Here I am with another way to progress quickly, it will probably take some time and I didn't even know if I would really be able to control all the elements as it doesn't seem really even worth it but I still had something to try out.
In fact I have nothing else since the beginning more than a little hope, just a little idea that can possibly help me, if it is not that which will help me kill the hero at least it allowed me to get closer to it.
Darthos : "Hey Eugeon, I will be gone for some time this weekend"
Eugeon : "Okay don't wonder in some weird places"
Darthos : "You know me"
Eugeon : "Yeah that's why I said that"
Us as students have our weekend free and even though I was living all the time in the academy, I could leave if I came back not too late, and it's not like I could not teleport with Thanatos.
Even though I still had to find a way to go in and out of the academy without too much issues, and with astronomical amount of guards here, it's not an easy thing at all.
Eugeon : "By the way dont forget to study for the upcomming exams"
Darthos : "Dont worry for that I am good"
Eugeon : "Ok then, don't come cry for help in the futur"
Darthos : "Sure"
To be quite frank the studies here where not really interesting to follow as I had clearly no intention to stay forever as a human.
And I still am a commoner, even if the notes of the previous Darthos it was not easy to follow a second year programm.
I have to not forget what my goals are, for now, elemental research, the research on the hero and studies to continue next year will way a bit.
Lucian : "Let's go search for some elements"
With the fights I witnessed before, I understood well by looking at the 3 stars that the mission that the demon king gave us is clearly complicated near impossible I must say.
From what I have read, on average, a 3-star is about 5 times stronger than a two-star, from afar one might think that this is not an insurmountable gap, a lot of work could make it possible to compete but its not that easy to do.
As I also start from lower, with my two stars talent, the gap is even bigger between me and my upcoming ennemies, even if I had the demonic system it doesn't make up for it so all little progress is still good.
Guard : "Where are you going ?"
Darthos : "I am going to the capital"
Guard : "Okay please come back before eight pm"
Darthos : "Thank you sir"
Guard : "Here is you pass card"
Between a 4 star and a 3 star it is really hard to define a clear limit as it depends of the ability of the four stars, they can be from 2 to 100 times stronger and the 5 stars are just incomparable.
I remember an old human book, recording the first appearance of the hero, when the first demon king appeared, his army, even if more numerous, could not cope with the great advantages that humans possessed.
Lucian : "Least to be said that they have a lot of advantages"
Lucian : "But that judt make it more challenging and more fun"
A creature however upset all this balance, the demon king, the nations of the time allied to put him down, all the 4 stars fought him together but in the end he did not suffer a scratch.
It was then that the goddess, trying to save the fate of humans, sent the hero to this world, as well as other helpers so that humans had a chance to go against the calamities of the dark world.
Lucian : "I kinda understand why Thanatos hate them so much"
What I am looking for here is much older than this children's tale, spirits have existed since the creation of the Earth, they are for many magicians the very spirit of the elements.
But there was a problem, to almost succeed what I had in mind, I had to manage to do the 5 "temples" at the same time, something impossible without thanatos.
Knowing that even with him, if I assume that I have 5 years ahead of me, it will still be very far from easy and not totally complete.
Lucian : "This place should do the trick"
I tried to find a place near the academy that could allow me to teleport in and out of it and regain the dormitories in without really being seen, it took some time but I found a place in the forest where I could easily acess the academy in and out.
I think Thanatos will not be happy as it is still really close to the academy and he seemed to not like that, he feared the mana of someone powerful even though I never had never saw it myself.
Lucian: "Thanatos, I need you"
I waited, but despite a second call no one answered my voice, had something happened to Thanatos, no way, he is a spirit, so he cannot die, maybe he was just buzy.
Lucian : "Oh he want to play with me...sure try"
But that's not really my problem, and I know for a fact that he has to answer my call whenever I feel like it so, I just has to be really annoying and persistent about it.
Atleast that's was what I could analyse with all the thing he did for me even at night and knowing all the stupid stuff I had asked him, if he wasn't forced he wouldn't have done them for sure.
Lucian: "Thanatos, you lazy bastard, come out of hiding, you know you have no choice"
Hypnos: "Oh shut up"
In front of me was not Thanatos but someone that is a lot with him, someone that I know much less than Thanatos, the second handman of the demon king Hypnos.
I dont know why but his mana alwzjd mzde me feele as if he was just always annoyed about us all, even demons, he seems surely less 'warm' than Thanatos.
Lucian: "What are you doing here, where is Thanatos?"
Hypnos: "Know that even if we have an obligation to answer you, we have other things to do"
Lucian: "And where did my method of transport go ?"
Hypnos : "I have no obligations to answer you"
Lucian : "Do you want me to report it to the demon king"
I had no intention to do that as I clearly knew that he would not care at all if I did or just tell me to go do it myself as it's not that important.
But it was fun to see Hypnos annoyed even though he did not have a face so I am judging from pure logic and mana fluctuations but they are not the most discreet with their expression.
Hypnos : "Fine"
Lucian : "So ?"
Hypnos: "A war cannot be fought alone, he is in charge of the training and I am in charge of the organization"
Since there was no battle, there was no need at first glance for an organisation or that of the different armies, but it went much further than that, of all the possible combinations at the different locations, that's what the organisation meant.
