Chapter 341: The Wind Rises

Chapter 341 The Wind Rises

Cullen glanced back, well, just a glance.

Then, with a serene gaze, he looked toward Mavalyo, bowed half-way, and said:

"Me."

There was nothing left to decline, nor was there any need to hypocritically call for everyone to go through the motions of a discussion, much less any need to offer words of comfort or conciliation;

Because according to the four conditions Mavalyo had previously laid out, the most qualified person was himself.

Cullen knew well that the collective retreat of his squad members was not because they were cowed by his status as captain into not daring to strive for it, nor was it because they did not want this authority, but rather because they had absolutely no reason to open their mouths and contest it.

During the district selection, Bart and the others had witnessed Cullen's terrifying soul power; during the final selection, everyone had witnessed Cullen's leadership as well as his reserves of spiritual strength that could single-handedly suppress phantom beasts; Mars knew well that the captain possessed high attainments in array formations.

Their captain seemed to have absolutely no shortcomings in terms of strength, looking as though he could handle the work of everyone in the squad all by himself.

In fact, if it were not for this authority but some other reward, everyone would still tacitly give it to the captain.

Because giving it to anyone else would make them feel uncomfortable, but giving it to the captain... everyone felt at ease in their hearts.

Muri noticed the situation over at Cullen's squad; both were captains, yet this gap was truly so vast.

To this, Muri could only smile bitterly.

He was not jealous, because he knew very well that by relying on his connections in the Dinger District to assemble this squad, he was bound to lose the immense prestige that could only be gained from building a squad entirely by oneself.

A man cannot gain advantages in everything without paying a price.

Mavalyo nodded to Cullen, a flicker of praise showing in his eyes.

This praise was caught by Cullen, who began to analyze the mindset behind the other man's display of such an emotion.

The other party had said his age was about the same as theirs, and he had no reason to lie at this moment; after all, he was a mentor, and the older a mentor was, the more it would actually bring out their temperament and status.

Therefore, he was not someone of advanced age who merely looked young.

Husen treated him with great respect, a respect that carried no official title, nor could it be because of family, since he had said he had no surname.

In the end, only one possibility remained, and that was... lineage.

Not the kind of lineage in the familial sense, but one inherited from another place.

In this light, it was understandable why the other party would display a sense of "praise" from an elder's perspective.

Husen walked to Mavalyo's side and said in a low voice, "Cullen Silva."

"Oh, I remember him."

Husen stepped back again; originally, he was going to focus closely on this young man named Cullen today, because yesterday Cullen had not only knocked Levin flat but had also made Levin take the initiative to speak of the matter himself.

If that old fellow did not truly like this young man, it would have been impossible for him to go that far.

Regrettably, today was supposed to be his own class and his own home field, allowing him to interact more leisurely with this interesting young man; now, the opportunity was lost.

Muri's squad had finished voting, the rule being that one was not allowed to vote for oneself.

In the end, Muri secured the opportunity through a majority of votes, but when he walked to Cullen's side, his expression still carried a hint of awkwardness.

The only thing he could hope for now, presumably, was to invite everyone's parents over for a meeting during the gap between the end of training and the departure for the Valley of Samsara, to reaffirm their unity.

In the past, he would have thought nothing of this; born into such a family, he had long been accustomed to negotiation and compromise, while simultaneously maintaining the appearance of unity on the surface.

But now, he tasted a sense of frustration from Cullen, making him wish, for a moment, that he was no longer the captain.

"Please extend your hands."

Cullen and Muri obeyed the command and extended their hands.

Mavalyo placed his hands before his chest; very soon, a cluster of crystalline luster appeared, and his lips began to move rapidly, reciting a prayer.

Cullen could not hear clearly what he was saying, which was not only due to the speed of his speech, but because a layer of soul power was rippling outward, bringing about an immense disturbance.

Yet a few key words could still be heard:

"Marchettini... Order Roulette... Name of Summoning..."

Did this Mavalyo have some connection to Marchettini of the Twelve Knights?

Cullen did not know, and it was not convenient to ask right now.

