CH 150

Frowning, Tragula shook his head. It was as if Countess Nerus’ high-pitched laughter was ringing right by his ears. It was too late to regret the choice he made now. Or should it be said that he never had a choice, to begin with? Even if he wanted to run away with the Golden Falcon, he couldn’t do so. High-grade artifacts like these were all enchanted with binding magic. It was how their true owner could tell its location.

In short, Tragula was leashed as long as he held the Golden Falcon, hence why the countess had handed it over willingly. There was no other way out, other than to somehow become a member of the final expedition corps. That way, he’d become the rightful owner of the artifact.

Thus, Tragula became Tragula Nerus and joined the Dark Knights, which the countess had deemed the most promising. Much time had passed since then. Fortunately, he had not lost the talent that came in the Celestial Archer’s bloodline as he managed to join the ranks of elites with relative ease. With this, he thought he only needed to hang on a little more until the demon lord… But then Mayer suddenly began keeping him at arm’s length, twisting up all his plans.

Tragula had no need for pride, not for the fate of his family name. He had already thrown away what pride he had when he slept with Countess Nerus. Acting to please a vice-captain who had dropped out of nowhere was nothing to sweat over. He merely felt curious as even the squad leader of Darkfall didn’t seem to know much about her.

He was certain that her appointment was an arbitrary decision made by the Dark Knight. What was special about the woman? Was she Mayer’s lover? Or a prodigy he didn’t know about? He had to figure this out so that it would be easier to humor Mayer and the vice-captain.

But it didn’t take long for Tragula to find out why Jun became the vice-captain.

“…What is this?”

“Ah, it’s a light experience gaining magic. It’s a dungeon beyond the ‘wall’, so it’d be a waste not to use it. Got to appreciate every bit of experience, you know.”

Light? Experience gaining magic? The things she was saying were utterly mystifying. He had never even imagined there could be a spell that could increase the experience points you gained. If such a thing had existed, support mages would never have been so mistreated until now. Surely they would’ve received the royal treatment instead. Moreover… Tragula realized his offensive power was greater than usual.

Was this all thanks to the vice-captain’s support magic as well? The feeling of his arrow shots was definitely different. Seeing how the other party members were shooting glances at Jun, it seemed that she had cast an enchantment over all the expedition squads.

The spell to increase offensive capability by itself was a common support spell. However, casting it over a large-scale raiding party like theirs was a different story. Even if one person’s offensive capability was reduced, the overall efficacy was high enough, especially considering the size of their expedition. Tragula ran a mental calculation of how helpful Jun’s support mage was to the raid, and he found that their rear line was more relaxed than usual. Glancing at Robur, who was defending the front, he saw that she was having an easy time to the point of even cracking jokes while looking behind her. It wasn’t that surprising considering that she was over level 60. But it was unexpected that the little ones beside her who had just passed level 40 looked like they didn’t need much of a breather. Could it be… Had Jun also cast a support spell that increased defense as well?