46 Expedition (1)

Helios was bursting with activity, a rare scene considering the acolyte's tendency to stay indoor and study in calm. Everyone, be it merchants, knights or acolytes, came to see the Grand Expedition led by Marianne Deville.

Fifty beastmen were standing in a formation, wielding battle flail and shields, wearing chain mails as well as red steel helmets. There was no doubt about their loyalty or individual prowess, since they were strengthened by Grandmaster Jackal himself, an infamous Magus who had killed thousands with his thunder spells in the past.

'Red Steel? Well, it seems like Magus Jackal invested a lot in this project!', Drake appraised.

[Beep! Red Steel – Grade 1 alloy. Although red iron is not very difficult to fine, red steel is very difficult to fine. Only Grade 1 blacksmiths are able to refine such alloy. As for crafting objects with it, it requires a furnace capable of heating above the fusion temperature of red iron, which is exactly 728° Celsius. Red Steel is famous for its sturdiness and more importantly, its natural property of being very clean. If the Red Iron used was pure, it can also absorb slight amount of magical damage.]

Magus Jackal was pretty infamous in Helios. He was one of the rare wandering acolytes who rose to success without relying on Helios' strove of knowledge and appealing support. He used to belong to a Dark Magus Organization that focused on stealing resources from other acolytes.

Helios accepted both Dark Magi and Light Magi, but Magus Jackal never really abided by Helios' principles. He only joined the Magical Court for its benefits, and cared little about the laws and rules. He was at the top of the food chain, and since he had the strength to do so, he was akin to a wild dog. Once he set his eyes on something or someone, he would always find a way to get it.

He entered in conflict with several magi in the past, but they all backed down in the end, most of the time after a pretty destructive and mighty duel from which he always got out victorious.

However, seeing the man in real life…that was quite something. He didn't look like very dangerous from the outside. He was pretty old, probably over a hundred years old. However, for magi, it still young. After all, magi could live up to 300 years, rivalling with high elves and some ghost existences.

However, it was just the tip of the iceberg. Magus Jackal was suppressing the mana waves so that he wouldn't hurt the acolytes going in the expedition. After all, the mere presence of a Magus released terrifying radiations that could turn normal folks into a state of great fear. Not only there would be physical repercussions over time, the mental damage was even worse.

Magi were that terrifying, and that was definitely something Drake aspired to become one day.

Besides the 50 peak-knight level beastmen armoured in expensive gear, Drake had scanned over 20 individuals with mana waves unique to rank 1 acolyte, as well three individuals who seemed to have reached rank 2: disciples of Magus Jackal. Of course, Marianne was the most fearsome acolyte, with a terrifying spirit attribute that had reached 18.8 points, only a few points of spirit away from the peak of rank 3.

People usually couldn't notice an acolyte's level based on their mana waves. After all, they were very chaotic and irregular. Depending on one's emotions, the mana waves emitted by an acolyte could vary greatly. However, most of his biochip's resources in the past month were used to develop this detection program, that estimated an acolyte's strength.

It was not exactly accurate, but with the amount of data collected in the past months in Helios, with hundreds of walking data samples, the research was done in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Of course, Drake wanted more precision, so the research was still ongoing.

"Hi! I am Drake Moonlight, rank 1 acolyte", Drake lied blatantly, "I have brought my unit of sentinel, and I have received the support of Grand Knight Sillius in joining this expedition"

The acolyte in front of him answered in a cold voice: "I am Jack. Don't cause any trouble, and don't let your subordinates cause any problem. Since you are their leader, any trouble they cause, you will have to compensate for it."

'Why is he so cold? Is he holding contempt towards me?', Drake thought, outraged.

Jack was a rank 2 acolyte without any doubt, and because of his relationship with Magus Jackal, it wasn't as if Drake could offend him lightly.

"Marianne Deville mentioned you many times…I do not understand her decision to make you, a complete stranger to the Thunder Tower Faction, her advisor in the expedition, but I will keep any eye on you"

Jealousy, suspicions…Jack was indeed a loyal subordinate.

