After a few moments, Daneel finally managed to speak in his mind.
"Drakos… Are you listening to this?"
He actually had to wait a few seconds for the reply from the Ancient Dragon, who was definitely similarly shocked on hearing that the people of Angaria had achieved something that those from the Empire had not.
When the Dragon finally did reply, it was in a voice that was filled with disbelief.
"Yes, Young King. It doesn"t make sense. From everything I know regarding the Ultimate Path, nothing that changed during the apocalypse should have made it easier for anyone to pursue it. In fact, even you have the information regarding it, as it was also stood behind the third seal. If you go through it, you"ll understand why it"s not possible."
Daneel already knew that this was the case, and he had just been about to ask the system to do so.
However, he stopped as he felt that it might be more interesting to find out about the Ultimate Path from this man, which would give him the perspective of one who was listening about it for the first time.
This was also a Hero level individual, so he did not want to risk that he might not put forward the correct reactions and end up causing suspicion to arise against him in the mind of this man who definitely seemed to be pretty d.a.m.n smart.
Later on, he could simply ask the system to fill in the gaps.
So, Daneel stood there, agape, for a few seconds as if the words of the frail old man had shocked him to the core.
This seemed to be the reaction that the man had been going for anyway, as he chuckled to himself softly and finally walked forward to stand in front of the King of Lanthanor.
As the man was so short, he had to raise his head to look at Daneel, who finally regained his senses and asked, "H - how?!"
"Follow me."
With these two simple words, the man started to lead the way in a particular direction.
Daneel nodded and turned around to follow, while making sure that the shock still remained in his eyes.
Of course, this was real as he really was looking forward to finding out more.
This was practically the Holy Grail that he had always been searching for ever since seeing the awesome power of that Black Raven in the visual message from Drakos.
He could never have expected that he would encounter a method to pursue it in this Sect, even though he had been hoping for it.
After all, it was no simple feat to have accomplished something that those from the Empire did not - all of the scholars from the Empire had had hundreds of years during a time when development was at its peak, which was something that was just not available to those interested in those fields in this age.
They were equipped with all sorts of high-tech trinkets and a fully comfortable and safe atmosphere that encouraged sharing of knowledge where all the scholars did not hide their research in fear of it being stolen. In fact, this second part was actually the most important, and the argument could be made that it was also one of the reasons behind Earth"s quick development in the 20th century.
In Angaria today, that was simply not the case. In the time of the Empire, Daneel had found out from the Secret Archives that there had been a very specific and strict Information Protection rule, which allowed for anyone and everyone to share their work and ideas freely.
If such a thing was present today, too, Daneel couldn"t even imagine just what kind of things would spring out from the darkness and surprise everyone.
He couldn"t believe that he had ignored such an important avenue all these days, and he vowed to pursue it as soon as he left from the sect.
However, right now, his full focus was still on the explanation that the hunchbacked old man in front of him would soon give.
They walked out of two large wooden doors, and entered a tunnel that was made of the same material as the room.
At certain points, there were a few windows, through which Daneel could see the Endless Sea, which made it clear to him that they were on the side of the fort that was facing this untraversable barrier that existed all around Angaria.
Daneel kept walking forward in silence, and even though the hunchbacked man seemed to be hobbling forward just like any other old man would, he was actually covering a lot of distance with each step, which resulted in Daneel actually having to run forward to catch up as he had adjusted his speed based on how fast she had thought the old man would move.
[Hero-level Fighter Technique: Void Displacement detected. Void Displacement allows a Hero to manifest tiny teleportation windows in front of their body to move forward at much quicker speeds. This can even be used in situations where anti-teleportation formations might be deployed, which is the main reason behind it being so popular. In the words of the scholar who wrote a treatise regarding this, "Any hero worth his salt will learn this technique, as it would give him a way to evade magical attacks from those stuck-up Mages so that they can be left crying instead of feeling so high and mighty that they can do things we Fighters cannot."]
After remarking to himself that that scholar had definitely been bullied by Mages during his school life which must have led to this deep resentment against them, Daneel paid close attention to the sight of the old man which finally allowed him to spot what the system had been talking about.
The reason he hadn"t seen it before was that s.p.a.ce elementary particles came together and dispersed so quickly that anyone would miss it if they blinked.
Each teleportation was so minuscule that it only allowed the man in to move forward a few more centimeters than he usually would if he didn"t do anything, but so many were conjured in such a short period of time that the overall result was pretty astonis.h.i.+ng.
At the same time, Daneel could also see why this was at the Hero level. In fact, he could also tell why this could only be done by Fighters who learned it, as a Mage casting the same spell would have to put forward so much more effort as they would be doing it consciously, all the time.
Daneel already knew from various clues that he had seen so far that that was not how Fighters manipulated the world around them. They did it with their bodies - by training them to move in specific ways that resulted in minuscule changes in the elementary particles around them which finally led to whatever they wanted happening.
A Mage obviously couldn"t do this.
It was exactly like the case of someone dumb doing something over and over again, for thousands of times until they became really adept at it - which allowed them to do it without any thought. Now, if someone much smarter came along and tried to do the same thing, they would be equipped to learn faster, but they would definitely not be able to do it as well as the one in the first case.
