NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52: The Third Tier.
Chapter 52: The Third Tier.
Coming out of the mercenary guild, Levi decided to resupply some goods. Most of the shops near the street are closed, and everything related to food is expensive because of monster tides and the winter. Although the city is crowded, most of them are not local.
The inns are full, and the restaurants are closed because of the large number of people entering the city. Levi, after discussion, decided to leave the city.
At the city gate, more famished and injured civilians are entering the city after escaping from the monster tide. But from what Levi has seen so far, the city also doesn’t have sufficient food to help the civilians. Unless the Cirean Kingdom royal or noble does something,
Levi leaves the city without any problems after showing his mercenary identity. The crowded civilians at the gate move away from them, thanks to Ben. Of course, there is always one stupid person who thinks he is safe near a city guard. When he sees the tamed horn bear and wants to release his anger.
A rock flew through the air and hit Ben's body. Although it does not hurt Ben at all, Levi and the rest stop walking and frown at the middle-aged man with a missing left arm.
"What are you looking at? We are at the city gate!"
The people near the middle-aged man move far away from him.
Seeing that Levi and the rest don’t make any move, the middle-aged man becomes bolder and scolds them without reservation. Ben wants to kill the middle-aged man, but he is afraid there will be no food for him later.
"Drag him to the woods." Levi growls, and Ben goes toward the middle-aged man and drags the man's clothes, then follows Levi and rests in the woods.
"What are you doing? Let me go. Guard, help me!" The man struggles to escape, but Ben keep dragging him.
The city guard pretended not to see anything. They are not stupid enough to mess with a mercenary. There was an incident in the past where one of the city guards messed with a woman mercenary; in the end, his leg got cut off, and he lived as a cripple for the rest of his life. The woman mercenary only gets a fine with the help of the mercenary guild. Some mercenaries even killed a noble and fled the kingdom.
"AAAAHHHH Help!" Once he enters the woods, Ben eats him alive.
"What a stupid man," Otis observes the bloody scene.
Levi watches everything; the man's actions piss him off. He is not a saint or prophet who will be patient if people throw rocks at your companion.
They continue their journey after Ben finishes eating the middle-aged man.
In the forest, the monster carcasses in the city are thrown inside a large hole on the outskirts of the city to prevent any diseases from spreading.
"How many monsters do you think are inside this hole?" Otis asked after seeing a pile of monster carcasses that couldn’t be eaten.
"I don’t know; I am hungry. Let’s hunt." Clara looks lethargic.
Levi jumps inside the deep hole and steps on the rotten and decaying carcass. "Convert to death point." He can see the dead body turn into particles that only he can see enter his body. The death points increase quickly but soon stop. Because all the carcasses disappear. If he can find another monster burial pit, he can gather more death points.
Clara and the rest are already used to this scene and don’t ask any questions. Everyone had their own secret.
The hole became deeper once the pile of monster carcasses disappeared. Gathering strength in his leg, he uses the light movement technique and jumps. Leaping out of the large hole, Levi checks his body.
The mana stored inside his heart is still there, but he doesn’t know what other effect the Blood Venom dragon bloodline has on his adept warrior body. For the advanced magic element, he manages to create two magic circle ruins in his brain and reach the second-tier mage. It's only a matter of time before he can create the third magic circle ruin.
"Why don't you turn some of them into undead?" Otis asked; he knew that Levi knew necromancy, and he noticed that there was no longer an undead zombie following them.
"We are going to human territory, and it is hard to bring the undead around." Levi takes his backpack and leaves. He already had a plan; he wants to go to the magic nation of Manofrea. There are two types of mages: combat mages and researchers. There might be mages that research bloodlines and souls that can help him understand more about his body.
Clara, you forgot your backpack," Otis said.
"Help me carry it; I am tired."
"You must be joking; your body is stronger than a normal human. Wait!" Clara and the rest leave Otis behind; without a choice, he carries Clara's backpack.