The prayer ended, and two strands of gold rippled out from the crystalline light ring in Mavalyo's hand; the gold slowly formed two runes, striking the backs of Cullen and Muri's hands respectively, before fading away.

The authority, had it been obtained just like that?

It seemed as though nothing special had happened, nor was there any special sensation?

It was like meat being released into the market, stamped with a purple quarantine approval seal, and one that could be easily washed off at that.

Cullen looked at Muri and found that Muri was looking at him too; clearly, he was just as perplexed.

Mavalyo released his hands, and the previous crystalline light dissolved along with the movement; turning his face, he nodded to Husen.

Husen took two scrolls from his pocket and said:

"Take one each; this is the summoning technique for the [Black Prison Castle], capable of withstanding ten mental readings. Take this and read it together with your teammates; it is best to segment it for comprehension and study, accelerating your progress to master the summoning technique and attempting to summon your own [Black Prison Castle].

In addition, there is one more point: today's class time is theoretically very long, because we calculated that you will likely need one to two days to piece this technique together as a squad, so the class ending time is two days before going to the Valley of Samsara, because the last day must be reserved for the final class, where a specialized teacher will introduce the situation inside the Gate of Samsara and the tasks you need to undertake this time.

In other words, the faster you can master this technique as a squad, the earlier you can take the last day's class, and you can clear out the days before going to the Valley of Samsara.

Cullen, you would then be able to have a good time playing in Saint Antis with your teammates."

"Yes, Teacher," Cullen replied with a polite smile; he did not feel that mentioning his squad specifically was out of disdain, because most of Muri's squad were natives of the Dinger District.

Mavalyo spoke up: "There is also a benefit that can be granted to you; we will match war implements for you based on the quality and style of the [Black Prison Castle] you summon."

Muri spoke up to ask: "The style of the [Black Prison Castle] can still vary?"

Mavalyo nodded and said: "There are no variations within the chivalric orders, because the military emphasizes a unified style—oh, my phrasing is not rigorous enough; the chivalric orders emphasize a unified style, but on the foundation of that unified style, the height, width, and number of building stories of the castle also vary."

Husen spoke up: "Therefore, seize the time; the earlier you master this technique, not only will you have more time to rest, but you will also be able to more leisurely configure war implements from the list we can provide. All of these can be directly reimbursed; there won't be such benefits in the future."

Cullen thought to himself: It seems the task after entering the Gate of Samsara is very important, otherwise the Holy Church would not pay such a heavy price.

Mavalyo said: "Alright, you may now leave this castle and go to the open ground to study and master it; someone will provide you with food and fresh water."

Cullen noticed that within Mavalyo's gaze, there was a touch of melancholy and regret.

Melancholy over what, regret over what?

Muri held the scroll and led his squad downward; just as Cullen's side was about to go down as well, he hesitated for a moment, then turned back to face Mavalyo:

"Teacher."

"Is there anything else?"

"The student wishes to witness the power of the [Black Prison Castle], because I feel this can grant us a more intuitive understanding and accelerate the learning process."

Mavalyo looked toward Husen.

Husen nodded and said, "This is a legitimate request from the students, and it is also a teaching necessity; of course it is allowed."

Mavalyo smiled.

...

The two squads of trainees walked out of the castle, coming to the open ground outside.

Cullen waved his hand toward Muri, and Muri walked over.

"The instructor wants to demonstrate the power of the Black Prison Castle first."

"Alright." Muri immediately turned around to instruct the team members over there, "Everyone come over and watch together."

Right after, Muri asked Cullen in a low voice, "Who do you think he is?"

"I don't know."

"I've guessed a little bit," Muri said.

"Let's hear it."

"There is a class of people whose excellence is innate." Muri smiled, "You can't even be jealous."

"Can you be a bit more specific?"

"Many holy churches have existences like 'Children of God' within them, you know that right?"

"I've heard of it, you mean he is... but our Church of Order only has the God of Order."

"Yes, our Church of Order only has the great God of Order, there are no branch gods, at least, no branch gods in the traditional sense, those churches that defected later and thus modified their mythological narratives don't count.

But those existences around the God of Order, even if they aren't reverently called gods, their power and status are actually not a single bit inferior to the branch gods of other holy churches.

