AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 107: Start moving II

Year 3, Spring, Second Month, First Week.

The Council never intended to move 800 people in a single group, but in the end, waiting for groups to move between camps became impossible. In their initial plan, smaller groups would cover a longer distance in one day, each group would rest for three or four days before walking another long distance. Unfortunately, they couldnt afford to move so slow because the group identified by their scouts kept moving towards them.

For two weeks, the scouting team only tracked the mysterious groups movements without engaging in visual confirmation. After what happened with the Adventurers and Samia, the Council decided to avoid visual contact unless they needed it, so they couldnt even check their numbers. However, something was definitely suspicious, their path seemed to lead directly to their abandoned camp and towards them. Therefore, there was a big chance they were being followed.

So the Council could only anticipate their plan and move in bigger groups. The dynamic of the new pilgrimage was pretty simple, two groups of roughly 800 plus the hunters would move during the day and make camp during the night. Thanks to the modifications on the protection barrier, they had a healthy environment to rest. However, sooner or later the cases of poisoning and exhaustion would pile up and they would have to stop temporarily to recover.

If they disregarded the pressure of being followed by a potential enemy and the strain of walking the whole day, this pace could actually bring some benefits. For example, they covered more than 50 kilometers in a week, while in the previous plan it would take them two weeks to do the same amount. Another positive point was the camp size, because each camp only had to shelter a little more than 800 people, its size was reduced at least by half.

Unfortunately, moving such a big group had some serious problems. The most serious one was attention, any beast in the region would know of their presence, which resulted in a lot of attacks. Another problem that contributed to the increase of attacks was the lack of numbers to protect the big groups. Even with the additional 200 recent-trained hunters, they could barely offer enough protection. For now, the hunters were holding, but the numbers of wounded grew by the day.

For the sake of fairness and to better deal with problems that might happen during their journey, all departments were divided into two groups. Since they couldnt draw during the journey, the Alchemy Department decided to use this time for teaching, the idea was for senior disciples to give walking lessons about the magic tools and concepts.

Wein was the only direct disciple in the pioneer group, so he was responsible for teaching all the disciples and students. When they divided the groups, he was eager to go with his Master in the pioneer group and leave the others, Anya and Oliver, in the second group. He had planned to use this opportunity to learn from Karl and who knows, maybe even get some tips about Runes. Since the direct disciples already learned all of the Arrays, they couldnt wait to learn how to draw Runes.

Unfortunately, the Alchemist couldnt imagine he would end up teaching dozens while his Master passed his time learning another Rune. If he had chosen to stay in the second group, he could at least divide the lessons with another direct disciple. Anyway, since he didnt have an opinion, it was better to get it done.

Today were going to discuss the magic equipment of the special scouting unit, a.k.a. shadow unit. Lets start with the booster boots Basically, the Arrays create wind currents under the boots to push the user forward. To get the wind energy we use a simple Extraction A. (pentagon form) with a wind crystal, to transform the wind energy into wind we combine the previous Array with a Manifestation Rune. Then, we only need to direct the effect to the boots.

Usually, all the Arrays would need to be drawn in the boots, but with the new marking system, we can transfer the effect directly to the boots. The marking symbol is just a drawing with a concept created by the Alchemist to point to an object outside the Array. Its like a tag that can be recognized by the Array. So, in the end, we just need to draw the mark in the boots and leave the Array and crystals in the coat. To point the effect to the mark, we just need to combine the Direction A. (triangle form) with the mark inside of a Signature Extraction A. (pentagram form). To finish, we add a Stimulus R. to generate more wind.

Now, lets talk about the shadow cover, which is used to cover the user with a concealment effect. Concealment is a property from the shadow element available in MQ crystals that hides the presence of someone or something. To get the property we use the Property Extraction A. (star form) before combining it with the Focus R. to increase its power. Then, we just need to direct the effect around the users body. To do it, we can use a Direction A. combined with the blood of the user inside of Signature Extraction A. (pentagram form). Again, we use a Stimulus R. to increase the concealments area of effect.

Finally, we can talk about the lightness effect, which also needs to cover the users body. Since this effect also needs to be spread through the body, we could use the previous Array to save energy. To use the same output but keep it independent of the shadow cover, we can use an Addition A., this Array groups other Arrays while keeping their effects separated. Now, to decide when to activate one or both effects (lightness or concealment) we need to add an Activation A. (square form). If we combine the activator with each effect, they become selectable, in other words, only active when pressed.

***

On the Mercenary camp.

The leader of the Mercenary group sat around the campfire eating the roughly cooked wind meat from a freshly hunted beast. To most Kingdoms citizens his meal was considered rich, but if any of the former villagers from Caiset tasted it, they would curse the person who wasted such a fine ingredient cooking something so tasteless and crude. However, for the Fighter the meal was good enough, he continued taking large bites as he analysed the few buldings which were previously constructed in the place they chose to make camp. He wondered if these were built by the same villagers they were hunting.

Before coming here, mentioning this as a possibility would make him laugh, but these villagers seemed to be very out of the ordinary. They survived against beasts and resisted the magic energy, which even made seasoned Fighter such as himself uncomfortable. Now, about the buildings, it looked like they were built recently since they didnt have any signs of decay or tear. But how could they make these so fast?

The sudden arrival of the quiet Mage made the Fighter give up on his considerations, he couldnt be careless next to this dangerous figure. Aside from being a sound Mage, which already was reason enough to not cross the woman, she was also a subordinate of the new Wind Lord. Why the new Warden was paying so much and giving this level of importance to some runaway villagers was a mystery to him.

How can I help you, my Lady?

The Mage measured him for a second like she could read all of his thoughts before saying:

Someone is watching us Theyre observing from a long distance, somehow, they never come close enough to be seen

The Fighter started to look around, he wasnt afraid of fighting, but this lurking around made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

What What should we do?

We should say hi.