Chapter 868: Setting Off To the Beast Land.
Chapter 868: Setting Off To the Beast Land.
Luminous looked at Arad’s stats{You’ll find them in an auxiliary chapter at the start of the book. I didn’t want to add them here as they are too long and would increase both the size and price of the chapter.} and scratched her head… “Level 144, but you’re still a Juvenile, with this much power?” she gasped.
“Am I really that strong?” Arad tilted his head and she nodded, “Extremely strong for your age. I would say it’s strange how much power you hold. But still, most of it seems to be left out of the system as expected.”
“Is that normal?” Betty asked.
“Yeah.” Luminous smiled, “The system is created by Aria, the archangel to give the weak a fighting chance against the horrors of this world. It’s not designed to give more power to already strong creatures. Arad here is amassing power in his own outside of the system, which is a good thing.”
“He won’t have to worry about people finding his abilities or getting compromised with other abilities.” Betty waved her hand and created a magic circle, hitting Arad with it. “No effect, so this is what you meant before.”
“That was light magic.” Arad looked at his arm, he was unharmed.
“System immunity and natural immunity are two different things. System immunity can be compromised with other system abilities, but natural immunity cannot. Natural immunity also won’t show on the system, no one is going to tell you that humans are immune to low wind pressure. But a breeze won’t hurt you.” She tried to explain it. “Your dark void absorbs light, giving you a weak immunity to light, to an upper threshold.” She hit him with a small beam, and gave a small burn, “Me and grandma can easily surpass that threshold.”
“Now that I’ve seen your stats I’m satisfied. It might be a bit early, but you’re already breaking from the shackles of the system. Carve your own path, or die trying, void kid.” She disappeared in a flash.
“What was that about?” Arad sighed, “After bringing me all the way here to see my stats.”
“Even I don’t understand what my grandma is thinking about. All I know is that she knows what she’s doing.” Betty shook her head, “And…she can make us those.” She pointed at two massive mirrors that she had resting on the wall.
“Teleportation gates…” Arad blinked twice, “Wait…those are for us?”
“Yeah, she made them so the trip to the beast kingdom won’t take long. You’ll get there in a single day.” Betty scratched her head, “I wanted to teleport you straight to Matilda’s village… but that was in the territory of the eternal beast queen Hati. She’ll rip us apart if we do that.” “The beast queen… I’ve seen her before. She seemed like a sly fox to me.” Arad sat on one of the chairs and put one leg on another, “I could feel a strange power coming from her, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.”
“She’s an eternal creature.” Betty replied with a serious face.
“What’s the difference between eternal and immortal?” Arad asked, “I know that immortality has two types, age immortality and true immortality where you can’t die or be killed.”
“She is eternal, she will never age or get killed. Her mana will never run out, her health won’t deteriorate, her rule over the beast kingdom will never fall, and the wild nature of her domain will remain undisturbed, her existence itself is what preserves the forests of the beast kingdom. She’ll always be there until the end of time, she’s an indestructible existence by all the meaning of the word.” Betty waved her hand, “Imagine her like the world itself, or time, or space, those things always existed, and will always be.”
“How strong is she?” Arad asked.
“Since becoming a god would prevent her from being the eternal queen of the beast kingdom, she’s staying mortal. But, Maharaja, the divine goddess of the hunt has said something about Hati.” Betty glared at Arad, “She is my silver sister, we stood claw to claw, fang to fang, and one life to another. One pride, one honor, and one hunting pack.”
“And that means…”
“Maharaja says that Hati is as strong as her and that she’ll come down to fight by her side if got in any battle. When she said silver sister, she didn’t mean a real sister, they both got married to the same person, and that’s why she mentions one pride.” Betty explained, “Be careful of her, there isn’t a single person in this world who dares to offend her.”
Arad stood, “Understood… I’ve got my fair share of fighting gods.” Arad knew firsthand how annoying and painful it was to fight against a lesser god, and now just imagining how long a fight against Maharaja would be, he doesn’t want any part of that.
“By the way…Isdis said she’ll bring some people with her.” Betty said as she saw Arad leaving the office, “Who?”
“Tina and Serina are coming, Ignis as well. Isdis said that Serina had started walking so she’s bringing them with her on a vacation.” Betty smiled, “I asked for security, and she simply. Arad will be there so there won’t be any problems.”
