As Axel opened his eyes, perplexed by the contents of the box, he found a finger inside, still covered in blood. With reluctance, he picked it up and began to examine it. Then there was another thing right beneath the finger on the box. A letter? Just as his eyes landed on the contents of the letter, it caught on fire. Before he could even move his mana, the paper and the box both turned into ashes.
But his mind was sharp, thanks to his high mind stat; as long as he paid attention, his memory was no less than photographic. He would be able to remember the details with crystal clarity as he reviewed the contents of the letter silently in his mind.
"It’s Heinz’s Finger. Come to the west corner of the Beast Forest within the 2nd area. Come alone, don’t tell anyone. Otherwise, you’ll find his dead body. Enjoy the gift."
His eyes opened in fright, but it soon turned into rage. He clenched his fists unknowingly. He spat in disgust, "Lucien Fucking Suncrest."
The name automatically came to his mind, recently, with what happened to Lumina, except for this bastard who would dare to resort to this. His eyes landed on the finger, examining it more closely. Yes, it was indeed Heinz’s finger; his mana signature was on it. Axel’s eyes turned cold in resolution.
"You want to play this game? Fine, I’ll play it," he stated to himself with a dark chuckle. "Because you’re the one who will lose the most in the end."
Axel instantly went to the engraving room. He picked up a few artifacts that could be used now. Unfortunately, he was still weakened, having fought with Sophia only two days prior, and he had used every single ounce of his strength as a runecaster. But he was humbled by the disparity of strength between the two. It was pretty disheartening in a way. But that was fine as well. His fundamental objective was achieved. Sophia had recognized him. But that’s beside the point at the moment, since he was still in a weakened state after using the active attributes of the runic tools.
In this pathetic state, there was no way he could tackle the prince. If he wasn’t wrong, he was being monitored. There was no way he could ask for the help of anyone else. He had to go there alone, with whatever little power he could muster; otherwise, Heinz may actually be killed. He couldn’t let that happen, no matter what. That was entirely out of the question. Heinz was necessary for the distant events that will unfold in the future.
With a sigh, he left his apartment, hurrying towards the beast forest, his steps quick, as he ignored the curious gazes of everyone. But something happened which Axel himself overlooked, his shadow unknowingly grew darker.
The officers guarding the gate of the Beast Forest didn’t even stop him. Everyone within the academy knew of the one named Axel Nomrad. The best runecaster of the next generation, the holder of the runic eyes. He didn’t need a permit or any permission to enter through the gates.
The guards automatically opened the way, while many others stood in line, showing their identity or teams they formed were qualified to enter the area they wanted to join. Many of the students looked at Axel with a mix of immense jealousy, respect, and even hatred. But the emotions that everyone felt towards him were all quite strong, why wouldn’t it be? Specially, after that display of overwhelming power. He basically took out 300 Seekers all alone with a single move. It was like a legend for him to be able to express that amount of power.
But the blue prince of the academy ran forward in the direction of the designated area as soon as he entered the forest and was out of the eyesight of everyone. He couldn’t even use many tools at the moment because of his weakened state. The sword he held in his hand was one of the properly forged tools he had obtained from Gareth a while back, thinking about it as a contingency if he were ever in a weakened state. However, an accurately forged tool did not give any special abilities or even any affinity towards the elements of reality.
However, this particular actual forged sword enabled him to utilize the other form of mana, which was aura, and it also boosted some of his stats significantly. Of course, the use of aura was only effective on the sword’s body itself. The generated aura could not be used to coat himself. But it was still quite something, the ability to use Aura, previously exclusive to only warrior branch aspect holders.
As he neared the western area of the 2nd section of the beast forest, his speed slowed down considerably. The area was littered with peak 2nd-tier beasts. An area not quite safe for him, with a measly 30% of his actual prowess as he was at the moment. He could take out one or two of the peak 2nd-tier beasts even in this state. But the prince, the damn prince, was an entirely different matter. He wasn’t the original main character for nothing.
His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the surroundings with minimal energy. He could manage through the damaged mana pathways and circuits within his body, despite its weakened state. The damaged pathways hampered the movement of mana itself within him. Effectively dropped his strength to 30% of his total. An even more shitty factor was that he couldn’t even use his unallocated stats at the moment. The unallocated stats become locked and unusable when weakened.
Suddenly, he sensed something from above, and he hurriedly backed away with a stomp of his foot.
With a loud sound, a golden-haired, handsome figure, wearing his classic, luxurious silver black attire, landed in the position where Axel had just been standing a moment ago. Axel’s expression turned chillingly cold. The bastard was hiding in the top of the tree. Lucien, who always had an easy smile on his face and a friendly, approachable demeanor, was nowhere to be seen. Only the desire to kill remained in his eyes.
There was a moment of silent but intense staredown, as Lucien released all his bloodlust, his light red eyes shimmered coldly, the eyes that were inherited from the previous valkyries, who all had dark red eyes without exception. The light red eye color of the members of the royal family was due to the dilution of the valkyries’ genes within the royal families over the generations.
Axel also released his bloodlust, but he could barely exude 50% of his complete bloodlust at the moment. Lucien chuckled coldly, "So, they were indeed correct, you were indeed weakened?"
Axel asked in a dark tone, "Oh, so you were waiting for the opportunity when I was weakened, eh?"
Lucien did not fall for the apparent provocation, "So, what if I did? What are you going to do about it? And did you like my gift?"
Upon that statement from the prince, Axel was unable to control his expression at that taunt from the 4th prince, "DESPITE KNOWING THAT I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT STATE OF LUMINA, YOU DARE GO THIS FAR, TO THE POINT THAT YOU HAD CUT OFF HEINZ’S FINGER." The rightful source is ɴovelfire.net