Timeless Prominence

Rein grasped the newly given staff in his hand and activated his aurae in a bid to stimulate the two inscriptions. The wood inscription felt significantly easier to activate. Rein believed that this was due to the draconic metamorphose bead having given him strong affinity with wood and lightning.

Perhaps in a day long past, this weapon would have been considered a ‘Spear of Heaven’. This was no more than an average armament in modern times. Modern ‘Spears of Heaven’ are vastly more intricate with an amalgamation of various interactive abilities. 

As the inscriptions activated, he felt an outrageous drain of his own aurae. That was of no surprise, particularly since these inscriptions were of early outer advancer level magics, and he was only an inner advancer at the bottom of the ladder.

Rein restricted the flow of his aurae into the weapon. As he did so, a group of power gems inlaid into the middle section of the staff glowed.

Power gems are used in the advancer world to store aurae. They can be mined from dense aurae areas, and once used, could have its aurae refilled again as long as an advancer was willing to gradually inject their aurae into the power gem. Different types of gems are more effective at storing different types of aurae.

Anyhow, this mechanism allows lower realm advancers to activate higher realm advancer skills through the inscriptions crafted by said higher realmed advancer. This invention was supposedly created by the so-called ‘Progenitor of Heroes’.

In Rein’s readings from the second level of Master Yirn’s tower, this Progenitor of Heroes, during the Chaos Era, supposedly took inspiration from the skill of systems-- a technique that through strategic placement of magical tools  to create magical defenses across large areas.

The man miniaturized it into ‘written form’ such that a magical effect could be planted onto a weapon, to create a smaller scale effect, naming it ‘inscriptions’. This man’s name was Xune!

Rein first activated the water drop inscription. A water droplet formed above Rein’s head, and in a single breath, expanded as large as an adult human. The humongous raindrop then fell down onto Rein, thoroughly drenching him, before the droplet swelled and cascaded outwards in all directions.

A drenched Rein could only try to squeeze water out of his hair and sputter for air as he mused inwardly. The advancer who passed down this inscription probably created this advancer art by imitating a raindrop falling into a lake, thus creating water ripples outwards…

Chenhr, who was about to be hit by the waves of water, opened his bamboo folding fan. With a flick of his wrist, power gems inlaid onto the skeleton of the bamboo fan lit up as a burst of light green aurae burst forth, causing a strong gust to contend against the rippling water wave.

The gust of wind split the wave like a god parting an ocean, and Chenhr remained thoroughly dry as the split waves rolled past him to his two sides. It was rather obvious that Chenhr’s folding fan also had certain magics scripted onto its body.

Rein then activated the wood inscription.

Before he could fully activate the inscription, Chenhr rolled his eyes. “Plant it, you fool!”

Rein immediately stuck the bottom of the staff onto the ground as he finished the activation.

He suddenly felt his whole body filled with vitality, all fatigue from the earlier exertion gone. The surface of the staff itself glowed with gleaming splendor.

However, unlike the staff and himself, the few closest trees in the surrounding environment seemed to wilt as their leaves turned a sickly yellow.

Rein recoiled in shock as he lifted the staff off from its planted position.

“The wood skill is of vitality. It can draw on the aurae within the power gems, but that is of a limited amount. Its true use is to drain and destroy the earth below for its energies. Naturally, the surrounding nature will be impacted by such a use of the skill. Nature and wood-based skills both draw energies from the earth.”

This skill was rather destructive… Rein did not expect such an effect, but then again, it was inscribed by at the very least, an outer advancer. Outer advancers are able to express and control aurae outside their bodies, unlike inner-to-shell advancers.

A ‘silkpants’ would undoubtedly have numerous amounts of these armaments and power gems to augment their combat ability. Rein very much understood why Chenhr had claimed that these weapons, supposedly meant to allow a weaker advancer to cast magics to stand up against a stronger advancer, very much benefited the influential class of the advancer world.

Chenhr provocatively pointed his now-folded bamboo fan at Rein. “Come!”

Rein performed a few staff stances as he tested out this wood-based skill.

His body had strengthened significantly these past six months to the point where he could punch through a brick wall, not to mention, easily lift and throw boulders taller than himself. Yet, this energy coursing through his body now was incomparable.

This wood-based vitality skill augmented all his physical abilities. If it had a weakness, it would be the simple fact that it required earth-based aurae in the surroundings to use as fuel for the wood-based magic.

The world’s aurae flowed in a cycle of transformation, very much following the rules of nature. Advancers needed to understand this flow, imitate and manipulate it-- one might say bastardize it-- to accomplish their goals.

Reni stomped on the ground, his foot causing a deep and cracked imprint on the ground as he leaped toward Chenhr, with a downward sweep right at Chenhr’s head.

For the first time, Chenhr's face appeared serious. He was at the peak of the inner realm, close to the shell realm, and thus he could somewhat bring forth an incomplete form of aurae to the surface of his skin. His origin ability also allowed his body to hold vast amounts of aurae reserves.

