Chapter 23: A Newborn Leader.
"Borrow?" Alseace furrowed his eyebrows as he helped to cut off the left ear of the other wargs.
"Yes, it allows me to borrow 10% status points of the people that I touched for exactly 60 seconds. It will be activated as soon as I activate my Borrow skill, but the effect only lasts for 10 seconds," Cleo explained as she nodded her head and took the last left ear of the warg. "And the skill cooldown is half an hour before I can use it again," Cleo continued.
"Then what happened after that? Do you have to touch the person again?" Alseace asked, and he looked intrigued by her skill.
"No, the skill can be activated again and used by the last person I touched for 60 seconds," Cleo answered as she put the wargs' left ears into her bag. "With that being said..." Cleo paused as she approached Alseace. "If you dare to leak my skill, I'm going to leak your status points to everyone," Cleo continued as she leaned her face toward Alseace's face.
Alseace hummed as he looked Cleo in the eye and found her skill was indeed interesting. If she stole his status points, she got an extra 25 points on each status, and that alone was enough to put her into B-Rank Candidate.
"Your secret is safe with me, and I hope you do the same," Alseace said with a gentle smile. "Now that I think about it. Is that the reason why that girl called you a slut? Was it because you had physical intimacy with a lot of men of the seventh-year students?" Alseace asked.
"That's right, and I have been looking for the best one for the past 5 years ever since I joined the Academy. Since all the instructors already knew about my skill, none of them allow me to touch them," Cleo answered with an innocent smile. "But, now I have found the best Candidate for it, I don't need to do that anymore," Cleo giggled with a huge grin on her face.
Now that Alseace knew everything, it all made sense, about the rumors that had been around Pave Academy about Cleo. It always made him a bit satisfied and happy when he managed to find the truth behind the rumors.
"Cleo! Alseace! Are you guys okay?!" Edgar asked as he ran toward them with the others. But when he looked at the dead wargs that scattered around them, he wondered who killed them all. "You guys killed them?"
"It's not me, it's her," Alseace pointed his thumb at Cleo.
"That's impossible..." Alwin said in a trembling voice.
"Anyway, we have killed 9 wargs and to be honest, that's more than enough. But since we're fine and still in a good shape, I think it's better if we go and hunt some more," Edgar said as he looked at the others.
"Fine by me, the EXP here is nice," Alwin replied as he swung his spear.
Zia and Gilden didn't mind going, in fact, they were eager to go and gain more EXPs that would be enough to make them rank up. Cleo was fine with it because Alseace was there to protect them if things went bad.
They hunt wargs with Edgar as bait while the others dealt the killing blow and Alseace buffed them with his supporting magic. Their strategy was flawless and killed 6 wargs in the span of an hour. They were still fine and planned on going for another 2 hours before they decided to end the training.
(Outside the portal)
Estian lit his cigarette and enjoyed the silence in the area with Julius standing next to him.
"So you're telling me that Alseace wasn't a mage?" Estian glanced at Julius.
"He's not because his sense, dexterity, agility, and his strength are too high to be a mage. But, to think he has the ability to use magic and can control four basic elements, he's terrifyingly impressive," Julius answered as he leaned on the car.
To be able to use 4 basic elements was difficult to even for talented people. It wasn't just about science on how to create fire, water, wind, or earth, but it also had something to do with Mana and how to turn it into an element and maintain its consistency.
Estian hummed and looked at the portal in front of him. "The moment Gratya became the secretary, she immediately make Alseace's information a top secret. I wonder why she did that," Estian said as he puffed the smoke. "Perhaps I can use my authori-"
Before Estian could finish his sentence, the portal suddenly distorted and changed its shape.
"The portal?! It's changing!" Estian said as the cigarette in between his fingers fell to the ground. "Everyone! Get inside and bring the students back!" Estian said to the Agents near the portal.
All the Agents tried to enter the portal, but they couldn't enter with a notification that the vortex was occupied. They told Estian that the portal had turned into a vortex.
"What do you mean the portal turned into a vortex?! That's impossible!" Estian shouted as he approached the portal, and it was as the Agents said, a notification that warned him that the vortex was occupied. "This is..." Estian clenched his fists and stared at the notification. "There's nothing we can do..." Estian said.
