Chapter 218: The meeting

As soon as he entered the game Eldrian focused in on himself, trying to sense pure mana only. This was rather difficult as his mana kept fluctuating between different elemental forms. After ten minutes of failing to actually be able to observe pure mana for longer than a second, he felt he needed a different approach.

His thoughts directly headed to the magic abyss. In that empty space, everything to do with magic was far clearer. Precisely since that was all that was actually inside that space. Eldrian wondered if he might be able to look into himself while inside the magic abyss. He doubted it, seeing his body never traveled in with him, only his consciousness. Still, he felt it was worth a try.

Going about it in the normal way, Eldrian used Nidia to enter the abyss. The reason quite simple, it was the spell that took the longest before it started to drain his mana. Even when it did, the drain was practically nothing. His current mana regen actually able to overcome this.

Strangely, while his total mana had slowly been increasing, up to 172 currently; his regen was still only at 0.65 MP/s. Eldrian could not complain though, since the increase in total mana was a welcomed surprise he had found after gaining his hidden class.

In the magic abyss, Eldrian ignored the droplet surrounded by water elemental mana. Instead, he tried to look into himself. This was far harder than he thought it would be. Normally he would target his focus into his own body, what was he to target now?

Taking his time Eldrian kept trying to figure this out, hours passed and soon he felt someone place their hand on his shoulder. The physical contact ripped his consciousness out of the magic abyss, resulting in a headache bothering him as he looked at the cause of his pain with slight anger.

"Sorry about that." A wolf-demi-human girl jumped back in fright upon seeing Eldrian's glare. "You wouldn't respond to any words, no matter how hard I shouted!" The girl quickly said in an effort to not anger Eldrian anymore.

"No, it is alright," Eldrian said, sighing and attempting to get over the irritation of being so rudely taken out of the magic abyss, along with the pain. "Why did you need me?" Eldrian asked as he saw that the maid was not willing to say anything, probably out of fear. He did not quite understand why she was so afraid, still he didn't wish to cause her anymore so he tried to appear easygoing.

"P-p-p-pelaros told me to come get you." She replied hurriedly.

"Oh, is it already time?" Eldrian asked casually, looking at the system for confirmation. Left stunned when he saw it was already one o clock in the day.

"Y-yes. The last person has just arrived, so they are waiting on you now."

"Then let's go!" Eldrian quickly stood up, failing to realize that he was actually dizzy and his legs completely asleep. Grabbing onto the wall he steadied himself as his legs failed him, "Sorry, let me quickly get something to help me walk."

Eldrian felt quite dumb for not realizing his legs would be asleep after staying seated for over eight hours. The dizziness he assumed was due to the abrupt ending of his training.

Following the maid, Eldrian was quickly led through the manor and into the main hall where formal meetings were held. The room was massive, able to easily accommodate over three hundred people. Only around thirty was currently inside of it, Eldrian recognizing around ten of them as those here for the mission.

The group was not all thirty, a portion of this group stood to the side dividing them into around twenty and ten. Both these groups faced someone Eldrian could not see from the entrance. Eldrian quickly headed over to Evules who stood clear in the bigger group. Not wishing to stand alone and awkward during the meeting. Even with four other centaurs being in this group, Evules still stood at least a head above them all making it easy for Eldrian to spot him.

"What were you up to?" Evules asked as soon as Eldrian joined them, this caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look over at him.

Eldrian did not like having all the eyes of these bigshots on him, yet he knew he had to explain himself. "Sorry, I was busy with an experiment and lost track of time."

"What experiment?" Zereus asked with clear disdain. Most of those here felt the same disdain, having needed to wait for someone so weak did not sit right with them. While it had only been around ten minutes, they still felt irritated by it.

"It isn't really any of your business, and I doubt you would believe me if I explained," Eldrain replied sharply, not wishing to be bullied in the party. He knew if he didn't stand up for himself here then he would be treated as lesser by everyone.

"Do you think you are better than me!" Zereus roared, waving his fists as his face turned red.

"Enough! Now that everyone is here we can officially start the meeting." Pelaros shouted to stop all ideas of talking. As soon as everyone heard his shout they quieted down and listened, though clearly still not appeased. They had hoped that Pelaros would reprimand Eldrian, nothing being done left a bad taste in their mouths.

"You all know the reason for the mission. The Pyknos forest has been corrupted by something. What, we do not know. We also do not know where this started, how it spreads, or what it really does."

"We do know that it caused the trees to slowly die from rotting on the inside. The same for all plants, we do not know if this can happen to animals. I have arranged for a cleric to join you at the fort in case this is possible."

"Then let's go!" Someone shouted, seemingly not caring for this meeting.

"Let me finish Corbol!" Pelaros shouted, causing the person to quickly shrink back. "The rotting isn't the true thing we are worried about. Rather it is the fact that the dead seem to rise in this place, as well as anywhere close to the corruption. It also seems to feed the undead, allowing them to function at full strength for much longer than normal."

"That sounds like the stories from exploring adventurers," Evale said as she heard this.

"Indeed, it is similar to the effects that are found past the encroaching border," Pelaros said while looking at everyone to emphasize how dangerous this was. "That is what makes it so scary, if it is something that happens naturally then we will have little recourse."

"But at least, in this case, it is something rare and we might be able to figure out how to combat it with time. The encroaching is far too massive for us to fight, but we might be able to fight this. Though we might be able to use it as a reference if we find that they function truly similar."

"The worst case is that it is something the devils can spread. If that is the case, then we are really in trouble. It will mean that no area is safe, and as such your mission will be far more important."

Pelaros stopped here for a while and looked at everyone again, "I have prepared a certain device that will be able to send a message even at such distances. If you find it is the second, the leader of the mission will use this to inform me. Your mission will then change from determining the cause, to trying to capture it."

"Wait, we did not agree to that. And who is going to be the leader?" One of the other centaurs asked as soon as Pelaros finished his statement.

"You don't need to do this. You just won't get your pay if you run at that point." Pelaros said, clearly mocking the centaur's easy-to-read fear. "If you feel that it is too dangerous, then don't go on the mission! You all know the risks, you know why I even went so far as to get a Chosen to join you!"

The centaur backed down as Pelaros shouted at him, but this did not ease the others. "Who is going to be the leader!?" Zereus asked with determination, pride written all over his face. He clearly felt it should be him.

"Not you if that is what you are asking." Pelaros quickly replied, "It is going to be Evale."

This caused quite an uproar, many were not happy with a female leading them. Others not happy because the twins never mingled in noble life. They were strangers to the nobles who took the mission. While these nobles were loyal to their kingdom, that did not mean they liked being bossed around. Especially by someone they didn't even know.

After a couple of seconds, Pelaros roared in anger, "Enough! This is not a debate, this is an order! She is the strongest in the group, while some of you are also Tier 7, she has years over you in training at that level!"

"While she is not well known in the noble circles, she and her brother are the highest-ranking nobles in this room, aside from myself! Lastly, unlike you bunch who run in circles in the city, she lives in her town. Protecting it each day with her brother. They both have years of experience leading battles, and leading just sixteen people would be a breeze for them both!"

Hearing the facts, and having their inadequacies thrown in their faces, everyone felt slightly angered. Though they dared not voice their anger as all these were indeed facts. She would be able to beat any of them in a fight, she had the right in her rank, and she had the experience.

Complaining even after it had been said would just show how vain they were.