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"So that trajectory was pushing it a little too far? I actually missed."
Reon murmured to himself. He had not been aiming for the overseer's neck. He had been aiming for his head.
He had no intention of leaving even the slightest chance that the man might survive after taking an arrow. Fortunately, the crimson bow had proven even more powerful than he had expected, so things had not gone sideways.
"A wizard, a wizard is attacking us."
At last, someone snapped out of it. A tall, thin overseer pointed at the corpse, his face chalk-white and his voice shaking.
Panic spread through the overseers in an instant. They looked around wildly, as though invisible arrows might come flying out from any corner at any moment.
"All slaves are to return to the cells immediately."
Another overseer screamed the order, his whip cracking through the air.
"Move! Anyone too slow will be treated as an intruder and executed on the spot."
The slaves were so stunned by the sudden turn of events that they barely knew how to react. Under the overseers' frantic herding, they started moving like a flock of panicked sheep.
Reon silently blended into the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several overseers gathered around the body, their expressions grave as they examined the perfectly smooth hole. They exchanged uneasy looks with one another.
As for the unlucky man who had been getting beaten, nobody seemed to care about him now. For the moment, at least, he had escaped disaster.
This operation is even more slapdash than I expected.
Watching the scene unfold, Reon shook his head inwardly.
Because they were scared of a possible attack, they had rushed to drive all the slaves back into the prison block without once considering that the intruder might be hiding among them.
They had not even thought of something as basic as separating people out and checking them one by one. Had they leaned on brute force for so long that they had forgotten how to think at all?
...
...
With a heavy clang, the iron gate slammed shut behind them.
In the darkness, Reon sat down against the wall. The wound on his back brushed the stone and sent a sharp sting through him, but his eyes were brighter than ever.
Time to review the results.
What he had just done had been somewhat reckless, but the payoff had gone far beyond what he had expected.
First of all, the Archer card was even better than he had imagined.
Its abilities could be roughly divided into three categories.
The first was physical enhancement. It strengthened the body of its holder. That was the only reason he had been able to draw the bow to full extension so casually.
The second was that it granted him archery instincts close to those of the Heroic Spirit itself.
That said, it still required real adjustment. To avoid exposing himself, he had chosen a difficult vertical arc shot instead of a direct line.
As a result, the point of impact had deviated from where he originally intended and struck the overseer's neck instead.
Even though that kind of falling arc shot would have looked like a miracle to any normal person, it also proved that he still needed more time to get used to this power.
The third was the supernatural ability called Arrow Construction.
If the first two still fell within the realm of things reality could almost explain, this one had fully stepped into magic.
Not only could he use mana to form arrows out of thin air, but he could also create stronger physical arrows himself using whatever materials were available.
There was one thing that puzzled Reon a little, though. His mana rating was only E-. By all logic, he should not have had much magical energy in his body at all, so why was he able to form arrows out of mana so easily?
Still, Reon had always been an optimist. If he could not figure something out right away, he was perfectly happy to shelve it for later.
Besides all that, there were two more things worth noting.
The first still concerned the Archer class card.
The abilities it had displayed were already outrageous, yet they still did not reach the level of the Noble Phantasms described in legend.
That inevitably made Reon wonder whether there was still something hidden in the card, something he had not uncovered yet, something that masked its true power.
He guessed that the key probably lay in the Heroic Spirit's concealed True Name.
According to the information provided by the Book of Heroes, Heroic Spirits themselves were clusters of mystery, beings whose power came from the legends attached to them.
And the True Name was the symbol that summarized and embodied that legend at its core.
Maybe I won't truly master this class card until I uncover that symbol called the True Name.
That was Reon's working theory.
Still, he was close.
He was already almost certain of this Archer's identity, but he was willing to wait until after the next dream before revealing the final answer to himself.
Maybe it was just the historian in him. When history unfolded before his own eyes, there was a strange sense of ceremony to it that made him want to do it properly.
Last came the question of what to do next.
This little operation had not only tested the Archer card's abilities. It had also confirmed one important fact.
Wizards were still human.
And if it were human, it could be killed.
Most of the people here were all bark and no bite. Their responses under pressure, their ability to deal with the unexpected, were practically nonexistent.
With that knowledge, combined with the trump card now in his hand, Reon was already highly confident he could escape this stone tower.
