Saga of Astral Mysteries (LOTMxASOIAF)

[Trafford]

"The Empire of Noxus is a powerful empire with a fearsome reputation. To those beyond its borders, Noxus is brutal, expansionist, and threatening, yet those who look beyond its warlike exterior see an unusually inclusive society, where the strengths and talents of its people are respected and cultivated.

The Empire of Noxus was founded by its first and sole Emperor, the Immortal Emperor, who was born in the Valyrian Freehold and rose from the position of ordinary adventurer to the lofty position of Emperor of the entire nation.

It wasn't known when exactly the establishment of the Noxus first began, but it is known that several years before the Doom of the Valyrian, the Immortal Emperor led several of his people to establish the first settlement on the continent of Valoran, north of the continent of Essos. Over the years, some discontent elements of the Valyria secretly left the Freehold to establish a new nation, with even prominent members of the Dragonlord Families.

Only when it was too late did the lofty and arrogant Dragonlords realize that many of their Legacies and people actually left their jurisdiction, and before war could erupt between the Dragons, the Doom destroyed the fabled Valyrian Freehold, until nothing than just ashes remained from pristine glory of the Dragonlords and most powerful Extraordinary nation in the world.

After the fall of the most destructive war in the past five centuries in Westeros, which resulted in the almost mutual destruction of the Royal House of Targaryen, the Church of the Seven and Parthenon of the Old Gods, and many others, the Empire of Noxus remains probably the single entity in the world that commanded the power of the most dangerous Extraordinary Creatures in the known world, the Dragons."

Archmaester Marwyn, Saint of the Citatel Order, Year 285 AC of Westerosi Callendar

***

Outskirts of the Valyrian Freehold, Somewhere in the Painted Mountains

"Damm... there is no end to them... fucking goblins..."

A young man stated as he swung his sword and severed the head of one of the ugly creatures that was crawling on the ground. The man was young-looking, with silver hair and bright purple eyes, wearing leather armor and armed with nothing more than a sword.

"And they say that upon transmigration, you get the boons or cheat... what an utter rubbish."

He transmigrated a few years ago, and there were several things that he noticed that didn't give him sleep at night and were practically equally disturbing in a certain sense.

The first thing he realized upon his transmigration was that he was in the Valyrian Freehold... that meant that he was in the world of the ASOIAF, though the other discoveries essentially stopped those thoughts when he learned of the existence of the Beyonders.

Beyonders are sentient beings who have consumed Beyonder Characteristics, allowing them to advance to higher Sequences in a Pathway. The most common method of advancement is through consuming potions made of Beyonder Characteristics and other supplementary materials.

There are multiple Pathways for Beyonders to take, all starting from Sequence 7. Beyonders gain power from these specific potions but have to endure the side effects (paranoia, hallucinations, etc.) that ensue upon consuming them. There is a chance they will succumb to the side effects and lose control - becoming monsters themselves.

This sounded really like the novel Lord of the Mysteries; instead of the 9 Sequences, there were only 7 of them, and even the Pathways were vastly different from what he remembered from the novel.

This was proof that his meta-knowledge wasn't that much reliable either.

And probably the last thing that was annoying him to no end were the circumstances of his birth.

He was born to one of the Forty Lord Freeholders of the Valyrian Freehold, Dramath Tenebraenys...

Unfortunately for him, his birth father was killed not long after he was born by a Saint from the House of Black and White, which was worshipping the Many-Faced God and was very against practise slavery, something in which the Valyrians as a slaving civilization reveled.

In the end, after the death of the Lord Tenebraenys, who was the sole Saint in the entire Tenebraenys Family, the vultures didn't wait long before they could show their fangs, and soon enough, those who had grudges against his family made a move, and in the end, the entire Tenebraenys Family was broken apart one by one.

He managed to survive, perhaps by a stroke of sheer luck, when he was smuggled from the capital by a few of the remaining loyal servants of the Tenebraenys Family. Coupled with the fact that he was the bastard son and his birth wasn't in the records of the House Tenebraenys, essentially, nobody really searched for him that night.

From there on, he lived on the outskirts of the Valyrian Freehold, essentially living as an adventurer and doing what he could to make a living.

It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

When he was fifteen, Valkorion managed to become a Beyonder, by consuming Warrior Potion of the Crimson Moon Pathway and thus started hunting weak Monsters that were living around here.

Not only would he occasionally find some ingredients that were required for the Beyonder Potions, but many parts of the goblins and other monsters could be sold for a nice sum of money.

Not to mention, there was another thing that was looming over his head, which was the most probably... inevitable Doom of the Valyria. In truth, he didn't know if it would happen the same way it happened in the ASOIAF canon, but something was telling him that it would indeed happen and everything would go to shit.

Apparently, he was only a few years from the Doom, as it was currently apparently only a few years before the Targaryens would move out of Valyria. Even here on the outskirts of the Freehold, he heard the rumors that apparently the daughter of the Lord of the Targaryen Family went mad when she spouted nonsense about inevitable doom.

Which was rather ironic instead...

They lived in an extraordinary world, and yet nobody really believed her dreams...

Valkorion knew that the main reason for that was probably the infinite arrogance of most of the Dragonlord Families and even the Church of the Dragon Gods. In the end, they were the most powerful faction in the known world, eclipsing the power of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti or the Shadowlands of Asshai.

There were not many Beyonder Organizations that could dream to even match the might of the Valyrian Freehold with the sheer number of Beyonders and Dragons that the Freehold commanded.

So, it seemed that even in this world, the wonders of Valyria would be lost to time and once again due to the arrogance of man.

Not like it was his concern anyway.

Valkorion decided to remain in the Valyria as much as possible to gather resources and some of its heritage, before everything would go to fuck somehow. He would be stupid to leave now; in the end, it was the most developed civilization in the world.

From what he heard, in the Westeros, Beyonders were rare, to the point, where the general population was unaware of their existence as it was some kind of pact between the Church of the Seven, Main Noble Families and Parthenon of the Old Gods.

That was also the reason why the Valyrians avoided the place like a plague; after learning that there was nothing notable there, they basically quickly forgot about Westeros, and it wasn't really a point of interest aside from ordinary trade and so on...

"Just a few more, and I would have enough to return..."

After taking everything of value from the goblins, Valkorion scanned his surroundings before dedicating himself to dwelling deeper into the Paintain Mountains. The things that he gathered till now would most probably fetch him only a few tens of Golden Dragon Coins.

He would need at least a few hundred so he could buy a new sword made from Valyrian Steel because the one that he was using wasn't really suitable for the Beyonders, even that of the lowest Sequence.

***

So... thoughts, anyone?
Hopefully, this fanfic will become the second Holy Chronicles of Baator in terms of size, and it will be vastly better in quality compared to the HCB...
***

And recently, I have been reading several LOTM fanfics, so I have decided to integrate the Beyonder System into the world of ASOIAF, though there would be some elements of other franchises mixed in.
***

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[Trafford]

Valyrian Freehold was a great territory that spanned much of the continent of Essos, stretching from the Valyrian Peninsula to the shores of the Essos and reaching even the Blackwater Bay of the Westeros.

It encompassed most of the eastern continent and reached every single Free City, island, and place known and unknown; even though it was never an Empire due to its specific nature, its power and prestige eclipsed most of the Empires in the known world.

It was common knowledge that Ancient Valyria was a civilization of humble shepherds who discovered dragons in the Fourteen Flames, a ring of volcanoes on the Valyrian peninsula.

Valyrian stories claim that dragons originated in their lands, although tales from Asshai claim the beasts were brought to Valyria from the Shadow Lands.

Church of the Dragon God claimed that it was their God who bestowed the Valyrian shepherds the Extraordinary Powers of the Beyonder Pathway and allowed them to obtain Magic and tame the dragons.

Meanwhile, the Beyonders of Asshai'i, under the leadership of Shadow Binder Order, were claiming that it was they who gave the Valyrians the means to tame the Dragons in the name of their God...

In the end, the theological thesis didn't really matter much, as the result was more important in this aspect.

The Valyrians tamed the Dragons with their newfound powers, mastered the techniques of the Extraordinary Pathways, bred and raised their Dragons as devastating weapons of War, and created the first Extraordinary Civilization in the 3rd Epoch.

***

After walking for several hours in the hostile enviroment of the Painted Mountains, Valkorion finally found a nice cave, where he would remain during the night before going a bit deeper into the mountains.

The Painained Mountains were always a problem for the Freehold, because it was swarming with the goblinoids. There were countless Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, and other goblinoid species living in the Painted Mountains, which made the place rather dangerous.

Not only that, but when they were overpopulated, they would often go down from the mountain range and raid the surrounding towns and villages for resources and mainly food.

Due to that, the Freehold was investing a lot in regularly cleaning the Painted Mountain Range, and thus, many Adventurers, poor fellows, or just people in dire need of money went into the Painted Mountain Range and killed the creatures there.

"With this tempo, it would take a few months before the Potion is fully digested. Hopefully, I would be able to gather enough money for Formula and Ingredients."

Making a small fire, he started roasting meat from some deer that he had hunted down half an hour prior as he pondered over the matter.

In a certain sense, he was rather lucky because due to his foreknowledge, even though it wasn't 100% reliable as this word was vastly different due to differences in Pathway, he knew very well how the Beyonders worked and was aware of some things.

For example one of the more valuable ones was the Acting Method.

The Acting Method is the process of acting according to the Potion's name in order to fully digest the Beyonder potion. With the acting method, Beyonders learn some facts about their Potion.

Even among the Beyonder en masse, the Acting Method wasn't widely known, and most ordinary Beyonders who were not from large organizations, Churches, or Extraordinary Families were not aware of its existence and purpose.

Fortunately, he was, which made his life easier, at least something.

"There are still a few hours until the evening... I should go train a bit."

In the end, Valkorion spent the remaining hours training with his sword in the Juyo Sword Form.

Juyo was described as the most vicious form of sword combat and was said to be filled with both fury and "malignant grace". The form was given the title of the most difficult and demanding form in all of the sword combat that was ever created in the Valyrian Freehold.

This was all part of his Acting Method as a Warrior; not only did he need to constantly fight against enemies and beat them in single combat, but he also needed to train in the various forms of martial arts and with weapons.

With each season that he spent training or fighting, he was getting better and better; that was the influence of the Combat Proficiency of the Warrior Beyonder Characteristic. If he had to tell, right now, after becoming Beyonder, he was several times stronger than the ordinary human of his old world.

Not only that, he was still getting stronger because the Potion wasn't fully digested; even right now, he could lift around six hundred kilograms without many problems, and his endurance was equally staggering.

This continued for several hours, after which he had his dinner and laid down to have some sleep while pondering over the shitty transmigration as he was angry at the very concept of fate right now.

'I should be making some preparations for the Doom... the easiest way would be to grow my own powerbase and gather resources, especially some Dragon Eggs; in the end, being able to be bound to Dragon is in my very own blood.'

Obtaining as much as possible from the heritage of the Valyrian Freehold was at the top of his list if the Doom ever happened. On the contrary, with the apparent existence of Gods and powerful Beyonders, if the Doom still happened, then he seriously doubted that it would be due to just the explosion of the Fourteen Flames.

As paranoid as he was, he knew that there was some conspiracy in play, but that was already far away from him right now.

***

On the next morning, Valkorion moved forward because staying in one place was like seeking death in the Painted Mountains. Even though most of the goblinoids were not the most powerful Extraordinary Creatures around, they were making up for their individual weakness with their sheer numbers.

In the books he read, there were even cases were even Mid Sequence Beyonder Dragon Riders were overrun with almost inexhaustible numbers of enemies. Of course, such cases were exceedingly rare and almost never happened, but there were some occasions when they happened.

So, he was rather wary of such a situation and put his cautiousness to the max.

Still, searching for the goblins in this dammed place wasn't that hard because the entire Painted Mountains were just swarming with them.

'It seems that they are once again close to the overpopulation...'

Valkorion thought when he noticed traces of many, many, many goblinoids that were here and there as it seemed that the overpopulation of their dammed species seemed to be once again happening.

When it came to such a scenario, Valyrian Freehold would usually declare an Extermination Crusade on the regions where the Extraordinary Creatures were overpopulated so they could cull the population to manageable limits.

It would be usually led by Dragonlords and supported by the Valyrian Armies and Armies of their vassals. However, it was also a very good opportunity for the Adventurers and other freelancers who wanted to make some money from the entire ordeal.

***

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[King Yama]

Okay I'm watching this I know of Lotm read few chapters before I dropped it cause its got so many chapters

 

[morethanfalse]

too much monologue where you spoon fed the basic details of Lotm in the most boring ways possible

 

[Trafford]

It didn't take him long to find another group of Goblins, and this time, as he saw it, he was in luck because there were several of them, and it seemed that they were transporting some goods with them.


Ordinary goblins stoop between 1 meter tall to maximally 1,2 meters tall and withered something between 18 kg to 25 kg on average.


They had flat faces, sloped back foreheads, broad noses, pointed ears, and small, sharp fangs, and their eyes varied in color from red to yellow. Their skin color ranged from yellow through any shade of orange to a deep red, though they also came in shades of green.


All members of the same tribe normally share the same skin color. Goblins typically dressed in dark leathers soiled by poor hygiene and colored in a similar range of tones to their skin.


'There around nine of them, rather relaxed or just unruly, it is always pretty hard to tell what is going on in the heads of the goblins...'


He observed the goblins from a distance for some time because he already had some experience with the creatures as he was hunting them even before he became Beyonder.


Right now, hunting goblins was probably his sole source of income, as many of their body parts were rather precious; if he was lucky, he could obtain some of their Extraordinary Cores, which were equal to the Beyonder Characteristics.


But they were very, very rare, and till now, he managed to obtain only one when he killed a severely injured Goblin Chief after he came across an almost destroyed Goblin Tribe. One of the Extraordinary Cores sold for several hundred Golden Dragons, and for the money, he was able to buy all the ingredients for the Beyonder Potion for the Sequence 7 Warrior.


As he saw the nine goblins carrying several bags of things with them, he followed after them, sneaking past rocks and hiding behind the terrain until the goblins decided to rest for some time, for whatever reason, which was his time to act.


