New Arrangements
"Where the hell did this come from?!"
Lucy cleaned the mud off herself by a small lake. Like Count Ian, she slept straight through until the sun was fully up.
When she got up and saw that the complex Earth Spirit binding device was completely unusable, she knew it was all over.
She didn't fall asleep immediately upon encountering the person radiating red light because Fran was wary of Fran Lucy was also a mage of the Transmutation School.
If she used the [Disorderly Touch] spell, although it would put Lucy to sleep instantly due to the mental crushing effect, Fran was still worried that Lucy would sense the spell and then suspect her.
Just the fact that Lucy was attacked and the Earth Spirit was released already makes Fran a strong suspect.
However, Fran still wanted to maintain a facade, after all, being the prime suspect and being one of the suspects were different things.
Fran didn't intend to kill him, because that would be too extreme and might attract the Alliance's attention. If that happened, Fran would have to deal with it again.
If she kills Lucy, it will certainly attract the Alliance's attention; and if she kills Ian, even if it weakens Duke Theodore's power, there's no guarantee that Lucy won't use it as an excuse to report to the Alliance and take advantage of the chaos to achieve her goal.
For Fran, Lucy's best course of action is to get out of Antir as soon as possible and return to the Alliance the Alliance.
Therefore, Fran used some special methods when dealing with Lucy.
Lucy recalled the feeling of helplessness, of her life being out of her control, when that mysterious man grabbed her by the neck, and how her hands trembled uncontrollably.
Because Fran grabbed the robe and suspended her in mid-air, her spell had no effect on the person emitting red light; only the red light on the person's body changed slightly.
Her mental attack had absolutely no effect; she exerted all her strength, but her opponent didn't even flinch.
"The Alliance mage... I won't kill you, but don't even think about doing anything to that Earth Spirit... Do you understand?"
Lucy was completely taken aback, and just as she was about to speak, the other person's fiery red palm suddenly opened and pressed down on her head.
Then it felt like she'd been hit on the head with a heavy hammer; her head was still aching, but that wasn't what Lucy was most concerned about.
"My hair!!" Lucy screamed, almost losing her voice, clutching her charred hair, her face filled with barely concealed agitation.
"Don't let me find out who you are... You deserve to be in the Abyss, to associate with Demon... This hair cost me 30 Gold Coin to get done..."
Lucy cursed loudly. If Fran were standing in front of her at that moment, she might very well have punched Fran in the face without a second thought.
But that was just a fantasy in her anger; when Lucy calmed down, all that remained in her mind was despair.
"It seems like this is something we can't do. Not only have the Territory Destroyer not been activated yet, but I also don't have the confidence to take the Earth Spirit from that mysterious person."
A territory will undergo significant changes after the Territory Destroyer is activated, but there are clearly no changes now. This must be the work of that mysterious person, who must have also prevented things from happening on the other side.
From a rational perspective, Lucy has no choice but to abandon this operation to minimize her losses; otherwise, she won't be able to complete her mission.
From an emotional standpoint, Lucy wants to run away right now. Don't be fooled by how angry she was earlier, wanting to fight that mysterious man to the death.
When Lucy knew she definitely couldn't beat her opponent, her first thought was, of course, to run away.
What else could she do but run away? Even if she had three more years to prepare, she might not be able to beat that mysterious person. He just came up and crushed her completely. She couldn't do anything she wanted.
"After we recover the Territory Destroyer, let's return to the Alliance. As for the Ocean Society..."
Lucy seemed to have suddenly thought of something interesting, but it wasn't that she wanted to explain the situation to the mage who hired her—that would only cause her pain, because she estimated she would never be able to reconnect with that connection again.
Instead, she thought of Maeve, the seemingly lucky mage. After she left, perhaps nothing would happen to her, and she could directly join the Ocean Society.
However, Lucy knew that she had obtained the recommendation spot from the mage who had commissioned her, and that the mage might cancel the recommendation spot if she failed to complete the task.
After all, a recommendation spot from the Ocean Society is a rare opportunity for First Order Mage, and many mages are willing to spend hundreds of Gold Coin to buy this spot.
If the other party doesn't mind the trouble, it wouldn't be strange to just take it back. Besides, Maeve is now unemployed anyway; the matter is over, and she no longer needs Maeve here.