But because of that, he found himself in no hurry anymore.
"The defenses are this sloppy... It's hard not to start getting ideas."
He said it silently to himself, his interest in the so-called R-System that could supposedly revive the dead growing stronger by the second. Opportunities like this did not come often.
And besides, Jellal and the others were decent people, while the overseers were vile. Now that he could do something, it felt only natural to want to do more.
Because he was greedy.
As though responding to the thoughts boiling inside him, the Book of Heroes began turning pages in his mind once again.
[Trial: The Way Out]
[The path of a Heroic Spirit is not one of blind forward motion. To lie low in lean times is the strategy of the wise. To break the deadlock when the moment comes is the bearing of the strong.]
[Leave the Tower of Heaven and receive the corresponding reward.]
"So it really does issue trials based on the situation at hand."
A faint smile rose at the corner of Reon's mouth. He decisively took that as validation of his judgment.
And this trial was different from the Beginning series.
This time, the reward would be determined by how the trial was completed.
That meant the harder the route, the more side goals he accomplished, the greater the reward waiting at the end.
Of course.
If the goal was to become a Heroic Spirit, how could he possibly be satisfied with merely escaping?
A Heroic Spirit should do things the way a Heroic Spirit would.
Reon made up his mind.
He was going to tear out this black magic cult by the roots.
He was going to set this stone tower, soaked in blood and sweat, ablaze from top to bottom.
He did not want to run away.
He wanted to walk out through the front gate in broad daylight.
But even with the class card, he could not do that alone. Reon looked toward the silent cellmates around him.
Every one of them was physically powerful. Every one of them had been ground down for years under suffocating oppression. Deep inside, the seeds of rebellion were already there.
If magic were taken out of the equation, they alone could overturn the pampered lapdogs of this cult.
All they lacked now was a blade sharp enough to rise first and lead the charge.
"And I'm that blade."
Reon's expression stayed calm, but inside, his blood was already humming. He was beginning to feel almost impatient.
Maybe his gaze had grown a little too intense, because even Jellal, who was still caught up in the shock of that brilliant arrow, noticed something strange and asked, "What is it, Reon?"
"What else could it be? Magic. It was magic."
Hugh shot to his feet, practically vibrating with excitement.
"That arrow had to be magic. The Council must've found this place and sent guild wizards to save us."
Even someone from the countryside like Hugh had heard of the Magic Council, the authority that governed all wizard guilds and maintained order across the magical world.
But Jellal immediately poured cold water on the idea.
"No chance. If the Council had made a move, we'd already be in the middle of a full-scale assault. That arrow only killed one overseer. It felt great to watch, sure, but honestly, the result was limited. Worse, it would've put everyone on alert."
"He's right. If guild wizards were outside, the whole place would already be in chaos. It wouldn't still be this quiet."
Old Rob agreed with the assessment.
"Oh, come on..." Hugh cooled off a little, then muttered under his breath, "Then doesn't that make this wizard kind of bad at the job?"
Reon let out an awkward dry laugh. If he wanted to test things, there was no way around alerting the enemy. That had simply been part of the cost.
"At the very least, they saved someone. People like us, who didn't dare step in, don't have the right to criticize."
Jellal said it calmly.
Hugh understood that too. He was just disappointed, and it was hard not to let it show.
He scooted over beside Reon and asked with concern, "Your back okay? That really scared me earlier. I knew something bad was going to happen to you... But, well, that guy's dead now, so he had it coming."
"I'm fine. Just a surface wound."
Reon was not putting on a brave face.
The class card had been continuously feeding warmth into him, and the wound on his back was already itching as it scabbed over. It truly was no longer a serious problem.
Hugh clearly did not believe him. He knew just how scrawny Reon was. He had helped carry stones for him often enough at the worksite, so he took it as little more than an attempt to reassure them.
"Later, I'll give you part of my food. You need to eat more if you want to recover faster."
Jellal spoke up as well.
Reon could only smile bitterly. There was no real way to explain any of this to them, so for now, he would just have to accept their kindness.
Just as the group continued talking in low voices, the iron-barred door was yanked open with a loud metallic crash.
"Inside."
With blank expressions, the overseers shoved two figures in roughly, then slammed the door shut again.
More newcomers?
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