While they were waiting in line for the teleportation gate, ignoring the suspicious stares that all the people surrounding them were giving Daron's group after seeing the guards of the city surround them, Daron was not bothered at all.
He was instead excitedly conversing with Sirious.
'So, did you get something form that guy in the sky and that voice?'
[Unknown High Radiation Energy detected. Please name it]
'MANA!' Daron replied the instant he heard that. He already knew that those two were the ever-mysterious mages, and therefore, mages could only possess on thing. And that was magic, created by nothing but mana!
[Mana has been stored]
'Hehe'
Daron could not help but break out into a smile even on the outside.
…
Soon, they were able to pay for the long-distance teleportation to the capital of Pierre; Ferdon. The cost was not too much, but it was not something normal people could afford in their entire lives.
20 silver per person? That was an insane cost that very few people could afford. Naturally, Bob had the means to pay for the teleportation. He also had to pay an extra 10 silver for the 'luggage' they were carrying. Naturally, this luggage was actually mainly treasuring.
Just as Daron was standing on the teleportation platform that was 10 meters wide in any direction and had 20 people placed inside along with their luggage, he suddenly felt the feeling of stretching and compressing. Unlike the portal of teleportation that he had used to escape, this teleportation directly teleported everyone and everything on the platform to the designated teleportation platform that would receive them.
The odd yet overwhelming feeling of being squeezed into ramen, then squashed into pancakes, while being sent over in every directions yet none at all took over Daron's entire body.
However, this time around, he had made some preparations and told Sirious to reduce his sensitivity and control of his senses and body to the minimum possible. Sirious had never actually administered an anaesthetic, but was instead slowing down the movement of signals from the nerves to the brain. Right now, Daron had told Sirious to almost completely bring that response to a stop, which allowed him to barely remain conscious.
'Bring back my sense one the teleportation stops.'
[Yes Master Daron.]
Although he was conscious, having all his senses deprived was still an unusual experience for Daron, similar to what he felt when he was not born yet, but retained consciousness. It was like an out of body experience that people often talked about without any scientific proof or evidence. Although 99.9999% of those shows were fake, Daron could not help but ponder about the possibility of some of them being slightly real.
While he was thinking about that, based on Sirious' calculations, nearly a whole day passed while they were within the teleportation.
This was the longest teleportation he had ever been in thus far.
[Master, this is only the second one you have been in…]
'…'
[…]
Anyway…
His senses began to return as he began to feel that the stretching and squashing was subsiding into minor turbulence similar to that faced by a plane stuck within a storm, and soon completely vanished, with all his senses returning.
At this moment, Daron took a moment ot recover slightly before looking around and noticing that everyone who had come along with him, including the Rank 8 knight had fallen unconscious, unharmed, but no longer awake, sleeping like babied on the ground.
At this moment, a booming voice interrupted Daron's thoughts.
"Ho, ho! Someone was able to remain conscious while teleporting? Tell me, do you have some treasure you bumpkin?"
Daron looked over and immediately his pupils contracted. The amount of pressure radiating off the burly man that towered at nearly 2.5 meters was at least 100 times that of the Intermediate knight Zack. This has to be an Advanced knight.
'Sirious. Scan him completely! Quickly! I want all the information on him!'
[Alert! Master, a scanning probe will the revealed to any individual stronger than you.]
'Oh yeah! How could I forget! That was the reason I restrained myself from scanning Zack or any of those other official knights working under him. Don't do it Sirious. Just subtly try to scan his aura and get as much data as possible without him noticing.'
[Order confirmed]
"Hey you! Answer me! What allowed you to remain conscious while travelling through the long-distance teleportation from that remote Xenith?"
Daron looked at the man and acted to be terrified while thinking up plans of how to escape.
" I- I- I do not know sir!"
"Hmph! Don't want to tell me? I'll check you myself."
The burly man stepped into the now completely powered down teleportation array and stripped Daron completely naked, leaving only the underwear that Daron had gotten Joanne to make for him; the perfectly shaped muscles of a Rank 6 knight fully revealed to the others working at the teleportation array. However, this sight was not too different from most Rank 6 knights and therefore did not cause too much of a ruckus.
However, the advanced knight's eyes then fell on the three boxes that Daron had brought along with his group.
Seeing the knight's gaze, Daron leapt towards the treasures and hugged onto the boxes as though he would not let anyone come near them. What Daron was actually doing was making contact with the boxes and instantly transferred all the valuables into his [Personal Space], leaving a single normal treasure per box to make it seem like there was at least something of value within them.
Seeing the reaction of the little Rank 6 knight, the advanced knight grunted and went forward, using only his light breath to push Daron off the boxes.
He opened the boxes one by one, only to see a single thing that looked like it would be worth at best a silver.
Seeing the measly amount of wealth, the advanced knight's face contorted as he turned towards Daron and yelled.
"This is all you have? Where is the treasure that allowed you to stay conscious?"
Daron's entire body had been frozen, unable to even blink. This was a force of suppression that the advanced knight was putting on him.
[Powerful Soul invading your body has been detected.]
[Should I absorb it? Absorbing someone's soul will have their soul greatly weakened]
After thinking for a moment, Daron reluctantly sighed as he rejected the offer, but told Sirious to be prepared to absorb all of it if it reached dangerous levels, or if that advanced knight went forward to kill him.
'If I'm going to die once more, then I'll take the damned one who killed me along with me. Or at least hurt them so badly that they cannot live normally again.'
Daron just grit his teeth, preparing for his coming death. He was not scared, nor angry, neither sorrow nor pain covered him mind. It was only the regret of not being able to learn magic.