Chapter 117: Catching up (2)

"Does this mean you will take me as an apprentice?" Eldrian asked, hoping that the process would be easy.

"Yes, since you said you only need guidance. That will make it far easier for me." Old Sword replied. They then spent some time figuring out what this mentor-apprentice relationship will contain. During which the army also started moving, Eldrian following along with Old Sword. Both of them on horses in the middle of the entire division.

From the added height given by the horse, Eldrian was able to sometimes see the perimeter of the division. Where fights would break out every now and then. These fights weren't serious, with only a couple of beasts. Normally less than a hundred, being in the direction the army was heading.

A group of soldiers would quickly split off to kill the beasts, the bodies harvested for food and resources as soon as they fell.

After quite a short time Eldrian and Old Sword had already agreed on the oath they will swear.

Old Sword will teach Eldrian, guiding him when he was stuck. The teaching Old Sword will give him will involve all three classes, magic, range and melee. Old Sword himself being Tier 7 in melee, Tier 5 in magic and Tier 5 in range.

Eldrian also learned the proper classification name for most Tiers. Before he had never really learned what each class was called, having only learned about the magic class. He had learned at what Tier NPC would get certain military posts, but that was not really a name for the Tier itself.

Magic was as Vivian had explained to him, long ago. Apprentice up to Tier 4, then Mage, Greatmage, Grandmage, Archmage, Magus and Archmagus.

Range was mostly the same, except that apprentice replaced with archer. At Tier 5 they would be called a Ranger, then Magelos Ranger, Mageleiodis Ranger and Kyrios Ranger. The final two Tiers were called a Marksman and Hero.

Melee was similar, being called a soldier till Tier 4. Thereafter it was the same as for range, but knight used instead. The final two were called Iroas and also Hero.

Coming back to the mentor-apprentice contract. Eldrian would study under Old Sword until he reached Tier 5 in both range and magic combat. For melee he could decide if he wanted to continue under OId Sword after Tier 5.

The restrictions Eldrian was under was far lesser than what he had with Boran. Eldrian did not need to complete any tasks, only swearing that he would do his best to help defend Phallos. Which was not a problem since it was already his plan.

This also led to Eldrian not receiving a quest from this, except for the standard quest of reaching the specified Tier. Eldrian would not even gain XP from this quest, only finish his apprenticeship.

The reason for Old Sword being far lesser strict was because he did not have many 'family' secrets techniques. What he did have was what he had made himself. Not handed down through generations.

After they finished this Old Sword saw that Eldrian still had questions, "What else is on your mind?"

Eldrian considered a bit, while he had many questions he could no longer keep from the most burning on. "Is Vivian alright?"

"So even you realized something?" Old Sword sighed as he thought about how to inform Eldrian. "A few days ago she had gone on a scouting mission."

Knowing that nothing good starting with such an explanation Eldrian felt his throat tightening as he struggled to speak. "What happened?"

"We don't know... Half her squad was found dead. We followed a trailof blood to a few more dead. In the end Vivian and three others were never found." As Old Sword spoke, Eldrian could feel the pain in his voice. Yet this was not enough for him.

"Why aren't we searching for her!" Eldrian shouted with fury and fear.

"Do you think I don't want to!" Old Sword took a deep breath to calm himself. "She is my baby girl. Of course I want to rush to find her... But, we failed to find any tracks... I hope that means they made it out."

"I want to do more, but I have an entire division under my command. I can't treat their lives like scraps. They deserve a competent leader."

"Dammit!" Eldrian let out as he smacked his own leg in furry. "How can you?" He asked, unable to believe that Old Sword was so calm.

Old Sword sighed, understanding Eldrian's feelings. "I trust she is doing her best to survive and get back to us. I have to do my job as well and did send a few elites to search for her."

'Like hell!' Eldrian shouted internally, only stopping from really shouting it when he saw the pain in Old Sword's eyes. It must be really hard on him too.Eldrian realized, wondering what he would do if it was him in Old Sword's shoes and Jen having gone missing.

Would I risk over a hundred thousand lives, just for an answer? She might already be dead. This struck hard at Eldrian, losing most of the enthusiasm he had gained from becoming Old Sword's apprentice and finding the thing he needed to cast Frost Needle.

Not knowing what to do, Eldrian mentally called the system quest. Hoping that the quest tracker would actually show him where Vivian was.

