Sanctuary
Sanctuary
Dozens of different races could be seen inside the flourishing valley which had the size of multiple football fields and everything suddenly felt like a dream to Jason.
It was as if he was in a completely unknown habitat.
He had to pinch his cheek, to check if he wasn't dreaming. The pain that followed was real enough, and only now did he slowly begin to grasp that everything around him was real too.
There were predators and prey lying next to each other and not a single beast attacked the other.
Rather, it looked like they were peacefully living with each other right now if not for a horrifying glimpse in their eyes.
Something seemed to have scared them out of their wits.
Confused, he looked at his teacher and Mr.Greil was about to say something when an old but wise voice behind him spoke,
"These beasts are seeking asylum here, and won't hurt humans due to our temporary truce...
All of that is because of the Goblin King and his subordinates…
You could say for these beasts here, this is their sanctuary and the only place they could retreat to at the moment…"
Turning around, Jason saw a white-haired old man with a long beard walking towards them with a cane in his hand to support his lumbering steps.
He was wearing a white robe and Jason got a feeling that the old man seemed to have lived a long life.
But contradictory to his earlier thought another one emerged in his mind after he activated his mana eyes.
It was as if an electric current spread through his whole body and he couldn't control himself anymore as he began to shiver violently.
Jason was almost unable to speak a single word but he forced his mouth open and managed to ask, "W-who are you?"
Thanks to his mana eyes, he could see that this old man's mana channels were slowly decaying due to an injury. However, that was not even important as the mana core Jason saw right now was larger than all mana cores he had ever seen. Additionally, a solidified prismarine-crystal could be seen firmly planted within his mana core.
Even if the old man seemed to be weak, a single minute of exposure to the old man's mana would probably kill Jason in an instant.
But the only thing that lessened Jason's worry about the old man's strength was that his mana core looked extremely unstable and fine cracks had spread through it like cobwebs.
Jason began to step back subconsciously until he bumped into his teacher.
He looked up with shocked eyes and saw his teacher's calm and gentle expression that reassured him that everything was alright.
The old man chuckled a little bit before he began to cough up blood.
Apparently, he was extremely sick and would die soon and Jason felt bad about being scared of him.
It took the old man some time before the bout of coughing subsided and he looked into Jason's eyes, saying:
"Young brat, I'm the governor of Astrix and also Vanguard´s main school´s principal! My name is Matthew Drake, but call me old Drake. Little Till has told me some stories about you.
I´m sorry that he had to abduct you, but it was important to bring you here. I hope you can accept my apology. Little TIll can explain everything about the sanctuary later to you, but there is something else we have to do."
Based on the first few sentences spoken by the old man, Jason felt that Matthew Drake was extremely polite and reasonable for someone hailing from a big family...
Thinking about it, he thought it was either his age or his life experiences that must have made him gentle.
There might as well be another reason, but Jason didn't care about that.
The only thing important was that Old Drake had a reason to bring him here and it was obviously not for casual talk. They had something to do!?
"Little Till said that you had been out in the two-star wild zone and during your hunt, you found runes inscribed on weapons and pendants, is that right? Furthermore, before picking you up he also told me that higher-ranked beasts had begun to enter the lower wild zones... Can you tell me everything, please? It's very important that you include every little detail!"
Jason was still slightly perplexed that such an authoritative figure spoke politely to him. Without further ado, he took out some inscribed stone weapons and two protection pendants before he began explaining everything that happened today.
Both Mr.Greil and Old Drake listened carefully and didn't interrupt him even once and half an hour later, he finished his explanation with his killing spree of the hundred goblin soldiers.
While listening to Jason, old Drake became curious about the young man´s combat prowess as his explanations were only based on facts without showing off or unnecessary emotions.
It was as if Jason was reading a report that had nothing to do with him being involved in it.
Having maintained his calm in front of several powerful beasts a complete rank higher than his own was definitely not something everyone was capable of.
Even if Hobgoblins were only at the evolved rank and still easy to kill with mana guns, Old Drake gave him high credits for that.
Till was also astonished that Jason had been unruffled in such a perilous situation but he was still trying to assess the depth of his student's grit and tenacity.
As such, he just accepted the fact that his student was a cut above the rest and thought of ways to increase Jason's strength, even more, to gain a prodigious asset for humanity against the foreign intelligent races.
