Chapter 21 Bets

"I like how forward you're." Yuna smirked in response to the Duke.

"Well let's get on with it." He waved to her.

"I hear you have a blacksmith who's on the cusp of becoming a grandmaster." As soon as those words left her mouth the Duke stood up, muttered a spell and pointed a ball of condensed light in his hand.

"Where did you get this information?" He asked angrily.

"My own people, it will be kept between us." Yuna didn't show any signs of defending herself.

Meanwhile Reiner and I were both struggling to even stand up in the face of the Duke exerting his mana pressure.

The Dukes of Lionel Kingdom who were under Leo himself, all possessed White Ranked mana cores so their power was nothing to scoff at.

"What do you want with him?" The Duke replied, his angry face was slowly beginning to die down.

"All I want is for him to work with someone I acquired recently to make a nice set of armor for my son." Yuna put her hand on my shoulder which immediately alleviated all the pressure from the Duke.

"I'm a man of my word, but I refuse to let him leave the confines of his workshop." The Duke was clearly adamant about this condition.

"That's completely fine with me, I'll move my associate there now." The Duke was confused by what she just said.

"Shouldn't you bring him to me? So I can show him the workshop?" The Duke asked curiously.

"I've got it handled, my associate is already there." Yuna said with her signature mischievous smile.

"What did I get myself into…" He shook his head in defeat.

Little did the Duke know, all of the ninja like subordinates of hers had already investigated almost everything there was to know about him.

"Is there anything else you need?" He asked Yuna.

"I'll be supplying you a few materials for the armor, since I need it to be a growth type artifact." She said casually.

"What…"

Growth type artifacts are a different class of artifacts, they grow with their user. Creating growth type artifacts take AT LEAST a grandmaster blacksmith, but even then the chances of successfully making one is around one percent. Hence why Duke Reinhardt was utterly confused by how casual Yuna was.

"Don't sweat it, my associate is more than enough to help yours. But I'd like to keep this between us." Yuna's tone changed to be more threatening.

"Very well. Just please don't ruin him…" inwardly the Duke was crying.

With that, Yuna and I made our way out of the mansion and back to our own.

"What's the difference between Growth type artifacts and my soul bond?" I asked curiously, they sounded the exact same.

"Soul bonds have sentience while growth types don't, which makes soul bonds leagues better." Yuna stated simply.

"Soul bonds could be considered godly while growth types are considered the peak of crafting for mortals, so don't take what your father passed on to you for granted." Yuna slapped my shoulder.

"You goto academy soon so let's set ground rules." Yuna sat down and crossed her legs.

"I won't put a limiter on you since you'll be facing people stronger than you, so fight till your heart's content. Practically nobody will be able to beat you in terms of spellcasting."

There were plenty of ways of casting spells in Aevis, but the most used was incantations. According to my mother though this was severely outdated, so she began teaching me how to manipulate mana at its core.

Most people remember how a spell feels and use that for incantations, some people use magic circles and fill it with mana to cast a spell.

The process of casting is the same for almost every method, gather mana, form mana, release mana. No single method is truly better than others since they all have downsides except for one, silent casting.

Most people, depending on how much they've studied can identify what spell you're casting, magic circles have telltale symbols that give it away, incantations have words which make it clear as day, hand signs use preset movements for their spells.

But thanks to whatever the hell species I am, my mana sensitivity and manipulation is innately better than everyone else's. Therefore I don't need specific motions or formations to cast spells, all I need to do is will a spell into existence.

Dragons have a similar ability in which they can influence neutral mana that hasn't been absorbed yet, but I go one step farther.

I can cast spells in a certain vicinity around me at any time while others have to cast them directly from themselves.

Let's say someone wanted to shoot a fireball at someone, they would need to cast it from their hand. But if I wanted to I could cast the spell ten meters above myself, or better yet if they're close enough to me I can cast the spell behind them.

Due to it being very powerful my mother had forbidden me from using it in public until now, the only people who knew of this method besides me were Aiko and Ryota.

But even then they took much more time to grasp it since they were both geared towards incantations.

"I think it's about time we go cash in on our bet." I said to Yuna.

"You did refrain from casting spells, I believe there's a match that high level nobles will be attending the week before school starts." Yuna nodded.

"I know it's asking a lot but could I ask you for a favor mother?" There was something that had piqued my interest in a past match so I wanted to delve into it.

"What would it entail? I could see what I can do."

"Do you remember that shadow demon I like a lot?" I asked fervently.

"Yes?"

I leaned in and whispered something into her ear.

"I make no promises but I'll try." Yuna smiled before ruffling my hair.

"Let's go back and shave off some casting time."

Like that time passed quickly until it was time for the arena match I had been looking forward to.