Although Daneel liked this a.n.a.logy that he just told to himself in order to understand it better, he realized that he should never speak it out, as it would definitely result in the old man who trained Elanev going berserk due to being called dumb.
Slowly, it was becoming clear why that feeling before that he could be killed at the whim of this old man had been so apparent.
The corridor they were in went straight forward, and soon, doors started to appear on the right side.
They pa.s.sed many, until they finally came across one that was glowing faintly with the light of the many, many formations that were protecting it from unauthorized entry.
Even Daneel was dazed by the numerous layers of formations on the door in front of him. True, he was now equipped to break through them even if they were at the Hero level, but this was a case where someone had been so afraid of something being stolen that they had locked it up using 10 or 15 padlocks. Even though Daneel might be equipped with a hammer to break through one easily, wanting to smash through all of these would take so much time and result in such a ruckus that he would be caught before he could get through and take anything that he might be targeting.
As Daneel looked up to read the words written on top of the door, he realized why this was the case.
"Sect Vault. Trespa.s.sers will be killed."
That explained it.
After reaching it, the old man simply raised his hand, and all the formations seemed to melt as he was the one who commanded them all.
Daneel hadn"t known how to address him till now, but seeing this, he got the answer.
Chief.
This was definitely the Chief of the Fortress of Unyielding Might to whom they had been being led by those short-tempered individuals.
The door soon opened to reveal a room that dazzled Daneel"s eyes.
As he entered and looked around, he had to admit that this was the most impressive Vault that he had ever seen, and this included the ones that he had been to back in the Sect of Hedon.
The main reason behind this was summed up in a single word: weapons.
Weapons of all sorts, sizes, and shapes.
Since coming to this continent, Daneel hadn"t seen weapons being used to their full potential, or even too much by high-level individuals in fights where life and death were on the line.
He had pondered on this recently, too, and realized that he had actually not seen too many of such fights, and that he shouldn"t make a judgment.
Now, when he looked around and saw all the s.h.i.+ning formations that were protecting the many weapons in front of him, he realised that all of these were high-level weapons that were fit for Champions, and in a few cases, even Heroes.
Axes, swords, spears, pikes, bows, whips…
The list went on and on, but Daneel had to reluctantly s.h.i.+ft his attention from them as the old man had shambled forward once again using that technique to reach a point at the end of the room.
Walking forward, Daneel noticed that the man was standing beside a 6-foot tall podium on which there was placed… A paper scroll?
On seeing this, Daneel did a doubletake and had to verify whether this was something that might be disguised in this way in order to decrease the interest of one that might lay their eyes on it.
However, no matter how much he scanned it, he could detect no such thing, which meant that it was simply what it appeared to be: a scroll of paper.
As if having enjoyed himself enough on seeing the expressions of the King, the old man laughed again and said, "This is what you seek. Before you get even more frustrated, let me tell you the story behind it. G.o.dbeasts and Bloodlines. These two words were what strong Fighters were usually a.s.sociated with back during the Empire, and the Ultimate Path was something that a Bloodline Possessor would choose if they were also equally skilled in the Path of a Mage. The whole process of breaking through to become a Champion is that of resonating with the world, but the idea of the Ultimate Path is that one achieves resonance between their Fighter and Mage Paths, too, that results in an overall moderate amplification effect for themselves whenever they use either Path, and a substantial amplification when using spells that utilise both of these Paths. Such a man, who could beat almost anyone at his own level… could only be called "Ultimate". However, this was very difficult to attain even during the Empire, as even though it was theoretically possible, all those who tried always got too old as they have to try and achieve three things, or three resonances: one with their Champion Path, one with their Fighter Path, and one between these two. And to even make this possible, there were only a limited number of Champion and Fighter Paths that went together, and the problem was that they didn"t fit many aspiring Champions. So, it was almost destined to be a pipe dream that was only achievable by very few, and even these few, although the went on to become ill.u.s.trious Heroes, never managed to find the continuing Path or a way that would allow them to maintain this advantage when they became a Hero, which resulted in it all being meaningless and this drove away even more people from it. Only… Who could have thought that an apocalypse would be needed to change this? After the demise of the Empire, we had nothing. There were almost no resources, and there was a serious dearth of knowledge. And that… Is the best environment for a genius to be born in. One such genius… Was the first Sect Master of the Fortress, who established this Fort where we are standing. He single-handedly killed the crazed yet weakened bringers of the apocalypse, and began the construction of this stronghold as he did not wish for something like that to happen again. And all of this… Was only possible because he figured out a way to achieve the Ultimate Path. Now, this brings me to the most important part. Although I wish I could tell you more and just give this to you, there is a strict rule that that is only possible for Sect members. Too bad. So… That"s that. Let"s go."
And in this way, one of the most epic speeches that Daneel had ever heard in his life ended, and he was led away without even understanding what was happening until he was standing in front of the doors that had the name "Sect Vault" on them.
It was only then that he finally realized what the heck was going on.
This d.a.m.n old man wanted Daneel to join the Sect for some reason.
So what better way could there be than to dangle something in front of him that was, right now, more enticing than anything else in the entire world?