Chapter 137 Camp 1

Elam was waiting for the group to leave his cabin, so he could continue his rest in peace. He had been instructed to make sure Lucas left with Eleven. Asta wasn't accounted for, but to him, it only provided him with more confidence. Not every mage was a horrible monster, most were just normal people, making him trust Asta despite the few encounters.

If the contact gave instructions that came from Him, it was always correct. There was never a shadow of a doubt the moment he knew it came from Him, not that it made Elam stop worrying.

Due to his lack of eyesight, Elam was forced to see everything through his willpower. Most mages can sense objects or people with magical signatures, but it ended there. There was never a clear picture, most of it was comparable to how a bat 'sees'. A bat traverses through echolocation, it knows how close a wall is due to the sound that bounces back. Willpower works in a similar way.

Thus, it was normally impossible to see anything else besides certain shapes and magical power. Elam was one of the few mages that trained their willpower to the point he was capable of seeing details and colors. Forcing his willpower to manifest a physical form to enter reality purely to capture light it was capable of creating an image of colors.

This would be useless for most mages, only people like Elam could use it efficiently, and even then. There was a solution for his eyes, even mages born blind could gain their eyesight through the proper procedures. He just didn't want it.

Still, utilizing this mostly useless power, Elam noticed a slight shift in Lucas's posture. At first, it seemed insignificant, but the subtle changes proved something had transformed within him. Lucas normally kept a straight posture and often held his hands behind his back, now his back was slightly arched, and his hands were beside him, almost fully clenched into a fist.

It wasn't much, but after observing Lucas for so long he knew something was up.

"Alright! We'll leave tonight, gather everything you need and Eleven, prepare the horses. Asta, are you coming with us?"

The sudden enthusiasm and orders came out of seemingly nowhere. And with that something clicked in their heads that they previously didn't notice.

"Wait, you want to bring Asta with us?"

"Hahaha, I wouldn't abandon a friend in need, that's one of my many pristine qualities."

"But…!"

"He was determined to come with us from the beginning, are you going to hold him back?"

Lucas coldly looked at Eleven, showing he made the decisions. Eleven could only look away from Lucas's ice-cold stare and silently agree. There was a lot of preparation work, so Eleven went out to get everything ready. Lucas gathered his belongings and left. Asta didn't need anything, so he patiently waited until Lucas was ready.

'I thought you didn't trust Asta? Where did the sudden change in attitude come from?'

'Well, because you couldn't help yourself and tried to befriend him, it's better to keep him close. If we monitor him enough, and he doesn't contact anyone else we know he won't be capable of setting up an ambush. If he does decide to attack us, we'll use Eleven as a shield and escape through his sacrifice.'

'Wow, you really don't have any regard for human life, do you?'

'And since when do you? Just because I'm honest about it doesn't mean you're not hiding anything.'

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Elam watched them all leave on their own from his comfy couch. The moment they left a figure revealed himself, the contact hid himself during the entire conversation. He needed to monitor what was going on, so he could accurately report it later. Nobody felt his presence, not even Elam, but he knew he was there somewhere.

"And so, they have left the nest."

"Indeed.", Elam wasn't in the mood for jokes, he was afraid of what would happen to his precious student. He finally found a great sapling, and they survived the inheritance, and still, he had to let them go to face their possible death.

Elam not only had to let them go, he had to encourage them to face danger head on. Luckily, even Lucas was too busy with other things to notice the change in attitude. Elam was always relaxed and never pushed Lucas to an extreme, yet now he had to threaten him to move.

"You did the right thing Elam, don't forget that. The Lord will be pleased with your actions."

"Sure."

The contact could feel Elam's fears. He was confident everything would turn out well, since He made the plans, but not everyone felt as he did.

"Listen Elam, this is something that was planned way in advance. The moment we used Eleven for our plans, do you know what our Lord did?"

Elam didn't reply, as he was too busy staring at the door.

"He removed every competent worker through promotions and made them useful somewhere else. The empty spots were filled in by workers who were the worst of the bunch. The ones that weren't loyal, stole, lied and cheated their way into power are all gathered there. It was a way to remove any impurities in the training camps and create more openings for them. If the Lord thinks they can handle it, they can handle it."

"You say that, but isn't the overseer of every camp at least Rank 2?"

"Yes, but..."

"Do you really think they are capable of handling a Rank 2?!", in a rare fit of emotion, Elam's anger was spiking.

"Listen to me Elam! The overseer in question is an artificial one, meaning he is weak compared to other Rank 2's. If they work together they can defeat him. Plus, I taught Lucas how to improve his core further."

"He's only started his core strengthening a few days ago. There's no way for him to reach Rank 2 in such a short time."

"He doesn't need to be Rank 2 to win. Our research shows he defeated a Rank 1 mage when he was still Rank 0. I know that won't convince you, but heirs have always shown that they can perform miracles, give him a chance to do the same."

Elam wasn't satisfied, staring at the door once more, he was afraid to go back to sleep.

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Entering the forest, Asta and Lucas approached Eleven's hideout. He had gone ahead to prepare everything. The duo could see three horses carrying a few bags. Lucas was calculating what they needed in order to succeed and keep everyone fed.

A mage didn't need sustenance like a normal person did. As long as there was magic, they could live since magic could be converted into general energy. Not many mages did this though since the joy of eating was one thing not many wanted to lose. Especially since most mages had no need for the normal currency they spend tons of it in specialized restaurants for mages.

