Chapter 268 The Second Layer Of The Magic Ruin (Part 3)
Daimon noticed the confused expression in Liliana's face, but he wasn't any better, as a knight himself, he knows it better than them, battle aura is related to vitality, that's why knights have stronger bodies, long lifespans regardless of their races, their vitality is way higher than that of mages.
Undead and vitality don't go together, that's an iron set rule, or it used to be until Horals who technically was an Archmage while serving as that smiling ghoul's bodyguard, changed to have a more human like mind ser but also became a knight all of a sudden.
From every point of view, Horals now didn't match any of the characteristics of a bone general, with the only exception that below his full body black armor, he was a skeleton with battle aura burning around it.
"Speaking of that, I know you wouldn't do it, but I suggest you to not mention it near your fathers... because Horals was the reason as to why the high-pitched voice guy and the bulky shorty guy left in a hurry that time", mumbled Daimon.
The Risha sisters started at each other and then nodded, while they bitterly smiled.
"I guess we should get used to all these weird things happening around you...", said Leslie as she poured the soup, they prepared in bowls for everyone.
'Good luck with that little bird girls, even I can't keep up sometimes'.
'Eve is right'.
'That's my darling for you'.
Evangeline spoke in a voice only the soulmates and Daimon could hear, and both Narasha and Aisha agreed with her.
Daimon chuckled, he accepted the bowl of soup from Leslie and noticing the expectation in the faces of those three, he dug in.
Aisha saw the Risha sisters smiling from ear to ear, and she also gave the soup a try, just to be positively surprised by their cooking and she gave them a knowing gaze.
"So, you three even prepared for this", mumbled Aisha as she finished her meal.
"Ahem, mom and aunts told us that that magic ruins are unpredictable, so learning some daily life skills like cooking was a good ides".
The Risha sisters knew Aisha was just teasing them, but they still managed to avoid the bullet.
Once everyone finished their food, Daimon saw a message popping up in his sigil lector.
[Everything it's done young master, may come in?]
The bone general originally used his mana sense to watch over Daimon, but he ordered him to not do so.
Somehow, he interpreted it like his young master might be engaging in night activities with one of the many women that surrounded him, so he developed the habit to always ask before coming in.
Daimon answered and not even a second later, the black armored Horals appeared and kneeled down in front of them.
"Reporting to young master, I squeezed till the last bit of information from those guys, what does the young master want to know?".
Daimon thought about it for a couple seconds, knowing perfectly that while Horals has become more human like, he is quite literal in many aspects, for example, he could bet, that Horals forced those guys to even tell him where and when they were born, in perfect detail.
"I guess the most important question would be, where the hell are we right now, the sigil lector works but I can't contact anyone besides those in this room, after all".
Horals nodded, and then he took out a book out of his storage ring, after leafing through nearly half of it, he stopped on a specific page and answered.
"To ensure the validity of this information I separated and interrogated them one at the time, making sure they knew the result of wasting young master's time".
After saying that, Horals proceeded to tell Daimon all the information regarding this place.
Turns out, the magic ruin is divided in layers, the one in which they used to be is the most external one, which is basically "inhabited", with the exception of fishes and other low level magic beasts.
That also explained why Daimon didn't find any kind of useful resource in the islands, and only got something decent after dealing with the creatures and the people from the tribes.
The combination of the harsh restrictions over anything above the Lord rank as well as the lack of resources, was why these "natives" of the magic ruin didn't appear before, in the case of the creatures, one of them happened to see a member of the tribes, and having found a new source of food, and a possible way out of the ruin, more were sent to scout.
Those were the ones Daimon and the others have been dealing with, what could be considered low rank soldiers in the culture of the creatures.
Anyway, they currently arrived at the second layer of the magic ruin, which was the habited area too, consisting in four seas each ruled by a different force.
This was the border of the Mermen Sea, and as the name implied it was ruled by a race which had characteristics of fishes and other sea beasts, some of them were pretty human like with the exception of scales or gills on their necks, but there were also some which were quite different.
For example, out of the four they captured, after Horals took their helmets off, he discovered that the three which were riding on the flying fishes, had a head which resembled that of an octopus, on the other hand, the Archmage only had gills which were hidden due to blue necklace, as they were a weak point, according to a little test Horals ran on the spot.
