Chương 18: Assault On The Estate

I couldn't fall asleep. Something was bothering me. It was like that time a legend attacked me in my sleep.

"Wake up!" A guard rushed into my room and shouted. I sat up in bed, and the guard raced over.

"My apologies," he said and quickly grabbed me around the waist, putting me over his shoulder. I heard shouting in other parts of the mansion. The only reason a guard would have approached me like this was that there was an ongoing attack. Seconds after realizing that, a loud explosion occurred, and the entire building shook. The guard didn't lose his footing as he raced down to the first floor.

The rest of the family members were being carried into the deep underground bunker by elite guards, deep beneath the mansion. Heavy metal doors were closed, and powerful enchantments were activated as everyone was quickly moved into the safe room. The elite guards who brought us down here stood outside the last door while they placed the Burnstock family into the inner vault. There was more ground shaking. I could hear the bangs of distant explosions.

"Good, everyone is here," Duke Burnstock said while looking over everyone.

"Another attack. How annoying," Dereck muttered.

"Probably the remnants of Crownsmith, making one last desperate move in revenge," my father said as the ground shook again.

"As long as they don't have a legend, we will be fine. The guards are more than up to the task, and we have a large team of elites." The ground shook again. My father was saying things to keep himself and everyone else calm. If whatever force broke through, it would only be a matter of time until they broke through, especially if they were a legend.

"Well, the Construction Mages need some funding anyway, and redecorating isn't a bad thing," Dereck muttered as the ground shook some more.

"What is taking so long? That isn't good," Greg muttered.

"We just have to wait and be calm. The guards are well-trained to handle such situations. I doubt it is anyone truly strong, since the threat of Supreme Warlady Elena would have scared them off."

"Or they want to kill her son as revenge and don't care," Dereck said. His father sent him a glare, and he shrugged.

"It isn't unreasonable to say."

"It isn't. But we will stand or fall as a family. Being a noble isn't always smooth sailing," he replied. There was a bell chime. Everyone went quiet.

"The team has eliminated the threat against Duke Burnstock. A final sweep is being done. Crisp cucumbers. The number eight. Black and white," a guard said through an enchanted communicator from outside the bunker. The last couple of phrases were clearly phrases of some kind, letting the duke know everything was okay for him to come out.

"Good. That means we can leave this place," the duke said with a relieved smile. He went to the vault door and opened it. The guards all nodded towards him and escorted him back up into the mansion. The captain of the guard came over once we reached the exit to the vault staircase.

"Duke, our forces neutralized the attack. We eliminated six elite hostiles and fourteen of lesser levels. Seventeen regular guards died in the assault, and we had no elite casualties." The duke let out a long sigh.

"Arrange their funeral for tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Since the outside is a mess, how bad is it, and what is the damage?" We all listened to the conversation before going back to our rooms. The mansion's exterior and grounds have sustained extensive damage. Fireball and Quake, tier 4 skills, were used extensively in the battle. They are double-checking the mansion's structure, along with follow-up sweeps of the mansion and grounds to ensure that no one is hidden.

As for the attackers, they appear to be Crownsmith royal guards. A final desperate attack. An after-battle sweep has been done, but we will remain on full alert for the next three days, with active sweeps of all areas."

"Three days, isn't that a bit much?" Dereck asked.

"If these were mercenaries, then yes. But this was a professional fighting force from another nation. They are likely to have individuals with stealth skills. Everyone will always have one elite guard with them for the next three days," he explained before turning back to the Captain.

"No arguing. Thank you, Captain. We appreciate your vigilance. Do whatever you feel is necessary to ensure our safety," Duke Burnstock said.

"As you command, Duke," the guard captain replied before assigning each of us an elite guard to accompany us. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. While it might not make sense to have assassins in the middle of a battle, it was common practice to get around Danger Sense and similar skills and enchantments. There was probably no one, but my father was right to be cautious. There were too many assassinations in the history books I had learned from.

I went back to bed, and the next morning, I got to see the extent of the damage outside the mansion. It looked worse than when my mother had beaten Squire Jessica up, far worse. Large chunks were burnt, including several trees. There were large cracks in the ground.

"A sight, isn't it?" the guard captain asked as he walked over to stand next to me as I looked over the damage.

"Good morning, Captain Johnson. My condolences about your men," I greeted the man politely. He had done the initial training with me in my weapon skills.

"It was a tough battle. Their teamwork was impeccable. But without a legend, they could not break through," he said while looking out at the destruction.

"A legend could stop all of this?" I asked.

"It isn't just the higher stats; it is the more powerful skills. Most elites possess a few Tier 4 skills. A legend would have at least one Tier 5 skill. That is when you get specialized skills that are unknown, which are far more dangerous than common spells like Fireball or Quake, which are still incredibly dangerous, but there are ways to deal with them." A mage in the distance was saying something to level out the ground once again.

