Chapter 26: The Road to Navarley and Elemental Beasts

Even Minos wasn’t my kill; in the end, she was the one who dealt the finishing blow.

“Uh…” Angelina was speechless, realizing that, with this new information, there was no longer any clear lead.

“Still, leveling up is a good thing, isn’t it?” I mused, feeling the surge of power within me, my strength noticeably increased.

Having greater power to protect myself certainly wasn’t a bad thing.

“You’re right,” Angelina conceded, seeing my resolve.

There was no point in dwelling on it further when the cause remained elusive.

After concealing my wings once more, we left the room to find the others.

Everyone was astonished upon learning of my advancement, yet theories regarding its cause abounded, with even Sally completely at a loss for an explanation.

After breakfast, the group departed from the small town, commencing the final leg of their journey to Navarley.

Befitting a main road leading to the capital of the Asante Kingdom, the path was not only remarkably smooth but also considerably wider, approaching the quality of a paved highway.

“Let me tell you, the phoenixes on Mount Rebosa are currently in their breeding season…” Brook chirped, bouncing along the road as he excitedly outlined his next adventure plan to everyone.

“If I could just snatch a phoenix egg and tame it, my monster taming skills would reach a whole new level!”

“Forget about it,” Amos retorted, dousing Brook’s enthusiasm with a splash of cold water.

“Do you truly think you’re capable of stealing a phoenix egg in your current state?

Have you forgotten the last time you tried to tame a Light Dragon?

You blew up someone’s house and still haven’t learned your lesson.”

“That’s precisely why I need your help…” Brook mumbled sheepishly, his earlier confidence instantly deflated.

“The crucial point is, why do you keep collecting so many magical beasts?” Amos admonished, his voice laced with exasperation, clearly not for the first time.

“Your body simply can’t handle the drain.

They don’t just let themselves be tamed for free; they absorb your life force and magical energy.

Your magical energy is already limited, and using them too frequently will inevitably lead to problems.”

“I agree with Amos,” Tiffany interjected, joining the conversation to express her concern for Brook.

“You should really focus your efforts on controlling and utilizing the beasts you already have.

There’s still significant room for improvement in your monster taming skills.”

Initially, their conversation left me utterly bewildered.

Taming magical beasts, by my understanding, was simply a matter of training pets, so where did this ‘life force’ element come in?

It wasn’t until I questioned Amos that the true nature of the process became clear.

It turned out that Brook’s method of taming magical beasts differed significantly from my usual understanding.

It was, in essence, a process of elementalizing the beast’s body.

These elementalized beasts would then reside within their master, sustained by the master’s magical energy.

While this posed no issue under normal circumstances, their return to a physical form from their elemental state would continuously drain vast amounts of magical energy, and even life force.

Since the magical energy sustaining their elemental form originated from the user, their power would, in turn, fluctuate with the user’s own strength, effectively transforming them into growth-type magical beasts.

Consequently, the beast’s inherent strength before taming became less crucial; instead, only its potential truly mattered.

To simplify the process, adult beasts were almost never considered; typically, only their young were sought out for elementalization.

Due to the immense magical energy required for them to manifest physically, even a high-level mage’s reserves could not sustain them for more than a few minutes.

Thus, they were typically summoned for brief, critical moments before being instantly dispelled.

This mode of operation rendered them largely impractical for mages, yet highly favored by warriors who relied on physical combat and often lacked sufficient magical energy.

This, then, explained why Brook would always summon these magical beasts for mere fleeting moments in battle before they vanished.

He simply couldn’t sustain them for extended periods; once his magical energy was depleted, it would begin to consume his life force, and any further prolongation would put his very life in jeopardy.

“Actually, this method of using magical beasts is quite intriguing,” Angelina remarked, having listened to our discussion, unable to resist joining in.

“If employed skillfully and at the right moment, such as the instant of impact with an enemy, it could inflict immense damage while conserving a great deal of unnecessary energy.”

She had studied martial arts, and her mind was quite agile when it came to combat.

“That’s why I keep telling him not to get carried away with collecting increasingly powerful magical beasts,” Tiffany sighed with a hint of exasperation.

“No matter how formidable they are, their actual combat strength won’t surpass his own.

It would be far more beneficial for him to focus on strengthening his personal abilities.”

It seemed she had worried about this quite a bit.

By now, they were likely quite close to Navarley.

Expansive fields had begun to appear on both sides of the road, with scattered farmsteads and villages nestled in the distant countryside, their chimneys sending up wisps of cooking smoke—a truly idyllic pastoral scene.

“We’re almost there,” Amos announced, pointing to a towering structure with an exceptionally high spire on the horizon ahead.

“Is Navarley merely a castle?” I asked, a touch of confusion in my voice.

What I saw clearly resembled a castle, yet in my experience, castles weren’t typically very large.

If Navarley were just a castle, it would be far too small.