He strongly gripped his sword as he rushed towards the goblins that were putting all of their loot in one place and stabbed one of the goblins from behind. Other goblins reacted almost immediately when they saw that one of theirs was killed and attacked the Valyrian human with newfound ferocity.


The hatred between the Valyrians and goblinoids of the Paintain Mountains was deeply seeded.


Like other goblinoids, goblins often had a short temper, and were more easily provoked than individuals of most other races. Goblins, especially among the goblinoids, were known to be especially stupid and greedy; they were extremely easily angered and acted purely on emotion.


Using the Juyo Style against the goblins was proving to be especially effective, because with the strong, powerful and fast attacks, the goblins were soon enough decimated. As the weakest species among the goblinoids, they were not particularly powerful because even regular people could beat them.


Average goblins were not really that powerful, and it required the ordinary trained soldier to beat a few of them, as their physical prowess wasn't really great.


For Beyonders, the goblins were basically the easiest prey, though some of the Goblins, especially the Goblin Shamans or Chieftains of Tribes, were a match for Sequence 7 Beyonders, and sometimes they were even stronger than the Sequence 7 Beyonder, depending on the Pathway of the Beyonder.


As the last head of the goblin rolled on the ground, Valkorion swung his sword as he got rid of the blood from the sword, before he returned the sword back to the sheath.


Now that the goblins were dead, he felt that the digestion rate of his Warrior Potion was speeding up a little bit, which was to be expected as it was the result of the last fight, as that was the best Acting Method for the Warrior.


After every goblin was dead, he started going through the things that the goblins were attempting to transport because seeing nine goblins carrying something was rather a rare sight.


Unfortunately for Valkorion, most of the things that goblins were carrying were just trash, some random things that they picked up after the battle, most probably after they ambushed some travelers or unlucky adventurers.


On the bright side, he managed to gather something around two hundred Golden Dragons from the bags and some pieces of jewelry, several rings, necklaces, and armbands that could be sold for a nice sum of money.


It was very well known that the goblins were famous for collecting shiny things, even though they were more often unaware of the real value of the things that they were collecting. After he went through the goblin loot, another thing were the corpses of the golbins.


As the Extraordinary Creatures, several parts of their bodies were rather valuable, enough to fetch him several tens of Golden Dragon Coins from one corpse. The most valuable body parts was the heart, ears and eyes.


As he was butchering through the corpses of the goblins, he was mildly disappointed that there was no Extraordinary Core, but that was to be expected, as this goblin group consisted of rather young and weak goblins, so none of them would have something like Extraordinary Core.


When everything was finished, he put all of the things into the bags that he prepared for the Beyodner Ingredients and also put away all the valuables. Noticing the amount of loot that he gained from this trip into the Painted Mountain, it was time to return back to the nearest town and cash out the resources.


***


Cartharys was a city located down to the Painted Mountains and served as the first line of defense against the goblinoids living in the Painted Mountains or the Dorthraki Khalasars that attempted to attack the Freehold in case of their madness.


It was more of a fortress than of a city, and the population was just in a few tens of thousands; most of them were just soldiers of the Freehold Army, adventures, and, of course, many, many slaves that were living in the Cartharys.


Often shipped directly from the cities of Astapor, Mereen or Yunkai of the Slaver Bay.


It looked like a typical Valyrian City; most of the buildings were in the grandiose architectural style with plenty of reminiscent of the Dragons. Of course, the most notable feature was the fabled Black Walls made with the Valyrian techniques, which were considered unpenetrable and indestructible...


As he approached the gates of the fortress city, he was stopped by the guards that were clad in the Valyrian Steel Armor from toe to head, as they were elite members of the Freehold Legions.


When he gave them his adventurer card that served as verification of his identity, they let him pass. It was rather interesting because the Valyrian Freehold was rather advanced, much more than the nations of the known world that he remembered from the books of the ASOIAF.


***


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[Trafford]

In terms of appearance, Valkorion was rather standing out among the other Valyrians because of his ashen-white hair compared to the silver, golden, or platinum of the pure-blooded Valyrians.

But most importantly, he had molten golden-colored eyes, which were rather unusual among the Valyrians because all of the pure-blooded Valyrians had purple-colored eyes. Valkorion new that he wasn't a pure-blooded Valyrian, but rather a hybrid between the Valyrian and something else.

Apparently, his mother was from a different continent and wasn't native to Valyria, less saying about her more unfortunate status as a foreigner, which was something that the Valyrians were not really fond of.

The members of the Dragonlord Families and Lord Freeholders especially looked down on anyone who wasn't pure-blooded Valyrian. Even among the average Valyrian nobility that were not part of the 40 Dragonlord Families, this sentiment was rather standart.

Due to that, he was often looked down on by more strict Valyrian Nobles and members of the 40 Dragonlord Families, but he didn't really care much about such things. Not to mention, he was aware that in a few years, everyone would be dead, and he would still live.

As he returned back to the Catharys, he felt some sense of ease because this was a place where he had been living for the past 18 years, and it was his home. The streets were full of people, everyone was doing something, and most of the people that were living in the Catharys were just ordinary commoners.

For the nobility of the Freehold, this place was too far from the Capital, Valyria, and it wasn't worth it for them to live there. Aside from a few that were basically stationed here, mostly several Dragon Riders that were tasked with the protection of the borders and threats of the Painted Mountains.

He knew that the Catharys was the official hold of the House Belaerys, which was one of the top houses of the Valyrian Freehold. Even though, officially, all Families of the Dragonlord Families were equal to each other, there were some that were more "equal" than others.

Of course, the Triarch of the Valyrian Freehold were on the top of the food chain, even among the Dragonlord Families, and the House Belaerys was one of the Triarchs for several centuries, probably more than one millennia, and yet, they still maintained their status and strength for one thousand years.

Valkorion also knew that they were one of the true Angel Families of the Valyrian Freehold that had Angel watching over them, which was giving them special status, as not many of the 40 Dragonlord Families had Angel among them.

Most of them had just Saint, and some weaker, or those at the end of the tail, had just Sequence 3 Beyonder maximally.

Tenebraenys Family wasn't the strongest out of the Families, but from what Valkorion managed to gather, it had he found out that the Tenebraenys was a rather respected and powerful Family, with several Dragon Riders under their commands, and there were rumors that the Patriarch was close to advancing to the Angelhood.

In the Valyrian Freehold, where the knowledge of the Beyodners and Extraordinary Powers was rather common and public, it wasn't that hard to find such information.

So, it was rather bugging him how it could fall overnight.

Nevertheless, he quickly banished all negative thoughts as he advanced toward the branch of the Adventurer Guild to submit the mission that he had completed. He managed to annihilate several tens of goblins and sell the resources.

The building of the Adventurer Guild was in the middle of the Catharys, and because the Catharys wasn't really a big city, Valkorion quickly arrived at the Adventurer Guild. Contrary to other buildings in the city, it looked rather modest, yet still made from the finest stone and materials that could be found across the Freehold.

In the first place, there were not many people present, as most of the Adventurers were completing missions in the Painted Mountains, resting after missions, or just laying dead somewhere after being killed by some Extraordinary Creatures or other adventurers.

"Good morning, My Lord. How can the Adventurer Guild assist you today?"

The woman behind the counter asked as he looked at the mark on her face, signaling that she was a slave, branded by one of the slave circles that operated within the Freehold and sold slaves.

"Redeem reward for the hunt of the Goblins and selling some of the Extraordinary Materials."

After he stated his request, he started pulling out the things that he had gathered from the goblins; most of the ingredients were nicely preserved. After a quick count from the receptionist, he was given around a hundred Golden Dragon Coins for the ingredients and mission reward.

It wasn't a lot, but it was still a nice amount of money for some lowly goblins and Extraordinary Ingredients from their corpses. After collecting the money, another stop in his journey was the marker, where he wanted to sell the jewelry that he had obtained.

That was the truly valuable thing.

Contrary to the previous quiet and silent adventurer guild, this was an entirely different world.

The marketplace was set within the cobblestone streets of a southern Catharys district, surrounded by stone and timber buildings, their thatched roofs and wooden beams casting long shadows as the sun reached its zenith.

Stalls and booths lined the streets, each manned by a wide array of vendors, ranging from Valyrians, Ghiscari, Nobles, and Commoners alike; some people from the far Golden Empire of Yi Ti and Valkorion saw there even a few people who seemed to be Beyonders from the Asshai.

The air was filled with the melodic sounds of minstrels playing lutes and flutes, the clinking of metal as blacksmiths displayed their wares, and the boisterous calls of merchants hawking their goods.

Colorful banners and canopies hang above the stalls, fluttering in the gentle breeze. The smell of freshly baked bread, roasting meats, and exotic spices wafts through the air, mingling with the earthy scent of straw and the occasional whiff of incense from a nearby apothecary's tent.

The market offered a cornucopia of goods: handcrafted jewelry, finely wrought weapons, enchanted trinkets, and rare magical ingredients. Farmers were selling their products, from bushels of apples and sacks of grain to baskets of vibrant vegetables and fragrant herbs.

He ignored most of the stalls and people, heading towards one particular store that was in a small building, where he was selling most of his more precious loot or things that he obtained from his adventuring.

It was managed by the Clan Ferros, one of the mercantile clans of the Valyrian Freehold.

They were a rather peculiar bunch of people.

Clan Ferros was one of the oldest Mercantile Clans in the entire Essos, as well as one of the most powerful.

They were not really nobles of the Valyrian Freehold, in fact, but they were richer than most of the Valyrian Nobles, and their power was not weaker than some of the Dragonlord Families that were ranked at the bottom of the Dragonlord Families.

Even in the world of the Beyonders, money was a very strong motivator for most.


***


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[Trafford]

Clan Ferros traced their history back to the Rhoynish Wars between the Valyrian Freehold and Rhyonar. The Rhoynish Wars were a series of wars fought between the city-states of the Rhoynar and colonies of the Valyrian Freehold.


Rhoyne was rather a powerful nation that worshipped Mother Goddess, and there were plenty of powerful Beyonders within the country. As the Valyrian Freehold was expanding its influence, only the Rhoyne had the power to confront the mighty Valyrian Freehold head-on.


In the end, not even their power was enough to overcome the might of the Valyrian Freehold, but they were able to do some serious damage to the Freehold.


During one of the last battles between the two foes, which lasted for entire centuries, Prince Garin of Chroyane gathered support from several Orthodox and Secret Organizations to combat the Valyrians, their Dragons, Armies and Beyonders.


Prince Garin himself was fabled to be one of the most powerful Angels of that age and was able to kill one of the members of the Triarchy of the Freehold; it was his ultimate end, as he was able to take one of their greatest foes with them.


In the end, Rhoyne was defeated, the Temple of Mother Goddess crumbled apart, some of the Valyrian scholars and Maesters of the Maester Order speculated that the loss of the Rhoyne was due to the fall of the Mother Goddess.


In response, Princess Nymeria, the ruler of Ny Sar, quickly led her people out of Essos using whatever ships and barges they could find. The story of their flight became known as The Ten Thousand Ships. Their refugee fleet wandered the lands of the Summer Sea for many years before eventually arriving in Dorne, the desert land in southern Westeros.


In Westeros, they eventually merged with another powerful Beyonder Family, creating what was now known as House Nymeros Martell. Which, on a side note, is ruling the Kingdom of Dorne to this day.


"Oh, Sir Nerona, welcome back again."


When he entered the store owned by the Clan Ferros, he was greeted by a man who looked to be in his thirties. He had short black hair and a mustache, wearing round glasses and very luxurious clothing that was putting to shame even some of the most extravagant Valyrian nobles.


His surname, Nerona, was left by his mother because he couldn't really use the surname of his father for several reasons, not like he really wished to even. Not to mention, it was far safer to use the surname of his mother, as she was unknown to all but him.


"You can drop the act, Albus; we are not in one of your gallas or under the watch of your cousin..."


Valkorion said as the man sighed a bit, looking visibly more relaxed than previously.


"So, what have you brought to little me this time? I hope something precious..."


Albus Ferros was one of the direct descendants of the Clan Ferros and was a rather high-ranked member.


Contrary to others in his generation, he decided to take control of the family business in the border region, which was mainly dealing with Extraordinary Ingredients, Sealed Artifacts, and other things from dangerous zones such as the Painted Mountains.


He had been staying in the Catharys for the past year or so because of the incoming overpopulation of the goblinoids in the Painted Mountains, which was a very precious business opportunity for the Clan Ferros.


"Some pieces of jewelry from the goblins."


He then put everything on the table, and Albus Ferros started inspecting the pieces of jewelry. Valkorion could swear that he saw imaginary signs of money in his eyes.


"Interesting... this little thing here is made from Imperial Gold, a rather very rare Extraordinary Metal, a very precious. Where the hell could have a bunch of goblins, find such a precious armband is really beyond me..."


Valkorion was just observing how Albus Ferros was gushing over the pieces of jewelry that he found from the goblins while he himself was now thinking about where the goblins obtained such a thing.


While he wasn't the most educated person around in this new world, he still knew that the Imperial Gold was a very precious material. There were only a few veins of the Imperial Gold in the known world; one of them was controlled by the House Lannister of the Westerlands, and they guarded it with strong jealousy.


And some could be said about the mine that was located in the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, so it wasn't really easy to obtain even a kilogram of the Imperial Gold without paying a ridiculous price for the material.


"I am quite certain that we can auction it, and it should fetch minimally several thousand Golden Dragon Coins, or perhaps that if you have another requirement, we can put them forward instead of money."


Hearing what the high-ranking member of the Clan Ferros said, he was intrigued by this because this could be a good opportunity to obtain the Beyonder Potion Recipe and Ingredients much faster than he initially anticipated.


He, himself, didn't have much connection, but if it was auctioned by the Clan Ferros, it would attract many powerful individuals who were wealthy and powerful enough to provide the things that he needed.


"It would be good to obtain the Beyonder Potion Recipe for the Sequence 6 Beast Tamer of the Warrior Pathway, together with the complete set of ingredients. If we put such a request, how many Gold Dragon Coins would it fetch?"


As he pondered over the matter, he asked Albus Ferros, who finished the examination of all things that Valkorion brought to the shop.


