Black Onyx - Forgotten Magic

"I heard the Blood Sun Viper sect was behind the monster horde thing…"Gerald casually said. "Apparently they are the ones excavating the monsters."

Tabbi's eyes bulged out and he almost shouted out a question, "Where have you heard that, who told you?!"

"In the forest, I met a certain… Elf."

"Ah." Tabbris instantly calmed down and his shoulders lowered as he murmured under his breath, "Of course it would be those stupid Elves… Spreading around sensitive information just cause they can."

"You met them?" Gerald was surprised, but not by much. Of course, the son of the Kingdom's general would have some contact with them.

"They requested an audience with The King," he got a confirmation from Tabbris. "And they wanted him to provide accommodation for them, those arrogant pricks!"

"...And? Did he agree?"

Tabbris scoffed disdainfully, "Of course not! But one of the ministers quickly offered to lick their boots and invited them to his home. I don't understand why His Majesty still keeps that man by his side, he's clearly working against the interest of the crown."

"Oh yeah," Gerald suddenly said, "I have been wanting to ask this for a long time… Does this King have any kids? I don't think I ever heard anyone mention any."

"It's… Complicated. The Queen, his first wife, is infertile, sadly. He took another mistress many years after and had two children with her, but most are unwilling to acknowledge them… They are also quite young still, so…"

"Does this not create some tension in the court? Is the Kingdom truly peaceful or are there some things happening underground?" Gerald was genuinely curious. He was here like what? Half a year? He didn't have time to get to know all the factions yet.

Tabbris laughed bitterly and shook his head, "Now it's all peaceful, of course. But as soon as this war is over and the threat of the Empire's invasion is over they will spring up like mushrooms after rain. In some sense, this attack is a blessing in disguise for His Majesty."

"Truly…"

They both remained silent for a bit, lost in their thoughts. Just staring blankly over the battlefield out into the distance.

"Anyway…" Gerald eventually said, "I can't promise you anything else, but you can be sure that no monster will take a single step over this wall while I'm here. I spent to much time and effort to get to where I am and it would be too much of a pain to relocate somewhere else."

Hearing his promise, Tabbris made a genuine smile, "I knew I could count on you! Just stay here, you will see some pretty amazing stuff if things don't get better soon, look forward to it!"

Gerald shook his head and shooed him away with a grin, "Go! Go do your stuff, don't let your old man catch you slacking off now!"

The men laughed and then said their goodbyes. Tabbris went on with his inspection along the wall and spoke a few words with the defenders every once in a while.

Meanwhile, Gerald returned to his meditation and slowly increased his mind powers. He couldn't be bothered with the politics. Too complicated and too headache-inducing, even more than the Giant itself.

It would be best if The King cleared out his opponents while all of this chaos was going on, but he didn't really care. Gerald just hoped he would be left out of their schemes after the war ended.

A day went by quickly as Gerald meditated. His mind expanded at an astonishing rate as he absorbed the spirits of the dead, hundreds of them, in quick succession. It reached up to a point where even his Magic Eyes advanced another step.

The area of effect didn't increase and he could still only see Mana about one hundred meters away, however, the clarity with which he saw the world increased greatly. In truth, he didn't even need eyes to see anymore. As his consciousness expanded, he could watch the world from a bird's eye view. Nothing could hide from his sight!

Well, that was if he focused on one place, of course. His brain couldn't pay attention to thousands of square meters at once.

He calculated his Mana recovery and came up with roughly 400MP/h! Four times increase in just a few days. And to think some people had a problem recovering 10MP in a single day.

Hilarious!

Gerald was now worth hundreds of common men, not in physical strength, but in magical ability. And yet…

He sighed and opened his eyes. It was getting boring just sitting there and meditating for hours, even if it was beneficial to his growth.

His teammates were fighting and killing a few Goblins here and there while being completely protected. He didn't have to worry about their safety and so he decided to fly around for a bit and see what was happening elsewhere.

The warehouses and various buildings near the wall were taken over by the army and turned into weapon-storage facilities. Armed guards stood at each corner and gave unkind gazes to anyone that came too close.

Gerald hopped along the rooftops to get a better idea of the situation. Hearing people chat he quickly understood what was going on.

Monsters broke through the south gate at midday and slaughtered around a hundred civilians. The soldiers were overwhelmed, but luckily the elite Royal Guard quickly came to lend a hand and patch the breach.

The mountains of corpses have long ago reached the top of the walls, and now the defenders had to fight with the monsters face-to-face, and the wounded on the human side also started to pile up.

Earthen Blood completely ran out hours ago, and arrows were also in short supply. Fletchers were doing their best to make more, but even with extra help, the production was still too slow.

As such the swords and spears became a mandatory second choice and the battles quickly turned into a bloody melee.

Gerald wasn't completely heartless, and so he helped by tossing out a volley of Fireballs and Stone Shower wherever he saw human defenders getting overwhelmed.

He was moving quickly, so the fighters on the ground rarely caught his figure, at most some saw the back of his cloak as he disappeared behind the wooden roofs.

There was another reason for his expedition. Although Goblins rarely carried weapons, Hobgoblins were much more likely to wear simple armor made of leather and metal.

He took those pieces of iron and bronze as well as their dropped weapons and stored them into his Ring. He needed a lot of metal for his plan, and since it was the middle of a war, it was currently impossible to buy, at least at reasonable prices.