“Haaaah, whatever. I’m glad to see you again after a while, Evan. You too, Elara. Anyway, I'm returning from duking it out with one of the heroes, who've oh-so-kindly informed me of a possible demon invasion.”
Several ears perked up at these words he casually threw out, with Evan even going so far as to violently stand up and question Noah.
“Duking it out?! I understand you've gotten stronger, but these heroes are several leagues above us. Escaping like you did at your first meeting makes sense, but they really aren't forces we can casually trade punches with or even squeeze information out of! So, how…?”
Noah could see that most of the table agreed with Evan’s outburst, and he himself could only awkwardly clarify.
“Um. I wouldn't say duking it out…I guess…and also not squeeze information out of… more like I tried my best and got several holes repeatedly seared into me…while he just kinda felt like talking…Man, he really liked talking. Matter of fact, the dipshit had the audacity to start the conversation and then cut me off when I tried to speak. Even when we met for the first time, I think he had spoken more. Also, crazy how all that blabbering from him, and he hadn't even revealed his name. I did some rough digging a few weeks ago, and it turns out no one really knows their name.”
“Ah, yes, the new heroes haven't really gone on parade, sir.”
“What? Why? We got forced onto that goofy open carriage in front of everyone, and they don't have to? They get to just refuse the public eye?”
“Even all of us archmages, along with the warriors of Eldoria together, wouldn't match up to even touch their feet in terms of strength. Forcing them to make a decision they aren't willing to oblige with will only lead to results none of us want. We could, of course, rope foreign powers in, but aside from Empress Seti, its still up in the air whether anyone would be strong enough to make a significant difference to the result.”
“Empress Seti? What’s so special about her?”
Noah had heard about how she had essentially taken charge of the monarchs while he was unconscious in front of Heavenly King Spatialon, but that was more of a feat of bravery and pride than strength, which Noah didn’t think she was particularly above the rest in. Archmage Seraphina, who had been speaking so far, was momentarily shocked into silence, and Archmage Draven took over.
“...At the young age of only two hundred, she is known to be the only person to have reached the end of power cultivation on this continent, as a Peak Archmage Sovereign. And its not just that. Most know that those who pursue power on this continent will either adopt the path of the warrior or archmage. As a warrior, one would seek to accelerate their mana circulation to the level of a sovereign, while building as many additional spirits as they were able to with their natural talent to maximize their mana. They would then incorporate a weapon into themselves as their spirit weapon, which they would then use to build more spirits that follow the shape of the weapon, allowing for a larger, more powerful mana aura every time they created another spirit with the help of the weapon.
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As a mage, one has the aptitude to not need to rely on weapons to build more spirits and would do so purely off of mana control as well as comprehension of spells. Once they feel that they have built enough spirits and that building any more would be too much of a hassle, the person will then focus entirely on the speed of mana circulation until they reach the level of sovereign.
Empress Seti, however, is much like you, sir, in that she has followed the ways of spirit splitting, one that drastically increases firepower while decreasing the complexity of spells. In the other continent, such mages are called Elementalists and are more common, even if probably none of them have reached the level of Empress Seti.”
“I see…by the way, you really like talking, don't you? Damn, man, I mean, even back when you were about to assassinate me, you went on this long monologue, and here, Seraphina just paused for a moment, and you cut in, like, damn. Didn't really need that dump of information we all already knew, but thanks for letting us know about Empress Seti in such detail. Would’ve been fine if you left it as ‘spirit splitter at peak archmage sovereign’, but still, you know, thanks for the lesson.”
Archmage Draven’s face steadily turned red in anger and embarrassment the more Noah spoke with a smirk. He then re-assumed a neutral expression once he was done teasing the stiff archmage.
“Alright, back to what we were talking about. Demon invasion. First, we need more information. Time, place, and strike force size. Hell, for all we know, that snake-ass m*****fucka could even be lying about the whole invasion, and there might be none in the first place. Cedric, it's time to shine. Where do you usually get information when you need it?”
Cedric leaned back in his chair, cast his gaze downward, and placed a hand on his chin in thought.
“My usual approach is to contact an information broker. I can liaise between the two of you, but I doubt they would have information about this sort of thing. Information brokers rely on public knowledge for a lot of what they know, and the obvious lack of a human presence in demon territory makes information gathering difficult when it comes to demons. You could also go to the information guild, but what they can offer when it comes to demons would still be limited. Do you know how this Hero obtained this information in the first place?”
“Hmm. I think he mentioned ‘Medeus’ at some point, as in the masculine version of the name ‘Medea’. I think this 'Medeus' guy is Greek. Oh, that's a country from our homeworld, by the way. So he's probably a hero, seeing as he's from earth, then?”
“We can't be sure. The name itself doesn't sound too foreign.”
Cedric and Noah both fell into a contemplative silence, which Archmage Lirael broke.
“Considering that a hero threw out this name, Medeus, and that whoever it is had the impossible ability to gather this highly controlled piece of information, one can reasonably assume this ‘Medeus' character to be a hero with a specialization in information gathering, can we not?”
Several heads nodded in agreement, along with Noah.
“Damn. You right, lady. I don't believe the locals without a skill would be able to match the capabilities of a hero when it comes to espionage. I guess I'll have to figure something out myself then, for espionage. So be it. Let's go straight to our next item on the agenda: Evan.”
“Hm? Me?”
“Yes, you, bitchass.”