Chapter 30

Anya asked.

“Mistress?”

Kimiko had an evil glint on her eyes. There were huge numbers of red dot in her map. There was Anya and Mira’s as well. Then there was something else. A question mark which only appeared if she encountered something new. A huge red dot was guarding over it and the monsters from outside the forest were rushing in. It seemed whatever the thing was, it was attracting the monsters from the surrounding vicinity.

“Interesting… Mira come here for a sec.”

Mira came as she was told and stood in front of her. Kimiko took out a pair of short blades and handed over to Mira.

‘Mira used to use short blades, didn’t she? Maybe her muscle memory will let her learn faster.’

What Kimiko had given was a simple pair of iron short blades. No fancy weapon because she knew the level of the monster here was not enough to give Mira any trouble. Also she and Anya was here monitoring Mira so they would keep Mira safe. Kimiko looked over to the forest. A little bit to the left a small green humanoid monster was running towards the forest.

‘How nostalgic. The first monster I killed back then.’

[Goblin]

[Lvl: 35]

It was the stereotype green monster with a small stature with ugly face and long nose. Its eyes looked like that of a frog. It seemed to have just been born from the World. It was pretty easy for people to level up to the first 50 levels. Just by training for few weeks, one could reach such level. The monster started getting categorized from lvl 50 onwards. Kimiko looked at it and casted a spell.

[Mana Tendril]

[A tendril made up of pure mana without any attribute. Used to constrict the target or to drag things around.]

A whitish blue circle with symbols appeared on her hand. Then a bluish white tendril of at least a foot in diameter appeared from the circle and shot towards the poor goblin. Using that magic, she dragged the goblin towards her.

[Mana Chain]

[5 chains made up of pure mana without any attribute. Used to bind and constrict the target.]

Just like before whitish blue circle appeared beneath her this time and 5 chains that appeared from it quickly bound the confused goblin. Kimiko mused.

“The circles are still flashy and colorful as always.”

The magic circles or magic formula are how the people used magic. They first needed to learn the magic, how to draw it and once they know how to draw it, they get the magic skill. It will then be engraved into their mind and the next time they use the magic; the formula will appear. These magic are often affected by various factor such as imagination, surroundings, amount of mana used, perfect usage of mana and the age of [Language] used in making the magic formula. The big 5 things that affect the power of the spell. That is why there is practice of chanting the spell in order to empower their imagination.

Also the color of the magic circle determines the magic’s attribute. The one Kimiko did was of pure mana without any attribute, that was why it had whitish blue color, [Elementless magic]. [Fire magic] is red, [Water magic] is blue, [Wind magic] is green, [Earth magic] is brown, [Lava magic] is orange, [Ice magic] is white, [Plant/Wood magic] is dark brown, [Lightning magic] is violet, [Gravity magic] is purple, [Light magic] is light yellow, [Dark magic] is black, [Holy magic] is gold, [Space magic] is dark blue and [Time magic] is dark green. There were Auxiliary magic but it can be categorized as [Elementless magic] because their magic did not fall under any category like of above. There were other Magics like skills used with weapons called [Skill] but those did not require magic circle.  

Magic in each category ‘Element’ was limited but it made up with the diversity of Magic inside it like attack magic, defense magic and buff magic. They were limited in a sense that they have not been researched much. That was why there are [Sages] and [Scholars] that researched different kinds of effect from different kind of Magic Formulas. Solomon himself had created many magic formulas and had the affinity for all kinds of Magic.

But it was not the time of magic lesson. Kimiko looked at Mira and asked.

“Can you defeat it?”

Mira was confused before looking at the struggling goblin. She pointed to herself and Kimiko nodded. Anya was just looking from the sidelines. Mira hesitatingly nodded as Kimiko sighed.

‘From the look of her eyes it seems she is still afraid. Better not force her to it then.’

“It’s all right if you don’t want to do it. I won’t force you.”

Mira looked to Kimiko in surprise before she shook her head. She spoke, surprising Kimiko.

“I want to be useful too, nya. Please give me a chance, nya!”

Kimiko nodded as she removed the binding. The goblin looked at all three of them while brandishing the club it had on hand. It looked at Kimiko, Anya and then Mira. Deciding it was best to try to kill the weakest one he ran towards Mira while yelling.

“uwauwauwauwauwa!”

