(Soldat POV)
It has been... the whole... night. And only now do I know that he came back because I heard a loud thunder strike go off in the distance paired with explosions coming from his dragon.
He said he would be gone for the night, but if his dragon fought something strong enough to make it go for the action, something must be up.
And all I can do is sit in the lounge of the inn and wait, tapping my finger on the table.
"Those sounds only mean that he used that technique of his again. Must be another one of those quick insects again."
"And even Hiryū came to fight them off. It must be the anomalies he has talked about on the trip."
"What are the chances he came across some of them while going out?"
"If there are more of those, do you think the other clan members have encountered them?"
"If someone as strong as Rudeus needs to go that far to defeat one, then it's practically impossible for ordinary people to survive."
"What do you think, Soldat?"
"I think, you guys need to wait for him to come back and report about the events."
Their constant bickering over the situation can be so annoying. Let's wait and see how dire our situation is this time.
It was another 15 minutes until we were graced with the presence of our pristine, young Great World Power.
What I didn't expect was that he was accompanied by two other men, one of them looking like a veteran and the other like an upcoming fighter with a fancy looking greatsword.
What concerned me about these two was their aura. Something told me to be aware of them, and I was practically demanding with my eyes for Rudeus to explain.
"We are having a monster build up out there. That insect monster I defeated the other day was just one out of an entire colony, and they are on a constant growth."
While I didn't get the explanation I've asked for, this kind of report was difficult to process.
"Let's go to a meeting room, then you can elaborate more on this matter. But first, who are these two?"
He moved to the side for the two men to introduce themselves.
The first to do so was the older looking one, bowing with his right hand on his chest.
"Greetings. My name is Sandor, and I came here to Sharia after hearing about the abnormalities of strange Demon Continent like monsters appearing at the three Magic Nations."
I see. Given the feeling I have from him, he indeed is a veteran warrior. And he even shares the same suspicions as Rudeus about the possible origin place of those mutations. Maybe Rudeus's theory of someone bringing them here was correct after all.
When I glanced at Rudeus, however, he had a bit of a strange look on his face. I had the impression that he felt something wrong about the guy. Perhaps his detection picked something up about him.
Before I could have eye contact with him, the other, younger man introduced himself as well.
"I am Kalman III, Aleksander Ryback, North God and number seven of the Seven Great World Powers."
That made me flinch. Another Great World Power is here? How bad can his luck be to attract that many dangerous people around? And he said that an upper rank is close by as well.
To top it all off, North God looked angered by something. Rudeus must've already pissed him off. Damn it kid!
"These two were actually fighting an insect type monster, and Hiryū went to exterminate it too."
Rudeus started to state as I started listening to him.
"The membrane he sent me yesterday was to tell me to come to him so that he could show me the bigger problem we are facing."
"I-I see. It must be quite far away if you were gone the whole night looking for it."
"Actually, I think it's about a day's worth away from here by foot. I spent the whole time looking for any other colonies that could've been growing elsewhere."
So, that would explain him having those bags under his eyes. Given how he tends to overdo things like these, he definitely doesn't notice it at all.
"Let's go discuss things in a meeting room so that we can talk about in detail."
On my command, we all headed to this inn's designated room, meant for party meetings, usually used by those who go labyrinth diving.
I felt a bit awkward saying that in front of two men who clearly were out of our liege. And if I understood Rudeus correctly, his weakness is North God Style.
The unpredictability is harder for him to deal with than the defensive Water God Style, well-known to be a Magician's weakness.
But for Rudeus, that style seems nearly pointless, as his magic packs a more complex variety of spells that make it hard to say what's coming next.
Unless it's a highly skilled Water God Style swordsman, blocking or parrying his attacks is difficult if it wasn't for him holding back from pushing too much and damaging his body again.
And now, two highly skilled North God Style swordsmen are here with us. Should they attempt to fight Rudeus for his spot, then it would take Rudeus to use his curse to defeat them.
With hopes of avoiding any such confrontation, we went inside the meeting room and all of us took a seat.
To start, both North God and Sandor explained how they've arrived here after hearing rumors of Death God's defeat, as well as the sudden appearance of powerful creatures all over the Northern Territories.
