Harun

《Rescue》

 Teeno and Haroon started climbing the wooden fence, but they suddenly jumped off from it. Hall found it strange and stopped running at the fence, then she saw them silently landing on the ground.

 ‘How amazing those people are,’ she thought.

 The height of the wooden fence was about four meters, made with roughly chopped logs. As it seemed like there were a lot of places to step or grip it made it look easy to climb, she found it odd that they jumped back down to the ground.

 As soon as she started walking over to figure out the reason, she saw Haroon locking his fingers together, creating a foothold and throwing Teeno high up into the air and over the wall. This was rather surprising as Haroon didn’t look like he had the strength to throw Teeno that high.

 Now it was Haroon’s turn to jump over. He stepped back three times and preceded to run up and stomp the ground to fly up like a bird, making a flip in the air, and landing inside the camp.

 ‘They are amazing!’

 She couldn’t help but to admire them.

 One of the things she felt as she accompanied the Gusts of Wind was that they were getting stronger as time went on. Not to mention their combat style and characteristics, but even their overall abilities.

 She’d also been training magic and a.s.sa.s.sination skills since her very young age for some reason, but it wasn’t as effective compared to how the members of the Gusts of Wind trained.

 It seemed like they were enjoying the training. They trained whenever they could as if it was a fun game to play, which was so much more effective than how she was forced to train.

 ‘I hope her Majesty Briella can win their hearts…….’

 As she was thinking, she approached the fence.

 The fence was messed up badly and it proved that something did happen to the camp. Some parts were burnt, some parts were broken. But what drew Hall’s attention was a slight trace of mana left at the top part of the fence which was sharply cut. It was lying on the entire fence.

 ‘Wide-area alarm magic?’

 Then she could see why they acted in such a way. At the moment of going over the fence, they’d sensed the presence of alarm magic as they reach the top part, so they jumped down to avoid triggering it accidentally.

 The existence of alarm magic covering such a wide area meant that there was a great magician inside. Even a 5-circle magician needed a manastone to cast such magic.

 Then she could see why there was no one at the watchtowers. As they had cast alarm magic on the entire fence, they didn’t need anyone to be on guard.

 ‘But how were they able to find the trace when they’re not magicians?’ She wondered.

 She could never figure out the limitations of these people. As far as she knew, it wasn’t like they had a magic artifact and yet they still noticed well hidden alarm magic.

 Hall used Fly, a 4-circle magic to go over the fence, and landed on a firm branch of a tree planted inside the camp. This meant she’s finally mastered 4-circle, inspired by the training of the Gusts of Wind.

 The camp was quite wide. Tall trees were planted near the fence, inside of the camp, which made it seem smaller than it was. But from the inside, she could see that the camp was about 1.5 km wide from west end to the east end, and it was a bit shorter than that from north to south.

 The buildings were larger than she thought, and there were 3 main buildings. The building on the east, where Haroon sent her to, was a wooden building which seemed like the place where the trainees stayed.

 ‘It must be some kind of dorm, right?’

 According to Devron, this camp was used by over 200 trainees. But the air of stillness and silence was the only thing that surrounded the building, making it look like was shrouded in darkness even though it is still a bright day.

 She glanced over the northern building, presumably the main building. She was anxious to know what was going on there but she forced her body to sneak into the building she was a.s.signed to, utilizing the shadow between the trees and the fence. She trusted Haroon and Teeno’s scouting skills.

Haroon climbed a big tree. Though they were not planted for landscaping, these tall trees had grown big enough that their branches were now crossing.

 Using the branches, Haroon moved from tree to tree, trying to make as little noise as possible, like a cheetah. Balancing on the branch was a bit challenging for him, but it didn’t take long for him to reach the building to the north.

 Silently landing on the roof of the wooden building, Haroon placed his ear on the roof in case he could hear anything from inside.

 ‘There are people inside.’

 He could hear some people talking, but it was too m.u.f.fled to figure out what they were talking about. He needed to sneak in.

 Looking around, he found a chimney, darkened with ashes. The chimney was larger than normal, as the building was huge, and it wasn’t hard for a person to enter it. He knew he would get dirty but he didn’t hesitate to enter the chimney. Using both hands and feet, it wasn’t hard for him to descend.