Mira flinched at first before composing herself. A determined look flashed on her face as she took a stance. It seemed Kimiko was right. Her muscle memory remained even if her memory was erased. The goblin jumped and tried to strike her from the air. A bad move as Mira instantly dodged to the side and cut it from the middle. It surprised Mira while the goblin lay dead. Her tail start to sway as she had a face that seem to ask ‘Did-I-Do-Good’ as she looked at Kimiko.

“Yes, you did.”

Kimiko said it while patting her head. Then Kimiko looked to the other place and began using her magic.

[Mana Tendril] * 5

[Mana Chain] * 5

From the place, 3 goblin and 2 direwolfs were caught. This time they all seemed to be between [F-rank] and [E-rank]. Kimiko looked at her and asked.

“Can you fight all these monsters?”

Mira seemed to be a little more confident than before.

“I can try, nya.”

Then Kimiko released them from their binding. They all seemed to feel that Kimiko and Anya were very very very bad news so they tried to force themselves out by targeting the weakest link; Mira. The direwolves were the first to attack. They seemed to be coordinating with each other by attacking her from both the sides. Mira kept her weapons in front of her as she, to her surprise, appeared in front of the wolf of the left side in an instant. Without hesitating she stabbed it right in the head, instantly killing it while her other hand threw the short sword right in the side of the stomach of the other one.

‘It seems she doesn’t hesitate to go for the kill. Or is it that she hasn’t registered it fully? Or it could be adrenaline.’

She then picked the blade from the head and tore out the other from the direwolf’s stomach, not minding the gore. Then she swiftly decapitated the other three in a graceful manner. Mira’s eyes were cold and sharp before looking confused. Kimiko frowned.

‘Hmmm? It seems that the experience of the assassin side is somehow bleeding onto this side. Fragments of experience perhaps.’

Mira looked at her hand, not minding the blood, and asked.

“Is it ok, nya?”

Kimiko just nodded. It seems that her agility is still the best even after her mind’s obliteration. It seems she did not mind the gore and will not hesitate to kill the monsters. Though if she is willing to kill other beings than the monsters are yet to be seen. Kimiko gauged Mira’s ability to be likely in lvl 150 to lvl 200. It was enough for today. She said.

“I guess it should be enough for today.”

She used a spell to clean out the blood from Mira's cloth. Then she looked towards the forest. They were in the vicinity of the forest of giant trees. The monster had reached the number of thousands, all inside this giant trees. She said to Anya.

“Anya, I will be heading inside to deal with them. You stay here with Mira. Also guard her if I were to use magic spell.”

Anya nodded.

“As you command Mistress.”

Kimiko just looked at her mini-map. Then she just casually entered the forest. The monsters that were in a frenzy state and near to her immediately pounced at her. She didn’t give them any heed and swatted them away as if they were flies. Very unfortunate for them because it was from an individual that could destroy hills and mountains pretty much with her punch. They were pulverized. She wanted to do something so why not punch them all away? It was cathartic in a way. Not having to restrict your power and smashing things away.

[Exp gained: 956]

[Exp gained: 789]

[Exp gained: 899]

……….

But the monster didn’t seem to care and attacked her regardless. Well it meant more time for her to slowly go inside and enjoying the moment. As she progressed inside, the monster grew more violent, way more violent than it was possible without getting doped. It seemed that whatever was inside the forest caused them to go into frenzy.

‘Must be that unknown material’ 

Kimiko thought as she kept on punching more and more monsters. But not a drop of blood ever got splashed on her clothes. She had been going on for 5 minutes already.

‘Guess it is time to finish this. I feel refreshed already.’

Then using a physical skill, that did not require magic formula, she disappeared from the view of the monster and was already deeper inside.

[Blink]

[Short distance instantaneous movement skill. Focuses mana on the sole of the foot and detonate the ground causing instant acceleration for a short period of time.]

She used it again and again until she reached the core of the Monster Tide. By then there was already a sea of monsters inside. The monster contained all kinds of monsters like Goblin, Direwolf, Forest wolf, Troll, Maneater Spider, Hobogoblin, etc. The place was like an open ground but still covered by the spread out branches of the tree at the top. She searched for the possible ringleader and voila, she found him.

