Chapter 153: [153] Strange Marks

Eliron stared at the screen in front of him, doing his best to act neutral, but internally…

’What the actual hell??’

He had received four bombshells side by side without a single break in between the revelations!

There were multiple questions on his mind. What is the serpent mark? Is it from the great spirit? And the sword mark? Was it from the sword demon? And if it was, why was it on his wrist??

The ice affinity made a little more sense at least… Eliron had been cultivating his mana using mana breathing for months now.

It was only natural that he could get a new affinity sometime soon, but as for the reason it was two instead of one…

Affinities sometimes follow a set law of nature. Apart from wildly different affinities such as lightning which is a derivative of fire, affinities with a more set path, like ice, needed to follow the natural progression.

What does all this yap mean?

Well it is simple, you need to gain both the water and wind element to gain an ice affinity.

Since Eliron already had both and was using Mana breathing in a place with such a thick concentration of ice mana, it must have acted like a catalyst.

’The sword demon’s mark might also be involved….’

Yen suddenly grabbed Eliron’s arm, surprising him. It seemed during his internal monologue, everyone had been staring at him.

She brought the mark to her face then frowned. “A sword and a serpent, is this because of the demonic sword?”

“Most likely…” Eliron sighed.

Yennefer stared at him intently, her gold eyes taking a bright hue. “Thankfully, from what I can sense, you don’t seem cursed… or posessed…”

“Of course I’m not, it’s going to take more than a legion to bring me down.” Eliron said proudly.

“I hope you gave that demon a spanking for me?” Yen asked devilishly.

“Do you even need to ask? Of course I did, he was basically begging me to kill him at the end!”

’Well, technically…’ Eliron mused.

Yennefer tapped his shoulders happily. “Hehe, celestia honours your service.”

“The markings… they are expertly crafted, there is not a single error.” Ash muttered from the side as he stared at the marks.

“Yeah, even tattoo artists aren’t this talented.” Eliron raised the mark to his face to observe it more. ’Wait, doesn’t this look like…’

“Isn’t that a summoning mark?” Cassie asked as she walked closer to him.

Naturally, they all turned to Cassie.

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Eliron had heard about them before, but this was the first time he was seeing one.

“Sorry to interject, but what exactly is a summoning mark?” Ash asked.

“Summoners who have contact with mythical beasts or spirits sometimes gain a mark as proof of their alliance.” Cassie explained.

“Did you make contact with any spirit recently?”

’That damn snake…’ Eliron cursed in his mind.

Since it was a great spirit, was it somehow able to force a contract with him??

That sounded a little logical, but any contract made forcefully would be fickle and easy to break.

As for the annoying sword demon, Eliron was not even sure what the deal with him was.

Demons could not form contracts, at least not in the way spirits could.

“If the sword mark is from the demon lying in the sword, then it may potentially be dangerous.” Artie commented.

“But at the same time, couldn’t this be a plus? Demons are not bound by notions of good and evil, having one you can summon can greatly boost our military capabilities.” Artie said sharply.

Leave it to Artie to think about military building at a time like this. Her astute judgement was one of the reasons he added her to his team.

“That was actually the first thing I thought about.” Eliron sighed. “But this demon, heh, he’s quite the bastard.”

Eliron could already imagine what he would say the moment he was summoned.

’I won’t take orders from a kid weaker than me…’

“Anyways…” Eliron covered the marks with his sleeve. “Since it is not dangerous, at least for now, let’s focus on other matters.”

He would figure it out later…

Now, back to business, they had already gotten all the weapons for their team, but that wasn’t the only thing they needed.

“I want to place an order, a really big one…”

Cassie’s eyes glinted like rubies. “Wait, let me get my note pad!”

She practically sprinted to the side, muttering something about how blessed her day was going to be, and quickly hurried back with a charcoal pencil and a small notepad.

“I’m listening!”

“Alright… we’ll need about fifty elven steel swords, twenty magic staffs, about fifteen shields, and ten spears.”

