Two weeks had passed since they set their plan in motion. So far, Aron had found and purchased almost 40% of the missing materials, and for the rest, he had his connections already retrieving them from places outside the kingdom. Because of the distance, it would take at least three more weeks for the last of the materials to arrive, but he could proudly state he did his part.
The rest of the squad had been cycling between missions and training, only accepting missions that didn't require them to leave the city so they could focus on training. Normally, a regular squad was unable to choose their own missions; they were supposed to be assigned by the Major Knight in charge of their division, one of the five Grand Knights, or Commander Zaman himself. But because of his deal with the Commander, Sol had many benefits equal to a Major Knight, including the right to choose any mission he wanted.
During this time, Sol combined even more skills and leveled them up, reaching a new level of power. On occasion, he would also meet up with Amber to train and level up in Necropolis. After practicing with his newly improved skills, he felt confident defeating the pseudo A-Rank monsters that were on floor 21 and above of the dungeon, even while limiting himself to only his publicly shown skills, but he still fell short when compared to a true A-Ranker.
Besides training, he also got up to date on the latest with Amber and Fabio, who were each busy in their own way. Amber continued training, creating a few new skills, which were mostly sand-based. She also told him what she learned regarding his father, Roman, but none of it was very useful. As far as the underworld was concerned, Roman was dead, done in by knights who sacrificed themselves to take him down. The rest of the information was related to his crimes: extortion, theft, manipulation—the list went on.
Hearing some of his father's crimes made him doubt they were even the same person. From what Sol's unsealed memories revealed, his father was a smart but overall unserious prankster who went with the flow. The worst thing he did was cast an illusion that swapped the rooms in the house, greatly confusing the young Sol and his mother. But according to some testimonies and kingdom records, he was linked to the death of hundreds of people.
Sol didn't really know what to think upon hearing this information. For the meantime, he chose to ignore the issue, knowing he would eventually have to confront his father about it when they met.
He went to visit Fabio, or at least tried to. When he stopped by his shop, the employees there informed him that Fabio had been absent the past week. He only left a note saying he was working on an important project and to run the store while he was gone.
Leaving the store, Sol thought to himself, 'I guess it will take a bit longer for him to finish. I was really hoping for a decent new weapon right about now.'
At this moment, his strongest weapons were unique rank, and he felt he needed some kind of trump card in case of an emergency.
'Now that I think about it, I still have the scale.'
The scale imbued with the Law of Dragons had been silently sitting in his spatial ring these past two weeks. It was not because he forgot but because it didn't react to anything he did. Every day, he would take it out and try to figure out its use, but nothing worked.
'I'll try again when I return to my room.'
Later, when Sol returned to his room, he took out the scale once more. It thumped onto the ground motionlessly.
Sol picked it up and poked it around like usual, but no matter what he did, it remained completely unresponsive. After failing to get a response from it for days, he was finally losing his patience.
"C'mon! I know you can understand me. You didn't want me to give you to the Commander, but you also don't want to show me what you can do? Aren't you useless then? Is this what the Law of Dragons is about?"
The scale began to rumble from his mocking, and in anger, it released a wave of its intent. Sol couldn't avoid it as it blasted him with incredible might.
Boom!
He was sent crashing through two walls and managed to reinforce the third wall with [Terra Manipulation] just before he broke through that wall as well. Covered in dust and debris, he removed himself from the wall he got stuck on, completely unharmed. Though the blast was strong, it didn't actually hurt him, but Sol knew if the scale wanted to kill him, it could.
The scale floated through the hole in the wall and stopped a few feet away from him. It didn't attack again but instead expressed its intent. It was short and to the point.
Sol was shocked at what it told him. "I'm too weak to withstand your power? How strong do I need to be?"
The scale didn't immediately respond as it considered how to answer in a way that the mortal could understand.
"I need a law technique? What is that?"
Sol had heard of laws before but not law techniques.
The scale vibrated as if grumbling and expressed to ask the one who had the scale of trade and frigid winds.
'The Commander would know? Why would he—it's the requirement to be an A-Ranker!'
Sol didn't need to ask Zaman to connect the dots himself. It's clearly a simpler version of the Laws he had read the gods wield. But he still needed to ask him how to go about obtaining one.
"Alright, I'll ask him then."
Pleased the mortal would no longer disturb it, it stored itself in Sol's spatial ring without him using it. Sol began to leave the squad quarters to ask Zaman right away until he heard someone come in.
It was Duncan and Rex who got back from training. They looked at the debris and broken walls in shock.
"What happened here?!"