'No wonder he doesn't like me, I basically stole his place. Meh, whatever'

Drake dismissed this as childish behaviour, and it's not like he would hold a grudge from just this. After all, the man was still in his twenties. Everyone made mistakes in this age range, not to mention that in other people's eyes, he was just a rank 1 acolyte.

Nevertheless, although he had tried to hide his hunts, news still spread throughout Helios about his unit, the [Fifteen Dragon Wings]. Even though the acolytes in Helios only found out about a fraction of the magical beasts they had hunted, it was still enormous in comparison to other acolytes. It was especially impressive since Drake wasn't even a rank 1 acolyte a year ago!

Many were jealous of him, but most people looked up to him. Besides Jack, Drake instantly became quite popular after discussing with a few acolytes. After bringing a few magical subjects, Drake's profound understanding of knowledge that came from months of studying the biochip's tips, advices and summaries of highly-complicated magical theories finally shone.

"This is impressive? So do you understand why Magus Ulrick brought the topic of String Mana Nodes in his theory of Negative Energy?", a frail acolyte asked.

Despite his look, he was a rank 1 acolyte who had reached 7.9 points of spirit for a long time. Drake could see that he even possessed a golem, a magical being artificially made and possessed high strength and regenerative property. Such golems were incredibly difficult to make, as well as very expensive. Drake considered getting a golem but abandoned the idea pretty quickly after finding out that it cost several hundreds of crystals to attempt to create just one golem, not to mention actually succeeding in creating one.

"Well, Magus Ulrick is an elemental magus, so it doesn't really make sense for him to bring up the controversial topic of String Mana Nodes. However, just like Light Magi successfully implemented their theory of Pure Light Energy to create divination spells in the past, Dark Magi have actually managed to increase the deadliness of their spells with Negative Energy, by using string nodes to corrupt the mana they used. It is a bit tricky, but any rank 2 acolyte who are familiar with Shadow-elemental spells use negative theory", Drake explained patiently.

Among acolytes, Drake doubted that there was anyone with a culture and understanding of magic as deep as the one he had. Some rank 3 acolytes might have some insight that came from intensive research, but even then, the vastness of their knowledge couldn't even compare to Drake, who had the whole first floor of the Helios library in his mind.

Unlike before, Drake didn't just memorize the knowledge. He now understood it, and even deepened some theories with the help of his biochip during meditation sessions. With the basic and awkwardly questions that the rank 1 acolytes asked him, it was not really surprising to see Drake become popular, considering their hunger for knowledge.

It was quite the novel feeling for Drake, who spent his whole life above others. He never really had a friend. He only had superiors and subordinates in his past life, and because of his noble status in this life, people both respected him and feared his father. No one, besides Lara Eldrick perhaps who was hundreds of miles away from Helios, treated him as an equal.

Seeing that the swarm of acolytes asking Drake questions only seemed to get bigger, Marianne Deville squinted from a distance and intervened, with a smile on her face.

"Drake! I am quite happy to see you. How about you share the carriage with me? The expedition will last for around six months, so it will get pretty tiresome out there", she asked openly, as if she was showing her 'dominance' to the other acolytes.

Many bit their lips. Drake was a walking Encycloepedia. In less than ten minutes, a few sentences had sufficed to turn well-known bookworms in deep thinking, probably giving them an enlightenment that was worth several months of brain wrecking studies in the library.

However, Marianne was a rank 3 acolyte and the leader of the expedition. They just didn't have any right to complain. Furthermore, Drake smiled as well and exclaimed: "Greetings Marianne! I will gladly accept your offer. It's not every day you get to enjoy the company of a rank 3 acolyte!"

And so began a 6-months-long expedition.

Magus-level knowledge, resources, alchemy recipes, magical artefacts…The number of opportunities he could encounter by exploring an ancient wandering magus was limitless. Many joined the expedition to earn the favour of the Thunder Tower and perhaps accumulate enough merit to receive a considerable amount of magic crystals. But some had deeper ambition.

Be it Marianne, Drake or the three rank 2 acolytes from the Thunder Tower Faction, each one of them wanted to get their hands-on extraordinary treasures.