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Chapter 339: Magical Search
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Cheating!
This is cheating, I say!
“Your neural levels are rising.”
“Shut up.”
“Heartrate increasing at additional 40% output.”
“Cor….ta….na…!!”
“I’m just stating, boss.”
“Stating what?”
“That you love her simplicity.”
“…”
*****
“Ne, Siva-kun… I know it’s asking too much but I feel that the old man is not lying to us. I’ve been to the temples before with Alice and even if we do believe his words portraying the temples to have been corrupted, the people we’ve talked to back then were all kind people. I believe that what he was talking about is really for the sake of their Temples. I promise I won’t ask you anything else aside from this so can we just at least… help him balance the Temple’s organization? And besides that, for some reason, I feel pity for an old man like him to be the only person who deeply cared about the core teachings of his school.”
School? So she thinks that the Temples are some kind of Magic School, huh? Perhaps it’s because she heard him talk about her being his disciple.
As Siva tried to process it, Pistareen was showing a very warm smile. But although it can fool anyone else, especially Scion with her kindness and pure-heartedness, it cannot fool Siva in the slightest.
He trusted his instincts and albeit the fact that his senses were warning him Pistareen’s not planning anything to harm him or her, it was still a fact that he was planning something… and that’s what his spyder-senses were screaming at him for.
He glared at him, “You… what are you planning?”
Siva stood up and with it he released his battle intent as well as giving mental commands for the two BM-Puppets to warm their circuits.
“I may not have been old enough to be an expert in reading people but I’ve had my share of the ugliness of mortality. Greed is part of what makes a person a person. And although I can’t read your thoughts, I can still tell that you are planning on something with her and I can’t let that happen.”
Despite the threat and the obvious effects of his pressure on Pistareen’s physique —telling Siva that he was indeed just another ‘strong’ mortal he can swipe the floor here in Terroa— Pistareen stood on and did not release any intent on retaliating on Siva’s will to trash him.
He only met him eye to eye.
Siva wavered… he felt that perhaps he might be telling the truth.
—that these actions of his and this proposal were all for the sake of the Enchantment Temple, to the preservation of their ancient creed and mission.
Pistareen went on, “The fourth thing—” and Siva bellowed in a low voice of hostility.
“Are you still going to continue on it?”
“Rex! Let him continue.”
Siva ignored Scion and as he stood there, he bore his intent on Pistareen and activated [Killing Zone] to solely focus on him.
This time, there was a clear change on the man’s complexion. No one can endure the terrifying effects of the [Killing Zone] and no matter how strong you are; your defenses will fall by 70%.
And yet, despite it all, Pistareen looked at him eye to eye as he stood up and faced Siva without a hint of hesitation to his voice:
“—I want to recruit you as the official Magic Knights Division of the Enchantment Temple.”
“…”
“……”
“Huh?” “What?”
“I want to enlist you as The Temple’s own private protection force as the official Magic Knights.”
The pressure vanished, Siva’s mental circuits all cried for repairs. His mind blanked out and if he wasn’t wearing the mask and had no curse, his face would have spelled a silly person who had just seen Pikachu dancing MJ’s ‘Thriller’.
Pistareen’s fourth ‘thing’ was that… stunning of a proposition.
“You what?” Siva asked, just to be sure.
Pistareen had a look of resolve in his expression.
“If you agree for Scion to be my disciple, then you can don the disguise of the Magic Knight Division and receive the full support as well as protection of the Enchantment Temple.”
Siva was stumped in words again. But this time, he officially considered the proposal.
It was true that because of the nature of his goal and the fact that he might battle against all and almost every organization in Terroa, NPC or not, he would have to come into blows with the super powers in the planet sooner or later.
And besides that, Scion’s safety against Mefisto was also something he always takes into very deep consideration every now and then.
When the time comes that he cannot win, then he would have to run.
But no matter how fast he could run or how far he could go, there would always come the possibility that he would always be caught.
