Chapter 65 - Hardened Practice and Gilbert's Disturbance

In the middle of training in the Preeliance Empire, Draxus was practicing a new form of barrier tech by concentrating on points of attacks. It was a concept of creating an invisible barrier that's highly concentrated on a single point. The partners for his practice on it were Lily, Julie, and Matilda. In a three versus one situation, Draxus lightly dodged the attacks without performing a single parry. It was a set rule when practicing with the girls and improving their skills. Just as Matilda was about to land a strike on Draxus, he tried to create a small barrier with the area being covered is less than a whole centimeter squared. Unfortunately, Draxus misplaced the microbarrier and ended up taking a hit from the wooden sword. "Guhh... That turned out quite badly." The reason why his defense was easily thrown off was due to the constant improvements done by Lily and Matilda making dangerous attacks, and Julie making sharp moves in perfect timings. Olivia came in carrying food around which was taught to her by Draxus. "Good work you three, let's take a break for a bit." The five of them are in the personal training ground of Draxus. He quickly shook off the pain and sat down on a table nearby. Olivia and Matilda sat on one side of the table while Lily and Julie sat on another side. "In terms of sword skills I don't see any errors. How are you girls learning such refined sword techniques?" Draxus complained lightly as he was pretty much at his wits end analyzing sword techniques of a different world. "You're one to talk Drax, making a completely original sword style and even incorporating it to a series of moves. [Kingfisher Bladework Fantasia] is too difficult even for a knight like me." Matilda pouted as she helped herself with eating the sandwich that was made by Olivia. "Yeah, you were trying to use [Mirrored Blade] on us are you?" Lily gave Draxus a sharp gaze which made him avert it away completely. "That aside, I'm at least able to use the basic skills without trouble now. I wonder if I can beat the heroes in a duel soon..." Draxus turned his gaze back to her once again and told her the problem when it comes to that. "Heroes are troublesome indeed, but the threat here is [People from Earth], it's likely that once you face somebody like that it will be a difficult battle no matter what it is. Their ways of thinking, is a lot different after all." Lily nodded in reaction to Draxus's advice, Julie had a question however to the reason why they found dealing with [Otherworlders] more difficult than the [Heroes] of the current world. "Why is it harder?" Draxus pondered for a bit before giving her the answer she needs. "It's because that almost all of people from our world, are capable of learning things through science. It's like technology and about the earth. You will get to learn how things work, and if you add the concept of magic into it, it's too powerful as a weapon. Begona, who is definitely dead now, taught Elliot how very thin strands of water are capable of cutting off the limbs of a person. How you could place your senses in water like echolocation and spread it out like the web, allowing you to be able to grasp the movements of everything within a large range, regardless of magic, sneaking ability, and sound." Olivia felt a bit sorry as to what had happened against Wesley's group due to how powerful Elliot become. But since he was pretty much killed in action, Olivia shrugged it off as there are no more people aiming for her aside from Draxus. "Speaking of concept magic, Olivia seems to be progressing quite well." Olivia smiled happily as she received a praise from Draxus. "I don't understand why you're trying a style that overwhelms targets, I appreciate that you're trying to mimic my methods but please choose your own style. I won't stop you if you still continue to mimic me though, it's reassuring." Draxus smiled and gobbled up the sandwich that he took from the table. "No fair..." Lily pouted while turning her gaze away from Draxus. "Eh? Did you say something?" Draxus wasn't able to catch her muttering and decided to ask her about it. "N-Nothing! By the way, can you teach us more about the intermediate skills soon?" Matilda then turned her gaze to Lily and then Draxus. "What kind of abilities are in intermediate?" Draxus thought up for a bit to recollect the combat methods specified for one handed swords but he was interrupted by a sudden phone call. "Ah, hold on for a moment." He took out his phone and checked who was the caller. The caller saved on the phone was named: [Boogerman boi]. He instantly recognized who it was and answered the phone. "Yo Gilbert." Gilbert's voice immediately resounded through the phone with a serious voice. "Drax, there's something bothering me in this country." Draxus showed a serious face and decided to use the loudspeaker function of the phone. "Go ahead." After given permission, Gilbert immediately explained his findings. "In terms of culture, it seems pretty normal for a simple religion. They worship a god and uninteresting stuff like that, but there is like a certain ritual where all men are called forth to the capital and submit a part of them. It's weird since it's targeted to only men. The pope is female, and the function of the church isn't the same as the one in our world. Instead, the pope will bear a child from the hero and that child will become the sole deaconess. The hero can then transfer his abilities to somebody else and gain the exact same power as him. The former hero is still alive to two generations and it makes me wonder how difficult they may be. They also tried to pursue us both but we managed to shake them off a few times until the point where they surrounded us. We had to knock some sense into them and introduced ourselves as sentinels tasked for your world tour." Draxus made a retort and interrupted Gilbert before he could continue his explanation. "That's a nice way to cover it up." Gilbert laughed a little before continuing his explanation. "Heh. Anyways, I feel like there's something up with this ritual. It was told that the pope received all the feelings and connections with all citizens of the entire country, and they intend to do the same to the Deaconess on her sixteenth birthday. Sorry if it sounds improper but I think something fishy is up with this case." Draxus pondered for a bit before giving orders to Gilbert. "Time for retreat, you're getting targeted there so be sure to leave a message that I'm going to visit soon. By the way, when is the birthday of the Deaconess, I'm slightly sus of the ritual." Gilbert thought and tried to remember things before answering. "Within this month they said, before your birthday at most." Draxus sighed and gave orders to Gilbert. "Aight, scouting mission is done, please wait for the pickup to arrive, send your coordinates in thirty minutes. Feel free to buy whatever food you'd like." Just before Draxus concluded the meeting Gilbert suddenly tried to say something. "Ah!! Wait wait!! There's one more thing." Draxus then urged him to say it quickly as he intended to report it to Serkyrio. "Well, there's one thing that's clearly proving that everything here is sus. There's a magic that remains constantly active. It seems that whenever we try to use our phones in the area, we become unable to do anything with them. Thermal and magic detection scopes don't function inside the capital either. So I'm sensing that the entire capital has some anti-magic barrier inside them, trying to interfere and disperse any magic that is aimed, activated, and passed there. That's all." Draxus praised them for their hard work in which they requested for a bonus in their pay. Draxus laughed lightly and said that he'll keep that in mind before cutting off the call. "Sorry everyone, seems like my job is catching up to me." The four girls simply smiled and waved their hands to not mind it. It was then a bombshell was dropped by Julie. "I wonder if Draxus is aiming for the Deaconess...?" It was then that the other three realized what was up and began interrogating Draxus for a while.