As the water was too shallow, Ramie had no choice but to stop the boat a bit further from the shore. To disembark, the five had to swim the remaining distance.
At this point, Ramie was in a dilemma. He didn't know whether the azure gazelle king could swim to the shore. And if he couldn't, then how could they bring him to the beach?
However, soon, the answer was provided. He had forgotten that the summoned beast was really, really good at jumping. As back in the city, he was capable of jumping from one building to another, without problem.
Thud!
Splash!
The summoned beast kicked his leg with so much force, that it gave rise to a violent splash of water, and almost caused the boat to completely plunge down. Then, he jumped all the way to the peach, landing near the rest of them.
…
"What should we do now?" Neil asked, reflecting the same thought that was circulating every one's mind right now.
They did not expect things to progress this far so quickly.
Today, they woke up thinking of ways to safely leave the city. Now, however, not only did they leave the city, but apparently, also the country.
They were forced by an unexpected escalating sequence of events that left them no chance to understand everything, much less to plan ahead.
As everyone scanned everyone else's faces, looking for answers, it was Lance who voiced out his thoughts first: "What else can we do! We will walk to the border, and get back to our country through a point outside the city of course, and then go to the capital!"
This was something everyone could accept. Hearing that they were going back to their country and then the capital, were the military forces were; they felt a bit at ease. As now, they at least had a plan.
No one objected at the proposal.
Lance's suggestion was exactly what Ramie had in mind. In fact, there was really no alternative aside from that.
Luckily, food was no problem, at least not for several days, or even more if they rationed well. The food pile back in the kitchen was enough to half fill 5 bags, one for each of them. As for the summoned beast… it was capable, according to Reem, to eat any part of any plants. So, food was of no concern for this summoned beast, as wild plants and grass could be found almost everywhere.
After decided on their course of action, the group started walking away from the coast, and deeper into the land of the neighboring country. They wanted to keep walking until they come across the international road that connects this country to theirs.
This road was the main path of trade between the two countries, where most of the traded wares usually passes through. Furthermore, this international road connects this country to their country at a point several tenths of kilometers outside that monster infested city, which was pretty much why they had chosen this path. After all, if they walked along the cost back to their country, then they would be walking straight into that hellish city again, which was something they wished to avoid at all costs, even if they had to move few tenths of kilometers inside another country.
…
After few hours of walking, the night started descending gradually.
Ever since walking away from the beach, they saw nothing in this barren land other than rocks and few spots of wild plants scattered about here and there.
Anyway, that wasn't of concern. The main problem was the beasts…
Even though they hadn't seen any beast yet, but on the same time, they couldn't rule out the possibility that there were beasts lurking out there somewhere. So, they moved with utmost cautiousness, under the assumption that they might be attacked at any time.
Luckily, with Reem's summon with them, they didn't feel tense the whole time. As this beast's sense of aura was much sharper than Ramie, with larger range, which was why back in the city, he was able to tell the level of tier-2 beasts in other areas even though they never got close to him.
Of course, and although all of the beasts have the ability to sense auras… however, not all of them had high perception. Some of the beasts had the ability to sense any aura no matter how weak it is from long distances, while others could only sense the very strong auras and only in short distances.
Luckily for them, the azure gazelle king fell under the former category, thanks to his bloodline.
As the light started fading away, they found a relatively large boulder, and decided to camp beside it. Of course, by camping, they meant to sleep beside the boulder with their bags as pillows, as the attack of the crocodile beast was so sudden that they didn't have time to prepare.
As for the summoned beast, it simply jumped atop the boulder, and sat down, like a watchdog.
As the night completely enveloped everything on sight, the group sank in an almost immediate sleep. As, with the azure gazelle king high perception, they were assured that nothing could escape his detection. Thus, they allowed themselves to get some rest.
Today, was simply too eventful, mentally wise even more than physically.
The fear, the distress, and the anxiousness they lived under in the city for the past few days were simply too much for them. It had exhausted their spirit to a great extent. And yet, they weren't any closer to their destination, the capital, but further instead.
The single exception to that was Ramie. He was the only one awake right now.
It wasn't that he didn't get any sleep at all… but it just that he fell asleep for only half hour. Afterward, he woke up with completely recovered vigor and energy, as though he had slept for half a day.
