CHAPTER 90.

Asil looked out of the window, he was in the second floor of a human manor belonging to none other than one of Amber’s closest friends. A very important noble called Liz Starkell, whom he had gotten briefly acquainted to, and while the blonde woman seemed interested in talking with him, he didn’t.

Instead, he had chosen to tell her that they’d talk tomorrow and that he was tired of the long travels ⁠— which was partially true, but he was also emotionally drained. Relieving the worst moments of his life every time he closed his eyes was bad, and it had all gotten brought back just from seeing two Primordial Spirits in person.

He felt slightly ridiculous for feeling so scared so terrified. But he had heard of this phenomenon⁠— something he had brushed off in the past as pure stupidity and a sheer impossibility⁠— it was called trauma. And it seemed to him he was suffering from it.

But of course, Asil did not think too much about that, instead he focused on thinking about returning to his home, to the elven continent. While at first he was really desperate to return, now after realizing that he was truly that free, he was not that desperate. In fact, he had another thought in mind⁠—

He turned, hearing footsteps approaching. They belonged to Cecile, a human merchant who looked young, but had quite the wisdom in his opinion. And he also considered her his second human friend aside from Amber.

“Is there something plaguing your mind?”

“You know that I was chained for dozens of years,” he began. “And now I am free, I just don’t know if I want to return that badly.”

He had lied about the years to her, as well as what happened with the Primordial Spirit, but his recount to Cecile had still been fairly accurate.

The merchant frowned. “You… want to stay around?”

“Amber expressed her desire to go to the elven continent, so I thought I could be her guide…” He scratched his head. “But at the same time I can’t help but feel guilt, almost like a duty to return as soon as possible, to see my family⁠—”

“You should do what feels right,” Cecile said. “Plus, you are technically indebted to Amber so you could justify lingering around with that, but those are just my two cents.”

Asil listened and truly took in her words, but he wasn’t going to reply. So, instead, he chuckled. “You are so mature when not around Amber.”

Cecile crossed her arms. “The first time I met her she was carrying a monster in her arms and leveling it up, so cut me some slack.”

He smiled as the atmosphere lightened, and then began to talk with the merchant.

In the end, maybe staying around for a bit longer wasn’t a bad idea.

* * *

Amber stared at two marquesses in front of her, then at the armor they had offered, and finally, she spoke the words in her mind.

“Thank you.”

The Armor of Frenzy was good, but she was in a dire need of an upgrade⁠— after all, its only real redeeming quality was the fact that it had the Self-repair ability, which instantly made it Relic Grade. This armor however, was different, because for starters while both looked similar, this one was cursed.

[Relic Grade ⁠— Armor of the Vanquished ⁠— Ancient Quality

This is an armor that has come from a time long past, born and reshaped from the trials and tribulations its previous wearers have endured. Forged from fires long lost. This armor bears the following enchantments.

Curse of Decay: Whoever is in contact with this armor will suffer from immediate rot in any open wounds, making them harder to heal.

Curse of the Vanquished: Whoever is wounded, whether it be the wearer of this armor or the attacker, will be marked as vanquished. The death of a vanquished will completely restore this armor, and will also grant the slayer of the vanquished the ability to empower their next attack. Upon usage, the slayer of the vanquished will be permanently weakened.

Ability: Self-repair: At the cost of your mana the Armor of the Vanquished will be repaired from any damage.

Needless to say it was borderline unfair. Because to Amber, the permanent weakness was not a thing, so every single thing she killed just provided more fuel for the next target. And the worst part? She could tell it applied to Essence skills as well, so Primordial Blazing Bolt was going to be able to reach a new limit.

Now I just need a zombie curse that can raise me from the dead, she mused, her mood suddenly improved.

She immediately grabbed the armor which made the two nobles in front of her wince and stored it into her ring. She also remembered she had an entire new ring to go through⁠— the one that belonged to the man of the Arcane Council, so she was going to deal with that later.

“Glad it is to your liking,” the woman said, happy with herself. “You can always come to us for equipment.”

The rotund man nodded. “Indeed.”

“I won’t but thanks.” Amber smiled, and the nobles paused slightly in response. “I’ll let Princess Aurelia handle the punishment of every noble here.”

At that, she received a hearty chuckle from the man. “Of course, of course.”

The woman did look somewhat bothered but didn’t say anything. At least one of them had pure intentions, Amber thought before looking over to the princess.

“Can you deal with it now?”

