"And what would you offer?" Armad asked.

The woman smiled proudly. "Look, I have been planning to be an Official for ten years now, I have money. A lot of money. I have contacts in high places, anything you want, I can get it for you."

"What's your position again?"

The woman tripped. "I.. I am not... I don't have any position right now, but I will have it all. I have contacts in high places, anything you want, I can get it for you."

Armad looked at her with a defeated sigh.

"I want to find the Triple-factor. Can you help me?"

"What? Triple-factor? Stop kidding, you think I will know where that man is. If you don't want to help me just say it, there is no need to play it that way."

Armad didn't expect that answer. Especially, with the way she had been boasting about having contacts in high places.

"What happened to your contacts in high places?"

The woman blinked several times. She opened her mouth to talk but she closed it. It took everything she had to open her mouth again and said, "I do have friends in high places."

Armad looked at her pitifully and sighed. Well, She could have lied when I asked her about the Triple-factor.

"Show me the force field."

The woman narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "You will help me?"

"That's what I said." Armad said through his teeth.

"For free? You don't need anything from me?"

The way she said that 'anything' made Armad subconsciously glanced over her chest. But he immediately looked away, feeling ashamed of himself.

"Why do you want to keep repeating the same thing? There shouldn't be anything strange about helping a weak woman in need."

"Thank you, I'm Rafiyan Aish. You?"

"Rafiyan? So you are a Southerner? Why didn't you stayed in Burja? I heard it's beautiful down there."

"I was born in Burja but we moved to Seith when I was six. People used to pick it from my accent but it's all gone now."

"You speak like any Northerner. How is the sun?"

"Better than being in the dark all the time. Look at how strong my bone is." She clenched her fist in demonstration.

"It's great." Armad said, not sparing her a glance.

"I still don't know your name." She said.

"I am Armad Djinn."

Her face twitched at the mention of 'Djinn' but Armad took it as her wanting to drag the conversation.

"We should keep this conversation aside and discuss the force field. I know this is just a prelim exam but we can't slack off. What is the base element?"

His mind was mostly on the force field. Depending on its elemental base, he may need to use his Miyura to suck the nature energy. But his Miyura had a striking resemblance to the old sigil of House Wilberforce, showing it to strangers might attract unwanted attention.

Is he really helping me out...

"What should I call you? Armad or Djinn?"

"The force field?" Armad cut her off.

"It's an earth element base. The runes are special but there is no much nature energy left behind to power the thing."

Earth element is good for me but why is the nature energy low? Armad thought. His lightning element had a natural advantage over earth element, just like how water had a natural advantage over fire. What he didn't understand was why there was no much nature energy left. As long as the rune and elemental base were active, nature energy shouldn't be a problem since it was the most abundant component.

"I have been growing some plants near the field." She said.

"What plants? Are you some expert in alchemy?"

"I am a level 18 Alchemist. I can grow Spirit Bamboo and Sunny Blue Shades. Both absorb nature energy."

Just level 18? Armad sighed. It was all clear now. Spirit Bamboo and Sunny Blue Shade could absorb nature energy but at a very slow rate, even slower if the alchemist was under level 50. No wonder she spent a whole year doing the same thing.

They walked silently toward the force field as Armad reviewed his knowledge of force fields.

Force fields were essentially warded areas with physical barriers to prevent trespassing. A basic force field had three parts: an elemental base, nature energy and a runic architecture connecting the two. The runic architecture ensured the force field was constantly fueled by the surrounding nature energy, while the elemental base provided the actual barrier. The only way to break a force field was to either destroy the elemental base or delete the connecting runes. Depleting the surrounding nature energy would only deactivate the force field temporarily before nature regenerated its energy.

They walked quietly for several more minutes before they reached the force field.

The first thing that greeted them was a line of several, fully grown Spirit Bamboos and Sunny Shades. Each Spirit Bamboo was at least twenty meters tall while the Sunny Shades were a bit shorter but still good.

Maybe she isn't that bad of an Alchemist.

The force field stood behind the trees. It was created from four pillars of black earth. Each pillar stood at roughly the same distance from a centrally-placed statue of a woman.

You have stepped into a Tier 7 force field.

Quest: break the field.

Reward: none.

"So not even a reward. Stingy bastards." Armad murmured. "Hey, this is just a prelim right? Why the hell am I seeing a Tier 7 force field?"

"This is what a Southerner gets for becoming an Official in the North." She said.

There was generally no any specific rule about the difficulty of the Official exams and, in most cases, Northerners would make it exceptionally difficult for their Southern counterparts. So using a Tier 7 field for a prelim was cruel but not against the rules.