Unsealing Emptiness

Ozul would occasionally wake up and check on the situation before going back to sleep.

Raven didn’t really need to drive the carriage; the horses just followed behind the ones in front of it. So she had enough free time to train.

But the progress was slow since she needed to concentrate on controlling her mana. She was an End Stage rank-5 mage, and she just needed a little push before advancing to rank-6.

However, that little push was something that she would have to strive for herself. Despite being just a little push, it required a lot of hard work, talent, and a bit of luck.

Her mana core had already been stabilized, and it would increase in size once she pushed through this last step, declaring her as a rank-6 mage.

Being a mage required great focus. Though there were many mages in the world, it was only because the early stages of mages were manageable and did not require many resources.

.....

Once in the later stages, unless one was born with immense talent, advancing required the use of expensive resources.

The mages first had to incorporate the mana with their mana core walls while controlling the mana inside the core to push outwards to increase its size.

It was a tedious process, and with a single mistake, the core walls could form cracks because of a sudden forceful push.

On the other hand, if there were not enough force pushing the outwards, the walls would become rigid, and it would require more than double the efforts to increase the size.

And if they couldn’t do it under a certain amount of time, the walls would turn so rigid that after a certain period of time, it would become almost impossible to advance without any pills.

Not only did it require complete control over the mana but also peace of mind.

Blaze at this moment was at the Mid Stage of rank-5. He was also on the brink of a breakthrough. But unlike Raven, he couldn’t concentrate enough in this environment. So he was focusing more on his body like Ozul had advised.

They traveled nonstop until it got dark.

“We will set the camps again!” Clive shouted when the convoy approached another area with relatively fewer trees around.

Ozul also heard the shout and woke up from yet another nap. Following others, Raven parked the carriage near a tree and gave the horses some hay that Irvin had brought together with the carriage.

When Ozul got off the carriage, she wasn’t as surprised because she had noticed that he was acting this way earlier this morning as well.

This time it didn’t take long for them to set up camps as they had stored them in their Spatial Rings in a prepared form.

Unlike before, Ozul didn’t directly go into the camp to doze off again. Instead, he was about to head out to train in the open air.

But just as he was about to, he saw something troublesome from the corner of his eyes.

“Heyy!”- A silver-haired girl seemingly ran towards him while shouting.

When Ozul saw the situation, he put his prosthetic hand on his face and faked a yawn before he turned around and went inside the tent. Just as he had got in, he suddenly peeked his head outside and ordered Blaze, “Don’t let anyone in.”

After that, he went back in, leaving Blaze to deal with the predicament.

Clara had been waiting for this moment for the entire day. And when she saw that Ozul was free and not resting either, she hurried towards him, turning a blind eye to the huffing Venessa behind her.

But just as she had shouted at him, she noticed that he yawned and went back inside his tent.

‘Is he going to rest? But I wanted to talk with him!’- Clara thought before running faster.

The sight of her running shocked the other mercenaries, but when they noticed the direction that she ran in, it contorted all of their faces in jealousy.

Unfortunately for Clara, since Ozul did not want to have a chat with her, she had no chance at all.

Blaze stood guard in front of the tent with his head held high. He wanted to appear as stubborn as he could after realizing why Ozul had suddenly ordered him not to let anyone enter.

When Clara approached him, he just held his hand in front of him and said with a heavy voice, “You cannot enter, Miss. Youn- Ahem! Ozul has informed me not to let anyone enter. He is having a rest.”

Blaze kept his icy demeanor even when he was accidentally going to call Ozul as Young Master again.

“But I wanted to talk with him! I have to thank him for saving me that day.” Clara desperately tried to reason with Blaze.

Only when Blaze heard her words did he put the pieces together and remembered that there was an event in which Ozul had killed the assassin, preventing the assassination.

However, Blaze couldn’t let her enter even after realizing why this girl wanted to meet with Ozul so much.

“Forgive me, but I have my orders.”- Blaze coldly spat. He had no reason to be kind to this girl.

*Fuuu...*

It was at this time when Venessa caught up to Clara, panting because she was out of breath.

“Young Miss! You shouldn’t be here. Let’s go!” Venessa was supposed to follow Clara’s orders, but it was also her duty to tell her what is right and what is wrong. And she felt that her current behavior was anything but right.

“But Venessa! I just wanted to say thank you to him. I will leave afterward, promise!” Clara tried to reason with her.

After hearing her, Venessa thought it might actually not be so bad. If Clara could only express her thanks to that weird guy, she wouldn’t have to chase her all day.

“... Okay. But remember, you promised!” Venessa agreed before reminding her that she promised. To this, Clara hurriedly nodded her head like a chicken pecking on the ground.

“Hey, you! Step aside! Don’t you see that we want to go inside?” Venessa scolded when she noticed that Blaze stood unmoving like a mountain, not letting them pass.

“I can’t let you do that. I have my orders.” Blaze didn’t move an inch from his place.

“Who do you think you are?!” His behavior enraged Venessa. She didn’t expect that a random mercenary would dare to be so bold as to refuse them.

Since she was a rank-6 mage, she could easily deduce that Blaze was a rank-5 mage. In anger, she released her aura, trying to scare him with the pressure.

However, she was surprised to see that even when Blaze didn’t back down. Instead, he had immediately formed many ice shards around him and was ready to attack her!

It astonished her because even after knowing that he couldn’t win, this man still chose to fight!

“You lowlife! If this is how you want it, then let me show you-” Venessa didn’t like the attitude of this mercenary. So she had decided to show him his place by fighting. However, she couldn’t finish her sentence when suddenly she felt chills all around her.

These chills weren’t because she was fighting with an Ice mage. It was something completely different.

She wanted to look around her, but the fear took over her body as she started sweating. It felt like some beast was preying on her and would pound at her any moment now. The bloodlust was so strong that even her knees started shaking.

Despite not being able to move her body, she tried to sense where it was coming from only to realize that all of this bloodlust was directed at her from the tent before her!

Only then did it dawn upon her that this was a warning from the man inside the tent-a warning not to touch his men, or he would rip her to pieces even without her knowing!

Only after that did she remember that it was also this man inside the tent who had killed the rank-7 mage without even looking at him!

It meant there was supposedly no one here in the entire convoy who could match his power, not even Sir Hanry!

Understanding her position, she was ready to comply with whatever he asked of her. However, there was a big problem in that-she couldn’t even move to express her obedience!

‘... but what is this feeling inside my chest? Why am I enjoying this!?’ Venessa didn’t understand why, but in this situation where she should be worried about her life, she was getting excited!

Fortunately, Raven appeared on the scene before anything happened. Others couldn’t sense the bloodlust that was directed at Venessa, but it was not that difficult for Raven because she was familiar with it already.

With one look at the face of Venessa, Raven understood who the unfortunate person was. If only she knew that despite being in a tight situation, the maid was actually enjoying it!

“You want to thank him, right?” Raven ignored the situation of Venessa, who was going to drop on the floor any minute now.

“... Yes.” Clara didn’t understand why this girl was asking her this question, but she answered nonetheless.

“And you will express your thanks after disturbing his rest?” Raven questioned with sarcasm dripping from her voice.