“Wait!” Kyran hissed and grabbed Anette’s arm pulling her back into the cellar.
“What?” Anette exclaimed in surprise as she looked at Kyran questioningly.
A thin purple disc appeared on Kyran’s right palm as he reached for the hovering blue orb, destroying it instantly. Simultaneously, he activated the Regis Body Tempering Technique and observed the surrounding.
Everything happened in under three seconds.
Initially surprised by Kyran’s action, Anette realized something was wrong with his expression and remained silent.
Kyran closed his eyes and strained his ears. In just two seconds, he finally heard footsteps at least thirty meters away from their location. Based on the weight of the steps, it was done by humans, and they were a lot. Right now, he could not judge the exact number nor guess what they were doing.
‘Are they people of the Templar Code?’ Kyran wondered as he opened his eyes. ‘Are they here to patrol this area? More importantly, why does this place smell like blood? Was there a fight?’
Kyran was tempted to use the Regis Blessing to enhance his senses further. He was only hesitant because his Draconic Magic would erupt, and he did not know if its magic signature reflected that of a Regis. If those people were from the Templar Code, there was a good chance they might have a device that could detect magic signatures and magic aura. He did not want to risk it.
“How deep into the ruins is this place?” Kyran asked in a low voice without turning to Anette.
“Not that deep. We found this place the first day we entered. Although we got lost, we did not venture too deep.” Anette replied in a whisper.
“What did you find?” She added after seeing his guarded stance.
“People. Lots. Probably dispatched by the Templar Code to patrol this place,” Kyran answered honestly. He did not plan to hide what he found because it was better for Anette to know of the possible danger they would face as they ventured around the ruins.
Anette nodded her head in understanding. She looked calm, but she was a little surprised that Kyran noticed their presence when she did not.
“How far are they?” She asked.
“At least thirty meters, but,” Kyran finally looked at her and added, “I smell a strong stench of blood everywhere.”
Anette squinted at this revelation. No wonder Kyran pulled her back to the cellar.
Though the smell of blood indicated that there had been a battle and that it probably ended sometime, Kyran’s decision to pull Anette back was not only because of the danger of being detected.
While one of his reason was to reaccess the situation while hiding in the cellar, his main reason was to avoid the thick stench that might stick on them.
Because of his talk with Gage and Nolan about people having distinct smells, Kyran was made aware that there were beings with the ability to distinguish others by their scent. Even if the people Kyran found thirty meters from here did not have this ability, it did not mean the reptilian beasts did not.
The blood around them did not necessarily come from humans but beasts. If that was the case, imagine if a beast smelled a human that had a scent of blood from their kind, the beast would definitely hunt down that human.
In Kyran’s case, he was not afraid of being hunted. With his unique circumstance, beasts would hesitate to mess with him. But what about Anette?
She was not a fragile damsel in distress. With her Alchemy knowledge and possible Magus status, Kyran was sure she could fend for herself. However, he was not worried about her lack of strength.
Back in the Valley of Morte, when Kyran and Cyneah appeared at the mutated Basilisk’s cave, didn’t it attack them even when he was not using the Cloaking Array? Kyran guessed that the reason the mutated Basilisk attack was not that it recognized him but because of Cyneah. Just as Anette said, female preys were very attractive to reptilian-type beasts.
If a female prey had the stench of their blood, Kyran could only imagine how many frenzied reptilian beasts in the ruins they would attract.
“Soon the blood stench will also contaminate this space, we need to get out of here,” Kyran said.
Anette frowned slightly. They could not leave this place through the hatch, so their only way out was to ‘warp’. But Kyran was still unfamiliar with this place, so he would not be able to warp them out within the ruins.
‘His not planning to go back to the cottage is he?’ Anette thought in a panic. If that was the case, he might even think of coming back here alone. No. If he did, he only knew of the cellar, so… Was he planning to use the transmission scroll again?
Before Anette could voice out her doubts, Kyran went over to the cellar’s walls and started to examine them. After a few seconds, he knelt on the floor and touched it as if looking for something. Then he went down on all fours and pressed his ears on the ground.
Anette’s eyes widened as she realized what he planned to do.
‘If there is no other path, make one,’ she thought with a slight smile.
Finally, Kyran straightened and looked at Anette.
“There is a hollow space at least ten meters below. Let’s go there from here,” he said.
Anette agreed with a nod. She started to rummage through her coat pocket.
“Then let me make something for us to dig—.”
Before she could finish her sentence, the dark cellar lit with a faint purple light.
Anette turned her attention to Kyran and saw a one-meter radius round purple disc on the ground beneath his feet.
“I’ll go first to scout the area below,” he said.
Without waiting for Anette’s reply, Kyran operated the purple disc and descended below, completely hollowing the ground.
Slowly, Kyran also descended with the disc.