"Hmm... generally speaking, Potion Recipe for Sequence 6 Beyonder Potion is worth around a thousand or so Golden Dragon Coins, yet this piece of work has a monetary worth of something between 5,000 Golden Dragon Coins to 6,500 Golden Dragon Coins..."


That was indeed a lot, a lot more than he expected, so right now, Valkorion was stunned when he heard the number.


"If we obtain the Potion Recipe and one set of Ingredients, then it would still be around 4,500 Golden Dragon Coins, minus 10% of the value of the Golden Dragon Coins as a fee for our services; that would be leaving you with the approximate number of 4,000 Golden Dragon Coins. Still, the final sum would depend on the result of the auction; for that, I would like to auction this in the Capital of Mother Valyria; I am quite certain that this piece of art would attract the attention of some wealthy Dragonlords."


That was certainly a lot of money, especially for someone like him, who wasn't really very rich and every single piece of coin, he needed to earn with his sweat and blood.


"Then do it that way. And what of the rest of the things?"


Valkorion agreed to the proposal of Albus Ferros, and they then went over the rest of the jewelry; though there wasn't much, most of the things were ordinary, and their collective value was something around 500 Golden Dragon Coins.


Still, even that was a tremendous sum of money for common people and even to some lesser nobles, but for the Beyonders, especially powerful ones, it was just a small amount.


***


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[Trafford]

"So, what are you going to do now?"

Albus Ferros asked when they finished the business, as the two of them had already been acquainted for some time.

"Going to rest for some time before returning to the Painted Mountains again... with the incoming overpopulation of the goblinoids, it is a good opportunity for the adventurers to make some money."

Unfortunately for Valkorion, even though he was something that was generally called a "transmigrator", he wasn't some kind of educated person in his past life. He was just an ordinary lawyer and Professor of History of Law and also had a doctorate in Politology.

If he was an engineer or something like that, he would be already dabbling in creating some things from his past life or so, but unfortunately enough, he didn't have enough practical or theoretical knowledge to do something like that.

However, he was keeping an eye on some skilled people because he could provide something that was almost equally valuable... ideas.

"Understandable... though lately there have been rumors of some powerful Dothraki Khal united several Khalasars, and some say that they would be attacking either the Freehold or the Slaver's Bay en masse."

Hearing what Albus said, Valkorion didn't really know what to think about it because it was weird. Dotharki were known as the scourge of Essos; even though they were very primitive, they had numbers and were rather powerful warriors on their own.

Not to mention, they had a rather large number of Beyonders, so even for the Valyrians, they needed to take them rather seriously if a powerful Khal emerged among them. Only due to the Dragons, were they able to keep the Dothraki from attacking them every other day.

"Didn't they learn anything from the past already?"

As someone who was born and lived in the Freehold, Valkorion greatly looked down on the horse lords due to how primitive they were... even though the Valyrians were not the most advanced civilization compared to the 21st-century earth, Dothraki were just plain barbarians.

"Ha, by the Dragon Gods, who knows what is going in their heads aside from riding across the plains. Still, they have become more bold and from what I heard, they even started attacking caravans of the Clan Ferros."

Now, that would be considered a serious problem because normally, Dothraki were not attacking the caravans that belonged to the prominent families in the Valyrian Freehold, be it that of the Dragonlord Families, some Valyrian Nobles or several of the most powerful Mercantile Clans.

As someone who was rather skilled in understanding politics and how things worked, he understood that there was something that forced the Dothraki to change their habits, and that wasn't good news.

They were coards when it came to the Freehold, as they feared Dragon fire more than anything else.

"You fearing that they would be able to bypass the Painted Mountains and attack the Catharys directly?"

Catharys wasn't far from the Mereen itself, so it wasn't really impossible for the Dothraki to bypass the Painted Mountains and attack the Catharys directly.

"There is certainly that possibility, in the end, this city is one of the most prosperous fortress cities in the Freehold. I don't doubt that if they could plunder it, they would obtain sizeable riches, especially when it came to the Beyonder side of things."

Indeed, that was a thing that sacking cities such as Yunkai or Mereen were severely lacking.

If they sacked some of the cities in the Slaver's Bay, they would be able to obtain enormous amounts of gold and slaves, perhaps some Sealed Artifacts and some things, but that's all...

If they sacked some cities like Catharys, their gains would be much bigger.

"I don't think that the House Belaerys would allow something like that..."

Valkorion voiced his thoughts and saw Albus Ferros agreeing with the sentiment.

There was no way that the House Belaerys would allow something to happen to the Catharys; it was one of their most prized possession, so Valkorion didn't doubt that at first sight of trouble, there would station several Dragon Riders and powerful Beyonders to protect the city.

"Yeah..."

After they exchanged some small talk and after that, Valkorion decided to return home. As he was walking him, he couldn't really shake off the bad feeling because, as someone who had meta-knowledge, he knew that such a big move as this was most probably an Advancement Ritual for the Dothraki Khal...

And it wasn't as simple as that...

***

Residential Area of the Catharys

Within the Residential Area of the Catharys, there was a rather nice, medieval-looking villa behind huge walls. It wasn't overly big, but it wasn't very small, one could safely say that it was rather big for one person living there.

In fact, it was one of the secret properties of the House Tenebraenys, and it was also the place where the servants of his father brought him, when they espaced with him from the capital Valyria when he was still a babe.

He was brought up by a few remaining loyal servants of the Tenebraenys, but from them, one of them was one of the butlers who died a few years ago, and the rest were some soldiers, but they perished even before the butler died.

They worked as adventures and got killed in the Painted Mountains as they were not Beyonders or anything, just ordinary slave soldiers.

Unfortunately for Valkorion, the one who brought him from Valyria to Catharys, wasn't really a high-ranking servant of the Hosue Tenebraenys, so they didn't bring with them almost any wealth...

From there on, he was living in the house alone.

On the bright side of things, as this was supposed to serve as one of the secret places for the members of the House Tenebraenys, it was given top-notch protection and there were even a few defensive spells that were laid by Saints of several Beyonder Pathways.

That was something that Valkorion learned from the old butler who was taking care of him until he died. It was basically a safe place; he didn't really need to fear that someone would break in or anything.

Even then, such things were beyond rare in the Valyrian cities.

He had to admit that real crime was very rare in the core Valyrian cities and fortress cities such as Catharys. If this was his past world, one wouldn't be able to really stroll through the city during the night and act like nothing was happening.

His house was rather cozy; for the past several years, he had been buying some pieces of furniture and so on; thus, the interior of the house looked rather nice. And because he was paranoid as fuck, he didn't have any servants in his house.

He was thinking of buying some slaves, but he would need to buy those who were marked with Beyonders to make them absolutely loyal to their master.

Valkorion wasn't betting on the mundane methods of training, but the slaves that had some Spells placed on them to ensure their absolute loyalty were sometimes even ten times pricier than those without.

***

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[Freee2442]

Watched. Really liking this concept, even tho i'm not the most knowledgeable about ASOIAF, i know a lot about LOTM so i really hope you do it's power system Justice.

 

[Trafford]

Watched. Really liking this concept, even tho i'm not the most knowledgeable about ASOIAF, i know a lot about LOTM so i really hope you do it's power system Justice.

Click to shrink...

It won't be same power system for the sake of convenience, nor the Pathways will be same as in LOTM, most of them are oc adjusted to fit the setting of the ASOIAF / GoT world and there would be some slight differences in rules of the Pathways and advancing in some cases...

 

[Freee2442]

Oh that's even better, i can wait to see how you're going to develop It.

 

[Trafford]

Oh that's even better, i can wait to see how you're going to develop It.

Click to shrink...

It would be weird to use exactly the same Pahtways as in the LOTM... for that, I shortened the number of Sequences to 7 (because it is an even more magical number than 9 in some cultures and myths) and created new ones. Though some Sequence 0 would have same name as their counterparts in LOTM, but their abilities would wary...

Also, the Non-Standart Pathways that are based on the Outer Gods in my fics would be based on the Lovecraftian Mythos...

 

[Trafford]

The master bedroom was a luxurious, probably the most luxurious place within the entire mansion that was left by the House Tenebraenys, with a massive, canopied bed draped in rich, velvety fabrics of deep reds, purples, and golds.

The bedposts were carved with intricate patterns of vines and Extraordinary and Mythical Creatures. Heavy curtains matching the bed's colors could be drawn across the tall, narrow windows to block out the light.

A large fireplace, surrounded by comfortable chairs, provided warmth. A wardrobe, ornately carved from dark wood, stands against one wall, its doors inlaid with scenes of knights and dragons.

The floor is covered with thick, plush rugs, and the walls are adorned with portraits of long-dead ancestors, their eyes seeming to follow you as you move about the room.

When he arrived at the master bedroom, which was the place where he was keeping some of his valuables, he started putting them down to the chest. Right now, his current wealth was something around 1,500 Golden Dragon Coins, which was rather a lot.

Such a sum of money was considerable for even members of the Valyrian Nobility, obviously not for the members of the Dragonlord Families or some of the Mercantile Clans. Still, Valkorion was rather satisfied with the current progress.

For someone at his level, this was rather a good start; he was already thinking that after obtaining the money from selling the armband made from the Imperial Gold, he would invest in some slaves and perhaps create a small Mercenary Group.

He wanted to create only a few of them; perhaps it would be best thing would be to make some of them Beyonders if they proved themselves and were absolutely loyal. This would then allow him to gather more and more resources and money and to prepare for the inevitable Doom of the Valyria.

Though for now, he had enough money to buy a few slaves, perhaps a few with the absolute loyalty marks placed on them, which could be turned into the Beyonders and then a whole bunch of the ordinary slaves that would act as the base of the Mercenary Organization.

Slave Marks for Beyonders were more tricky, because for the Mark to work properly, one always needed to be stronger than the slave. For example, if someone wanted to enslave Sequence 7 Beyonder, he needed to be at least Sequence 6...

Though from what Valkorion heard from some of the people that he knew who were selling slaves, it didn't work for the High Sequence Beyonders, and depending on the Pathway of the slave, even some Mid Sequences would have some problems.

Even though Valkorion was originally from a very advanced society where slavery in such a form didn't exist for several centuries because he had lived in this world for seventeen years or so, he had already gotten used to it.

"Whatever... for now, I need to rest; after some time, I will return back to the Painted Mountains; based on what Albus said, it is nigh impossible that the goblins obtained an Imperial Gold armband from some traveler. Nobody would be stupid enough to carry something that valuable through such a place, so the only logical conclusion is that they must have found it somewhere."

Valkorion clearly remembered the location where he encountered the goblins, so he decided to return there and then started searching from that place forward. If he was lucky, then he would be able to find the place where the goblins obtained the pieces of jewelry and treasures.

The most probable scenario was that the goblins found some grave or some treasure...

***

In the next morning, he started the day exactly the same way, as the first thing that he was doing was training with the sword. Part of it was due to the Acting Method of the Sequence 7 Warrior, and another reason was that he rather liked training in swordsmanship and martial arts.

The feeling of getting stronger was rather intoxicating and very, very addicting.

Especially for someone like him, who lived in a relatively peaceful world previously, where such things were rare and violence was looked down on. People were living in the delusions of human equality and other bullshit that were plaguing the society of man of 21st Century Earth.

The very moment he remembered it very well...

It was something that he couldn't really forget for his entire life.

And when he stepped into the Extraordinary Pathway of the Beyonder, that power he felt, the might, the felling... everything was so addicting.

That was the moment he realized that he was addicted to the feeling of obtaining power of any kind, especially the real power belonging to a single individual who could destroy anything in front of him with his powers.

One could could destroy entire cities if they were angered.

That was something that he always desired.

Power to decide who would live and who would die, the power to decide what was wrong and what was good, the power to decide the fate itself.

The blazing fire in his eyes couldn't be hidden, as his golden eyes glowed a little when he was training and felt the intoxicating feeling when he noticed that his sword stances were getting better and more refined under the visible eye.

In the Valyria, Asshai, and Golden Empire of Yi Ti, they were classified as mastery over some weapon or martial arts in several grades, depending on the mastery over the weapon or martial art.

Valkorion learned that he was rather talented in this aspect because even before he became Beyonder, he was already a Journeyman in the aspect of swordsmanship because he was very skilled in the way of the sword.

After becoming a Beyonder of the Warrior Pathway, it didn't take him long to reach Adept Mastery over the swordsmanship, stepping into the realms of the really skilled swordsmen.

Most of the people when it came to fighting with weapons or martial arts, were ranging from the ranks of Novice to Journeyman. Novices were basically people who only started practicing; their movements were clumsy, and their styles were not really good.

After them, there were Apprentices, those were already people who mastered some basics and knew how to fight so embarrassingly.

After them, there was the Journeyman Rank, which basically stood for anyone who had complete mastery over the basics of some weapon art or martial arts and started developing their very own style.

The rank where he was now was normally titled Adept, meaning that he already had some resemblance of his own fighting style that he had some skills in. Adepts were already powerful warrior in the aspect of mastery over their weapon or martial arts.

He spent most of his free time training, fighting, and once again training.

Valkorion didn't know how strong he was without his Beyonder Powers, but he was sure that if there were no Beyonder Powers, then in the aspect of swordsmanship, he wouldn't lose even against the descendants of the 40 Dragonlord Families.

***

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[Trafford]

He was using every opportunity to train in Swordsmanship, as it was speeding up the Acting Method for the Warrior tremendously, and with the current tempo, he predicted that within a few months, it would be fully digested.

Valkorion was aware that being in the Valyria, was a prime opportunity to gather strength before the Doom and destruction of the one of the few Extraordinary Civilizations in the known world.

Aside from training, he also spent a lot of time studying because knowledge was power, and this was also a good opportunity to learn about how the world worked and how things were here.

Learning for him was almost equally enjoyable, like training with the sword because, surprisingly, you're not, but this mansion that he practically inherited from the Tenebraenys Family was brimming with an enormous library.

From there one he was able to learn much about the state of the world, about the Beyonders, the history of the world, various Orthodox Churches and Secret Organizations of Beyonders that existed within the world.