Hanging in the sky, was half moon, as well as countless bright stars. So, the night was bright enough to make out even small details in close distance.
Resting his back against the boulder, Ramie was able to see ahead with clarity almost approaching the day time, even though it was night. Apparently, this was another bloodline advantage to be grateful for.
His shining golden eyes gazed ahead unblinking, as it perceived the surroundings. Since he couldn't sleep, he decided to stand guard, and make sure that nothing sneaks on them.
After awhile, and without seeing anything out of usual, his line of though involuntarily drifted back to when Eric escaped and left him behind without as much as gLance…
Although he tried to convince himself that Eric was probably scared out of his mind back then, and wasn't able to think clearly… but nonetheless, he couldn't shake away the bitterness he felt in his heart…
Friends were required in tough times, not the easy, blissful ones… otherwise; it would be nothing more than a useless pretence and waste of time…
In any case, Eric had chosen his own path. A path that was different from the one Ramie was on now.
Thinking of this, Ramie couldn't help to wonder whether Eric had managed to leave the city with the military forces, or was still trapped there…?
After losing himself in sea of thought in regard to Eric for some time, Ramie shook these thoughts away. What had happened… happened. And Eric wasn't here anymore, so there was no point on lingering on these depressing thoughts now.
Anyhow, having few hours of free time, Ramie shifted his focus to certain parts of the acquired knowledge from the artifact. He wanted to process and understands them.
Ever since the explosion of this crisis, he walked from one dangerous situation to another, and today, even though he was in a foreign country, it was still the first chance he got to take a breath. So, He wanted to make sure that he had fully comprehended the information he received from the artifact.
Thus, he poured all of attention on a certain matter that was of critical importance to him – it the matter of levels!
The first thing he had noticed in these levels was that the beasts, whether magical or normal, had a unified system of levels, which were the tiers and the mini levels within them.
As for the artifact holders, whom were called the 'magicians,' and the life energy users, whom were called the 'warriors,' according to the information, their system of levels was different from each others, and from the beasts, though, not by too much.
For instant, the tier-1 beasts have the mini levels (low, mid, high, and peak) within the tier. And naturally, low tier-1 beast is considered weaker than mid tier-1 beast, mid weaker than high and high weaker than peak, and so on… these mini levels depicted the different in strength within the tiers. Of course, that didn't only go for the tier-1 beasts, but for the rest of tiers as well.
Naturally, low tier-2 beast is considered stronger that peak tire-1 beast, as the difference is an entire tier.
As for warriors, they were represented with levels (Lv.1, Lv.2, and so on…). Their system followed the life energy percent value, which ranged from 1% to 100%, to represent the volume, density and purity of their life energy.
The larger the volume and the denser life energy is, which is represented with the life energy ignition percent, the stronger the warrior becomes.
Of course, level.2 warrior with life energy ignition percent as low as 1% is considered stronger than level.1 warrior with life energy ignition percent of 99%, as the life energy undergoes a qualitative change when the warrior breaks through to higher levels.
As for the magicians… their case was rather a special one… They were represented with Ranks (Rank-1, Rank-2, and so on…)
The magicians system of levels was unique, because it depended on the artifact's levels, and not the volume of magic energy stored inside the magician's body.
For example, any Rank of magician would be subdivided to Lv.1 artifact, Lv.2 artifact, Lv.3 artifact, with Lv.4 artifact being the max.
After Rank-1 magician manages to upgrade his artifact to Lv.4, then the next advancement would bring him up to become Rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact, and so on…
Anyway, every time a magician advances the level of his artifact, he gets a skill point. And every skill point can either be used to unlock a spell, or to upgrade an existing spell. Which meant that Rank-2 magician with Lv.1 artifact would be able to unlock 4 spells, or unlock less, and use the rest of the skill points to advance one of these spells.
And what made the magicians even more unique… was that their strength, wasn't measured by physical abilities, the amount of magic they had, or even by the level of their artifacts, but instead, by their spells!
This was the reason why that if a magician can't cast spell, then regardless of his level, even a wild animal, much least beast, can take him out.
