Travellers - An Isekai, Cultivation Fantasy

Facing Astoria, Cedric spoke out loud. "Very well, in that case, we have a major problem in our hands."

Astoria was slightly taken aback. "Oh really?" she asked questioningly.

Cedric sighed.

"This inheritance, the stuff that happened inside… it's complicated." Astoria wanted to ask for more details, but gave him the space to explain at his own pace. Cedric paused for a moment before resuming eye contact with Astoria. "For starters, a large number of dark mages had infiltrated the inheritance, including a dark grand mage."

"What!?" Astoria gasped. However, she reminded herself that Drake was okay and relaxed. But still, how could this happen?

"Luckily, despite the infiltration, the restrictions in the inheritance meant that the dark grand mage would not have been able to exert his full power. I believe that the cultivators managed to kill most of the dark mages, with Drake and his party contributing significantly to that end."

"I… I see…" Astoria whispered. "But then, what is the problem?"

Cedric sighed again. "During the battles with the dark grand mage, there are reports of him using a rare artifact. From the description of its effects, it is almost certainly… the horn of calling."

Astoria stared blankly in response.

"It is an artifact that had been in my family's possession for generations."

"What!? So someone in your famil-"

"Before you go there," Cedric interrupted. "Remember that time when our town's major field was set ablaze by dark mages and I had to make a deal with Basindale, specifically, Eldric Blackthorne, to send us food aid?"

"Yea…"

Cedric took a deep breath and spoke carefully. "As part of that deal, Eldric asked for the horn of calling; and I exchanged it with him, right before the inheritance grounds opened."

"What… do you mean?" Astoria gasped. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

"Yes… I can't believe it myself, but… given that he is a mage emperor, there is no way that anybody could or even would attempt to forcefully take anything from him. Not to mention that no one except he and I knew about our exchange of the horn of calling at that time. So… the only way the dark mages could have gotten their hands on that artifact so quickly… was if Eldric himself gave it to them."

Astoria gulped. If so, that meant that the head of the Blackthorne family, one of the noble families of the Holy Kingdom, was in cahoots with one of the largest dark mage organisations in the Kingdom.

"That is… crazy," Astoria gasped.

"No," Cedric interrupted. "I don't think you realise the gravity of the situation."

"Um… I'm pretty sure I do…" Astoria's voice quietened uncertainly.

Cedric repeated his previous statement.

"No one, except Eldric and I, knew about the exchange of the horn of calling."

Cedric's words echoed in her mind again.

Word would have surely spread about the dark mages and their use of the horn of calling, but no one except he and Eldric knew that Cedric had exchanged the horn with him. That meant that as far as everyone else was concerned, the horn should have still been in the Ironheart family's possession when the dark mages reportedly got their hands on it.

That meant, for everyone else, the primary suspect for who helped the dark mages obtain the artifact, was Cedric!

…

Meanwhile in Basindale.

Eldric Blackthorne was sitting in his chair, tapping his index finger on its handle, and covering his face with his other hand. Kneeling in front of him was a hooded figure.

"So you're telling me, that you let so many cultivators see you idiots use the artifact, and escape!?"

His body began emitting a cold aura, and the hooded figure trembled.

…

Drake was sitting alone in a quiet, open area, going through all the gains from the inheritance. His main goal in entering the inheritance originally was to restore his mana core. Not only had he achieved this, but he had obtained far more than he could have ever dreamed of.

For starters, he now had tens of thousands of gold coins, thousands of mana stones - including mid grade mana stones - tens of thousands of demon corpses, a trove of rare, aged herbs, and numerous rank one and two artifacts, with a bunch of rank three artifacts as well.

Furthermore, he obtained the seed of the rare Celestial Willow. He didn't know what to do with it at the moment. If there were ever an opportunity where he could settle in a safe place for a long time, he could plant and raise it. Otherwise, he may potentially be able to use it as a very rare ingredient in refining a high ranked pill, or trade it for another extremely rare item that could be of more use to him.

Another big gain was in alchemy. Not only had he almost become a rank three alchemist and obtained the ice fire cauldron, but he now possessed numerous rare and thought-to-be lost pill recipes, including rank three and four ones!

