Chapter 77: Cultists in the Shadows

  Emilia and Petra walked through the Hunters’ Market, searching for sellers of large, sturdy monster scales or information that could help them locate monsters with such scales.

  From time to time, Emilia paused to examine objects rich in mana, asking about prices, secretly hoping to find something cheap.

  "They arrested three more cultists yesterday. That makes 20 this week." Petra said, inspecting a scale that was, unfortunately, too flimsy.

  "I can't understand how people are willing to sacrifice everything to become cultists," wondered Emilia, who had just bought a skewer loaded with pieces of Level Two boar drop meat cooked with herbs. It was freshly grilled and smelled wonderful.

  Petra gave Emilia a strange look. She was silent for a moment and finally sighed.

  "Emilia, you are gifted with incredible luck. You unlocked your mana when you were little, and the Great System made you conscious even as a baby. But most of us had to fight tooth and nail for everything. To risk our lives every single day. Maybe those cultists, or at least a significant portion of them, came from very harsh circumstances. Maybe they owed money to gangsters, or had a sick relative. Not all of them do it for personal gain."

  Emilia contemplated this. Cultists turned to one or another of the defeated gods, performing mysterious rituals to gain unholy powers. Many of them crossed ritual boundaries and actively began assisting the old gods, becoming enemies of humanity.

  A month ago, a group of cultists had kidnapped several children who were being trained to handle their mana at Lady Kathleen's estate. A week later, when the guard finally managed to find the cultists’ lair, all the children had perished, their blood and souls used in horrifying, bloody rituals. It was rumored that their spirits could still be heard moaning within the building's walls.

  "Emilia, you also need to be more careful. If the cultists become interested in you, things could turn very bad."

  "I'm more worried about the demigod that has emerged from the depths of Tartarus and is attacking the nearby cities. The situation in Karapelit is critical. If our city is attacked and besieged, we'll have to evacuate. I don't want to run to another city and start everything over."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, it will be awful. I won’t know anyone, the local gangs will try to take advantage of the refugees and extort them, I won't be able to sell talismans peacefully, and, as you said, I'll have to watch out for cultists. They often seek victims among refugees or the poorest people who wouldn't be missed by anyone. I like it here. If I have to move… especially with Kael, he's still small and can't defend himself."

  "Emilia, he's older than you!"

  "But I have magic."

  "Even so, you shouldn't underestimate your brother. I've seen him shoot his bow. He’s quite good."

  Emilia quickly thanked her for the compliment on behalf of her brother and reflected on the horrors of this world. "I need to raise my power as quickly as possible. Dangers lurk everywhere here," she told herself and bit with full force into the grilled boar meat.

  Just then, Zevan arrived, followed by an unfamiliar man. The two approached and greeted them.

  "Emilia, this is Gorul. He’s married to my first cousin and is a hunter."

  "Hello, Miss Emilia." The man bent slightly to Emilia's level, and respect was clear in his gaze. "I heard you can enchant armor with cheaper materials... I have two sons, twins, who just turned 12 and will start coming with us into the mountains next month. Would you be able to..."

  The man hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't know how to continue, but then he seemed to think of something, his face tightened, and his voice became more confident.

  "They are the only thing I have left of my wife after the Great Plague."

  Emilia knew what he was referring to. That was a magical illness that had affected Ronan's parents shortly before she was born.

  "I want to pay for a better enchantment, but we had to save up money for their gear, for permits, and for mana-rich meat, so they could grow up healthy and strong. So now that I've ordered their armor, I'm practically out of silver. I even owe some relatives... Would it be possible to enchant them, perhaps like the enchantment on Zevan's armor?"

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Emilia quickly moved to reassure the nervous man.

  "Yes, of course. When the armor is ready, I will enchant it. But my enchantments are still weak, and I am learning. I don't want to risk expensive monster cores, because when you work with them, the energies are stronger, and they put additional strain on the formation, lowering the success rate. I work with weaker materials, and the defense strength will be slightly under 30 percent."

  "I know, I know, Zevan explained everything to me. The armor is already ready. I have 12 silver... whatever more is needed, I can pay next week."

  Emilia considered this. Her materials were free, and she needed the practice.

  "Twelve silver will be perfectly sufficient. Let's meet in an hour on the eastern side of the market, by Leno's stall?"

  "I will be there."

