Leonidas made a decision.

‘I’ll need to calculate this carefully. I need to slow down the effects of the poison, but not enough that symptoms won’t appear. Allowing them to know that I’m on to them will be a detriment…’

Leonidas wasn’t an Alchemist, but he didn’t need to be in this situation. All he needed to do was buy up potions already made and available through Goddess Yves’ Exchange.

Now that he knew the concentration of Nocturnal Root Potion, he just needed to lower the dosage enough to suit his needs.

As for knowing exactly how much he would need, he luckily had the Knowledge Well to help him facilitate that.

‘I see, so I need to pay Blessing Units for this…’

Leonidas wasn’t too surprised, there was only so much free information the Knowledge Well could give him. The only reason he was able to learn about titanium without issue previously was because titanium had a non-Blessed form, something that couldn’t be said for a poison like this.

The Knowledge Well handed out foundational and lesser information for free. However, for higher-order pieces of information, he would need to either exchange new knowledge that the Well didn’t have, or he would need to pay.

Since deeper information about Nocturnal Root Potion was classified in material related to Level 1 Alchemists, it was beyond a paywall.

Leonidas had no intention of becoming an Alchemist as it was a Secondary Profession best suited to Healers. The good news, though, was that this sort of specific information was very cheap.

Eve hadn’t ended up needing the remaining Blessings Leonidas had, so he exchange a single Blessing Unit for in-depth information on Nocturnal Root and read to the very end.

Once he was finished, Leonidas’ gaze glowed. He had found an even better method to deal with all of this.

The world of potions and Alchemists was more fascinating than he had thought. Just a single Level 1 Blessing had so many potential variations and transpositions.

Instead of using a cleansing-type potion to deal with this poison, there was an even better, inexpensive option.

Nocturnal Root Potion, when combined with its plant’s leaves, lost its lethality and became a harmless tea that helped with sleep.

The name Nocturnal Root came from the Level 1 Blessed Nocturnal Sprout.

In nature, the Blessed Herb was fairly harmless. However, this was due to the balance of its roots and its leaves.

When the roots were separated from the leaves, the concentration of the Blessed Herb’s chemically active agent lost its counter, thus opening the gateway to lethality.

If Leonidas wanted to change this while also keeping the truth hidden, he just had to crush dried Nocturnal Leaves and sprinkle them into all of Violet Waters’ wells.

This process was easy and far less expensive than Leonidas’ earlier thoughts. Nocturnal Leaves were considered to be the waste products of Nocturnal Root Potions, so they were tossed aside without a care.

Leonidas could buy them without Blessing Units. Just a few silver coins were enough.

Now, the real question was how to use this matter to his benefit.

‘If I take this approach, the lethality of the potion will vanish and the fatigue symptoms will remain. But, after a few weeks to months without significant deaths, they’ll start realizing that something is wrong.

‘With this current concentration, they should be expecting the first deaths in about a week to a week and a half, then a large exodus in about two to three weeks.

‘They’ll start feeling that something is wrong by around the fourth to fifth week. So, I have about that long to take advantage of this.’

As Leonidas thought, he had already sprung into action. There was no better night than tonight.

Goddess Yves’ Exchange already sold Nocturnal Leaves in their crushed form as it was popular for night-brewed teas among the nobles.

In the end, it didn’t even take him an hour to finish. All the while, he only ran into a single drunk individual who gave him a wide berth.

With the nobles living in a completely separate part of town, Leonidas didn’t even need to worry about running into any of them. And, with his Mana Sense, he would be able to know if someone was observing him.

By the time he was finished, Leonidas had come to a conclusion.

There was only one method to deal with this.

First, he needed to grow more powerful.

Second, he needed Eve and Anabel to do the same.

Third, he needed to weaken the Lower Ogres.

And last, he needed to expose the Rardins and use this chance to uproot them all for good.

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In order to accomplish these things, scheming in the background wouldn’t work, at least not alone.

He needed to take the initiative without giving Deacon Ezor exactly what he wanted…

At least not yet.

“Let’s start with Greenwood Forest.”

That was the location where Leonidas had claimed his first Apostle kill. He might as well use it to claim another.

***

There was a rush of a thick earthen scent in the air. It must have rained the previous night, but now there were showers of crimson.

The damp soil beneath Leonidas’ foot didn’t dull his blades as he moved with a sharpness the Lower Ogres before him couldn’t match.

His twin sabers swung down at a precise angle, slicing a heavy club into three pieces, two of which fell to the ground with a dull.

The momentum of the Lower Ogre spun it around in a circle. It had been expecting impact, only for its weapon to be sliced through like butter.

Leonidas took a step forward, his saber sweeping toward the ogre’s spinning heel and severing its Achilles.

The Lower Ogre’s calf buckled and tensed, its leg losing its support.

As it tumbled, it fell right into Leonidas’ second blade. Its actions made it look like it had presented its neck to be lopped off its shoulders.

Leonidas’ tail slapped out behind him, parrying a heavy rod.

He pivoted, shifting his weight and spinning around just as the rod descended for a second time.

His gaze flashed with a focused light, Scholar’s Mind slowing everything in his sight down.

With the precision of a machine, his blade met the tip of the rod, splitting it in two like a piece of cheap wood, and continuing until even the ogre’s hand, forearm, and shoulder split just the same.

