In a room within the adventurers guild, the woman who examined Logan’s items sat with the guild master.
“An E rank with both Brain Overclock and Lightning Clad, are you sure? Is his mana’s pressure and aura actually E rank?” he asked.
“No sir, his ID clearly says that and it is official as well. This is his physical power that equals E rank, his mana is quite thin in fact, as if he just achieved F rank quantities. Even the lizard pet of his was no different. That said, the pressure was quite strong, he clearly has a strong development technique.” she said.
The man frowned, “Did you check his background? Every person with the Lightning Clad spell is being monitored.” he said.
“Yes, I got into contact with HQ to find all members related to him. It came back to these two names of his known family. He is adopted, as most young adults of Eshen are due to the rabid kidnapping from their neighbors that had caused a lot of casualties.” She said presenting the past and the present families.
He quickly flipped through both and nodded, “The pressure makes sense. Maxwell McEwans… the 12th Mercenary leader of Golden Lion. It was a big shock when he retired without training a replacement. Now I see that isn’t true. The fact that you said the kid is rather dumb and only has F rank mana means he isn’t his heir. It is likely the girl and after she is ready, he is likely to take her and get her to join.” he said.
“Should we be worried about this boy?” He asked.
“Naturally, the file clearly states his goal is to get his family back and he needs power. It wouldn’t be strange if he stole all those holy artifacts.” he said.
“I find that hard to believe though. He arrived bloodied after solo fighting Kumarot as his floor boss. If he was as fast and strong as implied, he shouldn’t have faced so much trouble.” she said.
“Yes, but he has been on and off the map for over a year and a half.” the guild master said.
“Would you like to ask directly? We can invite him into a room with a truth scanner. We can tell how far off from the truth it is.” She suggested.
The guild master though and nodded, “It is probably better to reduce at least by one, the number of suspects.” he said and agreed.
He ordered the room to be prepared and sent some guards to escort him.
***
Logan found himself in what can only be called an interrogation room but his eyes were half closed and the bags under his eyes were thick with sleep. His temperament could be easy to see after being woken with the banging and dragged here.
The woman that had seen him the day prior smiled weakly, “Sorry to drag you here… i had ordered men to find your location… not instantly bring you here.” She said.
“What is this about?” he said, stretching.
His bag and arms cracked as it released the pressures and he tried to wake up by channeling his mana faster.
“Well, there are a number of incidents that have happened over the last 2 years, a certain man has been going around all over stealing rare artifacts, specifically holy artifacts.” She explained.
“Those are the ones that religions use right.” Logan asked, rubbing his head.
At that moment, a maid walked in and put down some coffee but he didn’t take it. He didn’t want to be drugged and even pushed it away so that vapor didn’t bring anything into him.
“You are quite cautious.” She said.
“My fucking foster father trained me to be like this. What do you expect when you wake me up and drag me to a closed room in the middle of the night.” he said.
She couldn’t refute that and just took her cup.
“Anyways, do you know what holy artifacts are?” she asked.
“No, only that lots of royal families and religions have it. They help them use holy magic.” he said.
“They don’t help them, they allow them to use it.” the woman corrected. “Holy magic is inaccessible without holy artifacts or items blessed with the mana of an artifact.” She said.
“You mean like the ancient heroes' legend sword. The story constantly said that it loses holy power after killing the demon lord’s generals and had to be reforged each time with more holy material.” He said.
“Similar, yes. Artifacts are magical items blessed by celestial spirits. It doesn’t have to be a god, even angels work, what is important is that the item contains the original blessing and is capable of converting Light mana into holy mana. Over the last 2 years, someone has been going around stealing such artifacts and it just so happens that the culprit is a very adept user of the ability Lightning clad. Using this, he can achieve extreme speeds that not many can keep up with.” she said.
“Oh… that explains all this. It isn’t me though, before coming here, at least 90% of the time over the last year and a half I spent training to open my mana channels that hadn’t been developed. I just achieved F rank after arriving here and spending an extra 2 months.” he said.
“I’m asking because it could get very complicated, what is your objective here?” She asked.
“Naturally, to get stronger. From the mana quality, quantity and purity, the dungeon is extremely good at gathering mana, making it the perfect place to develop my mana. Also, I need to build up my experience at fighting, just fighting the floor boss left me bloody. My body and mana are still not equal ranks so I can't handle the fool weight of my own ability.” He said.