  Emilia continued to walk around the market, talking with Petra and Zevan. However, they couldn't find information about creatures with sufficiently strong scales, and Emilia purchased a few herbs and a branch from a Level Three magical tree. It had fallen after extremely powerful creatures fought near it, and a group of adventurers recognized its mana and salvaged it. Emilia wanted to make a shaft for her spear so she could channel some of her mana through it. This would give her a chance to practice some offensive techniques.

  An hour later, Emilia met Gorul, and he took her to his house where he showed her the armor. Emilia took a few measurements, but the armor was standard and resembled her own.

  "I think I can manage. I can take them now and work on them. I will tell Zevan when they are ready."

  "Thank you, Miss Emilia..."

  "I'm not a 'Miss', I'm just Emilia."

  "Yes, of course, Miss Emilia. That's just how I talk. What enchanter would pay attention to poor hunters like us? Only if we bring hundreds of silver coins..."

  The man kept talking, and Emilia quickly calmed him down. The two carried the armor to Emilia's house, and before long, she sat down, took out her materials, and began to work.

  First, she carefully cleaned the armor, which was new and already clean. Then, she slowly began to run her hand over its surface, examining it with her mana. This way, she found many problematic spots, which she marked with a piece of chalk.

  "Dispel Ignorance," Emilia activated her skill and actively started inspecting the armor and its weak points. She began adjusting her aura as she touched various spots, trying to attune herself to them. Little by little, she managed to calculate the topography of the armor and the path of the magical lines. After that, she started working with her stylus, carving small lines into the inner surface of the armor pieces.

  Not all places were convenient to work on, and Emilia was grateful for her new stylus, which had a milky stalactite tip and had been enchanted in the elite forges of the Stone Lizards. It effortlessly channeled her mana to the necessary points, and its blade left fine traces on the armor's material.

  After Emilia completed the rough draft of the main lines, she moved on to the internal diagrams. The formation would have seven beams and three central glyphs. Due to her lack of experience and materials, the armor would only be protected from the front, with the back only receiving about 20% of the enchantment's power.

  Emilia took out the mixture of blood and herbs and enriched it with her mana. Then, she sprinkled in ash from mana-rich minerals, more burned herbs, and crushed river stones. She had also learned to smoke the mixture with the bark of magical trees, continuously enriching it with her mana throughout the process.

  Thus, the mixture was enriched three times: once immediately after collecting the blood, once when all the substances were mixed, and once when it was smoked.

  Emilia carefully began to apply the mixture, using a special technique taught to her by Fjorn, embedding a large portion of the mixture directly into the armor material itself. This was an extremely difficult procedure and required a great deal of mana. Unlike talismans, Emilia could stop at certain points to rest and restore her mana. Once she started again, however, she had to re-synchronize her mana, which is why she avoided resting too often.

  The work was slow, and Emilia often repeated some lines, or had to completely give up several times, searching for new paths and recalculating the diagrams. The work progressed slowly, but Emilia raised her skill level for laying formations by a full two levels. Emilia could not believe her luck and quickly offered a prayer to Prometheus and the Great System. Usually, her skills advanced a little more slowly.

  She did not realize, however, how potent the Blessing of Chiron was, which was especially helpful for initial skills.

  At that moment, Emilia had to quickly focus because the pressure of the second and third beams did not match, and their auras were also different by about 10%. Apparently, the glyphs had slightly different mental components.

  "How is that possible? They are identical," she exclaimed in confusion. But even though the glyphs were visually identical, she would need to practice for a long time before the mental component could also be 100% identical. Even minimal differences could lead to serious problems. That is why it was almost unthinkable for several people to work together on a single formation.

  The masters of grand formations had to create a special central formation that could work with many smaller formations laid by different people. However, this was an extremely difficult task, and usually, masters of at least the third level managed and laid grand formations.

  Emilia continued her work and worked late into the evening. She managed to exceed her expectations, and the back part of the armor would not be at 20% as she had promised, but nearly 24% of the overall formation's power!

  She had managed to incorporate a few lines that would absorb additional strain from each of the seven beams. Each of them contributed slightly over half a percent, but since there were seven of them, the total sum was not so small anymore.

  "Maybe I should make them with nine, or even better, eleven beams," Emilia thought, but quickly abandoned the idea. Such a complex formation would be far beyond her current level.