For example, within Westeros, there were several Orthodox Churches reigning, be it the Church of the Seven Gods that was prominent within the Kingdoms of Reach, Riverlands and Vale, or the Church of the Storms that was prominent within the Kingdom of Stormlands.

Church of the Drowned God in the Iron Islands or Parthenon worshipped the Old Gods that ruled the Kingdom of North and also had some influence within the Beyond the Wall. Aside from these, there was a bunch of Secret Organizations running here and there in the Westeros.

Essos was more complicated because there were more faiths, and nobody could tell if the various cults were worshipping actual Gods or just some extraordinarily powerful Beyonder or so...

Nobody could tell as the number was too high.

Either way, Valkorion then returned back to the library after he finished the training season in the Juyo Sword Style.

The mansion's library was a quiet, solemn room filled with towering bookshelves that stretched to the ceiling, packed with ancient tomes and scrolls. Because this was one of the places that should have served as a sanctuary for the direct descendants of the Tenebraenys Family, the library was huge and packed with a lot of books and precious things.

A large, ornately carved desk was stationed in the center, covered with parchment, quills, and an assortment of decorations.

The air smelled of old parchment, leather, and a faint hint of incense. Rich, dark wood paneling covered the walls, and thick, embroidered rugs made from the best silk covered the floor, muffling footsteps. A few deep armchairs are scattered around, perfect for long, contemplative reading sessions by the fire.

This was one of the places within the mansion where Valkorion was spending most of his time; if he was, to be honest, then it was placed where he was spending most of the time, because he was even often sleeping in this place if he fell asleep during the time when he was reading.

Unfortunately for him, even though this place contained a tremendous amount of knowledge, there were not many pieces about the deeper secrets of the world of the Beyonders or anything like that.

Such things were too precious to be put down in a place like this causally, so Valkorion predicted that they must have been locked in the main residence of the House Tenebraenys within the capital Valyria.

And that one was already robbed by other people.

Still, he was rather content with what he had because even this was better than nothing, and he could obtain a decent education just by going through these books. To become an accomplished Beyonder, one didn't need only raw power but also the corresponding knowledge about the world and its deeper mysteries.

Right now, he was in the library and searching for the mentions about the Painted Mountains within the library. Fortunately enough, he would be able to find something about the Painted Mountains that could help him locate the place where the goblins had found the armband made from Imperial Gold.

Unfortunately, even after a few hours of searching, he didn't find much, aside from the mentions of some Tomb located within the Painted Mountains, or rather it were the rumors of the Tomb, but nothing concrete.

That was already a good start; he was able to get the approximate location of it, and surprisingly or not, it wasn't that far from the place where he encountered the goblins. With that being found, he decided that he needed to return to the Painted Mountains as soon as possible to explore the thing.

According to the books, there should be some treasures in there, hopefully it would be true and not just some baseless rumors.

***

Next Day, between Fortress City Cartharys and Painted Mountains

Immediately on the morning of the next day, Valkorion left for the Painted Mountains, and because the Cartharys were just a few kilometers away from one of the main entrances to the Painted Mountains, he was rather quick to arrive at the place.

In one of the entrances that he was using right now to enter the dammed mountain range, he noticed that this time, he wasn't probably hunting alone within this part of the Painted Mountains, because he found the corpses of several tens of goblins, each one of them was killed instantly with arrow to the head.

'Ashe...'

Within the Cartharys, there were not that many of the powerful adventurers that would be dwelling in the Painted Mountains on a daily basis. There was only one adventurer in the Cartharys who was such a fearsome and skilled archer to be able to dispatch several goblins within a few moments with a bow.

Ashe, the Frost Archer, as they called her.

He was rather acquainted with her because they were one of the few adventurers who were frequently going into the Painted Mountains. Another thing that they had in common was the fact that Ashe wasn't Valyrian but a foreigner, and Valkorion was the only Valyrian from the half.

After checking on the killed goblins, he continued deeper into the Painted Mountains for some time, until he encountered another group of killed goblins in exactly identical fashion like the previous ones.

It wasn't long until he saw the familiar figure of Asha, who was standing several tens of meters away from him, around several tens of corpses of goblins that were lying on the earth, every single one of them being killed by a single arrow.

She was a slender, pale-skinned woman with blue eyes and long white hair. As usual, she also wore light, elegant robes with a distinct palette of black, dark blue, and gold. In her right hand, she was holding an ornamental-looking bow, which was her main weapon.

As he entered the area, she was able to notice him as she looked in his way, with her bow ready and arrow prepared to be fired when things devolved into a fight.

When she realized that it was Valkorion, she relaxed a bit, but not immediately, as they were staring at each other for some time.

"Are you following me, Nerona?"

She asked skeptically with her usual stoic facade, not changing her stance as she continued staring at him because it was still possible that he was here to kill her for something. It wasn't really unheard of adventurers acting as assassins or something, especially for the more unscrupulous ones that were not close to taking assassination requests.

Or for those who were just greedy for the possessions of the other adventurers.

***

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[Trafford]

"You are thinking too much of yourself, Ashe... or you are becoming increasingly paranoid in these past years adventuring in the Painted Mountains..."

Valkorion said as she then put down the bow and arrow she was aiming at him, a clear signal that there wouldn't be a fight between them. That was the last thing that he wanted because he knew that Ashe was rather strong.

Not only was she extremely skilled with the bow and arrow, but he knew that she was also a powerful Beyonder, probably in Sequence 6 if he had to guess, but he wasn't aware of her Pathway.

"Ts... these days are becoming dangerous, and lately, there has been an increased rate of disappeared adventurers in the Painted Mountains, not only due to the monsters dwelling in this place."

He immediately knew what she was talking about because it seemed that there were some people fishing on the adventurers. It wasn't that much of a surprise because with the increasing activity of the monsters in the Painted Mountains when monsters were practically everywhere, some people wanted to take advantage of that.

In the end, Beyonder Characteristics were selling too well, and the potential belongings of some adventures were rather decent and tempting for many people.

They often said that the thing one needed to be most cautious of when hunting for the monsters in such regions were not the Extraordinary Creatures themselves but rather the other adventurers, cultists, and other questionable individuals that were lurking in the shadows.

It reminded Valkorion Chinese saying, "Mantis stalking cicada, unaware of Oriole behind"... it was perfect to describe the regions like the Painted Mountains.

"So... how have you been?"

His attempts to start the conversation with the cold archer had been awkward, but Ashe and Valkorion knew each other for some time already, so he knew that any talk with her was rather hard.

She was a silent person, usually keeping to herself with a strong distrust of other people, which was logical. Valkorion wasn't stupid to trust adventurers because, in his view, they were people without much honor or loyalty.

"Still using this small talk?"

Ashe looked at the Valkorion who was approaching her as she took out her dagger and started cutting out several parts from the killed goblins for their parts. Like Valkorion, she spent most of her time in the Painted Mountains, and among the adventurers of the Cartharys, she was the one with the highest kill rate.

"It's called having manners, Ashe... but whatever... are you going deeper or remaining in the outskirts?"

Outskirts of the Painted Mountains was the area of the Painted Mountains where most of the weaker adventurers were usually going because only those ones who were Beyonders dared to enter the inner areas of the Painted Mountains to try their luck, but even for them, it could easily spell their doom.

"Deeper."

She said just one word as Valkorion patiently waited until she finished her work on the goblins and put away several parts of the goblins into her backpack.

"Are you coming too?"

Ashe then looked at Valkorion, who nodded in agreement. They already ventured several times into the inner area of the Painted Mountains together, because often it was dangerous to go alone to such a hazardous place...

"Searching for something concrete?"

Valkorion knew that Ashe wouldn't go into the inner areas of the Painted Mountains if there was no need for such a thing.

She was very smart, and when the rumors of the overpopulation of the goblinoids started circulating in the entire region of Cartharys, she was one of the few who stopped venturing into the inner areas.

Even though she was strong, Ashe was aware of her limits and knew that even the strongest could be put down with sheer numbers. Though that rule didn't apply to the most powerful Beyonders, for the Low Sequence Beyonders and Mid Sequence Beyonders, it stood out as a severe warning.

"Ingredient, deep in the mountains... we can go together to Green Peak, and from there, each of us will go a separate way."

Hearing her words, Valkorion didn't have much problem with this as this was a good agreement. Green Peak was rather far from here, and from there, he would need to walk another few hours until he arrived at the place where the Tomb he was searching for was supposedly lay.

"Then we have agreement."

If he could, then he also wouldn't have ventured into this place alone because it carried too high risk, and he wasn't keen on dying once again. But he needed to advance to Sequence 6 and gather more wealth for his plans.

So, in the end, he needed to undertake the risks because the time was ticking.

When Ashe completed what she wanted, they started walking to their target, which was the Green Peak. One of the notable points in the Painted Mountains, because it was considered an entrance to the true inner regions of the Painted Mountains.

It was swarming there with goblins and hobgoblins, thus the name of the Green Peak. Aside from that, Valkorion remembered that around a hundred years ago, it was the place where one of the last Goblin Kings rallied his forces against the Valyria and attempted to raid the lands below.

Only to be slayed by the Valyrian Beyonders, his armies were turned to ash by the Valyrian dragons, which turned the entire region into a scorching inferno of flames, which was burning even several days after the battle.

***

Painted Mountains, several hours later

"Stop..."

They were walking for several hours straingth, climbing some rocks and walking through narrow pathways between the mountains, when Ashe stopped out of nowhere when she looked at the ground.

"What is it?"

He knew that she wouldn't stop without a reason. During that time, they were talking, but mostly about the monsters and Extraordinary Creatures of the Painted Mountains and their weaknesses.

"There are footsteps here... not of goblins; these are bigger and more robust. Judging by their size and shape, they should belong to the Bugbears, several tens of whom are rather fresh."

Bugbears resembled hairy, feral goblins standing around 2.1 meters tall. They took their name from their noses and claws, which were similar to those of bears. Their claws were often not long and sharp enough to be used as weapons, so Bugbears usually armored and armed themselves with a variety of purloined gear, which was ordinarily second-rate and in poor repair.

Still, they were excellent scavengers, and they often found really good pieces of weapons or armor if they were lucky.

For the more powerful Bugbears, they were even more dangerous than the ordinary ones, because their claws became much stronger and sharper, and in a moment of surprise, they could use them to stab their opponents. Not to mention, they were physically rather strong, far stronger than goblins, and they were also a bit smarter.

Bugbears, like other goblinoids, had a reputation for being dim-witted and brutish. This claim was not unfounded, and like their kin, bugbears had easily provoked tempers and were prone to rages.

When Bugbear entered the enraged state, he was several times stronger than usual, and they cared only for the death of their foes, not even caring about their very own well-being or state, often fighting to death even at the price of grievous injuries that they sustained or death itself.

***

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[Trafford]

"So we have probably an entire group of Bugbears somewhere around here... this could be problematic."

Valkorion muttered because Bugbears were not really his favorite type of enemy, as they were smarter and stronger than goblins, probably around the level of the Hobgoblins.

Especially when the Bugbears were far more numerous and better armed than goblins and hobgoblins. Bugbears were more problematic to fight than goblins and even more than hobgoblins because they were more ferocious and brutal.

They were also better armed than goblins, that was for sure, and their combat instincts were far superior to them as well. That was another thing that was making them even more dangerous, so Valkorion was typically varied about the Bugbears, especially when they were in a large group.

"We need to deal with them; taking a detour would take us several days to reach the Green Peak..."

Ashe muttered as she finished studying the traces of the Bugbear's feet on the ground because everything had completed itself right now. If they decided to take the detour, it would take them several days to reach the Green Peak.

So, they were right now standing in front of a dilemma if they should take the detour or to continue and potentially fight a whole bunch of Bugbears to death.

Neither of the two possibilities sounded really pleasant for Valkorion, not to mention there was also the possibility of being attacked when they were taking a detour to reach the Green Peak.

"How many of them are there? Can you take a guess based on the footsteps?"

Valkorion looked at Ashe, who nodded. She stood up, scrutinizing the area for further traces of the Bugbears. Seeing this, Valkorion suspected that she could probably be on the Hunter Pathway or Ranger Pathway because he was acquainted with the Beyonders on these Pathways and knew some of their general abilities.

Though the sole thing that he was aware of were the names of the lowest Sequneces, so that was all. For sure, Ashe was someone who was at Sequence 6; perhaps she was already preparing to advance to Sequence 5 and become Mid Sequence Beyonder; based on the aura she was giving him, he could tell that she was more powerful than he was.

A perk of the Valyrian Heritage of the Tenebraenys Family, as he inherited some sort of passive danger sense or whatever, which basically allowed him to tell when he was in danger or if his foe or any other person was more powerful than he was.

It was an inherent ability that had saved his life several times already; without it, he would be one of the countless unnamed corpses decaying somewhere in the Painted Mountains.

Valkorion knew that when powerful Beyonder had children, they could pass some of their abilities down to their lineage. When it came to the Valyrians, especially to the Dragonlord Families, it was even more powerful due to the bond that the Dragon Lords had with their Dragons, as they had some of the Dragon Blood in their veins.

Due to that, descendants of the Dragonlord Families were more powerful than the average people, even if they were not Beyonders. They may even exclude some particular traits, like resistance to Fire, inherent ability to control Fire, or very strong affinity for some Beyonder Pathway.

Unfortunately for the young mixed-blood, he knew that this Tenebraenys Lineage was dormant and wasn't awakened, or else he would have obtained something better than just passive danger sense, which, in his opinion, was actually a very overpowered ability, in fact.

"Something between fifteen to eighteen."

She immediately answered; for her to tell how many enemies there were based on the footsets was the easiest thing to do. That was a relatively high number of Bugbears, but it was still manageable if there were two of them and if the Bugbears were not particularly strong either.

Valkorion knew that Sequence 7 and Sequence 6 Extraordinary Creatures were rare in these parts of the Painted Mountains, as most of them resided exclusively in the inner areas of the Painted Mopuantisn.

The same could be said about the Bugbears that reached Sequnece 7 or Sequnece 6; the chance that they would encounter one of those here was very small; practically speaking, it was nearing zero.

"Those are indeed manageable numbers... so how shall we do it?"

