Stepping out of the dungeon with Leon draped on his shoulder, Nathaniel looked at scene of destruction momentarily before a gust of wind hit him. It was currently dawn, they had spent Nathaniel mused roughly three days in the dungeon.
He saw less destruction than he had expected, he could see trees having slash marks and feel the ambient presence of wild mana.
" Are you done?" He asked.
" Yes." A reply came as if the whispering of the leaves.
" Heal him enough that he doesn't die and then lets go." Nathaniel said glancing at Leon on his shoulder, he did not see any use in Leon however he still saved him. He had wasted a full medium invisibility potion to save him.
Technically he would have required a higher grade of potion since he is a magician but his situation allowed him to mask his presence rather easily. It was running out with Leon during the chaos that caused him to perspire a bit.
With that said, Nathaniel began his walk back to Rosewood village. It was roughly a 2 to 3 hour hike but with the unconscious Leon, it would take a bit longer.
Rose stayed in the shadows watching Nathaniel as moved through the Maldon thicket, whether it was attraction or amusement she held towards Nathaniel, he did not care only that she was of use.
Approaching the south entrance, " Nathaniel what happened? Where are the rest?" Asked a guard as he saw Nathaniel. They had become acquaintances since Nathaniel ventured to the dungeons a lot.
" They are dead!" He said obviously shaken, Nathaniel's hand trembled as tears threatened to overflow removing trace of those that had run dry on his cheeks. His torn clothes along with Leon's bruises gave a vague clue of what might have happened.
"Let me rush him to the church." Nathaniel said hurriedly pointing at the unconscious Leon breathing heavily, the guard's respect for Nathaniel grew even more. A man missing an arm surviving and carrying an injured comrade for who knows how many hours and disregarding his own safety.
" Ok let me rush him there it will be faster." The guard, Thomas said as he took Leon and immediately rushed into the village towards the church. The other guards had overheard the commotion so they let him through.
Whilst walking " Nathaniel." An old woman's voice shouted from across the street. She walked towards him, worry plastered on her face. " What happened?" she asked.
" We ran into some powerful monsters in a dungeon, I am sorry I cannot talk right now I have to rush to the guild." Nathaniel said, the old lady was the mother of Wallace Brown, the Brown family owned a farm near the north entrance of Rosewood village which he had taken herb gathering missions to and from there.
Nobles in the world of mergard had three names, a first, middle and family name last whereas the commoners only had a first and a family name.
Reaching the guild it looked abandoned, only servants cleaning and setting tables for another day of rancor. Walking upstairs, he saw Martha and Joannah at the reception desk. Martha's face froze upon seeing him of course only momentarily but it did not escape his eyes.
"I'm here to meet the guild master." Nathaniel said as he headed to the left of the desk towards the door concealed by illusion magic. Joannah was about to say something however Martha's hand gesture kept her quiet.
Walking in Nathaniel saw seated behind the desk in the office Rodrick doing paperwork. "Wh--?" words hung in the air as Rodrick looked at the intruder, quickly regaining his demeanor he asked " Where are the rest?"
" Dead." Nathaniel said his tone and face heavily contrasting those he had shown the guards earlier.
" How?" Rodrick asked.
" Payment." Nathaniel replied.
" Answer the question!" Rodrick raised his voice.
" Labyrinth traps obviously, hand me my payment. I know Carl contacted you sharing details about the labyrinth so hand it over." Nathaniel said.
Rodrick wanted to inquire further but he masked his anger as he took out a pouch with 600 gold and 19 scrolls made of parchment in a box. The parchment glistened with magical aura, in an age where magic towers existed many spells where in circulation so as long as you knew the right people and had money one could learn many spells.
" All tier three and below, choose three." The mood had turned dark and heavy between both man, they very well knew after this they would be estranged.
Looking at the spells, Nathaniel could hardly contain himself. He had never learned any spell outside the ones he had been taught in the military academy and even then he only learned a meager amount due to his lack of points. Merit points were used in the army to reward soldiers and allow then to grow powerful by redeeming mana crystals and spells. Of course nothing that could affect the empire's control over the soldiers.
The more powerful you were, the tighter the soul crest bound you. Taking a look calmy at the spells Nathaniel noticed the variety, they ranged in all basic elements since those were more readily available. There were few advanced element spells.
There was three types of spell casting. Chants, silent and bridged spell casting. Chants involved gathering elemental mana particles slowly and precise visualization however this of course increased time taken to cast the spell. Chants were used when mastering new spells mostly since they were inefficient in battles.
Silent casting was instantaneous disregarding gathering mana particles, it forcefully used the spell with the available elemental mana particles while it reduced damage effect it allowed for more rapid spell casting.
Bridged spell casting, one only need the name or property of the spell, for example its name inferno or its property burn to cast the spell. This of course required exceptional mastery over the spell. It decreased chanting time and also giving adequate power to the spells.
