CHAPTER 45: THE FIRST UPDATE?!

"What information?" Ramie asked.

"Well… few days ago, the artifacts of Neil, Reem, and all of the magicians in the compound received a surge of information, a one that was called patch 1.0! … Yea, don't give me that look. I assure you, I'm not joking here. Anyway, the surge of information contained missing parts of spells details, other general information, and about the respective path and class that every magician have. Apparently, and just like that morphing spell of yours, there are other magicians here in the compound that had spells with missing info. Some even had gotten only the spell name, with no mention of the spell's effect, magic energy cost, or anything else. Those magicians had to test their spells in practice to learn their effects."

"Evidently, this flow of new information provided some of the missing details to some spells, but not all of them…. Anyway, some of the magicians here said that the new information's title suggests that new knowledge might be transmitted in the future."

Hearing this, Ramie's eyes instantly lit up. The moment he considered the fact that new information might have been transmitted to his mind, a drift of fresh memories rushed to him… It was as if he had read book about these information not long ago, and the moment he thought about the book's title, the content soon drifted to him from the memory.

'So, even I got new information…' in a moment, a considerable load of memories flashed by Ramie's focus, and he comprehended them all, without any effort, as if he had already read and memorize them before.

Instantly, his morphing spell details were updated. The missing information that mentioned this spell and its effect appeared to Ramie.

'I wonder… if I had been aware of these changes at the time, would I still cast it…?'

Shaking this thought away, Ramie shifted his focus to the next part, the one that was regarding his bloodline.

< The subterranean ghost tree is a special type of beasts that belongs to the neutral alignment. This beast possesses two paths; the plant path, a sub-branch of the wood path, and the ghost path, a sub-branch of the soul path. >

< The plant path of the subterranean ghost tree granted it a powerful survivability that only few other entities could match since the ancient times. This beast is wildly known for being one of the hardest creatures to kill. Also, this beast is known to have an extreme vitality. >

< The ghost path … >

Seeing the information regarding the plant path, Ramie was overjoyed, as to him, the ability to survive was the most important thing. He knew that this bloodline would definitely increase his chances of surviving. However, and upon seeing that the ghost path general details were missing, he could only let out a sigh of disappointment.

'Maybe it's because the ghost path spells are still sealed….'

Even though the ghost path info's were still missing, but his evaluation of his bloodline increased yet again.

Moving to other parts, Ramie finally knew why he has gotten this particular type of artifact, and why it had to be the bloodline artifact that contained the subterranean ghost tree bloodline essence in particular.

Apparently, his innate spell that his artifact had yet to process – was a soul based spell!

Generally, the magician's path in magic is dependent on the type of innate spell that he has. And that was the main criteria that determine what type of artifact any magician gets. For instant, Neil had the fire manipulation innate spell, which is why he had gotten the elemental type artifact, the one that unlocks fire based spells for him.

Ramie on the other hand, had an innate spell that belonged to the soul path. Hence, and since there was no type of artifacts that was solely dedicated to the soul path, Ramie got the best next thing, a bloodline artifact that holds a type of bloodline belonging to a beast that can use ghost path spells, which was a sub-branch of the soul path.

This was the only reason why Ramie got this artifact. As for the plant path aspect of this bloodline, it was of no great use to Ramie on the long run. As to why, it was because Ramie had no aptitude to the plant path at all. Hence, when he uses the plant type spell in his artifact, he'll be able to only exert 50-80% of their full potential.

In the first place, the only reason why he was able to use the green vine spell was because of the bloodline. However, and even with that, Ramie was only able to apply less that 70% of the true power of the vines, and why he was only able to control two vines at a time, while according to the new information, it should have been at least four.

Of course, on the other hand, Ramie did have a soul based innate spell, even though it has yet to be processed by the artifact. However, still, this meant that when Ramie finally unlocks the ghost path spells, and due to it being a sub-branch of the soul path, he will theoretically be able to cast them in their full potential, plus a boost, giving the high compatibility of this path with his aptitude.

According to the new information, Ramie's artifact will unseal the ghost path spell the next time he upgrades it.

This made his blood boils at the prospect of advancing his artifact: 'According to the new information, my aptitude with the soul path means that I'm the most compatible with the ghost path aspect of this bloodline. This means that in the future, I should focus on unlocking the ghost path spells, at the expense of the plant path, as I can exert the most efficiency with them…"

Thinking of the matter of upgrading his artifact, Ramie recalled something, and asked Lance with anticipation: "Mr. Lance, have you gotten the gemstone?" he really wanted to advance his artifact the fastest possible, to increase his power.