He asked Ashe as they decided to fight against the Bugbears. Valkorion knew that such a fight could speed up the Acting Method of digesting the Warrior Potion, and he could have obtained some loot from the Bugbears.

If it was a bigger group of the Bugbears, then it was for sure that they would have some nice things in their possession.

"Follow after them and wait until they rest; with my sharpshooting, I can take the ones that would seem to be leaders of the group even before they realize that something is going on and get them to a manageable number, during which you will attack and keep them occupied, preferably killing some along the way."

Valkorion didn't have much problem with Ashe's proposition for the elimination of the Bugbears because it was a good one. Their strongest card was their element of surprise, and Ashe, being probably the best archer in the entire Catharys, should be able to kill the leaders among the group of Bugbears during the ambush.

Afterward, he would attack the disorganized Bugbears, and together, they would finish them off one by one.

Thus, after coming to an agreement, they followed the footsteps of the Bugbears until they arrived at something that looked like a small plateau in the mountains. It wasn't particularly large, but it was surrounded by huge rocks, making it very hard to bypass, and it was still large enough to provide accommodation to a few tens of people.

Thus, it was logical for the Bugbears to stop there as they were working on the crude tents or whatever they were using to sleep.

Both Ashe and Valkorion knew that they needed to have the perfect place to attack the Bugbears; thus, they started searching for the position from which Ashe could have a good view of the Bugbears that were building there their tents.

It didn't take long for Ashe to find the appropriate place, after which, Valkorion left here there and went to the tight pathway that served as one of the entrances to the small plateau where the Bugbears were building their tents or whatever.

Meanwhile, Valkorion was going there, with his hand on the handle of the sword; Ashe was scrutinizing the Bugbears as she was searching for the ones that she suspected to be one of the commanding Bugbears.

Bugbears, like the rest of the goblinoids, were very primitive, especially in the aspect of their society and how they did things. Essentially, the stronger the individual was, the more authority one would have.

This authority would typically come with the military power over the members of the Tribe.

Bugbears that were in charge of the other Bugbears were rather easily distinguishable because they typically had more weapons, better weapons, and a complete set of armor.

Not to mention, they were also typically bigger and stronger.

Soon enough, Ashe found three Bugbears that were sold in far better armors than the rest of the group, not to mention one of them had even a complete set of armor covering his whole body.

She redied her bow and prepared the bluish arrow for what was to come.

***

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[Trafford]

Meanwhile, Ashe was preparing for the assassinations of the Bugbears, and Valkorion was waiting for the opportunity to strike down below, on one of the paths that were leading to the plateau where the Bugbears were constructing their tens and accommodations.

As he looked at himself, he seriously contemplated buying some new armor and a sword because even though his leather armor was made from the skin of Extraordinary Creature, namely from the hide of Sequence 7 Violet Mountain Bear, it wasn't as powerful as it seemed.

And his sword was even in the worse condition; preferably, he wanted to buy both armor and sword made from Valyrian Steel, but even though this was the Valyrian Freehold, one couldn't just buy Valyrian Steel out of nowhere.

The Council put a ban on selling Valyrian Steel freely, be it weapons, arms, other objects, or even ordinary Valyrian Steel Ingots. It was rather hard to buy it, even though, Valkorion knew that he could most probably afford it, as the Valyrian Steel wasn't actually that pricy.

Prices were running in the thousands for the swords, depending on the size, though the most important factor was the blacksmith who was making the weapon. If it was a weapon made by a powerful Beyonder Blacksmith and made with the flames of older and more powerful Dragons, then the price would be even in the tens of thousands.

Still, the most problematic thing when it came to buying anything made from the Valyrian Steel, especially weapons and armors, was to have permission to buy such thing.

Lords Freeholders that were creating together the High Council of the Freehold were forbidding selling the Valyrian Steel outside of the Dragonlord Families, Aristocratic Families, Freehold Legions, and some other exceptions such as the Church of the Dragon God or some other Beyonder Organizations.

That was because Valyrian Steel was a very powerful material, and weapons made from Valyrian Steel could be countered only by some other Valyrian Steel weapons or weapons made from different Extraordinary Materials.

Valkorion obviously couldn't buy such a thing freely because he couldn't even use the name of the Tenebraenys Family; that would be rather foolish to risk his life for a weapon, so he could only wait for the opportunity.

Right now, his best bet would be to find something in the Painted Mountains or through the connections of the Clan Ferros.

'Still... if this continues, I would need to look for a new weapon. From what I heard, Mid Sequence Beyonders couldn't use normal weapons anymore, as their power would destroy them at a very fast rate...'

He pondered over the matter as he then saw a bullish-looking arrow fly through the air, directly aiming at the plateau where the Bugbears were camped, which was his signal for the actions.

Several seconds later, he heard roars from the camp of the Bugbears, when several of their members were killed by Ashe. Immediately afterward, Valkorion gripped his sword and rushed towards the Bugbears, who were right now in a state of panic as their leaders were killed by assassination.

For a few moments, they tried to find the shooter of the arrows, though, unfortunately for them, they couldn't pinpoint the location of the archer. Thus, the sole thing that they could do was to leave the plateau so they wouldn't be so vulnerable.

The physical strength of the Bugbear was something that wasn't to be underestimated as he approached the encampment of the Bugbears with a sword in his hand. As the digestion of the Warrior Potion was speeding up, his physical strength was also being increased, and now, he knew that he could leave around eight hundred kilograms.

According to his calculations, his physical strength would hit the limit when the potion was completely digested, around one ton, which was a tremendous amount. That won't be less than many extraordinary Creatures living in the Painted Mountains.

Fortunately for him right now, even though his sword wasn't made from any Extraordinary Material, due to the superior smithing methods of the Valyrian Freehold, it was still capable of serving him well, even though the situation wasn't ideal.

Just a few seconds was everything that was needed until he arrived at the end of the narrow pathway and appeared on the plateau, which was completely covered by the Bugbear's shabby tens and other things as they were building here...

He also saw the Bugbears that were panicking right now because another one of them went down, lowering their overall number to approximately twelve or so. It was rather hard to tell because it was possible that some of them were hiding in their tens and preparing to ambush the invaders.

In the end, Bugbears could be pretty cunning if they wished.

Valkorion readied his sword and looked at the nearest Bugbear. The goblinoid noticed him as well and raised the enormous cub that he was wielding. He rushed at the human wielding a sword and observed the goblinoids.

He just stood there, unmoving and observing the Bugbear that was rushing at him, scoffing internally seeing his shabby movements, as Valkorion just moves to the right and with a single swing of his sword, he slit the throat of the Bugbear.

'Too aggressive... or maybe scared from the assassin in the form of Ashe, overall rather disappointed, but corresponding to the common style of the goblinoids.'

Bugbears or Hobgoblins were not particularly skilled in the area of combat, and they rather relied on their physical superiority, brute strength, or sometimes in combination with numbers to crush their foes.

It was their most common strategy and the first thing that they would do during the fight. That was also the reason why most of the Bugbears were carrying those unreasonable large weapons that they could not even properly use.

In the end, it corresponded to their physical strength, and with the cub, they could squash their enemies like a bug. When Valkorion saw the cub that the recently deceased Bugbear was holding, he knew that even many Low Sequcne Beyonders would not be able to effectively wield such a weapon.

Immediately, there were three other Bugbears rushing at Valkorion when they noticed an invader in their encampment. All of them were wearing ramshackled armors and armed with oversized weapons that were rather impractical for real combat.

Most of their weapons were rusty and in heavy need of maintenance... or they just dropped them to the furnace and smelt them into something new because they looked ripe for the garbage bin.

Valkorion immediately got into the combat stance of the Juyo, the 1st Stance, and in a flash, appeared in front of the three Bubbears that immediately swung their weapons towards him, as he dodged and flipped beneath one of them as he stabbed his sword into the stomach of one of them.

"One down, two to go..."

He muttered, turning his attention to the other two Bugbears, who immediately attacked Valkorion when they noticed that one of their compatriots was killed.

Meanwhile, Valkorion attacked the Bugbears and attracted their attention; Ashe killed another one of the Bugbears who attempted to take command of the other Bugbears.

That would certainly complicate the matters for Valkorion, who was fighting the Bugbears at their camp.

***

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[Trafford]

When he was using the Juyo Sword Stances, it was rather easy to deal with the Bugbears because they were not really particularly skilled in any weapon. They were terrible fighters, truth to be told, and could barely hold their own against him when they were fighting him one-on-one.

Even when he was surrounded by several Bugbears, Valkorion didn't really have problems dealing with them. He danced around the Bugbears with grace and speed, attacking with deadly precision as he swung his blade and severed the head of one of the Bugbears that wasn't paying attention for a brief moment.

That was all that he needed to kill his enemies.

When he disposed of the two Bugbears and turned them into cold corpses laying on the earth, staining the colors of the place with their blood that was flowing from the severed head of one and the slitted throat of another.

When he disposed of the two Bugbears, he entered the core of the encampment, where the remaining Bugbears were panicking because most of them were being killed easily under the arrows of Ashe.

She indeed proved that she was a fearsome sharpshooter as she was killing one Bugbear after another. Which made Valkorion grin because he needed to speed up; obviously, he couldn't lose against the Ashe when it came to the kill rate.

Seeing that Ashe was leading, he rushed to the nearest of the Bugbears that was in the tent as he still marveled at the superhuman speed that he got from becoming Sequence 7 Warrior Beyonder.

He ran faster than any of the Bugbears, and because the goblinoids were as clumsy as they were stupid, it was rather easy to dodge their rather uncoordinated attacks. Valkorion was trained in the art of war, fighting, and swordsmanship from a very young age.

That was still when the mansion where he was living wasn't empty with just him. Training with the former Legionaries of the Valyrian Legion taught him a lot, and he amassed the standard training of the Lockstep Legions and even that of the Elite Legions like Unsullied.

One could say that he was a very elite and effective combatant who focused on efficiency above everything else. It was also the reason why he held particular distaste for the Knights of Westeros or Andalos; when he saw them fighting, he was rather disappointed.

Most of their movements were just for show and many of them didn't even fight to kill, but fought just to fight. Rather foolish, in his opinion, if someone could deliver a fatal blow and chose not for whatever reasons.

Not to mention, most of them lived in some delusion of chivalry that in fights, there were rules that cost many of them their very own lives. Especially here in the Essos, where there is only a single rule.

Kill or be killed.

Many of the Westerosi Kngiths would end in the Essos, mostly because their Lords lost in war, lost their titles or went bankrupt. Or perhaps even the knights themselves went bankrupt or whatever reasons brought them to Westeros.

Still, Valkorion also had some who were dangerous killers and were not like the rest of the Summer Knights, as Essosi or those North of the Westeros called mockingly. Those Knights, especially those who were Beyonders, were highly sought by the Dragonlord Families as retainers and bodyguards.

"ROOOAAAR!"

Just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow to one of the Bugbears that was kicked on the ground by him, he heard a loud roar that clearly belonged to the Bugbear. However, it was more powerful than the ordinary roar as it had most probably some spiritual properties because it felt a little weird.

Still, the roar didn't have much effect on his person, but on the other Bugbears, it had, as all of them suddenly stopped running, hiding, or trying to surround Valkorion and just stood there, looking in the direction of the roar.

When Valkorion looked there, he saw there a Bugbear.

But this one was vastly different from the rest of his breed.

It was much larger than other Bugbears, towering over Valkorion with a height of around 3 and a half meters; it looked much stronger, judging by the bubbling muscles. The Bugbear also had longer claws that were sharp as steel, and sharp teeth could be seen from his mouth.

It was clear that this was Sequence 7 Extraordinary Creature.

Even Ashe would have problems killing it with her archery because the Bugbear was unnaturally strong, and she lacked direct offensive power. When the Bugbears advanced to Sequence 7, they became bigger, much stronger, more powerful and durable, and even had a certain degree of regeneration.

Overall, they were much harder to deal with.

'Not only Sequence 7, but also mutated one... Dragon Gods above, the Extraordinary Core of this thing would be priceless if it also possesses the characteristic of the Mutation. I would strike the killing with this...'

Valkorion thought as he raised his hand and signaled towards the enormous Bugbear, who was clad in steel armor, holding a huge steel cub, and also armed with an enormous shield that was bigger than his entire person.

'It seems that someone is very well prepared for a fight...'

The signal that he made was for Ashe, that he wanted to take the Bugbear for by himself, as the remaining ones were running towards the source of the arrows that were killing their compatriots.

Valkorion stabbed his sword into the heart of the goblinoid that was crawling under his feat for his very own life, as he then turned his undivided attention to the Bugbear in front of him.

"Valyrian, human weak... kill you... feast flesh."

He was rather surprised hearing the High Valyrian from the mouth of the Bugbear. It was rather common knowledge that the goblinoids didn't speak any other languages than their native ones, as they were not bright enough to learn one.

This was rather a bad omen because it seemed that this Bugbear was smart enough to learn the basics of the High Valyrian; even though it seemed to be broken as an old toy, it was still a sign for him not to underestimate the intelligence of his opponent.

One of the reasons why the Valyrian Freehold had a rather easy time dealing with the goblinoids of the Painted Mountains was that they were not the smartest ones around, and due to that, it was easier to defeat them.

As Valkorion observed the hulking Bugbear, his heart started beating faster and faster in anticipation of a good fight because he would finally have the opportunity to go all out and use all of his abilities in signal combat against a worthy foe.

This was rather a rare occasion, especially when the rewards from the fight seemed so much appealing...

He was confident in Ashe handling the rest of the Bugbears because he took five of them alone after he entered the camp, and the rest would be entering her territory that was seeded with traps and ambushes.

He already saw several arrows that were heading for two Bugbears; Ashe indeed worked really fast because the moment she realized that the Bugbears were coming for her, she immediately fired two arrows in short succession that claimed the lives of two Bugbears as they pierced their skulls with zero resistance.

***

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[Trafford]

"That dammed fool..."

Ashe muttered under her breath as she observed her pseudo-companion deciding to fight the mutated Sequence 7 Bugbear in single combat. This was probably the worst decision that that idiot could make.

Even from the distance, she could see that the Bugbear was powerful as heck, and even though she was standing at the Sequence 6 of the Ranger Pathway, she wouldn't really dare to fight the mutated Bugbear in a single combat head-on.