They both bumped into each other on their way to Sharia, and encountered one of those monsters.
It was a giant, ten meters long caterpillar like monster that was munching on some adventurers when they arrived.
Despite their effort, however, their attempt on saving those people was unsuccessful, as the monster limited their movements with its silk threats that floated everywhere in the air, coming out of its body.
Once stuck on to a person, it would harden and eventually break apart any solid armor anyone would wear.
That was when Hiryū came in to steal the show.
With his Fire Magic, he scorched the creature alive with a few explosions and retrieved something that was within its burned carcass.
Being the dangerous creature Hiryū is, North God decided to exterminate him while he was rummaging through the carcass for something.
Only Sandor noticed the eyepatch with the symbol of the new number five on it and persuaded to stop North God.
To their surprise, Hiryū was having little to no interest whatsoever in fighting them and was just about to fly off.
But these two got stuck onto him and were carried away.
It ended with them getting dropped at the campus of the school, and North God losing not only his right arm, but also his sword, which is the King Dragon Sword, the strongest sword in the world.
Rudeus proceeded to elaborate on his observation of Hiryū's explosions, assuming that he was solely engaged in combat against another creature.
He didn't expect for him to send him a membrane filled with Magic Stones within it.
On the second flight over Sharia, he did notice two people falling from the sky, but he decided against catching them.
Sandor was understandable about it, saying that it was their fault for not being cautious enough. At the end, he was rather grateful that Hiryū came because the only way to deal with that sort of monster was to fend it off with fire first.
North God, however, was still furious about having his sword stolen like that.
Back to Rudeus's report. The membrane wasn't just meant as a looting gift, it was meant as a means to come over to him.
Not only did Hiryū give him the King Dragon Sword, he also showed him the spot where the colony lies.
Rudeus spent the whole night scrolling through the sky for any other colonies nearby, but only found the one.
As the good things were said, the bad things came up and overshadowed the good one's.
"When I flew near it at the end again to check if I can get any more details about it, I felt like it grew a little. I didn't notice some of them coming out and heading towards the city."
According to Rudeus, the insect monsters that appeared these days, were most likely early bloomers that went to get proper meals.
Especially the caterpillar one, as the transition into a butterfly would have made it perhaps more dangerous.
Then came the recent event, in which a full group of these monsters came near the city. The ones that flew up in the sky were dealt with by Hiryū, while Rudeus took on the ones that were left on the ground, fighting against Sandor and North God.
Before they came here, guards questioned them and took the severed parts from the insects for further investigations.
All things now said, the seriousness of our situation just dawned on me even more.
"Rudeus, what direction was that colony again?"
"Uhm... I think it was from the west side of the city, if I'm not mistaken."
I put a hand on my forehead as I grimaced. The last two parties of the clan haven't arrived yet. If I recall correctly, they should've come from the same direction where the colony should lie.
It's safe to assume that encountered one of these creatures. I got to report that to the other party leaders.
"This is indeed a dire situation. One that seems too abnormal to be of natural causes." Sandor said with a hand on his chin.
"Huh. So you think so too?" I said.
"I have experienced many things in my time wandering around all sorts of places. A number of strong monsters appearing isn't an uncommon occurrence. But one of such level is a first for me. It almost seems to me a new kind of monster appeared."
I was a bit confused. From his comment just now, it sounded like he was some kind of old man talking about his life as a successful adventurer.
Then again, those eyes have a color to them to which I have never seen on anyone before.
He could be from the Demon race or part one and lived a longer life than you would think, but I probably shouldn't inquire.
"Well, if not just the Armored Dragon King gets his interest peeked from this, but also the second generation North God, then things really are instigated by a person or more."
"I admit now that your hunch was right. This is starting to feel like we are in a… wait… second generation North God?!"
As I was coming to an agreement on Rudeus's gut feeling from back at Rosenburg, he said something that wasn't fitting to what we were talking about.
Everyone, including me and the two men, looked at him with wide eyes.
Rudeus just looked at us blankly and answered us without hesitation.
