LEGENDARY GUARDIAN 25 Chapter 25: Team Formation

"I can never get used to this" he muttered as he scanned the s.p.a.cious room. A room which was over thirty meters in length and over fifty meters in width had only a stone chair and a stone desk, such a waste! Yet they say the magical cla.s.ses are given more privileges when compared to the physical cla.s.ses

"Let's not think about it" Derik muttered… he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the grey-haired man who patiently waited for Derik to speak first "I heard you sent for me a few days ago… I'm sorry I couldn't respond on time" Derik said, slightly bowing. The grey-haired man laughed out loud and quickly got on his feet, this young lad has no reason to apologize. Not only did he secure the fourth position in the inter-cla.s.s exams that is two positions ahead of the battlemage Karl instantly boosting the reputation of the archery cla.s.s, but he was also unconscious according to the information given to him by the Lockwood family. When he heard that Derik had regained consciousness, he initially planned to give the young archer a week or two to rest but before he could send someone, Derik had already arrived

"You don't have to apologize… I'm truly sorry we were unable to provide you with proper equipment before the inter-cla.s.s compet.i.tions... if we did you probably wouldn't have been damaged to this extent…" The grey-haired man said "You should get more rest… allow your body to heal" He added

"You don't have to apologize... my lord… the archery cla.s.s provided me with a combat technique… that is enough… Also, you don't have to worry… the Lockwood Family has a really powerful oracle working for them…. My injuries are gone" He lied. The grey-haired man could only smile if Derik knew the significance of his achievement, he probably wouldn't be so meek. Due to Derik's courage even when the oracle Cyrus and the others had lost hope, taking on a small army of goblin chieftains, goblin warlords and ogres head-on, he instantly became the peoples favorite, more than half of them has expressed their interest in joining the archery cla.s.s, hoping to be like their hero Derik. Even now the budget allocated to the archery cla.s.s has increased tremendously due to Derik's performance in the compet.i.tion, if someone should be thanking the other, it should be him

"Even if your injuries are gone, you should still feel a little fatigued so I won't spend much of your time" the grey-haired man spoke first, he grabbed a scroll tied with a red ribbon bearing the adventurers a.s.sociation insignia on it and tossed it over to Derik

"The a.s.sociation has already a.s.signed you to a team," He said with a sad expression on his face

"So fast?" Derik gasped in response.

Naturally, the inter-cla.s.s compet.i.tion aimed at showcasing the skills of the top recruits in each town in the Gyro kingdom to the world, this will not only advertise their skills and attract investors/sponsors but this will also enable them to separate strong from the weak. Normally it is expected that the weak are grouped with the strong in order to stabilize a team's overall strength that way no team can be branded 'useless' but the case is different when it comes to the adventurers a.s.sociation, currently humans waged war against magical monsters, supernatural monsters and foreign races which possess high intelligence and military capabilities comparable to that of humans if not greater, to defeat such beings, the world is in need of legendary weapons, magical tomes, ancient relics and any other alternate source of power which may allow them to stand at equal footing against these races. To protect the human race was is a duty left for the military alone, this is something everyone must partake in, the adventurers a.s.sociation and the Holy church included, to do this powerful adventurers team capable of successfully raiding dungeons and returning with valuable resources capable of boosting the overall strength of the human race. Even though this was a good thing for Derik, this also meant that the archery cla.s.s has lost all control over the archer. Normally three years of intense training is carried out, recruits who perform excellently well in the inter-cla.s.s compet.i.tions are instantly grouped into teams. These recruits are then engaged in special training for a year where after which they are taking a final exam.

"The only recruits who qualified to take part in the teaming process are the seven recruits who took part in the inter-cla.s.s compet.i.tions… even the a.s.sa.s.sin… Daemon barely made the cut… we have you to blame for that… you didn't give her a chance to s.h.i.+ne" the grey-haired man laughed.

