Zectas Book II: Heraldic City of Coatl (52 page)

 

The DarkElf quickly glanced over at the red werebear.

 

 

"Which is why Sierra has brought up the idea to create a guild with other Sonstwelters, and I'd like to hear your opinions about this matter."

 

 

Thyrsus quickly added in his thoughts.

 

 

"I think that it's a great idea. I'm sure you probably know this, but Sonstwelters have special abilities that are beyond us ordinary Zectians... I got to know all of those martyrs and I don't want to see any more of militia members die"

 

 

Laernea and Gandiva raised their hands simultaneously.

 

 

The lioness Lioumerean spoke first.

 

 

"I understand what you're saying, Thyrsus. Nevertheless, I still don't recommend being allies with other Sonstwelters. From our experience, those guys only bring trouble. Of course, Smoke and Sierra are a special case."

 

 

Espion interjected Laernea's argument.

 

 

"I've had vast experiences with Sonstwelters myself, but desperate times calls for desperate measures."

 

 

Gandiva contended Espion's point.

 

 

"Wouldn't that make us vulnerable to spies? I mean Macher is a Sonstwelter and he works for the Duke."

 

 

Sharur raised his own point.

 

 

"If this was Sierra's idea then I'm sure she has a good reason for bringing this up. I say we go with it and create a guild with the other Sonstwelters."

 

 

Ichaival, Sharanga, Vijaya, Jinggu also raised their point of views about the matter. Everybody had their own ideas, and the war room was filled with loud disputes and raised voices.

 

 

Sierra clapped her werebear claws loudly to call everyone's attention.

 

 

"Smoke and I had a similar discussion as what all of you are having now, but the fact remains that we need more manpower. I don't see any other way to increase our army quickly."

 

 

Espion had something to say that he thought Smoke and everyone else might have not known yet.

 

 

"Do you know how many men are under Duke Burmistrz? He has a standing army of 80,000 in Coatl city, while his main Brandal force of 120,000 bandits are out attacking Centzo city. We'll have more information on their numbers, when my Da Caid arrives from Coatl."

 

 

Smoke affirmed what Espion said.

 

 

"Yeah, I heard about it from Macher too. The bastard said that the Duke promised him Centzo city if he continues to work under him. What I didn't know was that the Duke had that many men. I thought he only had around 20,000 at most."

 

 

Everyone fell silent. There was no way they could overcome those numbers. No one said it, but all of them secretly thought that they were doomed if they stayed in Verbrannt Castle.

 

 

Smoke composed himself and took control of the awkward silence.

 

 

"Those are unwinnable odds, but we owe it to the people of Coatl and the martyrs that have died, to save this region."

 

 

The DarkElf took in a deep breath before he spoke.

 

 

"Given this new information, I think we have no other choice but to create a guild with other Sonstwelters. However, I don't want to be the guild leader."

 

 

Smoke looked at Sierra.

 

 

"This was your idea, so I'd like you to take charge over the Sonstwelters. I'm fine with the Zectians. You can deal with the Sonstwelters yourself."

 

 

"But they're only willing to join if you're at the helm. Argh! Just when I thought you weren't being stubborn you say something like this."

 

 

Weise quickly said something before another fight broke out.

 

 

"I've read various books on war and politics. I think that Smoke should still play the role of Guild Leader, but Sierra takes charge of the Sonstwelters. Smoke doesn't need to directly talk to any of them. I'm sure you can allow something like this, right?"

 

 

Smoke gave no response, but he also didn't say no.

 

 

Not to be outdone by the gray Maneator, Thyrsus quickly added on to what Weise was saying.

 

 

"I'm not 100% sure but I think a guild can also have special rules similar to what Smoke created for the Non Aggression Pact members. If we apply that then that should give everyone whose apprehensive about the other Sonstwelters some assurance."

 

 

Smoke nodded and said.

 

 

"Fine, I guess I can do that."

 

 

The private army members who wanted to create a guild clapped their hands while those that opposed the idea remained stoic.

 

 

Smoke looked around the war room and thought that surviving against Duke Burmistrz was doable, he just didn't know how to do it.

 

 

The DarkElf also had one more information that he hasn't told anyone yet. From his time in the labyrinth, he found the location of the 'Witches of Wysteria' in one of the books in the Tenebris library.

 

 

The witches were the ones that placed a curse on Sierra when she visited Repormatl village. Their location was said to be in the desolate lands to the west, Veneficatl Valley.

 

 

 

 

Side Story: The Labyrinth Escape

 

 

 

 

There were six tables in the Tenebris laboratory. Most of them were occupied with flasks, burners, tubes, and other objects that Smoke had never seen before.

 

 

One of these six tables only had drawings, sketches and a manual entitled 'How to Create a Maneator'. Smoke quickly grabbed the book which triggered a progress bar to appear.

 

 

The DarkElf held the worn-out manual in his right hand. He sighed as he noticed it would still take another four hours to complete.

 

 

Espion and Igniz excitedly explored the laboratory together. They gave each other mischievous glances as they looked around.

 

 

They found the laboratory to be both mesmerizing and creepy at the same time. The first things that the young Spy noticed were the floor and the ceiling.

 

 

Five blood crystals were attached to the ceiling of the Tenebris' laboratory. Directly below it was a gigantic casting circle with five pentagrams designed to form a star.