The other three seas, where the Bone Sea, that was ruled by the creatures, whose race was actually called "Skelefiend", and the third sea, the Elemental Sea is where things got pretty interesting, because apparently it was ruled by a race that was single element by innate... similar to the tribes.
"I guess that's how the princes of the tribes happened to have those beads that protected them from the wave of red light, they possibly had some connections with the rulers of the Elemental Sea in the past", mumbled Daimon before telling Horals to continue.
The fourth sea is called the Maelstrom Sea, and it's the most dangerous to navigate in, because there are countless of whirlpools, storms and other phenomenon happening on it all the time, still it is ruled by the many pirate crews that have escaped from the other three Seas for a variety of reasons, with the pass of the time they had offspring and produced new races, forming their own force.
Horals also explained the true nature of the whirlpool that welcomed them, they were unlucky enough to appear in one of the worst three areas of the Maelstrom Sea, which casually shared a border with the Mermen Sea.
Unlike the other two where some unknown magic beast was involved, this one was a permanent natural disaster, one that forbid anyone in its waters to use mana or battle aura and swallowed everything with its insanely strong currents, anyone that fell inside was never to be seen again, so Daimon and the girls were the first ones to actually escape from it.
"What bastard set the exit of the dimensional tunnel in such a stupid place", mumbled Leslie with an outraged voice, they nearly died at their arrival for no reason at all.
"What's their strongest powerhouse?", asked Daimon, if the external layer allowed Star and Lord ranks then...
Horals, then drew a couple of words with his battle aura on the rock floor.
"Apparently they have different names for their realms here young master, Star, Lord and Arch ranks are all englobed in what they call Mortal realm, dividing them in three stages which each represent one of the divisions we know off".
"But their leaders which are what they call "Stellar" ranks... are the equivalent of Emperors, unfortunately those guys are lowlifes and don't know too much about the higher echelon so their number is still unknown".
As if Horals suddenly remembered something, he took out the armors and the other belongings of those Mermen which he "confiscated, from his storage ring and placed them on the floor.
"I nearly forgot about it, we are currently inside what could be considered a prison, that is used by the Mermen citizens as a training and playing ground, those guys are mercenaries that came to lower the population, with those tokens we can leave this place, I took the liberty of retrieving the ring and the token of the guy that young miss Aisha killed before, so there is one for young master and the misses too".
The Risha sisters stared at each other, although they might have those tokens, since this was a prison there is no way, they wouldn't be scanned by a guard or some device before leaving, so it was more probable that they would have to fight their way out of this place.
And of course, Daimon knew about it too, but as they saying goes, goods exist to remedy problems.
"Take one you three, with this we'll be able to walk out through the front door without any problem".
Daimon took three bracelets out of his inventory, their designs were of a mix of green and black colors, and seemed to be pretty simple, but the Risha sisters knew Daimon wouldn't bluff about anything... also they were jumping in their hearts over receiving what they thought was a little present for him.
"Mm?", as soon as they put on the bracelets, their pupils contracted realizing the true nature of this "little gift", they were now using a bracelet of the god of mischief.
"D-Daimon this magic treasure is...", the three of them seemed a it dubitative, normally this type of treasure has a limit of uses, and it will be handed down in the family as a legacy.
Daimon smiled at them as he pointed at his own bracelet, that was visible for them right now.
"With that you'll be able to trick scans and other detection type devices and magic arrays, it's what I used so that the academy wouldn't notice I'm a knight, if you are my friends then don't hesitate and accept it".
The Risha sisters sweetly smiled and started inspecting their bracelets, needless to say they were marveled by the usefulness of it, the first one to start playing with it was Leslie, she changed the color of her hair multiple times before returning to her original color.
"This time they are bracelets, who knows the next time it could be rings~", Aisha saw them all excited about the bracelets and she giggled.
As soon as Aisha's words made their way to their ears, Yvonne, Liliana and Leslie shily blushed, but their bright smiles gave them away.
Horals who watched the whole scene, inwardly nodded.
'As I thought young master is quite fond of women, as his first general I shall present him the most desirable beauties and treasures, to celebrate his conquest!'.
Ignoring Horals's plans for the future, Daimon asked Horals to bring the Mermen so that they could disguise as them.