"She is quite skilled… but she relies on those magic weapons too much…" Derik said wearing a bitter smile on his face. What the grey-haired man said was quite true, on the first day of the compet.i.tion, he forced Daemon to push herself to her limit, thereby putting her in a weakened state which prevented her from showcasing her true capabilities, that's probably why she ranked the seventh amongst all sevens contestants. Her dependency on the magic weapons truly prevented her from showcasing her true potentials.

"You're right… magic weapons may come as a gift and a great companion when in the hands of someone capable of drawing out its full capabilities but in the hands of someone like Daemon… it's only a curse" the grey-haired man spoke nodding his head in agreement with Derik's initial statement

"Well, I guess this is goodbye then…" Derik muttered. Even though this was what he wanted he still felt sad, by the way, he has been here for over six months and has made a lot of friends leaving them behind is something he wasn't psychologically prepared for.

"Don't talk like that… The archery cla.s.s will always be open to you… if you ever need our help in future just visit" the grey-haired man said while searching for something. When he finally found it, he picked up a little leather pouch and handed it over to Derik "Consider that as a parting gift from the archery cla.s.s…" The grey-haired man said

"This…" Derik gasped when he opened the leather pouch

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A carriage carrying the Lockwood banner sped through the streets of the commercial district, heading towards the outskirt of the commercial district where the Adventurers a.s.sociation branch in Briton is located. Throughout the journey, Derik remained silent as he stared at the little gla.s.s tube in his hand which was filled with light blue liquid

"Magic enhancement potion" He muttered

In this world, potions are considered a G.o.dly item capable of saving one's life or improving one's strength, yet only a few potion masters capable of brewing high-quality potions exist in Gyro so naturally, potions in this part of the world are 'expensive'. This is the major reason why adventurers always bring back important body parts of monsters defeated and collecting herbs when in the field because these things are necessary ingredients of different potions with different effects. Even basic minor healing potions sell for a considerable amount of silver coins and this potion is only capable of healing minor wounds, naturally, these products are expensive due to the scarcity of items/ingredients. This was especially true for magic enhancement potions which could permanently increase the magic power of its user, these potions could easily sell for over a hundred gold coins, that's if one can find a seller. These potions were not in any way inferior to bronze level magic weapons in terms of price and some cases, it ends up being more expensive. Not only is the potion capable of permanently enhancing one's magic power but it can also help hasten the development of magic in one's body. During the Magical cla.s.s test during the Adventurers a.s.sociation recruiting exercise, there were people who placed their hands on the crystal orb and it remained the same, these people possess zero affinity to magic, in other words, they can never gain magic powers meanwhile there are also people like Derik who was able to produce a faint glow when he placed his hand on the crystal orb, such people possess magic affinity although its still not properly developed. To rectify such an issue, these set of people can only rely on magic enhancement potions or any other magic enhancement item to help develop their magic. But this is usually not feasible because of the rarity of the potion and the market price. To think the archery cla.s.s was informed of his magical test results, he didn't even want to think of how much difficulty the cla.s.s went through just to proclaim such a G.o.dly item.

"Thank you" he muttered to himself as he quickly removed the lid and emptied the contents of the gla.s.s tube in his mouth. His body felt warm and light, at this point almost all the veins in his body were visible and he struggled to remain calm, his body suddenly felt stiff and his vision began to blur, he tried to speak but the words refused to come out. He could only wait patiently for his consciousness to completely fade away.

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"Sir… Sir…" a voice echoed in Derik's ears, he slowly opened his eyelid and saw the coachman at the entrance of the carriage with a worried expression on his face, he smiled slightly and did a quick body check just to see if his body was still the same. Naturally, mages possess unique traits depending on their magic powers, just like Karl who possessed blood-red hair and blood-red iris because of his strong affinity to Fire magic and also Cyrus who possessed golden hair and snow-white eyes due to his strong affinity to light magic. If the potion worked, there has to be a visible change

"I wish had had a mirror with me" He muttered

Not planning to waste more time, he jumped off the carriage and walked towards the castle which looked more like a fortress belonging to the adventurer's a.s.sociation