23 23.
The carriage ran through the forest silently moving towards Lightwell city. According to the information Blacaw had left on the map, it was ruled by a minor Battle God.
The Flame winged horse already knew the entire route, so there was no need for Alex to steer it, but the insides of the carriage were grimly silent and cold. He was sitting outside just for the sake of fresh air and to escape the gloomy atmosphere.
He read another paper that was attached to the map.
Lightwell City.
Ruled by Lord Avelan.
Third nearest city to the village and also host to one of the regional branches of the United Adventurers Association.
.....
...
.....
This paper was full of details about the city, people and the gods who lived in the city.
Alex had a flash of an idea.
Although the system dungeons were very helpful in leveling up and material gathering and he had an [portable weapons store port] on his hands, he had no choice but to place it in this very carriage for now. But this generated another problem. If he were alone, he could always enter his system dungeons at any time. But now, he had Sheri and Lucas with him. So, he could not visit the system dungeons all the time.
So, the only other alternative was to go to the dungeons registered under the adventurer association. Though getting a license that was valid everywhere he went was a bit difficult, there were many people who chose to be traveling adventurers due to various reasons. With that as a foundation, a rough idea about what he would do after arriving at the city was formulated in Alex's head.
Alex opened his system interface. Whenever he was feeling bored and had nothing to do, he would either open his system interface to spend some time or open the weapons store to browse through different weapons, but he hadn't claimed the [ portable weapons store port] yet, so he couldn't browse through the weapons store.
[Name : Alex Vermillion ]
[Race : Human]
[Level : 25]
[Mana core : white (82)]
[Stats]
[Strength: 221]
[Agility: 226]
[Endurance : 193]
[Intelligence: 214]
[Perception: 120]
[Charisma: 215(165)]
[MP : 2880]
[HP : 1410]
[exp : 1,088,780]
[Skill points: 9]
Alex also had two skill upgrade cards, one blueprint upgrade card and one skill learning card. When he first got a skill learning card, he thought that it was the same as skill points, but after the system reached Level 1, he found out that skill learning cards could be used to buy any skill regardless of costs. It was a pity though that only spells and skills upto Level 2 were unlocked in his store for now.
Although his fire stream was Level 3, it was originally a Level 1 spell that had been improved by the system to generate the same power as that of a level 3 spell.
Alex decided to save all his skill learning cards for the future. Unless he was in urgent need of any specific skill, he would only use it to buy Level 7 and above spells and skills.
After fighting the Rock Armadillos, Alex realized that he didn't have any defensive spells or skills, so he used his skill points to learn a defensive skill.
[Skill name : Mana barrier (level 2).]
[ Description : Mana from the surroundings is gathered to form a solid barrier over a small part of the body which can protect from physical and magic related attacks.]
[Mana usage : 15 MP/layer]
[Cost : 2 skill points]
Alex had already gotten used to the pain after learning spells, but the pain after learning a skill was only worse. He had held back on learning skills initially because he wanted to only learn skills that were specific to his class after reaching tier 1, but who would've guessed that his mana circuit never changed and he was left without any class.
Unlike spells, skills didn't need casting time or incantation. Skills were generated by a specific direction and speed of mana flow in the body and so were highly class specific because for normal people, only the speed of mana flow could be regulated to some extent, not the direction. This being the case, one could only use the skills that were in harmony with the mana flow of their body.
This was the only advantage that Alex had over others.
Unlike other mages, he wasn't affiliated to any elements and unlike others, he could easily regulate both the speed and direction of the mana flow in his body.
But the disadvantage was also very clear. His attacks were a bit weaker when compared to those with affiliation to the respective elements and also, he required more mana to cast those attacks.
Alex took out the bracelet which acted as a World energy container until yesterday and put it in his palm.
He could see that the effects of the [Blessing of the World] could not be stacked, so he decided to hand it back to Sheri once she regained a bit of her composure.
After exhausting all other sources of passing time, the only thing that he could do now was to read the [Basic Inscriptions book].
He had tried his hand at Inscriptions once, but the absence of mana was as big a deterrent as ever back then, but it also helped Alex realize how difficult making Inscriptions was.
