"You said your name is Reiji?" Vivi asked politely.

Now that they are no longer in front of the many Sentient Arcana, her tone became gentle as she asked the wooden sword.

​​

They are currently in a room where five Arcanas are present.

Reiji, the wooden sword, and Ryu, the cloak Arcana were together with the three leaders of the Mind Collection.

"Yes…" Reiji answered while he was trying to guess why they decided to meet him separately.

"I see… We heard from Ryu that you wanted to meet Fern, is that right?" She continued.

"Ahh… That… I'm just curious about the rumors I heard."

"Rumors?"

"Well… It was when I'm training myself in various places, I heard about a Sacred Sword that no one was capable of pulling out… It was said that anyone who could draw the sword would be its owner and wield its power."

"Now that you said it… I guess anyone would be curious about that. But are you planning on pulling him out?"

"No… Of course, not. I don't have hands to grab it in the first place. I just want to see it for myself since I had nothing much to do after reaching a bottleneck in my growth…" Reiji answered.

"Ryu, thank you for bringing Reiji here. You can go and meet with the others for now." Neri, the Shield Arcana, said as they seem to want to discuss private things with Reiji.

The cloak Arcana understood her hint as he promptly left the room.

As soon as Reiji was alone with the three leaders, Fern, the Arcana that reminds Reiji of the Excalibur, spoke to him…

"It seems that you have a blessing of a Deity like us. I can feel the pleasant aura you exudes…"

Fern said as his deep voice surprised Reiji a little.

"I see… So you can really feel if an Arcana is blessed? How come I can't feel it from you guys?"

Reiji asked honestly. It was a bit unfair if only other Arcana can determine whether he's blessed or not. He wanted to be capable of doing that as well.

This time, it was Neri who answered.

"You haven't been exposed to the Mystical Energy as much as the three of us so you can't feel the subtle difference yet. Once you can differentiate the Mystical Energy and Spiritual Energy in the future, it would be easier for you."

Reiji has many questions, like the source of Mystical Energy, the difference between a blessed and not blessed, the names of the Deities that have blessed them, or whether they also remember their past lives…

However, he has to address the current issue first…

"Is that the only reason you called me alone here?" Reiji asked.

"No. We want to know which Deity has blessed you." Fern answered. It seems that being blessed is some kind of a big deal.

Reiji frowned at this since he doesn't even know much about these guys. Nevertheless, Fern already hinted that the Deity that blessed them wasn't hostile to the Sword Deity as he mentioned that he has a "pleasant aura" with him.

If that was the case it should be the passive effect of the "Blessed by a Sword Deity" title.

[ Effect: Other Arcana blessed by the Sword Deity and his allies would feel goodwill towards you. However, any Arcana blessed by the enemy of the Sword Deity may show hostility on you. ]

"Before I answer that, I need to know which Deity has blessed the three of you and why is it important to know?"

Reiji didn't want to be careless. The more secret he has, the more surprises he can give to his opponents. After all, a battle between two Arcana will be determined not only by the techniques they have but by the number of skills they can use.

Neri understood his concerns so she opened up first.

"Very well… This may be obvious but I'm Blessed of the Shield Deity, Naomi. Vivi is blessed by the Wisdom Deity, Ganesh… Of course, this one is blessed by the Sword Deity, Albeiron."

Reiji remembered that Vivi was the creator of the scanner that the guards had used before, so he wasn't that surprised after learning about her being a blessed of the Wisdom Deity.

He was also quite glad to learn about the names of the deities…

On the other hand, he was quite relieved that Fern is a blessed of the Sword Deity. It means that he wouldn't have problems getting along with them.

Neri continued her explanation

"It is important to know the deity that has blessed you so we can learn your specialty… Perhaps you haven't noticed yet but each deity would gift their blessed with their uniqueness… Like the extreme durability of the shield deity, the flight ability of the avian deity, the stealthiness of the shadow deity, the beast language of the beast deity, the ice ability of the ghost deity, and many others."

"I understand. I haven't seen any other blessed until now so thank you for letting me know…"

"It's alright… In any case, I would just like to add that each Deity only has the power to appoint 10 Blessed Arcana… Naomi already has ten, it's the same with Albeiron, Ganesh, Jumong the Archery Deity, and Mirellia the Spear Deity."

Reiji didn't think too much when Vivi said that Albeiron already has 10 Blessed Arcana. He thought that they already included him in the count… but after remembering that they were not aware which deity has blessed him, he suddenly had a premonition…

"Albeiron already has ten?" Reiji wanted to clarify something.

"That's right… Although everyone is scattered around the world, they are all quite famous and easy to recognize."

Then, does it mean he's the eleventh?

But before he could tell it to them, an earthquake suddenly occurred prompting everyone to be on alert.

As everyone was floating, they only noticed the shaking of several decorations within the mansion and it lasted for about 30 seconds.

Suddenly, the old butler came in and made a report…

"Esteemed leaders, it appears that the enemies had realized the Crystal Mine's secret… They have sent people to hold us here while another group started attacking the mines…"

"It was leaked this fast?" Fern seemed to be disappointed after hearing the news. Although he was expecting that the secret of the crystal mine will soon be revealed to the other organizations, he still underestimated how fast it could happen.

"Protect this place while we go out to deal with it…" Vivi said before she vanished without waiting for the butler's reply.

"We'll postpone our discussion after we finish dealing with this, Reiji…" Fern said as he similarly went away…

"Tasis, assist him until we get back…" Neri instructed the butler before she went away leaving the two behind.

It happened so fast that Reiji was unable to ask what was going on.

In the end, he asked his questions to the butler named Tasis…

***

Reiji found himself flying away from the port city.

Apparently, the most active group of Cursed Arcana called Execration has found out about the Arcane Stone in the Crystal Mine... and the problem seemed to be bigger than what the three leaders thought.

He thought at first that this will be a battle of floating weapons and equipment churning out their abilities in the sky but he was completely wrong…

The Mind Collection has the cooperation of the city guards and Arcanist Association, while the Execration has the help of the Tri-Horned Goat Cult and remnants of the Three-Eyed Imp Cult…

Ryu and the other officers of the Mind Collection told them to run away from this place as they were still too young and they still needed to rank up their skills or perhaps find a worthy wielder that they could go along with…

In truth, he felt that there was no way for the Cult to siege this powerful city filled with not only powerful Sentient Arcana but also fully equipped city guards, hunters, arcanists, and perhaps even powerful knights…

There was no way that a city would be any weaker than the Farahn and Jarnae Village…

However, being a big city wasn't always advantageous especially if they are fighting against sneaky Arcana that could find a way to slip through the defensive array and cause trouble to the citizens.

Although they can easily die in the process since they mostly move alone, it was still effective in holding off the city forces while their main group was taking over the Crystal Mine…

"We'll just contact you for the next gathering… In the meantime, try to gather as much information you can regarding the cursed Arcana and evil Arcanists around the area."

Ryu finally said as he went to support their group.

It seems that the twenty newbie Arcana were treated as children by the members of the Mind Collection.

Although Reiji understands that they were only trying to protect their well-being, it still doesn't feel right to be disregarded like this…

"Well, it's your fault for underestimating us…" One of the newbie Arcana had a similar thought...

"Anyway, they seem to righteous people--I mean, Arcana…" Reiji commented as he decided to just leave the place like what they wanted.

In the end, Reiji found new companions in his journey, the Kris Sword and the two interesting necklaces…