After a few hours of work the third ring is done, so I take Grimgar and check out of the inn. Then we head over to Giller's restaurant and order some lunch while waiting for him. Giller shows up just as our food arrives, so he ends up joining us for lunch.

Giller says "For you to come back so fast, is something wrong?"

"No, not at all. In fact, I am here to deliver the rings!"

Giller says "What?! How can they be done already?!"

"I worked through the night to get them done. As soon as we are done here I will leave for the Magic Kingdom."

Giller says "The rings are really done??"

"Yeah, here take a look!"

After handing the three rings to Giller, I go back to eating lunch while he checks them. Once he has verified all three rings he leaves, promising to return shortly with my payment. Grimgar and I have finished our second helping of lunch by the time he returns.

Giller says "As promised, three million crystal coins!"

"Thank you!"

Giller says "Also, your items have been sent ahead to the capital of the Magic Kingdom. They will be listed in the auction before you arrive. The manager of our branch there has also been ordered to prepare for your arrival. Everything will be properly arranged and you should have nothing to worry about!"

"Excellent! Your merchant group is really impressive!"

Giller says "Thank you! We always strive to make our customers satisfied!"

"You have certainly satisfied me! That reminds me, this is my first time working with your merchant group. Just how big is the merchant group? What cities can I find branches in?"

Giller says "Well, we aren't the biggest merchant group, but we are in the top five. Every major trade city and capital across the continent has a branch of our group!"

"In that case I will look for your branches as I travel!"

Giller says "If you do, just show the VIP card I gave you, you will get the best treatment we can offer!"

"Great! I will be sure to remember that!"

It looks like going to this merchant group to fish for information was a really good idea. If I had just stormed into the Xui estate like normal I wouldn't even know about the auction. Now, I not only know about it but I have the invitation I need to attend and money to spend.

Even if those plants don't sell for much I still have four million crystal coins to play with. Since I probably won't ever come back to the Magic Kingdom after this I should try to spend them all. Once Giller gives me the crystal coins, Grimgar and I quickly finish our lunch and leave.

As soon as we leave the restaurant we head straight out of the city through the north gate. After moving a few miles away from the city I find a secluded place to camp. Then, while I am waiting for it to get dark, I continue teaching Grimgar.

After dinner, I leave Grimgar to practice and open a soulscape to play with the kids. Only after they are exhausted and leave do I end the soulscape and drop shapeshift. It feels good to be able to stretch my real body after being shapeshifted for so long.

After having a really good stretch I take off and fly back towards the city. When I reach the city I head straight to the Xui estate and then hover just above the dome of detection. Then I spread out my mana into the exact shape of the estate and prepare my spell.

Once the spell is ready I activate it and dispel the entire Xui estate all at once. Not only the net of sentry spells, but also the control spells on all the beasts and any other enchantments on the estate. Of course, as soon as the dispel takes effect, the entire estate goes nuts.

Every alarm in the place is going off and the previously controlled beasts have gone berserk. Now that the detection net is gone I send my mana down to scan the estate. Of course, with the alarms going off, everyone in the estate is up and moving.

What surprises me is that most of the humans, other than the guards, have strong mana signatures. They have more mana than any other humans I have run into so far. If it was just one of them it wouldn't be surprising, but for all of them to be so strong is odd.

It could be because they are from the Magic Kingdom, but something feels off about them. The mages of the Magic Kingdom are probably stronger than normal due to selective breeding. However, that would be natural strength due to bloodlines, these mages have an unnatural feel to them.

Yet I don't really care about that, I am more interested in finding out what they are hiding. So I ignore them for now and scan deeper with my mana looking for what is hidden. My scan reveals a large room beneath the estate, it is bigger than the buildings above ground.

I can sense over a hundred life forms in the room, but that is all I can tell from this distance. It seems like the room itself is made of some strange material that is limiting my ability to scan inside. However, I am able to find several entrances that lead down to the room.

By now the mages of the Xui family have all rushed outside to see what is going on. While they are distracted I land on the roof of the main house and shapeshift into elven form. From the roof I drop down to a balcony, enter the house, and move downstairs.

The entrance to the hidden roof turns out to be in the kitchen, hidden behind a set of shelves full of dishes. Once I find the switch, the shelves slide aside smoothly revealing another staircase leading down. At the bottom of the stairs is a locked iron door, but there are also magical locks as well.

Unfortunately, my dispel was not strong enough to reach underground. I end up having to spend several minutes breaking the magical locks and open the door. When I step through the door I get quite the shock, the room looks like a modern lab.

The walls are lined with glass tubes, each of which has a living being suspended inside. Now that I am inside I can scan properly, there are just under a hundred elves in here. The rest of the tubes are holding beasts, a little over two hundred by my count.

Each and every tube has red runes floating around it and there are lines on the floor as well. The lines connect all the tubes and form some kind of magical array. My first impulse is to smash the tubes and save the elves, but that would be reckless.

Who knows what might happen if I break the array before I understand it. So instead, I take my time to walk around the room and study all the lines. I quickly figure out that the array is pulling something from those in the tubes.