His whole body quickly became covered in an unstable and fluctuating layer of yellowish aurae that formed magical patterns to augment his own body with effects unidentifiable to Rein. He defended against the staff strike, causing a resounding boom as the two weapons came into contact.

Chenhr had deflected the staff strike to the side of his body with a sweep of the folded bamboo fan.

Chenhr then flicked forearm, instantly opening up his bamboo fan. Once again, he performed the skill that Rein had seen a few times by now. With a sweep of the fan, a blast of yellowish aurae burst forth.

However, unlike the previous time, Rein did not feel his own aurae slowing to a complete crawl underneath this suppressive aurae burst. The vitality provided by the wood inscription negated some of that effect.

This result emboldened Rein. He quickly started performing rapid thrusts, determined to give a good strong bruise to any part of half-senior Chenhr’s body.

Chenhr was however ready. Although the opened bamboo fan looked flimsy, Chenhr meticulously adjusted his wrist and elbow to angle the surface of the fan perfectly in order to deflect every single one of Rein’s staff thrusts. The fan was in itself layered in a shell of magical augmentation.

Rein soon noticed his fatigue building, as if this vitality of the wood inscription was failing. He immediately leaped backward, before plunging the staff into the ground in a bid to siphon more earth aurae to feed the advancer inscription on the staff.

Unfortunately, the result was disappointing.

Chenhr’s expression was no longer tense, and his demeanor had returned to his usual mocking attitude toward Rein.  “My dear half-junior. You’ve already thoroughly exploited the earthen aurae present in the skill’s current radius of effect.”

Rein quickly realized the underlying reason for the failure of this heavenly skill. He would need to change locations in order to plunder the earthen aurae as fuel again.

As for why Rein had still yet to land a hit on Chenhr with the support of this skill? Rein simply assumed that Chenhr’s treasured bamboo folding fan must have its unique strengths that he lacked the ability to discern, in combination with Chenhr’s partial shell augmentation abilities.

Master Yirn interjected at this point. “Join the mission tonight.” With that, he vanished into thin air. He had only stayed to make sure that Rein knew how to use this new staff.

Rein’s excitement was obvious. In these six months, he had come to understand the nature of the work done by the members of this hidden village.

It was quite simple on the surface. More or less, the members posed as bandits to rob certain targets. Sometimes, it would be for resources. Sometimes, it would be for information, which many merchants were more than willing to divulge at a blade’s point.

One thing was certain though. They would only rob targets that they had discovered to have done nefarious deeds. At the very least, that was the deal Master Yirn had made with the members of the hidden village when saving them from their varied circumstances.

Chenhr snorted. It was obvious that he deemed Rein’s inclusion unnecessary. But the Master is the Master. “We move out at dusk. Today’s target is a potential breakthrough. For you. Don’t screw up. Otherwise, you may very well regret coming.”

Later in the day.

A band of figures dressed in light green cloaks crouched hidden behind trunks and bushes. With the camouflage, it was difficult to notice the figures, and certainly impossible to count their exact numbers.

Quite a few months earlier, Rein had noticed the use of snow white cloaks instead, no doubt, to camouflage the band against winter snow. However, now, it is spring moving into summer.

All the members surrounding Rein breathed both deeply and calmly while awaiting the arrival of the target.

Rein felt that his own breath was, however, inexplicably loud. Perhaps it was his nervousness. Though, none of the other members complained about this.

The current leader of the group raised a finger to his lips, indicating the band to be extra quiet and careful in preparation for the ambush.

Normally, Xeeran led the bandits. Today’s leader was different due to Xeeran being occupied with another mission. Rein himself had zero idea who the replacement was. As for Chenhr, he was hidden somewhere amongst the band.

Rein strained his ears, and gradually, the dim clip-clop sound of hooves against ground could be heard.

Rein closed his eyes as he went through the mission details to ensure that he would execute his role appropriately and avoid making any mistakes.

Their target was a fake merchant. The man should be a member of the devil sects hidden far into the wilderness to the west of the Minhr Nation’s Evergreen Mountains, and have no doubt infiltrated and caused a certain degree of havoc across the nation.

Rein’s role in this mission is quite limited. For one, he could not use the Soak Staff. Rein had decided to give the name ‘Soak Staff’ to the new weapon he received from Master Yirn. The reason behind the name was simple. The staff essentially soaked up the earthen aurae in the surroundings to strengthen the vitality of the wood. And the water inscription skill… would always soak the user in a ball of water before cascading outward in waves.

Master Yirn had said that the staff should not be used today, lest it become synonymous with Rein’s own identity. It would definitely be disastrous if someone survived today’s ambush and reported the details of Rein using the Soak Staff to officials. That would mean that Rein could no longer walk around with the Soak Staff or even use it without drawing attention to his involvement in the impending ambush.

Both him and Chenhr’s goal was to essentially respond to the appearance of the hidden advancer guards defending this fake merchant. The normal guards escorting the caravan are of the mortal realm, only having the inner advancer strength-- that of improved physicality.