The Construction and Landscaping Mages would earn quite a bit putting everything back into place.

"What about a tier 6 skill?" I asked.

"That would be someone like your mother, with around double the level of an elite. Outside the dungeon, people seldom use a tier 6 skill."

"No one has said what tier 6 skill she has. Do you know?" I asked.

"No. Even the names of tier 5 and 6 skills are unique, along with their effects. People who see such a skill tend not to be alive for long, or they are close friends with the person who used such a skill and won't speak of it. At that level of combat, surprise and speed are the most important things."

"Not stats or skill level?"

"They help, but surprise is the most important thing in such a fight. I knew the royal guards and their preferred method of combat, which was why we could counter them so effectively. My men used Stone Wall to counter their Fireballs over there. They then used Quake to disrupt our defenses, and my men split and used a combination of water and lightning spells."

"No close combat?"

"Not for fighting against regular humans. Down in the dungeon, they need that much more, where they must preserve Mana reserves as much as possible. In a battle like this, overwhelming power and finishing the fight as quickly as possible are more important. That is why we are guards first and not adventurers. We optimized our skills for this kind of high-speed defensive combat."

"Thank you, Captain," I said.

"My pleasure as always. Enjoy your day," he told me. The man had given me a lot of stuff to think about. While my plan had always been to follow in my mother's footsteps and become a spellblade, it was just a job title. Job titles are normally aligned with class titles, but not always. Even if someone got a better class, they wouldn't advertise that fact. However, they needed to share which class they had to take to find work in their profession.

So, while my mother was a spellblade, since adventurer was too vague a term for higher-level individuals, only she knew her exact class name and its effects. Other legends gave the title of Warlady, and not by the System. Like the guards defending the estate, a job title let people know what your skills were, revealing nothing specific. A guard captain like Johnson would possess particular skills and a class suited to his job, which differed from those of Tutor Damian or Healer Castelle.

I noted that they did not evacuate to the bunker. Non-family members who were guests got separate hiding spots, just in case one of them was a hidden assassin. While rare, if such an individual were to target anyone, it would likely be me or my father. And after the last incident, no chances were being taken with my safety. The guard following me stood behind me at a respectful distance as I looked over the grounds of the estate one last time before going back inside for breakfast.

A high-level fight was truly destructive, and magic played a critical role in combat. It was the deciding factor, but for the dungeon, it was a lifeline one could grab onto only so many times before they were out of Mana. I heard the windows being replaced and the outside of the mansion being repaired while I worked on skills in the library.

"Do you know how to fight?" I asked Damian.

"Hmm, not really. Why are you curious?" he asked me.

"Just wondering how much you specialized. I was thinking about different jobs after the attack and how much classes played a role," I replied.

"That makes sense. Adventuring to fight monsters and fighting humans have some overlap, but ultimately, they are different focuses, like teaching and research. Lots of mental skills and work to increase their level, but some key differences in a couple of skills used for one's job. Classes play a role.

The higher your level, the more specialized they become, so you need to be sure before picking certain classes, since it is damaging to your soul to change them up to level 60 and then impossible after level 80," Damian said.

"Damaging how?" I asked.

"They degrade by a color. The tier is based on the level for a class, but the power behind the class decreases. Instead of larger percentage boosts, they would decrease. So, most people don't do this, but sometimes a person wants to change professions later on in life for personal reasons, and it isn't impossible with the help of a System Priest," he explained.

"Where does one learn combat skills? Is there a place like the College of Advancement?" I asked.

"There are smaller schools, dojos, other institutions, and individuals that teach combat skills. However, people mostly learn and improve them by fighting monsters in the dungeon. There is no better teacher. I suppose Last Bastion might be as famous as the College of Advancement, but in terms of martial achievements," he answered. That made sense. There was really no better way to improve fighting skills than through actual fighting.

"Then why does my mother have Squires?"

"It is a remnant of an older naming convention when legends used to be called knights or archmagi and took on squires and apprentices from before the time of the Eldarin Empire. Since most fighting in the dungeon is melee, they inherited the legacy of various high-level knights, hence the term Squire. High-level individuals share insights on how to acquire Tier 5 skills during a period of service.

It reduces the headaches when trying to get a tier 5 skill and then level it up if you have someone to guide you," Tutor Damian explained.

"Even for ten years?"

"Even for ten years. The levels they can gain from a tier 5 skill offset this and open up the chance to gain more levels and create a legacy of their own."

"And the archmagi?" I asked.

"They came together as well and formed the College of Advancement long ago, or its precursor institution. It didn't adopt its more modern trappings until after the fall of the Eldarin Empire, around a millennium ago, which cemented its reputation. While you can improve spell skills in combat, you can do much more outside of combat. While the College of Advancement doesn't ignore spell skills, they are not the focus."