Chapter 60 - Getting Closer

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Crypt fiends could not be compared with other demonic beasts like the Demonic Ground Spider.

At the heart of the matter, this clan was made up of humanoids who lived in the underground dungeon. This implied that, similar to humans, they were a clan with a fully functioning society. Their society had the most basic embodiment of an intelligent clan in this world, which was the establishment of professions and various development stages for these professions. This also meant that within this clan, there existed individuals with high-ranking professions.

According to what Alfred understood about the crypt fiends, only those belonging to Combat Professions would be banished from the clan and labeled as traitors. This was because the societal order of the underground world was very different from that of the surface world. Their society was structured like a pyramid, with the people at the top having absolute authority and demanding complete obedience. Anyone who did not obey the commands of the ones at the highest levels would face one of two consequences: banishment or death.

All the traitorous crypt fiends who were banished were only allowed to bring their own weapons with them, and their families or other assets would become the possessions of the ruling class. In other words, crypt fiends who were banished were lonesome exiles without a family, and they would be shunned by other societal groups of crypt fiends. The only options they had were to regroup and establish a new force or to kill the leaders who had banished them and take over their role.

However, based on what Cecilia told him about the current situation, Alfred knew that these crypt fiends were preparing to establish a new powerful group.

Faced with a pack of crypt fiends who were regrouping their forces, Alfred felt like even if he had his trusty battle halberd with him, he could only defeat three or four crypt fiends of similar strength to him. However, now that he was armed with a push dagger, even defeating two would be pushing his limits. As for Cecilia and Sean, he felt like even if he was being extremely optimistic, the two of them could probably beat three lower bronze enemies. What would they do about the rest of the enemies then?

Or if they encountered an upper bronze or even silver ranked crypt fiend, how would they go about winning that battle?

“Relax, there won’t be any upper bronze or silver ranked crypt fiends.” As though she could see what Alfred was thinking, Cecilia reassured him in a gentle voice. “Sean told me that these were all just insignificant small fries and that he could take on five of them by himself.”

Five… Five of them…?

Alfred raised his eyebrows again, obviously not convinced by this kind of nonsense.

“Sean also said that, with my help, we should be able to beat seven or eight of them.” Cecilia did not see Alfred’s expression, and continued very earnestly, “That is, as long as you’re in front to draw enough of their fire.”

When he heard this, Alfred did not raise his eyebrows anymore, as his face instantly darkened. They were clearly setting him up to be cannon fodder!

“Having said that,” Cecilia continued with a grin. Her smile shone brightly like the sun, and especially under the glare of the illumination spell, her smile became even more dazzling. “The happiest thing that could happen for Sean would be if there was a group of idiots charging ahead to die. It would be perfect if both sides had already taken heavy losses when we arrive on the scene.”

Alfred let out a sigh. He realized that the number of times he had sighed today was more than the total sum of the past few years.

In truth, he understood that he had a way out of this. If he wanted to leave now, it was still possible for him to do so. Whether it was Sean, or the ‘bandits’ tailing them, none of them were strong enough to get in his way, and most of them would be unwilling to try.

But could he decide to leave them so easily?

Alfred looked at Cecilia.

At the moment, Cecilia was reading the unusually large magic tome she carried. Her head was lowered and her long golden locks draped down from both sides, and as her head moved to read, the tips of her hair brushed across the pages of the book. Her pale fingers traced the words written in the tome, and as her fingers glided across the page, Cecilia’s dark brows would sometimes knit together or relax. Occasionally, she would mutter phrases from some kind of spell that Alfred could not understand, and whenever this happened the elements in the air would grow active. Cecilia’s long hair would start to flutter as a light breeze would begin to circle her body, driving away the heat in the small karst cave.

Alfred knew that Cecilia was outstanding. Whether it was in terms of her appearance, her status, or her gifts, he knew that this young lass had incomparable talent. However, the thing he admired the most about her was not her beauty, nobility, or genius, but the way she seemed to shine in her diligence.

He did not know what kind of bond this young girl had with Sean, but even if he did not know the details, he understood the quality of their relationship.

Alfred’s gaze fell upon Sean once again.

His most obvious traits were his black hair and black eyes, which were typical of citizens from the ancient empire to the east of the continent.