Thus, there was a need to hide at times.
But to set up a hideout that would literally carry out the meaning of a “hide out” is hard.
The Asgard is a base... it’s his HQ… but it is not in any sense a hide out. In fact, now that he thought about it, in his plan to go against everything in this planet, a hideout is indeed a very important asset.
Siva considered the proposal seriously. If he had the protection of the Enchantment Temple, then in the direst of situations, he could use that as his way to protect the assets of the Asgard —him and its members.
“If worse comes to worst, I can just abandon the island and just store Akhenaton and the Castle in my inventory as I flee. And for the members…”
He considered it…… very……….. seriously.
There was the choice of abandoning all of the members of The Company who had pledged their allegiance to him —rather, who had bowed their heads to him because they were forced to— if ever there is a time that a cunningly formidable enemy targets them. Mefisto, for example.
Dignity?
—I don’t need it.
Conscience?
—they all knew the mess they were getting when they joined my organization. I gave them their choice when I made them sign the slave contract.
—right….
—they knew the cost.
Having thought of these matters, Siva decided to accept the offer but not on Pistareen’s options; he would only agree with his own terms.
“Let me get this straight. Back in Alexandria, when I was attacked by everyone else, your High Mage is the first to order the attack on me just so he could show off (lies). I was only there as a customer but they attack me first so I had no choice but to defend myself. Truthfully, I came here with the intention of destroying your temple if you are not going to listen to me. But since you have spoken of matters with tactfulness and pride to your position, then I will not make this hard on you as well. I do consider allowing you to teach my… (ahem) wife… the true path of magic…. but I will not agree with that alone.”
Pistareen stared at him and this time, it was with a presence that befitted the true apex of the path of magic in the planet.
Siva could feel the pressure in those eyes and he was sure that between the two of them alone and without using any weapon, their abilities alone might make them stand toe to toe with each other.
“Like I said, Siva, you are going to be absorbed as the official Magic Knight Division… no, Corps, of the Temple. If you agree, I will not only make sure that your progress will be supported I’ll also make sure that your identity as Siva and a Magic Knight will be thoroughly separate. I understand that you might have a few biased impression on me for the letter I sent you, but that was in the pretext of my offer as protectors for Brea. Now, however, that is an obsolete offer. What I am offering you now is not only beneficial to her, but also beneficial to you and your organization.”
“I don’t care about my organization.” Siva’s direct and immediate reply made Pistareen blink.
“B-But you… I mean, aren’t you a member of that secretive organization called The Company?”
Siva paused, “I am.”
………and it was another lie…
There are only 31 people who knew the truth of The Company’s existence: Amanda, Alice, and then Kathleen Brew; then there’s Cassiopeia; 4 core members of the TOS Guild; Volt’s 4-man team; the 7 Acolytes; and the Guild Leaders and their trusted Vice-Leaders from the (1) Ebony Sanctuary, (2) Nine Dragons Gate, (3) Valkyries, (4) Night Locking Victory, (5) Big Bang Guild, and City Lord Rentaw and Debra (6) who came from the Hydra Society.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
—these 31 people.
—and all of them have signed up on a promise to Siva (or to Rex) that no one else would know of the truth in the existence of The Company.
—if they do, then not only would they be judged by their conscience, but they will have to face Siva’s wrath in real life.
—and by giving away a few clues about Marshal D’Catch’s real world identity, all the more these 31 people became aware of Siva’s reasons and the gravity of the secret that lies within The Company.
Considering all of these, Siva was positive about his ‘face’ when lying about The Company.
He can even dismiss anything else that relates to it to other people since he was the one who can control the flow of information.
“If you are, then you being official Magic Knights of the Enchantment Temple are going to be more beneficial to your organization as a whole, wouldn't it? I don’t understand your point.”
