After Soren had broken through to Rank 1, the limits he had on scanning the other Initiators and the Magic Beasts had changed quite a bit. Before, he could only scan the Mana emanating off of those who were at most two layers higher than his own; in the same rank. But now, with the evolution of his skills and the development of his Primary Bloodline Talent, he could scan all those who were at or below his rank. This meant that with his current cultivation level, he could scan all Rank 1 Initiators; regardless of their layers in the rank.

This was how he was able to scan Ashby and Captain Hans back in Bellfalls; even though their cultivation levels were much higher than his own.

Similarly, he had used it today to scan Livan and Princess Azure. Knowing for a fact that neither of them was Rank 2, he had scanned them without any hesitation. From that, the result he got was—Rank 1: Layer 9, and Rank 1: Layer 6; respectively for Livan and Princess Azure. Given those cultivation levels, it could very well be said that Soren was playing with fire here. One wrong move and he would die without even leaving a body; such was the reality for him. Maybe the princess herself would not do it, but that didn’t mean that others around her wouldn’t either.

Of course, Soren knew these risks very well; yet, he still carried on with his plan. With what he had in mind; if everything went well for him, he could possibly turn the princess into his protector. In fact, after doing a simple cost-benefit analysis, he had come to the conclusion that the benefits he would gain at that point would certainly outweigh the risks he was taking right now. If he succeeded, he would not only have a strong backer but would also have access to the rare resources in the rewards list.

……..

There was a certain limit in every rank that the Initiators could raise their stats up to. Upon reaching that limit, it was impossible for any Initiator to further increase that stat without breaking through to the next major rank. Naturally, the majority of the Initiators were never able to reach that limit before moving on to the next rank. But even after taking the maximum stats into account, the maximum range that Livan could sense up to was only around 200 meters; considering the average efficiency of the sensing spells.

This approximate range of 200 meters was, in fact, the absolute limit for the Rank 1 Initiators using a Rank 1 sensing spell; a common knowledge among the Initiators, including Soren. Given this fact, the only way that a Rank 1 Initiator could possibly go past this limit was to use a higher-ranking spell; which was not cost-effective at all. Still, even though it was not efficient, it was quite possible that Livan had a higher-ranking sensing spell and could sense beyond that 200 meters range.

However, none of it mattered to Soren.

His only intention here was to use this common knowledge regarding the maximum sensing range to put up a façade. Through his actions, he wanted to prove to the princess that he was not faking his attitude and persona. He had to prove to her that regardless of what he did back in Eastwood town, he was still a good person at heart. And to do that, he needed to use that data about Livan’s sensing range; he wanted to create certain favorable situations outside that known maximum range and use those situations to prove himself.

Albeit, with this, there was no guarantee that the princess would find out about any of it. Yet, that ‘no guarantee’ was exactly what Soren wanted to use. Certainly, the princess still needed to know of his actions for his plan to succeed; thus, he could now only hope that her information gathering network was good enough and words of his actions could reach her ears without any filtration.

As for how he was going to create favorable situations for himself, Soren had already thought of a way. As a matter of fact, he had planned for all this to happen in Amburgh and had made ample preparations; the merchant group was included in this. But since the situation had changed, he also needed to make some changes; for that, he was going to need someone’s help.

And so, after moving far away from the restaurant, Soren took out his communicator and sent a detailed message to Smiley.

……….

A few days passed by since Soren had met the princess.

After that first meeting, he never tried to meet her again and just spent his time doing his normal routine; practicing his spells, meditating, selling the items he didn’t need, etc. Apart from that, he also did a few random acts of helping people in these few days; with the support of the members of the Wandering Wolves who were currently staying in Bycrest. Of course, he didn’t go overboard; in fact, he simply acted as a mediator in those situations and resolved things peacefully. Given that the situations were created by the members of the Wandering Wolves, everything went well without any complications. There was no doubt in Soren’s mind that this was a childish plan; yet, because of that, he knew it would be more effective.

And finally, after five days of their meeting, Princess Azure sent someone to fetch him. This time, the meeting went fairly simple.

First, the princess informed him that his bounty had been removed and that he was now a free man.

Next, she asked him for his help with the invasion that their kingdom was currently facing; after all, his prowess had already been proven with the incident in Eastwood. Given that this was his intention from the start, Soren immediately agreed with a bright smile on his face. Moreover, the topic of signing a Blood Contract also never came up; as a matter of fact, the princess even advised Soren to join the war through the Hunter’s Association. Although signing a contract with the royal family would guarantee more resources and higher status, the princess couldn’t bring herself to make Soren sign another contract; knowing his past, she couldn’t bear to open his old wounds.

And with that done, Soren stayed for lunch with the princess and then took his leave after a while. Towards the end, the princess had asked Soren to come with her to the war camp after the situation with the Rank 2 Initiator from the Hunter’s Association was dealt with; to which he had agreed.

……

For the next few days, Soren continued his daily life as usual but with one major change. Apart from his usual routine, he started having lunch with the princess every day. This was not initiated from his side, of course; instead, the princess herself had sent for him every day whenever it was time for lunch. At first, he had respectfully rejected the invitation. But after it had happened a couple of times, he had finally agreed and started having lunch with her.

Although Soren didn’t know whether what he had done in these last few days had influenced this decision on the princess’ part, he was nevertheless satisfied with the result. And because of that, while they could not be considered friends just yet, they had become more than mere acquaintances.

Time passed by like this for Soren until the day he got new news about the Hunter’s Association.

From what the princess had told him, the meeting with the Rank 2 Initiator from the association had gone well and he had agreed to fight in the war for the Stuteron Kingdom.

