Seeing that there wasn't much choice, Ardyn decided to drag the unconscious girl to the cavern where he was staying, because the place was dangerous and would soon be swarming with Grimm.
He was rahter satisfied with the loot that he got from the crashed air vehicle, because he got enough food, fuel for the fire, and other useful things like sleeping bags and even something that seemed to be Ward that created a Magical Barrier that hid his scent and presence from the Grimm.
Which could be pretty useful.
After he was finished with that, he brought his two Gyrinxes, picked up the unconscious girl as he carried her on his back, and they headed back to the cavern. Fortunately enough, figuring out how to use Mana to temporarily strengthen his physique wasn't that hard.
If not for that, he would be in greater problems, because due to the power armor that she was wearing, she was heavier than a normal person of her proportions should be. Suddenly, as they were nearing the cavern thanks to the excellent tracking skills of the two Gyrnixes, both cats suddenly stopped and meowed at him at the same time.
In a split second, several creatures appeared around them. All of them looked like wolfish in overall appearance, with a bone-like mask with red markings as well as the bone-like spikes protruding from their arms, back, and knees. Their hands and feet are also tipped with long, sharp, white claws.
They were the Grimm...
He didn't know what type of Grimm, though... that would be too much for him.
He looked around and counted thirty-two. Which meant that this was a pack; he didn't really know the size of the pack, but nevertheless, there were too many of them.
Ardyn then closed his eyes for a second as he decided to use the Armiger.
In a split second, thirteen weapons made from the crystallized Mana appeared around him as they floated around his person in a protective manner. It was rahter surprising, because when he used the Armiger, it was like a second nature for him.
He also noticed that the consumption of Mana was minimal for maintaining the Amriger, and in an instant, the thirteen weapons sprang into action as they shot towards the creatures of Grimm with lightning speed.
These weapons were controlled by him through his mind as they pierced through the first Grim with no resistance, and within several seconds, 32 Grim were dead as they were killed instantly, as their bodies started dissipating into the dark particles.
"Meow! Meow!"
Basted started meowing like crazy, and through their bond, he could sense that she was excited. He went to the place where she stood, as there was something on the ground that made her excited.
It was a tiny crystal.
Pitch-black and actually held quite a bit of Mana... yet the Mana in that place was...
Corrupt.
In a vastly different manner than the Starscourge that Ardyn felt in his body, which has transformed into a special Ability that could be controlled. He picked up the crystal and looked at it for several moments before he stored it in his pocket, along with several other items, since there were five of them on the ground.
"Well... they dropped dead far too easily..."
He pondered over the Grimm that attacked as part of him thought that they were too weak, but at the same time, he also knew that Armiger was very powerful. From the memoirs of Original Ardyn, his Armiger was something that was polished over two millennia.
Its power was frightening.
At the same time, because of his relatively weak physical capabilities, Aura would not have been strengthened. If one of those Grimms had gotten close to him, the outcome would have been vastly different.
"Meow!"
This time, it was Maahes who meowed as the male Gyrinx pointed somewhere, and when he looked in that direction, he was almost frozen in space.
"Fuck! Now!?"
It was a damned snowstorm that was encircling this entire region, and it was getting dangerously close to their location.
"We need to hurry!"
He hushed his cats as the two Gyrinxes also started running at a faster pace, with Ardyn using the Mana to strengthen his physique so he could achieve faster speed.
With the two Gyrinxes showing the way, they quickly reached the cave where he woke up after he was dropped into the fucking world. The first thing he did when he arrived back was to put the unconscious girl in the previous resting place by the campfire, and he then placed some lights that were specifically created for harsh environments like this.
He also took out some of the fuel rods that were in the Dimensional Storage of the dead student. The rods were basically super-compressed pieces of coal and wood together through some Magic and Technology.
They were apparently used by the Solitasians as a source of heat; because of their compressed nature, they could burn for a prolonged amount of time and generate a lot of heat.
"Maahes, remain here with her and watch over her... if we are lucky, they will send out a search party for her, and we can reach civilization and probably not freeze to death. Bastet, come with me... we need to seal the entrance."
Once that was done, Ardyn left toward the entrance to seal it somehow, and also lay down the Ward that he looted. Right now, his priority was getting out of the Solitan wastelands, which were frozen hell.
***
Unbeknownst to Ardyn, his guest, whom he rescued from the wreck, woke up around half an hour ago. Over the past thirty minutes or so, she had been observing him and was prepared to strike if he proved hostile.
'At least one Noble Arte, Mana comparable to the 2nd Limit Removal despite not even having Magic Core condensed... which means that his Bloodline must be terribly strong in Mana... The lack of Aura is even more obvious, so it's rather mind-boggling what he is doing here...'
