Chapter 70 - A Lecture In Magic (2)

"Anyways, that's enough. We'll take shifts being lookout. Although I would rather you just be lookout the whole night, I don't trust you enough to not fall asleep." said Arcem as he walked to his tent.

"Naturally you'll be lookout first," said Arcem as he opened his tent to sleep.

"Wait, before you go. Can you perhaps tell me something about necromancers? You haven't said anything about them." asked Arya as he finally remembered Abigail talk about them during his first meeting with Silverfox.

"There's nothing to talk about when it comes to them. Just pray you never meet one as an enemy on the battlefield. To be honest, I don't even know why they are called mages when the title monster fits them better." said Arcem with an almost terrified look on his face.

"Enough about magic, I'm not getting paid to be your lecturer," said Arcem as he closed his tent and went to sleep.

"Well at least I know a bit more about magic now. It seems the fastest way to become more powerful is not by learning more spells but by reaching the 3-star level. And to do that I need a breathing technique. F**k I forgot to ask him how to make one. I'll ask him tomorrow morning." thought Arya as he kept watch for the first few hours before waking Arcem up to take the next shift.

Morning came and the two hadn't suffered any attacks. As they were packing their equipment in silence Arya spoke up. "Is there a way to make my own breathing technique?" asked Arya as he continued packing like he was just asking how the weather was.

Arcem stopped what he was doing and looked at Arya with a stupefied expression. "Don't tell me you don't have your own breathing technique. Is your organization so incompetent that they can't even provide their variants with a breathing technique? Actually, I've been curious myself, does your organization have so many variants that they don't bother with the weak ones like you?" asked Arcem genuinely, as he was shocked by Arya's question.

Most times Mage organizations treated variants like Arya as valuable assets, investing thousands of gold coins and elixirs just to raise their power. However here Arya was, an ice variant who hadn't even reached the 1-star level. At first Arcem had thought it was because he was incompetent, but now he started to wonder about that.

"How is it possible that his mana signature is at the level of a tier 2 0-star mage if he doesn't even have a breathing technique?" wondered Arcem as he sensed the mana signature Arya's core was emitting again.

"You know what, never mind. The short answer is no, you can't. But if you were as powerful as a 5-star mage you might be able to create your own, though it would be way less effective than even the weakest magical bloodline's inherited breathing technique."

"The longer a breathing technique has been around, the more effective it has become through years of refining." answered Arcem quickly as he got atop his horse.

"We have a long way ahead of us. Let's not waste time." said Arcem as he pulled the reins of his horse and it bolted forward leaving Arya in the dust.

"A variant without a breathing technique, and furthermore he has reached the second tier all by himself? If he is what his organization considers trash than I wonder what monsters they must have. Asphomel, just what have you gotten yourself into?" thought Arcem as he rode on ahead.

"This asshole," said Arya as he spat the dust that Arcem had created out of his mouth and took off on his horse as well.

Once again the two rode without anyone talking. The area from where they had set off was at the northeast of the Kingdom of Erandel so they were reasonably close to Belgard. However the Kingdom was vast, it would take at least 5 days to get there if they rode their horses nonstop.

After riding for a nearly 13 hours, the sun was beginning to set once again. "We're close to the town of Alclara. It's just an hour's ride away." said Arcem as he pulled out his map to confirm their location.

"How are you able to tell where we are?" asked Arya surprised that Arcem was able to tell their exact location without so much as a GPS.

Arcem simply gave a smug expression and pointed to the sky. "The stars." said Arcem as he pulled the reins of his horse, once again sending dust in Arya's direction.

"I will definitely kill him before we reach Belgard." thought Arya as he followed close behind Arcem.

"Do you hear something?" asked Arcem as Arya caught up to him.

"No, are you going crazy? Let's go, its getting late." replied Arya annoyed by Arcem's actions.

"Shh. There's something here. I can feel i-" Arcem was about to say before his horse bolted causing even more dust to cover Arya's vision.

"Why are you acting so childish?" said Arya as he was getting fed up with Arcem.

As the dust cleared, Arya couldn't see Arcem's horse anywhere. "Arcem?" shouted Arya as his horse neighed frantically. Arya tried to control it by pulling its reins but it didn't listen. It kept neighing and strafing in the opposite direction.

"What's wrong with you-" Arya was cut off as his instincts were telling him to run away.

"Help!" shouted Arcem in a muffled pained voice.

It was too dark for Arya too see but he could tell that the ground where Arcem's voice was coming from was bloody due to the glittering reflection that the moon made on the blood.

"What happened?" asked Arya as he approached the area where Arcem's voice came from.

"How would I know. My horse just fell down in a bloody mess. Help get this thing off me." said Arcem in a slightly irritated voice.

Arya had a wild grin on his face, akin to that off a demon as he approached the immobile Arcem. "It seems I was blessed with the opportunity to kill you earlier than I thought." said Arya in a soft voice, similar to that off a pyschopath.

"Stop joking around and help me up!" shouted Arcem in pain. He felt his leg slowly snapping under the weight of his horse causing him intense discomfort.

"Look at you, can't you take a joke.." said Arya as he reached the place where Arcem lay and held out one of his hands, pulling out his dagger with the other.