It had been three weeks since Zeke and Leo had hunted the boars, and their appearance had markedly changed in that time. Most noticeably, the two had upgraded their gear.
After leaving Tradespire with nothing but the clothes on their backs, the two managed to buy several pieces of equipment from the money they earned doing quests. Both were wearing rugged but sturdy leather armor with pieces of metal protecting their vital areas. Leo had also upgraded his weapon and a gleaming red saber now hung at his waist.
Zeke, on the other hand, was holding a spear made from the tusks of the boars they had hunted. Of course, as accomplished Mages, they didn't really rely on those weapons for combat. However, the presence of the equipment and weapons made their cover all the more believable.
The two of them looked like seasoned adventurers.
Zeke had also passed his promotion to silver a week ago, catching up with Leo's rank. He had been lucky, as the guild branch they were at the time had a Special quest on offer. Instead of the typical monster Subjugation, which might have taken him a lot of time, he was given the option to choose a different category of quest for his rank-up exam.
Guild quests were sorted into five different categories: Subjugation, Assassination, Escort, Reconnaissance and Special.
While Subjugation referred to the elimination of monsters, Assassination was the human equivalent. Usually, there would automatically be an Assassination quest created at the guild as soon as a criminal's bounty rose above a certain level.
Luckily, this didn't apply to all bounties.
For example, the bounty the empire had placed on Zeke as well as the ones he had placed on the members of the four great families were not displayed in any Guild. The reason for this was that those bounties were considered political. As a neutral entity, the Adventurer's Guild had no interest in getting involved in such matters. They focused on bounties that were placed on criminals whose guilt was proven without a shadow of a doubt — Bandits, Murderers, and the like.
In stark contrast, Escort missions referred to the type of quests where the goal wasn't to kill but to protect. Typically, such a mission consisted of the name of a target and the period the target needed to be protected for. Depending on the nature of the contract, the duration of such a quest could be anywhere from a few hours to a few months.
Then there were the Reconnaissance missions. This category encapsulated all tasks related to information gathering. The guild would often create such quests to monitor the monster population in their respective area. Those were crucial pieces of information for the operation of any guild, as they would hand out Subjugation quests based on those reports. Therefore, Reconnaissance missions were often only given to the most trusted members.
And lastly, there were Special missions. This type referred to anything that didn't fit in the other categories or had to be kept secret. It was exactly one of those missions Zeke had taken on as his advancement test. One could say that Zeke had gotten extremely lucky, as the quest specifically requested somebody who was new to town.
As it turned out, the quest had been issued by the local guild master. He wanted somebody to tail his wife. The man suspected her of cheating and created a quest to find proof. As the wife of the guild master, she naturally knew most of the regular members. Therefore, he was forced to look for help from outside.
This was where Zeke came in. With his [Perfect Spatial Awareness], the mission would be a breeze for him… or so he thought.
The Guild Master had purposefully left the town to give Zeke the chance to tail her, and Zeke had faithfully executed his task. However, before even half the night was over, he had to quit his observation. As it turned out, the woman was indeed cheating, but it was much worse than that. Not only was she cheating, but she was cheating on him with his brothers. Yes, brothers, plural.
Manuela, the wife of the Guild Master, was having affairs with all three of his brothers. On top of that, she was constantly trash-talking the man's prowess in bed while doing the deed. Zeke lost the heart to listen in after the first two hours.
He still cringed when he thought back to his report to the Guild Master. The man had been skeptical, which in turn prompted Zeke to go into more detail. Perhaps too much detail, since the man turned into a soulless husk as Zeke repeated some of the words Manuela had spoken the night before.
Luckily for Zeke, this did not stop the man from authorizing his promotion. However, this experience had made him weary of accepting any Special missions in the future. He might have saved a lot of time this way, but he felt more than a little nauseous thinking back on it. There indeed was no free lunch in the world.
Zeke shook his head to clear his mind of the awful memories.
Walking to his left, Leo practiced spells. Ever since their talk three weeks ago, his brother had started a new type of training. Zeke had told him that in order to inherit Maximilian's Magic, he would have to be able to combine his Fire and Earth Mana.
He had informed Leo that Maximilian's Explosion Magic was in fact a combination of the two elements. Furthermore, he promised that he would let him inherit the old man's spells if he showed promise in that field. Ever since that day, Leo spent all his time experimenting with his Mana. Zeke was aware that Maximilian had been something of an idol to Leo, so there was no greater motivation for his brother than to be able to inherit his legacy.
Maximilian had often said that he didn't intend to pass down his spells to anybody, but Zeke didn't believe that. If that had truly been Maximilian's intention, there would've been no reason to show his spells to Zeke after he had acquired the Trinity Project. But he had, and Zeke took that fact as his silent agreement to pass them on to Leo… once he was ready.
Scanning Leo, Zeke observed his progress. Even as they walked, his brother was trying to mix Earth and Fire Mana in his core — a task that was easy and difficult at the same time.
It was easy because Mana of different affinities was very compatible. It took barely any effort to combine the two. However, it was also a difficult task because the balance between the two forces was very delicate. If the ratio was off, the Mana became too volatile to control.