She woke up some time after they started returning to the cave, and she was rahter intrigued by what she had seen.
The first thing that was surprising was that the man who brought her was maximally a year or two older than she was. She was also pretty sure that he had at least one Noble Arte, which was pretty surprising because people with the Noble Artes were rare.
Only those of the very well-established and old Magic Lineages had Noble Artes as they represented the crystallization of their Magic. Mages in Remnant were rare... very rare, because the chances of a Mage being born in the common population were something around 1:100,000.
Only thanks to Mages, the world didn't fall to the Grimm, as Magic was the ultimate weapon of humanity against the creatures of the Grimm. Among the Huntsmen, all Mages were also Aura Masters who equalled their level of Magic.
Thus, they were incomparably stronger than Aura Master on the same fundamental level.
'Fisherman, Sorcerer, Anima... three Positions, two Specials... Still, from the circulation of Mana it's clear that he doesn't have any formal training and is doing it on pure instincts and talent... which means that his own aptitude must be frightening. With proper cultivation, Atlas could obtain another Limit Saint.'
Another reason why she wanted to recruit him was because if he matured a bit, he would be a very powerful person, and she loved fighting powerful people. Not to mention, the Khun Family could benefit from having a relationship with someone who could reach such a level of power.
Aside from that, she felt the Noble Arte that he used familiar, even though she couldn't tell the reason why it seemed to be familiar.
She knew that the man saved her most probably because he wanted to get away from this place, and he could tell based on her armor and appearance that she looked important.
Which she wouldn't deny.
She was one of the direct children of Khun Eduan, one of the Limit Saints of the Atlesian Dominion and also one of the strongest Huntsmen and Mages in the entire world.
Khun Maschenny was also the Heiress Apparent of the House Khun, one of the Great Families of the Atlesian Dominion, and one of the most talented people in the entire generation.
Not to mention, she was her father's favourite child and the child of his favourite wife.
She knew that sooner or later, someone would send a search party for them as they were here for an official mission from the Alsius Thors Military Sentinel Academy, where she studied. She was just a first-year, but because of her personal power, she was already allowed to go on missions.
'Someone with this potential would be a very valuable team member of the Imperial Smelting Trial next year.'
She pondered for some time, searching for the possibility of the recruitment because it wasn't uncommon among the Aristocratic Houses of the Remnant to Sponsor people either when they were going to study or in another way.
There were many reasons for doing it, mainly to recruit outsiders to serve the Family, while some of the most brilliant ones would even marry into the said Family if they were exceptional and strong enough to create an even stronger future generation.
The Great Family of Khun was also sponsoring a lot of people from time to time, yet compared to other Houses on a much smaller degree. Mainly because their Family was very big, and there were many members of the Family.
Much attributed to her father, who was a notorious womanizer and had a ton of wives and even more children. Compared to the other Great Families of Atlas, the Royals, as they were called within the Dominion, were huge.
Neither the Arie Family, the Po Bidau Family, the Schnee Family, nor the Lo Po Bia Family had as many members as the Khun Family.
'My Aura is regenerating very slowly, and my Mana is mostly depleted. Right now, my core is in severe Magic Exhaustion. Fortunately, my storage is untouched, and it should have sent out a distress signal. Hopefully nothing bad will happen until they arrive...'
She was rather tired from her Aura reaching null, and her Mana was also depleted, having been forced into the severe Magic Exhaustion, which could be pretty fatal for most Mages... fortunately, enough she wasn't the most.
Due to her Lineage, she could handle the Magic Exhaustion better than most, but the freezing colds of Solitas were strong enough to break through even the Aura of the most powerful Huntsmen if they were not careful.
Among the five continents that were designed as Safe Zones for humanity, Vacuo and Solitas were the most dangerous in terms of flora, fauna, and the overall environment that was primarily hostile to everything that was alive.
Surviving on the Solitas was an art of itself and not something that everyone could do.
That was the reason why the Solitas was more powerful and more perfect than the other kingdoms.
Their armies were the biggest, strongest, and best-equipped in the entire world. Atlesian Dominion was the technologically and magically most advanced nation in the entire world, as approxiamtely 80% of the technological and magical advancements originated from Atlas one way or another.
'Still... I have a strong feeling that I have seen this Noble Arte somewhere...'
She pondered as she carefully eyed the cat-like creature sleeping next to the campfire. She noticed that the man who brought her here must have also looted a good part of the Bullhead that they used to travel.
Unfortunately, during the travel to Dormir, they were ambushed by the Frost Wyrm, which destroyed the aircraft and sent it crashing down. The cat-like creature had a lot of Mana in it, she knew that it was the man's familiar.
