After reaching an agreent with Elder Ming, Warden's work on finishing the main shell of the west front had been progressing well. On the fifth day, they had almost completed carving runes on all three steles.
Of course, it wouldn't have been possible without the help of Elder Ming. Instead of the four additional adepts that Warden had requested, the elder presented himself and single-handedly completed a stele on his own, matching his own accomplishnts. However, the speed at which the elder worked was far spectacular, taking only two days to finish the humongous 64,000 runes.
Honestly, Warden didn't think he'd lose out much in comparison to the elder in the skill of Runesmithing. It was simply a play of rank. Elder Ming was a gold ranker; his rank was multiple tis higher than Warden's. Of course, he'd have so advantages over him, not to ntion that the elderly man was full of experience in this sort of job.
It was evening, and Warden had almost finished his part of the carving on his stele. He hoped to finish it before nightfall. Currently, he was hanging on the top of the huge stele, completing the last touch-up. His four assistants were probably sprawled on the ground sowhere, burning with exhaustion.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Warden completed the last layers of the few Tier-5 runes remaining. Now, the only thing left was to check if there were any faulty runes mixed in the array of scripts.
Warden jumped down from the twenty-odd ters tall stele without any fear, his landing barely creating an impact on the ground. For the past month, he had been experinting with his runes and found that Anti-gravity runes were particularly good for this sort of task. rely a dozen simple Tier-1 Anti-gravity runes could save him from creating a large hole in the ground.
Of course, he could also implent his energy to do the job, but that wouldn't be very efficient.
Runes were a remarkable aspect of magic. Warden was pretty sure he would be able to fly using the Anti-gravity runes. Well, the runes could let him fly now, but it was more like falling in the opposite direction than flying. To redy that, he needed to do a little more experinting.
Anyway, back to work, Warden put his arms against the stele and was just about to infuse his energy into it to inspect when a voice called from behind him.
"Well, you seem busy."
Warden turned to find Agnes, looking refreshed with wet locks of hair on her shoulders. She probably had a dip in the steam on the west side before coming here.
"Evening, Captain," Warden greeted. "When did you co back?"
"Yesterday," Agnes said. It had been a couple of weeks since he had seen her. She went on the expedition to secure the essence vein they found, along with whatever riches they could find from the inheritance ground.
"I actually ca looking for you in the morning for a spar and to have my equipnt repaired. I couldn't find you, obviously; heard you're busy…" she gestured towards the stele, "with this?"
"You an this magnificent erection?" Warden grinned. "Which I only managed to mount after putting all my lifeblood and energy into it for the last five days."
"Please, you can do better with your innuendo," she snorted in displeasure.
"Bah!" Warden chuckled. "I got this opportunity to lose my condemned title in exchange for repairing the damaged barrier. I have nothing better to do, so I took it."
"What a surprise, I got sothing similar just this morning as well," Agnes laughed. "If I hadn't known better, I wouldn't even question this generosity."
"You got a chance to cut your years of service as well?" Warden asked, recalling Agnes had about six years of service left to complete before she'd be freed from the front lines. "That's great news, you know—"
"Hold your horses, bud," Agnes sighed. "It isn't as simple as just running so errands."
Then she explained what kind of opportunity she got. After listening to her, Warden found it was sothing far more complicated than fixing the barrier of the main camp. She was to accompany a team of elite rankers into the inheritance ground and secure the riches, which were not simply limited to the essence vein, to get her pardon.
There were still many strings attached, like ensuring the safety of the elite team and whatnot.
"So tough, huh?"
"Especially so, after I ca back from that subspace," she said, letting out an exhalation. "But it isn't an expedition I can decline."
Warden frowned. "Are they compelling you?"
"I was, after all, condemned," she nodded. "Not to ntion the treasures and opportunities present in the subspace are not sothing the higher-ups can overlook, even with what they lost in this expedition. They are probably going all out with this... I even heard so fancy-pants prince of the Empire will be joining the expedition; I just hope he won't be so arrogant prick that I have to babysit."
This was more serious than Warden had initially thought.
"What kind of treasures will be there that even a prince is coming along?" Warden muttered. "I an, I don't know how the imperial family is... but they should be rich enough to continue for several generations, right?"
"That's the lure of treasures; you simply can't have enough of them," Agnes said, gazing up at the horizon where countless stars were twinkling. "As for the kind of treasures, you can guess what it will take to even tempt an imperial prince."
"Sothing like a soul relic?" Warden said the first idea that ca to his mind.
Agnes smiled, but didn't provide any confirmation. As if he needed any more confirmation.
Warden sucked in a deep breath. A low-iron-grade essence vein is good and all, but a Soul relic was sothing that could give a ranker a chance to transcend gold rank and advance to the ruling force of the world.
"It will only get crazier from here..."
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