After Caelus uttered that sentence, he was caught by surprise by his Qi Cloak's potential. His voice couldn't escape the enclosement of his Qi. Unless he let anything escape, nothing would notice his presence right now.
He had practiced it, but it was only inside the castle which was technically the domain of Sanctuary. Here in the outside world, everything was out of anyone's control.
Although he was still heavily lacking on attack power, his survivability increased ten fold.
But that doesn't mean Caelus would randomly become reckless. He knew his limits better than anyone.
*This is not courting death. I just can't watch people die when they're in front of me… I mean… who in their right mind would want to watch people die in front of them? Certainly, I'm still sane not to want that.*
[Master, I've marked the entity. With this, my power dwindled down once more. I can't look for one more person unless I replenish the Mana I've used up.]
He nodded. He had used four out of five Search Functions of Sanctuary. He should still have one more person he could search out. However, without any spare Mana, Sanctuary could not senselessly search anymore.
"Hm… is establishing connection with others consumes lots of Mana?"
[That's not it, Master. But I'm unable to reach the minimum Mana requirement to Search for one person. However, I can still establish connections ten to twenty times with people near you.]
*Oh… it looks like the games Sho played. It feels the minimum requirement for Mana to use Search is twenty while the Mana required for establishing connection is only one Mana.*
"Understood. Continue with establishing connection."
[Connecting to the host… Mana consumption of 10/sec… connected.]
Upon hearing that, he felt relieved. Sanctuary had warned him before that telepathic connection would cost a lot of Mana. The longer the distance that two people are trying to connect, the larger the Mana needed. Same as if it's a group, aside from that rule, the bigger the group, the bigger the Mana consumption. Ten per second rate was actually high when Caelus could only transfer thirty per twelve hours to Sanctuary.
However, Sanctuary herself can harvest 1000/sec. She explained that the surrounding where the Sanctuary Shelter is situated had ample Mana that she could extract for eternity. It was to say that she could be self-sufficient even without anyone inside.
Of course, that does not mean she doesn't use Mana for herself. She had expenses for Barrier and Laws. It was better to have someone live inside Sanctuary Shelter.
Just like what she had explained, Sanctuary could absorb excess Mana in humans. Those were the Mana that a human could not absorb. Instead of wasting it, Sanctuary could absorb it herself.
When Caelus stayed inside Sanctuary, although he only could give thirty Mana per twelve hours, his excess Mana was fifty times greater than that. The only difference was that the Excess Mana was unpurified while the Transferred Mana was purified.
"Please don't panic upon hearing my voice. I'm close in your group right now, but I don't have the ability to fight off four Dragon Riders. But what I can do is pull you all out of their grasp safely. But this process needs time. I need you to trust me even if it's hard. I'll do my best to save your group."
"W-who are you?" Caelus heard the woman whisper, as if afraid to alert the Dragon Riders near their group.
Caelus was shocked to know the woman was actually speaking Archaic Zhongguo, the common language around Zhongguo.
*China…* The thought of the equivalent nationality in his own world surfaced in his mind.
"I'm just a passerby," Somehow, he felt shy to introduce himself.
If people knew that the person helping them was just a kid, who would believe him? For the first time, he felt the disadvantage of his own identity as Sho Chad. He even felt it might not be bad to create a new identity if it was possible.
"Don't worry about the Dragon Riders hearing you. I've enclosed the Qi Cloak around you. No one can hear you now." He said, diverting the topic at hand.
"R-really?" There was a hint of distrust in her voice. But Caelus expected that. That's the reason why he chose her. She was alert. And when she looked around and noticed how he was telling the truth, he heard her soft sigh. "W-what do I need to do?"
Sure enough, she was reasonable. Upon realizing Caelus' ability, she concluded that he could indeed help.
Caelus couldn't help but silently release a sigh of relief.
First stage was done.
Immediately, Caelus explained the details of his plan to the pregnant woman named Xiu Fang. As if the heaven was smiling on them, the elder of the group, Elder Tomoko, had a skill Telepathic Communication. The amazing fact about the ability was that it's group communication. It became incredibly easier for Caelus to relay his plan and not cause any panic in the group.
While the elder was informing the group, he specifically instructed Xiu to let the businessman slip on with the second group.
When asked for the reason, he simply stated that, "It was better to remove any hindrance for safety as soon as possible."
He knew 100% that the man would choose to sacrifice the group instead of sacrificing himself. Xiu agreed with him. What's more, when he said that, Xiu showed signs of respect towards his deduction, making him feel somewhat awkward.
In Sho's country, Yamato, age was a huge factor for respect. If the group he saved realized that he was just a teenager, he would undoubtedly suffer from discrimination.
It seems I have no choice but to use that. He sighed realizing that almost all of his trump cards were coming out as soon as he left Sanctuary.
He put that at the back of his mind and instead focused on guiding the group for their escape. The first one he guided the pregnant woman, the 19 year old along with two of the youngest children with the group–excluding the infant–towards the distant ruin he deemed safe enough from the range of the Dragon Riders.
The place where they are was a part of Yamato Capital, Terra. There were a lot of ruined buildings around. Most of the buildings had already collapsed, either by earthquake, Dragon's fire breath attack or merging with the land of the other world. However, when he observed the surroundings, he couldn't help but notice how the place had mostly been buildings of Terra. He could barely see any buildings that came from the other world.
He was not sure if it was because the place where Dragon Riders lived had no buildings or this place that became stable was something desolate for the Dragon Riders' world. Either way, it was just mostly Earth's terrain in the area.
After some thinking regarding the plan, he knew that he couldn't settle for one by one transportation. Although it was consuming for him to hide five or more presence at once, it was still the best from all the scenarios he saw.
~Thump-thump-thump~
It was nerve-wracking to actually do the plan. He felt it was comparable to how Sho felt whenever the kid tried to do stealth games.
Contrary to Caelus' expectation, the cloaking and guiding was actually going smoothly.
After the first four successfully escaped, he asked Xiu to go back with the group and guide the second group.
The Dragon Riders didn't notice the disappearance of the four. Was it because humans were too small that they didn't see the difference? Whichever the case, the four Dragon Riders were still leisurely walking.
He was just thankful regardless of the reason and proceeded for the second group's transportation.
This time, it was the arrogant businessman, along with the children of five years old, nine years old and seventeen years old. He decided that it was the best balance. And of course, choosing the businessman on the group was just a way to not let the guy jeopardize the operation. If the man was left for second to the last, the failure would increase to 90%.
Caelus didn't want that to happen.
There was no suspense. As expected, the second group proceeded successfully without any hassle. It was thanks to the businessman urging that the group was faster than the first group. The guy just wanted to get away from the Dragon Rider as fast as he could.
He was not surprised with how smooth things had gone. He knew the easiest part would be transporting the two groups. But the rest would start to be a challenge. As more people disappear, surely, the Dragon Rider would take notice.
As they began to transport the third group, sure enough, the Dragon Riders noticed the disappearance of the group. It was especially noticeable because in the third group, they got 5 people in it, the woman with the infant, with three other children to take along, leaving the group with only eight people left.
"Frocia fo eusklo jonube?!" the Dragon Rider shouted at the Elder who was left behind, glaring at her.