Chương 8: Relics (1)

"Never try to outspend a Rumiosi—I assure you, you'll go bankrupt long before they do." – Khalia Rumiosi, the Third Vazaag of Korsivir Arla Farritz raised her hand immediately, and the teacher nodded for her to answer. The short redhead stood up.

"Relics are objects of unknown origin that hold special and unique powers. From what I've read, there are only a few hundred relics in the whole world, if that, which makes them highly valuable. There are rumors that they came out of the dimensional rifts long in the past, but there is no credible proof of that.

Examples of relics include a unique ring that helps you focus better to cast mana techniques faster; a relic sword made of an unknown material said to be much stronger than the steel used in most weapons; a relic necklace that prevents an enemy from catching you in any illusion technique; a relic bracelet that helps heal small injuries on its own without the need for a healer, and so on." Arla grinned.

"Not to brag, but my father has a relic too, though I'm not supposed to say any more about it!" Teacher Daisor chuckled.

"Don't worry, that's still a very good answer. Relics are rare, which is why they are highly coveted and jealously guarded—usually passed down from generation to generation in a family or clan lucky enough to possess one. Some of the best-known and most powerful manaweavers in the world became so powerful because they had access to a relic, or even multiple relics in some rare cases. But don't let that make you think they didn't also work thrice as hard as anyone else around them to achieve that power." He grinned.

"That being said, while it is quite rare for new relics to be found these days, it is not impossible. On rare occasions, squads who go out for a regular mission happen upon a leftover or forgotten relic just by a huge stroke of luck, whether it's on a past battlefield left there by its previous owner who died there, or in a treacherous location where nobody even thought to look.

While the lucky squad does need to deposit it in the city's armory, they have the first priority to be assigned or leased that relic in case any of the squad members have suitable characteristics for using that particular relic to its full effect; obviously, after the research division has done enough tests to find out its powers or attributes. And even if the squad doesn't get to use it, they still get a huge reward for bringing a new relic to the city."

There was a lot of excited chattering in the class after hearing that tidbit. Some of the students were saying that they would only choose the missions that took them to such dangerous locations where they could find a relic, while others were talking about circling around to the locations of past battles when returning from missions.

Aloric thought that it was way too early to talk about that when they hadn't even graduated yet, but of course, it was so damn exciting that there was still a possibility of getting a relic! But he also realized just how unlikely it was to stumble upon a relic like that. Still, he did hope that in the future he could find a relic somewhere, since that would give him an edge he desperately needed as a clanless kid to compete with his peers.

However, the chances of him graduating from the academy despite his horrible written test scores, then being assigned to a good squad, and then going out on a random mission and managing to find a forgotten relic by luck, all in succession, felt less likely than the sky breaking apart in two. He snorted. So what? He could still hope! The teacher didn't speak for a while and looked around the room, like he was thinking about something serious, before he tilted his head.

"What about holy relics? Has anyone heard about them? Or the word artifact?" A holy relic? Aloric frowned. An artifact? The heck was that? He wasn't sure if he had even heard the term holy relic in the past. Wouldn't that be a relic people prayed to? That was... weird. Why would anyone pray to a sword or a bracelet?

Suddenly, he remembered when his sister had once worked on a case where a criminal syndicate was smuggling stolen relics and selling them to the highest bidder—even a less powerful relic usually went for more than a million gilens on the black market, according to his sister. Eventually, the City Police had caught them, recovered two relics from that group, and taken down the syndicate—either they had been thrown in jail, or maybe they had been executed.

But he remembered seeing Perilia looking anxious every day when that case was active—a theft of relics was a sensitive enough matter that clans would get up in arms if one of theirs was stolen. Since the original owners could not be traced reliably, those recovered relics had been deposited in the city armory, to be leased or sold to whoever would benefit from them the most. One of them had even been given to someone in the City Police itself, but sadly, Perilia didn't get it.

