I received the report from Vier and Marcta. Apparently, they had been attacked by an A-rank [Assassin] named Art Delinde. Upon speaking to Virina, they acquired further information that the name "Delinde" was the same as a noble family which was heavily involved in the slave trade. Though they were but a Baron house, the amount of funding and resources they pulled in was staggering due to their close ties with the Empire government.
"You both did well to take down a higher-ranked opponent without dying."
""Thank you, Master!""
"Return to your posts. I will hand out rewards for your accomplishments once your job has concluded."
""Yes, Master!""
I sent the two of them back with a portal. Rea and I sat down to think while we were lounging around on the 86th floor of the [Labyrinth]. As I had the title [Hellape King's Favoured (C)], we were relatively undisturbed and it was where we went during our training sessions when we wanted to take a break and have something to eat. We had also gotten used to the [Hellapes] and [Unbound Hellapes] surrounding us curiously, and often would prepare a little bit of food for them too.
"Ava-sama, what shall we do about this?"
"Since the projected time for the rebellion to begin isn't too far away, I'm wondering if we should just crush the Delinde Barony..." I muttered.
However, that probably would not be a good idea. Although it might reduce some issues in the short term, it would probably alert the rest of the Empire of our movements.
"Let's go speak to the other rebellion leaders about this."
I took Rea to the meeting house and sent a communique to Jessa. After a few hours, she showed up.
"Jessa. A man named Art Delinde has attacked Viscountess Virina's mansion. What do you make of it?"
"Fumu. He is certainly related to the Delinde aristocracy. Based on our research, he is the fifth son of the current Baron Delinde who works as part of the Barony's secret service to dispose of those who threaten them."
"Right. What is the plan?"
"Hmmm. They surely know that Art has failed. And that Viscountess Virina knows who he is. However, they also no longer have the human resources to pose a threat to her. They will move more quietly now that their main trump card has been removed. The worst-case scenario right now is that they will contact the central government and request their help. However, the central government also cannot move easily. I think we can consider that the window of danger has passed until our efforts begin in earnest."
"I see. I shall return her attendants and retrieve my people. Feel free to send them requests. Rea and I will be training."
"Thank you for your information."
After Jessa departed, I went to speak to Vis and Sel.
"The guarding period is over. Both of you, return to Viscountess Virina. Before that, though, give me a report on my squad's education."
"Yes, Ava-sama," Sel said.
"Ava-sama's proteges are very disciplined and earnest in their learning. We were both incredibly surprised, as we are used to dealing with less than enthusiastic noble children. The boys have been taught how to serve as butlers, and the girls have been taught how to serve as maids. Everyone has also been taught to serve as escorts and combat servants. They have been educated to seem as if they were born from lower to middle nobility, and are able to serve higher nobility without issue."
"Nn. Good job. Here is some extra compensation for your good work," I said, handing over a small satchel of currency. To my surprise, though, they refused to accept.
"Ava-sama, we cannot accept this from our teacher. You have trained us to become strong enough to protect Lady Virina when we return. That is an honour that we cannot repay simply through teaching your entourage."
A few days later, they departed, and soon after, Vier and Marcta returned. Once the squad had been gathered, I spoke to them.
"Everyone. The time for us to move is on the horizon. Rea and I will spend some time in the [Labyrinth]. In the meantime, I would like for you all to continue what you have been doing, train Vier and Marcta, and have them also share with you their learnings. While they may not have learned the skills you have, they will have learned some political knowledge that will be important for you."
""""Yes, Master!""""
"Over the next month or so, you will receive summons from Jessa to head to various territories and escort our allies here. After accepting, come to my side and I will transport you there. We will strike during the next Nobles Conference."
Over the past month that Vier and Marcta had been away, plans had been solidified. In the few weeks leading up to the Nobles Conference, a conference that brought together all the heads of noble houses, my squad would be sent to the territories of Freya's allies to protect them on the way to the capital. Doing this would also consolidate our strength and we could then strike at the Nobles Conference to clean up the rebellion in one fell swoop.
Furthermore, I had some ideas in terms of further increasing my battle strength, which was why I was going to use this period of time as training time. When I raised the idea of going alone, though, and having Rea oversee matters here, she vehemently disagreed.
"Ava-sama, Rea is your personal attendant! I cannot leave your side. Furthermore, I also want to train so that I will be useful to Ava-sama when we go up against the S rankers."
I had sighed and held my forehead, but reluctantly accepted her wishes. With that, we returned to the [Labyrinth].
I had been thinking about increasing the number of possible damage-dealing methods. In the event that an enemy had a certain amount of direct damage nullification, I couldn't waste time trying to break through head-on. I needed to find other ways of incapacitating them. As such, I turned my thoughts to acquiring [Poison Magic]. Having experienced it for myself, I knew what the basis of [Poison Magic] was. It was a corrosive form of mana that ate away at one's physical body and interfered with mana control.