“Really?!” Arad said with a large smile, “Since when did she start walking?”
“Two days ago, wait, this is the part you’re worried about? How about protecting them?” Betty giggled.
“As long as I’m there it’s okay. I bet she brought Ignis to protect Serina and play with her.” He smiled, “Thank you for telling me, I’m looking forward to seeing them.” He walked out.
Betty smiled, “I wish I could go with you…but…” She pulled her drawer, there was a massive pile of papers. “Work piled up…”
****
Several hours later all the students had gathered, Arad was standing on the side with his bag alongside Mira, Matilda, and Selina.
“Look, it’s their princess’s carriage.” One of the students gasped, waving his hand. The royal caravan stopped and Isdis looked at them, waving her hand with a smile at the student who
waved at her first.
“She looked at me!” He cried.
As Arad looked closer at Isdis, he noticed the weird smile on her face. “This bastard.” He giggled. That was Abel, not Isdis. While his shop is working on its own, he seems to be making a lot of money as a body double for Isdis.
Lucia sighed and walked forth with an exhausted face, she had plans for this night and tomorrow, but this sudden trip trashed all of that. She waved her hand, “You’ll be using the carriages provided by Her Highness due to their durability and magic defenses, they were reinforced by archmage Merlin herself, be careful not to damage them.” She handed the students papers with numbers.
“Ride in the carriages holding your numbers and don’t get out unless told to. It’s one of Merlin’s magic restrictions so don’t break it, it’s for your safety.” She waved her hands and the students started getting into their carriages.
Arad, Mira, Matilda, and Selina all had the same number, 7.
Matilda looked at her paper, “Mira is Aron’s wife so I understand why she’s with him, but why
us too?”
“Each carriage holds four people.” Selina pointed at the other students. “It’s probably just for that reason.”
Matilda sighed, “I’m not a fan…you didn’t protect me…” She looked at Arad.
“Oh…but he’s my husband, not yours.” Mira hugged his arm, “He’ll protect me, not you.”
“That isn’t my problem! He was protecting me at first, what I didn’t like was him selling me in a heartbeat.” She growled.
“Since that was your father.” Mira replied to her with a smile as they got into the carriage.
“Wait…” Matilda gasped as noticed the carriage was far larger on the inside than it looked from the outside. At a glance, it was clear from the outside that the carriage could mostly fit four people inside, but now it’s as large as a room. It was even furnished like a guest room. “Where are we?” Matilda looked at Selina with a confused face.
“This is…spatial magic? Why waste such a thing on students?” She looked around with a worried face.
“Waste?” Merlin approached them with a smile on her face. “I don’t waste magic.” The moment Matilda and Selina saw her they jumped back, “The archmage Merlin…” They didn’t
believe the real thing was standing before them.
A little girl looked from behind Merlin’s robe and saw Arad… “D…a…d!” she gasped and rushed toward him, tip-tapping as she almost tripped twice.
“Serin…” Arad grabbed and lifted her up with a large smile on his face, “You’ve grown so
much… look at you running around.”
Serin giggled, waving her hands, “Dad…dad…”
“Wait… you’ve got a daughter?!” Matilda and Selina gasped as they looked at Arad.
Tina approached from the back, “Not exactly, she’s my daughter. I’m his maid. You can say he
adopted her.”
As the two were still confused, Isdis approached from the back. “This carriage is the only one that got enlarged,” The moment the two saw her, they kneeled immediately.
“I hired sir Aron as my personal guard, that’s why he’s here.” She smiled… “To avoid suspicion, you two ended up here as well, so I want to hire you as guards as well.” Matilda and Selina couldn’t even speak, they looked at Isdis with confused faces. “Aron is
your personal guard, and your Highness want to hire us as well?” Matilda mumbled, and Selina couldn’t even speak properly.
“Yes. I’m certain sir Aron would do most of the heavy lifting so you two can relax through the trip.” She looked back, “Are you two afraid of monsters?”
Matilda blinked twice, “No, I’ll fight them any time.”
“Well, don’t fight this one. She’s one of Aron’s friends and lives with him,” A red wyrmling
came from the back, “She’s called Ignis, a red wyrmling. Aron has been taking care of her for a
while and she’s now living in his home, I brought her as she’ll be a good guard.”
