The training facility was filled with maids. One group was focusing on physical training while the other had Johan testing out their abilities. His plan was to create little groups for the gate raid which was in a week.
From what he was told by Bahamut, there were areas allocated to specific monsters. They would then drop or hide items for stat enhancement. For instance if one would want items with a focus on water attribute enhancements then they would go for monsters like nymphs or sea turtles. For earth attributes they were golem hunts.
Depending on the Rank of the gate, one would need longer to clear it. For instance a Rank D gate would require six hours to finish it completely but a Rank B gate almost needed a weeks worth of time.
The structure of a gate had the resemblance of a country. If one went east they would encounter different monsters than going to the west. Just like going to the forest would lead to land based monsters but going to the sea would lead to sea monsters.
THIS IS GREAT FOR THE MAIDS AS THEY WOULD HAVE MONSTERS TO FIGHT WHICH HELP THEM GROW THEIR ATTRIBUTES. ONE MORE THING. YOUR ABILITY LIGHT ABSORBTION ENHANCES OTHER PEOPLES ABILITIES AS WELL. SO IF YOU USE THIS ON YOUR MAIDS THEY WILL RANK UP AT AN INSANE RATE. NOT ONLY THAT BUT THEIR REWARDS WILL MULTIPLY AS WELL.
'Wait. That's actually insane. This way they will Rank up way quicker.'
The maid he was currently training was Amy. She had normal stats but her choice of weapon was very interesting. It was a slingshot. Not a regular one though. It had stones with Aether as the attribute. This would allow the user to implement their own element on it. Her attribute was Earth and that would split the stone up into smaller parts. They would then spread like a shotgun shot.
"Amy, you will go with the Earth squad. You're only two anyways so make sure to use the weapon carefully. I don't want anything to happen to you guys."
"Yes, Lord Johan."
He went through all of the maids and then told them to go home. He trained for the rest of the day with Bahamut.
His plan for the gate was simple. First he would equip himself with space items and a couple of food rations. One of the most important things he would take with him were Mana potions. They could be easily purchased at the academy shop. Other then that he bought himself a map of the gate he chose with Bahamut.
The girls had their teams decided already. Most of them would only go for smaller monsters whereas Johan himself would challenge his skills with more formidable enemies. Finishing the gate was a must. If one managed to go through the entire gate, they would receive additional rewards and a chance to fight an extra boss. That one dropped something called 'Soul Cleanse'. It was similar to 'Core Cleanse' but for the soul. The main reason one would use this was to get a higher Rank potential.
The twist with the boss was that it was only beatable with large groups of people or somebody incredibly strong. Such as Bahamut. That was one of the main reasons he was so hyped about his first gate.
He also learned a couple more skills. One of them was Light arrow. It was a way to utilize Light and combine it with Mana. He could make a thousand times more than only with Mana. The problem with this combination was that he could only produce small weapons. Even normal Mana arrows were usually bigger. That's why it was only an second option.
Eventually the day came to an end. Johan was completely exhausted and the only thing he could think about was food and a massage.
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...
"Huch! Woah, you're still as agile as ever, Master."
"You thought just because I'm getting older it means that my body is breaking? Fool. Take this!"
Patrick Zweihansen jumped up and dashed into Thimauess mid air. By a hairs width, he escaped the attack. While doing that, Thimaeuss slashed his master in his side with a flat palm. Patrick used his own flat palm to deflect the attack and land smoothly on the ground.
The fight was between two individuals who were deemed best in combat.
"Why are you trying to hiude it?"
"Hmm? What are you talking about old man? Stop trying to distr-"
boom
The old man used a needle to stab the patriarch. It penetrated him immediately as if he didn't notice it was even there.
"You idiot. The uninjured you would've easily detected this kind of amateurish attack. Just spill the beans. This old man doesn't have much time left."
He looked at him from the corner of his eyes.
"Hah! It seems like I really can't hide anything from you. Well, then let's just talk about what happened."
He told Patrick everything about the Lyras conflict. It happened for reasons even unknown to him. Most people said that it was because of disputes between high ranking clans and families. That was a cliché answer anybody could give, though.
The main reason he could think of was that some power hungry individuals decided to use conflict as a means to make profit. Through causing death and destruction they could make Ranker's throughout the region more on edge. Then they would launch individual attacks like they did on the von Parseval family. Or at least that's what is known about the event that occurred.
"...Well, that does sound like a problem. Sadly I cannot do much for you other than wish you the best of luck. A destroyed Aether crystal is something that can only difficultly be restored."
Thimauess looked down. He knew that his master couldn't have done much from the beginning. He also knew that he would recognize his sudden drop in Rank. The reason why he came here was more for his own entertainment. From the beginning on he knew what had to be done but as the patriarch there weren't many people who could give him goof advice. That's why his old master came in his mind.
"Thank you, Master. I'll be going then. There are still preparations to be made."
"...Be careful."
...
Heavy snow was pouring onto the mountains, when a group half elves walked towards the sea. It was frozen now but just a few hours ago the sun was shining.
'Weather manipulation.'
One of the half elves, Candriss, was thinking of a way to go through the unbearable cold without passing out. His comrades were already on the brink of collapsing. The place where they originally were from had much different weather conditions. A lot of forest and greenery were part of that world.
"Brothers, don't give up. Soon we will witness glory. the snow can't come down forever."
Their morale had collapsed a while ago when one of them tripped over a stone which was hidden under the snow. It now was thicker than the entire leg.
"Yes...Yessir."
"Good. In five minutes we will eat the rest of the rations."
What they didn't knew, was that on one of the hills, a girl with long blonde hair was looking at them with murder in her eyes. Not only was she prepared for this but she also was aware of how the main troupe would react. The sub group that was now almost frozen to the bone, had been sent over here to gather information about a specific girl with blonde hair and a giant snake.
Hannah von Parseval was in the midst of hunting down the very people who dared to kill her little brother. In fact they were underlings of the man who did it. She wasn't strong enough to do it on her own but also not stupid enough to do nothing. So the first thing she did was infiltrate the main group. They had gotten orders from above to go to the place she was last sighted. There they would split up a couple of the troupes and go look for her or even some information they could find.
Since she noticed them early on, her first instinct was to kill them then and there but on second thought she decided to slow them down and make them talk. Currently she only had so much support. Her parents were to important for her to make them a part of this and her little brother was just learning about this world.
beep beep
"Hey, how is it over there?"
"Well,... it's looking a little dry to be honest. Almost, like they are purposefully avoiding this place."
Hannah raised her eyebrows.
'Wait what if they already know?'
"Ahahahahahaha, good. That's even better. Tell everybody to be alert. They will come for us very soon. We will proceed with Plan B in the second phase. For now, lay low."
...