Scouting The Targets

"That's it? You just want me to scout out the enemy forces for you guys?" I nearly grinned.

"You would need to be able to do that while flying at least eight kilometers away from the summit," I turned and—

Is that a wingless dragon?!

It ignored my doubtlessly bemused expression and continued on to say, "The ones responsible for setting up the fortress' defenses made it so their one potentially obvious vulnerability, the open summit of the mountain, would be extremely hard to exploit. They've set up air detection seals and formations which are on par with the fortress' ground defenses."

"Is that so..." I shrugged my wings, "Well, eight kilometers should be well within the range of my telescopic vision so, uh… You have anything specific you want me to look out for?"

Stark silence was the only response I got until eventually, Tebolt hesitantly said, "I'm not sure any of the details we might give you would correlate to your Bloodline memories. However… There is this one thing we 'might' be able to do," he strangely emphasized before growing quiet and just looking at me like he was unsure of whether or not it was worth speaking his mind.

"But first, I must ask: How long did it take you to learn the Transmission Spell?" Tebolt eventually asked.

"Like two tries. Why?" I asked, ignoring the look of utter shock that descended from literally everyone within earshot; and that includes that dragon.

For a time, even I thought something was off with regards to my ability to learn Spells so quickly. I thought that maybe Munich had sneaked in little cheatsy Magic Affinity for me or something. But then, I came to realize that such thoughts were wishful thinking. As arrogant as it was to say, I was confident that, "it was all me, baby!"

Now, when I say it was all me, I mean the fact that I was brought into this world, fully possessing a complete education and all the miscellaneous things that I had learned in my past life, was practically a cheat unto itself.

Magic — Foundational Magic so far, anyways — was all about applying theory to power. So, since I knew how fire worked, how it needed fuel to spark and sustain itself, or how speaking worked, the existence and function of a voice box… I could just skip the most difficult parts of learning how to use Fireball Spell, a Transmission Spell, or practically any other Spell I so much as had an inkling with regards to how they were supposed to function.

I could try to create my own spells. But that would just be asking for trouble with how weak I currently am. The slightest miscalculation as to whether or not a Spell I conceived of was within my ability to cast could be the difference between nothing happening at all, to an anti-tank bomb blowing up in my face.

Or, well… It could be much worse. I mean, there was technically nothing but my wisdom stopping me from trying to recreate a nuke with Fire Magic. With my Magic Potency Stat and understanding of the implication of splitting atoms, I could probably galvanize a couple milligrams worth of matter into a several-hundred-kiloton yield. Though, with my inexperience, it would likely go off in my face and vaporize me and everything for hundreds of meters into red mist.

"Good… Good!" Tebolt said, disorienting me as his words clashed with my internal dialogue. "If you can master a Foundational Communication Spell that easily, it might just be possible for me to teach you the Relaying Spell. With it, you could directly project your memories. Although, if you do manage to quickly learn it, your best bet in successfully casting it would be in Relaying whatever you find to Katherine as she is your partner."

And so, he spent like ten minutes lecturing me on how to cast the spell.

For a so-called Intermediate-level Spell, it wasn't that hard to figure out. The theory behind was practically the same as the Transmission Spell; only instead of projecting a voice to the world from a Magic Circle, I could selectively choose to potentially share one or all aspects of a specific memory with a person within a relatively short range.

[Conditions Fulfilled: New Skills "Intermediate Communication Magic Lvl 1," and "Relay Lvl 1" Created!]

[Titles Earned: Communications Magic Adept]

[Skills:

Name: Intermediate Communication Magic Lvl 1

Description: The higher the Lvl, the more applications of Communication Magic will be made available and the more efficient your ability to cast Adept-level Spells.]

Now, to test the Skill…

I found Katherine watching me and called out to her, "Hey, you want to see a funny memory of mine from the last couple of days?"

When she nodded and looked at me with child-like excitement, I managed to stabilize the minimum Tier 3 Magic Circle required for the Relay Spell before willing the predetermined image in my mind to her. She didn't flinch or cry out in pain, so I can only assume the Spell either didn't work or she just didn't appreciate my sense of humor.

"Was that the guy you mentioned meeting at the Black Swamp?" Katherine asked, looking at me oddly.