 “Is it still not done yet?”

 Haroon could hear a clear sound this time. The voice was full of annoyance, and the tone suggested that the man speaking was quite young.

 “We shall not rush.”

 The one answering was a rather old, middle-aged man. The firm, deep voice suggested that he was an aged, high-ranking man and was not comfortable dealing with the young voice.

 “We have wasted two months of our time in this place. They may be great knights that can be utilized right away, but we still don’t know who these folks really are, and wasting any more time will only buy doubt from his majesty, the third imperial prince.”

 “We just need a little more time. It shall be done in no time. Remember, those men did endure our knight’s attacks for 40 days straight. As those knights spent a significant portion of their time in the Huk’ran Mountains, they must be familiar with this area, so they can benefit us in finding that mine. If we can persuade them to join us, ‘tis would be the equivalent of gaining several knightages.”

 Those words explained why Devron and Viscount Paros couldn’t contact the secret camp anymore: they were under the attack of these people.

 “Who gave you the idea that I don’t know that? Don’t you see that the problem is that they’re not even listening to us? We might screw everything up if we just waste our time like this.”

 The young one spoke once again with a distinct edge in his voice. He continued.

 “The most practical way would be to use the brainwashing magic like the magicians suggested. They must

be exhausted at this point as they’ve gone through continuous battles and imprisonment. And you know Zai’nin and the other magicians are capable of it.”

 “Casting psychical magic and leaving no aftereffect is not an easy task. We already expected strong resistance, especially from the leaders, who are the mid-experts. Of course, if we’re to use them for a short term we could have used stronger methods but keep in mind that we’re planning to use them for the entire time of the golden battle.”

 By the situation it sounded like the young one was superior to the old man, but it didn’t mean that the old man was feeling inferior to him. From their conversation, Haroon knew that something went very, very wrong.

 “You must have forgotten that the golden battle has already begun. Don’t you know that us being here already is a big detour from the original plan? We must find the jewelry mine as soon as possible, and look how much you have delayed things! Why are we tieing ourselves here after all? Are you going to take all responsibility for this, Viscount Demigoth? I’M the leader of this mission. You can’t keep doing this.”

 “…….”

 As the young voice strongly argued, the man, presumably Viscount Demigoth, replied with silence.

 “We mustn’t waste time anymore. Cast brainwashing magic on them, even if it results in mental breakdown and drives them mad.”

 “……. I…… I get it.”

 “And I want to see it done by tonight. We need to set off by tomorrow to find the jewelry mine.”

 There was no reply from Viscount Demigoth. Though the young voice and Viscount Demigoth were the only ones who were talking, the noises suggested that there were about 10 people in the room. Haroon imagined them to be the leaders of those who attacked the camp.

 There were cracking noises of stepping on wooden floor and a door closing sound, followed by silence. But it didn’t last long.

 “h.e.l.l! Look how that f.u.c.king gob-face b.a.s.t.a.r.d shouts at you, my lord. I can’t believe how rude that r.e.t.a.r.ded outlander was, having the most honorable marquis at his back.”

 Surprised at the sudden husky voice, Haroon almost lost his grip on the wall of the chimney and almost fell to the burnt fireplace.

 ‘Did he just say, ‘outlander’?’ he thought.

 His eyes widened. Of course,  the game developers were using the Golden Battle system to help the users settle into this world, but he never thought any users would make their moves this fast.

 “What he said. Are you just going to see that outlander merchant named Duhem and the others  make rattling noises at you depending solely on the trust they gained from the most honorable marquis, my lord?”

 “Why don’t we just bury them under the ground? There are not even 20 of them so it’s not a hard task. Even his most hon marquis wouldn’t say anything if we make a false report, saying they died due to an accident since this place is so dangerous. They can barely deal with the orcs, so nothing’s hard about that.”

 The two new voices were not hiding their hostility.

 “You must reconsider their words, my lord. They may lack physical strength but they own decent magic items purchased from Magic Towers. Moreover, the magicians we have are hired by the outlanders, so they are not entirely on our side. If we do attempt to slay all outlanders and fail to kill all of them, they will report our action to his most honorable, marquis. That will only get us in trouble. We mustn’t forget that they are capable of revival. His majesty and his most honorable have great expectations for them.”

