Chapter 70: Finding The Thief.

 

The Sand Berserk Tribe civil war doesn’t show any signs of stopping. The involvement of other powerful native tribes, the Federation, and the Anti-Federation made the situation in the Red Sand Desert chaotic.

 

While the people are restless and worried about the future. A mage is meditating in an underground chamber.

 

A large mana-gathering formation absorbs the mana stone energy and releases it into the air. Both Levi and Ben absorb the mana in the air like sponges. Every time the energy gets weaker, Levi puts down another mana stone to power the formation.

 

Levi divided the mana and channeled it to his heart and brain. Since he has a lot of mana stones, it’s better to improve both the mage and warrior paths. However, he can’t rush; he still needs to stabilize the new energy every time he absorbs the energy from the mana stone.

 

Absorbing mana is the first step, and the second step is to train his body and practice magic spells.

 

Ben's strength, which is at the peak of adept rank, is getting stronger. Even now, the horned bear can fight a few peak-adept humans without a problem. However, the horn bear can’t advance to master rank unless there is a way to improve the horn bear bloodline.

 

Even for Levi if he wants to break through to the fifth-tier mage equivalent of master rank. Other than resources, he needs talent, insight, and epiphany to advance. If it’s easy, there will be more masters in this world.

 

According to his progression, it will take him half a year or more to advance if he has enough mana stones. Since Levi is using advanced magic elements, manual teaching requires a lot of mana energy to advance. After Levi, he will go to the mage nation.

 

Levi continues to meditate and only comes out when he runs out of food. Every time he comes out, the native tribes will welcome him with open arms. Since Levi already had enough mana stones, sometimes he doesn’t ask for any payment from the tribes if they ask for help.

 

Because of that, the native tribes are grateful to him.

 

-

 

The mana stone mine that Levi robbed belongs to The Iron Phoenix Tribe. After the incident, the leader in charge of the mine was captured and sent to prison.

 

His hand had been handcuffed to the wall, and his body is full of torture wounds.

 

In front of him is an investigator from the tribe. Every day, the skinny man used many torture devices to ask him questions. However, the overseer leader of the mana stone mine answered the same answer every time. He is not involved with the missing mana stone.

 

The skinny man put the bloody knife back into a metal plate on the small table.

 

"How?" A middle-aged man enters the prison cell.

 

"The same answer." The skinny man bows his head in respect.

 

"I give you a chance to live and find that thief." The middle-aged man turns his head toward the bloody man.

 

"Thank you, the second elder, thank you." Hearing that the overseer leader cried, He thought he was going to die.

 

"Threat him; I am going to see the king."

 

The second elder leaves the prison cell, different from the Sand Berserk Tribe, located in the dried soil and sand. The Iron Phoenix Tribe is on the mountain, and there are many brick and rock buildings attached to the mountain.

 

The Iron Phoenix Tribe doesn’t have a large territory like the Sand Berserk Tribe. Nevertheless, if both sides go to war, both sides will suffer.

 

The second elder easily traverses the mountain steps and arrives at the stone entrance castle inside a large cavity in the mountain. He is, after all, one of the most adept warriors in the tribe; the requirement to become an elder of the Iron Phoenix Tribe is strength.

 

After a while, the castle gate opens, and the second elder enters.

 

He knelt in front of a handsome and tan-skinned man, respectfully sitting on the throne covered with the fur of an unknown beast.

 

"You may speak." The man is the king of the Iron Phoenix Tribe. Although he looks young, he is older than the second elder and has already advanced to master rank. In each tribe, the master rank can only move when the tribe is in danger.

 

The reason is simple: the damage brought upon master rank will destroy everything. Because of that, the powerful tribes had a verbal agreement not to use master rank in war.

 

"Thank you, your majesty." The second elder explained the information that he had gotten.

 

"Send someone to find the mana stone thief; what is the situation of the Sand Berserk Tribe?"

 

"The first and second prince armies had clashed many times, but there was no winner."

 

"How about the other princes and princesses?"

 

"According to our information, the third prince is joining forces with the other tribes and federation."