The magician's spells were so diverse that it was very hard to categorize them. This made the magicians powers very mysterious and hard to predict. Hence, they were considered even more formidable than the warriors on the same level, or even higher levels sometimes, all depending on the spells they can cast.
The simplest categorization of the spells; was to offensive, defensive, supportive, and special spells.
As for how magician's levels can be compared to warriors and beasts? It was a bit tricky matter, as the levels of magicians don't really reflect their true capabilities, but it was their spells instead. However, symbolically speaking, it could be put in such way:
Low tier-1 beast = Lv.1 Warrior with Life energy ignition: 1%-25% = Rank-1 magician with Lv.1 artifact
Mid tier-1 beast = Lv.1 Warrior with Life energy ignition: 25%-50% = Rank-1 magician with Lv.2 artifact
High tier-1 beast = Lv.1 Warrior with Life energy ignition: 50%-75% = Rank-1 magician with Lv.3 artifact
Peak tier-1 beast = Lv.1 Warrior with Life energy ignition: 75%-100% = Rank-1 magician with Lv.4 artifact
That however wasn't completely inaccurate. And can to some extent be true in the case of common classes of magicians. As for rare, special and epic classes, the story then might become different, all depending on the spells they can cast of course.
Ramie's current level is Rank-1 magician with Lv.2 artifact, which could said to be comparable to mid tier-1 beast, and Lv.1 Warrior with Life energy ignition: 25%-50%.
Following that, Ramie could said to be as strong as Lance, which after absorbing the two life energy cores on the boat, managed to raise his life energy ignition percent.
Lv.1 Warrior
Life energy ignition: 30%
This meant that Lance was now comparable to mid tier-1 beast, and by extension, so was Ramie now.
As for Neil, he was still Rank-1 magician with Lv.1 artifact, as he had yet to absorb any magical core.
Anyway, this logic had placed Reem which was Rank-1 magician with Lv.3 artifact as the strongest member in their team, aside from the summoned beast, which was on the verge of advancing to become low tier-2 beast.
Another piece of information worth mentioning; was that the artifacts won't display the term Rank-1 magician on the stats, and would only start displaying the magician Ranks after reaching the second Rank. Which meant that any magician that his artifact didn't display the Rank; is considered Rank-1 magician by default.
After processing all of the information, Ramie found that judging the strength of normal beasts and warriors to be fairly easy… the normal beasts by their aura, and the warriors by their life energy ignition percent value, and also by their auras.
Even though in the case of beasts, only the tiers are displayed by the artifact, but since he had acquired a beast's bloodline, he inherited the ability to sense auras, though much weakly than Reem's summon. But it was understandable, as this beast had an innately strong sense of perception.
In the case of magicians, judging their capabilities was a difficult task. As their auras only signifies the volume of magic they had, and its density, but not the type of spells they have, which is unfortunate, as in the case of magicians, the spells were the standard of their power, not their auras.
Also, in the case of magicians, there were the grades; common, rare, special, and epic, which depicted the rarity of the spells their artifacts can unlock.
Anyway, since the artifact can display the magician's class grade, whether its common, rare, special, and epic, in the stats when he locks on a magician, it could at least allow Ramie to know whom to be careful around.
Also, the fact that the artifact can't read the stats of another magician in case his class rarity is higher can be a strong form of protection, concealing him as a magician, and having him appear as someone ordinary, not a magician or a warrior. And that's giving that he conceals his artifact of course.
This feature of artifacts was the reason why Neil couldn't get any reading from Ramie and Reem, since his class rarity was only common. And it was also the reason why Reem couldn't get a reading from him, as her class was only Rare, a grade below special.
Time went on…
As Ramie was submerged in his thoughts, all of the sudden, he felt a bad intent scan at him for a second, before disappearing. It felt as if something casted his sight at him briefly before looking elsewhere.
Under the hood, ramie's golden irises shone with eerie yellow glint of light as a sense of alarm rose in his heart.
He started scanning at the direction of the intent with cautiousness, to locate the source.
However, no matter how many times he scanned, he couldn't see anything out of usual, as if the feeling few seconds ago was an illusion, a trick that his mind had played on him.
The perception he got was not of an aura, magical or life energy… but it was more like… the feeling he got back in the building… once with the magical beast in the apartment, and the other was when the snake headed beast wanted to sneak attack him in the fourth floor.
