NOVEL NEXT Chapter 141: Pseudo Fairies
Arden walked over to the bunk bed and checked on Jaden, who was dead asleep in the top bed.
"Good night," he yawned, climbed into the bottom bed and entered the embrace of sleep.
***
"It's about to break! Get ready!" Kathrine shouted while looking at the four arcane knights that stood beside her.
One of them had a small sword, one had a one-handed battle mace and a short shield, another had a bow, and the last had a sabre.
The four of them gave her a nod and watched the dreamgate with vigilant eyes.
Zrrr!
The dreamgate shook and spread its ominous presence throughout the area before a heartbeat echoed like the devil's call.
Ba-dump!
Their breaths hitched, and the dreamgate cracked, and D-ranked nightmares began to pour out of it.
However, before they could even reach Kathrine or her group. She raised her hands high and mumbled, "Phoenix's descent."
The fire elementals trembled as she forced her will on them, and before long, they screeched into the shape of the mythical Phoenix.
Screech!
It flew toward the dreamgate with wide wings and burned every nightmare to ash. The D-ranked spirit cores fell on the pile of ash and gleamed like small stars.
The other four arcane knights stared at her in admiration, and one of them muttered.
"Kathrine Marin... The Morning Star."
A slight smirk appeared on her face, but she forced it down and said, "Focus on the dreamgate."
The others nodded, and soon, C-ranked nightmares poured out of it.
Just like before, Kathrine burned all of them to ash and began to refill her mana; she had used two 4-star spells in a span of five minutes, after all.
The dreamgate hummed once again, and a couple of B-ranked nightmares stepped out of it.
Kathrine placed her fingers together into the shape of a diamond and mumbled, "Chaotic Flaming Spear."
The fire and chaos mana within her astral core trembled and took the form of a giant spear.
The spear appeared to be made of flames, but it had no specific flow or point; it had swirls at some points, squares at another... it was truly chaotic.
It flew towards the B-ranked nightmares and exploded into smaller spheres. A few of which didn't even resemble a spear, yet they all were spears.
The spears hit the nightmares. A few exploded, some imploded, a few turned into flame cages, and a bare few turned into something incomprehensible.
The four arcane knights moved to kill the ones trapped in cages. The one with the mace swung the mace at a nightmare, but before it could reach, the nightmare disappeared.
"Huh?!" He let out a confused sound before moving to another nightmare creature.
The one with the small sword stabbed a nightmare at the head, but the nightmare disappeared before she could kill it.
She blinked a few times before focusing on another nightmare creature.
[Congratulations! You have captured a B-ranked Jade Enforce!]
[Experience +160 (Capture)]
[Ding!]
[Host has levelled up!]
[Host has reached level 37!]
Jaden lowered his camera and mumbled, "Should I continue?"
He didn't know if it was a good decision to continue capturing B-ranked nightmares while being so near to a Master ranked arcane knight.
Being the cautious man he was, he turned around and left the area.
He climbed into a damaged building and muttered, "System, rank and level conversion."
A blue screen flickered before him.
————[System]————
Level — Rank — Grade
0 — Novice — F
1 — Initiate — E
10 — Adept — D
*25 — Expert — C
50 — Elite — B
100 — Master — A
??? — Saint — S (Unattainable through level-up)
??? — Sovereign — SS (Unattainable through level-up)
————[System]————
"I need to level up as fast as I can but I can't just run wild... I need to capture two A ranks and two S ranks to upgrade all of the grimoires, and I have to do that before reaching master," he mumbled with a thoughtful expression.
He stepped near the broken wall, looked outside and muttered, "Things just got worse for me... If they found out about my powers in the current situation, instead of treating me as a hero, they would try to find the reason why I can do it... Either her or in labs to make more of me."
A dried chuckle left him, and he mumbled, "It's better to be faceless sometimes."
The [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)] slithered out of his right hand and took the shape of a knight's sword. At the same time, the ice elementals around him trembled in joy and formed a plane, faceless mask over his face.
He jumped out of the building while grinning behind the mask.
***
Snnnoooorrrk!
Jaden snored into a deep sleep until someone shook his leg. He opened his blurry eyes and looked at the person with sleep tugging at his eyelids.
"What is it... Arden?" He asked while rubbing his groggy eyes.
"Get up or you'll be late for breakfast. Also, didn't you have two puppies? I think Fairy of Space took them, so you may get them back today," Arden replied while pacing around the room.
Jaden fell back in the bunk bed and muttered inwardly, 'How did I forget about them?'
"All right," he said before climbing down the bunk bed and getting ready for the day.
After about an hour, they walked out of the tent and made their way towards the right side, which had tables lined up.
They walked over to the table, and a few minutes later, servants began to distribute plates with warm, prepared meals to all of the tables.
The group ate in peace, and just as Jaden finished his meal, a servant walked over to him.
The servant gave a curt bow and asked, "Are you Jaden Cross?"
Jaden looked at him with an emotionless face and asked, "I am."
"Can you please follow me?" The servant asked in a soft tone.
He raised an eyebrow and inquired, "I would but what for?"
The servant looked at the others with a wry smile, and seeing that, Jaden said, "It's fine, you can say it here."
The servant nodded and said, "The principal of Arcane Knight Academy wants to see you."
The others raised an eyebrow while Jaden simply nodded and said, "Let's not make her wait."
Inwardly, however, 'What does she want from me? Is it about the arcane library? Or something else entirely.'
The servant gave him a nod, turned around and began to walk with Jaden following behind him.
They entered the imperial palace, and a few minutes later, Jaden stood before a pale wooden door.
'I hope it's not something bad,' he thought and knocked at the gate.
Knock! Knock!
A soft, feminine voice answered from the inside, "Come in."
"Excuse me," he said before slightly pushing the door and walking inside.
Just as he stepped in, his eyes fell on Yorina Zion, who wore a green gown and sat behind an office table as she checked through the documents placed all over the table.
She placed the document down and raised her head to look at Jaden. She studied him for a moment before commenting with a raised eyebrow, "Hmm? How come you are an expert-ranked arcane knight?"
Jaden simply shrugged at her question and said, "I just broke through."
Yorina chuckled at his nonchalant reply and leaned back in her chair as she said, "I wish it were as easy as you make it sound."
'It is as easy as it sounds for me,' he said inwardly, gave her a slight smile and added, "I wish the same."
"You must be wondering why I called you here, right?"
He nodded and replied, "I am."
She straightened and placed her hands together and asked, "How much do you know about fairies?"
'Fairies? That was so out of the blue...' he thought before replying, "Not much... the only fairy I've ever seen is Yuka."
"Haha," a chuckle escaped her as she pointed out with a shake of her head.
"No, you have seen more than one fairy... three to be precise."
He frowned and muttered involuntarily, "What?"
She nodded and continued, "You know about the War Duke's experiment, yes?"
As soon as he heard those words, his expression darkened, and he responded with a faint nod.
"Tell me, Jaden... What kind of beings can use abilities that are beyond the elementals and mark branches?"
"Nightmares..." he answered.
Her smile widened, and she corrected. "And Fairies. Though they are a few in numbers but they also use abilities beyond us."
His eyes shone in understanding, and he asked, "But what does that have to do with the War Duke?"
Her smile faltered, she tapped her head with a finger and asked, "Because War Duke wanted to create life... but to do so, he needed some kind of blueprint.
Star beasts might work, but they are just evolved beasts,
Nightmares have no sanity and only live to spread disaster.
Fairies, on the other hand, can use abilities beyond us, and they aren't mindless monsters.
What War Duke created wasn't some beasts... no, he created fairies — Pseudo Fairies."