It was clear that the monster had some really powerful abilities, and its physical strength was strong enough to crush all the Bugbears into absolute submission. She didn't know what was going on in the head of Valkorion, but nevertheless, it wasn't her problem.

In the worst scenario, he would get killed by the Sequence 7 Bugbear during the duel, and she could use the opportunity to slip by and escape from the place.

Still, it was a rather interesting event to watch because while Sequence 7 goblinoid wasn't particularly rare in the Painted Mountains, the ones that underwent some kind of mutation were, indeed, very, very rare.

Ashe encountered only a few such monsters during her journey, and she confronted only one of them, a mutated Sequence 6 Gnoll. Even that was only out of absolute necessity when she didn't have any other option and was forced to fight the Gnoll to death.

In the end, she was rather lucky in that aspect, as she managed to take the Sequence 6 mutated gnoll with a combination of traps and her Beyonder powers, or else, the monster would have for sure killed her.

Right now, she put another arrow into the bow, pulled the bowstring, and took aim at the head of one of the Bugbears that were running to her position. She knew that these Bugbears wouldn't dare to interrupt the duel between Valkorion and their leader, as that would spell their doom.

If their leader decided to fight the human in a single combat, it was his sacred right, and any kind of interruption was punishable by death. This was some sort of tradition and also a needed thing in the goblinoid societies and also the societies of similar monster species.

Mostly because it served as a way to showcase the strength of the leader to their subjects, through various duels and combat against powerful foes, the leaders would show their power to the entire group to affirm their position as the leader.

'Ts, always creating trouble... If he gets at a disadvantage, I will try to help him...'

Ashe thought as she observed the Bugbears rushing towards her position, though most probably, they would just start looking for her, as she was currently hiding on the very high tree that was one of the few in the entire area.

Trees were a rarity within the Painted Mountains, as most of the Painted Moutnaisn was without much flora. And what plans and trees were growing in the Painted Mountains were as dangerous as the animals, beasts, and monsters living within the Mountain Range.

'Time to lay down some traps...'

Ashe then climbed down from the tree where she was hiding; she started laying down various traps as she predicted the paths that the Bugbears would take. As she was already Sequence 6 Slayer, she was rather apt at laying traps.

Slayer needed enemies to slay, it was rather wide definition of the word, as the sole thing that she needed was to slay her enemies in any way possible. Since she started as Sequence 7 Ranger, she learned everything about living in the forest, hunting, tracking, trapping, and so on.

It also helped a lot that she was from a place where her people's main source of food and income was hunting for dangerous animals, beasts, monsters, and other Extraordinary Creatures during the harsh winters, as the climate wasn't really the best.

Ashe was very fast in preparing some makeshift traps that she had already pre-prepared during the time when she was still in the Catharys. It was not like she wasn't apt to fight her foes in close combat; she preferred to dispose of them in other ways.

As hunter foremost, she would rather lower their number or cause them as many injuries as possible, afterward, picking them one by one. They would fall either by her bow or by her daggers, as they were eager for the blood of some Bugbears.

She was rather fast, faster than the wind, as she finished all the traps and placed them in the way of the Bugbears before she chose to hide from the sight of any enemies. Her daggers were sharp, and with her superior eyesight, she could clearly see the Bugbears approaching the place.

One of the abilities that she obtained by becoming Slayer, with each enemy that she slayed personally, she was able to give more power to the next attack. If the enemy was slain by her by using cold weapons, she could use their blood to heal herself and recover part of her stamina and endurance.

If she mastered this ability, she could even speed up her healing rate a bit.

"ROOOAAAR!"

By the roars of the Bugbear she was hearing even here, it was clear that the fight between the Sequence 7 Bugbear and Valkorion had started.

During that time...

It was time for her to do her part as well.

***

On the plateau, one could see a silver-haired human with golden eyes clad in leather armor with metal pieces dodging the attacks from the enormous hulking mass of muscles and power in the form of a huge Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear.

This was a vastly different fight from the previous ones because this one was more skilled and more powerful than other goblinoids. It reminded him of the time when he encountered a few lone Orcs in the Painted Mountains and fought against them.

Valkorion was somewhat surprised by the outcome, as the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was stronger and more skilled than he anticipated. He could handle the enormous metal cub very well and even combined it with the shield.

Even when Valkorion was using the Juyo to its limits, it was rather complicated to fight against the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear effectively. Still, he was enjoying himself a lot; the fight against truly powerful foes was something that he desperately needed.

It allowed him to let loose, use everything that he had in his arsenal, and also make another advance in his mastery over the sword, and speed up the digestion of the Beyonder Potion due to the progress of the Acting Method of Warrior.

Still, for him right now, the most valuable thing was the mental ease and pleasure that this fight brought to him. Since the death of the last guards of the mansion of the House Tenebraenys, he didn't have any Beyonder opponent to spar against.

And because he refused outright to participate in the Gladiatoral Arenas and Fighting Pits, as such things were too dangerous for him right now, he lacked powerful opponents that could use their heads and push him to new heights.

This was something that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear certainly achieved, as Valkorion almost crashed into a rock because there was no place to dodge, as he was almost in the corner due to the series of ferocious attacks of his opponent.

***

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[Trafford]

Just twenty minutes or so, and he was already becoming a bit tired from the entire fight, as the exchanges between him and the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear were becoming more and more intense.

'The power of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear is nothing to scoff at. His endurance and stamina are staggering; he should be able to tire out even many combat-oriented Sequence 6 Beyonders, and his power is far higher than mine own... If he is able to land even a single hit on me, it would be the end of me...'

Valkorion thought as he dodged another attempted hit with the cub of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear as the monster was becoming more and more enraged when he wasn't able to land even a solid hit on his opponent.

Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was powerful, but Valkorion managed to observe that, like the rest of the goblinoid species, his skills were almost non-existent. There was no technique to the weapon that the monster was holding, and he was just using his brutish strength to kill his enemies.

This allowed him to systematically adjust to the battle until Valkorion was literarily dancing around his opponent, making the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear more and more enraged with each passed second when he wasn't able to hit his opponent.

The Bugbears were famous for being short-tempered, even among the other goblinoid species like really, really short-tempered, and they were easily angered. It was almost as easy as breathing, and the common sense about the goblinoids said that the more angry they were, the more prone they were to stupid decisions.

However, Valkorion had to admit that this wasn't only applicable to the Bugbears but probably to all sentient species. On the human race, it was also especially true because this was Valkorion's favorite technique when he was fighting humans or other highly intelligent species.

If possible, he would always rile up his opponents and then use their emotions against them because that was the greatest weapon that he was wielding. Still, towards this particular Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, it seemed that attaining Sequence 7 didn't really help it to remain calm under provocations.

'It seems that Ashe already finished the remaining ones... though I still win, this Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear is worth more than the entire group of Bugbears multiplied several times over and over.'

Valkorion thought as he flipped backward and hacked with his sword in front of him, aiming at an almost minuscule vacant spot between the armor pieces of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear as he pierced his lower stomach.

Nothing severe or fatal, that was for sure, but it was a good and deep his, judging by the amount of blood that was leaving the wound. Unfortunately, as Sequence 7 Beyonder of the Warrior Pathway, he didn't really have any powerful offensive abilities, not like many Pathways had them, in fact...

With just Physical Enhancement and Combat Proficiency, he was already a force to be reckoned with, even though the Combat Proficiency was a very tricky ability of the Warrior Pathway.

Let's say...

If someone's innate talent in combat or some weapon was below average or poor, when he became Beyodner of the Warrior Pathway, this talent would be enhanced but not that much, most probably bringing it on the level of the average person and any future advancements in this Pathway would be very hard.

But if someone's talent was one in a century or one in millennia, then his talent after obtaining Combat Proficiency would be something that could be described only as heaven-defying and worthy of legends...

Valkorion was deeply aware that his talent in the combat was something that was one of his most valuable assets, if it could be even called that, though he suspected, that this was maybe the legendary "Gold Finger" or "Cheat" of the transmigrators.

He had to admit that in a world where people were fighting each other all the time and waging war, even for the smallest disputes, it was rather a valuable talent. Not to mention, for the Beyonder, it was also a great advantage because knowing how to use his powers in the most efficient way to kill his enemies was always a great thing to have.

After the fight continued, Valkorion could see that the wound was becoming more and more of a hindrance to the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, as the creature tried to fight at its full force, but because the wound was rather deep, it was affecting it even more than Valkorion predicted initially.

Meanwhile, the member of the fallen Valyrian Dragonlord House was still continuing his strategy of tiring the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear out and inflicting minor wounds on him, as he didn't want to be caught in its rage zone.

He knew that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was dangerous, and the moment he let his guard down and decided to finish the monster, it would use some of its most powerful abilities in an attempt to kill him.

Thus, he wanted to get the creature as tired and inured as possible so he would have a much easier time killing it when the time was right. Obviously, this strategy was rather lengthy, but Valkorion was patient, and he hated risking something, so he always took the safest possible alternative.

Unfortunately for him, this time, the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was much smarter than Valkorion considered it to be, and after some time, the Bugbear saw through the folly and realized that the human in front of him was attempting to tire him out in some kind of trap and foul play.

Thus, the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear stopped playing by the rules and suddenly stopped fighting as he stood in the middle of the plateau, and in almost an instant, some kind of invisible pressure erupted from the monster's body.

Immediately, the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear's body started glowing larger, its injuries started healing at a visible rate, and he even stopped bleeding. Now, it was clear to Valkorion that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear activated some sort of ability that he should have obtained when he reached Sequence 7.

He could see that the situation wasn't really good, as the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear started going all out; mostly probably, he managed to see through his plan to tire him out as much as possible before killing him.

'Oh fuck... why I had to have this kind of bad luck...'

Valkorion didn't know whom he had offended for his bad luck to be transmigrated together with him into this world. It was really worse that in this kind of situation, the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear managed to see through his plan and started fighting all out.

What was even worse, the dammed creature had some sort of active ability that allowed him most probably to increase his power for a short period of time. This would be rather problematic to deal with; considering the healing rate that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was showing right now, he needed to change the strategy.

He couldn't afford to strike the dammed creature in a non-vital place, but he would need to start targeting the Bugbear's vital places like his head, neck, or heart. Essentially, anywhere where he could kill the Bugbear almost instantly.

***

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[Heavenly Mark]

Oh this is very interesting. I was never interested in the lotm novel hopefully you can explain it better for me too read it again.

 

[Trafford]

Oh this is very interesting. I was never interested in the lotm novel hopefully you can explain it better for me too read it again.

Click to shrink...

All of my fanfics are written in a way that you don't need to read the novel or original material that the fanfic is based on.

 

[Trafford]

Created extra Tiers just for this novel...


Astral Mysteries - Tier I


Acess to 5 chapters ahead of regular release.


.


Astral Mysteries - Tier II


Access to 10 chapters ahead of regular release.


.


Astral Mysteries - Tier III


Access to 30 chapters ahead of regular release.

 

[Trafford]

Soon enough, the transformation ended, and the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear roared at Valkorion before he stomped on the ground and rushed at him after throwing the shield at him.

Valkorion swiftly dodged the flying shield, which was rather hard because the thing was massive; if he had to guess, then it was specifically made either for the needs of the Bugbears or any similar monster of the same size as the Bugbear.

Or it belonged to someone who had the same size as the Bugbear, most probably someone with Giant Lineage in their veins. However, that would be even more confusing because Valkorion was aware that there were some families with peculiar Bloodlines, like Giants, only in the North of Westeros.

Still, that would be a rather far-fetched theory for now, at least.

'Damm, he is also getting faster aside from getting much stronger.'

The sole thing that Valkorion could do right now was to keep dodging, one swing after another. The Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was holding the enormous metal cub with both of his hands and using his entire physical power.

It was rather fearsome, as the mutual cub collided with a nearby rock as the entire enormous rock, which was around four meters tall, shattered into hundreds of pieces, which made even Valkorion stare at the result with an almost dumbfounded expression.

Even before, the physical power of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was nothing to scoff at, but now, after the sudden transformation, its power was at entirely new heights, and Valkorion couldn't even attempt to have a single exchange with the goblinoids if he didn't wish to be turned into meat paste.

So, he still continued with the previous strategy as he kept dodging and searching for the opportunity to attack.

'Iron-clad rule of the Beoynders and Extraordinary Creatures, the more powerful active ability it is, the bigger backslash and short time of duration.'

That was something that Valkorion had learned, though there always existed some exceptions from this rule, that was mainly for the High Sequence Beyonders, not small fryes like him.

Aside from the fact, that he seriously doubted that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear would have some miraculous ability that could do something that even Demigods couldn't do easily, more often they couldn't than they could.

'Chance...'

Valkorion muttered as he dodged another swing of the monstrous metal cub, that almost took his head if he was hit by it. During this swing, he noticed that there was a small area where the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear wasn't protected, and fortunately for Valkorion, it was on his neck.

Once again, he dodged backward as the enraged Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear continued attempting to hit him, even more enraged than previously because he was using all of his power, but it couldn't kill the weak human in front of him.

For Sequence 7, Mutated Bugbear, it was absolutely infuriating, and Valkorion could see the saliva dripping from his mouth, as the Bugbear was roaring at him in anger and rage, as he once swung his cup in hopes of smashing him down.

Unforptuenly for the Bugbear, Valkorion performed a beautiful Juyo Flip, appeared several centers next to the Bugbear, and stabbed his sword into the neck of the hulking creature, though this time, he was using a lot of power to force the sword to pierce the throat of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear.

The skin of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was very durable and thick, and because Valkorion was using an ordinary weapon that wasn't made from any Extraordinary Materials or whatever, the sole thing that Valkorion could depend on in this situation was just brute physical strength.

Just as he was pushing the sword deeper into the creature's threat, blood spluttering on his entire face, he found himself flying through the air, as he was kicked by the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear into his stomach, sending him crashing into rocks.

As he crashed into the nearby rocks, he felt pain stronger than anything he had felt before and even some of his bones breaking. It was rather hard to ignore when he could feel that several of his ribs were cracked due to the kick and subsequent impact, and his head was hurting like hell.

