The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

              Zaos felt pretty annoyed after recovering Moody because he was pursued for quite a while. Since he was carrying a lot of things, he was almost caught. However, he solved the problem by using the spell that recovers the stamina on Moody. Naturally, it had been highly effective.

"It will be only us for a while, buddy," Zaos said, and then he patted Moody's head. "Ignore the fact that I said that and let's not get all sentimental. We have a lot of work to do."

              Zaos was pretty certain that he left the pursuers behind. So, now he had some leeway to think about his next actions. While he didn't have to do that, he was planning to attack and destroy all places that were used to make Focus amulets. Although the process of how they were made was sickening, he couldn't just destroy them. It would be a waste, but he couldn't absorb all of them either… or could he? As far as he was concerned, the kingdom was the one who determined that people wouldn't be able to absorb two of them at the same time. Regardless, Zaos decided to equip some of them and noticed a difference.

Health: 1690/1690

Mana: 4120/4120

Stamina: 4520/4520

Strength: 845

Magic: 2060

Endurance: 2260

Resistance: 2060

Focus: 11 + 06

Sorcery Lv 88 (+ 02 UP), Meditation Lv 55 (+05 UP), Magic Perception Lv 43 (+ 02 UP), Magic Swordsmanship Lv 60 (+ 01 UP), Magic Spearmanship Lv 29 (+ 03 UP), Magic Archery Lv 39 (+ 03 UP), Magic Martial Arts Lv 41 (+ 02 UP), Alchemy Lv 18 (+ 09 UP), Magic Resistance Lv 36 (+07 UP), Illusion Resistance Lv 09 (+ 08 UP), Swordsmanship Lv 80 (+ 02 UP), Axemanship Lv 31 (+ 02 UP), Spearmanship Lv 27 (+ 02 UP), Archery Lv 49, Martial Arts Lv 34 (+ 03 UP), Assassination Technique Lv 19, Throwing Technique Lv 22, Counterattack Technique Lv 15, Shield Mastery Lv 36 (+ 10 UP), Pain Resistance Lv 67 (+ 05 UP), Poison Resistance Lv 34, Blacksmithing Lv 22, 

"Hmm… if the status are being affected, perhaps I can absorb more than one at the same time, but even so, that will take too long," Zaos said. "Let's research away to speed up that process."

            Lately, Zaos' enhancement has been lasting for longer because of the level of his Sorcery. Still, even so, a lot of mana was consumed when he enhanced several parts at the same time. With that in mind, having a higher focus would really be useful.

"Anyway, I thought that I would find some old scriptures in the… half-magic race country, but I guess that I was wrong," Zaos corrected himself after realizing that calling all of the followers of the demon god was incorrect. "When one thinks about it, it is only obvious. They were forced to move to those lands, but they certainly didn't live there from the very beginning."

              Zaos didn't even know why he was thinking about that. It wasn't like he needed to look for more pieces of history of the world or new spells, after all. Not to mention, if he had to fight the demon god someday, he already has the weapon that can damage him. He wasn't just worth using it yet, but…

"Maybe I can absorb the amulets faster than eating them," Zaos thought. "Still, I am not sure I would do that since this was inside their blood, after all."

            Although Zaos had planned to head to the East side of the country while avoiding the main roads, it seemed that he was going to face some problems pretty soon. The dark cloud wasn't a good sign in those parts, and Zaos found a group of soldiers patrolling the surroundings. Zaos had planned to stay away from any sign of civilization. Still, he could only do that so much without making his trip much longer. Just as he had expected, the soldiers began to move toward him, and Zaos couldn't even move the hood from his head and show that he didn't have anything to hide because he had something to hide. He was fairly famous around those parts, after all.

"Halt," one of the four soldiers that approached said.

        Zaos was forced to stop, and he looked to the side and confirmed that his big sword was well-hidden thanks to the dark cloak. Zaos wondered if he should just knock down those soldiers with Sleep, but in the end, he didn't do it since he didn't want to leave a trail behind.

"Who are you? Show us your face," The soldier said.

"If you ask nicely I might consider it," Zaos said.

"What did you say?" The soldier said and then drew his sword, and the others quickly followed him.

"You got me, I surrender," Zaos said and then raised his arms.

        Those four soldiers frowned when they saw that, but in the end, two of them approached to check if Zaos was armed. When they approached, Zaos fired two Earth Bullets on their cheeks. The other two didn't see that, but they prepared to fight when the other two began to fall from their horses. Before that could happen, Zaos stopped their fall. That surprised those two as well, and then Zaos attacked since they dropped their guard.

"Oh, crap…" Zaos said and then jumped from his horse in a hurry.

          Falling from a horse was dangerous, and Zaos didn't want to risk leaving a trail of corpses either. Regardless, he reacted on time and prevented their fall.

"Why am I wasting my time like this?" Zaos asked and then sighed.

              Before he left the area, Zaos looked for a grove to let the horses and the unconscious soldiers. Just to make sure that they would think that he was just a normal bandit, he took all the coins they had. They didn't have much, so Zaos didn't feel that bad about it.

"I have a feeling that this will happen many times," Zaos said as soon as he resumed his trip.