Became The Son Of The Final Boss [EN]: Chapter 84

84.

“Your Highness, it’s Death Falls.”

At Leoden’s words, I nodded.

‘Has heaven recognized our hard work?’

Since the battle with the Ruin’s Ruler Wyvern and the Black Ogre, we hadn’t encountered any monsters and made it all the way down to Death Falls.

It was a miracle.

Leoden expressed his emotions without reservation.

“It’s unbelievable. We made it out of Sector 3.”

I shrugged.

“It’s a relief. It seems the area we were in was somewhat removed from the notoriety of Sector 3. Now that we can see Death Falls, let’s be careful and return to the Western Command.”

From here, Leoden definitely knew the way.

“Yes, Your Highness. I will take the lead.”

Death Falls wasn’t far from the Orc Legion’s main base.

We didn’t know when or where we might encounter Orcs. It was best to avoid combat if possible, and the most important thing was to return to the Western Command safely.

Reforming our ranks, the knights and I moved forward.

The knights’ expressions were noticeably brighter.

We had accomplished our mission, and now all that was left was to return.

The sacrifices of our comrades were temporarily forgotten. The fact that we would have to fight the Orcs to the death again was also pushed out of our minds.

We started our return journey in relatively high spirits.

Siloufen guarded my side as we walked, and Ignis followed from above.

Since a High-Level Spirit could only be contracted with one spirit per attribute, I wanted to contract with as many as possible.

Contracting with a Supreme Spirit was still a distant dream, and after becoming a little stronger, I wanted to contract with the High-Level Water Spirit and the High-Level Earth Spirit as well.

‘I should check my skill levels.’

I opened the status window.

It felt like it had been a while.

‘My character level hasn’t changed.’

My level remained the same, and I was still classified as a High-Level Spirit Beginner.

The addition of the title effect ‘One Who Walks the Path of the Great Spirit Master’ was very beneficial.

-All attribute spirit skill power increased by 2x.

-Attribute Harmony skill mana consumption reduced by 1/2.

Mana consumption tended to be high when implementing skills with High-Level Spirits, so the mana consumption reduction effect was like welcome rain during a drought for me.

The newly unlocked Red Wind Storm skill level became 2, and the Swamp Fairy was also at level 2. The Wind Chains also leveled up to 13 after a long time. The Water Barrier also went up by 1 to 13.

Above all, I was pleased that the Earth’s Roar skill had reached 5.

‘I need to raise the levels of support skills like Fire Curtain and Earth’s Roar further.’

I had time to rethink spirit magic after experiencing several battles.

Spirit magic was powerful enough to determine the outcome of a battle.

In terms of firepower alone, it could unleash powerful area-of-effect attacks that were by no means inferior to those of a mage.

Although not as much as a knight, it was possible to face a Sword Master depending on how the spirits were used against a single target.

I thought that what differentiated spirit magic from mages and knights were the support skills.

A battle wasn’t a series of agreed-upon actions like attacking once and defending once. There were many variables in a battle, and that’s when support skills were most effective.

Disrupting or restricting the enemy’s movements.

‘There must be skills among the various support skills that completely bind the enemy or momentarily neutralize their techniques.’

I couldn’t aim to unlock such skills right now.

Because my bonus stats were 0.

In the battle with the Lich, I used all my bonus stats to obtain two S-class skills.

I was too preoccupied to be happy at the time, but now I was quite pleased.

‘I should unlock a quest with the next bonus stats. The skill balance isn’t perfect, but it’s sufficient for now.’

Skills could be divided into attack, defense, and support, and my attack skills were the best, and my defense skills weren’t bad either.

My support skills were a bit lacking, but it was enough to fight.

“Your Highness, let’s move towards the forest.”

We had been moving along the riverbank, but Leoden changed direction.

“The forest?”

“It’s not far from the Orc Legion’s main base and close to the Wyvern’s nest in the ruins, so I think it would be better to go through the forest, even if it takes a bit longer.”

I accepted Leoden’s suggestion.

“Okay, let’s move.”

Leoden took the lead again, and we were able to safely enter the forest without any problems.

It was called a forest, but all the trees were dead, and the ground was black as if it had been burned. The rocks scattered here and there also had bizarre shapes, and some were stained with red, presumably monster blood.

‘Is it because I fought the undead? I’m getting used to the dark forest’s magic now.’

The first time I entered the dark forest, my whole body was tingling because of the magic, but now I could endure it just fine.

It seemed like my luck had turned, as I didn’t encounter a single monster until I left the forest.

The same was true for the Orcs.

We safely escaped the dark forest, and now we were only a day away from the west.

“Your Highness, I think it would be best to rest tonight and depart early tomorrow morning. There happens to be a cave nearby, so let’s rest there.”

As expected, Leoden was well-versed in the geography of the west.

Again, I accepted Leoden’s suggestion.

“Okay. So, we’re finally returning tomorrow morning.”

There was still work to be done even after returning.

The quest to rescue Gale was over, but two important quests remained in the west.

One was to prevent Goran’s resurrection, and the other was a quest that could only be done at the Western Temporary Command.

‘The loyalty of the lords…….’

* * *

Gale was deep in thought in the depths of the cave.

It was where his lord was sleeping, and he should have been on guard all night, but he felt like the state of enlightenment that was within his grasp would fly away if he didn’t seize it now.