As one of the seven great empires of the continent, this eastern empire rarely birthed people with talents that could shake up the entire continent. In the eyes of many, the people of this empire were mediocre with no real outstanding strengths. Still, even if this was true, no other country would dare to underestimate this empire, because the strength they brought to bear was not that of an individual but a collective. They had never won in a one-on-one fight, but they would rarely lose if it was a thousand versus a thousand. Once the scale of the battle reached tens or hundreds of thousands, this empire was invincible.

Alfred felt like he still could not determine if Sean had this hidden potential within him. However, he understood one thing clearly. If he clashed with Sean in a one-on-one fight now, he was not entirely confident that he would win.

Still, all this was not important.

The main point was that the future Sean had outlined for him made him reluctant to give up. Even though he was well aware that they were heading for a dead-end, for just that tiny glimmer of hope, he could not easily abandon them. As Alfred came to terms with this conclusion, he was no longer burdened by worry, and he decided to sit down and start eating the portion of condensed instant dry rations reserved for him.

Seeing that Alfred had decided to sit down with her, she immediately raised her head and flashed him a brilliant smile. “Welcome to the team.”

Alfred was stunned for a moment.

“Sean told me before this that if you sat down and started to eat something within a minute, it meant you were willing to join us.” Seeing the expression of confusion on Alfred’s face, Cecilia continued her explanation, “He said that you had strong principles and knew where to draw the line. Since you had committed to join us on this journey, you would not abandon us and leave by yourself in the middle of the mission regardless of how dangerous it got, but you would only choose to say your goodbyes after everything was finished.”

Alfred came to his senses, and he stared at Sean with a strange and complicated expression.

“But…”

“But?”

“But Sean also said, that if you sat down within a minute to eat something and recover your strength, that would mean that you were truly willing to cooperate with us.” Cecilia grinned, as though she was not very surprised by all this. “The moment you sat down to eat was exactly a minute after Sean had fallen asleep… You know, magicians are very sensitive when it comes to observing the passage of time.”

Saying this, Cecilia wrinkled her nose proudly, revealing a mischievous look.

“He made a good prediction,” Alfred chuckled. “Should I be praising him for being an impressive commander?”

However, Cecilia shook her head at this. “To be honest, Sean knew from the beginning that you would stay. He said you would take three minutes at first, but after some thought, he happily changed his prediction, reducing the time to one minute.”

“Oh?” Alfred raised his eyebrows.

“You’ll do it for your daughter,” Cecilia recited in a soft voice.

Alfred was shocked at first, but then he turned to look at Sean, a trace of respect showing in his eyes for the first time. “I guess the saying is true. The people of the Chenas Empire are good with their schemes.”

Hearing Alfred’s appraisal of Sean, Cecilia looked very glad, and the smile on her face grew even brighter. “However, Sean is always saying that he’s a salesman who is omniscient but not omnipotent.”

“Only a god is omniscient and omnipotent.” Alfred seemed to have a deep understanding of the meaning behind these words. He nodded and said quite sympathetically, “If he was a god, then he would be an existence this world would not allow.”

With this topic, their conversation drew to a close.

Cecilia had no interest in discussing whether Sean was a god or a man, and so she resumed her reading. She lowered her head and started to delve into her magic tome, working hard so she could have a breakthrough and become a fully-fledged magician. She knew that she was already halfway across the threshold and only had to take one more final step, but this step was not easy for her to take because her situation was the exact opposite of other apprentice magicians.

Most of the time, the factor that held apprentice magicians back from becoming a full-fledged magician was a bottleneck in their spirit, or in some rare cases, a lack of theoretical knowledge. However, whatever the case might be, these apprentice magicians would be overflowing with magical power. On the other hand, Cecilia was facing the opposite problem, as the bottleneck she was facing now was her limited magical power. Even after getting the Flame of Crimson, which allowed her to increase her magical power at a much faster speed than using her meditation, it was still far from enough.

Still, even though she was well aware that magical power took a long time to build up, she did not want to resign herself to such a slow process that easily. She remembered that there was a method for quickly gaining magic power written inside this magic tome left to her by her advisor. What she needed to do now was to study this tome to the point where she could familiarize herself with this method and remember it even with her eyes closed.

As for Alfred, noticing that Cecilia was working hard at her studies, he naturally did not want to disturb her. He simply finished eating the rest of his condensed instant dry rations, then lay down on the ground to take a nap. He wanted to start recovering and storing up energy to prepare himself for any situations they might encounter in the near future.

This went on for some time until a wretched scream suddenly woke both Cecilia and Alfred from their stupor.