Anette’s eyes widened in surprise. However, she managed to remain composed as she watched Kyran’s descent.
“Be careful,” she called after him.
Kyran only nodded in response.
After a few minutes, Kyran finally reached the hollowed space. He could actually reach it in seconds if he extended the purple disc downward. But if he did that, it would use a lot of magic energy and cause a considerable magic fluctuation in the surroundings. In the end, he decided against it in order not to alarm anyone nearby.
Using the Regis Body Tempering Technique, Kyran observed the surrounding. His eyes had already adjusted to the dark, so he managed to make out that the hollowed space was a big tunnel. However, he did not see any foundations around. There were no underground beasts nearby as well.
Confirming that the tunnel was safe, Kyran roused his magic, and he warped back to the cellar.
“There is a tunnel below,” he said as soon as he appeared behind Anette.
Anette’s heart almost jumped up to her throat when she heard Kyran’s voice behind her.
“Goodness!” She hissed as she whirled around to face him, both hands on her chest.
“Can’t you appear normally?”
“Sorry,” Kyran apologized with an amused smile.
He looked at the hole on the ground and replied, “Warping is faster than jumping back here.”
Anette gave him a blank look. If he jumped back from that hole, it was not normal either!
“Nevermind,” she sighed in resignation. She had to get used to her godson’s magic, or she would end up having heart failure every time he used it in front of her.
“Did you find anything else below?” Anette asked, getting back on topic.
Kyran shook his head.
“Nothing worth noting.”
“I suppose we can only go from there.”
Kyran nodded his head and added, “Once I sense its clear, we can return to the surface.”
Anette nodded in agreement. She understood what he meant about ‘clear’. If he sensed there were no longer people above ground, they would return.
“No need to warp,” Anette hastily said after seeing Kyran summoning purple rings around his feet.
“I’ll take us below,” she added and took out a lump of clay from her coat pocket.
Kyran released his magic and looked at the clay in Anette’s hand.
“Is that what you did? Warp your way to Noser and return to the cottage within an hour?” Anette asked while splitting the clay in her hands and started to mold it into shape.
“Yes.” Kyran replied, keeping his attention on her hands.
“No wonder,” Anette replied with a sigh. “In just a few days you can already use it. Nolan said your family sealed your magic. Typically, a sealed magic means you also can’t communicate with your magic core, thus, resulting in you unable to understand what your magic. Now that the seal has been lifted, it should have taken you months to establish a connection. But it appears, it does not affect you much.”
Kyran was not used to idle talks. But he was interested in the topic Anette found for them, so he did not mind.
“How do you know about magic cores?” He asked.
“Oh?” Anette looked at him, distracted, “Did you not learn it from your parents?”
“No.”
Anette tilted her head to one side. “Then who told you?”
“Can’t I know about it from reading books?”
“Impossible. Information about the magic core is not available in any books. Technically, unless you heard it from your parents or Nolan, you should have no knowledge of it,” she replied with a faint smile.
She resumed what she was doing.
“Anyway. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. You can tell me when you’re ready. Besides,” Anette looked at Kyran meaningfully before adding, “Apart from your mother, I am the only human who knows a lot about the Void Master.”
Kyran’s brow furrowed after hearing this. So far, only Stella appeared to know something about his predecessor. Anette might not know about Stella, so he did not say anything. But knowing that his mother also knew a lot about the Void Master piqued Kyran’s interest.
However, before he could ask Anette about it, she suddenly threw the clay she was molding in the air. Slowly the clay grew in size.
The clay had turned into two broomsticks with a saddle on top of their handle floating in midair.
‘Creation magic?’ Kyran was rendered speechless.
Sigma was a Transmuter with earth innate magic. It made sense to Kyran how he could create things because of it. However, most of the things he built were weapons. Seeing Anette make something out of clay and apply creation magic to it had broadened Kyran’s understanding. It appears creation magic was not as simple as combining two or more elements.
“Done. Let’s go,” Anette said and hopped on the broomstick close to her.
She looked at Kyran and smiled, “What? Is it your first time seeing a ride like this?”
Kyran could only scratch his ear in response as he went to the other broomstick.
“Normally, this kind of ride will need to take magic energy from you. But my creation is nothing like that. It will move as long as there are energies in the surroundings, all you have to do is command it, using magic sense.”
…
Kyran gave her a blank look.
“Ahahaha, don’t worry. My magic sense is enough for us both,” Anette told him.
Kyran could not help but scowl as he sat on the broom. He hated how most people around him reminded him how he could not use magic sense!
Kyran did not know they were not doing it on purpose, but because he appeared to be highly capable and overly powerful at times, they forgot he was a newbie who did not know how to use something as basic as the magic sense.
‘I’ll learn it after getting the rare stone,’ Kyran swore to himself.
“Hold tight,” Anette said before descending from the hole.