“Normally I’d ask for something in return for doing it right this moment, but I did get to see a fair amount of the fight,” she conceded. “Just stay around until I finish, but feel free to explore Tanst. See you in a bit, Amber.”

With those words, Charles and the princess went off, and Amber returned to the duke who was still shocked from her fight earlier. He looked over at her, before showing a rare smile.

“If my son hadn’t been an asshole I’d ask if you were interested in marrying him.” He laughed.

“Even if he was the most charming man ever I’d still say no.”

“I do have a daughter⁠—”

“Also no,” she interrupted, shutting it down. “Not interested in that at all. But I will say that I am grateful that you came along with this.”

The Duke, Zizel, paused for a moment before nodding. “It is my pleasure. But if you don’t mind me asking, how many Primordial Spirits do you know?”

Amber raised her brow. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head. “Forgive me, just the way you worded your conversation with the king earlier today made me think you had met more than one.”

“Oh.” I did say it in plural didn’t I? She shrugged. “Well, who knows, maybe I know all of them.”

“I wouldn’t put it behind you, but just stay clear from the Arcane Council,” he advised.

Amber thought over his words before sighing.

“I’ve killed three of their members so far, so that’s gonna be hard.”

And the duke completely froze and then sputtered in a panic. “Wait… three? Are you sure they were from the Arcane Council?”

“I mean they had the necklaces, and all three were the ones to attack the capital?” She tilted her head. “Though, I did kill the two in the Great Desert just two weeks ago.”

“Huh?!”

It seemed to her that the duke couldn’t believe it, and perhaps her claims were outrageous, but it was the truth, and at this point⁠— she really didn’t care if the other person believed it or not. But thankfully, the duke seemed to trust her words.

“No wonder you are so strong…” he muttered before looking up at her. “You are extraordinary Amber.”

She chuckled. “I know, I’m not from this world after all.”

“Indeed.” He nodded.

Amber didn’t necessarily know what to make of his admiration, but it didn’t seem like a bad thing. And while she most certainly preferred to receive the type of admiration Velda had for her ⁠— one that pushed someone to do better ⁠— she now was beginning to like the normal kind of admiration.

“Well, for now let’s go find a smith so I can get the armor fitted.”

At that, the duke got a weird expression. “I don’t think I can come along.”

She paused. “Wait why?”

And he gestured over at the bags of gold, “I’ll be counting those.”

Oh, right…

“Sorry.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“While I do like you, this is the only time I’m doing this for you,” he sighed. “I am a duke.”

“Right, thank you. I’ll go now.”

The situation was way too awkward for her to survive it any longer. On her way out, she looked over at the nobles, who seemed to be getting an earful from Aurelia, they were also constantly flinching and most looked like scolded puppies. Though a select few were looking in her direction, not listening to the princess, and in their gazes Amber saw hatred.

Well, not my problem now. She shrugged and went on her way.

* * *

The first thing Amber did was find a smith, who had been reluctant at first due to the fact that the armor was cursed, but with the power of money ultimately agreed to readjust the armor to her measurements. After that, she asked for directions, and she herself landed on an alchemy shop. In which she bought acid potions ⁠— knowing of their existence due to her fight with the Arcane Council ⁠— and then she went on to pour them on herself to try to level up Toxin Resistance.

Unfortunately, Toxin Resistance did not level up, and she was nearly arrested for causing mass panic. Even though she did it in an isolated alleyway, somehow people found out and made a big deal about it.

Afterwards, Amber went back to the princess who was just about finishing with the nobles.

“If you fail your duties ever again not only will you be vanished, but I’ll also personally see it that you are taken by a ship to open sea.”

“Y-Yes…”

“What is this about?” Amber asked Zizel, her brow raised in mild confusion.

“Just Princess Aurelia being Princess Aurelia I suppose,” he explained simply.

Amber didn’t question it, suddenly making sense of it, the princess had a slightly strange personality all things considered. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before she finished. Minutes later knights escorted them off, and coincidentally, a person arrived with the gold sacks, handing them back to Zizel.

“There is about three-hundred coins extra,” he said, simply.

“Thank you,” the duke nodded.

And with that the person departed, and Amber gave the two a weird look. I suppose relegating work to others is perfectly acceptable. Finally, the princess finished talking with her personal, knight Charles, and turned to them. Or rather to Amber.

“I’m being informed that you, uh caused a public disturbance?”