 Another one spoke up, and brought back the silence, driving the anger out. After a while, Viscount Demigoth spoke up.

 “Bavsil, contact Zai’nin the magician and tell them to prepare the brainwashing magic. We’ll move in their favor for now. They may be rude, but they’ll benefit his majesty. I’m not saying we should let them slip away. The day will come for that.”

 The calm voice of his was full of determination.

 “As you say, my lord.”

 “Double the guard for tonight. We can’t let anything happen while the magicians cast their magic.”

 Five or six men repeated his orders and ran out of the room.

 ‘We are running out of time. I’ll have to talk with my members about this.’

 At the same time Haroon slowly put strength in his legs and arms to push himself back up after gaining crucial information, he could hear Viscount Demigoth’s monologue.

 “One day, you will regret humiliating me, you outlanders!”

Returning where the Quad w.a.n.kers would be hiding, Haroon saw that Teeno and Hall had already returned. Seeing their serious faces, Haroon could see that they’d figured out the situation as well.

 “Boss, they told us everyone is imprisoned.”

 Philip spoke up first. It seemed like Teeno and Hall had already told the Quad w.a.n.kers what they saw. Haroon nodded and sat on the ground, seeing Teeno and Hall’s faces.

 “Teeno.”

 “I couldn’t figure out who took over the camp, but at least I have visual confirmation that everyone in the camp is imprisoned. The inside of the buildings were too dark to see any specifics, but they were chained like animals. I have returned as I couldn’t take any chances because of the guards.”

 Haroon looked at Hall this time.

 “It was the same in the building I went to. More or less a hundred trainees were imprisoned with their hands and feet chained, and some magicians in training were wearing mansealing cuffs. Though there were guards, there were only three of them.”

 Haroon imagined all of them to be ordinary trainees. Haroon opened his mouth.

 “It seems that the ones that took over this camp are from the third imperial prince’s faction. There were knights and magicians.”

 “I’m sorry?”

 “The third imperial prince, you say?”

 It indeed was shocking news. No one expected this to be related to the golden battle. Of course, it was announced a while ago, but it was not something that the members of the Gusts of Wind would keep in mind.

 Haroon told them what he heard.

 “Hmm. So they’ve been searching the Huk’ran mountains for a jewelry mine and happened to find the training camp. As the trainees were good enough to put into action right away, Viscount Demigoth has been persuading them to join his faction, but the leaders were refusing to do so.”

 Teeno summarized it nicely, and it helped everyone to grasp the situation.

 “But we are running out of time. They said they will cast brainwashing magic on the leaders tonight, so we have to hurry.”

 “Oh my gosh! Have they really mentioned brainwashing magic?”

 Hall couldn’t hide the urgent look on her face.

 “Is brainwashing magic that dangerous?”

 “It’s deadly, unless they have a 7-circle magician. Otherwise, success rate is simply none. Moreover, it doesn’t work on ones with strong will. The reason why it’s dangerous is that if it fails it causes a mental breakdown for the targets, driving them mad or even inflicting death. But how did they get their hands on

on black magic? It was forbidden several centuries ago.”

 Though he had no idea what kind of magic the black magic was, he could get a general idea of how bad it was considering that brainwashing magic is a part of it. Haroon himself had been brainwashed by the Union government.

 “For your information, there are about 30 7-circle magician in this empire. Considering how black magicians are usually a circle higher than white magicians or elemental magicians, one needs to be a 8-circle magician to cast brainwashing magic properly. But there are not even ten magicians of that calibre in this Empire. Not to mention that they wouldn’t agree to enter a dangerous place like this just to cast such magic.”

 “But can’t low-circle magicians use a magic circle, or cast the magic together?”

 Hall’s face distorted upon hearing Serinn’s question.

 “Of course, they can. And that’s exactly what I am worried about. Even if they excel at the same kind of magic or with the help of some magic circle, casting a magic one or two circles higher is not an easy task. To cast a magic in that way, all of the partic.i.p.ants need to control mana with pinpoint precision to have the ability to cast magic like a person as a whole.”

