"This place is a bit weird," Oren said.
"How to say?"
"I can't tell. But my Beast Instinct told me that something is wrong here. Especially the Imperial Family couple. I always feel that either the consul or the consul's wife can easily kill me."
"I feel the same way," Gilanna added, which shocked the other two people. After all, she was even more powerful than the consul First Tier.
"Augustus, what do you think?"
"The magic level of this planet can only be considered average. However, there seem to be many powerful Alchemy warriors here."
Augustus couldn't help but think back to the soldiers at the entrance to the palace. The armors and weapons in their hands were all magic items, and even he couldn't recognize the enchanting craftsmanship on them.
"And, there are a lot of talented people here."
What shocked Augustus the most was the number of Fifth Tier strong men he saw in the Empire - especially those Royal Guards who were all composed of Fifth Tier.
He knew very well that humans were a weaker race in terms of magical talent.
It is very difficult for humans to advance to Fifth Tier, and Sixth Tier is the limit for most people - and this has to be those Luck children who can touch the threshold.
However, in this place, Fifth Tier strong people are so common. This is simply incredible and cannot be explained.
Gilanna nodded, but did not completely agree with his opinion. She knew that humans were not as mediocre as Augustus suggested.
Humans are recognized as one of the most imaginative races in the universe.
Although their innate magic affinity is not as good as some powerful races, they make up for this shortcoming in skill and control.
In addition, there are two main reasons why human beings' ranks are limited.
First, they do not have a magic system that perfectly suits them. This is also a common problem faced by many races in today's era.
Second, the gods are deliberately suppressing humans.
Because humans reproduce quickly and are intelligent enough to provide a large amount of Faith Power.
In the universe, races like Goblins reproduce faster than humans, but most of them have low intelligence, and the faith that individuals can provide is minimal.
"Did you find anything else?" Augustus asked.
"Yes. The ambush that intercepted our transmission was too sudden. Why did that fleet carry the Eighth Tier weapon?"
"This is their home planet after all, so it's normal to have such powerful weapons for defense."
Gilanna shook his head. "The queen of the Nightskin Tribe is Milky Way Galaxy's only Eighth Tier spell caster. Although Eldama Kingdom and Mindthinkers also have Eighth Tier weapons, they are the last trump card of their forces and will never be revealed easily unless absolutely necessary."
"But Arcane Empire took it out casually. This can only mean three situations:"
"First, they have the means to mass-produce the Eighth Tier weapon, or at least, they have more than one."
"Second, the Eighth Tier weapon is not their strongest trump card, so they don't care whether it is exposed."
"Thirdly, they had expected us to come, and they were deliberately showing off their power to us."
After listening to her analysis, Augustus and Oren's expressions became solemn.
"The first two points can basically be ruled out. It is almost impossible to create magic items across two levels-unless we are talking about technological means."
Augustus knows the limits of human beings. Unless they become a priest, a paladin or God's Mercenaries, Sixth Tier is their ceiling.
As a force with humans as the main body, Arcane Empire should face the same bottleneck.
Therefore, it is simply impossible for them to produce Eighth Tier or even Ninth Tier weapons by themselves.
"You mean, their weapons were inherited from an ancient 'lost civilization'?" Oren asked.
"That's right. This also explains why this Empire suddenly appeared out of thin air, and had the strength of the Eighth Tier civilization as soon as it appeared."
"After we go back, we can check the files to see if there was a prosperous civilization in this star field," Gilanna added, "So, based on this analysis, the third scenario is the answer."
"Then the question is: How did they know we were coming?"
"They either have spies inside us, or they have a Prophecy master."
The two frowned in thought. Prophecy magic is extremely rare, even rarer than space and Time Magic.
Even if someone has talent in this area, he still needs the corresponding knowledge inheritance to make such accurate predictions.
Therefore, the most likely possibility is that Arcane Empire has planted spies within the federation, and they are very high-level.
This kind of thing is not new, other Eighth Tier civilizations have also done it.
The only difference is that the Federation is usually well aware of the actions of those spies and just pretends not to know.
But this time, they were completely unaware of when Arcane Empire penetrated in, nor did they know how deep it had penetrated.
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know either," Gilanna looked at a watch that appeared in his hand and said helplessly, "I can't hack into their network to get any information at all."
"How about we apply for a formal visit?"
"It's a good idea, but I doubt I'll find anything useful."
Gilanna's intuition was right. After requesting a tour, they were taken to visit many places in the city.
The only gain is that it is confirmed that this Empire takes the route of combining magic and technology.
Ordinary people have a very high quality of life and have sufficient food, medical and educational resources.
Other than that, nothing was found.
That night, the three gathered together again to discuss.
"What do you think?"
"Everything was so fake, like it was carefully rehearsed," Oren said. He trusted his instincts.
"This place obviously hides a lot of secrets. I think it's best to follow the rules, collect a symbolic protection fee, and then leave here and report back as soon as possible," Augustus suggested, and Gilanna nodded in agreement.
So, the next day, they met with Ian again and expressed that they needed to pay a small fee.
Then, they hurriedly left on the pretext of receiving a recall order from their superiors.
Within the Archon Palace
Ian is watching a holographic video with his aunt Amelia.
In the video, the three envoys who had just left were being attacked by a group of interstellar pirates.
Augustus wields a huge war hammer, smashing approaching enemies into pulp, and occasionally releases typical Paladin skills such as [Hammer of Justice] or [Light of Judgment].
As for Oren, he relies solely on his strong body to fight. No matter whether it is physical attacks or magical attacks, they can't leave traces on his scales. He even opens his mouth to spit out dragon breath from time to time to burn the enemy.
At first, with the strength of the two Sixth Tier strong men, they had an overwhelming advantage - even the pirates also had two powerful Sixth Tier mages.
But soon, the pirates relied on their numerical advantage and the suppression of the spacecraft's artillery to gradually reverse the situation.
At this moment, Gilanna took action.
A green House-elf appeared on her shoulder. She raised her staff, and a terrifying hurricane formed instantly, destroying everything in sight.
The pirates' 20 spaceships were wiped out in an instant.
After taking care of the enemy, she looked around with a frown, as if looking for something. Then, she boarded the spacecraft with the other two people and left quickly.
"Elven Magic?" Ian thought thoughtfully, "And he looks like a wind mage."
"Don't you think this is too deliberate?" Amelia said, "As soon as they left, they met pirates on their back."
"Just because it was deliberate, it was a good move. Anyway, nothing happened to them."
Ian originally didn't expect those pirates to succeed. After all, the opponent only had two Sixth Tier casters.
What he wants is to force out the true strength and methods of these three people.
"We could have used this opportunity to get more information about the current situation of Milky Way Galaxy from them."
"I know, but I can't trust those people in the Federation," Ian replied. "After this visit, the news that we are the Eighth Tier civilization will soon spread. We can take this opportunity to contact the other three major forces."
"To be precise, they are the other two major forces. After all, the Mindthinkers group is not easy to deal with."
"It's up to you."
Later, Ian watched the battle video again, trying to learn something from it.
After doing this, he planned to deal with Herpo first, and then officially launch the "Akashic Records" plan.
Once completed, he can travel to a new world and become more powerful as quickly as possible.