In the 83rd floor of the [Labyrinth], I began to attempt synthesising this form of mana.
-Conditions have been met.
Ummm...that was not what I expected. However, I suppose this was an expected outcome after all. By attempting to go directly to the foundation of a form of magic in order to acquire the skill, I had to manipulate the mana freely. As such, acquiring such a skill that improved the efficiency of circulating and kneading mana was not surprising.
After working for some time and creating a few varietals of corrosive, neuroactive, and hemoactive mana, my efforts were rewarded.
-Conditions have been met.
Excellent. However, I wasn't done yet. I was not satisfied with simple poison. If I wanted this to be an effective means of attack, I needed three things. Firstly, I needed the poison to stack. Secondly, I needed the poison to crit. Thirdly, I needed the poison to inflict true damage, regardless of skills that might otherwise nullify it. These were the three conditions of effective poison that I had thought of while referencing my memories of various RPGs back on Earth. A simple DOT was not good enough.
However...I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. In fact, I probably needed to create a number of support skills for my [Poison Manipulation] in order to generate such a result, just as how my [Void Control] skills were supported by a number of other skills. Thinking about that, I started up my [Skill Management] to see if I could create the outcomes that I was looking for.
Three days later, my efforts finally bore fruit. I had created three support skills for my poison to become effective.
Another weapon obtained. Next, I wanted to focus on understanding the nature of mana itself. I figured that if I could properly look at mana and how it flowed, it would allow me to gain an edge in battle by being able to predict how my opponents would move and what kinds of skills they were using. Using [Mana Manipulation], I put mana into my eyes and looked at the world around me. Despite seeing nothing more than usual other than a vague and shifting heat haze, I got excited. Clearly, if I could colourise this heat haze, I would be able to see mana itself.
Over the next few hours, while Rea continued her training, I attempted to adjust the mana that I was supplying to my eyes. Little by little, the shifting heat haze began looking more like diamond dust, a pale, crystal-like colour with sparkling rainbow-like particle effects as it flowed. In this part of the [Labyrinth], the mana was so thick that it practically oozed from every corner of the chamber, filling the air. Yet, as it was an ethereal substance, it flowed and ebbed strangely, creating areas of larger and small densities as it moved throughout the chamber.
I sent a communique to Rea, asking her to return as soon as possible. Within a minute, she had reappeared by my side.
"Ava-sama, your eyes..."
"Nn?"
"Um, well, they're normally gold, but there's a lot of colours in them right now..."
"Ah, I see. Alright, Rea. Stand there and let me look at you."
"E-eh?? Um, if that's what Ava-sama wants..."
I stared directly at Rea, noting how mana clung strongly to her body and gathered thickly within it, flowing through her muscles, nerves, blood, and even bones. Her mana was dyed much differently from the all-attribute mana that flowed through the air, though. As she was one of my kin, besides the dense, crystalline all-attribute mana that permeated her body, entwined with it was also the dark purple shade of mana that I assumed was meant to be the colour of [Void Magic].
"Rea, use [Limit Break]."
"Yes!"
Upon activating it, I noted how the mana that clung to her was rapidly absorbed into her body, mixing into the mana that her body normally held. It crystallised hard as non-attribute mana, becoming almost like quartz that reinforced her body. The rest of the mana in her body flowed to circulate around her crystallised non-attribute mana, probably allowing her to use other skills as well.
"Rea, use some form of [Void Magic]."
She activated a subskill, and I noticed how the purple-dyed mana reacted, coalescing in her palm and causing the multi-attribute mana in the air to vacate an area that only left a dark purple blob behind. Following that, the purple blob structured itself into a crystallised hexagon, from which Rea retrieved an item. The hexagon, however, was something special. It was structured with a circle on each of its vertices, and within which lay a rune. Each rune was connected to the two adjacent ones, and they each had an extra line leading towards the centre, which joined into a circle. Within each segment delineated by these lines were further lesser runes. In the middle of the circle was a character that had been written from the combination of all of these runes.
-Conditions have been met.
A
"Thanks, Rea. I got what I needed."
"Um, can I ask what that was?"
"Nn, of course. I was trying to see mana itself."
"E-eh?? Seeing mana itself...Ava-sama is just that incredible, huh?" Rea nodded to herself.
"Ano...Rea, do you know what the prior versions of [Mana Vision] are?"
"I'm not totally familiar, but...I believe one has to obtain [Mana Sensing] first. I don't know what the other requirements, are though."
I checked my skill.
{Skill Description: Allows the user to directly see mana.
Skill Prerequisites:
Skill Effects: User can directly see how mana functions.}
This skill didn't look too special. However, one only needed to see the runic array created by the use of [Void Magic] to realise just how powerful this skill was.
With this, I could literally read magic itself.