บท 29: I Didn’t Mean It as a Joke
Five days later, Arias was finally at the bottleneck phase of the neophyte level. At the moment, he was focusing on the emerald-colored elixir in his hand. It was the “Emerald Flora Elixir” which he got from Farhan. To push through this phase and become an acolyte was not that difficult, but it was not that easy either. Thus, using this elixir would be a lot of help.
“It’s finally time to use this.”
The moment Arias swallowed the Emerald Flora Elixir, a pure magical power began to spread throughout his body. Soon, it was completely absorbed into his core of magic, and the lightning inside the core began to slowly increase in size. Arias’ mind was solely focused on the magical power within him as he did not want anything, no matter how small, to go wrong. His brows furrowed and sweat ran down his entire face. Sometimes he felt a tinge of pain, but other times he just felt relaxed.
The overall process took more than five minutes and Arias finally opened his eyes. The moment he did so, there seemed to be a flash of lightning flashed out from his eyes, though it lasted for only a fraction of a second. Now his face was adorned with a relaxed and joyful smile. He had finally become a first-level acolyte. With one more step forward, he would have fulfilled the condition that Albert had set for him.
Taking less than two months to advance from a first-level neophyte to a first-level acolyte was quite fascinating. Thanks to the lightning within him, everything went so smoothly. If he told anyone about this, they would definitely think it was a fabricated story. Arias was progressing at a rate that even his past self could not achieve.
Arias’ body dashed out of his room and disappeared in a flash. The speed was much faster than before. Every movement he made left sparks of lightning and faint burnt marks on the floor where he had stepped. Finally, Arias came to a stop in front of a large tree.
“Flaming Thunder Fury.”
Several lightning bolts appeared, dancing around Arias’ tightly clenched fist. The lightning was wild and ferocious, letting out a roar that could be heard from his fist.
BANG!
His fist and the lightning around it struck the ill-fated tree. The impact of the strike caused the tree’s leaves to fall and the birds to fly out of their nets in panic. The destructive force of the lightning had made a large black hole in the middle of the tree’s trunk. The burnt smell still lingered in the air.
CRASH!
At last, the tree was no longer able to support itself. It began to lean before eventually collapsing, scattering dust and branches all over the place.
Arias looked at his handiwork with pride. His power was far superior to that of neophyte mages now. If he ran into silver-fanged wolves at this time, he would not be afraid of them anymore.
“Who’s there!?”
Someone yelled from a spot not so far away from Arias. He turned around, startled to see a figure running toward him at high speed.
“Tsk! Why do you have to come at this time!?”
Arias quickly hid himself in the darkness of the night. The Cloud-Shrouded Dragon technique did an excellent job of concealing his aura. He did not go far and kept himself hidden close to where he was at a moment ago.
Finally, Arias could see the one who interrupted him. It was a young man with a lithe figure who was approximately a hundred and sixty-five centimeters tall. He was creating a small whirlwind with one of his hands, ready to strike. His gaze darted around the area cautiously. He looked at the big tree that had just collapsed with curiosity.
“A Fire-Wielder? Was it Mashelle? No, that can’t be. If it was Mashelle, why would he run away from me?”
The burnt marks left on the tree prompted Danesse to come up with that assumption.
Arias also stared at the young man. His brows furrowed with curiosity. ‘Why is Danesse out here this late at night? Is he here to train just like me?’
“Show yourself now before I lose my patience! This is Scarcia’s territory. Don’t you know the punishment of trespassing?”
Danesse yelled in a loud voice that could be heard throughout the area. Judging from the burnt marks that had been left on the tree, a person capable of doing something like this must be a Fire-Wielder of his level or slightly higher. Moreover, this was Scarcia’s territory, which meant no one would dare to inflict harm on him.
Arias watched Danesse, who was still yelling loudly, with irritation. ‘What an annoyance. And what are you yelling for? Are you trying to call all the guards here!?’
Suddenly, a brilliant idea occurred to him. A cold smile tucked at the corner of his lips. The same pitch-black dagger that he used to attack Albert appeared in his hand.
“Let’s think of this as a kind of payback.”
SWISH!
The dagger dashed forward through the air. The darkness helped to perfectly conceal its existence.
“Who’s there!?”
SCHUNK!
Danesse seemed to notice when it was too late. The knife stabbed his thigh with preciseness, leaving a small trail of blood running down from the wound.
“Arghhh! I am going to get you!”
Danesse let out a cry of pain and anger, his eyes blazing with anger. A green wind appeared around his body before he dashed toward Arias’ direction. However, Danesse could not go further than ten meters before his body dropped to the ground.
“My leg...could it be poison!? Help, anyone, help me. There’s an intruder. I’ve been poisoned!”
The local anesthetic spread throughout the stabbed leg. He looked at the wound with fear, and his mind could not help but think about poisons. His face became pale like a corpse as his yell echoed throughout the area.
As soon as Danesse fell down, Arias dashed out of the area. Luckily, his room was not very far away.