“Really?” She asked, surprised.
“Is it surprising? I am not sure how the spell version works but lightning clad fills every muscle and organ and supercharges them. You all have much more knowledge than I do on this and when i have to push myself to the limit, blood vessels rupture and it feels like my body starts to fail.” he said, shaking his head. “Although I healed during the fight, at least half the blood I had covering me yesterday was damage from my own skill.” He said.
The woman didn’t expect that he would be damaged by his own top speed.
“What is the longest stride at a safe speed that you can achieve?” She asked.
“In one burst? If it is the limit of safe running, I think i can get a good 50 meters if it is a straight clear stretch. If I push myself to the limit, i think i can get double that.” He said.
She nodded and looked at a wall and shook her head. “Yeah, it definitely can’t be you who stole the artifacts.” She said.
“Huh? Is it because of my stride?” He asked.
“Yes. The culprit is said to be able to achieve a stride of 500 meters without hitting a single object in front of him. He also doesn’t force himself meaning that isn’t even his limit so it is impossible for you to mimic that if that is your real stride. That said, we hope you can show us.” She said.
“Sure… if it means not having to be dragged around or have people spying on me behind my back.” He said.
The two walked out and he saw several people who followed until they descended into a huge open space under the guild.
“This is just a training field for stronger members who needed more space.” she said.
Logan nodded, “So you want me to test both limits?” He asked.
“Yes please.” She said.
He nodded and closed his eyes and channeled. Slowly his body glowed faintly and they felt the energy from his body until they noticed escaping sparks but that lasted a moment.
“Alright, this is my safe limit.” He said and positioned forward and put his all into a single step.
His body turned into a blur and moments later it stopped just short of 50 meters but he slid on the sand so he crossed what he had assumed was the full length.
“Just short.” He muttered and walked back.
“Do you want the extreme limit?” he asked.
“Yes please.” She replied for everyone.
This time, Logan concentrated and his mana released unreserved before mana began to gather and escape his body. He clenched his first and tried to assume control and went to a point that he knew he could run without losing control.
“Is this your peak?” the man at the center of the group asked.
“The peak without losing control.” Logan replied.
The man nodded understanding the difference.
Logan had to concentrate to move and stepped forward, he pushed down and lifted a cloud of dust as he burst forward and crossed the 50 meters and as he felt the speed drop, he pressed his leg forward and slid a good 10 meters.
That said, the G force was intense and after stopping, his body collapsed as he huffed. His body was covered in sweat from the impact and he was trying to control his mana and calm down his heart all at the same time.
The man appeared and his hand touched his back and almost instantly the chaotic energies calmed down.
“Alright, thanks for that, we cleared you up and made less work for ourselves.” He said.
Logan took a bit to gather his strength and stood up and looked at the length.
“85 meters, not 100 but still pretty good considering the further you go the harder it is to maintain speed.” the man said and walked off. Logan was still sweating and was very tired from exerting himself after the previous day and not fully recovering yet. The woman came over and gave him a high quality healing pill to help him recover.
“Your testimony and test will go to HQ and will clear your name from the suspect list.” She said.
“Yeah…” he muttered and looked around. “Before I go, are there any suggestions on how or when I should give the ogre horn to my battle pet?” he asked.
“No, you should, however, find a big clear space. Lizards are known to grow in size with the increase of each rank.” she said.
Logan was well aware but he was most curious about the change that Storm would undergo.
“Any dangers?” he asked.
“Just have it already channelling mana. When it is completely stuffed, it will finally leak once the horns form. It is possible it might evolve into a new breed so be aware. It also might not immediately be an E rank.” She said.
“I am aware.” he said.
With an escort, he was returned to the inn soon after and Storm was worried but after being reassured, he took a bath before they collapsed in bed. He even drank a mana regeneration pill to see if he can recover before morning.
In the morning he did what he was prepared to do.
He found the closest gate to the outside where he could freely enhance Storm.
When they cleared the walls, a large open piece of land with many docile dungeon monsters were moving around. For the most part, the zone pertaining to the city was extremely safe even with monsters, even if you approach them.