Though he was in rather rough shape, he could see that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was in a much worse state, with his sword still stabbed in his threat with a heavy wound as the creature could hardly move effectively.

Still, because the sword was stuck there, it was also one thing that prevented even worse consequences for the Bugbears, such as bleeding out entirely. Though the combat prowess of both of them got heavily lowered, the Bugbear had the upper hand because, overall, Valkorion was in a much worse state.

And he was without his weapon, too...

That wasn't a positive vision, for sure.

Valkorion stood up while he coughed out a good amount of blood from his injuries and put his left hand on the place where his cracked ribs were located as he looked down at his injuries for a bit.

Nevertheless, he needed to fight till the end because first, he wanted to best the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear and claim his prize, and another thing he just didn't want to depend on Ashe to save his ass.

Though he was sure that the Frost Archer was right now in some high place, observing everything that was happening down here. In fact, he only predicted that she would try to help him or... or not.

Nobody could really tell; most of the adventurers were not particularly dependent on people around, and most were rather untrustworthy when someone asked them. It was not like it was something schokcing, but in the end, adventurers were people who risked their lives or money.

Similarly to the mercenaries and sellswords or some hedge knights, and like they said, there was no honor among the thieves. As Valkorion stood up, he put his left leg behind and outstretched his right leg in a battle stance.

Since he was young, he also practiced Martial Arts so he could fight unarmed, even against much stronger and more powerful opponents. Like many in the Valyria, he was learning Hakuda, a Martial Art that was brought by the foreigners from the Golden Empire of Yi Ti to the Valyrian Freehold several centuries ago.

Because Valyrian Freehold was the Extraordinary Capital of the world, there was a lot of contact with different civilizations and nations, even from far, far away. There were a lot of Beyonders from the distant shores of Westeros, the Shadowlands of Asshai or from the prosperous Golden Empire of Yi Ti.

Hakuda was a very powerful combat style that revolved around using only one's physical body in direct combat and nothing else. There were several aspects to the Hakuda as well, like using the force of the opponent against him or focusing striking at the weak points on the body of a person.

Even with the Valyrian Freehold, the number of Valyrians that learned Hakuada wasn't really that big, aside from those in the Legions.

It was a rather hard and challenging Martial Art to master, so aside from Beyonders of particular Pathways or those with a lot of talent in this area, not many would bother with mastering Hakuda aside from basic self-defense.

***

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[Trafford]

For Valkorion, this was rather different because the second thing that his passive ability and Combat Proficiency enhanced after he became Beyonder of the Warrior Pathway was the Hakuda Martial Art.

Even before, it was something that he was rather proficient in because in his first life, he trained in several martial arts, and the concepts that the Hakuda was built on were similar to some of his past life.

Valkorion mobilized all the power that remained in him, as he struck toward the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear in full force, delivering a swift kick to his stomach; as immediately afterward, he punched the Mutated Bugbear into the areas where his kidney was supposed to be.

Not wasting any moment, he created distance between himself and the Mutated Bugbear, when he noticed that the creature was attempting to grab him and smash him onto the ground, as he was still wary of the physical strength of the Mutated Bugbear.

In the end, it was a monster that managed to achieve Sequence 7 and even underwent some sort of mutation, which means that if it was fighting against another Sequence 7 Bugbear, then the Mutated One would win for sure in all occasions and under all circumstances.

For the monsters, the mutation was something that happened only very rarely; most often, it happened when the monsters were advancing in the Sequences, but sometimes, they were either already born mutated or mutated randomly while not even attaining Sequence 7 and becoming true Extraordinary Creatures.

If the Mutated Extraordinary Creatures were allowed to mature, they would become really fearsome beings capable of terrorizing the entire regions or becoming the dooms of the entire nations.

Valkorion sent a kick toward the sword that was still stabbed in the neck of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, but unfortunately, the monster was faster and managed to dodge. Still, he didn't falter in his attempts, and just a moment later, he executed the same move once again, though this time, he had more success as he managed to hit the sword with a powerful kick.

Instantly, the sword moved deeper into the creature's neck as more and more blood gushed out, and the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear slowly fell onto the ground. Valkorion looked at the creature rather warily and remained at a safe distance as he planned to let the Bugbear die from bleeding out.

This time, he wasn't taking any chances with the enemy because he had some hunch that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear still had a trump card in his sleeve and that he didn't use all of his abilities during the fight.

He didn't know if it was just paranoia or something different, but he was rather cautious this time compared to the previous one, when he, technically speaking, allowed the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear to activate his ability.

After several moments, he was observing the Bugbear, and he noticed that the monster's eye color was changing. He didn't really know what was happening to the Bugbear, but he knew that the monster was activating some sort of last-resort ability.

In almost an instant, he appeared near the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear; with all of his remaining power, he drew out the sword from the neck of the creature, and with one powerful swing, he severed his head from the neck.

He didn't know the reason why he acted this fast, but he knew that it was needed, or else the Bugbear would activate some sort of troublesome ability once again.

As the head of Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear rolled down somewhere, Valkorion noticed that, unfortunately, his sword didn't survive the exchange. The weapon was cracked all around the blade, and some of the cracks were rather big; he knew that this weapon had already become a piece of scrap metal that couldn't be used anymore.

"Dammed fucking, fucking thing..."

Valkorion fell to one knee, and he coughed blood, a lot of blood; this forced him to exert a lot of power, and all of the stress on his body was something that he couldn't really handle very well due to the previous injuries that he sustained from the fight with the Bugbear.

Right now, he was feeling terrible, and this was probably the worst state that he was in since he became an adventurer. Never before had he been in such rough shape, but never before had he encountered such powerful and dangerous foes as Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear.

Yet, even though he was in bad shape, he felt an unnatural amount of satisfaction from the victory over the Bugbear and the second Extraordinary Creature that he had faced in his entire life, as previously he had mostly avoided them if possible.

Outskirts of the Painted Mountains were relatively safe for ordinary people, and there were a lot of non-Beyonders in them, especially adventurers.

Most of the adventurers that were coming to the Painted Mountains were not really Beonders; many were just former soldiers or legionaries who were searching for a way to make quick money, some were professional adventurers, and there were also a lot of sellswords who were fulfilling tasks for the rich and power in the form of searching for something concrete within the Painted Mountains.

There were a lot of occasions when Low Sequence Extraordinary Monsters were dealt with by ordinary people without any help from Beyonders.

Even this Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear could be dealt with by a well-trained squad of soldiers or Legionaries as the creature had mostly passive abilities and enhanced physical strength, endurance, and regeneration.

Basically, anything that couldn't be brought down with superior weapons and numbers.

That was it.

"It seems that you are in pretty rough condition..."

Valkorion heard the familiar voice of Ashe, who arrived at the plateau shortly after his fight with Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear ended and looked at him with a mocking gaze and half admiring that he managed to kill the creature on his own.

She herself wouldn't be able to kill it head-on without employing some traps and some of her Beyonder Abilities. Ashe knew that Valkorion was Sequence 7 Warrior and that he didn't really have some powerful Beyonder Abilities, so it was even more intriguing that he managed to beat Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear that already had several Extraordinary Aibliiteis.

Either from being Extraordinary Creuture or from the Mutation itself that the Bugbear underwent.

"Here, drink this... you would get better in no time..."

Ashe then reached into her backpack and brought up a small vial that was filled with crimson liquid. It was one of the better Healing Potion that were manufactured by the Valyrian Blood Mages.

Valyrian Freehold was famous for its Blood Magic, and there were a lot of Beyonders who dabbed in Blood Magic as they were on Pathways, which gave them a lot of abilities and skills in this regard.

Some of the most powerful Healing Potions could heal even someone who was half-dead already, but this one was rather average, albeit of a better grade than the rest that Valkorion had seen in the Catharys.

Something that certainly cost a good number of Gold Coins.

Reluctantly, he took the Healing Potion; even though he hated being in someone's debt, the best thing would be for him if it could repaired with money, not with favors; that was the most problematic thing for Valkorion.

Still, he needed to continue deeper into the Painted Mountains, and in his current state, even returning back to the Cattharays was rather a big risk. He never spent money on such things as Healing Potions because they were rather costly, and he invested in other things.

Primarily in things that could increase his power and skill.

***

On Patreon, there are already 30 chapters ahead of the current release rate...
Support me on the patreon for future releases...
Once again, subscribe to my patreon. Only thanks to the patrons will I be able to continue writing and publishing novels... I will be able to publish; you will get the advance chapters! Win-Win!
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Připoj se k serveru Trafford Novels na Discordu!

 

[Trafford]

As he drank the Healing Potion, the wounds on his body started slowly healing and regenerating.

Obviously, the Healing Potions were not any miracles, but rather, they would speed up the regeneration of the body by a few degrees so that even severe wounds could be healed in a matter of days and even hours in some cases.

It was a good sign that after several minutes, his internal bleeding stopped, and he could move more normally. Valkorion could also feel that the pressure on his ribcage was now lower, and he could also breathe air more easily than before, which was another good sign.

He was rather lucky that Ashe had some Healing Potions with her, and he was given one of them, which allowed him to heal from the most severe injuries. With this, he predicted that he would be fully healed in a few hours.

Until then, Valkorion decided to remain in the former Bugbear encampment as he would wait to completely heal before venturing deeper into the Painted Mouantisn, just as a good form of precaution.

He didn't wish to go right away because he could still encounter some powerful monsters, and when injured, it would be rather problematic.

If such a thing happened, then his efforts to saly the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear would all be in vain, as he would most probably join the endless number of corpses buried in the Painted Mountains.

"Thanks for the potion... I will give you money for it when we meet in Catharys..."

Valkorion stated as he sat down on the ground and rested for a moment.

Meanwhile, Ashe was already searching for useful things from the massacred Bugbears. As most of the Bugbears were killed by her, she immediately started the dissection of the bugbears that fell to her bow and arrow.

It was rather easy to differentiate them, as all of them were hit by her arrows, and only a few of them died due to the sword that was killed by Valkorion. Now that he thought about it, he would also need a new weapon for the time being. Hopefully, he would find something among the things that the bugbears collected.

Right now, he only had one dagger with him and one small knife, but that wasn't enough if he wanted to delve deeper into the Painted Mountains. Not to mention, without a proper sword, he could use all of his abilities and swordsmanship to its full extent.

Bugbears, like other goblinoid species, were collectors, and they collected everything from the people they had killed. She was rather fast in this and was dissecting one bugbear after another while Valkorion observed her nimble and fast movements.

'It must be something related to her Beyodner Abilities, most probably Ability from Sequence 7 or Sequence 6...'

Valkorion thought as he continued resting for a bit before he took out the dagger that was strapped on his right leg and went to the corpse of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear that he had somehow slain.

He stabbed the dagger into the skin of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, more precisely in the area where the heart of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was supposed to be, and started creating a cut there.

It went very hard due to how thick and durable the skin of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was, but as he pushed and pushed, Valkorion managed to create a large enough line for his hand to pass.

Afrweares, the already saw the heart of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear. The heart was also one of the precious Extraordinary Ingredients, so he carefully cut the heart out and put it into the small container that he prepared for it, that he had in his backpack.

'It's a shame that nobody is willing to sell Storage Bags or anything like that...'

Storage Sealed Artifacts were items that had pocket dimensions tied to them, and some could store a lot of things, depending on their size. They were also pretty rare because, to make even one, there were a lot of things needed.

For example, it needed to be made by Beyonder of the ability to make the Artifact, and he also needed to have Extraordinary Ingredients from an Extraordinary Creature that had abilities related to the concept of space or so...

If Valkorion had something like that, then it would be much easier transporting loot from the Painted Mountains back to the Catharys. Still, he made a mental note to ask Albus if the Clan Ferros didn't have any or if they could perhaps introduce him to Beyonder, who could make such a thing.

It would greatly help him and ease his work.

After he stored away the heart of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, beneath the heart, there was the thing that he wanted the most, and that was far more valuable than anything that he had obtained till now.

A small brown crystal that was bigger than the ordinary Extraordinary Core of Sequence 7 Extraordinary Creature. It was about twice as big as the average one, and it also released some kind of energy that was rather uncomfortable for Valkorion.

At the same time, he also noticed that the shape of the Extraordinary Core of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was rather weird because normally it was in the shape of a small ball or something, but this thing was in shape resembling a miniature bugbear if he was to be honest.

Most probably due to the mutation that the Bugbear underwent, all of the characteristics of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear were engraved on the Extraordinary Core. This would cost most probably around 10,000 Golden Dragon Coins.

For such a prize, one could buy Beyonder Potion Formulas and Ingredients as well in two sets from Sequence 7 up to Sequence 6, which would cost a few thousand Golden Dragon coins.

Normally, the price for the Sequence 7 Beyonder Characteristic in the Valyrian Freehold was around 700 Golden Dragon Coins, the same price for the Extraordinary Core of the monsters, as they worked in the same way as the Beyonder Characteristic when it came to Beyonder.

Especially if the Extraordinary Core of Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was swallowed by another bugbear or different monster, it would become Sequence 7 Mutated Monster or perhaps even greatly speed up its advancement to Sequence 6.

Still, even though the average price was 700 Golden Coins when it came to the mutation, the price could easily be ten times more. The Mutated Extraordinary Cores were much more valuable and stronger, not to mention they were coveted by scholars of the entire world to study.

The prices were, of course, different based on the region of the world. From what Valkorion heard from Albus, even Sequence 7 Beyonder Characteristics could be sold for twice or thrice in Westeros than in Essos.

Mainly due to the collective ban on the Beyonder Goods by the Churches and organizations of the Westeros that were strictly controlling the number of Beyonders in the Westeros as Gods were especially active there and had some sort of mutual understanding between them.

But Valkorion suspected that it was mainly out of fear towards true Extraordinary Civilizations like Valyria, Golden Empire of Yi Ti, Asshai, Strigoi, and a few places that were ruled by Beyonders.

***

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[Trafford]

I unlocked the Free Trial for the Spectator Tier once again for some time... please support me. Right now, there are only 22 paid members from the overall 122, so hopefully, it will be able to rise!

Thank you very much...