(Inside the vortex)
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[A newborn leader]
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[Difficulty: Intermediate]
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[Objective: Defeat the warg that is being possessed by demonic power. If the warg is still alive after the demon possessed the warg, it will grow even stronger that it will turn into a calamity]
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[Failed Condition: The warg disappears after possession is over in 24 hours. Soon, the warg will come back and will destroy your world once it becomes a complete calamity]
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[Reward: Optional Box]
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[Timer: 23 Hours 59 minutes 59 seconds]
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"Wait, what's this?! Isn't this something that only happens inside a vortex?" Alwin asked as he looked at the mission panel in front of him.
"We are inside a vortex," Alseace answered and closed the panel in front of him. "Looks like we are going to hunt all the wargs since we don't know which one that's being possessed by demonic power," Alseace pointed out as he looked at everyone.
"All of them? That's going to be hard because there are at least hundreds of them. Not to mention how big this place is," Edgar said as he crossed his arms. "We don't even bring enough food," Edgar continued.
"We have plenty of food," Alseace looked at the warg's dead body next to him. "I'll make food and the smell of blood will lure all the wargs which is like hitting two birds with one stone," Alseace said and asked Cleo if he could borrow her dagger.
They were amazed and in awe to see Alseace act so calmly even though they might die there. He was also good at skinning, gutting, and preparing the warg's meat like it was nothing.
After he managed to cut the meat and prepare the fire, he brought the warg's head with him. When they asked him why he told them that he would use the blood and poured it all somewhere to attract the other wargs.
"I don't think it's a good idea, but seeing how calm and collected he is, it made me think we should follow his lead," Edgar said and hated to admit it as he waited for the meat to be cooked.
Cleo didn't say anything since she didn't want to tell them how strong Alseace truly was. She felt like the secret that she had was more precious than those people's lives.
While they were enjoying the delicious warg's meat, they heard howls from all sides, and it made them all anxious. The reason was that he used wind magic and let the scent of blood spread through the forest faster.
"This is... it's the smell of blood..." Edgar said as he sniffed the fishy and pungent smells. "Is he trying to lure the wargs to him?" Edgar asked as he stood up to look for Alseace.
"Is he out of his mind?! If he wants to die then let him be! Let's get out of this area before it's too late!" Alwin said to Edgar with a panicked expression.
Edgar thought about it and considered the situation they were in at that moment. No matter how strong they were and how hard they tried, it would be impossible to deal with hundreds of wargs at the same time.
"He's our instructor, and I believe in his ability, but we're not going to help him. I think if we join him, it would only make things hard for him, so let's just observe him on the tree," Edgar decided as he looked at the others. "We can guide him from above and perhaps lure a few wargs toward us," Edgar continued.
Cleo nodded her head in agreement, and then she immediately ran toward where Alseace went. Edgar and the others followed her from behind as they looked around to look for Alseace.
"Alseace!" Cleo shouted when she saw a human silhouette behind the thick mist in front of her.
Alseace looked at everyone who came for him, and he looked a bit surprised to see them look for him. Edgar then told him about their plan, and Alseace didn't mind if they wanted to stay near him.
"This plan of yours, do you think you can handle hundreds of wargs?" Edgar asked as he caught his breath.
"That's not a problem since I can get involved from here on out. This is no longer a hunting training, so I'll deal with it," Alseace answered so casually, but then he looked to his right and said, "They're coming. You guys should start climbing if you want to survive."
Edgar and Cleo immediately climbed the tree, and then Zia, Gilden, and Alwin followed Cleo since they knew how strong she was. They all climbed the trees and observed Alseace from above with their weapons ready.
They could hear growls and howls around them, and it made them feel nervous and chill down their spines. On the other hand, Alseace was counting the number of wargs that were around him.
"Fireball," Alseace pointed his staff right in front of him and sent a fireball in that direction.
The fireball traveled quite far away, and then it exploded with a big blast and explosion that started Cleo and the others. Magic spell's damage was purely from Magic status, and the higher the status point, the stronger and more destructive the spells were. Knowing that Edgar looked at Alseace with suspicion because it would be impossible for a level 6 Mage to do that destructive spell.
"Water bullets," Alseace pointed his staff to his right and sent big droplets of water to where he pointed his staff.
They could hear the whimpers and growls of wargs from where the water bullets went. They were amazed that Alseace could see where the wargs were even though the thick mist was blocking their visions.
Alseace kept using the same spells over and over all around him and the others watched him seriously. They were baffled by how fast he formed the magic spell, but it was all thanks to his high Mentality status that made him easier to concentrate.
"He's amazing..." Gia said as she looked at the EXPs that were flooding in front of her eyes.