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nAfter having sorted her people the leader turned towards Eldrian,

"Who are you?

" She asked aggressively.

n

"Me?

" Eldrian asked in confusion, finding her tone to be strange. He did not understand why she was being aggressive.

n

"Yes, you, who else do you think I am talking to?

" She asked, pointing to all the others who were already moving.

n

"I am Haru.

" Eldrian answered shortly as he too stood up and also started walking, already having had enough of her attitude.

n

"Hey! I am not done with you!

"

n

"The hell is wrong with you?

" Eldrian shouted back as he turned to face her.

n

"What?

"

n

"If not for me you would have been killed. Yet you are giving me the third degree.

" Eldrian said, turning his back towards her again and leaving.

nStunned the lady stood still for a few seconds before rushing back towards Eldrian.

"Don't think you can ignore me. What reason do you have for coming here?

" She pushed her agenda onto Eldrian again, trying to get answers for god knows why. This only made Eldrian even angrier at her.

n

"A delivery.

" He answered vexed, leaving her irked.

n

"What delivery?

"

n

"None of your business.

" After which Eldrian simply ignored her. He had no reason to answer her questions, especially with how she was acting. At least he knew of no reason he needed to report to her. He was now only following her party since he did not want to get caught alone.

nHe was in fact in the best condition among everyone. Especially with how he could top himself up with rejuvenation spells when he needed them. If worse came to worse he would leave them for dead as he rushed on.

nAfter demanding an answer a few more times and getting no new info the leader became exasperated. In the end she gave up while swearing to herself to make it difficult for Eldrian.

nEldrian followed the group from a distance of around 10 meters, which should give him enough time to react if something happened. Unless something happened to him and he missed it, but he felt that was unlikely. He was keeping a lookout around him every few seconds.

nEveryone in the group in front of him was in a bad condition. The priest was clearly too tired to cast any more spells as he was limping along with the help from the archers, who were the least injured. The melee soldiers were still trying to stop their wounds from bleeding as they threaded on.

nAround an hour later they reached the border camp. Eldrian having enjoyed the comfortable walk as he simply continued to practice casting Anthizo. By now he was comfortable enough with it to even try and play around with the mana flow. Most of the time it simply caused his spell to fail, giving him a mild headache for a few seconds.

nEven so Eldrian continued to experiment, hoping to find the reason for mana flow in the spell.

nCamp was a loose term for what was in front of them. The border camp was supposed to be a supply line resting point, to serve as a safety point among the journey as well as a fallback point if it ever came to it.

nAs such the camp was not a simple camp, rather a large castle had been built. Compared to this world's cities it was small, but to Eldrian it was massive.

nThe castle was made mostly out of wood, which was likely to be changed with time. Currently, it had been made from wood gathered while deforesting the surrounding area. A moat was also dug around the walls and water fed in from the river. There was a dock on the side Eldrain was coming from, the moat having been made wider to accommodate it.

nEldrian was amazed that this had all been done in about two days of work. Making him realize that magic could really help in construction. Which also made him wonder why they did not make more such forts everywhere.

nCost was the only thing Eldrian could think of, more specifically maintenance cost.

nAs they entered the deforested region, which spanned a few kilometers around the castle, a group of soldiers rushed from the castle. Due to the distance Eldrian was from the group he could overhear their questions, especially as he passed them on his way to the castle.

n

"What happened? The Chosen just respawned and said that you had entered the Arkbeast's region.

"

n

"Not us, it was them.

" The leader replied as she glared at the two surviving Chosen.

"They almost cost us our lives, we only barely made it out.

"

nHearing her say that Eldrian expected her to bring him up next, but instead, she simply ignored his contribution and tried to claim the glory for herself and her squad.

nWell, she isn't nice. Eldrian complained internally, he felt there was no reason for him to fight her for his credit. He would claim it at the adventurers guild if there was one inside this castle. Else he would simply forget about it. At most it would give him a few silver, he did not think the confrontation would be worth it.

nAs he passed the group one of the soldiers split from the group and stopped Eldrian.

n

"Who are you, what are you here for?