The fact that he had two of them, was rather peculiar.
As the two seemed to be a pair.
***
It took Ardyn around half an hour to seal the entrance to the cave with some stones and then activate the Ward that he looted from the crashed vehicle, as it was a rather arduous process, but because it involved Magic, he quickly understood the principles behind.
Interestingly enough, during times like this, the assimilation of the Template's memories was getting much faster. Even though it was more than clear that the Magic System from Ardyn's memories was much different from what was here, it was undeniably true that some principles remained the same.
When he returned, he checked on the girl and saw that she was still sleeping, so he just sat by the campfire as the two Gyrinxes cuddled with him for more warmth as he enjoyed the heat generated by the fuel rods.
The two felines were already growing hungry, as they had eaten a lot... fortunately, after they returned to the cavern, two of them managed to hunt a rabbit, which he began roasting for them, as he would eat the food he looted.
There was a lot of it, and none of it was suitable for the felines, so he left the rabbit to them, even though he was tempted by the roasted rabbit himself. Both Bastet and Maahes were eagerly waiting for the rabbit to cook, as they preferred their meat cooked rather than raw.
They were a bit eccentric creatures.
It wasn't like they wouldn't eat the raw meat, but when there was a possible different option, they would go for the cooked. He lightly looked at the sleeping Huntress as he grinned and tapped Bastet on her head.
Among the pair, she was the one who was more mischievous and prone to causing mischief, as he learned during this day. The female Gyrinx gave him a nod of her head, as she jumped down from his arms and strode towards the Huntress.
And then she smacked her tail across her face.
But contrary to the hopeful expectations of the female Gyrinx, the reaction was zero... though the feline was able to sense the faint movements on her face, so she jumped on her legs and started hitting her nose with her right paw.
Now there was more reaction than previously, as Bastet continued annoying the seemingly unconscious girl until it was already enough, as the girl suddenly 'awoke' as she hushed at the feline, who jumped back to Ardyn happily.
Finally satisfied with the outcome.
"When did you notice?"
She realized he knew she was only pretending to be unconscious, something she hadn't accounted for because she thought her act was flawless.
"When the Grimm we were ambushed... your heartbeat and Mana reacted instinctively to the ambush, my dear... You need to work on your acting skills."
He explained with a grin and a somewhat patronizing tone of voice, as he knew that she was awake for most of the time. Even though he was aware that she had just woken up, he knew that during his fight with the Grimm, she was awake.
Since then, she had only been pretending to be asleep.
He had to admit that her acting was good, but the problem was... with the Template's memories merging with his own, he knew a liar and a pretender when he saw one. In the end, Ardyn Izunia could be considered as one of the best con artists in the entire world.
"Ts... You are pretty suicidal to be in this place without even Aura awakened... and don't talk patronizingly to me, or else once I recover, you will know real pain."
She said as she didn't really like his patronizing tone of voice, but Ardyn didn't really care as he kept smiling. Still, she found it rather fascinating that there was someone brave enough or foolish enough to wander into the Solitan frozen lands without even his Aura being unlocked.
"You are not really grateful for someone who didn't leave you freezing in the snow."
Ardyn said, gritting her teeth, but quickly came back with a perfect answer.
"Like you didn't save me only because you want to hitch a ride from this place, which also leads to the question... who are you?"
While the first part of the sentence was rather carefree, Ardyn noticed that there was something underlying in her tone of voice when she asked who he was... as he needed to come up with a satisfactory answer.
And fast.
Obviously, there must have been a reason why she was asking that with a great deal of wariness, because his instincts and experience were telling him that there must be a deeper reason for the well-conceived hostility.
"Ardyn Izunia and for the rest, I cannot answer as I don't remember almost anything, My Lady. But it's my utmost pleasure."
He stood up as he gave her a typical bow that was common among the Lucian Nobility, as she stared at him for several seconds, and she gave him a very slow nod, but she still held up her guard around him.
As Ardyn sat down, Maschenny took something from the Dimensional Storage on her hand and slipped it on the ground. It was a small crystal in the shape of a ball.
"Khun Maschenny."
She stated simply, observing his reaction, but there was none... which was pretty interesting because, not being a boastful type, she was pretty famous across the four Kingdoms and outside settlements of humanity and faunus.
"Could you please pass me that?"
She said to the unknown man as he reached out to the crystal-shaped ball and picked it up, while feeling some sort of Magic from it penetrating into his body and then disappearing as fast as it emerged.
"Here."
He passed her the crystal ball, which she stored in her armor pocket, while looking more relaxed.
"Was that some kind of test?"
He asked as he watched Bastet come to the now-introduced Khun Maschenny and jump on her lap.