Book 3, Chapter 129 (1/2)

Fury

Sacrifice was an ability that could activate a power far beyond that of regular magic. It would amplify whatever spell Richard cast greatly, but the price was that the mana used to cast the spell would permanently vanish from his body. In other words, three grade 6 spells under the ability’s effect would push him back down to level 11.

This ability could not be used lightly outside of a life and death situation. However, it truly was befitting of the Archeron bloodline— insane, determined, and with no way back. However, Richard stared at the symbol on his wrist with a crazy thought in mind. With the elven bloodline and the meditation technique form the Deepblue, his mana growth was several times faster than that of an ordinary mage. Even if he used Sacrifice once a week, he could continue to advance at the same rate as a regular mage.

The path of magic was long and boundless. The further along Richard went, the more he felt like the existences ahead of him were full of surprises. Sharon, Mordred, Beye, even Gaton… Richard’s perception of the distance between them only continued to increase.

He couldn’t close the gap by being a jack of all trades. He had to choose one path and walk it to the end, and Sacrifice was just perfect. It continued with his emphasis on killing power.

Today was the day for the sacrificial ceremony. Richard was mostly fine by the end of breakfast, so he brought Gangdor and a few guards along as he set off for the Church of the Eternal Dragon. Flowsand had finished the preparations long ago, and it wasn’t his first time either. The ceremony began very quickly, and thankfully the options this time were finally back to normal.

There were only three choices for the blessings. Outside of the planar passage strengthening that he hoped for, he could choose eight years of extra life or a legendary item called the Lava Ring that would greatly enhance his spell damage especially for the fire element. The Lava Ring was quite tempting, but Richard chose to strengthen the passage instead. Right now, he was shuttling between Norland and Faelor quite frequently; the more he strengthened the passageway, the more he would save.

Besides, he had another thing to consider. Basically everyone purely loyal to him was in Faelor right now, and the broodmother was there as well. If he wanted to raise his influence, he would need to bring a large army out from Faelor. These little offerings would add up, greatly reducing the cost of moving said army. This blessing was one that was more useful the earlier he obtained it.

The ceremony thus ended quite quickly, the price of teleportation dropping down to 15,000 coins’ worth. However, during the entire duration timeforce kept hovering around his beast-tooth bracelet. The largest tooth kept emitting a searing heat that rejected the power of time, once more reminding him of its extraordinary nature. Mountainsea came to mind. He sighed once the ceremony came to an end.

“What’s wrong?” Flowsand asked from beside him, amber eyes full of concern.

“It’s nothing.”

“Hmm, alright.” Seeing as Richard was unwilling to answer, she didn’t push him either. She instead supported her necklace with her palm, showing it off, “Look, my Waterdrop Necklace has been strengthened. It’s the Springwater Necklace now.”

Richard knew that the Waterdrop Necklace had been part of the Reincarnation set. Now that it had been strengthened to form the full Springwater Necklace, Flowsand’s divine spells were amplified twofold. Ceremonies always gave the officiator some amount of divine grace, and it seemed like she had used hers to strengthen the necklace. The item was now near the legendary grade, but as someone who already had the Book of Time Flowsand had no problems bringing out its full potential.

However, Richard did not closely examine the properties of the Springwater Necklace, instead taking a step back and looking the priestess up and down for a while. He then smiled, “It suits you well.”

This was not an answer Flowsand had expected. She paused without a smile, leaning into his embrace and closing her eyes. She could hear his strong heartbeat through his chest. They shared a quiet moment within the shrine.

It didn’t take long for a whisper to break the silence, “When are we leaving?”

“Probably tomorrow afternoon.”

“Alright.” In that moment, the girl didn’t feel like thinking at all.

A while later, Richard left the Church of the Eternal Dragon. Every stay at Norland was for a very short duration, and he was always extremely busy. Not long after they got back to the floating island, a servant hastily entered Richard’s study and exclaimed, “Young Master Richard! There’s a problem! Young Master Wennington got into a fight with someone in Faust and has already been caught!”

“What?” Richard’s first reaction was to think that the servant must have gotten something wrong.

No matter how much the Archerons had declined, they were still one of Faust’s fourteen. He had just risen to the status of royal runemaster as well, so how could they be bullied to this extent? Who had so much courage? Besides, Richard knew Wennington’s personality. The youth was of the same age as him, but he was too mature to take things too far.

The servant grew anxious, “Young Master Wennington had a conflict with the young master from the Mensa Family. They took him away, saying he would be brought to the duelling arena. Young Master Richard, his injuries are grave. You cannot delay!”

“Mensa?” Richard calmed down the moment he heard this name, “Tell me what happened, in detail.”

This servant had been following Wennington for seven or eight years now and had always been loyal to the youth. No matter how anxious he was, he knew this was a serious matter. Thus, he held back his anxiety as he recounted the day’s events.