After an unknown amount of time passed by, Gaston snapped back to reality.
When he fully regained consciousness and was no longer on auto-pilot, he found himself sitting down on a wooden chair, alongside three of his teammates, chatting about what they had went through after separating from each other.
Before he could even wonder about why they were one member short and who it was, he turned his head to the left and saw Siegbert, laying down on his bed but listening to their conversation.
As he quickly recalled what they had told him whilst he wasn't fully mentally present, and combined with the fact that Amery had mentioned to him that one of the four "Viscounts" was heavily injured, Gaston quickly put two and two together.
It turned out that Siegbert, the bloodthirsty man that he was, had gotten a little too eager during his chasing down of the last witness to their ambush and had suffered the consequences for it.
The stories conflicted about how exactly it had happened, but according to Hasso, who Gaston decided to trust on the matter, Siegbert had thrown caution to the wind during his pursuit and hadn't properly utilized his spiritual consciousness to check his surroundings.
Because of this, he had foolishly been led into an ambush himself, during which he managed to dodge the first Blue Ape's spear, but had gotten hit by the second one. Luckily for him, the spear missed his vital organs and he lived to tell the tale.
Thrown from above him, the spear pierced straight through his shoulder bone, completely shattering it in the process, and exited through his armpit before it firmly impaled itself in the ground.
He had been seconds away from getting a spear-sized hole in his head, before Hasso of all people, who he had some bad history with, had arrived in time to save him.
As a result, more than a month later, he was still lying in bed due to the injury, but he had the gall to try to defend himself, arguing that he had everything under control, he had just gotten unlucky.
As for Gaston, even in a semi-conscious state he had managed to dismiss the matter of explaining himself in a fairly simple way, telling them that he had just continued doing what they had already been doing, but alone instead.
Due to the pursuit of the Blue Apes however, he had been delayed in his travels by quite a while. Even still, in the end he had arrived safe and sound and ultimately that was all that mattered.
He even told them that it might not have been a bad thing that he had run into so many of them while trying to reach the village, because after torturing several more of them, he had learned quite a lot of information.
His main focus during the telling of this lie must have been on listening to the royal princess, who was called Marika Thurstan, explain to him some common knowledge about the world. That's how his body knew to explain his sudden gain of knowledge to his crew members, or at least that's what he figured had happened.
Marika and him had agreed on the conditions of a deal that would result in him being released, but the conditions for his survival had been a lot more than he had initially proposed.
Still, trapped and with no hope of survival or rescue, he was completely without leverage. In truth, he had probably gotten lucky that Marika was still a young "little" princess, because if he had fallen into the hands of a more experienced royal prince or princess, the terms of the deal would definitely be far harsher, and he would still most likely end up accepting them.
This was not the case however, and Gaston definitely didn't consider himself lucky to have her as his captor. What he couldn't take away from her on the other hand, was her willingness to inform him about any and everything which related to his mission.
According to Marika, the Wright Kingdom was also led by a Stage 5 human being, one which according to her, could even rival her father in combat.
No small feat, as while the higher the stage in cultivation the lesser the gap became between humans and magical creatures, on average, a single magical creature was still stronger than it's human equivalent, even at the 5th stage of cultivation.
Knowing this, meant that for the daughter of a magical creature to admit that a human could rival her father, was definitely no small feat.
These beings were too powerful to be schemed against however, especially by beings at the 1st stage of cultivation, the Qi Refining stage. This didn't mean that one was completely helpless against them, as whilst they couldn't be targeted themselves, the same could not be said about their subordinates.
There were a few duchies located at or near the border between the the Thurstan Kingdom and the Wright Kingdom, in charge of which, were humans in the 4th stage of cultivation.
They were also not targets that she could go after, at least not with her current strength. Because they were in a different Realm entirely, in order to go after one, it would require the participation of at least one other Stage 4 being.
The matter of difficulty to accomplish this aside, going after beings in the Ruler Realm itself was considered far more than just a provocation. It was more akin to a declaration of war.
Despite all the hostilities between the two kingdoms, they were far from reaching such a point, and it was not the place of someone of her strength and status to make such decisions.
Within these said duchies however, there were several Counts that were responsible for managing certain parts of the territory, territories that someone like Marika, was ambitious to interfere with.
To become a Count one needed to be in the 3rd stage of cultivation, a requirement which allowed for no exceptions. And whilst a territory led by a Stage 3 Cultivator was also difficult to intervene in, she was already qualified to do this due to her royal status.
Of course, she would have to take a long-term approach on the matter, but since it was on the border of the human territory and she had found herself a perfect seed with which to start, things became a lot easier for her.
The territory of one Count in particular had sparked her interest, and she decided to send Gaston there due to the suitable environment. When he heard this, Gaston expressed his lack of knowledge on matters regarding the outside world, and she was more than happy to oblige him.
Ever since they agreed to the deal, she began treating him like he was completely hers, to an extent that even surprised him.
From what Marika told him, within the Wright Kingdom, cultivation reigned supreme, but the King himself had decided to allow other civilization's paths to prosper as well. This was done with the goal of incorporating these paths into his territory, giving him access to far more troops than other Kingdoms.
The most notable of which were the Mage Civilization's path, which was one of the most popular amongst the humans aside from cultivation, due to the fact that becoming a Mage had little to do with Race.
And the Titan Civilization's path, also a perfectly suitable path for humans to traverse. While it was less preferable than becoming a Mage, due to the lower requirements for embarking on this path, Titans were far more common in the Wright Kingdom than Mages were.
After all, to become a Titan what one had to do was not too dissimilar in nature to what was required of a Cultivator. In fact, it was nearly the same.
