Chapter 96: Investing In People

Gabriel asked a few questions to Lucius but did not stop him from going to the party. He in fact approved his choice.

"Keep an eye on how the children of the other nobles act. Most of them should be younger than you." Gabriel said.

Lucius raised his brows, wondering what Gabriel meant by it.

"You think something will happen there?" Lucius asked.

"We don't know. But observing the kids of the nobles will give us some insight into their standing, especially Baron Harrels. His daughter should be seventeen if I remember correctly.

The children are like mirrors. They will reflect whatever his hiding behind the veil of the nobles." Gabriel replied.

Upon hearing this Lucius immediately understood what Gabriel was getting at. 

'Of course, there's no way children of the nobles will behave calmly there. There shouldn't be much supervision there so they will display their true faces. Bragging and bravado should come rather quickly.

That should give me an idea about where their parents stand in the equation. Their loyalties should be exposed with a little probing…' Lucius thought to himself.

"I understand father," Lucius replied.

He had finished his breakfast and was just about to leave when Gabriel interrupted him.

"Remember, you are the future heir of Inanis family. While you must act in moderation with the other nobles, you must also know when to put your foot down. Don't worry if anything problematic happens after that, we will be here to back you." Gabriel said with a fierce look in his eyes.

Lucius smiled upon hearing this and realized that this man might be much more to his liking than he thought before. He simply nodded his head and left to do his tasks. The day passed rather quickly as Lucius spent it studying more about gifts and various Rune beasts along with using Nexus on another person.

Lucius wanted to create a group of people who would be loyal to him and would have the perfect gifts to suit every situation. These would be the people he would be investing in and letting them grow.

Kiana was the first one and more will be added to the fray soon. Lucius had seen how strong her gift was and was interested in other epic ranked gifts. The only other people who he knew had them was Gabriel and Cia the daughter of John.

Adding Gabriel to the circle was an obvious no while Cia was far too young for this. 

"Hmm… the rare ranked gifts it is… I should select some from them." Lucius muttered to himself.

The very first option that came to his mind was none other than John. He had proved that he was loyal to the Inanis family and had also shown the drive to serve Lucius since he would be the future lord.

"I'll see what the requirements for his gift is today, once he arrives," Lucius muttered to himself. 

Time passed and soon it was time for Asher's training with John. He had been getting better and better and swordsmanship and his body had started to improve too.

"Ah, you're already here," John said upon seeing that Asher was standing in the training hall.

"Yes, I finished up my studies early, so thought I may as well warm up." Lucius said while slightly squinting his eyes.

Gift Name: Mirror Coat

Description: Transform a part of the body's surface or anything that is touched into a mirror.

Rank: Rare

Type: Physical/Transmutation 

Evolution: Possible 

Evolution Requirements: 20x Aether Crystals, 800ml Quicksilver, 3x Mist Veil Beast Rune Crystal 

Lucius had used Nexus on John bore and knew about the rank and type of his gift beforehand. Though he was surprised to learn that he actually had a dual type gift. This was the first time he was seeing this and wondered how many more combinations could there be.

He knew that the evolution for the gift would be possible but didn't know what the requirements were gonna be. But now that he saw them, he felt a bit overwhelmed.

'Twenty Aether Crystals should not be a problem to get but 800 ml of quicksilver? That should be mercury… getting that in a world like this, I don't know if they've seen that before.' Lucius thought.

Till now he had not seen pure mercury before. Even the mirrors that they used in this world were actually made from either polished metal or were made from a special type of glass that was naturally reflective.

They did not use the method of staining transparent glass with a coat of mercury or silver. This was one of the things that Lucius had looked up so that he would be able to estimate the technological level of this world.

Lucius also did not recognize the name of the Rune beast that was shown in the requirements. Though he was happy that the number of Rune crystals needed was less.

"Hopefully they can be found easily…" Lucius muttered.

"Hm? You said something?" John asked seeing Lucius muttered.

"Uh, no nothing. We should start our practice I suppose." Lucius said.

"Alright," John said with a nod and the two got busy.

By the time they were done, Lucius was tired. John had shown him a few more sword moves since he was getting better and those had caused him to get tired faster. But now that he was done with it, he could go take a bath and relax.

The hot water soothed the sore muscles of Lucius and he thought about the requirements for the evolution of John's gift.

"The Aether Crystals can be gathered in less than an hour, but the quicksilver and the rune crystals will be a bit problematic. Hopefully, people already knew about quicksilver in the world and it is easy to obtain or I'll have to get cinnabar and refine it myself.

Will also need to commission the mercenaries for the Rune crystals." Lucius made a few notes in his mind.

'So many things to do, so little time…' Lucius thought.