Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3996

Chapter 3996: Exotic Beauty (Part 1)

"Do you want to put some on?" Friya offered the makeup to Nalrond.

"Yes, thank you." He reverted to his human form and took the small container, staring at its contents with great focus. "How do I use this thing, exactly?"

"Silly man." Friya chuckled as she swiped her thumb on his mouth and cheeks.

Nalrond lost just a few droplets of water, but his lips cracked while his skin became taut. She then applied a little makeup on his hands and face.

"There. You now look exactly like one of the people from the Black Stork tribe I treated for sunburns today."

"Thanks." He replied. "Between my bronze skin and magic, I never got burned."

"Lucky bastard." She sighed. "Let’s change our clothes and get this over with. I’m parched for less than a minute, and I can’t stand it already."

Nalrond and Friya shapeshifted their armors into the white robes typical of the Blood Desert. They put on a headgear that travelers used to protect their heads from the sun and their eyes from the sand carried by the gusts of wind.

At that point, they Warped away from the village and in a different direction from which Lith had landed, not to arouse suspicion in case someone had spotted the flying Divine Beast earlier.

"Is Solus okay?" Lith asked the moment he and Menadion were alone.

He took in slow, deep breaths with Demon Grasp to draw in enough world energy to bring Trion, Valia, Varegrave, and Locrias to seven eyes without consuming Invigoration more than three times.

"Epphy has the tower, and she sits above a powerful geyser." Ripha replied. "She’s the last person you should worry about."

***

The Yellow Wind village bustled with activity as everyone got settled in their new oasis.

The children ate the ripe fruits of the orchard and drank plenty of water to recover from the long march. The adults, instead, dealt with the annoyances that came with every relocation of the village.

Tents had to be raised, water jugs needed to be filled in case the tribe was discovered by the Usurper’s forces and forced to escape, and the loot had to be split evenly among the families who had taken part in the raid of the Black Stork tribe.

Magic books, artifacts, crystals, and metals were the easy part. They had a market value that could be used to assess the value of each piece without arguments. Slaves, however, were another matter entirely.

They had a market value only for those willing to engage in the slave trade and take the risks that moving away from the village to deliver the goods entailed. For everyone else, the value of a slave varied greatly depending on their future master’s taste and the purpose they would be employed for.

Workers needed to be strong and healthy, concubines to be young and attractive, while servants needed to be smart enough to perform their duties, but not so intelligent as to pose a threat to their owner.

"Today’s flesh harvest is mediocre at best." Hassar Fellhand, chief of the Yellow Wind tribe, said. "You dumb bastards must have slaughtered the good ones and beaten the others so hard that they’ll need to be treated for weeks before they can be put to work."

The three leaders raised their heads to the scout. He showed two fingers and then lowered them while slowly moving his hand forward, mimicking a walk.

’Two people on foot.’ The leaders of the tribe thought, each reacting to the news by enacting their part in the emergency evacuation protocol.

Hassar took the control crystal of the arrays from the breast pocket of his robe while Sehir unsheathed the khopesh he carried at his hip and took out a body-enhancing potion, quickly followed by the rest of his soldiers.

The riders pointed their blades at the prisoners’ throats, ready to cut them. There was no point in leaving the merchandise behind, and if the enemy had an ounce of pity, they would waste precious time trying to save them.

Tarek, instead, wielded the Home Stone and gestured for her apprentices to go back to their tents and be ready to store every piece of the magical legacy of the Yellow Wind tribe inside their dimensional amulets.

They could always find more water, food, and gold, whereas every bit of knowledge they lost could never be recovered.

The mothers herded the children and brought them to the Chiros. They were a rare variant of the Cyr (horse-type magical beast), much less powerful than a magical beast but more docile and still better than any horse.

A travelling merchant had found one by chance and bred it until one of his disgruntled apprentices had killed him and used the herd of Chiros to establish the Yellow Wind.

At the same time, the fathers brandished their weapons and assumed a battle formation, ready to cover their families’ retreat.