 Then Haroon could see the problem clearly. Being brainwashed was a thing, and it seemed there is no such magician in the camp capable of casting the brainwashing magic. If there was, it wasn’t like they would move for the knights’ favor.

 “Let’s strike at once, Boss! How hard could it be?”

 Said Gitan, the warrior who grew skillful during the journey with Haroon, punching his chest.

 “You fool. Just shut up and stay where you are,” said Serinn.

 As she looked at him angrily out of the corner of her eyes, Gitan moved his hips back and pouted. Seeing that, Haroon laughed a little. Seeing Gitan struggle to deal with Serinn seemed so out of situation.

 “Hmm. He is right though, we do need to go in but…….. Let me think for a second. The buildings Hall and Teeno searched had normal knights in training imprisoned. There are three or four guards in each building, and probably low-experts as they are knights. The leaders of the camp are captured in the main building, and I suppose they are locked in the bas.e.m.e.nt.”

 Everyone went quiet and carefully listened to what he was saying.

 “The first method I could think of is dealing with the guards in the side buildings at the same time, releasing the trainees and attacking the main building with them. The problem with this plan is not knowing the number of weapons available, the health statuses of the trainees and the possibility of attacking in a shipshape manner. This will take longer as there are a lot of people.”

 “…….”

 “The other one is to attack the main building directly. Make a sudden attack in the shortest time possible, take ahold of the enemy leaders and rescue the allies, then attack the rest, but it’s not an easy task to do by ourselves. Especially when they presumably have high-circle magicians……..”

 It was beyond their capability. They trained enough to not lose to the knights, but not having enough people was the problem.

 ‘d.a.m.n it! I can’t help but to summon Brat for this. It must have finished evolving, right?’

 Haroon told his members and Hall to take a rest and stood up to find a secluded place. It said it would take about a week. More than ten days have pa.s.sed already so it should have finished evolving by now.

 “Summon!”

 As he summons brat, the surroundings distorted a bit and then an unseen object appeared before his eyes. His eyes widened when he saw an unfamiliar, mysterious creature.

 The creature was as tall as his knee-height. Its red tail and four pairs of wings resembled flames, and it had a white face with brownish, red hair. It was a boy, or girl…… or something. It was a strange creature. It had obsidian-like twinkling eyes and clear skin, a high nose and its red lips were sparky, and he could feel that they were full of life. But he could never figure out its gender. It looked like a female, considering how it wore a dress, but its body type was too bland(?) for that.

 “B-Brat, is that you?”

 Haroon couldn’t say for sure because of its total change in appearance. Of course, it must be Brat as it appeared from his summoning, but it was simply so different from the disgusting look it previously had.

 It smiled.

 And at the same time, he could hear the familiar UI sound that always followed Brat.

[You are poisoned. You are receiving 50 damage per second.]

 It was Brat. That unpropitious UI alert proved it. He liked how its appearance changed, but the poison getting five times stronger was a horrible change for him.

 “Hehehe! How do I look? Am I not awesome? Do you know how hard it was to change my appearance?”

 Even its voice changed a bit. The old voice was like that of an old man, now its voice sounded like a lively, young kid. Then he noticed its feet stuck on the ground like a slime.

 “What the h.e.l.l is wrong with your legs?”

 Brat’s voice got sharper after seeing that he grimaced, out of its expectations.

 “Hah! What the h.e.l.l is wrong with YOU? After all I have done to change my appearance to look somewhat prettier since I thought that you liked it that way! I don’t know why I even bothered to do that. Do you know how hard it is to shift the earth element from, the legs to the face?”

 Then Haroon could see how its previous look was formed. It was a mixture of all four different elements.

 “Well, it’s so much better than before. But really, what’s with those feet?”

 People say what looks good tastes good. So even the poison is stronger, it looked prettier so it was so much better. Still, seeing unfinished feet felt weird.

 “I don’t know. All I did was changing the element positions to change the face.”

 As it felt weird as well, it walked for a bit looking at its own feet, and it looked to be no problems. It soon spread its wings and flew. Seeing how it nimbly and flexibly flew with four pairs of wings, Haroon envied its ability to fly.