Alongside his brother, Zeke had also spent a lot of time experimenting with his affinities. The reason he didn't teach Leo directly was mainly because he, himself, had no idea how the combination of affinities worked. But there were a couple of things he had figured out so far.
The most important one was that the ratio of Mana played a crucial role.
It wasn't as easy as mixing the Mana half and half and being done with it. From his experiments, he could clearly tell that different ratios resulted in different outcomes. Zeke's current theory was that the combination of affinities didn't only have a single, fixed result.
Leo had previously used an obsidian-like stone to create weapons. For this outcome, the ratio of elements had to be heavily skewed toward Earth Mana. However, for Maximilian's Explosion spells, the ratio was about two-thirds Fire and one-third Earth. From this, Zeke concluded that there wasn't only a single possible affinity when combining Mana, it was all on a spectrum.
In a similar vein, Zeke previously discovered a spell that allowed him to vastly increase his mental capabilities. Using it resulted in him perceiving the passage of time much slower. The spell had been a result of him using [Perfect Body Control] to speed up his brain. But instead of casting the spell normally, he had been using a combination of Blood and Mind Mana.
However, despite theoretically knowing how he had done it, Zeke couldn't replicate the spell. Both previous times had occurred while he had been in a crisis. The first time, he used all of his might to come up with an excuse to explain his Dragon scent to Odyr. The second time had been when Albert had revealed he would test him using Truthseeker.
On both occasions, Zeke had been panicked. He had been incredibly desperate to find a solution to his predicament. From this, he determined that the missing piece had to do with his Intent.
When casting a spell, it was crucial to have a clear mental picture of what it was supposed to do. For example, Zeke's [Blood Whip] could either be razor sharp or blunt enough to ensnare an opponent. All of that without changing the Spellform. This was controlled through Intent.
But Zeke had no idea what his mental picture had been while successfully casting the spell. He had not been thinking straight on either of those occasions. This left him with only one choice — he had to experiment. However, his efforts had remained fruitless so far.
Returning his attention to Leo, Zeke noticed a small Fireball taking shape atop his outstretched palm. At first glance, it looked pitiful. Especially considering the level of focus Leo was displaying as he tried to control his combined Mana while also not tripping on the uneven road. However, Zeke's eyes were transfixed on the small glowing ball.
Instead of being purely made of Fire, he noticed that the spell had a solid core. They both stopped walking. Zeke watched with bated breath as Leo extended his hand and sent the small ball flying.
The spell was incredibly slow as it drew an arc toward a nearby tree. Before it reached its target, the projectile rapidly cooled. By the time it impacted against the tree bark, it looked no different from a small black pebble.
Tok!
At the dull sound, Leo smiled awkwardly. "I thought I had it this time," he said. They turned their backs on the tree and the failed experiment and continued walking.
"Don't be too discouraged," Zeke said, "you are getting better every day."
"How is your progress?"
Zeke grimaced. "Nonexistent, for now."
"Ha! Doesn't that mean that I am better at something than Ezekiel the genius?"
Zeke gritted his teeth. "For now…"
As the two bickered, a city came into view ahead of them. Compared to the small towns they had stayed in for the past weeks, it was a much bigger settlement. The city was nestled in a narrow valley with tall walls extending into the sheer cliffs on either side. The fortifications clearly served as a barrier against unwanted intruders, funneling everybody toward the town.
After getting confirmation from Akasha Zeke spoke up. "That's Kanion."
Leo perked up. "Does that mean we have reached the border?"
Zeke nodded. "This is the last checkpoint before entering Korrovan."
"Do you think it will be trouble to get through?"
"Not really. As silver-ranked adventurers, we should have the right to enter any country freely."
At those words, a grin emerged on Leo's face. "A good thing that we both reached Silver rank then, right?"
"Yes…"
"With both of us having proven ourselves worthy of such an honor."
"Yes…"
"With both of us—"
"Shut up, Leo!" Zeke snarled.
Once again, he regretted telling his brother about his 'Special Mission'. Ever since then, the latter couldn't help but tease him about it any chance he got.
"Anyway…" Zeke said, clearly trying to change the subject. "In case there is any trouble, I have a backup plan in mind."
"Ohh? As expected of you. What is it?"
"I learned that there is going to be a huge auction soon. I'll just tell them that we came for that."
Leo's brows furrowed slightly. "And who exactly is gonna believe that we have the means to participate in something like that? We look little better than beggars."
With a mysterious grin, Zeke rummaged through his pockets before showing Leo his secret weapon. He was holding a fistful of gold coins. After only the briefest of moments, he hid them again, not willing to be seen with such a treasure.
Meanwhile, Leo had a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Where did you get those?"
Zeke smirked. "Didn't I tell you last time? Magic."
Leo's expression turned thoughtful as he remembered their talk from a couple of weeks ago. "If you are going that far, our story becomes a lot more believable."
Zeke winked and sped up his steps.
Soon after, the massive gates of Kanion came into view. Even from afar, they could see the rows of people waiting to get in. With a sigh, they took their place at the end of the queue. This would take a while.