Chapter 61 | Avenge

The sun had dipped below the horizon, leaving behind violet and three moons in its stead. It had been several hours since Theo had separated from the others and returned to the outpost. He was now readying the trap fully.

“Spread out the scout wings, don’t let anyone come near this place,” he ordered. The air seemed heavy in the outpost. The people left behind were a mix of abnormal mercenaries and trusted knights.

“Your will be done, Sir Mage!” A knight captain slammed his gauntlet onto his chest before running off to deliver the orders. The mercenary gave the armored knight a weird look before smiling wryly.

“I will deliver the orders,” he nodded and left in a similar manner. The only two people left in the room were Theo and Ronald, who was that secret bastard child of some noble. He stood to Theo’s right and looked around cautiously.

Theo, on the other hand, was sitting cross-legged in front of the bunker they had built. His hands were against the ground, seemingly doing nothing in particular.

“Umm, can I ask what you are doing?”

“Nope.”

“O-Okay.”

Theo didn’t want to share the details of the plan more than necessary. Although he trusted Tatsuya and his men to a degree, that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t extract that information from them. What if someone kidnapped this Ronald guy and tortured out of him the plan?

“You know, there is this one guy I know of in the capital. He makes really good food.”

“He’s a cook?” Theo asked. He wasn’t doing anything particularly mentally taxing, so it was fine to chit-chat.

“No, he’s an inn-master. And let me tell you, he has this weird… Strength to him. I bet he is a warrior.”

“Oh. I see,” Theo nodded.

“I want to visit Vandreth soon. Do you and your friends think of going there?”

“Hmm…” Theo didn’t answer. He wasn’t actually sure what they would be doing after the Bandittide ended. They would probably pay a little visit back to the village and check how the construction of the house was going.

Depending on the situation, Theo would either leave Satou and Long Tian there, part his way with Emma, and go his own way. In fact, paying a visit to the Gray Tower seemed like a good decision. Or he would set out on another adventure with them.

“We’ll see,” Theo simply said.

The fire stone in his mind palace constantly churned out mana as he replenished it at the same time with meditation. By now, the underground of the little bunker was already filled with five times his pool’s worth of fire mana. The more he unleashed, the more the fire mana was pushed into the earth and spread, becoming more and more volatile as it got denser.

Though, he couldn’t feel like it would be enough no matter how much he released…

The trees shook as a figure blurred past the forest. Arthorias was covered in his gold-colored plate armor adorned in insignias and carvings, a crimson plume attached to the top of his helmet, fluttering in the wind.

The armor was forged by the royal blacksmiths and enchanted by the court mages years ago. It had been made for his father but fit Arthorias perfectly. Anything less wouldn’t hold when worn by a master-rate warrior.

His father was a peak first-rate and had died an early death in war. Surprisingly, his son had managed to pick up the mantle of the Lion of Vandreth and bring it up a notch.

Taking a deep breath, Arthorias tapped into his Seed of Mastery and released his aura. The concept his aura had touched upon was the concept of light. It was a concept that had the sub-concept of speed and lightness. Once he coursed the aura through his body and tapped it into the enchantment circuitry of his armor, his speed started ramping up.

Hundreds of miniature magic formations appeared on the surface of his armor, taking in his aura and converting it to further speed.

As his speed kept ramping up, a shockwave exploded and spread out from him, obliterating some of the nearby trees.

Like this, he would arrive in less than two hours.

It should be easy to deal with the alchemist. But The Eviscerator…

Arthorias had been dispatched to the frontlines for two reasons.

First and the most obvious one was to battle the enemy Master-rate warrior and take him down, or at least incapacitate him. Master-rate warriors were incredibly strong and could only be taken out with massive, concentrated firepower. There was no way for their forces to take one down on their own.

The second reason was a bit more peculiar. There had been circulating some peculiar potions in the Southern Lands recently. Normally, they wouldn’t raise questions. They were high-quality, sure, but nothing unseen before. The problem was the sheer amount of the potion.

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High-quality potions were always in demand and would only be sold in minuscule amounts. Even a barrel of such a potion would be hard to come by, but several of those barrels were being tossed around like it was nothing.

The King had ordered him to find the alchemist making these potions and recruit him no matter what. The King didn’t believe in slavery or forced labor. He was an advocate of something called workers’ rights, a foreign but noble concept. The King was sure that the benefits they had for the alchemist would be enough to pull him to their side.

Although Arthorias wasn’t so sure, he was the King’s right hand. Whatever he ordered, he would accomplish.

Slowing down slightly to gather his breath, Arthorias replenished his energy on the go and sped up again, causing another shockwave.

“The Eviscerator… I will take my revenge…”

Satou and the rest of the team were deathballing through the forest. The sun was already down, and The Eviscerator’s signature had not moved from its spot. Not even an inch.

The bandit casualties had been piling up. Then again, there seemed to be no end to their numbers. Thus the Bandit ”tide”. He had long known the South had been a cesspit of lawless people, but had never expected it to be this bad.