Marchetti, I suspect he is Marchetti's inheritor."

"An inheritor? Why not a reincarnator?"

"He should have just inherited some memories and spirituality belonging to Marchetti, that kind of pure deity reincarnator, I don't deny their existence, but I don't think they would come over to serve as our instructors and give us classes, do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand, gods don't have such a good temper, nor would they do such boring things."

"Exactly."

...

"If I had known I could test it out once, I wouldn't have summoned this standard type of Black Prison Castle, nor would I have paired it with this standard type of war apparatus."

Hearing these words, Husen hurriedly said:

"Please, you must control yourself."

"Heh." Mavalio nodded, "Do you know, in my mind, broken fragments of images often appear, and the one that appears most frequently is me controlling a Black Prison Castle, blocking the very front, while behind me, is..."

Husen immediately crossed his arms over his chest: "Praise the great God of Order."

"Actually, I have always known that I am not Marchetti, I am just fortunate enough to have obtained a small portion of Marchetti's memory fragments."

"This is a miracle, even if it is just a small portion of memory fragments, it is enough to make you great."

"Yes, so I have always been deeply grateful."

Mavalio closed his eyes and said in a deep voice:

"Black Prison Castle, prepare for combat!"

"Woooo!!!!"

...

Under the gaze of Cullen and the others, the blackness of the castle began to become lustrous, and when black becomes lustrous it gives off a sense of fragmentation, as if the castle before their eyes had already been sliced away from the space in front of them.

Suffocation and oppression began to rush in like a tide, and it was using its majesty to interpret the meaning of a war weapon.

At this moment, it seemed to possess life, and had already come alive, opening its eyes!

The Piercing Crossbow began to gather energy, shooting toward the front with a "buzzing" sound, striking the forest ahead, and in an instant, the forest looked as though it had been plowed through a pile of flour with chopsticks, and on both sides of this line, the trees were also completely stripped of their leaves.

It was hard for Cullen to imagine, if he were the one locked onto, how would he escape from this single arrow within a short period of time?

Even if he could escape, just being grazed by the air blast of the crossbow bolt would cause immense damage to the body, and those stripped leaves could very well be your own skin and flesh.

The Raith Spell Mirror began to operate, and a black barrier descended, completely covering the castle.

"A defensive formation?" Muri said.

"No, it's an amplifying formation." Cullen corrected, "After amplifying itself, the effect is fired out from the magic crystal cannon."

Sure enough, the magic crystal cannon moved, and it began to store energy.

A terrifying energy fluctuation swept through, and the surroundings instantly fell into a dead silence, as if everything around them was left with only the black vortex constantly accumulating inside the cannon muzzle.

Finally,

Accompanied by a piercing shriek,

A torrent of black light shot out, not landing on the island but falling upon the sea surface.

The blackness dispersed,

"Boom!"

A massive vortex was blasted into the sea surface, and rain also began to fall over the position where Cullen and the others stood, with fish and shrimp dropping down from time to time as well.

If the initial crossbow bolt still made Cullen consider how he might dodge it, then that single blast of the magic crystal cannon, if he failed to anticipate its firing beforehand, dodging it after it fired would be utterly too late, its damage radius was enough to ignore most spatial movements.

"It seems a bit too exaggerated?" Cullen asked.

Muri nodded and said, "It truly is."

"Or, the effect he uses is different from what we, and the people in the Knights, use?"

"That is a possibility."

After the demonstration concluded, the Black Prison Castle began to dissipate, and dissipating along with it were those three pieces of war apparatus.

Cullen began to estimate the teleportation distance of the war apparatus, their appearance was essentially the same as his own teleportation of the Sword of Alius, there should be a teleportation point for them nearby or in this region.

Therefore, teleporting over and then teleporting back, using his own refrigerator at home to do the math, a conservative estimate would put the value of the consumed teleportation crystals at over twenty thousand Order coupons.

In fact, his own refrigerator was famously "cheap," so the cost could only be higher than this.

This educational expense is truly massive...

If it were Cullen himself, he would probably have people transport those three war machines back to save on costs.

However, another problem arose here, the benefit, providing war apparatus to his own and Muri's two squads, how exactly was the provision within this achieved?

