47 Expedition (2)

The carriage was pretty huge, and two Khors were being used as horses.

Khors were reptilian beasts with magical affinity. Although they couldn't threaten acolytes and were vegetarian, they could use mana to run faster, and this allowed Khors to exist and survive for millions of years, escaping predators while having an easy time wandering in plains and forests. Ever since acolytes appeared in Barnolia, Khors were tamed and used as proper mounts.

"So, what do you think?", Jane asked

Jane was another rank 2 acolyte from the Thunder Tower Faction. Unlike Marianne, she didn't have any motives to befriend Drake. If anything, she was similar to him and sympathized. She was born in a baron household, and was recognized in a knight tournament.

Unlike Drake, she abandoned her knight cultivation and decided to focus entirely on Thunder-elemental studies. Her talent was self-explanatory:

[Name: Jane Elderwood. Age – 28 years. Rank: Rank 2 Acolyte

Status: Healthy

Attributes:

Strength – 4.0 | Dexterity – 2.4 | Constitution – 3.6 |

Spirit – 13.2 | Mana – 13.2/13.2

Perk: Traces of non-human bloodline (Better genetics and disposition to knight training)

Skills: ?

No apparent artefacts or enchanted items found on target's body.]

Obviously, she was very strong. The limit in spirit for rank 2 acolytes was 14 points, and she had already reached 13.2 points, meaning that she was only a few steps away from reaching the infamous rank 2 bottleneck. For many people, it didn't matter whether you consumed a reactive elixir or not. If you didn't have enough talent, you would have to search for even more potent solutions: Magus-level blood, transplantation of magical beast organs, deals with devils, blood rituals…

However, judging by her appearance, current strength and age, Jane Elderwood seemed to be quite promising, probably a grade 4 talent. Drake was confident in beating most of rank 2 acolytes in Helios, because he had more experience in wars and missions, most of it coming from the past few months of hunting.

However, he had no idea of his odds of victory against someone as mysterious as Jane. In melee, there was no way he would lose, but if it was a long-range fight, then he would probably end up beaten up badly.

As for the two other rank 2 acolytes, Arthur and Jack, these two were far inferior, lacking in spirit and attitude. They were rude, and if it weren't for Marianne being present in the carriage, they would have already gotten into a fight, either against each other, or teaming up against Drake.

Their hostility was pretty funny, however. Drake was proficient at using words, and the two men could only glare when they lost in a battle of wits.

"Drake, I heard you have been frequenting Roxanne a lot these days, huh?", Marianne suddenly asked, as if she was trying to amuse herself in this boring trip. From her point of view, it was something quite normal. The only threat on the trip would be a few packs of dire wolves, and perhaps bandits. But who would be daring enough to attack an expedition led by the Magical Court?

Even a Duke would bow down to a rank 3 acolyte in fear of having his household wiped out, not to mention a group of wolves driven by their bestial instincts and hunger.

"Indeed…She mentioned being a disciple of Magus Aegon, though her living condition and obvious lack of support must have been related to a dispute. Do you know her personally?", Drake replied

"Well, I have been running errands for my grandfather ever since I awakened my spirit at 11. After becoming a rank 2 acolyte, we visited many ruins…We found a lot of skeletons that were stronger than average peak knights. I observed your subordinates fighting yesterday, and the ones with the crossbows seemed extremely strong, perhaps even as strong as my beastman legion. Did Roxanne pass down something to you? Your subordinates have glowing runes on their body that have an impressive resemblance to the runes on the skeletons we fought a decade ago"

"Indeed, she failed to decrypt scrolls she had picked up, and sold them to me. I was able to gain a few insights, though I had to make a few trips to the library and search for the specific knowledge. It's a pity that there is so little information about enchanting runes, or else I wouldn't have had to spend weeks of research in my lab!", Drake lied.

He had obviously decrypted the content of the scroll in no time, but since Marianne only knew of his supposedly eidetic memory, lying about struggling with runes made more sense, especially considering that he had spent a lot of time in Magus Kayle's laboratory for the sake of developing the Vitality Elixir.

"Well, enchanting bodies, huh? This is quite the news. If you engraved these runes on the sentinels, I am afraid that acolytes…"

"Oh, you don't need to worry about it. There are severe requirements about these runes. Not only do they require magical beast cores, they are also very exhausting. I've spent the three past months to strengthen my subordinates, but I don't have the courage to do one more. I neglected my meditation because of it", Drake complained.

Indeed, he thought many times of using the runes to strengthen his faction. If he was lucky, Grand Knight Sillius would have passed down some extraordinary knight killing technique to him. However, it was too long of a process. A complete tattoo would take Drake around 16 hours. Unless it was an important favour, he would rather go and hunt some magical beast. As for earning magic crystals, with the deal he made with Roxanne, he would not be lacking funds for a long time.

"Mm, I feel you", Marianne nodded.

She began to grasp Drake's character. His behaviour was quite odd. Unlike most of acolytes who lived their lives in calm, Drake seemed to enjoy danger. And her judgement was quite perceptive. Except for one mistake: Drake never neglected knowledge.

It's just that the best way to acquire data was raw data, fighting data and such. If not for the numerous hunts Drake went through with his unit of sentinels, he would have never managed to improve his sword art to Grand-knight level, or create the knight-killing technique [Arclight Thrust], based on [Arclight chop].

"I've noticed that the crossbow has a firepower similar to rank 1 acolyte's spell. How is that possible?", Jane asked out of curiosity.