Also, soon enough, I will be changing the structure of the schedule releases to the daily release of every say something.

I have created the new Tier = Premium Novel Bundle, which consists of the novels Sigmar in WoW, Records of Magic, Dungeon Overlord, and DxD Seraph God of Destruction.

Novels like this would be released based on the results of the monthly poll conducted by the paid subscribers to the Patreon. Essentially, two novels with the highest votes would be released that month.

To this also greatly adjusted the Tiers of the already existing pledges, especially when it came to the Premium Novels, though all Tiers got increase in premium chapters of the Saga of Astral Mysteries.

Also, Song of Blood and Sunlight will, from today, have only one chapter per month as its release rate, always at the start of the month.

Also, for those who missed it, the prices for the Spectator-Tier, Reader-Tier, Prophet-Tier, Author-Tier, and Visionary-Tier were greatly lowered.

I will be uploading the chapters for the newly updated Tiers during this month.

******************

Spectator Tier

- Increased the number of premium chapters of Saga of Astral Mysteries from 2 to 5

- A Song of Blood and Sunlight and Records of Magic are no longer part of this Tier

***

Reader Tier

- Increased the number of premium chapters of Saga of Astral Mysteries from 5 to 10

- Lowered the number of premium chapters of A Song of Blood and Sunlight and Records of Magic

- Right to Vote in Polls

- Added new Benefit: Premium Novel Bundle:

* Access to 1 chapter ahead of regular release.

* Records of Magic, DxD: Seraph God of Destruction, Sigmar in WoW, Dungeon Overlord

***

Prophet Tier

- Increased the number of premium chapters of Saga of Astral Mysteries from 10 to 15

- Novel Records of Magic is no longer part of this Tier

- Right to Vote in Polls

- Added new Benefit Premium Novel Bundle:

* Access to 3 chapters ahead of regular release.

* Records of Magic, DxD: Seraph God of Destruction, Sigmar in WoW, Dungeon Overlord

***

Author Tier

- Increased the number of premium chapters of Saga of Astral Mysteries from 15 to 20

- Novel Records of Magic is no longer part of this Tier

- Right to Vote in Polls

- Added new Benefit Premium Novel Bundle:

* Access to 5 chapters ahead of regular release.

* Records of Magic, DxD: Seraph God of Destruction, Sigmar in WoW, Dungeon Overlord

***

Visionary Tier

- Increased the number of premium chapters of Saga of Astral Mysteries from 30 to 40

- Novel Records of Magic is no longer part of this Tier

- Right to Vote in Polls

- Full Acess (Everything I wrote) for the Records of Magic, DxD: Seraph God of Destruction, Sigmar in WoW, Dungeon Overlord

***

Premium Noble Bundle

- Price: 8 Euros

- Right to Vote in Polls

- Full Acess (Everything I wrote) for the Records of Magic, DxD: Seraph God of Destruction, Sigmar in WoW, Dungeon Overlord

****************************************************

Hopefully, these changes will have some positive impact on the number of paid subscribers...

Thank you very much for your support and hopefully, we would see each other on the patreon; only thanks to it am I able to write and publish.

Trafford

 

[Trafford]

"No, my dear lioness, only those who have power can decide their own fate and not become pawns in the greater game. If you want to be free, then you can only achieve it through power that frees all... If you want to become free, become Beyonder, step on the first airship that is heading from Lannisport to Noxus."

"Will I find there my happiness?"

"Yes, not immediately, but in the future, you will find your happiness in the form of 'Him'... you shall see... no Silver Princes or Royal Stags are compared to the Inheritor of Mysteries of the Astral Blood. In the lands of the Valoran, you shall find everything that you seek, be it the power, status, recognition and even the love that you seek that much. But be aware..."

"Once you leave the lion cave, you won't be able to return and when you return, you would return as someone entirely different. For something to be gained, you need to lose something in the first place."

- Recorded Prophecy of Maggy the Frog, Beyonder of ??? Pathway, Sequence ???, Westerland Province of Loen Kingdom, Recorded in 292 AC in Empire of Noxus

***

The price of the Beyonder goods was rather versatile because everything depended on the place where one was buying the Beyonder Goods. In some places, it was more pricy, and in some places, it was cheaper and biased; everything around it was relative.

After he finished the dissection of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, Valkorion went to dissect the rest of the Bugbear corpses that he personally killed, as they were his loot in the end.

Ashe was long ago done with the dissection of the Bugbear corpses way before him; she was much faster than him doing the job, something that Valkorion noted to be from her Beyonder Path or so...

Perhaps it was a combination of that and sheer skill.

"Are you going to remain here for a bit or continue towards your target?"

Valkorion asked the female archer, who was now longing through the equipment of the Bugbears, various collected weapons, and so on. Because all these things were rather numerous and rather big, it was impractical to take them with them.

Aside from the fact that these things were not particularly precious or valuable, all the weapons and armor pieces that the Bugbears collected were basically worth something around a few tens of Golden Dragon Coins.

"I will rest for some a few hours before continuing..."

She said quietly. After several moments, she passed Valkorion a new sword. It was a typical longsword made in the Valyrian Freehold, obviously not from the Valyrian Steel or any other precious metal, but it was still top-notch steel from the Valyrian Forges and should serve him for some time.

Unfortunately, this was just a temporary solution for Valkorion, as he would sooner or later need a more durable weapon to withstand his ever-growing power.

"Thanks... so, what do you want for the Healing Potion? Hopefully, nothing that is vastly above my capabilities, my dear Frost Archer."

Valkorion stated as he finished scrutinizing the weapon that Ashe passed him before he put the sword back to its sheath. Rather, an ordinary weapon, most probably taken from a deceased adventurer or soldier who was killed in this wretched place.

There were a lot of them. Unfortunately, there were no weapons made from Valyrian Steel or something equally precious like Mithril, Orichalcum, or Adamantite. Even Magisteel would be more than welcome, but Valkorion was, for the time being, content with what he had.

In the end, it was better than nothing.

"Nothing... consider it just a favor."

As she answered his question, he didn't really know what to think about it, but afterward, he just nodded his head, accepting it as a favor. He didn't really know what to think about it, because it was very unusual behavior for adventures, but he didn't have time or luxury for that.

Right now, he needed to heal as soon as possible, and thanks to the Healing Potion from Ashe, who was doing its wonders, he was confident he would be in combat-ready shape in a few hours.

And as Ashe chose to remain here, he was more confident in his speedy recovery, as she was essentially guarding him from coming to any harm. He, meanwhile, was just resting on the ground because he was tired as hell, and everything was hurting too much for him to do anything...

As he was being healed, he often took a sneak peek at what Ashe was doing, but she was mostly sharpening her blades or preparing her arrows and checking that she had everything prepared for the further journey.

He was too sharpening the sword that he got from the bunch of things that the Bugbears completed because, unfortunately, to his dismay, the sword was blunt. It wasn't even a bit sharp, so it needed to be sharpened during the time when he was resting and healing.

Soon enough, a few hours had passed since he slayed the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, and during those few hours, he was already in a very good condition. The Healing Potion was indeed a small miracle of the Valyrian Freehold and its mystery over the Blood Magic.

In the end, it was a topic that countless Beyonders were studying and perfecting over many millennia, so it was only respectable that they would be able to create some really miraculous objects of power and such...

When Valkorion was fully healed, it was a clear sign that they needed to part apart. Ashe was going in an entirely different direction compared to the Valkroion, who headed essentially in the same direction where the Bugbears were originally traveling to.

He was going to the inner regions of the Painted Moutnains in search of his treasure or whatever, while Ashe was heading towards the Green Peak or its vicinity, where the thing that she needed to obtain was located.

They decided to part ways when he was helping, as she did him.

It was undoubtedly a great service when she guarded him during the time while he was still healing, as it was a time when he was most vulnerable against potential enemy attack.

"So... until we see each other again in the future. I shall be returning to the Catharys in a few days, perhaps, so shall we meet at my manor? I would like to repay you for your help to me this time."

Valkorion always paid his debts; that was his personal motto, and he was aware that he had a great debt to Ashe. She willingly gave him the Healing Potion and also guarded him during the time he was being healed, which is such a rare thing among the adventurers.

He was sure that many others would have killed him for sure, not just for the things that he had on his person, but mostly for the Extraordinary Core of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, as that was the real prize here.

However, he was sure that more unscrupulous ones would also kill him even for the little things that he had on his person because, in the end, it was worth it. When he finished the fight against the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear, he was in very rough condition, and if even a squad of well-trained soldiers appeared, they would be enough to finish him off.

Not to mention, even a skilled archer could take him out, as he was at his weakest.

***

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[Trafford]

"Hmm... then I agree; hopefully, you will hire a good cook at least, not military rations or anything like that."

Ashe stated as she looked at Valkorion, who agreed because he couldn't really cook anything but basics. Not to mention, he wasn't really proficient enough to cook from the local ingredients; most of the things that he knew how to prepare required things from his previous world.

It's not like he cared about such minor detail because, for the past eighteen years, he was training and preparing for the Doom of the Valyria, not anything else. With the money that he had in his disposition, it wouldn't be a problem to hire the best chefs in Catharys, because he was rich.

Valkorion was living a rather modest way of life. He was not frivolously spending and was using every coin wisely. Valkorion knew that he would need a lot of money to achieve his goals, as he planned to achieve at least Sequence 5 before leaving the Valyrian Freehold in a few decades.

Advancing in the Sequences in this world seemed to be much harder than in the world of Lord of the Mysteries, or at least was the idea that Valkorion got after living in this world for eighteen or so years.

"It shall be done; it has been a long time since I had a good meal."

As he said that, Ashe nodded in agreement. She herself also wasn't very frivolous with money, using most of it to invest it back into better weapons, equipment, possible Artifacts, and other things that could increase her strength.

"Then we shall see when you return back to the city... hopefully in one peace."

Ashe then just looked at him before she disappeared toward her target in the far distance from their current position. Valkorion looked at her departing back, hoping that hopefully she would be okey.

This place was becoming more and more dangerous as time passed, which wasn't a good sign. At the same time, he also knew that it was an opportunity.

Unfortunately, he was too weak for it right now, but he couldn't let his emotions take control of him, as he was rather content with the way how things were. It would be way long before he could hit the Mid Sequences, probably a few decades, as crossing the Boundary between Low and Mid Sequences was a very hard and challenging thing to do.

More than many of Beoynders lost their lives attempting that.

This was also the reason why most of the Beyondders in the known world were either at Sequence 7 or Sequence 6, basically content with having some powers to call in times of need for an easier life and having some power.

Not many would risk their lives if there was really no need.

***

Upon agreeing to dine together, both of them went their separate way, with Ashe heading toward the Green Peak, while Valkorion was heading in an entirely different direction, basically to the place where the Bugbears were headed before they were killed by them.

Valkorion was already in good shape and thus was able to continue the journey without many problems afterward. The Healing Potion did its wonders on him, as he was in top-notch condition and could search for the places that were recorded in the records that he found at his manor.

Forutenly enough, even in a backward place like Catharys, the House Tenebraenys had rather a rich library with a lot of things, or he would be rather useless. Unfortunately for him, though, everything that was related to the Beyonders was written in the Ancient Hermes Language.

The Ancient Hermes Language was Human Extraordinary Language created during the Second Epoch, based on the Jotun, Dragonese, and Elvish. Jotun Language was an ancient language from the 1st Epoch, but unfortunately, due to the passage of time, it was already lost in the annals of history.

Elvish was also the language from the 1st Epoch, created by the 1st Elven King in the 1st Epoch. Contrary to the Giants that had mostly forgotten to speak Jotun and were instead speaking Old Tongue, Elvish was still alive in a sense.

Though the rumors of the Elves living in the Sothoryos were never confirmed, but Valkorion knew that within the journals of some Dragonlords of the Tenebraenys Family, they visited the Elf King's Court in the Pale Forests of the Ulthos.

The last of the Three Great Extraordinary Languages of the World was the Dragonese, which was created by mighty Great Wyrms in the early stages of the 1st Epoch and was considered the most mystical and powerful Extraordinary Language in the world.

Valkorion, aside from speaking fluently in the High Valyrian, which was his native tongue, was also very proficient in the Hermes and could understand some tidbits in Jotun and Dragonese.

Apparently, from what he learned, Hermes Langauge was created based on the Jotun and Dragonese, with some help from Elvish. The main goal was to give humans their very own Extraordinary Language that could be used in a similar way to the Jotun or Dragonese, which are Extraordinary Languages that have powerful effects on rituals, sacrifices, magic, and so on.

Over time, after Dragonese, one of the most ancient and lofty languages of the Wyrms or True Dragons, was slowly taught to the founders of the Valyrian Freehold by several of the Wyrms and from there on, the High Valyrian was created.

Albeit far less powerful than Dragonese and even Hermes, it was much easier to learn.

Valkorion also read that in Westeros, the Old Tongue was actually created mostly with bastardization and simplification of the Jotun. Still, even nowadays, most of the Dragonlord Families in the Freehold were using exclusively either Hermes or Dragonese to write down things related to the Beyonders.

Some more traditionalist Families were only speaking in the Hermes or Dragonese, but those were rather few.

Due to his knowledge of the various languages that he possessed, he was able to find one journal within the small library within the manor that mentioned not only some kind of Ruins but also the Tomb of someone.

Apparently, it should belong to a powerful Beyonder who left his legacy there. Now, Valkorion didn't really know if he should trust the journal, but it was worth giving it a shot because the book provided him with the exact location where he should go.

Coincidentally, it was also very close to the place where he previously killed the goblins, so he was giving the journal some more credibility, even though rather reluctantly, because apparently the author of the journal, Daerius Tenebraenys, went mad after he lost control.

And even before that, he wasn't mentally the most stable person around, and he was often having waves of madness until one of them was final, and he was hunted down by his very own family until he was killed by them as well.

Still, the journey there by foot would take him a good few days, as he was going there slowly.

The presence of the Bugbear group that was led by Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear rather unsettled him too much, and right now, he was paranoid about encountering a similar monster troupe.

Thus, he decided to proceed with heightened caution.

***

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Patreon is the most important, because without the support of the patron's I wouldn't be able to write or publish, so I plead give it a chance.

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