Two days have passed during which life has become quite peaceful. No one leaves for hunting, and they enter the city only in larger groups as we wait for the consequences of destroying the leadership of one of the 5 big guilds of Virelia.
Yup, Myrra did promise to deal with the consequences, but I'll believe that when I see it.
Meanwhile, I spend some time trying to get into the chest, yet unsuccessfully. I use the underground area that the house has, which is shielded. It's quite large and durable, so I even use some stronger attacks, yet the chest resists.
I don't sense anything from it; there's no keyhole, and it still looks like black wood. Even Lily, with her terrifying skill, is unable to do anything. She tries to boost it by using [Sacrifice], and her entire arm disappears while she reduces the area of the skill and makes it stronger at a smaller point.
She doesn't even blink as her arm is used to boost the skill and only says that it will grow back and that she was able to gain a level in the skill.
As I've said and as I will repeat until Biscuit takes over the earth as the first and strongest animal overlord: No one from Group 4 is normal. Not a single soul.
I, Nathaniel Gwyn, am the most normal here.
Another thing I do is work on coordinates with Sophie. Down in the tunnels under the old capital, I gained some experience and learned a thing or two, so there is progress. Sophie, bored because she can't hunt, also spends plenty of time working with me.
I can smell it; just a few weeks and I will be rich! A lot of shards rich.
During the past two days, I also tested the Mana Core Sphere, and I was right: it works like [Resonance] and it scales with how much mana I use to activate the item. When I use a lot of it, the effect becomes terrifying.
With my skill, I currently can't cover that large an area, and I can't activate it in one push that would cover a huge area. The item doesn't have such limitations; I can send a huge chunk of my mana into it and activate it.
Obviously, I didn't test it properly. I have a feeling that if I use enough mana, I should be able to cover the area of the entire city.
Damn, what is it, a mana variant of EMP?
To balance it out and not make the item too powerful, the effect is a bit weaker than my [Resonance] when it comes to single target raw power and using the same amount of mana. The efficiency isn't nearly as good.
Then there's the fact that it leaves a lingering disruptive effect on the target, and that's something that I really like and the main reason why I'm messing with the item. It's an effect I want to learn to duplicate.
I could probably get it from a skill upgrade, but [Resonance] is one of the skills that I want to master on my own, as I consider it one of my strongest ones.
So that's the Mana Core Sphere, and I also have the Ethercrystal Sword. For someone else, it would be an amazing item, but I'm terrible when it comes to using weapons like swords or actually any other weapon. I never had the opportunity to learn, and I could see the difference in skill when I fought with someone at least a bit skilled. Where they used technique, I relied on my aggressive attacks and the power of my body strengthened with mana.
Now that I think about it, it might be possible to hire someone in Virelia to teach me at least the basics so I should do that.
I reach out and pull the sword out of its sheath, revealing a beautiful transparent white blade that seems to be made from crystal. It looks delicate, yet I tested it, and it's extremely durable.
The description says, Forged from the elusive Ethercrystal, this transparent blade can absorb ambient mana from its surroundings. The sword channels the absorbed mana to bolster the user's physical strength momentarily.
And it does just that. The blade absorbs ambient mana; it does so even now, but the effect is weak as there isn't much mana. However, during the fight under the old capital, I saw it absorb plenty of my mana, turning the blade into a blue crystal-like material and boosting the physical stats of its user.
And that is something I want. Ever since I saw Lissandra absorbing ambient mana and using it during the end of the second floor, I wanted to learn that, and the sword in my hands might give me some hints I need to do so.
Holding the sword in my hand, I wave it around, watching the light reflect on it. The sword doesn't look too overdecorated. It's pretty, yet deadly-looking. I quite like it.
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From testing, I learned that it can absorb even the mana contained in things like Isabella's fire, and when hitting Maya's [Armament] and feeling the effect of its strengthening, I think I can say that it's probably the best item out of the epic items we got, just looking at how efficiently it strengthens my body with stolen mana.
And I didn't even test it at its fullest power when there's plenty of mana around to absorb.
I stand up from my favorite spot, a huge armchair in my room that offers a nice view of the city behind the window. I put the Mana Core Sphere into one of my pockets, and grab the sword, which is now in its sheath.
