The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 77: Fooled Again (1)

Heading east, Turan first combined most of his saltpeter and newly acquired sulfur to create fire spirits.

He left a small amount to show others what materials were needed when acquiring more.

The amount of fire spirits produced was just slightly more than the saltpeter he had, about three fistfuls in mass, mainly because the recipe required mostly saltpeter.

It was a shame that while charcoal powder and sulfur were easy to obtain, they were needed in smaller quantities.

As he continued eastward, Turan experimented with the fire spirits in various ways.

He discovered that the most practical applications were using wind power to spread and cause wide-area explosions for attacks, or detonating them beside his body to generate propulsion.

’The propulsion is a bit painful, but...’

When you think about it, it was inevitable since it involved hitting the body with invisible force to move forcibly.

At least detonating it under his feet hurt less, though he had an accident where he forgot about the flammable mucus on his shoes and ended up blasting them off.

After spending several days traveling and experimenting, Turan once again grabbed Bize’s legs and took to the sky.

Partly because Bize, having shaken off her remaining fatigue thanks to the hot spring bath, was desperate to fly, but mainly because traveling through these wetlands was more grueling than expected.

First was the endless rain.

Though he could just blast away the water on his body once it stopped, he still had to endure it while it was falling.

He couldn’t use telekinetic magic on each falling raindrop, so he had to create a barrier, but to move with it meant constantly creating new barriers ahead.

After losing his waterproof boots during experiments, the constant sloshing of water in his shoes became unbearably uncomfortable.

Secondly, the mosquitoes and other insects that swarmed at night were insufferably annoying.

While other regions weren’t free of such pests, the wetlands were excessive.

Whether sleeping outdoors or staying in a village, bugs would crawl all over his body as soon as he lay down and closed his eyes. Though their teeth and stings couldn’t penetrate his body, just having them crawl over him was terribly unpleasant.

If even Turan, originally a shepherd accustomed to traveling and sleeping outdoors everywhere, felt this way, someone like Asiz would probably have frantically searched for a barrier wizard after just one night here.

If there had been some reward for enduring such discomfort, it might have been worthwhile, but visiting several nearby villages and cities yielded no useful information about saltpeter.

As for White Spirits, if there had been any leads in this land, Rida would have secured them long ago, so there was no point in searching.

After a day of flying high to escape all these inconveniences and shooting eastward...

They covered several times the distance of the past few days’ walking in an instant, and soon a blue horizon spread before them.

It was the South Sea.

==

The South Sea smelled different from the North Sea that Turan had visited before.

While the North Sea had a cooler, primarily fishy ocean smell, the South Sea seemed to have various creature scents mixed in with its warmth.

After savoring the sight of the sea he hadn’t seen in a long time, Turan headed south, passing several fishing villages before arriving at a port city.

With a population of perhaps a few thousand at most, it wasn’t a trade hub like Abacha or Komad, but rather seemed to barely survive by catching and selling local fish.

Upon entering the city, he first sought out fish merchants and bought dozens of horse mackerel before heading to a secluded beach.

There, he fed them all to Bize.

Foll𝑜w current novℯls on ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm.

He had memorized and followed the advice of that House Dirmin lady whose name he could barely remember now, and it proved more effective than expected.

Bize enjoyed the horse mackerel far more than the meat of land animals they’d eaten while traveling.

"You like this, huh? How’s the southern horse mackerel?"

[Yes! Delicious!]

After treating hardworking Bize to this special meal, he visited the market again to look for saltpeter and found some available as expected.

However, as always, money was the issue.

"...Five gold coins for this?"

"It’s an elixir of immortality! When your life’s at stake, is that expensive!? Do you want to watch your father and mother grow old and die!?"

"They’re both already deceased."

"Ah, well... that’s just a manner of speaking."

Come to think of it, the merchant who sold saltpeter in Banipel had said exactly the same thing; it seemed to be a common sales strategy among saltpeter merchants.

Of course, if this really were an elixir of immortality, the nobles of House Labitas, including Rida, wouldn’t be searching desperately for White Spirits.

He could spend all his money to buy out their entire stock, but that would be a waste, and more importantly, even if he bought it all, it wouldn’t balance with the amount of sulfur he had.

After all, making fire spirits required more than seven times as much saltpeter as sulfur.

So Turan, like when he obtained sulfur, bought only a small amount and asked where it came from.

However, this time he didn’t receive straightforward answers like before.

"Hey now, why are you asking about that?"

"That’s a secret, a secret!"

"Stranger, keep asking about that and things might get unpleasant."

After asking several saltpeter merchants, they all gave similar answers, and eventually even made threats.

It seemed there was some force keeping the source of saltpeter secret.

’If it’s being kept secret, that means it can’t be easily obtained.’

If it were something that could be gathered just by walking a few days like sulfur, no amount of secrecy would work.

Nor would it be scarce.

Combining this with the information that it came from the South Sea, there might be an island somewhere out there where saltpeter could be found.

While he was deep in such deductions, he sensed someone stealthily approaching from behind.

As the person’s hand moved toward his pocket, Turan prepared to break their wrist, but surprisingly, the hand reached for his shoulder instead.

"Hey there, young man."

Turning around, he saw the hand belonged to a middle-aged man in shabby clothes missing several teeth.

He gave off the typical impression of a vagrant.

The man flashed a sly smile at Turan before getting straight to the point.

"Looking for where saltpeter comes from?"

"Yes."

"Seeing as you’ve already bought some but still want more, I’m guessing you’re planning to trade in it?"

Given that he knew about the saltpeter purchases, he must have been secretly watching Turan.

It wasn’t particularly surprising that Turan hadn’t noticed this.

After all, he wasn’t paying attention to each of the hundreds of presences moving through the market.

Turan thought for a moment before nodding.

"Something like that."

"Well then, I can guide you to where saltpeter comes from."

"What do you want in return?"

Only a fool would believe a stranger would guide them to saltpeter sources for free.

As if expecting this question, the answer came immediately.

"Nothing much, just money is enough. The saltpeter’s on an island, you see. You’ll need to pay for boat fare, right?"