[Your H.P. is below 30%]

 Startled, Haroon quickly took an antidote. The pocket he had his antidotes in, now only had 4 pills left.

 Though, he had to check its stats before he unsummoned it.

 “Status Window!”

Name: Brat
Race: Essential Spirit (Pet)
Level: 10
H.P.: Infinite
M.P.: 100,000
E.F.P.: 100,000

Abilities:

– Able to cast intermediate elemental magic of all four elements.
– All Skills related to poison are adjusted to intermediate levels.
– Brat can now kill multiple enemies with its poison.
– The summoner can now summon all four basic elemental spirits.

 ‘That’s amazing!’

 It had the mana and elemental force capacity of a hundred thousand. The max level of this game has

game has not been revealed yet, but Haroon could say one needs to reach such a level for that. Moreover, it could cast intermediate elemental magic and summon basic elemental spirits.

 ‘But so what? That’s all a pie in the sky!’

 It dealt 50 damage per second to him. Five times stronger than before.

 Even if he has leveled up a lot, he couldn’t even last 30 seconds with it summoned. He secretly antic.i.p.ated it to finish evolving so he could use its overpowered ability. But as he concludes that he can’t really use it properly, he couldn’t help but to draw a deep sigh.

 At the moment where he was about to unsummon it, he suddenly had a recollection of the subs.p.a.ce.

 “Have you made the subs.p.a.ce?”

 “Ya, Mas. I looooove it. Compared to your SMALL, DIRTY inventory it is so-”

 Haroon cut its sentence in the middle. There was no time.

 “How do you open it?”

 “Hah! Do you always have to interrupt when I am talking? Just shout ‘Open subs.p.a.ce’ and I’ll do everything for you. It is maintained with my mana, after all. Thank ME for that. If it wasn’t MY exceptional ability, how could you even dare to do such things with your pathetic abilit-”

 “Unsummon!”

 Haroon had to interrupt it once again. Though its voice and appearance was not disgusting anymore, its personality hadn’t changed at all. Underestimating its master and praising its own ability.

 ‘I really should get some antidotes to use it though.’

 Though he had a late start, the reason for why he could level up with such speed was Brat’s amazing abilities. It was an undeniable fact, and he would need Brat’s ability a lot.

 It was when Haroon was thinking about the way to get the antidotes.

 – “Mas, Mas!”

 ‘Huh? What was that?’

 Surprisingly enough, Brat could communicated with him at will. Normally, it could not talk with him if he didn’tdoes not summon it, or at least use the stand-by mode.

 – “Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt someone in the middle of a sentence? How could you do such an irrational act as a master? That’s common sense! Just what have you learned in your entire life?”

 Haroon shut his eyes. He couldn’t imagine how annoying this would be.

 – “Don’t take it too seriously. I had to unsummon you because of the poison damage”

 As it had the appearance of a cute kid that looked like a girl, he couldn’t punch it like he did before. If it was the same as before, he would have sacrificed an antidote to beat it, but he couldn’t dare to do that anymore because of its appearance. Then he thought once again about how important the appearance was.

 – “Anyways, be careful the next time. I really need to make time to lecture you about the etiquette between creatures. I’m so sorry for myself, meeting the wrong master and letting myself be treated wrongly despite having amazing abilities.”

 – “That was enough.”

 – “But it’s true that you lack general knowledge and sophistication. Weak at making relationships, impulsive, violent, …”

 – “Shut, up!”

 Haroon’s hair stood on edge with anger. He knew some of what it said was true, but it was fairly uncomfortable to hear it directly. Especially when it was from his own pet.

 – “Hah! You know what? Even if it is embarra.s.sing and shaming, one should have the mindset to listen carefully to what others have to say about your mistake-”

 – “I think we need to make a time where we can have a ‘deep talk’. How does that sound?”

 It stopped grumbling at Haroon’s angry words.

 – “I was just trying to give you some good information. Why are you so mean to me? I became a pretty girl like you asked. I just wanted some love as a pet.”

 Did she?

 He couldn’t even imagine that was the reason why she changed her appearance. Maybe that was what he wanted, probably due to having Bell. After all, Brat was the one who could understand his mind best.

