When he heard her voice, his face almost unconsciously grimaced. Fortunately, he had quite good control over his facial expressions, so he held it back.

  “What are you doing here?” Vanda asked as she started to invade Illyan’s personal space.

  That made Illyan annoyed as he sidestepped, but she just continued clinging to him.

  In the end, he just sighed. His body was tense and prepared to take her down if she wanted to do anything, but he managed to continue the conversation.

  “My research had a major breakthrough, and to finish the puzzle, I needed to wait for nights, so I came to look at others' progress.”

  Illyan shrugged as if he didn’t care about it that much and just came to soothe his bored mind.

  But it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

  Illyan came to observe to find an opportunity. An opportunity to sabotage their work. Not completely to startle the snake. Just enough to slow down the progress so Illyan could strengthen himself with Aurelia’s blood magic and find out what Korin was doing.

  Now Illyan knew what Korin was looking for, but there was no way Korin didn’t have any sinister scheme in his mind since he used contracts to bind his ‘colleagues’...

  “Oh, you found a clue?! You are so awesome! Last time, it took Korin over a month before he realized that the key to finish the puzzle was the pulses of the seismic waves! What is it now? No, let me guess! Since you can work only at night, then it should… Stars!”

  Vanda ughed cutely as she hung her entire body weight on Illyan while Neddard just stood there quietly.

  Illyan felt that the old man was too quiet while Vanda was too loud and felt uncomfortable.

  “That’s right. What about you guys? How is it going?”

  Neddard was still silent as he stared at Vanda. She smiled back as she turned her head up at Illyan.

  “I think we just finished here. You see, while most of us here are historians, there is not much to do. Most of the history was already uncovered, and the rest would either be too difficult to track or was forever lost in the flow of time. We are here just for our rich knowledge.”

  Vanda said as she finally hopped away from Illyan and pointed at the statues and other ndmarks in the city.

  “Do you see them?” When Illyan looked at them, he narrowed his eyes.

  His perfect sight memory remembered their positions differently than before.

  ‘Don’t tell me…’

  “A lot of things here are made in a way that allows people to manipute them or even move them to different pces. If you are knowledgeable in the Gondoris’ culture, you would be able to find hints where they hide the locks and hidden mechanisms that make this possible.”

  Vanda put her hands on her hips as she looked smug.

  “Then, with the history knowledge, we will move all these hidden items to the right pce to activate one of the hidden mechanisms that is needed to open the citadel.”

  When Illyan heard that, he finally realized why the historians were needed in this expedition. Without them, it would be almost impossible to complete this...

  “Why such a complicated way to open it? This citadel doesn’t have that inheritance, right? From what I know, this citadel stood there even before the inheritance existed. Why would the previous owners make it so difficult to enter?”

  Illyan already had an idea that this pce was ter on rebuilt by the owner of the inheritance, but he still asked to confirm his thoughts.

  “You are quite informed.” Vanda smiled teasingly.

  Illyan almost rolled his eyes. He was starting to get annoyed a lot by this girl.

  If he didn’t want to show his violent side to others, he would have already thrown their friendly pretense aside.

  Seeing that Illyan didn’t have any outer reaction, Vanda sighed in disappointment.

  ‘What are you sighing for?’ Illyan already realized this girl was messing with him, but seeing her doing it so openly made him wary.

  “You can probably tell already, but the citadel was rebuilt ter on by the st emperor. It was made this way to hide whatever is inside. We don’t know exactly what is inside, but we think it should have something to do with the inheritance. Some clue or part of it. The emperor probably didn’t want to give his inheritance to just anyone but to someone capable.”

  Vanda said calmly, but her eyes showed a strong desire. It seemed that she also wasn’t bereft of the yearning for that alchemist’s techniques.

  “I see…”

  In the end, Illyan could only nod as he continued the conversation.

  However, since he got to know what he wanted, he chose to cut the conversation short and left.

  Neddard was mostly silent the entire time while Vanda was talking to Illyan, but he wasn’t interested in talking to her more than necessary.

  Vanda was soon out of his mind as he pondered about the inheritance.

