IRONROOT SOVEREIGN: Rise Of The Marked Envoy

#5: Flying Court

As I lay down in my bed, sleepless, I found myself trying to decide what to do, but it was hard to do when my information was limited. All I knew was that I was in some kind of magic world, summoned to fight against some kind of great danger.

 Or at least, that was the impression they were trying to give me.

 My only advantage, my ability to lie…

 "I have handled worse odds," I muttered as I buried my face in the pillow. I didn't try to sleep. I didn't want to lose precious thinking time…

 And, more importantly, I wasn't exhausted. With my Vitality increased, I was feeling more energetic than I had felt in years, feeling like I could go without sleep for days…

 I lay in my bed, wondering whether it was the day or night, the lack of windows leaving me wondering about that detail. Or this new world had a concept of day and night in the first place, showing just how little I knew about the new world I had found myself in…

 Cycling over the same deficient set of information over and over was useless. Maybe even dangerous if I managed to drift down to a dangerous set of assumptions as I worked too hard on the same set of information.

 First, this mysterious System that seemed to be determined to grant me supernatural powers.

 I tried to focus on the direction, concentrating on the concept of Tier, power, and other texts, trying to reach and find some kind of screen where I could access my information. I felt like such a thing existed, and while it was not reliable, I decided to let that.

 Not like I had anything urgent to do.

 Then, after five minutes of struggle, I managed to trigger what I was searching for.

 《Class: Marked Envoy

 Tier: 3

 Experience (0/1400)》

 《Health (49/100)》

 《Experience: 436》

 《STATS

 Resilience: 20

 Vitality: 10

 LOCKED…》

 《Stat Points: 0》

 《SKILLS: — 》

 《ABILITIES: — 》

 "Fascinating," I murmured, a bit louder than necessary to see if anyone would react to my words. A crude way of seeing if anyone was actually observing my presence.

 Absent of any reaction, I turned my attention to the writing that appeared in my sight. The Tier was easy to decipher. The Experience was some kind of fuel or material, and at least one of those methods of acquiring was killing the beasts, and after collecting enough, it could be used to get some kind of general improvement.

 Improvement that gave me the miracle that was known as stat points, just a handful of them assigned to Vitality enough to make me more alive than I had felt for the last twenty years, and that was not even touching the role it showed on my mind-bending healing performance.

 Then there was Resilience, which was even more important than Vitality. I could handle the frailty of my old age much better than suddenly losing my ability to resist mentally, spilling every little secret I had to the convenience of the others and obeying their orders.

 I would rather die.

 "No dark thoughts," I muttered as I stood up, and started walking around the room, hoping to come across something useful… Only to come empty. There was a huge wardrobe, filled with various clothes, robes, shirts, pants, and lots and lots of cloaks. Unfortunately, every single one of them was made of bright, explosive colors, reds, greens, yellows, and blues, cross-cut with many different metal filings.

 None of them were particularly … subtle.

 I decided against changing into them, at least for the moment. At least the robe was loose enough that, I could actually smuggle something under it if I came across it.

 The walk around the room gave nothing else. There were no weapons, no books, and no other drawings than the 'inspirational' paintings that covered every single wall of the large room.

 "One last thing before leaving," I decided. I wanted to test my body before leaving. I lay down, curious about just how many push-ups I could achieve before my new body called quits.

 The answer, turned out to be, a lot, as I repeated the same attempt again and again. Pushing my body wasn't particularly easier than what I was used to, showing that my strength was, more or less, the same.

 The disappointment didn't last long, as I realized something was different when I passed ten, the point that I would normally start to get exhausted. I passed blew past twenty easily, then fifty, then a hundred…

 Without even my breathing quickening.

 Then, something popped into my view.

 《Stat Potential Awakened: Strength

 Accept / Reject》

 "A fascinating improvement," I murmured as I accepted it, but even as I continued, there was no difference in my capabilities. Suggesting that I need at least one point assigned to see the difference.

 Then, I stopped. First, I started listening, curious whether they would rush inside, just like the time I Tiered up, but there were no movements.

 Still, I didn't continue. Push-ups wouldn't be an accurate measure of understanding my limits. Still, it was clear that Vitality granted me an amazing improvement in endurance.

 Not so much for power, which clearly relied on its own Stat — or possibly Stats.

