As per his daily routine, Ramie prepared to start training his green vine spell.
He could tell that his degree of control over the vines was still lacking, as such, and to improve his fighting power, he would spend few hours every day in training the vines.
For the past few days, he committed himself to this daily schedule.
His shoulder healed back to normal, as if the horrifying wound did not exist at all. As for his arm, few tissues began sprouting down the edge of his shoulder. Apparently, his body was in the process of re-growing his arm back.
Just as he wanted to start training, Lance came home running in haste.
"Ramie, quickly, go the compound entrance, a large number of military vehicles have come and stopped at the gate! The compound leader wants everyone to go there, now!"
"Military vehicles…?" Ramie was stunned by the news.
Putting on the hoodie and wrapping the scarf to cover his head and face, Ramie ran toward the compound entrance.
'Didn't the military retreat back to the capital…? Could they have come to evacuate us there?' on the way, Ramie couldn't help to think that this might really be his lucky day.
However, this might not be the case at all. And those could be survivors, just like them. So, he didn't get his hopes up by too much, not before he sees for himself.
Arriving at the entrance, Ramie saw many warriors standing on the wall, and staring outside, with their spears and weapons in their hands. He also saw the compounds son and the water mage there.
Moving to the wall, he climbed a make-shift stairs that was made of piling up blocks, and stood on the wall.
Looking at the scene ahead, Ramie frowned.
Outside, a convoy consisting of two Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 5 armored personal carriers, and over 10 other civilian vehicles, could be seen in one line stopping around thirty meters away from the compound
In front of the stopping convoy, around 30 warriors with two magicians stood in group, while looking at them.
It wasn't only that, but in front of that group, stood one man that was exuding an aura of Lv.2 warriors that was a bit stronger than the compound's leader.
The size of the force made everyone in the compound feel strong pressure.
Ramie wasn't sure of what would happen next, as he didn't know what those survivors want.
Thus far, he had already clashed twice in deadly confrontations with people. As such, he couldn't help to think that if these people had ill intentions, then this situation might develop to become as ugly as the attack by the bear beast.
One look at the warriors on the wall proved that this though of his has unfortunately become common sense now. Because as evident by their expression and the tense atmosphere around, it was obvious that everyone here was thinking the same thing right now.
At some point, Lance arrived with Reem. And after she spoke some words to the compound leader, he nodded to her, jumped down the wall with three other warriors, along with Lance, and started walking toward the convoy.
Ramie immediately thought that the compound leader was waiting to hear Reem's report on this group's exact levels of strength, due to her summon's ability to perceive auras.
The three warriors and Lance that escorted the leader all had ignition percent higher than 75% and were the strongest warriors in the compound. Probably, the leader had done so because in case something goes wrong, then all of the four with him would be able to handle themselves.
He didn't ask for weaker warriors and magicians to go with him, because their reflexes won't be as quick as those four. Also, even though the magicians can have a really destructive spells, but eventually, their reflexes and physic was still quite average, so he didn't want to bring any of them close to 30 warriors with heightened reflexes.
The compound leader and the four with him reached the group, and started talking with them.
Slow minutes ticked by, with everyone on the wall feeling nervous. If this group had ill intention, then they are pretty much doomed, as the difference in the power was obviously large. So, everyone held their breath, as they awaited the result.
After around five minutes, the compound leader and the Lv.2 warrior in that group shook hands, with smiles.
The compound leader then turned, and waved to them.
Only now did Ramie heave a sigh of relieve. Apparently, the compound leader and the survivors' leader had reached some sort of understanding.
Afterward, the survivors' parked their vehicles outside the compound. Then, they entered the compound by going over the wall using robes.
It turned out that this group was not sent from the capital or anything, but only a group of survivors that had been wondering outside aimlessly while looking for a shelter.
Among the 30 warriors, few had ignition percents above 50%, making them comparable to high and peak tier-1 beasts, while the others were below 50%, which made them as strong as low and mid tier-1 beasts. As for the two magicians, both were rank-1 magician with Lv.4 artifacts.
This served to show how turbulent their time outside was. As to level up this much, it meant that they had gone through a great deal of life and death battles with beasts, and acquired their cores, which naturally suggested that this groups fighting power was not to be underestimated. As to survive up to this point, it meant that they had survived through many dangerous battles.
Luckily, their attitude wasn't overbearing at all, even though they were much stronger than the compound inhabitants.
The total number of survivors in the convey numbered a bit less than 100.
Getting into the compound, the convoy survivors looked to be in a very bad shape, and looked very tired and dirty, which spoke again of how tough their time outside was.
Immediately, they moved to the other, unoccupied side of the compound to settle.
Evidently, they were so tired that the first thing they wanted to do was to sleep in their new, dirty, houses without bothering to even dust them off first.
As the night descended, Ramie and the rest gathered in the kitchen, to have the usual meat stew dinner. However, this time around, Lance wasn't sitting with them.
Today, when the group of survivors settled in the compound, the compound leader invited the survivors leading warrior to his house, to discuss some important things with him, and he invited Lance to the discussion as a representative of the group, which served to show how much of high regard he viewed them with now.
Anyhow, with Ramie's ghost glare, Reem's azure gazelle king, and not to mention Lance and Etta that both having ignition percent higher than 75%... their group was a force to be reckoned with within the compound. So, it was obvious that the compound leader was trying to give them sense of belonging to the compound by allowing them to partake in the decision making, so as to convince them to settle here and abandon their plan of leaving for the capital.
Anyway, as everyone was eating, Ramie had his mind on the stats screens he had seen when observing the two magicians in the survivors group.
- Lv.4 Magic Artifact (99%)
- Path: Scholar Magic
- Class: Inscription Magician (Rare)
When Ramie saw this stat, he immediately recognized that this 30 something years old man had the scholar type artifact, which according to the artifact knowledge, meant that this man was a none-battle magician, and that his magic would have more of a constructive nature than a destructive one.
According to the artifact knowledge, small percentage of the people with magic talent had very high degree of control over their magic energy, which enables them to construct magic spells themselves, and not depend on the spells inscribed in the artifacts. More ever, these constructed spells can react and answer to certain conditions and prompts other than the will of the magician that had casted them, and also to sustain themselves beyond the will of the caster.
This would naturally open the door to endless applications, making the scholar magicians of the highest importance. After all, these people can create spells themselves, and not depend on the artifact's inscribed spells, which opens up a sea of possibilities for what they can do.
The artifact knowledge Ramie had, mentioned the inscription magicians' class. And according to the knowledge, they were magicians with the ability to install certain spells into objects, to add certain desired effects or properties. The inscribed spells would use these objects to manifest or cast their effect, thus turning these objects to magic tools or magic weapons.
'Magic weapons…! Just how much of benefits can these things bring to us…?'
Ramie felt thrilled at this prospect. After all, merely the crude use of the buffalo beast bones by turning them into spears and weapons had increased the fighting power of the compound by an entire level. So, how strong and useful could these bones be after turning them into magic weapons?
This convoy coming here opened up a lot of possibilities, and Ramie could barely wait for tomorrow to meet this mage, and see what kind of inscriptions can he make.
As for the other magician in the survivor group; she wore over-sized clothes which covered her entirely, only leaving small part of her face revealed. The exposed portion of her face was the reason he knew that she was a woman. And when Ramie saw her stats screen, he finally felt relieved.
This was the first time ever since the catastrophe descent that he meets another bloodline magician other than himself!
…