"That's right!" If not for my lack of arms, I would most certainly be doing a little victory dance in celebration over using my first Intermediate Magic Spell. If anything had gone wrong, it could have messed with her head depending on how resilient she was against Magical attacks — which I kind of just assumed she was properly defended against with her being a Mage and the fact that her uncle was letting me test my spell on her.

"Uh… Not to rain on your parade," Katherine said, causing me to snort at her, "but, what about him running away from bats is funny?"

"Heh," I chuckled as I recalled, "That wasn't him 'running away.'" I rolled my eyes, "In his words, he was, 'repositioning himself to confront the enemy.' That was just after I had convinced him to stop being such a baby and stand up for himself by putting his sword to use."

"So the Eagle managed to learn the Relay Spell? Great," the scarred man said. "Finally, we'll soon enough get this troublesome mission over with."

With that said, I read the atmosphere and soon enough took off 'away' from the mountain. From where we were at the base, I still needed to fly a couple kilometers away if I wanted to approach from above.

Of course, with new Speed and outrageous Magic Potency Boosting my Empower Spell, I quickly ascended to just over where the stratosphere would be if this planet were similar enough to Earth.

Amazingly — or many not, since I was a Magical Monster — the effects of rapid depressurization, the plummeting temperature, and lower oxygen levels didn't at all bother me one bit. Though, if it came down to it, I had come prepared to cast a Gale Spell which I'd otherwise never use. Arcane Eagle or not, I was still intent on specializing in Fire, Strengthening, and Healing Magic.

Anyways, after climbing so high up into the sky, I was well over even the tallest of clouds nearby. So, even if it hadn't been required of me to go at least eight kilometers away from the target mountain's summit, I still would have needed to go pretty damn far to not get spotted with the lack of cover.

When I got to my target altitude of at least six kilometers on top of the summit, I started surveying the scene while getting used to messing around with my newly enhanced vision. Quickly enough, I figured out how to use — and avoid using — thermal and night vision, but I felt funny every time I used my telescopic vision since my range was orders of magnitudes greater to what I had gotten used to with Acute Vision.

'Holy shit,' I thought once my visual perception stabilized enough to identify some of the things I was seeing.

[Appraise Successful

Name: Devil Orc Elite (8?)

Estimated Rank: B-/B

Description: Unique variants of the Orc Family of Humanoids. Only capable of being created by a General-level Devil or higher. Some appear to be Warriors, some appear to be Mages, some appear to be Arms Masters.]

After another two sweeps at an even higher elevation, I confirmed that there were at least twelve Devil Orc Elites. For the most part, they were the biggest threat I could find in the fortress as they occasionally walked around doing... whatever it was they did.

I mean, it's not like they were generic NPCs; they were all sentient and had their own schedules to follow. Like, several of the Devil Orc Elites were acting very much the part of their human equivalents, sitting down before a pile of never-ending paperwork and dealing with what I can only imagine were the logistics of the Fortress. Others were practicing their Skills, while others still were teaching or sparring with the normal non-Devil Orcs.

Regarding the non-Devil Orcs, they definitely made up the bulk of the forces in the Fortress. My appraisals mostly ranked them between Lesser D Rank to Greater C Rank. But, the strangest thing about them was that I could distinctly tell with just a look how relatively powerful they were even if they all kind of looked the same.

Not to say they were virtual copies of each other, there were distinct features on each and every orc — same as with any living being, really. Just that, like humans, all the mature Orcs didn't vary significantly in size or stature. They were unlike Monsters like me, who just continued to grow more and more intimidating the more I evolved and ascended up the Ranks.

The point was that something in my Evil Eyes was letting me see the threat levels of all the Orcs I was focusing on. Well, more than just that; it was like I could vaguely see how highly entities, both organic or not, were Ranked.

As an example, at one point, I picked up on this distinctly intense brightness trying to escape out from an otherwise unassuming pile of rocks that I wouldn't have looked at for more than a second. My Appraisal Skill couldn't even properly identify it, yet the fact that it was stationed right next to one of the Devil Orc Elites filling out paperwork made me more certain of its status as a high-Ranking object.

With said "glowing" coming from dozens of different things all around the fortress at different levels of intensity, I knew something absolutely massive was being hidden. And by that I don't mean in size, I mean there's a very high chance the Orcs in the fortress are hiding something of B Rank or maybe even Greater B Rank.

Whatever it was, I shuddered as I started moving away from the fortress to make my way back down to Katherine's side, it was way, 'way' out of my league.