Chapter 454 – Worthy Dreams

After Elicia headed to the previous floor with Azura and Peter, Damion began making his way to the S Rank floors. Phil was taken back into the Familiar Space, and he flew at top speed through the various floors slowing down only when forced while traveling through the Fire Caves.

As he traveled, Damion passed a few of the slower A Rank mages on the B Rank and A Rank floors. These mages appeared to have been either taking their time or looking to make a bit of profit before heading to the more challenging floors to train. It did not matter much to him, he knew there would be stragglers, but when these mages saw him zoom past, they suddenly realized they might get left behind if they did not get to the S Rank floors.

On the forty-first floor Damion found the majority of the A Rank mages scattered around the area meditating, each trying to find the power in themselves to advance. Watching over the A Rankers was Mage Teft, who greeted Damion with a smile.

“I see your mission was accepted by a fair few. I wonder how many will be able to advance in the next few days?” Mage Teft commented as she looked over the gathered mages.

“Even if only a few advance they will still greatly increase our ability to affect change on the Mother World.”

“With their aid, pushing into the Mother World is possible. But do you truly believe you can undo the enchantment that has caused all of this?”

“I won’t know until I try. I’ve been able to boost my understanding of Nashto above anyone else I know. If I don’t have the ability to undo the seal, who does?”

“That is a very good point. Will you be revealing everything to these A Ranks and to the S Ranks once we reach the Mother World? Or will you ask them to take your word for it that you are the only one who can do it?”

Damion knew what Mage Teft was alluding to. Him being a True Mage with multiple affinities. If he did not reveal it, then there would be a question of why he was the one that had to go in to reverse the enchantment. However, when he did, he had a feeling there was going to be quite a bit of unexpected fallout. Not wanting to be overheard too easily, the pair began a casual stroll that would take them out of ear shot of the A Rank mages.

“I don’t see that I will have much of a choice. It might actually be a good thing. If people can see that our training method works, won’t we be able to recruit more students to our school?”

“We already have a class of two thousand in the first year and the students old enough to begin schooling over the next few years will be even larger. If it was not for so many children having already been tested, our class sizes would be more than we could handle in Avalon.”

“I know, that is why I think the other magic academies need to see that the method works, sooner rather than later. The sooner we can put an end to the testing, the sooner the greatest generation of mages Nerotath has ever known can begin.”

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“A little too sure of yourself aren’t you?” Mage Teft questioned.

“Maybe, maybe not. The grimoires work. We know what is possible. Now all we have to do is achieve it and then push on to whatever is next.”

“Worthy dreams,” Mage Teft told him. “But do not forget to focus on the here and now. We have ahead of us possibly the greatest series of challenges in our world’s, and maybe the Mother World’s, history. Do not forget that we first have to survive the day.”

Damion thought for a moment and worked to recenter himself. Mage Teft was right. If he got too focused on the endgame and not on getting there, then everything might turn out to be for nothing.

First, they had to clear the midpoint of the Avalon labyrinth. Then they had to make it to the Mother World. Once on the Mother World they had an entirely new set of challenges. There was no way for them to know, or even for the Iblis to know, where the labyrinth was going to connect to. The other end of the labyrinth already existed on the Mother World, somewhere, but it could be in the middle of nowhere, or worse, in the middle of Alfar territory.

This was something Damion had no answer to. All he could hope for, was that if they were in the middle of Alfar territory, he would be able to Portal everyone to Ardnet before the Alfar became aware of them. Their mission to undo the magic seal would be made much harder by Alfar interference, however, that was not Damion’s greatest fear. He feared that if the Alfar discovered the labyrinth connected to Atlantis, they would attack humanity through it.

This meant secrecy was important, as well as swiftness. As long as the Alfar were kept busy, it might not matter if they discovered the labyrinth. If they are unable to divert troops to an assault on Nerotath because of the Iblis then the result was the same.

Still, Damion hoped the labyrinth would open in Iblis control lands, or at worst, the wilderness or goblin controlled lands.

“I have not forgotten. Once we clear the midpoint, I think then it will be time for greater explanations,” Damion told her.

“Do you think they will believe you?” Mage Teft asked.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult. You haven’t seen my hair since I last advanced my affinities. If I push a few more affinities up higher I will look like a proper rainbow.”

“They will want more than just words.”

“Don’t worry, I have plenty of ways to prove my talents to them. If they still doubt me after a quick display then they are just deluding themselves. I’m going to go train for a bit. Hopefully, we will soon get word of the SS Rank floor getting cleared and we will know if we are at the midpoint or not.”

“Hopefully, what do you plan to do in the meantime?”

“Train. I might be well into A Rank now, but I am still far from S Rank. It will be a great disappointment to everyone if we were to make it all the way to the magic seal and discover that I am too weak to do anything to it.”

“Good, though, I might suggest you head to the forty-second or forty-third floor. With so many A Rankers here you will find yourself competing for the ambient mana. I was just about to suggest some of these fellows move on to the next floor to train.”

“Are the guardians of those floors dead?”

“Yes, when the Assembly moved through they cleared out the guardians on the S Rank floors and have dispatched someone to each floor to see to it that the guardian is killed again when the labyrinth respawns them.”

“In that case, I will head up a few floors so I can let Phil out. I think he may finally advance to A Rank.”