As for the training, three quarters of the armies often fight just on instinct in a disorderly way which probably doesn't help, poor thanatos he has work to do to make them somehow able to do stuff against the humans.
Lucian: "Well I'm going to have to do with you, quite annoying"
Hypnos: "Don't dream too much little one, even if we don't follow orders we don't risk anything strictly"
Lucian: "Well that's if you want your master to die, I'm not sure you want to take the risk that it happens"
Hypnos: "Anyway it's not likely to be you who will beat the hero"
Lucian: "Oh yes"
I reached out my hand and created small, very small forms of mana and I made them move, Hypnos wasn't impressed by himself, he just hadn't said anything but it didn't stop there.
No I could make creatures with them, forms, change it's colours, a lot of things, even though it was not easy to control and that I still needed my hand but he knew that I was kinda controling mana itself and that made him quite change his opinion about me.
Hypnos: "Well, what do you want? »
Lucian: "Do you know the different temples of the elemental spirits?"
Hypnos: "Yes we went there 200 years ago to try to destroy them, but it didn't work"
Lucian: "Can you teleport me there? »
Hypnos: "No...but I can take you there"
Hypnos put me in a kind of bubble without really asking my opinion and he made us movedso fast that I could no longer see anything of the landscape around me.
Fortunately, moreover, that I didn't have motion sickness or dizziness (kinda ironic cause I the author do, so I am kind today) because I would probably already be dead by vomiting near him.
Hypnos: "This is the temple of the earth"
Lucian : "How do I get back"
Hypnos : "With that"
Lucian : "And that is ?"
Hypnos : "something that Thanatos asked me to give you"
I looked at the strange object that looked like a weird necklace with a kind of portal in the center, why did Thanatos want to give me that, I had no idea.
Lucian : "How does it work ?"
Hypnos : "It allows you to tp whenever you want 5 times a day, it only works on places you already visited"
Lucian : "Oh that's nice of him for once"
Hypnos : "Yeah don't abuse it or lose it, it has more value than you miserable life"
After that he was quickly gone, as quick as he came, and with that I could finally adventure in the temple.
Because we were already in an area outside of it I clearly evaded the perimeter of guard outside the temple and the giant walls that was serouding it for security.
Lucian : "Well no let's go inside"
The temple in itself was really weird, like a jungle ancient temple, obviously an abandoned one if I saw all the vines on the walls and stuff.
Lucian : "I am good their is no guards here"
And the inside was not much better than the outside, it seems their is enough frequentation for it to not have spider webs or worse than that because apart from the torches.
Nobody was here, it's not a place where a lot of people go, only three and four stars relatively young and that as an affinity with the element in question
Lucian : "Enough wandering let's find some spirits now"
I quickly found the spirits as they were pretty carefully indicated with their own rooms and signs to indicate their power and level of threat.
They looked like statues from a distance, but I knew very well that if I had been a demon, if I attacked them, or if I came too close, then they would attack me very quickly.
??? : "Did you hear, it looks like there's some noise"
It seems that in this old building I made quite too much noise when thinking in my head or just wondering around.
Without really realizing it I found my self in front of a team of people that are the age of the academy students, which I don't think can enter him so that's weird.
Lucian: "Shit there are already people"
??? : "Who are you"
Lucian: "An adventurer who wants to learn the mastery of the earth"
This brown-haired woman and her team looked at me strangely but at the same time seeing that when you use that "statues" you have a great chance of dying because of the different spirits inside the statues she didn't seem to be bothered by me.
When humans recover some of the mana of their enemies when killed, so do the spirits, so they tend to either make contracts with humans where they take a little mana every spell, they live in "temples" or they fight humans and either sign contracts when they lose or absorb their mana when they win.
The team watching me didn't intend to fight me or do anything else it seems, good for me, I clearly couldn't assess their level, no mana around them, it's very shady, but why would they be here if they have no mana, it seems the mystery continue to get bigger.
??? : "Don't even think about stealing our prey from us, we are the ones who are going to make contracts with the spirits not you"
Lucian: "If you want, I'm not interested"
??? : "If you lie to us don't even try to get out of here alive"
From a distance I hadn't noticed, but it seems that closer up the 3 men who accompanied her were paladin apprentices atleast that's what I saw from the very weird clothes with the logo of the Sacred Kingdom.
She also had a large sword on her back, often used either by orcs or by humans with two hands and her friend had more of hand to hand weapons.
From her figure (the cellar is very dark apart from the statues) she looked rather thin, even for a girl, imagining this kind of person using such a weapon almost made me laugh.
Lucian : "I won't lie, I am not interested in weak spirits anywayc
She didn't need to worry anyway, the spirits at the top of the cellar, the "safest" ones are clearly not the ones I'm interested in, if I want to progress quickly I'm going to need the heaviest and therefore the most dangerous.
Suffice to say, I wasn't going to spend my day doing nothing or trying again and again to get a contract with them, I had every intention of going to the bottom of each cellar, where the high spirits are located and training by fighting them.
??? : "Where is he going"
??? : "Let him Sella, if he wants to die let him do it, it will make more luck for us"
I don't care about their opinion, I know very well the danger that awaits me in each of its cellars, I know that if I make even one mistake, I will die immediately.
But that won't stop me, I intend to do all 4 and even do them at the same time, and for that I already have a very specific strategy.
Next chapter: "Close to death, close to mana"