NOVPUBThe chime of three o’clock rang out from Ichrite Academy in the winter of December.
Frey’s dormitory had quite the feel of a detective’s office.
On the deep brown walls hung clippings from cases he had solved and old maps, his desk was littered with a multitude of files and notes, and beside it stood a microscope, a few alchemy reagent jars, and an opened geography magazine.
In the grid space of the floor-standing low-foot rack next to his office desk were some newspapers, manuscripts, magnifying glasses, fingerprint powder, and some magic tools of unknown purpose.
Two leather sofas faced a fireplace, ideal for visitors or Frey himself.
In the clang of the old bell tower, both Lanci and Frey looked out the window.
Thanks to the prestige accrued over the past few months in the Student Council, Frey’s previously unknown detective agency occasionally received commissions now.
However, Frey’s way of conducting business was very different from ordinary detectives; hiring him could lead to adverse outcomes and the price was proportional to his abilities, so no one would lightly ask for Frey’s help unless absolutely necessary.
Now that the holidays have begun, the detective agency is completely closed.
There were newspapers and two cups of black tea on the low table in front of Frey.
But this was not a business meeting; he was temporarily bidding farewell to Lanci.
Ever since Hyperion lived in the Boss Cat Restaurant, they often spent time together, Lanci was not just Frey’s legal advisor, sometimes he was Frey’s helpful assistant in investigation work.
"Lanci, your level is forty-six."
Frey raised a dark gray crystal stone, glanced at Lanci through its radiance, and said.
"Is that so."
Lanci found that reasonable. After the last Shadow World event, when he had risen from third-order to fourth-order, he felt neither fully fourth-order nor particularly far from fifth-order.
"How much is yours, Frey?"
"Fifty-four."
Frey replied.
In the past few months, aided by this grade theory Lanci first unintentionally brought up in a chat, the [Level Identification Technique] developed jointly by the Ichrite Academy’s Alchemy College and Magic Engineering College is now rapidly circulating in the South Continent.
Because the construction of this spell itself is quite simple, it just involves a set of theories; more effort was dedicated to measuring, defining, and calculating conversion values, making it very convenient to spread. [Level Identification Technique] has spell versions, magic card versions, magic tool versions, it even spread to the Northern Continent through the communication among Shadow World Challengers.
There might even be an explosive popularity trend in the coming months.
In their study, the research team pointed out that Lanci Welfort was the first to bring forth this theory. If this research achieves significant success in the next couple of years, even though Lanci has not participated at all, he might still gain significant academic prestige.
Despite the fact that this identification spell is ineffective against strong beings in ordinary states.
Strong beings tend to hide themselves, someone like Dean Loren would always appear as first-order or even zero-order, but in reality, he is an eighth-order.
"However, from what I’ve heard from the Alchemy College, in order to assist the research, they tested Dean Loren’s level during the development process and measured it to be eighty-seven."
"No wonder he’s so freakishly strong."
At Lanci’s and Frey’s level, they might be able to win by overcoming a few levels through talent difference, special mechanisms or restraint relationships. However, from the last of the sixth-order, that is, the sixty-ninth level onwards, each level has huge actual growth after calculations, and the attribute difference brought by the level becomes increasingly difficult to compensate through other factors.
In this world, the ninth-order strong beings from both the North and South Continents combined only number in single digits. There’s a reason why Loren is hailed as the strongest guardian of the Hutton Kingdom.
The two chatted idly.
Now that it’s the holidays, the campus is a lot quieter and there are no Student Council business matters. They somehow have a feeling of being retired and idle.
"It’s a pity that I can’t go to the Northern Continent with you this time."
Frey sighed, leaning back on the sofa.
I heard that the underground casino of the Protoss Empire is really impressive.
The dean of Sphintos will be on the surveillance for the next three months, unable to escape from the Capital City of Ekrite.
In other words, if he could manage to run away from the Capital City of Ekrite while being watched by Dean Sphintos, then his training could be considered successful.
"Frey, we may return quite late this time, if you get a chance to challenge the Shadow World by yourself during the holiday, don’t wait for us, we probably won’t be back until next semester."
Lanci looked at the calendar and seriously said to Frey.
It is mid-December now, and they might not return until April or May of next year.
Frey has also reaches the Silver Level, and he can participate in the challenge of the true Shadow World alone even without a team.
For a numerical monster like Frey, his own level is of utmost importance. Each advancement brings a valuative change to his combat power.
The first Blood Moon Bad World node had a Blood Clan Baron, and the second node featured a Bloodline Viscount or even a Count of the Blood Clan, so in the next Shadow World during the Blood Moon Bad World, there is much to chance a Marquis of the Blood Clan may appear.
The three of them will need to focus on becoming stronger before they can challenge again, even if they’ve sufficiently cooled down.
Sometimes, if the power gap is too large, no strategy may work. Even if you successfully get through the mechanism, you might still be annihilated.
"No problem, but if you and Hyperion are heading north in these coming days, watch out for the great war of the bishops in the rebirth church. I heard that the Dimensional Bishop is being pursued by the Bishop of Destruction and the route of their chase is increasingly shifting towards the north."
Frey glanced at the international column on the first page of the newspaper on the table and reminded him.
Those two are like two moving disasters, ordinary people simply cannot withstand their fury.
"Don’t worry, Hyperion and I will first head south to create the false impression that we are headed that way, then change our identities midway and head north. By then, no one will be able to recognize us."
Lanci’s [Transformation Technique: Demon] is the product of ancient Honing Empire Laboratory technology, improved and coreographed in Human Magic Text while [Transformation Technique: Human], was created by demons of the same era as a reverse-engineering base on [Transformation Technique: Demon]. Both of these techniques can bypass most of the current detection magic to reveal disguises.
Talia has already helped Lanci and Hyperion to rewrite a directed change card that can directly disguise them as human and would not be detected.
"However, this spell is more useful in North Continent."
In the Protoss Empire where they will first land, a human identity is less likely to be involved in racial disputes.
"Hmm."
Frey nodded. He had listened to Lanci talk about the North Continent culture as told by Loren.
"But there’s one thing... I’m fairly certain of."
"What’s that?"
"If there are others in the North Continent who, like me, have awakened the bloodline of the Wolf Clan, they wouldn’t pose a threat to you."
"Why?"
This time even Lanci didn’t quite understand the conclusion given by Frey, wondering why.
"It’s hard to explain, just like the Blood Clan are naturally afraid of you, the Wolf Clan in turn, I suppose, naturally feel close to you."
Frey folded his hands, describing his intuition in a slightly puzzled way.
"Alright, if I come across a Wolf Clan who is in trouble, I will try to help him as a friend."
Looking at the clock, Lanci stood up, took his coat from the doorway and put it on, waved goodbye and said.
It’s about time.
Heading to the Boss Cat Restaurant to find Hyperion, they can set off.
