Chapter 278: Thunder Magic

Work is back down to being super slow, so I have more time to write again, yay!

As always, Giliath might be out of the picture

*****

Unbeknownst to me, Renne, along with the group of girls she invited to go along with her, had already departed Erebonia. And on top of that, they departed for Estelle's house no less. It wasn't just that either, I didn't know that Kevin decided to drop by Grancel Castle. I have been in frequent communication with Angelica thankfully with the help of Sieg, so I wasn't completely in the dark about what was happening back in Grancel City. To my surprise, Angelica has been keeping up with her bracer studies rather seriously, and is aiming to take the Bracer Exam the following year. She wants to become a Bracer by the time Kloe and I start school at Jenis.

I have been keeping tabs with Kloe too. She is currently receiving sword training from Cassius. With what was to come, I am proud of her for showing such determination, and knowing that she can protect herself now puts me at ease. Depending on how far Kloe progresses, I might even initiate a duel with her just like how I did with Sherryl. Sherryl has come a long way since our time spent in the caves, so I'm sure Kloe will be put in a similar position to Sherryl. As far as Kloe's main weapon of choice went, she used a rapier in the games, and at the same time, powerful arts caster. Kloe would be your primary go to healer of the group. And while that might have been her primary role during the sky games, its not like she couldn't have been built differently.

Early versions of combat orbments, unfortunately, did have their restrictions compared to the later generations. On the upside, Quartz placed in their respective sockets provided a percentage-based stat gain. The downside to that was every single Art that one could cast solely depended on how many Quartz one slotted into their combat orbment. This was often dubbed Quartz Math in various communities that enjoyed the Trailsverse. The more rare Quartz one had provided a bigger point gain to utilize in the Quartz Math system, and if you added several, one could potentially have access to all the Arts of that element. Arts back then did like to criss-cross into needing sub elements like Wind or Time to be able to cast that Art.

And what many dubbed Quartz Math, was simply known as Sepith.

An example of this was the first AOE healing Art, La Tear. La Tear in Sky's first chapter required 2 Water and 1 Space Sepith to cast. Once more Quartz were obtained, it would offer a higher value of Sepith needed for Arts.

This entire system, which spanned across five games, up and vanished completely. Once Cold Steel came with the Arcus devices, that restructured the Quartz system entirely. Quartz Math became a thing of a past, and the individual Quartz were given much higher compensation as a result. One Quartz could provide a stat boost to a given stat, and at the same time, allow a person to cast a certain Art. It was likely changed to this because of the new Master Quartz system, that provided an even larger array of stat gains, and Arts casting at the same time, as well as adding bonus effects a normal Quartz couldn't have, such as reducing damage a person took during combat the lower health they had, halving the time it takes to cast a certain Art, providing various buff effects during and at beginning of battles, and so on. The list seems to never-end with how many Master Quartz become available by the time Reverie takes place.

I'm pretty sure it was over 200 Master Quartz by then. With the Quest rewards given to me, I plan to go into the effects of these Master Quartz later today.

Going to how Kloe is doing, as I previously mentioned, she uses a rapier. It would be nice to see how well I fare against another rapier user. They're known to be elegant, use fast, rapid strikes utilizing keen precision. If one had a weak point, a rapier could easily pinpoint it. And if the rapier was durable enough, the force of the tip could potentially pierce through one's armor. If I do decide to duel against Kloe though, it wouldn't be until after the Infernal Castle and the Vermillion Trials.

Apart from knowing how Kloe is currently doing, I did receive a little bit of time to chat with Renne before she departed with Emma, Fie and Musse. It is sounding like she is wanting to advance Ouroboros's Gospel Plan. It might not enter its next stage, but they've already completed the first stage, raiding the Tetracyllic Towers located across Liberl, and unsealing them. This would allow the barrier into the Sealed Grounds beneath Grancel castle to open up, allowing one to explore the vast land beneath it.

And by vast, I meant gigantic. That place was huge, and was swarming with humanoid and mechanoid monsters. One could easily get lost inside that place if they weren't careful enough. Knowing Renne though, I'm sure she has the capability of keeping her group in check. She is still young, but Emma is with her. If, for whatever reason, she needed to initiate a long-range contact spell and send a message to me, she could. I was able to teleport from Leiston to Grancel Castle before, so if there truly was an emergency, as long as I had enough EP and Mana, I could secure their positions.

As to what the Gospel Plan exactly was, it was Ouroboros's first major step in testing humanity's potential. That was the primary goal the Grandmaster wanted to accomplish. Unfortunately, I was brought into the Trailsverse before the Eternal Recurrence Plan could even begin, so I am not sure how the Grandmaster will test humanity's potential during that stage, but the second one, the Phantasmal Blaze Plan, initiated the trials of the Divine Knights and the Rivalries, and spread the Curse all across Erebonia. For the Gospel Plan, Liberl would be the center stage.