“Poison, what poison!? What a wuss.”
Arias muttered once he was back inside his room. Actually, it would not take very long to drive out the local anesthetic from his body if only Danesse had stayed calm and used his magical power to do so. But instead of doing that, he yelled and screamed, misunderstanding that he was poisoned.
Arias could not imagine what it would be like if that guy actually got poisoned or cursed. But at least Arias had his fun today. It was nice to get back at them sometimes, although that was nowhere near enough to make him satisfied.
When he sneaked a look through the window, he could see the family’s guards and the servants running around the manor frantically. He had no idea how those people were going to catch the culprit when the said culprit was standing right here. But if they suspected that the culprit was an insider, Arias would still be the last one on the list of suspects. Who would have thought that an acolyte would be attacked by someone who possessed no magical power?
Arias watched those people running around the manor for hours before he became bored and decided not to pay any more attention to it. He could still hear Merson shouting all around the manor. He actually felt a bit apologetic toward the servants who had been dragged along to suffer the consequences.
The following morning, the news that Danesse had been attacked was all that people could talk about. As for the real culprit, he was cutting a big piece of steak on his plate with high concentration.
“Arias, have you heard about Danesse being attacked?”
Albert asked.
“Es, eye av.” (Yes, I have.)
Arias chewed on the meat inside his mouth while simultaneously answering Albert’s question. His eyes were still trained on that same piece of steak. He seemed to enjoy it a lot.
“Are you somehow involved in this?”
Albert asked with his voice lowered. Albert’s question made Maria, who was about to eat the food from her plate, turn to stare at him in confusion. Arias had to stop paying attention to the steak on his plate for a moment. He looked up and smiled sheepishly at Albert, neither confirming nor denying anything. But for Albert, that was enough of an answer.
“You little devil! Do you have any idea what you’ve done? This won’t end nicely if someone knew it was you.”
Albert almost shouted this out, but he managed to restrain himself. Luckily, there was no one else around except for the three of them. This little devil was giving him more and more trouble with every passing day. Albert had become suspicious since last night when he heard that Danesse had been attacked with a black dagger. Learning that the dagger had local anesthetic on it only made him more certain that the culprit was none other than his own son. Arias’ smile further confirmed his suspicions.
Still in shock, Maria did not utter a word. She also knew that Danesse had been attacked, but it did not cross her mind that Arias was the perpetrator.
“It’s all history now, Father. Don’t worry about it.”
Arias replied before lowering his head and continuing to slice his steak.
“This is not a joke, Arias!”
Albert said in a stern voice.
“I didn’t mean it as a joke either. If there’s a chance, I would...tsk! Never mind.”
Arias looked up and met Albert’s eyes with a serious expression. His gaze was stern, and he no longer acted like he was just playing around. He stopped mid-sentence, but Albert and Maria could very well guess the meaning of it. They could sense the aura of murderous intent that came out before that last word was said. It was so intense that not even the two of them could release such an aura.
“I think you should eat before the food gets cold.”
The murderous intent disappeared instantly, and a smile was back on Arias’ face.
.
.
Inside Albert’s training room, Arias and Albert were charging at each other relentlessly.
“Flaming Thunder Fury.”
From Arias’ hand, a bolt of lightning more than a foot long was shot out. The bolt looked like a flame of furious lightning that rose from Arias’ palm.
“Earth Shield.”
The Earth Magic appeared in the middle of the air in front of Albert. The earth created by the earth magic took the form of a dark brown shield about two meters in size. This was a mid-level skill, and its defensive ability was quite strong.
BOOM!
Lightning met the Earth Shield in a violent crash. Pieces of earth scattered all over the place, but that could not destroy the shield, it only left it with some cracks. Arias’ and Albert’s power levels were still too far apart, so Arias was unable to destroy the Earth Shield. Still, having the ability to cause some damage already meant that Arias was stronger than other mages of the same level.
“You’ve improved a lot, Arias.”
Albert let his Earth Shield vanish before complimenting Arias on his performance. It did not take him long to become an acolyte and his abilities had already improved significantly as well. If they were on the same level, even Albert himself might not be able to defeat Arias.
From Albert’s perspective, Arias was a true genius. He had a gift for power nurturing, as well as a gift for combat. Albert could not imagine what level Arias would be on now if he had begun his training when he was twelve, as other mages did. It was truly a shame that he’d only begun much later.
“It was thanks to your guidance, otherwise I wouldn’t have improved this much.”
Arias wiped the sweat off his face with a delighted smile.
“Was it not because of your mysterious master?”
Albert believed that a portion of Arias’ strength must have come from that master. The magical skills, as well as the flexible combat abilities, must have been passed down to him by his master named Tanos.
Arias could only smile wryly as an answer. How could he say that Tanos was actually him? Every time Albert mentioned this master, Arias often found himself not knowing how to answer. The only thing he could do was to give a wry smile like this as a response. Arias’ reaction only reinforced Albert’s impression that this master was such a mysterious person.
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