However, that is just a show. This fake merchant should be an important informat and thus have at the very least, one or two hidden guards-- predictably at shell advancer realm or thereabouts.

Rein had wondered why Chenhr was certain that there would only be one or two hidden proper guards. Chenhr’s reply was accompanied by a scoff: “Too many hidden guards would attract attention. Then they would no longer be hidden guards anymore.”

Regardless, their crew’s goal was simply, with the combination of overwhelming force as well as the element of surprise, to completely obliterate the mortal guards. The hidden guards that should be on the verge of becoming true advancers should then appear.

Chenhr should be able to handle one, while Rein was to provide some support to the bandit crew responding to the appearance of potentially a second hidden guard.

Thinking of the whole plan, Rein felt that all-in-all, it was a pretty straightforward and sound approach. This calmed his nerves and the sound of his breathing significantly diminished as the sound of hooves grew ever heavier.

Through the foliage, Rein saw a wooden caravan being pulled with four horses. The caravan itself looked nothing special, and was ‘standard’. The horses too looked like run-of-the-mill horses. Not too majestic, nor underfed. The caravan driver was also dressed as any other typical caravan driver, with a wide conal thatch hat that blocked the sun while conveniently hiding the face.

No doubt, this ‘merchant’ aimed to fit in and look just as any other typical merchant would in the nation.

Rein gripped his replacement weapon box for this mission. As this was his first mission, he was given more of a disruptive sort of role.

The box carried numerous weighty bombs the size of a thumb. Most of them had the one singular effect of an air blast. When Rein observed the inscriptions on these, he could tell that the inscription contained qualities of wind within.

The remaining bombs had varied types of effect. There was one that was a sand blast. Another was a flash blast. All-in-all, they were of a singular, pure elemental blast effect.

Rein was instructed by Chenhr that all he had to do was to force a bit of his own aurae into the surface of a bomb before throwing it, and it should explode a few heartbeats later.

These bombs were cheap, commonplace, and a disposable type of armament, and thus untrackable in all respects.

At this moment, the fake merchant caravan was about to reach the ambush spot. In order to maximize the effect of the ambush, no signals were used, and instead, every single individual ‘bandit’ had to prime their very own selves to attack when the caravan crossed a specific geographical line on the forest path.

The sound of hooves and feet grew louder and more varied as through the gap in between leaves and branches, Rein saw the caravan, escorted by a band of mercenaries, only a few feet from reaching the ambush spot.

Thump thump thump

Three heartbeats later, the slithering sound of rustling leaves signaled the start of the ‘robbery’. In a single breath, numerous arrows flew in from both sides of the road in a pincer formation, skewering the mercenaries surrounding the caravan. A green flash of aurae accompanying the flood of arrows simultaneously sliced through the harnesses of the horses pulling the caravan.

Miserable yells and grunts filled the air as the whole band of roughly twenty mercenaries panicked and looked around wide-eyed in both surprise and fear. The horses bolted-- they had already been disconnected from the caravan by the flash of green aurae, no doubt the skill that Chenhr had used to split Rein’s water-wave earlier in the day. The sight of the mess of their victims made Rein doubt if he himself even had a role to play.

Nearly sixty percent of the band of mercenaries had been hit by the arrows, the unlucky-- or perhaps lucky-- ones dead from a vital strike, others wounded and bleeding to death on the ground. The caravan driver, in full view of both sides of the road, was of course a dead man slumped onto the ground.

The leader of this band of mercenaries got lucky himself, and he immediately attempted to rally his comrades with a roar. “Form a defensive formation you imbeciles, we--”

His attempt to organize the remaining standing mercenaries was interrupted by the thundering charge of Master Yirn’s ‘bandits’.

Two groups rushed the remaining bandits with spears, as once again in pincer formation, they impaled bodies onto the two sides of the now-stationary caravan.

Many of the mercenaries had barely even managed to get into a proper combat stance and draw their weapons before grunting with their breath knocked out, spiked through the gut against the caravan’s walls.

Victory was all but certain. It was almost too easy. Perhaps if this fake merchant, or this band of mercenaries were forewarned, it might have been a significantly harder fight. Yet, was any combat ever ‘fair’?

Rein was slightly relieved. He wasn’t quite sure how he himself might react with his life on-the-line, and seeing everything going so smoothly was reassuring.

Yet he was also disappointed that he would not have to contribute at all.

Well… Rein would soon curse this line of thought.

For at this very moment, the whole wooden structure of the caravan exploded into pieces. As the wooden splinters spun outwards they suddenly changed direction mid-air as if controlled by invisible hands, stabbing toward the vulnerable necks of Master Yirn’s ‘bandits’.

Rein gaped as he immediately realized that the hidden guard of this fake merchant was much mightier than Chenhr had predicted. For only outer advancers and above have the ability to fling objects around with aurae tendrils! Perhaps, this hidden guard might even be a telekinetic advancer!