[Apex Forest wolf]

[Lvl: 223]

There was a huge wolf guarding a dark violet crystal which was in a pedestal. The dark crystal seemed to emanate something that seemed to have gathered the hordes of monster. This wolf was an A-rank monster. It was brown furred wolf that was as large as a bus with sharp long teeth. This type of wolf was a mutation of Forest wolf and was considered the pack leader. But it will be slaughtered like any other monster. The wolf howled as if to rally the entire tide against her. Kimiko mused.

“I need to get its core, right?”

[Blink]

This time she appeared right beside it. The wolf was confused at first as its target disappeared just like that. Then it felt a shearing pain from the side.

“Awwoooooohhh!”

It looked and found that an arm had lodged inside it from the side. It could feel it touching his heart; his core. The woman seemed to have mysteriously arrived beside him and dealt a fatal attack. It could not believe it but then he felt the core being clutched. The monster didn’t have time to scream as it’s core was yanked out of its body.

As if string being cut, the wolf wobbled for a while before finally crashing down. Still Kimiko was spotless, not a drop of blood was on her clothes. She looked at the core on her hand which was as big as a baseball and stored it inside. How such a puny thing could power the monster. She then looked at the pedestal it was guarding and also stored the violet crystal to examine it later. By then the monster had gotten out of their stupor and started to run away to all direction. Now was a time for her spell as Kimiko raised her arm to the sky. She grinned.

“Incinerate [Fire Dome]”

[An AOE attack that causes a dome of fire to erupt, incinerating everything inside it except the caster. Size of the attack can be adjusted by the amount of mana poured in it.]

It was an overkill move but was useful to flush out the mobs. The magic formula beneath her expanded until it reached the size of the giant forest in an instant. Then the world turned orange. It would seem that the world had turned orange for a second just by the sheer size and luminosity of the attack. The air around the dome turned hot, causing the rocks around it to melt. The nearby trees burst into flame just by getting into contact with the hot air surrounding the dome. Not to mention that the monsters inside got incinerated in an instant, leaving behind hot steaming monster core.

Anya stood in front of Mira and shielded the worst with a barrier of her own. Though her eyes narrowed at the destructiveness of the magic.

“…… How and when did Mistress learn such magic?”

Anya wondered as her Master’s preferable weapon was sword. She did learn few magic tricks here and there but not to the scope that it would cause such destruction. This was much of Solomon’s forte. Though her Mistress’s current magic could not match up to Solomon’s but it was still a sight to behold.

“Still Mistress is mistress. I will never doubt her. It could be that after she leveled up considerably, her magic power too got an upgrade in their output.”

The magic lasted for a short time, not more than 3 second before it faded. The forest of giant trees was no more and a red hot ground stood it its place. Kimiko was right in the middle of it looking at what she had got on her hand.

[Holy Blood Crystal]

[A crystalline condensed form of Blood made from ???? by ???? Has the ability to attract monster and boost their level by sacrificing its durability. Once its durability is lost, it breaks causing the monster to go into ‘Berserk’ state and attack the nearest settlement area. A heretic material. Durability: 23/1000]

“tsk”

A troublesome thing just appeared on her hand. She started going towards her allies picking up Magic core on the way. Just like she had suspected, forceful level up can cause a monster to be violent. It was planned. It could be that someone destroyed the nearby settlement area in order to test the item without getting hampered by anyone and made it look like it was the monsters who did it. It seemed that the crystal would likely break after it used up its durability, ensuring no evidence. Arthur did say that there was a rise of monster activity everywhere. This item could be the reason.

‘But who would do such a thing?........ who am I kidding, there is only one such organization that comes to the mind when asked who would do such thing. But how did they make this item?’

Holy was a rare attribute that she had seen only in Rin.

“Wait a moment, Rin? The orphanage.”

The orphanage that sent the children to the Lord and then to the [Cult]. Children who were of pure mindset are likely to be recipient of Holy attribute. Things were coming together in her mind. Maybe she will tell Arthur about it? By then she had already arrived to the place where Anya and Mira were staying. Anya said.

“It seems Mistress has learnt how to use magic without spamming it with mana like you always did without finesse.”

Kimiko quirked an eye at that. Then she understood what Anya meant. Kimiko replied.

“After leveling up, it seems much of my magic repository got expanded.”

Anya nodded and asked.

“Should we go post-haste to Arthur? You were looking very intently at the thing you have on your hand.”