With a sigh, I walk onto the balcony, and when I look down, there's Myrra, behind the wall of our garden, waving at me. As always, her bodyguard is with her, just hidden really well. Thankfully, he isn't using any invisibility skill but is hiding in the shadows or something.
Invisibility skills should be illegal and monsters using them should be all annihilated. Should be and will be. By me!
I poke at Sophie's web.
(What?) Sophie soon sounds in my head.
(I will be going out for a while, Myrra is here. You can tell the others. And no, I don't know when I will be back. Oh, and I left a new version of the coordinates on my table, so check them while I'm gone.) I tell her the moment she sets the links between us.
(Will do, good luck.) With her message, our communication ends.
I jump from the balcony and boost myself with kinetic energy, then absorb it as I land next to the tall, white-haired lynthari with a scar across her face.
“So elegant,” her smile shows her sharp canines, and her golden eyes seem to pause at the pocket where I put the Mana Core Sphere. She also examines the sword I hold in my left hand.
“It looks like the rewards were quite generous, feral one,” with that, she starts walking, and I join her, walking by her side while her bodyguard tracks us.
“I can't complain,” I shrug my shoulders.
In silence, we continue to walk for a while, and from the corner of my eyes, I observe Myrra. She doesn't seem to be in a bad mood or anything, and her tail moves in a way that also confirms that. Once in a while, her cat-like ears perk up when she hears something interesting, but the tail is something that fascinates me more. It's slightly fluffy but not overly so, and it seems to be well-taken care of—healthy-looking with a nice shine to it.
It's the same color as her ears, a nice shade of gray that makes a nice contrast with her hair. The tail sways from side to side in many different ways, showing her mood. Yet it's not too much, just like her personality; it's controlled and calm.
“Would you like to touch it?” Myrra asks, her golden eyes glowing with amusement as she catches me looking.
“Yes,” I say shamelessly.
I'm not even lying. The same way I'm booping Biscuit's nose, I want to touch her tail and even pull on it, just to annoy her.
My answer seems to surprise her greatly, probably expecting me to get all nervous and apologize. After freezing for a bit, her tail starts twitching from side to side, showing her amusement.
“This is why you are so fun, feral one,” she leans a bit closer, her eyes looking dangerous for a moment. As always, she decides to ignore my name and just continues to call me "feral one."
Myrra then doesn't otherwise react to my answer to her offer, and we enter an estate with a big manor-like building at the end of a pathway that is on both sides surrounded by beautiful, well-taken-care-of trees.
Slowly, we walk through the pathway until we reach the manor-like building. The closer we get, the more details I notice.
Broken doors, shattered windows, cracked walls, deep gouges in the ground, destroyed trees. There's even an entire part of the house that's missing, looking as if there was an explosion.
We enter through the door, and there are corpses of men and women on the ground, blood everywhere. The inside of the manor is also destroyed, burned, and with small craters everywhere.
“This is the guild house of Serpent's Eye, feral one. Can you guess what happened?”
I don't even have to think for long. “Most likely their enemies took revenge after finding out the guild master and elites of the guild died,” I answer her.
“Close, this happened as well, but do you know what's funny? The fights started the moment the guild learned about the death of Elydor. Guild members fought each other to get the treasures the guild master locked away. Killing people they knew for years, just for a few more mana stones or an item or two,” Myrra still looks amused.
She pokes one of the broken chairs with her feet, “Only after they were done looting did the enemies come, and more fights started. There was this one human I really liked, arrogant, prideful, and with powerful skills. He was one of the first to start looting, and he killed the man he'd worked with for five years. There was no hesitation at all,” her expression is difficult to read as she says, “He got all the best things, he fought bravely, but in the end, he lost. He begged, he cried, and he tried to negotiate. But nothing helped, and he died just like that.”
The tall lynthari with white hair looks around as if searching for the right words, then just sighs, shaking her head.
She continues, “In the end, he was just a fake. Someone pretending to be something he's not. So tell me, feral one. Is your behavior just a mask you show, and when things become hard, will you cry and ask for mercy?”
“There's only one way to find out,” I answer her.
Her eyes examine me for a bit longer, and she nods in the end. “Yes, there's only one way to find out,” she agrees.
Then she decides to change the subject and drops a bomb on me, “But now to the reason we came here, allow me to officially congratulate Angry Kittens for becoming one of the 5 big guilds of Virelia and replacing Serpent's Eye in their place.”
Huh. What?