He found a relatively clear space Storm jumped down and expanded.
“Alright, we are going to do as we talked about. This is likely to be painful but if it works, it will be another big boost and might evolve you into a new breed.” He said.
“Perfect, master is the source of my power and I will help master!” Storm said before his body glowed and he transformed into his full 2 meter long lizard form. The crystal had reformed as a single crystal once more.
Logan removed the crystal from the bag and tossed it to Storm. With a snap, he chopped it instantly and swallowed it whole.
Then he closed his eyes and began to channel.
Instantly the connection between the two began to tremble as Storm felt a massive surge of mana. It instantly began to draw towards his mana channels but it was impure mana compared to the pure one he possessed.
The use of the horn was for a spontaneous growth so the sudden release of the mana was quite massive.
He began to feel like he would bloat and the mana wasn’t following orders. His own mana was being washed away despite the higher quality as all this was pretty impure and uncompressed.
All it had was immense quantity.
Only when the mana forced its way through his body back to the mana pool, he finally felt some sense and could gather some mana to start the proper training flow.
It was like trying to control a tsunami that constantly poured more water into a sewer.
That said, the cycling had a good effect to both draw in mana as well as half compress it. If Logan hadn’t told him not to compress it so that it forced into his body, he would have already started to reduce the pressure.
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As it continued, his body began to gather a lot of lightning around it as mana passed through the crystal.
It was releasing bolts and glowing brightly but as it slowly reached the peak, suddenly the peak of the crystal released two bolts right onto the head.
When it struck down on his own body, Logan worried until he saw several scales on his head crystalize.
“No way, crystal horns!” Logan exclaimed.
Instantly they started to react and the mana channels began to change as the back crystal continued to strike until it formed a new node that extended new mana channels into the forming crystal horns on his head created from his crystalizing scales.
It continued for five minutes until two small horns, the size of the top digit of his thumb was formed and it began to fill.
They glowed and formed electric arcs between them. Sadly there wasn’t much space unlike the ogre. It filled up and from the head down, mana began to bottle up in his mana channels. One by one, each limb filled up until it finally reached his tail and his body finally hit the limit.
Finally the horn in his stomach glowed and was fully absorbed and following it, the mana broke free of into his body and it instantly started to glow like his transformation magic.
Cracking and popping came from the glow as his body rapidly expanded by double its length and height.
Muscles were drenched in mana, his bones filled and his blood soaked.
The hissing turned into a low growl of pain and slowly the two horns expanded by double first before being the first to solidify.
Following that, crystal spikes formed on the neck and slowly went down the spine until it reached the crystal. A loud cracking came as both of them split down the middle allowing the spikes to continue to form all the way down to the tail, every one formed of green crystal.
The shape of the back crystals slowly changed and formed two fin like shapes with razor sharp edges. Lightning channeled through them in arcs.
Finally, the body formed and the scales that were previously green had turned purple. It was an interesting change as the green lightning and the natural purple lightning the breed possessed had swapped the colors. That said, Storm’s green lightning caused the natural purple he formed within to be even fiercer because his body naturally produced healing energy so he could contain more fierce power like a snake and it’s poison.
When he fully reformed, he reared up and roared, the lizard format of his body with the lowered hide leg was gone, it was not thick and strong and he no longer dragged himself like common lizards. He had a strong running figure unlike any of his old kind and it was clear as day that he had evolved.
When he finished forming, the crystal spikes and fins began to charge rapidly and he turned and opened his jaw.
An orb of purple destructive lightning formed before he shot out towards a rock and upon smashing, it exploded and struck everything within a five meter radius.
“That was a thunder ball!” Logan said, excited. This was another new ability alongside the defensive shocking skill he had when he attacked the goblins.
Finally he turned and bent over to rub against Logan. Although he still wasn’t rideable with only 4 meters of length, he was likely to achieve it if he could fully compress the mana into proper E rank mana. The thing he had now was back to unranked because it was impure and would have to spend a while to grind everything and fill his entire body with f rank and then E rank mana.
It was a step back but their power only walked forward.
Finally he activated his transformation and the change was equally as drastic.
Despite still the size of a boy, he now had crystal horns, spikes and back fins along his body and he clearly was much stronger.
