Legacy of the Dark Sage

SPLAT!

Styx slammed the two small translucent shields he summoned on one of the mantises before them, crushing its head into a mass of broken exoskeleton, brain matter, and mucous.

Addie also took care of the smaller mantises using her blade-like magic attack.

Without pausing, Styx lifted his hand and sucked their corpses into the space storage ring in his possession.

[Leader Styx, Addie, there are five hoppers around forty meters ahead. One is a jeweled one, so be careful.]

Hoppers were insect-type beasts that looked like giant grasshoppers. They were categorized as medium-sized beasts and similar to the wolverns. When one evolved, its size would double, and a crystal-like coat would appear on its wings. The coating glistened like diamonds as if they were an ornament that clung to their wings, thus the ‘jeweled’ name.

“Humph, I don’t need you telling me that,” Styx growled, but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he picked up his speed.

Addie followed Styx in silence. She had yet to understand the events that led to this setting.

Honestly, she still felt a little dissatisfied with having ‘him’ help them. It was not because she still considered his help cheating, but more with the fact that this event was supposed to have only five participants.

But with ‘him’ helping them, albeit remotely, wouldn’t this be considered six vs. five?

Ah, in the end, she still saw their action as cheating.

“Addie.”

Styx’s voice snapped Addie out of her thoughts.

“Yes, Leader?” She asked.

As a Mercenary Hall member, she looked up to Styx and saw him as the leader of the elite members. She was not addressing him as such because he was the leader of the Beast Hunt team.

“Stop dwelling on unnecessary things,” Styx told her. “I already told you guys that we have to win every event in this f*cking exercise. And that guy can help us make it happen.”

Similar to Addie’s sentiment, Styx, as the leader of the Mercenary Hall elite members, knew her character well. She was a High Master and had a bright future. However, her adverse to doing the right thing could be troublesome at times.

It was one of her strong points and, at the same time, a weakness.

Following his intuition, Styx believed in building a good relationship with the person instructing them right now. He felt there would be far more opportunities to work with ‘him’ in the near future.

The joint military exercise was only the beginning.

“Do you trust him, Leader?”

“He is someone from the Mercenary Hall.”

Addie frowned, and a slight pout appeared on her lips. That was not the answer she was expecting. Besides, she already recognized who ‘he’ was.

Just like Archel and Mitchel, she, too, found ‘his’ voice familiar. The only reason she failed to recognize it immediately was because of his sudden lack of ‘arrogance.’

That was right. She recognized that guy was Tyr. Yet, he did not sound like him at all.

She was not particularly close to him; to be honest; she hated the idea. But having seen him and even heard a lot of things about him lately, it was impossible to avoid or even not get used to him.

Especially his arrogance.

“How did you know he is the one instructing Neo, Leader?” Addie asked.

Styx snorted, “Didn’t you complain about Neo’s inhuman stamina? Luring beasts is a very exhausting task. Archel can barely lure the minimum number of beasts but after repeated luring, he is already nearing his limits.”

“Yes. The number of beasts he had lured toward the end has dropped to less than five.”

“Whether that is due to the beasts dropping in number can be considered a factor, but indeed it is also because Archel knows that is his limit at his current condition. Any more than that will drain his stamina further. Anyway, I also found Neo’s strange reaction at times weird as f*ck. When you questioned him about being human, something clicked in my head.

“I happen to come across Hall Master Celine’s incident report that night after the Lumley Family targeted the Blacksmith Order. In that report, it said that three ‘others’ assisted Disciple Tyr in protecting and applying first aid to the injured Blacksmith Order members. But there are three interesting fact about those three.”

Addie furrowed her brows, but then her eyes widened in realization after recalling Styx’s remark on how the three members from the Conclave appeared ‘now of all times.’

She might not be privy to the report Hall Master Celine submitted, but she had heard some things. She had friends in the Blacksmith Order, after all. As far as she remembered, the three ‘others’ that assisted Tyr at that time were…

“Wait you mean Neo is one of those three…?”

Styx sneered and looked at Addie. Her incredulous expression was enough to confirm that she knew exactly what he was on about.

“F*cking right. Neo is one of them  and  that guy’s handiwork.'”

Addie’s mind reeled. If this was true, ‘Tyr’s’ addition in their number was not cheating. Neo could be considered Tyr’s magic weapon… err… item?

“Let’s talk more later. Our prey is on sight.”

Addie looked ahead, and just like Styx had said, the hoppers Kyran told them appeared in her line of sight.

“Okay,” she agreed and spread her arms. A light yellow magic array appeared and circled her hands as wind magic energies gathered around her.

“I’m moving in.”

