~Lucius...~ Hannibal whispered.
~I know, but let's test it out before we get too excited. There's a chance that the techniques don't work with our index,~ Lucius replied, before disconnecting everyone from the tree.
The three of them walked to a spot just outside the central camp, before Hannibal began trying to execute what he had read. While he was doing this, Lucius tried to see if he could replicate the technique with the solar index.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... 『Radiant Mirage』.]
[Adding 『Radiant Mirage』 to 『Radiant Augmentation Index』...]
[Complete. 『Radiant Mirage』 has been added.]
It took about two minutes before Hannibal had finally gotten it, and around the same time for Lucius to realize that it was not a possibility with the solar index.
"Hmm, so it's literally a mirror copy. Try moving around," Lucius ordered, inspecting the duplicate that Hannibal had created. Sadly, the notes had been right when it said a well-versed enemy could spot it out at a glance.
The image was a little translucent, meaning it wouldn't be much help in close combat. Also, it couldn't move independently, so it couldn't even be used to confuse the enemy properly.
"Can you create more?" he asked after, and Hannibal closed his eyes to concentrate. However, after 2 minutes of arduous strain, he only managed to make a very faint second copy.
"With more practice perhaps you'll be able to create more, maybe then it'll be a little more useful," he whispered. "But for now, it'll do for long-distance confusion and baits," he said after.
After the group was done, they went back to the tree to try and see if there were any more memories with spells. However, they came to find that that was the last memory Pagan had that related to the spell books.
~Do you know where the ruins of this place are located?~ Lucius asked, hoping that perhaps there might be a few books left over.
~Lighted One, there are no ruins. Those creatures in the memory sit on the Fae's throne as we speak,~ Pagan replied.
~Was there only one civilization? Perhaps there were other cities?~ Hannibal asked.
~If there are, then I do not know of them,~ Pagan replied.
~So getting those books is going to require either searching or espionage... both of which can be arranged,~ Lucius decided.
~Anyway, let's finish what I brought you guys here to do. I want to get a bit of building done, this will help Hannibal increase his Elmando as well,~ Lucius said, before showing the group an image of an ancient roman colosseum he had seen in a movie.
~I want to build a smaller-scale version of this using wood. It'll probably take a few days to finish as we will have to do it in little bits and pieces to avoid passing out, but that's okay,~ he said before the group began.
They managed to set up a 4-meter tall, 50-meter radius cylinder on the ground. For now, it would work as the foundations they would add onto later.
After that was done, they disconnected to go and inspect what they had made.
"What are we going to use this for?" Hannibal asked as they walked through the entrance into the center of the unfinished colosseum.
"A training area. After a while we'll compress the wood more and more, at some point, hopefully, we become strong enough to use rock material," Lucius explained.
"Training?" Pagan asked.
"Like the match you and I had the other day," Lucius replied, before taking off his cloak, and walking to the center.
"Pagan, heal Hannibal," Lucius ordered, and Pagan obliged. Hannibal was a little confused about what was going on, but quickly realized it once Lucius started throwing air punches.
"We're going to fight?" Hannibal asked.
"It's the best way to increase stats. You can make use of the radiant index, as a handicap, I won't use any magic," Lucius replied, before throwing out three quick kicks, each of them sounding like a whip.
"Pagan, you can announce when we should start," Lucius ordered before walking back a few steps to create a safe enough distance between him and Hannibal.
"You ready?" Pagan asked, looking toward Hannibal.
"I think so,"
"Ready?" he asked, this time looking at Lucius. Lucius just nodded his head in response.
"Go!"
The fight ended in less than six blinks. In the first two seconds, Lucius covered the almost 4-meter distance between them, while Hannibal activated his cloak.
In the next two seconds, Lucius threw out a number of feints in an attempt to estimate Hannibal's reaction time. And though he moved fast, his reactions were slow.
The rest of the match was a complete slaughter. Hannibal could only attempt to dodge the many kicks and punches coming from seemingly all directions. He had both the speed and strength in cloaked mode to try and contest Lucius, but he had none of the battle knowledge.
In the end, he lost terribly, with not a single punch scored against Lucius.
"As expected of the Lighted One," Pagan said before going to heal Hannibal.
"Heal him completely, and go get Alpha," Lucius ordered. Of course, he knew that Hannibal would not be able to score a hit against him, much less win. The whole point of this was to grow his stats, and his battle iq through repeated sparring.
And from the looks of his stats, it was working.
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
─────⋅☾ Creature Details ☽⋅─────•
[Hannibal Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being lvl.6- [0/800]]
─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•
[Agility: 4 -> 40]
[Strength: 5 -> 60]
[Stamina: 4 -> 84]
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
"Hannibal get up," Lucius ordered as Pagan left to get Alpha. "The tree offers a faster recovery rate, and Pagan should've healed you completely," he added.
"Still hasn't healed my emotional damage though," Hannibal whispered as he got up. This time he stood in the same stance that Lucius was standing in. It would seem he was learning.
"You can say when," Lucius said, and a moment later the bout began.
This time the fight ended even faster, however, Hannibal's performance had improved.
In the first few seconds, while Lucius was running to cover the distance between the two of them, Hannibal used radiant mirage, before instantly kicking dirt into the air.
It was a cute little trick, but something like that wasn't going to work against a man who had spent half his life-fighting. Sure he struggled against spiders twice his size, or some other monstrous creature, but when it came to hand-to-hand, he was indeed a veteran.
A whip-like kick came thrusting through the sand cloud, before hitting the real Hannibal square in the chest, sending him bouncing off the ground like a ball.
Hannibal coughed up sap as he lay on the ground, struggling to get air into his body.
"Heal yourself," Lucius whispered, before casting a healing spell on him.