It required absolute concentration, accurate mixing of monster blood with mana, accurate magic symbols, etc among many others. It was nothing short of requiring perfection from the inscriber in every way.
Also, remembering the various symbols which stimulated the mana to perform basic tasks was also a pain in itself.
Alex opened the book and began reading it.
The first page dealt with the introduction to inscriptions and their uses. A basic inscription consisted of four parts.
First was the mana gathering part. It was a part of the drawn inscriptions which used the symbols to absorb the mana from air or other sources.
Second was the mana core. A mana core decided what functions the inscription was used for. The mana core took in mana from the air and converted it to the mana of the creature which the core belonged to.
Third was the drawn part which was used for projection, mostly in the shape of magic circles which used the processed mana for casting the inscriptions.
Fourth part was mana veins which connected both the mana gathering and the output parts to the core. It was the same as mana circuits in the body.
For example, in the basic Mana sword that Alex used, the goblin core was used to add physical enhancements to the swords because that was how the goblin core naturally functioned. If he had used wind wolf core, the sword would also have gained an affinity to air type spells and enhanced their power.
After three days, an expensive looking carriage drawn by a Flame winged horse reached the city gates of Lightwell city. Alex could already see many people lined up at the gates waiting for identification before entering the city.
By their appearance, Alex could tell that they were most likely people from other villages located in the forest, and the departing carriage with the flag of Xidryg's entourage served to deepen his belief. They had seen some other villages in the forest on their way, but all of them were empty.
Alex slowly drove his carriage to the city gates.
"Hey you! the one driving the carriage. Come here." A brawny man wearing a different uniform from the soldiers around him called Alex.
Alex's back immediately straightened. He wanted to avoid coming in the spotlight at this place because it may lead people to find out that he didn't have an imprint given by Gods.
He slowly walked to where the man was while maintaining a worry free expression.
" Kid, do you really think that you can enter the city of Lord God Avelan while hiding the fact that you don't have any imprint? Hahaha...what? Do you take us for fools?" The man's tone was getting colder by every word.
This kid thought that he could bypass the city defense and enter under his, an illustrious Apostle of a Battle God's nose. This was a clear challenge to his capabilities. He wouldn't let this kid inside without first teaching him a lesson.
The Apostle immediately took out something from his clothes. Seeing this, Alex immediately wanted to retreat, but the tier 7 Apostle's pressure descended on him and he froze in his place.
From inside the carriage, Sheri immediately charged out towards the Apostle despite the crushing pressure, but before she could even reach near him, another tier 7 Apostle appeared before her and stopped her.
Sheri couldn't even raise her hand before the man released his pressure. Just like Alex, she also froze under the pressure.
"Another one without an imprint. You'll be the next." the Apostle in front of Alex said as he looked at Sheri.
A seal-like object was placed on Alex's forehead and the apostle began laughing hysterically as he expected Alex to scream under the effects of forceful imprinting. This was what the kid deserved for trying to trick an Apostle.
After waiting for two seconds, the Apostle was a bit shocked. There were no screams like he had expected. He was sure that he was pressing the seal on Alex's forehead, but for some reason, the seal was not working.
He pulled the seal back to check it, but there wasn't anything wrong with it. He wanted to press it against Alex's forehead once again, but he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Alex with a mixture of disbelief and fear.
An impression was slowly forming on Alex's forehead and it seemed a bit identical to the ones that he had seen on the descendants of gods. The imprint continued to grow until it was covering the entirety of Alex's forehead. The apostle was having a sense of foreboding as his entire body chilled at the sight of the growing imprint.
Boom!
A shockwave of pressure much heavier than that of the apostle spread with Alex as the center and both the Apostles were thrown away while spitting out blood. The entire city was drowned in this pressure, but only those tier 7 or above could feel it.
In a manor at the center of Lightwell city, a man was sitting on a throne, while several people were standing in front of him and praying. This man was Avelan, a minor Battle God who had ascended in the hundred years long war of Gods and Demons. He was a relatively new God who received the Lightwell city along with his seat as a God.
Suddenly, a pressure descended on the entire manor and everyone frozen stiff. Even Avelan wasn't left unaffected. He was also feeling it difficult to breathe. With difficulty, he got up from his throne and disappeared.