Probably because she didn't have the connections or the resources that a clan could offer to buy or lease a relic—or, more likely, because someone else in the City Police would have benefited more from that particular relic and its features. Arla raised her hand to give the answer, which surprised Aloric. He knew that the redhead was a bookworm, but she even knew about a topic that he hadn't even heard of?

However, the teacher shook his head at her and looked around the rest of the classroom for someone else to answer. No other hands went up. Eventually, Teacher Daisor pointed at the green-haired Qanza girl.

"What about you, Nemirie? Have you heard about it?" The usually quiet top-ranker of the classroom, Nemirie Qanza, stood up with barely any expression on her face. For a moment, Aloric thought it was going to be embarrassing for her, since the teacher had put her on the spot like that. What if she didn't know about it? But he was soon reminded of exactly why that girl was the top ranker in most tests, always scoring higher than Arla or anyone else.

Nemirie looked like she would rather be sitting quietly and reading one of the scrolls kept on her table, but she began explaining anyway.

"I read about it in an old scroll kept in my clan's library. Holy relics, also known as artifacts, are extremely rare and the most powerful relics known to humanity—we can say they are like the S-rank versions of regular relics. Centuries ago, they were treated as remnants of gods—since holy relics have the power to influence their immediate surroundings even when they are not actively wielded by a manaweaver—like forests growing denser, or storms becoming more violent where one of them was located.

So the locals began to pray to them, hoping to calm down the angry gods —at least until more people started finding out about their powers—and that's how they got that name." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Teacher Daisor tilted his head.

"Anything else?" Nemirie paused for a moment.

"Apart from that... Uh... Artifacts are said to be so extremely powerful or effective that countless battles and wars have been fought over them since people first started discovering their powers. Also, the exact number of artifacts in the world is said to be unknown, but from what that scroll said, there may not even be a dozen of them."

"Excellent answer!" the teacher praised with a smile.

"Wait, there are so few artifacts in the whole world?" Sikkar complained loudly.

"Why?" Arla taunted.

"Did you want to ask your mother to buy one for you? Since you can't find it yourself?" Everyone in the class laughed, while the Rumiosi kid huffed.

"You are just jealous that my clan can afford it and yours can't!" There were some grumbles in the class after hearing that taunt, but the teacher had a troubled expression.

"No, Sikkar. You cannot buy an artifact. You cannot even buy a regular relic easily, even if you found someone willing to sell one, since they would be extremely costly, but no— no one can buy an artifact. They just aren't something to be sold." Daisor took a deep breath.

"I don't know if you all understand just how different artifacts are from regular relics. Most of the major clans in the city hold at least one relic in their compounds, and some may hold several. That is what gives some of their mana users an extra edge when they are out on missions. Knowing that your sword wouldn't break against an opponent's weapon, or that an enemy can never trap you in an illusion, can be a lifesaver in a battle."

He continued, "Those relics are one of the primary reasons those clans became so strong. That's why even regular relics are so highly coveted that people kill over them. During a mission outside the city, if an enemy recognizes that someone in your squad has a relic, they will do everything in their power to kill that person and steal it for themselves—likely while killing the rest of the squad as well, to make sure there is no suspicion over who took it."

"I can confirm it," Velron grunted.

"My older cousin's team was nearly wiped out in Vamir last year, and he was the only one who survived. Barely managed to flee with his life. But he still brought back the relic sword held by their instructor, who had stayed behind to hold back the enemy squad and let the others escape." Aloric winced hearing about it. Watching your whole team die in front of you, or seeing your instructor stay back and sacrifice himself to save his students' lives, would be gut-wrenching.

And even then, it hadn't saved the rest of Velron's cousin's team. Teacher Daisor nodded.

"I heard about it too. They'd gone to participate in the Tarim exams held in Vamir last year, but someone found out about that relic sword and sent what was later assumed to be a Vamiri Kill Squad after their team. Your cousin was lucky to have survived when no one else did."