In response, Lance's expression froze, and an expression of embarrassment clouded his face.

"Actually… regarding the matter… I-I…" he struggled for awhile, before forcing out few words: "Actually, the wind mage took it…!"

Having heard these words, Ramie's facial muscles twitched, violently, to the point of convulsing his face. However, and seeing the terrible expression on Lance, he suppressed his emotions, and did his best to comfort him.

This was truly not Lance's fault.

In the first place, only the magician received the information, through their artifacts. As for the warriors, they were as clueless as the rest of the people. Not only regarding the maters of warriors, magicians, and beasts, but they even had no idea about their own life energy.

Without a magician around to tell them these matters, they were completely oblivious to everything.

As for Lance not having any idea about the gemstones matter, it was naturally because that Ramie and the other two didn't discuss it around him. If fact, the three of them did not discuss much either, as these info's were already common sense to them. They only spoke of things that were related to their current situation.

After the confrontation, Ramie and Neil were unconscious, while Reem had just lost her father, and was still wallowing in her trauma. Hence, and given that Lance was clueless to the gemstone, the wind mage retrieve it after launching his second attack on them.

In short, the gemstone was gone because of the miscommunication between them.

'It seems that from now on, either I or Neil should explain some of the artifact knowledge to Lance, to avoid repeating this type of mistake again…'

After another while of discussion with Lance regarding the compound, Ramie understood the current situation.

Ramie also learned another deciding factor on why the compound group allowed them in.

Apparently, the two brothers that had ambushed them back then, had actually killed three magicians here in the compound. And even despite being surrounded, they still managed to escape safely.

Those two were simply way too adept at escaping, which wasn't much of a surprise. As one of them was rank-2 wind magician while the other had a rare graded artifact that granted him an invisibility spell.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

So, learning that this new group of refugee had actually killed one of the 'demonic' brothers, the compound leader allowed them in even despite the reluctance and objections of some of the inhabitants. After all, the two 'demonic' brothers were also outsiders. Hence, not many were excited to host more people from the outside.

…

After finishing the abnormally delicious meat stew, Ramie put on overly concealing clothes, which covered everything. As for his face, he put on a scarf.

His clothes were the same ones he has gotten in the city, except for the hoodie, which was new. Lance told him that it was Reem who had washed his clothes and got this new hoodie from the inhabitants for him.

"It's almost 8:00 am. The hunting expedition is about to set off. So, we should get going now." Lance said to Ramie.

Every day, a hunting expedition sets off to bring food for the compound. And one of the conditions for them to stay here was that they took part in this expedition.

Walking out of the house, Lance led Ramie to a certain direction.

After walking for a short distance, the two finally walked into inhabited streets.

Everyone they saw on the way greeted Lance enthusiastically, as though they were greeting their work place superior.

As for the reason, it was because he was a warrior!

Lance had told Ramie had warriors get a very special treatment around here, in all aspects. He told him with an amused smile, that so far, two families actually tried to marry their daughters to him, as a way to form connection with a strong individual.

"Someone your age shouldn't make such unbelievable lies." Ramie rolled his eyes at such boastful words.

"Hehahaha… actually, I'm not lying."

"Oh…! Seriously…?" Ramie was now taken a bit. "…How old were they?"

"Late twenties, and mid thirties, based on the pictures they sent me." Lance answered, with smile.

Now, Ramie was really stunned.

"Hahahahah!" In response, Lance exploded laughing. "Actually, I was only kidding when I said it happened to me. But seriously speaking, these kinds of things had indeed happened here. I wasn't joking about this part. But it happened for the younger warriors, not the old ones me. These people here… seem to be willing to do anything to form a connection with the families that produced warriors or magicians. However, considering the situation, I really can't blame them."

Ramie turned silent at these words.

The original inhabitants in the city numbered around 400. However, after few beasts' attacks, that number dwindled down to 300, which showed how tragic these encounters were.

Among the deceased, the overwhelming majority were obviously among the families that did not produce a warrior or a magician.

Although all of the inhabitants were clustered in a single area, still, when flock of beasts attack, the warrior and magician wouldn't be able to fight with their all, if they thought that their families might be in risk, which would lead to a poor performance at best case or the complete crumple of the battle formation in worst cases.

So, to avoid such undesirable outcome, the compound leader had the families and the relatives of the warriors and magicians to live in the center of the cluster, in houses that were fortified with metallic rails and sand bags. Also, when a large flock of beasts attacks, everyone was required to fight. The only exception for that were the families of the warriors and magicians.

