Chapter 40: Search (1)

Q: What is Dominion domination?

A: Among the similar kinds of dominion, if an individual gains higher mastery in that dominion, he/she can easily dominate others with lower mastery.

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I felt some relief reaching the warders' camp. Finding it was not that difficult with the help of the warders with us. There was not much light present with the dense trees as well as the swirling clouds blocking the sun. Perhaps the blizzard was not far away.

On that note, there were far more people with me than I had assumed there would be. The other two teams that included my aunts and the two knights had diverged a couple of hours ago. Ignoring Yeriel, who I knew a little better, there was Lord Kirien with his wife with us as well, whose only goal was to cure his wife. Well, he did bring along a team of guards, there was that.

Perhaps he would be a pleasant addition to our ranks if only he succeeded in finding the herbs needed to cure the illness.

The abode in the snow-filled land was not big but two-storeyed. I eliminated the thought of having one room all by myself the moment I laid my eyes on the abode.

Like I had thought, William and I got a small room on the first floor with two cramped beds side by side. There was no fireplace in the room, but fortunately, it had a working heater that ran even with an inconsiderable amount of diluted spirit fuel. Even with that, I brought out a small jar out of my baggage that contained honey from the hunter bee. Sliding open the cap, I ignored the deep sweet odour to gulp down quite a quantity of it.

The overly sweet honey found its way down my throat to my stomach, and with a little swirl of the spirit force, I found it a lot warmer. Though I have a fire attributed spirit force, I need to take care of my body. This was going to be a fine piece of the story, and I need to be prepared for everything.

"What is that?" William asked, eyes glued to the little container, nose sniffing the deep odour.

"Honey,“ I said, “it can keep the body warm for some time. Do you want some?"

William thought, then nodded, considering a noble like me would drink nothing cheap.

I tossed him the small jar. "Just don't drink everything."

Even though the honey of Hunter bees could be useful in many areas, too much of its consumption might give drunkenness to even a spiritual practitioner with hallucinations and other side effects. Well, as a sorcerer, Willam should know that, but it’s better to warn the fellow. Then I unbuckled the baggage from my back and crouched down to slide it under the bed, while keeping the other one with me. There were a few useful things in there, including the False-Ward, which would surely ask for many stares.

"This is good stuff," the sorcerer said. “I knew rich folks like you won’t drink anything cheap. Even my spirit energy felt aggravated drinking this. This is how rich folk should be.”

“What?” I asked, turning my head. “Rich and generous?”

“Exactly,” the sorcerer laughed, giving back the small container.

I left the small jar in my pocket and got back to checking my stuff. I need to wear the prototype False-ward under my cloak before venturing out there. Even though the gear had terrible side effects with heating that I only heard and read, I still desired it badly.

Ruthalynian crafters created this type of gear, keeping in mind, they would fight against the knights of the empire in the air. Though this prototype has a terrible problem with heating, it was still a fine asset. I reckoned I could fly around using it for about five minutes or so, before my body would turn into a hotdog sausage.

As I was pondering on checking out the gear, I heard a little knock on the door.

"Oscar," Yeriel's voice came from outside the door.

William beat me to open the door and the figure of Yeriel in a thick white sweater came into our vision.

She peeked through the door and William to find me. "We are going to search for herbs. I was wondering if you would like to come?"

I thought for a second and said, "Sure, I will come. Just give me five minutes to prepare." Even if she did not ask, I still would have ventured outside in the cold. I need to do some searching on my own.

"Lady Yeriel, will you mind if I come along?" William said before Yeriel could return.

"Sure," Yeriel said without minding. To her, the more people, the better it would be for her to find the herbs and material she would need to heal the sick. Moreover, William was her country folk, though the name sounded foreign. "You folks, prepare. I will wait with the others."

Yeriel left, but William kept on staring at her disappearing figure.

I could not help but smile. Man, she's out of your league. Yeriel has a pleasant personality and is gentle in nature, not to mention her looks and attractiveness; a lot of the characters had a crush on her, that got her into a lot of trouble in few occasions. Our mutual friend, Althan, was one such example.

I wondered what that dude was doing. Well, I don’t feel bad behaving him like that on the few occasions we met, however, that fellow’s family held the prominent position in commerce all over the empire. Sooner or later, I would need to have some dealings with them. Well, let’s worry about it later, after I get what I need from here.

"I have to change. Mind you, give me some space," I said to William, who still had his head stuck out of the door.

"Sure," the sorcerer said, as he had nothing more to prepare. Getting his medium-sized bag on his back, he walked off in the direction Yeriel left.

I closed the door and stripped off the cloak and all the leather jerkins I was wearing. Even with the heater running, I felt some chills in the cold, and it hadn’t even gone all bad yet.

With only the shorts and a simple vest in my body, I brought out the Ruthalynian prototype False-ward out of the bag. It was actually twice thicker than any ancient armament, however it weighed the same or less. All the weight it got was usually for the few vacuum-like stream releasers put in the suit. Six on the two legs—foot, knees and two just above the hips. Then there were four more on the elbows and back of the shoulders, as well as two bigger ones on both sides of the spine.

Manipulating all of this steam releaser, a knight could float in the air as well as move around. Though it was not as good as using the dominion of gravity to float around, it was still something of a wonder. Moreover, it came with its own perks as well. It actually did not run on the wearer's own spirit force, but you needed a separate fuel channel for it, which is, of course, needed spirit stones to fuel in it. Meaning, it would relieve me from exhausting my spirit energy just to drift around.

I pulled the zip from the front and back before running a little spirit force to eliminate any air from within. I have already borrowed 10 grams of spirit stones with a purity level over 30% from Dakota, though I reckon I will not need to use it all here.

As for the price of the 10 grams of the spirit stones, it costs about a few hundred dynes, depending on the dealer, however, you can only get your hands on the stones with lesser purity. I was relieved that Dakota had it with her, or else I might have to bother my aunt again.

"Let's give it a try," I muttered and triggered the mechanics of the suit slowly, igniting a negligible amount of my spirit force to the core of the suit.

A little amount of stream was released from all the dozen releasers, but it was far from carrying my weight. By manipulating a few strands of my spirit force into the releaser on my back as well as on the legs, I increased the release of the steam.

White gas was released with little of a noise as I floated a couple of feet in the air to move forward. The suit started to heat up as well, though it was marginal level with the weather I was in.

I would need to practise with it for a few minutes to adapt to it and also I needed to check out my limit with these things. Dakota was sure I would only endure about five minutes, however, I’m not sure how much she knows about my resilience towards the fire attribute.

"Oscar," Yeriel's voice called with the knocking. "Are you not done yet? We are about to leave."

"In a minute," I said and dropped onto the floor. I wore the thick cloak above the gear, hiding most of its features. The helm of the suit was already broken, so I didn’t need to worry about carrying it, though I wouldn’t mind carrying one.

For tonight, I have two primary goals: Giving a visit to the sealed rift and getting used to the suit. I have to keep an eye open for any supernatural activities as well.

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