“…Taking your eyes off of your enemy in a battle is not good manners, kid,” said the man clad in a bluish grey robe, bringing Alnea’s attention to himself. “One day, it might even lead to your death.”
“It cannot be helped,” Alnea said, shrugging his shoulders to express his helplessness. Although Vestia had asked him to be more respectful of other Wanderers, and try not to humiliate them, that was only in the case if they respected him as well. Besides, he had heard what Vestia had said before her battle. And it was not just her. Most of the Wanderers, if not all, when coming to the stage, would try to rattle their opponents with their words. So, he was not trying to humiliate the man in front of him. He was just following traditions.
“The other fight was much more interesting. And it is not as if you could have done anything to me anyway.”
“…Arrogant, as the rumours say.”
“Did the rumours not say how I took down all my opponents? Or are you confident enough to take on my sword?”
“…I will not give you the chance—
“You can start when you want.”
The man tensed the moment he heard the guard’s words, and shifted his left feet back by a step, urging his Aspects to gather around his legs. At the same time, he also began chanting, preparing to release his Arcanas. A mix of an Arcanist and a Warrior then, Alnea noted. Focussing on the path of Warrior, and supplementing it with the path of Arcanist, he added, as he saw how the man had no intentions of creating more distance between them. Judging from how he had put himself on his backfoot though, he did not seem to be too confident in himself.
Or maybe the man was just waiting to release his Arcana. Maybe that was his fighting style… Stereotyping his enemies could be dangerous. Underestimating them could be even more dangerous. Even fatal in some cases. A lesson that he had learned through personal experiences. Regardless, Alnea was not going to go easy on his enemy. And he was not in the mood to waste time either.
Cecilia and Vestia had already dragged out their fights as much as possible. With their opponents drained, and defenceless, if they still continued to toy with them, then they would end up offending the clans behind those Wanderers too. One Lotus clan was enough for them to deal with at the moment. So, they could only end their battles earlier than they had planned. And though Yuri was still dragging out her fight, from how tired and frustrated her opponent looked, her battle was not going to last long either. But their plan…
Suppressing his errant thoughts back into the depths of his Heart, Alnea wrapped his legs in silverish blue and golden lights of his Aspects, and used their prowess to push himself towards the grey robed man. Literally. Almost like the Black Stream that the man fighting Vestia had released, the silverish blue and golden lights had gathered at the sole of his feet, and blasted against the floor the stage, pushing him towards his opponent.
Unlike the Black Stream though, the silverish blue and golden lights had been released more in a form of small bursts. An application of the ‘Bursting Steps’, a Lowest Grade Martial Style. One of the best Lowest Grade Martial Styles of its kind. The Martial Style was so effective, that just in terms of increasing his speed, it even be compared to some Low Grade Martial Styles.
Unfortunately, the ‘Bursting Step Style’ had far too many side effects. Not only did it require its users to have a body strong enough to bear the strain brought about by the Aspects blasting against his feet, the amount of Spirit Power it consumed could be compared to some of the weaker High Grade Martial Styles. Not to mention the damage it wrought on its users. With such glaring defects, the Martial Style could only be categorised as a Lowest Grade Martial Style.
Alnea, of course, had better Martial Styles at his disposal. Let alone Low Grade Martial Styles, he even had more than a dozen Intermediate Grade Martial Styles to increase his speed. Like the ‘Sky Streaming Style’. In terms of speed, no Martial Style he had could compare with the ‘Sky Streaming Style’. But that was also one of the reasons he could not display such Martial Styles in front of other Wanderers.
Just imagining the Lotus clan seeing him ‘Stream’ through the air of Arena was enough to give him a headache. If the Lotus clan was to learn that he could use such an amazing Martial Style, would they be able to sit still? Maybe, within the city, they would restrain themselves to its rules. But outside of the city, within the lands of the Black Desert, who could tell what kind of traps they would prepare for him?
In comparison, though ‘Bursting Step Style’ was fast enough to make his enemies way of him, its defects were also glaring enough to relieve them a little. Besides, the concept of an Intermediate Stage False Wanderer using Lowest Grade Martial Styles was different from an Intermediate Stage False Wanderer using Intermediate Grade Martial Styles. But that was only for Peak Stage False Wanderers.
For Advanced Stage False Wanderers, even when he used just ‘Bursting Steps’, Alnea was still fast enough for them to barely react to his attacks. For Intermediate Stage False Wanderers, even those at the verge of advancing to the Advanced Stage, like the grey robed man, he was so fast that let alone casting his Arcana, the man could not even react. At one moment, he was in the midst of releasing his Arcana, and the other moment, he saw the blood red light of the Arena lighting up, and covering him in its blanket, saving his life, and spelling the end of the fight.
Moments later, when the man finally registered what had happened, he felt a burning sensation in his chest and throat. Buckling from pain coursing suddenly surging through his veins, the man knelt down on the ground, and coughed some blood, staring at the kid and his blood soaked sword in a daze.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Sometimes, rumours are less scary than reality,” Alnea said to the man, shaking his sword to flick away the along its edge, before putting it back into its sheath. “Next time we meet, I hope you will not step back before we even begin fighting.”
