The day after my match with Sophia, all six units gathered in the training field. After a few minutes, everyone was in their rows and had quieted down. Seeing this, Sophia stepped out and addressed the crowd. Besides the usual black amour, she had a large greatsword strapped to her back. It looked like there was a clasp on the front of the sheath that allowed for the whole thing to come off rather easily.
"As I said yesterday, we will be moving to the advanced base today. The war will be starting soon and we wouldn't have even a moment to rest. Steel yourself for the coming days, death will be around every corner and we must overcome it. Make one last check that you have everything, we will be leaving in 5 minutes"
Sophia was much more domineering than she normally was as she gave her speech, I had to remind myself that she was the commander of a major military organization and one of the strongest people in the kingdom.
Once the five minutes were over, Sophia led us to the climbing wall.
"I will be casting a wide range stealth skill and then you will all proceed to climb the wall. There is a large merchant caravan heading north that has just left the city, they will be our cover. Hide in their covered wagons, enough space has been left for all of us. We want to avoid Palence learning of our departure for as long as possible. When we reach the caravan, all scouts will move to their assigned positions"
With this, she raised her hands and concentrated. I sensed a large amount of shadow essence gather above her and weave itself into a blanket. After a few seconds, Sophia moved her hands forward and the blanket of essence covered all of us. It seemed those affected by the spell can see each other as the rest of the operative appeared slightly transparent to me, but not invisible. However, it was an entirely different matter to my essence senses.
'Interesting, I'm only picking up air essence, it's like no one is standing there at all. Shadow essence must be able to disguise itself as other essences'
With the spell cast, Sophia moved her right hand in a signal to advance. The units all lined up against the wall and began their ascent. I climbed the wall normally this time, there was no point in getting out of formation. It only took about twenty minutes for all six units to climb up the wall and rappel down on concealed ropes. Once outside the city walls, we followed Sophia at a quick pace to catch the merchant caravan.
After a few minutes of running, the caravan came into view, it was huge. Dozens of covered wagons sprawled the road, they were surrounded by five times as many guards. It seems we were to be hiding in plain sight. When we reached the caravan, Sophia signaled the scouts, so a handful of operatives, including me, broke off from the group. All of the scouts had personal camouflage techniques and spells. Because of my speed, I was chosen as the forward scout. I picked up my pace and headed to the front of the caravan. I need to stay about half a mile in front of the caravan and search for any dangers on the road, including Palence spies.
As the caravan advance, I didn't meet with any difficulties. My heat and essence senses picked up a few scattered bands of bandits, but they wouldn't dare attack such a large caravan. When night fell, I returned to the caravan and switched with the night watch as a camp was being established.
Around noon the next day, I detected a cloaked man sitting in the branches of one to the trees near the road. He seemed to be looking for something. I moved up to him and knocked him out with a blow to the temple, he was only rank 3. I didn't have much experience in interrogation so I slung him over my shoulder and headed back to the caravan. I approached Sophia and dropped the unconscious man at her feet.
"found this guy snooping around"
"Good work, it seems that they've already caught on. Things will get even more difficult from here on. Don't bother to capture anymore, they wouldn't know anything useful"
I saluted and returned to my post.
Over the next few days, I encountered many more Palence scouts. Though none of them surpassed the first I encountered, all of them being below rank 3. I put them down with a shadow dagger to the neck.
On the fourth day since we had left the capital, I detected a large amount of heat and life essence in the distance. I increased my speed to investigate. What I found was a large camp. A few hundred tents were arranged in orderly rows and hundreds of soldiers were eating around bonfires that didn't release smoke. Seeing this I immediately pulled out a trinket that would alert the caravan to halt and channeled some essence into it. Before I returned I used Identify on some of the soldiers. Most of them weren't ascenders and those that were weren't very powerful. Only the commander of the army was rank three.
'I must have killed most of their ascenders on my way here. They seem to want to overwhelm us with numbers'
Putting this thought aside I returned to the now halted caravan and reported my findings to Sophia.
"What?! How did they get an entire army this far past the border? Shit, there must be other traitors besides Harel!"
I brought her out of her thoughts with a short statement.
"I should be able to take them all"
"The army isn't the problem, they underestimated us, a few wide range destructive spells will wipe them all out. The problem is how they even got here. It should be impossible to get an entire army past the border without being noticed. The only explanation is that there is another traitor. Magnus, you go ahead and kidnap the commander. I'll send a few people behind you to destroy the army"
When I arrived back at the camp, I waited until the meal was over to make my move. I tracked the commander's movements and guessed that his tent was the slightly larger one in the center of the rest. I moved quickly and beat the commander and his guards to his tent, slipping inside. After a few seconds, he entered his tent and sat down at a table covered in maps. I crept behind him and knocked him out with a strike to the head. I picked him up and moved to the back of the tent, cutting a slit into it. It was easily noticeable, but the camp would soon be reduced to ashes, so it didn't matter much. Once I was out of the camp, I signaled the attack to begin.
