Chapter 149

Three hundred miles between Silver Spires and Mount Dread was quite a distance for most people. Luckily, I had long lost the right to be considered in the same category as most people. For me, it was nothing that I couldn’t handle in several minutes.

But I didn’t rush out immediately, and first visited the Hall of Crafting, to see my favorite blacksmith.

Unfortunately, not have some fun activities — as I lacked time — but ask her help to forge some new weapons. After the teleportation mishap, my arsenal was completely gone.

That plan went astray the moment I entered the hall of crafting, and realized, she wasn’t in her room. She was in the main area, working with the other blacksmiths to forge a set of weapons. No doubt emergency orders from the school. I couldn’t imagine her working together with the guilds under any other circumstance. Though, that didn’t prevent guild members from watching her angrily, jealousy mixing with entitlement.

Understandable, as even when she worked alone while the rest worked in teams, her weapons were clearly superior. And to add insult to injury, she was considerably faster in her production as well.

Pity that meant I couldn’t just pull her away. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I could have pulled her away, but that would mean invoking the headmistress’ authority.

I wouldn’t mind abusing that authority under better circumstances, but with the number of spies that clearly infected the school, it wouldn’t nice for Oeyne if these spies realized she had a connection to the headmistress through a mysterious agent.

Things were complicated enough in Silver Spires before stirring the pot pointlessly.

Instead, I sneaked down to use Oeyne’s forge room. With all the material accessible, it took me half an hour to forge a new sword, a dagger, half a dozen throwing knives designed to hold mana for my unique fighting style.

Also, most importantly, I crafted a large net, the kind that could capture a large magical creature without hurting it too much.

[-3419 Mana]

Not the highest quality of equipment, not in terms of the materials I had invested, and certainly not in terms of the time and energy I committed to them, but considering the time crunch I was facing, the best I could manage.

With the Eternals were already hunting for the dragon, the sooner I acted, the better. Failing my first mission from the headmistress, even a difficult one, wouldn’t go too well in my mission to gain her trust. And her trust was critical, because she was my only source of information about the truth of the System.

And if the worst happened, and my weapons proved insufficient, I could always come back to forge new weapons. The travel took much less time than the crafting required. With the decision made, I summoned another elemental ride.

[-942 Mana]

Riding the air elemental, the distance between the school and my destination melted into nothing in minutes, and soon, I was once again looking at the misty peak of Mount Dread.

That close to a possible Eternal presence, I dispelled my ride. I could have ridden it further, but it was better safe than sorry. The mount was fast, but both visually and magically, it was hardly the sneakiest method to travel. Walking, especially thanks to the constant rolling mists ready to hide my presence, was much easier.

My plan was simple. First, I would arrive at the safe house, reinforcing the wards I had set up there during my previous trip, maybe establishing a couple more wards to enhance the security, before starting a deadly game of tag with the Eternals.

I started walking. However, my plans hit a little, almost minuscule snag...

In the form of a huge, rotating ward that covered the whole mountain without a warning, locking me in the mountain.

The ward was strong, stronger than anything else I had felt in my life. The closest thing for them was the defensive wards of Silver Spires when they were raised in war mode according to the plans, but I wasn’t sure which one would win out.

“Not a great start,” I murmured even as I pulled my dagger reflexively, but somehow, I managed to keep myself from gathering my mana for an explosive spell.

The reason for it, the shape of the ward.

If I was the target, they wouldn’t have surrounded the whole mountain with the ward.

That didn’t mean there was no danger. Of course not. Like that was even possible with my luck.

No, it just meant I wasn’t under immediate danger.

“What to do?” I murmured to myself even as I forcibly suppressed my mana even below its natural condition. Not the most comfortable feeling, but it prevented my presence to be detected.

They likely had a unique item to cast such wards. It wasn’t the happiest conclusion either, showing the depths of their treasure vault, but certainly better than having an opponent that could snuff me with a flicker of their mana.

“Finally,” I murmured even as I finally stepped into my safe house, my own wards enough to block the feelers of the detection ward, allowing me to relax the tight hold I had on my own mana, which was always an extremely uncomfortable sensation. Like trying to hold my breath, tense and uncomfortable. Almost like an itch impossible to scratch.

However, despite the temptation to laze around for a moment, I was already setting up a ward of my own to properly analyze the opponent’s defensive preparations. Because one thing was clear.

The opponent set up a deadly trap, one that was suspiciously excessive, almost overkill, to be applied against a dragon that could be restrained by a few measly liches.

[Level: 31 Experience: 493210 / 496000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6324 / 6324 Mana: 6942 / 7750 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Expert Craft [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]