Elemental Cats

While writing the note, Toz figured he might as well play one last prank, so he doodled a little on the receptionist's face as he slept on the desk in the back room. When he finished, he and the cats left the Resource Center and returned to their tent.

Nil wanted to start reading his grimoire as soon as possible. And Toz and the others, mainly Mindle and Scrael, wanted to go back and deepen their understanding of the ways of magic by thinking about the weird ways to use magic they had found in the grimoires. Since Asilean never found any grimoires of his elements, he felt a little left out, but he just turned his focus to improving his magic in the way he had started doing since they got to the battlefield.

Nil focused on his grimoire. Mindle sank into her own mind as she began reflecting on the knowledge they obtained while reading about the grimoires, and Toz and Scrael did the same while alternatingly going through the grimoire.

They still hadn't found out what was going on in the tent, but they could tell that people were preparing and making sure things were ready. And considering they were in the middle of a battlefield and it was war, Toz could guess that it had to do with some offensive action.

And if he could figure that out, Toz could also realize that it was probably the official and aboveboard part of the general's grand plan to end the war. And when his thoughts had come that far, it didn't take much for him to conclude that it probably wasn't long until it was time for the secret and covert part of the general's plan.

It was the part of the plan that would hopefully give Toz the opportunity to earn enough contribution points for Dyra to be able to justify him tagging along to the Transcendent Realm. Based on the general's behavior and reaction when he invited Toz to the secret room, Toz felt it was likely that he would be part of the plan.

But even if it wasn't, Toz still had to make sure they earned enough contributions to follow Dyra. So, in addition to studying the grimoire and deepening his understanding of fire, Toz also spent some time sneaking around the camp and listening to the various conversations people had about the upcoming battle.

If he wasn't added to the infiltration part of the plan, Toz had to be ready to do as much as possible with the other part since it seemed like anyone could join that one.

After spending contribution points on their tent and Garden, his total amount had decreased. The tent and Garden were relatively cheap, but Toz was still far from having enough to justify accompanying Dyra to the Transcendent Realm. And if the general's plan was a success and the war ended following its execution, Toz wouldn't have another chance to gather contribution points.

Without enough contribution points, he and the cats wouldn't be able to follow Dyra to the Transcendent Realm, where Taienra had been taken by Yill's associate. If that happened, they would have to either find another method or rely on their own capabilities to reach the Transcendent Realm.

But relying on their own capabilities meant that they probably had to reach the transcendent level before they could go to the Transcendent Realm. They weren't even at the eighth level yet. Breaking through to the Transcendent Level would surely take a lot of time. Time they couldn't afford to waste since Taienra was in trouble.

And the only other people Toz and the cats knew from the Transcendent Realm were the Lightning Rascals, but Toz didn't think they were close enough for him to ask something like that of them.

Dyra hadn't intentionally made it seem like a big deal. But considering Toz had never heard of the Transcendent Realm before and that he had to have a large number of achievements under his belt for her to bring him along, it probably wasn't a minor thing to bring a native of the Mortal Realm to the Transcendent Realm.

Although it might not be as friendly, Toz still had a deeper relationship with Dyra than the Lightning Rascals. And Dyra also felt guilty over how things had transpired between them and what had happened to Taienra, so she had more of a reason to bring Toz and the cats to the Transcendent Realm than the Lightning Rascals did.

Of course, Toz could ask the Lightning Rascals and see how they responded. If things worked out, even without Toz and the cats gathering enough achievements, it would be great, and they could proceed to finding and saving Taienra.

But since they weren't in a position where they could rely on things working out well in the end. They had to take precautions and make preparations in case things went awry.

And one of those preparations Toz was making was to have as good a grasp of what was going on as possible. His information-gathering skills weren't as great as Lucy's, but they were still good enough for him to find out what was happening in the base camp.

It took him a little while and some piecing together various clues. But Toz found out that the general was planning to launch a full-on offensive maneuver against the Fortress of Death with almost all the Alliance of Kingdoms' forces.

But the reason people were doing their best to follow orders and looking like they were contributing wasn't because of some newfound sense of duty. There was apparently a multitude of rumors going around that one could use contribution points to buy a safer spot in the army that would march on the Tribe of Death's base.

Since people realized how dangerous the general's plan would be, they naturally wanted to increase their odds of survival. However small they might be.

Toz really wanted Lucy to return. He could sense dangerous undercurrents below the supposedly simple military maneuver, but he couldn't tell what they were without Lucy's help.