"Sure, I agree."

To Emilia's surprise, Banning agreed without hesitation.

— (Huh? That was easy. Isn't he afraid of my bizarre demands?)

Nevertheless, the ingenuous Emilia couldn't come up with any improper requests, and truthfully conveyed her thoughts to Banning.

Emilia's plea was for Banning to accompany her to visit Branch Chief Oleg the next day and jointly appease the members at the Quest Guild.

After hearing this, Banning, consistent with his previous demeanor, acquiesced without objection.

Emilia, touched by Banning's forthrightness, felt a pang of guilt and proceeded to answer Banning's questions with even more diligence and care.

.

Emilia explained to Banning that for attacktype elemental magic, classified by tier and power, could be roughly memorized as follows:

Tier one magic: Comparable to the force of a bull's full-on charge, which would be unendurable for an average person after two hits, while for a tier one combat, the limit would be five or six hits;

Tier two magic: Power akin to a boulder tumbling down a mountain, invariably lethal for a regular individual, whereas a tier two combat would face mortal danger after four or five strikes;

Tier three magic: Potency on par with a small landslide, capable of demolishing a single-story building in one shot, and even a tier three combat could only withstand three or four instances of damage;

Tier four magic: Tremendous power, equivalent to a small tactical-grade weapon, destroying a three- or four-story structure with a single blast. Should the opponent be of equal tier, it's remarkable if they can survive two direct hits without perishing.

"What about tier five magic?"

"Tier five magic... that's the pinnacle of mastery... I don't know either..."

Banning was astonished that even the magic-obsessed Emilia's knowledge only extended to tier four.

Nonetheless, Emilia's summary was succinct and memorable. After her introduction, Banning finally had a rough understanding of the relationship between magic power and tiers.

— (The skills of the Secret Saber: Blaze Steed are almost as powerful as tier three magic... I wonder how it would fare after upgrading to tier two and becoming the "Blue Blaze Steed." What would its power level be like then?)

Having listened to Emilia's explanation of magic, Banning truly grasped the value of the Secret Saber: Blaze Steed.

Emilia mentioned that, theoretically, the shortest incantation time for tier three magic is 30 seconds, while the Secret Saber: Blaze Steed can instantaneously unleash a skill with the potency of tier three magic, almost without delay.

Such a formidable weapon applied in combat could empower the weak to stand alone and make the strong even more formidable.

Therefore, in the short term, Banning's combat system centered around the Secret Saber: Blaze Steed should have no problem dealing with enemies of tier three and below.

.

━━━━━━━━━

〖Prison Star Calendar〗

〖Year 187, June 20〗

〖6:03 AM〗

〖Countdown to Confession Death: 29 days〗

━━━━━━━━━

On the following day, Tyler awoke in the inn.

Regarding why he chose to sleep at the inn rather than Emilia's home, it seemed an issue, but actually not.

If he were to wake up at Emilia's place, that would pose a real problem.\( `∀ ́)/

Taking advantage of sleep to recover his magic energy, Tyler, as usual, honed his skill proficiency, upgrading "Calculation Boost" from level 2 to level 4.

━━━━━━━━━━

Intelligence: :139+20↑

Max Magic Energy:1390+200↑

Skill Name: Calculation Boost

Skill Effect:

During activation, increase calculation ability by 6+2↑%;

Consumes 6+2↑ magic power per second during activation, with less than one second counted as one second.

━━━━━━━━━━

The reason for honing "Calculation Boost" rather than "Deceiver" was that upgrading Calculation Boost just as well increased the Intelligence attribute.

Currently, the lower-level Calculation Boost had a higher cost-performance ratio when honing proficiency.

Tyler once considered the ultimate form of honing skill proficiency: honing while sleeping.

To achieve this, Tyler calculated that if the magic consumption rate of a skill were 10 points/second, it would amount to 36,000 points of magic energy/hour.

In a sleeping state, the magic energy recovery rate would be twice his Intelligence attribute/hour.

Meaning, Tyler needed to reach 18,000 Intelligence points to achieve a balance of magic energy supply and demand while honing skills during sleep.

Eighteen thousand points of Intelligence was indeed a long and arduous journey.

After completing his daily routine, Emilia arrived punctually to knock on his door.

Today, she brought not a potion book, but a request to visit Branch Chief Oleg together.

.

Branch Chief Oleg had already decided to follow Banning's advice and let Emilia take over as the next Branch Chief.

To persuade Emilia to accept, Oleg cleverly phrased his request:

"Emilia, as you can see, I am in no condition to work."

"Besides myself, you are the most knowledgeable about the Quest Guild's affairs in Sunny Town."

"Therefore, I hope you can temporarily manage the guild on my behalf until I recover."

"If you encounter any problems, feel free to seek my advice."

"If anyone objects to your authority, tell them they can take it up with me directly. Let's see who dares disrespect me."

Oleg's persuasive argument left Emilia no room to decline, so she accepted.

Having succeeded, Oleg shared a knowing smile with Banning, who pretended not to notice, fearing Emilia might catch a glimpse of their exchange.

Their next stop was to reorganize the Quest Guild.

.

However, two uninvited guests awaited them outside the mission guild today: Sunny Town's Mayor Gideon and his eldest son, Keven.

Mayor Gideon's heart ached, but he had to conceal his pain from his eldest son.

He grieved for two reasons: his illegitimate son Nassar had died, and it seemed that his friend, the Magic Spirit Walker Splurt, had also perished.

Nassar, as an illegitimate son, possessed greater abilities than Keven, which made Mayor Gideon always intend to give him a legitimate status.

He had just been waiting for the right opportunity — such as the day his wife might "accidentally" pass away.

As for Magic Spirit Walker Splurt, he had been an old friend of Mayor Gideon's.

Over the past two years, Gideon had been writing letters to Splurt, asking for his help in getting his son Keven to join the Serpent's Shadow Society.

Gideon believed that if only Keven could join the Serpent's Shadow and receive some training, his good-for-nothing son might amount to something.

Now, both of Mayor Gideon's hopes had been dashed.

And the culprit responsible for his shattered dreams was none other than Branch Chief Oleg.

"Keven, you know what to do, right?"

"Don't worry, Father. Leave it to me."

Every time Keven told Gideon not to worry, that was when Gideon worried the most.

But this son of his was already 33 years old. Even if he wasn't capable, he needed to be allowed to make mistakes in order to grow.

ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm "Go on, make it impressive."

"Very well, Father. You can wait at home for my good news."