe you can try to learn it now. As long as you take it step by step, sooner or later—"

Just as Yin was passionately looking forward to the future, there was a sudden knock on the door of the room they were in. "Mr. Emiya, do you have a moment now? The Flames of the Flame Fist have arrived."

Miracles and Laws of the Thirty-Six Supreme Halls

"Ah, here they come."

Emiya took a deep breath, used magic to clean the carbon dust from her hands, and confirmed that her basic appearance was correct. Then she said to Yin, "Thank you for your guidance, but let's discuss this after we get through today's level."

Hearing such a seemingly obvious suggestion, Yin's face was filled with disinterest. "Studying magic is so interesting, but in the end, all sorts of boring things always come to interrupt me..."

Yin's passion for magic was undisguised, and even strangers could sense it after spending even a few hours with her. Emilia had also gradually gotten used to it.

But that doesn't mean he has to do everything she wants! Yin doesn't care about social etiquette. If you say a few polite words to her, she might take them seriously - or she might use the polite words as a topic of conversation and start to take advantage of you.

"Even if you love magic, you can't really ignore everything else!" Emilia retorted angrily. "I believe that arcane and divine arts are so popular on the continent because they facilitate everyone's lives. If magic became a hindrance to life, its spread would be limited to those solitary great wizards."

However, his casual rebuttal seemed to have some effect on Yin Zhuo. A look of sudden enlightenment appeared on her face, and she lowered her head in thought: "...That makes sense! Is the magic that everyone uses the real magic... Then what should I do now..."

Or you should cure your amnesia first.

Emiya couldn't help but roll his eyes. Yin was clearly the most ardent and otherworldly magic enthusiast, yet she valued and praised the spread of magic... even willing to compromise her own pursuit of magic. This bizarre contradiction in her had left him completely clueless about her true identity.

But at least she was able to calm down temporarily.

He stood up and looked at Mars and Sig.

Mars said silently to the door: "Please come in, we have been waiting for you for a long time."

At this time, the door to their lounge was slowly opened by the Supreme Hall attendant who had been waiting outside. Standing beside the attendant were the two Flame Fist Ranyans who had parted with them last night.

Of course, there are also the Flame Fist soldiers following behind them.

"Good day, four adventurers." Karkoros nodded to the waiter, then enthusiastically led Karl Ola inside. "Perhaps, after a night of calm, we all have a new perspective on the future?"

Emiya nodded: "Yes, seeing that you are willing to come, I am also relieved-"

At this moment, the waiter whispered a reminder, "By the way, everyone, because a room of the same specifications in the Supreme Hall was crammed with dozens or even hundreds of people last month, by the time we realized something was wrong, the facilities inside were completely destroyed... So the Supreme Hall has temporarily issued a new rule. Now, in the lounge, not only is bloodshed prohibited, but only twenty people are allowed in. If anyone is found violating this rule, everyone in the lounge at the time will be banned from the Supreme Hall for a month."

Ola looked back at the twenty Flaming Fist soldiers standing ready, then glanced at the fairly spacious common room and shrugged. "Just have half the guards wait in the common room outside, right? That's not a problem."

Mars narrowed his eyes slightly and silently put on his helmet. "This rule is full of loopholes... Will the four Grand Dukes also be banned from the Supreme Hall?"

The eldest son of the Silver Shield family was stunned for a moment, then laughed. "You're joking. This Supreme Hall actually belongs to the Council of Four. Naturally, the rules of the Supreme Hall cannot bind the Grand Duke and his subordinates."

Eleos de Carcorros twitched his beard with some alarm. "--Very good. This is indeed extremely important advice for the Flaming Fist, who have already lost their seat on the Council of Four. It would be truly absurd if we, the Flaming Fist, were barred from entering the Supreme Hall during this Council of Four."

Just a few days ago, Flame Fist was still enjoying exemption from the Supreme Hall, and might even have regained its seat in the general election a month later... but now it has to be deliberately warned. The meaning behind this is inevitably intriguing.