  In fact, he couldn’t understand why someone would make such a thing at all. It didn’t look like it was made for his descendants. It wouldn't benefit them but rather some stranger thousands of years ter.

  What was the reason? To continue his legacy? Illyan didn’t understand such sentiments.

  But it could be because he hadn't accomplished anything big in his life yet.

  Thinking so, he went to look for Arun.

  He and Arun weren’t in a good retionship, so he didn’t pn to talk to him but just look from afar.

  Arun was just a boy of fifteen or so years and was doing mathematics, something Illyan was proficient in.

  He concluded that Arun would be the easiest target to sabotage. Of course, that depended on what his role in this expedition was. If it was a minor role, then he would need to find a different approach.

  Fortunately, when he looked from afar at what Arun was doing, he was relieved.

  Arun was walking around with a lot of parchment in his hand while looking at something on the ground.

  At first, Illyan didn't understand what he was doing, but then he realized that Arun was looking at the grooves that were engraved in the pavement.

  Illyan didn’t think about it too much before, as the patterns looked to be decorative or meant to flush out the rainwater.

  But now, Illyan focused his mind on them and found they were familiar. They weren’t anything that he had seen, but he could see the simirity of something he owned.

  The spell scrolls he got from Arwen!

  They weren't the same, but there was a simir veil of mystery on them.

  Arun was observing them while writing something on parchment.

  Illyan secretly climbed a small building and looked at the content of these parchments from above from a distance that was almost impossible to see anything of such small size.

  But Illyan did. He could see all kinds of geometric shapes drawn with formus and equations written next to them.

  It seemed that Arun was trying to put it into operation. Illyan could understand what Arun was writing but didn’t know how it would influence the grooves.

  But that didn’t matter to him.

  He branded the content of the parchments into his eyes and quietly retreated.

  Then, he took his own stash of empty parchments and rewrote it completely.

  He also shaped the parchments he had to be as identical as possible to these original Arun was holding and wrote the text in the same handwriting as Arun!

  That would be impossible for normal people, but Illyan’s [The Way of the Body] made this as easy as being able to walk or breathe.

  He rewrote all of the content so that it was almost identical. Almost. That was important as some of the letters or numbers were subtly changed. It wasn’t a jarring change as that would be too suspicious, but it was mostly a change of symbols for others that were simir.

  That would make Arun or others ter on believe that Arun made a slip of the pen and scold him for it. Most importantly, it would probably dey whatever he was doing.

  Illyan smirked in his mind. It was a simple yet effective pn…

  Several days ter…

  It took him several days to finish the parchments completely as he was very careful to make them as alike as possible.

  Then, he waited for the right opportunity when Arun wasn’t looking and switched the parchments!

  With success, Illyan felt more at ease and immediately burned all of the original parchments in his possession.

  Once he did, he sighed in relief and decided to rex for a second.

  He was focusing a lot in the st few days and didn’t even have time to rest.

  Aurelia's teachings had priority for him, so he was still training with her while during the nights he was harassed by none other than Vanda.

  Ever since he said he had to work during the night, she was visiting him under the excuse of ‘helping’ him.

  Fortunately, she didn’t discover anything, or at least she didn’t show any change in her behavior. Illyan was extremely careful and took his time with those parchments, so it would be outright embarrassing if he couldn't even use them.

  But in the end, Vanda was interested only in him. Illyan didn’t know whether to feel lucky or unlucky. However, he decided to humor her as he spent more time with her trying to feel her out.

  In this manner, ten days had passed.

  During the day, he secretly spent his time with Aurelia and learned about some simple spells that allowed him to use magic. Of course, learning them and mastering them were completely different things.

  It would take him some time to properly use them. At least, he made some progress. Blood Energy wasn’t mana. When weaving spells, mana was more malleable and had more uses. On the other hand, blood energy was more explosive and crude. It was also the main building block of the body, so it wasn’t wise to squander it.

  However, one day Illyan found out something amazing.

  ‘Hmmm?’

  While sparring with Aurelia, he felt blood energy was automatically moving inside of his body, bolstering his strength and helping in other areas too.