The completion of Stage 0 was a requirement for both the Cultivation path and the Titan path, however whereas one only required the completion of the Bone Refining stage in order to progress into the next stage, the Titan path had a hard requirement for the completion of the Organ Refining stage.
Despite this, there were still nearly the same amount of humans going down the Titan path as there were cultivators, even in spite of the fact that most local nobles still suppressed non-cultivators to varying extents.
This was because the quality of one's spiritual root was in large part, the determining factor behind how far one could go down that path. For Titans however, one's spiritual root didn't matter. As long as one could guide magical energy into one's body, then one had a chance at becoming a Titan.
The magical requirements might seem to be lower than that of cultivators, but one would quickly discover that this was not the case.
While Titans barely used magic techniques, instead opting to focus on honing their skills with their weapon, utilizing their magic energy through their weapon of choice, the difficulty of doing so was no less than that of casting magic techniques.
Where as in order to cast magic techniques, a Cultivator had to guide the magic energy out of their body and then shape, form, cast and release the technique, titan skills functioned quite differently.
Instead of guiding one's magical energy outside of their body and then casting the technique, Titans began this process whilst the magical energy was still inside of their bodies, using the body itself as a conduit for magical energy.
A far more dangerous way of utilizing magical energy, but one that also had its own upside. Titans always had wider and more durable magical pathways than cultivators did, precisely thanks to this brutal and painful way of fighting.
One's skill proficiency with their weapon was particularly important for a Titan, since every swing of the weapon had to be in sync with the traversal of magical energy within one's body in order to correctly utilize their power.
Every bodily movement, every activation of a specific muscle in the body, demanded a certain flow of magical energy through those specific magic pathways at that exact instant.
This was why while the talent requirement for becoming a Titan was lower than that of becoming a Cultivator, a lot of humans still opted to become Cultivators, fearing the demands that the Titan path placed on them.
To become a Titan one also had to have a certain talent, and affinity even for hard work, as well as the desire for complete control over one's body.
Mages were on the completely opposite side of the spectrum to Titans, as while they also had a demand for strict control over one's self, what they focused on was mental control as opposed to bodily control.
Different from both Titans and Cultivators however, the completion of "Stage 0" was not necessary in order to become a Mage.
Marika herself was not too familiar with the requirements, as there were no Mages in the Thurstan Kingdom. While they were still taught about the basics of the most popular paths, Marika had apparently not been paying attention during that class.
All she knew, was that something else other than the spiritual root was required in order to determine whether or not someone was suitable to be a Mage.
The Count's territory that she had set her eyes on, was one that was extremely open to all three of these paths, allowing for humans inside his territory to freely practice and even combine paths wherever possible, with no restrictions whatsoever.
In fact, whilst not outright, Marika had guessed that the Count had even secretly encouraged such behavior, pointing to the fact that there was an abundance of techniques of all three paths made available to people, as long as they contributed to his territory.
As one could imagine, the mixing of three different civilizations resulted in quite the chaotic environment, which was the perfect place for someone like Gaston to develop.
She was even more certain of her decision to send him there when she handed him a dark, spherical metal object called a Mage Orb, a tool which was popular even in their Kingdom due to it's cheap price and usefulness, and took a look at his status panel.
STATUS
Name: Gaston von Rainerhorn
Class: [Cultivator (Qi Refining)] – Level 1 (16 / 100%)
Elemental Affinity: 68% Earth, 32% Water, 26% Dark
Lifespan: 62 / 120
Magical Energy: 90.4% (Elite)
Physical Attributes
Strength: 11 (90.4)
Agility: 11.9 (90.4)
Dexterity: 10.3 (90.4)
Constitution: 11.5 (90.4)
Endurance: 12 (90.4)
Coordination: 11.3 (90.4)
Mental Attributes
Intelligence: 10 (70.4)
Perception: 10.7 (70.4)
Resilience: 10 (70.4)
Sensitivity: 10.3 (70.4)
Capacity: 10 (70.4)
Soul: 10 (50.4)
Magic Techniques
- Elemental Strengthening (F) - Level 2 (75 / 100 EXP)
- Thought Transmission (F) - Level 7 (41 / 100 EXP)
Skill Proficiency
- Fundamental Spear Technique (F) - Level 100
- Fundamental Axe Technique (F) - Level 100
- Rainerhorn Halberd Technique (F+) - Level 100
Looking at Gaston's abnormal skill proficiency panel, combined with him being an Elite Cultivator, which meant that his physical potential was at least 90 or above, Marika was extremely confident in her choice.
Someone like Gaston was perfect for developing in the chaotic environment of Count McKinley's territory.
Whilst all Elite Cultivators physically qualified and were able to step into the Titan path, few chose to do so. After all, if they wanted to develop their physical abilities, they could very easily become Body Cultivators instead.
A much simpler process since it was a path they were used to, and a path they had a lot more familiarity with especially when it came to magical energy control, which differed greatly between the Titan path and the Cultivation path.
On top of that, no matter where one went in the Wright Kingdom, cultivators were treated equally, and whilst they were not particularly looked up to, they were never discriminated against.
The same could not be said for Titans or Mages however, as their treatment varied greatly from territory to territory.
The King had given the nobility the right to incorporate these paths, and he had even encouraged it. He had never made it a strict requirement however, and it was because of this that unequal treatment was allowed and permissible, completely up to the discretion of the local noble.
It was for this reason that most Elite Cultivators either stuck to simply cultivating, or additionally became Body Cultivators if they wanted to develop and make use of their physical potential.
For Gaston however, cultivating and becoming a Titan on top of that seemed to be the perfect choice, given that he had three separate skills practiced to perfection whilst he was still in the 1st level of Qi Refining!
He was a little on the older side for his cultivation level, but it was nothing that a little hard work couldn't make up for, especially if Marika was going to supply him with additional resources to help him catch up to his peers.