Silver Shield was stunned for a moment, as if he had just realized the significance of his actions. A hint of panic appeared on his face. "Sorry, sorry! My original intention was to briefly explain to those who booked the lounge for the first time. It has absolutely no other meaning. At the same time, I am definitely not representing my family!"

"I hope so," Karkoros replied. "Then, may I please leave? Your presence has brought us one step closer to being banned."

As the young master of the Silver Shield family left the lounge in an extremely embarrassed manner, Karkoros waved to his men and said, "Alright, boys, half of you will stay outside the door, and the other half will go to the lounge. Those of you who stay nearby, please be alert to anyone approaching."

After giving orders, their meeting officially began.

Karkoros looked around the room again and looked at Emiya with a hint of surprise on his face. "I thought there might be more guests waiting for me in this lounge today."

Naturally, he was referring to Imoen - although they had no strict affiliation with Miss Imoen, it didn't make much difference in Baldur's Gate.

——That was indeed how it should be. Miss Imoen did show a willingness to help the Flaming Fist. Unfortunately, that was all; she had no intention of joining them.

Only their small group was visible... Emiya had no idea what she was planning, but she still only allowed the four of them to meet Karkoros.

Perhaps the four of them acted as bait to attract attention.

Emiya shook her head. "Perhaps she feels that the lounge of the Supreme Hall is not a formal place enough. Anyway, this time I come here to formally demonstrate my power to you."

"...?" Karkoros pondered for a moment, glancing around. "If it's a particularly secret power, I don't recommend using it in public like this."

"It doesn't matter." Emilia shook her head.

Yesterday, they discussed the current situation again within the team.

The situation is now confusing and extremely complicated. Each faction is hiding its own, while trying to use various baits to make the other side reveal its flaws.

Imoen, wife of the Son of Bhaal and a powerful mage, had never been seen in public, and even then she had only allowed them to display the symbols of her status to the Highsmith of the Temple of Gond and the higher-ups of the Flaming Fist.

Although the mastermind behind the whole thing had made several moves, they could only guess that the person behind the move was the devil from the Nine Hells.

But the devil is just a species! Where did the mastermind behind all this happen? Where did his tentacles reach? Who are his allies? How powerful is the group he controls? All of this remains shrouded in mystery.

Meanwhile, while they were operating publicly, they had actually been using false identities. In other words, they hadn't revealed their most devastating identity. They had been ambushed by the Gods Not Gods in Friendly Arms, and later interrupted a Shadow Druid's ascension in Sharptooth Forest. Both of these incidents were almost certainly related to the Gods Not Gods. And the Gods Not Gods, in turn, were almost certainly inextricably linked to the recent events at Baldur's Gate.

But one thing remains unknown: the Gods-Not-Gods Society barely operates in public. Yet, in the Friendly Arms and the Sharptooth Forest, they exposed a fatal flaw—does the Gods-Not-Gods Society now realize their mistake?

The one who could make the Gods-Not-Gods realize this was the descendant of Grand Duke Valraken, Jesus Valraken.

They had once encountered Jesus Vallacan—under false identities, of course—but they might have left some trace of their personal style in the forest.

Therefore, they should have put on another false mask when operating in Baldur's Gate - if Korhal had successfully become the Archdruid in the Sharptooth Forest, they, the helpers who assisted the other druids, would probably not have left there alive. If Jesus had somehow linked them to the Sharptooth Forest, then they might have missed a precious opportunity to secretly deal a heavy blow to the Gods and Not Gods.

They didn't leave much of a mark, but a young, capable, and powerful warrior and wizard were enough to draw attention. At least Imoen had clearly told them that there were no such two-man teams in the southern Sword Coast.

This is why he did not object to Sigg joining the team.

Both Sig and Yin were beautiful girls—although their personalities had nothing to do with the word "pure"—and their presence in public could significantly dilute outsiders' impressions of them. To outsiders, perhaps he and Mars were Yin's bodyguards.

However, he thought he should still put on another layer of illusion.