Styx did not respond. Instead, he stopped in his tracks and summoned a shield before Addie. It moved along with her protecting her from any possible frontal attack directed at her.

“Wind Dance!” She shouted and made throwing motions with her hands. A fierce wind swept toward the direction of the hoppers, slicing through every tree, small boulder, and even the ground in its way.

Two hoppers nearby failed to defend against the fierce wind, instantly slicing their wings and neck.

A greenish fluid gushed out from their bodies as they dropped to the floor.

SCREEEECH!

The jeweled hopper suddenly made loud grinding sounds with its hind legs that brushed through its glistening wings.

The two remaining hoppers with it did the same as they charged toward Addie.

Addie stopped in her tracks as dark golden silhouettes sped past her from behind.

“Humph,” Styx sneered as he watched these silhouettes release several brown crystal shards that rained on the hoppers.

The hoppers, including the jeweled one, let out a pitiful screech as the shards pierced their bodies.

In just five seconds, all three fell to the ground with their bodies riddled with holes. Their greenish blood spilled on the ground.

Addie and Styx lifted their right hands, and their storage rings lit up, sucking in the hoppers’ bodies.

[Three more hoppers coming from eleven o’clock and two centiers coming from four o’clock. Hoppers’ distance is twenty meters, and the centiers are at least fifty meters.]𝐍𝒪𝐯𝑒𝑙𝗇𝑒xt.𝑐𝑜𝔪

Centiers were beasts that looked like giant centipedes. They had blood red exoskeleton, a flaming antenna, and could grow up to five meters long.

“I’ll take care of the hoppers,” Addie told Styx.

“Hm,” Styx replied and turned around to wait for the centiers. “Are there more of these bugs left?”

His question was directed at Kyran, who replied almost in an instant.

[No. That’s the last of the insect-type beasts. You can go west and help eliminate the rest of the beasts there.]

“Alright,” Styx said. He clenched his fists and dashed toward the centiers’ direction.

Meanwhile, Archel and Mitchel had just finished dealing with a group of Vulbear.

Vulbear were bears that were larger than average forest bears. Their furs were the shade of dark violet, and their eyes appeared to be made of molten lava.

Mitchel collected the vulbears’ remains and looked at the golden brown orbs circling above them.

“These orbs doesn’t feel like summoned magic,” he remarked.

Archel smiled wryly at him and nodded in agreement, “It looks more like a magic weapon to me, to be honest.”

[Seniors.]

Their hearts almost jumped out of their mouths as soon as they heard ‘him’ speak in their heads.

“Oi! What gives?”

“What the hell? Are you trying to give us a heart attack?”

[…]

Mitchel was the first to recover. After clearing his throat, he asked, “Where to next, Disciple Tyr?”

He and Archel already guessed who the voice belonged to. And to be honest, they were feeling mixed emotions.

[Sixty meters ahead is a cave. There are seven whurtigers outside, and a sabelking is lurking inside.]

“Argh, those are all large-sized beasts,” Archel complained.

Both beasts Kyran mentioned looked like a tiger except with white, red, and black furs. The whurtigers had a dark blue stone embedded on their foreheads, while the sabelking had a dark violet horn right between its eyes.

[Move ten meters to your left first and wait. Leader Styx and Addie will be on their way there in a while.]

“Alright,” both of them replied and left.

While Styx and the rest were busy moving around and killing off the beasts on the island, Neo was only two hundred meters away from the border of the array the Royal Army had set up.

[Continue to move forward. There are no beasts on sight.]

‘Yes, master.’

[I will allow you to use Stealth mode three if you can’t break the Royal Army’s array.]

‘Am I allowed to do that master? What if those crystal orbs hovering around the place sees me?’

[Don’t worry, I already took care of them.]

Neo suddenly made a sudden stop and surveyed his surroundings. Just as his master said, there were no crystal orbs nearby.

‘Er… what did you do exactly master? As far as I know you can only resort to instructing us because you can’t use your magic with the Magic Interference Array around the island.’

[It’s not that I can’t. I can use it, but facing the consequences is too troublesome. Besides, there are other ways to deal with those crystal orbs without physical contact.]

Neo’s eyes contracted as he came up with a possible answer.

‘I see. So master dealt with it from the outside. Did you per chance destroyed the source magic of those crystal orbs?’

[…]

‘Oh, but then, does it mean everyone outside are currently in a state of panic?’

[You sure have a wild imagination… I have to check your programming when you come out of there.]

‘Master, I am only acting by the sequence of instruction you have entered into my programming. These sequence included ‘active learning and observation’ and ‘real-time application.”

[…]

[Stop idling around and go.]

‘Ah, you’re right. I’m sorry, master,’ Neo apologized with a slightly goofy expression and continued on his way.

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