As for whether the other person can go to the Ocean Society, that's up to luck. Anyway, Lucy's luck is bad, and she's not in the mood to care.
After resolving the issue of the Earth Spirit, Fran first carefully stored away the Energy Core she had extracted from the two devices, as these were controlled items.
Let alone Fran, even Iris probably doesn't have much of this stuff in stock. Just from the Mental Power stimulation that causes it to explode, it can reach the power of a [Greater Fireball].
Furthermore, the production process is extremely complicated, and the Alliance has specifically restricted the circulation of this thing, prohibiting its sale in various open markets.
Fran placed the two items into a newly made Dragon Flame Forged Iron Box; these two items were not cheap.
One is worth about 50 Gold Coin, and that's only when the market is stable.
However, Fran estimated that Lucy would probably swallow this loss, since the price was only a slight sting for Lucy and not a major loss.
However, whether the other party can conceal the loss of the Energy Core, smooth things over, and purchase two Energy Core of suitable size depends on Lucy's actions. This thing is something you can't buy without connections; money... and if you have a lot of money, you'll naturally have good relationships with other mages.
"Although I managed to get these two things, it seems like I won't need them at all..."
Fran closed the lid of the box, raising an eyebrow; she really had no use for those two items right now.
Using these two items like disposable items is incredibly stupid; 100 Gold Coin are enough to buy ten scrolls of the Greater Fireball.
The best use for Energy Core is naturally to provide power to the Alliance's special devices, but it's clear that Fran doesn't have anything like that at the moment.
Most Spell Apparatus that require Energy Core are products of the Construct School, and it is clear that Fran does not currently possess much knowledge of the Construct School.
She doesn't even have the ability to create a device that can use these two Energy Core.
"After going to the Floating City, I really need to learn the Alliance's inscription system..."
Previously, she lacked a learning environment, and even if Fran had learned it, she wouldn't have been able to take on jobs and earn money outside the Construct School, so she didn't learn it.
This sounds very similar to runes, both of which use special characters to produce effects. What a mage has to do is arrange these things in a specific way to achieve the desired effect.
However, there is a big difference between the two. The runes on weapons and equipment are not actually complicated; it's just that they require a lot of Mental Power to inscribe them.
Inscriptions are different. The consumption of each character is not much different. What is truly tested is the mage's grasp of the quantity, type, arrangement, and durability of the materials used for inscriptions.
Although Fran hasn't systematically studied this craft yet, or even developed Arts in Panel, Fran believes that if she wants to learn, she can master it in no time.
What truly determines her learning speed is not the effectiveness of her own training, nor does she need the guidance of a famous teacher; she only needs to have a clear goal and invest enough time.
The key question is what she actually wants to do with this. Now that she has gained two Energy Core, she must learn Magic Inscription to utilize them, which is not a very convincing reason.
Fran put the box away and then searched the Base Camp thoroughly, eventually finding Anna's trail on a hill near the Base Camp.
When Anna saw Fran approaching, she pursed her lips and slowly said:
"We just brought in twenty people. They haven't integrated yet, so you'll have to wait..."
Fran smiled, stood next to Anna, and raised her voice slightly.
"I'm not here for that matter; it's about the River Valley Territory."
Anna turned around, showing absolutely no interest, and replied:
"So what? You're planning to go there and steal some food... The Base Camp's food supplies are running low lately, aren't they...?"
"No, I want you to take those who have already submitted to us, draw half of the believers, and conquer River Valley City."
"Huh?!" Anna turned around and looked at Fran in disbelief. She hadn't expected Fran to entrust this matter to her.
Although she had expected it to happen sooner or later, this was still too fast; she thought it would take another month.
"There must be at least sixty people. Are we really going to take over River Valley City?"
Fran nodded without hesitation and explained to Anna:
"It's almost done. Our Base Camp can now produce muskets, and in just five days, all sixty men will be equipped. As for ammunition and propellant..."
"I've made some preparations, but time is a bit tight, and supplies might be a bit scarce. That means we can't equip all the units with new muskets; some older ones will do..."
"Duke Theodore has won a great victory, and now it's our turn to put pressure on him..."
"The best time will be when Count Ian is gone for a while..."