 ‘I guess pets are pets. Being loved and growing together with its mas-

 – “Don’t tell me you’re really believing that. Welp, I gotta find my other pair now since I’ve evolved. To be honest, who would ever like me in my previous form?”

 ‘G.o.d d.a.m.n!’

 She did evolve. Maybe just way too much. Seeing how she’s trying to trick her master, her brain had  developed a lot.

 ‘But aren’t spirits genderless?’

 Haroon wondered, but it didn’t last long.

 – “Well, I just wanted to say that you can now use all four elemental spirits, the basic ones, since you have enough Elemental Force Points, and you can use mine as well.”

 That was really useful information. He read it, but he didn’t understand it at that time.

 – “You mean I can summon basic elemental spirits?”

 – “You bet. Hehehe. Thank this amazing Brat, Mas. You don’t even need to make contract with them to summon so use them instead of bothering me. Okay? Summoning them is simple as well. Just chant ‘summon’ and their name.”

 Even though it became more bratty and more sneaky, he got over it. He wasn’t even a magician, but now he was able to use elemental magic, so he could let her talk brattily.

 – “Got it. Thanks.”

 Things were going in his favor.

 If there were things he could do with basic spirits, there was no reason to summon Brat to make her do such things, getting poisoned and listening to her noisy complains.

 – “Well, I’ll rest now so take care.”

 He could imagine her lying comfortably in bed, with her legs crossed while swinging one foot. And it annoyed him.

 ‘Should I just….!’

 As he shook his head, he tried to quell his anger, by filling his head with curiosity for the basic elemental spirits.

 “Here goes nothin’. Summon Sylph”

 The s.p.a.ce before his eyes distorted once again, and a sylph with a pair of wings appeared. It was about 50 cm tall, with a beautiful face and body.

 “Nice to meet you, I’m Haroon.”

 Sylph blinked its color-changing eyes several times, and bowed low with her hands together, but there was no reply. People say that it is hard to communicate with the basic spirit, and it really seemed to be true.

 “Could you blow some wind on me?”

 On his words, the sylph started moving its small wings. But the power of that wind was strong enough to go through the armor and cool his entire body.

 “What else can you do?”

 But the sylph didn’t reply. Though Brat may be rude, at least he could communicate with her, so it was frustrating to deal with the sylph. Also, he knew nothing about elemental magic so he had no idea of what else to ask.

 Unsummoning the sylph, Haroon checked his status window. As he expected and as he felt, he didn’t use much mana or E.F.P..

 While he was at it, Haroon summoned an undine to wash his body, and summoned a salamandra to watch it spit fire that was as effective as a 2-circle magic.

 A gnome, the last one he summoned, was the tallest of them all. Like a dwarf he’d heard of fromheard of from the stories, it was short and broad, and it also had a face and look that looked like the spitting image of Brat’s old face.

 “Why have you summoned me?”

 Surprisingly, it was able to speak.

 “Huh? You can speak?”

 “Of course I can. You, summoner, have such a great volume of earthen mana and elemental force in your body, and you don’t know that?”

 Though its way of talking was rough, it didn’t feel as bad as Brat. He was more curious to know more about the gnome as it could communicate with him.

 “I do?”

 “Yeah, your body is br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the deep energy of the earth. Especially at your feet.”

 Haroon nodded. He could understand its words. It was probably caused by his skill Messenger Walking. Because he was mostly absorbing mana from the earth, his body was more familiar with the earth element.

 “By the way, what’s your name?”

 Upon hearing the word ‘name’, the gnome’s face frowned a bit.

 “I don’t have one. Wanna give me one?”

 The voice was plain as ever, but Haroon could somehow feel that the gnome had some expectations of him. He recalled the moment when he was naming Brat, and he also recalled how hard it was. While he was coming up with a name, the gnome looked at Haroon with its small eyes. Seeing how its drooping cheeks twitched once in a while, Haroon knew this meant a lot to it.

 “The earth is the origin of life, so how does Lifey sound? Is it too girly?”

 “No, I like it. My name is Lifey, and I will live as Lifey subordinated to you until the end of your life.”

 As Lifey smiled brightly, its whole body started to shine with pure white, then the light disappeared. When Haroon could see Lifey again, he could see that its appearance changed a bit. There was no particular changes, but it looked more nimble overall, and its face changed to become more likeable, and comfortable.