“I guess, we should. Probably store it since it can attract monster.”

Anya nodded.

“It seemed pretty unusual for a monster of only this caliber able to command such numbers of monster.”

“It likely did so with the help of that crystal. After all, monster will have good intelligence since they are rank B or above. But it did not even take an hour to complete the task…”

Anya asked.

“How about breakfast Mistress? I was given a basket of food since you could not eat your breakfast this morning. We still have time.”

It seemed Mira was on board with the idea as her tail swayed. Kimiko too was hungry in a way.

“Why not?”

Moments later

A nice blanket was laid out. All three of them were sitting in a seiza position. Right in the middle was a big picnic basket. Remembering the situation of last night, Kimiko asked hesitatingly.

“…..How many varieties are stuffed in there?”

Anya tilted her head while Mira was swaying happily at the thought of food. Anya replied.

“It is only chicken sandwich, Mistress. It looks big only because there were no other picnic baskets….”

Kimiko could not help but sigh in relief.

‘At least something reasonable inside.’

“….but there are teapot, plates, premium water, napkins, tomato sauce and 50 sandwiches inside.”

Kimiko stiffened. She groaned.

‘I take it back. I seriously need to teach them how much can a person eat….’

After one breakfast later

Kimiko and the rest returned to the Adventurer city quickly. This time opting to go in a less speed than before. Within an hour they reached the city. Kimiko said.

“Anya, you and Mira can return to the mansion. I will have a chat with Arthur.”

Anya bowed and left with Mira. As stated, Kimiko headed towards the Adventurer Guild. Then like earlier she used a teleportation magic to enter Arthur’s office in an alley. A dark blue magic formula appeared beneath her.

[Gate]

Then a familiar sight of the office appeared on her vision but it seemed no one was inside. Office like this would have some anti-teleportation spell but it seemed that Arthur had made her [Mana Signature] familiar to the spell. That is why she was not blocked when using teleportation magic. She looked around for a bit, noticing a couch at the corner. She walked and sat down to relax. Then she remembered that the Guild Master of Aron city was here.

“Could it be they are wondering how to deal with the [Cult]? A meeting perhaps?”

She was interested in it and decided to do what she had done in the capital. To observe through Arthur.

“Hope he doesn’t mind.”

Then back to Arthur who was speaking. There was a big round table and 10-12 Guild Masters of nearby cities were there sitting around the table.

“… and to the Guilds nearby the southern borders….”

Then he stopped for a while as he felt something happening. The others looked at him in confusion. Why did he stop talking?

‘Master?’

‘Hmmm?’

Arthur sighed.

‘It was your presence in my office that I felt earlier. Well, I’d ask about your mission but I am in a meeting.’

‘You can go on. I want to listen because I have nothing interesting to do right now.’

‘Of course….’

Then Eva, the Guild Master of Aron city asked.

“Are you all right?”

The others were looking at him worriedly. Arthur just shook his head.

“It’s nothing. Just a little distracted. So where was I?”

A 4-foot man with a stocky built said in a rough voice. Likely a Dwarf race.

“We were talking about Border Guilds.”

Arthur nodded.

“Ah yes. Thank you, Eva for worrying about me and Terry for reminding me. The Adventurer Guilds at the borders of Posat-Sholiy were surprised by the fast mobilization of the Sholiy army. It was swift and the General Sodus himself is leading this time. The Adventurer Guild mobilized a courier to ask about the cause. The General just laughed and said that it was just week long training regime.”

The dwarf seemed to make a face.

“Fat load of Bullshit! The courier witnessed almost half of the Kingdom’s military to be stationed there. Normally you can only mobilize up to 30% of the total army in one place as per the rule made by the Temple and supported by the Kingdoms. He is clearly violating the rule!”

Arthur nodded gravely as he joined his hand to support his face.

“Clearly something is amiss. Sholiy never hid the fact that they sneer at the Temple but haven’t done anything publicly to go against them. However, the Temple too need the fact that Sholiy are clearly violating the rule to interfere unless they label themselves as a bully. Mouth evidence and witness case is lacking unless we have video evidence to prove it. Also what is happening to that branch of the Temple. Movement as huge as this should be noticed.”

Kimiko asked, clearly surprised.

‘You have video’

Arthur smirked internally.