“Simple.” Siva raised a finger, “Just as you have your organization’s termites, I have a strong belief that within ours are termites that are more sinister and more cold-blooded than yours. This large difference between our organizations is the fact that while your termites are working for their own goals, they still do have the same heart to uphold their mission as part of the Enchantment Temple.”
Siva paused, “My organization, though, are made up of people with professional goals. They move solely for the sake of profit and will not care for the big picture of The Company as a whole since that is a problem for the higher-up... me... to think about and worry over.”
—in short, it was just as its organizational name implies: a company.
Pistareen stared intently at Siva, closing his eyes and nodding, “I see.”
It was indeed so.
Siva structured The Company as a big business enterprise; the rewards of a dragon blood bath and unique S-Ranked Items he was sure has no copies in Terroa, were all there to keep all of the members attracted to the prospective of being loyal to The Company.
Its only downside is when the offered reward is not exciting anymore then the members will start to think of selling company information outside for their own profit.
To counter this, Siva made sure that not only the rewards are very attractive, they are also limited and as well as a challenge (and with the challenge itself a reward) to obtain.
Dragon Blood that are still fresh despite being this long been away from a dragon aren’t —and will never be— offered anywhere else in the game.
Just thinking about how hard and time-consuming it is to increase a single stat point is enough to be a deterring factor for players to even do it.
Time is precious for players and four days’ time of training is enough for them to hunt at least one, if not two, A-Ranked Monsters for money and even resources; increasing their wealth; decreasing the time to spend in order to rank up; thus maximizing their monthly subscription fee to the game.
It was a system for Siva that can ensure loyalty to at least a certain degree.
But speaking of loyalty, these guys all came to him only because they were either forced by Siva in Warjillis, or have been forced by him back in the last moments of Kladis’ Division since they have been bored of Kladis’ one sided leadership.
At least with Siva, though the dangers are greater, the rewards, however, are all equally balanced to give everyone a fair chance of getting them.
The point-system Siva used for the rewards was there to make them stronger as well.
In the first place, he had announced it beforehand that The Company does not accept weaklings that will rely on group combat to rank up. And by him setting up the rule of “hunting monsters alone”, it is more akin to pushing them all to indeed become stronger —with his rewards just icing on the cake.
Just like how the Circle of Illuminati is made up of elites of the player circle, only those truly strong ones will remain standing in The Company.
—in the end, this is still a form of personal profit.
Although Siva forced them to join him in the first place, the relationship between him and his members were all mutually equal.
They hunt monsters for him and he gives them the most precious resource in Terroa as of now.
—and it was an exclusive offer to his members alone, bringing the members a sense of pride for being one of the smartest elites who decided to join The Company when it was offered.
Such is a practical implementation of the Law of Equivalent Exchange —or simply mutual benefit.
Thus, Siva was sure that when it comes to loyalty, those guys wouldn’t think twice on abandoning him when push comes to shove.
When they have leeched off enough, they would not think twice to abandon him. So he had to build back up plans upon contingency plans; plan to put another plan as preparations for an unexpected eventuality of a given scenario.
There were so many things to consider and this is what Siva was patiently planning against.
He stared straight into Pistareen.
“I don’t want to be bound by verbal promises. I am aware of the cruel world and so I propose that this entire exchange will be of mutual benefit to the two of us.”
Pistareen narrowed his eyes.
“State your terms.”
“20 Mega-Crates of Black Ironwood Alloy; 300 Megatons of Tesla Coil; 10 Billion NanoCubes; an entire team of Professional Ship Builders; Farm Equipments, personnel, and food processing facilities; the complete form of The Record; 900k each of Stun E-Grenades and Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades; and then a complete autonomy in regards to all of our official operations as the Magic Knights… and…”
Pistareen’s face was beet red as he stopped his heart from erupting in rage.
Forget about the rest, even just the 900k “each” of Stun E-Grenades and Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades aren’t something a single person can use for his own.
—why didn’t you just close it to 1M each?
