As we walked towards the fortress, Sophia speculated about the attack that we both knew was coming.
"It won't happen until we're inside the fortress city. It is far to open out here, any sign of a fight and a thousand soldiers will be here in minutes. They will most likely try and kill me before I reach the high command. Either that or they aren't afraid of us knowing that there is a traitor, as they're confident in their position. Slow down a bit, we have until we pass the gates to relax. They've known we were coming for over a week, a few more minutes won't change anything"
As we had a few minutes of respite, I decided to ask Sophia a few questions.
"When I joined the special forces, you said I could gain access to the Royal Library. How do I go about that?"
"It's fairly simple really, just get promoted. The special forces already have a few privileges, being one of the major forces of the kingdom. And those privileges just keep increasing as your level does. Among other things, level 3 operatives gain access to the first level of the library, which only consists of normal academic books and books on essence theory. At level 4 you gain access to the next three floors, which contain a plethora of essence techniques and spells. At level 5 you gain access to all but the restricted tenth floor. The only problem there is that to go above level 4, you need to have a recommendation from either the royal family or one of the four archdukes"
I pondered on her words.
'Well, it shouldn't be too hard to get to level four nor to get the recommendation. All I need to do is outperform every other operative during this war. With my dramatic rise in stats and lower essence consumption, rank 4's at the crimson assassin's level won't even be a threat'
With my first question answered I asked another.
"Next question, why is it that rank 4's can so easily pierce my stealth?"
"Well in terms of the mountain bear, that was just because its natural senses of smell and hearing were boosted by taking in essence, and to a ridiculous degree. But with me and the assassin, well you'll learn that on your own soon. It's no fun to spoil the surprise before you find it out your self!"
"It will just hinder my battle power if I don't know what I'm fighting against"
Sophia was silent for a moment before sighing and responding.
"You're no fun Magnus. But anyway, don't worry about it. All you need to know is that as you are now, any rank 4 human will easily see through you camouflage technique"
I was still a bit annoyed that I wasn't given an exact response, but I didn't have the time to retort, we had arrived at the gate. The caravan we had traveled with was receiving a thorough inspection off to the side of the road. We walked up to one of the guards standing near the gate and presented our badges. Seeing Sophia's level six one, they quickly ushered us through a small door to the side of the gate and into the city.
Monolith was completely different from any city I'd been to so far. The place was built to withstand armies, so there were 3 inner walls surrounding a large castle. The outer wall was covered in what looked liked ballista and catapults that had been boosted with spells. All of the townsfolk we passed looked hardened by the years in the barren wasteland. The civilians were here to provide for the army, so almost all of them were a craftsman of some type. Armorers, blacksmiths, fletchers, bowers, cobblers, tailors, leatherworkers, carpenters, or any other crafts profession you could think of. There were few small-time merchants around as the fortress had an exclusive contract with a handful of massive merchant companies. These companies provide raw materials to the fortress, which are sold at a discounted price to the craftsmen who live here. Because of this, many craftsmen were attracted to the city despite the danger.
As Sophia and I approached the second wall, it happened. A thin woman stepped in front of us and blocked our path. She was rank 4, with a spell protecting her information.
"Commander Rose, I do hope you could follow me"
Sophia glared at the woman and released the clasp on her sheath, pulling out her greatsword.
"And who might you be?"
"Oh don't worry about little old me, it's my master you want to talk with"
"Tell this master of yours I'm not interested"
At this, the woman grinned creepily.
"No, no, no, you must come with us, whether or not you want to"
At this, I heard a soft twang in the distance and stepped to the right to avoid an arrow that buried itself into the paved road at my feet. I then spun around to meet my assailants as I activated all my buffs. Two rank 4 men were barreling towards Sophia and me at high speeds. One of them was a beast of a man, seven and a half feet(2.3m) tall and wielding a massive battle-ax. The other man was his complete opposite, being thin and only 5 feet(1.5m) tall. This man brandished a rapier. I could also see an archer on the roof of a building in the distance.
'It will only take a few minutes for soldiers to arrive at the scene. Sophia is engaging the woman, who is most likely the bigger threat. These two men should underestimate me because of my youth. I should be able to take one out before they put up their guard. The archer is too slow to hit me, I'll worry about them later"
I conjured a shadow dagger in each hand and dashed at the short man. With my inflated stats and multiple essence buffs, my movements would look like teleportation to the untrained eye. The thin man wasn't expecting me to be anywhere near as fast as I was, and with his guard down, he was helpless against me. I stuck a dagger into his neck and buried another in his heart, he was dead before he could scream. I took a slight step back as the large man roared and swung his ax at where I was just standing, shattering the pavement like it was cheap pottery. But his speed was slower than Sophia's, he wasn't a threat. I jumped towards the man, using his wide left shoulder as a pivot point to get behind him and cling to his back. He tried to shake me off, but I raised the incredibly sharp shadow dagger in my right hand and relieved him of his head. I glanced to the nearby roofs and noticed that the archer was running away, I condensed a [Wind Bolt] and shot it at him. He tried to dodge but I had predicted his movements, the bolt hit him in the forehead, shooting straight threw his brain.
