Werewolf wizard

Chapter 39 The Despotate of Epirus

Su Nan had the intelligent AI calculate the possibility of designing a werewolf potion version specifically for Robert.

However, this would require the AI to obtain more information related to the Storm Knights, not only experimental materials, but preferably a complete set of Storm Knight inheritance data.

This was not difficult for Su Nan now.

There was still a formal Storm Knight within his territory, and even if he was unwilling to provide it, there were plenty of Storm Knights in the surrounding territories.

With a little effort, he could obtain this information.

The carriage quickly returned to the castle.

Su Nan was in such a hurry to return because he had made an appointment today to conduct a transaction within his castle.

A wandering petty noble from the Despotate of Epirus (County), a small country next to the Storm Kingdom, had arrived in his territory yesterday.

After learning that Su Nan would exchange gold and treasure for ancient books, especially those with a long history, he was moved and contacted the head maid, Pella, through the servants in the castle.

Pella then informed Su Nan of this matter.

The wandering knight vowed that he had a box of ancient books excavated from the mountain forests of Epirus.

He even claimed that the owners of these ancient books were of very noble status, perhaps dating back to a thousand years ago, so he had to meet Su Nan in person before he could quote a price.

Of course, this was purely self-promotion.

It was hard to say how much truth there was to it.

The so-called need to meet him before setting a price was mostly because he was afraid of being at a disadvantage.

Su Nan directly asked the old butler to invite the person into the castle. Su Nan sized up the petty noble, who was dressed in travel-worn clothes. After being invited into the castle, he seemed uneasy and behaved very restrained.

Su Nan pointed to a chair and said to him, "Sit down. Let's get straight to the point. Show me your so-called ancient books, and I will personally identify their authenticity and give you a corresponding and appropriate reward."

The petty noble sat down somewhat nervously. "The God of Law is above, you are indeed as rumored, and do not discriminate against us heretics who believe in the God of Law."

"You are a lord with a grand vision."

Su Nan did not answer, but looked at him with an urging gaze.

The petty noble somewhat helplessly instructed a personal servant he had brought to quickly open the box and hand a few ancient books to Su Nan.

While Su Nan took the ancient books and began to browse and examine them, he thought about the situation of the Despotate of Epirus.

The Epirus region did indeed have the possibility of retaining a large amount of information related to wizards and magic.

The Epirus region was an area covered with hills, mountains, and primeval forests. The weather there was gloomy all year round. Even now, many primitive people still lived there, maintaining ancient ways of life, and there had always been rumors that some fragments of witchcraft remained among the primitive tribes of the Epirus region.

Moreover, the Despotate of Epirus itself was some fragments left over from the Eastern Empire, and believed in the God of Law.

Fifty-seven years ago, the first batch of Storm Knights from the Storm Kingdom trampled on the empire. Although they destroyed the main body of the empire, they did not completely conquer the remaining fragments because they lacked subsequent military strength.

The title of Despotate of Epirus carried typical cultural characteristics of the Eastern Empire.

According to the naming habits of the Storm Knights from the Holy United Empire, the Despotate of Epirus was merely a slightly larger county located in a remote area in the deep mountains and forests.

It was only because the Epirus region was too barren and it would require a lot of cost to conquer it, that the first batch of Storm Knights did not occupy this mini-country that claimed to be one of the legitimate heirs of the Eastern Empire.

Similarly, there were at least three other remnants of the Eastern Empire around the Storm Kingdom, mostly only the size of a county or duchy, but claiming to be despotates.

But the largest remnant—the Kingdom of Nicaea—was still in the east, ready to counterattack the Storm Kingdom at any time, and truly had the area, population, wealth, and army equivalent to the Storm Kingdom.

So, the Storm Royal Family was not having an easy time either.

To the north were the large Bulgarian nomadic tribes, to the east was the Kingdom of Nicaea preparing for revenge, and to the south was a large pile of pirate nations.

And within the country, a pile of knight nobles did not listen to the orders of the Storm Royal Family very much.

It was no wonder that the Royal Family was urging him to repay the money every day.

The Royal Family themselves did not have much money, and may even be hoping that he could repay the money to help them out.

Su Nan scanned the few ancient books in his hand. These ancient books were all parchment scrolls, and the language recorded on them was very ancient and niche.

However, the AI had just analyzed this language before.

"This is not the item of some prince or noble, but a funerary object of a chieftain-like figure from one of the countless small tribal states in the Epirus region before it was conquered and assimilated by the Eastern Empire."