The favoritism did not stop there, but was even extended to the distributed amounts of water, food, and other resources, with the warriors and magicians families receiving extra portions.

For these reasons, the families that did not produce warriors or magicians were very desperate to form a connection with either the warriors, magicians, or their respective families. It was really a matter of life and death for them.

It wasn't for the other privileges as much as being allowed to move to the central, safe area.

Anyway, genes seemed to play a role on the matter, as the 19 warriors, and 5 magicians had actually came from only an 11 family.

From the 19 warriors, only 3 were females, while 2 of the 5 magicians were females, with the rest being males. The three magicians that were killed at the hand of the demonic brothers were actually a family of father, mother and a daughter.

In any case, the treatment that the families of warriors and magicians received made it so that others were willing to do anything to form any type of connection with these powerful individual.

It wasn't only through marriage, but some even wanted these families to adopt their children. After all, the savage attacks of beasts made it crystal clear that a mere knife or a machete was tragically insufficient for the families to protect their children or even themselves through these dark times. It was in the nature of people to want the best for their children.

Anyway, as Ramie followed Lance, he could see how respectful the people acted toward Lance. It could be even said that they were acting excessively respectful, to the point of humbling themselves.

As for Ramie, they were acting cautiously toward him, with many even casting fearful looks at him and taking the initiative to distance themselves away from him.

Of course, Ramie did not blame them for it. In fact, these kinds of reactions were still less severe than he had expected.

Walking for a while, the two finally reached the entrance of the compound.

The compound was surrounded with a three meter tall wall, and it had two entrances. One entrance was blocked with three flipped over trucks, and a long hill of stacked blocks, to prevent anything from getting into the compound. As for the other entrance, it was sealed by wooden wall that was composed of two rows of thick tree trunks fixed together to form a three meters tall barrier that was used to block the entrance. Then, two trucks were placed behind it to reinforce it. This entrance was the only way in and out of the compound.

For the entrance to be opened, the two trucks had to move away, and the wooded barrier had to be pulled to the sides by the trucks.

This barrier was made after the catastrophe, by cutting down some trees and fixing them into a double-layered makeshift gate to seal off the entrance.

As Ramie followed Lance, he saw two men, each get in one of the two vehicles that were being used to support the wooden barrier. Then, the two trucks were driven back. Afterward, he saw few people tie few ropes at the far side of the barrier to the trucks and then pull the barrier to the side, to make a path to the outside.

"We'll be using those trucks for the hunt." Lance said to Ramie as he pointed at another three trucks that were stopping in a row to the side.

Walking toward these trucks, where few people were standing, Lance waved Ramie to wait, while he went to inform the compound leader that Ramie had woke up, and that he's here to do his part.

Ramie saw Lance walk toward a certain man that was standing to the side, overseeing everything.

As those people saw him and Lance, all of them casted a variant looks at him. After all, with his hoodie and the concealed face, it wasn't hard to figure out that he was the suspicious magician that was the central topic of many discussions for the past week.

Few, casted him curious looks, while the majority threw him cautious, alert, fearful, and some even had a dark expressions as they glared at him.

The main problem why those people did not trust him was because no magician was able to get any reading of his stats! And although this particularity might mean that Ramie simply had a high rarity grade artifact. Another possibility was that he might be a beasts disguising as human, or at least that how these people thought.

Anyway, this made the people here very suspicious of him.

Facing that kind of pressure, Ramie actually felt relieved in his heart.

Although he wasn't someone who is used to such intensive, focused glares… however, considering the horrifying scenarios he had imagined when others sees his appearance, this reaction of these people was rather light.

To him, as long as others don't attack him on sight, it was acceptable. After all, this compound was to him a mere stop in his way, regardless of how long he stays her. To him, the destination was the capital. So he did not really need the acceptance of these people.

As long as they allow him to stay here, do not attack him, and leave him to his business, it was fine with him.

Ramie stood waiting not very far from the group, so, he was able to sense their auras.

He sensed 15 aura of life energy radiating from 15 individuals. As for the magic aura, he sensed only 3.

Scanning the warriors, a multitude of warrior's stats popped up to him.

4%, 9%, 12%, 18%, 20%, 31%, 45%, 60%, 86%…

'Some of them are actually stronger than Lance…!' Ramie thought to himself.

Then, Ramie threw a scrutinizing look at the man that Lance was talking with. Unsurprisingly, that man was radiating the strongest aura that Ramie had felt form any human so far, much stronger than the aura of the bald man back in the bakery store.

Lv.2 Warrior

Life energy ignition: 2%

This man's aura was actually close to the wicked dog beast aura. Ramie felt pressurized even though he was standing a distance away from him.

