But Noah’s analytical mind traced a deeper, more manipulative layer beneath the surface of this natural arrangent.
He also knew that this was the guild’s way of testing his capabilities, whether he was really worthy of the S-rank.
The central administration at the headquarters wasn’t a charitable institution; they didn’t hand out the highest classification in the land without demanding a receipt written in blood and results.
They had granted him the status based on the staggering magical anomalies he had displayed during his initial encounters, but an administrative declaration was a fragile thing until it was baptized in the fires of a true crisis.
It might have seed like he just got it on a whim, a sudden stroke of eccentric fortune that had bypassed decades of traditional guild service, but he now had to prove himself.
The eyes of the guild were firmly fixed on his performance through Varis, and if he stumbled, faltered, or displayed even a single shred of amateur hesitation inside Vale, his worth in their eyes would surely drop.
He would go from a strategic masterpiece to a suspicious fluke, and the imnse leverage he needed to trade for Kael’s beast cores would evaporate before he could even begin.
A cold, bitter spark of resentnt flared deep within his thoughts as he considered the wider landscape of the S-rank hierarchy.
Apart from that, the two other arch magi in the guild hadn’t even shown themselves, leaving such a risky mission for only him to handle.
The kingdom possessed three individuals holding that supre rank, but the other two veterans had conveniently remained tucked away in their heavily fortified domains, pleading political obligations or administrative delays while a catastrophic anomaly festered on the border.
They were letting the newcor bleed first, treating him as a disposable scout to test the depth of the waters before they risked their own legendary reputations.
Noah clicked his tongue, a short, sharp sound that was instantly swallowed by the whistling wind of the open field.
The gesture was a rare, physical leak of his internal irritation.
The guild was really just using him to get what they want. They were deploying him as a high-grade tool, a spearhead to crack open the terrifying mystery of Vale city so they could secure the territory and preserve their economic supply chains without risking their established assets.
They viewed the legendary Mr. White as a highly efficient resource to be spent for the greater good of the collective.
Yet, as quickly as the resentnt had flared, it cooled into a dark, pragmatic understanding.
Even though it felt a little weird to be positioned as a chess piece on a board he didn’t entirely control, he wasn’t mad about it, since he was using them also. It was a mutual, unspoken contract of absolute exploitation.
They wanted his supre destructive output to clear out a regional catastrophe; he wanted their vaulted storage lockers, their infinite supply lines, and their direct access to the high-tier beast cores required to fuel Kael’s explosive Draconic evolution.
As long as they kept treating him with the absolute reverence demanded by his S-rank status, he would gladly play the part of their apex weapon, carving through whatever horrors lay waiting in Vale while systematically bleeding their coffers dry to build his own private empire.
Varis broke him out of his thoughts.
"What we’ll use to get there is right in that shed," Varis said, his voice dropping into a steady, business-like tone as he explained the imdiate logistics of their transit.
He pointed to a small shed behind him, the structure built from weathered, dark timber that looked completely ordinary and unpretentious from a distance, designed specifically to blend into the rural landscape so it wouldn’t draw the attention of wild beasts or passing rcenaries.
The three of them then walked towards the shed.
As they entered, Noah’s eyes widened slightly in shock.
In the shed was a strange mana beast.
The creature stood tall in the center of the space, its massive fra absorbing the incoming sunbeams and casting a looming silhouette across the back wall.
It looked similar a horse yet different, sharing the sa elongated head, elegant neck line, and powerful musculature of a traditional equine stallion, except it was twice bigger and had thicker legs also.
The sheer physical scale of the entity was staggering; its back rose far above Noah’s head, and its limbs were thick and dense, resembling solid stone pillars wrapped in heavy, corded muscle rather than the slender legs of a common beast of burden.
Its coat was a deep, iridescent charcoal that seed to shift under the light, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic undercurrent of dormant elental energy.
Attached to the massive fra of the creature was a large, heavily reinforced chariot.
The vehicle was a masterpiece, its carriage body constructed from a dark, light-weight alloy that had been ticulously etched with intricate, glowing stabilization runes.
The wheels were broad and lined with dense, shock-absorbing rubber composites, designed to withstand the brutal, unpredictable terrain of the outer frontier without transferring the impact to the passengers inside.
Noah had heard about these mana beasts before, and they were built for travels.
They were legendary within the logistics divisions of the guild, elite biological assets reserved exclusively for rapid deploynt missions and the secure transit of top-tier personnel across borders.
Mana beasts like this had already been properly tad or grood from a young age, raised in highly controlled environnts deep within the capital’s private breeding sanctuaries.
From the mont they hatched or were whelped, their natural, destructive instincts were systematically suppressed and redirected through specialized training arrays, bonding them to human commands while simultaneously enhancing their innate stamina and elental resilience through a strict diet.
Noah scanned it with Eye of truth, getting the na.
’Great horse.’ he thought.
It was only a mutated beast, lacking the complex intelligence or the independent elental casting matrices of a true ancient dragon like Kael, but it was one of the best for long-distance travels.
User Comments
0 comments from readers