Drake had turned into the main source of entertainment for these two fearsome women. Bored, they just didn't stop asking questions. But of course, Drake wasn't someone who could be 'used' freely.

"Indeed. The crossbows are a special command, but one has to be at least a peak knight to use one. Furthermore, the accuracy and the firing rate of these crossbows are low. However, since I have been hunting magical beasts, there is nothing better than these weapons to take down flying monsters", Drake bragged, "But enough of me. Miss Jane, you were talking about Wandering Acolytes earlier, right? Are there many of them?"

Jane Elderwood smirked: "Are there many of them? There must be a dozen times more acolytes than there are in Helios! They are everywhere, from high positions as lords, to lowly commoners. The most secretive ones create their own laboratories, and those with high ambitions create small settlements. However, unless it is backed by a rank 3 acolyte or a magus, these settlements of wandering acolytes usually end up being wiped out by acolytes related to Dark-Magi"

"Why don't they come to Helios?"

"Well, it's not like they don't want to. However, not everyone wants to give up their life of luxury for a life filled with danger and pressure. I believe that nobleship is something that someone can devote his life to, and have as much influence as a magus, if not more. As a matter of fact, did you know that the King himself is a rank 2 acolyte belonging to the Magical Court? When I heard-"

"Jane! This is classified information! How can you just disclose that?", Jack suddenly screamed.

"That's okay, I already knew he was an acolyte", Drake said.

He had memorized the names of all 1685 acolytes registered in the Magical Court. Some had disappeared, others had attended long-term missions or returned to their past lives, but the Library in Helios kept a trace of them. Drake was pretty surprised as well when he read the name of Reynold Porfield, nicknamed the Dumb King. It was just a front, probably a scheme to see who was loyal to Thirteen Kingdom Alliance, and expand the Porfield Kingdom's territory.

The Porfield Kingdom was already the biggest kingdom in Barnolia, and obviously the most powerful. There were over 100 000 soldiers from the Royal Family only, and among them, there were around a thousand knights, though they were far from being as strong as the sentinels. However, if you considered the 5 Grand Knights affiliated in the army as well as the King's personal strength as a rank 2 acolyte, no kingdom could even come close to the Porfield Kingdom in terms of military strength. The same went for social, economic and religious power as well.

Rather than a kingdom, it would be much more accurate to call it an Empire.

"…"

After an awkward silence, Drake asked some more questions. Unlike the rank 1 acolytes in Helios, these rank 2 and rank 3 powerhouses were disciples of Magus Jackal. The amount of knowledge at their disposal far exceeded normal members of the Magical Court. They were talented, and their potential was fully stimulated by the teachings of a real magus.

If Drake didn't take advantage of this, he wouldn't be able to look at himself in a mirror.

The end of the trip really turned into a sea of incomprehensible for gibberish for Jack and Arthur, who were naturally quite intelligent as acolytes who followed the guidance of Magus Jackal, yet not nearly knowledgeable enough to follow the conversation between Marianne, Drake and the surprisingly well-educated Jane, who seemed even more knowledgeable than Marianne.

At some point, Drake found it even suspicious, but didn't show any sign of displeasure. In fact, it was enjoyable.

In terms of gathering data, this trip certainly could not compare to Drake's month of intense scanning in the first floor of the library, but it still expanded the database by leaps and bounds, especially in terms of highly classified mana theories. But since they didn't have anything else to do besides meditating and eating food in the carriage, it was a pleasant surprise.

Be it Jane, Marianne, Arthur or Jack, they could only keep muttering and asking 'dumb' questions. They spent their lives among other acolytes who lacked the basics. They were the people who were looked up to, admired by many and treated as geniuses wherever they went. But the higher you stand, the more painful the fall. From times to times, they would ask questions that made them ashamed:

"Who is this Sage Ephlor?"

"What does [Superfluid] mean?"

"Elemental semi-particles? Do they really exist?"

"What is the theory of cause and coalition?"

"Mana links?"

Somehow, in three months, Drake thoroughly proved what a real genius was to these four disciples of a Magus. He was a grade 5 talent, and he didn't waste his potential. He was a freaking walking library. Had they known about Drake's breakthrough, his extraordinary contribution to the discovery of the Vitality Elixir, as well as his mastery of 4 spells despite having awakened merely a year ago, not to mention his achievements in sword play and body refinement…

Drake was an existence that couldn't be measured by common sense solely. In his eyes, Jack and Arthur were rocks he needed to step onto, and Marianne was like the mountain he had to overcome to reach the sweet prairie. They weren't exactly enemies, but it would take genius actors to hide their hostility from him after three months of constant interactions.

If before, Drake just trusted his instincts in becoming cautious around Marianne, he now felt real danger. She wasn't just after his talent. She didn't just want to keep his mouth shut. She was planning to kill him.

And yet, no matter how he looked at it, she was bound by her contract.

But…these three months allowed him to catch a loophole in the contract, the one loophole that Marianne used behind his back:

'What if…she hired people to hurt me before signing the contract?'

The moment Drake figured it out, he no longer considered her as an acquaintance, or even a human being. In his eyes, she was someone he would definitely get revenge on. Her backing made it impossible for him to retaliate yet, since no matter how strong he was, he just stepped into this world of magic a year ago.

If he wanted to take revenge, he would have to endure whatever was thrown at his face, and more importantly, survive at all costs. Once he broke through and became a magus, she would receive what she deserves.

Meanwhile Drake distracted their minds with highly complex mana theories and point of view, Drake had been planning his next steps after returning to Helios.