This kind of teleportation would, in all probability, require erecting a teleportation formation near the Valley of Rebirth before his own and Muri's squads could receive war apparatus replenishment when using the Black Prison Castle after entering the Gate of Rebirth.

So, would they utilize the delegation's camp to construct the framework there?

Then if that were the case, would they give them another opportunity to reclaim them?

Mavalio had clearly utilized a teleportation formation constructed inside the castle earlier to teleport the three pieces of war apparatus back, his own and Muri's two squads wouldn't use this unless absolutely necessary, and even if they did use this, it was impossible to be composed enough to spend a long time drawing a reverse teleportation formation to send the apparatus back after the utilization ended.

Even if you wanted to send them back, the outside camp of the Church of Order probably wouldn't bother setting up a receiving formation to take your things back either.

And even if you didn't use them, these war apparatus wouldn't be given to you directly, much less allowed to be carried away by you.

Therefore, the so-called benefit was actually a one-time consumable, Husen had played a word game earlier.

The apparatus allocated to you by the Holy Church could only be used inside the Gate of Rebirth.

Once the trial of the Gate of Rebirth ended, if he still wanted to use the Black Prison Castle again, he would have to save up points himself to purchase war apparatus.

The captain had paid such a heavy price just to assemble a VIP carriage, how much cost would he have to expend to get his hands on war apparatus that were exclusively supplied to the Knights?

Moreover, the cost of summoning it even once was exorbitant, and that was assuming one's personal icebox had already been upgraded; otherwise, there was simply no room to store it.

In short, given his current meager assets, fighting a single battle with this thing would leave him utterly bankrupt.

At this very moment, Karen finally understood why the Captain possessed such an immense obsession and pursuit of points.

Because once you became a captain, you caught sight of many grand things, and these grand things all shared a single flaw... they were expensive!

Captain, I will never call you stingy over that plastic ring ever again.

Karen sighed. He had not even become a captain yet, nor had he officially formed his own squad, yet his mind was already entirely consumed by thoughts of how to rake in points.

...

Mavalio and Hudson walked over. Hudson spoke, saying, "You may begin reading the contents of the scroll. Strive to produce some results before midnight tonight."

"Yes," Karen said.

"Yes," Muri said.

The two squads each formed their own circle, with the respective captains taking the lead in reading.

Karen opened the scroll and immersed his spiritual consciousness within it.

He had encountered similar spell-imprinted scrolls many times before, whether they were given to him by Purr and Kevin or by Richard. However, those were all single-use scrolls, meaning they could only be read once after the imprinting was complete. This scroll could be read ten times, which meant it was even more expensive.

Twenty minutes later, both Muri and Karen finished their readings, and both passed the scroll to the next member of their team.

"How is it?" Pasio leaned in and asked Muri.

Muri replied, "I will attempt to comprehend the first fifth. The rest of you will record the following sections in batches, and then we will each spend an afternoon digesting it. I expect that by evening, we can use the squad format with me as the medium to attempt the first summoning.

They should be roughly the same. No, they should actually be a bit slower than us, because this tests the strength of every individual in the team. I admit our overall cohesion is inferior to theirs, but in terms of individual strength, we are definitely superior to..."

Pasio said, "Captain..."

"Hmm, what is it?"

"Look over there."

Muri turned his head toward Karen's squad, and then his eyes instantly widened.

"This... how is this possible!"

...

Karen handed the scroll to Mars, but Mars passed it directly to Bart,

saying:

"Captain, you digest and comprehend the opening section, while I digest and comprehend the ending section. The beginning and ending are usually the most tedious and allow for the least error, so the two of us will control them."

"Oh, alright."

Bart spoke up and asked, "Captain, how much of the opening do you plan to digest? I will then divide the rest among the others accordingly."

"How much?"

"What fraction of it," Bart said. "That way, I can discuss and assign the respective parts with everyone."

"What fraction? Let me think first..."

Karen spread his hands and began to ponder and recall, his fingertips moving incessantly, as if he were playing a piano.

At that exact moment,

a massive black star array manifested beneath Karen's feet, and the foundation emerged right along with it...