‘Yes, master. It is just an orb that records the scenery. However, since it is non-sentient thing it does not get fooled by illusions and record things as it is. Tampering with it has not yet proved successful so we can assume this form of evidence to be sufficient.’

Another member spoke. A giant man who wore little clothes, exposing all his chiseled muscles.

“Maybe it's due to the absence of [Archbishop]. All of them headed towards the [Holy city] if I recall. Unluckily, the army has concealed themselves. Video evidence could be harder to procure.”

Another spoke. A lady with tribal markings on her face and wore light clothes.

“Maz is right. Report from our side has said that the remaining army has vanished. Where could they go?”

Arthur replied.

“Where couldn’t they, Dawn? Even though there are many villages, towns and cities, we have yet to explore beyond them. Even the forests are vast and full of dangerous Monsters that have yet to be scoped. As such they can find holes to creep themselves into. The more alarming thing we need to find is; Are they already in Posat? Even though Posat is small, like the rest of the world, we have yet to explore fully. We only know 60% of our land even with the army performing expedition into the unknown. We only know the borders of the Kingdom and have the army garrison guarding them but not even they can go beyond the established road. We can only hope that there are some strong monster in there to give them trouble if they keep themselves hidden in the forest.”

A man with glasses, named Marroc, nodded.

“It can be assumed that if they can use teleportation or have enough mage to do it, they likely have placed them inside our border. It is just a speculation and a possibility because there are no anti-teleportation seals because due to how it would affect us as well. In the first place there is no magic capable of encompassing the whole nation.”

Arthur then said, dropping a bomb.

“Luckily or unluckily Grand Marshal has already been stationed there and have mobilized 30% of army there. Response from the capital was swift. Which means the capital vulnerable without him and lack manpower because of the army mobilization. Also, talking about the capital, it can be said that the [Cult] has already dealt a blow to the Temple.”

All of them were shocked.

“What?”

“How?”

“Did they grow balls?”

“What happened.”

Arthur replied.

“Just yesterday late at night, I got an urgent call from the Prime minister….”

Eva made a face at the mention of the Prime minister.

“…… saying something like ‘The [Cult] has destroyed the main Temple.’.”

Everybody was in a gloomy state by that news knowing that the Temple won’t stay still when one of its headquarters was destroyed. A child, with brown hair, groaned.

“It’s one thing after the other. And we still have to deal with this whole [Cult] issue. Oi you, white haired bimbo, why haven’t you done anything to them in your city.”

The white haired bimbo in question, Eva, was ticked off. She fired off.

“Shut up, Dickless Bryan! You don’t have faintest damn clue, the shitstorm happening in the city. The first thing I needed to do when I got this post was to sweep the mess the Guild and the Royal family got into for the last five YEARS!! Then I have to monitor the damn [Cult] knowing that I can’t directly skewer them without causing an uproar. Then another shit happened in the form of children shipped off to [Cult] that I got wind of just last year! That’s not it at all, an [Exploration Quest] that got turned into a giant mess in the form of the death of the younger son of the Grand Marshal in MY CITY! I AM GOING TO GET WHITE HAIR DEALING WITH THIS SHIT!!”

At this point, Eva was wheezing hard while standing. Everyone who was uninvolved just sighed as nobody had the heart to tell her that her hair was already white. Arthur just clapped his hand, turning the attention to him while Eva sat down.

“As entertaining and frustrating it was to watch, like Eva said, how is the condition with the [Cult]?”

His assistant, the elf, Alma replied while looking at the paper on her hand.

“It is going smooth for the most part. The money from the Royal Treasury is used for posting [Quest] to safeguard villages. It got most Adventurers hooked on at the amount of the reward. It is most taken quest. That is why villages are less attacked by the monsters. It seems that some of the [Royal Magician] of the capital has arrived in the villages surveilling for any ‘shady’ people. This has caused the disappearance of the children to be cut by 90%. However, according to them, the search for the [Cult] has yet to reach conclusion as their search ends up in dead end. And this recent rise of monster activity is hampering their progress.”

Arthur sighed.

“Great, just great. Without the [Royal Magician] and most of its army along with the festival ongoing, it’s going to be difficult if something were to happen at the capital.”

A Tiger beast man, Tigur, asked this time.

“Are you sure something will happen?”

Arthur nodded.

