Under a run-down house near the East Gate of the Outer City.
Having concealed himself without moving for over four hours, Daneel felt his patience wearing thin as he wondered whether he was even at the right place.
Over the past three years, he had regularly placed a scout near the entrance of the TriCobra Sect that he had been to earlier. Only, it was very hard to track the locations of those who were experts in tracking themselves.
The advantage that Daneel had was that his faction had grown steadily to incorporate students from both the fighter and mage academies from all walks of life. This was despite the fact that nobles like Laravel had for some reason withdrawn from the spotlight and were now keeping to themselves. In fact, Laravel had made very little trouble for Daneel since the first year assessment exam, making him almost forget that the prince who liked to show off even existed.
By luck, one of the members who had sworn the oath was the son of a farmer who supplied grain and vegetables to the house that Daneel had gone to. Recently, he had been tipped off that the student's father had been told to make deliveries to a new location in the city by the same people who ordered him to deliver the foodstuffs to the TriCobra Society's location.
Right now, his priority was to know what exactly the next step of the forces inside the Kingdom would be. It just so happened that a large delivery was ordered on the day after the King's display during the procession, prompting Daneel to act on a hunch that he might be able to eavesdrop on any important information that could be useful to him.
Of course, this would only be possible with the help of the system. Daneel knew that the system used vibrations to analyze sound waves, thus he had developed a spell based on this concept. Barriers designed to keep hearing spells out were common, but Daneel was sure that no one must have designed a spell which stopped vibrations from emanating through any materials. At his present level, he could detect someone speaking two rooms away if he were using the spell.
Another useful spell he had designed using the system for tasks like these was Targeted Teleportation. Usually, when a mage teleported to a location, he would simply coax the space elementary particles to form a doorway which would transport him to a location he had been to before. Although there were spells like the one the minister's space mage used where this could be circumvented in a round about way, this was still the most common way in which mages used teleportation.
The idea that Daneel had gotten was to use the system to replace the part of the process where the mage decided where to teleport to based on his memory. The system was always scanning his surroundings, especially now that he had the anti-surveillance tool installed. Thus, the resulting spell would teleport him after a delay to wherever he wanted in a 100 foot radius around him safely. This delay would go away gradually with rise in power.
Using the spell, Daneel had teleported himself halfway into the ground between the surface and the TriCobra Sect's underground room. According to the system, this was the minimum distance required in order to not raise an alarm and still eavesdrop on the meeting.
The earth in that specific spot had been replaced by Daneel's figure, while he conjured a small space door near his nose for air. As for water, he simply cast a waterball spell at his mouth whenever he was thirsty.
The main difficulty was not being crushed by the earth above him. Thus, he had dug a small cave around him which seemed stable for the moment.
All set, he settled in for what he hoped would be a productive use of his time.
Yet, for the last 4 hours, all he had heard was the chattering of the guards who wondered why they were even posted here.
Another two hours later, Daneel was tempted to leave. Squashing the temptation, he tried to focus on anything other than the numbness he felt in his body from moving very little for a very long time.
Finally, after three more hours, his vigil finally paid off. 4 people had suddenly appeared in a room in the chamber and were now seated.
It was impossible to get an image of the situation, so Daneel could only hear the rustling of the clothes which signified that the people were simply waiting, silent.
A minute later, another pair of footsteps were felt which sounded a lot heavier than all the others he had heard so far.
"Let's get to the point. Headquarters sent me here after reading your report. I can't believe I had to come to such a backwards place to explain something so simple to you. A formation as complex as the one in the palace needs some time to be deciphered and mastered before any mage can use it to its full potential. To reach a level in mastery that would make us consider changing our plans, the vice sect master will need at least one month. We must-"
A warning sign went off in Daneel's mind, making him instantly teleport back to the surface. Just as he did so, he saw a red light emerge from the ground a few inches away from him before disappearing into the night sky.
Alarmed, he hastened to leave the location as soon as possible.
"Did that light pass through my previous location?", he asked, having no idea where he had just been inside the ground.
[Affirmative. Spell not found in database. Detection was possible due to the acute senses of a high level mage. Please upgrade the system to improve overall capabilities. EXP Cost: 10,000.
Present EXP: 9,500]
System Upgrade! This damn system upgrade again!
For the past 3 years, Daneel had been stockpiling as much EXP as he could to upgrade the system as soon as possible. This was because after a thorough grilling session with the system, he had understood that upgrading now would give him a lot of benefits that might make or break many of the plans he had. Besides using some EXP to purchase some crucial tools, he had been stockpiling the rest as best as he could.
Unlike the year in the academy where he had just trained nonstop, the past three years had been spent doing things which, in the system's words, 'aided in World Domination'. Thus, he had been receiving missions and achievements which he always placed as his first priority.
All he needed was one more mission, and he would finally be able to get the upgrade. For one thing, it would enable the system, and therefore him, to cast spells of a higher complexity than before.
For example, he had just been discovered by the mage underground due to the Eavesdropping spell being cast with the mind of a Human Mage, which was approximately the present level of the system according to what Daneel had found out.
With an upgrade, it would be a Warrior Mage casting the spells. Thus, assuming that the mage underground was not a rumored Champion Mage, there would be no way to detect that Daneel was listening in.
This was just one use, but it would already have allowed Daneel to listen to the whole plan of the society. At least, he had overheard the essential information that the Palace would be relatively vulnerable for a month, due to the formation not being fully activated. All of the competing factions would definitely move before that time.
Hurrying back to his quarters, Daneel immediately called Joshua to his room.
It was time to unite and prepare all of the members they had been gathering in anticipation for the final struggle.
Also, it was time to announce the name of the faction which they would proudly take as their own and scream without abandon when the time came to march onto the battlefield.