I soon sensed a large amount of fire essence condensing behind the tree line. About 30 seconds later, so did an ascender in the camp, as he started screaming to escape. But it was too late. Five huge balls of fire descended upon the camp, causing a massive explosion when they landed. I had to look away because of how bright it was. When I turned back around, all that was left of the camp was a smoldering crater. The air carried the scent of ash and burning flesh. I walked away and joined the other operatives before heading back to the caravan.
I handed the commander to Sophia, and after a few minutes and just as many screams, she emerged from the wagon with an ugly look on her face.
"He didn't know much. They were given a path to take that got through the border and then met a masked man who led them here and informed them we would be passing by soon. This I bad, it means that the traitor has enough influence to change the patrol routes of the scouts on the border and know about the moments of the special forces. But this also narrows down the suspects. Luckily, the strength of the special forces is only known internally and by the royal family, so they didn't send anyone difficult to deal with"
"What's the plan?"
"We need to speed up and get to the border. This traitor could cause the fall of the kingdom"
With that, the caravan picked up speed and we set off once again.
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The next day, while I was observing my surrounding in search of danger, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head. The next moment, I collapsed on the ground in pain. It felt like every cell in my body was being ripped apart and rearranged. I wanted to pass out but my consciousness refused to budge. The pain subsided after what felt like hours but was most likely just a few minutes. I lay on my back gasping for breath, wondering what had happened, I then received a system notification.
[Your body could not keep up with the increase in your strength and was forced to reforge itself, similar things may occur in the future, data unclear]
Reading the message, I quickly opened my status screen and was astonished by what I saw.
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[Magnus Witherthorn]
Rank 3 - Mortal
Essence - 1024
Essence type - Myriad Elemental
[Strength] - 660
[Agility] - 825(+20)
[Dexterity] - 676
[Intelligence] - 722
[Spirit] - 113
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Active skills:
[S] - [Sky Steps]
[A] - [Identify], [Wind Dash], [Assassinate], [Wind Bolt], [Earth Manipulation]
[B] - [Essence Boost], [Camouflage], [Heat Sense], [Higher Speed Enhancement], [Conjure Ice Armament]
[C] - [Conjure Shadow Dagger], [Reinforcement], [Flame lash]
[D] - [Fire Starter]
Passive skills:
[SS] - [The Blessing of Myriad elements]
[S] - [Pinnacle Dagger Mastery]
[A] - [Greater Arithmetic Mastery], [Greater Calligraphy Mastery], [Danger Sense], [Greater Acrobatics Mastery], [Accelerated Regeneration], [Dimond Skin], [Essence Perception]
[B] - [Keen Senses], [Swift Steps], [Conceal Presence], [Higher Close Quarters Combat Mastery]
[C] - [Balance], [Movement Style: Silent Wisp], [Burn resistance], [Median Cooking Mastery]
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I was now rank 3, but more importantly, my stats had skyrocketed. I turned to a nearby tree and punched it as hard as I could. It shattered like glass, exploding into kindling. I was now more confidant in not getting killed in the near future.
As I moved to return to my post, I realized something else had changed. I wasn't just stronger and faster. I felt strange, like I was more connected to the world around me. I pondered for a moment then tried forming a [Wind Bolt]. I found that not only did it increase in power and speed because of my increase in [Intelligence], for some reason it took much less essence to form than it usually did. I formed another, and this time I focused on my essence senses. I tried this a few times and finally found the cause. When I formed the bolt, in tandem with drawing essence from my body, I was also drawing in the surrounding wind essence. I was somehow using essence without first drawing it into my body. I had no idea how I did it, but I didn't care, it was to my benefit.
The next week and a half passed quickly as we dashed through the kingdom to reach the border as fast as possible. I was bummed as I could only bring a few books with me for the trip and I ran out quickly. I couldn't reread the books in my storage, as I had a perfect memory of each one. I was relieved when we finally reached the border. It was a huge expanse of barren wasteland. Not a single animal or plant could be seen for miles. In the distance lay a massive and imposing fortress that seemed to be challenging someone to try and attack it. I could also see a tall mountain range to the east, our destination.
When the caravan arrived, the operatives emerged and stood before Sophia, who announced the next step.
"You all will be going to the forward base, I need to head to the fortress and report to the high command"
As I prepared to leave with my unit, Sophia approached me.
"Your coming with me, I may need some help"
I stood still for a moment before nodding and following her. When we were out of earshot of the rest, I asked a question.
"Do you think the traitor will come after you in the fortress?"
"Yes, we were all supposed to die in that ambush, and since we didn't, they will want to at least get me"
"I see, and if they want to kill you, they're going to send someone strong"
"And that's why I brought you, I believe that you and I will be able to take anything they throw at us"
At this, I nodded once more.
'Let's hope so'