Immediately, Michael knew why that name was familiar.

Lazarus Cadaver. He was the author of the book that talked about the Zephyr Expeditions!

His theories about why Zephyrs were the natural enemies of the Elves gave Michael a lot of information that had helped him tremendously in his own research. Without him, Michael wouldn’t have known about the dangers of the Elven Kingdom when he visited their islands.

He’d have unknowingly walked into a literal minefield. He would have been curious and approached the Zephyrs, not knowing that they exploded upon close proximity.

Why is he here?

"Is he here about Zephyrs?" Michael asked him.

"Hm? You know about Lazarus?"

"I’ve read about him." Michael told Seberus about the book and experiments on Zephyrs.

Seberus nodded solemnly. "So you know the reason why he’s treated as the black sheep amongst Mystic Masters.

His experiments on Zephyrs aren’t exactly... normal. Now, if he had just focused on Zephrys, then that would have been fine. But he has also started researching about Elves, going so far as to dissect their dead bodies.

That’s why those that know him, know to steer clear away from him. Some believe that he had experimented on dead bodies before and made them reanimate!"

And before Michael could express his interest, Seberus waved it off.

"Of course, it’s nothing but hearsay," Seberus continued. "And Lazarus isn’t as bad as the rumors say he is. He’s weird, but well meaning. Awkward would be the right word to describe him. But he certainly isn’t evil as most people depict him as."

Seberus went more on a tangent about how Lazarus weird antics, and about how he should be acting.

It took Michael asking the same question for Seberus to finally lock in and focus on the main topic.

"Is he here for Zephyrs?"

"No. He’s not here for personal business. He’s here on official Guild business. The Guild of Arcana has chosen him to become the representative for their negotiations with the Goldstone Conglomerate.

Theresa holds the deeds for a lot of territory in the Royal Continent. And as you know, magic has disappeared. We want to bring it back. And the only way to do that is to disrupt the individual who had casted the Nascent Influence.

We believe that one of Theresa’s territories holds the key to solving that problem. And she’s willing to help. For a price."

Michael leaned in. It seemed that the Guild had started their hunt for the Ersatz. A bit late, he thought.

"What kind of price is she asking for?"

"The Ice-petals of the Frozen Lotus," Seberus revealed.

ChatJK6 gave him a description of the item without any prompts.

[The Ice-petals of the Frozen Lotus is a precious material found growing in places where there is a lot of death energy. This particular plant is highly sensitive. The corpses buried around the plant must not be harboring any negative grudges.]

Michael now saw why she asked for Lazarus. Only someone obsessed with death could cultivate such a plant.

As for what reason she wants this particular plant, Michael didn’t know. ChatJK6 told him nothing about its special effects, aside from the fact that anything that comes into contact with it will immediately be inflicted with frostbite.

Was Theresa planning on freezing the demi-humans underground?

It was unlikely. And Seberus didn’t know either.

"Can I ask Lazarus himself?"

Seberus sighed. "You can certainly try. But I doubt that he would get out of his carriage right now. He specially made the Pocket Dimension inside as sound-proof.

The Guild only ordered him to talk with Theresa. And ever the recalcitrant, Lazarus intends to follow that rule to the tee."

This was not ideal. He could try and break through to Lazarus’ Pocket Dimension, but that wouldn’t be a very bright idea. Breaking and entering into a Mystic Master’s personal quarters would definitely bring him fatal curses of some kind.

"But you don’t have to worry. It’s your lucky day, my boy. Just as I arrived here, I was given an invitation to partake in a Feast within the Vanderbilt camp. I’m sure Theresa won’t pass up an opportunity like this, so she will be there. Meaning, Lazarus will be too."

Finally, some good news.

"Have you spoken to your ’uncle’?"

Seberus put that word in quotation marks because he knew the complicated relationships between Vanderbilts.

"I haven’t. Nobody knows about my last name. And I don’t intend to change that," he said.

Seberus nodded, satisfied. "Alright, then I’ll use my authority to invite you to the Feast. You can act as my personal student."

Then, Seberus narrowed his eyes as he looked at Michael’s core. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You only reached up to the 5th circle? Michael..."

"I was busy!" Michael defended himself.

"With your kind of talent, I was sure you could have reached the 9th circle by now. Oh what a waste of heaven’s gift!"

Michael’s cheeks blushed with embarrassment. This was perhaps the first time in a long time that he’d been flustered like this.

"Does that even matter right now? Magic is gone!"

"Not for long. The Guild of Arcana is working on a cure for the world’s affliction. No Nascent Influence is going to stop Mystic Masters from finding our magic back."

Seberus smiled, finding satisfaction in the fact that he had made Michael rattled.

"Haha, you were slacking off, weren’t you? Thinking you could just breeze through the magic circles because of your talent? Tsk tsk tsk, at this point, maybe you don’t deserve to be my student. Thank the heavens you refused my offer, right? Hahahaha!"

Michael pursed his lips. The old man was enjoying this far too much.

"And you better start practicing chess too. Maybe in a few years, I’ll finally be able to beat you! Hahaha!"

It was at this point that Michael had enough. He conjured the chess pieces together and revealed that he’d been holding back this entire time.

He purposefully had ChatJK6 turn off the difficulty in his brain by multiple levels.

The wooden pieces began to levitate as Michael lectured Seberus about what he should have done, and how many times Michael could have won.

"See?"

Seberus’s eyes were wide with shock. "You... you... you used magic?!"