Chapter 3: A magic warrior

A horse-drawn carriage passed through the streets of Riveras, the largest city in the Duchy of Barnes. The roads were only wide enough to let two carriages pass without any interference, but even so, this one didn't slow down at all.

After all, the Duke's coat of arms was in plain sight, and no one dared to even slow down the person inside.

Inside that carriage was Rohan, playing with a black plaque in his hand to try to occupy his mind, unable to help but groan from time to time.

He wondered at one point if he had insulted the driver's mother or something. It was as if he was trying to roll over all the stones he saw on the road on purpose.

Without being able to do much about it, he pulled out of his pocket a bronze token that Commander Lin had given him before he got into the carriage.

It was a badge to prove that he had officially become a warrior. To be able to put it under his name, all he had to do was to activate the Essence Stone and connect the two. Thus appeared on the token his name and a 1, signifying the rank he possessed.

While this was simply done in seconds for him, most people who become warriors or rise in rank are forced to wait an infinite amount of time before an official takes the time to update their status. Not everyone has an Essence Stone in their pocket after all.

After a journey which seemed to him more and more intolerable, the carriage finally arrived at its destination. He opened the door without waiting for the driver to open it for him or put on the step, and leaped straight to the ground with a light step.

In front of him was one of the largest mansions in the city. It was one of the secondary residences belonging to his family. Count was the title representing the most powerful nobles after that of the duke of course, and although they had their own domain, a residence worthy of the name in the capital of the duchy was an obligation.

After dismissing the coachman, he entered through the large iron gate, nodded to the guards who had bowed, and walked towards the abode.

After the young master Rohan stepped away from the portal towards the building, the two guards raised their heads and looked at each other with an expression of disbelief.

"Did I see that? He did have a warrior's insignia on him, right?"

"I believe he succeeded in becoming a warrior at the Duke's castle, I even saw a 1 on the medal!"

* sigh *

"It must be a genius. If he ever trains with us like he does every morning, he's going to put us in misery now ..."

As the guards got scared for their future training, Rohan came to the door of the building. The door opened and a butler stepped out to welcome the young master.

"Welcome back, young master."

His eyes flickered over the badge attached to the warrior's chest and a smile stretched across his lips.

"Congratulations on becoming a warrior in such a short time, young master, I'm sure the Count and Countess will be happy with this news."

Rohan entered the building and headed for the stairs with the butler at his heels. A mocking smile appeared on his face when he heard the last past.

"Ha! The count will be surprised, that's for sure ! The countess however, will be more interested in parties or whatever it is that she attends. No need to waste time telling her, Jonas, send someone to prepare a hot bath instead. My body is numb from all over because of my promotion, and I'm not even talking about the coachman who was presumably after my life."

"Immediately young master."

"Ha and find someone to tell the news at my brother, and invite him with father to eat for tonight if they are available, otherwise too bad."

"It will be done, young master."

"Damn I almost forgot, warn my father that Edwin will drop by tomorrow to talk about something and he has to be present. Either it's to give us some money, or it's to ask us some, I don't see any other reason."

After finishing here, Rohan entered his room and closed the door behind him without giving his butler time to respond.

Jonas was used to his master's manners, which hardly suited a nobleman when he was at home. He had been his personal butler since birth, so the two had a pretty special relationship.

He wondered for a few seconds who he was referring to when he spoke of a certain Edwin. As he made his way to the servants' room, he suddenly stopped.

"Edwin! General Chrisfold, of course!"

He shook his head, laughing, then continued on to his work. It was still early in the afternoon, so if he wanted the young master's family to be present for the meal, that was going to be tight.

At normal speed, a horse would need 3 hours to reach the count's domain, so he should send someone deliver the message now.

He knew the young master hadn't eaten yet, so after sending someone over to take care of the bath and take care of all his chores, he went to the kitchen to have the cook make something.

Night began to fall. In the courtyard of the Duke's castle, Edwin stood in front of the children with a smile on his face. The demonic core was put away a few minutes ago, causing the mist of mana floating in the courtyard to disappear.

This year has been a good year. Of the thirty present, seven have succeeded in creating a core, including one who has become a warrior. One of the best groups in decades.

The six of them who created their cores now just have to create their meridian, and although not all of them will necessarily succeed, there will still be additional warriors defending the Duchy before the end of the year.