She nodded slowly. “I did pour an acid potion on myself, yes.”

“Right…” Aurelia blinked. “Can you not do that? Do it in the forest or something.”

“I’ll take your request into consideration,” Amber said flatly.

Aurelia shook her head and just began to walk. “Let’s go then, I’m bored now⁠— dealing with official business is boring.”

“Agreed,” Zizel said.

Amber didn’t say anything, instead she just traveled the streets and took a look around the rather unassuming city. Aside from the fact that the destroyed plaza had garnered a lot of attention,

Though, while she toured around the town alone, she hadn’t stopped getting glances, which made her consider trying to dress in normal clothes or fancy ones⁠ to call less attention. But that was something to think about later in her opinion.

She briefly considered trying to do some work as an adventurer to kill the time, but ultimately decided against it.

It took a couple of minutes, and eventually they met up before leaving to go back to Liz’s place. Aurelia spoke with Zizel about random things ⁠— mainly how terrified the nobles looked ⁠— and Charles just sat back quietly.

And finally, that gave Amber the chance to look through the items she had gotten from the Arcane Council member.

The first one was a compass.

[Enchanted Grade ⁠— Compass of Tracking ⁠— High Quality

This is a modified compass that is enchanted with the enchantment of Mana Tracking, upon absorbing the mana of an entity, it will memorize its signature and continue to track them. This compass has a range of 5km.

This compass currently has a mana signature that it’s tracking.]

Five kilometers wasn’t a whole lot, it was like three or four miles, and when the distances between cities was dozens of times longer than that, it seemed not all that great. But Amber knew that this compass was the reason she had been found in the first place, after all, the compass arm was pointing right at her.

While she didn’t know when she would be using it, it was most definitely useful, even if it was to track someone who was tracking her.

After all, there is no way the Arcane Council won’t come after me eventually.

Amber closed the compass, and Aurelia looked over.

“Why do you suddenly have a compass?”

“It belonged to a member of the Arcane Council, the ones that almost killed me. I fled and killed them after.”

“Does my father know you’re being targeted by the Arcane Council?” she asked, mouth agape.

“Uh, not really? But like they weren’t tracking me by name but by mana signature, so it’s fine for now.”

The princess just stared in shock, evidently it was too much information to handle. But Amber tried to reassure her.

“Don’t worry, you can always tell them where I went off to if the kingdom is in danger or whatever,” she explained.

“Right… I’ll… speak with my father about this later I guess…”

Amber nodded, self-satisfied with what her dialogue had achieved. Zizel didn’t look that surprised, but he was still surprised, which confused her a bit⁠ considering she had told him a lot already. But she ignored it and moved on to look more into the ring.

It had quite a few potions, some which carried curses⁠— and unfortunately, she couldn’t absorb any of them into Cursewelder. But she saw the curse with lightning that the man had used, she also saw the Curse of the Abyss, and a curse that made the target more volatile? Those are the ones she noted, the rest were a lot more straightforward like making it hard to breathe for the target.

All in all, she had only about ten potions, but what she did find was a spare necklace, of the Arcane Council, she also found one of their cloaks, which was surprisingly⁠— enchanted. And it wasn’t bad either.

[Enchanted Grade ⁠— Cloak of the Twin Moons ⁠— Superb Quality

This cloak is made out of finely woven fire bird feathers, granting it lightness and immunity to fire, and its made by skilled craftsmen. The cloak bears the following enchantments.

Self-repair: The cloak will gradually repair damage done to it with ambient mana.

Toughness: This cloak has been magically improved to be three times more durable.

Presence Killer: This cloak makes you harder to notice by those below your level.]

It was in fact, really good. And considering it didn’t have anything that screamed Arcane Council she planned to use it from now on when traveling.

Amber smiled as she peered further into the ring, she quite enjoyed this because she felt like she was getting a bunch of things she never knew she needed. It was like Christmas. And fortunately, there was more stuff the member of the Arcane Council had such as documents⁠— she didn’t exactly plan to leaf through them just yet, but the idea excited her.

For now, she wanted a quick glance, so she took them out and⁠— they were empty. Completely. To her the paper looked used, but it was devoid of any markings, and she felt like it wasn’t an invisible ink situation or anything.

She shook her head and continued to look through the ring, oddly enough⁠— since it wasn’t hers, it felt like trying to guess what there was in it.

