"Sir, the familiars have detected a small number of people. Presumably the ones that were chasing him." Randwen said while his expression steeled once again. It had to be said, unsealing Randwen was the best choice. His summons just made him very versatile.
"How many of them? And how strong are they?" Honestly, Dane was not worried about their safety. At his side was a guy that could summon monsters of level superior to 190. They could probably destroy everything with this sort of firepower. He just wanted to try his newly acquired spells. If there were enemies under level 10 he could probably fight for a while. But otherwise, it would just be plain dangerous.
"There are seven of them. In the lead is a rank 4 wizard, most likely at level 46. There are also three rank 1 wizards about to advance. Their levels are 18, 19, and 19. The remaining three are wizard apprentices. All of them at level 4."
"Why would there be a rank 4 wizard chasing a nobody?" Dane was very surprised about the lead wizard. Even though the number of wizards above level 100 was not small, it was not big either. And they usually did not concern themselves with worldly matters. In practice, mid-rank individuals such as the rank 4 magician were the ones in charge of small organizations or factions inside a big organization. Even more so for magicians. Since they were a very difficult class in which to progress, every mid-rank magician and above was treated as their weight in gold.
But still, the question remained; why was a mid-rank magician chasing after Arthur?
"Are there any emblems in their clothes or something that can relate them together?"
"Yes, sir. All of them have a black orb in their backs. Beside that, they are heterogeneous."
"Damnable Dark Dawn, what are they doing here?" Dane's expression sank immediately.
Dark Dawn, a group of outlaw magicians. They believe in their superiority over everyone else and is willing to act accordingly. Guilty of annihilating over ten villages and one of the most infamous groups of mercenaries in the underworld. They were a troublesome bunch. But most importantly, Arthur did indeed had a feud with them, but that should only happen two years from now, when he exited Blackrose Academy.
"Randwen, use rank 7 wood elementals and disguise them as a troop of mercenaries. I think 5 of them would suffice. Then separate them into three groups according to their levels. After they are at least 500m from each other use a transcendent golem to capture them and interrogate them using nature elemental parasytes. We will figure out what is next after that." Dane just spouted orders and Randwen obediently nodded. Immediately after, from a tree nearby, crackling sounds started echoing.
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"That stupid kid, where could he have run off to?" The one speaking was a man in his mid-twenties. He wore a black robe with the image of a dark sun in his right chest. The sun was surrounded with a red filament. This was the official attire of a low-rank member of the Dark Dawn, an organization for rogue magicians.
"I don't know, but he could not have run far away. That spell I cast on him was a rank 1 weakening spell, he must have lost consciousness by now." Another man with a similar outfit answered him.
"Does the little magician want a treat? Because he did such a good job casting a basic spell? Well, this little sister will make it up to you." The only woman in the group, who was also wearing the same uniform answered. Her tone was sarcastic and her face was covered in a devilish grin.
"Shut up. All three of you. You are giving a terrible impression of the organization to these apprentices." The one who spoke was a middle-aged man about forty. He had a stern face while reprimanding the three magicians. His robe was similar to that of the others, but the filament around the dark sun was blue in colour.
"Yes, leader." All three of them spoke at unison. What a joke. Of course they could be playful and even disrespectful with their peers, but that was a rank 4 magician, he was not something that they, as rank 1 individuals, could face.
"Sir, I have a question, though. That person was only an apprentice magician like us, so, shouldn't he have been immobilized by the spell within five seconds?" One of the young apprentices asked. His robes were the same as the others, but the filament was green.
"That is correct, he should've been. But, that is the interesting thing. He must have a great treasure on him to be able to resist that long." One of the rank-1 magicians said.
"No, it cannot be a treasure. We would have felt it's activation. It must be a bloodline quality. We should capture him as soon as possible. Other than making him tell us where the treasure is, we could recruit him to join us. He would make a good asset."
"Yes, leader." All the other magicians exclaimed in unison.
It needed to be said that they had been chasing that guy for over a week and he would always escape in the nick of time. It had become annoying. Usually, an apprentice magician could not resist the power of even a rank 1 magician, let alone a rank 4. But, because the mission was capture and interrogation, they had to be extra careful. This made them think of what they were after. They haven't been told, but it should be a very valuable thing for the upper echelons to chase after him so intensely.
Everyone was dealing with their own ideas and were not paying that much attention to their surroundings. As official magicians, there were very few things that could threaten them in these parts. That is why they were unaware when were they surrounded.
The rank 4 magician was the first to notice, so he abruptly stopped. He started looking around him but found nothing.
"Where are you? Show yourself and declare your intentions." The other magicians realized that there was someone else around. Someone strong enough to make a rank 4 magician apprehensive of battle.
"Well, you have some ability. Even if it is mediocre at best, it is still something." As the voice faded, a big, burly man appeared from behind a tree. What is more, as time passed, there were more men appearing. They stopped after a total of 5 of them appeared. While it was not a big number, the aura they exuded was so pressuring that even the leader's mouth was twitching.
"What do you want? You are meddling with the business of the Dark Dawn. If you know what is good for yourself, tell your men to stand down."
"Black Dawn? Sorry, never heard of them. And now this is my business." The man replied.
"Are you mocking me? Do you know the strength of a rank 4 magician?" The leader said while releasing his aura. It had to be said that it was powerful, but not enough.
