Elemental Cats

At first, no one paid attention to Toz's disappointment, partly because it wasn't all too obvious he was disappointed. But when Wulf noticed Toz was looking through the martial manuals, he had to ask,

"Aren't you a mage? Why are you looking through the manuals?"

"Oh, right. I use a sword as well."

Toz pulled out his four-element sword from a spatial ring on his finger.

"But it's mostly a hobby since my magic is stronger than my sword. At least until I find a suitable manual."

Wulf looked at Hayar, and Hayar looked at Wulf, their eyes flashing. It looked like they wanted to turn their idea into a surprise, but since Toz had already noticed them realizing something, they didn't hold back and told him.

"Stris, that blue leader bastard…."

"You know what his inclination is?"

Toz looked at the two pirates waiting for them to finish since it was pretty obvious he didn't know what a person he had known about for less than a day and seen a total of two minutes had as an inclination.

"'He's a sword fighter!'"

Wulf and Hayar told Toz Stris' inclination at the same time.

"Even if he's an earth attribute, he would still hog every single sword manual for himself."

"If we can kill him and take his storage items, there is bound to be something suitable for you!"

Toz smiled as he answered the two pirates' excitement.

"Then I guess I know what we have to do next."

"Yeah. The only problem is that bastard's strength."

"He's that strong?"

Toz doubted Wulf's words since, from what he saw before the Blue Lounge headquarters collapse, the fight between Wulf and Stris had been pretty even.

"I didn't say he takes all sword manuals for himself for nothing. He has at least two techniques that match his attribute and one that doesn't. I can barely beat him as long as he doesn't use those, but he's still pretty fucking strong for a bastard."

Toz sank into contemplation at Wulf's words. Toz was pretty confident in his strength since he had defeated high level beings before, such as the guards in the Blue Lounge fortress and the high level void beasts. But beings who can use spells and manuals are in another league. Toz himself was proof of that. His two spells helped him easily defeat opponents at levels higher than himself. Not only that. Spells also helped in mastering control over mana.

Similarly, mastering techniques helped fighters improve their control and mastery over martial energy. And Stris, who had learned at least three techniques, was bound to have incredible sword energy. Wulf, who could compare to him, probably relied on hard work and talent to catch up to the discrepancy in resources, but even if their martial energy was of similar quality, a single technique could reduce that similarity to worthlessness.

If Toz wanted to kill Stris and take the manuals, he had to either overpower him or make sure that Stris doesn't get an opportunity to use his techniques. However, even without being able to use techniques, Stris' raw martial energy could still protect him from the interference of magic and aura.

Toz's darkness spell would probably have limited effectiveness, and Toz would still have to find a perfect opportunity to use it since Stris probably won't go around the city looking for assassination attempts.

However, if Toz couldn't find an opportunity, he could make one himself. He was good at sneaking around and unleashing a large amount of mana at once, after all. All he needs is one good window to assassinate Stris and take what he wants before disappearing.

Toz wasn't the best at planning assassination attempts, but he knew someone who was good at plots. He also had the means to employ Lucy's plans with ease.

Toz and Lucy began scheming properly in order to both kill Stris and to put Toz on the throne of Pirate Haven as the King of pirates. However, before they began putting their plans in motion, they decided they should bring the rest of their group to Pirate Haven. Since the Bunglehoppers had officially established their position as practically equals to the big three, Toz was sure that they could even bring Taienra over without having to worry about it causing too much of a ruckus.

As long as people knew that Taienra was with the Bunglehoppers, no one would dare rashly approach her, and if they did, they would have to face the combined wrath of the Bunglehoppers, Toz and his crew, and Taienra herself.

Toz and Asilean got up to head over to where Taienra was waiting. Toz left the other cats behind since they wanted to stay in the city. Nil wanted to explore the architecture, and Lucy wanted to continue planning while occasionally causing some mischief. Mindle and Scrael tagged along with Lucy, Mindle because she had started sharing Lucy's joy of watching the world burn, and Scrael to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble.

However, Toz also decided to go alone with Asilean because it would be easier and quicker for the two of them to travel through the Void than to take the boat.

The two of them had both the void and the space element. The space element allowed them to cross great distances at incredible speeds, and the void element allowed them to survive in the Void without being void beasts or being powerful enough to survive the Void's pressure.

Toz suspected he might be able to handle it without using the void attribute when he reached the next division. However, the cats would probably have to reach the transcendent level until they could traverse the Void with only their bodies.

As he thought about it, Toz realized that Taienra's physique, which allowed her to swim freely in the Void from birth, was probably outrageous in comparison to the strength of the other beings in their group. And such a powerful being had been completely outmatched by those people from the Starsling Kingdom.