 

 

These were the most prominent features of the laboratory, but Smoke only noticed the stacks of books on the six shelves and the ones scattered on the floor.

 

 

Smoke's mouth was salivating. He began to imagine all the acquired knowledge that he could get out of the mountain of books found in the laboratory.

 

 

The DarkElf grabbed another manual entitled 'Potion Instructions: Cervisiarius' with his left hand. The progress bar for this manual displayed fourteen minutes.

 

 

Smoke had Espion help him find ability tomes from the stacks of books. He also held the books that had less than five minutes for him to acquire their knowledge.

 

 

He stored the books that would take longer than five minutes to read into his backpack. He thought he would acquire their knowledge while traveling.

 

 

With his Wisdom stat at 87, he was able to greatly reduce the needed amount of time on the progress bars. In fact, most of the books in the library only required him to hold them for nine to thirty seconds.

 

 

Unfortunately, most of the books were manuals, lab notes, and experiment results. These books contained similar information.

 

 

Books that are almost identical gave little improvement to the Wisdom stat, but Smoke chose to consume them nonetheless.

 

 

He even acquired the knowledge of a manual entitled 'Cleaning Procedures of The Tenebris Laboratory'.

 

 

As they searched on for the ability tomes, Smoke noticed Espion touch his right eye patch. Smoke placed a small gauze over to stop the blood from flowing.

 

 

"Are you alright? Is the eye still bleeding?"

 

 

"A little bit. I don't think your First Aid ability is anything to write home about."

 

 

Espion smirked as he tried to laugh the pain away.

 

 

Smoke was forced to remember the time when he was up against the lamias. Adder sacrificed his left arm in order to save his life.

 

 

The DarkElf was guilty that Espion's right eye lost its sight. The eyeball was still there, but the young Spy's right eye was now completely clouded.

 

 

He was secretly hopeful that someday he could find a Healer that had the ability to restore Espion's sight.

 

 

Two hours passed, and they were able to gather a total of nine ability tomes. Smoke was even more disappointed with the books in the Laboratory because he thought that there would be at least twenty ability tomes within the mountain of books.

 

 

The ability tomes that they found were entitled; 'Wind Manipulation','Lightning Manipulation','Thunder Storm', 'Ice Wall', 'Mana Shield', 'Volcano', 'Soul Drain','Lightning Golem', and 'Water Golem'.

 

 

Wind Manipulation and Lightning Manipulation ability tomes were the same as his Earth Manipulation tome and required a 50% affinity with their respective elements.

 

 

Thunder Storm was a melded elemental ability and required 80% on both Wind and Lightning. The Ice Wall ability tome had the same affinity requirement, but for Water and Wind.

 

 

Water Golem and Lightning Golem tomes though required an 85% affinity for their specific elements.

 

 

Smoke was even more disheartened by the ability tomes because out of the five elements, he could only master Earth and Fire to 100% without any negative effects of the other elements.

 

 

The Mana Shield, Soul Drain, and Volcano tomes were the only ability tomes that Smoke was really happy about.

 

 

Mana Shield had no elemental affinity requirement, but it did have a prerequisite of 600 Intelligence.

 

 

Soul Drain required 70% Dark elemental affinity, but he hadn't decided whether to master Light or Dark yet, so this ability tome still had potential.

 

 

Finally, the melded ability of Earth and Fire, The Volcano. He was still far from the tome's requirements, but he knew that it wouldn't take long for him to acquire it.

 

 

He opened his Affinity Window to check on his current stats.

 

 

 

The DarkElf was disappointed, but tried to look for the silver lining in the books that he found. If there were Wind Golem and Lightning Golem ability tomes, then it was safe to assume that there were also Earth and Fire Golem tomes.

 

 

While he was picturing his Fire and Earth golems’ appearance, the progress bar for the manual 'How to Create a Maneator' was finally completed.

 

 

 

Smoke quickly checked his maximum mana. He smiled as he saw his mana bar appear ( 94,870/94,870 MP). He was glad he stuck to his decision of raising Intelligence and Wisdom.

 

 

Afterwards, he turned towards Espion and Igniz.

 

 

"Alright, The manual only says embryo. I think we can use the embryo from the krampus. We only need to look for an Attribute Disc, an Essence, and Maneator DNA. I'm not sure what they look like exactly, but just bring me anything that you think fits their names. I'll start making the Cervisiarius potion."

 

 

Straightaway, Espion and Ingiz began searching for disc-like objects in the laboratory. They accidentally knocked over some of the flasks, beakers, and other objects down to the floor.

 

 

Guiltily, Espion and Igniz stopped what they were doing and slowly turned to Smoke. The DarkElf didn't mind the broken apparatus and kept on making his potion concoction.

 

 

Thirty minutes passed and Smoke finished his Cervisiarius potion. Yet, Espion and Igniz were still searching for the three lacking ingredients.

 

 

Espion caught Smoke looking over his direction.

 

 

"Umm, I don't think it's in the laboratory. Maybe it's in a different part of the labyrinth?"

 

 

Smoke was irritated. He was very close to making his first Maneator but was being delayed by the missing ingredients.

 

 

"Did you check everywhere?"

 

 

"Yeah, the tables, the shelves. Those are the only things in this room."

 

 

When Espion said that, Smoke remembered his acquired knowledge from one of the manuals. It was the cleaning procedure of the laboratory.