Chapter 605 – Ceph’s Beastly Stats

“Hey! Don’t despair!” The third centaur shouted, rushing over to the commotion. Pausing he stared at the two, confused how two people could have entered the magic tower. “Wait, who are you? Are they the help? Why does he want to kill himself?”

“Ceph.” Eldrian hinted and the teen elf took on his true form, nearly giving those atop the magic tower a heart attack. 

“Should we do some counterattacking?” Ceph asked via wind magic purposefully, he didn’t like these guys and hoped he could give one of them an actual heart attack. 

“Mmmh?” Climbing atop Ceph and taking off, Eldrian thought that might be a brilliant idea. However, “Let’s first have the city confirm that we are allies. Dodging the attacks of the magic towers would be a pain.”

Nodding, Ceph turned towards the city center and started gaining speed. Before the people could even react, be they in the magic towers or on the barricades, the two had landed near the mayor’s mansion accompanied by a massive boom. 

[{Eldrian} -> {Silver} – Silver, we’re here.]

[{Silver} – Did you have to make it so loud? My ears are ringing.] Silver complained while informing the deputy.

Climbing off Ceph who quickly returned to his elven form, the two looked at the guards who were rushing to surround them. 

“We’re allies, use Observe.” Eldrian calmly ordered. Naturally, ever since he had become mayor Eldrian had stopped hiding his titles. They helped give his words even more weight. Allowing him to take better control of things. 

How Lethius had used Observe and not seen them was beyond Eldrian. Seeing the stunned faces surrounding him, Eldrian assumed these guys did not ignore them like Lethius. So things should go smoothly.

While waiting, Eldrian was curious, ‘Ceph, is it okay if I peek at your stats?’

‘Go ahead, I’m also curious what yours are at currently.’

Nodding, Eldrian focused on Ceph, finding after a moment that he could actually use their connection as Zoe partners. Ceph needed to give permission, once that was done -and Eldrian did the same- it was almost like looking at his own stats.

[Cephyphyr of Avgi (Alicorn – Mythical Beast) {Elven form}]

[Level 43, Tier 4], ‘Huh, is he higher level than me because I lost XP by dying? Must be… Interesting.’

[Attributes {Elven form}- Constitution: 590 | Strength: 580 | Agility: 590 | Spirit: 620 | Intelligence: 615]

{Eldrian’s attributes (for reference)- Constitution: 311 | Strength: 267 | Agility: 398 | Spirit: 311 | Intelligence: 327}

‘Well… That’s like double my stats across the board. And Ceph is also still Tier 4, I guess that is a mythic beast for you. Is the Elven form lower in stats, or why is it repeatedly stated?’

[Stats {Elven form} – HP: 2489 | Mana: 5115 | Stamina: 2544], ‘Must be lowered, but by how much?’

{Eldrian’s stats – HP: 816 | Mana: 3722 | Stamina: 1657}

‘And good, with that much HP he should be able to survive- Uh? Oh that’s useful!’ Eldrian regretted that he hadn’t tried to experiment with what their link could further give him before. Granted, a lot had happened, constantly. 

He now had this little UI of Ceph’s Health, stamina, and mana in the corner of his vision. After a few seconds it disappeared, all that he needed to do to let it reappear was to think about it. Certainly, a nice addition to see if Ceph needed help or not. 

While Eldrian wanted to dive even deeper, at this time the city deputy mayor had rushed out of his manor. 

“Sir Eldrian! I am eternally grateful for your help.” Upam shouted as soon as he left his manor. Seeing him actually rushing and lowering himself to show his gratitude shocked everyone surrounding the two. 

“Let us hope it is not for naught,” Eldrian replied, shaking the offered hand and following the centaur into the mansion. 

…

While Eldrian was talking with Upam to get a grasp of the situation, Ceph and Silver had taken over the duty of managing the cannons. Or more specifically, Ceph was hunting orcs and Silver was managing the cannons.

Watching Ceph’s mana and stamina that was constantly fluctuating, but his HP staying full, Eldrian was not too worried. Though he did throw an eye to it every few seconds during the meeting. 

“I see, so you are unable to optimally use the magic towers due to being unable to enter the control room?” It seemed that one of these optimizations was to change the focus of the magic tower from large single AOE to smaller multi AOE spells. 

Eldrian had no idea why such a handy function was locked behind bureaucracy, but alas it was. The use of a city-wide barrier also came from this room, which caused Eldrian to sigh upon learning.

If they were able to activate it, they might be able to clear and retake the city in the time it takes the orcs to destroy the barrier.

“Yes, it is unfortunate that we were not conferred the password. I suspect that it was done so, and our pleas are being ignored, since the kingdom does not want to give the incident a ghost’s chance of repeating.”

“Incident?”

“Have you not heard?”

“No, we have not heard much of anything. News has stopped flowing since trade over land has almost disappeared.” Eldrian replied, it was one of the hardest hits on any city. And was a large part why they had relied so heavily on the players to supply Kynigo with food first, and materials after. 

“It comes from the fact that the previous mayor of Amrough had been caught by surprise and was unable to flee before the city fell…”

Eldrian already got it just from that, but he let Upam explain the story. 

“They tortured him and in the end he gave them everything they needed. It is not certain if this is factual, but it makes sense. And the problem remains, they have full control of Amrough.”

Eldrian nodded, he understood the reason but he still felt that the magic towers themselves should have more control over their usage. At least allow them to switch between attack types. 

“Due to this, all the mayors of cities have been ordered to retreat once the city’s outer walls have fallen.”

‘Pelaros, I guess you are even more of a badass than I thought. That’s treason, isn’t it?’, “But let me guess, not everyone is given that chance. That’s a dangerous game.”

“Well, if we do not maintain a force, then we will be unable to stall the siege. If everyone simply ran, then soon we would run out of cities to run towards…”

Eldrian nodded, indeed that was the case. “What about your food supply?”

“Ah, I didn’t think you would ask. Luckily, we had a good harvest and the invasion caused us to stop trade midway. Due to that we still have enough for a few months. And with the rate of losses, it might even last a year. Though-“

“I am truly glad to hear it.” Eldrian tried to keep his voice neutral, but he suspected he might have failed.  “How about weapons?” He asked, already wondering if he could arrange a deal for food.

“That is not as big a problem as people who can wield them. At this point we have magic weapons gathering dust.”

“I see, we have a similar situation.” It wasn’t quite as bad in Kynigo, but a few more battles and it might be. 

Their talk continued for an hour, Eldrian also met with the useful nobles. Having made it clear that he did not want to waste any time. 

Once this was done, he left the city and moved towards the front lines. It was about halfway to the center of the city, makeshift walls made from debris covering the city. 

AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.