To mages, gold didn't mean much, as it didn't do anything special. There were plenty of materials that were a lot more desirable, like the magic crystals. There were different ranks in the crystals, but Lucas hadn't encountered them before, since he was, as most mages would put it, extremely poor.

He lived with Elam, who provided him with meals and refreshments, so Lucas hadn't explored that side of humanity yet.

Looking at the horses something in Lucas turned, he had never actually ridden a horse before.

'You should be careful when you mount it, and don't pull too hard on the reigns, and oh, don't grip too tight with your legs, and…'

'Would you shut the hell up? I got this.'

Approaching the horse, Lucas wasted no time jumping off one foot and landing straight on the horse's back. The horse moved a bit and calmed down after a bit.

"Didn't know you knew how to ride a horse." Asta said while mounting his horse.

"I don't."

"Hahaha, as expected, we don't need to know, to learn such a simple thing would only be necessary for imbeciles."

Lucas gripped the mane of the horse before he grabbed the reigns. The feeling of the many individual but strong hairs made him think that this horse hadn't been washed in a long time.

'Cheap.'

'How did you get the horse to be so calm? Normally any animal would start rampaging if something jumped on them, especially horses.'

'It's a domestic horse in the first place, and if you can't run away from death, you freeze up or fight and this little one knows it weakness.'

'If I could facepalm I would, at least I got you to stop swearing in every sentence.'

The grip Lucas had on the horse was anything but friendly, but the horse stayed completely quiet. Its back was a bit hollow while its teeth ground. The only thing left was for Lucas to figure out how to make it move, but he was confident that another threat would be enough.

The horse had seen enough terrible masters to know what the best choice was.

"Hmm? Conrad, do you believe in the Goddess?"

Asta didn't specify which Goddess, but his stare at Lucas's hand said enough.

"Of course not, the only people who believe in a higher being are simply anxious and feel lost without a purpose. They need support from something that doesn't exist in order to validate their existence in the first place."

"Hahaha, perfect, the only ones that need help from someone imaginary are the ones who are crazy in the first place."

"You do realize you just called an entire country crazy?"

"And do you realize that you called an entire country lost and anxious?"

"The difference is that I'm right, and you're just generalizing."

"Hahaha, do you not see your own hypocrisy?"

"I do, I just don't care about it."

"Perfect, people like us shouldn't be bound like social morals."

"... Are you guys done?", Eleven had been standing next to them with a map in his hands for a bit. Asta was about to comment that a conversation between two equals shouldn't be interrupted by someone lesser, but Lucas was a second faster.

"Show us the way Eleven, only you know where we're going."

Eleven showed them the map and where they were headed, it was quite a bit removed from their location, but they already knew that. After some explanation they went on their way.

Three identical-looking brown horses carried three extremely different characters. One was dressed like a beaten assassin, the other looked like a commoner, but the sword with a decorated hilt on his side proved otherwise. The last one was dressed like a true noble and carried himself so.

"Before we arrive I want to know everyone's specialty, strengths and weaknesses. I know I'm asking for a lot, but this is the only way to succeed."

Lucas asked for something extremely controversial. When it came to mages, keeping your weaknesses hidden was the most basic of basics. Lucas knows this and normally wouldn't have asked so bluntly, but since the switch, things change.

Eleven was willing to do so, if that meant they would succeed. But on the other hand there was a nagging feeling telling him not to do so. Asta was for once also not that responsive, his smile was still there, but it lost its shine. Eleven could tell they would get nowhere if they all kept silent.

"I'm an assassin, I can fire arrows that silence the impact.", with that Eleven gave away only one thing while also giving some of his fighting style. Knowing he's an assassin, he would be weak against certain attacks, but proficient at stealth. He shouldn't have any big flashy spells, but small critical ones.

Seeing that response, Asta chimed in. "I don't use elemental magic, since that's below me in every way possible. Besides that I can do anything, but I specialize in arrays."

Lucas looked to his side to look Asta in the eyes. "You don't use elemental magic? Why?"

"Magic is pure, the moment you mix the elements in them, it becomes muddied and impure. It's a crutch for people who don't know how to use actual magic."

"So you also hate me for using it?"

"I never said that I hate you, I just think that's the only thing lacking about you. I guess there can only be one perfect being in this world."

Lucas was about to respond, but part of him told him that would be a bad idea. So they continued on their journey.

"Hey Eleven, what did they teach you in that camp?"

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Brutus had an easy life. Long ago he was a failed magician that was stuck in Rank 1, a loser who was cast out of any magic academy due to his lack of talent. Out of desperation he started to rob others of their belongings in order to grow stronger.

After a few successful jobs he gained himself a name, Brutus the Brute. A simple name for a simpleminded man. He gained a few useful artifacts that protected him, making him more arrogant and go after bigger targets.

His luck didn't seem to run out, at a certain point he was contacted by a mysterious man. He wore a mask in the shape of a dragon's head. He offered a simple deal, "Watch over and protect the children."

That was the only request made to him, to protect. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea to ask a thief to defend something. In return, he would receive a decent income in the form of low level magic crystals. It was a fair deal, especially for what he had to do. He had to sign a contract that forbade him to give away any information about his work and he wasn't allowed to leave the camp, but anything else was given.

He was protected and simply had to make sure not a single child got harmed, or that was the initial idea. Now, however, he interpreted the request so that he had to make sure not a single child died.

There were training schedules and lessons prepared, but those were given by low Rank 1 mages. Brutus couldn't help but intimidate them and take over. Pushing the children in the mines to get him more crystals. After absorbing enough of them he reached Rank 2, now his reign over the camp became even worse.