He sent the children home, his job finally over. As the last person stepped out of the courtyard, his smile vanished like snow in the sun. Lin had brought him the value of Spirit of the young warrior Rohan, this amount was undoubtedly disturbing.

He decided to take it into account now and go to ask advice from one of the only people who could help. He sped off to the stables to retrieve his horse. A warhorse feeds on the best seeds and hay, a mount made for battle.

He charged outside the castle and headed for the tall tower looming in the distance, the only one in the city and even in the whole duchy, the tower of a wizard.

The tower was the tallest building in the city, even the watchtowers surrounding the city did not reach such a height. There were a few openings serving as windows and a simple wooden door allowing entry inside.

He dismounted from his horse and headed for the door, no one would dare steal the horse of the most powerful man in the duchy, let alone before the terrifying tower of a wizard.

After knocking on the door, a man opened it. He was one of the apprentices, not even a rank 1 Beginner Wizard. But he was still one of the few people in the world apt at becoming a wizard. He looked surprised to see Edwin at this time of day, as the sun was no longer visible.

"General Chrisfold, what an honor! What can I do for you?"

"I need to see Wizard Madrick, it's very urgent."

Even though he was known as the most powerful in the duchy, he knew very well that it was wrong, as only the owner of this tower deserved this title. So he made himself as humble as possible while upholding his rank of general.

"Come in, I'll let him know."

The interior of the tower was simple, the ground floor was only a large room serving as a living space for all the apprentices of the tower. Three of them were currently present, in front of a board hanging on a wall. They bowed to the general before resuming their conversation.

Edwin waited standing in the middle of this room for five minutes before the apprentice came back to guide him toward the top of the tower.

They climbed a spiral staircase that circled the tower and passed a few doors, one door marking a floor.

Edwin knew that the first and second floors corresponded to the dormitories of the apprentices while the third and fourth corresponded to rooms for some experiments. Not knowing anything about it, he was not particularly interested. T

he fifth and sixth floors corresponded to the living space of a rank 4 Beginner Wizard and one of a rank 5 Beginner Wizard respectively, disciples of Mardrick, while he himself lived on the seventh and last floor.

Arriving at the top of the stairs, the apprentice knocked on the door, opened it and let the general enter before closing the door and going down again, all without a noise.

Before Edwin was a middle-aged man, with a pepper-and-salt beard gnawing his cheeks and wearing a gray wizard robe. You might think that Mardrick was only ten years older than Edwin, but in fact he was almost a hundred years old, while Edwin was only sixty.

Raising the ranks considerably increased the lifespan of a person, however the lifespan of wizards will always be higher than the one of warriors.

It was even said that there were wizards over a thousand years old, while the famous Old Monster of the Empire, a rank 16 Supreme Warrior, was only 400 years old, and was nearing his end.

After General Edwin and Mage Mardrick greeted each other, Edwin told him what had happened that morning. Mardrick followed the story while stroking his bearde with wide eyes.

"A spirit of 11 ... terrifying. An average wizard usually has a spirit of 5 thanks to the manastone he has since birth. I know why you are here. You want to know if he is a wizard… With such a number, I will want to say yes, but the only way to verify is to ask the kingdom to send the court wizards to check if he has a manastone. You realize, of course, that this is definitely not the time to get their attention."

"I suspected that, isn't there another way? Make him learn a spell or something ?"

The mage shook his head, sighing.

"The only method to activate the manastone is to first make it absorb mana. For that you have to send mana directly into the head. So if he truly has a manastone, then everything is for the best, but if he doesn't, he might die, or worse. And it certainly wouldn't be the first case of a mentally crippled genius because someone thought he was an apprentice with a mighty spirit. "

His implication was obvious, without a way to prove that he did have a manastone, the risk would be far too great. The only way to find out would be to involve the kingdom, and to involve them now would be a terrible idea.

"Haaa. Guess there's nothing we can do then."

"No need to think about it Edwin! He still became a warrior in one day and it isn't something that can be done with a high Spirit alone, he definitely has talent in the warrior path. So give him some ressources, and after we win the war, we will be able to test him. If he really has a manastone, he would potentially be able to become a magic warrior. A true powerhouse from this duchy, able to follow the warrior and wizard paths and be much more powerful than you and me !"