Chapter 228

I didn’t bother hiding as I summoned a fake air elemental, not too far from the school. It looked counter-intuitive to do so while the enemy this time was clearly doing their best to pull the forces outside the school.

[-2190 Mana]

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have started attacking the towns farthest away from the school. Even the involvement of their spies preventing the guard force from gathering supported that, despite looking contrary to it at the first glance.

I spent quite a bit of mana on the construct, more than necessary, giving the spies the impression that I prioritized speed over anything else.

And if they believed that I was already suffering from a lack of mana after such spending and it was a good opportunity to ambush me, it was even better. A miscalculated ambush was often more dangerous than a direct battle.

A strategy that I expected them to launch at some point. Especially since their aim was to clearly render the guard force unable to send out a functional expedition, which would force the headmistress to send her elite forces instead.

Forces like a mysterious mage that singlehandedly prevented Zokras’ invasion.

It was the reason I made a spectacle out of my departure. I wanted the spies to inform the mysterious enemy that the first stage of their plan was a success, so that the enemy would reason the first stage of their plan was a success.

The only problem, I didn’t know what would be their next move. If I were them, I would have attacked the school directly without bothering the peripheral attacks, but the problem was I had no idea of their priorities. I only knew they wanted to target Mariel and Janelor ultimately, but I had no idea other than that.

I still left the school, because I was ready to return. I had prepared three hidden teleportation arrays I could use to return — which was not permanent, but would last for a few days — and both Janelor and Mariel had magical means to communicate with me in case of an emergency.

Not to mention, I set Oeyne as the bodyguard, and the companion node she had would work wonders to alert me if she fell into danger.

And the same applied to Titania and Marianne, as well as Helga and Cornelia, their proximity giving me a useful teleportation destination in case their target wasn’t limited to current warriors stuck at the school.

I continued moving toward the destination, but not without another little detour. Rather than pushing directly, I moved in a spiral for a while, casting a wide number of detection spells to see if there was any buried surprise near the school.

I still remembered the buried undead armies that had been prepared as the last step of a deadly trip, one that would have been enough to force Mariel between defending the school and letting it fall — which would have been a dangerous choice with the struggles she had been having with Divine Spark at that time.

I shook my head after three spirals and started moving toward my destination directly, wondering whether they didn’t bother setting a similar trap, or they prepared one but managed to hide it well enough to keep it away from my attention.

Risky, but I decided to trust Mariel after the great boost she received as she started to sublime her Divine Spark, especially with all the hidden cards I arranged for her — both Janelor and the Princess.

Not to mention I could already feel the girls moving back to Silver Spires, giving her another impressive weaponry she could raise.

She had all the weapons she needed to resist anything less than the full force of the Eternals — a full force that I certainly didn’t expect to come at this point. After all, why would Eternals push forward aggressively when they had the perfect tools to maintain their position.

But, soon I realized that assumption wasn’t correct.

Pity that little lack of information was reached in the form of a huge, oppressive ward with a rotating structure, locking me in place.

A familiar ward structure, one that I remembered vividly from Mount Doom, when I worked hard to save Janelor.

“Okay, I might have miscalculated,” I murmured even as I checked my mana.

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 8753 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [85/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania - Level 35/38]

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]

[Marianne - Level 21/29]