Why is the tracker not here?Eldrian was confused when he failed to find the tracker at first glance. Zooming out the map Eldrian saw that in the midst of darkness the tracker was blinking slowly. He also found that it was not accurate, highlighting an area which he expected was over ten kilometers in radius. But it was something.

"Have those you sent found anything?" Eldrian asked.

"No, in fact we lost three of the five groups. Just like what had happened with Vivian's, only that even less had managed to escape."

Hearing this Eldrian felt that this would not be an easy thing to accomplish then. If elite troops were getting wiped, then it meant there was something larger going on.

"I-I might have a way to help?"

"What!" Old Sword's reaction was so large that Eldrian finally felt at ease. This was more what he felt a parent should be like when their child was lost and in danger.

"I took a quest from Boran to deliver a new sword to her. In fact, this sword." Eldrian said, taking out Nelida and showing it to Old Sword.

"Boran made this?" Old Sword asked in shock, feeling that this sword was even better than his.

"Yes, he actually reached Tier 7 through making this." Eldrian replied as he took the sword back and storing it in his inventory. "But that is not what I want to explain."

"Thanks to this quest, and a map we Chosen all have." Eldrian saw the confusion in Old Sword's face so he shortly explained, "Like out inventory. Thanks to it I have a rough location of where Vivian should be."

"Really?" Old Sword asked in disbelief, seeing Eldrian's serious looked he sighed in relief. "The gods have not abandoned us."

"Not just that, I also feel certain that she is still alive. If she were not, then my quest should be failed." Eldrian explained, hearing this Old Sword actually started to tear up.

Seeing this Eldrian simply stayed quiet and waited for Old Sword to recover.

"Sorry about that." Old Sword said after having finally stabilized himself. "We need a plan."

"We do." Eldrian nodded, wondering just how the heck they were going to pull off the rescue. They could move the entire division there, but this was likely against military code or something. There was also the chance that this was not even possible. The location on his map was stationary, Eldrian felt this meant that Vivian holding up somewhere.

He felt certain this somewhere was hard to find and harder to enter with an army. He might be wrong, but this thought came to Eldrian thanks to movies and stories. He felt it was likely good to apply such knowledge here.

"You are currently too weak and you can't lead anyone. Therefore the first thing will be to help you become stronger." Old Sword said after a bit of thought, Eldrian still trying to consider approaches. "Other than Frost Needle, what else are you struggling with?"

"Observe, it is a skill and I don't understand the difference between a skill and a spell. I mean I understand what is meant to be different, but I don't understand the difference when casting them."

"That is quite tricky." Old Sword said, wondering how he would be able to help Eldrian understand.

"I think my problem is the nodes, a skill is supposed to release its energy or rather mana into me. But how does that happen when nodes take the mana from me?" Eldrian added, only half focused on this as he was still wondering what they could do for Vivian.

"That, let me quickly draw a few nodes for you." Old Sword said, feeling he would be unable to explain it without visual aids.

Old Sword drew four nodes for Eldrian, the first being the nodes for Tier 0 spells and skills. The spell nod was in the form of a plus, having five dots. On its center and four at the lines' ends. The skill instead was the same node flipped to form a X.

Tier 1 nodes were the Tier 0 nodes, but the lines connected with by another line- from tip to tip. Skill forming a square and spell a diamond.

The Tiers past Tier 1 was what helped Eldrian understand what was actually supposed to be happening. He had been stuck since he was only limited to the previous two, giving him no real information.

A spell's nodes should and must radiate outward, which became clear to Eldrian when he saw the Tier 2 and 3 nodes. A skill's nodes instead radiated inwardly, the center dot receiving all the mana and sending it into the caster.

With a spell rather, the center dot gave the mana the energy to exit and be released.

It is actually so simple, but only when you have the whole picture. Eldrian thought as he tried using what he just realized. His first few tried failed because he messed up this flow inside the nodes.

From this new knowledge Eldrian also realized why magic had exponential difficulty growth. For Tier 0 it had been really easy, a few nodes with a few pathways. The nodes simple and the pathways few.

Tier 1 was a bit more complex, the nodes were a bit bigger and the module had more nodes and pathways in a more complex pattern.

Eldrian had thought the increased difficulty came more from the module becoming more detailed and complex. But now he realized it was this and the nodes becoming harder. In fact the nodes made it far more difficult since they were repeated in the spell module.

Heck both Frost Needle and Anthizo had 9 nodes.