I then turned back to Sophia's battle. She was currently surrounded in a swirl of air essence, similar to my [Wind Dash], and moving at a much faster speed then she did during our spar. Still, she was having difficulty with her opponent. The creepy woman was constantly conjuring walls of ice to redirect Sophia's heavy blows. Seeing this I sprinted over, using [Earth Manipulation] to lower the ground below her and launching half a dozen wind bolts. The woman was startled for a moment but quickly gather herself and used her ice to propel her self backward and dodge my attack. Sophia grasped this opportunity and dashed forward, covering her sword in an air essence spell that increased its power. The woman had to spend a large amount of essence to create a thick ice wall that could take the powerful blow head-on. I arrived a second later, stabbing at her abdomen and shoulder. She just barely managed to block the attack to her shoulder with her staff but grit her teeth as my other dagger ran her through. I quickly took a step back and Sophia's sword came thrusting forward, almost cutting the woman in half at the waist. I finished her off with a dagger to the heart. The battle didn't take very long, but the street was torn to bits, covered in Ice and blood.
Sophia leaned on her sword like a cane and deepened her breathing to catch her breath.
"Thanks Magnus, I would have died if you hadn't been here'
For whatever reason, I was happy about those words, but I pushed the thought aside as I had a question.
"But wasn't that too easy?"
Sophia looked at me in disbelief before letting out a weak laugh. The fight had tired her more than I thought it had.
"That's because you reaped the life of two rank 4 ascenders like they were wheat. I still can't believe it. A month ago, you were a prodigy of a rank 2. Two weeks ago, you could barely best me in an essenceless spar. But now, no matter what I do, I don't think I stand a chance against you"
I was thinking about how to respond when a large group of soldiers appeared on the road. What looked like the leader walked out of the group.
"Drop your weapons and explain what happened here"
Sophia did neither, simply raising her badge. The man was startled for a moment before nodding his head. He ordered a group of soldiers to clean up the bodies and then had the rest escort us to the castle. I soon realized why Sophia hadn't bothered to request an escort at the front gate, none of the soldiers were ascenders.
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15 minutes later, we stood in front of the door to a large conference room. Sophia walked forward and pulled open the door. Inside stood a tall man with broad shoulders and short blond hair. He and a group of what looked like advisers were discussing the war over a large map.
Sophia kneeled and bowed her head, I followed suit.
"Greetings Lord James, I bring pressing information"
The tall man, Lord James, dismissed the advisers and then turned back to us.
"You can get up now, and drop the formalities, I hate it when you do that"
We stood up and Sophia responded to the man.
"It is mandatory to follow etiquette when greeting your commanding officer"
Sophia's attitude took a complete 180 from what it normally was. It seems that while she was fine with bantering with her subordinates, she strictly followed the rules in the presence of her superior. Sophia quickly detailed their experiences on the trip here. Lord James cursed loudly when she got to the part about the traitor. But when she reached the part where we were attacked by three rank fours, he slammed his fist on the huge table and split it in half. At this, I decided to identify him. But I didn't find anything, not even his name.
"Whoever did this is going to rue the day they were born, I will tear them limb from limb and feed them alive to rabid beasts!"
He took a moment to calm down before continuing.
"But how did you survive, even for you, three trained rank 4s should be too much"
Sophia smiled and pointed at me.
"Luckily, I picked up Magnus over here a bit ago. He's kinda insane. Barely rank three and he took out two powerful rank 4's in under a minute. I'd be dead if it weren't for him"
Lord James turned to me for the first time since I'd entered the room. His eyes did not contain any disbelief, he seemed to trust Sophia fully, only surprise. He stood up and bowed his head to me.
"I apologize for ignoring you, I assumed you were just Sophia's aid. Thank you for saving my daughter in law, I will have a suitable reward prepared"
At this, for the first time since I'd arrived in this new world, I was completely thrown for a loop. Seeing my face, Sophia burst into laughter.
"Finally, it took me over a month, but I managed to crack your flawless shell"
Sophia laughed for over a minute before calming down and explaining.
"I never told you, but I'm engaged to the son of Lord James Falting, Archduke of the north"
I took a moment to collect myself before I responded.
"I must say, I didn't expect that at all"
At this, Sophia broke down into laughter again.