After flying for a while, Leon reached the territory of the dark dawn guild.
The guild was located in the middle of a forest full of withered trees, with bats flying all over and a dark cloud looming over their headquarters.
"Sir magus, this is a no-fly zone and the territory of the dark dawn guild, state your reason for being here." A mechanical voice resounded in the surroundings as Leon became alert.
"I am a rank 2 magi, Leon, leader of the magi council of the eastern twilight zone."
"…" No reply came from the other side, after a few seconds, Leon felt something was off and thus, cancelled his flight and landed on the ground.
"Welcome, sir magus. Our leader wishes to see you." The mechanical voice resounded once more as a shadowy figure manifested itself. It had the height of around 2 meters and had no physical features.
"I see." Leon murmured as he started following the shadowy figure. Even though he had lived for hundreds of years, he still felt unsettled just by being here for a few minutes.
'I will finish the talk and leave as soon as possible.' He thought as he made up his mind to leave as quickly as possible.
They kept walking and soon, Leon arrived in front of a room inside the headquarters.
"Please enter, sir Leon." A man's voice came from that room, inviting him inside.
"Then…" Leon opened the door after hearing the invite. As soon as he entered the room, he saw a man in white robes with a black sun badge on it, which was the standard uniform of the guild. This man, although looked as if he was in his early 20s, emitted the radiation of a rank 2 magi.
"Take a seat." Tirus neither stood up nor properly introduced himself, yet asked Leon to sit. Leon, in normal situations, would have taken this as an insult, but, for some reason, he didn't feel offended right now.
Maybe because the warm feeling one got while in this room, unlike the outside, where it felt as if the air itself was filled with misery.
"So, what brings you here?" Tirus inquired, of course he knew why Leon came here, he was just testing the waters.
"We both know who we are, so I will get straight to the point. I am here to greet sir Tirus on your guild becoming a mid-scale one."
"Thank you. This had been my goal ever since I came out of my seclusion." Tirus accepted the goodwill of the other party while revealing a little bit of information about his past. Making the other party's work easier.
"Oh, I see. Sir Tirus, if possible, come over to my magus tower for a cup of tea. Although mine isn't the most luxurious, but it's still one of the more popular magus towers in the eastern region." Leon said with a smile. Expressing his intentions.
"Good, then I'll see if I can."
Thereafter, Tirus and Leon exchanged their experiences about their cultivation and experiments, which left Leon quite satisfied. During their talk, Tirus got to know more about the upper echelons of the Twilight Zone, and also the fact that there were already 6 mid-scale guilds in the Eastern region, including the dark dawn guild.
Tirus understood what he wanted to say.
"This place already has enough mid-scale guilds, so feel free to annex as many small-scale guilds you want to, but we mustn't let any more mid-scale guilds to be created."
Tirus understood this and had no problem with it.
….
After Leon left the guild territory,
Tirus summoned Beth to the secret laboratory.
"What? You want to make me a warlock? What is a warlock?" A barrage of questions assaulted Tirus as soon as he proposed the idea to her.
"You see, warlocks are basically magi, but they are stronger than those at the same realm, it's an ancient pathway of cultivation. I got all of this information in the inheritance." Tirus explained what warlocks were and lied to her about the source of the information. He couldn't just tell her that he read all of this in a novel in his previous life, could he?
"Then why don't you become a warlock, master, won't that increase your power?" Beth asked this question out of pure curiosity. But if her master didn't want to tell her, then she still wouldn't have any issues with it.
"I don't wish to tread on the path of warlocks because my talent is high enough, and I like to modify my body the way I want it to.
But warlocks are different, their bodies are naturally modified by their bloodline, so normal transfiguration is useless for them. Moreover, I'm already at rank 2, it's too late for me to become one even if I wanted to.
Most importantly, if I were to become a warlock, then it'd ruin my plans" Tirus answered honestly. He really didn't wish to become a warlock because of these reasons.
"I see. So, how do I do it? I'm already an official magus and I even cultivate the bone element, won't any complications arise?" Beth asked confused.
"Hehe, you're just a rank 1, so its much easier for you than me. Also, all I need to do to modifiy the bloodline infusion method to suit your meditation technique. Then you'll successfully become a warlock. It's just that the process can be a bit painful." Tirus said while chuckling lightly.
"If this is what master wants, then I will do it." Beth replied while bowing down.
"Hm, good." Tirus said with a smile. He had only researched the Bone cultivation method purely out of curiousity and had gotten all the important information he wanted from the soul of the bone magus Kask. Now the path of Bone cultivation had lost almost all its meaning to him.
And so, he decided to do another experiment. He wanted to see if he could merge the path of bone magic and warlock bloodlone.
If it was successful, then he would gain a subordinate capable of controlling both fire and bone magics.
If it failed, then, well...she was of importance to him, she wasn't irreplaceable.
To be continued...