"I'm sure the escape wasn't as simple as it sounds..." Velron grumbled in a low voice.

"What did you just say?" someone asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." Velron crossed his arms and didn't explain further.

"Anyway," the teacher began, "I was saying that holy relics, or artifacts, are vastly more powerful than regular relics. As far as I know, Korsivir doesn't have one, but even if I knew otherwise, I couldn't tell you, since the presence of an artifact in this city would be classified at the highest level. If someone spoke of such an artifact as fact, everyone in that conversation would be arrested by SABLE for spilling state secrets, and none of those people would live long enough to regret it." He shrugged.

"I'm only speaking about it here because, to my knowledge, there is no secret to spill anyway." Daisor added, "What I can tell you is that an allied city located to the north has an artifact bearer known as The Healer. I know about it because the woman is renowned for it among my generation.

During the last great war, the Healer managed to save countless lives for both of our countries with her mass-healing mana techniques, and she was vital to our survival against the combined onslaught of multiple enemy countries. There are a couple more artifacts known to be held by certain kingdoms or their manaweaver cities, but it's probably better if you don't talk about them too much."

"So there is no chance of you buying an artifact, is there, Master Sikkar, the rich?" someone in the class taunted him.

"Whatever..." the Rumiosi kid just grumbled in response.

"Trust me," the teacher said, "it is better this way. If any of you had seen an artifact bearer in person, especially one using their full power, you would have nightmares about it for the rest of your life. I was too young to have truly fought in the Second Great War, but I know a senior from my own student days who came across an artifact bearer during an army campaign in the east." Immediately, there were excited whispers about it in the classroom.

"Tell us more!" someone shouted.

"Come on, Teacher!" Aloric had never even heard about artifacts before today, but this was such a fascinating topic, and they were so rare and powerful, that he wanted to know as much as he could about them. However, looking at the expression of the teacher, he couldn't help but think that that memory wasn't as exciting as others were thinking.

Daisor continued in a subdued voice, "My senior was one of the few survivors of a battle where less than three percent of a combined brigade from Varrenia and Fizalis were left alive after an artifact bearer known only as The Floodbringer attacked their army formation by himself. We had nearly won that battle before he arrived, but then everything changed. Thousands of people drowned in a desert that day, within minutes.

That incident still holds the unofficial record for the fourth-highest number of people killed by a single person in a single strike." A somber mood settled over the class. Thousands of people dead? Within minutes? Just how powerful was that Floodbringer, if he managed to drown an army in the middle of a desert? Artifact bearers were terrifying... But why hadn't he heard about such an incident before?

He did know about one of the most famous battles of the Second Great Continental War, where Sir Ganisaar had burned a whole army of Arkazaan to bring an end to the war. That had to hold the record for either the highest or the second highest number of people killed by a single person in a single strike. Not that it was an achievement to aim for. He couldn't imagine how Sir Ganisaar had managed to cope with it after taking so many lives. It sounded dreadful, even if it had ended that war. Wait a minute.

Although Sir Ganisaar was old now and probably couldn't repeat that feat, did that mean he was also an artifact bearer, if he used to be that powerful? Aloric shook his head. Nah… If he were, everyone would know about it. Wouldn't Korsivir advertise to the world that their Vazaag was an artifact bearer, just to keep their enemies in line? Obviously, they would. It was far more likely that Sir Ganisaar had reached that level through his own effort and hard work. Either way, those stories humbled Aloric.

They reminded him what kind of monsters lived on this continent. This was a place where might was right, and anyone without enough power could be crushed like a bug by those with greater strength whenever it served their interests. It only strengthened his resolve to work harder and become strong enough to protect himself and the people he cared for.

"What happened to that senior of yours?" someone asked the teacher.

"He must be a powerful manaweaver by now, if he was strong enough to survive against the Floodbringer so long ago!"