Chapter 269: Exchange

Stasis' sword skills exceeded Reiji's expectations. 

As soon as the young man change to his Cross Stance, his aura completely changed like when how Deither's aura changes when he uses his Jodan Stance.

Everyone in the hall felt this sudden change which made them focus on the two's battle. 

'Master… Your students were quite talented. It's too bad that they're just half-imp…' Szaaz, the Ancient Trident Arcana said randomly.

'Hmm? What do you mean? Isn't it an advantage?' 

Reiji inquired as he was confused. He knows that the Sentient Arcana is not insulting his students with those words.

Anyway, as far as he knows, although they are being discriminated against by the humans, half-imps were still quite strong. They have innate talents in using Spiritual Energy and Arcane Magic aside from possessing a better physique.

'Oh. It seems that you aren't aware, Master.'

'Ugh… Yes, just tell me about it. You don't have to make it suspense.' Reiji urged in a hurry. 

'Ahh. Of course, of course. Master, I heard that half-imps have limits with their spiritual energy or their power. Once they reached 25 years old, they will experience a bottleneck in their growth and their only way to advance is to increase the density of their imp bloodline… However, the problem with that is that they might lose their rationality and become Evil Beasts that you can find in the forests.'

The Trident explained as Reiji remained silent. 

'Losing rationality, huh… Anyway, they should be aware of their situation. I think that this won't stop them to get stronger.'

Reiji then continued watching the battle. 

He can see that Stasis started dominating the fight as Vinete was having a hard time closing their gap.

Stasis' overhead slash comes so fast that she would always have to cancel her strike whenever she's about to attack.

Vinete started getting frustrated and lost her momentum.

The man didn't miss the opportunity and ended the fight as soon as she lost her focus and became too eager to score a point against him.

"Not bad… I think they already reached the 2nd Dan."

Reiji praised his students after seeing their performance. 

The winners of the first round are Mourad, Imane, and Stasis. Nevertheless, the other still has a chance if they can win their next match. 

***

Szaaz has been silently observing everything in his surroundings since the last night. He has been imprisoned in that cavern for a very long time.

As soon as he came out from that place together with his master, he thought that they would be facing tons of strong Evil Beast around the area. 

However, this land was actually quite peaceful.

Even the Evil Beasts that he detected from afar weren't that strong. As a matter of fact, they are extremely weak and it's a wonder why they aren't being hunted yet.

Then, last night, he talked with Shiori about many things. The lady mostly asked questions about the past while he also asked about the current situation of this world.

"I checked the village and we didn't set up a strong barrier? Are we going to be safe here? What if a phoenix or perhaps even a wyvern attack us here?"

"Phoenix, wyvern? There are no such things around here. I'm not even sure if they are still existing. Anyway, the strongest Evil around this region is probably the Man-Eating Treant. However, we're nowhere near them so we don't have to worry." Shiori answered. 

The trident Arcana was shocked to hear this last night. 

He couldn't believe that such powerful flying Evil Beasts would become extinct.

"How about the Dragons? Or perhaps the Wailing Harpies?" He continued asking. Because of the natural formation of the village where it is hidden inside a plateau, he was only worried about the flying beasts.

"There are no longer any active Dragons as far as I know. We haven't heard any news about them for the past hundred years. As for Wailing Harpies… I'm sorry, this is the first time I've heard of them. I could ask Master or the others about them."

"Ahh… No, it's alright. If you haven't heard of them, then it means that they aren't around here as well."

Szaaz quickly said to stop Shiori from leaving. It had finally sunk into him that this current generation is completely different from his. 

He can't use his previous knowledge about the Evil Beasts here. 

'Tsk… Guess I have to learn the current situation of this world then.'

The two slaves then exchange information that lasted the whole night. Szaaz learned the present situation of the neighboring countries while Shiori learned things about the past.

"So, you've met the nine Blessed Arcana of the Sword Deity, the ten Blessed of the Spear Deity, the Shield Deity, and the Cauldron Deity… Interesting." Shiori repeated as she wrote on her notes with complete details

All of this information will be given to her master later on so she had to list everything she heard.

"Yes… There are many more, like the Ring Deity, Fire Deity, Avian Deity, Jewel Deity, and the Shadow Deity. Their Blessed and Cursed Arcana are the most active during that time. Is there something wrong?"

"No, not really. It's just that I've never heard of the Cauldron Deity before."

"Hmm… Is that so? They must've hidden carefully. After all, they are extremely popular Arcana back in the days."

Szaaz replied after recalling how helpful these Cauldrons were.

"I think I know the reason and that made sense. Then how about the Firearm or Gun Deity? Master has been curious about it before."

"Fire what? Gun Deity? I've never heard of that." Szaaz answered without any hesitation. He met a lot of Cursed and Blessed Arcana but he had never if of that. 

"I see… It's a new type of Arcana that has been appearing in various countries in the past few years."

"Whoa! Isn't that interesting? I would like to see them!" The Trident Arcana showed his interest after hearing the new type of Arcana. 

"Hmm… If we have another mission in the neighboring country, we can surely take a look."

Shiori answered as they continued exchanging information.