Completely tired from his breakthrough and immediate spar with Jon Amber, Magnus slept through the entire trip to the ruins and he only woke up when Rachel nudged him a couple of times.
"Mnm..." He groaned as he woke up.
He felt sore as an overwhelming tiredness came over him, he looked outside and saw that they were at the foot of a mountain, in front of a cave. A large group of people were gathered outside and he could faintly sense an energy field covering the entire mountain.
"Come on, let's go out." Rachel called out to him.
"Go on ahead, I'll catch up." Magnus said.
Rachel turned to Jon who nodded to her saying that Magnus needs more time to recuperate.
After they left, Magnus sneakily left the carriage and went deep into the forest where he operated his [World Devouring Art] a large amount of World Energy then gathered towards him at which he greedily absorbed and refined using his [Great Leviathan Body].
The reason why he was so tired that he quickly fell unconscious yesterday was because of that new reversal ability that he got.
It is able to absorb any technique aimed at him, as long as they aren't a realm above him. As the technique is absorbed, so is the energy that the caster used but since it is already a foreign energy that has been refined and used by someone else, it doesn't provide as much energy as the raw world energy does.
So, using his own energy to mimic the effect, form and element of the technique he absorbed Magnus is able to fire it back at them. It won't be exactly as powerful as the original but it will still do some damage. Magnus used more of his energy to triple the power of the Flaming arrow he fired back to Jon yesterday which drained him of most of his energy. Add that to the consolidation of his physique that just broke through, it was well within reason that he wouldn't have enough energy and fall asleep.
"You're growing stronger and stronger by the day, King." Gula spoke in his head, seemingly pleased.
Magnus nodded and thanked her before asking. "Thank you. I haven't asked you yet but these arts that you gave me, can you tell me more about them?"
Gula thought for a while before saying. "Alright..."
"I suppose I should start with the Stigmata...That Shark mark on your chest is the Primordial Stigmata of Gluttony. It's one of the seven Primordial Stigmata of the Sins and there have been countless others who have bared this mark."
In the middle of her explanation, Magnus asked. "What about you? Are you one of them?"
Gula chuckled and said. "It's a bit hard to answer that, in a way I am both the Stigmata's consciousness and the first to bear it...but that's a story for another day."
Then she continued. "The first living being, aside from me, who bared the Stigmata of Gluttony was the first to create the Cultivation and Physique art that i gave you. Since then it has been the primary cultivation art of those that came after that person and generations after generations, they've refined the art. Adding levels upon levels to ascend to the next realm."
It was here that Magnus asked. "So how many levels are there?"
Gula honestly answered. "You don't need to know all of them yet. But there are three levels in the mortal realm, right now you've just broke through the first level..."
"You cultivation and physique art go hand in hand, their initial power is to absorb and refine flesh, blood and energy. But as you grow stronger you'll be able to absorb both yin and yang essences, the bloodline power hidden within the blood you consume and even the life force of people."
Hearing this, Magnus was a bit overwhelmed but was soon replaced by a excited feeling and desire to become stronger faster.
After a while, he had recover to his peak condition and went back to the foot of the mountain where he saw people looking over to a single direction. He jumped up a tree to get a better view and he saw Jon and Rachel Amber intently staring at a carriage that stopped before them.
Magnus recognized the golden rose sigil on the side of the carriage and knew that whoever was inside is a member of the Royal family.
As the door opened, a handsome young man with short blonde hair walked out, he seemed valiant and powerful. Magnus could sense the enmity between him and Jon as they both stared at each other the moment this man came out.
Magnus thought that this must be Bryan Dahlia, the Yellow Queen's cousin.
Soon after, another carriage arrived, on the side was a violet tulip sigil. Everyone turned their heads as the person inside of the carriage came out. It was a beautiful young lady with short violet hair, she looked cold and enchanting.
She and Jon locked eyes then she turned away with an apologetic look.
Meanwhile Jon saw this and looked down, sighing.
From this, Magnus thought that this must be Chloe Umbra...The woman Jon Amber loved but was betrothed to Bryan Dahlia.
Magnus then saw Bryan walked towards Chloe's carriage and gallantly offered her a hand which she courteously took.
Bryan helped Chloe walk down her carriage, they continued to hold hands as they walk to the mouth of the cave. As they pass by Jon, Bryan turned to him sneering while Chloe didn't turned his way.
Jon tightly gripped the handle of his sword as his eyes burned but he knew better than to fall to such cheap tricks. Meanwhile his little sister saw the hatred within her brother's eyes and felt sad, she turned to Bryan with a look that could kill but if her brother won't do anything then she wouldn't either.
Magnus quietly observed the entire situation, including the faces of the other people here.
"Wow, the royal family is really hated." Gula's voice echoed out.
Magnus agreed, Gula has been helping him observe the people around the area and both of them saw that the faces of a few group of people turned sour when Bryan Dahlia's carriage. He quickly started to think of how to use this to put them and the others against the royal family.
A little while later, someone from Bryan's side came to the front to announce.
"I've inspected the perimeter of the cave and learned that by tomorrow this defense formation would open and we could all go inside."
Everyone heard him and began to discuss it among themselves. This man was a famous formation master even if he was trying to deceive them, their side wouldn't be able to move with so many people observing them so it must be the truth.
Magnus has long returned to Jon and Rachel's side. He then asked Rachel. "Are you going inside too?"
Rachel didn't answer but instead turned to her older brother.
Jon sighed and nodded, at which Rachel adorably smiled but then Jon said. "Would you mind, protecting her?"