Flash impact; tier 2 lightning spell. Dark cloak; tier 1 darkness spell. Nathaniel though to himself the spell Rose used was something similar to this one. He kept looking while keeping note of those that interested him while Rodrick gnashed his teeth in silence. When he had made the deal he never thought of fulfilling it, he could dispose of Nathaniel, take the loot of the labyrinth and leave his post as guild master.
He was not talented and he knew that, his growth in power had stopped from his time as a swordsman. Ever since he reached the rank of sword master, grand sword master was a ceiling he couldn't touch.
Nathaniel placed 11 scrolls on the table putting back the rest, the eleven were; dark cloak, guardian fortress, wild burst, static domain, inferno, blast wave, vortex crush, petals of vitality, parallel mind and gluttonous vines.
If he had to be honest he wanted all of them. Magic affinity did not mean you could not use other elements rather it meant increasing that affinity to 100% would be more resource exhaustive and time consuming.
Every time a magician used a spell of an element he gradually increased that element's affinity to 100%. Nathaniel's ice and wind affinities were at 77% and 43% respectively. To be honest, his talent was poor. Reaching grandmaster magician was impossible especially at his age of 36 unless he used unorthodox methods to reach such a level. Fire, earth and other elements had lower affinities.
So he chose," I will take static domain, parallel mind and petals of vitality." He said, it was hard to resist his greed that was overcoming him.
" Alright, take them and leave." Rodrick said, in the time Nathaniel was choosing he had come up with possible explanations of what had happened and the most extreme and plausible was that Nathaniel had found a backer who he traded the info with.
He was well aware of his background and his plans now involved gathering a raid party for the labyrinth.
When Nathaniel exited the guild he mumbled "Rose I want those spells, all of them."
" Unfortunately no can do, what I can do is give you the loot in the labyrinth but seeing how dangerous it is. What do you have to trade?" Rose's reply came as he walked towards the inn.
" Would you rather trade that loot with the darkstar berries?"
Nathaniel paused at her words, it was possible but there were two risks with that plan. One he did not fully trust Rose and second the worth of the loot. It was certainly expensive but would he find something in it to fix his problem.
He had grown tired of being weak, the urge was hard to resist any longer, he wanted his magic back. He was a rank 1 apprentice so basically a beginner and the more time he wasted the older he became. " How long would it take for you to get the loot and can I trust you that you won't take anything from the loot." Nathaniel asked his heart beating fast, he was anxious.
" I can take the loot overnight however I want 30%. We can make a contract. I will take my 30% when we divide the loot." Rose proposed.
The were two reasons why she did not outright take the loot for herself. The Arneth dungeon had an entry restriction, only those below grand master rank could enter. That meant she was at least at the grandmaster rank but that did not imply Lavender was also a grandmaster after all why would he listen to Rodrick a mere master.
She knew Nathaniel was still hiding information about the labyrinth. " Alright." Nathaniel said after thinking it over, he did not have the time to train and grow more powerful the normal way so he had to risk it even if it meant losing a guaranteed chance of recovery.
He had neither the resources nor the time that his adversaries had. His attempt to go back to earth would not go unnoticed as he needed strength to overcome and crush their resistance.
At the lord's manor...
A frantic knock on a door disturbed the peace inside. " What?!" Morbius's enraged voice came from inside. " I'm coming." Morbius said as he draped on a gown, opening the door, " Vlad, you better have a good reason for disturbing my rest." He said to the butler. Vlad knew his lord well, he gulped calming himself.
" The information is authentic, two adventurer's returned from the raid. One is in the church recovering while the other is in the silver sparrow inn." Vlad said.
" Bring the one at the inn to me, I would have liked to interrogate both but the church is relentless." Morbius said after pondering. Vlad quickly left, this matter held both his livelihood and that of his lord's at stake.
" A labyrinth huh? I will make good use of it." Morbius chuckled as he went back into the room. His muscular figure clung tightly to the robe. The man had an inferiority complex and arrogance yes but he was by no means incompetent. Where his older brother had found himself satisfied with inheriting baron Dalton's domain.
His ambition to prove himself had made him realize that the domain was but a means to an end. He had grander ambitions and loftier goals however his status as a bastard son meddled at every turn, further fueling his hate for the baron.
He was sure the church had received the information about the labyrinth as well and with the injured Leon they had both a witness and information about the interior of the labyrinth so he needed to get his hands on Nathaniel at all costs.
Though would Rodrick let him live the night?
Midnight....
Rose stood in the Arneth dungeon face first with the guardian of the labyrinth it was the most powerful creature in the labyrinth. Corpses of monsters made a sea around the two.
Looking at the monster, she said "Cowboy this town ain't big enough for the both of us, you get me cuz?" flickering her hand besides her hip.
( A/N: Cuz- cousin)