In the dimly lit hall of the adventurers guild leading down a cascade of stairs, two figures halted their steps at the subtle vibration of their arm bracers, exchanging a glance Hawk 1 received the communication.
" It's both of you, great. We need you back immediately. Retreat to the western side of the city into the maldon thicket. A fight recently occurred between two groups and we suspect one group to be the runaways from the battlefield. Quickly gather any intel you can and meet us on the western side of the city before we begin pursuit." Hawk 4's message abruptly ended.
Cascading down a flight of stairs, Hawk 1 and 2 were wondering about the battle or who it involved when the sight of the glistening city of Liberia illuminated the dark 2nd floor of the guild. Mesmerized momentarily, a grunt voice resounded throughout the floor, " Get out. I gave what you wanted so leave my guild. "
"Lets go. We are done here anyways, this was the last stop. The meetup takes priority." Hawk 1 and 2 vanished from the adventurers guild heading back to their run down inn.
" Nathaniel was it? Could he be...? No, even they weren't sure so most likely not. I have yet to meet an ar'garth who broke the magic of the slave seal. It is after all a 9th tier spell. If the immortal magician cannot set himself free then those Ar'garths have 0 chance. " Lagos subtly shook his head.
The magic that bound the immortal magician was said to be of the seventh tier and yet with all his power Ryan could not unbind the seal that shackled therefore against a 9th tier soul spell those ar'garths were doomed. In terms of binding nothing came close to soul magic and that it is why it was a forbidden path yet some walked it and the product were spells of such power.
In fact for kingdoms this was the incentive to nurturing such magicians from the public eye.
Lagos took in a mouthful of air, seconds later the air began to tremble as his aura continuously rose. He felt shackled, his blood craving destruction.
" Crack!" "Smash. " The tiles of the rooftop shattered as an immense pressure weighed on the building. Dust took off into the air. Subtle fissures threatened to split apart the rune bound walls.
" Guild master! Please stop." Hurried voices beckoned him rushing to the top of the guild as his aura threatened to collapse the entire building. The vice guild masters stared at him in reproach.
" I can't leave... I can't let loose, what do you all want from me?" Lagos's booming voice resounded questioning the absurdity of the situation.
" Guild master, while we understand your desire to fight in the slumbering highlands and train however with the recent increase in monster attacks happening in every kingdom. We ask that you remain in the city to handle any beast attack on the city." One of the vice masters calmly said despite the suffocating aura enveloping them. The man who had just spoken was the leader of The Hounds, Dorothy's captain Richard Arksson.
" Hahaha... A beast attack you say, that is impossible. Do you how many territories lie between us and the slumbering highlands? 7or 9. Enough such that even if a beast attack may occur even a stench of the beasts won't reach us." Lagos turned to face his 5 vice masters.
( AN: By territories he implied noble's territories. While the Belford kingdom at the north borders the slumbering highlands vast swarths of land lie between Liberia and the slumbering highlands. On the continent of Aria, at the center dividing it into south and north domains was the slumbering highlands. In the west of the southern domain touching the seas was the Belford kingdom and the northern parts of the kingdom was directly adjacent to slumbering highlands mountain ranges. )
" So, by that logic I will miss the opportunity to fight some disaster class beasts. Heck, if I am lucky a calamity class might grace us with a visit." Glee shone in Lagos's eyes as he thought about calamity class monsters.
While the saint warrior/magician rank was the currently peak for humans, the peak for beasts was the calamity realm. Calamity class beasts were not only those that have awakened their bloodline inheritance but have full assimilated and have evolved overcoming their bloodline shackles. Advancing to the nest tier of bloodline purity.
Bloodline purity determined how strong a beasts could become and that purity of bloodlines was separated into tiers. Beats with 90-95% bloodline purity fell into tier seven, 80-89% into tier 6, 70-79% into tier 5, 60-69% into tier 4, 50-59% into tier 3, 30-49% into tier 2 and 1-29% into tier 1 of bloodline purity.
One might assume bloodline purity did not relate to the beast's strength and they would be mistaken. Bloodline purity increased the vigor of the beasts such they had long lives due to strong lifeforce. That meant the higher the purity of the bloodline the harder the beast was to kill. Most beasts with strong bloodlines had strong innate ability inheritances.
