'Lancers. Lancers. Lancers.'
He didn't know the family was that broad. A Strategist, a City Lord, and a Captain. Could there be any more of them? Besides that, he wondered who those female swordsmen were.
After checking their description, other than being twins, potentially strong fighters, and wielding different elements, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Part of him wondered if the 'Strategist' was into that kind of thing, although it was none of his business.
Behind Liam were a group of guards, and from what he'd managed to learn during his little three days on the throne, a strategist of his calibre typically gained a town in accordance with their rank.
"My apologies for not attending the First court and being unavailable during your coronation," Liam continued before coughing loudly, "However, I was down with a trip to the healers in my hometown."
'Hometown? Shouldn't he be arriving from the town he lords over?'
Confused but still calm, Ryan acknowledged the Strategist's excuse as he dismounted from his horse.
"No need for that. As the New monarch of the Land, it is best to meet all of Ridlockia's brass to ensure a sustainable and lifelong growth for the land."
Liam smiled as he bowed once again, "Truly, the goddess sets her blazing glory upon the land. I can tell that his highness will usher the land into a new era."
'What a bunch of open-ended comments.'
Now Ryan had the urge to leave, but the Strategist still had a few more words to say before the matter could be closed.
"To make up for my late arrival, I brought some gifts that I believe might be of his majesty's interest."
"I hope the King will like them."
Liam raised his head and motioned the soldiers behind him to enter the gates while holding boxes.
One guard in particular moved towards the King with a book in hand and presented it to him. The words in it were:
The Codex of the Many who served.
"I have a strange habit which I believe is slowly becoming an obsession. Collecting the histories of warriors and people born in both Ridlockia and afar."
For the third time, the Strategist bowed again, "I hope your majesty will love it."
Ryan studied the item for a while, then motioned a soldier to retrieve it as he knew his mind would wail once he held a book with at least 1,000+ pages locked within its spine.
"Very well, I shall read its contents and get back to you."
"There is no need to get back to me about a book, my King," said Liam.
"What matters is the knowledge you gain from it."
"I see."
'Well, no Strategist forms their plans from empty info; it's only wise to take from it considering what they've already gained.'
~~~
After the short meeting with the Head Strategist, who Ryan considered a little ominous in his demeanour, the King and his group took off towards the castle while the Strategist claimed he needed to visit a certain individual.
'Maybe the system did fiddle with my head more than I realized.'
Suddenly, a voice spoke from behind him, and he turned towards Pierre, who had his leather mask blocking half of his face.
"Sire, may I?" Nameless inquired.
"Yes," Ryan replied while twiddling his fingers. Part of him felt annoyed after he realized the seed that had almost sprouted in his mind.
Jealousy.
Maybe it was due to how laid-back he seemed or his manner of speaking; either way, he couldn't explicitly place the problem that made him so envious.
'I wonder if that Strategist has ever escaped assassination before? Wait, what am I thinking?'
Realizing his mind had wandered a little too far, he returned to listening to Pierre talk.
"...were any of them worthy of the time?"
Luckily, he was fast enough to catch on that Nameless was talking about the two fighters whom he had seen in the ring, but in the end, he gave an ambiguous answer, "They both were capable individuals."
Pierre fell silent from behind the mask as two words were muffled from his mouth, "I see."
Oblivious to what the latter was thinking. Ryan studied the other riders in the city. He also took the time to create a mental layout of the place.
A part of him knew that, more days after that assassination, that close call with death was still coming. Maybe that was what the Priestess saw during that game.
In the end, it was all clear to him that even with guards, fighters, and whatnot, there were times when he still had to depend on himself.
As the group continued their travels, the King glanced at a nearby stall and spotted a few coloured crystals lying around the counter. Most were of a Red, Green, or Blue colour.
The stall also included mana stones, colourless and with craggy tetrahedral shapes, he wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the dash lines running along the stones' jagged edges.
Robert, the leader of the riders, spotted the King's travelling gaze and took the chance to question him, "Sire, shall we take our steeds to the stall?"
Ryan snapped out of his fixated stare to reply, "There would be no need for that. I'm just curious about how he's selling it."
Robert thought that it was because King Alric was coming from abroad, so the policy could have been different; hence, his reply was, "Here in Ridlockia, if a user finds or buys an item, it is theirs to claim, but due to their use and potential, both mana and affinity stones are regulated."
"I see…"
Another rider's question drew their attention away. "How do I know if an Affinity weapon is Common, Rare, or Special?"
His comrade, who was beside him, looked him in the eye and asked, "Do you know what we call Essence Orbs?"
The Other rider frowned, clearly feeling insulted by his comrades words.
"Of course, I know what Essence Orbs are!" He snapped. "Those glowy things that form when we kill dangerous elemental beasts."
The Explaining rider chuckled a little, "According to our system, there are eight grades to an Affinity Weapons proficiency. Ordinary, Improved, Rare, Special, Legendary, Mythic, Archonic, and Divine.
Starting from rare, the grades that come afterwards are known as the true path of a weapon. Any weapon that follows the path starts with an elemental crystal brought in for forging. Yet even with that, the weapon is still at its first grade called ordinary and cannot have any elemental effect whatsoever. Instead, it is simply durable for an affinity user's use because the crystal makes them last longer."
"How does this relate to Rar–"
"Shush!" The other riders hushed the one who was annoyed earlier, allowing the talker to continue, "To extend its durability for longer use, an abnormal elemental beast's essence orb has to be introduced to evolve said weapon into a higher grade, which is Improved."
The Rider glanced at his comrade, who had now grown a pair of listening ears, "Natheless, there are complications. To find an elemental beast of the same element that is in demand is quite hard, and if the essence orb introduced happens to be from a rare beast or higher, runes have to be inscribed to even out the imbalance."
"Apart from that, there's also the chance that the weapon may stubbornly refuse the user if the essence orb in it is quite high."
"Then how did we come about special, legendary, and the rest?" Ryan thought, amused by how attentive they were. Was this not common knowledge in the Kingdom?
'Seems the book had some helpful info.'
"The Higher the grade of the essence orb, the higher the weapon's grade. Although once a weapon has been imbued with a certain essence orb, it cannot receive another unless what it was given was an Elemental Shard and those are a whole new meaning of difficult to find."
Hearing the last part of the Rider's statement, made Ryan blink.
He remembered that item in a box which Esteria had given him and hearing the rider's statement made him feel joyous but also concerned.
'Was that the last shard the temple had or there were many?'
He would ask those questions later.
The Rider then concluded his statement.
"To answer your question, Improved Weapons are more long lasting than Ordinary, Rare Weapons are almost unaffected by the Rare beast orb that they are imbued with, but Special Weapons have one or two characteristics because of the Rare beast orb they absorbed."
Ryan glanced at the sheath under his robe, 'So that's why the system gave it rare? An abnormal beast orb was used in its forging and required it to be embedded with runes for use.'
"With this explanation that you've given, are you saying that the weapons made with mana stones attached are at most ordinary?"
Before the explaining rider could respond, Robert had cut into the conversation.
"Not quite."
The Leader of the Riders rode towards the group, "Our mana stones don't require beast orbs to aid us in their strength, hence all we need to do is grow even more powerful."
'Wait, you're a mage?' Ryan blinked in disbelief when, out of nowhere, a sudden notification entered his ears.