Black Clover: Nah I'd Lose

It took them a few days to reach Duneshade, as they were focusing on training this time.

During this period, Erza, seeing Akeru sitting idle, asked, "What are you exactly trying to do, Boss?"

"I am focusing and trying to do something with mana."

"I can see that, but what exactly?"

"You will see when it's done," Akeru said with a wink.

"Suit yourself," Erza rolled her eyes.

She had been curious since their time on the boat and had only asked during this period, but it seemed her fate had no plans to satisfy her curiosity.

They were currently standing near the city walls of Duneshade.

This city was built on an oasis and was an important city for travellers to restock their supplies.

However, the duo had no qualms about restocking as they were carrying a lot of supplies.

"Are we not going to enter the city?"

"Nope, from here, it should be fine. I can check if they are compromised or not."

Akeru then activated the artifact and changed the communication mode to Voice so that Erza could also talk and hear the messages.

"Boss, it's been a while," they heard Kaiser's voice from the other side.

"Yeah, it was an ordeal. Anyway, let's get to business and keep it brief—it should reduce the chance of something going wrong," Akeru went straight to the point.

"Yes, we have collected some information. I think exchanging it now should be safe," Ren's voice could be heard.

"Yeah," Akeru agreed, and they proceeded to do that.

One disadvantage of long-distance artifacts is that anybody worth their salt in the rune array field could intercept the transmitted mana and read the messages.

This was the reason why Akeru and Ren were using an encrypted way to message, such that only both of them could understand the messages by decrypting them according to a method that they only know.

Though now, what they were going to communicate was clearly more important than before, and they wanted to eliminate the possibility of somebody who read this somehow decoding their coded messages.

So, communicating at a short distance like now eliminated the possibility, and if such things happened, Ren would be able to notice it.

After talking for a while, they decided they would continue to move in the same grouping, as Kaiser seemed to know more about the Diamond Kingdom, which would be helpful in information gathering.

Meanwhile, Akeru and Erza's group was responsible for creating as much chaos as possible, as that would allow the other duo to move more freely and lessen the chances of them getting found out, as higher-ups probably weren't sure of their existence in the first place.

With that, Akeru and Erza headed towards Iron Rift.

They travelled along the border of Spade and Diamond Kingdom.

Akeru was really feeling fear throughout this whole journey, and during this time, he refrained from training, so they quickly reached Iron Rift.

It was a subterranean city that was not exactly on the surface.

Due to the icy climate, a lot of glaciers were also present in this area.

Upon entering the city, they just ate some food and tried to get information, as they wanted to do something that would attract the higher-ups.

However, after several unsuccessful attempts at achieving their goal, they rested for the night. They hadn't exactly travelled along the border as Akeru wanted to train, and Erza also agreed with that.

So, although they were going to cities along the border, they didn't follow that path, and despite it being inefficient, nobody had any qualms about this.

The next city they reached was Frosthaven.

It was a frozen fortress city, and entering was difficult even for Akeru.

'Well, it would have been easier to enter alone, but with Erza, it does become difficult. I wonder if there's a way to apply "Silent Nobody" to others,' Akeru pondered as they finally entered the city after waiting nearly half a day for an opening.

"This is so cold, I am almost freezing," Erza said while hugging herself.

She and Akeru had been wearing clothes adjusted for this weather long before they entered the city.

"I will adjust the heat array on your clothes later in the inn," Akeru promised her.

He wasn't worried about Erza getting a cold or something due to two reasons.

First was that despite not looking like it, she was a first-class Senior-level knight, which in itself spoke of her durability.

Secondly, though it might not appear so, Akeru was a healer and somewhat of a doctor. Though he might not know much about various types of illnesses found on the continent, he definitely knew how to treat a cold instantly.

"Are those guys having a similar kind of array to fight off the heat?" Erza asked while discreetly pointing towards the gate guards who were shirtless.

From their strength, Akeru had estimated them to be around fourth- or fifth-class senior level.

"Normally, I would conclude that too. However, I didn't sense any arrays on them, so no—it's highly likely that they are frost-resistant mages I had heard mentioned before," Akeru shook his head.

"The ones who were experimented on a few years back?" Erza asked for confirmation.

Akeru had given her the information in kind of a story and all in one go, so she didn't remember all the nitty details correctly.

"Yup, normally, people who can use certain elements develop a resistance towards the said element, so using that element for its specific property might not be very effective."

"When will it be effective then?" Erza suddenly asked.

"Well, let's say somebody uses water magic on me. If they are trying to suffocate me or something that could be only done by water, then it won't be that effective, but if they are using the momentum of water to deal damage, like how my combat system uses it, it won't be rendered ineffective.

The same is true for Earth, as most attack spells of both types are like that, as far as I know. However, if we take something like lightning, and somebody tries to electrocute me, it won't be very effective, as not only my body but also my mana have a tendency to resist lightning. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," Erza nodded.

They walked in silence to find an inn to crash.

"Your scouting spell is really awesome. I don't think it works on sensing principles, does it? It really eliminates our chances of you getting found out."

If somebody activated their sensory technique or a sensory field, which was one of the sensory techniques, then they could sense the mana in the atmosphere; however, it could also lead to them getting sensed.

However, Akeru's '3D Witness' completely eliminated the need for that as he was directly observing the distortions in space.

"Well, yeah, it's not based on orthodox sensing techniques or principles," Akeru carefully chose his words. He didn't really want to divulge much about this technique, as it was clearly his trump card.

"So, is it similar to techniques like how people sense via 'heat signatures' or 'thermal vision' as they say?"

"Well, not really, it's different." 'Fuck, it's very similar to that only. The only way to detect if somebody is sensing your heat signature is either you yourself having magic connected to heat or having high mastery of "Light Magic" or its derivatives,' Akeru quickly brainstormed to think of an excuse.

"Have you heard about inferring somebody's future actions or some other details by observing whatever information you have on them?"

"Yeah, I know, it does help a lot, especially when you are trying to fight an unknown enemy, you are supposed to create a profile on them" Erza nodded in agreement.

The first thing to do when fighting an opponent you don't have any information on is to gauge their skills, and observing for any cue that could give more information on them is an important skill.

"Well, let's say it's an advanced form of that. I could use things like their statement choices, subconscious habits, clothing, and other choices to draw conclusions with high accuracy," Akeru said honestly.

***

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