Pistareen swallowed the words. He was aware of what happened to the Guard Captain’s Office and that’s why he understood what Draco felt right at this moment.
—just why does he need so much of these miscellaneous things? I can understand that he uses grenades a lot when he fights, but what about those other items he needed?
As much as he wanted to ask, he was stumped in words since he could see that Siva looked really desperate for them.
Beside, that’s not even all of it.
“And?” there was an [and] at the end of Siva’s sentencing and he felt that perhaps this is what Siva had really come here for.
Siva paused to gather courage, and said, “I want complete cooperation to search for a person.”
“…”
“……”
“Is that all?”
“That is all.”
Pistareen inhaled deep and exhaled loud. Very.
His heartrate was high. He was trying to calm his senses by practicing a breathing technique.
Just like how Blue Draco “bought” the face of the entire organization from Siva by bribing Siva of resources he needed, Pistareen was also feeling that agonizing sensation of being extorted face to face by Siva.
“You are asking too much. It’s as if I am giving you a dowry. Haaaah… and it’s even the full Record… aiiiiisssshh… this is just too hard to take… in fact even if you add it in as your ten years’ worth of advanced salary as a Magic Knight, your demand is still too much…”
Pistareen was just being honest. Black Ironwood Alloy alone was so rare and so expensive that a Mega-Crate is a Grand Knight’s annual net income already.
And Siva was requesting 20 of them!
If Pistareen could be informed of Siva’s extortion of Blue Draco, he might die of palpitation and then vomit blood right here and now.
Still, Siva’s next few words were his saving grace.
“Don’t worry, like I said, this is a full exchange so I am not only allowing her to be your disciple and to be the tall girl’s protector… I am also going to give you something that I am sure will become your Enchantment Temple’s biggest asset.”
As he spoke to here, Siva pulled out an item from his pockets… the «Rune» item «Land Sword of Monalisa» that he looted from Raven.
When Pistareen saw the item, he tilted his head as if to think he was being played with.
“That is?”
Siva didn’t answer and he handed it to Scion and told her to infuse it with her Mana.
BOOM!!
A large amount of force erupted in the room as it focused like a swirling visible tornado of very thin bluish white strands converging into the handle.
“Rune!” Pistareen yelled in excitement.
Magic circles appeared on Scion’s feet as she bid the handle’s tip into floor. She didn’t have to bend as the surging tornado of Mana and the magic circle on the floor connected and eventually made a “Land Sword” that measured 1.5m long. It was a very large sword and is very visually unsightly to look at when it was the delicate Scion holding it.
The phenomena ended and Scion grabbed the handle of the Land Sword, looking at it with a very curious gaze.
“It’s big but it’s to light.” She said in wonder.
“Give it to him.” Siva smiled and told her.
Scion walked over gave the sword to Pistareen and as soon as he held it, Pistareen felt the heavy weight as he used his Mana to circulate on his body just so he wouldn’t fall down.
“This is…… really……… heavy…………urgh…”
Siva took the sword and when he held it, there is neither weight nor any strain on his appearance.
Because he was the original owner and that he only allowed it to be wielded by Scion, Pistareen who was an ‘outsider’ received the ‘attribute attack’ of the Rune Weapon.
“Land Sword of Monalisa!” Pistareen, upon seeing it, exclaimed in delight. “This was a treasure found in Da Vinci’s Vault but was guarded by a horde of S-Ranked monsters so no one dared approach it.”
“There are people who had indeed succeeded in raiding the Vault of Da Vinci and got this item. If it is used by the owner, it can release an attack that weighed 100T but will only weigh 1kg to the owner of the artifact. It can also be used as a spell medium by you magicians and will amplify any magic that has the same element as its attribute.”
“Earth (Land) Element?”
“Yes.”
Pistareen stared at the sword on Siva’s hand. His eyes were glued to the treasure. It should be noted that Runes are very rare and even as much as information regarding them costs so much money and effort to obtain.