I have not seen the Black Orbment come into play yet, so it likely hasn't been delivered. Apart from clearing out the towers, that would be the other key deciding factor to trigger the Gospel Plan. Estelle's group would become the primary group to focus on dealing with the events, which start right at the beginning of S1202. Kloe and I would be enrolling in Jenis May of S1201, so there is still some time for that.

With me progressing Renne's growth and making her more stable, I am not sure if Renne's clash against Estelle will still take place, but I have a feeling it will. If it does, it may be for another pretense entirely.

Since I didn't have to worry about Liberl's present state, I could focus on what was happening here in Erebonia. I didn't expect Sara and Lavi to accompany Zin and Kilika, let alone Walter. I know Ouroboros is snooping around here currently, and seeing Walter here confirms that.

Now I ain't no hero or anything. I'm not Lloyd, nor am I Rean. I'm just me. Was it a surprising turn of events that I decided to cooperate with Ouroboros because I like their outlook on how they handle things? Of course. Ouroboros didn't deny my cooperation either, so we're currently in a partnership. If it weren't for that matter, I could have very well attacked Walter here out of the blue. but seeing him with Zin and Kilika, no doubt are the two keeping him in check. His current lazy expression was quite funny to look at.

But I hadn't a clue Sara and Lavi would be with them. I know they're all Bracers and all, but before I departed North Ambria a couple years back, Sara told me she was going straight to Calvard to train Lavi. I guess Lavi's training is finished for the moment. Before I could even ask how things went back in Calvard, Sara suddenly kissed me.

Does that mean Sara does like me after all?

Not that I'm against it by any means. Sara is a gorgeous woman, even if she did have a bad habit of being a drunkard. I didn't give my real name to her back in North Ambria but now she knows I'm Liberl's Crown Prince. I'm sure it wasn't hard to piece the two together.

And [Sara's Blessing] was given to me unexpectedly too...Seeing that new parameter open up, Sara definitely likes me. I'm already in a relationship with a couple girls, and have set partners to marry in the future as well...

Grandmother did permit me to have a royal harem, so pursuing more interests that I had wasn't out of the question. Both Ennea and Angelica accepted it, and I wonder, could Sara accept being a member of the harem?

Thinking that, I couldn't help but get excited. It wasn't just that either, but the fact this reward gave me a new element to use!

Thunder Magic was one of, if not the most popular element one wanted to use during any role-playing game or online game in my previous life, with Fire Magic coming in at a close second. Lightning Magic was very destructive and could easily cause lots of it at a quick pace. Not only that, it could easily hit several opponents. Just take Sara for example, she infuses an orbment's lightning arts to attack the whole field, unleashing a barrage of bullets as she did. It was rumored to be a lost art itself, so I'm curious to see if any Lost Quartz could supplement Sara's strength.

My EP was mostly depleted from the spar I had against Sherryl, but there was still a little left. Just knowing that, I playful smile appeared on my lips.

"Say Walter.", I decided to say interrupting, everyone's stupor. We were currently in a group of several people. I did notice in the distance that there were people seated outside at the popular bakery, but thankfully they didn't get to see Sara kiss me. Sara did unfortunately leave before we could do anything, but I turned my head toward Walter while saying that.

"What's up, kid? Got something for me? Didn't think ya had it in you either. Purple Lightning is such a beaut.", Walter said, revealing a playful grin while looking back. He even whistled.

"Haha. It was pretty unexpected for me too. Can you hold this for a moment?", I said, suddenly reaching my hand out. As I did, I began to channel mana inside my body. Both Aurelia's and Roselia's eyes flickered as the two felt a faint fluctuation in the air, as others remained oblivious.

"Sure--?", Walter tried to say as he reached his hand out as well. Just as his hand latched onto mine, a loud bzzzt sound struck our ears. One or two strands of purple-colored lightning quickly struck across Walter's entire hand. He immediately felt his hand go numb and his entire body jolted upward. Even his spiky hair wasn't left out. Those watching raised their eyebrows, not expecting Walter to react like this.

"The fuck did you just do to me kid?", Walter retorted, now feeling his hand numb.

"Hahaha. Trade secret~", I retorted with another laugh, quickly retreating my hand away. The lightning disappeared just as quickly as I generated it. Yet, to my surprise, I heard another notification sound off inside my head, causing me to halt my current motions.

[Ding! Enforcer No. VIII, Walter, aka The Direwolf, has no idea of the action you just performed in front of him. Walter has now taken an interest in Gamer Naoto, wanting to find out what exactly it was Gamer Naoto just did to him. Walter does not know the existence of magic. Walter's Favorability toward Gamer Naoto has been unlocked.]

[Walter's Favorability: 10%]

'???', Visible confusion appeared in my eyes, not expecting to receive a notification like this. First, it was receiving [Sara's Blessing], and now [Walter's Favorability] has been unlocked...

So Walter's favorability came before either Zin, or Kilika, huh? Would I be able to do something with this?

As I thought that, Roselia's eyes became two vertical slits again, acting as if she wanted to observe right through me...