  This would inevitably spend some of the blood energy, which would take a long time to recover.

  But Illyan recently realized that he almost never felt any depletion of the blood energy, so today he was focusing on his inner workings.

  He could do it despite still sparring with Aurelia, thanks to his ever-growing mind power and the fact that Flow created an edge for him during these combats.

  His rise in proficiency helped too.

  For a second, Illyan wondered the reason for such a phenomenon, but it didn’t take long to realize. The only thing that was special about him was his regeneration.

  That meant that his blood energy regenerated too!

  His eyes almost twinkled in excitement.

  Acolytes were strong, but they used their powers only in dire or lucrative situations since the mana they used was hard to recover. Only by becoming Magister would the mana recover automatically as it became part of the person.

  ‘Was this the same case?’ Illyan wondered. If the blood energy was part of him, then it would make sense that it would regenerate too. His regeneration wasn’t only about the body. Even his astral body regenerated back then.

  His gift’s potential was limitless. Kaoran always told him that, but he was skeptical.

  But now?

  If he became Magister one day, wouldn’t mana also become part of him? In that case, how fast would his energy recover? It would be unimaginable!

  Of course, Illyan knew that it would be impossible to recover as fast as with his flesh. The mana and blood energy were literally energies. Even his ability didn’t create energy out of nothing. If he wanted to recover them, it would be siphoned from somewhere else.

  But that didn’t douse Illyan’s excitement.

  Thanks to that realization, Illyan decided that it was a waste not to use his blood energy properly to refine his control. He also wanted to test Aurelia’s limits. He felt that she didn’t use her full power. He didn’t either, but now he felt the urge to fight.

  His barbarian upbringing couldn’t be denied.

  Unfortunately, just as he grinned, a sudden bst of explosion resounded.

  He and Aurelia gnced at each other before quickly retreating to cover close to the buildings.

  The sound came from the western side of the city where the gates were, so they should be safe, but cautiousness wouldn’t kill them.

  Other sounds of screams and cshes of steel resounded.

  Aurelia had a cold gaze as she moved stealthily towards the main square. Illyan felt that she knew something, so he asked.

  “Do you know what is happening?”

  She gave him a side-eye and visibly hesitated. But then she gritted her teeth as she was checking every word she said.

  “It is probably an ‘ambush’ made by Ezekiel. They probably won’t allow us to get out of the city anymore. Not only that, but most of the soldiers here would just py along to ‘protect’ others to keep the bandits away.”

  Aurelia seemed to be annoyed while Illyan’s mind reeled from all of that information. He could feel the sarcasm in her words. Normally, she didn’t speak in such a way, which could be said to be information in itself.

  He realized she couldn’t speak about it for some reason.

  ‘The soldiers will py along? So they were allies all along… Doesn’t that mean that other powerhouses of Winterfrost have some fingers in it too?’

  A chill ran up his spine after realizing that.

  Feeling the foreboding, Illyan picked up the pace.

  When they arrived at the corner of the square, they saw the fights.

  Two sides fought in messy individual fights.

  To a normal person, it looked bloody.

  But to Illyan, who experienced dozens of battles, and Aurelia, who was unusually perceptive, this all looked like one big farce.

  The so-called bandits killed only a few mayor’s soldiers and injured a few acolytes who stayed here, but that was all.

  Against Heart Bearers and Venomous Vipers, they fought with a certain lightheartedness that only skilled warriors would notice.

  ‘They are all in it together!’ Illyan narrowed his eyes.

  What did it mean? And what was their goal?

  Illyan narrowed his eyes.

  There was one of the bandits who just finished one soldier off with a dagger by slitting his throat as he smiled cruelly.

  The soldier fell in battle quickly as he actually didn’t face the bandit head-on. He just wanted to run away. From one look, he was still a teenager.

  But the bandit didn’t care as he followed after the boy and killed him skillfully.

  Unfortunately, he got farther from his pack of hyenas and got near a dangerous lion…

  Merry Christmas! :) Next chapter will be on new year as I need to take few days off since I will spend most of the time at work during holidays.