How grandly powerful the Enchantment Temple would be if they could have at least one Rune in their arsenal?
Alas, in the thousands of years of their existence, all Rune Treasures they had had either been lost or stolen through the passage of the years. This is also the reason why The Temple had fallen to this state where it is internally invaded by termites.
If the power it held wasn’t tainted by its weakness, then perhaps these termites wouldn’t have thought about planning anything in the first place.
As such, given the allure of a Rune Weapon, the Grand Elder Mage of the Enchantment Temple is salivating, inwardly, as of this moment.
“So? Wouldn’t this be a fine deal?”
Pistareen was pulled out of his stupor and he put his eyes intently at Siva. Why is this guy not being tempted by a Rune Item?
“I can’t help but wonder why you’re not interested in a Rune Weapon.”
“Because it doesn’t suit me.”
“Lies. Between the Godhammer and the Rune in your hands, the Rune will always be a lot more valuable because it can kill Demon Commanders in a single critical strike. Also, it will give its owner a certain amount of protection from the perverse effects of a Supreme Commander’s Darkness Aura.”
Siva had an idea as to what Pistareen was talking about. Supreme Demon Commander might not be at the level of Sefirah but it was a special kind of Demon Commander that had the ability to inflict status effects to its enemies just by being there.
In a way, it’s very much like how his [Killing Zone] works…... their aura alone is a very potent poison.
So far, he was yet to hear anyone who had taken down a Supreme Demon Commander but ordinary Demon Commanders… there are a few.
To kill them with one critical hit using a Rune Item is indeed recorded in some articles. But for Siva, since he cannot use Mana, he doesn’t have use for it...... and it might even be for a very long time.
“Like I said, it doesn’t suit me. Right now, all of my priorities lay on obtaining those items I told you… especially that search for a person.”
“Who? Is it a criminal?”
“No. A boy.”
“A boy?”
Pistareen was quite surprised while Scion sat back down beside Siva and held his hand.
She could feel through his gloves that Siva was really trembling. He was both anxious and hopeful.
Anxious that it might result into another zero result and hopeful that perhaps this might be it…!!
“How positive are you to be able to locate him?”
“Well, we have our own Intelligence Network so it might not be that hard searching for a boy. If you have his face or more preferably an item of his, then we can search for his aura more easily.”
Siva’s shoulders lowered, “I don’t have an item of him because we were separated but I have his face…”
Pistareen could feel that this was a matter that is more important to Siva than the items he needed and so he thought that perhaps this was also the reason why he was willing to part with it and strike this losing deal with him.
Still, despite it all, Pistareen sighed and spoke in full honesty.
“But… alright. I will be honest here, Siva. A Rune Item is indeed very tempting but the resources you are demanding from me… at most, I can only give you half of everything aside from the team of people that you need and the food and farming equipments and facilities. In the first place, how’re you even going to bring those equipment and the facilities with you?”
“Leave that matter to me. I can make do with half of the things I need. But regarding the search, if you are able to, let’s do it now.”
Pistareen closed his eyes.
The matter with the High Magistrate that died in Warjillis had been passed as a death full of vain and so the reason for Siva coming here was all but an excuse for a different matter.
“I can give you the items three days from now.”
“Alright.”
“Can I at least ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Who is this boy to you?”
Siva unconsciously squeezed on Scion’s hand as he looked straight at Pistareen who was intently looking at his faceless mask with solemnity.
“He is my brother.” he said.
Pistareen swallowed, “I see.”
If he agreed to this deal, then he would have to stake his all into accomplishing it.
“Can we do the search now?”
“Yes. We are going to perform magic to inform all of our contacts. You can expect the result for at least a week from now.”
Siva’s heart trembled. Compared to the reliability of Billion’s report back then, this might become a bit more helpful.
“Alright.” he said and gave him the piece of paper with Baron’s face in it.
.
.
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The search for Baron takes on a new turn!!!
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