Su Nan's eyes became slightly serious.

Because from the few glances he had just taken at the scrolls, they actually recorded the life of this legendary chieftain.

When this legendary chieftain was just born, his tribe was destroyed by a more powerful tribe, and he was spared because his height was lower than the wheel, and became a slave of that more powerful tribe.

But here it was written that the legendary chieftain, on a certain day, when sacrificing to a local primitive religion of Epirus, a crow animal god with three snake tails, obtained 'heavenly授'.

He gained a power called [Transformation].

He could drive statues, allowing those stone statues to fight for him, and even drive stone idols.

With this ability, the chieftain rebuilt his tribe and eliminated that more powerful tribe, but in the end, he was assassinated because his witchcraft was resented.

Su Nan felt that even if some of this life record was exaggerated, there might be some real things in it. He quickly flipped through the parchment scrolls, and then also asked Warwick to take the remaining parchment scrolls in the box.

After quickly browsing, the AI recorded all the scrolls, and through logical analysis, such as using several recorded events to verify each other, believed that these things were likely to be true.

And…

Although the parchment scrolls did not directly record the legendary chieftain's so-called transformation technique, there were many words from the chieftain's lifetime, as well as his own notes for his own memory.

That was enough.

The AI was able to infer and complete that transformation technique in the form of a magic potion from these scattered and incomplete pieces of information.

Although Su Nan still did not obtain a complete spell model, he was very satisfied with his current harvest.

'The Epirus region is a world in the deep mountains, and it may have preserved many witchcraft inheritances that the major churches have not cleaned up.' Su Nan thought: 'If I have time, I can even go there myself to explore and see if there are any gains.'

'But now that someone is exploring for me, it is much more efficient than me alone. That primitive tribal chieftain in the Epirus region is likely to have had wizarding talent and accidentally obtained the inheritance of a wizard.'

After the petty noble heard Su Nan's evaluation of the ancient books he brought, he felt even more nervous. He said somewhat embarrassedly: "Sir Su Nan, so these ancient books are not worth any money?"

In his habitual perception, Su Nan's collection of these ancient books was likely to be a hobby of the kind of old noble children.

If this was the case, the funerary books of an Eastern Empire prince and the funerary books of the head of a primitive tribe in the Epirus region were two concepts and two values.

The petty noble sighed in his heart. There was no way, it was not easy for people like him to make money, especially since his country was now destroyed and he could only wander around.

The petty noble asked Su Nan nervously. "Sir Su Nan, how much money are you willing to pay to buy this batch of books? Give me a little money, I had a hard time digging them up."

Su Nan did not look up, but focused on the relevant usage record descriptions of the transformation technique in the ancient books.

"If I guessed correctly, what you are doing should be the kind of tomb raiding thing. And it is the kind that is not very successful, you can't find any gold and silver treasures, and you finally found a batch of ancient books, so you excitedly rushed to Baron Peter's territory because of the reputation I spread that I like to collect ancient books."

The petty noble's face was embarrassed.

It was not anger, but fear and shame.

As a noble and a believer of the God of Law, he was actually doing the thing of making money from the dead, which was really a disgrace to his ancestors and the God of Law.

Su Nan said: "But congratulations to you. I do need this batch of books."

"I will give you twenty-five gold coins, what do you think?"

"By the way, what is your name? I think we can cooperate in the future. If you have such gains in the future, you can come to me again."

The petty noble suddenly raised his head and looked at Su Nan in disbelief.

Twenty-five gold coins?

This was too generous. This was neither gold nor silver treasures, nor famous paintings, calligraphy, or weapons, but just a pile of books that he could not understand.

This was somewhat shocking to the petty noble who generally despised books in this era.

However, he quickly reacted and said enthusiastically to Su Nan: "I think this is great, you are so fair."

"My name is John Ducas. But I am not a direct heir of the Ducas family, I just have a surname."

"Hmm." Su Nan raised his eyebrows. Ducas was one of the former royal families of the Eastern Empire.

It was just that this family had been in decline for a long time.

The last direct heir should have died decades ago.

Su Nan was also buying a horse's bones with a thousand pieces of gold. In this way, more and more people would excavate these ancient books from the Epirus region for him.

Anyway, they could not understand these ancient books, others would not collect them, and they were of no use to them.

This was much faster and more convenient than exploring the Epirus region like a headless fly by himself.

He usually had to spend time making magic potions and researching experimental magic potions.

In short, Su Nan believed that mobilizing the power of the masses was much more efficient than fighting alone.