“No, it will happen. Knowing that this is the first time the [Cult] has gone head to head with the Temple only one conclusion comes to mind. ‘The Temple won’t move until and unless there is a destruction of the kingdom’. Which means they are planning something big. So they destroyed the Temple headquarter when it was at its weakest; when the [Archbishop] was not there. But to totally destroy it means that there is few [Named Assassin] to do it. This time they are serious.”

Marroc asked.

“But aren’t they wary of you. Despite the political shackle, you are free to unbound them when it comes to helping Posat? Also the strongest person is here so why target this place especially instead of other unstable kingdoms?”

Arthur closed his eyes and said.

“As to why, this country is the symbol of Hero. Where Solomon once resided. As a statement that even such a country with such backing could not stop the [Cult] or maybe as a revenge for killing their leader [Witch Mistress]. There are a lot of reasons. But I am afraid this time they may have a trump card against me.”

All of them gasped. It was well-known that the strongest person on this world was [Arthur: The Unshakable]. But knowing the [Cult] which stood strong for thousands of year like the Temple, they may have the means to do so. Bryan asked.

“What should we do?”

Arthur glared at everyone and said in an imposing voice.

“This farce has gone long enough. We need to retrieve ‘his’ daughter from the clutches of the [Cult]. Then steal the documents from that Duke who thinks of himself as the King of the world. Mobilize everything, give it compulsory [S or above Quest] and allow those pricks to do it. Do not write the content of the quest until they come and handpick the ones you trust to do it. They have stayed still for a long time. Make it a personal quest of mine. The people will be divided into four forces; one to retrieve the daughter from the intel provided by the Marshal Stan, second to retrieve the document, third to the Aron city to protect Harold and the fourth with me to the capital where the shit is about to get real. We need to do it at the day of the festival, that’s when they will make a move and their guard on the other place is lowered. One and two will have to strike at the same time. As for location of the document, my spy in the Duke’s house will tell you meanwhile covert operation for the rescue of the daughter. Harold can hold them off long enough for his guards to arrive so concentrate less forces there. Fighters and those who can take a hit will be with me and few in numbers as I have to make an appearance in front of the crowd. We don’t want the [Cult] to be suspicious of me. Is that understood?”

Dawn asked something.

“Won’t they know that you know that something is going to happen? Won’t they prepare for your interference? So why not take much force with you?”

“All these S rank and above people are known throughout the kingdom. If much of them concentrate here, I am pretty sure the public will feel something is going on and they will panic before I even come on stage. So if I were to bring only a few with me, it will create an illusion that the [Cult] will conclude that either I don’t know what their plan is. Or I know and have posted few others in the shadow hunting them which will keep them in guard and prone to making mistake. Though, I am pretty sure what one of their trump cards could be.”  

All of them nodded. However, Eva seemed to wish to say something.

“…ah….umm…”

Arthur noticed.

“What is it, Eva?”

“C-Can I go with you to the capital on that day?”

Arthur nodded.

“All right. I know the reason why so I guess you can come with me….. and on the other hand, if there is another such unwanted needless ‘rumor’ of me and someone going on, in the next few days, I will bury everyone who is here. Is that clear? I do not need more stress.”

All of them gulped. Some of them already abandoning the thought. Arthur nodded.

“You may all leave.”

By saying that everyone started to leave. Meanwhile Arthur was conversing with his Master.

‘So anything going on with you and Eva now?’

‘Master you jest! She is the eldest Daughter of the Prime Minister. She may be crass but she still cares for her family.’

Kimiko’s eye shined in interest like that of a cat’s.

‘Is this the famous banished eldest daughter kind of thing going on?’

‘No master, she just lost a bet and had to stay as a guild master.’

After hearing that Kimiko lost her interest. Though she wondered.

‘What kind of bet is that? I thought it would be more like marriage kind of thing.’

‘A kind of bet she herself made and lost in it as well. She was too stubborn and decided to go along with it. As I recall her tenure of the bet is about to end. I heard she used to be a kind of rebellious and hot headed.’

‘But she doesn’t look like the Prime Minister?’

‘That’s because she dyed her hair white….’

‘………’

Kimiko then decided to close the topic off as she remembered about the crystal.

‘Arthur, I may have found something regarding the rising activity of the Monsters..’

Thanks for reading.