Amber found rations, water as well, she found camping equipment, she also found a staff to give to… someone? The previous fire-related staff felt better for Velda, and Liz’s was just overall better. This one enhanced electricity magic. Well, maybe she could give it to Asil⁠— probably better than what he had gotten from the Ofril mage.

And soon enough, after looking through other rather uninteresting things, such as mana potions health potions and even a type of gum that seemed to help with dissolving curses, she found one last object.

One that was pretty awesome. After all, it could interact Essence. Oh and it was cursed.

It was a ring that had both of the moons of Vir as its centerpiece.

[Enchanted Grade ⁠— Ring of the Twin Moons ⁠— Superb Quality

This ring is made out of precious mithril metal that bears the Curse of Binding, binding the wearer to it permanently, and its setstones bear the following enchantments.

Energy Reserve: The gemstone can be charged with any energy to be used for later.

Casting Amplifier: Once a month you can enhance the energy within the ring to make it more powerful for your next attack.

The ring must be worn in order for the enchantments to take place.]

The only reason Amber could guess the member of the Arcane Council wasn’t using it was due to its curse, and maybe their Cursebearer wasn’t as good or something so he couldn’t remove it⁠— but Amber didn’t care about that, no. Instead she focused on how stupidly good the ring was.

She had a hunch, a feeling that it could allow her to do two Primordial Blazing Bolts if she filled the energy reserve. Which was absolutely disgusting. Amber put it on and then⁠— didn’t do anything, too unsure if it would randomly begin shining upon it being injected with Essence.

It honestly looked like a piece of women’s jewelry more than anything, which made Amber happy. While she pretty much never went out of her way to look good, it didn’t exactly mean she did not appreciate pretty things. And the ring, of course, was pretty.

She got a jealous stare from Aurelia who frowned.

“Why would a mage even carry that? It can easily get damaged.”

Amber shrugged. “It’s cursed, luckily for me I am a Cursebearer so.”

And she took it off, storing it into her own personal ring. While she didn’t know about it getting damaged ⁠— considering both storage rings she wore looked pristine ⁠— it certainly looked like a fragile piece of fine jewelry, so she decided on only taking it out for using it.

It was way too good to not be careful with it.

Amber smiled and some hours later, they arrived at the Starkell manor.

* * *

Amber briefly caught up with Liz, getting nothing more than an ‘Are you even human?’ and a ‘No, Amber, you need help, that’s not normal’ all in all, it was a mundane interaction with Liz. And while she could have stayed around for longer, her entire being compelled her to sleep in a proper bedroom for once.

After all, she had been sleeping on her camping tent and her mattress, and when the refugees were around she just slept on the ground because she didn’t want others to begin pestering her about the mattress or anything⁠— it was just inviting trouble.

So, she headed to bed ⁠— not before handing the extra staff to Asil unprompted and getting a very confused thank you ⁠— and laying there, she raised her hand staring at the ceiling, and blue flames sprouted⁠, ones that carried curses as well as just pure firepower.

She could feel the inside of her chest steadily burning as well, and from all of that, a smile slipped onto her face.

While she most definitely wasn’t ready to go to Ill’hine yet, knowing that she was well on the path to it and had gotten past one of the biggest hurdles in this journey made her happy.

“It’s silly to think, but I could probably take over a city on Earth, huh?”

Of course, she couldn’t survive a nuclear bomb⁠, yet, but she felt like she had a chance at surviving a tank shell.

I really am not human anymore, am I? She asked herself before smiling. Well, that’s fine.

And shortly after, Amber fell asleep, happy with what she had become and what she had achieved.

* * *

That night, the Marchioness of Acris, Lady Annia, sent a letter to the underground organization she worked for. Detailing the battle had happened between the nobles and the recounting of Baron Renard, however, it was also filled with venom. And it was because she was due to be stripped of her title as a noble in a week.

All because the princess had been able to tell she had an inherent dislike for Amber⁠— impure intentions. And it was because of that commoner that she lost it all. And it was also the reason she wrote this letter.

Not to inform the Obsidian Rose of what happened, but rather to make a simple request, one that had thousands of gold attached to it.

Kill Amber.

And with members over level 200, it was only a matter of time before it happened. It was one of the biggest assassin organizations in the continent after all.

* * *

And that morning, Amber woke up to a figure inside her room. One that was holding a shining staff at the ready, creating a barrier that enveloped the entire room, trapping both of them inside.

It was William, and he had an awful frown present on his still bruised face.

Trouble…