 Curious whether the same applied to the agility and whether I could actually awaken that, I looked around, searching for something I could use to do some tricks, a knife, a coin, anything.

 In the end, I found a small, thick piece of metal that was similar to a coin. I put it between my fingers, and let it dance between me with small flicks, until it disappeared in my palm. "Not too much of a difference as well," I murmured. It flowed smoother than I expected, but only marginally. Nothing like the great improvement I had just experienced.

 I grabbed several small objects, and started juggling them, adding one after the other. Unlike coin tricks, which I was used to doing whenever I got bored, it had been a long while since I had juggled — since I was a teenager.

 Yet, it still gave me what I was searching for.

 《Stat Potential Awakened: Agility

 Accept / Reject》

 I accepted that again, fascinated by the ease they were being awakened. Maybe it was just something easy to do for everyone, or maybe it was something about my Class.

 Either way, my quick tests were complete, I didn't even bother to change my robe as I walked to the door, checking to see if it was locked.

 It was not, but whether it was not supposed to be locked, or they forgot while leaving, too distracted by their bickering, was another question.

 Still, I waited for another hour before leaving the room, going through the place in great detail to see if I could find anything useful in the room.

 A waste of time, I decided as I took a step into the corridor after pushing the door open gently, waiting for the two minders to burst, questioning me about why I ignored their order. My excuse was ready. I would say that I was searching for a bathroom.

 I had already discovered the small one at the corner of the room, separated by a small door, but I was ready to play the ignorant savage and act like I failed that.

 I walked through the corridor, the walls covered with weapons and paintings in equal amounts. I ignored the temptation of trying to get one from the wall, not wanting to deal with possibly magical measures of security there to prevent sticky fingers.

 Everything was technically possible.

 As I walked, it didn't take long for me to discover the reason for the lack of response. Toross and Falael were around a table filled with half-empty bottles, their heads against the table.

 No wonder they didn't react.

 Still, I tried not to make much noise I continued walking, not daring to get closer. I had no idea how their magical abilities worked, and I wasn't ready to test them properly. Instead of waiting, however, I continued walking.

 The next door I came across was a library, a modest one, but still far more than I could hope. The first promise of knowledge.

 I still walked forward. Even if there was an alarm, I would try to swipe one. I was getting more and more excited as I walked, ready to grab a book and stuff under my robe if I heard their furious footsteps.

 The longer their reaction lasted, the more relaxed I felt, and soon, I stood in front of the first shelf, and pulled the first book, flipping it open excitedly…

 Only for my disappointment to die as I looked at the page, filled with nothing but complicated symbols.

 "Maybe it's just for this book," I murmured as I placed it back and checked the next one, only to experience the same thing. I checked more than a dozen books, each filled with the same type of runic letters that I couldn't understand…

 Either I stumbled across an esoteric library filled with unknown languages, or whatever magical feature that allowed me to speak the foreign language didn't extend to the written word.

 Inconvenient, I thought as I left the library. As much as the information hidden there was tempting, I didn't want to lose the window of opportunity I was dealing with.

 I walked forward, checking the other doors. I passed a huge set of gates, one that I remembered leaving, one that lead into the huge room I was summoned to, firmly closed, just like most other doors on the way.

 I didn't try to open the locked doors, seeing it as a pointless risk. Worst, I could try to do so while returning to my room, if I couldn't find anything on my way. I continued to walk, checking every room with an open door, but most looked like residences, not too dissimilar to hotel rooms, small yet functional.

 Though, of every room I had seen, mine was by far the best, which made me glad. The softer they treated me, the more it meant that they needed something that I could give them.

 All I needed was not to give them any idea that getting rid of me and summoning another … Marked Envoy was not the better option.

 "Still, I wonder why they don't fear me escaping if I'm this precious for them," I murmured as I finally reached the end of the corridor, and found two things. A huge spiral stair, going both up and down, and a large balcony at the end of the corridor.

 At a glance, I could see that it was nighttime outside, with only a very soft glimpse of light entering inside. Still, since it was open, I first walked to the balcony, curious about the new world I found myself in.

 Only to gasp in shock as I took my step to the balcony.

 "No wonder they are not afraid of me running away," I murmured in fascination.

 Escaping from the flying Court, one that was flying in the sky with a speed that might rival a plane, might not be too easy of a job…