"Whenever he stated his name, my senses gave the stinging kind of signal. It took me a bit before realizing that it was the feeling I get if someone is lying. It wasn't this intense before, though.
Thereafter, I thought about it on the way here and remembered that the second generation North God's name was Alex Ryback, and concluded he just took out the Alex part from Aleksander and turned it into Sandor.
Furthermore, you two already looked like you could be related with those similar features."
"B-But, how?" The North God stammered, bewildered over Rudeus's conclusion.
"I have detection abilities that not only help me detect living beings around, like a Superd's third eye, but also all sorts of mana induced objects. It even goes as far as to detect other people's emotions, such as the acknowledgment of lying and" Rudeus stopped for a second before scratching his cheek and having a meek smile. "Anger towards a person lying."
Currently, only the two men knew what Rudeus meant, and they looked at each other as if they got busted.
"Really? You're the son of one of the three heroes, Kalman Ryback?
"The person who became known as the strongest swordsman in the world?"
"The one who defeated the Emperor Dragon King Kajakut?"
"One of the three sword masters that conquered a Labyrinth with a hundred floors?"
As the identity of the presumed Sandor got revealed by Rudeus, the rest of the Party started to bombard him with questions about his person.
The presumed second generation North God looked at us with a smile and spoke.
"You lot really have a peculiar kid in your midst. To go out and flatly say such things. What a funny person."
"If there is one thing we all had to learn, then it's that if he says he senses something, then it's most definitely correct."
At my reply to his comment, his smile dropped from the serious tone I was giving him.
I could see how Rudeus had that conclusion just now. Thinking about it for a second, his hunch isn't that far off.
"Seriously? His senses?" The North God, or third generation North God, said with his arms crossed and a mocking smile on his face.
"All this nonsense makes me think that the colony crap is just a dumb prank you all made to get some attention."
As we all were getting ridiculed by one of the strongest swordsmen in the world, each of us started stating things that made anyone change their minds.
Anastasia:"On the first job we did together with him, he immediately detected the backup group of Snow Drakes lurking inside other paths of the cave system we couldn't see."
Ingolt:"And there were those continuous attacks from that Blizzard Dragon that could've turned us all into ice statues. Detecting them before that and taking actions against them really saved our asses."
Soldat:"Or the mission that lead us to two dragons that had the ability to penetrate through Touki and Barrier Magic alike. Man, good thing he pulled us away from them before they got too close to us."
Connor:"Then there was the [Fireball] attack at Rosenburg. I'm pretty sure if he hadn't stopped that, a quarter of the city would've been annihilated."
Kaleb:"Let's not forget about the recent event that involved that agile mantis monster hunting a poor little girl for fun. If Rudeus hadn't sensed that, the that child would've been dead."
As we all finished stating highlights of Rudeus's accomplishments, the third generation North God was speechless, not making a noise at all.
When I looked at Rudeus, he gave me a thumbs up.
"So you have such high detection techniques to do all of that at such a young age. Incredible how the world evolved."
The one who seemed to accept it the most was the presumed second generation North God, holding one of his hands on his chin again.
It surprises me that he admits to it so easily.
"Skilled Water God Style practitioners can read the flow of mana in the air, but something that gets beyond a Superd's third eye is a height I have never heard of before. Perhaps something the Dragon race could be capable of. Truly spectacular."
Sandor was mumbling something to himself, but was cut off by Rudeus.
"Let's not forget about the topic at hand. The colony problem."
At Rudeus's reminder, we all composed ourselves back. Just as he said, this has a priority at hand.
"I think we can all agree that average adventurer parties can't handle even a single one of them?"
We all nodded in understanding.
"Although simple, our best bet is to try and eliminate as many as possible with a large area spell and encase the colony around for stronger people to fend the ones off that have survived the initial attack.
Having two master swordsmen here is already better than one could have hoped, but the sheer number will be a problem.
We should inform the higher ups of Sharia and ask them to mobilize any forces they have on the ready.
Perhaps by the time things are set, they might find some weaknesses to the monster parts they just gathered.
For this mission, time can be of the utmost importance."
The initial attack part is already covered with his supposedly massive manapool. But can his body handle it? He shouldn't be going as far as to use his [Bright Sky Wave] again, but can he handle himself handle any large spell attacks anyway?
