The beast flew away from the cave, and Frago couldn't help but look at the man who helped him.

Satio was a man with partially white hair on his head and some wrinkles on his face. He also had a cold atmosphere around him. As expected from someone who could kill people efficiently, all without batting an eye.

The man looked at him with a blank expression on his face. "Young Master… why are you all the way out here on your own?"

At this, Frago was a bit embarrassed, and he cursed those adventurers for being useless.

He was one of the many sons of the Pengit Town Lord, and it was now the height of the fight for supremacy. The Lord was showing signs of degradation, and it was time to find a capable heir.

And to be counted as capable, one needed a lot of power.

He couldn't ask many people for help because his brothers held the leash in a lot of them. They even had a lot of connections in various organizations like the Mercenary Hall, which was why he went to the rival faction instead, the Adventurer Guild.

At the same time, he knew that this was a risky mission. He didn't want his reputation in town to be affected in case an accident happened, so he wanted to avoid the mess being so close to home. This was why he went to hire from the neighboring Town instead.

"What were you planning?"

Satio was his maternal uncle, so he trusted him.

"Mother got me the artifact," he said, showing the ring. It was a beautiful ring with dark purple gem and its body had intricate carvings.

Satio's eyebrows rose. It was their family heirloom. "I suppose my older brother believes you'll be the heir of the Pengit family, after all." By older brother, he meant his eldest uncle, also the patriarch of their noble family.

Frago grinned. "I know," he said. How often could their family produce someone with so much potential as him?

He looked at his ring, his heart filled with excitement. However, his mood dampened whenever he remembered that it was not perfect. "I managed to gather quite a bit, but definitely not enough," he gritted his teeth, glaring back in the direction of the smoking cave, now getting farther and farther away from them.

He cursed.

He should've made them suffer more!

"I should've made them suffer more!" Frago cursed. He was so close! Just a few more hours, and he might've felt at least a portion of the power the ancient great mages had!

The history of this world was vast, though a few thousand years ago, people were much more powerful than they were now.

After the Great Cataclysm, all the most powerful mages in the world worked to create strong barriers to control the portals, but the price was that it needed a great majority of the world's essence to maintain.

These were massive and complex arrays that required massive amounts of essence. The magic in the air had become controlled, always absorbed by the strong barriers created by the world's greatest mages.

This was why there had been no Titans, for the physical awakened, and no Eminents, for the magically awakened, born after the portals were locked. Every race was like this, creating a balance, which in Frago's opinion, was long overdue to expire.

This also meant that the amount of essence that had been maintaining the portals after more than a thousand years was unimaginable. Just getting a bit of it, especially after it fermented for so long, was something all mages hoped to possess!

As such, some dark-hearted wizards developed an item that could steal some of the power from the shields. It took decades of experiments and sacrifices to create, but there were prototypes around the world.

One of these was what Frago had in his hand, using the condensed cores of many, many wizards.

This worked best when the barrier was working at its peak. This was related to their placement to the main stars that served their planet. According to their calculations, this month was a time when this was happening, and Frago decided to make a move.

Sadly, the large adventurer team he hired (which was supposed to be composed of the stronger parties available in that small town) was unable to defeat the mobs that escaped the portals after it was weakened by his actions.

Ironically, the weaker adventurers were the ones who survived. That said, he doubted they knew what he had done, but he couldn't risk it. He absolutely abhorred loose ends. Fortunately, those people were dead now. All he had to do was go back home and let someone else handle the aftermath.

His time was too precious. After all, he would definitely be the most powerful mage of his generation!

.

.

At some point, while Frago was busy daydreaming, he suddenly felt his stomach drop, then his whole body followed.

The flying beast suddenly dived down.

"AHH!" He screamed, holding on to the beast's back for dear life. "Ahhh! What's going on?!"

Satio was also confused, and he could only grab his nephew's back as they jumped up and, using his abilities, gracefully landed on a tree branch.

They watched the beast dive into a large mob of Brootrats to steal… a piece of meat? Why would it—

ROAAARR!

They watched as the beast made absolute chaos in the mob, which was no smaller than the one attacking the cave.

"What…"

Satio sneered and blew a whistle, but nothing happened. The beast still ignored him.

Frago frowned. "Tsk, this is why I don't trust tamed beasts…"

However, while the whistle did not successfully call on the flying beast, it attracted the attention of the mob instead. Soon, they were also surrounded by a horde of Brootrats.

Of course, what could small awakened monsters do to them?

A large wave of fire emanated from Satio, burning several with a single move.

Similarly, Frago was also looking forward to using his newfound powers and raised his staff. The stone on his staff's core lit up and so did his dark-colored ring.

"Wind! Come!"

Satio's eyes widened. "Hey, don't! You're not ready—" before he could say anything more, Satio was blown away several meters by a strong gust of wind.

Frago was at a high from the sudden burst of energy, addicted to the immense power. He did not notice how his ring flickered.

WHOOSH!

A strong gust of wind, no, a small storm descended in the area, blowing away the beasts all over, beating them against each other, against the soil, and against the rocks.

Frago laughed as he felt the overwhelming power course through his veins. He raised the ring in his hand with a large grin. He enjoyed the power of the wind, how he could control these hundreds of beasts, throwing them around.

That was until… he felt pain originating from the ring. His eyes widened when he felt the skin underneath turn dark as if it was dying, and soon he felt the accompanying pain in his bones.

"A-AHHHH!!"

He screamed, rolling around the ground as if it would make this feel less painful.

Frago screamed, shrieking like slaughtered livestock. "What's going on??! AHHHHHHH!"

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