In goblins with poor bloodlines, the rampage skill was all they could amount to but the royal goblins would have stronger innate skills and more than one due to high bloodline purity. Bloodlines were useful in alchemy and studying beast morphology.
Lagos pondered momentarily before giving up while true he desired bloody combat, the movements of the nobles lately had him worried. In the history of the adventurers guild never had there ever been a noble who served as a vice-master or guild master. Of course the nobles had their own adventurer teams and were able to hire any adventurers they desired but the crux of the problem was the adventurers guild held manpower the likes of which equaled all of the kingdoms combined.
On top of that they held vast amounts of funds and resources, in fact the greatest of any kingdom thus to the greedy nobles they were a plump and juicy prey. Their moment of respite was the emergence of emperor Linnaeus that shifted the target momentarily. After the war ends, another would begin for the ownership of the adventurers guild. The nobles had bled and were yet to recover but the guild was only currently paying a lot of war donations to the kingdoms, since they did not want to involve themselves in the current war. Post the war, they would have the most military forces and it was a sentiment that echoing louder as the years go by.
It wouldn't be a problem if the adventurers guild was united but with so many figureheads the collective opinion was split with regards to the action forward.
Lagos could foresee the results of the ongoing stalemate between the branches of the guild and that would cause a rift if it hadn't already. The eventual rupture of that rift would rip the guild apart. The remains would then be absorbed by the nobles.
'However, none of that is my problem. To be a leader that was not the reason I joined the guild to begin with. With my current standing, the presence or absence of the guild is irrelevant. What a bother...' Lagos turned leaving the rooftop however his thirst for battle was not yet subdued.
" The five of you, gather runemasters to reinforce the training hall and have it ready in a week. You will all be going against me. Since I can't leave to fight the beasts, you five will have to do." Lagos's words made the vice-masters falter as they eventually resigned themselves to their fate.
In the run down inn...
" Hawk 1...I am done." Number 2 lay flatly on the floor breathing heavily as a dozen meter magic circle flashed on the floor. It was an augmentation circle. Although a long distance teleportation circle could get a person out of the dome and the city, the time required to manually draw one was at least 2 weeks thus long distance teleportation scrolls were used instead. To overcome the dome, the compressed teleportation circle on the scroll needed augmentation due to the power of the barrier. Despite subtle differences the augmentation circle worked similarly to that which was in Nathaniel's room.
Another function of the augmentation circle was that it worked as a jump point and allowing multiple individuals to teleport using the same scroll. It is also one the first things established by any party hunting in a multi-sub level dungeon.
" Prepare for any confrontation." Hawk 1 entered the room, their luggage disappearing into their dimensional storages. Unlike perceived one could add a spatial node as a teleportation point. Similar to how Cloud and the others had specifically teleported Nathaniel earlier. With a blinding light they were gone but their magic residue quickly dispersed.
West and outside of the city, the thicket...
A flash light illuminated the trees and 2 figures armed made their presence known in the desolate trees.
" I taught you well but stop dill dallying, we have given them enough time to recover as is." Hawk 3 jumped down from the top of the tree and walked over to them.
" Inform me as we go. Will meet up with the rest of the squad." The three immediately set off advancing to where Nathaniel had fought.
" Captain, it started in the city in the silver sparrow inn. From our initial findings it seemed the target was an occupant of room 205, Nathaniel Wilton. From the traces, it was a surprise ambush with poison daggers and a forceful long distance teleportation while the target defended." Hawk 2 passed along a vial of poison and a dagger from Nathaniel's room.
Hawk 3 inspected the dagger and poison for a while and the other 2 remained silent, after a 2 minutes he turned to them. " We will leave the other group and instead we will target the one they sought to capture." He solemnly said putting away the dagger and poison.
" Captain, you recognize them?" Hawk 2 asked in disbelief he had spent a couple hours inspecting them himself and hadn't gotten any headway thus far.
" Though there are no markings on the dagger but the craftmanship is unique to Deke Marcius's dark force...the Blackwing group and though it is subtle there is a faint smell of rosewood in the poison. Something unique to Baron Dalton's territory, the duke's right hand man." Hawk 3 said focusing ahead as faint silhouettes appeared in the distance. " We will talk about it later, focus on the task at hand first."