A complex circular pattern manifested on the barrier surface.
Viewing the complex array before, the aged silver-haired man sighed.
A more annoying procedure had been introduced within the camp. The pavilion wasn't even a significant structure, yet the overseer saw it fitting to place this unnecessarily large barrier around its perimeter.
'What a waste of resources' scowled the man
Tearing his combat gloves from his hands, the silver-haired man rested his index finger on the epicenter of the circular inscription.
Utilizing a set command in the form of essence control, the silver-haired man assumed his flow of Aura from within his body circuits towards his finger, collecting a considerable amount of energy within its tip.
Utilizing his own biological signature coupled with his Aura the silver-haired man guided the dense energy throughout the structure's entirety.
The thousands of runes plastered on the circle structure, all in unison began to emit a faint ethereal glow.
For the process to work, the person directing the guiding of energy would need to have a latent understanding of fundamental energy control, while also allowing the complex circle to recognize their biological sigunature.
The Silver-haired man had only taken several seconds to complete this simple task in its entirety. While it was very simple, it was also an unnecessary procedure to fucking enter a pavilion that wouldn't even grant an adversary if it was taken over, no tactical advantage whatsoever.
'But at the end of the day voicing my complaints would yield nothing.' the man exclaimed internally.
Eventually, the shimmering glow provided by the runes dulled and a passage took shape from the translucent barrier's exterior.
Shifting his gaze from the passage, the man bore witness to the twenty or so individuals he had been guiding to the pavilion.
There was no chatter, or socializing between any of them.
They merely stood idle watching the silver-haired man fiddle with the complex arrays of circular inscriptions.
Beheld at the odd sight the man furrowed his brow.
'Odd,'
Normally in such situations, one or two men would aggressively attempt to court a woman for their own lustful future use.
And the same could be said for women,
Rape, drugs, or other nefarious acts were quite common within lower-ranked battle zones.
War was harsh, and pleasure was a commodity of scarcity.
'I have seen my fair share of rapes,' the man thought to himself with a sneer of disgust.
The weak-willed killed themself while others too fearful of death opted to take refuge in vice.
'Seems I got lucky with this batch,' the man thought with relief.
Tearing away his gaze apart from the group the man spoke.
"Follow,"
*
*
*
*
*
Finally hearing the orders of the old man Alex sighed.
'That took over six minutes, I can only wonder what treasures they keep within the pavilion,' Alex sarcastically remarked to himself.
With his face hidden behind the mask, Alex was free to express his disdain using his facial expressions. The others couldn't see his sneer.
Watching his fellow newcomers trailing behind the silver-haired man Alex followed.
The splendid view from over the host of trees was now complete for his display.
The pavilion was unsurprisingly a vast structure.
Collectives of thousands of individuals all stood in nonchalant stances.
This was not the Royal military, but rather a low-ranked battle zone. These people were the trash of the Polemian empire and had yet to qualify to officially join the ranks of the empire's military.
So why would they care?
Some conversed, while others kept to themselves, attempting to make their presence as little known as possible, in fear of others.
'Are you shitting me,' Alex naturally thought.
'Isn't this world filled with magic and shit, so please elaborate on why the actual hell does this camp look like this,'
Chipped stone blocks patterned the ground. A collective of rusted steel posts lodged themselves in between many of the large cracks sprawled across the grounds. Each of these spires of steel protruded from their respective crack towards the aur where they supported the collective mass called the roof up above.
Or what was left of the roof, most of the plane's segment was long since tarnished with several large gaping holes as a consequence of the fallen parts of the roof.
Venturing behind the Silver-haired senior, Several moments progressed and the group carefully followed while eluding the large number of people hindering their path.
Soon the Silver-haired man found a location near the pavilion center, content with the location he beckoned an authoritarian gesture ordering the newbies following him to stop.
"We'll stay here during the Overseers banter," voiced the silver-haired man in a dismissive tone
Giving the Silver-haired man a final glance I shifted my head towards Leo, who was following relatively close.
"Leo," I voiced in an attempt to catch his attention.
"Yes?" responded Leo in nonchalance
"Didn't that guy seem rather uptight and on edge when he mentioned the Overseer? "
Giving my words a careful thought Leo shrugged.
"Who knows," Leo said before continuing "From past experience, I can effectively recount the number of zone Overseers who were total scumbags,"
"You know…. on that note its rather funny to think about," chuckled Leo
"Okay, okay" Alex urgently said in a swift tone cutting off Leo before he could further continue his speech.
"...?"
Viewing Leo's uneasy expression, Alex became confused and as such unconsciously tilted his head.
"What's troubling you?" Alex asked
"Hmm, oh." Leo stammered
"It's just weird,"
"As in?" I pushed
"The empire has no lack of resources and yet, this place... Is damned, to say the least." Leo expressed with a subtle shake of his head
"You are new to this type of life Rel, so you may now know, but though these lower-rank battle zones are by popular belief places where the empire sends low talents to die, this is only slightly true." He sighed
"What do you mean?" Alex questioned not surprised by such a revelation.
"The empire thinks of us low talents as trash, they collect us in one generalized location and then send us to battles in which we have close to no odds of winning, much less survive and prolonge our own individual lives."
'... Did Evelyn have that much of a grudge towards me,' Alex thought feeling the blood rush from his face leaving it a ghostly white.
'I know I said a few things, but… did she actually believe that I was fine with this even if I wanted to damn die?!' Alex snarled
'... well what done is done, no point in crying over spilled milk,'
"So from what you hinting, Low-ranked battle zones are places where the words of the worst collect?" Alex said before continuing "Is my deduction correct?"
"More or less" Leo confirmed
"pity is not needed for us, we sinned"
"the sin for being weak"
"This is the punishment of our own weakness."