Hearing this, Magnus stuck out his arm. Jon turned at him with a curious expression. "Are you asking for a payment?"
Magnus nodded asking. "I'm not a nice person to do it for free."
Hearing this, Rachel was a bit annoyed and said. "Humph, who cares? I can protect myself."
But then Jon sternly turned to her and asked. "You remember our agreement?"
Rachel nodded, then Jon turned to Magnus saying. "I like how you think kid, alright how about this? If we find the treasure first, you get first pick."
Magnus thought about it and nodded, after that he stood up and started to walk back into the forest. But then he heard Rachel call out to him, asking.
"Where are you going?"
"Training." He flatly said before he disappeared in the forest.
This one word seemingly woke up everyone else and they too began to cultivate and train. Others noticed what they were doing and they too started to cultivate, they have nothing else to do anyway so why not train?
Night has fallen...
Everybody has pitched their camp with every group starting their own fire and cooking their own food.
Bryan and his men has set camp near Chloe's camp which Jon clearly noticed was an act to spite him. But knowing better, Jon decided to ignore it despite the anger burning inside of him.
"Heh, how much longer do you think you can act tough, Jon?" From a distance Bryan saw Jon ignoring him and so he sneered.
His and Chloe's marriage will soon be set and when they do...oh, let's just say Bryan has a lot of ideas in mind.
Deep in the forest, Magnus called out to Gula. "Big sister, you done sorting out those art we got from the assassins?"
Gula then said. "Yeah, they were fairly powerful for their realm and the techniques they practice are also decent. Here, I've refined this movement art for you, I swear you will like it."
With a charming giggle, Gula's voice disappeared and the information about the new movement art suddenly entered his mind.
Magnus' eyes go wide as a smile slowly crept up his face. The new movement art was plainly called "Dark steps" which allowed him to step with almost absolute silence with unbelievable speeds.
Excited, Magnus began to train this new art, concentrating on controlling the power he puts on his foot and exerting the right amount of energy to negate the sound of his step and yet still have that burst of speed was incredibly taxing. But luckily, he had tons of energy to spare and he manage to achieve a small success by the time midnight came.
He then decided to gather more information so he could better learn the connection these people have between each other.
[Dark Steps] barely leaves any trace and was hard to perceive unless you're a realm higher than Magnus, so he first wanted to learn if the royal family has something in mind.
Using [Dark Steps] to approach Bryan Dahlia's camp, Magnus was nervous cause he doesn't know if there's an expert hiding or protecting Bryan. But even as he was literally a step from their camp, nobody still noticed him.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Magnus decided to cover himself with Darkness to better blend himself with..well, the darkness.
From inside Bryan's camp he heard a couple of his men drinking as one of them said.
"Damn, did you see the Lady of the Umbra family? That chick has a rocking body! It's no wonder the young master wanted her."
"Yeah, be careful with what you say though or the young master will cut you tongue." One of them laughed.
"Hey, do you think the young master will let us have...you know?" One of them hinted.
"Have a turn?"
"Yeah! I mean he did let us have fun with some of the ladies he brought back." One of them reminisced.
"Hahaha, those were good times. Hey, if the young master does get bore of the Umbra family girl, i call dibs on her mouth." One of them laughed.
Soon after they started to talk about the other gorgeous women here and this included even Rachel. They sounded drunk that exposed their evil desires even more which helped Magnus think of something he could use.
After that, he went from one camp to another, listening to conversations and learning the attitude of various people had against each other.
From it, Magnus learned though most of these people secretly hated the royal family and everyone connected to them, they wouldn't openly express this. There were even people who supported the royal family but he had a plan to make them turn.
Without anyone knowing, Magnus turned around and went back to Jon's camp. Rachel was already sleeping, so without waking her up, Magnus sneaked up to Jon.
Just as he was about to touch his back, Jon sensed danger and quickly jumped away, swiftly drawing his sword. From his eyes you could see that he was prepared to fight to the death, Magnus assumed that Jon thought that he was an assassin, especially with his Darkness covering him.
Magnus immediately dispersed his Darkness and when Jon saw that it was only Magnus he quickly breathed a huge sigh of relief. Magnus even tried to hold back laughing with how relieved he was.
"You nearly scared me to death, you little rascal. What do you want? And why are sneaking around?"
Magnus chuckled a little before saying. "Sorry about that, i wanted to ask if you can these herbs around here."
He then wrote a couple of herbs on a paper nearby and gave them to Jon who looked at them and began to think.
Jon then answered. "Yeah, I think you can find some of them in the forest but what do you need them for?"
But without answering, Magnus quickly enveloped himself in Darkness and disappeared in the dark of the night.
Jon didn't saw Magnus till Morning when everybody was prepared to go into the ruins the moment the energy field goes down. He saw Magnus with a calm look, it didn't look like he was tired or something despite him knowing that Magnus went to look for the herbs he asked about last night.
Weng...
But before he could ask, everyone reacted as the energy shield preventing them from entering the ruins, started to crumble.
Jon quickly turned to Magnus and with a stern look he said. "Protect Rachel."
Magnus nodded and after quickly manifesting Arm guards and shin guards made of Darkness, he rushed to Rachel's side.
Rachel naturally saw this and when Magnus rushed towards her, she felt something warm within her as she drew her sword.
Weng...
Finally, the energy shield crumbled it was here that Bryan Dahlia shouted.
"Enter!"
With that, everybody rushed to enter the ruins.