“Good job. Although now you have a lot of work to do to grind all that down, at least we are in a place rich with mana.” he said.
“I will do what I can to help my master become strong.” he said. The childish voice contrasted strangely with his words but Logan didn’t mind and pat his head between the horns. Storm liked the feeling as they had become a little sensitive and the touch helped ease the itching.
Like that, Storm reached a similar platform to Logan himself and would need time for his mana to catch up to his body.
That said, he took Storm, who could only shrink to the size of a domestic cat now, to the adventures guild and spoke with someone skilled in identification magic to obtain a detailed analysis of Storm in case there are abilities he wasn’t aware of.
Identifiers of actual quality aren’t that easy to find but the guild trained an entire division for this.
The man spent close to an hour looking and writing in a note pad while his eyes and a pair of glasses he used shined brightly. When he was done, he handed the notebook to Logan.
“Such an honor to witness a new evolution to a breed of normally weak creatures with such isolated diets like lightning. Anyways, this Crystalback Lightning Lizard has become a Horned Crystalspine Crocodile.” He said.
“He turned into a swimmer?” he asked.
“No, when you gave him the ogre horn which produced his own unique horns, ancient genes were activated but not in their totality. These genes are connected to the same ancestor as common crocodiles, specifically the Crocodile Drake, famous in the Elrukia continent as land dragons. Put simply, it’s genes reverted to a state more suited similar to how monster bloodlines activate under stimulation. I am unsure if i obtained everything but i am sure i got the three innate skills it possessed.” He said.
“Three?” Logan exclaimed and quickly flipped through the book. The first skill is the one that attacks nearby enemies with bolts of lightning from his back spines, Static Arcs. The second one is Thunder orb and the final one is Storm calling. “Storm calling? Do you know anything about that?” Logan asked.
“Not in great detail but from the name it is likely an ability to produce an isolated storm cloud and recharge its energy or enhance the power of its abilities. You should go to the mage tower, they can better explain.” the identifier said.
Logan nodded and did indeed go check every spell. Storm calling was a field spell, it gathered clouds to generate lightning and could be controlled by Storm to strike down. That said, if done during a real storm, it gathered a lot of power near him but he wouldn’t have much control but it was perfect for him to draw in food.
After they fully identified everything, Logan decided that they should properly train a bit and adapt to the changes, specifically Storm should. He remained in the rented room while purifying his mana and absorbing more to fill the space while Logan learned the new innate skill, wind wings, and decided to go learn how to fly and see if he could make it combat worthy but failed hard despite his slowly growing affinity to it.
Still it was far from matching his lightning affinity. It was difficult to do complex maneuvers as the wings broke down from his lack of experience. He also felt like he actually grew wings which made him suspect that among the flow of mana, he might require to form a flow of mana similar to mana channels to support the stability.
The wings had next to no form and were like two cyclones on his back which lifted him into the air somehow. Even if he tried to envision it, the shape did not change. It was basically one more skill that needed the researched spell counterpart to explain the far harder to develop intricacies that he lacked knowledge of.
He could only shelf the idea until he gathered up money.
The final thing he did was locate the chest redeeming location. The place was quite interesting as it looked like a bank and many people walked through doing transactions with the gold bars.
Surprisingly, there were even people who traded gold bars for rusted keys truly shocking Logan and it made him realize the value of these chests. It wasn’t a random creation the dungeon did, it truly did the job to compress as much mana as possible. The gold would go to the monsters after this and was a cycle of consumption that favored all three sides.
Logan followed those who obtained keys and going through a door, he found many platforms where people would toss the key into a protected barrier. The light would blur their image as they took the items.
Logan knew he would need some help on this and looking around he found an employee.
“Excuse me.” he said.
“Do you need a platform, pick any and wait in the line.” She said.
“Right… the thing is…” Logan looked around a bit and reached into his magic bag and timidly pulled the key chain and just showed the connected part. She instantly saw the golden key and quickly pushed his hand down and waved for him to follow.
They walked through another door which had a private platform five times the size of the others.
“You can summon all four chests here but the gold one only spawns from this one. The summoning draws a lot of attention so all silver and gold keys are private.” She explained as simply as possible.
“So do i remove each key?” He asked.
“No, you toss them all, they will all appear together.” she said.