"Do you?" The man coldly said and released his own aura. It completely dominated the leader's. His expression went dark. Especially after all the 5 men revealed an aura of the same strength. "My master has decided to protect the one you are chasing, so you are not leaving with him. Let me give you a piece of advice, though. Since he did not ask us to kill you, you should run as fast as you can."
"Hi-High-rank!" It is unknown who said that, but completely destroyed all hope this group of magicians might had. Then, the group of man started walking towards the magicians, who just now started to flee. Thanks to the positioning of the groups, they fled in three groups. The apprentices, the three rank 1s, and the rank 4. After a few minutes of chase, the whole group was captured.
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"My lord, all the pursuers have been captured." Randwen loyally reported Dane. It had not been more than five minutes, and their enemies were mere high-ranked summons. If it had been a pk hunt, those levels would mean utterly nothing."
"What about the parasites? Have you managed to extract any valuable information from them?"
"Yes. As my lord assumed, they are indeed members of the organization known as Dark Dawn. Most of them belong to a cell which operates in the territory of the Blackrose Academy and Helios City."
"Most of them?" This came as a surprise to Dane. Most members of underground organizations would only move with their own cell members. The only exception was a rescue mission or a joint mission, but those were just too rare.
"Yes. Apparently, the mid-rank magician, Reis, belongs to an important branch of their headquarters. He was sent here by his direct superior in order to oversee this mission. Apparently, they are the only ones who really know the purpose of it."
"Mm. That should be useful. What are they chasing him for? He is just unremarkable any way you look at him." Of course, Dane knew the real importance behind Arthur. He will be a very important part of the future of Zeryann.
"Sir, apparently, they were after the belongings of a certain magician called Elliot. They seem to think this man knows about it's whereabouts." Dane heart sank. This was NOT how the game was programmed, absolutely not. No npc should know the location of the inheritance, absolutely no one.
Dane was starting to freak out, but after a few short seconds he calmed down. And just as he did with Darwin's wand, he searched his memories. This proved very difficult to do, because there was a lot of information pertraining Arthur in his mind. After all, as one of the highest-levelled non-celestial npcs, his role in the mid and later part of the game was huge. There were about 200 hours of content related to Arthur, and this was without including the lore. But even so, Dane was an unparalleled genius. After three minutes, he came to a realization.
"So it was the AI again… This is getting troublesome." Dane mumbled. Apparently, there was a little piece of information Dane had forgotten. When he was creating the back story for Arthur, he included a small detail that shouldn't have been of any importance.
Originally, Arthur came from a small village in the middle of the Cerna Forest to the south. That place was said to be the ancient home of the star elves, an ancient variety of elves, and one of the most powerful. As he grew up, he felt a weird energy growing up with him, to the point where he could do things other could not, such as command some animals to do his bidding.
When he was 13, an old travelling magician arrived to that village and told Arthur he had a wonderful potential for magic, and so he taught him a small bit. In three days, he learned a spell. The magician was so impressed by it that he offered to teach him. Of course, as a peasant, this was the opportunity of his life, so he did not refuse.
Unfortunately, after a week, they got ambushed by criminals. They were seeking something in possession of his teacher. Even though the criminals were defeated in the end, the price was his life.
After that, according to the lore, Arthur had a faithful encounter that allowed him to awaken his bloodline, the Star Spirit bloodline, which proved he was a distant relative of the Star Elves. The qualities of this particular bloodline were custom-made for magicians, as they increase the affinity with magic to the maximum degree. This is how Arthur managed to be considered a genius.
Of course, what Dane didn't anticipate was that the faithful encounter Arthur had was the inheritance of Elliot. That was completely out of his expectations. And now, Dane wanted to take all the contents of the ruins for himself. If he did that, history would be altered, and that would not be pretty.
"Damn, whatever. It is just a bloodline awakening, so it should not be such a big deal."
"My lord, what do we do with the pursuers?" Randwen asked Dane, and as he was about to answer…
[Beep! Quest received. Gather more information about the Dark Dawn member who knows about Elliot's inheritance. Reward: 20 quest points.]
[Beep! Quest received. Prevent the events of the Dark Dawn's members chase from being exposed to public until you secure the information. Reward: 50 quest points.]
[Beep! Quest received. Make sure Arthur receives a piece of Elliot's inheritance to awaken his bloodline. Reward: 1 quest point.]
[Beep! System notification. Since the player has three coincidental quests active, the quest log has been unlocked. You can accept any number of quests simultaneously, and the rewards will be given once completed.]
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(Small message that was too big for Author's Thought)
Hello everybody! Crimson Rogue over here. I write here because I needed to tell you guys some things regarding my current work, The Shadow Spellsword.
First of all, I want to thank all of you that have read this far and those that have commented words of encouragement. Every time I read something like that it makes me happy. So yeah, thank you guys!
Second, I can see you guys really want the action to start really soon! To that, I am afraid you will need to wait for a week or so. Originally, I wanted to start the introductory conflict in chapter ten, but some things happened and it will be around chapter 13-15, so please don't be impatient, it's for the greater good.
Third, I wanted to apologize. As you can see, I have been trying to update at least once a day, but that may not be the case for the following days. I will try to, but I might not be able to post tomorrow and the day after, so please forgive me for that.
Well, that was all I wanted to say. Once again, Thanks to all of you who support me by reading this novel and I really hope you enjoy it. Have a nice day. See you for the next chapter!