Nio fell to his knees, exhaustion finally reaching his body. Ever since he became a Martial Begginer, there was no fight that forced him to such an extent.
It was really astounding.
This thing was possibly even stronger than the agent he fought back then.
'It wasn't even at full strenght.'
It was obvious it had more cores in the past, probably they had disappeared, run out of power, or been straight up removed from the statue. What kind of power did it have before? And how fast would it have been able to kill him had it not been at its weakest?
It was a sudden thought that Nio decided to kill right after, it's not like he was going to stop searching for danger and reward just because he survived by a simple sliver of luck. After all, he had a goal, and fights like this were unbelievably exciting.
"So, what exactly were you protecting?"
Nio once again went to the grave that had the statues.
The second statue that had been damaged was slightly tilted, possibly trying to once again enter battle, when its sibling attacked it.
Nio kept going forward, he ignored the grave and went beyond it, but there was nothing but a simple chest, already open, with a few writings engraved in the inner part of the chest.
"There's nothing here, losers. :P"
Nio groaned in frustration.
Still, it's not like there were no gains. He once again approached the broken statue that had not moved from its place.
Reinforcing his blade, Nio slashed at its chestplate, revealing a similar set of slots meant for the magical stones that probably powered them.
"Huh?!"
It was full. All the slots were filled.
Nio looked back at the dead statue knight and then at the broken, yet alive, statue.
The statue Nio had fought didn't seem to have lost before, unlike the other one, so how did it only have one of the slots filled.
'Did it give the magical stones to keep powering his weaker sibling?'
That was ... touching.
You know something was wrong when literal statues have more feelings than some people.
With some hesitation, Nio's hand moved forward and gently removed each one of the stones from the chestplate.
As he removed the last stone, he could swear he could hear a soft sound as if someone was trying to scream while their mouth was being muffled. It was barely audible, anyone with senses worse than Nio's wouldn't be able to hear them.
Nio started walking away from the statue.
As he was walking by the destroyed body of his opponent, he couldn't help but mutter in a low voice.
"I'm sorry, but I have my own siblings to take care of."
And so, he moved away.
*******
It had been some time ever since he had raided the graveyard and was now on his way to the place where Nero and Notres were for their mission and was now his destination to completely cover his tracks.
They were standing in a port city on the western coast of the Western Continent.
It was a relatively well-known and prestigious region on the most southern parts of the continent and one of the few points in the continent that was least affected by eastern influence.
That wasn't without reason, of course. According to historical records, there was once a mage that protected this city. Born from the union of a man and a siren, this mage was supposedly capable of controlling water as easily as breathing, and with these abilities they were able to defend this city from any eastern advances.
This story, weirdly enough, was not from the time of the war but during the resistance days when the Western Continent's population tried to resist their occupiers. This time period was full of these local tales, especially in the southern regions of the continent, stories of local heroes resisting the advances of the evil eastern cultivators were actually very common.
At this point in time, most "mages" were either cultivators or rare cases of people still possessing rare and fading mana reserves.
Anyway, the lack of eastern influence could be easily seen. In the market, there was not even a single hint of eastern products that in other cities would be filling the stores.
Even the signs and written indications did not possess any form of translation to the Eastern language.
Although most of them were small changes, together, Nio felt like he was in a completely different culture. Which was not weird, considering he had felt the same way the first time he had entered a city after graduation. He had been completely baffled by the seeming coexistence of both cultures mixed together in a mashed-up version that seemed completely normal.
Still, it was interesting that the southern regions of the western continent were also the most resistant to the eastern culture. Most likely it was because those were the regions where the resistance actually had some sort of effect.
But why?
There were no signs of any difference of subcultures before the war, nor was there a different chain of events during said war. It had been like in the north, after all, an endless struggle that didn't seem to give advantage to anyone until the end of magic. From there, much like in the north, the south was also turned into a bloodbath.
Not only that, according to some records, the call to arms of the resistance was as well received in the north as it was in the south, with the exception of the capital, which was in total Eastern control at the time.
So why was the Resistance more successful in the South than in the North? Were Southerners stronger than their Northern comrades? Did the Eastern forces decide to focus on the north due to the risk that the capital, and therefore their dominion, was going through?
Nio was not sure, nor did he care that much for the answer, but he liked to just ponder these questions for the sake of pondering them.
It was a weird hobby of his.
As he walked leisurely, he then sensed a change in the environment around him, someone was approaching at great speeds.
Almost immediately, Nio activated his senses as a cultivator to ascertain who exactly was approaching.
Sensing that familiar Qi signature, he finally relaxed and let himself be hit by the approaching human bullet.
"NIOOOOOOOO!!!"
"Ooof!"
It wasn't long until said bullet finally reached its destination, throwing him to the ground.
Naturally, the identity of this bullet was Nero.
"What are you doing here?! I thought you were away on a diferent mission?"
"Hello to you too, Nero. My communicator broke, so as protocol states, I had to move to the nearest known squad member to report it. It so happened to be you two."
"Liar. You always find the weirdest loopholes to come meet us when you shouldn't. Last time you used the excuse that there was something that needed to be reported right away and in person at that, just so you could meet with us and report to us, and I quote, 'There is a possibility that I might need reinforcements to deal with a mundane crime syndicate due to their large numbers.'"
"What? There were really a lot of people, weren't there?"
"The rules say that you, as someone in the Martial Beginner Realm, cannot call for backup against a group of mundane opponents unless said group exceeds 200 members."
"They were more than two hundred, tough?"
"Yes, two hundred and ONE of them, they exceeded the limit by one person."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Godamnit just admit you want to visit us!!"
"Just leave him alone, Nero."
"But, Notreeees-"
"I said leave him alone, Nero."
Pouting, Nero finally stepped away from the toppled Nio, who slowly rose from the ground.
"Haha, thanks a lot, Notres. You are a life saver."
"Don't Exaggerate. Also, don't downplay what Nero was talking about. You should be more careful when playing with the rules set by the Nell family. You have to be careful to not fall on the wrong side of the fence while balancing on it."
"Geez, I know."
Of course he knew that he was risking a lot by always balancing his weight on the narrow path of loopholes. One day they would stop respecting their own rules and completely crush him.
But Nio was not going to simply take the oppression. If he wanted to visit his siblings, who dared to stand in his way? Besides, this was also a part of his plan of being contracted by one of the Nell Family's main family members, and technically speaking, his as well.
If he couldn't figure out who wanted him dead in the Nell family by infiltrating, he would put himself in a position that made him vulnerable, in other words, this behavior was bait. As soon as Nio's exploitation of loopholes started to annoy the high members of the family, the one who had a murder-boner for him would use that window to openly seek his death.
'Which in turn reveals him to me.'
It was a solid plan, at least he thought so, but it carried many risks. More than one member might seek his death with such an endeavor, and only one of them would be the one that wanted him dead.
And after figuring that out? What was he going to do?
And that was why he needed to get stronger so he could either leave the Nell family behind or completely revolutionize it, there was no in-between.
*******
Author's Note: One more chapter. The fight with the Black Statue is finally over and Nio has reunited with his siblings.
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