“That’s just the Royal City!” Brook interjected, eager to enlighten me.

“Surrounding the Royal City are numerous civilian dwellings, and it’s all of them combined that form what is called Navarley.”

‘I see,’ I realized with a flash of understanding.

It seemed we were still too far away to discern the surrounding buildings.

After spotting the spire, we continued for another hour or two, gradually noticing the buildings along the road becoming more densely packed.

Forking roads grew more numerous, and the flow of people and vehicles became increasingly frequent, even leading to congestion.

The atmosphere, too, slowly began to buzz with activity.

It was only when we truly arrived before it that I finally grasped how mistaken my previous impressions had been, for this was, without a doubt, an extraordinarily vast and magnificent city.

Not only did the colossal city walls stretch endlessly into the horizon, their termination nowhere in sight, but the Royal City itself, situated directly ahead, exuded an utterly breathtaking and oppressive aura.

The castle was so monumental it seemed like an entire mountain range sprawled before us.

Its sheer terrifying scale was imperceptible from afar, only becoming apparent as we drew closer.

Navarley boasted three concentric rings of city walls.

My current position placed me before the outermost gate, waiting in line with the others for entry.

After approximately half an hour, we finally gained access to the main city district.

The road abruptly became smooth, paved entirely with flagstones, a stark contrast to the dirt paths outside.

The buildings within the city were quite dense.

Though generally short, rarely exceeding three stories, their well-organized layout prevented any sense of overcrowding.

Indeed, numerous narrow alleys, leading to unknown destinations, could be glimpsed between many of the structures.

Much like the small towns we had passed, shops lined most of the streets, teeming with bustling crowds and a constant flow of carriages, creating a vibrant cacophony.

The key difference, however, lay in the attire: while townspeople generally dressed simply, here, it was common to see individuals resembling ostentatious nobles, adorned in lavish and elaborate clothing, alighting from carriages and entering the roadside establishments.

“Let’s take you two to see the Royal City first,” Tiffany suggested.

Tiffany gestured towards the castle, still several kilometers distant, as she spoke to Angelina and me.

Throughout the journey, she had clearly discerned that this was what captivated us most.

“Could it be that they hollowed out a mountain to build that?” I mused aloud, gazing at the Royal City, which by now occupied a significant portion of the sky.

“I’m not sure,” Angelina replied, “but it must have been constructed using magical powers.”

She, too, found its scale somewhat exaggerated.

Given the technological advancement of this world, building a castle nearly a thousand meters tall would be almost impossible without magic.

Its height, she surmised, was likely comparable to the tallest structures on Earth.

Moreover, it wasn’t just tall; it was incredibly wide, with a horizontal span of at least several hundred meters.

It was only when we followed everyone to the heart of the city that we finally beheld its full splendor.

The Royal City was situated within a lake, encircled by water on three sides, with one side connecting to land.

Its lower half was almost entirely composed of stacked rocks, only gradually transitioning into the appearance of an outer wall as it rose.

This outer wall-like section resembled a massive platform, constituting roughly half of the total height, with few visible windows or openings.

Above this platform’s summit rose a collection of magnificent Gothic structures, their domed designs complemented by slender, sharply pointed spires, imbuing the entire edifice with an ethereal and opulent grandeur.

The designer, it seemed, harbored a profound fondness for statues, as human figures could be seen towering everywhere—on rooftops, adorning the outer wall’s terraces.

I even spotted an angelic sculpture on one roof.

“If only we could go inside and have a look,” I sighed.

On Earth, a sight like this would undoubtedly be a prime tourist destination, but here, I could only admire it from afar, unable to truly experience it.

“If you showed your wings, perhaps you could,” Tiffany chuckled teasingly.

Her words held a certain truth.

Through our extensive conversations on the journey, I had come to understand that angels were not a common sight in this world.

Apart from their collaborations with humans in battle, they were rarely seen.

Of course, I suspected the ability to conceal their wings played a significant role in this rarity.

In many nations, angels, owing to their immense power and mastery of light element magic, had always been symbols of the highest reverence.

Should an angel appear in a country, they would typically be accorded official courtesies.

However, discretion was always wise.

Angelina and I shared the sentiment of minimizing exposure of our identities.

Naturally, we wouldn’t flaunt our wings and demand an audience within the city for such a trivial matter; that would be both shameless and utterly foolish.

Heaven knew what the royal families truly thought of angels, considering their relationship was, at best, one of cooperation.

Furthermore, appearing in public would inevitably cause a considerable stir, potentially attracting attention from various factions and leading to discovery by other angels.

“Why don’t we have Tiffany take you two on a tour of the city first?” Amos suggested at this juncture.

Their mission was complete, and he, Brook, and Sally needed to report back.

However, since this particular assignment hadn’t come from the Adventurers’ Guild, they had to visit both the commissioning church and the city’s defense office.