 

"Keep a close watch on the third prince."

 

"Yes, your majesty."

 

"You may go."

 

After the second elder left, the king frowned. He doesn’t like the federation's involvement in the civil war. Because he had read the tribe's history record and the federation's activity around the continent. He still gets news from outside merchants that do business here.

 

However, he is not afraid of the federation since they have already prepared a countermeasure. The only problem is the Federation aircraft, according to the information that he got.

 

The tribes in the red sand desert still haven’t developed a flying warship because they don’t have the technology and knowledge to create one. Nevertheless, the federation army will lose if they come; this is not like in the past, when they could use the native civilians to revolt.

 

Most natives had been taught from a young age not to trust outsiders.

 

-

 

As time passed, the mana stone thief still hadn’t been caught, and the civil war was ongoing. The only good news is that the water source poison is gone thanks to the tribe's shaman and apothecary.

 

In the hot weather, a man with brunette hair and an average face is walking with a brown-furred horn bear beside him.

 

Levi is traveling to the mage nation; he can feel that he is close to a breakthrough with the fourth-tier mage. Because of that, he decided to travel slowly.

 

"It looks like I can practice my spell." Levi can see bandits attacking a caravan.

 

"Damn it, our luck is bad!" A man slashes his sword at the bandit. However, the bandit manages to block the attack using his sword.

 

Another bandit swings his sword at the man's back.

 

"Focus!" A bearded man parries the sword and slashes at the bandit's body.

 

"Thank you." He almost dies.

 

"We only need to hold on until the leader takes care of the bandit leader."

 

Not far from them, one man and a woman are fighting.

 

Rat, stay still!" The burly woman is the leader of the escort caravan; compared to the bandit leader, she is stronger. However, the bandit leader can enter the sand and attack her under the sand.

 

She soon senses something coming near her and swings her sword on the sand. The blast from the sword causes the sand to blow away, but there is no one there.

 

Five bandits burst from the sand and aimed their swords at her.

 

"Stupid." The burly woman swings her sword horizontally.

 

Four bandits' bodies get sliced into two, and their leader manages to stop at the last second and step back to evade the attack. However, the woman's sword is imbued with mana, and she releases it, creating a sword energy slash.

 

Seeing that the bandit leader enters the sand again,

 

"Damn it." The escort leader cursed.

 

When she thought this was going to be a long battle, she heard a roar. Soon she sees a horned bear charging at her.

 

The bandit leader under the sand smiles and decides to wait until the burly woman gets tired or gets killed by the horned bear.

 

The burly woman, rather than running toward the caravan, decided to face the horned bear. Although the monster is stronger than her, it’s not impossible to kill it with strategy.

 

The horn bear, when he comes closer, raises both hands and slams on the sand.

 

She already prepares, but something unexpected happens. The earth spike burst from the sand and pierced the bandit leader's body, and blood gushed from the wound. His eyes were wide, and he couldn’t believe that he would die.

 

The burly woman is confused, and the horn bear doesn’t stop and attack the other bandits.

 

In the confusion, fire spears fly in the air and pierce the other bandits. The attack is coming from a man walking toward them.

 

The flame engulfed the bandits until their deaths.

 

The burly woman, seeing that they were not enemies, returned to the caravan to regroup.

 

"Run!" The bandits, seeing their comrades getting massacred, try to flee by entering the sand.

 

"Pillar of sand." Levi cast an earth magic spell.

 

The pillar of sand rose into the air, and the bandits flew high into the air before falling from the sky. They either got injured or died.

 

Next, Levi and Ben kill them without mercy. Nevertheless, few of them manage to escape.

 

Levi's eyes met the burly woman's, and he just nodded his head and left.

 

The people, seeing the man and horn bear leave, sigh in relief; if they are enemies, they will be dead.

 

"Thank you for helping us." The burly woman shouted and waved her hand; the other said the same before leaving with the caravan.

 

Levi smiled and growled. "Have you gotten the escaping bandit scent?"

 

Ben sniffed the air and growled. "Yes."