Chapter 127: Turtle Shell - II

What Aventine did to prepare for the 16 Claws’ retaliation was extremely crude and simplistic, but it was also his most effective option at the moment.

That method was to surround himself with enchantments! Hundreds, if not thousands of enchantments!

Unfortunately...

’I didn’t steal that many useful enchantments from Cel...’

And despite <Archmagus> Daimyuon being SSS-Rank... he was a destruction mage at his core; he lacked a lot of relevant enchantment knowledge. At least, compared to the Enchanter Cel, he only had a mediocre collection that Aventine could reference.

Feeling stifled, Aventine looked at his current status. His eyes wandered specifically to his <Traits>, as that was the only portion that had changed recently.

[Traits: (NEW!) Fine Motor Control (E-Rank), (NEW!) Parallel Thought (B-Rank), Perfect Estimate (B-Rank), Power of the Sky (A-Rank), Power of the Sea (A-Rank), Power of Death (A-Rank), Soulbound Anchor (S-Rank), Blessing of Light (SS-Rank)]

Two new <Traits> were added, and both adjusted his abilities to skew them towards a certain advantage—preparation and creation. With that said, <Perfect Estimate> and <Parallel Thought> were significantly more important than even his SS-Rank <Trait>, <Blessing of Light>. <Fine Motor Control> would serve as a decent supplement for what he was about to do.

Thus...

[Power of the Sky] commanded the winds once more.

—Swish!

[Power of the Sea] called upon the control of water and anything dissolved within it.

—Splash!

Aventine effortlessly drew out a glittering assortment of colored liquids, with each color representing a different level of magic.

Blue represented First Circle to Third Circle magic spells.

Azure signified a 4th-Circle spell.

Emerald signified the 5th Circle.

Finally, purple was the hallmark of 6th-Circle spells.

With these glittering colors, he created enchantments of a similar ranking. Magic Spells and Enchantments were more or less of the same flavor of magic—their only difference lay in the mode of their execution.

Magic Spells created magic circles formed out of pure mana, burning through the mage’s energy reserves to create temporary effects. Fireballs, lightning strikes, wind blades, and whirlpools.

All of these fell under Magic Spells.

Enchantments, on the other hand, required a little more permanence, and therefore, they required a medium into which mana could flow through. Once mana filled the medium, these enchantments could mimic magic circles to create sustained effects.

The previous fireballs, lightning strikes, wind blades, and whirlpools could occur at the press of a button.

When enough enchantments were combined, magic formations could be constructed.

Regeneration zones, life-siphoning barriers, and weakening fog. Such were a few examples of the effects that magic formations could bring.

But that was the realm of Formation Masters.

Though Aventine could retrieve the relevant knowledge if he so willed it... it would still cost a sizeable amount of mana.

For now...

"Hah!"

With a loud breath, he worked his dual consciousness to the limits, engraving a huge number of enchantments inside and outside the room he was staying in. The enchantments filled the villa’s corridors, rooms, and every single wall. They even spread out throughout the outside world, lingering in the air and embedded in the ground.

A few thousand traps were embedded in the surroundings. A full two-hundred-meter-diameter circle of havoc surrounded the Beast Human heir’s bedroom.

From First Circle nuisances to 6th-Circle death zones, Aventine set his traps in a way that resembled a tower defense game.

If one wanted to avoid a barrage of terrifying enchantments, one would have to snake around the room several times or brave the death-chamber-like corridors of the villa to get to him and his companions.

Thus, the scene when Gron had reawakened swiftly occurred. Squadron after squadron of Beast Humans either died or were gravely injured by Aventine’s traps.

To them... it was a hellish humiliation.

** *

Gron watched as Aventine’s gaze drifted towards the windows. The explosions outside rang in his ears and sent tremors through his bones.

"Instead, the Walvaskaz Empire is going crazy."

Aventine had said those words with a look that was... frightening. As if the young man feared for themselves yet relished in the thrill of looming death.

Gron could not understand it, but he could temporarily withhold his judgement.

What mattered right now was that...

’The Living City of Hispe has been destroyed...’

His entire livelihood had vanished in an instant.

But Gron couldn’t blame anyone. After all... that was a Dragon! A god walking among mortals! To have survived such an encounter...

Oh, how glorious that already was.

After all...

’My own combat strength barely makes it into E-Rank.’

As a blacksmith and fraudster, Gron never truly fought a hard battle. He was a creator and not a destroyer.

Surviving a Dragon’s death was already beyond his wildest dreams.

Gron did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"So..."

Since he was caught in such indecision, he chose to talk instead.

"What’s happening outside?"

Aventine tilted his head in thought. "Beast Humans are trying to reclaim this room we’ve occupied. However... they don’t really have any Mages who can match me. Nor do they have any skilled Enchanters to understand what I’ve done to the surroundings."

The young man beckoned to him, and a soft wind carried him into the air.

"Huh?"

"Relax," Aventine chuckled, "Let the winds carry you for now. Your body is in no shape for movement—doctor’s orders."

Gron relinquished his strength to the winds and relaxed. He did not have that much of a choice. The pain was agony beyond anything he’d experienced before.

Floating together with Aventine, he arrived before one of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the lavishly constructed, yet minimally decorated room.

Outside, Beast Humans were running across the ground, occasionally being blown into pieces of flesh and a shower of blood. Fiery explosions, high-pressure geysers, and million-volt electrical discharges sent them to the afterlife one after the other.

It was a gruesome sight, and the expressions of those Beast Humans behind every death grew paler with each new display of biological fireworks.

No matter how strong their bodies were... the minefield laid out between them and their target for vengeance swallowed them whole.