First Major Mission
Few days passed since I settled perfectly in the Black Bulls . Life was going fine ,I trained ,got delicious food everyday , did my part of cleaning and hung out with everyone . I received the room that I stayed the first day in the base years back .
I began my job as a magic knights after getting familiar with the system after a few days . My days began with patrolling different areas or catering to requests people put through . The next type of work was escort missions to different parts of the country . Some of these escort mission even took 4-5 days .So far I enjoyed the escort missions as I got to enjoy the scenery and interact with different people. The respect magic knights received in small villages were huge . I always had one of the Black Bulls member with me in mission so I didn't get bored . So far I had the best friendship with Luck and Magna . We constantly competed in many things while doing missions , of course in a level that it doesn't hamper the mission or cause extra damage . Sometimes I received some training from Yami after I pestered him a lot . Everyday I trained for at least 4 hours which included both physical , weapon and spell training .
I gave every Black Bull member some mana control exercise which sister taught me . The dinner was always fun with everyone telling something new .
A month after joining the Black Bulls I got my first investigation mission .
Yami : " Wizard king has assigned a mission , here are the details take Magna and Vanessa with you as others are busy .Communication device is with Magna in case of emergency .Good luck ! "
I took the mission details and called Vanessa from her room and Magna who was training in the forest .
In a small town of Common realm ,there were reports of people disappearing our job was to investigate the matter.
"We have to continuously fly for two days so pack some food " Magna said .
" So, you are going on that ? " I said by pointing at Magna's weird vehicle made of bones of mana beast he calls 'crazy cyclone ' .
Well , people have their preferences . Vanessa sat behind Magna because it was fun for her , I flew by using jet flames .
On the way we took breaks as they didn't have so much mana to spare like me . If we use mana points to compare , Magna had around 100 and Vanessa around 120 .
Although mana rotation with natural mana gave me almost endless mana ,I could only control around 220 mana points . Currently I have my mana core at dark yellow ,I estimate that when I break through Silver stage ,mana in my body should surpass Royals .
In the week in the base I spent a lot of time in the library and figured out something unusual . Library had some books that were mandatory for every squad to read .
Apparently some mages tried forming different organs within their bodies to store mana but always failed and in some cases their bodies exploded ,even experienced people failed . So this was declared a forbidden practice which had zero success rate .It was concluded that mana could only be stored externally . But I suffered no backlash and my mana core fells natural which again reminded me that my body was different from others .
From this I derived a hypothesis . First is that I could have suffered the same fate but system's intervention failed or it required some pre requirements . I always suspected it to be my blood line .
I never knew who my parents were so it may have to do something with it . I am pretty sure I am not an elf and William showed no interest in me. And the vision I received during getting my grimoire further intensifies my hypothesis . Either it was the memory of the previous grimoire wielder or someone implanted extra memories within me .
On the way we saw different sceneries and I enjoyed the trip overall. We landed near the village near the evening but as soon as we entered the village we clearly felt the environment changing . The perfectly fine houses from outside seemed damaged as we entered the village.
" Use a layer of mana to cover your face" I alerted . When we approached some of the villagers ,we figured that most of them were half dazed . We tried to ask different questions but all of them were giving around the same answer as if told to repeat the same .They had no change in expression even when asked about disappearing villagers .We gathered outside the village for conclusion
"What do you think happened "asked Magna. "People are being controlled" said Vanessa . Magna continued "people are repeating the same lines with no facial expression , there are many things involved together".
" There is strong illusion magic covering the village ,the mana signature I sensed around the villagers is less than the report we received , more over along with illusion magic the atmosphere is messing around with peoples minds who can't protect their senses that I why I said to cover your face with mana ." I said
"We should take action as soon as possible , or more people may disappear . This is a remote are no reinforcements can't be expected "said Vanessa
During midnight we re-entered the village and went towards the area with most mana fluctuations I received . We reached one corner of the village with a big house .
" This house is a complete illusion but different from the one the village is covered with . How do we break the illusion? "I asked as brute forcing through was not always an option . Magna answered while checking the corners of house" As captain once mentioned before most of barrier based illusion magic originates from a point the magic is casted. The mage loses contact with the spell after casting . If we overwhelm that point, the illusion will break .Now get to work and start finding that point . But if the mage is experienced we will give away our positions . My mana is not suitable for it Julian will break it" .
It took about fifteen minutes to search every corner around the house and I finally found the spot behind the house and broke it by overpowering with my mana. The illusion broke and what was revealed was big hole with staircase reaching the bottom. We entered the staircase making as less noise as possible.
While we broke the illusion ,In the underground , various villagers were standing eyes closed in a line with their mana and vitality being absorbed by some large tubes .Around 20- people with weird dress with three eyes symbol behind their back and covering their faces were standing around the large tubes while a woman with one eye covered was sitting on a large chair. She put down a device and said " Get rid of the useless ones and bring the new batch ,we have to cover the entire village by tomorrow, We can't fail our first mission given by lord." . While she was giving other instruction one of the grunts panicked and said." Boss someone broke the illusion ,someone is here" .
She shouted angrily " Huh ! You incompetent fool ,you can't even caste proper illusions! .Men prepare for battle we have intruders "
Meanwhile we were on the way said many traps .These were low level alarm traps so we managed to dodge them perfectly. While traveling we sensed movements in our direction so we realized that they had found about us. When we reached the end of the base entrance we were greeted with a lot of spells , I instinctively used 'blazing shield' to block the attacks meanwhile Magna used took out his baseball bat of fire and shot at them while Vanessa used strings to bind them from moving.
"I sense many mana signatures in the chamber ahead . I suggest I and you two form two different teams and take them out " I suggested
"SURE!" -Magna
"Be careful " - Vanessa
We set out in two ways , I shot towards the direction with the largest mana signature .Two mages attacked me on the way . I took out my dagger and mage a slash toward their legs cutting of their tendons and making them fall. I quickly stabbed them from behind purposely missing their vital organs. While fighting I clearly recognized the dress they were wearing ,it belonged to 'eye of the midnight sun ' .
But when I was going to slash the woman with the largest mana signature I suddenly found myself in a dark place without sound or vision .I realized that my hearing and vision were blocked but I didn't lose my vigilance ,I still had my KI to react to attacks .
Soon after I heard a voice all around me with a teasing tone ," Ara Ara !,what do we have here ,a handsome magic knight with so much mana , sigh I could have played with you but I am short on time you see , you shouldn't have interfered in our work without knowing anything boy, don't blame me for consequences of your actions".