Chapter 34: One move

    Since it would only take two nights for the containment procedure, it could''ve happened anytime during the one week time frame.

    Eryndor didn''t really know the details, but since their own mission had a deadline of one week and that the two teams arrived in this Kantos town together, he simply took one week as their deadline too, considering they''ll head back towards the academy together as well.

    He knew that the headquarters of the Human Federation was in the Dawn city which was several hours away even by the aerial route.

    Eryndor hoped the rescue team wasn''t arriving from somewhere so far away, but instead from a nearby town or city.

    There''s also another problem.

    Rodrick had probably already sensed the misfortune on him since we''ve deduced his plot.

    But Eryndor had gone through several packets of information related to Rodrick now.

    He knew that Rodrick was a cautious man, but also someone who was willing to take the risk if the benefits of success outweighed the risk of failure.

    Rodrick would surely join the team on their mission. The allure of a Mystical Artifact was too great to refuse.

    But since he had sensed the misfortune, Rodrick would act as soon as the timing was right.

    There was no time to wait around for the reinforcements of the Human Federation.

    Eryndor messaged Sander with a faint hope in his heart.

    "Where has the rescue team been deployed from? How much time will it approximately take to reach here?"

    He got a message from Sander immediately, one which made his heart sink.

    "From the headquarters, Dawn city. Will take a couple hours. Why?"

    He pondered briefly and sent all his findings, without exposing his abilities of course.

    Sander knew that the young man Eryndor couldn''t give proof for his speculations but from the experience just now, he figured the young man wasn''t lying.

    Everyone had secrets, and Sander wasn''t interested in digging too deep.

    On the other hand, his anxiety simply increased when he read through the message.

    Who knew the anomaly which was under Rodrick''s control would be one which had abilities related to fate.

    Before packing up the things, Eryndor sent a message to their group to start getting ready.

    It was time to move out.

    Eryndor took out the equipment given by the Academy and administered a particularly heavy dose of tranquilizing serum to a capsule and loaded it onto an injector.

    He repeated the process with a few more capsules, till the leftover amount was just enough for the remaining infected animals of their mission.

    He also loaded the pockets of his battlesuit with all the capsules of a specific type of antidote.

    Paulina had replied to him just a moment ago about the type of poison spell used by Rodrick in the video of his battle during combat sessions of the Academy.

    She also broke down all the spells learnt by him, giving him a rough idea of his combat prowess, and suffice to say, it was worrying.

    Rodrick had one poison spell, two offensive spells - one for close range and one for long range, one defensive spell which covered his entire body, one surveillance spell and one movement spell.

    All of his spells except the poison and close range offensive spell were at the peak stage of Mana Novice realm, which was the first level of the power system of Mages.

    His remaining two spells were at the mid stage of Mana Novice realm.

    After packing everything, Eryndor donned his Sovereign''s Cloak over his battle suit.

    It was uncomfortable, but Eryndor valued his safety over comfort. On top of that, this was the only means of defense he had against fate type Anomaly.

    He didn''t fear the Cloak would be damaged. He had tried once, and nothing put even the slightest of marks on it.

    A minute later, Eryndor stood in the living room with his battle suit packed with supplies. Since he had distributed it among the other three, the suits didn''t look bulgy.

    Eryndor told them the same thing he had explained to Sander, without exposing any of his abilities.

    The three looked surprised when they found out it was an Anomaly which dealt with misfortune and fortune.

    All of them were aware of how rare that attribute was even among anomalies, and acknowledged that it would indeed be difficult to go against something as abstract as fate.

    As they left their inns and headed towards the red area, Eryndor messaged Sander.

    "I hope the Human Federation has notified professor Melissa about the situation."

    Seeing that he didn''t get a reply immediately, Eryndor put the phone in his pocket and began leading the group towards the red area.