Understanding, he tossed it into the platform and instantly a shine shot up and engulfed it and blinded Logan. The amount of mana soared as it gathered until they heard for bangs from the light and it dulled. A screen formed around it and she gestured for him to retrieve it.
Even employees are prohibited from looking and they wear magic tools to prevent any sort of peeping or theft.
He passed the curtain smooth like a film wrapped him and it hardened to block anyone else from entering.
Inside he saw four chests, three were wooden with iron bindings and what seemed like rust while the one in the middle was really impressive. It was white with gold and extremely well decorated.
He went first to the normal ones and touched it. He felt it drain some mana but the lock clicked right after and he opened it.
Inside, he sighed as he found 20 gold bars and a silver ring plain silver ring. That said, he felt energy from it and put it on. It instantly spread that energy through his body and he suddenly felt stronger.
“This is an enchanted ring, I am not sure what grade but the feeling is pretty strong.” he muttered. He took it off because it felt strange to him instead of feeling good with the buff.
The next box he pulled a short straw. 20 gold plates and a normal book that seemed like some kind of story.
The third box was much better and he got a very intimidating sword. It looked like a classic sword you see villains using. It had lots of curves and edges along the blade and many pointy corners.
“How do you use this without injuring yourself?” He muttered while shaking his head and put it away. He checked the chest to make sure it wasn’t all and found a scale the size of his hand. He wasn’t sure what kind though but he assumed it was dragon’s since not many creatures had this size.
Finally it was the gold one left.
When he touched it, the locks clicked and suddenly the top burst and a pillar of light shout out but it wasn’t as glaring, it was almost like special effects if anything but Logan took a step back and was surprised as words formed.
“Second child of the Golden Lion, one who does not inherit, let me return to the world that which has been lost.”
The words burst after a moment and the light faded and in the air, floating over the chest, was an amazing sight because Logan possessed something similar. Two huge scrolls his own height and one in particular being very thick while the other was much thinner. That said, the outer coat was metallic and extremely decorated and impressive.
It spun lightly before the front stopped facing him and two names appeared.
The thick one went by the name ‘Golden Lion Mana Training’. The other one had a more impressive name, ‘Weapon art of the Golden Lion’.
He gulped and wondered what was going on but it was his reward it seemed. That said, tiny nodes of light gathered into a sheet of paper and he took that first and began to read it.
“The lost art of the golden lion, do not share it until you’re equal to your sister whom is trained by the golden lion to command the pride. Tis but a feeling but the future might require the rebirth of the Knights of the Golden Lion. The box below contains the most vital skill that the golden lion leader requires.”
Logan was still confused but the paper suddenly started to burn when he finished reading and vanished.
He looked up and grabbed the huge scrolls and quickly put them into the inventory box before looking down into the box.
There were three books and all of them released golden glows. He took all three and checked their names. They were ‘Golden Lion’s Eye of Truth (innate skill)’, ‘Golden Lion’s Eye of Truth (Spell), ‘Grimoire of Identification Magic (Beginner to Advanced level)’.
His lips dried when he saw the last one. A grimoire was a particularly special magic tome, in fact, it was even more valuable than gold rank because it not only infused the knowledge on the first use, upon using it, the book becomes accessible and contains a codex that can fill the book with certain level or type of information. It was a magic tome that could be read and wouldn’t burn.
He knew he had stumbled on something far beyond his level.
He was still extremely confused though however he began to think and frowned. The reason is because the letters said ‘second child who does not inherit’ that hit too close and he instantly thought about Maxwell. He didn’t know what this golden lion thing was but he was sure going to check it out. That said, something seemed to click as he looked at the eye magic skill.
“It can’t be?! Is it that skill he constantly uses to see a person’s talent?!” he exclaimed quietly.
He forced himself to calm down and put everything away and turned to leave but as he reached the film, he hit it face first.
“Ouch!” he exclaimed and held his nose.
“Customer, the treasure chests are part of the reward, they concentrate a lot of mana, even the rusted iron one only looks poor quality. The wood is high quality wood and the metal is magically infused. Every chest reacts only to your touch now and can be used for storage, especially the gold rank chest which is durable enough to take attacks of a C rank adventurer without denting.” the employee said.