"

n

"I am Haru and I am here for a delivery quest,

" Eldrian replied as he tried to circumvent the soldier. But this soldier made sure to keep him busy until the group he had saved had entered the castle.

nFinally, free Eldian continued on towards the castle.

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"Who are you? For what have you come?

" One of the guards questioned him again. Eldrian was becoming tired of everyone asking him this. The guard was wearing mail armor with a greatsword slung over his shoulder. Most of the guards had similar armor, only with their weapons differing.

n

"I am Haru and I am here for a delivery quest,

" Eldrian answered patiently.

n

"Delivery? What delivery?

"

n

"A sword for Vivian.

"

n

"Which Vivian?

"

n

"Umm, I don't know her last name. Old Sword's daughter.

" Eldrian stuttered a bit, caught off guard that he did not know her last name.

nHearing this the guard looked at Eldrian in surprise.

"Proof?

"

nTo this Eldrian looked at the guard in confusion.

"What proof?

"

n

"You can't say you are delivering something to a Captain and not have proof.

"

nCaptain? And what **ing proof? Eldrian wanted to ask when she became a captain, but more he wanted to ask why he needed to prove himself. Taking a deep calming breath he instead said,

"I'd rather not show it to you. Can I speak to a captain?

"

n

"No proof, no entrance.

"

nSighing Eldrian left the gate and walked back to the forest, where he found himself a comfortable tree to lean against as he observed the gate. Seeing all the people entering and leaving without being questioned he quickly connected that that lady leader was trying to make things difficult for him.

nWhy? He wondered, but could not find an answer. By all rights he should be pissed at her, not she at him. He was starting to regret not having fought for his recognition, but it was too late now.

nAfter stewing with this for a while Eldrian discarded these thoughts as he started practicing magic. Luckily being outside or inside the castle did not affect himself much. He could always try to join the mission a bit later.

nWhile practicing to cast Observe and Inspect Eldrian started a fire and slowly roasted himself some more Alpha meat.

nSlowly he mastered the flow of mana needed in the spell modules. After having enjoyed his lunch and a few more hours of work later, he finally managed to cast Inspect. The only reason he knew it had cast successfully was the mana cost he saw.

nWanting to see how Inspect worked he took out the sword he needed to give to Vivian. It was the only item he had which he could not simply equip to see its stats and he was curious what a Tier 7 item's stats would be.

nCasting Inspect again Eldrian got a short description of the sword, most of the information not showing.

nNelida's Flame

nGrade: Magic, Tier 7

nDamage – ?

nAttack speed – ?

nReach – 1.4 meter

nDurability – ???

nAttribute requirements:

nStrength – ?; Agility – ?; Intelligence– ?; Spirit- ?

nWeight – 1.28kg

n???

nAlright then. Eldrian thought as he saw most of the information being returned as question marks. The only thing he really achieved was determining its physical attributes such as length and weight. As well as Tier and name.

nI guess that is better than nothing. Eldrian mumbled to himself as he put the sword back into his inventory. Knowing that it is likely due to having only used a Tier 1 Inspect. This though was not a good feeling as Eldrian learned he would need to learn all the Tiers to be able to inspect all items.

nEldrian was still failing in using Observe, mostly due to it being a skill and not a spell. Eldrian was not sure what the difference was and he now knew this was keeping him from using it correctly.

nAfter trying a few more times he gave up and moved on to learning the ice needle spell he had bought. He had a feeling he could not use Floga against that one beast due to its magic armor being too high.

nAccording to the system Floga would only deal 0.5 Fire damage. Eldrian was still not sure how damage worked, he knew from experience and reading the forum that armor would decrease it. But a direct comparison had yet to be made.

nHe had a feeling that if something's armor was more than damage, then there would be none. He just did not know how that was determined. Since for weapons he got two damage readings. The raw weapon damage and what he would deal with it.

nEldrian spent the rest of the night learning Velona Pa, the ice needle spell.

nThis spell did not have too difficult a mana flow. Having 9 nodes and 12 pathways, with the mana ultimately flowing towards the pointed edge it all formed.

nAs Eldrian logged off for the night he still had not managed to fully learn the spell.

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