Chapter 111 - Sanctuary

In front of Jason were at least 10 Guardian ranked beasts and hundreds of magical ranked beasts

Dozens of different races could be seen inside the flourishing valley which had the size of multiple football fields and everything suddenly felt like a dream to Jason.

It was as if he was in a completely unknown biotope.

Pinching his cheek, he could feel pain, and only now did he slowly begin to grasp that everything was real.

There were predators and preys lying next to each other and not a single beast attacked one another.

Rather than that, it looked like they were peacefully living with each other right now if there was not a horrified glimpse in their eyes.

Something seemed to have scared them out of their wits.

Confused he looked at his teacher and Mr.Greil was about to say something when an old voice but wise voice behind him said

"These beasts are searching asylum here and won't hurt humans due to our temporary truce...

All of that because of the Goblin King and his subordinates…

One could say for these beasts here, this is their Sanctuary and only place to retreat at the moment…"

Turning around, Jason saw a white-haired old man with a long beard walking towards them with a crane in his hand supporting his lumbering steps.

Wearing a white robe, Jason got the feeling that the old man seemed to have lived for a long time.

But contradicting that, he also thought differently, as he activated his mana eyes.

It was as if an electric current spread throughout his whole body and he couldn't control himself anymore as he began to shiver violently.

Jason was almost unable to speak a single word but he forced his mouth open and said "W-who are you?"

Thanks to his mana eyes, he could see that this old man's mana channels were slowly decaying thanks to an injury, but that was not important as the mana core Jason saw right now was larger than all mana cores he had ever seen and more importantly, was that a solidified prismarine-crystal could be stood firmly within his mana core.

Even if this man seemed to be weak, a single exposure of the old man´s mana would probably kill Jason in an instant

But the only thing that lessened Jason's worry about the old man's strength was that his mana core looked extremely unstable and cracks spread through it like cobwebs.

Jason began to step back, unconsciously until he bumped into his teacher.

He looked up with shocked eyes and saw his teacher's calm and gentle expression reassured his safety, at least indirectly.

The old man chuckled a little bit before he began to cough up blood.

Apparently, he was extremely sick and would die soon and Jason felt bad about being scared of him.

It took the old man some time before he calmed down as he looked into Jason´s eyes, saying:

"Young brat, I´m the governor of Astrix and also Vanguard´s main school´s principal! My name is Matthew Drake, but call me old Drake. Little Till told me some stories about you.

I´m sorry that he had to abduct you but it was important to bring you here. I hope you can accept my apology. Little TIll can explain everything about the Sanctuary later to you, but there is something else we have to do."

From the first few sentences Jason heard from the old man in front of him, Matthew Drake seemed to be extremely polite and reasonable for someone from a big family...

Thinking about it, he thought it was either his age or his living experience.

There might as well be another reason but Jason didn't care about that.

The only thing important was that Old Drake had a reason to bring him here and it was obviously not for a simple introduction. They had something to do!?

"Little Till said that you were out on the two-star wild zone and during your hunt, you found runes inscribed on weapons and pendants, is that right? Furthermore, before picking you up he also told me that higher-ranked beasts started entering the lower wild zones... Can you tell me everything, please? It´s very important!"

Jason was still slightly perplexed that such a tycoon spoke politely to him and without thinking much he took out some inscribed stone weapons and two protection pendants before he began explaining everything that happened today.

Both Mr.Greil and Old Drake listened carefully without interrupting him a single time and half an hour later, he finished his explanation with his killing spree of the hundred goblin soldiers.

While listening to Jason, old Drake became curious about the young man´s combat prowess as his explanations were only based on facts without showing off or expressing anything with emotions.

It was as if Jason was reading down a report that had nothing to do with him.

Being able to stay calm in front of a numeral disadvantage with a few beasts a complete rank higher than oneself was definitely not something everyone was capable of.

Even if Hobgoblins were only at the evolved rank and still easy to kill with mana guns, Old Drake gave him high credits for that.

Till was also astonished that Jason could stay calm in such a perilous situation but he was already unable to predict his student.

As such, he just accepted this fact and thought of ways to increase Jason´s strength, even more, to gain a prodigious asset for humanity against the foreign intelligent races.