“You…”
“…Was that not friendly enough?” Alnea mumbled, looking at the dazed and frightened man in confusion, before shaking his head. “Forget it. I still have other things to do.”
“Your Blood Card,” the guard said, arriving next to Alnea with a small black box in his hands. A portable black box. One day, he would surely find out how the boxes work. But that day was far in the future. At the moment, he had other things to do. Handing his Blood Card to the guard, he glanced around the stages next to him, and found the guards urging the girls to get off the stage. Thankfully, he was not too late. Nodding at each other, Alnea and the girls all faced different directions of the Arena, and cupped their mouths, before shouting at the same time.
“Friends of the Lost City. You must know about us already. And if you do not know, then let us introduce ourselves once again.”
“We are the ones whom you have been talking about recently. The kids who broke records of the Warrior Trials one after another. We even created two unbreakable records.”
“Or at least the three beside me did. As for me, you know me too. A descendant of the Erwein Forest. Though I may not have created unbreakable records, or broken as many records as my friends, I have shown enough potential to be recognized to have one of the strongest potentials in the city.”
“We may not be the strongest False Wanderers in the city at the moment, but with our potential, it will not take us long to become one of the strongest Wanderers in the city.”
“And today, the four of us have come together to form our own team.”
“Star Seekers.”
“Wanderers who chase after the ‘Stars’, ‘Seeking’ the ones that belongs to them.”
“We will surely go to the inner city in the near future.”
“You should all know that we have enough potential to do so.”
“But we are Wanderers.”
“And since the Age of Gods, Wanderers have always moved together, helping each other on their paths.”
“So why should the path of entering the inner city be any different?”
“Like we said, we are ‘Star Seekers’.”
“And we will be glad to welcome those like us.”
“Those who are seeking their own ‘Stars’.”
“To join us on our path.”
“Friends of the Lost City.”
“On this day.”
“We, ‘Star Seekers’…”
“…Hereby declare…”
“…That we are actively seeking out Wanderers to join our team.”
“For the next seven days.”
“Every day, from one hour before dawn to one hour after dawn.”
“We will be waiting for you in front of the Sixth Blood Hall.”
“If you want to be one of us.”
“If you want to chase your ‘Star’.”
“Then meet us in front of the Sixth Blood Hall.”
“Remember, we will be recruiting only three to six people.”
“So, do not be late.”
“Or the ‘Star Seekers’ would not have any fate with you.”
Alnea was already feeling his cheeks burn when he was halfway into their speech. Especially when he looked at the weird eyes of the Wanderers looking at him and the girls. They had even stopped cheering for more fights, and blood. After all, these Wanderers had come to the Arena seeking excitement. And what was happening in front of them was exciting enough to make forget the bloody fights for a while.
For the guards though, Alnea and the girls were just creating nuisance. The fact that the guards had not stopped them from completing their speech was already enough to show how tolerant they were. Something that Vestia had expected. But from the annoyed faces of the guards, they knew that they should extend their stay on the stage any longer. Taking their Blood Cards back from the guards, all four of them quickly jumped onto their smaller platforms and gathered in a corner of the Arena.
“…This is so embarrassing,” Cecilia mumbled, trying to ignore the Wanderers cheering for them. Some of them had even begun chanting ‘Star Seekers’ instead of demanding more blood. And the more that they chanted ‘Star Seekers’, the more embarrassed everyone became. Even Vestia was finding it hard to keep her blood from flowing to her ears, and face.
“…Look at the bright side. Everything is over. Now we can go back to our mansion and forget that this every happened.”
“…I don’t think that these Wanderers would let us forget anything,” Alnea mumbled. “But you are right. We should indeed go back home. I still have not checked what kind of Martial Styles the Lost City has.”
“Oh? Are you ready to exchange your Martial Style Tokens?”
“We might face the counterattack of the Lotus clan any time,” Yuri said. “And we also have to prepare for the Black Desert Trials. I have heard that we might have to deal with other Wanderers in the Trials. And by deal, I mean we might have to fight against their ambush, and traps… With all these dangers looming upon us, keeping those tokens with us would make sense.”
“…The things you exchange with Tokens can indeed increase your strength.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“…I would suggest that you exchange for a couple of Martial Styles which suit you. If need be, you can even exchange for a couple of previous resources to increase your strength in a short amount of time. But do not exchange all of your tokens. Keep a few of them. They might come handy in the future.”
“…The Black Desert Trial—
“Is still some time away. Not only do we have to find a few companions, but we also have to get familiar with each other. After all, the Black Desert is a very dangerous place. There have been cases, where even some Mystic Wanderers have died in the desert. If we are not careful, then we will not even have the chance to face the traps and ambush of other Wanderers. Just the desert itself will be enough to deal with us.”
“…Do you have some kind of information about the Tokens?”
“…I may have heard a thing or two. But that is not something that we should discuss so openly.”
“…Let us go—
“Where are you going, coward?”