Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 496: Night Exploration

The tea was very strong, and he had a cute little vampire by his side, but Xiao Lin did not feel at ease at all. He was more interested in asking about the Soul Disintegration spell.

“The spell is a part of black magic, and can basically destroy a person’s soul. Those that are killed by the spell would not even turn into spirits. You should know, to us of the dark races, death is not always the end, which is why the Spirit Disintegration spell is regarded as overly cruel and prohibited in a lot of places.” The old man seemed to understand the spell very well.

Xiao Lin was shocked, and thought about something more important. “Even the soul won’t survive after being killed by that spell?”

If that was the case, it would really be problematic. Resurrection towers are for reassembling their spirits after death, but if their souls were destroyed, then they would not be able to resurrect.

After being with Xiao Lin for so long, Ibeiya could immediately tell what he was thinking. She laughed and said, “Don’t worry. We said earlier that the spell was not high ranked; it’s about Silver-ranked. Do you know why such a cruel spell would only be Silver?”

She paused briefly. “That’s because the spell is considered a hybrid spell. When used against a person, there is an order it follows. The spell would first destroy the target physically before destroying the spiritual fragments within the body.”

Xiao Lin paused in thought before his eyes widened again. Based on what he knew, the resurrection towers would reassemble their spiritual fragments right before they die. That meant that as long as their souls were not directly attacked, their spiritual fragments would immediately be summoned to the resurrection tower when their physical bodies died. That meant the spiritual attack that came at the end of the spell would be ineffective.

The old man continued, “The spell is considered a secret inheritance within clans and families. The difficulty is very high, and clans have never allowed it to spread. That’s why, in the royal city, no, the entirety of the Rosa Kingdom, the only people who know the spell would be part of the Argos clan.”

The old man then explained that the Argos clan were the winners of the martial tournament ten years ago, and were the current ruling dark clan of the Rosa Kingdom. The family had a long history as well. Even if they had declined, they were still quite large locally. Not only did the clan have a lot of influence among the dark races, they dealt with the Rosa Kingdom’s royalty a lot as well. Their power could not be underestimated.

However, their patriarch had passed away when the civil war started, and the clan had since been embroiled in a fierce power struggle. In the end, the one who won was the youngest son of the former patriarch, Valen Argos. The youngest son had always kept a low profile, and few knew about him. However, once he rose to power, all his older siblings that had the right of succession above him met mysterious deaths, causing the outside world to be filled with respect and fear for Valen.

“The Argos family will definitely want to maintain their right to ruling over the dark races, so Valen Argos will definitely take part in the tournament. He will also be our greatest foe.” The old man did not care about Xiao Lin’s fellow class monitors, so he ended up changing the topic back.

“Since Soul Disintegration is a hereditary spell of the Argos clan, and that Valen is the clan leader, then the one who kidnapped my fellow students could well be him?” Xiao Lin quickly turned the topic back.

The old man stared at him, and Ibeiya smiled by the side, helping Xiao Lin as she said, “Even though we don’t really know why Valen would anger Dawn Academy at this time, the Argos family has always been filled with madmen. Who knows what they could possibly pull off.”

“I wonder if there’s a way to contact the Argos family. It’s still fine now while my fellow students are all still in the royal city, but if a few days pass and they leave the boundaries of the resurrection towers, then everything might be too late,” Xiao Lin said with concern.

“Do you really think Valen would let them go?”

“No.” If they really did kidnap the class monitors, anyone who dared anger Dawn Academy would naturally understand that, after a few days, the academy would send people over to investigate. It was not possible to keep it a secret, so they naturally had a plan if they dared to do it.

Xiao Lin hesitated before suggesting, “If it’s possible, I hope to take a look at that clan in the next two days.” If the other party would not admit to anything, then they might as well check it out themselves.

Ibeiya blinked. “The night sky is not bad today. As your academy likes to say, strike while the iron is hot. Let’s go now!”

Ibeiya was even more daring than Xiao Lin, but the old man jumped, exclaiming, “You want to infiltrate the Argos clan? No! It’s not like over here, they have very strict security there! This kind of thing is taboo here. If we’re noticed, our right to participate in the martial tournament would be revoked!”

Xiao Lin rolled his eyes. The old man would not let go of the tournament, but he was stubborn this time. If he could not rescue his fellow students, he would not help the St. Claude clan.

On top of that, Ibeiya ‘cruelly’ chose to help outsiders over her own family, and the old man could only agree. Xiao Lin then let out a sigh of relief. Compared to Ibeiya, the old man obviously knew more about the royal city and the Argos clan. If Xiao Lin really wanted to sneak in, he needed the old man’s help.

It was already around two or three in the morning, and the night was dark and the winds were heavy. Ibeiya’s tea had alleviated Xiao Lin’s initial tiredness.

Time was of the essence, and they could not delay. After the old man drew a map of the Argos clan’s residence from his memory, they immediately left.

“At the most, I’ll be waiting outside with Her Highness. Only you can infiltrate the place. If you’re caught, Valen probably would not dare do anything to you, but we can absolutely not be caught!” the old man said sternly as they moved.

If his guess was right, then Valen might not hesitate to capture him after already kidnapping his classmates. Xiao Lin thought that in his heart, but did not say it out loud. He then asked about Valen’s skill level.

The skill of the entire Rosa Kingdom was actually not that high, which was why the small kingdom could never expand. Xiao Lin had known beforehand that, other than a very small number of Gold-ranked elite soldiers under the royal guard, the country did not even have many Silver-ranked individuals.

The old man verified his guess. Since they were allowed to stay in the kingdom, then the dark races had naturally been restricted in skill as well. As stupid as the Rosa Kingdom’s monarch was, he would know not to allow overly strong members of the dark race to stay in their country.