After that, Old Drake and Till inspected the runes on the weapons and pendants carefully, while old Drake furrowed his brows after a while, before saying something to his teacher.

Jason decided to stay quiet after he finished his explanation and both his teacher and Old Drake began to talk wildly about certain facts, he could hardly imagine without understanding most of it.

"These inscriptions are made out of low-rank beast cores and only of bad quality, but that doesn´t matter considering the fact that the Goblin King provides these weapons to their weakest combat force.

It looks like he is using them as scouting and hunting groups at the same time.

What scares me, is the fact that there are so many inscribed swords and furthermore these unknown runes on these pendants.

We have never heard about projectile protection runes made out of beast cores and these are perfect to prevent long-distance assassinations.

If the Goblin King can produce higher graded protection runes, we can forget our long-distance artillery advantage.

We might as well be forced to fight them in close combat where their numerical advantage could threaten us!!" The old man explained calmly.

Till sighed and added "That's true but there is not much we can do about it. We don't know where the Goblin King is or what rank he already entered.

We already lost more than 10 Magus-ranked scouts which were proficient in concealing themselves and Grandmagus ranked individuals with stealth abilities are extremely rare on Astrix.

If I were to search for the Goblin King, he might as well attack the city with his troops while stalling me… That's not something we can accept.

And your Injury looks worse while your strength decreases with each day passing.

I don't even want to imagine how much time you have left, Old Drake!

The Goblin King could already be a Lord-ranked beast while it has most likely intelligent subordinates because a single runemaster shouldn't be able to inscribe runes for their massive number of lowly goblin soldiers that are on the awakened rank.

The only good information Jason brought is that the weapons from the Hobgoblins were used by humans and self-made, which lets me think that their runemaster is only capable of inscribing low-grade runes.

If we can´t search for the Goblin King, let's just bomb the magical zone!

We figured out the rough position of their settlement, let's just annihilate it with a mana amplified hydrogen bomb!"

Listening to his teacher, Jason's eyes widened… they wanted to bomb the magical zone, destroying it completely? Were these goblins really so dangerous?

But wouldn't that devastate the landscape while only killing all goblins below the magical ranked stage?

This wouldn´t exterminate their root problem!!

And this was exactly what the old man said.

"You know that you can just kill these little ants with a wave of your hand, and I think you're also aware that the main problem we face is the Goblin King with his direct subordinates.

There might be more than dozens Guardian-ranked Goblins, otherwise, the beasts inside the valley wouldn't be there hiding behind us humans, who they loathe, right?

Till thought for a moment and stated the simplest solution.

"Can´t you just request help on Canir? Once another Lord rank individual arrives, we will be able to obliterate the thread without sacrificing Cyro city or even the whole Island, right?"

When the old man heard this, he frowned but he couldn't deny the logic.

Both Jason and Till heard the old man mumbling before a holographic screen appeared in front of him

"How annoying... Please don't send the annoying stinky brat" Old Drake almost pleaded and before writing a message to his Clan home, he informed the government about their "plan"

[Stalling time until reinforcement arrives!] It was their simple plan and the government could rake their brains to figure out how to stall time as Old Drake had more than enough to do.

Mr.Greil turned to Jason and indicated to him to distance themself a little bit to give Old Drake some privacy.

But before Old Drake could even request for reinforcement he felt that someone or something intruded into his illusion-mana-shell magic circle without breaking it.

Normal one could only enter this magic circle through a certain position or code but the intruder didn't use anything like that. This meant the intruder was either more knowledgeable than him or a certain ability was the reason.

A sudden voice was transmitted into his mind and his eyes widened in shock and confusion at the same time.

'How is he still alive? He survived that…

Impossible!'

Old Drake listened carefully to the voice and before Mr.Greil and Jason could distance themselves from Old Drake, he told them that he has something to do.

Both Jason and Mr.Greil could see sweat forming on Old Drake´s forehead and his eyes looked extreme scared as he closed his holographic screen which had already connected to someone at Canir, where a blue-haired middle-aged man could be seen shouting something before he disappeared from their sight within seconds as nobody answered him.

Jason was only astonished that the old man was still capable to run so fast even if it should be painful and he asked himself what was happening today...