Certainly, his assistance was not for free. To recruit this person, not only did Shireen have to agree to most of his demands, but she also had to agree to the ‘no restrictions’ clause in the contract. This ‘no restrictions’ clause was essentially for allowing this Initiator to have full freedom during the war. This meant that he could fight if he wished to but could also reject to do so at any time he wanted. According to him, this clause was absolutely needed in case his opponent turned out to be from the Hunter’s Association too. This Organization existed in all the three kingdoms, so there was a certain possibility that the high-ranking Initiators of the association could join the war from the Atucan Empire side.

But regardless of his reason for demanding the ‘no restrictions’ clause, Shireen had no choice but to agree to it. From what the princess had told Soren, the situation with the war was just that bad. If they did not recruit new blood and tilted the power balance in their favor, they were destined to lose this war. If things remained the same, then even if they could hold on for a few more years, the end result was not going to change.

After the princess had informed him of all this, Soren realized that it was finally time for them to head to the war camp.

……

The schedule for the departure had already been set. Since Shireen, the Rank 2 Initiator affiliated with the royal family, still had some things that she had to deal with in Bycrest, they were set to depart after three days; counting from the day that the contract was signed. Given that they were finally moving out, Soren also got to work and started dealing with some unfinished business in this city.

First of all, he called Hamish and told him to get the group ready for departure in three days. Although Soren had agreed to accompany the princess to the war camp, that didn’t mean he was going to leave this group behind; after all, he was still going to need some people to run errands for him there. Hamish and his group had already stayed with Soren for quite some time now and were familiar with his habits; therefore, he saw no reason to let them go and search for someone new to do his bidding. As for whether they would be happy about this or not, that was of no concern to him.

Next, he took out his black-colored Hunter I.D from his Storage Pearl and gave it to Hamish. Since the association’s building was closed until now, Soren was not able to finish his business with it. So, he told Hamish to either go himself or send someone else to finish his current mission and accept the Rank 1 mission for the war.

Done with that, Soren then took out one of his Mana Cards and gave that to Hamish too; together with a list of ingredients that he needed to buy. With the special feature of the Automatons, Soren could now easily add the Mana Crystals to the Card. Because of that, he didn’t need to go through all the hassle anymore that he needed to before and could add as many crystals as he wanted to the card. As for the card that he gave to Hamish, it had already been charged with enough crystals to buy a few sets of those ingredients on the list.

After dealing with all those things, Soren sent Hamish on his way and took out two of his Automatons. Adding two amply charged Mana Cards in each of their slots, he had one of them play with Argus and one of them help him with the preparation of the ingredients; he was going to try and create a Rank 1 potion again. He had tried creating the Soul Recovery Potion a couple of times before in these last few days but had failed each time. However, even though he had failed, he had still gained experience and had learned many things about what he was doing wrong. So, with that experience now boosting his confidence, he wanted to push his stagnant Potioneering skill level to Rank 1 before moving out by creating one Soul Recovery Potion.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Status: Healthy

Rank 1: Layer 1 [CP - 0%]

Name: Soren Farrow

Species: Human

Attribute: Darkness & Ice

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Mana: 100%

Strength: 7.93

Agility: 9.70 (+1.90)

Vitality: 17.69

Intelligence: 21.22 (+7.20)

Spirit: 20.24 (+8.45)

Resistance: 9.10 (+2.35)

Spells:

Spell Vessels: 3/10

Innate Spells: 18

Innate Skills/Bloodline Talents: 7

Water Bubbles [7/7] – Level 8/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Snow Blades [5/5] – Level 9/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Ice Chakra [6/6] – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Create Undead: Low Tier Ⅱ – Level 7/15. Mana Cost – Average. [Rank 1]

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Dark Raven – Level 8/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Ice Barrage – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Dead Rising – Level 7/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Acid Needles – Level 5/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Shadow Prison – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Rank 1]

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Frost Domain – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Elemental Sense – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Dark Gravity – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Withering Wood – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Ice Spikes – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Soul Search – Level 6/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Rank 1]

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Ice Wall – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Waterball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Rainfall – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Spark – Level 10/10. Mana cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Fireball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0]

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Space Snatcher – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Rank 0]

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Mana Manipulation – Level 7/15

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Potioneering [Rank 0] – Level 15/15.

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Powered Vision – Level --/--

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Vornea: Basic Form – Level --/--

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Devour: First Evolution – Level --/--

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Second Intelligence – Level --/--

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Shadow Steps – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 1]

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Equipment: Common Clothes; Magic Staff – Moonshard; Spirit-Pendant; Snake-Earring; Spirit-Ring; Resistance-Ring; Caster’s Bracelet; Agility-Boots; Dagger; Mana Touch – Gloves.

Storage Pearl: Common Clothes; Hunter I.D; Mask; Multiple Unfocused Cultivation Techniques – Low Grade; Focused Cultivation Technique – Middle Grade; Egg – Crystal Albarose; Various Ingredients; Automatons x3; Beast Cores[Rank 0] – x184; Beast Cores[Rank 1] – x114; Rank 1 Potion Recipe – Sun’s Afterglow; Rank 1 Potion Recipe – Soul Recovery; Cultivation Technique – Turtle’s Life; Cultivation Technique – Flaming Hair; Various Skills – Memory Spheres; Empty Memory Spheres; Books and Compendiums; Rank 0 Common Potions[Middle-Grade] – x0; Rank 0 Common Potions[High-Grade] – x0; Rank 0 Common Potions[Top-Grade] – x0.

Mana Crystals: 678 [Middle-Grade]; 202 [Low-Grade]; Myriad Items—Card [Value-000]; Six Mana Cards.