Arcane Academy: The Divine Extraction Legacy

Chapter 1291: Realm Invaders

The next three months passed far more quickly than anyone in Atrium City had expected.

For the Dawnblades, however, those three months were anything but peaceful.

Lisa Grayback quickly adapted to her new surroundings, although she spent the first several weeks recovering from the strain caused by crossing the unstable dimensional passage.

The process was not particularly dangerous for an Immortal of her level, but the sudden transition between realms had still consumed a considerable amount of her strength, as she was still suppressed by the Will of the Realm.

Fortunately, the Valor Realm had no shortage of resources.

After learning more about the surrounding territories, Lisa began sending Ruth and the others out to search for specific materials and sources of energy that could help replenish her energy as a Vampire…

She also made another request.

“I need some servants…”

Ruth stared at her and immediately understood…

“Vampires?”

“Yes… Bring me humans. Criminals would be preferable.”

Lisa then calmly explained that she needed servants capable of moving through the cities and wilderness without attracting too much attention. She could obtain information through reports, but having her own eyes and ears scattered throughout the region would make exploration much easier.

The condition was simple…

They had to be people who deserved death.

Ruth naturally understood what Lisa meant.

The Dawnblades already received information about criminals from the Adventurers Guild and local authorities, and there were more than enough bandits, murderers, slave traders, and other criminals whose deaths would not cause anyone to mourn them.

Lisa turned several of them into her thralls.

Unlike ordinary undead creatures, however, these vampires retained their intelligence and could operate independently while remaining connected to Lisa.

More importantly, Lisa could use them as extensions of her senses.

A vampire wandering through a town could see and hear things Lisa herself would never have access to. Another could travel through a forest and report the presence of dangerous beasts, ruins, or unfamiliar settlements.

Within a few weeks, Lisa had established a small network of vampires throughout the surrounding region.

She even began giving some of them simple identities and assigning them specific areas to investigate.

It was far more convenient than constantly relying on reports from Ruth’s group.

“I understand why you prefer them,” Cielo remarked after learning about Lisa’s methods.

Lisa smiled.

“Reports tell me what someone wants me to know. My thralls show me what they actually see.”

That alone made her exploration of the Valor Realm much more efficient.

She gradually began learning about the continent’s geography, political factions, monsters, ancient ruins, religious organizations, and powerful individuals.

More importantly, she began looking for anything related to Divinity.

The Valor Realm clearly possessed traces of it, although they were scattered and difficult to collect.

Lisa spent much of her time traveling outside Atrium City, occasionally accompanied by Ruth or one of the other core members.

Every trip allowed her to learn something new.

She discovered ancient ruins buried beneath forests, abandoned temples whose gods had long since disappeared, and strange monsters that possessed unusual traces of divine power.

Some locations were completely useless while others were extremely valuable.

Lisa began marking every promising location on a map.

“This realm is a lot more interesting than I thought…”

If she could gather enough Divinity from these places, repairing the portal might take even less than three months.

Meanwhile, the Dawnblades continued growing.

The eighty recruits who had passed the examination were given their Philosopher’s Elixirs.

The results exceeded even Ruth’s expectations.

Some awakened talents in Knight Arts, while others developed affinities toward Combat Arts, Beast Arts, Elemental Arts, Summoning Arts, Rune Arts, and the other Arcane Paths.

A few candidates even displayed rare talents that surprised the core members.

The transformation immediately created another wave of rumors throughout Atrium City.

People who had joined the Dawnblades as ordinary Gold-Rank adventurers suddenly returned from training with abilities that should have taken decades to acquire.

Some became capable of manipulating elements while others summoned strange creatures…

Needless to say, they were all conditioned by Cielo, the Psychic, to be loyal to their organization.

Just like that, a few began using mysterious techniques that nobody outside the Dawnblades understood.

Naturally, people started talking… and the Dawnblades became impossible to ignore.

Their name appeared in the Adventurers Guild almost every day.

One week, they were praised for eliminating a powerful monster that had terrorized several villages.

The next, rumors spread that they had purchased another large warehouse.

A few days later, merchants began discussing the enormous quantities of weapons, armor, alchemical materials, and magical resources being purchased by the organization.

Then came reports about their training grounds… and after that came stories about another group of adventurers receiving access to equipment that ordinary adventurers could never afford.

The Dawnblades were becoming wealthy, powerful, and perhaps most importantly, they were becoming mysterious.

Nobody outside the organization understood where their resources came from and nobody could explain the strange abilities demonstrated by their core members.

The Order of the Sky Sword naturally noticed.

At first, the Order’s investigation had been based almost entirely on suspicion.

The Dawnblades were simply an unusual organization that had appeared at the wrong time.

Then Bon’s reports describing their training methods, their equipment, their strange techniques, and their recruitment process soon stopped…

For some reason, after reporting consistently for over a month, Bon just suddenly stopped reporting…

Commander Arthur of the Order couldn’t help but frown at this discovery.

The others also felt the same, and soon, Knight Roland voiced his plan.

“We will not be sending any more spies to this organization… We should just eliminate them.”

Arthur blinked as he looked at the reaction of the other Knights.

Seeing that none of them were against it, he spoke…

“The invaders were mentioned in Mennena’s prophecy… Then, the Dawnblades appeared shortly after that. Then, we learned that the Dawnblades possess abilities that don’t belong to any known tradition within the Farinas Continent.”

“They are acquiring resources at a rate that doesn’t make sense for an ordinary adventurer organization… I think this is enough… We’ll form a team to capture these people.”