A New Finding

"Hooray! Hooray!"

The cry of the soldiers echoes throughout the wall. Mylan, their captain, smiled proudly. The magician, stretched his body as if he was maintaining the magic all the time until the monster died. In fact, he withdrew his defense magic a long time ago since he could not maintain the magic well when the fox monster bombarded a lot of magic attacks to the wall.

"Thank you for your assistance, Master Sumnor," Mylan said to him cheerfully.

"Of course, of course," Sumnor replied as he tidied up his robe. He looked at the cheering soldiers. He shook his head and continued, "This wall would be in a bad shape if I didn't help. But what is with those bugs? They are shouting as if they did something of worth in the battle. Tsk! Tsk!"

The apprentice-mage Sumnor walked down the stairs and left the wall without saying farewell to anyone. Mylan's subordinates who heard him were left upset. Even Karl felt an impulse to smash that man's face even though his remark did not concern him.

"What an unruly man!"

All eyes fell onto Huvel who just remarked solemnly. The tired eyes of Mylan looked as if they were saying "You are one to talk."

"Lord Senebres," Mylan spoke up, "I think you should restrain from making a remark like that. After all, he is a student of the magic academy that was attending the honoured mage dispatched by the academy."

"Well, he is only a student, not a real member of the magic academy yet. It doesn't matter if I say a word or two, no?"

Although the magic academy accepts awakened people as students, only those who attain the 4th mana circle can graduate and become a real member of the academy who can enjoy all of its facilities and privileges. Although most of the awakened people can achieve the 3rd mana circle if they work hard, only a few of them can break through to the next circle and become full-fledge mages.

So, the future of a 3rd-circle magician is uncertain. Glory is within an arm's reach for those who succeed. However, if they fail even after trying many years, the academy treats them like trash! The queen's bodyguard that followed the first prince during the war was such a student of the academy who dropped out after failing to reach the next circle for many years.

"I understand what you want to say," Mylan replied Huvel. "But you are a noble of this kingdom. The relationship between this kingdom and the magic academy could turn sour over something you say offhandedly."

"Of course, I know that," said Huvel. "I only remarked like that because he cannot hear me. If none of us hear spread anything I just said, who would know what I said, right? Hahaha."

Mylan facepalmed himself. He then turned around and stared at his subordinates. His subordinates hurriedly promised that they would shut their mouths. Mylan said goodbye to Huvel as he had to oversee the aftermath of the battle. Huvel, however, insisted to see the body of the fox monster. Mylan was too tired to talk with Huvel so he reluctantly gave Huvel the permission to go to the other side of the wall to see the carcass of the monster.

Huvel looked around the carcass. He touched its leg and injected his mana into the body while nobody watched him. He wanted to know whether the anatomy of the monster deviated from its original form. His curiosity was satisfied after a few minutes. He learnt that it had the exact same organs although they were greatly enlarged.

And to his surprise, there was still mana lingering in every part of the body. The reason the enlarged body was able to move without any trouble was because of the support of mana in its organs. That mana was leaving from the body slowly after the monster died but it would take some time for all the mana to dissipate.

Huvel asked a knight who was supervising overseeing the cutting of the carcass, "What are you going to do with that carcass?"

"The carcass?" The knight sounded annoyed but he answered Huvel nonetheless, "Normally, the soldiers eat the meat to celebrate the victory. It is still the meat of an animal after all."

"Is that so? Then, I want to buy this carcass."

"Wha… Excuse me for saying this, Lord Senebres, but it might be impossible to buy this carcass. Because the soldiers look forward to this meat very much. Although it takes much longer than normal meat to cook this monster meat, it is much tastier than most meat!"

"Well, won't it be better for you if there is not only meat but an abundance of wine to celebrate? I'll pay you handsomely."

"This…"

"Just report it to your captain."

The knight ordered a knight to report Huvel's proposal to Captain Mylan. Mylan agreed to it after confirming the amount Huvel would pay. Mylan had no greed over money but he wanted his soldiers to enjoy a feast to celebrate their victory. Most of the soldiers could not afford to drink wine and as he also could not treat them out of his pocket, Huvel's proposal was a good deal for him.

The soldiers transported dismembered parts of the carcass to Huvel's castle on several big carts. They also brought bottles of the monster's blood as Huvel ordered.

Huvel send some of the meat to the kitchen and put the rest in the basement. He casted a [Dark Shroud] around the meat to trap the mana leaving from the monster's body. As for the blood of the monster, he drank them directly. Although it tasted disgusting, Huvel drank another bottle of it because it was the fastest way to absorb the mana in it.

The mana in the monster's body was pure unlike the mana in the atmosphere. By directly consuming the blood, not only was it fast in absorbing mana, the amount of mana was so immense that it was very efficient for attempting to break through to the next mana circle!