Low-Fantasy Occultist

Hiding in the stable block offered a brief respite, but Nick knew time was running short.

Dusk was settling over the desecrated estate, casting wavering silhouettes across the muddy courtyard. The clash of steel from the city streets was still a distant roar, but within the walls of the Elpen manor, a tense quiet held.

"The shift change is happening," Gaelen whispered, peering around the edge of a timber stack. “It seems the day laborers are moving to the barracks, and the guards are rotating to go eat.”

"We should move now, then," Nick decided. Once more, he wove [Mire] around them, pulling the ambient humidity tight.

They slipped out of the stables, crossing the open ground toward a seemingly unremarkable stretch of the manor’s eastern wall.

"There," Gaelen pointed to a section of stonework partially obscured by thick ivy. "It looks like a solid wall, but it’s a servant's passage. My grandfather built it so the household staff could move between the kitchens and the upper floors without disturbing guests. Everything was locked down when we realized we had lost, but we can still access them.”

Rhea approached it, drawing a small silver dagger from her belt. She dragged the blade's flat across her palm, applying just enough pressure to draw a single drop of blood, then pressed her palm against the stone.

The masonry shifted without a sound, revealing a narrow, pitch-black stairwell that led upward.

I guess there are benefits to being a family of Artificers. It’d be more surprising if the building were entirely mundane, really.

“I see," Nick murmured, sensing the muted echo of blood magic, as he stepped into the passage. The stone seamlessly reappeared behind them, sealing them in darkness. “Even if they had known about them, the Ultimers couldn't dismantle it without triggering a structural collapse.”

"They don't know it exists," Gaelen corrected in a sad tone, moving in the dark without trouble. "Only the Elpen line and the most trusted retainers did, and you saw how far they are willing to go to keep our secrets. This leads directly to the residential wings.”

"Lead the way," Nick said.

As they ascended the narrow, winding stairs, he pushed [Empyrean Intuition] outward, mapping the etheric signatures on the floors above them.

As he’d already determined, the keep was crawling with high-level combatants. Knights were stationed at the intersections of the main corridors, and several highly structured auras—which he assumed were Artificers—were moving between rooms.

“Our final goal is to reach the deeper levels," Nick said, keeping his voice low. “But we also need experience. Every target we remove now is one less blade aimed at our backs when we finally confront Nestor.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem if we attack while they are resting in their quarters," Gaelen observed as they paused at a hidden landing on the second floor. "The officers usually take the rooms in the west wing.”

Nick pressed his palm flat against the stone wall separating them from the main corridor. He could feel the presence of two Knights standing guard outside a door a dozen feet away.

Unlike the guards they’d dealt with to get to the cart or the ones keeping watch in the manor’s gardens, these two were quite strong, comparable to the mercenaries who had watched over Opal.

He knew that Rhea had more of her containment balls, and he was pretty sure he could overwhelm them in single combat without much trouble, but there was no need to roll the dice.

After all, he didn't need to step into the hallway to kill them.

Ambushing them from the shadows without their awareness might not be entirely honorable, but given the circumstances, I think I won’t feel too bad. And I was never one to worry much about such things.

A small part of him, the one he recognized as the remnants of Young Nick, rebelled at the thought, but it was easy to suppress. He might be the son of a Noble House steeped in Knighthood, but he was an Occultist first and foremost.

He took his time, channeling a thread of [Conceptual Steam] through the microscopic gaps in the mortar. As he funneled the superheated vapor, he took care not to let even a single iota of mana escape his iron grip, and he slowly reached the enclosed space beneath the guards' helmets.

Once he was there, he ramped up his output, turning the invisible threads into something much more solid.

The two knights didn't even have time to gasp. The sudden heat flash-boiled the moisture in their lungs and pierced their brainstems. They collapsed against the door in unison, their bodies sliding to the carpet with a soft, muted thud.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on NovelFire. Report any occurrences.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have defeated [Rohan, Ultimer Elite Knight - Level 81]

You have defeated [Mateusz, Ultimer Elite Knight - Level 81]

+313,200 Exp

Level up!

A surge of power flooded his veins. The world around him snapped into focus. The ambient mana in the air coalesced into distinct threads he could pluck and weave. The exhaustion from the day's constant magical suppression vanished, replaced by a thrumming need to use his power.

With some effort, Nick suppressed the urge. Each level brought a similar increase, but as the mana in his coils grew, so did his sense of power, and he suddenly understood why so many Archmages rarely interacted with the world outside their Towers.

Everything but the pursuit of more mana felt dull and muted. He could only imagine how much stronger the sensation would be once he reached Prestige.

Nick opened his eyes, the muddy hazel of his disguise unable to hide the dangerous light behind them. He flexed his fingers, feeling the augmentation of his attributes settle into his flesh.

"Did you get it?" Rhea asked, glancing back at him in the dark stairwell.

“Yeah, I leveled," Nick confirmed simply. "Let's keep going.”

They were now on a time limit. Taking care of the homunculi was one thing, but sooner or later, someone would notice the slumped men.

