Warm light shone through the mystic horizon, landing on Fraser's face as calm breezes comforted his skin, resting by a boulder in the open grassland, admiring the view, a feeling of peace emerged in his heart, being able to experience the tranquility of this sunrise without much worries. Beast groups didn't usually hunt during the day here, so Fraser had time to take a breather and relax.
Even if any beasts approached him, he had sufficient techniques to escape or fight, unless it was a large group led by a high tier leader, but such a case was unlikely in this field. Fraser untied the knot on his storage sack, looking at his gains.
Six-hundred and eighty-two glimmers, bundled together in smaller pouches, each containing fifty with one extra one containing thirty-two.
One tier three sound meridian, evidently being Ingram's.
Previously, four tier two meridians, but now three after Fraser had used one to replenish arcane during battle, all of unknown attunement.
Four tier one meridians of unknown attunement.
Finding out the attunement of the meridians was a trivial matter, and was easy to go about, Fraser didn't bother, it would only be relevant if he traded or sold the meridians.
He also obtained two technique guides, which were, as the name suggests, guides that taught techniques to the user, likely created by a sect / clan leader aiming to increase the battle strength of their descendants, or may be part of an inheritance left behind by a late sorcerer.
The first technique was a flame arcane technique, named "Flame disc", at tier two, it held high value. The second guide was for a technique named "Reverberation", a sound arcane tier one technique, holding moderate value and was possibly left behind in the carriage treasury by Ingram, however, this was just a possibility. If it really was Ingram's and had been with the carriage even before the beginning of their journey, constant trade likely would've saturated the market with this technique already, holding far less value. Fraser was hoping this wasn't the case. Both of these techniques were offensive emission techniques, flame disc releasing a burning horizontal wheel, its size depending on the amount of arcane put in, while reverberation emitted a sharp shrill that damaged eardrums, dazing the opponent.
Both of these techniques were also essentially useless to Fraser as combat methods, his cloud arcane simply didn't match with them well enough. Sorcerers could learn techniques that weren't the same as their own arcane, but the power would decrease according to the relation that the arcane of use had to the arcane the sorcerer possessed. For example, Fraser's cloud arcane was closely related to ice and water arcanes, since clouds are made up of ice crystals water vapour that condensed in the air, there wasn't much difference between a water and cloud arcane, cloud arcane was also similar in behaviour to smoke and ash arcanes, all of which being aerosol gases. This all meant that Fraser could use techniques or methods originating from these different arcanes and still achieve a reasonable outcome. Of course, this outcome wouldn't be as powerful as directly using cloud techniques, as no matter how similar the other attunements were, they did not have a direct affinity to Fraser's nature like cloud arcane did.
These similarities was also how Fraser managed to spread frost on the wolves fur, and increase the temperature of his cloud arcane, burning Leslie's throat and setting her on fire. These methods were similar to ice and smoke methods respectively. Fraser decided to use them, as cloud arcane on its own didn't have much offensive capabilities, but this didn't come without cost, forcefully molding the characteristic of your arcane causes significantly higher arcane cost, and it burdened the core of the meridian, leading it to self-detonation if this method, named "arcane molding" was used excessively. This was also why Fraser urgently needed a cloud attunement offensive method.
However, if a sorcerer attempted to use a method or technique completely unrelated to their arcane, the core of their meridian would directly be damaged as the arcane stores would try to leave the meridian to activate the technique, since the arcane can't go anywhere because the technique is deactivateable for the sorcerer, it would place pressure on the meridian core, damaging it, and in some cases, destroying it, severely injuring the sorcerer, if not completely stopping their heart and killing them. Early sorcerers unfortunately found this out the hard way…
But all of this didn't negate the value of the technique guides, Fraser could just sell them or exchange them for technique guides that were relevant to him.
However, the item that surpassed the rest, not in value, but in usefulness, was a shortsword with a dazzling white gleam, the hilt was basic, with a red cloth tied around it, and the blade looked royal, curved slightly, mimicking the appearance of a japanese wakizashi. Small blue gems were encrusted onto the blade, matching well with the metallic silver steel, a slightly blue wavy hue surrounded the weapon, the air around it feeling moist.
This was a tier two arcane tool, arcane tools were helpful tools, usually weapons, that were forged with arcane materials and stores, giving them unique uses for combat and utility.
Evidently, this was a water attuned arcane tool, closely tied in with cloud arcane, it could provide use in combat for Fraser. He inspected it closely, awe flashing in his eyes, characters were engraved onto the tip of the hilt, Fraser's pupils focused as his brows furrowed.
"Tidal… Edge?" It appeared to be the name of the blade, Fraser considered the name and the misty aura permeating from it, concluding for it to indeed be a water attuned arcane tool. Joy flashing in his expression. He felt as if he was finally making progress.
Meanwhile, in Fraser's previous cell on the slave carriages, lay Leslie's cor-, corpse?
Black flames arose from the edges of her wounds, a dark core forming in her heart as her body steadily healed itself, large burn scars revealing themselves on her neck, eyes opening slowly, revealing abyssal deep black irises, a sharp contrast to her previously bright expression. Veins arose near her eyes, as her blood boiled with anger, the feeling of betrayal and most importantly, a strong hunger for revenge overcame her. Leslie's weak voice crackling as she spoke;
"Fraser… I won't forget this betrayal."