Fortunately, he had excellent people by his side to assist him.

Leoden and David were definitely knights who had walked completely different paths from him, but they were strong enough to be acknowledged.

Gale had carefully examined the knights who had come with Arun during several battles, and he felt that there were no knights other than Leoden and David worth saving.

Still, since they had risked their lives to save him, he intended to do his best to teach them if they were assigned to Arun’s direct knight order.

‘Once we finish defending the west and return, my lord will finally have a force.’

He had been protecting Arun for years, hoping that he wouldn’t die miserably at the hands of someone.

But Arun had suddenly changed and blossomed with talents he had never imagined.

He hadn’t said it, but he already felt that Arun had more outstanding talents than the previous head of the family.

Mastering spirit magic and becoming a High-Level Spirit Beginner in just a few months.

It was a fact he would never have believed if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

‘As his power grows, the checks [attempts to control or limit his power] will become more severe. Creating just one knight order won’t change anything. Those who check my lord are too powerful.’

If it weren’t for the Emperor, Arun would not have survived the Atlan family, the Riverhill family, and the other two duke families, no matter how hard he had tried to protect him.

The Emperor hadn’t favored Arun, but since he had never taken away the position of Crown Prince, the maternal families of the other princes and princesses were cautious.

But as he grew his power, they would no longer just wait for an opportunity as they had in the past.

Because Arun was showing increasingly good qualities as the Crown Prince.

If there were no flaws in Arun himself, no one could defeat him with any justification.

The Emperor’s eldest son!

That was an absolute fact that no one could shake.

Moreover, Arun’s deceased mother was still the current Emperor’s only Empress.

The Iriel family was a prestigious family of spirit magic and was clearly noble, and she was the Emperor’s first wife, so the legitimacy was perfect.

The only reason Arun had been ostracized was because of his abilities and personality.

Now that he had overcome all of that, the other competitors had no choice but to become impatient.

‘I need to become stronger.’

His most powerful competitor was the Atlan family, the best family in the empire, which was his maternal family.

The Atlan family was where the best knights of the empire gathered, and the current head of the family, Beregon, was one of the empire’s four Sword Masters.

If he made up his mind, could Arun survive even a day in the Imperial Palace?

‘His Majesty is here, so he can’t commit an act close to treason, but…….’

Gale kept all possibilities open.

The Western War would not be easy, but he was even more worried about returning to the Imperial Palace.

So, he whipped himself even harder.

‘It would be good to find that wandering knight too. He was an amazing talent. Indeed, the world is wide.’

Karen suddenly came to mind, but he shook his head.

Now was not the time to focus on one wandering knight, but to pour all his energy into the path to Sword Master that was right in front of him.

Gale relaxed and looked back on the past battles.

And he recalled the battlefield he had been on with the Emperor long ago.

The image of a radiant aura blade cutting through all directions from an ordinary longsword came vividly to life.

The Emperor’s movements were always simple.

But no one could stop those simple movements.

‘His Majesty always values efficiency. On the other hand, my swordsmanship is…….’

As Gale fell into meditation, the words the Emperor had said to him strangely came to mind.

-Is it necessary to step back even once? When you stab, you should always move forward. If you calculate the counterattack or calculate that the enemy will dodge, it’s not a stab.

-There is no such thing as advanced swordsmanship. In the end, when you hold a sword, all you can do is stab or cut.

-The same goes for the flow of mana. When you inject mana into the sword, if you think of injecting it into a single channel at once, the aura will be generated faster and sharper.

Why were those words coming to mind now?

He had been bound by the principles of orthodox swordsmanship. Even Leoden and David, though not as good as the Emperor, showed concise movements.

He thought that it was because they were mercenaries that they were strong in practical swordsmanship, but it was much more efficient than the swordsmanship of the knights.

Swordsmanship was not about showing off to someone, but about ending the enemy’s life.

It was a fact he already knew, but the moment all of that came to him anew and became an enlightenment, Gale exclaimed.

Gooooooo-!

Mana flowed out of Gale’s body.

The mana hole [core] shook violently, and the mana flowed through his body like a raging wave.

Gale instinctively realized that his mana hole was growing.

A mana hole does not increase on its own. If the mana hole is a vessel for holding mana, the order in which the mana hole grows is that the existing vessel breaks and a larger vessel takes its place.

Gale bit his lip tightly.

If he couldn’t withstand the shock of the vessel breaking, he was likely to become crippled. The mana that had lost its place to gather would rage wildly through his body, and his body would not be able to withstand the flow.

Gooooooooooo-!

The mana that had circled his body strongly struck the outer part of the mana hole. At the same time, the mana hole broke, and the mana that remained inside was sucked into the flow.

Gale desperately grabbed the mana and piled it up in the mana hole.

‘His Highness took such good care of me…….’

He suddenly felt sorry that he didn’t have the Polisia flower. If he had eaten it consistently, it would have been a little easier.

As the mana accumulated, a new mana hole began to form, and the mana that had been wandering through his body expelled impurities from his blood vessels.

Gale barely suppressed a scream as he felt his whole body twisting.

His body was being reconstructed.

How much time had passed?

Gale opened his eyes with a stench.

Blinding light was streaming in from the cave entrance, and Arun’s voice was heard.

“Congratulations, Gale. You have surpassed your limits and become a Master.”