The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 250: Masterful

Normally, Percy would have just ignored the notification. It wasn’t the first spell he’d upgraded, nor would it be the last. Plus, he had plenty of things on his plate right now. Whether it was the potion’s backlash, Elaine’s fight, or his familiar getting chased by a Blue, everything took precedence. Still, his heart skipped a beat upon reading the spell’s tier.

‘Masterful?! Just like that?!’

Suffice to say, he hadn’t expected to reach that level at this time. He’d long accepted that his first Masterful spell would register once he figured out the mana threads his spectral trait had commissioned. A project that might not be completed until years from now.

Then again, it wasn’t that strange his new spell qualified. Both his armour and his Shroud had already evolved multiple times while remaining in the Refined tier – three in total. That ought to have brought them both on the verge of an upgrade, and that was without considering the most recent round of improvements to the Phantomscale Raiment.

And, in hindsight, the emergent spell involved way too many moving parts – too many requirements – to have stayed Refined. It made use of Crystallization, Reinforcement, his spectral trait, affinity fusion, runecrafting and magiscript… Hell, he needed two cores, Synchronization and a specialized potion just to produce enough mana to keep it active!

Not to mention how well the two spells synergized with one another. The Shroud acted as both a fourth layer for his armour, but also as the perfect fuel for its enchantments. Beyond that, his latest trick of discarding the Raiment and turning its fragments into projectiles was quite similar to how he normally used the Shroud in the first place.

‘Yeah… On second thought, I suppose it makes sense…’

In the end, he allowed himself a momentary grin before shifting his attention to his other problems. By now, the potion’s effect had already expired, a wave of weakness spreading over his shredded body. Plopping down on the grass, he struggled to lift his arms. They felt heavy, as if they’d just turned to stone. Even grabbing the healing potions in his pockets was a monumental task, as was uncorking them and chugging them down.

It wasn’t until a few seconds later that the life mana did its job, finally pushing back against his exhaustion a little, closing his wounds just enough to minimize his blood loss. Yet, it took a total of eight doses before he could move around normally. Only then did he allow his gaze to brush over the rest of the battlefield.

‘She seems to be doing alright.’ he exhaled in relief.

Truth be told, Elaine appeared to be at a disadvantage. This was partly because she was relying solely on her Crude spells to keep her opponents at bay, and partly because her surroundings were littered with obsidian pillars inhibiting her mobility and line of sight.

Still, this perceived weakness was just an illusion. The only reason she was on the backfoot was because she was being careful not to let her enemies sneak past her again. Had she been allowed to fight freely, she would have probably won by now.

‘Her opponents clearly know what they’re doing though…’ Percy acknowledged.

They could tell they were outmatched, but they were experienced enough to take advantage of their numbers and of the other battle happening in parallel to their own. Like that, they prevented Elaine from focusing on any one of them for too long, allowing them to keep her busy.

‘Still, they’ve already lost.’

Originally, they had aimed to buy time for their comrades to kill him and come to their aid. By now, they’d already noticed this wasn’t going to happen. At least, Percy didn’t miss the despair marring their expressions.

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Calling the scythes back to his hands, he reactivated his boosting art, preparing to intervene should his cousin need any help, or should her opponents try anything funny. He was much weaker without the armour, of course, and he’d rather not drink another dose of the potion so soon if he could avoid it. Still, he was confident in keeping one of the Greens busy for a while if he had to.

‘Let’s not intervene until she needs me to…’

Percy wasn’t in a hurry to butt in. As worried as he was about Micky, he knew there was nothing more they could do to help him, besides maybe sending him some mana.

On the other hand, he could tell his cousin was on the cusp of a breakthrough. She was obviously working on upgrading her spell, her water arrows growing sharper and faster with every second. As tough as her fight was, it was also a precious opportunity he didn’t want to rob her of.

Over the next several minutes, he carefully observed her battle, while sending all his excess mana to Micky. From what the crow said, the Holy Child was still hot on his tail, but the bird was able to keep him at a safe distance. Adding in the teal mana keeping his stamina up, and he shouldn’t have much trouble reaching his destination in time.

Soon, a change occurred in the battlefield, drawing Percy’s attention. Elaine focused a lot of mana in her palm, compressing it to a small marble at first, and then a glowing azure dot, before unleashing it towards the other water mage with a deafening boom.

A bright flash filled the scene as a shockwave rippled outwards, all the way to Percy’s feet. Still, his eyes were glued on the devastation his cousin had just unleashed. Several obsidian spears had been pierced cleanly, in a straight line to the man’s chest. The poor guy’s blood was already pooling on the ground, his eyes glazed over.

Moments later, the other two ran away, sprinting in different directions. A waste of time. Elaine shouldn’t have much trouble killing the first one and catching up to the second by herself.

Still, to avoid any accidents, Percy hurled his scythes in front of the fire mage, blocking his path as his cousin went after the other one. The guy shot a few fireballs at him in a panic, though it wasn’t very difficult for him to avoid them.

Percy kept him occupied for a few more seconds from a safe distance, buying time for his cousin to deal with the other one before coming over.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! Ambushing the Divine Root?! A Holy Child’s entourage?! You’ll be hunted to the ends of Remior for this!” the guy said, resorting to threats upon realizing he couldn’t escape.

Percy sighed.

“A little late to worry about that…”

The guy raised an eyebrow at first, seemingly puzzled by his response. It wasn’t until a moment later that his pupils dilated, the realization dawning on him.

“It’s you, isn’t it?! The Ghost Alchemist! The one on the posters!”

Percy shrugged, but he didn’t deny it. They had to kill this guy either way.

“Huh, then you’re even more screwed than I thought!” the man chuckled. “You might think it’s not a big deal since you’re already fugitives, but people will come to investigate what happened. You’ve just brought more trouble to yourselves. Why would you even do such a thing?”

“I didn’t have a choice. Your boss is currently chasing after my friend.” Percy said.

The man frowned.

“The crow? It did seem a little too smart for a lone beast. Still, is it worth messing with a Holy Child for a bird?”

“Let me flip the question.” Percy replied. “Is it worth for everyone to lose their shit over that brat? To spoil him rotten? To let him do whatever he wants – harm whomever he wants – with no consequences? How long have you even travelled with him? I bet he hasn’t treated you guys very nicely either.”

The mage didn’t reply immediately, seemingly pondering Percy’s words.

“What choice do we even have? Our world can only exist as long as people like him are there to hold the sky up. Does it even matter how they treat us? We’d all be dead without them. Not just me, but my family too. Same goes for you, and those you love. It is what it is.”

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Percy remained silent. He didn’t really have a good response for that. As much as he hated it, he knew the man wasn’t wrong. He could try spouting some grandstanding nonsense all day long about not wanting to be protected by scum like that Holy Child, but it would be nothing more than hollow bullshit.

The truth was that everyone did depend on the Divine Order. For all their flaws, Remior was better off for them. The only thing he could do, was to further his resolve in changing the status quo one day.

Not saying anything else, he hurled his scythe at the fire mage. The guy didn’t even resist, knowing he couldn’t escape. Soon, the weapon cleanly bisected his soul, as the fifth and final member of the Divine Root’s squad dropped dead.

Percy glanced around. The place was a complete mess. They had to clean everything up before anybody saw it. Assuming that hadn’t happened already.

His expression fell as his eyes landed on some teal fragments littering the grass some distance away.

‘So much for never having to reforge my armour again…’