“Seriously!” Logan exclaimed. He looked back in shock but returned and put them all in the inventory box and finally the curtain lifted letting him out.
The woman looked at him and smiled, “I congratulate sir for your rewards. If you ever want to purchase chest keys directly, the price for rusted iron is 1 gold bar, iron key is 20, silver is 100 and gold is 1000.”
“Seriously!?” he exclaimed. “That explains why people were only getting rusted iron.” He said.
“Yes, a lot of people hope for lucky chances, getting rusted iron basically acts like a legal gambling so it makes people excited. In some rare cases, very valuable items appear but it isn’t always the case.” She said.
He nodded and didn’t ask more as he left discreetly and headed to the inn.
He activated all the lock systems and grew very serious. Storm was still asleep but he pulled out all three scrolls. He put the two thickest standing on the side. There was a clear difference between them, the one he got from Maxwell was just exposed paper but the other had a full metal cover protecting it from damage and it wasn’t normal metal, it was a mana rich gold alloy.
He spread out the weapon art first, he spread and read through and frowned. He looked through and was amazed how there were entire styles specialized for each weapon in existence but what was really shocking is that entire sections were dedicated for the same skill but adapted to each weapon.
When he reached the swords he looked through all the types and eventually got to the Junpin swords and narrowed his eyes. Every form plus the mana flow chart was there but it expanded beyond his body.
“The forms and flow chart truly does feel ancient, I can see everything I learned from Maxwell in the skills but they are more refined but… it also feels weaker.” he muttered and finally looked at the segment that changed. “They used to expand the form into the weapon, they added that as part of their bodies releasing sword arts directly from the sword.” he muttered and grabbed Arashi.
He took the simplest downward slash and looked at the flow. He raised Arashi and his mana followed the normal flow he knew of this move, his movements were far more refined than what was there and he swung down.
It lifted some wind and hit the wall but the magic restricts negated them. Then he looked at the old form and it was much more… raw. He took the form present there and did the slash but he included Arashi. It was clear that every member used at least a magic sword and suddenly Arashi was cloaked in a golden light and he restrained his strength and swung lightly.
Still, the glow expanded and a strong golden slash spread from the blade.
He blinked in shock and knew he couldn’t test this here.
It had woken Storm who was on alert but he calmed him down and let him go back to training.
He sat down and closed his eyes and entered Arashi’s world.
He sat down as she appeared and they began to talk about the skill. A single use was very good to expand their horizon and she took the shape of the sword outside and they emulated the skillfully. The result was a forward slash of golden energy. It was true sword magic but it was really shocking because this skill was emulated for every weapon. As it was a sort of mental world, he actually formed a few weapons with his mind and tried what he saw and every attack released the same powerful attack. The only way he knew the channel path was because the scroll showed it though.
“I see… the weapon channels must have been a lost weapon skill. They only have the forms left but not the complete attack spell.” he muttered and looked at the name. The first form was called Golden Surge.
He felt it was fitting, the power was honestly immense but his eyes narrowed. He looked at the raw chart and closed his eyes as he took the refined form he learned but added the original weapon flow.
When he finally dropped it, to his shock the effect weakened significantly and the power was far more dispersed.
He opened his eyes and looked at it, “It must mean the connection between the flow is different, the sword is more brutal in this form while what i learned was much more refined. That is conflicting, I will probably need to train and refine the form to properly match modern forms.” he said.
This was something for years of training, he had learned basically all the weapon forms present but focused only on swords. He realized that Maxwell wanted them both to be part of whatever the golden lion was.
He decided to investigate that. However, he turned to the big scroll storing the weapon skill scroll, he opened both and instantly knew what this was.
“So this is a lost development technique.” he said and quickly rolled the scroll near the back. The last level was B rank from Maxwell’s scroll but the new one continued on with two levels higher. “Amazing… an S rank development technique. There might not even be more than 100 in the continent and most of them belong to royalty.” he said.
Sweat gathered in his head and wondered why this was in Helix and why he gave it to him. The message to not share was strange but he knew it was because all copies would be taken so that he didn’t develop higher than their leader.
He closed it up and stored them securely in the inventory. The old scroll naturally possessed differences but it was likely that it was improved but it was unknown if that was true. He would need to test the skill but first he needed to learn about the golden lion.