Legacy of the Dark Sage

Just by listening to the two, Owen received enlightenment on how he should tackle the Mass Generation Array.

Kyran observed the three from the side. He stopped short of announcing his arrival because he did not want to interrupt them.

However, Six sensed him and looked up. He lowered his head in respect and said, "Master, you've returned. I have yet to complete what you have asked of me."

Owen and Hamish also turned to him and smiled.

"Disciple Tyr," they greeted.

"I may already be up to something," Hamish continued his eyes glowed in excitement. "I'll write down my ideas first."

Kyran nodded his head, "Go. If you have questions, just ask Six."

"Okay. Thanks!" Hamish bowed slightly to Kyran and without realizing it, toward Six as well, before going to the materials cabinet. He hopped from one cabinet to another with a thoughtful look before taking some items. Once he was satisfied he found an empty circle and started working on his ideas.

Kyran chuckled inwardly. Watching Owen and Hamish's eagerness in learning Array, was like a breath of fresh air to him. People like them were worth nurturing. Both came from well-off families and were only a level below in status of the nobles. However, they were not stuck up like most young nobles. Proof of that was their willingness to work in the Blacksmith Order instead of getting employed by one of the noble families. It should be noted that the Blacksmith Order was filled with low-status members of the empire. Even Chairman Noir came from a poor family. Nevertheless, they were not bothered by it. All that mattered to them was to learn Array from qualified people.

Looking at them made Kyran remember Noir's reluctance in taking in a disciple among the many noble families who presented their 'genius' family members. It was rare to find someone who was as diligent and eager as Owen and Hamish, among the young nobles of the empire after all.

Millie was not an exception either. While she was eager to learn Array, she had ulterior motives for doing so. It was very different from Owen and Hamish who wanted to learn for the sake of learning.

Kyran looked at Owen, who was looking at him hesitantly. But when their eyes made contact, he steeled himself and finally opened his mouth to say something.

"Disciple Tyr—."

Kyran raised a hand to stop him. He already knew what Owen was about to say and he did not really mind. With a smile, he said, "Go ahead and discuss your thoughts with Six. Once you're satisfied you can try it out like Hamish."

"Thank you!" Owen beamed.

Six bowed toward Kyran and replied, "I will do my utmost to assist him, master."

Kyran nodded wordlessly before ushering the two to proceed. After which, he went to the materials cabinet.

Just like Hamish, Kyran stood in front of the cabinet with a thoughtful expression. Without taking anything from the cabinet, he moved to the others. By the time he reached the last cabinet, Kyran's expression had already turned grim.

The highest grade of the available materials was mid-grade! Forget about creating an Advanced Array with these materials, one would even have problems creating a High-tier Array!

Kyran sighed in his heart. It was not entirely impossible to create Advanced Arrays using mid-grade materials. With the correct combinations of low-grade to mid-grade materials, one could achieve the same effect of high-grade to semi-rare materials required in Advanced Arrays.

But Array knowledge in the Human plane was limited. Only those who attained a higher level of understanding in Array would know what to do.

In this generation, only Chairman Noir could do it.

Kyran looked toward the Royal Army's side. Two of their three officers were still huddled in one corner, while the last one was checking all the available materials in every cabinet.

This guy caught Kyran's attention at once.

Sensing someone was looking at him, the officer looked toward Kyran.

Kyran did not avoid his gaze and brazenly looked back.

Judging from the officer's appearance, he was around the same age as Silas. He also had long hair, albeit, it was brown and tied in a ponytail. As for his eyes, it was darker compared to Silas.

Somehow, the officer's dark blue eyes looked familiar to Kyran.

A second later, Kyran realized why he felt that way.

'Could it be...?'

To test his idea, Kyran smiled faintly at him.

The officer returned his smile and nod his head once, before turning his attention back to checking the materials in the cabinet.

Kyran chuckled under his breath. Though their short exchange was simple. It actually held a lot of meaning.

One thing to note from the officer's smile was how his eyes glinted meaningfully. Not to mention, his smile looked similar to Rivka's.

With the appearance of Rivka, and now this guy, Kyran more or less had a good grasp of the Royal Army's distribution of officers participating in a competition.

Looking back at the two officers huddled at one corner, Kyran was at least 80% sure that each deputy marshal was assigned to handle an event, with one officer from under a different deputy being added to their mix.

In any case, Kyran did a quick computation in his head, each deputy marshal was likely assigned two events to handle. Similarly, they had to provide one officer to two different events; one under different deputies.

'It seems, Mannick has done a good job in infiltrating the Royal Army,' Kyran thought and turned his attention back to inspect the materials in the last cabinet. 'If I played my cards right, I can cripple the Royal Army and stop them from providing reinforcements to the Royal Family, Ruin and Deception's armies.'

Nevertheless, crippling the Royal Army was not enough. After all, compared to their overall strength, Ruin and Deception's armies were far stronger than them.

Kyran pushed all these thoughts to the back of his head. He would think about that after speaking to Mannick later. For now, he had to focus on the competition.

With this in mind, he took out a few materials from different cabinets before looking for an empty circle to start working on the Rive Effect.

Meanwhile, in the Solo Competition, after Styx summoned his Nemean armor and bouche shields, he did not  attack Kairo immediately.

Now that he knew Kairo was not an Elementor but a Transmuter, Styx had to change his tactics when dealing with him. Normally, he could attack his opponents head-on. As an Abjurer he was meant to be in front disrupting the opponent's rhythm and giving his allies opportunities to exploit.

However, this was a Solo Competition, not a Team Competition. As such, being an Abjurer, Styx's disadvantage was evident. Transmuters were all-rounded, after all. They could create powerful defensive items to counter the powerful magic attacks of an Elementor while adjusting and adding more substance to their magic attacks in order to penetrate an Abjurer's defences.

The only way for an Abjurer to handle such a pain-in-the-ass opponent was to prevent him from completing his transmutation!

Abjurers were also knowledgeable in Array, and they knew more rune writings than most. Because of this, Styx was familiar with the runes used by a Fire mage.

Though he could not do what Kyran had done during his first match against the Lumley Family, where he managed to change the latter's own magic array and used it against him, Styx could at least find a weak spot to exploit in one's magic array!

Kairo looked at Styx. Judging from the latter's cautious attitude, Kairo guessed that Rake likely realized something about his 'long sword' earlier.

'Not that it mattered,' Kairo thought and smiled slightly. 'Rivka did an inappropriate thing, but that will not affect my goal in moving to the finals!'

With this in thought, Kairo roused his magic as he raised his right hand. A red magic array appeared before him and a blazing long sword slowly emerged in the middle.

'Now!' Styx's expression turned fierce, as he stomped on the floor before making a mad dash toward Kairo.

Kairo simply needed Styx's action. To him, it did not matter if the latter charged at him now, or later. He would simply destroy all of his shields.

"Die you f*cking b*stard!" Styx cursed as he willed all three bouche shields that were hovering close to him toward Kairo.

"Humph."

Kairo looking smug, leisurely pulled out his blazing long sword.

Styx sneered at the latter's confident smile. He released his magic sense, and used its maximum range, before summoning a very small dark-brown magic array close to Kairo's magic array.

Just as Kairo pulled the long sword out of the magic array, a few runes on his magic array flickered. A second later, the blazing long sword's form distorted.

"Wha— ngrgh!"

Boom!

Before the long sword exploded, Kairo made the right judgement to abandon it and jumped back.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The moment he jumped, three bouche shields hurled at him at an astonishing speed in three different directions.