"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak".
The Thornfield family had followed this philosophy, and it earned them glory and wealth beyond imagination. It was only a matter of time before the few losses would be recovered by a wave of new knights and acolytes, especially considering the numerous war prisoners who were captured in the war and the huge amount of resources the Thornfield family members would receive from winning the war.
This war had invigorated the whole household. The treasury had never been this full before, and people couldn't be happier. Everyone smiled or grinned, even the apathetic Elder Gale! A banquet had been organized, to share to everyone the good news, the gains and future prospects. It was a tradition that all adept families followed. Winning a war was a mean to strengthen family bonds, and reinforce its members' loyalty.
Despite being injured, Water Dragon made his appearance. As the supreme elder, he had played the biggest part in this war, not only by commanding the acolyte forces, but also intervening in many battlefields. His achievements were unmatched as he had accomplished the amazing feat of beating a Grand Knight.
"Today, I am here as your supreme elder but also as your kin! Today, we earned a glorious victory. As you can guess, looting the Huntingwood's Castle has reinforced our position in the Phuinem Kingdom! Moreover, we have proved that even adept-level powerhouses like Grand Knights can fall, should they ever provoke our family! This will earn us respect, and peace for several years", he said joyfully, "And this is why, tonight, we must celebrate! Eat to your fill, enjoy yourselves, and receive your personal rewards! You deserve them! I am proud to be from the Thornfield Family. I am proud to have won this war. On this thought, let us drink for a bountiful future!"
Hearing the charismatic supreme elder issue these words, everyone picked up a glass and drank. Drodosis was surprised.
[Beep! Elven Moonlight Water ingested! Spirit condensing…Not enough to breakthrough…]
Elven Moonlight Water was a tremendous treasure! For such a resource to be given in a banquet, the victory sure was flawless!
Anyway, maids and servants arrived, with plates full of food, mainly coming from magical beasts. Every single meal was a piece of art to watch. Each mouthful was delightful, as if it gave a sense of fulfilment.
Drodosis received numerous notifications, which made him even more happy:
[Beep! Nutritious ingested! Expected gains: +0.05 strength.]
[Beep! Nutritious ingested! Expected gains: +0.05 agility.]
[Beep! Nutritious ingested! Expected gains: +0.05 physique.]
[Beep! Nutritious ingested! Expected gains: +0.05 strength.]
Elders were summoned in a private room within the core area of the White Fortress, one by one.
Then, meritorious individuals were called. Each one of them were quite apprehensive at first. After all, the elder Water Dragon had become even more godlike in their eyes after he defeated the Grand Knight Tyler Anderson. To them, mere knights or intermediate acolytes, the supreme elder was a model, an ideal of strength they should strive for!
After a few hours of eating and drinking, Drodosis reached his limit. He knew that a single mouthful would make him puke. Servants and butlers were looking at him with both envy and shock.
How could a human ingest so much food? Where did it all go? Drodosis was akin to a bottomless pit, a voracious gourmet!
Someone interrupted his feast. It was his cousin, Fang. The latter had an exhausted face, but his eyes were surrounded by a strange expression of determination. Compared to the cry-baby he encountered when he came back to the Water Fortress a few months ago, this Fang was totally changed.
His hands seemed to have suffered quite a bit from spear training, and he seemed to have grown some muscles. In just three months, Fang had been transformed. Even Drodosis couldn't believe his eyes!
'Damn…I just gave him a hint not to give up. Hehe, look at him. He is no kid anymore! He's a man'
Indeed, Fang had matured, not just mentally, but physically as well. He seemed to have grown quite a bit.
"Hi, cousin Drodosis. I heard the heroic tales of the Great Plains Battle, and I wanted to congratulate you", Fang said honestly.
"Oh? I didn't think you would be interested in wars!", Drodosis said, obviously proud of himself.
Having a good image of oneself was satisfying, but hearing others recognize your efforts was even better. Drodosis was human. Even though he looked like a robot sometimes, he was still weak to praises. He still had desires. And this sentence made Drodosis really happy.
"In fact, I was wondering whether you would take me and several dozens of preparatory knights with you in the next war campaign. We would swear an oath of loyalty. I am not the only one who knows how difficult it must have been to pull off this tactic.
The way you trained soldiers to defeat an army twice bigger than yours with so few casualties, the way you defeated the elite knight…Bards sing praises of the battle of the Great Plains in the streets. I know you can't have many followers, due to your position as an acolyte and student from the Ivory tower, but please accept us as subordinates."
Drodosis was quite shocked. He never thought that his actions would be so inspiring that preparatory knights would want to offer their swords to him! It must be known that a knight can only swear an oath of loyalty once in a lifetime. The fact that there were dozens of people willing to do that with him was a novel experience to him.
In the past, he was invisible, and now, here he was! A hero in the eyes of many!
"How many, exactly?", Drodosis asked out of curiosity.