“F-Fifty??” Cassie’s eyes widened, unable to contain her glee as she quickly scribbled it down.

This was because of just how expensive Elven steel swords were… although they were no longer very efficient for Eliron, that was just because of the nature of his skills…

Most swords would struggle if he were to unleash SSS sword master level skills with them.

But that wasn’t to say Elven steel was weak or cheap, in fact, amongst the known alloys, it was ranked second.

The strongest was Empyrean steel, followed by Elven steel and then Dwarven steel.

Of course, although they had these names, all of them were actually produced by dwarves but named according to historical relevance…

As for the price, one elven steel sword would cost you about a year’s rent in a well off neighborhood, and that was for lower quality blends…

Which meant Cassie was making more than what most merchants would earn in five years in one morning…

Cassie giggled as she glanced at her notes. “Will the spear tips be elven steel as well?”

“Of course—”

“Ehehehehehe…” Cassie’s dark laughter cut in before he could finish.

Eliron gave her a strange stare and she quickly cleared her throat. “That is fantastic, I’ll have your orders ready in about a day’s time!”

“I have no issues with that, we aren’t in a hurry after all.”

He nodded and turned to Ash. “We are getting majorly long swords, but fifteen of our knights will use shields right?”

“Yes my lord— Oh, I see what you mean.” Ash stroked his well trimmed beard.

“Those knights cannot effectively use longswords alongside their shields, we’ll need to get them a shorter sword alternative.”

Longswords were primarily two handed weapons, they were still usable in one hand, but they would quickly wear down the user in a prolonged exchange.

Elirom took a moment to think about all the weapon options he knew.

From rapiers to katanas to scimitars and jians… he considered them all. Yet, there was one that stood out amongst all of them.

“Can we get falchions?”

Cassie nodded. “There is no weapon on God’s green earth we can’t make.”

“Good, then we’ll have a few of those as well.” Elirom then turned to Artie. “Do your archers need any supplies?”

While he, Sabrina and Ash were responsible for training the knights, Artie had a group of elite archers under her command.

“Yeah, we need these items…”

Artie went on to say everything the archer needed which Cassie duly noted down, then Yennefer was next, and she outlined the items needed in the healing quarters at Artaris.

By the time they were done, Cassie’s paper was full, and Eliron had spent more gold than any noble would dream of spending in a single day.

A good chunk of the betting money was already gone from purchasing the special grade weapons, and now they had also dug into the money they got from the monster parts.

Eliron let out a dragged sigh when he stared into his coin pouch…

“It used to be so full…”

Cassie patted him on the shoulder, her crimson eyes glinting. “Hey, it is an investment in the future of your kingdom, it will all come back.”

“Yeah, right. How are soldiers going to make me rich?”

He raised his hand and pointed it at the side. “Alright, it seems we are done here, you guys should get going.”

The familiar dark distortion appeared by his side and he ushered them in.

Yennefer stretched as she walked towards the portal. “My stomach is on fire, it’s lunch time right? Let’s eat.”

Ash on the other hand asked, “What about you my lord? Are you staying back?”

Eliron nodded. “I need to wrap up a few things with Cassie. Don’t wait for me before having lunch, it might take a while…”

“Alright, till then.” He jumped into the portal alongside Yennefer.

But Artie delayed a bit, giving him a long suspicious stare.

Eliron smiled.

After about two seconds, Artie walked through the portal as well.

“Haaa—!”

The moment they left, Eliron let out a breath, his entire demeanour changing.

“Thank God I didn’t forget!”

Cassie perked a brow, folding her arms across her ample chest. “So?”

“What secret is so great that you can’t afford to let your crew know?”

Eliron glanced at her, his eyes wary. “You are a noble aren’t you?”

Cassie nodded slowly then answered skeptically. “Yes? Why?”

A wry grin appeared on Eliron’s face. “Then I have one last request.”

Eliron walked up to her until the space between them was no greater than a foot.

Then he placed his hands on her lithe shoulders, leaned forward a bit and smiled.

“Please, teach me how to dance. The fate of my kingdom depends on it!”

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