The decision was not one I could make immediately or easily. First I would need some more information out of the two. And even before that I had to deal with the rest of these people.
“Are you now convinced that I can handle these fires of yours? Do not worry, I will be the only one going into the mountain. You all can stay outside.” I said, hoping to cure any doubts.
I could not truly venture into the mountains if the fire was as strong as they said, thankfully, I doubted that the Trial wanted the watch retrieved. No, it was the army that was waiting that I had business with.
“But your highness, what are we to do while you venture within? The king would have our heads if something were to happen to you. And why do you insist on continuing your brother’s mission? Wouldn’t it be better if we merely returned to the Kingdom proper?” A man, suddenly entering into the room said
I noted that he seemed quite fit, and if my senses were correct, was well into the Primal Grade even without him knowing about it. One thing I had noted was that a large number of people here were in the Gradeless Grade. Their Strength and other physical stats would increase but their Wisdom stats and intelligence stats were low. Aura Force was also a low stat.
A quirk of a variable system I suppose. An ignorant person would find it hard to rise in power because they would keep making unwise and unintelligent decisions. That would effectively keep them low graded.
Though older and wiser people would just make enough wise decisions that they would shoot right into Primal Grade. That was likely the case with old crutchy here.
“ Because if the King gave my brother a mission then there is a reason it was given. And unless we complete said mission, we shall never know that reason. Not only that, but the imperials are now aware of the artifact. Are you sure we should go back and risk the artifact falling into the hands of our sworn enemies?” I answered
“Perhaps, but I still think we are horribly unprepared to embark on such a journey. We have no food stores, no decent weapons, the men are still untrained in the art of battle. It would be foolish to embark on the mission now. Perhaps we can send for reinforcements? A Captained Company might be better suited to our mission.” The man said
While I had no idea what a captained Company was, It sounded impressive. Sadly I also knew that if there was an army waiting for us in the mountains, it would not wait for me to get reinforced. After all, a Trial needs to be difficult, and having a capable army would only tank the difficulty at this point.
“Well, Mr…” I said.
“You can just call me Old Regie” the man replied
“Very well, Old Reggie. You see, the artifact is now known to our enemies. That does not just mean that they will attack here. No, why would they waste their time on a decrepit useless army. They will simply circumvent us and go straight to the mountains. In fact they might have done so already. Do you still think waiting around for reinforcements is the right decision?” I said
“We can still send for reinforcements, your highness. And about the other things…” Old Reggie began before I interrupted him not wanting to continue this conversation more. Eventually someone would find a hole in my logic and I’d fail the Trial.
“We can send the call as soon as you select the reinforcements. Also, Congratulations You are now the QuarterMaster. I do not think we have one.” If the man was already doing the job, why not give him the job? After all, if Old Reggie here could share in my workload, then who was I to say no?
Now it was time to deal with the two Wild Cards. I turned to Arlun and said, “ Why don’t you and your retainer here come with me? I have set up the noble section of this camp already”
Arlun and the eunuch both seemed fairly irritated by the word noble. So, it was a noble that had caused their suffering huh?
I motioned the two of them to follow me as I made my way towards the noble section. A person unfamiliar with Algrean warfare might wonder why I was so focused on these two. To understand Algrean warfare, one needs only remember one thing.
In a battle between 500 Grade 1s and 50,000 Primal Grades, it is the Grade 1s that win.
It is to be noted however that this did not hold true everywhere. It was possible for a lower Grader with a better build to beat the one with the higher Grade. Such Graders were extremely rare however. After all, very few Algreans had builds. They as a society preferred to live life in freedom and builds were antithetical to that.
Making a build meant that you could only train in certain skills, train in a certain way. If one day you felt that you wanted to spend the next year painting the Southern Seas even though you were a Research Build then that would not be an option. Once you had chosen a build, you had to stick with it for life. For the long-lived Banmeru, that was torture.
These two here had potential though, they were the kind to choose builds. The eunuch especially. In fact, it was likely that he had a;ready taken up a build unknowingly, builds were technically just a bunch of stats, skills and other boosts that came together to build an ideal professional after all.
After walking for about five minutes in uncomfortable silence we finally arrived at the noble section. It was a very small section, consisting of only two tents, but it had plenty of space around it. Even the tents were grand, and made of gold.
I had at first been puzzled why a simple officer had golden tents, but now that I knew that said officer was a prince, it all made sense. How could a prince not sleep in a golden tent?
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I turned towards the two of them, gesturing to them to follow me inside the tent on the left.
Once we were inside the tent I said, “So Arlun, how long have you been hiding your magic?” I sat down on the table that was located in the extreme north of the tent-room. It wasn’t a very posh table, but it served its purpose. A chair would be needed though, the last one never existed and I did not have the mana to make one. I barely had the mana to float on the table after my stunt with the flame.
“I fear you are mistaken, your highness, I have not been hiding my magic. It is-” Arlun said, before I interrupted him
“Shut up, you and I both know that you awakened your magic long ago. I’d love to hear how, but this is not the time.” I said
Arlun’s face turned steely when he heard me, guess a small part of him had hoped that I would buy his lie. “What do you want from us? I would rather die than be your slave, and I will never ever allow myself to be experimented upon in any-” that was enough, the guy had just recovered from fatal-wait what?
Arlun had just recovered and was walking already? Wasn’t that supposed to take days? There was definitely something up. Either he had a different element, had some kind of boost, or had a title. There was no way a regular Biomancer could heal so easily.
Not only that, but his healing was very illogical. It was barely effective when he was unconscious, extremely effective when conscious. But the healing questionnaire shall have to wait till later, I had a few questions first.
“So tell me, which noble is it that you want to kill?” I asked
Name
Alforien Arlford
Gender
Male
Species
Banmeru
Age
7 months
Titles
Heir candidate to the Earl of Cristanfor, Noble of the Kingdom of Mistrane,Count of Launeior ,Transmigrator
Class
[The Known: The Final Step]
Skills
[Otherworldly mana manipulation] [ Force of Will] [Conversion] [Meditation]
Stats
Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]
112
Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]
161
Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]
102
Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]
113
Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]
133
Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]
138
Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]
134
Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]
119
Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]
124
Magic Affinities
Fire[One of the greatest sources of Light and Heat in the universe, you have Greater Affinity for Fire]
97.14%
Earth[Essential for life, earth is what renders things solid, you have a Greater affinity for Earth]
99.87%
Mind[The consciousness and its relation to reality, you have Lesser affinity for Mind]
17.35%
Chaos[Everything shall be anything but what it should be, no thing shall remain as it should, you have a Lesser affinity for Chaos]
19.76%
Grandmist[The base substance that all subatomic particles are made off, you have Lesser affinity for Grandmist]
27.39%
Space [The building block of dimensions, you have an Outrageous affinity for Space
199.998%
Time[A mysterious force, you have a Minor affinity for Time]
01.15%
Will [The force that propels you through life, you have Minor affinity for Will]
9.81%
Force[The building block of Kinetic interactions, you have Minor affinity for Force
9.81%