Chapter 48: Parasites.

A week have passed and everything remains the same.

The city of Florentine is still trapped inside of this thick white fog that makes everyone who got exposed to it sick to their core.

The only good thing that I observed from this is that people have started to calm down and regain their wits as they continue to live their normal lives.

The people within the city have now learned how to adjust to this new situation as they become more flexible than before.

As for Callisto family members, they have also familiarized their selves with their new environment in this city and so far they are doing good.

People have given them a warm welcome as they are happy that a new strong knight was added to our force that can greatly help us tide our dire situation.

Though I must admit that the Stratnan family is very rich, even though they have lost most of their wealth and a few wagons carrying their gold the remaining carriages they have alone, is more than enough for them to start once again.

The only problem they have is that most of the items that the Stratnan guard have carried with them are valuable treasures that are hard to sell in this place as only a small number of people could afford to buy them.

But it doesn't mean that they are short on money as they still have tens of thousands of gold coins as funds that they can use to start a new business and managed their family.

I also found out later that day that one of the people that was gravely injured by the ambush incident was Callisto's youngest family member. It's a young boy named William Stratnan and currently 9 years old.

Thankfully, although William have suffered from a grave injury on his back he was able to recover with the help of Ethan.

As Ethan managed to completely heal him after spending 3 days in that room and trying out different potions.

Although later on, this resulted in William having a great fear towards Ethan every time he sees him due to the countless side effects that his potion have made him experience in 3 days.

He said that it is worst than the pain he got from his back injury.

When I ask Ethan about it.

He said that due to William's long exposure to the fog it was difficult for him to absorb all the effects of the potions as the black spot growing from his body is fighting the effects of it.

That's why he needs to make several new types of potions that are not tested yet and he cited that William has contributed greatly to the development of potion-making by drinking all of that newly made concoction.

But Ethan said that due to Evan's massive release of mana elements last time, has greatly helped Ethan and the others on healing the other injured people as it managed to stop the growth of this black spot on their body.

After countless research on this Ethan have discovered that the black spot growing on their body are like small parasites that live on the body of a living being that is infected or have been exposed to the fog.

He conducted countless experiments and found out that this parasite can not live on a host that wasn't exposed or been contaminated by this weird fog before.

Because of this sudden discovery, my father has quickly realized the danger that this fog can bring to us and he immediately raised the alarm on the highest level to all of our forces in the city. He warns everyone to be careful in exploring the fog and as much as possible to lessen their activities inside of it.

But as of now Ethan, is still not clear on what would happen to anyone who got fully infected by this parasites as there weren't enough research and we don't have enough examples for him to conduct a study about it.

And now I have a new dilemma, since William has managed to recover from his injury he becomes attached to me for an unknown reason. I don't even remember being kind to him to attract his attention or did I have any interaction with him. He just appeared one day out of nowhere and started to follow me around.

William always follows me everywhere I go, and I'm not even mad at him at this point. It's just that, this feels strange to me as I have not experienced this before back on earth to be followed by a young kid.

It's also quite uncomfortable every time he looks at me with that kind of gaze as his eyes would definitely show some kind of star on it if we are on a cartoon as if being amazed by everything I do, as in anything.

I even ask Callisto once for the reason on why is his nephew keeps on following me around, and he said that it's because after William found out that I was able to help Evan on restoring his aura to regain all his power as a knight just by using my own aura. William has immediately become fascinated by this story and now he wants to learn this technique from me. He thought that I know a lot of things and he wanted to learn all of them from me.

Because the Stratnan family is also a family of Knights, William is already aware and knowledgeable about the capabilities and limits of a transcended knight and he already knows that what I have done before is not something a normal junior knight can do.

And now he looks up to me because he believes that I'm a powerful person that could help him transcend at a much younger age.

It also didn't help when William found out that I'm only 11 years old this year I can still remember how his eyes have shown a shocked expression as he admirably look in my direction.

Because although it was a common thing in this world for kids to mature early but it wasn't a common case to see someone like me who looks far ahead of my age.

Due to my constant training and sparring with Michael, I now look like a young adult in his 20s with lean but strong muscles even I am not sure if it's just because of my puberty that I became like this or if there is any other factor as well.

Even my little brother down there have grown immensely from the first time I transmigrated to this place before it's just a kid's size now it's something that I need to cover with both hands every morning just to hide him from the view of anyone after it became excited.

And aside from that William is most shocked about the news that I was able to become an official knight at the young age of 11 as the youngest knight recorded in the history of the Vreachland continent is 14 years of age and I broke that record by several years early.

He also constantly ask me questions about how I started my training and what did I eat during those time, even my hobby and the time I sleep has been asked by him. The only thing he didn't dare to ask me is about the cultivation technique of the Beaufort family as it is known by everyone that every knight's cultivation is a precious heritage.