The death-defying pill could help him breakthrough to the undying body realm, while the bone cleansing pill could boost his martial arts cultivation at the steel body realm. On the second floor of the black tower, he had also found a similar pill recipe that could boost cultivation at the undying body realm!

Pills which could boost cultivation became increasingly rare at higher cultivation realms. So this was a really big gain!

Looking at his storage pouch, he pulled out a couple of other storage pouches. These were the storage pouches of the dark mages he had killed. These also contained a large number of gold and mana stones, a few pill recipes, artifacts, and other treasures.

Most importantly, Drake pulled out a few scrolls and poured his mana into them, allowing their contents to flow into his mind. These were the summoning scrolls of the rank one blood bats, rank two dark crow, dark crow flock, poison ivy, and miasma wisp spirits!

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The one thing Drake had lacked the most was summonings. Although his mage cultivation was comparatively lower, and many of these summonings were commonly associated with the Hidden Venom Cult, Drake was glad to have more tools in his arsenal nonetheless.

Along with this, there was also a lot more information on dark magic that he knew would come in useful.

Much more importantly, Drake had learnt to summon and use black iron! Drake was sure that he was one of the few, if not the only one in this world, who had this ability. Using this, he would be able to give his future artifacts a large boost, and it was another welcome gain!

Of course, the biggest gains and ones which would directly and significantly boost his battle strength were the rank four fire dragon ring and the rank five sword artifacts he had gained. These alone trumped almost all the other gains he had, save for the restoring of his mana core.

Additionally, he had received the teleportation stone, a wealth of cultivation knowledge and experience from the twin astral body martial artists which would make his future martial arts cultivation and breakthroughs even faster and smoother, and a few of their rare and powerful martial techniques, and other martial techniques that he has picked up on the second floor.

Finally, he had broken through to the late stage true mage and perfect stage steel body realms, becoming close to the undying body realm as well.

Thinking about all of this, Drake couldn't help but break into a smile. They had only spent around two weeks in the inheritance, though it had felt like forever, and he had gained more in this time than he had in his entire life. Even though it had been so dangerous, and he had come close to losing his life many times, it was all more than worth it in the end, becoming the biggest winner of the inheritance grounds.

The image of Helen flashed through Drake's mind, and he became quiet. He remembered all the time they had spent together, from the moment they had first met in the Jain village, to the months in the carriage ride to Basindale, to all the missions they went on together as a party, and more.

Nothing can justify what happened to her… he thought. If he hadn't been so weak and killed Theo when he had the chance, she would still be alive.

Drake shook his head and slapped his cheeks. If he had learnt anything at all in this time, it was that if he was weak, he could not survive in this world. If Drake did not want a repeat of Helen's incident, he needed to become strong. And he could not become strong if he kept dwelling in the past. He had to move on, strive to become stronger, and stronger, and stronger, until no one could threaten him anymore. That was the only way to make up for his weakness from before.

Thinking so, Drake took out a jade box from his storage pouch. Inside were dozens of bone cleansing pills that he had refined over the past few days and during the carriage ride to the dragon tribe. He had a few more boxes like this. He figured these should be enough to carry him to the peak of the steel body realm; if not, he could always refine more.

Drake glanced at the sky. The sun was high in the sky, and a gentle wind ruffled his robes. He then glanced forward and admired the picturesque village. Seeing the dragon men and women walking through such a village looked like a page taken straight out of a fantasy novel on earth. Drake let his thoughts flow for a few minutes before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.

It's time to begin.

…

Several months later, Duskville.

Cedric Ironheart, Elena Silverglow and Darren Gold were sitting together in the town lord's manor, along with another man, Gabriel Hansford, a holy general of the Church.

This meant he was a mage emperor!

Gabriel was in the area when the Church urgently contacted him and asked him to investigate Cedric Ironheart and his activities in Duskville, giving a summary of the situation and their suspicions. After talking to Cedric, however, he was frowning.

"Do you have any evidence for trading the horn of calling with him?" asked Gabriel. He turned to Darren and Elena and continued, "Can either of you attest to this?"

Darren and Elena shared a glance and shook their heads. Elena spoke up. "I know that a deal with Eldric was struck, but this is the first time we're hearing about the details of the deal."