"More than fifty-six preparatory knights, including me, as well as twelve knights, some of them fought alongside you in the Great Plains battle."
Drodosis was stuck in a dilemma. However, after thinking about it, accepting their loyalty and forming a new knight order in the family would increase his status as well! Responsibilities and rewards were two sides of the same coin.
After thinking a bit, Drodosis said, "In two days, when the sun rises, everyone willing to swear a soul oath of loyalty to me shall come to the training grounds. As my cousin, you shall be the first member of the Ironcloud Knight Order. And as your first task, I order you to pass the words to everyone susceptible to join me!"
Fang seemed elated. His eyes, full of admiration, suddenly seemed to have an outburst of determination. This look of devotion looked like fanatism, as he said, "I swear a soul oath to forever serve Master Drodosis Thornfield, as his sword, his shield and his eyes, until my last breath. Only death shall free me from this oath, for I, Fang Thornfield, am his subordinate!"
Drodosis suddenly felt a fragment of Fang's soul entering his spirit. If he wanted to, he could severely affect or even injure Fang mentally. This was the effects of a soul oath. The subordinate would offer a fragment of his soul to his master, as a proof of loyalty.
A few seconds later, Fang stood up and started to spread the words.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Drodosis was summoned by the Supreme Elder, his grandfather. His image and glorious appearance didn't dim one bit, and his injury seemed to have begun to recover as well.
Drodosis didn't treat him as the grandfather who raised him in his childhood though, but as the supreme elder of his family.
"Drodosis, you are an exception in this family. Your talent is average, yet your achievements were unmatched in the younger generations. You beat an elite knight, and killed hundreds of enemies by yourself, with very few casualties within an army you seized from a spy. Tell me, how did you pull it off?", his grandfather said.
"I studied, father. I learnt records of ancient battles, and studied the tactics of knight wars of old times in the Ivory tower!", Drodosis said. He didn't lie. After returning to the Water Fortress, he had indeed studied these battles, which inspired him greatly for the battles he went through.
"Mm, knowledge is power. Continue on this path, and it will only be a matter of time before you become a pseudo-adept like me! Haha! I am quite confused though. What should I give you?", his grandfather asked.
"I want two things, elder", Drodosis said in a respectful and intelligible voice. Few would be undaunting enough to stand in front of a pseudo-adept like the elder Water Dragon without being stressed out, much less ask for two rewards shamelessly!
He continued, "I want to have a quick look at the three spells restricted to the Thornfield Household's inner circle, and found my own knight order."
"Mm, even if you look at them, you won't be able to learn them."
"Even so, I want you to grant me this favour, so that I can prepare to study a few required theories."
"Oh? This is a first! I wish I had been this thoughtful in my prime…", the Elder Water Dragon said in acknowledgement, thoughtful and nostalgic.
In his prime, he hadn't bothered with it at all, spending his time in cultivation, overlooking his comprehension of magic. He ultimately broke through the advanced acolyte realm, and when he finally amassed enough contribution in his family to learn the Water Dragon Transformation spell (one of the three spells restricted to the inner circle), he had to spend 10 years, studying various theories.
There were three requirements to fulfill in order to learn a spell.
Sufficient spirit was one.
The second requirement is the spell matrix, which is a combination of rune combination one had to think of in the mind so that elemental particles would gather and release the spell itself. This is what made strong spells so rare. There were millions of runes, and finding the right combination would take decades and a huge amount of luck.
And the third requirement was comprehension of the spell itself. Only with the three requirements could one successfully cast a spell.
The better the quality of the spell matrix, the stronger it would become, which is why inner circle spells like the Water Dragon Transformation spell were so powerful, compared to the widely spread fireball spell for example. This is also what made old adept families stronger than newly founded adept clans.
In the same way, higher spirit would enable one to use more elemental particles, which is why pseudo-adepts are much stronger than beginner acolytes. Last but not least, better comprehension enabled one to cast a spell much faster, with some slight increase in its power.
Drodosis' biochip was really useful since it allowed him to spend evolution points in order to skip the third requirement of comprehension. This way, he could focus on just increasing his spirit and obtaining the spell matrixes! Unfortunately, evolution points couldn't be spent to create a spell matrix out of nothing, which is why he asked for the 3 restricted spell matrixes within the core area of the Water fortress.
This way, he would be able to learn any of the three spells, as long as he had sufficient evolution points, thus allowing his strength to rise dramatically. The last battles made him realize that he relied too much on his elite knight physical advantage to win. However, he didn't want to be a knight. He wanted to become a Water Elemental Body Refinement adept!
"Good…Follow me", Elder Water Dragon said in a clear voice.
Drodosis was brought to a secret room, where several arrays of defence could be found, as well as advanced-level golems with more than 18 points of strength! This was frightening!
"These golems were looted from the Huntingwood's family. They were strong, but ultimately, the golem master surrendered quite quickly, seeing that we had twice their numbers", he said while grinning.