To be clear the cultivation technique of the knight in the entire continent of Vreachland is just all the same as others but as time goes by, there would be some alterations that were made by stronger individuals that they can pass down to their younger generation and this cycle repeats itself countless times that resulted in a unique cultivation for every noble family.

The Stratnan Family also have their own cultivation technique and they were all known for their capability to control their aura to create a huge shield and even their ancestors were once held as one the strongest shield of the kingdom.

In fact, the Stratnan family could even afford a higher standing in the world of nobility if their ancestors have chosen to ascend in position, but nope he insisted on staying on the far corner of the Turox kingdom to manage their own fief of land known as Kingstown territory.

While the Beaufort cultivation technique allowed us to create a devastating blade made of pure aura that can disintegrate our enemy without pity. But our family's main focus is all about offense but now that Callisto's family have allied themselves with us we become stronger as we now have a shield that would protect us from harm.

But what troubles me deeply is the question that William keeps on asking me on how can he have a perfect control of his aura to create a much stronger shield than their family technique since I have no idea on where would I start at all.

For me controlling my aura is something natural at first it was difficult but as the time passes by and I familiarize myself with it.

It became natural to me on how I control my aura, but for others, it's something that they need to forcefully guide in their body to manifest its power in the real world. This situation have made it difficult for everyone to cross the threshold of the junior knight.

Without perfect control of their aura, it would become harder for them to condense their power into their body to consolidate a solid core made out of a huge amount of aura resulting in their slow progress or even failure of ascension.

A lot of Noble families in the capital of Turox are currently facing this same situation as their old leader was nearing their death due to limitations on their life span.

A lot of them have tried countless methods to extend it, but the only feasible solution they can find is that by ascending to a higher rank of knighthood which could extend their life by another hundred years.

But due to their poor foundation when they were young and inadequate training and many other reasons a lot of them failed to ascend the knighthood and have been nailed to their status as an old dying junior knight.

Heck! Hugo even told me that none of this old fellows knows how to fight or even to properly held their swords as most of them have grown up within the safe circle of the Turox kingdom never suffering from any harm due to magic beasts from their life.

All they know is to show off their wealth at different parties and enjoy different brothels in their younger years and now most of them paid the price as their chance for ascension is too small due to their old age.

"Master Lucas, what are you doing?" My thoughts were cut off when William suddenly appears behind me and asks me a question.

"Oh, William! Hi, I'm just looking at the current report of our knight regarding their recent exploration inside the fog." I honestly said as there's no reason for me to lie to this boy.

"Then did they find something interesting inside of it?" He ask as he tilted his head to the left while looking at me curiously.

"Nothing much, it's still the same thing, You know that they can't stay inside of it for too long or else they would be infected by those black parasites." I helplessly said as I can no longer think of anything that we can use to resist the effects of the fog.

Although the cotton mask that I have come up with have helped us in filtering the air inside of the fog. It was still not enough to allow our soldiers to freely roam as the mask can only work for half an hour before it became useless due to thick black smudges that attached themselves to the outer surface of the mask.

"But master Lucas, aren't they searching inside that fog for a long time, and they still haven't found any dead animal or magic beast inside the forest? It's just impossible for all of them to suddenly vanished out of nowhere." William asks in a puzzled tone.

"That's what everyone is also puzzled about William as the thick fog just suddenly shows up outside our city. Most of the animals shouldn't be able to avoid it and yet we have never seen any of them for weeks even insects can't be found outside the fog." I said worriedly as I continue to read their report.

Every day a team of soldiers headed by a knight would survey the fog around the Florentine city in two different directions and it would last for half an hour before they come back.

Each one of them would also send a verbal report that would be written by a person and that written report would be sent to several people including me as I am the one who comes up with a fabric made of pure cotton to use as a mask they decided to include me in the list for the hope that I could find or do something that could help us find a solution for this problem.

I have been diligently reading all their report for a week now and all of them are the same. Nothing have changed at all in their report except for additional comments about thicker fog and more vibrant flora and fauna.

It happen since the first time that the fog have trapped us all within this city our soldiers have discovered that the flora and fauna around us have immediately grown by leaps and bounds.

The previous roads that connect our city to the Turox kingdom are now currently being invaded by more weeds and grass.

The trees around the forest have also become more thicker and healthier, even the flowers that were not supposed to bloom in this season have displayed their vibrant color.

"Maybe they were all eaten by the grass?" William said childishly.

And I know this is ridiculous but I also came up with the same thought at first, so I immediately commanded a team to dig a fairly huge amount of land near the city expecting to find countless bones of animals but even digging for more than a meter we have found nothing but rocks and soil.

"That's also possible but we haven't found any evidence of animals or beasts being eaten by the plants remember last time that we dig up a part of the forest and we found no bones of them only rocks and soil," I said to William as he takes a seat on the sofa and curiously open a book.

Author's Note: I would like to thank everyone for supporting and voting for my story you guys are the best.