[Ding! Quest Complete: "The First Trial"]
[Ding! Distribute Reward to Host?]
After a little under a month since Juniel had implemented the quest, Aridel had finally completed it, making his first step towards his ultimate goal of being a patriarch. Becoming a squire was a way of earning pseudo-nobility; after being knighted, Aridel would become a noble and be able to start his own house and family.
"Yes." Juniel said. He still had a lot of things to worry about; even after achieving squirehood, there were a lot of new directions to head in and even more things to worry about. Systems were in Caldrithia and possibly closer to Juniel than he'd hoped. Brennan Voss, Aridel's master, could potentially be the host of a system. Which could easily mean death for Aridel and Juniel, as being a squire was, in essence, the same as being the property of a given knight.
In Caldrithia, a squire's life could lawfully be taken by the squire's master; it was just as lawful as destroying one's own property. Where the problem usually lies is in the background of said squire and the social consequences. Aridel, however, was nothing more than a commoner. If killing Aridel was necessary for Brennan, he could. The social consequences would simply be a byproduct of getting rid of a dangerous foe.
[Host is currently in a metaphysical state; the T6 Gene Serum has been administered.]
Juniel was alerted by the message and quickly glanced at Aridel, only to see him still meditating, trying to absorb as much as he could from the herb given by Brennan Voss.
The good part about the Phoenix Heart Herb being a system reward meant that there was a possibility that the other 2 cures for Aridel's curses could also be found.
As time continued to pass during the night after the Selection Ceremony, Juniel got more and more worried.
Aridel was still cultivating.
'So this is how it works…' Aridel thought. Truth be told, Aridel had long since cured his Core Blockage, his Genius Mind allowed him to figure that out easily. What Aridel was really doing now was mind-blowing.
Without any technique or previous knowledge, Aridel was revolutionizing how to amass mana. Since the old times of Bericius Caldri, knights and mages alike used circles surrounding their cores to cultivate mana. Aridel was completely different.
He found it more efficient and outright better to make the mana he was gathering into a sphere that orbited around his core. creating a mini-core. Kind of like the Moon to Earth, or Earth to the Sun, or the Sun to the center of the Milky Way.
The sphere orbiting Aridel's core was composed of one string of mana that wrapped around itself until it took the shape of a sphere. In the end, the string would feed into the core.
One benefit of this was that the core and the sphere which gyrated around it were in constant harmony and could essentially act as one, given the connection. So the sphere was self-sufficient, which, unlike the circles that were independent of the core, meant that excess mana wasn't needed to help the sphere survive. The nature of one's core is different from a circle; Aridel's sphere, however, mimicked the nature of the core.
Circles are meant for two things:
To bolster the strength of the core.
And to make its usage more effective.
Aridel's sphere did that, and more. Not only did it bolster the strength of the core, but it was pretty much a core as well. The raw power of a sub-core was much stronger than that of a singular circle.
The issue was that a sub-core, or Aridel's sphere, was much harder to make than a circle. Without the herb, Aridel wouldn't have been able to make one in such a short time, and if it wasn't for Aridel's talent, he wouldn't have been able to make one at all.
'To think I've missed out on all this.' Aridel sighed after officially completing his sphere. 'If I had this when I faced Kael, maybe the outcome would've changed.'
Truthfully, he knew that wasn't the case; although Aridel's talent was without an equal, Kael's talent was pretty close, and he'd been practising the sword for much longer. There wasn't only a gap in power but a gap in prowess as well.
Aridel remained levelheaded; he knew that if he managed to lift the other 2 curses, Base Distortion and Mana Inhibition, that remained plaguing his life, he'd easily surpass Kael Montrose, right?
Speaking of those curses, dealing with them made the process of making a sphere take way longer. Base Distortion was the biggest problem; his core was a mess because of it, and he had to be extremely careful. Thankfully, the sphere he made helped support his base, keeping it stable, but the process was hellish. Mana Inhibition was different; it severely limited the amount of mana that could be absorbed at once, but thanks to the Phoenix Heart Herb, Aridel didn't miss out on much. He had a limitless supply of mana coming through the herb, so combined with his perception, he was able to funnel mana in and form his first sub-core.
"Is the Host okay?" Juniel sent a quick system message to Aridel, confused as to what had happened.
Aridel stuck a thumbs up at the screen, "Just got a little stronger, that's all."
Juniel smiled at the response from Aridel. They were in this together, whether they liked it or not. The more time Juniel spent with Aridel, the closer he grew with him.
"Your next quest will be issued in 7 days." Juniel sent yet another message. This time he let Aridel know that another quest would be on the way. However, at that moment Juniel wasn't sure as to what to do, so he postponed it. It gave him more time to brainstorm and wait and see if something would come up that would change his plans for his next quest.
The sun began to rise; Aridel had been creating his sub-core in his barracks all night, so the sun starting to rise came as no surprise to him.
A loud knock hit his door. "Aridel!" Ethan's voice came from the other side. Aridel quickly beckoned him inside, to which he was given the news.
"We're moving inside the palace with our master. By the way, what Order is your master in?" Ethan questioned Aridel.
"He's the Vice-Commander of the Second Order." Aridel recalled it was something he picked up when learning all the titles of Sir Brennan Voss. He made it a goal to remember his titles, just in case he needed to announce them himself later on.
"Awesome! We're in the same order! Your master outranks mine, though. "My master is one of the newer Second Order Knights; he's really cool!" Ethan exclaimed; the thought of being a squire excited him. Rightfully so, being a squire at his age was a momentous achievement.
"What circle is he?"
"Sir Frederick Bland is a Bronze Ninth Circle, although soon he'll have his Silver Circle," Ethan responded.
Aridel recognized a discrepancy. Before that influx of information, Aridel originally thought that the Orders represented your strength within the Knights, the First Order being the best, the Second Order being the second best, and so forth. But it didn't seem that simple. Frederick Bland was a Bronze Ninth Circle, and Luther Gillian was a Silver Second Circle. If 18 Bronze Circles went into 2 Silver Circles, that'd mean that Luther Gillian, a member of the Tenth Order, was 2 times stronger than a Second Order member.
Aridel frowned. "Do you know who Sir Luther Gillian is, Ethan?"
Ethan's eyes lit up. "Who doesn't know Luther Gillian? He's a First Order Knight. One of the 10 best Knights in Caldrithia."
"First Order? But earlier he called himself a member of the Tenth Order?"
Ethan had a lot to process in that moment. "You met Sir Luther Gillian!?" Clearly, his main concern was Luther Gillian.
"Yes, but what is the Tenth Order?"
"The Tenth Order takes precedence over the First Order, but it's comprised of Knights from all Five Orders. 10 Knights are chosen by the King and Knight-Commander to represent the Tenth Order; the catch is you can't be a commander or vice-commander of 1 of the 5 Imperial Orders. The Tenth Order represents the Knights who follow the Royal Family the closest; they're extremely important for the succession of the Heir to Caldrithia, as they hold an extreme amount of authority."
'I see. He said Tenth Order because that title supersedes the title of the First Order; it's almost the highest honor a knight could be given. It seems Henry Kartier was lying to me when he said he wasn't completely the strongest squire. Because he was.
Well. Not for long.