"You intend to do the first attack yourself?" Anastasia asked away.
"Sharia unfortunately doesn't have anyone who reached Emperor class at something. The membrane Hiryū gave me has a lot of Magic Stones in it, so I could make a quick order for a multi attribute staff for this occasion."
"I don't like putting you into such a position, but with things having come like this, you are basically one of the people we have to put our hope on." I interjected.
"Is he really that strong of a Magician?"
North God asked, a skeptical tone evidently showing like any other person Rudeus has to deal with.
It's getting ridiculous, if it wasn't for his age.
"If you're that skeptical about it, then why don't you ask the Armored Dragon King for confirmation?"
Rudeus then proceeded to open his pocket dimension and bring out a weird looking tube.
"You can take this flute and go to the next Great World Power monument and ask him yourself. He might give you a few examples he knows of himself."
"Wha… wha- huh?" North God was flabbergasted, stammering the whole time.
"Boy, how did you get this? He doesn't just give those away for anyone to have." Sandor asked.
"An acquaintance of his resides here in Sharia and gave me this as a present along with something else, but I'm not very eager to use it after Arumanfi attempted to kill me three years ago."
They both looked at the flute with wide eyes before looking at each other.
"Well, I guess since he knows me, I could use this to go and ask him. Though, I doubt that he would let me step foot on [Chaos Breaker]."
Sandor was about to grab the flute from Rudeus, but the latter held out his other hand.
"Before that, could you two perhaps do one last thing? I want you two to be the ones who report about the colony."
"What? Are you trying to put the responsibility of this on us if this should fail?" North God asked.
"It's already difficult enough as it is to convince people that I'm the new number five. If I go out and say something about an entire colony of monsters being out there, it would leap beyond the boundaries of credibility most people already showed against me.
I know it's a lot to ask, but this is no time to think about who gets the fame. It would be alright for me if you tell them that I volunteered to assist in the matter.
Anything else can be left for later."
He really does think things through a lot... sometimes.
While anyone could think of these things themselves, taking them to action is showing their evaluation for crises is on another level.
While it may be a shame that he won't be the one to get the credit, prioritizing to get mobilized is indeed more important.
"You sure are a smart one to take all of that into consideration." North God said. "Fine then. I'll go and see what I can do."
"If that's so, then I will go take precautions myself."
Right as Rudeus's was about to stand up from his chair, held out my hand in protest.
"Hold it there, buddy. You're going to take the day off and take a rest."
His face changed into something of disbelief before going into one of disgust.
"I know you're trying to help me and all, but going as far as to act as a parent is going a little in the weird direction."
The others and I groaned in unison about his lack of self awareness of his state.
"You have bags under your eyes again." Conor replied.
"..."
After thinking for a few seconds, he conjured himself a mirror out of ice and looked at his own face.
"Oh. Yeah, I did pull an all-nighter just now. Funny how I'm used to this."
I couldn't help but throw my head back and put a hand to my forehead. And to think that he just started to look better, and now this happened. Jeez, that kid's bad luck never ends.
"Would it be alright if one of you takes the materials and money I have to make the quick order while I take a nap?"
"I can do that for you." Anastasia volunteered.
Rudeus then took out the membrane he got from Hiryū from his pocket dimension.
"Eww! Is it still wet!?"
"Huh. Doesn't seem to dry out so easily. Or perhaps the pocket dimension keeps it that way? Hold on, I'll take them out."
He then proceeded to use his mana arms to hold the membrane in place while keeping other arms that hold a sack he just took out, to catch the crystals after he cut it open with his Sea Dragon knife.
He did it quick and had every last crystal packed into the sack, and handed it over to Anastasia.
"Now, if you all excuse me, I'll go and take that break for now. Wake me if anything urgent happens. Like another monster attack."
He then bowed slightly and went to exit the meeting room.
After he was gone, North God something out.
"What an odd kid."
"Tell me about it."
The surprises with him seem so endless, I think I'm getting used to his fate of attracting more danger to himself.
He really needs to take a break sometimes if he doesn't want to be called a workaholic.
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