Chapter 0117

Cardis knew Tempest would chose the second option. He wouldn’t have chosen her to be his Successor otherwise.

Tempest wasn’t the only one in self-denial. Cardis can deceive himself as well. Tempest’s position as his Successor was already decided when they first met. Their spirits wouldn’t allow them any other choice. Cardis chose to ignore the fact that Tempest was chosen by his spirits as his Successor. Tempest didn’t realize she never had a choice in the matter in the first place. She thought she chose Cardis to be her teacher when she was expertly led by the spirits.

It was a serious case of coincidence for Cardis to be in the right place at the right time and for Tempest to desperately need a strong backer, so she can redeem her sisters.

Not!

Cardis was already heading towards Tempest at the insistent urging of his spirits.

The legendary mage will never acknowledge that he can still be manipulated by his spirits. He thought he broke free of their control years ago.

Let’s leave the two pharaohs in their kingdom along the Nile.

“How much money do you need and how are you going to earn it?” Cardis asked the leading questions.

“I don’t know the exact amount, but more the better. In regards to money or wealth, more is always better. As to how I am going to earn it, I’m going to kill magical beasts.” Tempest knew she didn't have any skills to make money. She isn’t an unscrupulous merchant like Base Avon-Ying who can wheel and deal and take advantage of every opportunity he sees.

As an aside, please send prayers to the group Aria Se Jivock sent with the unscrupulous merchant and the unlucky mother and child who ran into them. It has been less than a month and that group has become callous, scheming, two faced foxes. Emery even tried to assassinate Base Avon-Ying a couple of times and they are Life Companions! How much effort Emery place into the assassination attempt is another story. The important part is she did try to kill the bastard.

Now, back to the money grubbing Tempest.

The red mage thought of selling her charms but she didn’t know the channels to sell her charms and how much profit she can make. She is on a tight time schedule.

Tempest did have some experience killing magical beast and selling them. Practically every city has a transaction center to process all aspect of magical beast killing, from issuing the kill order to accepting the magical beast and processing the remains. From what she has experienced so far, killing magical beasts is the fastest method in making money.

One has to risk their life for the reward but no pain no gain.

“Tempest, killing magical beasts isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially for mages. Not only do you have to be on guard from magical beasts, you have guard against your own group members. I can already tell you’re going to be scammed out of your hard earned money by your so-called group members.”

Cardis has a point.

“I intend to kill the magic beast solo. More money for me and I don’t have to face human treachery.”

“Tempest, you haven’t realized it haven’t you?” Cardis really wanted to knock some sense into his Successor but he had to stay his hand. If he knocks her around too much, she’d become stupider than she is now. What’s he going to do then? If he knocks her around too much, she’d become stupider than she is now.

“Realize what?”

“Mages rarely if ever travel alone.” Cardis smack Tempest in the back of the head. She’s already stupid. A few knocks in the head won’t make a difference.

Tempest complained while rubbing her head, “There already a comedy duo name this same routine. Let’s not have a repeat. I don’t want the Elders to think we are copying them.”

“Have you paid attention to a word I’ve said?"

“Yes, yes. Mages don’t travel alone.” Her short-term memory isn’t bad. She can remember the comment Cardis made a few seconds ago. The issue is the importance she placed on it.

Tempest understood the concept behind Cardis word.

Mages are the high-powered range attackers. The trade off for their high attack power and range is their horrible close combat skills and their squishiness. Mages use all their spells to attack from range and maintain the range they have. Once a monster get close enough to attack them, then die in one or two hits.

Cardis is training Tempest to be a close combat mage, able to attack from far and fight up close. Training takes times. Tempest might be impressive at range, but she is nowhere near good at fending off a melee attack. Cardis needs time to temper her body and train her melee skills. Her spirits are responsible for her range skills. He can guide her wind skills and general theories but that about it.

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Forming a party with the right members covers their weakness. Mages need a meat shield, tanks if they are good at their roles, to take the hits and the threat. The most effective mage is an unfettered mage.

Convincing other cultivators to become their meat shield is very hard. No one with a brain wants to be the cannon fodder mages toss in front of them.

Mages came up with two ways to fix the issue. First, raise their own meat shield. Raising a meat shield takes a lot of time, effort and most of all, resources; resources a mage can use to increase their own cultivation instead of giving it to a meat shield who might not be as trustworthy as a talisman. The second method is to travel in a large group. It will be hard for a magical beast to attack a group of mages. One of the mages should notice the magical beast heading their way and start attacking. The attack power of a group of mages should be high enough for the mages to kill the magical beast before it comes near them. If a group of mages can’t outright kill a magical beast, then they can use strategy to kill it.

The issue of humans backstabbing other humans still remains especially in a large group. Mages solved the issues through the same method they use to solve almost all their problems - the spirits.

Mages form their groups through their spirits. Once their spirits acknowledge another person as an ally, a mage can not betray them. Their spirits or the spirits of the mage will punish the betrayer. Most betrayal results in death. Negligence result in a much slower cultivation speed. It is almost impossible to cripple mage, but it is possible to slow their cultivation, to a point where it takes thousands of years for the slightest progress to be seen.

A Child of the Elements is not exempted from Law of Spiritual Alliance, as the mages termed it.

A True Child of the Elements might be exempted. The one person who was dumb enough to try and test out the theory was instantly killed by the spirits as a warning.

“Good, then you will join the other guild recruits to form your group.”

“Say what?”

“There is a bunch of recruits coming in. You will join them and form your own group.”

“But, I’ll have my friends when I redeem them. I won’t need a bunch of strangers crowding around me.” Tempest protested.

“There is no guarantee your friends can cultivates, much less cultivate as mages.” Cardis state calmly. “And you need people around you when you are earning money to redeem them. The money you earn as a group counts towards your pledge.”

Tempest mind races as she thought of a rebuttal. “Pig teammates.”

We won’t bind you to people who would hold you down. Please trust in our judgement.

“How do I know your judgement is reliable?” Although it was her spirits who led her towards her sisters, it was also their judgement that brought her into contact with Aria Se Jivock.

“What did your spirits say to you?” Cardis can tell when Tempest is speaking with her spirits by now. She goes into a daze and stare. The changes is fleeting at best, but Cardis isn’t a legendary mage for nothing. A split second inattention can lead to death in a fight. Cardis trained himself to notice the split second inattention.

“They told me to trust in their judgement.”

“In this instance, I have to agree. They are a good judge of character.”

“Didn’t you say not to trust the spirits? That the spirits are not above manipulating me for their own goals?”

“I did indeed say that.” Cardis easily admits his mistake, which made Tempest wary until he added, “Right now you are so weak, you can only be a pawn.”

“Which is it?” Tempest whined at Cardis’ inconsistency. First he tells her to beware of the spirits, then he tells to take to accept the manipulation.

“All pieces starts off as pawns. It remains to be seen whether you stay a pawn or transform yourself into a king.”

“Don’t you mean queen?” Tempest nitpick.

“The queen can be sacrifice. It is game over if the king dies.” Cardis smiled sweetly as he pats her head to soothe her.

“Hmph. Okay, I’ll go form a group.” Tempest gave in. She was going to get whiplash from being pulled in one direction and pushed in another.

Tempest figured Cardis was done with her since got what he wanted out of her so she started gathering the weapons into a pile. She can’t sell the weapons but she can give it away. Five of them has her sisters name on it.

“Speaking of which, you never show me your weapon.”