 “What kind of magic can you cast, Lifey?”

 “Magic? You mean the force I can wield?  I can make holes with various sizes and depth, or make walls or shapes out of dirt. I can share the mana of life to creatures with roots, or find some ores, though there are some limitations to it.”

 “Wow! Cool.”

 Haroon really admired it. He could never imagine that a basic spirit was capable of that. According to what he learned in the mercenary academy, what basic earth spirits could do was to dig some holes.

 “We spirits’ force may vary by the cla.s.s, but what’s more important is the summoner’s elemental affinity. Even high-ranking spirits cannot do much if the summoner’s affinity is low, as they cannot communicate properly. But if a summoner has great elemental affinity, they will be able to communicate thoroughly, allowing them to wield great power. Especially if one summons the same elemental spirit often and let them wield their power, they might promote to higher ranks as well.”

 Haroon was surprised at all this new information. What Lifey just said was completely different from what was known to the world. Current elemental magic theory states that when an elementalist chants the summoning word, it randomly calls a spirit in the spirit world. So everytime they summon a spirit, it would be a different one. But what Lifey just said was that it is completely wrong.

 “Then how do I summon you again?”

 “You can just call my name. a.s.signing a name to a spirit means that spirit is now under the law of the material world. In other words, the flow of time or acc.u.mulating experience in the material world will allow me to grow as well. You know, the world I am in is not affected by the flow of time.”

 Haroon unsummoned Lifey back to its world.

 There was one thing he didn’t know, that no elementalist has ever properly communicated with the basic spirits. The legend says that some spirits in the ancient times had names, but when the ancient elves established theoretical elemental magics, no one ever thought of giving names to the spirits.

 Some elementalists that were born with some affinity did give names to their cute spirits with innocent minds, but they were not able to communicate with the spirits as much as Haroon could, so there was no case where elemental spirits had grown in the way that Lifey described.

 That was also the reason why elementalists were summoning different spirits as their elemental force strengthened. Also, most of the elementalists were elves. The elves usually didn’t care much for specific spirits, so that was why this was not known to the world.

 ‘Now I only have three antidotes. I’ll have to use one if I want to use Brat’s ability to rescue the captured knights, but it will be a cheap price.’

 Considering how it was able to spread sleep-inducing materials when they were crossing the river Seine¹, doing the same thing in this camp would be a piece of cake. The problem was that he couldn’t spread it all over, but only at the guards.

 Anyways, at least he found a way to rescue the people, with the help of the evolved Brat. He went back to where his members and Hall were waiting. The members of the Gusts of Wind couldn’t rest properly, seeing how Hall nervously moved as she didn’t know what to do. Since it was the matter of life or death for her father, she was beginning to lose her composure.

 “Hey, gather around!”

 The members were expecting Haroon to come up with a plan, since leaving the group and coming back with a plan was what he always did, so they hurried their way to him with relieved faces. Hall, too, sat by him with great expectations in mind.

 “One thing we’ve noticed is that their guard is low since they’ve been trusting the wide-area alarm magic that they’ve installed on the wooden fence. Serinn, open the gate as you have the lightest weight. We will strike the left building first. I will use elemental spirits to spread a sleep-inducing material on the guards, so enter the building and focus on releasing the captured knights.”

 “Oh, right! You’re an elementalist.”

 Philip gladly exclaimed. Recalling the moment where Haroon made the guards fall asleep back when they were at the river Seine¹, the group’s faces went bright again, knowing that the plan would work.

 “We have to move quickly and quietly. Let’s move at their meal time. Since they will be depending on the alarm magic, sneaking in won’t be hard. After releasing the knights in both buildings, we have to regroup and attack the main building. We will need everyone to rescue the leaders of the camp, and they should be in the building with all of the enemy leaders.”

 Hall’s lips were drying with an anxious mind, but his words made her eyes bright once again.

 “Whatever you say!”

Continued on part 2

Translated by Channy
Edited by Tom and Kmatt

Footnotes:

¹ I believe the author meant river Sordan, the river they crossed to enter the Viscounty of Paros.