That man's aura gave off much purer and denser feeling than Lance's aura. It also felt more oppressive and heavier. It made Ramie feel that if this man wanted him dead, no one here would be able to save him.

The difference between the life energy of different levels of warriors was both qualitative and quantitative.

According to the knowledge from the artifact, rank-2 magicians had a force field as a distinctive feature of the second rank. As for the Lv.2 warriors, their life energy undergoes a tremendous change upon breaking through to the second level.

That change generated an unbreakable gap between Lv.1 warriors and Lv.2 warriors.

The density of Lv.2 warrior's life energy was much thicker and purer than Lv.1 warrior, which made it so that even if several Lv.1 warriors with life energy ignition of 99% were to fight against a single Lv.2 warrior with life energy ignition of 1%, they would still be unable to beat him. As the boost that life energy of the second level gives to the physical abilities is way higher than the first level. Also, the defense of the second level life energy is much superior to the defensive effect of the first level.

The Lv.2 warrior that Lance was talking to appeared to be in his mid 40s. He was a short man with dignified complexion. His posture was straight. His features were ordinary, with his long mustache being the only notable thing about his face. There was unconcealed sharpness emitting from his narrow eyes.

Over all, he looked imposing, but not dangerous, even despite his radiating strength.

According to Lance, he was Gregory, the compound leader that allowed them in. However, no one in the compound dared to call him with his name, but with titles such as boss or leader.

As Lance spoke with him, the compound leader looked over at Ramie. And the moment his gaze landed on him, Ramie felt an indescribably pressure assaulted over at him.

Ramie was now rally stunned. This pressure was intense to the point that made him felt as though a tangible weight was pressing on him.

'So this is the might of Lv.2 warriors…!'

The pressure lasted for few seconds before it vanished. Lance then turned at waved at Ramie to join them.

Waking over, and then standing beside Lance, Ramie spoke directly: "Thanks for letting us in!"

"No problem!" the man replied indifferently.

"Can you show me your eyes?" The compound leader said without any change in his expression.

Ramie was taken by the question. But he recovered in a moment; they had already seen his appearance and eyes. So, seeing them again was nothing now.

As such, he pulled down the scarf that covered his face, and pulled up the hood a bit, revealing his frightening, inhuman eyes.

The compound leader looked directly at his eye for a while, without even blinking. Then opening his mouth, he asked: "Are you a beast?"

Lance's expression changed immediately, he wanted to say something. However, before he manages to explain, Ramie answered without a single fluctuation in his tone.

"No!"

"Do you have any malicious intent against us?"

"No!" Ramie answered firmly, again.

Lance's eyes darted between the two, nervously, as if wanting to say something.

Actually, when the compound leader asked him to reveal his eyes, Ramie could feel an intense sense of alarm in the leader's intent. And when he looked at his eyes directly, and asked him the two questions, Ramie could feel that this man was merely on alert against him, without any malicious or a killing intent.

Ramie immediately knew that this man was testing him. As, when he answered his first question, denying that he was a beast, he felt the intensity of this man's intent drops a bit, which confirmed that this man was not targeting him out of a bad intention, but was more like taking care of his own people. So, Ramie complied and answered truthfully. After all, he really had no bad intention toward these people.

Then, when he answered the second question, he felt the man's intent relaxes completely, which made him very confused. He had no idea on how did this man knew that he was answering truthfully.

'Was it hunch? Experience in dealing with people, maybe?'

Ramie had no idea on why did this man believed him in the first place.

"Good! As long as you don't do anything wrong, or hurt anyone, you can stay here for the short run. Also, hence forth, you're required to take part in the hunting expeditions, as per the schedule. Mr. Lance, I leave guiding him to you!" The compound leader said to Ramie, before addressing Lance.

Just like that, the first exchange between Gregory and Ramie was over.

On the side, lance let heaved a sigh of relief.

After awhile, Ramie, Lance, 15 warrior, and three magicians got into the three trucks, and after all of the preparation was done, the three trucks moved out for the hunting mission. The wooden barrier was pulled from the other side to seal off the entrance after them. As for the rest of the warriors and magicians, they were left to defend the compound in case of beasts' attacks.

At the cargo bed, in the back of the truck, Ramie sat with Lance, along with other six warriors.

In an extremely awkward scene, all of the eyes were glaring hard at Ramie.

"Why do I feel like I'm naked or something!" Ramie said to lance in loud voice, in attempt to joke, to lighten the mood.

However, none of them laughed, and instead, they glared at him even harder.

…