A horrid roar filled with pain and agony echoed across the forest canopy, but Leonidas only used this as an opportunity to pierce his blade into the ogre’s open mouth, a sharp, black tip exiting from the back of its skull a mere blink later.

Leonidas pulled his blade back, an arc of violet blood following his action.

With a swift motion, he sheathed one of his sabers, his irises flashing as a Magic Circle quickly formed like motes of blue light racing across a complex track.

‘Mana Hand.’

The third and final ogre found a powerful force crashing against its sternum, splitting its ribcage in two from its sides and throwing it back until it crashed against a thick tree trunk.

Before it could even sink down, Leonidas threw his remaining saber.

A line of blue and black cut through the air, whistling a fine tune just before it sunk into the tree down to its hilt and pinned an ogre’s corpse through its jaw and neck.

Leonidas exhaled a breath, his dull expression not changing.

Reaching out a hand, he cast Mana Hand again, causing his saber to tremble before streaking back into his palm to be sheathed as well.

‘Not good enough…’ Leonidas thought to himself.

Of these three, only the last was a Paladin. Though the group had originally been as many as seven, these were just the last three that managed to remain standing.

The battle was fine, but Leonidas was commenting on his use of Mana Hand.

Throwing a saber seemed ridiculous, but Leonidas knew that this would be the next stage. When he upgraded to chained sabers, this would become part of his battle style.

The sabers were meant to be controlled by his Mana Hand, which would help them not only to be swift, but also steady in the air.

However, it was difficult to control.

Mana Hand was the lowest level telekinetic-type Blessing a Mage could learn, and its design proved that.

Just like the name stated, Leonidas was essentially manifesting an invisible hand to act for him. But, as one might imagine, that wasn’t exactly the most efficient.

For one, the easiest method of using the hand was to have it in an open-palm configuration. In fact, this was the base state of the Magic Blessing.

An open palm was very inconvenient to use and any change to the configuration of the hand required very fine control of the spell that would increase its cast time by leaps and bounds with every shift.

If Leonidas wanted the hand to pinch, for example, his cast time would increase from the current less than one second time he had squeezed it down to, to over three seconds.

If he wanted the hand to grip something, which would be ideal for throwing a saber as it would almost be like him controlling it to pierce out over a large distance, the cast time would be over five seconds.

As for why the latter was more complex than the former, it would be because it required a change to all four fingers and a thumb, while the former only required two fingers and a thumb.

Leonidas’ method around this was to instead cast multiple smaller Mana Hands at once, applying equal pressure on all sides to mimic a change to the hand.

With this method, since he could cast them all simultaneously, it was much faster and better suited to battle.

Unfortunately, it also cost more Mana and had a high order of difficulty to use.

Leonidas had stepped into the second Proficient Level with Mana Hand, a step away from the third Mastery Level. This was already more than most could say for their Blessings, but he still felt that it wasn’t good enough.

Just then, his throw had been off by about an inch.

He had applied a slight bit more pressure on the right than he did on the left, causing it to deviate.

If the ogre’s neck and jaw weren’t so thick, his throw might not have been lethal.

This wouldn’t be a big deal in a one-on-one battle since such an injury, while not being immediately deathly, would easily put a person out of commission. However, in a battle where he was fighting multiple people at once, it would be a huge detriment.

What if the other side had a Healer?

If his first strike wasn’t lethal, then he might have to face the same ogre again, and maybe even a third time.

He would be forcing himself into a corner if he couldn’t be more precise.

Leonidas knew that he was pushing himself quite hard.

It had taken him six months to reach the fourth Oneness Level with a Level 1 Blessing like Mana Blade. Of course, most of that time was spent training his foundational twin saber techniques, reading to supplement his Intelligence, and writhing in pain on his bathroom floor, but these matters would be staples of his life for a long time to come.

He couldn’t just drop everything else and only focus on a single Blessing.

His body was still too weak. Even now, he was still far from unsealing his second heart.

His knowledge was still too lacking. The more he investigated this Deacon Ezor, the more he could feel the gap between their wisdom and wealth of information.

All the while, Mana Hand was a Level 3 Blessing while Mana Blade had only been a Level 1 Blessing. Their complexities couldn’t be compared.

There was another glaring problem that Leonidas was still avoiding…

The tome.

A large part of the reason Leonidas could break free of normal restraints and bring Mana Blade to such a high level was because of the tome’s guidance. It had such a vast amount of knowledge in its pages that Leonidas had rarely used the Knowledge Well in those months.

But now he was without it and his training felt far more aimless.

In truth, even the sand, oil and water training he had been doing to bring Mana Hand to this Level was found within the pages of the tome.

It honestly wasn’t just a feeling of loss that weighed Leonidas down.

He felt guilty.

He felt that he had let the spirit down.

That tome was the accumulated knowledge of the spirit’s lifetime, and he had entrusted it to Leonidas, all for him to lose it.

Leonidas took a deep breath, sinking into Scholar’s Mind to calm his heart.

That fear was always within him. That fear that he would once again become a cripple with nothing to his name.

He was constantly running, running from that man he used to be toward an idealized peak.

Leonidas knew why he was feeling this way.