Drodosis entered the room, and he could see three parchments locked in a transparent box, made of crystals of the highest quality, allowing near-perfect conservation of the spells.
[Beep! Vitriolic Sphere: Condense water elemental particles up to 150 + [Spirit*10] meters away into a shimmering greenish sphere of acid about 50 centimetres in diameter. At host's wish, this sphere can explode, releasing a corroding gas which deals [Spirit] damage per second until the wounds are healed and treated. The gas can only spread up to 60 feet around the point of explosion.]
[Beep! Water Dragon Transformation: Condensing Bloodline power, transform into a gigantic water dragon. Based on host's spirit and understanding of water dragon anatomy, the spell will allow the host to gain several dragon racial abilities: flying, Water Breathe and Water Domain (if spirit is higher than 16 and comprehension near perfect). By transforming, strength and physique attributes are tripled, while agility decreases by a set amount of 5. Magic Power increases by 10 points. 2 points of mana are consumed every five seconds when transformed.]
[Beep! Ice Curse: Consuming a medium belonging to the target (hair, blood specks, limb), inflict a curse to the target, freezing his or her heart. The spell can be cast from up to 100 kilometres away. The Fire Dragon Heart Elixir can cure this curse. If the elixir isn't taken in the next few minutes following the curse, the target dies. Other methods exist to cure the curse, but they are obsolete considering the current data base (either can't be found, or can't be done anymore in this era).]
The three spells were of the highest quality, the best Drodosis ever saw. This was truly an eye-opening experience.
"I am done", Drodosis said after a few minutes.
"Good. Make sure you come back to me, when you have learnt most of the theories recommended by our ancestors!"
"Yes, grandfather", Drodosis said, finally breaking the ice with his grandfather.
He had truly gained a lot. Now, he could learn any of the three spells, provided with enough evolution points!
[Beep! Cost of Understanding Vitriolic Sphere Spell: 300 evolution points.]
[Beep! Cost of Understanding Water Dragon Spell: 400 evolution points. However, host needs to increase bloodline's purity in order to cast the spell. In order to do that, host must consume Bloodline cores, drink Water Dragon Grass Elixir, or if possible, eat Water Dragon Meat, but Water Dragons are Adept-level powerhouses at the very least.]
[Beep! Cost of Understanding Ice Curse: 800 evolution points.]
Drodosis knew the reason why the spells cost different amounts. He already knew quite a lot when it came to acid-related theories and such. His elite knight cultivation, combined with his mummy implant, made him understand a lot about bloodlines and anatomy.
This is why the Water Dragon Transformation Spell and the Vitriolic spells were quite 'cheap'. However, he knew nothing about ice-related spells, or theories related to the ice branch! This is why the Ice curse didn't really interest him, even though it was a terrifying spell! It was too expansive!
In the world, there were plenty of different adepts. The paths they walked were different, and I dare say, unique. Most of them would not choose just one, but instead, combine two or three paths to increase their fighting power.
Bloodline adepts focused on the cultivation and purification of their bloodlines, which came from ancient species. The purer their bloodline is, the closer they become to the overpowered and mysterious beasts which was assimilated by their ancestors, and the stronger they get both spiritually and physically. The Water Dragon Transformation spell was actually Bloodline-school spell!
Naturally, most of adepts were walking the path of elemental mastery, the most ancient and durable path! Drodosis' aunt Lily, known as the Ice elder, was a perfect example. She had even specialized herself with ice spell mastery, a sub-division of the water element.
However, not all acolytes and adepts had bloodline or affinities to walk either of the two paths. Hence, some chose to walk the path of body refinement, following the tempering methods of knights, and consuming special resources. Under stressful methods, their body would adapt, and they would become stronger and sturdier. Drodoiss was one of them!
Some would choose the use robotic limbs and mechanical components to make themselves real-life cyborgs, reducing the obvious biological gaps between themselves and magical beasts! Although quite complicated, it was the preferred path of gnomes: the path of Mechanical Magic!
Of course, there existed so many adept paths that it would be too long to list them down: principle adepts (focusing on time and space for example), soul adepts focusing on mental attacks, necromancers focusing on undead creations, tamer adepts relying on magical beasts...Non-combat adepts such as alchemists, craftsmen and forgers existed as well!
Elder Blue-beard was an intermediate acolyte, but his combat power was weaker than that of a beginner acolyte! He decided to spend his time and wealth on alchemy resources and recipes, in order to brew potions! This led him to be extremely valuable and unique to the Thornfield family!
While strength was important, Alphen wasn't an unfair and illogical world. Strength mattered, but in the end, your charisma and your skills' usefulness were more important than brute force. This is why
Elder Blue Beard was treated on an equal footing when he talked with Elder Hugo for example, despite the latter being one realm higher: an advanced acolyte!
Alphen wasn't a jungle, where the strongest preyed on the weak, at least not in the Phuinem Kingdom. Not everyone was suited for battles after all. There were laws...and strong people making sure they were respected.
The banquet was only beginning...