Cedric sighed. "If I had known that this would happen, then I would have collected additional evidence."

Gabriel thought deeply.

Everyone knew that the Ironheart family possessed the horn of calling, but no one, except he and Eldric, knew about this trade. He would, of course, talk to and ask Eldric for his side of the story as well, but there was no doubt that Eldric would deny it.

They both had a motive to blame the other party, given that they were rivals, so neither individual's words could be trusted entirely.

"But there is something else," Cedric added.

"Oh?" Gabriel raised his eyebrow curiously. Cedric began recounting all the events of dark mages attacking their city, with the clues all pointing to the Blackthorne family.

Hearing this made Gabriel frown more. He asked some follow-up questions, and they talked about the dark mage activities in Duskville for a while. After this, Gabriel placed his hand on his chin and fell into deep thought.

"Can I see this letter you found?"

"Of course," Eldric replied and handed the letter to him.

Gabriel looked at it intently. It didn't carry a seal or anything that could be used to identify its origin. However, its message was clear.

"The Ironheart family's cargo will leave Basindale through the highway at sunrise."

"And Darren, you say you found this?"

"That is correct," Darren reiterated. He briefly explained again what he saw, starting from when he sensed a dark mage and rushed over, only to see the Ironheart family's carriages attacked, the guards killed, and the dark mage nowhere to be seen. Then he explained the story he had heard from the driver.

In Gabriel's mind, Darren and Elena were much more trustworthy than Cedric, given their neutral positions, so he didn't suspect that Darren would lie to him. Furthermore, this letter was undeniable proof that someone was helping the Hidden Venom Cult directly target the Ironheart family, with the most likely suspect being the Blackthorne family.

Unless, of course, this was also a set-up by the Ironheart family to shift the suspicion away from them.

"We suspected that there could be a third party interfering in things," Darren explained.

'Right, that is another possibility,' thought Gabriel.

Darren added, "However, we haven't found any other evidence to this effect."

Cedric jumped in and mentioned Astoria's story and the appearance of Henry as a side note.

Gabriel fell into deep thought once more. A few moments later, he spoke.

"Well, this is a lot of information. I can't come to any conclusions without talking to Eldric as well, so if that's everything, I'll be taking my leave for now. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, and for your hospitality," Gabriel spoke respectfully.

"No need to mention it," Cedric smiled in response. Gabriel nodded and started leaving.

A few minutes later, Gabriel had already left Duskville and was making his way towards Basindale, while still thinking about everything. He decided to note his findings so far in a messenger spirit and send them to the Church. He willed and mana quickly condensed into a bird-shaped spirit, before flying out.

When it flew a few metres, it was suddenly struck by a mysterious attack and dissipated into mana.

"Who dares?" Gabriel bellowed. In response, he heard a giggling behind him.

Startled, Gabriel jumped back. He was a mage emperor! How could anyone sneak up on him without him sensing their presence?

That meant the individual must be extremely powerful!

Gabriel activated his mana and readied to summon his spirits at a moment's notice. He warily examined the surroundings to see where they were and spotted an old woman standing directly in front. He scanned her head to toe.

Old woman… wrinkled skin.. those robes, rings, and outfit…

Dalia Krueger!

Gabriel's face paled, and he immediately turned tail and ran.

'Why is that monster here!?'

A little while later, in the Holy Capital.

A guard rushed into a room and knelt before a tall and bulky man with an intimidating aura.

"Archbishop, I have news!"

"Speak!"

"Holy general Gabriel's spirit lamp just extinguished!"

"What!?" The man slammed his hand on the table and stood up. Gabriel died? How was that possible? Someone killed him? Who would dare?

The man's mind began to race. Gabriel was just sent to investigate Cedric Ironheart, and now, he had died so suddenly. Did Cedric kill him? Was he so brave as to kill a holy general of the Church of Iva?

"CEDRICCCCC!!!!!!"

…

A few weeks later.

Drake was sitting in the same spot, eyes closed, but now, his body was radiating an intense aura. Every second that passed, his aura increased rapidly. Dark clouds gathered and lightning struck.

A few dragon men in the nearby village turned in Drake's direction.

'He's breaking through!'

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