The Lone Wanderer

Only once he finished the earth mage too did Percy finally allow his weapon to regain its colour, a scythe of glowing teal appearing in his hand.

Ever since he first mastered Crystallization, he’d naturally tried applying it to other affinities. Sadly, whether it was his own soul mana, or Gabe’s fire and air mana, the spell had never worked with anything else.

With one exception.

Like most of Percy’s spells, it worked seamlessly with his fused mana, as it was indistinguishable from pure mana in its corporeal state. That said, the teal powder hadn’t been particularly useful before now. The first thing he had tried was to brew elixirs with it, only to end up giving the Aurora Dew a slightly different colour. It hadn’t altered its effect, however, rendering the extra effort pointless.

Luckily, this all changed a few months ago, upon his spell’s evolution to Reinforcement. Following Sengo’s teachings, Percy could strengthen his cyan constructs with the corresponding powder, so there was no reason why he couldn’t do the same with the teal constructs. That way, he’d have tougher weapons without losing the fused mana’s versatility.

But he didn’t stop there.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

‘This worked better than expected…’ he grinned, tracing his fingers along the scythe’s surface.

The edge was as sharp as a katana’s, but that wasn’t what he was focusing on. Instead, he felt the grooves and curves of the embroidered symbols along its length. They covered the weapon from tip to tip, from the crescent blade all the way to the bottom of its shaft.

Naturally, these were all concealment runes!

One of his soul affinity’s greatest advantages was its invisibility. Sadly, the fact that it could be bypassed through Mana Sense so easily had always rubbed him the wrong way. Initially, he’d only bothered learning the concealment runes as a means to guard his secrets but, at some point, he’d come up with an even better use for them.

‘Still not perfect though…’ he sighed.

Examining the weapon with his sixth sense, he couldn’t help but spot multiple areas where the enchantment failed, making the construct detectible. It was faint, but his opponents might have noticed the scythe’s edge in time, had they been a little more observant.

Whether it was his smithing technique or his runecrafting, both had plenty of room for improvement. Of course, he couldn’t help it much. The crude runes were the most he could currently achieve without compromising the scythe’s structural integrity. As for the enchantments, he’d only be able to link them more seamlessly after he delved into magiscript proper.

‘This will have to do for now.’ he shrugged.

In any case, it would be a while until he earned enough credits in the Vault’s challenges to afford the books on the more advanced topics. That said, this only made him more eager to return there.

“Are they all dead?” Nesha asked, approaching him.

Percy responded by pointing at his familiar. Micky was flying towards them, carrying the final body in his talons. Suffice to say, they’d dealt another major blow to House Tantalus today.

“I’m surprised they haven’t sent any Greens yet.” Nesha mused.

“It’s not that strange.” Percy said, eliciting a frown from her.

It had already been about half a year since they arrived in Bogside town. And this was already the third group the enemy House had sent to investigate the disappearances. Originally, Percy had expected them to send more people, and a lot sooner at that. According to his original estimates, they should have responded with a Green mere weeks after the first attack. Over time, however, he had come to realize the reason they seemed to be holding back.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I’m guessing they can’t afford to part with their Greens right now.”

“Why not?”

“Well, I imagine my grandpa is applying a lot of pressure on them, in the western side of the province. Dealing with some random wild beast near one of their towns isn’t that urgent, by comparison.” ʀåꞐ𝘰฿Еṡ

“Haven’t they sustained more losses by taking it easy though?” she asked again, clearly unconvinced.

It was true. By now, Percy and Micky had killed 15 Yellows in total. A substantial force even by a noble House’s standards. Had they sent a single Green from the start, House Tantalus would have suffered less.

“I think a big part of it is that they didn’t expect any of their groups to fail. After all, they’re operating under the assumption their target is a mindless beast. They probably hastily delegated whatever Yellows they could spare, whenever they could.”

“I still don’t get it. Isn’t a group of 5 Yellows a greater force than a single Green?”

But Percy shook his head.

“On paper, 5 Yellows should indeed be able to take a Green out. But their value in the war is a little more complicated to estimate.” he said, giving Nesha a quick rundown of his understanding.

At the end of the day, the war would be decided by the highest powers either House could freely deploy. In other words, their Blues. As for those weaker, their contribution was mostly determined by how much they could impact the war between Blues.

While a Green was nominally as strong as a handful of Yellows, they were many times more valuable than that in practice. After all, Greens could actually survive and meaningfully participate in a fight between Blues, possibly even tipping the scales. As for Yellows, they wouldn’t last a moment in such a high-level battle.

Of course, that didn’t mean Yellows were worthless. Far from it. They could be deployed in areas where there weren’t any Blues, with the purpose of taking out the enemy Greens, thus affecting the high-level battles indirectly. Still, they were two layers removed from the battles that mattered the most, making them more disposable.

And that was without considering their value outside the war. After all, Greens were more often Yellow-borns, which meant they had to be protected at all costs. As for Yellows, they were typically Orange-borns or even Red-borns – nobody in their right mind would send a child under 10 on a mission.

“That makes sense, but I doubt they’ll continue sending Yellows to their doom.” Nesha said.

“Right.” Percy nodded. “I’m sure they’ll wise up after this latest failure. They’ll send a Green next time.” he said, his expression grim.

Nesha and Micky both nodded, their faces equally sombre.

“Hey, it’s not that bad!” Percy suddenly said, easing up the mood. “We’re not completely helpless against a Green. Not anymore.”

Had one arrived months ago, they would have probably had to hide or even run away, but things were different now. Between Percy’s new spells, their new mastery of runes, and Micky growing more experienced, they were more than capable of giving the next unfortunate noble to come after them a warm welcome.

“In any case, we should head back. There are only a couple hours left until sunrise.” Nesha suggested.

“Because you need rest...” Micky said, his voice oozing with sarcasm.

Out of the three of them, he’d had the toughest time today. After all, the sun had still been out back when the latest batch of nobles arrived in the Grisly Bog. That meant that neither Percy nor Nesha had been able to join him immediately at the time. At least, not without arousing suspicion.

Consequently, the crow had been given the annoying task of keeping their enemies busy for a few hours, so that they wouldn’t leave before the others arrived. To do that, he’d been forced to fly wide circles around them, letting them spot him frequently to entice them into staying, yet without ever giving them the chance to harm him.

“It’s been tough on all of us.” Nesha shrugged unapologetically. “I’ll have to replace the pitfall traps tomorrow, you know…”

“Alright. That’s enough in-fighting. We should all take some time to relax.” Percy said.

Next, the trio broke up, with Micky flying deeper into the swamp, heading towards his nest, while the others made their way to their humble hut. Yet, the three of them weren’t the only ones returning home…

‘Just what is going on with this clone?’

The ethereal cord attached to his stomach had been acting strange over the last couple of days. It had kept tensing and shaking in irregular intervals. From experience, Percy could tell this was a signal the clone was on its way to Remior.

However, it should have long arrived by now. Moreover, the cord vibrated way more than it usually did, as if the clone was on some tumultuous journey, having encountered some unprecedented obstacle this time. Something preventing it from returning.

It wasn’t until late in the following morning that Percy’s wisp finally reached him, its condition shocking him…