-
Inside a mansion, a middle-aged merchant named Ethan is looking at the papers on the table with resignation. After some time, an elderly steward enters the room.
"How?"
"The price is lower than expected, but we manage to sell the last shop."
"It's fine; how is the preparation?"
"Master, I advise you to wait until the winter ends."
"By that time, we will lose everything." After saying that, the middle-aged man takes a deep breath. "It's fine; according to the report, the monster tide had begun to subside. And we don’t enter the Pondover forest and go through other kingdoms. Although it will take a longer time to arrive, the danger will be less."
"Master, I understand everything will be ready in two days." The old steward bows his head and leaves the room.
Ethan, exhausted, leans on his chair. Because of the monster tide, his investment had failed. After the winter ends, the lender will go after him. At that time, even if you want to flee, it will be too late. Now his only hope is to ask his wife's family for help in another kingdom.
-
Inside a building in the capital city, a group of men and women wearing civilian clothes are having a discussion.
"It looks like the crown prince has decided to cut all ties with the federation."
"What do you expect from a royal family? They can’t be trusted."
"I agreed."
"When is the coronation ceremony?"
"According to our spy next week,"
"What is the higher-up instruction?"
"There is still no new order; the monster tide is not only coming from Pondover Forest but from other forbidden places. They must be busy."
"We need to go into hiding; the crown prince has begun to hunt down any spy in the capital city."
"We will gather here again next week."
"What is that noise?"
While they are ready to leave, the building is being stormed by the capital city's soldiers.
"Don’t move; you are all under arrest!"
-
Inside a throne room, the crown prince is sitting on the throne, and below him, his loyal retainer has been tied up by the soldiers.
"How do you know my identity?"
"It’s simple; your comrade betrays you."
"How?"
"I admit that the federation is strong, but you forget that power and wealth will corrupt it over time." The crown prince is unhappy because the retainer grew up with him, and he never suspected the retainer of being a federation spy.
“The Federation wants aristocrats and civilians to have the same rights and be free!"
"Freedom is just an illusion created for stupid people. Take him away."
After they had gone, a white, masked man emerged from hiding and bowed his head. "Your Majesty, I hope you recognize our sincerity to cooperate."
"I don’t know why you are doing this."
"Just like you said, the federation is corrupted. Most of the important positions are controlled by several families. What we are trying to do is reset and make a new federation."
"Fine, I am willing to cooperate."
"Thank you, your majesty."
-
A few days later, in the woods, Levi is in meditation and trying to create the third magi circle ruin in his brain. A small vortex appears above his head and suckers up the surrounding mana. After a while, he manages to break through as a third-tier mage. Now his magic is stronger than that of an early adept mage. If he reaches the fifth tier, he will be equivalent to a master-rank mage.
The other benefit of the advanced magic element manual by advancing to the third tier, his lifespan has already been extended by a few decades.
"Now Let's try it again." Levi raises both of his hands and tries to sense the space element. He already knows how to create the magic circle; now he needs to stabilize the space to prevent it from collapsing. This is not the first time he tried. Before changing the mage path, he tried to use the adept mage rank to cast spatial storage magic, but it failed.
Fortunately, he can reuse the adept rank mage mana to create the magic circle ruin. With the new mage path, he can absorb mana faster, but the requirement for mana also becomes larger for each mage tier.
Levi focuses on the spatial space; after a long time, the wagon-size spatial space finally stabilizes. Levi throws some cooking utensils and dried food to test the spatial storage spell. After testing several times by putting and taking out the goods, he finally takes a deep breath.
"Finally, I succeeded." Levi is excited. Mages that can use space magic in the Acheron world are rare. Because of external and internal problems. Once people find out you have talent in space magic, you will live in luxury, and some aristocrats are even willing to marry their son or daughter to the space mage.
As a result, mages who know space magic become condescending and lazy, and they do not work hard to advance. Their lives are also in danger because of envy and hatred from other mages. There is an exception according to a rumor, the leader of the mage nation is talented in space magic.