According to their scouting, there wouldn't be another change of guard for eight hours, and the few actual servants within the manor avoided going to the upper floors except in the morning, when they had to clean.

That still wasn’t assurance, though. It would take only one person wandering where they shouldn’t be to raise the alarm, which meant they needed to hurry.

They moved on, bypassing the main corridors. Gaelen guided them through a labyrinth of hidden passages, using his blood to open seamless stone doors that led directly into the occupying officers’ private quarters.

It wasn’t as satisfying as facing a monster directly, but Nick couldn’t complain as the exp flew in.

In the third-floor barracks, they found another knight resting on a cot. Nick stepped from the secret door behind the headboard, bypassing the enchanted bolts on the door that would have taken some effort to break through, even for him, and placed his hand directly over the man's face.

“[Stream of Consciousness],” he whispered.

His spiritual intent was like a spear aimed directly at the man's mind. He ripped through memories, shattering the cognitive foundation that bound the soul to the body. The knight convulsed once, his eyes rolling back as his mind was completely erased, but he couldn’t even make a sound before he passed on.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have defeated [Ted, Ultimer Elite Knight - Level 78]

+113,200 Exp

Two doors down, an Artificer sat at a desk, sketching runic matrices for the ventilation shafts. Nick was once more let into the room through a secret passage, slipped in under the cover of [Mire], and unleashed a blast of spiritual wind.

The spell manifested as a breeze, ruffling the man’s locks, yet rather than noticing the impossible wind, the Artificer slumped as his thoughts darkened, his soul overwhelmed by an attack it had no way to defend against.

It was almost eerie how easily killing came to him. Mages almost never delved into the mysteries of the ether, preferring to rely on their own reserves and research, but at times like these, Nick could see how dangerous his path was.

Not that he was doing anything unique, no. Someone at his level, specializing in buff and debuff magic, could have easily weakened their target enough to prevent another breath, or a spatial mage like Raphael could have severed their head without so much as a whisper from much farther away than he could.

But the soul was something almost no one considered a vector of attack. All those spells could be defended against with shields and wards, but the soul… Well, only someone like him could reach it at his level.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have defeated [Jean-Paul, Artificer - Level 67]

+89,200 Exp

Room by room, corridor by corridor, Nick hunted. Sometimes he used complex, multi-elemental combinations to bypass the intricate defensive runes the officers wore. He suffocated a level eighty-four Knight Captain by channeling noxious gas, provided by Rhea, directly into the officer's lungs with wind manipulation. He broke the mind of a sleeping quartermaster with another spiritual barrage.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have participated in the defeat of [Laurentius, Ultimer Knight Captain - Level 84]

You have defeated [Ethan Walkers, Ultimer Quartermaster - Level 60]

You have defeated [Quirinis, Artificer - Level 66]

You have defeated [Mirko Ustane, Artificer - Level 69]

You have defeated [Dark Intolo, Artificer - Level 65]

You have defeated [Billius, Artificer - Level 71]

+512,440 Exp

The notifications rolled in an intoxicating rhythm. Nick felt the experience pooling in his core, approaching level ninety-three with shocking speed. He was clearing out the occupation force without raising a single alarm.

It was enough to make him feel invincible. He had more than enough mana to keep doing this through the night, and if it weren’t for the fact that the occupants worked in shifts and, as such, not everyone was resting, he felt he could have killed them all and gotten to the next level.

"We are approaching the eastern wing," Gaelen whispered, halting at the end of a long, upward-sloping passage. "This leads directly into the antechamber of the old master suite. Nestor’s laboratory now, I imagine.”

"Wait," Nick murmured, holding up a hand. It was too quiet.

He had killed fourteen people in the past hour. Although they had been careful to target isolated individuals, a military operation of this scale relied on constant communication. Patrols were supposed to check in with others. Artificers were supposed to deliver schematics even in the middle of the night.

The sudden silence from the western and northern wings had not escaped the notice of the man at the top.

In the eastern wing, Nick felt the blazing presence of the Chief Apprentice shift. It was no longer focused on the vats and arrays of his laboratory and was now actively patrolling the perimeter of his suite, bristling with lethal intent.

"He knows," Nick said, his voice flat.

"Did we trip a ward?" Rhea asked with pursed lips. She’d not enjoyed the slaughter, but there was little mercy left in her heart after seeing the rooms once occupied by her family and their retainers now held by the enemy.

“No, but we created a vacuum," Nick explained. “This Nestor is, by all accounts, highly intelligent. But he hasn't sounded the general alarm… I wonder whether it’s because he thinks he can handle whatever is hunting his men alone or because he doesn't want to make it known that the keep's security has been compromised. Since this isn’t a frontal assault, he might be able to sweep it under the rug.”

"If he is prepared for us, the master suite will be a death trap," Gaelen warned. "My grandmother wove defensive arrays into that room's walls that could stop a siege engine. Some are locked by blood, but not all.”

"Then we shouldn’t go through the walls," Nick decided, a cold smile tugging at his lips. “If our host wants to welcome us, we should go through the front door."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!