“Shut your mouth!” Esdras panicked and looked around, “fool, did you have to say this here, in the fort of all places? You’re dragging me into a pile of shit.”

Esdras was really mad, he wasn’t the type to get easily riled up but being put in this situation by strangers that didn’t even know the weight of their words was enough to trigger him.

He could only blame himself for being nice and talking to them in the first place.

Reid did not look remorseful, he might not have even understood how stupid he actually was.

“You want to escape? Great, go for it. I want nothing to do with it. Good day.”

Saying that Esdras turned around to leave at once, he did not want to be seen with these deadmen any longer than he had to. Just that was bad enough.

However, he was unexpectedly stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

“Esdras don’t tell me you’re that stupid? Now that you know of our plan how can you go just like that?”

Reid sneered and the others blocked off the door. Esdras felt his blood pressure rising, his eyes narrowed and his bloodlust began to seep outward.

“I won’t tell anyone about your stupid plan, so, for the last time while I’m still talking nicely get out of my way.”

Reid and the others looked at each other, some started to back off and others gnashed their teeth. Esdras was about to lose his patience with them.

“Let him go, he’s no better than us. At least we will escape this hellhole, he’s just a coward.” Reid said.

“Yeah, of course. I’m the coward for not running away. Very clever.” Esdras mocked them with disdain lining his words.

“You…!”

“What? Do you want to fight or not? I have places to be, get the fuck out of the way, vermin.”

Esdras walked out leaving the rest of the low level apprentices seething in anger. But all they did was just glare at him.

“If you want to escape then you better have a good idea of what you’re going to do after, where will you go?”

Esdras still left them a few words before leaving, it was because he absorbed the old host’s memories and knew what kind of despair they must be going through.

After all, to them they either faced death in the Rite of passage or if they were lucky and somehow survived it, then they could become Magical assistants.

Basically, slaves to True mages who helped do everything their masters wanted. They were used commonly used as test subjects themselves, after all True mages were tired of using ordinary people.

There was also a way for True mages to earn Merit points in the tower by ‘loaning’ their slaves to help in other mages experiments. It was called a passive Merit point income.

It was a life worse than death. However, they could not even opt to choose that life even if they wanted, they first had to be lucky enough to survive the Rite.

Surviving the Rite and passing it were two completely different things. Just because you survived doesn’t mean you passed.

While strolling around looking for Celine, Esdras felt a chill in the air. His hair stood on end, this was a warning of great danger. It was thanks to his [Veteran’s hunch] passive skill.

Esdras look at the wall of the castle to his right but didn’t see anything, this was the direction he felt the danger, however that feeling lasted for only a moment and then dissolved like a lie.

Even he felt confused, did he make a mistake? No, he didn’t think so.

From an outsider’s prospective he only paused for a moment and then continued on his way.

Esdras walked away pretending that he didn’t notice anything out of place and sat down as if observing the soldiers celebrating.

He saw something just then, it was only a glimpse of a claw on the wall, but only because of the dust. However now was the time for a probe. Esdras glanced back casually.

[Great giant chameleon Lv.6]

Rank: 2

[???]

Esdras bit his lip, on the wall of the castle ignoring gravity, inside the fortress, there was a giant chameleon and there was a person riding it.

By his own estimates, a level 5 monster should be at the same power of a True mage or at least very close to it, so one at level 6 was even better than that. Although he couldn’t see the name or level or the person riding it, they must be powerful enough to have it as a mount.

More importantly what the fuck is going on, who is that person and why couldn’t he see their name at least?

He had a hunch that it was related to that cloak, even now he couldn’t see any features of that person as if they were cloaked in shadows.

Was it an enemy? If so why are they not attacking? Oh, wait. Last week he did remember bumping into the three True mages talking to a cloaked person.

So, someone on the same side? But, why was it such a big secret? Even to the point of hiding it from everyone but the True mages.

There was something wrong here, a plot that mere apprentices were not qualified to know.

“Hey, Esdras! What are you thinking about?” Celine asked, spooking Esdras who was so immersed in his thoughts he didn’t notice her approach.

“It’s nothing, I was thinking of how much I missed you.” Saying that he pulled her into a hug.

“Y-you! We’re in public!” Celine protested weakly. She just couldn’t get used to the new Esdras at all.

“Oh, listen Celine why don’t you join my team? I can ask senior Ron.”

“Sure, but doesn’t your team already have a level 4 apprentice? Bran, right?”

Coincidently he happened to see Bran passing by with a condescending smirk, he smile back and whispered in Celine’s ear.

“not for long.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep