"Before we go to the main issue at hand, where is my son, Jacob?"

  The Lord was serious. Jacob looked at him with concern and confusion.

  "I was told you and Claire were the last ones seen with him and his party of six, only one party member came back with you and Claire. So tell me boy, where is Sam?"

  Jacob looked at the floor while explaining everything from the Book of Spells, to the torturous execution Buldursmith performed on Sam.

  "Is that true? Well it was only a matter of time before that kid got himself into more trouble he could get himself out of."

  The Mage turned his head, raised an eyebrow and looked at the Lord,

  "You're taking this quite well for someone who just lost his son and four of his best swordsmen."

  "I don't mean to sound rude but my kid was an idiot, a spoiled kid who got whatever he wanted and believed he was in control of everyone, the fact he lived till an adult is a miracle."

  The Lord began to sound much more calm, as if he hadn't been part of a trafficking business and lost his son.

  "Back onto the main matter. Bruce, the one who had been part of that trafficking scheme, has been locked up in my dungeon for quite some time now. The day he was captured, a guard discovered his body was being controlled by an outside force, this external force called itself, The Warlock of Nightmares, he warned you, Mage, saying to be prepared. Bruce has been losing his mind since. That's all I've got though. Would you happen to know him?"

  "The Warlock of Nightmares huh, yeah, decades ago he used to be famous for killing three cities worth of people in a single night while they were sleeping, that's all I know of though."

  Just then, a knock came from the door of the room they were in,

  "Come in!"

  The same guard who had collected the Mage and Jacob opened the door and walked straight to the Lord whispering something into his ear,

  "Ah right, thank you, I've heard, Mage, that you are planning a 'tournament of fighters'. If you have the money, I'd be glad to temporarily let you rent a colosseum, though it is a five mile walk west",

  The Mage spaced out temporarily, as if lost in deep thought,

  "I suppose I wouldn't mind renting out a colosseum, thank you Gerald."

  With that, the Mage and Jacob left the Lord's Mansion.

  While the Mage and Jacob left, another knock came from the door of the room the Lord was in,

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  "Come in!"

  A bulky and large man, carrying a wooden shield and spear, came walking through the door and kneeled before the Lord,

  "Ah, you've finally arrived, I've let the Mage rent out a colosseum just west of here, I want you to participate in this 'tournament', win or lose, I don't care, just make sure the plan goes through smoothly, Hero."

  "Yes sir!"

  The large man then left the room while the two maids outside also let themselves in,

  "Hello girls, I want you to go to Borgess. The time has finally come - Sam has been killed. Find his body and drop this potion on it."

  The Lord handed a potion each to the girls,

  "Yes sir,"

  the two maids then leave.

  While the Mage and Jacob were walking back, Jacob grabbed the Mage's attention,

  "Hey, before we got interrupted you were about to tell me about the little story of how you met Buldursmith",

  "Oh right, I suppose it'll be a while before we get home, won't it? Alright, I first met Buldursmith back over two centuries ago. Back with my first ever party - two swordsmen, a healer, a tank and me, the Mage. We were on an objective to hunt and kill Buldursmith. We discovered when people were going to abandoned cities to collect belongings, they would always encounter a man by the same description as wearing all black, with a mask marked by X's for eyes and a smile."

  Just then, Jacob froze for a single moment, his breathing became unusual and jaw shook uncontrollably, as if he was in the same situation back when he first witnessed Buldursmith.

  The Mage noticed this and put his arm around Jacob, forcing him to walk with him,

  "Come on, I'll walk you home then I can tell you the rest unless you don't want to?"

  Jacob, sweating and still shaking was able to give a straight forward answer,

  "No please, I need to hear the rest of it!"

  The Mage opened the door and let his arm off Jacob for him to lie down on a couch, Sarah was awake by this point and began getting worried,

  "What happened! Is he ok?"

  "Don't worry, it's just a breakdown from PTSD, he'll snap out of it shortly, he needs to overcome it though",

  Sarah stood up, walked over to where Jacob was lying, sitting next to his head and held his hand like a warm presence,

  "Since you really wanted to hear the rest of the story, brace yourself. Anyway, this masked man always killed any human entering abandoned cities, some were found injured and later died, some have come back alive but they were mainly people with no powers or just healers in shock, people that you wouldn't classify a threat, however he would never harm a Momal. Me and my party went to go find and kill him or at least subdue him for questioning, we checked hundreds of abandoned cities, usually only finding dead bodies.

  One of them there was a little girl, alone in a stone floored house, windows shattered and the place was a mess. We tried talking to her but the second we tried she had melted as if she was made of mud or something, the floor below us then collapsed forcing all five of us into a basement.

  As we touched the ground the place suddenly lit up, revealing Buldursmith, our swordsmen were able to get some good hits in, slicing some of his fingers off, our tank blocked all his attacks and it was a steady and quick strategy. When we thought we had him, he pulled a white crystal from his pocket, stabbed himself with it and the next second, I passed out. when I woke up, our party had been completely killed, my clothes were covered in blood and he left, leaving me alive for some reason, I haven't seen him since."

  A single tear went down Sarah's cheek,

  "That's horrible,"

  "Yeah well from then on, the legend known as the Mage had disappeared from the world, now I've returned. Anyway we have got some work to do tomorrow, I have hundreds of pamphlets, I have helped multiple cities over the years with issues they've had so I've gained their trust, I was able to secure a colosseum west of here, I want you guys to promote it, walk to them cities and put these pamphlets around the cities."

  With that, the Mage stayed quiet for the rest of the night keeping to himself.

  "Alright Mage, everything's been paid for, you are now free to do whatever you want inside this colosseum."

  Gerald shakes the Mage's hand confirming the Mage now has temporary ownership of the place to now do his tournament of fighters.