August 30, Easica Year 10292, Poison Town.
It was around 6 A.M.
Academic mages stood at the town square and seemed to be in deep thought. In front of them was an auburn-haired man who was around 30 years old and looked handsome. He was none other than Ulzez.
At that moment, he moved his hands and was constantly drawing a complex array circle, almost covering half of the town. He wrote runic characters in the thin air at an unimaginable speed while those words flew towards the big array circle like they had their own will.
Meanwhile, Headmaster Alius and the other six mages stared at the mysterious rune circle in amazement and discussed among themselves. Except for them, not even a single soul stayed in that town.
A few hours ago, the academic mages ordered everyone in the town to evacuate and warned the kingdom's citizens not to even come near Poison Town.
But the mages' strange order also attracted multiple organizations' eyes. There were multiple numbers of spies hiding outside the town at this moment and monitoring the town. Even some spies from the Holy See were observing the mages and continuously recording everything.
Meanwhile, the Academic mages were beyond shocked by Ulzez's rune array and couldn't keep their calm face any longer.
"He is a Runemaster! No, he might be a Grandmaster!" Rune mage Ubius exclaimed in shock while Zivior nodded in agreement. Without studying it, he could feel the power hidden inside the complex array.
''What about Ovia and Idus? Are they not coming?'' A silver-haired woman, around 45 years old, asked with a frown.
She wore a blue robe and held a small magic staff. It had a pure water-elemental crystal embedded in the top and gave a unique beauty.
''No, I asked them to guard the royal family,'' Alius said solemnly. He looked around 70 years old and had blonde hair, scarlet eyes, and a round face. His tone was filled with dominance. As she heard her teacher's words, she felt assured inside.
Meanwhile, Cole stood with a frown and glanced at the two black-robed mages.
He felt that bringing these two first-tier mages was unnecessary to this battle. As he was about to ask them to hide somewhere afar, he suddenly noticed something and soon froze.
At that moment, he saw an elven figure walking in their direction from the Poison town's entrance.
''Zivior! Why did you invite him to come here? Even Anne doesn't have the qualification to participate in the upcoming battle.'' Cole said with dissatisfaction while glancing at the brown-haired girl with a round face and brown eyes.
''Just watching the fight won't cost his life,'' Zivior said while shaking his head. How could he tell him that his new student had already surpassed Anne and was waiting to rank up to the next tier? If he tells this news to Cole, he might die from shock.
Meanwhile, Abium arrived closer to the group and greeted everyone. Afterward, he shifted his gaze towards the large red-colored complex array floating a few meters above them and drew a deep breath.
'Azolla, what type of array is it?' He couldn't help but ask.
'No idea. Some invisible force is blocking me from scanning it. But it is definitely above Pseudo-Legendary realm spell array.'
'What-?!' Before he could ask more questions, a pleasant voice came from his side and interrupted his talk.
"Mage Abium, it's been a while!" He soon saw Lady Tabitha waving her hand and smiling at him.
"It's been a while, my lady." Abium politely smiled with a nod and quickly closer to her.
"When are you going to Arcane Empire?" She quickly turned her expression serious and asked.
Abium got stunned by her sudden question and soon answered while glancing at his teacher.
"No idea, my lady. But I will go there within five years."
Tabitha's eyes brightened a bit as she nodded her head and whispered something in his ears.
"If you manage to enter Tower of Wheel's Dragon Plane, please get me a bottle of third-tier Ice dragon's Blood Essence. If you get Pseudo legendary tier dragon's blood, it will be more helpful."
'Aren't you too greedy now?'
Abium almost choked as he heard her words and nodded helplessly.
"Hide somewhere far away. The battle is about to begin.'' She informed him hurriedly and sharpened her gaze towards the southern direction.
Upon hearing her warning, Abium, brown-haired Anne, and another blonde-haired male hurriedly turned around and moved a few hundred meters away from the town square.
While walking, the blonde-haired male suddenly frowned and looked at Abium strangely. Although he didn't show any hostility, Abium could feel a trace of disgust in his eyes.
He had azure blue eyes, elongated eyebrows, a square face, fair skin, and an arrogant look.
"Slave!" Out of the blue, he spat out a single word and walked ahead, leaving both stunned.
'What the f*ck? Should I kill him now?'
Abium felt burning rage flash in his eyes.
'Why are you feeling anger over such silly issue? That guy is bound to remain as first tier for his life time, lad. Even if he try to forcefully make a breakthrough, he will only become crippled.' Azolla muttered in his mind.
'Still, I can't overlook his attitude just now. I'll kill him if I ever run into him again.'
He quickly calmed down his anger and disappeared from there. He didn't want to stay with that blonde-haired guy, so he reappeared on the watchtower, located 800 meters away from where Zivior and others stood.
Meanwhile, Anne got anxious and said with a worried tone.
"Mark, do you have to say that out loud to that elf?"
"I did tell the truth. For us nobles, these elves are just slaves. What's wrong with that? Although the elven kingdom has a few legendary powerhouses backing them, what can they do when humans have tens of legendary mages? Humph, he can act arrogantly in his kingdom. But here, he must act like a deaf if he wants to live peacefully." Mark said, full of malice.
As Anne heard his words, she became more disappointed and said helplessly.
"Except for Holy See, no one had the guts to offend those nature freaks. Moreover, Arcane Empire won't even care about these silly things. Although other human empires and kingdoms are acting toughly, do they really have the power to go against the Elven kingdom? Don't even think about capturing that elf if you want to seek pleasure in torture. I heard from my teacher Idus that his teacher Zivior took extra care of him. Moreover, he even erased all the records about this elf before my teacher could find it."
"Humph, he might be some runaway slave." Mark ridiculed and didn't even put that elf as an equal in his mind. He was a noble and had brought many slaves like this elf and even used them as his toys.
Both moved to a safe distance while chatting and quickly shifted their attention toward the town square.
Only six figures stood in the middle of the town square and looked grim.
"Zivior, Tabitha, Ubius, and Cole, help us to take care of that Blood child's pet," Alius said solemnly and nodded at Ulzez, who had already finished constructing the large complex magic array circle. That red-colored complex array was almost a 100-meter radius and seemed to be circling slowly in the sky.
"Hide," Ulzez muttered in an abyssal language.
The complex array circle got shrunk into a palm-size and soon imprinted under his foot.
"Everything is ready." After checking the surroundings, Ulzez said with a bright smile. After that, everyone moved to their positions while Ulzez stood at the town square patiently. Time flew slowly, and soon everyone got anxious as they didn't see any enemy's appearance. Even after waiting for two hours, they didn't find a single soul entering the Poison town and felt more anxious.
By the time everyone was about to shout in frustration, Abium suddenly noticed a strange shadow moving toward Poison Town from the eastern direction.