Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Leon frowned when he heard that voice. It sounded a bit too calm to belong to an enemy. Yet it seemed too casual considering that Leon just invaded their planet or perhaps base, and killed several of its minions. Besides, as soon as Leon heard that voice, the mana dispersed... as if the person who sent the message was sure that Leon would accept the invitation.

"I guess I should look for another dungeon... I\'m too old to trust the words of a stranger just like that."

The moment Leon was about to touch the purple crystal, a voice echoed inside his head.

"Hey, wait a minute, I just want to talk," A feminine voice echoed in Leon\'s head. "I\'m not an enemy, and I\'m not mad that you destroyed a few of my elementals."

Leon frowned; it was Telepathy. It has been a while since Leon met someone who could use it. Only Darya could use it, after all. Still, the tone of the voice, despite being calm, it only made Leon feel more worried. He didn\'t kill a few elementals. He killed thousands of them. If Leon had that power and someone destroys his creatures just to create mithril, he would get really pissed.

"Hey, are you listening?" The woman\'s voice echoed in Leon\'s head again. "Is Telepathy working? Am I using proper words? It has been a while since I talked with someone."

"No, you are not using proper words," Leon said. "Since that is the case, I\'m going to leave, have a good afternoon."

"... If I am not using proper words, how did you understand my question?" The women asked.

"... I am very good at... solving puzzles... that is why I managed to understand the message," Leon facepalmed because of his stupidity.

"Whatever... you are one of them, right?" The women asked. "One of the guys who got involved with the harvesters and now wants to kill them, I\'m the same. That is why I want to talk to you."

Leon wondered how someone could understand that much just by looking at him. Now that Leon thought about it, Mind Armor was still active, but someone still could use Telepathy to talk with him... Probably because it wasn\'t an offensive skill. Regardless... everything was too suspicious. Although he concluded that the person who was talking to him was a harvester, she was acting as if she wasn\'t one.

"Why do you want to hunt them?" Leon asked. "You are the same as them."

"No, I\'m not," The woman said. "I\'m not killing sentient beings, only monsters... you should have noticed that. Did you find any other type of monster near the dungeon? My golems only attacked you because I wanted to confirm my hypothesis. I\'m sorry for that, but I wouldn\'t be able to judge if you were an enemy or not without doing that."

Leon scratched the back of his head; things were getting weirder and weirder. Now that he heard about it, the elementals didn\'t cause all that much destruction, and he didn\'t see any monsters aside from the elementals around the dungeon either. Still, the chances of that being a trap were quite high... Besides, even though the holy sword was sealed, Leon knew that he was weak when he listens to the sweet voices of women. That was like a universal fact. It was even truer considering that he had to endure more than ten years of forced celibacy.

"Well, now... what should I do?"

"Just come to my castle," The woman said. "I already told you I just want to talk, you probably have the information I want, and of course, I will help you a little bit if you prove yourself useful."

"Don\'t read my mind..." Leon frowned. "What kind of information do you want?"

"You picked the interest of some harvesters, right?" The woman asked. "I can tell because I already saw many like you."

Now that was surprising... Leon didn\'t expect to hear something like that anytime soon. However, it wasn\'t that surprising that he would meet someone in a similar position, or at least someone who knew several individuals that experienced what Leon experienced. Everything was starting to make sense, that woman was much more powerful than someone who would actually live in a world that was on the third stage of assimilation. She was capable of creating those elementals, after all. She was only there to make use of time dilation.

"If you are that afraid, you just have to create two checkpoints using mithril," The woman said. "Just put one of them near the crystal, and you will be able to move to their instantly as long as you keep the second with yourself."

As expected, she was really a magician that had a lot more knowledge than Leon has. That kind of information was valuable, but Leon was angry because he was clearly being taunted but still was falling for that cheap trick.

"Hah... I\'m not going to keep insisting," The woman said after a long sigh. "In the end, someone so fearful wouldn\'t help me in any way."

After that, Leon didn\'t hear anything. Leon felt alleviated, but he couldn\'t help but wonder about what he should do. Until now, he only found enemies that had more magical knowledge than him. It had been the first time that he met someone who knew more than a few tricks and clearly didn\'t show any hostility.

"Mmm... It is risky, but like everything that is dangerous, it may grant me many things. She probably is going to ask me about the harvesters that I know... most likely, she also wants to hunt a harvester or two. I will take my chances."