After that, Old Drake and Till inspected the runes on the weapons and pendants carefully, while old Drake furrowed his brow after a while, before saying something to his teacher.
Jason decided to stay quiet after he finished his explanation and both his teacher and Old Drake began to talk wildly about certain facts that made no sense to him as he couldn't understand half of the big and complex terms they were using.
"These inscriptions are made out of low-rank beast cores and of bad quality, but that doesn´t matter considering the fact that the Goblin King provided these weapons to their weakest combat force.
It looks like he is using them as scouting and hunting groups at the same time.
What scares me, is the fact that there are so many inscribed swords, and furthermore, these unknown runes on the pendants.
We have never heard about projectile protection runes made of beast cores and these are perfect to prevent long-distance assassinations.
If the Goblin King can produce higher graded protection runes, we can forget our long-distance artillery advantage.
We might as well be forced to fight them in close combat where their numerical advantage could threaten us!!" The old man explained calmly.
Till sighed and added "That's true, but there is not much we can do about it. We don't know where the Goblin King is or what rank he has already entered.
We have already lost more than 10 Magus-ranked scouts which were proficient in concealing themselves, and Grandmagus ranked individuals with stealth abilities are extremely rare on Astrix.
If I were to search for the Goblin King, he might as well attack the city with his troops while stalling me… That's not something we can accept.
And, your injury looks worse while your strength decreases with each passing day.
I don't even want to imagine how much time you have left, Old Drake!
The Goblin King could already be a Lord-ranked beast while it most likely has intelligent subordinates. A single runemaster wouldn't be able to inscribe runes on every single weapon owned by the massive number of lowly goblin soldiers that are at the awakened rank.
The only good information Jason brought is that the weapons from the Hobgoblins were used by humans and self-made, which lets me think that their runemaster is only capable of inscribing low-grade runes.
If we can't search for the Goblin King, let's just bomb the magical zone!
We figured out the rough position of their settlement, let's just annihilate it with a mana amplified hydrogen bomb!"
Listening to his teacher, Jason's eyes widened… they wanted to bomb the magical zone, destroying it completely? Were these goblins really so dangerous?
But wouldn't that also devastate the landscape while only killing all goblins below the magical ranked stage?
This wouldn´t eradicate their root problem!!
And this was exactly what the old man said.
"You know that you can just kill these little ants with a flick of your hand, and I think you're also aware that the main problem we face is the Goblin King with his direct subordinates.
There might be more than dozens of Guardian-ranked Goblins, otherwise, the beasts inside the valley wouldn't be there hiding behind us humans who they loathe, right?
Till thought for a moment and stated the simplest solution.
"Can't you just request help from Canir? Once another Lord rank individual arrives, we will be able to obliterate the thread without sacrificing Cyro city or even the whole Island, right?"
When the old man heard this, he frowned but he couldn't deny the logic.
Both Jason and Till heard the old man mumbling before a holographic screen appeared in front of him.
"How annoying... Please don't send the annoying stinky brat!" Old Drake almost pleaded and before writing a message to his clan's headquarters, he informed the government about their "plan."
[Stalling time until reinforcement arrives!] It was their simple plan and the government could rack their brains to figure out how to stall time as Old Drake had more than enough to do.
Mr.Greil turned to Jason and signaled him to distance himself a little bit to give Old Drake some privacy.
But before Old Drake could even request for reinforcement he felt that someone or something intruded into his illusion-mana-shell magic circle without breaking it.
Normally one could only enter this magic circle through a certain position or code, but the intruder didn't use anything like that. This meant the intruder was either more knowledgeable than him or possessed a certain ability.
A sudden voice was transmitted into his mind and his eyes widened in shock and confusion at the same time.
'How is he still alive? He survived that…
Impossible!'
Old Drake listened carefully to the voice, and before Mr.Greil and Jason could distance themselves from Old Drake, he told them that he had something to do.
Both Jason and Mr.Greil could see sweat forming on Old Drake´s forehead and he had a petrified look on his face. He closed his holographic screen which had already been connected to someone at Canir, where a blue-haired middle-aged man could be seen shouting something. The man disappeared from their sight within seconds as nobody answered him.
Jason was only astonished that Old Drake was still capable of running so fast even if it looked to be painful. He asked himself, not for the first time since morning as to what was happening today...
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