Following this sense, was the reason he survived both these encounters. So, he wasn't going to ignore it this time or any other time, as it had already proven to be credible on more than one occasion.
Even though his artifact didn't have information on this particularity, but since his innate spell could not be identified by the artifact, he guessed that this type of perception might be related to that unidentified innate spell of his, or it was one of his bloodline advantages.
Ramie thought of waking the four up, however, their loud snoring was hard-to-ignore sign of how tired they were. More ever, tomorrow, they had long way to travel, and god knows what kind of beasts they might have to confront. So, this was more than just a necessary rest, it was a must.
Ramie had the ability to see in the nigh almost as good as in daytime. Not to mention that this night wasn't very dark to begin with. So, the moment anything tries to get close to them, ramie was sure that he could perceive it long distance away with his eyes sight.
Beside, the azure gazelle king was guarding them, and his perception of aura was much stronger and sharper than Ramie. So, he was the best detector of danger they could ask for. As such, and since the azure gazelle king didn't react, it meant that this brief intent might have come from a weak beast that wanted to ambush them. However, and upon seeing the strong summon staying in guard, it had fled away in panic.
Although ideally, they shouldn't sleep, and spend the night on guard, only sleeping at day time… but they were simply too exhausted to stay awake till morning, and they simply couldn't resist sleeping at all. Also, tomorrow they had to cover a lot of distant with high possibility of facing dangers. So, Ramie decided to not wake them up, not unless he senses it again, or until the summoned beast detects something.
Instead, Ramie raised his guard and decided to maintain a state of high alert for the rest of the night.
…
Far in the distance, behind small hill…
"Look at that damn beast, and how strong he looks! It seems that one of those five bastards is a summoning magician! Good, very good… I really hope they have food and water." The man who spoke these words was dressed in brown clothes. His face was pale and his hair disheveled. Judging by his tone when speaking these words, he appeared to be excited.
If books could be judged by their covers, then this man was definitely was not an upstanding citizen, not due to his miserable state, but because of the sinister vibe he was giving. Also, his facial features were basically of a text book gangster.
Next to him, stood another man, dressed in black clothe. He had a cold expression and piercing eyes that did not contain the slightest bit mercy within. His gaze alone was enough to give others chill when looking at him.
"This still won't change the outcome. We'll deal with them the same way we dealt with the other group. Except this time, you shouldn't get too close to them, and throw it at them from a distant." As the black-clothed man said so, his eyes gleamed with cruel intent.
Hearing these words, the brown-clothed man hesitated a bit, before asking:"How should we deal with the beast then?"
"Easy! We bury explosive materials close by. And once you blow those five up, the beast will lose its connection to the summoner! At then, one of two things will happen. The beast either escapes, which would make things easier for us. Or it stays, by then, I will lure it to where the explosive material is buried, and then we send it after its master!"
As the black-clothed man spoke these words, his expression remained unfazed, as if everything was within his grasp. Even though he had just sentenced five people to death, not a single ripple appeared in his face, as if he was doing something extremely normal.
"Big brother, how many of them do you think have artifacts?" the brown-clothed man asked.
"I don't know, but, the more the better! This way, after getting their magical gemstones, you can finally advance your artifact again! And by then, after you unlock new spell, we'll have a better chance in killing the rest of magicians back in that damn compound, and get their gemstones!" the black-clothed man spoke as a matter of fact, as if he was confident that the group in the distant will die today.
Now, it had to be said, that according to the information that the artifacts transmits to their users after the first level up, when a magician dies, his artifact vanish. However, the biggest gem that is embedded in the artifacts stays behind. As for the use of this gem, it was exactly like the magical cores. It can advance the level of the artifacts.
When Ramie first processed this information, he didn't miss the implication behind it. He immediately knew… that things in the future, were about to become a whole lot darker, especially for the magician.
Upon hearing his brother's words, the brown-clothed man grinned like a wolf, baring his yellow, crooked teeth. A blood thirst glint flashed across his narrowed eyes as he fantasized about the next spell that will join his arsenal.
It was quite obvious that this pair of brothers had done such deed many times so far.
…
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