Chapter 66: The Elemental Race (Seeking Recommendations, Seeking Favorites)

The large-scale long-distance teleportation did not affect Born in the slightest; instead, he gathered a wealth of information about spatial spellcraft. Although the Count wore a furious expression, this was merely an excuse to demonstrate spatial teleportation to Born, with an ulterior motive—namely, to take the opportunity to dismantle Born’s underground laboratory.

When the teleportation array unfolded, Born knew immediately that his underground lab would not survive. Despite being a fifth-circle spell, the teleportation array had never been mastered by any caster below the high ranks, and such a magic circle could only be deployed in open spaces. Otherwise, the spatial fluctuations generated during teleportation would impact the surrounding objects.

(If the teleportation array is later stabilized, it becomes the ‘teleportation circle’ so often seen in novels.)

The Count’s discontent had been simmering for a long time. The only heir of the illustrious Iolemm family, acting like a kobold, hiding in holes he dug himself—it was an embarrassment beyond words.

Born glanced around and recognized the surroundings as the Iolemm Manor.

"Go change your clothes. You’ll be coming with me to the Shamsdin family soon," his grandfather said, then turned and teleported away once more.

Born, ever observant, caught a glimpse of his grandfather’s lips curling in a subtle smile as he turned, and instantly felt a sense of foreboding...

Fortunately, since Born had read the entirety of "The Mechanisms of Realms," he had managed to replicate the Leomond’s Secret Chest. All valuable materials and data were stored in his private extradimensional space.

Leomond’s Secret Chest is a fourth-circle spell—one finds a spot in the spirit world to hide a specially crafted chest, with a storage duration of sixty days.

Born’s own Iolemm Storage Space is a third-circle spell, only the size of an eight-square-meter room, and can store items for seven days before needing to reconstruct the spell.

Other planes were far too dangerous for Born at his current level; the cost to open them was too high, and the spell would collapse after seven days. Fortunately, as long as Born himself was the anchor, he could create a 'bubble' on the wall of the material plane for temporary storage.

It was a real pity that the magical plants from the arcane garden and the prototype of the first magical energy storage device had been destroyed!

What Born hadn’t expected was that not long after the collapse of his underground lab, a group of academy students came rushing over to investigate—some out of curiosity, others to see if Born had been crushed to death.

The landslide along the coastal cliff was loud enough to attract even the assistant instructors, who soon determined that a spatial collapse had occurred, but that Born himself was unharmed.

This disappointed quite a few people...

Most didn’t grasp the significance of what had happened; they simply thought Born was impressive. But those who understood knew precisely what it meant!

The curses muttered behind Born’s back multiplied, yet by sheer coincidence, only a handful of senior staff realized this was the handiwork of the Count of Iolemm.

As it happened, Born was indeed studying spatial spellcraft, so their guesses were not wrong!

That night, Born would likely appear in the dreams of many, causing sleeplessness among those who envied or feared him.

Just then, a student broke from the crowd and began casting spells to dig through the rubble, leaving the onlookers momentarily stunned. Soon, others caught on and joined the scramble. Spells like Mage Hand and Shadow Servant bloomed across the ruins, as everyone competed to see if they could dig up anything worthwhile from Born’s demolished lab.

But the results would disappoint these opportunists; under the residual effects of the teleportation spell, even the hardest diamond would be sliced cleanly, let alone anything else deliberately destroyed by a powerful arcanist.

Surprisingly, however, they unearthed Born’s garbage pile, which had been buried deep beneath the lab. All the waste and residue from experiments were dumped here for periodic disposal, and its depth had spared it from the Count’s teleportation array.

The opportunists dug it up, and when a palm-sized scrap of parchment was uncovered, the crowd surged with excitement. The student who found it didn’t know what was written, but stuffed it into their shirt nonetheless and kept digging.

Meanwhile, after the Count departed, Butler Walker swiftly arrived with a team of maids to dress Born in formal attire. Viscount Gordon and the Knight Commander soon followed.

Seeing Black and Lilith, the two men acted as though they’d discovered rare gems, circling them anxiously, making the youngsters so nervous they darted behind Born for protection.

Born was speechless; these two acted more like children than adults.

He gave a brief explanation to Viscount Gordon and the Knight Commander, who marveled at the situation. Gordon, though not particularly capable, at least possessed some knowledge.

Such rare bloodlines were not easily found; if nurtured well, these two could become the founders of sorcerer families, and barring untimely deaths, would surely reach the higher echelons of magic.

Judging by their visible traits, their bloodline concentration was high, and even ascending to legendary status was possible!

Both children were clearly young and seemed to rely on Born, which delighted the Viscount and Knight Commander even more, their gazes becoming all the more "affectionate."

To Born, they looked like two perverts...

Luckily, Cecily appeared just in time. Her eyes sparkled as she saw the children and immediately whisked them away from the two old "perverts." Years of training alongside her father had made Cecily straightforward, cheerful, and kind, quickly winning Lilith’s trust.

With Cecily present, Born felt more at ease. He then accompanied his grandfather in a carriage bound for the Shamsdin family.

As they traveled, Born recalled that someone had indeed mentioned attending a banquet. He hadn’t paid much attention at the time, absorbed as he was in his experiments, but his grandfather had seized the opportunity to lash out, and the loss was considerable.

The Shamsdin family, if memory served, was the family of President Lisper.

At that moment, his chip provided some information about the Shamsdin family.

The Shamsdin family was another spellcasting lineage that had risen in Nether in recent years, but all such families shared a common problem: their numbers were few!

A massive family might have only a handful of core members, those who had awakened the bloodline of the sorcerer.

(During this era, sorcerer bloodlines awakened naturally. It wasn’t until the rise of arcane civilization, when arcanists began capturing slaves for experiments, that rituals for bloodline awakening were developed.)

The whole family had only three sorcerers: the patriarch Hussein, Lisper, and her father. The rest had not inherited the sorcerer bloodline.

The Shamsdin family claimed to possess the bloodline of a certain flame dragon.

At this time, dragons still symbolized power and nobility, and being a dragon-blooded was especially acceptable to Netherfolk.

Born could deduce they were elementals; surely others could too, and the major families must have known.

In the language of Enser, Shamsdin meant "the religious sun," while Hussein meant "beautiful."

But Born knew that here, "sun" did not refer to the radiant lord Amanator, but rather to the fire element—the fire genie.

Fire elementals revered their ancestors, took pride in their heritage, and considered themselves superior to ordinary mortals, though wise folk paid little heed to such arrogance.

Most fire elementals in Toril were the result of unions between the ancient Calishite humans and fire genies thousands of years ago. Most of these fire genies had once ruled the Calim Mountains, with other races as their slaves.

These fire genie rulers kept human lovers (actually slaves), and their first offspring were half-elementals.

Later, for reasons unknown, the fire genies entrusted these half-elementals with management duties—making them guardians, advisors, diplomats, and so forth—effectively handing over all their power.

They ignored the fact that these half-elementals’ parents were slaves, and the outcome was inevitable.

The fire genies were overthrown. Other elemental genies suffered the same fate, and their downfall led to widespread massacres of all godspawn and demonspawn across the land.

Of course, not all were killed; many escaped, and some carried the fire elemental bloodline without awakening or manifesting it. From then on, those with fire genie blood intermingled with other humans.

As humans migrated, the continent of Faerûn saw the awakening of many spellcasters with elemental bloodlines.