Ignis rushed to Arad like an excited puppy, “Father, it’s been a while.” Only Arad could understand Ignis’s words.
“He giggled, father? When did you start calling me that?” He replied in draconic.
“Serin calls you the same…you’re raising me, so I should call you father…Merlin said so…”
Ignis replied with a large smile on her face.
Arad glared at Merlin, “What are you teaching her?”
“She’s in the same basket as Serin, isn’t she? Let her be.” Merlin waved her hand, “I wanted to
bring Yuwaku as well, but she’ll be a problem.”
“I know…” Arad shook his head, “I’ll meet her when I get back home.” He lifted Ignis as he
did Serin, “You didn’t grow that much, did your hoard grow any bigger?” While it looked normal to him, Matilda and Selina couldn’t believe their eyes seeing him lift such a massive and heavy monster like it was nothing.
“D…a…d” Serin pulled on Arad’s pants. He looked at her, “Want me to carry you as well?” He
smiled, lifting Ignis with a single hand and lifting Serin with the other, sending Matilda and Selina into an even bigger shock, he wasn’t even sweating.
“Wait…that’s a prideful red wyrmling…” Selina finally started getting back to her senses, “He shouldn’t be able to tame it…”
“Wait… you’re right.” Matilda gasped.
“He didn’t tame her, saved her, and gave her a place to live in. She’s living with him, not being tamed like an animal.” Merlin replied with a smile as she walked to the couch and sat down. “You can rest and relax. The trip would take around a day.”
As everyone sat down, Matilda and Selina couldn’t stop looking at Arad playing horse with
Serin. She rode on his back as he wrestled Ignis on the floor. It looked like two massive dogs fighting with a child riding one of them.
Matilda was about to ask Arad why is he fooling around but then remembered how he beat her
father while having her sit on his lap. That man is a monster, even while acting like that, he’s still probably keeping watch.
“Aron is strong.” Isdis said as she sat facing them, “I’ve seen him fight several times and I was surprised each time. I believe he might be one of the best fighters in the kingdom.” Selina looked down with a thinking face, “And since he isn’t known…he’ll be cheaper to hire than someone like the dragon slayer Alcott.”
“Exactly.” Isdis looked at Arad, “He’s also one of the rare few that still hold value for things other than money.”
“He’s a dad… I couldn’t have imagined that in a million years.” Matilda sighed, “That’s probably why…” She looked at Arad. ^If he’s a father, that might be the reason why he left me
for my father.?
Selina looked at Mira as she saw her talking with Tina. “Do you mind if I asked something?” “Yeah.” Mira smiled.
“How does it…you two work…” She looked between her and Tina.
“Ah, me.” Tina smiled, “I’m only his maid. He picked me up when I was in need. My daughter
considers him her father, but we aren’t in any kind of relationship.” She shook her head. “I won’t mind being in a one though.”
Mira poked her with a smile, “That isn’t for us two to decide on our own. The others would kill
us.” She giggled.
“Please don’t worry, I’ll not cause you any trouble, Lady Mira.” Tina replied with a smile. Isdis approached them almost immediately, “Don’t leave me out of the conversation.” While those talked about several personal things…Matilda was sitting with Merlin watching
Arad play with Ignis and Serin.
“It doesn’t make sense, I can’t see him as Aron anymore.” Matilda said with a passive face,
“He always looked large and intimidating, but now he’s rolling on the ground with a kid like a
massive cat.”
“Aron is pretty gentle, he might be a fierce fighter, but he’s mostly a docile man while with
his family.” Merlin replied.
Two hours later…A scream came from the outside as Arad was still playing with Serin and
Ignis.
Merlin stood, “This is a problem…it’s an adult blue dragon.” She growled.
Arad lifted Serin and put her on the ground, “I’ll deal with him.” She walked toward the door.
The blue dragon was roaring and laughing. Those carriages looked expensive and he was
certain they’d bring riches into his hoard. Zara was ready to fight to the death to protect his daughter who was in the carriages.
But at that moment, Arad’s carriage door opened and he slowly appeared. The moment his foot hit the ground, the blue dragon could see an endless wave of darkness exploding out. Terrified to the bones, the dragon immediately flew away as fast as he could.
^Shit! Shit! Shit! What was that monster…why didn’t I feel him.^ “I’ll let you off with this.” Arad was already sitting on his neck.